So, uh, tell me again why I’m forming a contract with Tarit in front of the entire goddamn Order? I asked Donna, placing mana into my thought so she could hear me telepathically. It’s been a few weeks since the partnership of Ingen and the Order began, so orc alike was witnessing this spectacle. And yeah, Timedial’s side-effects were long since gone but I procrastinated so much that I gave the entirety of my class ample time to spread the news about me having contracts with spirit lords. I thought that to be common knowledge in the Order thanks to Aldis, but I guess he wasn’t a blabbermouth.

And so, I stood in the centre of the Order, with nearly everyone from every rank present, even the councilmen. Of course, Elder Remi watched on in total fascination. Donna stood next to me. Sure, some people must’ve had the thought that she looked like the queen, but nothing further. You could say that she was just a relative of the ‘late’ queen because of the physical changes I made when resurrecting her. I definitely didn’t want to hide her away, so I also viewed this as an opportunity to get her used to being outside me when in unfamiliar places, or at least places that made her uncomfortable.

“How many times you asked that question, buddy? Better question though, you figure out light magic yet? Or the codices? You haven’t even asked about the spells you’d get now that you’re a councilman. What are you doing, dude?”

Uh, everyone needs a break sometimes. I’m just enjoying the people around me.

“What bullshit! You haven’t ‘enjoyed’ me yet, have you? Have you even gotten Dawn in bed yet? You’re making zero progress both magic and relationships!”

Oh, shush you whore! Just summon the tiger and I’ll tell you wassup with me later today.

She groaned, a little aggravated. This dawdling I was doing was so unlike me that it rubbed her wrong with every passing day. Eventually, Tarit came out.

“Again?” he said, noticing the crowd of people around.

“Nah, bro, you ain’t gotta defend me or anything,” I said to him. He now appeared as an old man with a long mane of white hair in a dark robe. “My mana’s been back a while now so I figured it’s contract time.”

Donna nulled their current temporary contract, and he instead formed one with me. Yup, really damn uneventful. I wasn’t sure if the crowd was expecting fireworks, but I certainly wasn’t of mind to entertain them. However, I would entertain three special students of mine who, with their wyrms, would give even rank four Officers a run for their money or outright defeat them with a new summoning spell for each of them.

Although, even as I visited the spirit world multiple times to speak to these spirits, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was overestimating Dawn, Pyro, and Volt. The spirits I wanted to teach them how to summon were the second strongest after their respective lords. This wasn’t a big step for them, this was a straight-out journey. But, after conversing with these spirits for so long about it, I’d gained their trust enough for them to form the contracts willingly. The stronger a spirit was, the more sentient it became. The more sentient it was, the more one would need to appeal to the spirit instead of using strength to tame it. Contracts with stronger spirits were more like friendships than a master and familiar kind of relationship. But, despite their willingness, a mage would still certainly need the skill and mastery to summon and maintain those big guns.

The first was Volt’s. I summoned his spirit, a floating electric ray that looked exactly like the ones in the oceans. Its skin was able to instantly shift and mimic background colours, camouflage in its finest. Its calm nature made it seem even more docile and harmless than their current wyrms.

Next was the strange creatures next to Hydra. According to her, they were called leviathans. She also said their real size were close to hers, and she was damn right. When she summoned them up for me to see, they were like oversized whales, which is a hell of a description for a whale. Their bodies were covered in protective, iridescent coral, almost like a decoration running along their long dull-coloured bodies. Beneath their jaws were long tendrils numbering in thousands, they almost looked like hair. The orca-like form they took was just part of their power, but that’s an explanation for another time. For now, the one I contracted took its true leviathan form minus the real size. It was no bigger than a dolphin, floating along the air even without water.

Pyro looked ecstatic, unable to contain his anticipation. When I looked at him, he exploded, “You little shit!” he rubbed his knuckles in my head, “Don’t keep me waitin’, man!”

“Alright, alright,” I chuckled, trying to fight him off me. I was going to pretend like I didn’t get one for him, but he already figured me out.

A devil came forth, it’s appearance the most appalling and bizarre of any of the spirits I’ve summoned thus far, at least not including the spirit lords. “Whoa, dude! Dude!” He kept hitting my arm, unable to avert his eyes from the devil, “This is wicked!”

“Well now don’t get too happy. There’s no way in hell you’re gonna be able to summon him, that goes for you two as well,” I looked at Dawn and Volt. “Forming a contract with powerful and intelligent spirits is more of forming a relationship than exerting force. Luckily, these three guys are willing and ready to form contracts with you. But it won’t make summoning them any easier.”

“Ugh, that Phoenix is gonna train me again?” Pyro lamented.

“Yup!” I replied with a sly grin on my face, “In fact, you’ll train in the spirit world with the spirit lord of your main element.”

As one would expect from a crowd of mages, there wasn’t much chatter. Instead, a horrifyingly focused inspection of the spirits before them took place. They were so quiet I almost forgot them there.

Before long, the gathering dispersed and everyone went their ways. Alright, I thought, having some alone time with Dawn back home, time to risk my life.

She sat down, a lot more comfortable around me than her past rigid self. “Listen, babe, about Donna…” I started, leaning onto the single couch from the back. She sat on it, turning to the side and looking up at me. “Well, concerning us, I wanted to let you know that, she’s, uh… how do I put it?”

“Madly in love with you?” Dawn guessed, a quite brazen and indifferent attitude. I wonder where she learned it from?

“Yeah, she kinda is. And, it’s kind of hard to, tell her, I… how do I explain it?”

“That there’s no room in this relationship for another woman?” she once again, almost as if reading my thoughts, noted.

“Okay, now you’re freakin’ me out,” I told her.

She stood up and pat the chair a couple times, motioning me to sit. After I touched down on the chair, she sat on my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck and tried leaning into my shoulder, but ended up next to my neck instead because of her elevated position. “Ah, this is comfortable.” After some seconds of silence, she kissed my cheek. “Eric, to be frank with you, I always thought you’d drop me for her in a heartbeat. Ever since we met her for the Ashfur quest, it was really clear to me that I stood no chance. I knew at some point, this conversation would come up and I wanted to avoid it, but whilst you went on your ‘vacation’ with an orc, I had some time for myself to really think about what the hell I want. And well, that’s a lot to go over. So, long story short, I still want you, and Donna is not going to get between us. She’s going to be with us.”

Huh? “Come again?”

“Well, I thought about it and, I like Donna too, so, you know, the three of us…” she sat upright, facing me. I didn’t realise how red she got.

“Dawn, are you giving me permission to date another woman?”

“Eh, don’t put it that way. She’s my woman too.”

“Dawn!” I placed my hand to my mouth in teasing, “Oh my! I always knew you had a wild side to you. Now I’m really, really excited!”

She smiled coyly, “Yeah, I can feel your excitement,” then leaned in and buried a kiss.

I kissed back of course, getting into it a lot more than I thought I would, but then she suddenly stopped and placed a finger on my lips, “But, no way in hell any other woman is allowed! None!”

“What about Hydra?”

“H-Hydra? She’s, not really human, so I don’t really care. But still, no, not even her!”

“Wow, you’re really serious, huh?”

“Damn right I am,” she concreted, laying her head back onto my shoulder.

“Hey, who said we’re done? There’ll be plenty of time to rest after.”

“After what?” she inquired, not yet catching on. Well, you can guess what happened after. I’ll save you our first-time awkward antics and move on.

~

“Hey buddy,” I called out to August whilst waiting for a plate from his mom. It was quite a while since I visited his household. “You ever look at your weapons, and think ‘this thing sucks ass’?”

“You better watch your mouth before I stick one of them up yours. But, yeah man. Feel like I’m stagnant right now, you know?”

“Stagnant? Dude you’re the best blacksmith I know.”

“How many blacksmiths do you know?”

“You and your dad.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at my idiocy. “Where’d that question come from?”

“Sometimes I think my spells suck. I was wondering if it was just me. There are some skilled casters out there, dude.”

He said nothing, only stared in thoughtlessness, or so I thought. “Dude, what’s it like to have adventures and shit? Do you defeat bad guys and save damsels in distress?”

“I, don’t, uh, hmm…” I gave it some serious thought, then looked him in the eye. His mom came between us with a couple plates and broke my line of sight as well as my train of thought.

“Don’t let him influence you, Eric,” she joked.

“I think you gotta put that in reverse, mom,” I replied. Sometimes I’d call her mom, kind of my own version of a first-name basis and also as a sort of tease because she was such a stereotypical and doting mother to August as well as I. I’d bet my mana that she held some sort of mothership award; that’s what my mother was supposed to be like, instead I got a demon.

When she left to return to whatever she was doing, the thoughts flooded back to me. He was my best bud, yet I’d never really had any of my misadventures together with him. So now that he asked about those adventures, I had to pose a question. “You wanna come, dude? I somehow get involved in dangerous stuff sometimes, but, y’know, it’s still fun.”

He stopped, grinned, and suddenly shouted, “Hey mom! Can I go on dangerous adventures with Eric?”

“Okay!” she shouted, then stuck her head out from the kitchen, “Bring me back a souvenir!”

Who is she?! I thought, wondering if she was serious about this or kidding, but her lack of smile made me think she was dead serious. Is she Flynn? Only he would say that to a son departing on possibly life-threatening ventures. Did she think we were just going around Aquan and coming back?

“Well, there you have it. I can go whenever I want. But as much as I want to go, I’ll pass.”

“Why? Don’t be a sissy.”

“Nah, man, you don’t get it. I’m a normal guy, you aren’t. You’re a mage, trained by an Apostle no less. Plus, you’re in the Order. As much as we’re best of friends, we’re worlds apart, y’know?”

Those words, kind of pissed me off. “What the hell, Aug? What kind of attitude is that? You could become a mage at any moment you wish! I’ve told you this thousands of times, man! Yet you’re still swinging that damn hammer! Why?!”

“Angry, huh?” he leaned back on the couch, gazing at the ceiling, “Yeah, being a mage is nice and all, but it’s not for me. Yeah, before you say it, I know anyone can learn anything. But I’m like a chicken and magic’s like flight. No matter how much I fly, I’ll never be as good as an eagle, or even a regular bird, ya get me? You’re forcing a square shape into a circle, buddy.”

“Alright, alright. Enough with the analogies, I gotcha. So, what then? You can’t adventure because you won’t become a mage, and you won’t become a mage because you think it’s not for you. What then?”

“Nothing, then. There’s no way I’m going along anywhere with you to be a nuisance. Maybe if I was some mystical warrior, I’d go.” He tied his curly, yet long hair back into a ponytail so it wouldn’t fall onto his plate when he ate.

What you think, Donna? Is there really any other thing that can top a mage? Or even compete? Any chance of there being a powerful enough close-combatant?

“Hell, I don’t know. I’d have to ask Emily. There’s nothing in this world that can compare to a mage, at least that I know of. But dude, to be honest, Emily is a goddamn encyclopaedia. I won’t doubt there’s a secret thingy that a new-born baby could use to defeat the entire Order.”

Well?

“Fine, fine, I’ll ask her.”

She suddenly came out of me and promptly went into the kitchen. I heard the voice of August’s mom and Donna every few seconds but not loud enough for me to hear the words. Just a while after, Donna yelled out “Emily” from the top of her lungs. Really damn loud. To say I was startled was an understatement. August jumped, nearly choking on the food he was chewing.

“What the shit, Donna?!” I asked.

“What?” she shrugged.

“What do you mean ‘what’? What made you think that would work?!” August’s voiced sounded muffled from the food in his mouth.

“What made you think it wouldn’t?” another voice interrupted.

You gotta be kidding me, man! Emily leisurely sat onto the single couch, crossed her legs and yawned.

“Well? What’s up, Donna?”

Without saying anything, the mischievous queen pointed toward me, then August, and back at me again before giving a confused shrug.

I scratched my jaw, “I, uh, need your help with something.”

“Oho? You’ve grown a little, it seems.” She always had that air of mysticism about her. Even her slightest movements and simplest statements seemed to have a deliberate and complex purpose behind it. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that and judging from how indirect she was with her words, I knew she wasn’t speaking about my growth in magic since we last met.

“So, I wanted to know, if there’s a way a normal person, say, a knight or something could stand his ground against a mage. You know, another source of strength besides mana.”

“Ah, so you wish to make August stronger,” she said, looking right at him. Within a split second, she teleported in front of him as if such a thing was second nature, held his chin up and made him look into her eyes. There was a little grin on her face, barely noticeable. August seemed stunned, either in horror or in awe. It didn’t take much for even the most ignorant of ilk to notice how far atop the food chain she was.

If a lion was at the top of the food chain, then she was the lion’s organs, his oxygen, his muscle and strength. Yet, she was also the jaws of the next alpha that would usurp the throne from the old lion, she was the pack of hyena that would steal his kill, she was death’s representative and life’s advocate. Whenever you looked at her, it felt like she was everything you loved yet hated, everything you knew yet stayed uneducated about. I would often sink into these types of thoughts when conversing with her but would never speak of it due to her love for speaking in parables.

She lightly touched his forehead, and he fell backwards onto the couch, passing out. The second she disappeared, he awoke, eyes fully open. It was as if he witnessed the greatest and tightly kept secrets of this world in one fell swoop. Donna and I looked on, waiting for him to say something, anything.

“I’ve, seen, so much! No, I felt it!” His arms were trembling, and like a disease, the rest of his body naturally followed. “Who, is that woman…” he muttered to himself.

“What? What did you see?” Donna questioned him, perhaps even more interested in what he learned than I was.

“I saw, another type of energy. It was great, in renewable abundance. Inexhaustible.” His palms opened and he stared at them. No, it looked more akin to staring through them.

What did she show him? “Well?” I asked, motioning him to give us an answer already.

“It, was,” he breathed out as if to try to relax then looked me right in the eyes, beckoning me to listen ever closer, “solar energy.”

“W-what?” I was flabbergasted by that ridiculous notion. “Solar energy? Solar energy?! That’s what she showed you?! That’s the big reveal?!”

He suddenly burst out in cachinnation. “Calm ya tits, man. No, it’s not solar energy, but my description of it still stays true. It’s called Quintessential energy. I’ll just call it ‘quint’ for short. Really though, it’s amazing man. She passed on her knowledge of it without even saying a word. Once I train this up, I reckon not even the Apostles could stand against me.”