~~~(Jared)~~~

"Why are you making a stop at the Enchanted Forest?" I ask.

Caleb ignores me, continuing to fiddle with the… I'm not actually sure what it is. Some sort of magical orb he's been enchanting the last few days, partly as a way to acquire a proper feel for his new level of power.

"Caleb," I say. "You know the nightmare that place is. The kaennikite mines, combined with the Enchanted Trees, pretty much neutralize magic and abilities. And from the way you were talking, we're not going around it, but in it."

What little he said on the matter of where we're going.

"Caleb?" Flame peeks in closely at the metal-and-crystal orb our leader's working on. "Is that a bomb?"

I jerk back the moment Flame asks that.

"Yes," Caleb answers.

"Why are you making a bomb?" Brooks yells. "And on an airship!"

"I'm blowing up the forest."

That's… one way to deal with it. I suppose it's his way of saying 'fuck you' to the forest and its residents, for what happened to us down there. Caleb's told us that those events didn't really change with the meddling to the past, which means we went through that nightmare in both versions of history.

Which sucks. Why couldn't that have been one of the things that changed?

"Considering that's a magical bomb," I say. "Won't the forest negate it?"

"No," Caleb answers. "Because I made it."

What does that have to do with anything? Enchanted Trees neutralize magic entirely. Actually, they suppress it, which would mean…

"Caleb," I say. "If we're caught in that blast, we're not existing anymore, are we?"

"Don't worry," he says. "Flame can just eat up any of the flames that come our way."

"Uh-uh!" Flame throws up his hands, scrambling back. "I'm not eating your magical bomb fire! That'll give me a stomachache!"

"So?"

"We're shielding!" Flame shakes his head. "I'm not eating those fires!"

"I'm even giving it a nice minty aftertaste for you," Caleb looks disappointed.

He's… giving fire an aftertaste? What in the actual fuck, Caleb?

"Let's run through the battle plan again," I say as Owen barges into a room.

"Who's making a bomb?" He asks.

"Caleb," Flame, Brooks, and I say in unison.

"Why?" He asks.

"I'm dropping it on the Enchanted Forest," Caleb responds.

"How close are we going to be to it?"

"We'll be flying just above the neutralization range," Caleb glances at him. "How long until we arrive?"

That's pretty damn close, Caleb. A bomb powerful enough to override the forest's properties will completely and entirely erase us from that distance. Not in a painful way, in an instant way.

"Eight minutes," Owen responds. "I didn't sign up to die."

"Flame's eating the fire that gets near us."

"I'm putting up shields!" Flame exclaims. "You should, too! I'm not eating magical bomb fire!"

"Maybe some other day," Caleb mutters, removing several of the magics from the bomb while rearranging a few others.

He really did make it so the fire would have a minty aftertaste.

"We'll have to hold off on the battle plan," Caleb looks at me.

"Battle plan?" Owen asks.

"I wanted," I say. "To review our plans for once we reach Norvara, the town."

We can't fly through those mountains, the crystals inside prevents it, so we'll have to walk through the trail until we reach the area we're looking for. Caleb doesn't know where it is, specifically, but we theorize it has to do with the mines themselves.

The trick will be convincing the company to allow us to inspect them. If the location we're seeking is in the mines, then the company will be highly resistant to having agents poking around.

"Yeah," Owen says. "We should probably wait until after Caleb does whatever we're heading to the Enchanted Forest for."

Owen returns to manning the ship as I think about how we're going to convince resistant people to allow us into the mines. Just before we reach the stopping point Caleb gave Owen when he changed our flight plans, Caleb shifts, then creates layer after layer of barriers around both the bomb and the ship, creating them so rapidly that I barely register it before I sense what's coming.

Then a wave of energy crashes into the ship. It's pure magic, though it doesn't seem like it's affecting anything too much, if at all. If we weren't magicians of a high caliber, we probably wouldn't have even sensed that.

"What was that?" Brooks frowns.

"Something bad," Caleb says.

"How bad?"

"The Second Great Calamity's begun."

"Then why are we not changing course?" I demand to know.

"We need to do this, first," Caleb says.

"Blowing up the fucking forest can wait!"

"What?" Caleb looks at me, confused. "We're going into the Ruins under the forest. Blowing up the forest is for good measure."

"What's so important in the Ruins that can't wait until after we stop the fucking Calamity?" I ask.

"A trapped god."

We're not getting a proper explanation out of him, are we?

Caleb grabs the bomb and calmly and leisurely walks to the deck, then to the edge of it, floating up into the air and a little bit past the edge, so that he's over the dead-center of the Enchanted Forest.

Then, he drops the bomb, and Flame hastily begins weaving barriers around the airship… which Caleb promptly dispels, a look of annoyance on his face.

"No barriers."

"We'll be blown to bits!"

"No, we won't."

"Yes, we will!" Flame exclaims. "That's a bomb, made by you! We're all gonna die!"

I watch as the bomb drops further and further, the powers of the trees negating, suppressing, and dissolving the spells woven into the orb.

Dissolving?

Why is the negation field dissolving the magics?

When the bomb is halfway to the ground, a wave of crimson energy erupts out of it, a swirling maelstrom of power, and it's only as it does that I realize what the bomb's design truly meant.

It's eating the very suppressing power of the Enchanted Trees to fuel its power. When the field extends, so too does the effect.

That's why Caleb's unconcerned with our safety. We aren't in danger. Flame's freaking out, and I suspect Caleb may have temporarily suppressed his powers so he can't make the barriers after dispelling the original ones.

In under two seconds, the entire negation field has been transformed into the crimson maelstrom, which fades seconds later, leaving nothing but a crater in the ground, a hole in the center of it, some sort of bluish light emitting from within.

"Oh," Caleb looks happy. "I made a new entrance into the Ruins!"

Using my draconic sight, I look for the mines' entrances, and notice that they, too, were ravaged by the storm.

"What… in the actual fuck?" Owen asks, and I look at him.

"The Rivers Suppression-Devouring Bomb just turned the Enchanted Forest into the Massive Crater."

"Suppression-Devouring?" Flame looks confused.

"My magical powers, senses, and knowledge," I look at him. "Are much, much weaker than yours. How in the actual fuck was I able to determine what it did while you didn't?"

"I-" Flame starts, then sighs. "Whatever. It was cool!"

"There could've been flames," Caleb tells him.

"I'm not eating magical bomb fires!" Flame exclaims.

Caleb shrugs, then plummets downwards, and we all rush to try to grab him, only realizing once he's closer to the hole that he's dropping himself.

"Into the Ruins!" I say.

"I'll land the ship," Owen says. "You guys go on ahead, and try to convince Caleb to wait for all five of us to be gathered."

I nod, then jump over the edge, plummeting downwards as fast as my magic will safely let me. As I descend, an actual, literal, fireball around two feet in diameter soars past me, and if my inner dragon's being honest…

That was Flame. He turned himself into an actual fucking fireball.

----------------------------------------

~~~(Caleb)~~~

Flame crashes into the barrier I manifested at the last moment, then collapses to the ground in a heap, back in his human form, clothes forming around him.

"Dangit!" He exclaims. "By the way, Owen said to wait for him to land the ship and join us."

"I was planning on it," I look into the hole. It's around ten feet in diameter, and has a hundred-yard drop to the glowing platform below. "Best if you four are with me for this."

It can be quite dangerous, depending on the Ruins' mood.

It takes about ten minutes for Owen to land the ship and erect some magical protections with Brooks, then for the two of them to join Flame, Jared, and me down here.

"So what's the plan?" Jared asks. "We're hunting down, then freeing, a god?"

"No," I answer. "Well, we might free him. We're actually here for his staff."

This god's not getting free. There's a reason he's trapped.

I jump down, landing in a roll. Once I'm at my feet, I wait for the others to join me, then start walking.

The floors, the walls, the ceilings, they're all made of magic circles glowing with a bluish light. Not a material formed into the magic circles, but of magic circles. We're walking on pure magic, surrounded by it.

I lead the team through several passages, descending deeper and deeper, grateful that, at least for now, the Ruins are in a good mood.

After nearly two hours of walking, we reach a chamber consisting of several magical circles surrounding another, central one, upon which stands aman in hisforties. At least, he appears to be there. He has dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, and watches us with a mix of amusement and confusion.

"It isn't every day," he says as I approach, my team staying back a bit. "That I receive visitors. And even rarer still are they children. And even rarer still are any of them possessing draconic blood that's awakened. To what do I owe the pleasure of your risk?"

"I wish to borrow your staff."

"No."

"Please."

"No," his face contorts in anger. "I will not be loaning my staff out to mortals. Especially not one with six Ancient Seals manifested within him, binding his powers and keeping them in check."

"Even if forbidding me from borrowing it," I say. "Could prevent another Great Calamity?"

"I don't care!" He snarls. "My staff is much too powerful for any mortal to possess, and much to dangerous for any dragon! Begone! Before I destroy the lot of you!"

He seems pretty arrogant. Is he aware that I have the power to blink him out of existence, should I choose to merge myself and utilize my full power, even with the Ancient Seals still in place? I hate gods from his era.

"Please don't."

That's a safer response.

"Caleb," Jared says. "We should probably retreat."

"No," I step forward. "We need the staff if we want to guarantee that we're ending the Second Great Calamity. It's already begun. We need the staff if we want to prevent the major effects from occurring and minimize damage, as well as ending it in a timely matter."

"Well, that sucks for you, doesn't it?" He laughs, a staff appearing in front of him.

It's only around five feet in height, and is made of a material that's a swirl of silver and gold. The ancient god grips it, then slams the butt of the staff into the magic circle, time freezing.

Well, things just went south. I glance at my teammates to confirm that they were affected by the freeze, then turn back to the god, who looks stunned.

"How are you not frozen?" He asks. "Even the son of Auriauror himself couldn't resist this power!"

The staff is a powerful staff of healing powers, but its actual purpose is to store the soul of a being who once bore the Primal Seal of Life, which one of my brothers now bears. The staff holds all of that man's powers and adds a 'living' component to any magic.

Including the ancient time god's power to halt time, making it nigh impossible for me to stop from happening or to shield my team from.

"The difference," I step forward. "Between my father and me is that I was fully aware of what could happen, and as I am, possess even more power than him. I am Lusvar Nomari, the Bringer of Light and Darkness. Would you like to know more differences?"

The time god continues to stare at me in shock and confusion.

"My father has less morals than me," I step forward, and the time god blasts me with a concentrated wave of time, which I smack to the side. "But I have suffered more than him. We have quite different standards. And you have threatened this world, which I care about deeply."

Thanks to the meddling with my past and all I have suffered, I am not the same kid I was a year ago. I will do what I must to protect everyone, even if it means pissing off an ancient god and stealing a staff that can only be given willingly or through death.

"Now give me the staff," I command.

The god finds himself stepping forward, before fighting my power as an Enchanter. He lost the Primordial Seal of Time a long time ago, as evidenced by the second-eldest of my brothers possessing it, but he's still a formidable foe. Even gods would be forced to bend to my will, with my new level of power.

The only downside is that they truly must have some level of desire to do what I command, or the effect doesn't work. He wants to give up the staff, yet at the same time, he doesn't. That's why he fights me.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Owning it earned him this prison, and giving it would allow him a chance at freedom. I could, of course, grant him the freedom he seeks. I do not, however. No, the freedom I will give him will be much more to my true preferences.

"You now see," I say. "That you have little power against me. We can strike a deal. Allow me to borrow the staff, as I initially requested, and break the six Ancient Seals binding my powers. When I return the staff to you, I will then release you from this prison. As my father and his allies bound you into this place, I will release you from those binds."

"You are not getting my staff, even temporarily!" He snaps at me. "No one shall ever claim it from me! Your power is worthless against me!"

Is he a walking cliché or something?

The time god waves the staff again, assaulting me with his magic, and I smack it to the side once more, slowly approaching him and deflecting attack after attack until I'm only a few feet away. He's walked back, until his back is against the magic circle's edge. He's bound into the central one, even if he can act on things outside of it and push his magic through.

"This is your final chance," I say. "To give me the staff willingly. If you do not, then I will end you and claim the staff from your corpse."

"You think you can kill a god?" He asks.

"What is a god," I say. "To a Bringer?"

He swings the staff, and I catch it with one hand. It will be impossible for me to simply wrest away from him or use it, but that doesn't matter. He attempts to use my contact with the staff to halt me in time, but at the same moment, I grab his arm and allow my power to flood into it, using his power flowing into the staff to act as a catalyst.

The ancient time god lets out a bloodcurdling scream as the essence of his soul rips out of his body, flowing with his power into the staff, his assault on me ending as soon as it began, leaving me unaffected.

With the previous owner dead, the staff is now mine to claim. I look at my allies, then tap the butt of the staff into the ground, the god's body vanishing as time unfreezes. My team collects themselves quickly, as any proper agent would.

They also look confused.

"Where's the god?" Jared asks.

"I killed him," I answer, and his jaw drops. "He refused to give me the staff, and attempted to kill us. He froze the four of you in time, then fought me when he realized his magic wouldn't work on me."

"So that staff," Flame says. "Freezes time? That's so cool! Isn't that like your brother's power?"

"That was his own magic," I shake my head as I approach my team. "The staff's power only altered it, making it impossible for me to shield the four of you from the time-freeze. The staff itself is a staff that manipulates life and rebirth. Sort of."

"Sort of?" Jared asks, and I shrug.

The explanation's hard to do, using mortal words.

"Anyway," I say. "We should probably leave. The Ruins aren't going to be happy that their prisoner died."

----------------------------------------

~~~(Jared)~~~

"Not happy is an understatement!" I yell. "The fucking ruins tried to fucking kill us, Caleb!"

"We made it out alright."

"Only because you were with us!" I yell. "Why didn't you just tell us to stay in the airship? We could've been killed so many times in there!"

"Would you have listened?" He asks, and I start to respond, then stomp off towards the ship, using the metals in the land around us to create a magnetic force to propel myself up.

The only reason we survived those Ruins is because Caleb was in there. Seriously. There was no reason for us to be in there. The fact that we wouldn't have listened to him doesn't matter! He could have bound us or something with his magic to stop us from following!

I mean, we'd be really mad at him, and-

"Argh!" I kick the ground, turning back in time to see the rest of the team joining us and Caleb… "Guys? Is it me, or is Caleb holding another bomb?"

"Is Caleb… what?" Brooks turns around, just in time for Caleb to drop a basketball-sized orb of glowing magics into the hole leading down into the Ruins. "Please tell me he didn't just-"

Caleb teleports next to us, then turns, counting down from seventy-eight under his breath as the rest of us run into the airship, Owen hurrying to power it back on and get it into flight. At some point, Caleb appears on the deck out back, watching the hole.

The moment he reaches 'zero', the ground is rocked by the explosion, a pillar of crimson magics blasting out of the hole as the world breaks around us.

"Hurry up!" I yell to Owen. "The ground's giving way!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" He tells me. "It takes five minutes to power this thing properly!"

Fucking hell! We're going to die!

I run outside and do my best to manipulate the ground beneath us to stop it from drawing us in as the Ruins collapse everything above it. Owen manages just as I start to lose control over the powerful forces of nature at work and the airship lifts up into the air, clearing us of the ground.

About fucking time! We seriously need an airship that doesn't take so long to get running. Five minutes is way too long if Caleb's going to be collapsing giant fucking holes in the ground that have millions of tons of earth above them, but under our ship! At least we could it in the air before then, even if it's gonna cause us problems until we can land it and properly boot it up.

Owen flies us above the collapsing land, and we wait for it to finish, which takes more than an hour, leaving a crater more than a hundred miles across, the crimson energies long faded.

"So," Caleb looks at me. "What happened to being in a hurry to getting us to Norvara to stop the Second Great Calamity?"

"What happened to letting us know," I say. "So we could get the ship off the ground before you collapse the Ruins?"

"We survived."

"Why didn't you bother helping me protect the ship?"

"I did," he says. "Your abilities were insufficient for the job, so I augmented them with my own power while also weaving my own protective magics to ensure we were safe. We were never in any danger."

Please go back to being quiet, timid, and extremely hesitant, will you?

----------------------------------------

~~~(Brooks)~~~

As Norvara finally draws into view, I notice that Flame's shifted over to Blaze, his black hair and grey eyes serious and determined. He knows how serious this mission is, and what could happen if we fail. We need the more merciful person here, so Flame allowed Blaze to take over, I'm sure.

Caleb won't allow the staff to leave our sight. He's assured us that only he can use it, unless he truly willingly gives it up to someone else or someone kills him. It still makes me nervous, though, as he's mentioned that the power of the staff can instantly kill someone.

Which he proved before telling us that, which scared all of us. We were attacked by a flock of griffins, and Caleb waved the staff in the air. The result was a black wave of energy that tore through the griffins, which promptly died.

It wasn't as if something killed them, though. Their lives simply ended. No damage to them, other than their lives… ending? I guess that's all I can explain it as.

Flame quietly told me after that he thinks the new Caleb is awesome. I told him that Caleb's kind of scary. I kind of miss the quiet Caleb, but after the losses he's suffered, I can't blame him for being colder and more merciless. More unyielding.

Killing a god…

To have that kind of power makes him a terrifying being. The four of us agreed that we need to keep an eye on him, just in case he starts going over the edge a bit more. He's lost so many of his brothers, and after just seeing them, too. And the one who stuck around for awhile ended up dying when he was there, and Caleb failed to rescue another.

When we land the airship, a slightly-older version of Caleb awaits us on the ground, his eyes violet, the same violet Caleb's eyes turn when he uses magic.

It's not whenever he uses heavy magics, anymore, but whenever he uses magic, ever. Even the slightest spell causes it, it seems.

This must be one of his brothers, meaning that the entire team has now met one. I don't think he's Nikvar, the one who did… that, to Flame. His outfit's different than the one my brother encountered.

This one wears a pair of shorts that are forest green in color with swirls of dark reds and greens, and nothing else, a violet marking on his sternum. It doesn't read 'bringer of magic', as Flame said Nikvar's did. I don't recognize these runes.

"Bringer of Life?" Blaze looks at the brother curiously as we step off of the airship.

"Yes," Caleb approaches his brother. "Blaze, remove your jacket, shirt, and tank."

"Why?" Blaze asks.

"Just do it."

Blaze frowns, but complies as Caleb hands his brother the staff.

"What's going on?" I put a hand on my brother's shoulder. His good one. "Caleb, I'm not liking this."

"Tauiu," Caleb says. "Is the Bringer of Life. He possesses an Ancient Seal. Unlike my six, his doesn't bind his power, but rather, amplifies his natural abilities and bestows him more."

Removing the tops.

Oh.

"Ah," Blaze says. Flame would probably be confused, but Blaze isn't Flame. He understands things easier. "Nikvar told Flame it wasn't possible."

"Normally," Tauiu says. "It wouldn't be. However, with the staff and my Primordial Seal of Life, it might be possible."

Blaze nods, stepping forward. A light of silver and gold envelopes Tauiu as he takes on a more draconic experience, violet scales shimmering with gold forming on his upper torso and sides, a tail extending out from above his rear, a pair of horns curving in and back from the sides of his head.

Just like how Flame described the brother who gave him his power.

Tauiu extends a hand, silver and gold light flowing out of it and into Blaze, wrapping around him and his stump. The light continues to flow for several minutes, Caleb's brother's face tightening in concentration, though he eventually stops, sighing as the light fades away.

"It didn't work," Tauiu returns the staff to Caleb. "I'm sorry. I'll work on figuring out how to do it."

"It's nothing to worry about," Caleb shrugs. "If all else fails, I'll probably be able to do it once these seals are broken on me."

So my brother's going to have to live without an arm for awhile. At least he tried, then. I didn't realize that Caleb didn't actually possess the power right now. I know the others thought he could, too, so this probably shocked all of us.

He's not as powerful as we thought.

"I'll be off," Tauiu salutes to Caleb as my brother pulls his tops back on. "Give Father my best."

Teacher's going to be here, isn't he? A power like that would definitely have gotten his attention.

Caleb nods, and his brother turns to a golden glow, then fades away. With the draconic being gone, we make our way into the town. No one seemed to have noticed the lightshow, which indicates that Caleb probably threw up a barrier of some sort.

"Let's head to the hotel," Caleb says. "We can check in tonight, then head to Ground Zero in the morning."

"Shouldn't we try to stop the Calamity today?" I ask as another pulse of power washes over us.

"No," Caleb answers. "It's best to wait a bit and get some rest than to rush in now while we're exhausted. The only thing that our rest will do is cause a few more adverse reactions by its magics before we stop it. The real test will be while we're inside, since magic and existence will be warped in there."

That doesn't sound good, Caleb.

"Plus," he adds. "We need to prepare the four of you so that you can actually withstand the warped existence."

----------------------------------------

~~~(???)~~~

"Good afternoon," Mr. Davis greets me as I leave the apartment above his shop. "Sleep well?"

He's an older man, in his fifties, with grey hair and dark brown eyes. He runs a small store in a town called Norvara, though it's a pretty quiet place. Both the shop and the town. It's comfortable, and things are slow. I like the pacing.

"Yes, sir," I dip my head to him. "Thank you."

"Have you remembered anything?"

"No, sir," I respond. "Did you buy more cleaner?"

"No," he answers. "I was planning on picking it up after I closed this evening."

"I'll go buy it," I tell him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," I nod.

"Thank you," he says, handing me his business credit card. "You know which one, right?"

"Yes, sir," I nod. "I should be back in twenty minutes or so."

Mr. Davis nods, then I leave and start walking down the street. He's been generous enough to allow me to stay here as I try to remember who I am. They found me a few months ago, a few hours after I woke in the forest outside of town. I was just wandering around it, trying to catch my bearings as I figured out what was going on.

The only memories I have are few and rare between, and very short, sometimes, just glimpses into whatever life I had before. A long, long time before, when I was a really, really little boy. It was some sort of orphanage, I think?

I'm not sure, and thinking about it confuses me.

Weaving some light between my fingers, I watch as the illusion forms, a pale blue butterfly fluttering around as I continue walking, my illusion staying in front of me.

Whoever I was, I dealt with light magics enough to make it instinctive. At least, it might be magics, but it could also be an Ability, making me a Superhuman instead of a magician. They aren't very sure, though the company that runs the mines tested me, and said that, oddly, I'm registering as a magician.

The reason it's odd is because my magic works differently from other magics. No magic circles, no catalysts, no chanting. Nothing of the sort, making it seem like it's an Ability, as I can simply trigger it. From what they said, only Abilities allow someone to simply manifest power like this.

As my illusory butterfly continues to flutter around me, a group of boys around fourteen walk into view. More weird visitors, though at least they're speaking Common, unlike the two who were here yesterday.

Those two were especially strange, and they spoke a weird language that sounded oddly familiar. No one else seemed to notice them, so I thought maybe I imagined them. Or maybe I was seeing through an illusion.

Since I make them, that's plausible, right? Especially with one of the boys who came into view.

One of the current visitors has blue hair and matching eyes, and unless he's dying his roots and eyebrows and eyelashes, it's his natural color. My eyes are sharp enough to notice it. Much sharper than others here, making us wonder if I'm fully human, or have a bit of something else in me. I think he has water, ice, and stone magics, based on this sense of mine.

I seem to be able to sense magics and Superhumans, based on my encounters with a few from the company, and can even tell what their Abilities or general form of power takes. It seems to be mostly accurate, the company told me. I wasn't wrong at all when they tested me, at any rate.

One of the other boys has a staff strapped to his back, with platinum-blond hair and electric blue eyes. He's the tallest of the team, and when I see him, I instinctively know he possesses electric and lightning powers. A Superhuman, likely?

The boy with soft-looking brown hair and emerald green eyes has some sort of power to do with metal, a sense supported by the fact that he's wearing bits of metal around his body and attached to his uniform.

They're all wearing identical uniforms, except for the boy missing an arm, whose uniform lacks the arm to it as well. That boy has black hair and dark grey eyes with a dangerous, deadly intensity within them. He has powers over fire and air, I think.

Their uniforms possess the lettering for the GDDF, though I'm not sure what that is. The people here told me about the GSDF and the GMDF, but they never told me of another. Their uniforms are similar, too, though have violet on them instead of the blue or green or whatever it was the others had.

The fifth boy in the party seems to have a different rank from the others, since the emblem for his is different. I don't know what it is, though, so I'm not sure if he's higher or lower than them. He also resembles the male visitor from yesterday, which is why I'm thinking that wasn't me imagining things.

Not unless I'm imagining these boys, too.

That boy is a little bit shorter than the others, so probably thirteen, but he might just be a short fourteen, too. He has blond hair, blue-grey eyes that sparkle like the ocean with three concentric circles linked together within them. In his right hand, he holds a staff made of some sort of silver and gold material, my eyes unable to discern any seams separating the two swirled colors.

His powers are phenomenal. My sense for powers won't read him properly at all, he's that powerful. He's containing it within him tightly, and it makes something within me reel back in fear. He's absolutely terrifying.

There's something else in him, too. Something that resonates within me, a force of power much, much more primal than what I can sense. It calls to me for a few seconds, and then it's gone.

Maybe I imagined it?

Shaking my head, I resume my walk to the general store and enter, grabbing a basket and making my way to the cleaning aisle. I grab a gallon jug of the concentrated window cleaner and set it into the basket, then continue looking around.

I'm stronger than other people say I should be. I don't give at all with the weight of the gallon. It's light to me, but I see other people actually need to use their muscles when lifting such things.

I reach the sponges and grab a pack of those, adding them to the basket. We're nearly out of them, and I'm sure Mr. Davis would have no issue with me grabbing them before he runs out. The cleaner for the counters is nearly out, so I grab another gallon of that and set it in the basket.

The things I came here for chosen, I make my way to the snacks section and look around. After grabbing a couple of packs of chocolate, I walk over to the cookies and grab two packages of some strawberry cookies.

They're really delicious, and I think I liked them before I lost my memory. Something about them feels wrong, though. Well, something about eating them. Like there's someone else who's supposed to be there, that I'm supposed to eat them with.

It frustrates me, not being able to remember, but there's nothing I can do about it. My memory's simply not there, so there's no use getting frustrated.

After remembering that, I take a few breaths, then make my way to the counter and check out, making sure to separate my snacks from the stuff for the store. Best to keep them separate when paying, since those are being paid with the business card and my snacks with some of the cash Mr. Davis has paid me for my help.

Taking my purchases, I leave, passing by the black-haired, grey-eyed boy who showed up on my way out. Something in me recognizes him, but I don't know what. This is a weird feeling, and I know I don't recognize this boy.

He gives me a disturbingly analytical look, as if he's piecing together every part of me and looking into me, and I hurry out.

----------------------------------------

~~~(Blaze)~~~

As I make my way to enter a local general goods store, someone around a year my age is leaving. He's carrying two gallon jugs of cleaners in his hands, with candy, a box of crackers, and a pack of sponges in his arms.

I grab the door and let him out. He looks pretty familiar, like he could be Kieran, but his scent's wrong and his hair's blond, not black, and his eyes are pure-gold, not blue. So weird. My dragon doesn't react the way that it normally does to Kieran, either. It just rests there, watching.

Golden Boy's dragon does the same thing.

He shifted uncomfortably, then hurries out the door and past me. Jerk. Kieran would've at least muttered a 'thank you' for that. I bid you a thousand days of misfortune.

Taking my gaze off of Golden Boy, I enter the general goods store and look around. Curse this body and its desire for sweets, there's almost nowhere in town that has them and I'm craving them. If I'm not careful, Flame will let loose, and we need to be on our edge.

We don't want him coming out, which will happen if our life is truly in danger, which might happen if Flame's active as we try to stop the Second Great Calamity from occurring.

So with a stomach craving sweets, I look at the store's section. The other shops told me this place has the biggest selection. Noting a few things that I can definitely go with, I head to the front and grab one of their green-and-beige carrying baskets for shopping, then return.

Chocolate-covered cookies, those strawberry cookies that Caleb likes, cookies with fig filling, two quarts of ice cream (one vanilla, and then Caleb's preferred minty strawberry chocolate, which I'm surprised a backwoods place like this would have), and a gallon of orange juice.

I head up to the counter to pay and set everything out.

"Cookies, huh?" The cashier asks as he starts scanning. Older, probably around fifty-two, with grey hair and nearly-black eyes. Cataract in his left eye. Former military based on his shoulders and the rest of his build. Aura tightly contained. Former GSDF, likely. "You know, the kid who just left a minute ago got some of these, too."

"I'm aware," I state. "Unlike him, I'd prefer my purchases in bags."

"Right," the clerk responds, sorting things into bags. Ice cream into one bag, the rest of the snacks into the other. He taps the juice after he scans it. "And the juice?"

"I'll carry that," I pull out my card and swipe it through their reader.

The clerk hands me my receipt, and I place that and my card in my wallet, grab the two bags in one hand and gallon in the other, and leave.

As I'm walking to the hotel, my dragon growls in fear, snarling and reacting to the presence of something very, very powerful and very, very dangerous.

Based on the smell of one of them, Teacher is here. I turn my head and find him walking down the street with a girl who looks around the same age as him. He's dressed in a dark blue hoodie with a strange, thirteen-pointed star on the back, black jeans, and black boots, his hands tucked into his pockets.

She has on a dark green summer dress and a pair of matching flats, along with fair skin, dark brown hair, and emerald eyes.

Both of them are the source of this power. We were right in that Teacher would show up after Caleb and Tauiu attempted to heal me.

However, they're walking in the same direction Golden Boy went, not the hotel, which is odd.

It's best if I chose not to follow them, however, so I don't, instead making my way back to the hotel. Owen is in the shower, Jared is cleaning some of the metal bits he keeps on him, Brooks is reading a file on a tablet, and Caleb is sitting at on the couch, eating Eastern food. Several containers are scattered across the table in front of him, along with a glass of lemonade and a pitcher of it.

"I told you I would be back," I state.

"I know," he tells me, setting his chopsticks back into the box he was eating noodles out of. "But you were taking awhile, and I-"

He stops and sniffs, his gaze narrowing.

"How close were they, and where were they?" He asks.

"Who?" I ask.

"Teacher and the Scribe."

His nose is as sharp as always.

"They were walking away from us," I state. "And on the other side of the street. They didn't seem interested in us, probably having already investigated things. Who is the Scribe?"

"Teacher's cousin, in a way," he answers. "Like him, she's the child of a Dragon of Creation. Two, to be precise, though she isn't immortal. Not any less so than him, at any rate. She oversees the past."

"The past?" Brooks asks.

"Yes," Caleb answers. "The past. It is likely that they're aware of the situation brewing with the Second Great Calamity about to occur. Unfortunately, they cannot enter the mountain, but that doesn't mean they won't be attempting to prevent too much chaos. Since they're aware ahead of time, we can assume they're here to help mitigate the damage. Now. Set the snacks down and put the OJ in the fridge. I'm finishing dinner, then we can have the snacks."

If she oversees the past, does that mean she remembers the old past, too? And that she knows who changed history?

Was she the one who changed history?

"I'm only waiting if you let me eat some of that," I tell him. "Our body really likes sweets, and it currently possesses a strong craving for them."

"Sure," he says.