Arson sat within his soul space, staring at his core as it spun. He didn’t know why he couldn’t leave the depths of his soul, but didn’t mind as he basked in the light being projected from his power source.

He wasn’t lonely; the Orphan Mother visiting him often, and though the moment she left their conversations were forgotten, all was remembered on her return.

The young man had explored memories the entire time he was within the realm, accessing stars that seemed astronomically distant to comb through thoughts he’d felt he’d long let leave his mind as useless. Each star like a file to be accessed on a hard drive or Nexus stone.

His memories were never truly lost, nor would they be no matter how much time passed, but his mind still prioritized what was important to his current day to day life as any other person's did. Unlike any other person, however, Arson had the ability to refresh his faded past, pulling aspects of his life to the forefront, reliving scenes from days distant and gone in vivid detail. His every day cataloged like movies or holograms he could walk through and analyze, even able to notice details he at first didn’t perceive when living first hand through the moments.

It was as he entered a moment he’d lived through a few season cycles prior that Almarine entered his soul once more, and the flood of conversations had over the past few days between the two returned. Arson stood on the roof of the orphanage, looking at a younger version of himself, waving a giant flag of his own making as the Orphan Mother spoke.

“This is one of my favorite memories of you, especially now,” said Almarine. Arson glanced over his shoulder at the woman, and his brow furrowed.

“You're back, and yet again I find myself asking how and why you are here?”

“Can’t a woman check on her loved one without being questioned?” Almarine asked, stepping closer to the elder Arson as she looked around.

“Before you returned a moment ago, I believed that you had no intentions other than to check on me, but now that you are here, my mind seems to be more aware of matters my consciousness wouldn’t normally cling to,” responded Arson. Almarine chuckled and nodded, walking past Arson toward his younger self.

“I love this awakened version of you, boy. Not that I don’t love the version of you that lives outside the limits of your soul, but you are even more refined here than when you are awake and being affected by the speed of your own thoughts,” said Almarine, sitting at the edge of the roof, watching the groups of orphans that had once gathered to see the spectacle the younger Arson had put on the day of the memory he’d selected.

“I can see you for what you are here. You wear the guise of a woman that cares about me, but power is undeniably what pushes you to do anything, a trait you have given me, and for whatever unknown reasons, you need me to become strong, and the more I look at my memories, the more I can tell that you're not doing this for me,” Arson reasoned aloud, the clarity of his deduction capabilities within his soul unhindered by the sway of emotion.

“Yes, but that is for any of our bloodline. The Ikarus cannot live without connections, we are of the Fury that touches all life. We are the embodiment of potential and motivation. We are living drive and passion, and you, my boy, are without a doubt going to be one of the most influential forces I’ve seen within the realms below the heavens, I’d be an idiot not to ensure our bond thrives above all else,” admitted Almarine, the woman was literally incapable of lying within Arson’s soul realm.

It didn’t matter that the conversation wouldn’t be remembered, impressions of the truths learned would guide Arson for as long as he lived and breathed. His soul would push him toward legitimacy, accuracy, and validity. Even give him the urge to uncover secrets lost to time.

This was what it was to hold all aspects of the Ikarus bloodline, as only Almarine, her deceased son, Jade and now Arson had lived with the experience of living with the traits brought on by their ancestry since the race of ancient beings ascended. Within their blood were the secrets of the Origin of all that existed, within all realms, even those above the heavens.

“Why do I feel you only tell me these things as I will not remember them as soon as I wake,” Arson said, now watching his younger self screaming at the top of his lungs, still waving a handmade flag. The symbol of a sun masterfully stitched into the material the young boy had stolen to make what he felt to be his mark. A design worthy of an unrivaled tyrant. The emblem of a boy who felt he would one day become a god.

“Because you need to hear these things child, whether or not you remember the words, your soul will give you the instincts to be able to make use of what I tell you, and that is all that matters in the end,” Almarine said, looking over her shoulder at Arson.

“I see,” said Arson before he turned his gaze to meet Almarine’s own.

“Then tell me something, since it won’t matter anyway,” Arson requested, his entire being focused on one thing. The woman nodded for him to continue and Arson spoke without hesitation, worried that he could wake up any moment and lose his opportunity.

“If I’m so important to you, why did you let Jade adopt me? Why not keep me within your own tutelage, keep me close to you, rather than let someone step in and potentially form an even greater bond with me?”

Almarine smiled and Arson worried he wouldn’t like the response given after her rather devilish smile.

“Because, my boy, you aren’t the only member of my family that is valuable, your mother will be as powerful a tool as I need her to be when the time is right…”

…

Xani woke up with a massive headache. She also was struck by the sudden urge to eat massive amounts of food.

She sat up too quickly and knocked her head against the pod she’d been recuperating in. The hibernation pod was locked in a way that wouldn’t let her free until a full recovery was made. She looked around and noticed a small timer counting down on the glass of the pod with a header that read, Mandatory Recovery Time Remaining: Latch Engaged.

“What the sparks… is this a healing prison?”

“Who you telling, I woke up a while ago at this point,” came a voice beside Xani. She looked over to see Troy on her right side, pointing at a timer that held a far larger number than her own.

“Looks like I’ll be the first person out,” came a voice from her left, and Xani looked to see Khalif on her other side. His timer the lowest of the three she could see.

“Yo, are we being held captive right now…?”

“Yup…,” said Troy and Khalif at the same time. Xani’s eyebrows rose, and she immediately began to freak out, flailing about wildly. The young woman having an adult tantrum, heavily affected by enclosed spaces and angry about being forced to remain patient during the equivalent of a forced overnight stay in a hospital.

“Woah, calm down, or you're going to get hit with the same gas me and Khalif were already hit with,” said Troy.

“Naw, keep going girl, the gas is great,” said Khalif in a far more docile tone than Xani was used to hearing from the young man.

“Let me out of here!”

Both Troy and Khalif began to snicker and laugh, and gas began to fill Xani’s pod, mixing with the high levels of ambient mana being used to create the restorative environment within the pod.

“This isn’t funny at all,” roared Xani in frustration, punching and kicking the incredibly dense and transparent material Xani had assumed was glass until her empowered fists uselessly bounced off the interior of her pod.

“Ha, trust me girl, it will be shortly,” said Troy, still laughing until Xani began to cry, at which point Troy and Khalif began to laugh harder.

“When I get out of here I’m going to drop you both from incredibly high places and watch you splatter on the pavement,” said Xani, looking between both of the two laughing at her. Troy and Khalif went silent, until Xani too started to snicker at the baseless threat she’d made. The thought of her harming her friends becoming ridiculous in her mind as the gas being released took effect.

“Ha, I’m kidding, but… wait... no... I want you two dead, I think, or maybe I don’t. Who cares...? Is Rob cooking right now, I’m hungry,” said Xani suddenly overcome by the overwhelming need to eat. This inspired even more laughter and Xani couldn’t help but join.

“You're all idiots, and I can’t believe I was worried about you…” Jasmine suddenly came into view, shaking her head, before she rolled her eyes and exited the room.

“No wait, come back, please bring me food!”

After a while Khalif was released from his pod, then Troy, and finally a while later, Xani heard her own pod door hiss open with a release of pressure and powerful mana mixtures.

She quickly rose to her feet and was forced to lean back onto the pod as dizziness struck her. Xani left the room and roamed to go find her friends, but came to find that everyone was off doing various things throughout the Bronze.

Apparently Khalif and his team were guarding a convenient store. Troy was preparing for a prize fight she had later that night. While Jasmine was meeting with a huge client that she couldn’t afford to not take on, as the interaction would potentially come with additional benefits beyond the stellar amount of credits to be made.

“Well then, what am I supposed to do…?”

Xani shrugged to herself, realizing that she hadn’t been home in days, she decided to go and visit Almarine, hoping the woman wouldn’t be busy and would have time to speak with her.

A short time later, Xani found herself in the public office of the Orphan Mother of Maelstrom. Almarine was in her office standing over a massive hole, mumbling to herself. Xani approached, looking into the dark hole that seemed to lead into a deep catacomb below.

“What are you doing, Momma Almarine?” The woman didn’t even look toward Xani to respond, already knowing who had entered without the slightest glance in her direction.

“I have a long list of repairs to make throughout the entire orphanage, and I’ve always loved to craft and repair, but I don’t know if I should just fix this hole magically, or if I can afford to take the time to do this by hand,” said the woman still in deep contemplation as she spoke to Xani.

“What’s the difference? I’d assume you fixing anything by hand is no different than you using mana to do it, right?” It was at this questioning comment that Almarine looked away from the hole and toward Xani.

“Not at all, child, in one instance, I would need to mix concrete, cut down trees for lumber, all kinds of different tasks would be involved, all of which I find to be stress-relieving. My other choice comes with a waved hand, a concentration of various manas, and a missed opportunity to teach any of the orphans. Building is an interest of many of the young ones here, and if they just so happened to watch me fix the hole and learned how to do the operations necessary to complete the constructions, I’d be breaking no laws of education and compensation…”

Xani nodded at the long winded explanation, finding herself more interested in what the mana based operation would actually require than the hand-built process the Orphan Mother had subtly detailed. She knew that what was simple for Almarine to do magically, was probably far more advanced than she felt it to be with her vast runic knowledge, alongside her understanding of Uni-Vare.

Wave of a hand… ha, I wish…

Xani’s disbelief at what Almarine had described must have been written on her face, as the Orphan Mother turned to face her fully. Questions written all over the woman’s facial features.

“What, child, spit it out?” Xani looked toward the massive hole and then back toward Almarine before she finally decided to speak up, worried that the same limitations that stopped Almarine from outright teaching the orphans to build, would stop her from teaching Xani to understand what would recreate the floor in a flash.

“What if I would rather know how to wave my hand and fix something, rather than rebuild it brick by brick? How would you show me without breaking laws,” said Xani, feeling proud of herself for asking in a way that she believed may actually end with her receiving an answer, instead of being shut down entirely. The Orphan Mother harrumphed, and seemed to think for a moment before she spoke up, absolutely baffling Xani in an instant.

“You are already capable of such a feat, darling," said Almarine with a dismissive hand waved through the air. Xani’s brow furrowed and she crossed her arms. Her disbelief even more apparent.

“Don’t look at me like that, you have built spacial containers, and hooked them up to station tables, have you not?”

“Yeah but I don’t see what that—“

“So you are telling me, you have a restorative rune, and the system to determine what form the clothing you restore takes on, but haven’t thought to fill a spacial container with building materials, and use a targeting array to have the spatial runes restore broken objects from a distance? Wouldn’t that be rather simple for you at this point, darling,” Almarine said cutting Xani off. The woman’s simple description something Xani truly hadn’t thought about, but now that the idea had been presented, Xani went absolutely silent, her mind on fire with potential schematics being built for a device capable of exactly what Almarine had just described.

Xani indeed had station tables that could determine what form the restored clothing took on. The once dirty and ragged linens came out fresh and folded as if they’d just come off an assembly line and packaged for sale.

So why couldn’t she build a handheld box filled with building materials, link a computer chip filled with operations to scan and rebuild, using the same style runic system the station tables her bookish used to organize and fold clothing, to instead integrate with a database filled with architectural designs, blueprints for common items, and more.

This broad is a bloody genius.

Xani close her mouth, after she realized her jaw had dropped in amazement, before she ran out of the office without another word.

“You’re welcome, brat!”

Almarine looked around at the hole one more time, sighing before she rolled her eyes.

“Guess I need to go and cut down a bloody tree, and don’t I need seashells for the concrete… where am I even going to find those right now…?