The smell of burning cedar anchored Runi’s physical body to the meditation mat in his small attic room. But Runi himself—his consciousness, wrapped in a shimmering sheath of astral light—was light-years away. He floated in the Drift, the currents of the astral plane swirling around him like nebulae of indigo and spun gold. Today’s practice was weaving. It was delicate work, taking the raw, chaotic energy of the realm and knitting it into stable constructs. Runi extended his translucent hands. With a mental twist, he pulled a thread of cerulean light from the ether. He began to braid it with a strand of sunset-orange, intending to create a simple lantern of focused intention. Focus. Stabilize. Manifest. The weave was tight. It hummed with potential. Then, a rogue current hit it. It wasn't a gentle breeze; it was a heavy, thrumming undertow that dragged at his astral form. His half-finished lantern unraveled in a shower of sparks. Annoyance flared, but curiosity quickly overtook it. This current felt different—ancient, dense, and inexplicably magnetic. It tasted like ozone and old iron. Against the better judgment of his teachers, who always warned against leaving the charted shallows of the Drift, Runi followed the pull. He descended. The vibrant colors of the upper realm faded into varying shades of deep violet and charcoal gray. Here, thoughts didn't manifest instantly; the space felt thick, resistant, like moving through spiritual molasses. This was the Deep Astral, where forgotten dreams and primordial concepts sank to rest. The current led him to what looked like a floating island made of obsidian jagged spires jutting into the velvet darkness. In the center of the island was a crater, glowing with a faint, rhythmic pulse. Runi drifted closer, his silver cord—the lifeline connecting him to his body—stretched taut behind him. In the center of the crater, nestled in a bed of crystallized starlight, it sat. It was roughly the size of a human head, a coalesced knot of immense magical pressure. It appeared as a large, teal-blue oval, glowing with a soft, internal light. Its surface was webbed with intricate, darker teal veins, like leaves. Encrusting the entire object was a gnarled, thorny wooden frame, its brown, organic branches curling around and embracing the luminous core like protective roots.