After meeting Kliss at the Church, we walked to the Fox and Fiddle pub at the western side of town.

The old pub buried halfway in the hillside emerged in front of us as we turned a corner on a lantern-dotted path leading from Longwoods Road. Round doors and windows peered from the mossy cliffside, surrounded by lush arboreal forest. A large wooden sign hung from the front depicting a jolly fox playing a fiddle and dancing.

We came inside and sat at an empty booth. The pub was mostly empty, save for a couple of patrons in a distant corner. It was a bit too early for dinner and the laborers and farmers of Skyisle preferred to dine at home, unless it was a special occasion or a celebration. The wide, rotund room dotted with round windows had held many weddings and Soul-Song parties in its past, the wooden planks of the floor worn out by dancing feet.

"Heeey folks, what can I getcha?" A purple-haired, pink-eyed girl inquired as she bounced to our table. I knew her name, just as I knew the names of many people in Skyisle. Kovac had introduced us to her after the church lessons. Magenta Novika Skyisle was his third cousin twice removed. She was fourteen and worked at the pub owned by her family.

"Eyyy Dante, Destiny!" She winked. "And who's that you're wi…"

Her smile faltered momentarily and her words failed her as she looked at our third companion.

"O-overseer… always a pleasure to have you in the F-Fox!" Magenta stammered out with a deep bow.

She glanced back at me, curiosity dancing in her pink eyes. She obviously had no idea what I was doing with the Overseer and why. I wondered if she suspected that I was a turncoat like Wiklogg, a little mouse that was whispering information to our Imperial Overlords about everything in Skyisle.

"What'll it be?" She asked with a crooked smile.

"A bottle of wine, at least five years old," Kliss muttered. "And a Blood Elk steak… medium rare with some mashed potatoes."

"With pleasure!" Magenta nodded. "...and for your companion?" She didn't even spare me a glance as she asked the question, believing the Overseer to be my boss.

"I'll take your finest wine," I said. "Also, a steak and some fried potatoes."

Magenta froze. She blinked at me and then looked at the Overseer.

"She's with us," I said. "I'm paying."

Magenta's mouth opened wide. "Whaaa…" She blinked rapidly as if she was concussed.

Kliss nodded tiredly. I winked at Magenta.

"Alriiiiighty then," the barmaid curtsied. "I'll be back with your wine."

She retreated into the kitchen, firing bewildered glances back at me.

"Who are you trying to impress?" Delta asked.

"Nobody," I replied. "What's wrong with a good time with my friends? You don't think I deserve to try some fine Ishikarian wine for once? I heard that the good stuff has unique properties that can temporarily increase a person's mana."

"How do you have money?" Kliss asked.

"Used my Agromancy in the forest and found a few old silver coins," I said.

"You can do that?" Kliss blinked.

I didn't tell her that I actually used my Infoscopes to scout the ground around Skyisle for metal similarly to a metal detector for 12 years.

"Agromancy can do a lot," I lied. "Plants can feel things with their roots. All I had to do was touch some grass with my grandmother's old wand to find some lost money."

"That's... impressive," Kliss nodded.

"I intend to save Skyisle," I said. "We're not relocating."

"You're this certain that the Mystic tree can save Skyisle?" Kliss asked.

"The tree is higher level on the inside," I said. "My Agromancy senses tell me that it projects a [Vitality] pulse. I believe that it's our best option."

"Will the trees grow fast enough?" Kliss asked. "Will they be able to stop the drop of levels, spells and experience in time? I plan to begin the legal process of relocating Skyisle in a few days."

"What?" I blinked.

"I call my assigned [Inquisitor] once a week with my report," Kliss explained. "It's important for one's paperwork to be in order, just in case your tree plan fails horribly. Next time I will call him I'll tell him about my plan to relocate the village further away from the magogenic fault. I'm also going to tell him that a young, capable Agromancer might help the problem, but that I'm not too hopeful about it."

Stolen novel; please report.

I sighed. Kliss was dead-set on relocating Skyisle. I really didn't want to abandon Leemy or the Alanian tower. I spent the last decade mapping the Alanian obelisk network underneath the village, figuring out how to repair and reactivate it. All I needed was someone with tons of [Strength] to help me dig the batteries out. Maybe my dad could help out, once his house arrest ended.

I noticed that Magenta was back with our orders of wine. She put a bottle next to the Overseer and held a very old-looking wine in front of my face.

“This is Cutrizz wine,” she said reverently. “Year 8022. It’s worth a gold and ten silver because the Cutrizz berries only bloom once every ten years. Are you sure you can afford it, Dante?” She asked.

I showed her my pouch with old silver and gold coins that I dug out of the ground with dad's shovel. Her eyes bulged. Digging the money out was quite exhausting… but the look on Magenta’s face was absolutely worth it.

“H-how?” She uttered, staring at the money in my bag.

“A reward from my dad,” I winked at her. “I unlocked my Soul-Song a week ago! I am an adult now."

“Oh my... congratulations!” Magenta clapped her hands. Then she eyed me warily, putting the wine on the table out of my reach. “I’ll need you to show me some magic Dante. I can’t take your word for it. You are a minor unless your Soul-Song is unlocked and I cannot serve a minor wine.”

I groaned.

“What? I didn’t see you having a party in here,” Magenta explained, looking at my annoyed face. “Everyone has their Soul-Song party at the Fox… except for you it seems.”

“Fine! I’ll show you my amazing lightning magic!” I declared after a small pause. I had two thick wool cloths in my pocket that I had taken from my dad’s workshop.

I rubbed two wool cloths vigorously under the table against each other, building up an electrostatic charge.

“Now, Mags, close your eyes and lean towards me!” I ordered.

Magenta obliged. I extended my finger towards her nose.

“Open your eyes!” I declared. “Look at your nose!”

I reached out towards her nose with my finger. A small, flicker of electricity jumped from my finger to her nose. Her eyes were focused on the tip of her nose, so she saw a big lightning bolt strike her in the nose. In the dimly-lit bar the little electrostatic charge looked far brighter and bigger than it really was. Magenta yelped, jumping backwards.

“Wow! Lightning magic! Dante, you’re a wizard!” She clapped. “Although… that was kind of mean. Oww.” She rubbed her nose.

“Just give me my damn wine,” I said. “I’ve been waiting twelve years for this pivotal moment.”

“With pleasure,” She slid the wine over to me, gave us a trio of goblets and walked away, shaking her head.

I felt the Overseer’s gaze digging into my head.

“Yes?” I asked her as I poured myself some magical wine.

“What in the Astral was that?” She asked. “That wasn’t green Agromancy magic! You’ve made tiny lightning!”

“Correct,” I nodded with a grin.

“Explain!” she demanded.

“Lightning naturally happens during thunderstorms, without any mana,” I said. "Tiny lightning charge can be built up by rubbing one wool cloth against another.”

I vigorously rubbed my hair with the wool cloths. It started to float up, probably making me look ridiculous.

“Oh,” Kliss blinked at me. “Lightning without… mana. How strange."

I reached out with my hand and touched her left hand that she left sitting on the table. An electrostatic charge jumped from me to her. She didn’t even wince, but she looked at her hand with curiosity.

"How have you figured this out?" She asked.

"I was cleaning some stuff in dad's workshop with a wool cloth," I said. "And little sparks kept jumping from my hands when I touched anything metal."

"That's quite clever, Dante," Kliss smiled softly.

"Did you think that I was an aberration when you met me?" I asked bluntly. "That was your first question to me in class."

"My Angel is dead-set on you being an aberration," Kliss confessed.

"But what about you?" I pressed.

"I think that you're a bright young man," Kliss said. "You remind me of myself five years ago. I buried myself at the Cessna Librarium studying arcane magic to bring up my level and to impress my Instructors. From what I read, an aberration is an incredibly hungry magical memory. The Imperium experimented on the few we had managed to capture. An aberrant ghost is defined by its greed, it would never share knowledge with another, even something as simple as that tiny lightning cloth trick."

“Good to know,” I smiled.

[+1 in Mana]

The System dinged as I sipped more of the wine. Hmmm… Mana-reloading drink! So, the rumors were true. I began to scan this wine with [Infoscope 1] to see if I could extrapolate how exactly it functioned.

I felt as Delta grabbed my shirt from the side. She tugged at it, trying to get my attention. I turned my head to her.

"Danger," Delta whispered in Russian, her silver-blue, panic filled eyes staring at something.

I turned my head away from my sister and looked at where she was looking at. At the same time I sent my Infoscopes forward.

There was some presence in the Astral. Something incredibly powerful and dangerous was there. Something that gave off a gnawing sense of pure terror to the [Astral Phantom] part of me. A predator was here, standing in plain daylight in front of us, concealed, cloaked with magic.

It was watching us, listening in on our conversation and now it had finally chosen to act. The Infoscopes suddenly detected the nothingness in the shape of a person approaching us. I saw that the back door of the pub leading downstairs was open. Someone had come up from the catacombs beneath Skyisle just as Mags brought us the wine!

"Don't move," a female voice said.

I saw her eyes first as the [Charisma-Invisibility] pulse around her fell.

One was brown, the other pale white, filled with a brilliant dancing ring of violet fire. Arch-Priestess of Ishira, Giovashi Incandictia appeared in front of our table.

The [Charisma] of her voice was infused with a blinding pulse of [LV 200+] magic. It suspended everything in the pub, froze all of its patrons. Like a tidal wave it washed across the dining room, washing my little LV 20 Infoscopes out of existence.

I found myself frozen, pinned to my seat like a butterfly that had been nailed to a display wall.

My muscles refused to move, no, my very soul became petrified, bound by her Charisma-infused words.

Damn it all!