Welcome to Gaia! ::

Greetings once again, Sciencers! It has been a trying week for me, or at least that's what I'd like to say, if I'd been present for the majority of it! That probably sounds ridiculous—and, from an outside perspective, I would absolutely agree with you—but scientific research has a funny way of making you discover the unbelievable, and then proving that it really did happen in the first place. I will explain that story to you later, though. First and foremost, I want to explain the incredible progress that our REI friend has made in the past week!

The Crimson Quartz (designed by Tiana Sidhe):

Thankfully, it was relatively dry inside the cave. The two ventured further inside, pulling aside vines as they went. The rain soon let up, and cracks in the cave's ceiling allowed the sunlight to seep in, showing an intricately carved wall depicting other Faekinde and what appeared to be...a shard of crystal?

"What does it mean, all those funny marks?" Tian asked as she looked over the symbols surrounding the mural.

"This is all writing," Sihra said with a small amount of pride. "My Teacher taught me how to read them." He looked up, intoning:

Upon the joining of the Three
That which was broken can be healed
By Faekinde only can this be
Here the Song shall to them reveal

He remembered his Teacher's words, and pulled out the twin flute. As the notes of the Song of Harmony sang forth, an answering tone came from the shard. It was the Sliver of Quartz he had been seeking! It came away from the carved wall with mild effort, still faintly glowing purple in his hand. As it did, its song lingered in his mind, the path further into the cave calling to him.

Things continue to progress down an unusual path with our friend here, do they not? I can only wonder where this path may lead in the future. Now, as I'm sure you've noticed by the absence of my talking about it, I don't have an update for our experimental AEI, Hero's Journey this week. The reason for that is the story I mentioned earlier. You see, I got caught up in a whole lot of research that I simply could not look away from, no matter how much I wanted to attend to my other projects. I mean that literally, of course. This particular specimen I'm researching managed to make it impossible for me to look away for several days! Imagine my surprise when I found out that it had been a full three days of no eating, drinking, sleeping, or breathing! At least, I assume that's what happened, for as little sense as that makes from a scientific standpoint. Nonetheless, I've decided to leave that project alone for a while, for my own safety, and the productivity of my other research subjects. I will have more to report next week. Until then, Scienteers!