Only a glimmer of light snuck into Rain’s bedroom from beneath the door, but thanks to the six Perception accolades he was using, he had no trouble seeing the mundane details of his surroundings. The mundane was not his focus, but rather, the riot of color and sensation pressed against his senses.

Through that haze, he watched as Ameliah scrunched up her eyes, then opened them, yawning like a cat. “Still at it, huh?” she asked muzzily, her soft voice booming in his ears.

Rain relaxed Detection and lifted his chin from his steepled hands, then shook his head in an attempt to clear the hallucinations. The tiny swirls of gold that might have been Ameliah’s soul—or might have been brain damage—began to fade, leaving an overpowering scent of cinnamon and a prickly feeling across the soles of his feet. He sneezed, practically knocking himself out with the sound, then fell into an uncontrollable coughing fit.

Ameliah sighed. “I get it, you know? But trying to master Reading in twenty-four hours?”

Rain grimaced, getting his diaphragm under control and replying in a whisper that seemed to rattle his skull. “I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

“Dummy,” Ameliah muttered, probably not expecting him to hear, then let herself fall back on the bed with another enormous yawn. “Did you at least sleep?”

“Full eight hours,” Rain said. He sighed, then gingerly transferred himself from his chair to sit beside her on the edge of the bed, summoning a progress report.

Progress Report

marker_1: grannybrain [3061 Seedlings 31 00:32]

marker_2: reading_rainbows [3061 Seedlings 32 06:02]

Span: 1.2 days

Skills

Ethereal Aura: +3,024 exp

Synchronization

Endurance: 29.5 -> 30.3 (+0.8)

Perception: 26.9 -> 38.9 (+12.0)