Alex took a deep breath while he sat with his back against the brick wall. It wasn’t a normal spot for him to sit, but with his back to the far apartment wall, sitting under the window, he was next to the tree and could see the entire open living area and kitchen.
After all of the tension and fight-or-flight moments he had in the last two months during the Celestial War Rift, that moment made it all feel worth it. He looked to the left, just past the sparsely decorated tree, and saw ‘Fireplace and Christmas Jazz’ playing on the smart TV.
In front of the TV, Olivia lay on the ground with her head near his outstretched legs. She had spent the morning with Liam and his grandparents before coming over to relax and spend Christmas brunch and afternoon with him. Her dark hair spread out on the carpet as she looked up at her phone, scrolling through the AG forums. On the other side of the coffee table, Mark lay stretched out on the couch, also flipping through his phone, though he was surfing social media.
The smell of cookies filled the apartment as Sarah and Sam worked together in the kitchen area to bake several different kinds of cookies. The shy teenager seemed to open up easily to Sarah, which didn’t really surprise Alex. He’d want to ask her some questions later on what she thought of the boy’s state of mind since she had a tendency to analyze the people around her all the time.
Alex was excited to give his friends their gifts, but they had all wanted to hold off for a bit and just enjoy the morning.
This is how Christmas should feel. It’s so relaxing. Nothing needs to be done or a goal that has to be achieved.
“WOW! I hate this guy!” Mark complained, his volume much louder than necessary.
From a few feet behind the couch, Sam jumped involuntarily and glared at the couch. Val, sensing Sam’s frustration, took the opportunity to fly up the high ceiling over the unsuspecting Polish man. Alex smiled as he saw his companion do one loop before divebombing into a headbutt, catching the unsuspecting Mark on the forehead.
“Ow!” he cried. The impact startled him and caused him to drop his phone, which also landed on his face.
The group laughed, including Mark, who grumbled after the blue creature as it flew back over to Sam for a reward. Sam handed him a cookie, and Valtherion happily said, “Oreo!” so that everyone could hear.
“Hey, he’s getting better! That didn’t sound nearly as creepy as before.”
“Val, that’s not an Oreo. It’s a gingerbread cookie.” Olivia called.
“You little blue turd! Just because my Constitution is high doesn’t mean you can just keep headbutting me.” Mark rubbed his forehead, and the group laughed again.
Mark tossed his phone to Alex, and he saw what his friend had been complaining about before. Alex rolled his eyes but was curious about the most recently posted picture.
“What is it?” Olivia asked, scooting back next to Alex and leaning in.
He smiled nervously and did his best not to move.
Wow, she smells like vanilla.
“Ugh, him. Yep, hate him.”
Alex looked back at the most recent picture Rylan Voss had posted on his social media. While he didn’t really feel all that much animosity toward the guy, he could understand the sentiment. Rylan was a beacon for everything that Alex wanted to avoid becoming as he gained power.
He zoomed in on the picture to take a closer look at Rylan’s hand which was draped across a woman’s shoulder in the picture. He wore the two rings that he’d noted at the event several days before.
They were definitely enchanted.
Wondering if he could see any runes on the rings, he continued to zoom in, but due to the pixelation, it was hard to make out all of the details. The most central logo that was prominent on both rings was an embossed sun emblem. Both rings were yellow gold and stood out as wealthy, but the logos were the same on each ring.
Maybe it’s a maker’s mark?
“Ah!” Sarah called out in surprise from the kitchen. She hissed and took a step back from the oven after dropping the last batch of cookies onto the countertop.
Sam stepped forward and grabbed her hand. There was a moment when she resisted, but his grip was firm enough that he held on. He reached up with his other hand, and Alex saw his hand glow green through his mana vision.
Alex unconsciously reached up and brushed his fingertips across his face, feeling the weirdly smooth area of skin. Alex had stopped wearing the illusionary mask around this small group of friends. It felt better for him to be able to see the flow of mana, and when he covered his eye with the mask and mana-blocking patch, he felt like he was missing more than just the normal vision in his left eye. He knew the mask wasn’t perfect, which was clear from his reunion home with friends. But strangers and most people in public couldn’t tell at all that there was a mask on his face. The lack of emotion and facial response was odd, but unless they knew the real Alex, it likely just looked like he was bored or tired.
For now, it makes me feel a bit better to fit in and not be looked at like a weirdo.
He still did double-takes as he walked past mirrors or other reflective surfaces in private. The Heavenly Eye and scar stood out more than he might have thought before.
Olivia bumped her shoulder into his, causing him to look over at her.
“Does it hurt?”
Alex shook his head and noted how close she was.
“I think it looks pretty hot.” She said casually and looked off in a random direction.
Alex felt butterflies in his stomach.
The moment was ruined by her phone chiming. She reached over and grabbed it from where she was on the floor and opened a notification from the Guild. Sam and Sarah entered the sitting area with the trays of cookies. Sarah kicked Mark’s feet off of the couch to make room for them, and everyone but Olivia dove into the gingerbread and sugar cookies.
“Man, the space feels pretty small when we have everyone in here.”
“Mhmphf-mmhm,” Mark said through a mouth full of cookies.
Sarah gave him a glare and Sam watched quietly while taking a small bite out of a gingerbread man’s head.
“I wonder if I should get a bigger place? It’s probably about time I look at buying a house, and the cash from Elana is going to be more than enough for something I’d like.” Alex thought out loud.
Mark swallowed quickly and nodded before his mouth was even clear. “Yes! Seriously, how cool would that be? A big community house and we can just hang out whenever we want. It’d be like... the complete opposite of working under Mr. Henderson. Man, that guy probably had a heart attack after both of us bailed like that.”
Alex chuckled. “Yeah, I still feel a bit bad for leaving without much notice. But screw that guy, I was a bit busy running for my life. Anyway, I’m sure that after the government announcement a few days ago, a lot of things are about the get shaken up.”
Sarah slapped Mark’s arm and began to lecture him on attempting to spend Alex’s money.
While Alex appreciated her assist, he actually wanted to give the idea some more consideration. While living together seemed like it might be a lot to handle, all of their lives were about to change. Adventuring, jumping in Rifts, fighting monsters, it would make him feel a lot better to at least be near his friends each evening, even if they did all go to different teams.
Nah, who am I kidding? We’ve got a dream team in the making right here. I guess that’s just more of a reason to get a huge house and share it…
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Sarah turned and asked Alex what was next.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we’re all sort of in this together now, right? What happens now that you’re back from the dead and apparently super strong?”
“There is some training I’ve been wanting to do-”
The typically quiet Sam groaned loudly causing all eyes to turn to him. He covered his face as he realized everyone was looking and flopped back on the couch.
“Ha! Sounds like Sam isn’t a fan of training some more.”
Alex grinned sheepishly. “Well, there’s a lot left to do. I want to help teach you guys what I learned and, at the very least, explain structured and unstructured magic. Also, Eura gave me some Advanced Ritual Manuals that I want to study. I need to look into what I can do with my reward item. I’d really like to buy some manuals on enchanting, even though they're expensive. I’m tempted to see if I could use them in the rituals somehow. I still need to keep up with at least some of my sword training and physical training. I could-”
This time, Mark groaned loudly and imitated Sam by flopping back on the couch. “Are you sure you’re the same Alex I’ve known for ten years? The guy I know would never just want to jump into even more work.”
“Well, not unless he’s trying to distract himself from something else.” Sarah chimed in.
“Both of you, knock it off,” Alex said while laughing.
“Speaking of your sword training, I think we should spar soon! After hearing how intense that training was, I’m sure you’d at least have a small chance of beating me now, right?”
Alex laughed a bit harder.
Olivia looked offended before turning to Sam, “Come on, Sam. You’ve got my back. Who wins in a fight? Me or Twinkle Toes over here?”
“Twinkle Toes?” Alex stopped laughing and sat back up.
Sam shook his head and pointed at Alex, causing Olivia to fake pout.
The conversation continued with friendly banter, and Mark got up to do some dishes while Olivia went to the restroom. Alex got up to mess with some decorations on the tree when he heard Sarah say something from the couch.
“Do you think we could really do some of this Rift stuff together? I mean, three of you are with the Guild now, and I’m working for the Hunter’s Association. We’re not exactly enemies or anything, but the groups aren’t friendly either.”
“If I were you,” Olivia said, walking back into the living room. “I’d get out while I still can. The government is bound to screw something up with the Rifts, probably focusing on profits, and it will be innocent people who get hurt for their greed.”
Sarah seemed to bristle. “What are you even saying? You get that you guys are literally working for what’s equivalent to a superpower vigilante-led organization? And since when have private organizations not been focused on profits and personal gain?”
“Okay, okay, you two. Cut it out, it’s Christmas! No arguing on Christmas!”
Both girls looked to Alex and he shrugged at them with a smile.
“Those are the rules!” He shrugged again before turning back to the tree to avoid their gazes.
Olivia’s phone chimed again. This time, she spoke up and said that some of the Moderators had been talking all week and decided to host something last minute at the Voss Estate for New Year's Eve. She paused and kept reading before saying that the invitation mentioned a tournament-style event for attendees to watch and that if it wasn’t possible to attend, they would be streaming the tournament directly to the AG app.
She read further while everyone listened, and at the end, she groaned and closed her eyes. “Want to guess who sent out the invitations?”
“Elena? She set up the other one, right?”
“Nope.”
“Rylan?”
She nodded. “Who wants to place bets?” Olivia pointed at Alex. "That he gets an invitation as a fighter.”
“Is that weird?” Mark asked.
“Not really, but he still shows up as a Level 5 in the Guild Systems.”
“How would they even make a tournament fair? Aren’t people’s levels all over the place? Even at the same level, it would be crazy for me to try and fight Mark.” Sarah said.
Mark flexed and pretended to kiss his biceps, causing Sam to laugh.
“I’m not sure. At the least, they’d have to make two different brackets for people under level ten and those over it, so classes don’t give an unfair advantage. Even if it’s just people with classes, I bet he gets an invitation to fight.”
“Hey! He’s right here, you know?” Alex waved to the group.
“But why? Just because Alex wasn’t scared of him the other night?”
“Oh yeah. He’s got one of those tiny male egos and would for sure feel slighted by something like what Twinkle T- Hey!”
Olivia jumped as a solidified mana thread poked her side. “Don’t try to be sly. You know we can all see it when it’s physical, right? I can follow that glowing blue line right back to your finger.”
Alex just continued to be very interested in the windowsill while whistling.
I knew keeping a small pouch of ground-up Mana Stone dust on me was a good idea. Mwahaha.
The group laughed again and kept talking about the potential tournament and that it was painfully obvious what Rylan was doing since it was on such short notice. When the conversation tapered off, Alex announced that it was time for gifts.
Alex wanted to save his for last as they all felt a bit more personal than a normal gift. He knew that some of them were expensive and didn’t want to make things awkward, almost deciding to wait and give each gift one-on-one.
Olivia gave Alex an old mechanical pocket watch, saying that she’d heard him complain several times about keeping track of time in Rifts since he’d gotten home.
Mark got Sarah a gift card to her favorite music store, saying that he hadn’t heard her play in a while, even though she loved to do so.
Even though he was new to the group, everyone pitched in to buy Sam some clothes and a cell phone. When Alex had suggested it, Sarah had tried to convince him all over again to speak with him about his parents and his home.
He said he wasn’t going to keep pushing the teenager to go somewhere he didn’t want to.
Sarah had pointed out the potential consequences and the fact that the local law enforcement might come looking for the young man. Alex found himself unable to care about potential consequences like that. He knew Sam and knew that the boy was happy and safe for now, and it was extremely unlikely that the government or local law enforcement had the spare manpower to search for every missing person's report to come across their desk with the national state.
His main concern and source of guilt in the entire situation was that he wanted to at least try and find Sam’s parents to let them know that he was alive. Still… until he got the full story, Alex felt like red flags were going off.
He told Sarah that the only time he’d seen Sam shut down to the state he was when they’d first met was when Alex talked about taking him home. After that conversation, Sarah hadn’t brought it up again, but Alex noticed her watching the boy more closely, no doubt picking up on all of his subtle body language.
Dark magic. I swear. Sarah had dark magic before the System even came to Earth.
Lastly Alex went to his room and pulled out his gifts for each friend. All four of the gifts were wrapped in identical boxes the size of a tissue box. He lined them up in front of each person based on color. Dark blue in front of Mark, orange in front of Sarah, green in front of Sam, and a deep purple in front of Olivia.
“Go ahead, no specific order.”
Everyone opened their boxes and was confused as each of them removed an empty leather bag the size of a paper lunch sack.
“What?” Sarah asked
Sam smiled and immediately reached into his.
Marks eyes went wide, “NOOOO WAY. No way. You had more of them?!” Mark stood up and jumped while opening the bag and to look inside. He laughed maniacally. “Dude this is awesome! Thank you!”
“It’s a spatial bag?” Olivia asked, surprised.
Alex nodded, but Mark interrupted.
“No! It’s a…”
“Don’t say it.”
“Bag of Holding!” He hoisted it over his head and made a horrible imitation of the Zelda tune that played when looting a chest.
Alex face palmed and shook his head.
God, help us all.
“Just reach your hand inside and think about wanting to remove a list. I loaded them up with some supplies and an actual gift for each of you. I tried to get something related to your trait or class. If we’re going to go into Rifts, we need to be more prepared. Hopefully, this helps.”
He smiled and looked out of the apartment window as each of them fiddled with their bags. There was one thought on his mind.
I feel good. Better than I've felt in awhile.
Alex knew there were emotional hurdles to work through but it didn’t matter in the moment. He was safe and back in his space. He was with friends. He had a plan to keep getting stronger and even a challenge in his way.
Not that Rylan Voss is much of a challenge…
Olivia interrupted his musing. “Do you know what these bags are worth?”
“Not more than the price of good friends.”
Olivia snorted in response.
“Yeah, that was pretty cheesy, huh?”
Still true, though.
She bumped him again, and he blushed a bit, happy to be facing the window. “I’m serious. These things are worth a few times what that manual was.”
“Oh yeah. Did you get a chance to use that yet?” When she nodded, he smiled back at her. “It feels so crazy, right? I told you I used the manual for [Mirage], and I still can’t get over how weird it is to have knowledge put straight into my head. What’s strange, though, is that it doesn’t feel like the knowledge is mine. While I learned it immediately, I don’t know the skill nearly as well as I know ritual circles after breaking down everything I could about them.”
“It was really weird.” She touched her head.
“I think I’m going to try and find some manuals on Runes or Enchanting. Keep an eye out for me?”
She nodded again but still asked, “Are you sure? The rituals sound like they’re working pretty well for you, yeah?”
He just shrugged. “They are. But the runes are what I wanted in the first place, I just got lucky that your suggestion worked out so well for me. It can only help me to learn more magic, right?”
She agreed and they both turned back to the living room after hearing Mark squeal like a small child. Sam almost fell off of the couch he was laughing so hard as Mark waved around the engraved shield Alex had gotten for him from the Auction House tab in the AG app.
Olivia raised her eyebrow at Alex.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and look in yours, too. There’s something special in there.”
Val flew over and began to sniff with interest at the bag in Olivia’s hand.
“Hey, no. That’s not for you,” Alex said. He reached out and gently grabbed Val, who wriggled in his grasp.
“Is friend Mana?” Val asked.
Alex and Olivia both laughed, “Yes, buddy.” Alex let the mana wyrm curl around his shoulder and upper arm. He’d been surprised at Valtherion’s continued growth since they’d emerged from the Rift. “That’s Friend’s mana. Good job.” He gave his bond a scratch on its scaly head.
“Fuck!”
The room fell silent before several people burst out in laughter. Sarah glared at Alex while Sam and Mark doubled over with more laughter. Valtherion seemed to beam with pride as Alex used his palm to slap his own forehead, and Olivia just smiled at the pair.
Better than I've felt, ever.