Chapter 77: Loose Ends

Chapter 77: Loose Ends

Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Valterion System; Nua; Alburgh; Valterion Mansion

When I finish my story of traveling here, my parents look at me in a mixture of awe and concern. Now when I look back at it, I have to say, there were a few close calls and I acted very risky sometimes.

“I can’t believe that you grabbed the receptionist of one of your hotels as your magical guide,” Dad chuckles. “That’s nothing against Lydia, she’s a fine young woman, but still. For me, the thought is just ridiculous.”

“As long as you don’t say that to her face, I’m fine with that. But that also shows just how bad my magical education was.”

“True enough, we also should remind our allies that not every random red-haired person is a Valterion Envoy.”

That makes us all laugh, and we continue to talk about my story for a long time. It took way longer than I expected, and it’s already getting dark again. Maja returns to the guesthouse to join the others and I promise to come over tomorrow morning. Then my parents take me out to eat in a fancy Italian restaurant. The chef tells us a story about the origins of pizza, and I decide to follow his advice and try out the original Pizza Napoletana. Just dough, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. Best decision ever! It’s the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.

After that, we return home and before I go to sleep, Dad pulls me aside. “I’m sorry Sara, but duty calls… I have to leave tomorrow and work as the Duke again. I try to visit as often as possible though. Oh and feel free to call or jump by anytime. You have the magical power now,” he smirks, “I’ll have Arnold send all the coordinates and clearance codes to Maja.”

He hugs me and he whispers in my ear. “I love you, Sara. I’m so glad that you are back.”

The next morning comes quickly and when I join Mom for breakfast, I notice that Dad is already gone. “Morning, sweetie!” Mom calls out with a big grin.

“Morning”, I call back and sit down at the table. “So, what are you going to do today?”

She shrugs. “A bit of this and that, I’m not that important when it comes to ruling the Duchy. Especially in those relatively peaceful times, Dan is more than enough.”

“Peaceful? Didn’t you tell me that my brother is fighting a war?”

“Yeah, but that’s nothing. Just some minor squabbles. You’ve seen the recordings from Earth before me. That was a war.”

I shrug. “Okay, if you say so…” We continue eating, then I remember something. “Oh, by the way, would Doctor Philipps be able to fix Greg's arm and give my other friends an awakening core if they want?”

Mom immediately nods with a big grin on her face. “Of course, he can. Miranda and I were wondering how long it takes you to ask. You just won me a shopping trip at her expense.”

Uhh, okay… I guess Miranda has her own account at the bank. It’s probably just fun between the two of them, but now I wonder what Miranda would have won. “Soo, let’s say Miranda had won, what would she have gotten?”

“I wasn’t quite sure yet. I can’t decide between new guns for the Sulfira or my own body just like Maja… Though the body has so many downsides that basically no one does it today, but seeing Maja walk around… I kinda want to experience this too.”

“Why don’t you just try it out? If you can afford a shopping trip for Mom, why not a body?” I wink at Mom, and she grimaces. “As for the downsides, I’m sure, you’ll figure out a way.”

“Thanks, Sara! I think I’ll just do it.”

Mom grins and leans back. Her plate and utensils automatically float back to the kitchen. “Alright then. You have fun with your friends, and I take care of getting Marcus. He should be out of prison by now. I’ll make a few appointments with Doctor Philipps along the way. Oh, and I’ve talked with your father… You can tell your friends about your new power if you want. Just tell me if you do so, and I’ll cast a Binding spell on them… We can’t be careful enough with this information. See you in the afternoon.” She vanishes before I can say anything else, leaving me alone in the house.

Binding spell? Just like what she did with the prison director? I guess I have to ask her later…

When I finish eating, Clara takes care of my stuff as well and I stand up to leave the house. “Thanks, Clara!”

“You’re welcome, have a nice day.”

The walk to the guesthouse is a short one so I stroll over and knock at the door. A short moment later, a small, middle-aged man opens up. He wears a broad smile upon seeing me and waves me in. “You must be Miss Sara, come in, come in. The others told me a lot about you. I’m Steven, the head of Staff, and well, besides the cook the only staff currently.” He chuckles and I immediately like him.

The inside looks quite similar to my parent’s house. The only difference is that there are a lot more rooms for people to sleep in. Steven leads me to the dining room, where my friends are currently eating breakfast. “I’ll leave you guys alone, call me if you need anything,” Steven tells me while already turning around. I say goodbye to him and fully step into the room.

“Hi there,” I wave and sit down with them at the table.

“Sara! Welcome back,” Lydia is the first to answer, probably because she’s already finished with eating.

Jack almost chokes on his pancake when he wants to say hi as well and I chuckle silently. “So how have you guys been,” I ask around innocently. I’m not sure if Maja told them about my power-up, but I’ll see soon.

“Really? That’s the first thing you do? Ask us about our boring lives?” Lucy asks with a bit of false annoyance, and I grin. There is my answer.

“So Maja couldn’t keep quiet?” I glare at her a bit and she just shrugs.

“I only told them that you visited a magic Doctor, nothing else.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll start, but I still want to hear what you’ve been up to. So, my parents noticed that something was wrong with my magic and took me to visit Doctor Philipps…”

I continue to tell them about my visit to the Doctor’s while everyone else finishes their breakfast as well.

Simon is the first out of his chair. “I knew you were more powerful than me! So what level are you at now? Master? Must be with your Space Sense.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, Master is spot on, but that’s not all. I’m now going to tell you something that must stay secret at all costs for now. But I still trust you guys, so I won’t leave you in the dark. Mom wants to cast a spell on you though, that enforces that secrecy… Are you sure that you still want to hear it?”

I let that statement hang in the air for a moment until everyone nods. Lucy even calls out. “Hell yeah, I want to know! And you can trust us,” she shrugs. “If the spell does nothing else, who cares?”

I smile back at them, happy that I can finally tell them. “Good, so when my Space core returned to its original power, it ate up my Utility core…”

Lydia gasps, she’s the fastest one to catch the significance of what I just said. “But… That… That would make you an Archmage!?”

“Yeah, I’m some kind of Archmage now, but I still can’t use A&D magic, so yeah, it’s strange and never happened before. I don’t even know yet if I’m stronger than a normal Mage at Master level due to my Archmage boost, but we’ll see.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This causes another discussion, but in the end, everyone congratulates me. “Now it’s your turn, though. What have you guys been up to?”

Thomas starts. “Well, we visited the city, just like we said. It’s amazing, let me tell you. Alone the culinary experience? Unbelievable!”

I give him a thumbs-up. “Oh, I agree, I was eating at an Italian restaurant yesterday, it was Amazing!”

“True enough, but that’s not all. Movie theaters offer a fully immersive experience, I can’t even describe it… You just have to see it with your own eyes. Oh, and the magical league of Gravity Ball… This is something else. The only bad thing was that you weren’t with us…”

“Ah, don’t worry, we have enough time to catch up. Was there anything else?”

Shay looks a bit uncomfortable until Thomas grabs her hand and gives a little squeeze of reassurance. She takes a deep breath. “Yeah…, Maja told us about your parents’ plan to send you to magical college, and this got us thinking…”

Oh, that sounds a bit ominous.

“We,” she indicates Thomas and herself, “don’t have any plans of going to such an academy… That’s why we looked around in the city and somehow ended up in the Peacekeepers’ recruitment office. That’s the military.” She takes another breath while I just stare.

They want back to the military! Wow, I didn’t expect that. But still, it kinda makes sense… They don’t know much besides military life. I slowly nod.

“So yeah, Thomas and I dropped in our names and will join them shortly. When we told the others, Simon decided to join as well, so it will be the three of us. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you earlier, but I hope you understand.”

I continue nodding. “Yeah, I do… It just comes so suddenly. But I do want you to be happy, so if it’s the Peacekeepers, I won’t hold you back.”

Shay sighs in relief, and then I continue. “But I do want an invitation to your marriage,” I nod toward their clasped hands, and they quickly release in shock.

Thomas sputters something incomprehensible and everyone else just laughs. I turn to Simon. “Keep a good eye on them.”

He nods. “I will.”

Now it’s Jack's turn to look uncomfortable. “Well, if we’re already at it, I’ll just say it as well… College is… I don’t think it is for us either. He indicates Alex, Greg, and himself.”

Greg interrupts him. “Yeah, you can guess why,” He smiles softly. “And you can also guess why the military isn’t for us either. So we’re not completely sure yet, but we probably want to transform MARA Deliveries into a real company and enter the transportation sector.”

That’s… cool? I mean heck yeah, MARA Deliveries for the win, but that’s another three of my friends leaving… I don’t want to visit college all alone.

I force a smile, it comes a bit harder now, but I don’t think anyone notices. I still want everyone to be happy after all. “Great! I completely understand that Greg, I also have a little surprise for you later,” I wink at him, then turn to the last three of my friends. Lydia, Lucy, and Ronja. “What about you guys.”

Lydia is all smiles. “Get me a core and I’m with you!” She practically jumps out of her seat when I nod. “Hell yeah, I can’t wait.”

Lucy is a bit quieter but beams at me as well. “Remember our promise. I’m still with you! Now I have even more to catch up to,” she laughs.

That leaves Ronja. She looks a bit uncomfortable. “Well, you know about my dream too… And you told us about Doctor Philipps… Do you think he might want an apprentice?”

I shrug. “Huh, I have no clue… But we can ask him later… You all have an appointment with him today.”

That causes another discussion and I lift my hands till everyone quiets down. “Chill, I promised to make all of you Mages, right? Well, Doctor Philipps is the man to make it possible.” I look at Greg, “And he’ll fix your arm.”

Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Valterion System; Nua; Alburgh; Dr. Philipps’ Practice

Mom meets us at the entrance to Doctor Philipps practice. Her sudden appearance startles Simon a bit, but he quickly recovers. The others don’t seem to care. She quickly explains the Binding spell and casts it on everyone. Now they can’t talk about my true power level without my or Mom’s permission if there are other people who don’t know about it already.

The door to the practice is unlocked again, and we step inside. The same blonde nurse greets us, but this time she leads us to a conference room. I guess twelve people is a bit much for the Doctor’s office.

He's already waiting inside, and I notice that he is back to his all-business personality. It’s really strange after seeing the other side of him during the procedure. He looks everyone up and down and nods. “Except for the AI, I can work with all of you. Those who already are Mages, please follow Grace. I’ll be with you shortly.” He indicates the nurse and Thomas, Simon, Lucy, Jack, and Greg start to follow her. Shay looks undecided but starts to follow anyway until the Doctor stops her. “Not you… That doesn’t count as a Mage… Who is responsible for this mess?”

I feel myself blushing and lift my hand. “In my defense, I didn’t know better.”

“Ugh… fine. I’ll fix it.”

He turns to the other remaining people in the room. Now, I take it you all want an awakening core?” They all nod and he continues. “Good, you have free choice between Utility and A&D, but I strongly recommend Utility as your first class. A&D will be all but useless if you don’t join the Peacekeepers.”

Alex lifts her hand to ask a question. The Doctor must have intimidated her a bit. He nods at her in acknowledgment. “What about Space?”

He looks at Mom with a raised eyebrow. She just shrugs and makes a go-ahead gesture. “A Space awakening core is way more expensive but looks like your sponsor doesn’t care. Yes, Space magic is also possible, but I’d still recommend Utility as it offers way more options.”

“Why not just both, or hell all three classes?” I ask, genuinely curious. While I can’t get A&D magic at the moment, why shouldn’t my friends?

“Ahh, that’s why I sent the others away. In my opinion, it’s not wise to introduce a second core before reaching Master rank in the primary one. Sure, it is done quite regularly, but it slows down a Mage’s progressing speed a lot and comes with its own complications. I also still wonder how you managed to use Utility Magic with just a Novice Space core… Probably because of your core’s nature.”

Ohh, so that’s why it was so hard to use those Utility spells in the beginning… maybe my method with building the spell before powering the core wasn’t the right way after all and I just lacked the power. “Thanks for clarifying that, Doc.”

He nods and turns back to the others. “Alright, now how do you decide?”

Alex is the only one who doesn’t take Utility. She chooses Space, just like she asked, saying if they want to start a delivery company, they need a Space Mage.

One after the other, Doctor Philipps asks them to join them in the surgery room and they return shortly after. Lydia is the first and returns with a massive grin. “This is so cool! I can feel the magic inside me. I can’t wait to learn my first spell!”

“Congratulations, Lydia!” I hug her and she returns it tightly.

“But the Doctor though, it was crazy, he did a complete 180. Suddenly he was caring and all smiles.”

“Oh yeah, I noticed that too…”

Shay is the last to return, taking quite a bit longer than the others. But she still smiles. “It worked!” She cries out while practically flying into my embrace. “He took out the other core and gave me a working one.”

“Nice Shay!”

Doctor Philipps doesn’t return though. I turn to Mom who continues sitting at the table silently. She taps something in the air from time to time and mumbles to Miranda. I guess she’s working. “Mom, what happens now and where’s the Doc?”

She looks up. “Ah, you’re finished. Good. Doc Philipps is currently with your other friends and takes care of them. As no one of them is a Master yet, I guess he’ll give them power enhancers if they want them.”

“Will he come back?” Ronja asks and Mom nods.

“Yes, you can catch him when we leave.”

Ronja sighs in relief. I guess she hasn’t asked him yet.

“Now to you all. Congratulations on your first step down the magical path! For you, it’s going to be a bit different though. As you don’t have a natural core and Artifact cores don’t grow on trees, your cores can’t advance on their own. This means if you want to grow stronger, you have to buy power enhancers.” Her expression turns serious. “As much as Sara probably wants to coddle you, I won’t be supplying you with those enhancements. You have to work on your own. The past showed us that Mages who don’t have to work for their power either fail when someone counts on them, or they just become lazy. And I don’t want that for my daughter’s friends. I was already generous, and you all are at the upper end of Junior, so you won’t need much to reach Senior.”

I grimace. She’s completely right. As much as I want to push them all to Master rank as fast as possible, I know it would be wrong. Hell, I’m the prime example. I suddenly jumped from Junior to something like Archmage and I have no clue what I’m doing. Having them pay for their advancement will slow them down, but also makes them concentrate more on what they currently have.

“I hate to say it, but I agree with Mom.”

Alex nods. “Don’t worry, this is already more than I expected. I just have to work hard enough, then I can afford it on my own.”

Shay agrees as well. “Yeah, don’t worry, we’ve got this. Just let us get comfortable with what we have now.”

I look at Lydia, she looks a bit sad. Right, we’re going to visit college… How can she earn enough money there? I shoot Mom a questioning look. I told her about our future plans earlier.

She smiles. “Don’t worry Lydia, just work hard enough and when your teachers say you are ready to advance, I guess I can’t stop Sara from buying you the one or other power enhancer.”

While we wait for the others to return, we all sit down, and Mom starts teaching them a bit of Telekinesis. We both agree that this is the most awesome spell.

Two hours later, everyone has returned, and they all feel a little bit more powerful. Lucy almost explodes from excitement. “I’m so close to Master! Then I can finally get a second core and unlock Utility.”

We all congratulate her, and the others and Greg shows off his new arm. For him, Doctor Philipps even made an exception to his rule and gave him a Utility core. He’s now both Junior rank in A&D and Utility magic and I’ve never seen him happier.

Then we’re finally about to leave. It took a while and I’m quite hungry I ask the others if they want to join me in a restaurant and they all agree.

Ronja stays back. “Send me the location, I’m going to ask Doctor Philipps some questions before I leave.” I give her a thumbs-up and we leave the practice.

Mom takes me aside before we go to the restaurant. “I’m going to get Markus, meet me at the Mansion in two or three hours, have fun.”

“Okay Mom, thank you, and see you later!” She vanishes.

Looks like talking to Marcus is the last loose end I have to fix today.