AN: Since my last chapters were so short, heres an extra long one. Hope you guys are still enjoying this. Can understand if you dont though. =)
"So, my friend, are you ready?"
Lincoln shrugged.
"I guess. SO are you invisible to others or something?"
"You got it. Im indeed invisible to anyone who did not solve my statues riddle. But even if I weren't it wouldn't really matter in this case."
"What do you mean?"
He smiled.
"What do I mean? Well haven't you wondered why none of your sisters have shown up yet even though there have been some rather noisy moments since I appeared?"
The boy scratched his chin.
"Now that I think about it..."
"If you want to know why just open the door."
Even though Lincoln was a bit hesitant he eventually did as he was told. The scene in the hallway was nothing special. Luna was standing in front of her door, ready to rock; Lola was admiring herself in her pocket mirror; Lana was slipping on a banana peel with Luan standing behind her laughing; and Lily had just thrown her diaper away once again. All in all a typical day in the Loud house.
What wasn't as typical was the fact that everything was frozen in place. Lana even was in a diagonal position between having slipped on something but not yet hit the ground and Lily's diaper was floating in midair.
Liam appeared behind him, startling him once again. He was getting almost as bad as Lucy now.
"Lets just say I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to discuss things without being interrupted."
"You mean its still..."
"From their perspective you have just entered your room in a huff just a few minutes ago."
"Wow..."
Lincoln went over to Lana and inspected her from all directions. The spell had captured that one perfect moment where you are about to hit the ground, have realized that its gonna hurt but also that you can't do anything about it.
"So...Now what? Do you want me to tell you about my sisters?"
The floating wizard rolled his eyes.
"Do I? Do you think I want that, really? Didn't it maybe occur to you that I already know everything you would have had to say since I scanned your mind?"
The boy frowned.
"You could really stand to be a bit nicer, you know?"
Liam sighed.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry pal. I know I can be difficult sometimes..or all the time really. Just don't let me get under your skin, alright? Its just how I am. Im very thankful that you have freed me from that godsforsaken statue, believe me."
Lincoln showed a small smile.
"Alright. Just try to be a bit more agreeable in the future."
"Trying I can do."
He surveyed the time-frozen room.
"So what do you want to do now?"
"To do the best I can I have to be informed about all aspects of your life. So I though it best just to repeat what I just did to you with your sisters."
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a minute. You want to scan my sisters brains too? Don't you think that's a little inappropriate?"
The wizard shrugged.
"No? Why should I? Is it because they didn't agree themselves?"
"...Thats one of the reasons, yeah."
Liam disappeared in a flash and appeared beside Lincoln, arm around the boys shoulder again.
"Lincoln. Why should that matter? Do you think I could use whatever secret thoughts or hidden agendas they have against them? Im on your side pal. Im not even corporeal, so I don't know how I even could use any information I gather to inconvenience your family or cause them harm. And how would that benefit me anyway?"
"I see what you mean but..."
"And before you start with the "your invading their privacy" thing: I will not tell anyone anything I learn. Not even you, if you don't want."
"Yeah, but..."
"And the chance of me judging them for anything is next to zero."
"...Are you sure? I may not have any weird or disturbing dark secrets but some of my sisters..."
"Are older and are therefore bound to have some?"
He nodded. Liam moved before him, locking eyes with the boy.
"Lincoln, I have scanned the mind of someone once who kidnapped women, kept them prisoner, raped them until they got pregnant, and then cannibalized the mother with the baby a week before birth, slowly while they were still alive."
Lincoln's mouth hung open.
"And he did it to satisfy the conditions of an ancient ritual he read in an antique foreign spell-book which he translated so horribly that the spell he was trying to cast didn't even work in the end. So you can believe me that whatever private thoughts or secrets your sisters have I will be the last person to judge them for any of it."
Lincoln shook his head violently to get the horrible images out of his head. After a while he calmed down enough to speak again.
"...Alright, alright. But do the painless one, okay?"
Liam shook his head.
"Im afraid that's impossible. My improved version is dependent on the target giving the information voluntarily through his breathing. Since your sisters aren't breathing right now I can only extract it forcefully."
Lincoln crossed his arms.
"Well I guess you can forget it then."
"Awww, that's cute. The protective brother sticking up for his sisters."
Lincoln knew the wizard had said that to mock him, but it just made him more confident.
"That's right!"
"Then don't worry you clod. They don't breathe, that's true, but they can't feel pain right now either."
Suddenly Lincoln's stored confidence deflated.
"Oh...right."
"Moro..."
Liam began, but caught himself in the last moment.
"...Sorry."
"Hey, at least your learning."
He turned once more to face the scene.
"Who do you want to start with?"
"While I'm most interested in that "Lisa" person, I suppose we should start with the ones who are present."
With that he floated beside Lola and lay a hand on her forehead.
"Right..."
Lincoln followed to witness the spectacle. Once again he saw mist, but it was a lighter color than his own had been. And instead of being puffed out bit by bit it was streaming out of Lola's nose and the gap in her teeth en masse. It looked violent enough for Lincoln to squint, but he reminded himself that she couldn't feel the pain which eased his mind.
"Hooo boy, this ones a gem!"
Liam said after he was finished. Lincoln just raised an eyebrow.
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"Imagine her grown up. A pretty face on the outside, a cunning, vicious schemer on the inside. She would fit in perfectly in the imperial noble-court."
"...And that's a good thing?"
"Let me just give you some advice: If you keep yourself in her good graces during childhood, she will be a very useful ally in later life. People like her go places."
"Ill...keep that in mind, thanks."
"Good. You have nothing to worry about though. This family seems to be a lot more functional that it has any right to be. At least that's what I got from the two minds I sampled thus far."
Lincoln couldn't help but feel a bit of pride at that statement.
"So, is Lana next?"
"Might as well be."
Lincoln had to admit that the whole procedure looked a bit more comical in Lana's position.
"Nice. Nothing too remarkable here. She will probably reap the most benefits from her sisters future station. If Lola plays her cards right I could even see Lana getting away with murder."
He stared at the wizard for a moment.
"...What?"
"I thought you didn't want to know about your daaark seeecreeets."
"You can't seriously tell me that..."
"Of course not you dolt! If she had shed been found out by now. She's just a child."
Lincoln let out a sigh of relief. Not that he had doubted Lana, but with all the weird stuff happening lately he wasn't sure what to think.
"But the potential is certainly there. Wait fifteen or so years, then you can worry."
Before Lincoln could respond Liam had already moved on to the next target. Just as he went to follow he heard a voice in his head.
Don't you want to help your sister?
He looked at Lana for a few seconds before he understood.
"Can I even touch her like that?"
"Of course you can. Just be gentle."
Lincoln nodded and got to work. He put his arms around Lana and slowly lowered her on the ground. Now when time started again she wouldn't feel any pain. Satisfied he walked beside Liam before he noticed where they were.
"You're gonna do Lily too?"
"...Nah. I considered it, but its too risky. Her body might not be able to endure the strain."
"...Thanks for holding back then."
"No problem."
With that he went on to Luna. When Lincoln joined him after putting Lily's diapers back on the wizard was already done.
"Man, I don't envy the other Liam. He really drew the short straw there."
"Hey! Luna may be difficult sometimes but she's still a great person!"
He eyed Lincoln.
"Hey there short stuff, calm down. She's just not the type of person I gel with personally. You should though. Like Lola she may make it big one day."
"I don't know why you're always talking like I have to chose. Ill be close with all my sisters in the future, nothing will change there."
Liam smiled.
"Oh poor naive Lincoln. Believe me, I have seen big families like this countless times. Once people start to move out there gonna get their own life's, their own problems. They'll still socialize from time to time, but you'll never be as close as you are now."
A lump formed in Lincoln's stomach.
"I...i know that's how it usually goes, but that doesn't mean..."
"Hey hey, cool it. Im your pal Lincoln, you know that. One word from you and I can arrange it that you guys never lose contact."
"...Really?"
"Yeah. Its really simple too. I can even make it so you're all going to keep living together. Ill even throw in a house that has more than one bathroom."
Suddenly it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from Lincoln's shoulders. The thought of breaking apart from his family at some point must have bothered him more than he had realized. He looked up at Liam with a genuine smile.
"Thanks. That would be great."
"Everything for you pal."
He floated towards Luan and began the procedure. While waiting for it to finish Lincoln decided to ask a few questions.
"So you said you had three sisters too, right?"
"Right."
"Did you lose contact with them at some point?"
This made him laugh.
"You could say that. I barely knew the two youngest. My other sister, we were actually getting along pretty well. But then she made a choice for herself. A choice that benefited only herself. And that's were it all fell apart."
Lincoln was silent for a moment.
"...What happened?"
"Lets just say..."
The boy flinched a bit at the sheer venom and bitterness the wizards voice suddenly portrayed.
"...that no matter how good you think you're getting along with your family members, always make sure your back is well protected when its in their reach. Could save you a lot of hassle in the future."
Before Lincoln could say anything the mind scan was finished and Liam's returned to his chipper self again.
"Hah, this is a girl after my own heart! Her comedy business would probably crash and burn in a normal timeline, and shed be forced into some boring office job that leeches the life out of her, but luckily I am here."
"...And what is that supposed to mean?..."
"Oh no, you're getting the wrong idea there lad. Its not like I'm going to force people to laugh at her jokes or something. All I'm saying is that if she makes it big as a comedian now, great. But if she doesn't she's gonna be in a household with ten other working contributors, so she will still be able to pursue her calling even if it wouldn't pay the bills."
"I guess your right...I still think she has a decent chance to become popular on her own though."
"You keep telling yourself that."
"I will."
Liam shook his head and floated to one of the closed rooms. Lincoln almost collided with the door as his wizard friend passed through right in front of him, but managed to catch himself at the last second.
Inside Lynn and Lucy's room it was businesses as usual as well. Lynn was in the process of dressing up for the distinguished sport known as "Basket-Crickball La Soccross" and Lucy was working on one of her usual cheerful poems. The magic man settled down beside Lynn and got to work himself. As they waited Lincoln tried to pass the time with small talk.
"So...did you use your time powers when you surfed the internet?"
"...What?"
"I mean, the internet is a large, scary place,, full of dead ends, pitfalls, and poisonous traps. It must've taken you a while to sift through all of it."
He rolled his eyes once more. Lincoln was starting to get used to that.
"Are you maybe some kind of reta...Sorry."
Lincoln just waved it off.
"What I mean is, of course I didn't do that. I used this spell right here."
"The brain scan?"
"Its not a brain scan. It copies information from one source to another. The only difference is that I was absorbing a whole bunch of lightning - which was not very pleasant, by the way - instead of the gas I do from you guys. Speaking of..."
He removed his hand from Lynn's forehead, as a big smile appeared on his face.
"Aaaawww, how cute. You two are actually pals."
"...Are you going to mock me every time I get along with one of my sisters?..."
"How do you figure I'm mocking you?"
Lincoln just looked at him.
"This time I mean. Because I'm really not. It reminds me of some of the children I used to take care of at the grand palace. Little rascals. Just like that one."
With that he floated over to Lucy and did his thing. After he was done he smiled and shook his head.
"Oh dear. She thinks she's so troubled when she barely knows what having real problems is like."
After hearing that Lincoln said the first thing that came to mind.
"Yeah, like you're one to talk."
He hadn't meant anything by it. But that didn't seem to matter to Liam. The wizard turned around, face completely serious.
"And what's that supposed to mean, Lincoln?"
The boy grew slightly nervous and backed off a bit.
"Uhm...N-nothing., really. Its just with your amazing power, and your talk of grand palaces and nobility, you don't really seem to be poster child of what having real problems is like either...I-is all I'm saying..."
"Lincoln...you may have not noticed it before, since I'm so amazingly subtle about it, but I have a teensy tiny problem with a thing called "Arrogance." "
"O-oh really now? I ha-haven't noticed!"
"You flatter, but we both know that is not true. If you haven't noticed when we peered into that alternate universe, the Liam from that world changed himself to conform with Luna as best he could. I, in contrast, decided to be honest with you. And really, honesty is all I expect in return."
"O-okay...you really can be kind of a...douche sometimes. Sorry."
"No, no, I know that full well. But do you know why I am such a "douche" ?"
"Uhm..."
"No matter! I was going to tell you. But I decided to show you instead."
Lincoln was confused.
"Really? How?"
"Follow me."
With that he flew out of the room, Lincoln directly behind him. They stopped inside his oldest siblings shared room. Lori was sitting on her bed talking with Bobby, like always, while Leni was kneeling on the other side of the bed painting her sisters toe-nails. Another rather common sight. Liam waited for Lincoln to enter the room and pointed at the sister with the sunglasses.
"You are going to do that one."
"...Me?"
He nodded.
"But...but I'm no wizard. I can barely process the thoughts in my own brain, how the heck am I supposed to process Lenis?"
"Well, firstly, you aren't. Im going to receive the information, like usual. Its just a slight modification."
"...Alright. Why and how?"
"You'll see. And to cast a spell you really only need a handful of things. Some of which aren't available in this world, its true, but that's what I'm here for, no?"
Lincoln's heart was racing. He couldn't believe that he was actually going to use magic. Real magic! It seemed so ludicrous to him. But he was pumped nonetheless.
"A warning though. You are not going to cast this spell like I did."
His excitement dropped a little.
"What? Why not?"
"Because you are going to do it like any beginner would. Im going to give you a little taste of what learning to cast spells is like."
He put a hand on Lincoln's shoulder. Lincoln's was okay with that in principle, but it did get a little weird when the wizard wouldn't let go again.
"Uuhm...Liam?"
"The first thing you need is something that is not natural in your world. You need a body that has magic energy coursing through it like blood in your veins. The only way to naturally achieve that is by growing up in a world were magic is has a significant presence. For the purposes of this demonstration I will let you use my own magic pool."
The boys eyes grew wide.
"Yes, my magical resources are immense, but that has two disadvantages. First: I will have to stay in direct contact with your body the whole time. Should you shake me lose while you are drawing from my essence I will not be able to regulate it any longer, which will cause your body to become oversaturated with magic. This leads to a rather nasty disease that even I only recently found a cure for."
He gulped.
"More than that, this sickness is highly contagious to any non-magical beings. So you would not only doom yourself, but your whole family too."
Now he was scared.
"But don't worry. Just stay calm and nothing will happen. I promise."
This reassured him a little bit, but there was still something he wanted to know.
"And the other disadvantage?"
"Oh yeah. That one is way less serious than the last, but it is something that I want you to keep in mind, alright?"
He waited until Lincoln bobbed his head up and down.
"There are some things that will make this whole procedure way way easier than it would be back where I come from. You using my personal body of magic is one of them. Understand?"
"Yeah..."
"Alright. Then get up on the bed and kneel before your sister."
"Kneel? Really?"
"You are going to use magic for the first time. Your body will be appropriately exhausted during that process. I wouldn't want to stand when that happens. Your choice though."
Lincoln understood and did as he was asked. As soon as he was on his knees he suddenly felt like he owned the universe. He felt like he could pulverize someone by giving them a stern look, and like he could benchpress the planet and still make it home before breakfast. But he knew the power he had was not his to use. And after hearing what rash actions may lead to, he decided to stay put and wait for instructions.
"To channel your magic, you need a catalyst. There are nine catalysts in total, though the last one, the body, can only be used after all others have been mastered. As young adults we get to choose which catalyst we want to specialize in. I chose mirrors, so that is what you will use."
One of the mirrors that were still floating around his neck set itself down before Lincoln and grew until it was as big as both his hands put together. He could see his reflection as he looked at it.
"All magic is channeled into runes. Every spell is made up of one or more symbols from the rune alphabet. Spells with more than two runes are known as "Advanced Spells". The information absorption spell is made up of three runes. Look at them."
Three symbols appeared in Lincoln's mind. They were pretty elaborate, sure didn't look like any letters he'd ever seen. Each looked more like multiple letters combined into a jumbled mess.
"The rune alphabet consists of 349 basic runes. Any rune can be combined with any other to form an advanced rune. Our children learn to memorize the rune alphabet in elementary school. It usually takes four to five years to complete."
Suddenly Lincoln felt like he was at school. He wasn't prepared for this.
"While this is an advanced spell, it is the easiest and the only one with only three runes, so shouldn't be too hard."
"...What do I have to do?"
Suddenly the three runes in his mind were replaced with a bigger picture of the first rune.
"This is the rune for "Information". Concentrate on the energy inside you and guide it to one of your fingers. Once you have done this, draw the rune on the mirror. Be as accurate as possible and remember to leave space for the other two."
Lincoln did as he was told and concentrated. After a few seconds he saw a little light emerging from his right index finger. Immediately he went to draw the rune onto the mirror. But almost as soon as he began he could feel resistance.
"I said be as accurate as possible."
"I am!"
"That's just the thing with runes. If you aren't precise to the millimeter it wont let you progress."
"Well what am I supposed to do then?!"
He chuckled.
"Just keep doing what you're doing. Every beginner does it like that. Brute force."
Lincoln tried and tried, and even though he did make some progress, it was only millimeter by millimeter.
"Oh man, this is going to take forever!"
"Keep at it. We are going to be here until you have successfully cast your first spell."
He knew from the tone of Liam's voice that there was no use in arguing. So he got his mind in the right place and started again.
"...THERE! There you have it! All three of them! Are you happy now?!"
"Quite."
Lincoln could just feel the smirk coming from his voice.
"Bravo. You really put your all into this, didn't even speak a word until you were done. Kudos."
"Thanks."
He was exhausted. Never before in his life had he reached that stage of concentration. He wiped some sweat from his brow.
"How long did it take anyway? It felt like I was at it for at least an hour or two."
"To be honest it was more like four or five."
The boy cocked his head in disbelief.
"Per rune."
"Now I know your joshing me."
"Im not. The power of focus. Time goes by like nothing. I may have helped a bit though. Still, you were quicker than the average student."
Liam poofed a book into his hand, opened it and shoved it in Lincoln's face. It was a textbook describing the very spell they were working on. And at the bottom it said in thick letters:
Average Casting Time Per Rune : 6 Hours.
"Im actually impressed. You certainly beat my first time. It took me 9 hours to get it right."
"Really?"
"Yeah. And that was one of my good days. Nevermind that though. Now begins the next step. To actually cast the spell you have to chant the name of all present runes in quick succession. This wont take nearly as long though, don't worry."
Written names appeared in Lincoln's mind. Just like the runes themselves, their names were almost unintelligible.
"How am I supposed to...? Where are the vocals?"
"Just do it to the best of your ability."
And so he did. He concentrated on the runes before him, being slightly proud of his accomplishment, and tried to pronounce the unpronounceable. After babbling like an idiot for about hal an hour it finally seemed to work. One by one the runes started to glow.
"Now quickly, touch your sister. Anywhere is fine, as long as its skin."
Lincoln grabbed Lenis arm. And then it began. But to his great disappointment, instead of the swath of mist that came out from the others, only a slight trickle escaped from his sisters nose.
"...Is this so underwhelming because its Leni, or am I doing something wrong?..."
The trickle slowly vanished in Liam's outstretched hand.
"Its neither, my friend. This is all that you can accomplish."
His heart sunk. Suddenly the mist vanished, together with the runes. And as Liam removed his hand from Lincoln's shoulder he could feel all the power he had slowly draining away.
"But how do you do it? Are you just that talented? Seems a little unfair..."
The wizard shook his head.
"Its the contrary actually. Back when I was a beginner I was known far and wide for my lack of talent."
Lincoln raised his eyebrow.
"Really? You?"
A nostalgic look appeared on Liam's face.
"Yes. A scion from one of the most influential and powerful noble families in the republic: a talentless hack. My parents even tried to keep me locked up in the mansion out of shame. "You will never be successful. Better stay in here were you can't harm our reputation. Its for your own good, really." Lovely people, right?"
He smiled at Lincoln.
"Boy did I prove them wrong, didn't I? You wanted to know how I do it? I can tell you."
He motioned for Lincoln to move and took his place as soon as the boy did.
"To master a spell, one has to do a specific set of things - in order - to succeed. First is the rune crafting."
Lincoln wished he had something to write all this down on.
"You remember how long it took you? Do you want to know what you have to do to speed it up?"
He nodded eagerly.
"Practice. You have to draw the runes again and again until you can paint each in one stroke. Remember you have to be precise to the millimeter. Then you have to practice the speed. Once you are able to draw each rune in under a second, you can move on. As this spell has three runes, I have to paint all of them in under three seconds. Observe."
With an ease and swiftness he didn't think possible Liam produced in a few seconds what had taken him apparently fifteen hours to do.
"And I didn't enhance myself with magic either. You can't do that for casting spells. If you try to cheat, the spell will be rendered unachievable for you. For life."
He picked up the mirror and showed it to Lincoln.
"This whole process takes a pretty long time. Really talented people complete it in a few months. I myself, slow and clumsy as I am, have never managed it in under three years."
He put the mirror back down.
"Next, the name. Same principle, different reward. Believe it or not, the runes are just as hard to pronounce for us mage folk as for you guys. Learning the pronunciation of a spell is easier than learning to craft the runes, but its still a lengthy process. Takes me usually about a year for the short ones."
"Alright. But how is the reward different?"
"Ha ha, yes, I was getting to that. Once you can pronounce the all runes perfectly the reward is...that you no longer have to."
"Come again?"
"Once you can pronounce the spell you are allowed to think the chant, instead of having to say it out loud. And in your mind its enough to picture the written word. Its way faster too."
"That's...convenient."
"Indeed. You still have to craft the runes though. The next step in mastering a spell is understanding it. You see, the people who invented the runes were a philosophical people. And every rune, basic and advanced, is a metaphor for a specific aspect of life. They also function as a code to live by, but well get to that."
"So you have to understand the meaning of the runes? Sounds easy enough..."
"That's right. It sounds easy enough. It isn't though. You have to completely and fully understand what the creator of the rune intended when he made it. How it relates to the life they were living, and to the life you are living. If it is still valid today, or if it ever was. And not only that, you also have to understand how the runes relate to each other. Every rune is there for a purpose, and you have to decipher why."
Lincoln's head began to hurt.
"Sounds complicated..."
"It is. Its my least favorite part too. Takes me usually just as long as the runecrafting itself. But once you have understood everything perfectly, you can now use the spell to its full potential."
"Ooooh, so that's why I barely got a reaction..."
"Right. The more you understand the stronger it is. Of course it also scales with your personal magical power. So yours would still be way less effective than mine."
"...Right. And that's it?"
"What? No. Now we come to the actual mastering."
"Oh boy..."
"Yeah. Remember how each rune represents a way of life? To really master a spell you have to show that you are willing to abide by its rules. Which means living life the way each rune describes one after another, a year each."
"...What?"
"Its horrible. This spell for example. The first rune is the rune for information, right? The way of life it describes is a life were you always make informed decisions."
"That doesn't sound too bad."
"Its a nightmare. It took me six tries to master that rune. You have to be informed about everything you do. Everything! When you wake up in the morning and grab a cereal you have to know what is inside the cereal, where it comes from, who manufactured it, which store sold it, if the worker who packaged your batch was careful while handling it, and if not why that is. Same concept for absolutely everything. It is infuriating."
"...I can imagine..."
"But once you are finished with all runes you get the ultimate price: You can simply cast the spell just like that. No runecrafting. No chanting, not even in your mind. Nothing. All that is needed is the catalyst."
"...So that's how you do it. Wow, I-"
The wizard raised his hands.
"Whoa there, I wasn't finished yet. Obviously I am casting the spells with my body, right?"
Lincoln nodded.
"But to cast a spell with your body, you have to master it a total of eight times. One for each catalyst. Luckily the only thing that is different for each catalyst is the runecrafting, but that is also usually one of the longest processes to learn."
"So you have to do all that just to master a spell?"
He nodded, smiling.
"Yes. And that was just one spell. Let me tell you a secret."
He hovered next to Lincoln and whispered in his ear.
"Hovering, moving while hovering, changing elevation while hovering, communicating while hovering, spinning in the air while hovering and landing on your feet after hovering: All different spells."
Lincoln's eyes grew wide.
"Get. outta. here. Really?"
Liam spoke normally again.
"Yes, and all of these are advanced spells. The simplest of which consists of six runes. And I mastered all of them. The same goes for every single spell in my arsenal. My power is the result of eons of hard work and perseverance."
Lincoln grew a little lightheaded at the thought.
"I spent most of my life perfecting my craft. And for the first half of it - which is a long time by the way - I barely scraped by with what I had. I had to go through a lot of stuff, most of it more horrible than you can even imagine, and I persevered. I even built an empire dedicated to wisdom and scholarship. Hell, I was ninety-six years old and on my deathbed, barely able to hold a thought when I invented the spell to reverse your age."
The tone in his voice gre harsher, but it was not because of anger. At least it didn't seem that way to Lincoln.
"And it took me many more lifetimes to master it. I have accomplished more than everyone else in my world put together. So yes. I think I'm better than most people. Forgive my arrogance, but I think it is justified. And i know it is too: I gave so many promising mages an opportunity to achieve what I achieved, and every single one disappointed me, without fail."
With that he performed the procedure on Leni once more, properly this time.
"I...i get that. I can't even imagine doing half the things you must've done...Sorry."
"Oh no, my friend, don't apologize. It is true, I was rude. I will continue trying to hold back, for your sake. After all, you may be the one to finally surprise me."
Lincoln didn't follow.
"How so?"
Liam smiled one of his big smiles.
"Oh, I just thought that maybe, if you want, I could teach you."
"...What? But I thought..."
"Don't worry about that. I can help with that. And I wont even have to touch your shoulder the whole time. Only if you want though, of course."
Lincoln was practically bouncing on his feet.
"Of course! This is amazing! I accept!"
Liam's smile grew wider.
"Lincoln, you are seriously one of the most agreeable partners I ever had the pleasure to work with. Don't worry, you wont regret it. But first, lets continue with fulfilling your wish, alright? I still have a few minds to scan."
The boy was actually jumping now.
"Oh man, I can't wait to tell Clyde about this. Im actually going to become a magician! This is awesome!"
"Why are you still talking about that Clyde fellow?"
A confused look appeared on his face.
"What? Why shouldn't I? He is my best friend."
"Yes. And he's dead."
His face fell.
"What?"
Liam poofed the list of names into existence once more and pointed at the name on the very top. Clyde's name.
"What...but..."
"The very first thing he did after finding me was try my riddle out. I don't even know what the hell a lanternsmith is. Certainly not me."
Lincoln's mind tried to process the information.
"But...but he looked fine yesterday..."
"Of course he did. The punishment for failing my riddle is eternal slumber. He will slowly wither away and die of dehydration. Not very pleasent. Oh well. You win some you lose some, right buddy?"
Lincoln just stood there, a hand on his forehead and tears welling up in his eyes as Liam scanned Lori's brain, whistling a happy tune all the while.
AN: Am i the only one who always got the impression that Lynn has more of a pal/friend relationship with Lincoln than he has with his other sisters? Like i could imagine them hanging out even if they werent related. But thats probably just because she reminds me of one of my own childhood friends. ^^