January 25, 2019, 3:52 pm.

The entangling roots of the Nexus point barely register as we prepare ourselves for the next step. During one of our practise sessions a couple days ago, I'd explained how my teleportation worked to Tipan while we'd been trying to use it as a basis for invisibility. At the time it'd been a dead end. While it hadn't helped at the time, it occurred to Tipan I could use my IFF to teleport to the others. As we were hashing out the details of our impromptu escape plan, this had been the key component for regrouping.

If it didn't work, then we'd be stuck waiting for the others to catch up. Which means there's no better time to start practicing. I cast one lingering gaze on the doorway to Raz's but remind myself that Rufka isn't expecting me to contact her for hours yet anyway.

Tipan and I spread out while Smoulder perches on a nearby branch, watching with detached curiosity as I prepare to throw myself at Tipan.

Reaching out, I grasp the tether established by IFF, then, piggybacking on the tether, I create the spatial link I use for teleportation. Taking a deep breath, I nod to Tipan.

She conjures a barrier of wind, prepared to catch me.

Initiating the tug, I'm soaring over her head a moment later, wrapped in a bush located not far behind Tipan. It's even worse than my first effort back in the Yrken ship.

"You seem to have missed," Tipan notes with a soft chuckle.

"Yeah. Accuracy is hard," I note as I pull my arm out of a thorn bush with spikes the size of my finger. Yet they only tickle, hardly pressing against my health edge. This is not a Josh level thorn bush.

Picking myself up, we continue the experiment. I'm trying to use Tipan as my only anchor, so the solution I came up with last time won't work. Unless I'm able to create several anchors on Tipan herself.

The basic test I perform when I visually attach several anchors to Tipan confirms that yes, it's enough to increase my accuracy. But it doesn't help through the IFF link since it only connects to a single spot. And when I try connecting them to her blindly, I end up forming tethers that are lost in the surrounding forest. Hmm. Creating tethers without guidance isn't much better.

If only I could see from her perspective.

…..

Wow. Sometimes, I'm an idiot.

Warning her, I let Tipan know I'm going to be connecting directly to her perspective. It's not as strange as I expected, though it's a little unsettling when she rubs her lower arms together while leaning on her staff with her upper arms.

Ignoring the extra sensations, I use the connection to create tethers. It works so perfectly I'm able to arrive next to her with my arm wrapped over her shoulder.

"Well. That's a noticeable improvement," Tipan remarks.

"Yeah. But it's only the first step," I agree while staring at Smoulder. Why is it so easy to bring Smoulder with me when I teleport?

Is it her size or something else?

Tipan and I spend the next half hour continuing to work on my teleport. I check with Beth every few minutes, making sure that the others are still safe until she suggests that I check back every hour instead. Unless we make some real progress of course.

I'm about to interrupt our practice to contact Rufka when Tipan asks, "have you tried using your special abilities on others? Offensively, I mean."

Her question causes me to freeze in place. "No."

"They could be potent as they seem to ignore a lot of rules," Tipan notes.

"Yeah," I murmur back. Even though I'm immune to fear, the idea of experimenting with my abilities on a living being unsettles me.

"Maybe you could start by experimenting on a tree or something," Tipan suggests, gesturing to the bush I just climbed out of.

That's… that's a great idea!

"Just remember Mr. Bush, you started it. What am I saying? I don't owe you an explanation," I proclaim, waving my arm grandly as I attempt to wrap the bush in one of my stasis-shields. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I envision shielding runes around it connected through a tether but the field collapses inwards the moment my facet completes the pattern.

It takes me several tries until I realize that when I use the shield on myself, my mana channels are an integral part of the barrier. Mr. Bush is completely lacking any such mana channels.

So, I guess that means I need to create a suitable substitute.

I spend several minutes trying to create a proper structure but they all collapse.

"No luck?" Tipan asks as I join her in the shelter of the tree where she's been waiting.

"None. My shield keeps collapsing as soon as I try to form it."

"Hmm. What have you tried? Maybe if we…"

Tipan and I spend the next five minutes going over different runes. Our first attempts fail until we incorporate the open cardboard box rune. My first test proves it's not perfect, the spell not covering the entirety of the bush. And it's expensive to maintain.

But it's progress.

Besides, I don't need to teleport Mr. Bush, he's just a nice easy target. Still, Tipan and I keep working together, trying different combinations. We come up with several different rune structures that each encompass different shapes and sizes. Turns out that creating shields is a rather modular process but there's a general rule that circles take less mana per volume.

The first time I studied Return the entire spell surrounded me, circles composed the structure from top to bottom. It was practically a cocoon, just formed of mana instead of whatever cocoons are normally made of. Is a cocoon a silk-like or skin-like substance? Or are they just chewed up leaves?

Adding that to the list of google questions for when we make it home, I return my attention to our experiments.

While shields prefer circles, they're not against being morphed into blobby shapes. Tipan and I continue experimenting until we create a shape that should allow me to teleport everyone with me. The final shape doesn't incorporate blobs at all. While the blob shapes are interesting, the costs make a starfish shield into a dead-end. That I'm able to notice the cost at the short ranges we're practicing at is a bad sign.

Instead, we've simply expanded the range of the bubble of my self-shield, reinforcing with several of the box runes to expand the circle outwards.

"Okay. It seems to be stable. Wish me luck."

"Good luck." Tipan gives me four thumbs up while stepping back, Smoulder on her shoulder. Next to me are five earthen statues standing, the rough features overlaid with bold numerals. My very own crash test dummies.

Safety first!

The connection forms and the pressure are greater, but I emerge a dozen metres away from my starting position. The statues are standing beside me as planned. Except most of them are missing miscellaneous parts.

That was Tipan's idea.

Each statue was placed at varying distances from the centre of the circle. The furthest statue who was three quarters shielded is missing its head and one of its arms. The edge is sharp enough that it'd probably draw blood if I wasn't protected by the system. If I used this as a weapon…

It's surprisingly easy for me to picture the statue as a person, their limbs sloughing to the side. Unpleasant.

"Well. That's quite the impetus to be fully inside the shield." Tipan hefts the remaining 'head' in her hands, watching it crumble. Each of the other statues except the 'control' are missing pieces as well.

"Yeah. Do you know how to add colour or something? It'd be nice if the boundaries weren't invisible. I'd rather not cut anyone's head off on accident." I reform the crippled statues as I speak, moving them completely inside the safe area for the next test.

"A second spell maybe? Adding colour to my spells hasn't been something I've needed. That's more..." Tipan's words are cut off as I teleport. Her voice is much closer when I re-appear surrounded by test dummy honour guard near her. "... a twi-whoa!"

Grinning at her, I continue, moving away with my regular teleport while leaving the statues posing heroically before her. "Twilight huh, like this?"

A glowing ring of dusky light springs into place. It's much simpler than the actual bubble surrounding us, only showing three concentric rings. Even so, it provides a clear delineation between inside and out. For safety, I add in a small margin of ten centimetres.

"Yes, that should-" Tipan's not surprised when I appear in front of her this time, giving me a light shove shortly after I arrive. "That should work."

"Yeah. Now I just need to test it on some local wildlife. No offence but I'd rather not use you as a test subject." I'm already scanning the area, searching for a likely target. There are a surprising number of songbirds in the area, but I'd rather not subject such an innocent creature to my experiments either.

Even if it'd be safer than trying it with one of the jaguar-esque predators I'm looking for. But unless I find a mana-borne, the Vexthera are the only targets I feel comfortable using.

"You realize how potent this could be?" Tipan asks, gesturing to the arm from the mauled statue from earlier. "There are very few creatures with resistances to spatial magic."

"Yeah. Trying not to think about it," I answer. I mean, sure, this could be helpful for confronting Ivicka. A way to do the sorts of damage she'd otherwise shrug off.

But it feels too lethal.

Too real.

"I'm going to keep testing," I inform her, porting away before she can respond. I'm ten jumps into my hasty retreat when I stumble across a Vexthera.

It's sprawled across the branch above me, its dark tail flicking back and forth as it judges me with its amber eyes.

The way its eyes remain locked on me causes me to hesitate. Do I really want to experiment with an innocent creature like this?

I almost don't notice when the feline's muscles begin to contract. In fact, it's only the tail growing still that clues me in.

Before I can process what's happening, there are hundreds of kilos of angry kitty flying towards my face.

So, I do what I always do these days. I pause time then consider how I'm going to handle this. At least this solves my moral quandary. I've zero issues with experimenting, now that it's attacked me.

A burst of wind manipulation places me next to its frozen form. I pulse my twilight safety margins spell. When it reveals that I would have been cutting all its whiskers and half its nose off, I push myself slightly closer to the murder cat.

Once I'm certain it's within the bounds of my spell, I unleash my power, sending us moving a whole five metres. With my pause ended by the teleport, I slip into invisibility. I only take a couple accelerated seconds to inspect the Vexthera before teleporting out of its immediate reach.

My caution is rewarded when it spins in place shredding the air where I'd been standing.

Which is a good sign. If it's slashing the air, then it's not injured. It only spends half a minute investigating the area before it leaps away. Worried that there might be hidden damage, I teleport after it.

I follow the Vexthera for ten minutes before I accept that if I did any damage to it, it's likely of the undetectable kind. It's not missing any of its limbs and isn't showing any signs of pain, so I'm calling this a success. No notification from the system that I've created a new spell though.

Returning to Tipan, I find her in the meeting room beneath the tree. In her hands she has a weathered book, its pages crinkling as she peruses it, pausing when she notices me. As I join her, she sets the book aside but not before I read the title, 'A Guide to Embedding Mental Signatures.' The Vausian characters have a sloppiness that implies they're handwritten. And not by a skilled calligrapher.

"How was the testing?" Tipan asks while placing her hands on the book in front of her.

"Found a Vexthera. It survived the teleport."

"Then the next step is clear." The book vanishes into one of Tipan's pockets as she stands, walking to the circle where we performed the first test. "Well?"

It's hard to stand. Despite the testing, I still feel a vague sense of unease as I place the barrier around us.

"Okay. Ready?" I ask, hoping she'll say no.

"Ready." Tipan nods as she clasps my hands in hers.

I pulse the safety warning, receiving visual confirmation that she shouldn't lose so much as a single strand from her mohawk. Then I pulse it again. Just in case.

Okay, here goes. This is the game-changer. If this works for my short hops, it's only a small amount of work to incorporate it into invisibility. And then Return.

As the familiar twisting happens and we emerge a few short metres away I sigh in relief when Tipan emerges wholly unscathed. I'm sighing in relief while Tipan starts jumping around excitedly. "It works. It really works. Do it again!"

I can't help but smile at her enthusiasm. So, I repeat the process until Tipan lets go of my hands, collapsing against a nearby tree, her soft tinkling laughter filling the clearing.

"That's so much better than system teleportation. It almost feels like flying, a sudden rush of movement, then bam, you're there."

Not quite what I experience, but then, not everyone is able to distort their perspective of time like I do.

"I'm just glad it worked. It would have been challenging if we had to wait for them to find their way back to us."

"Except we have to confirm you're able to do retrieve them. This wouldn't be the first spell I've seen that works at short range but breaks down if pushed too far."

"Guess it's back to the test dummies then," I sigh, summoning new earthen statues. Next step is incorporating it with invisibility which turns out to be as easy as modifying the spell form.

"This spell might not be so great for stealth," Tipan notes, poking at where one of the statues disappears halfway down its body.

I have to agree, it's not perfect. It even makes parts of the nearby trees fade from sight. It the sort of thing that would stand out more than just hiding.

On the other hand…

"It works as a proof of concept," I point out as I let the spell drop.

"True. I'd say it's enough."

"Just a couple more tests," I state as I try to improve the globe by excluding objects. But it's like using the blobs to shape the basic spell, the mana cost climbs rapidly for each exclusion.

"Lex. I think we've done enough tests. You should get the others." Tipan points her staff in their general direction.

"Just one more." I stop playing with invisibility then start making changes to my Return spell. When I'm done, I move off from the circle with my loyal test dummies. Then I implement the spell. Unlike my regular teleport, this time there's a major issue. One of the statues is superimposed with one of the tables.

"Damn. Okay, you're right. More tests are probably a good idea." Tipan prods the statue with her staff and we watch it collapse.

"Yep."

After an hour and more than a dozen attempts to solve the transposing issue, we're still struggling to fix the spell when Tipan asks, "Couldn't we just push the tables back?"

I'm about to object when I realize that we don't need the spell to work perfectly yet. Retrieving the others is more important.

"Yeah. We should probably just do that. But I'd like to fix this after."

"Well, perhaps Beth or Demo will have an idea. Either way, you should let them know we're just about ready."

Nodding, I connect to Beth, reinforcing the connection with focus since I'm low on facet. "Looks like we've got an area-based Return spell figured out," I tell her while taking in her surroundings. More plains.

"Excellent kid. How long?"

"Should be ready to come to you in…. Twenty minutes if I end the call now. It'll be easier to teleport if you're on the ground at the time."

"Will do. See you in twenty, kid." When I let the connection end, I get a couple of flashes. They're not full-on memories but I can feel Beth's concern for Josh and I. While I was talking with Beth, Tipan's kept busy by moving the tables against the walls. We finish tidying up the area by moving the remaining dirt from the bisected test dummy outside the circle.

With that done, Tipan returns to her book while I start experimenting with invisibility. I want to call Rufka but since I'd have to leave the party, then reconnect my IFF to her while spending a bunch of facet for the call, I wait.

Instead, I settle for playing with my invisibility sphere. One hundred percent mana based, and still fun besides. Smoulder's poking her leg through the edge, watching as it disappears then quickly hopping away before returning to try it again.

Twenty minutes later, I let Tipan know I'm leaving, connect to Beth then teleport hundreds of kilometres in a single thought.

As I appear beside my friends, I can't help but notice the sound of a crackling fire. Beth hands me a kebab with freshly grilled meat as Demo and Roberts join us.

Once we're finished eating, we gather in a circle, each of them well within the glowing rings of twilight. Beth turns to me, her hand grasping my shoulder.

"So kid, ready to bust this continent-wide open?"

"You have no idea," I answer as I send us back to the safe confines of the roots of Nexus point 392.

There's none of the disorientation or vomiting that accompanied Tipan's group teleport. While everyone oohs and awws our success I stride towards Raz's door.

I can't wait to tell Rufka.