The pirates faced off against the larger group, undaunted. Olivander didn't know where they got their bravado, but he respected it. They were all silver rank, with the lead pirate bordering on gold. They would know Olivander could annihilate them. Perhaps they put too much trust in those pistols.

"Ah! There you are, I was just going to send for you. We have found the treasure! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be something we can take with," he said, patting the stone arch with his hand.

The pirate searched his expression. "This is what you were looking for? Some gate? Where does it go?"

"Another Realm. Unfortunately it's much more dangerous than I imagined, so we won't be going back through."

"How do we know you didn't just take the real treasure?" Kluug asked.

Instead of the customary elbow or dressing down, the other pirates nodded.

"You don't. Now, if the three of you don't mind, we should really be going."

Olivander opened a portal, but something was wrong. It stretched oddly at the edges, and after a moment, it shattered.

Olivander extended his senses and traced back the foreign intent to its source. A hidden fourth person. A person he was familiar with.

"Oh, ho, ho! What do we have here? Is that the legendary Arch-magus I spy?"

A man appeared, dropping some form of invisibility. He had a heavy sea-worn coat, and a patch over one eye. A huge black feather sticking out his wide hat completed his pirate ensemble. Next to him, a deep blue grimoire floating completed his Magus ensemble. Harvey Vebreu, the self-stylized Pirate Magus.

"Hello Harvey. Strange running into you here."

"I'll admit my curiosity was piqued when three of my men encountered someone so powerful. Then to come here and find you? What brings you out here, Olivander?"

Harvey descended to the ground and growled at his men. "Put those away you idiots. This man isn't afraid of your weapons."

Olivander turned his head and whispered to the group. "I have a feeling things are going to go oddly here…don't trust Harvey or any of his men, whatever happens."

He broke from the group and walked halfway to meet Harvey. They shook hands. The older pirate had rough worn hands that had spent real time working at sea. Olivander preferred to let his power do the heavy lifting, and his hands were soft, even with the sword practice he did.

"To be honest with you Harvey, I'm not sure where here is."

"Really? You're not still doing that thing where you open portals to random unknown locations, are you?"

"...of course not."

Harvey laughed. The man had gotten along with his father well. They were from the same rough generation of Magi, and it was no coincidence that they both had eye patches. Olivander knew not to trust him — his father had made that clear — but he had known and met the Magus several times. They would be cordial to one another.

"If you really don't know, I suppose it doesn't hurt to share. You're already here after all. We're about sixty miles due north of Emenicost."

Olivander had assumed they traveled farther, but that made sense. If whatever strange cult he was hunting down was based in the city-state then it would make sense that they sourced the materials from places that were relatively close. He couldn't share all that with Harvey, not knowing where the man's loyalties would lie, but he also couldn't hide the gate that was so very clearly right behind him.

Even if he wasn't the scholar that Olivander was, a Magus Harvey's age would recognize a gate when he saw one.

Deflection it was. "Did you know this gate was here?"

"Of course. It's an old one. Leads to a Realm without an official name. It's populated by giant monsters with flat heads and huge tentacles. They serve as the landmasses. You're relatively safe on their heads as long as you don't start cutting up the plant life, but we never explored much because they become aggressive when you try to travel between them, so I don't know what else is in there. The mana isn’t much good for anything either."

Harvey's gaze had drifted over to the gate, but it returned to Olivander. "You clearly activated it — very smoothly too, I didn't even notice — but what was it that you hoped to find inside. Why did you come here?"

With a failed deflection, Olivander moved onto a new tactic. A little honesty, and a little lie.

"I found a curious planar stone. I traced its origin to this gate. I came to see where it came from because I couldn't tell what sort of magic it contained."

Harvey chewed on that for a minute before responding. "Do you have the stone with you? I didn't know that Realm had any."

In a gesture of good faith, he presented the planar stone to Harvey. He wasn't afraid of Harvey exactly. The man would be an incredibly tough opponent, but the real problem was that he wouldn't be able to protect his friends if things got ugly.

Harvey took the stone and drew out a ritual. A specific identification ritual with a special link to Harvey's mind. Likely it was a way for him to recall information and make connections he wasn't consciously aware of. Olivander made note of the new ritual. His Ritual Mastery allowed him to learn any ritual he saw working basically instantly. It would already be copied into his grimoire.

"You traced it to this gate?"

"...Yes, is something wrong?"

"Something concerning, to say the least. This stone didn't come from that Realm. It's from a pure life based Realm, one I've seen. There's a gate down in dragon territory that leads to it. If it came out of this gate, that means someone used that Realm as an intermediary."

Olivander needed to sit on that idea before his mind wandered into a spiral of theories.

"No one could do that," he finally said.

"No one you know," Harvey said. "It's a big world, Olly."

Olivander heard Gregory snicker at the nickname.

The problem, Olivander knew, was that opening gates to other Realms, especially non-permanent gates, was wildly expensive. Someone would have needed more mana than they could contain in order to open up a gate to a whole new Realm inside this Realm of plants and giants. The solution he and many others used was to borrow power.

He did it nearly every day, pulling power through his grimoire to fuel many spells. Power from the Realm of Madness. A Realm that he couldn't connect to inside this mysterious other Realm.

"I need to talk this through with someone," he said.

Harvey nodded. "And I'm sure you will, but I'm not interested, so take it back to your precious council. Say hello to your mother for me, I haven't seen Muriel in far too long."

Olivander didn't bother explaining all the things that were wrong with everything the man just said.

"Now, let's talk trade," Harvey said, walking past Olivander.

Olivander shook his head clear of the competing thoughts and theories that were now threatening to overwhelm him.

"What trade?"

"The way I see it, I've given you two things. Don't think I didn't see you learn that ritual. I made that myself! That plus the information on the intermediary Realm, it does seem you owe me something in trade."

Olivander couldn't really argue with that. It was technically very rude of him to steal the Pirate Magus' custom rituals without asking first, so he probably owed the man.

"And what are you interested in?" Olivander asked, opening his dimensional space. "I have treasure, artwork, booze…talking hats? Oh, you have a hat."

Harvey turned his gaze on the rest of Olivander's group.

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"Have you taken new apprentices, Olivander? Amegnon left the nest and now you want to train a few more Magi? I'm a little surprised. Wait, what's that?"

Harvey walked up to Cooper and peered at his amulet.

Olivander knew he needed to nip this in the bud. He had forgotten about the clearly visible Eye of Madness around the dog's neck, as new as it was.

"Harvey, that Eye was given to Cooper by—"

"You play a dangerous game, Olivander. It doesn't matter where it came from. It's not safe as long as it can be plucked out of this amulet."

Olivander didn't entirely disagree. There had been a reason that he had been keeping the Eye safe. "Well I'm not letting you take it from him."

Harvey spun on him with a look of disgust.

“And what would I want with another Eye, hmm? Not going to replace the one I’m missing, that’s for damn sure. What I want is for this pup to be trained properly. So he doesn’t push himself past his limits and reach for a power he doesn’t understand and has no hope of controlling.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Let me train him, for a few months at least.”

Olivander gave that more consideration than he really should have. Harvey was a formidable man and had assisted with Olivander’s own training a few times. The man knew what he was doing. Cooper could do worse. Arguably he was doing worse right now. Olivander knew, for all the things he was better at than most people, training apprentices was certainly not on the list. The only reason Amegnon actually made it to Magus was his prodigious skill.

In the end, it needed to be Cooper’s decision.

“It’s up to him. He’s his own dog. If he refuses, we’ll have to work something else out. I won’t allow you to just take him.”

The pirates bristled at the words, and even Harvey cast a dark look in his direction.

“You may be Arch-magus—”

“Actually I’m not. Amegnon is Arch-magus now.”

Harvey just stared at him. “Why?”

“He wanted it badly enough to challenge me to a duel for the right of rule, and he won. Beyond that I don’t really know.”

“And now what, you think if you try for two this time they’ll end up being less shitty?”

Olivander didn’t bother trying to defend his former apprentice. That ship had sailed.

“I’m not trying to replace anyone, and why I have apprentices is none of your concern.”

“Well, I guess it isn’t then,” he turned back to the rest of Olivander’s group. “You there, dog. You got a name?”

“Cooper.”

“Telepathy?” he said to Olivander. “Good choice. Did he develop voiceless casting?”

Olivander hadn’t had any idea that developing the skill would be a foregone conclusion, but it hammered home that the man had more experience developing magicians than he did.

“He did. Canine Striker and Storm Magician, with a basic dog non-combat class.”

“A solid start. Maybe you do know what you’re doing after all.”

Olivander sighed. “No, it was a coincidence.”

Harvey grinned at Olivander. The man had known that. He just wanted Olivander to say it. It was like trying to argue with his mother. No wonder they got along so well.

Harvey turned back to Cooper. “What do you say, Cooper? If you come to train with me I can push you farther down your path than you’ll get if you stick with Olivander. It won’t be easy, but you’ll be better prepared for anything that comes your way.”

* * *

Cooper didn’t really want to go with the pirate, but he was intrigued. Olivander had basically professed that this man, Harvey, was a better teacher than he was. Besides, the life of a pirate sounded interesting. He felt like it was an opportunity, and he didn’t want to miss it.

There was only one problem.

“Can Gregory come too?” he asked.

He didn’t miss Olivander’s expression fall ever so slightly. He played things off with a careless facade, but he loved traveling with them. He would still have Gloria and Jeremy, but that certainly wasn’t the same.

“Who’s Gregory?” the pirate asked.

“I am.”

“Hmm, two apprentices. I don’t like it, but I could probably take you both.”

Gregory bent over and whispered to Cooper.

“You want to go with this guy? He doesn’t seem stable.”

Gregory just didn’t understand. He had always had a family and people he could rely on. Cooper had been growing those feelings with the group, but he wasn’t there yet. For him, the only one he had ever been able to rely on was himself. Well, and biscuit man, but Cooper had left him behind easily enough. He needed to grow.

“We were kidnapped a few days ago, Gregory. I need to get stronger. However I can. I want you to come with me, but if you’re not sure, I understand.”

Gregory glanced over to Olivander, and Cooper knew he wouldn’t be able to do it. Gregory wouldn’t be able to leave Olivander behind. It was one thing to let someone go who was ready and willing to leave, it was another to leave someone behind who needed that connection, because it seemed like it was all they had left.

Throughout this journey, Cooper had learned a lot about people, and about his companions in particular. They all had one thing in common — the need for support. It was just another thing to push him. If he left now, then the support he could lend in the future would be that much greater.

“I don’t know if I can…”

“I know. Try to keep up with me though.”

Gregory gave Cooper a grin, but it was bittersweet with the tears Cooper could see forming in his eyes.

Gregory bent down and hugged Cooper, and he rested his head on the big man’s shoulder.

Olivander walked up and crouched down.

“It seems you’ve made your choice. I know it’s not an easy one, but I applaud you for doing the things you think you need to do. It’s something of a personal failing of mine. Avoidance, that’s the way. Anyway…sorry, I know this is unlike me. I’ve never been good at sentimental goodbyes, even when I know they won’t be forever. Here.”

Olivander pulled an item from his dimensional space. A blue crystal.

“This is a heavy duty tracking stone. It only activates when broken. Use it when you’re ready to meet back up with us, or if you’re in danger. I’ll come get you.”

He tucked it into the dimensional pouch Cooper had started wearing.

“Thanks, Olivander.”

The man surprised him by joining Gregory’s hug. Fezzic and Sous piled on.

“This is disgusting,” Harvey said.

“Harvey, just because your missing eye outlived your heart, it doesn’t mean that the rest of us don’t have feelings,” Olivander said, straightening himself out. “Take care of my apprentice. I expect you to do great things.”

“You just worry about your own boy. What are they, Iron rank? Three months and I’ll have this dog knocking on Gold.”

“That’s quite the timeline.”

“I’ll admit, it would be impossible, but he has a huge advantage.”

“Ahh, the Eye.”

“That’s part of it. The other part is two low leveled uncommon classes and a non-combat class. He’ll fly through the ranks.”

Olivander shrugged. “Should we make a wager?”

Harvey grinned like a defenseless animal just wandered into his trap.

“Whoever has the highest leveled apprentice after three months wins?” he said. “What will you wager?”

“The terms are good. My dimensional space.”

Harvey’s eye practically popped out of his head.

“Now that’s a wager! Haha! Your mother will kill you if you lose.”

Olivander shrugged.

“For such a grand prize…a cloudship. I’m developing one right now, it should be ready for testing in a month and air worthy by the time our contest ends.”

“Harvey. Seriously? Do you know who you’re talking to?”

The pirate scowled.

“Ah, right. Damn portals…what to trade…Oh. Oh ho ho!”

Olivander raised a brow, interested.

“Your father’s grimoire.”

Olivander looked like he had been slapped. His face darkened.

“Is this a joke? It was destroyed.”

“You were on death’s door, Olivander. You didn’t see what happened to it. I found it after the battle. I’ve kept it safe.”

Olivander looked ready to call the entire thing off and strangle the man, but he allowed himself to calm down.

“Do you have it now?”

“Of course not. I would never keep something so valuable on my person. But I will agree to an oath, if that makes you feel better.”

“Very well, Harvey. I swear in three months' time,” Olivander said, drawing out the soul oath as he spoke, “if Cooper is a higher standardized level than Gregory, I will give you my dimensional space and the key to it.”

Harvey picked up to complete the oath. “I swear that if Gregory is a higher standardized level than Cooper at that time, I will forfeit your father’s grimoire to you.”

The ritual flashed, and Cooper could feel the power settle onto both men.

“Come on Gregory, no time to waste!”

“Shouldn’t I have gotten a say in all this?” Gregory said as he was pushed into a portal.

“I’d wish you luck Cooper, but I really want to win. Have fun? See you in three months.”

Olivander stepped through the portal and Fezzic followed, shaking his head.

“Good luck!” Sous said before zipping through the portal.

“Alright pup. Let’s get started.”