MAGNUS

I breathed in the winter air as I stood beneath Alara’s canopy. I tried to empty my mind of everything from the past couple of weeks as I stared at the amulet hanging from the lowest branch. It pulsed in a slow heartbeat rhythm, and hadn’t changed since before I left for school.

“Where are you mom? What has kept you from coming home?” I asked into the quiet morning.

One of the branches dipped down and rested on my shoulder causing a small smile.

“Thank you Alara, but I’m fine. Just brooding, I think I get it from grandfather,” I said.

“Your father was prone to brooding as well, so I can’t take all the credit,” Morgan’s voice sounded out behind me.

I turned to face the old man with a quirked eyebrow. He just chuckled at me as he stepped up to look at the amulet too. When he spoke his voice was soft, but I could detect a hint of suppressed anger, “It has kept that slow pulse since about six months after you came to the mountain. I can only think of two reasons for that, unfortunately I can’t verify which one it is.”

I nodded, “Some form of stasis, like an induced sleep; or they somehow circumvented the binding to show this result.”

He patted my shoulder and said, “Sound reasoning. The stasis is most likely considering they would need to be able to adjust the binding on this end to deceive me. Unfortunately I can’t use it to track where she is. She isn’t in the home of the person she was investigating, I checked when I was on that walkabout. We just need another thread to pull.”

“Something will turn up. Mother wasn’t a woman to go quietly,” I said.

“Indeed. Now are you ready for school to start back up? I know you and Jessica were working on some new toys before the new semester,” he asked.

“Semester? Is that another of your ‘Earth’ terms?” I asked with a smirk.

“She told you then? No matter. Yes, it was a term schools used to split up class scheduling,” he replied.

“Were you ever going to tell me you came from another world?” I asked.

“Wasn’t planning to, but I wasn’t going to lie either. This world has been my home for almost fifty years now, I’m not sure I would fit in back on Earth even if I could return,” he answered.

“So all the extra knowledge you have is from there?” I pressed.

“Most of it. Things like the martial arts I have taught you, or some of the creations I’ve converted were not uncommon. I wasn’t an engineer so I can’t make some of the more complicated stuff. I also don’t want some things to become commonplace here, I have a good idea what would happen. It’s why I wasn’t happy when you copied my pistol, but it isn’t as big of a force multiplier in this world as I thought it would be,” he said.

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Graduate and I’ll tell you the whole story, it isn’t important right now,” he said with the same smirk I usually had on.

“Then what do you consider important, because as much fun as puzzles are this isn’t helpful,” I said with a bit more irritation in my voice than I had intended.

After a short laugh the old man said, “Right now, nothing. I’ve told your professors what I found out about the obelisk, you have finished the upgrades you wanted to make, and it is a beautiful day. Sometimes you have to just enjoy the peace, it can be fleeting.”

I let a small smile creep onto my face. I knew he was right, after the hecticness of the hunt, having a few days to just enjoy the peace and work on whatever came to mind I was able to let go of the worry about the future that had been plaguing me. It probably helped that Linara was cured of her madness, my upgrades had been a success, and we had finally made progress on figuring out the current limits of my odd Talent.

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Varis had gotten around to telling me that the Talent was using up more of my aether, but I was used to working with a small supply. The upside it turned out was that I now had a perfect recall of the various parts of a rune I had seen before, and the use for the part if I knew it. It was like having a reference library in my head, one that made creating the new guns much easier. The power sources were also much more efficient thanks to Jessica’s talent for a faster recharge on bindings she made. We had also discovered that I could actively use the Talent now to help me find patterns, much like how I used aether to augment my vision. It was draining though, but luckily it didn’t cause the Talent to go into overdrive like it had with the obelisk. Our working theory was that the Talent had been dormant until now, and that once I was able to channel more aether it would likely unlock more aspects of it; but until it was fully awakened I would not be able to truly increase my available aether pool.

I asked the old man, “Do you have any suggestions for inventions I can work on if I have free time back at school?”

The old man rubbed his beard and answered, “I have two actually, I just don’t know how viable they are. First, you should look into some kind of protection. Yes you could always just wear armor, but it might be good to have something inconspicuous that could be used by other operatives.”

I nodded, that was a good idea. The visor was intended to be shared with Professor Stormleaf for that purpose once I had it as efficient as I could reasonably make it. I was still adding features to it, so I didn’t want it used by too many others in its current state. Grandfather and I had also managed to work out the badges that operatives would carry, and found a way to tie an indicator and verification system into them to hopefully prevent forgeries. I paused as I waited for him to continue.

“The second idea is a bit of a long shot, but your visor gave me an idea. With the message books we can discuss it if you want, but it is regarding available aether in yourself and others. I don’t have your skill at finding a solution, but I always wanted some way to measure my aether and recharge rate,” he replied.

I covered my face with my hand and mumbled around my palm, “Of course, why didn’t I consider that. Knowing how much aether is used for a particular spellbinding, or a Talent for that matter, would be beneficial information to know for anyone. If I can tie that into the visor it would help an operative to know when someone is running on empty as well.”

He nodded and said, “Or when a creature is close to going monster, or a summons needs to go back into the crystal for recharge if they can’t just tell you. There are enough good uses for it to be a worthwhile project.”

I pushed the ideas out of my head for the moment, if I got absorbed in the creation process I wouldn’t return to school until the spring at least. I didn’t think the professors would take kindly to that.

My grandfather laughed at the effort it took me to stop from getting lost in my own head and said, “I have another gift for you.”

I watched as one of Alara’s branches shifted and smacked him in the back of the head and he complained, “Ow, okay fine. This is a gift from Alara too.”

I snickered before I took the wrapped bundle he picked up from behind him. Unwrapping the bundle I found two polished oak staves. Each was an inch wide and roughly thirty inches long. They also had a binding carved into the base of each one that after a bit of study I saw would allow me to channel aether to repair them from most wear and tear. I looked from the Escrima sticks to my grandfather, and then to Alara, before I whispered, “Are these?”

“Yes, she gave wood from her tree for those to be fashioned. They will be tougher than most steel, and with that binding shouldn’t break from use. They also have a hidden benefit because of their tie to an Yggra Dryad,” he said.

I looked at him with comprehension. Neither of us spoke it aloud, but I could see the grains in the wood and the core formed of Alara’s will. Each of these sticks would function as a storage for aether. They wouldn’t gather it on their own, but I could invest my aether into them and use it later. That would solve one of my biggest hurdles, having enough aether all at once to finish a binding. I also knew I could put a few combat bindings on them similar to Richard’s weapon of choice.

I set the sticks down and turned to hug the great oak tree, my arms not even close to reaching around the massive trunk, “Thank you Alara,” I whispered into the bark.

Branches encircled me as the dryad returned my hug in the only manner she could at the moment. I heard Jessica’s voice call out from the cabin, “Is it really being a tree-hugger if the tree hugs back?”

I turned a confused gaze on her as my grandfather laughed. Must have been an Earth joke. Jessica jerked a thumb towards the trail that led to the cabin and I turned to see Vara, Mai, Takahashi, and Richard flanking Fenris coming into view.

“Guess it’s time to go,” I said.

“Run fast, jump high, get smart,” Morgan said.

I gave him a grin, grabbed my newest weapons, and went to join my friends before we teleported back to the school. I could see the excitement on each of their faces, and I knew my own was a mirror to theirs.