"What is that?" Apricot asks as the ground bulges up next to me. "Is this what you've been doing with your magic since we got interrupted earlier?"

"Yeah, didn't know if I'd have a chance to run out there and grab this stuff later." The bulge reveals itself to be a large sphere of iron and several smaller balls of various metals. "Good thing I did too. It'd be a shame to waste so much free metal by leaving it to just sit in the ground."

"So, that's what you did with it." Amelia laughs. "Watching those soldiers paw at the ground trying to get their weapons back was hilarious. But, not half as hilarious as watching them freak out when their clothes disappeared the same way."

"You'd think professional soldiers would be in better shape though." Apricot sneers at the memory. "It's like they were all either scrawny or flabby, with no in-between."

"Tch. Welcome to my world" I tisk. "There's a reason I keep my senses pulled in when we're in the city, and it's not just because I'm working on my issues."

"That bad?" Amelia questions.

"You have no idea." I shake my head. "I could look outwards and tell you exactly how many people are having sex right now. But, at night, in a city this large, during a big celebration no less. I'd be surprised if it's any less than ten-thousand people right this minute, and that's just the ones fucking. That doesn't count all the people in the bath, or on the toilet, or just plain naked for no good reason."

"Oh, you poor baby." She mocks me. "Having to see naked people all the time."

"Don't be too hard on him." Oliver defends me as he walks up. "It sounds great and all, at first. But, it gets old quick, and most just block it out after a few days." He chuckles. "You three ready to go? The Queen will be down soon."

"Yeah, I got what I wanted." I pat the metal and make it vanish into my inventory. "Just gimme a minute to reconfigure this beast. Don't really need that top layer anymore, after all."

I reform the bus since we're leaving the twelve mages behind. The 'Royal Suite' as it were gets moved to the bottom, and now only layer. I add a smaller room to one side for Oliver, and a few seats behind the driver's area. The exterior get a revamp too, it's now much more sleek and aerodynamic.

"Oh, that's much better looking." Amelia sighs as I put the excess materials into my inventory. "I know you wouldn't let it, but I kept being afraid that big thing would tip over."

"Heheh. I wasn't exactly a fan either, but I could hardly let Her Majesty sleep in a tiny bunk. Now, could I?" I shake my head. "Bad enough I had to drag her out here and into my plan because I was afraid of assassins going for her and Faye."  Also because I was pissed off about being draged into this war, but probably better not to mention that.

"A more than reasonable fear, young man." Oliver starts.

"And an action for which I have already more than forgiven you." The Queen finishes. "If anything, I should thank you for humiliating Cinda like that, never did get along with that little harpy. Not to mention saving Riverton." She smiles like the cat that ate the canary.

"But, as you once said." She continues with a sigh. "'The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more'. I can only wish that today was enough to deter Cendassa. But, I fear that you will have the opportunity for much more work in the future."

"Speaking of." Oliver adds. "Are you sure you'll be able to make and set up the relays in just one night? And, thanks for giving all the mages their own phone, by the way."

"Larendath gave me the resources, the least I can do is use them to protect her lands. And, I actually made quite a few relays last night." I pull out a crate full of them. "Not enough to reach the whole way, but enough that I should be able to handle the rest on the move. And, still get us there around dawn, since I don't have to conserve myself for a big fight."

"I'm mad at you uncle Sorrel." The princess finally speaks up. "Why didn't you wake me up to watch you scare off all those bad men?" She stamps her foot.

"Well, I tried to wake you up, we all did." I wave my arm around and smile at everyone, telling them with my eyes to play along. "But, we just couldn't wake you, no matter what we did. Maybe if you had stopped at just the one movie, instead of waiting for your mother to go to sleep and then sneaking out to watch two more." She pales at the realization that she was caught.

"Oh, she did, did she?" Vivian hides her smile and looks down at the little girl with a disapproving frown. "And, here I thought you just didn't sleep well because we were moving all night."

"I'm sorry mommy, but there was these movies about a pixie named Tinkerbell." She clutches her doll to her chest. "I promise I won't do it again." She says with a hang-dog look on her face.

"Very well, but since you watched two movies, then no movies for two days, and you'd better keep to your bed time from here on out."

"Thank you mommy, I'll be good. I swear." She hugs her mom, squishing her dress down against her legs.

"Well, if you're really good, and your mother says it's alright. Then maybe I can show you how to drive." I open the bus door.

The little girls looks up at her mother with hope in her eyes. "Heheh. I must admit, I'm rather interested in learning myself." The Queen says stepping inside.

"I'm more interested in how you're keeping that engine of yours full of Fire Mana." Oliver adds following the royals in.

We troop in after only to already find Faye in the driver's seat, her mother standing behind her with a loving smile on her face. "I'll uncloak it for you now, I just didn't want any of the other mages poking around with it before. It's rather dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Fortunately you have Light and Fire Mana, so you'll be able to see exactly what's going on."

"Can I drive now, please uncle Sorrel?" The little girl beams up at me.

I adjust the pedals and steering wheel to something more manageable for her and say. "Just push that button." She does so with a 'yay' and the engine turns over, smooth as butter. Oliver's eyes go wide when the 'arc reactor' kicks in a moment later.

"How?" his voice is nearly a whisper.

I make a hologram of it for the Queens benefit while showing Faye how to use the pedals. "Remember that uranium stuff I panicked about the other day? This is what happens when you concentrate it."

"So much energy from such a tiny thing." He gulps.

"I'm using the Mirror spell to moderate how much is produced and siphoning off all the heat, but if you aren't careful it could overheat and become hot enough to melt stone. Well, maybe not a tiny piece like that, but you get the idea."

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"It could meltdown to the groundwater, turn it to steam and spread poison over a large area." He instantly gets it. The girls already know all this, and luckily Faye's too caught up in driving the bus. But, his and Vivian's faces pale. "You have to hide this." He says decisively.

"I already am, you two are the last people who will ever learn how it works, and until, and unless I can devise an absolute failsafe. These will never leave my control." I say with finality.

"Control issues, babe." Amelia rolls her eyes.

"Region destroying terror, babe." I counter. "It's far too useful to just give up on, but far too dangerous to set loose. Fortunately I have some ideas on how to keep it safe while still sharing the mana it generates."

"How did you even come up with something like this?" Vivian asks.

"I don't like being afraid." I answer with a seeming non-sequiter. "I knew it was dangerous, but I didn't know why. So, I fought my fear and learned everything I could about that little green rock. This is the final result of me controlling my fear, quite literally in this case." I give the hologram a spin before dismissing it.

"Uncle Sorrel." The princess whines. "This is boring, all I do is go in a straight line down the road, and my arms are getting tired holding this wheel. How did you do this all night?"

"I'll make you something more fun once we get back." I tousle her hair. "Why don't you let your mom have a try? You can show her what to do." I change the controls back to how they were.

***

The night was relatively uneventful. Well, aside from me getting distracted and having to backtrack to place a couple relays that I missed. Hell, I was lucky just to keep us on the road. A sex starved pixie does not make for a safe driving companion.

The City walls are just coming into sight when the sun crests over the hills in the background. The early morning traffic moves to one side to let us pass when they see the bus rolling up. They may not know who's inside, but it clearly looks magical.

The guards just wave us through after getting a good look at who's driving. Meanwhile my passengers are stirring, woken either by the light, the change in speed, the different road sound, or a mix of all three.

"Morning babe." Amelia sits up from where she was laying on the bench causing Apricot to groan at the loss of her big spoon. "It's good to be back home." She says after looking out the window. "I hope Mittens was okay without me."

I send my vision out to her parents house, and find the little guy. "He's eating breakfast right now." I project an image for her.

"Ack! Look at his collar, it's half drained. What did that little pest get into while we were gone?" She cries out at the state of his protective shield.

"Just how effective is that Rune you made for him?" Oliver asks while walking forward after letting out a big yawn.

"Let's find out. Amelia take the wheel for a sec." She does and I focus in on the prototype 'camera' I added to his collar before we left. "Let's see. Two horses, a carriage, over a dozen dogs, and a hawk." I display the holograms that were captured every time the shield went off. "Sorry, about the quality. I threw this together last minute before we left." The images are out of focus, and more than a little grainy.

"Hah! Look at that one mutt." Apricot laughs. "He shows up five times, think he would've learned after the first one or two. And look at Mittens, he just doesn't care. That stupid cat has zero survival instinct."

"Remarkable!" The Court Wizard's eyes light up. "How does it work?"

"This is the basic model, so it just scans for incoming force. Anything over a certain threshold gets rebuffed with an Air blast. Or, if the force is too great, it moves Mittens out of the way." I explain.

"Basic model?" Amelia raises an eyebrow. "Is there anything you aren't telling us, Sorrel?"

"Amelia, baby." I start, but she's not having any of it. "Okay, okay. I haven't actually built them, but when I was working on the armor designs... I may have designed a full suite of protections. Sorry for not telling you." I say sheepishly.

"Sorrel." She sighs. "You need to tell us these things, we can't help you if you don't talk to us." She runs her hand through my short, blood-red hair.

"I know, and I was going to, but you were already having a bad day. And, then we got distracted by the... Magic." I waggle my eyebrows making her laugh.

"When you say full suite..." Oliver ignores our obvious byplay.

"Projectiles, blunt force, slashing, stabbing, fire, and freezing or scalding liquids. Plus all the basic elemental Magics, though it would have trouble doing more than just blunting attacks from anyone too high level. Oh, there's also an air scrubber, and a rune that detects poisons, but that one needs a bit of work."

Apricot breaks into laughter as Oliver's mouth hangs open. But Amelia just asks. "Anything else?"

"Umm... an emergency alert sent to my phone, and some distress beacons, one of which, if I did my math right, I should be able to sense anywhere within several hundred kilometers." I shrug before adding. "Plus a few ideas for last ditch escape methods, but nothing concrete. That's all, I swear."

"Oh, baby." She cradles my head against her chest. "I know you just want to protect us, but you can't control everything."

"It's a good thing I don't need to see to drive this thing, but I really am setting a horrible example for any future drivers." I joke to lighten the mood. And then, after a minute, I whisper. "I know Amelia. I know. I just can't imagine what I'd do if either of you got hurt." I hug her tight as we approach the palace gates.

I can tell that Oliver wants to say something, but he holds back and instead signals the guards to let us in. Vivian and Faye standing silently behind him.

"Just ask already." Apricot says to them in an annoyed tone. "It's not like he's going to say no."

"Could you please make two sets." Vivian pleads with her hand on her daughter's head. "And, I hate to ask for anything more, but you mentioned armor."

"Ooh, you gotta break out the ballista again." Apricot hops up and down excitedly. "Please Amelia, let him play with it again." She begs.

"Oh, fine." She snorts, still cradling my head. "But, I don't want to be standing right next to it this time. Barrier or no." She pushes me back and stares in my eyes to make sure I understand.

"Yes, Ma'am." I nod and stop the bus before turning to the Queen and handing her the three armor samples. "Care for a demonstration?"

"Patrick is still in the training grounds." Oliver adds. "I'm sure he'd love to see this."

***