"Wow, it's so big." Amelia comments on the over-sized Mana Gem that I'm not even close to being done growing.

"That's what she said." I chuckle and she rolls her eyes. "Seriously though, it's still got a long ways to go. I want a lot of storage, and even if my plan gets nixed for the rest of the country, I can still do it for Arcadia.  Should probably start there anyways."

"So, you got the Mana wires working how you wanted?" She picks up a coil of very thin, but very interesting cables. "It doesn't seem all that special."

"All the specialness is on the inside." I make two Mana Gems, one empty, one full, and attach the empty Gem to one side of the cable. "Here, touch this to the other end of the cable." I toss it to her.

"They shared the mana, and so fast too." She examines both Gems closely.

"Yeah, same thing would have happened if you just touched them together." I demonstrate with two new Gems. "The inside is just another Mana Gem that I grew inside of one of those tiny tubes I was telling you about." It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but she gets the basic idea.

"And, there's no issue hooking these small ones up to that monster?"

I just laugh and touch the gems in my hand to it, filling them up instantly. "Already tested that, they try to balance the load evenly. But the small ones can only hold so much, so they just fill up. Now, if the big guy were completely empty and you touched a small but fully charged Gem to it, then it would drain almost all the mana out of it."

"That one looks like it is empty." She sets the cable down and caresses the behemoth Gem. "Ooh, that is not empty. I can't use it because it's all Fire, but even with my poor sensitivity... woof." She pulls her hand away and shakes it.

"I pulled the reactor from the car, and have been using it to charge this while it grows." I shrug. "Still need to upgrade that too, but it's working fine for now. It's a lot safer down here, hiding in a sub basement too."

"I can still use the car though, right? Was kinda bored, and thought I go out exploring the city some more." She looks hopeful.

"Yeah, I gave it and the bikes nice full Gems." I nod while trying to not let my worry show through. "You can drive around all day, no problem. Apricot going with?"

"No, she's still obsessed with that pinball game, keeps trying to raise her high-score ever higher, so you wont be able to beat it again." She laughs. "You going to be alright on your own?" Guess I didn't hide it well enough.

"Yeah, I was gonna take a break from this and go spelunking in a bit. There was a decent concentration of copper about sixty kilometers out that I wanted to inspect." I pull her into a hug. "You stay safe, okay? I love you."

"If anyone is stupid enough to mess with me, then I'll show them this baby." She pulls out her wand.

"Mhm, you think up a name for it yet?"

"Nothing seems right, can you tell me more about it?" She pets the dragon's head.

"Well, in the mythology of Dirt, that's an Eastern dragon, they were said to be the rulers of weather and water." She smiles when I say that. "The only eastern dragon I know the name of is Shenlong who was some sort of weather god."  Also a dragonball character, but that's hardly relevant.

"Enh." She wrinkles her nose.

"Well, I know a lot more western mythology, and I read a lot of books with dragons in them." I conjure dozens of holographic dragons to fill the room. "I'll make a list and translate the books for you while you're out. Good thing you like reading, because there's a lot of them."

"You're the best." She plants a kiss on my lips before disentangling herself. "I'll leave Mittens here, He's keeping Apricot company anyways. And, I'll be sure to call you if anything comes up." She kisses the furrow in my brow. "Bye, I love you too."

I watch her walk away, and then follow her with my magical senses as she gives Apricot a kiss before heading over to the garage and driving off. She waves at me when she turns on to the street.

I can already feel a funk building, so I head for the tunnel to start widening it while pulling out any interesting trace minerals. I'm not in hurry this time, so I just walk. I did bring a motorcycle along, just in case, but it's just sitting in my inventory.

I'm barely fifteen kilometers away when my phone rings. "Hey, boss." It was a pain to get Kyle to greet me like that, especially after he learned I could heal. But, all that Sir, and Lord shit gets old. "Sorry, to bother you, but Baron Westra's mother had a fall, and broke her hip. He came to the house personally to ask for help."

"Okay, I'll be out front in three minutes." I disconnect and hop on the motorcycle that materializes next to me.

Pushing my magic into the bike and the air around me, I go from zero to four-hundred in almost no time flat. Two and a half minutes later, I'm driving out of the underground garage and past a somewhat fancy carriage. I'm at the house seconds later and a fit older gentleman that was talking to Kyle quickly approaches.

"Marquis Rumex, thank you so much for seeing me." He bows to me.

"Sorrel, please. And, don't thank me yet." I say in a solemn tone. "I may not be able to do much, if anything for her."

"Then you must call me Van." He bows again. "My carriage is waiting to take us to her."

"No, this is faster." I pat the tank. "Saving lives is like fighting fires, time matters most of all. Hop, on and tell me where to go."

"She's at my manor house..." He gives me the directions, but I already know where all the important people live. So, as soon as he sits down I twist the throttle and we race out of the yard. "Aaaahhhhhhhhh!"

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Relax, this is nothing." I dodge around a wagon while casting a calm spell on its horse, and cut us down a side street with less traffic. "Tell me about your mom." I say to distract him. "Does she have any other health issues?"

"N-no, but I think I have heart problems now." He lets out another little scream as I take us around a tight corner. "Not even the fastest horse can match this, this... thing's speed."

"Motorcycle, and like I said. This is nothing." We've finally got a clear path so I open it up a bit and easily double our speed. He gives up at this point and just squeezes his eyes closed.

A few minutes later and we're skidding to a stop in his courtyard on the other side of town. "Oh, thank the gods." He gets shakily off the bike. "This way, she's right through here."

I can see that his mother isn't in any immediate danger, so I let him lead the way. A woman meets us at the door along with two younger people, likely their children based on appearances.

"Sorrel, this is my wife Glenda, and our children Jolee and Noah." He introduces me. "My mother, Elnore is just down the hallway."

"Thank you so much for agreeing to see Grandma." Jolee steps forward and takes my hand. "Can you really help her?" She's a bit older than me, but the mix of hope and fear in her face makes her look like a child.

"I should be able to. But, she has very brittle bones, this isn't her first break. It's going to take me a while to rebuild them." I pause for a moment as we enter the room where Elnore is being watched over by several female servants. "My spell is rather draining, if I could trouble you to have your cook prepare a hearty lunch." I direct to the Baron.

"I'll do it." Noah dashes off. He's younger than his sister and the sight of his Grandmother in pain makes him take any excuse to leave.

I just smile and walk forwards. "Hello Ma'am, I need you to drink this for me." I conjure a tall glass full of Healing sap, with a bendy straw in it.

"Boy, I told you not to bring me some crackpot healer." She hisses out between her, surprisingly whole teeth. "The last one couldn't do anything when I broke my arm and this young man won't be able to do anything either."

"Feisty, that's good. But, if you don't drink, I can't help." I can, but they don't need to know that, and if I do it that way, I won't be able to try something I've been thinking about. So, I push the cup into her face with a grin on mine.

"Mom, please just do as he says." Van pleads, hovering next to me.

"Fine." She takes a small sip. "Oh gods, the pain." She gasps in relief.

"Don't try to move." I hold her in place with magic. "You're still injured, I've just stopped the pain. I'll need you to drink the whole glass, please." I pull up a chair and sit down next to her bed.

"Anything." She starts sucking it up as quickly as she can. Meanwhile, I'm guiding the magic through her body to re-align the broken bones.

"You did a real number here, the head has snapped off the femur entirely, and your pelvis has several large cracks." I project a skeletal hologram, so she and her family can understand what I'm talking about. "I'm surprised you were still conscious."

"Take more than a little pain to stop me." She gulps down the last of the drink.

"You are a tough one." I compliment her. "You should have seen the face on Count Valli's son when I was piecing him back together." I chuckle as she doesn't even flinch while watching her leg become whole again.

"Is that all? You're done already?" She looks astonished.

"Oh, I wish." I shake my head. "Your bones might as well be made of chalk." I shift the view to a crack on her fibula. "Looks like this happened last week, I'm guessing it's responsible for your fall today." She gives an almost imperceptible nod.

"Mom, why didn't you say anything?" The baron sighs exasperatedly.

"You would have just stuck me in that damned chair again." She grumps.

"Care for a snack?" I materialize my junk food crate, and grab a bag of trail mix. "I've got all three major food groups, sweet, salty, and cheesy. You guys can help yourselves too." I say when Jolee starts licking her lips.

"You've got to try the chocolate he invented." Jolee hold up a bar of milk chocolate.

"Wait?" The old woman's eyes go wide. "Chocolate? You're the new Marquis." She says almost accusingly.

"I am." I grin and dig in the bag of trail mix for a peanut butter chip. "Don't tell me all your feistiness is going to disappear just because I have a title." I laugh as she glares at her son.

"You could have at least warned me before I made a fool of myself." She growls at him before snatching the chocolate from her grand-daughter. "Oh, that's good. Too sweet for my old guts, but good."

"I'll try to do something about that too." Getting old sucks. "But, right now, I'm still working on your bones."

The hologram comes back, but as a whole skeletal view. Most of it is greyed out, but the areas around her recent breaks have a slowly spreading white glow to them.

"I've been rejuvenating them as we speak. Once I'm done, they'll be as strong as Jolee's." This is the real reason I took out the snacks, so that I could borrow some building blocks from the food. I'll need to carry around some bones in the future in case I have to do this again.

"You didn't need to-" She tries saying before I cut her off.

"I don't like leaving jobs half done." I say flatly. "Besides, if I didn't I'd probably be back here next week patching you up again." My smile comes back as I tease the silver haired woman.

"Oh, fine." She huffs and takes another bite of chocolate. "There must be some way for us to repay you though."

"Just spread the word that I won't act unless it's serious. I may not show it, but this spell is quite draining." Seeing that she's not quite satisfied with that answer, I add. "If you must do something for me, then I'm always on the lookout for rare plants, ores and minerals. Though, I wish you luck finding any plants around here that I don't already have." I take a moment to create a thick tome listing off all the plants I've collected so far.

"So, ores and minerals you say." The baron chuckles as he hefts the book.

"Yes, I can do a lot with what's available to me now, such as the vehicle we rode in on. But, who knows what else might possible if I get my hands on something interesting." I daydream about having warehouses full of supplies to experiment with, and being able to build anything I could imagine.

"After riding on that beast, I'm afraid of what you might just come up with." He says in good humor.

"Heheh, you should see it when I pour on the Mana. What you saw today was just a fraction of what it's really capable of." I grin as I think about how to make it even faster.

"Is this that horseless carriage everyone has been talking about?" Elnore asks.

"More like an Iron Horse." I project an image of the motorcycle. "Same principles though." I add a copy of the Rocket and highlight both of their engines. "Just put together a bit differently. Oh, if you know anyone who's good with gears and mechanical things, that would help me too. Took me forever to work these things out, I'm more into plants after all."

"Now, that looks like it'd be fun to ride on." The old woman grins. "Don't suppose you're selling them?"

"Maybe in the future, but the first ones will probably go to the Crown." A frown crosses my face as thoughts is Cendassa intrude.

"Do you think it'll come down to..." Jolee starts before trailing off.

"I haven't heard anything since Riverton." I shrug. "But there's an old saying that always stuck with me. 'Just as birds die for food, men die for money.' But, don't you worry, the Queen is doing everything she can to keep Larendath safe. Oh look, you're almost done." I direct their attention to the skeletal hologram and dismiss the others.

"Are my bones really going to just as strong as Jojo's?" Elnore picks up on my unwillingness to continue the previous line of conversation and helps move away from it.

"Yes, and if you drink this I can touch up your joints and soft tissues." I hold out another full glass. "Age is age, but I can still treat some of the symptoms."

"Thank you." Her face is full of gratitude as she rubs her bony hands in remembrance of past soreness.

"Thank me by living a long life." I nod as she up-ends the glass. "That, and with a good meal, where is your grandson?" I say, knowing that he's been hiding just outside the door.

"It should be ready any minute now." He comes in with his head down, and an embarrassed look on his face.

"How long were you just standing there? You missed out on the chocolate, you dummy." His sister laughs at him and takes a big bite out of the bar in her hand.

***