New years.

A time of new beginnings, new days, new moments. New goals, new growth, new everything!

Except for a new head-brother, probably.

"Are we two not enough for you, Duskie?" Knight chuckled. "Do you really need a third one?"

Imagine we got a head-sister for Christmas? Duskie stuck his tongue out, walking to one of Aesine's many snow-covered docks.

"I think any idea of a girl-us disappeared way, way, before 'me' became 'us'." Knight smiled. "Specifically, when I transitioned. And my sister didn't like it. And my parents took my side and not hers."

Fair. Nonbinary head-sibling then. Duskie came to a stop on the dock, staring at the sea and skies in front of him.

Why was Duskie there, you ask? Well, it's because of one thing, and one thing only.

New everything... means new rocks!

"I still can't believe your new years resolution was to go to Vaalt and eat the rocks there."

"It is what is expected of thou, Duskfall."

Of course it is! Rocks are tasty! I even said so in my note to Hibby!

And with that, Duskie jumped off and took flight, wings materializing in the air behind him, and soared to the mountains.

A big massive bone jutted out of the mountain, and Duskie soared straight to it, clenching it with his teeth and-

"Duskie, please don't try to pull the whole bone out of the mountain." Knight said. "You are going to hurt yourself, and/or leave a massive hole in the mountain. Also, if you eat that whole thing, you'll get a stomachache."

!!! Knight, why do you have the braincell?!

"Odio's too angry for it and you'd probably use it to calculate the ideal way to eat rocks instead of why TEARING AN ENTIRE MAMMOTH BONE OUT OF A MOUNTAIN USING ONLY YOUR TEETH is a bad idea"

Duskie decided to instead chomp down on the bone, leaving a sealo-shaped bite mark that will most likely leave this bone remembered for moments to come.

"...That's better. I can't believe I'm saying this about you taking a bite out of a bone jutting out of a mountain and leaving this place with a new tourist attraction, but that's better"

Part one of resolution complete!

"...There's parts? To your new years resolution?"

Every new rock or rock-type item I eat is a new part. Duskie then proceeded to fly off, leaving that one-liner in the win-

"DUSKIE. I AM IN YOUR HEAD. YOU CANT JUST FLY OFF FROM ME"

Pros of Vaalt:

New rocks! And objects closer to rocks like bones!

Cons of Vaalt:

Duskie has found 1 (one) patch of grass that had 0 (ZERO) flowers to bring home to Hibiscus.

"Duskie. Didn't we hear someone say once that most gifts from this place are gemstones?"

... Duskie now had a dilemma. If he found the prettiest gemstone EVER here would he eat it, or bring it back to Hibby?

Oh well. At least that dilemma could wait until he found a-

He found a gemstone. A beautiful pink gemstone with sparkles inside of it.

His mouth watered. His heart sang.

He didn't know what to do.

Hibiscus looked up to take in the beautiful mountain scenery. The foggy air curled around the mountains, mountains that most likely hid any sort of magical artifacts.

She held Lavender close to her chest in one arm, signing to them with the other. "Majestic view, is it not? If me and Duskie were to go out on a date, this scenery would be the perfect location."

Unfortunately, he did not quite realize what that red speck somewhere in the mountains was.

While Duskie made the world's silliest New Year's resolutions, Hibiscus had different priorities. He was a scholar, a researcher of all things related to magic and more. While it was mostly (if not solely) due to their passionate interest in magic, they still wished to find and study the world's artifacts, if only to see if perhaps any could unveil parts of magical history. So she made her resolution to uncover at least one legendary relic out of all of the world's artifacts.

And Vaalt, with the stories that surround it, such as legends of higher beings and the well-known fable of Valt, seemed like the perfect place to start.

So far, Hibiscus' search had netted her one round, firm-ish relic that she had internally named an 'Orb', one bone die that was enchanted to always land on six-  as in, the 'six' side of the die would land on the table, leading for the die to roll up a one- and one red die that was wearing a jester hat and made jingling sounds whenever moved.

Right now, he was sitting, Lavender in his lap, looking up at the clear skies. The sun was still high up in the sky (... was that pink glint in the sky a shooting star? Probably not.), and Hibiscus had a feeling that she may be too worn down to get home by the time it set. That'd be fine- Duskie wouldn't worry, as long as she came back by the next night, and Liffside was always welcoming to travellers- especially researchers, even if her reasons were due to her passion in magic instead of a duty to history.

They say passion leads to discovery, after all. Hibiscus gave the Orb a squeeze. She could sense some sort of magic inside of it- most likely a 'password' or 'cue' of sorts, meant to activate something- to trigger a curse on a person, or to open a door locked tightly.

Whatever it was, Hibiscus had things to study- and more discoveries to make.