“Your ex was looking for something, right?” Ebrill started as we worked our way back to the room where my aunt had died. “Did she give any indication of what that might be?”

“She mentioned something, more than once. The word, what was it. Hona? Something like that.”

Ebrill glanced over and frowned. “Liahona?”

“That’s it!” I couldn’t help but notice the worry in her eyes. “You remember?”

“Something about protecting that thing,” Ebrill said. “Nothing more.”

We entered the room and froze.

“She was here when we left… right?” I stared at the spot where my aunt’s body had been. It was now an empty spot on the floor, the shape of her body outlined by the debris surrounding it. “I’m not going crazy. I’m not.”

“As far as I know, both are true.”

“Bodies don’t get up and walk away. Not in reality…” My eyes met hers, a nervous chuckle following. “Then again, in my reality magic doesn’t exist and statues certainly don’t come to life.”

“I was more than a statue, before I was a statue.”

I frowned. “And that helps?”

“Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But, what do we know?”

Racking my brain, I shrugged, feeling hopeless. “This was my aunt’s house. She apparently knew some magic and passed some of it to me. Or, the ability to learn more, maybe?”

“And if this was her house, we have to assume that she knew something about me,” Ebrill added.

“Why?”

“Because Kordelia and I were statues on her roof.” She began looking among the fallen objects. “That has to mean something. Maybe we can find a clue as to why.”

“Now that you mention it, your style doesn’t exactly fit her taste. Knowing that she was into magic, and that you came to life, she must have brought you in from somewhere else.”

“The odd part of that being that she never brought me to life,” Ebrill replied.

“Maybe she did, but your memory resets each time?”

Ebrill considered this, pausing in her search, but then shook her head. “I wouldn’t know if that were the case, but I don’t think so. Bits of memories are returning, and none relate to anything in this time period. Nothing with the woman whose corpse we saw here on the way down.”

“Bringing us back to the question of where the hell her body went.” Something she had said caught my interest, though. “Wait, time period?”

“Yes. I see men and women in a very different style of dress, riding horses and carrying swords.”

“Actually, that’s fascinating. You’re describing what could be a medieval time, maybe, which kind of checks out with your armor… what little you have.”

She turned my way, eyebrow arched. “You don’t think it’s enough?”

I gulped, eyes moving along her hips. “From the perspective of a young man such as myself, it’s the perfect amount.”

That earned me a laugh. She returned to her search but paused only a moment later, shaking her head.

“This isn’t the place,” she said, heading for the door.

“It has to be. She used a spell to get back here, she—”

“No, this is the room that led to the roof, and maybe was supposed to be a safety room of sorts, but it wasn’t where she would have kept her darkest, most secret treasures.”

“And you have an idea where she might?”

“I… know where I would, if I were her.”

Or so she thought. We moved along the various passages for what felt like hours, her running a hand along walls. She stopped to listen to the house at times, and then muttered curses. I didn’t mind initially, considering what a view I had. While I felt bad for staring so much at first, this lady was so beautiful it almost felt like a crime not to.

As we were passing my room, I remembered the stains her fingers had left on my shirt and said, “Just a sec.”

“A what?”

“One moment.” I stepped in, went to my suitcase and found a new shirt. I quickly took off the old one, then noticed her looking at me to the extent that now I felt like the eye candy.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Not bad, my lord.”

“Why do you call me that?”

She grinned as I put my shirt on, and said, “For the fun of it. You’re clearly not a lord, no offense, but I find men enjoy being put up on a pedestal. Do you not?”

“If you mean you’re flirting with me, I’ll take it.”

Her laugh was pleasant and every bit as seductive as her look. “I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of time together, Jericho.”

At that, she turned to investigate my room, then paused briefly at the window where Steph had entered. My mind was racing as it tried to process what she had just said. Feeling a sudden chill, I found my red jacket and threw it on, too, then went to her beside the window.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said, and took my hand. Warm tingles ran up my arm and the pressure in my pants increased. She didn’t seem to notice, thankfully, but I pushed my hips back in hopes of making it less obvious.

“Yeah?”

“Your aunt knew about your powers? As a transmuter, I mean.”

I frowned, trying to figure whether my aunt might have known. “It’s possible, sure. Maybe she spoke with my mom about it, or her magic had a way of telling her.”

“Therefore, maybe she would have passed on something more to you than just powers, but… known you could find a way to get what she wanted you to find? Maybe the item, or, who knows… but something.”

“You’re saying I should try to change my surroundings to somehow find whatever it is we’re looking for, based on my aunt possibly knowing this would be the case?”

Ebrill nodded, glancing over with hopeful eyes. “It’s worth trying.”

I nodded and then glanced around, wondering how best to do this. My first try was with holding my hand up, making the screen appear, and hoping for some transmuter language to appear. No such luck. Maybe it only worked for new spells I needed to learn.

Since that didn’t work, I only had one other idea, although I didn’t like it.

“Can you wait outside?” I asked. “In the hall, I mean.”

“Why?”

“It’s just… embarrassing.”

“You need to get naked or something to transmute?” She grinned. “Go ahead.”

“God. Nothing like that, but… Whatever, don’t laugh.” I went for the bed, sat near the headboard, and pulled my legs up to my chest. Ignoring her look of confusion, I closed my eyes and started rocking as I had all those times as a child. Focusing my thoughts on my surroundings and my aunt, I tried telling the house to reveal its secrets to me, to give me a hint, at least.

“Are you sure getting naked wouldn’t be the better option?” Ebrill asked.

I laughed, shushed her, and focused.

In my mind, the house answered. Opening my eyes to see Ebrill staring in awe, I saw the response had actually come. Floating there before me was a light like the one my aunt had created as she was dying. Only, this time it started to float around and then lead me. When I sat there staring in confusion, it even moved back my way, took on a sort of animal shape—small, kind of round with a pointed back—and then moved again.

Ebrill turned to me, pointed, and asked, “Did you just create a… hedgehog familiar?”

“Kind of? For some reason, as I was making it happen, images of Sonic the Hedgehog kept popping into my head. Maybe because I wanted it to go faster?”

“I don’t understand anything you just said, but we should follow your hedgehog.”

She had a point. I jumped out of bed, going with her in pursuit of the light. Apparently, the familiar, or whatever it was, hadn’t been the only thing my little transmuter exercise had changed about this place. It soon became clear that either I had totally misremembered the hallways of this house, or the light had led us down a turn that hadn’t been there before. The next turn, too, and when we entered a hallway lit by an eerie green glow that led to stairs descending to a basement, I was sure of it.

Not any old basement, or one that even began to fit with the glamour of the house. This was more like a cave, with its rock walls and jagged stone floor. In the center the stone rose into a pedestal, where a book rested at the top.

“The Llyfr Sillafu,” Ebrill said, looking at the cover. At my look of confusion regarding the strange symbols on the book’s cover, she explained, “Done in the Nennian alphabet.”

“Looks like runes in video games,” I replied. “If I still had my damn phone, I’d be able to look it up.”

She scrunched her nose in confusion but ignored the comment and stepped up to the book. “We should try simple ones at first, I suppose. Here, this one—”

“Wait,” I interrupted. “Explain why you know the Nennian Alphabet… and what that is.”

“I… don’t know.” She thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up. “Ah, but the second—it’s Welsh.”

“Welsh? You know Welsh?”

She shrugged. “Apparently. I’m fairly certain we’re speaking it at the moment.”

I laughed. “Forgot about that. My transmutation magic sort of helps me translate, so that we can understand each other. I used to think I was crazy so I never really told anyone, but… yeah, it’s always done that.”

“It’s more than that, I think,” she replied. “You know magic, and there’s something about Avalon and the connection between all magic users—you understand what we say because of your connection to magic, as would anyone else in the connection.”

“No shit?”

She gave me a pleased nod. “So, let’s try you with this spell. Move your hand like this,” she lifted a hand, fingers spread, “and say ‘tarian.’ Got it?”

I tried, and this time the word rolled off my tongue on the first go. A line of gold trickled from my fingers in response.

“What was it?” I asked.

“Shield,” she replied. “Although I’m not sure if this one will act like an actual shield.”

“Or maybe a defense boost,” I said, holding my hand up to see my screen. Sure enough, defense showed a plus three in parenthesis. “That’s the one.”

“In that case, there might be another spell that gives you an actual shield.” She started flipping through the pages, but my focus was still on my screen.

“Whoa,” I said, watching as the ‘Level One’ words lit up and then changed. “I just leveled up.”

“You what?”

“I have levels, and I guess because of using that spell, I leveled up.” I went to the book, stared at the page in front of me, and tried something. Sure enough, the page appeared in my screen. Only now, the writing made sense to me and the symbol for my hand—when necessary—was with it, and the level of the spell. “Yes! I can keep track of these, and this one is level two, so…”

“Tell me what it says. I’ll see if I can guess what it does.”

“Elfenol Streic,” I said, making a fist as the symbol showed and hoping it had something to do with an elf. Instead, options popped up around my fist showing the four elements.

“Careful,” Ebrill said. “That’s an elemental strike. You should be able to use that with weapons, too, where you can imbue them with the ability to have fire, ice, etc., although the effect likely fades the moment you cast something else.”

I looked at my fist, then shook it out, dismissing the idea. The last thing I needed at the moment was to accidentally burn my aunt’s house down.

“If you’ve leveled up…” She eyed me, then glanced to the stairs.

“Right, let’s try the other gargoyle again.” I started for the stairs, but she caught me.

“Her name is—”

“Kordelia, I know. Sorry. Let’s try to wake Kordelia.”

She smiled, nodded, and we made our way back to the roof.