"[Light]"

Archmage Feor nodded appreciatively at Jiahao, or 'Gamer' as he was called. Like Aaron, or Blackmage, Feor was perfectly fine with using the young man's alias. While many referred to the children from Earth as 'you', 'hey', or nothing at all, he thought it was a good thing for them to choose their own names.

He smiled slightly to himself. It certainly made it hard for anyone trying to guess what country they came from.

"Good job, Gamer." The boy's spell flickered from one color to the next. They were bright and lacked complexity, just like the colors his 'playstation vita' made. "You picked that up quickly."

"Heh heh heh." Jiahao chortled. "I told you, [Gamer] is the best class! So it must use magic! This is only natural."

Aaron patted him on the back. "It took me almost twice as long to cast [Light] the first time. You'll probably get your first level in [Mage] tonight."

"No." Jiahao shook his head. "I don't want to be a [Mage]." He let the ball of light fade and jabbed at himself with a thumb. "I am a [Gamer]!" He blinked. "Although, I tired now." He swayed slightly.

"That's understandable." Feor leaned forward and peered at him. "You barely have any mana within you." No doubt from growing up on Earth. "You should rest for now and let yourself recover. Wistram has plenty of mana in the air, so you'll be ready to try again shortly."

The boy frowned. "Can't I practice anything else? I want to be able to cast [Repair]."

Oh, yes. To 'recharge' his 'video games'. "It would go quicker if you accepted the [Mage] class. Although..." Feor stroked his beard. "A derivative skill might come from your [Gamer] levels. Since they are dependent on your equipment, and those are dependent on the [Repair] spell."

"You really think so, Archmage?" Aaron perked up from the side. "I haven't gotten it for [Engineer], and [Repair] is invaluable for leveling that."

Feor nodded. "The two classes, as you have explained them, are fundamentally different. [Engineer] is far more general. Just because you got it from taking apart your world's technology doesn't mean that's all its used for." At least not going by what Aaron had told him, and what [Skills] he'd acquired. "[Gamer], on the other hand, needs games... 'electronics'. Do you see the distinction?"

Aaron thought about it before nodding. "Yes, I do, Archmage."

"Good." Blackmage was an eager student and quite bright as well. His leveling pace was unheard of.

"Teach me how to [Scry]." Jiahao interjected.

"[Scrying]?" Archmage Feor raised an eyebrow. "Where did you hear about that?"

"I told him." Aaron interjected. "He wanted to watch some television, and I figured that scrying orbs were the closest thing."

"Ah, yes, 'television'. Another of your world's more interesting innovations." He thought about it before nodding. "Very well, I can go over the basics and provide you with literature on the coordinates." He stood up and strolled over to his bookshelf. "It is not mana-intensive. Most scrying orbs use ambient mana to power themselves, although if you were outside of Wistram you might have to provide some of your own for long sessions. Let's see..." He gently dragged his fingers across the back of his collection of books. "Here we go. This will get you started, but before that, a practical demonstration."

It was one thing to know the proper coordinates. It was another to use them. Some simple scrying of the outside of Wistram would be sufficient for demonstrating how that was accomplished.


Cognita looked at the claw marks on the wall. Such things weren't unusual as far as Wistram went. [Mages] got up to all sorts of things, and their experiments escaped quite frequently.

There were two details that elevated this particular marking in her mind. The first was the location. The room was unimportant, and there were no other signs of a struggle. No golems or [Mages] had gone missing over the last twenty-four hours either. So why was this done?

The most obvious explanation when anything strange happened at Wistram was: 'A [Mage] did it.'

Cognita nodded to herself. Yes. It was far more likely that a [Mage] was practicing a new and dangerous spell here instead of an experiment gone rogue.

Such was the way of things. In fact, if she hadn't been scouring the halls in search of whatever had slain one of Archmage Zelkyr's possessions then she wouldn't have given this particular piece of property damage a second thought.

She ran her fingers against the gouged out area.

However, the second detail remained. The stone was as smooth as polished marble, and there was no debris to be found. The second part could be explained by the [Mage] responsible actually cleaning up after themselves - as rare of an occurrence as that was.

The first?

Cognita shifted her finger to Adamantine and drug it across the wall. She ignored the stone that flaked away and focused on the groove she'd made.

Smooth.

But not as smooth as the three claw marks.

Even taking the sharpness of a claw verses her finger, there still was a marked difference.

What could do such a thing? It was like the stone was melted...

Cognita shifted her finger into Sunstone. The appendage glowed bright with barely contained heat. She dragged it across the wall again.

This time, the very stone caught fire. It lasted only as long as her finger was in contact, and cooled almost immediately after it passed, but the rock left behind was smooth and melted.

Yes. It was just as smooth as the claw marks, but that was where the similarities ended. Scorch marks surrounded her experiment along with a dribble of magma.

She felt like she was on the right track, but what else could melt stone?

...Acid?

Yes. That was possible, even though it should've left similar signs around the edges. She could test to see how it might differ from acid she made. All it would take would be to change her form into one that produced acid. That was the power of Truestone, to become anything else.

But there were limitations.

Only the most complex composites eluded her as far as solids went, but gaseous and liquid changes were not possible. Becoming pure acid was beyond her.

Of course, she could become rocks that generated poisonous air or acid. The issue there was acid used itself up to dissolve other substances. Creating it from her body was draining, and seldom useful.

Cognita stepped back and commanded the maintenance golems to begin their repairs. There was nothing more to be learned here. Fire, acid, or something else... it was interesting in its own way, but she had more important things to dwell on.

As potent as the unidentified [Mage]'s attack was, it was not what had slain the golem, and thus was of lesser importance.


"I've got what you wanted." Beatrice gently placed a cloth bag on the table next to the plate of food that she was holding. "What do you need such a high quality scrying orb for anyways, Mon?"

Montressa put her knife and fork down and opened the bag slightly. Not that she didn't trust Beatrice, but it was always better to confirm things herself. Besides, she was curious. Would it look any different from normal? "I can tell you for a major secret."

The Dullahan rolled her eyes as she placed her head on the table. "If you don't want to say, just don't say. No need to quote exorbitant prices to me."

Montressa smirked. "Everything has a price. You know that. I have a certain image to maintain as a secret broker."

"Hah." Beatrice let out a short laugh as she began to cut into her steak. "I've already got what I wanted to know from your answer. A major secret to tell why you want this? That, along with what you paid for, paints a pretty picture to me." She smiled before chewing on the chunk of meat that her body held in front of her head.

"And YOU know that I could be setting the price based on personal preference." Montressa dug back into her dinner. "You've got nothing, Beatrice."

"Don't I?" One of her hands leaned her head back so it was staring right at Montressa's face. "Don't think I haven't noticed the pep in your step recently. Finally found yourself a man?"

Montressa matched her gaze. "That also is a major secret." They both laughed a bit. "But seriously, I've just been getting a good night's sleep recently."

"Oh?" Beatrice raised her eyebrows as she went back to eating. "A new pillow? A new bed? Is that what the crystal ball there is in exchange for?"

"That's still a major secret." They chatted about other things for the rest of the meal. Once they had both finished, Montressa pulled out one of her truth stones. "Okay, let's make this formal. Does the package you gave me meet all the requirements that I specified?"

...

Montressa sat in her chamber and rolled the scrying orb around in her hands. They really were rather pretty. She held it up to the orb of light that she had illuminating her room. It was fun to look at things through it, in fa-

"Ow!"

She dropped the crystal ball on the floor and clutched at her eye.

"That, really stung!"

She blinked several times and the circular spot in her vision faded.

She let out a sigh. "Note to self, don't look at a light source through a scrying orb."

She picked the magical item off the floor. There was a bright spot underneath it that was surrounded by shadows. Somehow, the light was focused in that one area, which made it bright to look at.

"At least the thing's sturdy." She rolled it around in her hands to confirm that it hadn't been damaged. "Now, how am I going to get this to Boxer?" She assumed the boy would've approached her when she was alone again. Maybe he hadn't been able to sneak past his guard yet?

There was a knock on her door.

Montressa frowned as she put the scrying orb back in its bag. Could that be him now? She left the parcel on her bed as she got up and moved to her door. She opened it a crack, only to jerk back in surprise.

"Pixel?!" The [Artificer] was wearing a robe instead of his cubic armor. He looked... surprisingly normal. "What are you doing here?"

The tall man smiled. "I wish to pick up my package. I figured it'd be easier this way."

"Oh. Right." Of course. That made sense. He didn't need the muscular Boxer sneaking around for him. Pixel was a skilled [Illusionist], or at least could create them with the artifacts he'd made. He could move around undetected easily enough. In fact, the only reason he probably had Boxer contact her in the first place was because he was a familiar-ish face. "I have it right here. Come in."

He entered and softly closed the door behind him. "So it's top of the line?"

Huh? What did that mean?

"It's high quality, if that's what your asking. Wide area, quick recharge, strong enough to pierce weak wards." She handed the bag over to him. "I'm not an expert, but it's what you wanted as far as I can tell." She waited for a response, but when she didn't get one, she continued. "I used a truth stone to confirm that my supplier was thorough." She walked over to where she kept hers. "We can use one of mine, if you want to ask me the same thing."

"No need." Pixel shook his head. "I can tell you're telling the truth." He had a truth stone or spell? That was another small secret. "Thank you." Pixel turned to leave, but stopped. "Before I go, how is the helmet I made working for you?"

Montressa pulled out the softly glowing cube. "Malleable." It expanded into her helmet. "It's great!" She smiled at him. "It's a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be. More like a pillow than armor. It's almost like it's not there at all!"

"So, no more nightmares?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "I hadn't realized how often I had them until they stopped." She took a step forward, looked up at him, and smiled. "Thank you."


Aaron wandered down to the beach with Terua behind him. He wanted to see how Vincent was doing. Out of the three other Earthers, the boxer should be the one he had the most in common with. Aside from any racial stereotypes, they were both from America.

Aaron had tried talking to Michail, but the Russian man remained taciturn even after getting a translation amulet. He was... amenable enough, but the conversations were too one-sided. It was like speaking with the stuffed pig outside of his professor's office.

Jiahao wasn't so bad. He had the social skills of a particularly rude musk-rat at times, but he was friendly when it came to video games. It also helped that he was practicing his English. Still, he was... a lot. At least Aaron finally had someone to talk magic with, who wasn't already a [Mage].

That was the other thing, Jiahao was smart. Aaron could barely wrap his head around the scrying coordinates. He was good at math, but angles, vectors, axis, and rotations were... ugh! Not that you needed all of those to cast [Scry], but Archmage Feor was a very thorough teacher. He believed in covering all bases when explaining something.

Aaron would've called him 'dry' if he wasn't teaching magic.

But Vincent was his goal today. Archmage Feor still wanted him to keep an eye on the other Earthers, just in case there was a spy or a pretender. Personally, he felt that level of paranoia was silly. Vincent and Jiahao were clearly from Earth. Aaron didn't know enough about Russia to confirm anything about Michail, but the fact that he spoke an unheard of language seemed good enough for him.

It was past time to see what other interests they shared. Vincent had to have other things he did besides boxing right? He couldn't spend the whole day running, or shadow-boxing, or whatever it was that boxers did, right?

The beach had a few [Mages] spread out around it, but no Vincent that he could see. Aaron slowly walked around. If Vincent was running, he'd pass by here.

While he waited, he watched the other [Mages]. They were all casting various offensive spells out over the water.

That made sense. The best way to make sure no one got hurt when practicing combat spells was to cast them in a direction that didn't contain anything. It was sort of like a firing range.

Oh!

Aaron patted himself down to find some parchment and a self-inking quill. A firing range was a good idea. Wistram probably had one already, but if they didn't, it would be an interesting thing to bring up to Archmage Feor. Even if it was just a basic area with targets, it might help.

Or it might not.

The [Mages] at the beach had paired off and were taking turns making targets for their partners. Moving targets were a lot harder to hit, and probably better practice. So... it was kinda like skeet shooting?

Eh, something else to bring up, and possibly work on once he got a repulsor-blaster working. He'd get there eventually.

Where was Vincent anyways? It had been half an hour already.

Wherever he was, it wasn't the beach. "Hey, uhm, Teura, could you [Message] someone and find out where Vi-, er, Boxer is?"

The red-headed halfelf looked him up and down before nodding. She closed her eyes and whispered something. Several seconds later she opened her eyes and nodded. "Come. I shall lead you to where he currently is." She then gracefully strolled off.

"Oh! Uhm. Thanks!" Aaron hurried to keep up with her long strides. He glanced at her rear end for a second before looking away. Of all the students under Archmage Feor, why did he normally get her as his escort?

The pair re-entered Wistram and walked through several halls before running into Jiahao - who was nursing a black eye. Haylet had a long-suffering look as he dabbed it with a healing potion.

"What happened?" Teura looked down at them.

"Just a minor squabble." Haylet didn't even turn to look at her as he answered. "Nothing to be worked up over."

Or to tell Archmage Feor, Aaron figured.

He sat next to Jiahao. "Are you okay, Gamer? Who hit you?"

"Boxer." The Asian boy winced. "Can't take joke. Stick up ass."

Did he mean that Vincent could stick something up his ass, or that he had a stick up there already? Eh, whatever.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"I fine!" Jiahao watched as Haylet stepped away and stored the potion. "All better now." He stood up. "I am going back to my room." He huffed and strolled off.

Aaron watched him walk away. Should he go after him? Or should he see what Vincent was doing? He didn't like it when two friends fought. Or two acquaintances at least.

His indecision lasted only a moment before he scrambled after Teura. The [Mage] glanced behind her to make sure he was following as she continued down the hall. They arrived at a room that had been converted into a gym, of sorts.

A golem stood in a corner, covered with pillows. Vincent was using a jump rope while a half dozen [Mages] watched.

"Looks exhausting."

"So repetitive."

"He's fast though."

"I think it looks like fun."

"How is he doing that? I mean, crossing his arms should result in the rope hitting him."

"Hey, Boxer!" Aaron waved as he got closer.

Vincent stopped jumping and let the rope slap across his legs. "Yo, what up?"

"Not much, I just thought we could spend some time together." Aaron got closer so he could speak softer.

"You wanna hang?" Vincent smiled as he hung the rope on the wall. "That's cool, man." He wiped his face with his shirt. "How 'bout later? I need to clear my head. Think I'll cool-down in my room."

"Oh, uh, okay."

"Later!" Vincent held up his fist and then waited.

"Oh, right." Aaron held his up for a fist bump. "Later."

One of the [Mages] came over and took the rope off the wall. "One." He awkwardly jumped over it as he swung it around him. "Two."

"You're going too slow!"

"Yeah, you look stupid!"

"Let me try. Give it here."

"No. I have it. You can wait your turn. Thre-" He tripped and fell down as he mistimed his jump and got his robes tangled with the rope.

Aaron shook his head as junior high PE class memories came flooding back. He then frowned as he spotted something on the ground. An MP3 player with ear buds. Vincent must have forgot it.

He reached down and picked it up before anyone else noticed. They were supposed to keep this kind of thing secret, but running without music must be boring. The [Boxer] was already gone, but Aaron knew where his room was.

He fiddled with the device as he walked. He'd never seen this model before. The icons were different, but he figured out how to make it play easily enough. Electronic beeps came from the buds and he held one up to his ear.

Doooooo, doot doot doot doot doo doo, doot doot doot doot doo doo,

Huh? There were no words, but it sounded familiar.

Doot doo, doo doo doo doodle doo, doodle doo, do-do-do-duh-do do-doodle-de-doot-do...

What the?

Was that the theme from... the Legend of Zelda?

Why did Vincent have that on his play list? Was this Jiahao's? It would make more sense for the game obsessed boy, but it was still odd.

Or was that what the fight was about somehow? Vincent stealing Jiahao's player? Jiahao messing with Vincent's songs?


"Riley Grace Davis."

I sat in my room with the scrying orb. I could have, perhaps, waited until nightfall to try finding my little sister, but I was impatient. I figured my excuse would allow me to focus and concentrate without any disturbances. That was important, as scrying was... wrong.

Or, rather, the coordinate system was wrong.

I might have viewed it that way because of Ears of Babel. My Perk let me 'understand' virtually any sort of information. Most large quantities of data, or programs, or other things that were too massive for me to wrap my brain around still had a... quality about them.

It was a direction. An intention. A way about them that was almost song-like.

Video games worked that way, as did other computer programs. There was a... path. It was vast and overwhelming, but I always got the feeling that I could see where one bit of data led to another.

Even Dragon, who was as far beyond a video game as I was to a bacteria, had a melody. It was too large and complex for me to understand, much less modify, but it was there. Like looking at an entire museum at once, or listening to all the orchestras in the world playing at the same time.

The scrying coordinates were nothing like that.

I had thought they'd be like simple Cartesian Coordinates. An x, y, and z axis with a distance for each. Or, if not that, then Polar Coordinates where everything was an angle and a direction.

It was... similar to that, but there were sections that I found jarring. Like a different song had been recorded over the original track. Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything about it. And it wasn't like I was going to be able to alter them anyways.

"Riley Grace Greenhouse."

My first attempts hadn't gotten any response.

It didn't take long to attempt to scry at a location, which was a good thing as I had to do it more than a hundred times to cover the known world.

...A world that the maps said was flat and not a sphere. The edges were marked where things just... stopped, but I wasn't going to think about that right now.

I was also ignoring the ocean coordinates, which was common practice according to Feor. Water covered most of this planet's surface, just like Earth, and people that were traveling on boats generally moved too quickly for you to get a scrying lock on them unless you knew their route.

Even with that limitation, there was a LOT of ground to cover. About three times as much as Earth, if I was estimating correctly.

...Which was another oddity. How was gravity the same if this place was so much bigger? Actually, how did gravity work if it wasn't a sphere? I mean, it could be that maps were just maps and not globes, but any sea-faring society should be able to notice the curve the ocean made as other ships or places seemingly sunk lower.

I should've paid more attention when I was traveling.

I shook my head. I had other things to worry about, like why my first sweep hadn't found anything. You were supposed to be identified by your birth name, but what if you weren't born here?

That was why I was now doing a sweep with 'Riley Grace Greenhouse'. That name wasn't on a form anywhere, but if Riley was my sister, then perhaps the magic of this place recognized that.

...No luck.

"Kevin Greenhouse."

That confirmed the scrying orb was working, and so was Threat Sense. I could tell that something was looking at me, in fact, with mana enhancing it, I could tell that something would be looking at me before I even tried scrying myself.

I would have to experiment with my Lucky Perks up and with my other aliases later.

"Bit."

That was more Riley's true name than her 'birth name' I figured.

Nope. No hits.

At least I wasn't getting lots of false positives. Our names were unique in the world, which should make things easier. I had no idea how many people you would have to filter though if you were searching for someone named 'John Smith' - or whatever the most common name on this world was.

That was, apparently, a more advanced scrying technique and generally required an actual class and skills to use.

"Riley Grace 'Bit' Davis."

Perhaps a combination of her names would work?

"Riley Grace 'Bit' Greenhouse."

What else? Were middle names required?

"Riley Davis."

"Riley Greenhouse."

"Riley 'Bit' Davis."

"Riley 'Bit' Greenhouse."

"Riley Grace Davis Greenhouse."

Okay... I had spent hours and hours trying this so far. I needed to take a break, if for no other reason than people would get suspicious if I didn't show up for dinner.

I needed to face the facts. I couldn't scry on Riley.

Hopefully, that meant that she wasn't on this world. It would make getting back to her harder, but she wouldn't be in any trouble. Alternately, the next best option was that she was shielding herself. The worst possibility was that someone else was shielding her.

Or she might be below ground, on the ocean, or somewhere else that had too much mana or wasn't properly mapped.

I'd continue after I'd eaten.

...

"Sibby."

"Siberian."

"The Siberian."

Nope. No luck with scrying on Sibby either. That was less important, as I can still tell which direction she's in. It would be nice if I could see how she was doing before that, but she probably would be invisible or something anyways.

There was also the fact that scrying needed a person's 'real' name. What they'd been given at birth. Or, in Sibby's case, what she'd been given when she'd been created.

Sibby didn't like talking about William Manton. It had taken nearly a year before she even told me his name. Her relationship with him was... complicated. I could tell she still cared for him, even if she was gradually coming to disagree with what he had her do.

...Or at least some of what she'd done.

In any case, 'The Siberian' wasn't her birth name. That was what the media had labeled her. True, it became her name, just as much as 'Sibby' was, but I don't think that mattered for scrying. The only person who could've named her after her 'birth' was long dead.

"Panda."

I got a hit!

...To someone else.

It looked like an interesting place. Let's see... according to the map and the coordinates, it's a small island country called 'Drath'.

I'm not sure why they'd name someone 'Panda', but it clearly isn't Sibby's daughter.

Unfortunately, that was the only hit.

Did 'Panda' not count as her name? I guess, once again, she'd only gotten it after I sacrificed my Summoning Perk to save Sibby. That wasn't as long ago in the past as when Sibby had been named 'The Siberian', but as far as a 'birth name' - it wasn't one.

I wondered why scrying didn't work on them. Could it be because of their names, or could it be their nature as a projection?

I mean, Sibby was alive as anyone else. She had consciousness, feelings, opinions, and a personality. She was a real person as far as I was concerned.

...She just wasn't human. It was more like she was a Shard created homunculus. It could be that scrying didn't work because her 'real' body was in another dimension. Or rather, in side dimension?

Or at least her brain was?

Maybe?

Possibly?

"Projection."

Ugh. No luck.

Okay, fine. Let's go with her Shard's REAL name.

PROJECTION OF CREATION AND NEGATION

The scrying orb went dark.

I tried pushing some of my mana into it... No luck.

I frowned and shook it. I hoped I hadn't broken the thing. I guess Shard-speak was a bit too much for it to handle.

I also hoped that Sibby was doing well and having fun. It would've been nice to confirm that, and to see her. I missed her. Also, I hoped she was having fun that wasn't 'murdery'. I mean, I trusted her, but her outlook on other people was still fairly alien.

I realized the irony of that statement, considering my mindset wasn't exactly human anymore thanks to Gamer's Mind.

In any case, it was about time to call it a night anyways.

...

The next night I knocked on Montressa's door.

The red-head opened it slightly and scowled at me. "Who is it?" She blinked. "Oh, it's you." She opened the door wider. "Come in."

I looked around. Her room was tidy. All the personal rooms in Wistram were nice, for a medieval technology world. Sure, they had magic and golems to help out with things like air temperature, lighting, and manual labor, but the stone walls still didn't seem normal to me. "Nice room." I'd seen it a few days ago, but hadn't bothered to comment on it then.

"Thanks." Montressa sat on her bed. "What can I do for you? More secrets? Another scrying orb?"

"The second one."

**Montressa is surprised.

"Really? What'd you do, lose the first one?"

I crossed my arms. "That's a secret."

**Montressa is amused.

She gave me a flat look. "That's not amusing. You'll need to give me something for it." She smiled slightly. "I wouldn't mind a new staff..."

"Really now?" I un-Inventoried a chair and sat down. "I admit the orb you got me was nice, but my helmet is worth far more than it." I smiled at her. "Isn't it?"

**Montressa is nervous.

She kept her face still as she replied. "It is, but that was a separate transaction."

"That's true." I nodded. "Still, a staff of mine is overpaying by quite a lot, wouldn't you agree?"

"Not necessarily. The true worth of any artifact is how useful it is to its owner. After all, that's the very concept that makes trade-" She sighed. "Okay, fine. I can see that's not going to work. I'll get you another scrying orb."

"Thank you."

**Montressa is hopeful.

"Can you at least tell me why you need two?" Her eyes gleamed.

"I suppose." It wasn't like it was important to me. "I broke it by giving it a name I shouldn't have."

**Montressa is surprised.

"What name?"

I shook my head. "Not one that you are able to hear." She narrowed her eyes and I held up my hands. "I'm being literal here. You are physically incapable of interpreting it."

"Uh-huh." She crossed her arms.

I sighed. "Tell you what, I have a few mundane secrets about Wistram that I can also give you."

**Montressa is eager.

"Oh?" She leaned forward. "Like what?"

"One or two secret affairs. Ingredients the kitchen is running low on. One or two hidden rooms."

Montressa smiled. "Those all sound good. Tell me them all, and I'll get you another scrying orb just as good as the last one."

"No." I shook my head. "Not all."

I hated haggling, but I also wasn't about to roll over and give her another one-sided deal. Especially when I didn't get any reputation gains from it.