"Sorrel." Rea greets me when we return. "Did everything go alright?" The supersonic fairy was hard to miss, not to mention all the magic I was pouring out.

"Yes, one of them was rather foul-mouthed though, and was stupid enough to insult my wife in front of me." I explain. "Luckily, he had a much smarter friend that vowed to keep the idiot away from my lands in the future." I can sense him and the others leaving the town at top speed as I speak.

"Will any of them be staying?" Coen asks, obviously interested in the magical creatures.

"Not these." I shake my head. "It was a mixed group here for another reason, but the smart one, Thalian, is going to report back and a colony of wisps will be headed this way soon."

"I haven't read much about the Fae, not that there is much to read." He says. "So, what can we expect once they arrive?" He directs the question to me but his eyes keep flicking towards Apricot.

"You won't see them. Wisps are even more shy than pixies, and they'll be doubly so after hearing that Sorrel bitch-smacked a fairy one-thousand kilometers away." She answers with a grin. "But, Co should start to improve as a dungeon after they get here. Better challenges, monsters, and rewards; that kind of thing."

"That is good news." Coen says. "Anything that keeps me from having to waste months on another leveling trip in winter is a very good thing."

"Why do they have them at this late in the year?" I ask a question that I should have asked Nev and his team.

"It's the weather." He answers. "It drives the stronger beasts lower down the mountains. This way, those of us with higher levels can still get stronger without having to risk climbing higher into the teeth."

"That makes sense." I nod. "So, how's the town been doing?" I spread my senses out to encompass the town and find something that I missed when the dungeon distracted me. "Who is this?" I project an image of a thirty-something woman carrying a toddler on her hip while two more children around five and eight follow behind her.

"That is Agnes Ozment, and her children, Alfie, Percival, and Rachel." Rea names them from youngest to oldest. "They're one of the families I mentioned in our conversation before. Is there a problem?" She asks nervously.

"No." I shake my head and smile to re-assure her. "She and the girl are potential Gravity Mages, while the boys have Space Mana."

"A whole family of un-Awakened." Coen's eyes go wide. "How many mages have we been missing out on just because we don't have someone with the same element to recognize them?"

"Hmm?" I mumble as a thought comes to me. "I don't have the time or inclination to tour the entire country, but I should be able to make some enchantments that mimic the basic test for mana. Send one to each village and they can send their potentials to the Capital."

"That could work." He gets a thoughtful look on his face. "And, it would certainly be better than sending mages to test everyone in the country personally. You're not the only one who doesn't have the inclination to travel the country. The guild arranges for those with the Awakener title to visit the major cities every few years, but doing so is always a hassle."

"Do you think this Agnes would mind helping me test it out?" I direct to Rea. "It should only take me a few moments to build a working model." It's a simple enchantment really, once you get past the body's natural interference.

"I'll send a runner and have her join us for dinner." She signals to an aide to do just that. "I'm sure she'll be happy to help out. I wouldn't have picked her as a candidate if she didn't have a good attitude."

"Good, let me get started on this, and after dinner we can talk about the improvements for the keep, and my plans for the test villages." I sink into my enchanting zone after that, while Amelia and Apricot chat with the town leaders.

Runes lack the fine control that a mage has, so I have to be careful about using them to injecting foreign Mana into somebody. In a normal person it just gets destabilized, but in a pre-Awakened there's a much more antagonistic response. And, said response could harm the person or feedback and destroy the Rune itself. I have to walk a fine line between being strong enough to trigger a response, but not strong enough that it causes harm.

"Rea, could I borrow some of your people to help me set a baseline?" I intrude on her conversation with Amelia about the economy of the town.

"Will Benn, and Elston be enough?"

"Should do, for now." I nod and she motions them over. "Thank you, I just need you to place your hands on here for a moment. That's good, and you now." I thank them again and dive back in.

Agnes shows up a few minutes later, just as I think I'm getting close to being done. Rea introduces her to Amelia and Apricot, and explains why she was asked to come over.

"A mage? Me?" The mother of three seems stunned.

"Not just you." I say while looking up from the hopefully completed design. "The children also have the potential. I'm willing to Awaken you and them, when you decide they're ready." The standing convention is to wait until they first hit puberty, but some parents choose to Awaken their children sooner.

"But, you want my, and their, help to test this new Rune first?" Her momma-bear side comes to the forefront.

"Yes. But, I'll awaken you either way." What I don't say is that she won't receive any other support from me if she refuses. "You doing this will help countless other potential Mages."

"What can a Gravity Mage do?"

"Depends on the Mage." I laugh and use Gravity to replicate the six basic elements by making a breeze, compressing the air to light a stick on fire, pulling water from a cup on a nearby table to douse the fire, drawing some dirt in through the window to make a sculpture of Mittens, and lastly bending light to simulate Light and Dark spells. "But, mostly you'd make stuff lighter or heavier, and move them around." I make everything in the room float for a moment.

"Would I still be able to become one of your healers if I became a Mage?"

"Of course." I agree instantly. "Having magic just gives you more options, it's up to you which ones you pick."

"Okay, I'll try out your Rune, and if it's safe, I'll let you use it on the kids." She relents.

"Place your hand here." I push a glass sphere closer to her. I had to give it a bit of style after-all. "It's going to start by introducing small amounts of foreign Mana into your body until there's a reaction."

The rune starts doing just that, only for me to stop it immediately and take control of the Mana it released, so I can safely guide it out of her. "Hmm, didn't expect a reaction so soon, let me lower the intensity even further."

"I didn't feel anything." She says and looks at her hand just to be sure.

"I stopped it before you would have." I say while adjusting the enchantments. "I'm trying to find the bare minimum here, so I can slowly increase to that level without the feedback harming you or the Rune. Okay, try again."

She doesn't hesitate to place her hand back on the sphere. This time it runs through half a cycle before a reaction occurs. It's weak enough though that I let it play out, and Agnes doesn't seem to be in any discomfort. Soon, the globe glows green and the word "Gravity" appears inside the glass.

"It worked?" She seems surprised. "I didn't feel anything."

"That's good, that means the reaction was low enough that it shouldn't cause any issues." With her or the Rune, the things won't be very useful if it breaks every time it finds a potential Mage. "Will you let the children try it now?"

She does, and it works as well for them as it did for her. Afterwards, Rea and her assistants try it, but it only flashes red for them after a full minute of trying more and more Mana to induce a reaction.

"What happens if I try it?" Coen steps forward.

"Good question." I raise an eyebrow. "Mages automatically block out all Mana that they can't absorb, so without sensing that antagonistic reaction it will likely think you don't have magic." He tries anyways, and get's the reaction I predicted.

"I could feel it probing me, but you're right." He says while looking at his palm. "Only the Earth mana was able to make it in, and that was only because I let it. The only flaw that I can see is that it won't be able to detect potential ArchMages such as yourself."

"True, but detecting them would take a much more complicated Rune. I'd basically have to map out the Mana in their bodies while bubbling them from outside influence, and then hope to detect a minute change after running the test." It's not impossible, but it's not worth it either, not when any Mage with the Awakener title would be able to detect them.

"I see what you mean." He nods, but there's a hint of sadness to his tone. "Still, this will help to Awaken countless Mages that would otherwise never even have known they had Magic."

"I'll keep working on it, but I'll likely need an actual pre-Awakened Archmage before I can design something that will work properly." I say before turning to Agnes. "Are you ready?"

"It's not going to hurt is it?" A hint of shyness shows through her brash exterior.

"Not at all." I take her hand and walk her through the Awakening. "I know it's a special occaision Temmie, but does it always have to be so loud?"

***

"You doing alright Sweetie?" Amelia asks Apricot after we retire to the guest suite early.

"I'm okay." She flops onto the bed. "Be better with some chocolate and a massage." She looks over at her wife with a twinkle in her eye.

"Happy to, but if you want to talk about it, we're here to listen." Amelia straddles Apricot's legs and starts unbuttoning her top. "Roll over." She orders and lifts herself up to free her wife's legs.

"I am okay, really." Apricot reiterates before flipping onto her belly so Amelia can remove her top. "It just took me by surprise earlier. Mmm, right there."

"If you're so fine, then why is your back such a mess?" Amelia counters, but doesn't push it any further.

"Want me to get your feet?" I ask, already pulling Apricot's shoes off.

"Always." Our pixie breathes out as we work the tension and stress of the day from her body. "Come here buddy." She calls Mittens over starts petting him.

I decide this is as good a time as any to work on his new enchantment. Fortunately his illusion always matches his body, even if the distance and direction does tend to change. I just need to re-position it back to where his body actually is.

"Hmm?" I say as a thought comes to me. "Hey, Mittens. You understand me right? Can you turn off the illusion, at least when we're petting you?"

"Mrow." His form shimmers for a second before snapping back into place where it should be.

"Wait. It was that simple?" Apricot says with a laugh. "All we had to do was ask?"

"Mew." He head butts her hand before lifting his chin so she can scratch his favorite spot.

"I guess it was." I chuckle. "I was about to work on the enchantment when I remembered what happened when we left the garden."

"Who's a smart little kitty?" Amelia baby talks at him, but doesn't stop massaging Apricot.

Soon both Apricot and her kitty are sleeping peacefully on the bed. I tuck them in next to each other and start working on Amelia's back, just like she was working on Apricot's.

"That's nice. Mmm, a little lower. Ooh, that's the spot..."

It's not long before she joins her wife in dreamland, but sleep doesn't come for me so easily. I just lay there next to them and let my mind wander about the town, thinking about improvements and designs for the future village.

There's still lines at the wells around town, probably because they're so deep that it takes minutes just to fill up a single bucket. 'That won't do.' I say to myself, and pull my attention back to the keep.

Fortunately Rea hasn't gone to bed yet, and is actually back in her office doing paperwork. I create a hologram and 'knock' on her door. "Rea, spare a minute?"

"Of course." She looks up from her papers and gestures me to a chair across from her desk. "I thought you went to bed already."

"We did, I'm still there actually." I smile and walk through her half-open door. "The girls are sleeping, but I'm not tired yet."

"Well, what can I do for you?" She rolls her eyes a little as I walk through the chair before sitting down.

"I just noticed that the wells still have lines around them." I inform her of the reason for my visit. "I don't like that, and want to replace them with fountains fed by pumps. Might add a water tower too, that way Coen can plumb the town later on. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier that I upgraded the waypoints on the way here."

"Good design." She seems pleased at the projected image of the changed rest stops. "Gives the people some place to ride out inclement weather without saying 'please move in'. And, fountains would be very welcome. I thought having sixteen wells would be enough, but it just takes too long to get a bucket filled."

"I'll start now then." I make another copy of myself at the nearest well, and start filling buckets for everyone, so they'll get out of the way. "But, while I have you here. Would you mind taking a look at the design I've come up with for the village?"

"I'd love to." She says with a smile.

"This is the central building." A pink lotus shaped building appears in the middle of her desk, it's outermost petals are actually flat ground. "And, this is the town itself." A mandala spreads out from the lotus. The inner petals are single homes, while the buildings in the next layers share walls and a central courtyard, and the very outer most layer is a series of farms.

"It's beautiful." She breathes out while examining the village from all angles. "Yes, this is good, very good. You have more than enough space for everyone, and it'll be easy enough to expand the design in the future. Could I see a larger view of the central building?"

I oblige and expand it while making the walls transparent so she can look inside. She nods at the kitchen, laundry room, various workshops, and meeting areas.

"I don't see any problems. Well, unless you count everyone getting jealous and wanting to live there themselves." She laughs. "Hells, I almost wish we could rebuild Circle Orchard to match."

"We can talk about that in the future. I have other ideas floating around in my head too, and I'm not going to leave the heart of Arcadia a simple town." My focus is drawn away for a second by an argumentative old woman. "Though, I'll leave wrangling the citizens up to you. I've had four people at three different wells refuse to let me get their water for them."

"Already so far along?" She shows a hint of surprise.

"Over half done actually, and I'm taking it slow because I don't want to wake Apricot with the Mana fluctuations." A smile crosses my lips as I turn my real head to look at her where she's curled up in Amelia's arms.

"Do you often work on stuff while they sleep?"

"No, they just went to bed early, unexpectedly finding a bunch of Fae here was a bit much for Apricot." I don't say anything more than that, and she doesn't pry further.

"Well, I suppose I'll just count it as my good luck them, especially if you are willing to add some of these Runes to the keep here." Her hint is about as unsubtle as can be, but I was going to anyways.

"Of course." I send her a smile. "Anything for my favorite mayor."

***