Future Past Day - 2020 A.D. (0 A.R.) - February - Greenland
Versonae’s glare could have cut through enchanted steel. “It’s a stupid plan.”
“IT’S A SUICIDAL PLAN!” Acantha more than filled in for Versonae’s calm demeanor that held an intense rage. Jets of flame sparked up and out, each gesture of her hand birthed a miniature sun that shot off and exploded.
Technically, she wasn’t wrong. But I figured that a decent night’s sleep and a good meal of roasted fish caught by our friendly water elemental would at least allow my team to see the simple but effective plan in a good light. Maybe sleeping in a crappy stone room in a giant wall that didn’t hold onto any warmth negated any possible positive feelings.
Reeanth sagged back in her chair and stared off at the rising sun. Greenland mornings were beautiful. Cold, but beautiful. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable sitting around for that long.”
I leaned forward in my own lumpy seat. “We don’t have much of a choice.”
“Tell me how this works! Tell me again how we make it out of this alive!” Acantha stared at me, her breakfast forgotten in front of her.
Kraken popped out of Gungnir and floated between us casting a three-dimensional hologram. “Ben hasn’t mastered this version of the ‘False-Mirror’ spell.” He said smugly. “Allow me.”
I could see the standard depiction of the normal sigils that make up the ‘False-Mirror’ spell but then it mutated, adding more and more to lines of runes until it was a whirl too tight and cohesive for me to keep track. Kraken infused just the right amount of mana into the construct and the hologram shifted to show the geography we’re working with. Most of the mini-continent was ice, snow, and rock, to the tune of 98% of it being desolate. A bright little representation of the fortress manned by the Hungry Ones lay far to the north and our little bases, the wall and the Yggdrasil alder thicket just a mile or so north of us were annotated in green and blue.
“The crux of the plan lies in correcting a strategic error.” Kraken turned his gaze upon each and every one of us. “Our offensive efforts cannot get off the ground if we don’t have sufficient mana. What has been going to waste so far is everyone’s extraneous mana. On average, each member of the team requires decent sleep, enough food, and that is the basis for recovering mana. BUT, that’s not all. If you use all of your mana, you can recover most if not all within three hours.”
I stepped in to clarify as Versonae and Acantha were looking at me blankly. Reeanth kinda seemed to be picking up what I was putting down but not completely. I held up my Grimoire. “We can use basic meditation techniques to regain our mana faster. The pylon,” I gestured behind me to the massive crystal glowing with intense light. “It will take at least another week until it’s full enough. The solar panels and kinetic converters just don’t work as well out here. The environment isn’t conducive to high energy conversion.”
Kraken sighed. “We’re too far north for the solar panels to gather much energy and the ocean waves are steady but don’t have much power to steal. Therefore, we can be the generators to fill it up in less than half the time.”
My vassal leaned back, her large frame sitting awkwardly in the far too small chair. “But how will that help us? How does that get us to the point where the golem army can assault the fortress without running out of power? We had to turn back last time because of lack of mana.”
“Kraken.” I said, coughing and pointing at the part of the map between our beachfront wall and the Yggdrasil alder thicket. “Sorry, fishscale stuck in my throat.”
Stifling a laugh and the usual jokes about mortal frailties, Kraken highlighted four spots in red light. “This is where the Hungry Ones exit their tunnels each night. If we adopt a tight schedule of meditation and Flesh Golem assisted sleep, we only have to put up with two more nights of fighting, then the golems will have enough power to collapse the tunnels and shore up the breaches so that nothing could enter again. We only have one elemental sergeant here powerful enough to handle the intense flows of mana. The younger elemental sergeants barely qualify as they were only gestated due to the conditions implanted within the sunstone.”
Versonae lit up and hugged Acantha who pushed the larger Lunek off. “I still don’t get it! Get to the point!”
I gave her a flat look and spoke slowly. “We meditate, give extra mana to big crystal. Then, charge golems. THEN, flatten tunnels. This will then let us fully charge up the pylon and ourselves with way less threat since we won’t have to worry about nightly attacks. Then we can put the big ass crystal on a sled and drag it to the Yggdrasil alder thicket and set up a new base that’s better. From there, we can use the dense energy source provided by the Yggdrasil alder thicket to reshape the pylon so it can be dragged on sleds further north.”
I gestured for Kraken to show them and he did, showing the giant diamond-like crystal morphing in shape until it was more of a long cylinder with a blunted tip and snow skids on the bottom. For me, the anti-gravity runes were easy to make but I pointed it out for everyone. “With this rune setup, it will be easy for the golems to move the massive crystal.”
Reeanth jumped to her feet. “And assault the fortress with a big battery that can refill us AND the army over and over until we win the fight.”
I pointed right at her and pounded Gungnir’s base into the floor. “Exactly. Bring the power with us. Simple. Intelligent. Deadly.”
Versonae growled. “Still stupid. Will be visible from miles away.”
Kraken let the hologram dissolve. “Magic. Please don’t forget that we have magic. A few runes in the right spots and a nice covering of mud and we’ll be hidden until just the right moment. There is a valley we can head to just west of the fortress where visibility is greatly compromised.”
The team began nodding along as the pieces fell into place. Kraken conjured another hologram, one that depicted all of us moving through ice and snow on sleds pulled by teams of sunstone golems. We watched as the image fast-forwarded to everyone and the pylon skirt around the great plains that surrounded most of the fortress until the western valley and mountain ridge met just close enough for a solid attack on the left side.
I scratched my chin and forced more food down my gullet, tossing some to my miniature Flesh Golem which quickly ate it and grew just a bit. The gray flesh wobbled a bit the way water accepts a small pebble. “The terrain favors us there, we can recharge as needed, and last but not least, the pylon itself can be a massive fucking power source Acantha can use with some badass fire sorcerer ritual to melt half of the fortress. I can use that window along with Reeanth and Spot to crack open this bad boy and knock the enemy portal out of commission for good.”
Acantha picked at her food until Versonae began making eyes at it like she was going to snatch it. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but does that elemental sergeant, Sunny, doesn’t he have Earth Sorcery?”
Kraken rolled his eye. “That’s all an Earth Elemental is.”
Giving up, Acantha let Versonae have her food while she instead chose to munch on a Centauri ration cube with a strip of desert lizard jerky. “So why can’t we just tunnel to the fortress?”
We all froze. That was actually really close to my initial plan until I remembered that my sorcery was on the fritz.
Reeanth closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pushing her frustration down before speaking. Her large chest heaved up and down a few times. Her being a human but half a giant one had a tendency to be a bit distracting at the wrong times.
“We are tired from the unending battles.” She said icily, still with her eyes closed. “We haven’t considered the fullest extent of our resources.” Reeanth set her mana-maul so that it leaned against the wall and then sat next to it, sighing with relief. “The first section of the plan should remain unchanged, take two days to charge the pylon until we can close the tunnels. Then, after we collapse the tunnels, recharge for one more day. Then use Sunny as our tireless excavator to create a new tunnel deep in the earth while the rest of the golems accompany us and push the pylon along. We will ride with the pylon, keeping it charged so it can keep the golems and Sunny full on power.”
“But Sunny remains the priority!” Kraken clarified. “And the golems not doing anything can share mana as well in order for Sunny to get us as close as possible.”
I ate my own Centauri ration cube while drumming my fingers on Svalinn. “At that point, we keep meditating until the army is full and the pylon is full and then we take on the fortress.”
Greenland’s morning sun greeted us in full as we digested the plan. It all hinged on Sunny being able to do what we needed as he turned out to be the second fulcrum upon which all of my efforts precariously balanced.
Jumping to her feet, Reeanth ushered everyone else off the wall and down the beach closer to the pylon. My other teammates hustled off with sleezy grins on their faces but with a hint of fear as Reeanth snarled at them, pointing her mana-maul in their directions. She leaned over the solid railing and yelled down, “Eat, meditate, and sleep as needed using the Flesh Golems! Don’t disturb us!”
Kraken gulped and flew off towards to the Water Elemental who was poking around near Sunny. “You’re on your own here man.”
“Wha-?” I stuttered, staring after my fleeing spirit familiar. “Where are you goin-”
Something more solid than steel grabbed me by my collar and hoisted me into the air before hurling twenty feet down the length of the wall. Reeanth advanced on me, snarling as she swung her maul around as easily as I could swing a golf club. The devastating weapon weighed more than twenty pounds and was loaded to bear with all of the magics I could infuse into it. Even now, Reeanth’s eyes lit up a searing white, simultaneously scanning and burning me.
“Of all the inane, stupid, moronic things I’ve ever seen you do, you miserable, pathetic excuse for a sorcerer . . .”
I shakily got to my feet and activated Gungnir, my weapon shifting into its normal spear form. “Whoa there big lady, what are we doing?”
“I watched you fight.” The head of the maul came within an inch of my nose even with me leaning back in the nick of time. “Pathetic.” SWISH. “Weak.” SWISH. “Slow.” SWISH.
I kept backing up, dodging instead of deflecting her blows. Reeanth wasn’t as fast as the Sun Aelves I’d sparred against but if any of her blows landed, they could kill me. “You try having your Sorceries ripped out of your soul and walled off!” I yelled, still dodging the blows.
My vassal slapped her chest and her armor began to emit a black and blue glow from her runic sequences activating. She vanished and then appeared in front of me as a blur, her foot crashing into my chest. I could hear bones break but I couldn’t let it slow me down. Rolling to the side just in time to avoid a followup maul slam that cratered the floor of the big wall, I spat out mucus and turned to run, activating my little Flesh Golem to kick my healing into high gear.
It didn’t matter. Another blow I didn’t see caved in my leg and another shattered more ribs. The hailstorm of fists and feet turned me into a bloody platter of mashed potatoes until I couldn’t take a breath and Reeanth hauled me up to look her in the eye. I stayed there, helpless in her grip, enduring her gaze that peeled the flesh from my face until she dropped me on the ground.
My Flesh Golem kept working, doing its level best to keep me functional only in the most technical sense. The broken rib points had to be pushed out of my lungs and my diaphragm required mending in order to work. So many nerves were severed and the number of concussions I had were enough to scare me.
“How?” I spat, barely able to get air into my lungs. “How does your vow let you do this?”
She snorted at me before kneeling down and pressing her boot into my broken femur. “Training. This IS for your own good. We are on a different schedule than your team. From now on, every thirty minutes will be different. You will meditate to full and then some to help fill the pylon, then fight me non-stop until thirty more minutes have elapsed. Then, you will heal until you’re fit to fight again and then meditate to fill the pylon. The Water Elemental will provide enough seafood to keep the Flesh Golems filled and more than enough for you to heal after every fight.”
My diaphragm finally healed enough for me to take deeper breaths. “You’re worse than a drill sergeant.” I coughed, swallowing bloody spit. “Even the Sun Aelves weren’t this brutal.”
Another kick I couldn’t see smashed my teeth in and my vision swam. “Feuckk!” I screamed, pulling deep within and generating a wide ‘Mana-Shield’. More and more runes joined the basics until it was enough to cover all of my front and thick enough to prevent Reeanth from getting through.
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“Finally,” Reeanh said with a nod. “You’re using your brain.”
I laid there, keeping the shield up until the Flesh Golem fixed all of my injuries. I kept my focus on Reeanth but didn’t let the ‘Mana-Shield’ waver in the slightest. With a sigh of relief that all of the pain was finally gone, I stood up, still lamenting the loss of my Flesh Sorcery. Pain blocks are a true super power.
“Your magic has made you weak. Your Sorcery has softened your mind.” The large Centauri woman pulled her mana-maul back and then brought it across crashing like a kinetic missile smashing straight through my shield and pulverizing both legs. Screaming didn’t help with the pain but at this point my brain just accepted it.
Both a ‘Mana-Shield’ and a ‘Mana-Blast’ manifested in front of me, the first as a token of resistance and the second to push Reeanth back. Contemptuously, she backhanded my ‘Mana-Blast’ into the sky and then spat on my shield.
Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to have my Flesh Golem cut off all pain signals from below my hips so I could concentrate. A burst of will and a hint of mana made my Grimoire snap into existence in front of me. My ‘Mana-Blast’ spell morphed into the ‘Salvo’ version and began hammering Reeanth faster and faster, forcing her back. The mini Flesh Golem repaired my legs but let me know that any more healing and it would run out of fuel.
I internally acknowledged the warning, quickly standing up and flipping myself backwards off the wall and onto the beach. The distance let me gain a split second to think and my Grimoire responded. I remembered that Kraken had put an indeterminate number of healing spells near the end and I hoped that I was right. “Yes!” I hissed, slapping the page I wanted and gladly paying the small price to have the spell copied and then burnt to my forehead.
My prodigious mana pool came alive as the ‘Enhancement’ spell connected my body to my incredible stores of power. Being a sorcerer, even cut off my Sorceries themselves, I still had the basic premise of containing unimaginable amounts of mana. And that’s something I needed to abuse. Gungnir lent me its own stores of power, forming another connection with the circle of runes burnt into my forehead. As Reeanth’s feet almost touched the ground, suddenly everything was happening at half speed.
Even though I wanted to snarl like the half-dragon being that I was, that was a waste of energy. This spell was mana-hungry, gladly swallowing everything I gave it and more to empower my body to utilize its fullest potential, something I had come nowhere close to.
With my soul-bound tools functioning at the lowest setting, with the exception of my Grimoire, it was up to me, my body, and whatever spellcraft I could pull out of my ass. No longer was Reeanth out of reach. Her speed, her strength, it all suddenly became within reach.
And then it hit me. You don’t fight a hammer head on. I have a spear. Yes, I don’t really know how to use any weaponry other than a rifle, but spears were made to be simple. They were made with peasants in mind. For idiots like me. It has one pointy end and one long ass handle that’s hard to misplace. You can’t really go wrong. Point the pointy end at the enemy and stab.
But my fully empowered body laughed at that simple concept. Why stab when you can really stab OVER AND OVER? Each swing of her maul, I danced around, ducked under or diverted. Combat is a dance, a deadly dance where life and death hang in the balance, and for once, I could be an active physical participant in it.
Respect only glimmered in her eyes for a few moments before her gaze caught the runic symbol gleaming on my head. I ignored her shouting at me and only concentrated on her feet and hips. Any feints are pointless without the engagement of her lower body to propel itself forward. Her left boot dug into the sand and Reeanth’s maul swung from her right.
I didn’t fall for it. My deadly, battle-hardened Centauri vassal was more than strong enough to swing this heavy weapon around with the ease that a child swings a thin switch. My usual tactics were out the window. No Earth Sorcery to muddle with her footing. No Water Sorcery to use the ocean to my advantage. No Consciousness Sorcery to attack her mind. Even my Flesh Sorcery was tied up in keeping my body alive just enough for the Consciousness and Mana Sorcery to keep me alive in two separate time streams.
Fuck Merlin.
Kraken’s yell pierced my concentration just enough for me to receive his message. “FIGHT SMARTER!”
He’s right. I toned down the intensity of the ‘Enhancement’ spell so that I was equal to Reeanth in speed, dialing down the mana required to keep it going. The whole point of this was to learn, not escape or even kill her.
Using Gungnir to channel more mana, I formed the ‘Salvo’ spell at its tip, letting the crystalline point empower and focus the energy blasts. Reeanth wisely dodged the cutting mana bullets that threatened her just as much as that maul promised me pain. I stepped forward, barely able to keep up with her. White hot blasts of mana lanced out from her eyes, catching on my ‘Mana-Shield’. I watched in wonder as the runic sequences began to shake and the spell almost fell apart until I pumped even more mana into it.
My Grimoire floated next to me, flipping to Kraken’s section on shields. One of them caught my eye. ‘Anti-Dragon-Mana-Shield’. The notes were hard to miss.
The base of the ‘Mana-Shield’ altered to specifically protect against three things most commonly associated with dragons: fire, force, and dispelling. This shield is easy to shape to different types of elemental dragons by simply switching out the elemental runes. It is weak to dragons that control more than one element due to requiring a new spell to switch out the elements. The shield structure is too rigid to adjust mid-fight.
Reagents required: blood, mana, dragon skin.
Kicking sand at Reeanth, I scrambled past her, kicked her legs out from underneath her and then sprinted up the stairs to the top of the wall. I kept running down the wall, gaining as much distance as I could. I let my own ‘Mana-Shield’ go and then slapped the new one on the page, paying a steeper price since my own body met the requirements. All of the skin on my palm and several licks of blood went into the new shield that sprang into existence. A full third of my mana reserves went into the thick shield that was so dense I almost couldn’t see through it.
A round ‘Anti-Dragon-Mana-Shield’ floated in front of my left arm as if it were a physical shield strapped to my arm. Gathering myself together, I flipped through my floating Grimoire to the back again.
“Where are the fucking regen spells?” I cursed, desperately looking around and jogging further away.
The moment I diverted too much attention to the pages full of new, exciting information, an uneven boulder slammed into my back. I hit the edge of the wall and flipped over, landing roughly on my side.
“FUCK!” Not letting myself stay a target, I kept rolling, grateful for the ‘Anti-Dragon-Mana-Shield’ that I fell on. It cushioned my bad fall enough so that nothing broke. Reeanth’s followup swing scooped a wide trench of sand out of the beach where my legs were and I saw my opportunity.
Gungnir’s tip was pointed directly at Reeanth’s hip. I let her have it. One focused beam of mana picked her up and sent her into the wall so hard that it left a full body imprint. I wasn’t dumb. I knew her armor was built to absorb and disperse blasts of pure mana. I know. I helped design the runic schema. So I sent blast after blast at her, leaning into the fact that I knew I could overwhelm her.
Gungnir morphed into a mace as I sprinted towards her, using the mana blasts to keep Reeanth teetering on the edge of consciousness. Faking a swing at her with Gunginr, I pulled out an old trick. Two plantrops and one cryoshard.
One of the ‘Salvo’ blasts from Gungnir I aimed at the sand directly in front of Reeanth to obscure her view. In that moment, I palmed and hurled the two planttrops at her. She didn’t notice them at first but she couldn’t even fight them if she did. I followed up, slamming Gungnir into her, knocking the maul down and her arms to the side.
Fighting someone with a foot and a half height difference is daunting. They look down at you, literally. They stare downward, their sheer presence letting you know that this probably won’t go your way. I channeled my inner David and following through on bringing this Goliath down. My mana pool was draining at a faster rate as I turned into a whirlwind of pain, smashing limbs so Reeanth couldn’t bring her prodigious strength to bear.
The planttrops did their job, growing thorns from her blood and sapping her own strength to fuel its growth. The moment I landed a solid hit on her helmet dazing her, I slapped the cryoshard to her check and gave it a good kick. With a solid SNAPhisss, Reeanth was enshrined in a frozen prison.
Just before my personal stores of mana ran dry, I leveled spear-form Gungnir at her throat. “Yield.”
Her glare lasted a full minute as she struggled. I pricked her throat, letting Gungnir also drink from her. [YEEESSSS!] I heard Svalinn whisper through our link. [FEED MEE TOOOO!]
Reeanth finally relented, bowing her head and saying in a rough voice, “I yield.” Before she passed out, I tore open the ice prison and killed the vines digging through her. I didn’t even have to call for Kraken as he showed up with the Water Elemental right on time. I could see the mini-school of fish swimming around in the elemental and I laughed, grabbing a few to feed my own golem and then Reeanth’s.
It wasn’t long before we were both set to rights. My sparring partner glared at me. “You have an hour before we start again.”
*******
Fighting, healing, and meditating for the next six hours of the day stretched out into one torturous infinity. Time didn’t seem real. Reeanth’s physical abilities were terrifying. The magitech enhanced over-muscled barbarian of a woman demanded nothing less than excellence and battered that standard out of me one bloody pound of flesh at a time. By the end of our training session, my limbs had to be reattached at least three times each, my spine gave out on me four times, and the disemboweling . . . well, I lost count. I couldn’t even complain to Kraken who simply muttered ‘It’s about time’ before tending to the Grimoire.
Reeanth kept me uncertain and on my toes by removing me from my tools or forcing various handicaps upon me while she got to fight me with no holds barred. At more than one point, I was fighting in my skivvies. Death and I played a precarious game, more similar to a sadistic round of Cat and Mouse than tag. My miniature Flesh Golem consumed several hundred pounds of fish just to keep me functioning. I’m pretty sure my torturess was planning on having to completely regrow most of me several times over.
“JESUS FUCK WOMAN!” I screamed yet again, fighting through my intestines spilling out around my feet. Taking my eyes off her maul wasn’t a mistake that I planned on repeating but the squish of organ tubes being stepped on was almost enough to make me hurl directly onto my exposed viscera.
Reeanth’s left hand darted back towards me, that wickedly sharp serrated knife lunging for more. I danced a hint to the side and then forward, accepting the blow that ripped through my stomach just so I could get within range. Inhuman claws grew from my fingertips as my enhanced body accepted its own primal instincts embedded deep within the added DNA from both a sand lizard and a water dragon.
Tasting blood was old news. I used my thick spit to blind Reeanth, and it worked long enough for me to dig my claws into her arm and pull me close enough that her maul was useless. I tore, ripping handful after handful of her flesh out, working my way closer to her. The simple fact of her being a genetically enhanced Centauri warrior meant two advantages really came to her aid. One, her pain tolerance wasn’t normal. That plus her training put her closer to a robot in terms of feelings more than a genuine human. Second, her reach put NBA basketball players to shame. That reach came with extra leverage and strength if I were at the proper distance but her damn elbows were perfect weapons to dislodge me.
Dropping her maul for the first time all day, Reeanth clocked the top of my head with her elbow driving my head down where her left knee came up in a perfectly timed blow to devastate my face. Cartilage dissolved and an eye socket burst. My teeth had long been a lost cause.
But I fucking held on. Not even wasting the oxygen to curse or snarl, I tore my way closer. My hands closed as tight as they could to give my talons even more to dig into. I was merciless. I let her blows shake me back and forth. It meant my grip cut and tore even deeper. Within a few seconds, Reeanth’s left arm was useless and my head, shoulders, and back simply took the hammer shots until my body was closer to jelly than human flesh.
As soon as my talons reached her throat, Reeanth looked down and her eyes flared with power. Lancets of pure white-hot flame blasted me off of her and into the ground. My claws tore free, bringing strips of flesh and blood with them.
“I’m teaching you how to fight! Not how to fight like a mindless animal!”
This was only the second time during our training sessions that I saw Reeanth use her own mini Flesh Golem. It patched her up right as rain but the armor covering her chest and arms was shredded to bits.
“How do you not know how to fight? How pathetic was your world that you never had to learn?” Reeanth’s glare shifted to disbelief and then fell into a sort of fatal disappointment.
I knew the session was over, our last one for the day, so I let my Flesh Golem patch me up before answering. With a tender gesture of will, Svalinn, SAW, and Gungnir appeared right in front of me and I donned all of my gear before turning to look at her.
“Our world had no mana. We haven’t used melee weaponry in centuries. For us, distance was what mattered. Shooting an enemy before they could see you was determined to be the best way to kill them and get home to your family. We didn’t have kinetic wards, magical shielding, clean energy, nothing that made us get up close and personal. Unless you were some sort of historical enthusiast, there was no reason in the world to learn how to use a spear or a sword.”
The pain faded as my skin regrew and my buttery muscles regained vitality. I could feel the fractures in my shoulders and spine fuse back to normalcy. It made me want to vomit, feeling another entity fix my body. My Flesh Sorcery could have done this faster or better.
Reeanth threw her maul into the sand, stomping forward until she thrust her finger into my chest. “EVEN NOW you don’t think! Yes, your powers are gone. As you say ‘big whoop’. Who cares! You have other solutions!” With that outburst out of the way, she looked up and let out a frustrated scream.
I took a step back but didn’t interfere as she walked away. But I did take her words to heart. I had roughly four hours before the Hungry Ones would make their nightly assault and I had to spend my time wisely. After feeding myself and my Flesh Golem, I spent thirty minutes in meditation reviewing my brutal, one-sided fights from the day. Leaning back against one of the feeder plates for the pylon so my extra mana regeneration would go where we could all put it to use, I closed my eyes to fully concentrate.
Some of the trauma hit me in waves as I made a realization. Reeanth fought just like the zombies did. Pure strength, wild swings, a few tricks, even staying in a desperately offensive stance to mimic the sheer savagery of the ravenous undead. That’s how the Hungry Ones fought. The damn things were HUNGRY. Reeanth never backed off. She never stopped coming. She even kept brutalizing my broken body until I couldn’t continue just to show me what would happen if I slipped up.
Today was a freaking message. One that I was unprepared for.
Kraken bobbed up to me riding atop the water elemental. “That was hard to watch.”
I couldn’t even glare at my familiar due to being so damn tired. “Hard to take. Bitch didn’t even use lube man.”
He chortled a bit before gesturing down at the water elemental full of fish. “You know, updating your runic tattoos via Flesh Elemental isn’t a bad way to power up for next month or so.”
I leaned closer with an evil grin. “You don’t know the half of it.”