Authors Note: Warning, Cliffs ahead! Feel free to wait until a few more chapters are released before reading if you hate cliffhangers.

I realized they are impossible to avoid. Anywhere I break is going to be a cliffhanger, weather I want it or not, if something exciting is happening.

Things went back to normal swiftly, and several months later I was in my room working on integrating the electromagnetic powers I had thought up into my ‘Electricity Alternate Abilities’ power set. I had discovered that there were a few flaws in my previous plan.

Saved AbilitiesMagnetic Field: Create a strong magnetic field in an area, which will attract or repel other magnetic objects.

You have successfully trained 'Magnetic Field' to Level 0!

Purchase this ability? Cost: 10 CP per Magnetic Strength Level

Yes, purchase 'Magnetic Field' immediately!

No. Keep 'Magnetic Field' in the Abilities menu.

Saved AbilitiesMagnetize Object: Impart a magnetic charge to any object. Charge duration depends on target material.

You have successfully trained 'Magnetize Object' to Level 0!

Purchase this ability? Cost: 1 CP per Magnetic Strength Level

Yes, purchase 'Magnetize Object' immediately!

No. Keep 'Magnetize Object' in the Abilities menu.

I didn’t know what a Magnetic Strength Level (MSL) was, exactly, even though I had chosen the term. I had no control over how much different abilities would cost to buy, but I could choose whether to buy them or not. And the power of Magnetize Object was much higher than Magnetic Field: Not only was the cost per MSL much lower, it also had a duration – which meant the effect would last for a time even after I stopped maintaining it.

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I heard muted voices coming from the kitchen, so I started to put the chunks of iron I had scattered around the room back under my bed. It was mid-day, leading me to assume it was another visit from Zephyr and her mother. I cleaned up with a smile, not minding the disturbance at all – in fact, I was looking forward to the diversion. What I was working on now was trying to combine an electromagnetic effect with my Ion Shield power, so that I could safely create and manipulate magnetic fields around myself. I wasn’t having much luck.

I waiting for mother to call me into the kitchen and was still trying to brainstorm different ideas when I heard a disturbance coming from the front of the house. All I could make out was the sound of mother yelling louder than I had heard in a long while, so I dashed into the small hallway and out towards the kitchen. Then I heard a scream and the clatter of metal striking stone.

“And then I’ll feed them back to you, piece by piece!” I heard mother yell. When I got into the room I saw mother holding a kitchen knife, and a man… no, a guard… wearing half plate armor. The guard was backing towards the door, holding one of his hands to his chest as blood dripped down his arm. His sword was lying on the floor.

“Isa!” The guard said, sounding scared. “We won’t hurt the boy.” He looked over at me. “We just have to take him in to answer some questions!” He was nearly at the door by now. Mother snarled at him, crouching down into a fighting pose and circling to move herself between the guard and me. I had absolutely no idea what to do, my mouth hanging open at the scene unfolding in the kitchen.

Mother replied, her voice coming out as a raspy whisper, in a tone I had never heard from her before, “And I said we will come together after my husband Toly returns from the Smithy. I have no desire to scrub even more blood off of my floor, so I suggest you leave before I slit your throat.” She had started advancing on the guard as she spoke, step by careful step, her knife held loosely in front of her. The guard’s face turned even paler as he turned around and bolted out the door.

Mother watched him leave and then quickly turned around, “Heller my sweet, we have to go to the forge now, go and grab your father’s weapons and armor.” She gave me a smile (it looked forced) as she absently wiped the guards blood off of her knife and placed it on the counter. “We haven’t much time, so be quick.”

Mother quickly wrapped up both sets of armor and weapons (hers and fathers) in a cloak, grabbed some food, and ushered me out of the house and down the street. We moved swiftly, switching streets several times as we went. I was nervous and wanted desperately to ask what was happening, but I had to jog to keep up and mother seemed preoccupied as she glanced behind us several times. My few attempts were met with, “Soon, Heller. First we must find your father.”

The trip seemed far longer than I remembered it being, but eventually the smoke of the forge (and then the noise after that) lead us to the Smithy. Mother looked around a final time before ushering me into the forge room and yelling, “Toly Firehand! Stop that and come here, now!” All work ground to a halt as the surprised blacksmiths, masters and apprentices alike, turned to look at us. Father came jogging over, his eyebrows raised.

“Isa, what’s wrong? You know you can’t be here.” He said, gesturing for us to follow him outside the room.

“Beasts take your stupid traditions.” Mother yelled back, drawing her dagger and gesturing further into the smithy. “We will speak in there.”

For a moment I thought father was going to pick mother up and carry her outside as I had never seen him frown so deeply before, his usual smile gone and rock-steady calm finally showing signs of fracture… and I suddenly realized that as frightening as mother may be, the thought of Jaws getting angry was far worse. He looked at me, taking a moment to absorb my frightened expression as I stared back at him, and nodded. He looked back at the blacksmiths behind him, motioning for the door. “I will cleanse the forge, new fires will be lit tomorrow.”

A few of the blacksmiths nodded at him, looking like they were starting to pack up in a similar manner to the drill used for an attack. One blacksmith was already at the back exit, the woman with lumpy red skin and the curling bull-style horns. Others shook their heads, saying that they would stay and help ‘renew the forge’. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but I did know that the only people allowed inside a Smithy were the blacksmiths, their children who are going to apprentice, and the apprentices themselves. It was kind of like a religious taboo: Our culture didn’t have a specific god or deity, but we worshiped the spirits of many things – it reminded me of Shinto-Buddhism from Japan slightly, except there was no ancestor worship.

Father picked me up (I was panting pretty heavily – partly from the jog, and partly from fear) and followed mother into the office beside the forge room.

“Isa, what happened.” He asked, his calm seeming to have returned somewhat.

“The guard, Toly. They said they wanted to take Heller from me!” Mother said in a rush, her knuckles white around the dagger in her hand.