The next morning when the sun was rising above the horizon a ray of light founds its way through Sam's room window, located next to his closet above his desk, and shined its way into Sam's eyes.
In response, Sam rolled over, buried his head under his comforter and tried to return to his dreams, and give on that notion a moment later. If there was one thing Sam didn't like about himself it was that once he woke up nothing short of a strong blow to the head good blow to the head could get him to sleep until at least twelve hours pass he couldn't even take a nap he hates how efficient his body was.
"What's worse," he thought "tonight was actually a good night sweet dreams and I feel completely at peace" groaning Sam threw off his comforter and got up, he walked over to his closet and pulled out a pair of combat jeans a black t-shirt with white lines that formed roses.
After he changed in the bathroom at the end of the hall and put the clothes he slept in back in his closet, Sam went downstairs to the kitchen to make breakfast, which he decided would be homemade waffles that were in the freezer. For a few moments, he considered if he should hear them up in the oven or the toaster,
In the end, he chose the toaster that would allow him to give them a little variety in their shade.
A good twenty-thirty minutes later all the waffles were done and stacked lighter one on the bottom and darker ones on the top. Placing the waffles tower on the kitchen table he grabs the maple giant syrup and butter then places them on either side of it.
Rooting through the cabinet he found the food stasis stones, he placed the stones at four points equal distance from each other and summoned a bit of mana to active them.
When the Mana entered one of the stones, the runes on the stone light up before a small beam of bluish-white light flew out the stone left to the next stone and that stone's runes to light up. Then that rune let out a beam of light that well you get it.
When all the stones were connected and powered up the beams started to rise to form a dome over the tower of waffles, when it was completed the color faded until the dome became mostly see through.
That done Sam went to the backyard to do some light morning exercise in the morning sun.
Stasis stones were a were another form of rune tech, one of the easiest and cheapest pieces relatively speaking. This was because to make them you just needed a strong enough stone to handle the force of the mana needed to create the stasis field.
There were many forms and uses of stasis fields, for example, the stasis stone that Sam used are for mostly temperature and a bit of time stasis. This kind was pretty simple to make especially for non-living things, living things were a different matter.
Putting living things in stasis was difficult because there at least a hundred things you had to take account of and that is for plants and if one thing was wrong what was in the field may not last half the time it would outside the field.
Some of the most common uses for stasis was long distance delivery services, long term storage units, and time dilation learning.
Time dilation learning came in two different forms with multiple mixes of the two, the forms were physical and mental.
There are very long and detailed explanations of how these stasis fields work but the simplest was putting the body in stasis and letting the mind experience for mental and putting the mind in stasis and letting the body experience for physical, Vague yes but accurate.
Mental time dilation learning was the more used of the two, mostly used In high end schools were they are used to give students days worth of learning in just a few hours, it was a moderately effective method it would be more so if it didn’t cost a tiny fortune every time it was used which was way they were early used by those who didn’t own a large and steady income. Physical time dilation learning was cheaper not by a lot but cheaper nonetheless for healing the body was easier than healing the mind
Mental time dilation had another use that was very popular around the world in prison, with the use of mental time dilation stasis fields criminal could serve their sentence in a short amount of time even if it was several years long, but this option was only offered to those who crimes were minor in terms of crimes, those who from the bottom of there heart regretted what they did, those who had no other choice and were desperate, or has good behavior and got their time reduced, (The last one was the most common the first was the least).
Sam reenters the house slightly sweaty, tired, and sore from his workout, “does this mean I am out of shape or out of practice,” he said to himself as he walked over to the kitchen to get some water, after grabbing a bottle from the fridge he walked up the stairs and into Tyrone room to find him asleep on the computer chair head on his desk that he set up last night.
“He must not have finished putting his set up together if he is sleeping in his chair like that” Sam sighed as he walked over to Tyrone and straightened back into his chair carefully as to not wake the boy. Then he grabbed a blanket off the bed and draped it over the younger teen before he made the chair recline to Tyrone's usual preference.
Exiting the room sam returned to his room and quietly as a ghost he put on some deodorant before he went back downstairs to eat some of the waffles he made with a bit of butter and a moderate amount of syrup.
When he was done he placed his plate in the sink, then entered the living room and sat on the living room couch turning the holo-t.v. first, he watched the news for a bit to see how things were going and the answer was mixed the situation the island was going in a positive direction but worldwide it seemed to be getting worse like it was spreading strange as it sounds that was a clear possibility in the world sam lived in.
When he was done with the news sam surfed the channels a bit before he decided on a game show about eating mysterious mesh and guessing what made the mesh, he watched this for about maybe two hours before Sophia dragged herself downstairs well at least Sam thought it was Sophia, her hair was a mess it looked like a rats nest after a twister hit it twice, it also appears that she didn’t remove her make up last night and that she was not a morning person at all.
“Good morning Sophia” he greeted her full of energy just to annoy her.
“Morning” she responded with negative energy and an annoyed tone, “do you have any coffee I can drink?”
“No we don’t keep coffee in the house not after my dad spent five days awake drinking nothing but coffee,” Sam said turning back to the show they had just entered the final round.
“That’s fine” she sounded kinda miserable so Sam took mercy on her and told her
“But we do have teas with caffeine in them, would that work”
“Yes, thank you” she sounded like he just saved her life, Sam had to push down the laugh that came with the thought.
Getting off the couch sam asked her “so what kind of tea would you like?”
“Any is fine, I don't have much experience with tea,” she said giving a dismissive wave
“Then how about chamomile, its what my father uses now,” he asked when he opened the tea cabinet.
“If that is what you recommend?” sam was unsure if the curiosity in her voice was about the tea on the show on the tv.
“Yes, that is what I recommend” he responded with light sarcasm while grabbed the tea leaves.
“Then ill shall have it dear host” threw the sarcasm right back.
“Then I'll have to ask you to be patient while I prepare” he threw it back while he filled the kettle with water, while the water was boiling the two of them continued to talk with a good layer of sarcasm in there words, they talk while the leaves were steeping but the sarcasm level went down as the topic became a bit more serious for they talked about what say saw on the news earlier.
When sam gave Sophia her tea she took a small sip then another before she asked a question “I been meaning to ask but what with that stack of waffles on the table”
“Oh, that’s breakfast” he answered
“You made waffles all those, How long have you been up?”Sophia asked both curious and surprised, Sam was confused why before he remembered what the waffle tower looked like to an outsider, that he spent hours hand-making waffles which meant he had been up to do.
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“Well it’s about 7 so I've been up around four hours I think and no I didn’t make all those waffles in that time there in the freezer”
“So they were store-bought,” the female said with hesitation
“No homemade just stored in the freezer” the hesitation was replaced by curiosity
“Okay so what kind are they”
At that sam paused “what flavor were they again,” then he told her “mystery”
“Mystery” the hesitation was back
“Don’t worry, there is nothing that will cause an allergic reaction, so there safe to eat but I can't say anything about the taste though?” he told her in a positive tone with a little mischief in the end
“Alright, ill keep that in mind,” Sophia said before she turned her focus to her tea.
Sam returned to the kitchen to make his own breakfast, grabbing three waffles from within the stasis field he placed them on a plate and then lightly drowned them in syrup, he also made himself a glass of milk to go with it.
When he was done with it all he put the dishes in the sink and rinsed them off so they would be easier to wash later. He returned to the coach to continue to watch another episode of the game show.
As for Sophia after she finished her tea she tries a piece of one of the waffles and must have decided that they were fine because she grabbed a few whole ones and put a little butter on each of them.
While she was eating, sam observed her out the corner of his eye, “well she has relaxed considerably in the short time that she has been in my house, to fast to make sense really she was sexually assaulted and she knows a bit about my past there is no way she should be this calm in my presence or trusting. its possible that just what kind of person she is but that is way to fast and I don't for a second think that she was the innocent type not with that bra she was wearing last night,” as sam thought more on his house guest and how strange her trust for him had risen the way it did he remembered what happened with Tyrone's luggage, that and how easily he gained Sophia's trust made his suspicion of the situation arise.
These two things may seem completely unrelated and they were, there was no real connection to them but in how they happened by something being skipped and this was vastly related to many kinds of illusion what kind sam didn't know but he would find out and how much of the world around him was an illusion as well, he knew more than one way but for now he was going to see who won this game show.
When Sophia was done eating she joined him on the couch, but nowhere near him. Time passed as they watched the game show and a few other in silence, around 10:30 sam got up off the couch and head back into the backyard.
The Vegal's backyard was pretty simple and large when you went through the backdoor to your left you would find the shed which held gardening, training, workout supplies, and a few other things.
The farthest ten feet from the door was Mrs.veagal’s garden, the garden contained mostly herbs with a dash of flowers and tea leaves. There were a few types of herbs in the garden medical, seasoning, and mystical. The flowers all fifty of them were from around the world and a gift from sam(he had called in a few favors to get them all), the herbs Mrs.vegal bought herself so she could start a garden when she and husband bought the house forty-something years ago. The herbs and tea leaves are grown in the garden were, when fully grown, dried in the shed to the right of the back door and then stored in mason jars around the house depending on their purpose and if there was extra it was sold at the island open-air market at the end of the week.
Sam walked near the center of the backyard so that he was far away from everything so he wouldn’t damage anything. Folding his legs under him the dark-haired teen folded his hands in his lap and closed his eyes. He slowed his breathing and relaxed so he could enter a semi-meditative state.
In this state sam felt for the mana in the world, he did this to confirm the type of illusion that was being used on him, when creating an illusion there were two main methods infusing and replicating. When you used the infusion method you did so that you could control the real world when you used replicating you did so that you could make a world to control. At first glance, it was impossible to tell them apart but if you could see the signs you could see the difference, one of the major signs was the mana it was ether apart of everything or was everything.
But it seems that those two methods were not in use as the mana appeared unchanged. sam opened his eyes and narrowed them as he realized what this meant, whatever illusion sam was in it was made using a method he didn’t know and that sent two shivers down his spin one of chilling fear, the other of burning excitement.
Sam went back inside and returned to watching the t.v., well he looked like he was in truth he was making a mental check of things of ways he could prepare for the invertible fight he was going to get into. He considered many things weapons, runes, clothes, environment, and his ability (this he considered very hard).
Sam spent the next few hours on the couch watching t.v. and making his checklist it was around noon that got he off the couch and went to his room to gather some supplies. After he closed and locked his door sam erased his presence completely, well as much as he could with how out of practice he was. Sam moved quietly and quickly around gather the thinks he needed, one of the knives from his collection, a plain-looking leather bracelet in the of his sock drawer, a woven green and blue wool and silver beads bracelet hidden in a sneaker, then he opened the loose floorboard under his bed grabbed a box that was no larger than a sponge, from a fake bottom drawer in his desk he grabbed a thin obsidian ring.
When had collected everything sam laid it out on his bed, and for a few minutes he did nothing but look at all the object as memories of the past washed over him the good, the bad, and the weird.
Pushing the memories down Sam took a deep breath before he slowly geared up, the leather bracelet went on his right wrist, the wool and bead on his left, the ring joined the leather bracelet on his right hand, the box went up his left pants and was strapped there, the knife went down the front of his pants.
When everything was in its place sam walked back and forth a bit to make sure that nothing in his pants moved or would be uncomfortable. After a few small adjustments, sam left his room and checking on Tyrone (who was still asleep) returned to the couch to be surprised that Sophia was surrounded by a group of women in tuxedos, this surprised him a lot for a couple of reasons. One only certain groups can move outside, two he didn’t hear the door opened and it was anything but quiet, three he set the houses security and the door wouldn’t open with his or his parent’s approval… wait, scratch that last one he forgot to do that. “So that's how they got in the house probably but that didn’t explain the other two things.
While sam walked over the door and set the house's security he tried to figure out how he didn’t hear the door squeak, the whole reason his parents let the door squeak was so that sam could hear it open and close they had sound amplification installed on the hinges and on the windows so they could be heard opening anywhere in the house (this was done so sam would feel safe in the house, this was the first of many things they did for that purpose and all of them put a lot of warmth in sam’s heart).
Sam couldn’t figure out how they did it, any method he could think was disproved rather quickly, the man reason was time as he was only upstairs for a little over five minutes, “it is by all reason impossible i can think of impossible” the moment he that crossed his mind sam froze “that's right it is impossible, in the real world” sam now knew what was happening and why he didn’t recognize it until now “my house has been pulled in to an illusion dimension or at least something similar, well fuck” the green-eyed teen swore.
An illusion dimension is a trap, a very powerful one that required a monsters amount of power to create and sustain for even a moment. That is why sam had only encountered one, years ago, it had belonged to a ghost of an old school principal who was a little under a thousand years old.
The principal was a nice man in life but his death changed everything about him, for he was killed by a prank from one of his students while the school was undergoing some repairs, no one the specifics but it ended with the principle dying trapped behind a concrete wall and it was painful. The death caused his soul to bind itself to the school, at first there was not much he could do but over the years things changed as not only did he grow more powerful but he saw many things going on in his school, horrible things from small bullying to straight-up assault of multiple forms, this causes rage to bloom in his heart, rage that only grew as time passed he tried many methods to help those who needed it, but it did little, and for almost one hundred years this continued before the principal's mind broke and his method changed. He started to trapping people in the school at first by sealing doors shut but luckily many people were able, then time passed he grew in power and his methods grew more complex fewer able to. After a year of trapping people, he learned he drain energy from the people he trapped and he grew stronger. Now i know what your thinking why was the school not just closed down two reasons one it was a reform school with a poor success rate and two they were only missing during the night during the day they attended their classes, so the principal's actions went unnoticed for years until sam arrived at the school for something he didn’t remember but it must have been something big in the eyes of the law but not in his, this put him at the top of the principles capture list.
And Within a week he did it not that sam made it easy for him even after he was captured as for several factors the principle could not bring him under his control like the others but sam couldn’t escape his grasp for the entire school was the doorway to an illusion dimension and sam had no clue where to find the exit much less open it.
So he spent almost a year in that dimension before he figured out how to escape using his ability at full power in the light of the moon he was able to tear space and escape into the real school where he found the principles real body, which he violently tore it apart and then burned with a special fire that left little ash.
Without his body gone there was nothing holding the principle to the school and this plane, without his soul to maintain the dimension collapsed and all those who were trapped were free, then many of them dropped dead in front the study body and faculty. After that the police were called the story was told, the school shut down, the students were sent home well those who had them, as for sam he skipped town hell he skipped the state.
Sam blinked away the memories as he returned to the present, he quickly finished up with setting the security to recognize his guest and that it was an island-wide emergency. With that done he turned to kitchen clock which was frozen at 4:58:45, fun fact about illusion dimensions certain clock types clocks didn’t work in them because time was mostly depended on the creator of the dimension, if the creator didn’t take account for the clock it would not work and would inform the traped that something was off.
Putting on a gentle smile sam greeted the new people in his house, only to get a cold and rude response from one of the women in suits with an apology from Sophia following it.
After he accepts Sophia's apology he asked the women if they would be having dinner with them, another one african women told him in a professional tone that the had bought their own dry rations. Sam spoke to Sophia about what he had in mind for lunch, at first he was planning to reheat the spaghetti from last night but destroying space takes a look of energy and if he fails he is going to need to eat something, something specific so he didn’t do anything he would regret because of the side effects of his ability the witching hour!