We were eating breakfast when Mahya asked me, her voice casual but thoughtful, “You think you can get the RV back from your core?”
“I think so, but why?” I raised an eyebrow, pausing mid-bite.
“I hoped to get an offer after I finished the blueprint, but nothing.” She shrugged, a hint of frustration in her tone. “Maybe, if I actually convert the RV, with a core and everything, I’ll get an offer. I don’t think doing another Jeep will do the trick. I mean, I got the Magicaneer after the boat, motorcycles, and the ATV. So, variety is the name of the game here.” She leaned back with a distant look.
“But if you add a core to it, the first time my house absorbs it, it will eat the core.” I shot her a warning look, imagining the RV disappearing into the house.
“No.” Mahya shook her head with confidence. “I will simply remove and store it. Unlike the rest of the stuff, I won’t bury the core deep. I’ll put it in a place with easy access.” She leaned forward, pointing her fork for emphasis. “This way, we can either have your house on wheels, or you can leave your house open; I replace the core, and we have a vehicle on top—a win in my book.” She gave a quick, satisfied nod, clearly happy with her solution.
“Yeah, OK. Makes sense.” I nodded, still chewing on the thought as much as my breakfast.
Well, it felt like déjà vu. For the second time, we took the RV apart. This time, Al helped us, so it went faster, at least. We finished taking it apart in five days. Mahya didn’t want my help with the engraving, hoping it would help her get the class faster.
Al told me in the morning, his voice casual, “I am going to visit a friend. Send me a message if you need me.”
“No problem.” I gave him a quick nod, already distracted by the tasks I had to handle.
After finding Oxford Assaying & Refining in Anchorage, I sold a hundred gold coins and went on an Internet shopping spree. I bought all the available coins by weight from eBay and then ordered fabrics, perfume, makeup, 5,000 sunglasses, and some other best sellers from Alibaba in China.
Mahya came to me, her tone businesslike. “Do you have crystals?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
I opened my new Inventory. “482.”
She showed me a circle about the size of a plum with her fingers and said, “I need five crystals this size and a few smaller ones for light fixtures. You know the size.” She made a slight gesture, like it was apparent. “I also need the standard Purify and Void crystals for the toilet, Fire crystals for cooking and heating, and Ice for the fridge and the AC.”
I frowned. “I’m not sure I have enough.”
She handed me a bowl filled with various crystals. “Those are from the green sharks. If it’s not enough, Al should have some.” Her voice was matter-of-fact, but I could see a glint of excitement in her eyes.
“I think it will be enough. If not, I’ll text and ask him,” I replied, glancing at the bowl before storing it.
It took me three days to sort out Mahya’s crystal order by size. The regeneration on Earth was awful compared to Lumis, so I had to stop and actively regenerate while casting Absorb Mana to speed things up. Then, it took me another full day to apply the correct aspects, constantly battling the crystals along the way.
This experience reaffirmed in my mind how much I hate working with aspects. I read quite a few books about them and would continue learning them to recognize them in spells, but I decided I wouldn’t try to build spells with aspects. Magic script was much more fun.
After thinking about it for a while, I applied Lis’s method: I had the magic knowledge; I needed the engineering knowledge, or more precisely, programming logic or computational thinking. A search in my library turned up two promising books. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold and Programming Logic and Design, Comprehensive by Joyce Farrell.
Before returning to school, I took a week to drive to the major cities of Alaska and visit tableware manufacturers. I bought all the stock they would sell, intending to engrave runes in my downtime.
After returning, I studied earnestly and applied everything to working with magic script and runes. It took me a month, but I had seven spell marbles planned out. I couldn’t write the actual runes or symbols, so I copied Mahya’s method and wrote their names on the blueprints. My original plan included marbles for snakes, herbivores, and predators (claws, fangs, etc.). Later, I added one for unknown creatures that relied heavily on imitating the Appraisal skill to locate the valuable stuff, and potential spell marbles for the Clean, Purify, and Mana Shield for Mahya.
During this time, Al popped in occasionally to check on us, and when he saw we were busy, he disappeared again.
When Mahya finished the RV, we did the ritual to connect her to the core and the core to the RV, and I was right! After removing the core, there was no problem “feeding” it to the house so it could pretend to be the RV. When the RV was ready, Mahya got an offer for the class Arcane Mechanist for five ability points. She whooped and jumped for an entire minute when she got it.
To celebrate her and Al’s achievements, we went to a club to party. The club was buzzing with neon lights flashing around like they had a life of their own. It felt as if the heavy bass was shaking my ribcage. The place was packed, the air thick with sweat, perfume, and alcohol. Al showed up with his friend Kevin, and of course, in true Al fashion, the guy was massive—big enough to lift the DJ booth with one hand if he felt like it.
Mahya and I hit the dance floor, letting the music do its thing. Every now and then, she’d throw her head back and laugh, the kind of laugh that cut through the noise even with the bass pounding. Meanwhile, Al and Kevin practically glued themselves to each other, sharing drinks and laughing.
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Mahya and I had fun dancing and drinking until she picked up a guy she liked. I decided to be a Roman in Rome and also pick up a woman. I caught the eye of a woman across the room. She smiled, and that was all the invitation I needed. The crowd seemed to open up just enough for me to make my way over. After that, the night blurred into a mix of music, lights, and faces I probably wouldn’t remember the next day.
Some people gave me sideways glances for picking up a more mature woman, but I wasn’t inclined to explain that despite looking 20, I was over 50. It was nobody’s business, and they wouldn’t have believed me, anyway.
Angela was a fun lady, and I spent the entire week with her while she was in Anchorage. More precisely, she spent the days with the two friends she came to Anchorage with and the nights with me. I had a lot of fun with her and felt myself totally relaxed. After all, I was on an endless vacation. I even gave one of Al’s “endurance” potions a second chance. It turned out that in the right circumstances, they were pretty awesome.
Two days after Angie left, I jolted awake in the dead of night. The floor beneath me trembled violently, and the bed shifted, scraping across the hardwood floor with a low, grinding sound. My heart raced as I clutched the edges of the mattress, the quake rattling the walls and sending knick-knacks toppling from the shelves. A low rumble filled the air, like the growl of some unseen beast deep within the earth.
The floor buckled under me as the quake hit full force. The sound was deafening—a low, rumbling roar that drowned out everything else. I could hear the creak of the walls straining under the pressure, dishes rattling in the cupboards, and the windows vibrating as if they were about to shatter. Each aftershock sent a jolt through the room, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was me or the ground shaking.
Glasses in the kitchen clinked together like wind chimes caught in a storm, and I could hear the distant crash of something heavy falling downstairs. For a second, I just lay there, trying to steady my breathing, but when the bed lurched another half-meter, I scrambled out of it and bolted for the door, my feet slipping on the trembling floor.
By the time I got downstairs, the shaking had stopped. It was eerily quiet, the aftermath of chaos lingering in the air. My heart still pounded as I spotted Mahya kicking the couch in frustration.
She was muttering, “Stupid, idiotic, moronic, annoying earthquakes. Useless, mind-numbing, pointless, nerve-wracking tremors.” She punctuated each curse with a kick at the couch, her frustration growing with every hit. She broke the back of the couch, her foot got stuck in it, and she almost fell.
I laughed, and she glared at me for a second, her eyes narrowing in annoyance. Then she tried to dislodge her foot from the couch, stumbled slightly, and almost fell again before bursting into laughter. “I hate those quakes!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration.
“You had them before?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, still catching her breath. “After your second visit, we had two, day after day. This one was stronger.”
I checked my phone for news. It took a while, but I finally found a site reporting a 5.2-magnitude quake in Anchorage.
“We should leave,” I said, glancing around nervously. “I don’t want to be here for the waves.”
“Yeah, me neither,” she agreed, her voice tense. She sighed, brushing a hand through her hair. “I wanted to work up to the classes I wanted, but I think leaving is better. At least the Guidance offered them for full price, so I unlocked the option. I’ll just have to work harder to get them elsewhere.”
“I’ll contact Al in the morning,” I said.
She nodded and went back up the stairs to bed.
Rue lifted his head from the couch, his ears twitching, and announced, “Rue think shaking nice. Like ear scratching all over Rue.” He thumped his tail lazily against the cushion.
I laughed, reaching over to scratch his ears. “You’re a strange one, buddy,” I muttered, shaking my head. Then I headed upstairs and went back to bed.
I didn’t have to text Al in the morning. He showed up while we were having breakfast, grabbed a roll from the table, and pointed it at Mahya, his expression serious. “We should leave. The last quake was much stronger,” he said, flopping into a chair as though the weight of the quake pushed him down.
“We were about to call you about it,” I said, glancing at him.
“Good,” Al replied, nodding firmly. “When are we leaving? I do not wish to be here for the waves.”
“We’ll finish breakfast; I need to store a few things. You call Melinda to return the keys, and we can leave,” Mahya said, her tone practical as she sipped her coffee.
“Umm,” I hesitated, scratching the back of my neck. “I still have about 50,000 dollars to spend. We won’t be coming back here, so I want to spend everything.”
Mahya shot me a look, raising an eyebrow. “Go spend your money fast and come back. We’re leaving today,” she said, her voice leaving no room for debate.
It took me half a day to burn through the money, and honestly, I knew exactly why I was in such a rush—I wanted out of here more than anyone. I just wanted to ensure I cleared every last dollar before we left.
My first stop was the tech store. I loaded up on laptops, tablets, and anything else that looked useful. I saw a couple of extra monitors and thought, “Why not?” So, I tossed them in the cart. There was no point in holding back—it was not like we were coming back here anytime soon.
Next up, pawn shops. I have always loved digging through random junk. I found some decent jewelry and haggled for the skill upgrade. The guy at the counter didn’t care—he knew I was up to something, but as long as he got his cut, it didn’t matter.
The jewelry store was the last real stop. I bought rings and earrings and spent most of the money there.
Finally, standing outside an Italian restaurant, I was down to the last thousand bucks. The smells of fresh pizza and garlic were terrific, so I ordered a ridiculous amount of food to spend the rest. As I waited, watching people rush around, I felt it. This was it. I wasn’t coming back here. The previous time we left, I didn’t have this sense of finality. Now I did.
When I returned, they were waiting for me, and Mahya tapped her foot impatiently, her arms crossed. I lowered the window and asked, “Do you need to do something, or can we just go?”
“We are ready,” Al answered, standing by the door, looking eager to leave.
“Okay! So hop in, and let’s leave this place once and for all.” I turned to Rue in the back. “Rue, move to the cargo space, buddy. Nobody can sit beside you. You’re too big.”
“Yes boss!” Rue announced, his tail wagging as he hopped over the back seat. I was so glad the Grand Wagoneer had a spacious cargo space, especially with the third row folded down.
I drove us to Chugach State Park, where we found a secluded spot to store the Jeep. After taking out the ATV, Mahya’s eyes widened, and she exclaimed, “What did you do to my baby?!”
“Rue got too big. I had to,” I said, shrugging.
She lifted the duvet covering the floor, inspecting my makeshift solution with the aluminum sheet. After a moment, she nodded in approval. “Excellent solution.”
Before crossing the Gate, I looked back one last time. This time, I knew, deep down to my bones, I would never return here. Closing my eyes, I whispered a final goodbye to Sophie and my mother. The trees, mountains, and the lake in the distance all seemed to watch in silence as I sent out a prayer to the Guiding Spirits, asking them to protect this place and its people in the days to come.
A slight clench of guilt tightened in my gut as I turned away, but I knew the truth: my staying wouldn’t make a difference. The cosmos stretched before me, and it was time to embrace what lay ahead. With a deep breath, I stepped through the Gate to Lumis, feeling a weight lift from my shoulders. I wasn’t running away anymore—I was moving toward something new.