Jerome had only ever seen two memory crystals in his life—the one the Sovereign showed him and the one he picked up inside the chamber he just came from.

Spread out in front of him and filling the new chamber to the brim were floating memory crystals. Jerome stood stunned at the sight before him. Each crystal was grouped in sections and by color. Each section hovered in a portion of the air above ground making for a mind-numbing sight.

Is this supposed to be like a library or something? Jerome thought curiously.

“Yes, Xerae. I gathered the knowledge of the Fae using the means left behind by my creator, Ilyrrah. Together with the knowledge he left behind, I created this library.”

“Ilyrrah…sounds feminine,” Jerome responded.

He went to a section just a foot above the ground and picked up one of the stones.

“I suggest you check this one out first, Xerae.”

A crystal moved through the air from the side toward him and stopped in front of him, still hovering. Jerome took it and transmitted a smidgen of essence into it and then scanned it with his perception. The moment he did, Jerome was flooded with so much knowledge his muscles bunched up as a reaction to electrical impulses firing in his brain. He hit the floor and passed out from the pain.

Jerome groaned as he woke up a while later. “Why didn’t you warn me it’ll hurt!”

“Hmm. Pain is a part of life, Xerae.”

Jerome glared at no one in particular, “Some day, Guardian…do you even have a name?”

“Guardian is my name.”

Jerome sat up and closed his eyes to see what was transmitted to him. His eyes shot open a moment later and he laughed out loud.

“Just like that?” he asked.

“Just like that, Xerae,”

“I can’t believe I can speak faerie now—the language of the Fae,” he said and laughed some more.

“Well, you know it. But you still have to practice it. Especially the spells that came with it,” The Guardian said.

Jerome settled down and closed his eyes once again to start going through the language that had been imprinted in his mind.

Time flew by and six days later, Jerome opened his eyes. With a wide grin on his face, he stood up and stretched his muscles, feeling sour everywhere. He had made great progress in studying the language and history of the Fae. They were a powerful race and prided themselves in excellence above all else.

Jerome spoke a word in faerie and a blue flame appeared beside him. The flame was no ordinary flame; it carried within it, its own perception which was linked to Jerome. Just like the evolved Suzie, he didn’t need to control its every movement and it absorbed ambient essence to remain powered.

With a thought, the flame circled around him and then it moved to weave through the library of crystals hovering in the air. Jerome followed, tapping the crystals in his way with his index finger. The crystals—which the Fae called memory stones—were pushed out of the way but soon came back to their positions in the air as though attracted by some strange force.

I’d like to learn about scripts and arrays, Jerome said inwardly to The Guardian.

“Of course, Xerae,” The Guardian said inside his mind, “There are memory stones that deal with all of that here. Whatever you wish to learn is accessible.”

“Access,” Jerome muttered. That’s the one thing he never had in Vorthe. Access to knowledge was just as important as knowledge if not more important.

The little flame stopped at the end of the chamber a while later and Jerome walked up to it. Looking back he observed that the chamber was a lot wider than the others he’d been in. It made sense since it was a library.

The wall where the little ball of flame stopped had an array on it. Jerome examined it for a while, taking note of the scripts and runes that made up its network. He now had a general idea of how arrays were made. He just had to learn and he had time on his side.

Placing his hand at the center of the array, he transmitted a little essence into it and the array lit up with golden light. A moment later, the light flashed brightly taking Jerome away from the chamber.

Jerome appeared in the chamber where he left Csala’s body. He searched through his ring and a robe materialized in his hand. Jerome threw the robe at her while muttering a spell, and the robe flew through the air, wrapping around her the next moment.

He chuckled, “You’re gonna hate what I’m about to do to you.”

~~~

Csala was sitting on the divan Jerome had conjured into being when Jerome had last been to his mental plane. She had been making lots of plans on how to escape her imprisonment. Every one of her plans failed woefully though. This place was an impregnable fortress. There was no going out without the owner's permission.

“What have you been up to?” Jerome asked the moment he appeared next to her.

Csala quickly rose to her feet, “Nothing, nothing at all,”

She was a far cry from the proud and beautiful succubus she used to be.

Jerome scrutinized her for a long time without blinking. Csala’s fear was palpable. She made sure not to look into his eyes for she knew not what other punishment he would think up.

“Would you like to leave this place?” he finally asked.

“Huh?” Csala thought she heard wrong. She had thought Jerome had abandoned her here. He hadn’t even reminded her of the faerie he wanted to learn.

“I don’t like repeating myself.”

Csala looked Jerome over from head to toe. There was something different about him but she couldn’t quite place it.

“Yes. I would love to leave,” she answered while bobbing her head continuously.

“Good, but you’ll have to do something for me first.”

The next moment Csala lost control of herself as she glided toward Jerome unable to control her own avatar.

Whatever this kid wanted to do, Csala knew it was going to be bad for her. Nothing had ever gone her way since he entered the mountain. She stopped right in front of Jerome, and he looked straight into her eyes. Without a word, Jerome lowered his head and kissed her.

Csala struggled. She tried lifting her hands to push him away but her limbs were dead beside her and her body refused to obey her. The next moment, her mind screamed warning bells at her. Her psychic energy began growing weaker and weaker. Jerome was siphoning her psychic energy at an unimaginable rate. If this continued, she would be turned into a vegetable.

Csala tried to struggle again but there was nothing she could do but wait for her doom. Her fate had already been decided.

Why is this happening to me? she thought. If I had just let this bastard out, I wouldn’t be in this predicament, she cried in her heart.

After a while, Jerome stopped siphoning her psychic energy and left the mental plane with Csala in tow.

~~~

Jerome spread out his perception and it stretched out for a mile and a half. His smile was brilliant on his face as he split his concentration into two. This was something he had learned while learning faerie.

Beside him, Csala was waking up. She hadn’t used her body in a long time, so she was weak and unstable as she stood up. Jerome didn’t pay any attention to her. He just stood there as he scanned the mountain with his newly empowered perception so he could get used to it.

“Why?” she said, almost bursting into tears.

Jerome took a while before he answered her. “Would you have stood by and watched me leave? No, you’d have tied me down and abused me all you want. Shouldn’t I protect myself against an abuser?”

The way he said ‘abuser’ made her cringe back in irritation. She was not an abuser, she was a woman who turned men’s dreams into reality.

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“I’m not an abuser,” She said through gritted teeth.

“And I’m not ready to argue with you, Csala,” Jerome said, his voice carrying a tone of finality in it.

Csala wasn’t moved though. She was centuries older than him and she could spank him anytime she pleased, perhaps. But there was hesitation in her eyes as she gazed at him. Jerome had his back to her, yet she did not dare to attack else something really bad happened to her. Her senses screamed at her to run away.

Csala gulped and the sound carried throughout the chamber. She had only spent a few days in his mental plane, but it felt like years. She didn’t want to go back there.

“You may leave,” Jerome commanded. Csala stayed still for a while but finally moved. She bumped into him hard on her way out earning herself a chuckle from Jerome.

“We’re being childish now, hmm? Don’t go too far,” Jerome called to her. Csala turned to glare at him but she couldn’t meet his eyes. Something was definitely different about him.

Jerome walked up to a wall in the chamber after Csala left and placed his hand on it. The portal array lit up on it and he vanished into thin air and appeared in the library deep in the depths of the mountain.

“Ready for your next lesson, Xerae?” A memory stone pushed out of its section and came to hover in front of Jerome.

“Sure, Guardian. I do wanna give you a befitting name though. How about…Achilles?”

“A humbling name, Xerae. I wouldn’t mind being your Achilles heel,” The Guardian’s voice resounded in Jerome’s mind with a hint of mockery.

Jerome scoffed. Damned mind-reading AI, “I’ve been meaning to ask. Are you inside me, or in this…what’s the mountain called?”

“I am everywhere, Xerae,” The Guardian said, “And I can hear your thoughts loud and clear,” Jerome flinched at that.

“It is by the will of my creator that I run this mountain—Sanctum, it is called. And it is the engine that shuffles the aliens from your world around Terra Praeta.”

“Interesting. So Terra Praeta isn’t what’s shuffling us around,” Jerome said as he sat down cross-legged. The memory stone in front of him also lowered itself to his eye level. He had gotten used to The Guardian looking down on everything and everyone that was not fae or of the fae. At least he doesn’t call me ‘human’ anymore.

“Hm-hm. True, I don’t call you human anymore. But do try your best to hide your thoughts from me. It is good practice. Sanctum’s what’s doing the shuffling, though. Ready?”

Jerome chuckled at that. He had tried to hide his thoughts deep inside his consciousness but The Guardian still got wind of them. Perhaps someday…

“Perhaps,” The Guardian said.

Bracing himself, he took the stone hovering in front of him and poured his essence into it. This time, Jerome was prepared. He scanned the stone with his eyes closed, smiling as myriads of information were imprinted into his memory.

~~~

Forester and his team had been searching for a particular mountain ever since they found daylight. He had split them into two teams to search in different directions.

They had spent days and nights searching but were unable to find it. Every morning when they woke up, they had to track down themselves again and start their search from scratch. It was painful repetitive work, but it was necessary. After searching for over three cycles, the repetitiveness of their search became second nature, though boring it still was.

On one faithful day, one of the scouts reported seeing a mountain far in the distance. He had described it as impossibly huge and covering half the world. The sun was setting at the time of the report, so they had a general direction. Everyone cleared their camp as quickly as possible and started a long marathon flight that may last many cycles.

They had been attacked by lots of magic beasts since they stepped foot in Terra Praeta, but magic beasts were things they were used to.

Team Alvric had also spotted the mountain from afar. Hedon gathered the remnants of his team and prepared to make the long journey South, toward the mountain. He hoped to find his grandfather's treasure there, or even along the way.

His team had found a few treasures along the way, treasures that could potentially make his clan more powerful, or wealthier. Their elders would know what best to do with the treasures.

Team Itakar had been scouring through the mountain range in the north of Terra Praeta. They found many temples and caves left behind by the ancient Ice Fae, retrieving lost artifacts, resources, and secrets that had long been lost to civilization.

Selene was overjoyed by their find. Perhaps there was something in there that would help her father stabilize his powers in the Saint Realm, she hoped.

Team Fei had been flying North for many cycles now. They seemed to have their eyes set on something deep in the far North, farther North than the mountain range where team Itakar was adventuring. They stopped from time to time to rest and also found some treasures, but continued northward without spending much time resting.

Jerome opened his eyes and glowing runes shone in them, making his eyes look like tiny suns. He’d been spying on the Scions of the Great Houses for some time now. He had a very good idea of where Team Fei was going. Perhaps he should take Csala there too.

“Do you think they can make it here…the Alvrics and the Royal Sprouts?” he asked.

Achilles, The Guardian, snorted, “They wouldn’t know what hit them when they find themselves somewhere else. It will be fun to watch. No one can come near Sanctum. You got here because mother nature chose you.” There was mirth in his voice.

“And Csala?” Jerome asked, his voice quite serious.

“Same reason,” Achilles said, toning down the levity in his voice. “I know what you want to ask but I don’t have all the answers. Mother nature's ways are profound and mysterious.”

Jerome scoffed. “Some AI you are,” he said.

“The Royals already know what’s here to be claimed,” Achilles said. “The Alvrics have no idea. There is a treasure in here, Xerae. An artifact that could change the balance of power in your world.”

Jerome’s eyes widened at the realization of Achilles’ words. He held his breath and waited for the AI to finish.

“That artifact was used to stop the rampage of the ancient Fae. I know the myths spread everywhere about the fall of the Fae, and I tell you, they are far from the truth.

“In time you would learn of these truths and even be powerful enough to wield the weapon but for now, you need practice.”

“I guess there is still much about the Fae I don’t know,” Jerome said.

“Too much to learn in a few days,” Achilles added.

Jerome cleared his throat and stood up from the floor to stretch. He did a little yoga to help his muscles and got ready for work.

“So I need to craft tools and I need to build an oscillator for my clock,” Jerome said

“Let’s call it a timekeeper shall we, Xerae? I too wish to see this time…clock thing. Timekeeper sounds better. Though I do not see the use of it.”

Jerome chuckled as he walked slowly toward the wall with the portal array. He had a good grasp of how to use it better now.

“The Fae kept time differently when they ruled Terra Praeta,” Achilles said. “They get these water sprites for their children…called them riverseeds—tiny little creatures that were born in rivers.

“These sprites carried their own atmosphere with them—an atmosphere of water. The consistency of their breathing through specialized gills created tiny vibrations around their watery atmosphere which the fae used to measure time.

“Of course, all this was possible only for an infant riverseeds.”

“Why is that?” Jerome asked.

“It is said that the riverseed sees the world through a different lens than other species do; like they watch everything from an outsider's perspective. Nothing phases them when they are young; they have no concept of danger or fear.

“The more they mature, however, the more they understand the danger of the world around them, and that some things could hurt them, giving rise to spikes in their heart rates and inconsistencies in their breathing.

“Ironically, riverseeds were gifts for fae children. As the fae children grew up, they grew apart from their pet riverseeds. They were just timekeepers after all.

“Time was kept quite like it was in your former world. Except that a full rotation of Terra Praeta is forty-eight hours, not twenty-four—twice as much as your previous world.

“Damn! That…would have been a wonderful story, but I guess the fae ruined it by separating children from lovely pets,” Jerome said. “And the adult fae. Didn’t they need to tell time?”

He fingered a cluster of memory stones hovering in his way and turned back to watch as they floated back to their original position.

“Their minds were more developed,” Achilles said, “Which helped them to track the movement of the planet around the sun and other heavenly bodies in space. Hence, they didn’t usually get lost…usually. And they could keep track of time very precisely if I might add.”

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Jerome chided the AI. Achilles had said that last part with a bit more reverence.

“What?”

“The apple doth fall very near the tree,” Jerome said with a snort.

“I believe you got that wrong, Xerae.”

“Well, just goes to show that reading my mind won’t make you know everything I know,” Jerome said with a smile.

“Oscillators can be used for many things not just in timekeepers, well majorly keeping time,” Jerome quickly said before Achilles threw a rebuttal at him.

“They work on the principles of oscillation: a periodic fluctuation between two things based on changes in energy. Meaning they could help to calculate speed in relation to time. I’m guessing you can see how useful such a thing will be.”

“I find you more and more interesting, Xerae,” Achilles responded, respect dripping from his voice.

Jerome chuckled. That was all the praise he’d get from the arrogant AI. He was close to the wall now.

“I think my people copied the Fae in many things,”

“Hmm. I think so too…like the memory crystals,”

Jerome placed his hand on the wall preparing to portal himself to another room.

“You should do it without the wall, Xerae,”

Jerome paused for a moment and exhaled loudly. I can do this, he thought.

He took his hand off the wall and stood there with his eyes closed. The portal array lit up on the ground with him at the center and he disappeared in a flash.

“That took a lot out of me,” he said breathlessly when he appeared in another chamber.

“Think of it as a muscle you must strengthen, Xerae. It gets better with time.”

The new chamber was filled with different tools on shelves, many of which were new and recognizable.

“Did you do this, Achilles?”

“Of course. It’s better than starting everything from scratch.”

Jerome looked carefully around again and smiled. The place could be called a standard laboratory. The walls were white instead of the usual dark blue and the runes on them shone brighter than all the rooms he’d been in. He walked up to a broad off-white island table on one side of the chamber. He felt that the table was carved from one piece of rock as he ran his index finger across the surface. A golden line of light appeared wherever his finger passed through, making for a beautiful display.

“The light can be used as a form of measurement,” Achilles said. “And also to keep track of progress. The Fae used it to teach their children to practice architecture and tactics for battle when they came of age.”

A memory surfaced in Jerome’s mind and he chuckled. “Lightspire ore…refined and stained.”

“Correct, Xerae.”

“Formed five thousand feet below sea level in the ulnar sea,” Jerome said.

"Correct again, Xerae," Achilles praised.

“Well, it’s time to get to work now,” Jerome said and closed his eyes. He muttered under his breath and tapped the air in front of him.

“I’ll take it from here, Xerae,” Achilles said and a virtual map made from golden lines of light spread out in front of Jerome.

They were going to track down all the quartz crystals they could find around Sanctum.