Alex’s hand flailed around his nightstand. The incessant tone managed to pull him from his sleep through sheer annoyance.

He found his phone and blindly pressed the screen until the noise stopped.

Thank god. Ugh.

“…llo…nyone there…”

Huh?

Alex sat up in his bed.

When he looked at his phone, realization dawned on him.

Fuck.

He cleared his throat and picked up his phone, which had an active call in progress. Rather than turning off his alarm, he’d answered a phone call. He wondered why she was calling so early.

“Hey Olivia, can you hear me?” Alex said. He tried to play off the delayed answer and rubbed at his tired eyes.

“Yeah, that was weird; I couldn’t hear you before.”

“Yeah, weird. What’s up?”

There was a pause on the other line. “Did you forget or something? We were going to meet up this morning.” She sounded slightly annoyed.

“Yea but that wasn’t supposed to be until 10, right?” Alex rubbed the back of his head.

Another long pause.

“Um, Alex, any clue what time it is right now?”

“Huh?” Alex felt like a kid in school.

What time is it?

He pulled his phone away from his face and looked at the small printed time at the top of the screen.

“10:15?” He read aloud.

“Yes, 10:15.” Olivia repeated, clearly getting more annoyed.

“Oh, shit. Olivia, I’m so sorry. Look, I can explain!”

“Oh, I’m all ears. Go ahead.”

Alex noted that her voice took on a slightly amused lilt.

“Okay something really kind of crazy happened last night. Have you seen Bonded Companion Tokens mentioned on the forums?”

“No, I tend to just focus on the magic material that I can.”

“Hmm, okay it might be easier to just show you. Can you come to my place? I’m only like 10 minutes from that restaurant address you sent.”

“Your place? Really?” She sounded very skeptical.

Alex rolled his eyes, “Look I’m not trying to be weird. But I feel like I really need to show you this so you understand why I overslept. There’s a small monster now living in my apartment.”

Yet another long pause. “Oh, what the hell, okay. Don’t try anything funny, we both know I can kick your ass.”

“Yes, yes. It wouldn’t even be a contest, really. I’ll text you the address.”

“Alright,” she said before hanging up.

Fuck.

Alex sent her a text with his address before looking at the state of his apartment. While he did often keep it very clean, things had been a bit hectic since he’d returned home from the latest Rift runs.

He jumped up and straightened things up. As he moved around the room, Val followed him. The mana wyrm showed a keen interest in whatever Alex was doing, occasionally becoming distracted by where it knew the Mana Stones were stored in his pack.

“Hey, hey, hey. Knock that off, you'll get more mana soon. Come on, let's go make some coffee.” He said to Val.

A short time later, Olivia arrived and knocked on his door. She entered and looked around. Again, Alex was struck by how pretty she was. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore an unzipped bomber jacket over a white t-shirt.

“This is a pretty nice place,” she said. Her light brown eyes finally settled on him, clearly waiting for an explanation.

Alex glanced around, surprised that Val wasn’t anywhere in sight. He knew that the little glutton wasn’t in his room, as he’d closed the door to prevent the loss of more Mana Stones. Alex felt the tug on his mind and realized that his companion was close to his back, as if hiding from Olivia.

“Uhh, one second.”

He turned and looked at where he felt Val should be.

There was nothing there.

“Wait, what?” He said to himself.

He moved his hand toward where he felt that his companion should be. As his hand got close, there was a smear of colors that moved upward, and as soon as it stopped, he felt Val’s movement stop.

Holy shit, are you invisible?

“Okay, now I’m just a little freaked out, just so you know,” Olivia said, tension clear in her voice.

“No, no.” Alex turned and held his hands up. “Shit, just look. Watch.”

He turned back to where Val was, a few inches above his shoulders. He moved his hand and there was another quick blur of colors as the wyrm dodged his hand.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“See! Did you see that?”

“What am I even supposed to be looking for?” Olivia asked. She squinted at him and took a step back toward the door.

“Ugh- Val, knock it off. Is this your illusion skill?”

“Illusion skill? Who are you talking to?” Olivia was beginning to look at him like he had lost it.

Alex saw her inching toward the door but continued to talk to Val. “I’ll give you a Mana Stone if you show her!” He called.

There was a pause and Olivia reached behind her for the door handle.

Just then, Val appeared floating above Alex. He made a calling noise in Alex’s mind before swimming through the air toward his closed bedroom door.

“Ha! See,” he said, turning back toward Olivia.

The naturally tanned girl had her mouth hanging open as she watched the beast fly-swim through the air.

Val bumped his head into the corner of the door before twisting his head to look at Alex with big, round eyes.

“Give me a second, let me grab a stone for him. Please, come in and sit. I swear I’m not crazy.” He laughed nervously and retrieved a stone for the mana wyrm before returning to the living room.

Olivia was sitting on the couch when Alex returned with the wyrm in tow. Alex couldn’t help but smile a bit as the wyrm sagged a bit in the air before making a struggled swimming motion to regain its height. It was as if the Mana Stone were causing Val to be overweight and require more effort to maintain its flying state.

Alex explained what had happened to Val, and as things became more clear, she relaxed. She got even more interested when he told her about his talent and skills. She went from interested to jealous when she learned that Alex would be able to use one of the bonded companion’s skills.

“That seems so strong!”

“I know! I haven’t made a decision yet, but I feel like there’s really only one choice for me.” Alex said sheepishly. He couldn’t go into more detail without telling her about his talent, and she didn’t pry.

Alex told her that several times through the night, Val had tried to get into his small stash of Mana Stones and that it was becoming increasingly clear that the wyrm ate Mana Stones instead of any food. After the second attempt, he’d abandoned any effort of sleeping and just moved the stones under his pillow while beginning to read through the ritual manual again.

She was happy that he’d followed her advice on pursuing rituals.

They spent the next hour going through the book, and Alex pointed out the places where he’d begun to notice patterns and consistencies in the shapes used in the basic rituals.

“See, and if you look here,” Alex said as he pointed to a ritual meant to make objects within the area lighter. “The circle is used in many of these contained rituals. I think the main shape decides how the mana flows in the ritual. These are the guesses that I’ve made so far.”

Alex stood and walked to his room to grab some of the sketches and notes that he’d made the night before. He returned and spread them out over the coffee table.

Olivia giggled as Val rubbed up against her side. “He’s kinda cute.”

“Cute? You’re the kind of person who thinks pugs are cute… aren’t you?”

“What! They are!” Olivia said defensively.

Alex snorted. “No, they’re not. I don’t think something can be so ugly that it becomes cute. Anyway, if Val is a he, then he’s a menace. Look, he’s only buttering you up because I bet that pocket is where you’ve got something containing mana. Either stones or an item.”

Olivia scoffed as she realized he was right and used a single finger to push Val further away. The small flying wyrm then drifted over to Alex and did a lap around his head before brushing against his shoulder.

Okay, maybe you are pretty cute.

Alex held out his hand and let Valtherion fly under his palm so that the ethereal top fin gently brushed against it. He smiled and gave his companion a pat on the head before returning to focus on the ritual theory.

“Here, look at this. The three main shapes seem to be circles, squares, and triangles are used in either. Circles look like they’re used in rituals that want to contain the mana flow to an area and allow it to flow to other parts or sub-shapes. Squares also contain the mana but rarely have anything connecting or branching from them. I’m guessing that they hold in mana but allow for less flow of mana. Triangles, on the other hand, are used to point the mana in a direction, I’m guessing, for the rituals that need a specific outlet.”

She looked over the drawings on the table. “Well, that makes sense. Mana does seem to work better for my skills when it’s moving; it would make sense that rituals circulate the mana really well. Why haven’t you started trying it yet?”

“Well, it seems like most of them have some sort of symmetry or balance to the ritual schematics. I haven’t quite found the pattern for that yet. I was going to see if you might put some fresh eyes on it.”

“Sure, show me what you mean by balance.”

The two continued to go over the ritual book and interact with Val. As they did, they avoided talking about each other’s skills in any detail. Alex was impressed with Olivia’s grasp of mana and its movement; with her help, they made real progress in understanding the ritual schematics.

Specifically when it came to mechanics like mana flow and the channeling of mana. Through her knowledge, they were able to pinpoint smaller components within the ritual that they began to call nodes. Just to make things easier to understand, rather than calling lines, shapes, they began to call them by the terms that were used in the manual. Lines that made up the shapes of a ritual were called pathways or conduits, depending on their purpose.

Nodes were theorized to influence the ritual in many ways depending on where they were placed within the flow of the conduit or the connections between different pathways.

To Alex, it was all a bit overwhelming, but he felt like the progress was leaps and bounds more than he’d expected to make. Olivia’s help was crucial, and Alex was thankful for her company and the help.

They’d begun to identify something that commonly appeared in most rituals, which was an ingredient or source of power that was sacrificed to the ritual to modify or adjust the raw effects. This could be anything from a generic category like “five herbs” or something more specific like “eye of newt.” These would be placed into key nodes within the ritual. The manual referred to the items that were consumed by the ritual as catalysts and they fueled the basic function of the ritual.

Some catalysts were things that Alex was sure didn’t exist on Earth, but for some of the more general ones, he was sure that he could use items that he had available. They decided it would be something else to tackle at a later date.

Olivia pointed out of his third-story window, and Alex realized how late it was getting. The sun had already begun to set, and he felt guilty for keeping her longer than they’d planned.

“Oh, sorry. Do you want me to order some food?” Alex offered.

“No, that’s alright. I should head out. I had fun, though; thanks for today.”

“I should be thanking you. I’m getting close to feeling comfortable putting one of these together.”

She laughed, “Don’t jump the gun. I can only imagine that the backlash from messing up a ritual is pretty harsh.”

“I won’t, I won’t. Thanks again for understanding about this morning, I’m sorry you were waiting.”

“Eh, don’t mention it.” She said as she walked to the door and put her jacket on.

Alex scratched the back of his head and shifted to his other foot.

Before he could say anything too awkward, she stepped in. “Hey, Elena is hosting another meet-up tomorrow. It’s a small group again, you want to come?”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” Alex smiled. “Hey, before you head out. Have you heard about Guild Members getting attacked in the city? I’m wondering if it’s dangerous to be a part of the Guild.”

Olivia shrugged. “I’ve heard some of it, but I feel like it’s bound to happen. People are suddenly much stronger than others, I feel like it’s human nature for people to try and capitalize on that.”

This troubled Alex further, and she must have seen it on his face.

“I mean, we’ve got to be realistic, right? Our government works mostly because we were equal and could vote and they hold a ton of power with the military. Now, with one high-level person being able to take on a military unit by themselves, the dynamic of power is bound to shift.”

“You don’t think the government will be able to get a handle on this? What about the Hunter Association?”

“Hunter Association? What a joke. Our government barely had a hand on things before monsters and magic started showing up. One large social issue and people would riot, or threaten to topple everything that was built.” Olivia’s face darkened, and it was clear the topic was a sensitive one.

The conversation ended awkwardly. Olivia was clearly unwilling to talk about this further, and they were already standing near the door.

They said goodbye, and Olivia headed down the nearby stairwell with her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets.