The only reason Caen could come to the seventh floor at all was because Uncle Vai was here; otherwise, it'd be sealed.

The doors opened to reveal a vast aquarium tunnel. Caen stepped onto it with both wonder and trepidation. Beyond the glass tunnel, he could see a variety of sea life swimming through a well-lit body of water. Giant orbs of blue and white light pulsed with intensity as they floated in the deep. It was as though Caen had suddenly been teleported beneath the ocean.

Each one of these creatures was an Astral specter, many of which had been captured and tamed by his uncle. He referred to a number of them as just ‘visitors’, however. Some were mind-boggling monstrosities of malice and brutality, while others were simple creatures with fixed and often mindless behaviors.

Being here felt a little like being back in the deep purple of Astral space. The glass tunnel felt like a bubble of protection around his mind, and though it worked to keep out manic impressions and cognitive hazards, Caen still felt ominous tingles on the edge of his consciousness.

Uncle Vai was standing much, much deeper into the tunnel, wearing his typical orange clothes. Unusually, though, he wasn't on his rocking throne. He stood with his hand at his back, speaking to a rounded protrusion on the glass tunnel.

Wait, Caen thought, stopping in his tracks. That's not a protrusion.

It was a… head. A giant head, resembling that of a serpent, scaled in size by several magnitudes.

Deeply intrigued and very wary, Caen stalked closer. Overhead, ridiculously large specters, larger even than the occasional airship that flew past Drenlin, cast flitting shadows in the tunnel.

Uncle Vai's mouth was moving, but Caen could hear nothing. When he got close enough, Vai started and turned to look at him.

“Oh, Caen. When did you get here?”

Caen frowned. “You don't know?”

“I recently turned off a portion of my awareness. Knowing everything that happens in here has gotten far too boring for my tastes. Come and meet my friend.” He gestured at the protrusion.

Caen's eyes drifted to the humongous serpent head protruding out of the tunnel wall. Its skin was iridescent black and translucent with prominent writhing ridges. The slits of its eyes were each as tall as Caen was, and within, he could see complex shapes, impossible shapes, morphing into increasingly disturbing forms.

The tingles on the edge of his consciousness grew more prominent.

The walls of the glass tunnel hummed softly as if straining to keep back dangerous effects.

“This is ~~~,” Uncle Vai spoke the name. Caen heard the name. But his mind could not comprehend it.

He blinked.

Uncle Vai smiled and gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Don't worry. You'll get a hang of this one day, runt.”

Caen started. When had he moved this close to Vai? He'd been standing a good few yards off.

Now, the immense face of the specter loomed over him. A thick presence—thicker even than the protective properties of the tunnel—swept over Caen with the weight of a rushing tide. Somehow, he still stood in place. And perhaps Uncle Vai's hand on his shoulder had something to do with that.

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Caen's heart, or at least the representation of it in this place, hammered in his chest. He itched to use Soul-sense, but he wasn't stupid enough to do that.

“Well, thank you,~~~, for the timely warning,” Uncle Vai said to the creature.

Caen could tell that his uncle had mentioned the name again, because Caen was back at the elevator entrance once more, blinking.

Uncle Vai started walking back towards him. The creature was gone. On the tunnel wall behind Uncle Vai, something broad and vast sidled off the pristine glass, and it seemed to span several miles in length.

“That was very disorienting,” Caen said as soon as Uncle Vai reached him.

“Eh, Lattice business,” Vai said, waving a hand. “Now onto your business.” He snapped his fingers, and they were suddenly on the roof of his mansion. “Try using your Mimicry abilities on me, and do note that I will push you off this building if you tell me you have will fatigue.”

Caen shook his head, still overwhelmed from the interaction with the strange creature. Then his mind caught on something Vai had said. He groaned. “Mimicry? Not you too. Uncle Vai, a mind like yours should be able to come up with a better name than that.”

“Don't be petulant,” Vai laughed. “Mimicry is a fine enough name.”

Caen huffed. “Alright, let's do this.”

Caen tried.

It didn't work. Mimicry was not working.

“Are you sure you're doing it right?” Vai asked carefully.

“I… I've been using it almost nonstop for the past four days now. I've done everything I usually do.”

He'd already tried going through Klaver's Variate, visualizing the ghostly rhombus symbol as well as the sphere that grew to encompass it. Nothing. He couldn't even feel the unfurling of his existence. He tried some more.

Nothing, still. It was almost as if the ability didn't exist anymore. Caen's limbs were trembling.

Calm down, he told himself, as he began a breathing sequence to quell his rising anxiety. It was a needless thing here, but he found that it helped ground him. This might merely be an effect of being in the Astral Realm. I can't know until I assess it. No need to panic yet.

Soul-sense had been dependent on his physical eyes all this time, and maybe sight as conceptualized in this realm didn't quite count.

Caen was having difficulty breathing, and he knew it wasn't his actual heart beating so forcefully, but this was…

He really needed to sit down. He dropped shakily on the lip of the roof and began visualizing a calming spell. But before he was halfway done, a blanket of tranquility settled over him, smothering his angst.

“Hey, easy,” Vai said, not unkindly.

Caen breathed out easily, nodding. “Thank you. I needed that.” Dread still weighed heavily on his mind, but his thoughts felt clearer now. “Soul-sense is still strongly reliant on my physical eyes,” Caen said. “I… assumed that this would extend to astral perception, but I was… I think I might've been wrong.”

Vai traced his mustache, a thoughtful expression on his face. “That's not unlikely. You’ll have to try using it at my physical location then.”

Vai was sequestered within a private building in the commune, where attendants cared for him and made sure his body stayed healthy. Caen hadn't used Mimicry on an unconscious person before, and he didn't know if the ability would work differently when used on a person in the Astral Realm.

This spiral of assumptions and uncertainties highlighted to him how little he knew. Caen didn't even know if he had lost his ability to use Mimicry altogether.

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind and took in another deep breath. I'll know for certain when I wake up, he assured himself. “Uncle Vai, does 8 in the morning work for you?”

Vai would have no difficulty synchronizing time between the Astral and Material Realms.

“8's good. I'll be actively engaging my spirit and casting spells all through the hour.”

“Thank you,” Caen said. “Alright, I'm ready. Send me back, please.”