“It’s not what it looks like,” I pleaded, stowing the candle in my fanny pack. “Please don’t tell my father.”

Ulli panicked, looking away in embarrassment. “I don’t know what it was. I was just worried about you. You weren’t moving. You weren’t even snoring. Was that thing killing you? Is it…dark magic?”

She wasn’t wrong. Becoming the smoke of some poor victim’s nightmare was the very definition of dark magic. Still, I couldn’t admit it. “No, it was aroma therapy. It helps me sleep.”

In a way, that was the truth. I felt rested after having seen Kalli, even if it was in passing. Ulli thought about it for a moment before seeming to accept it. “Okay, I promise not to tell The Creator. What do you want to do today?”

I was a bit taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation. The truth was, I’d just woken up. “Hm, I think I’ll take a bath and then do my morning exercises. After that, I’m not sure.”

Part of me wanted to teleport back to Camelot and see what Mika found out, but I also recognized the need to keep up appearances in the tower. Ulli looked like she wanted something, so I asked, “What would you like to do today?”

She fidgeted. “I know you only love Kalli, but I was hoping we could go on a, um, date.”

Meanwhile, on Scrap…

Life on the dark planet was rather mundane. Kalli learned about the inner workings of both the system and its creator since arriving. Mainly that the system was made by a man. Every person on Scrap was either discarded by The Creator or a descendant of someone who had been. They were separated into three groups.

The primary purpose of Scrap had been to house people who’d displeased The Creator and got sent there by him directly. This was the largest group. Next was Kalli’s group. Some people had no clue who The Creator was or why they’d been sent to Scrap. These were called mistakes. Finally, there were the descendants. Offspring of both groups grew up on Scrap as the only world they’d ever known. Judging by their ages, and the size of the planet’s single graveyard, Scrap had been around for quite a while. Kalli had been interrogated the moment she arrived.

“What did you do to anger him?”

“Did he say anything about coming to visit?”

“Give us news from the outside world!”

It was the newcomers who dreamed of freedom, she discovered. The older residents had long since given up any ambition of getting off of the small planet. In fact, they’d set up a system of government. Only those who still had access to magic were allowed to run for office.

Most of the buildings on Scrap were crude, little more than the buildings in the villages Kalli helped Melvin restore in Meltopia. Still, they had four walls and functional plumbing. Kalli was grateful that The Creator banished someone who knew how toilets worked. Melvin had spoiled her, and she never wanted to squat in the forest ever again.

Magic was another thing. While nobody on the planet had access to the system, some of the residents discovered ways of getting around that. Kalli was one of them. Once she understood that it was the words of magic that were holding her back, there was nothing to prevent her from summoning a friendly flame whenever she needed it. That by itself made her popular. She came to the understanding that there were two things that could raise her social standing. Magic was one of them. The other turned out to be the M Bloodline.

At first, she didn’t know why that was so special. Eliza, the woman she was staying with explained it to her. “The M Bloodline signifies you are an offspring of The Creator. That is his bloodline.”

“So, Melvin is related to the man that created the system?” Kalli mused. “I bet he’ll be excited when he finds out.”

She shook her head. “No, my dear. If you’ve got the bloodline, that means you are the descendant. Not your boyfriend. Unless he’s also your brother.”

“Ew, no!” Kalli squealed. “It’s nothing like that. We, um, bonded. I think that’s the word. It was the second or maybe the third time that I inherited his bloodline. The first time was just MateChat. That gave us the ability to talk to each other without being in a group. Then he did something when he needed to get to me called Inseparable that allowed him to teleport between worlds to get to me. Finally, he wanted to show me what something tasted like in a dream and we ended up with Intertwined. They just made everything we were already feeling much more intense. We also made a pact. We are bonded for life now.”

Kalli left out the part where they would die without each other. Eliza rubbed her chin. “That does sound special. I never knew bloodlines could be shared like that. It must have been some bond.”

“It’s still a bond,” Kalli corrected. “If something happened to Mel, I’d just die. He’s out there, just cut off from me.”

“Nobody gets off of Scrap,” Eliza replied softly. “You might as well get used to that.”

Kalli wasn’t getting used to anything. There was no way she was giving up on Melvin. She was going to find a way back to him. To do that, she needed to understand the strange planet she found herself on. Thanks to her ability to use magic without the system, she qualified for a particular job. Namely to provide electricity to Scrap. An Electrician and a Scholar got together and figured out a way to convert mana into electricity. Only a few residents had direct access to their mana, and the majority had no desire to lower themselves to life as a human battery. Kalli, on the other hand, was all too eager to do her part if it meant qualifying for perks that would give her access to information. She provided enough mana to power the local grid for a year in the first week. Even helping out with the local children in the morning, she was left to do what she liked for the majority of the day.

Kalli sighed. Oh, Melvin. How come you never taught me how to teleport? I’d come straight to you if I knew how. Why don’t you come to me?

He never answered. She knew she should worry. He was out there, somewhere. Something had to be blocking him the same way it didn’t in their dreams. She explored Scrap when in her first few weeks on the planet. The land situation on Scrap was strange. It was just big enough to provide homes for all of the residents while not being overcrowded. The theory was that it magically grew every time a new prisoner arrived. Kalli didn’t like the term "prisoner", even though it did seem to make sense.

Eliza’s daughter, Maribelle, had been the one to explain how food worked on the first morning after her arrival. “You can get anything you want from the magic box.”

She remembered the Box of Unending Food Melvin owned that created all manner of food from Earth when he fed it mana. Scrap boxes were better. They didn’t require mana. Just a thought was all she needed to summon any food or drink she could think of. When she asked who made them, the reply was. “We’ve always had them since the beginning.”

A prison. That’s what everyone called the planet—either that or a junkyard. The only thing people agreed on was nobody got out. Ever. Even in her dreams, she couldn’t escape. While Melvin wasn’t there like he used to be, the tether that bound their bond still was. If Kalli quieted her heart, she could feel him. Occasionally, tiny ripples of mana made their way through. Every time she picked up on them, she sent waves of reassurance back, hoping he would get her message and come to her.

She also spent her free time practicing magic. While she still only knew a limited number of spells, that didn’t mean she couldn’t get better at them. Control was never an issue, so she focused on increasing the power. More power meant more heat. She needed the power to incinerate anything. Additionally, she needed to be able to redirect her fireball spell if her target dodged. The spell was practically useless in its current form.

“Bvoomzt”

She found herself speaking the word even though it didn’t work. That didn’t matter though, since she was already fluid at directing the necessary mana into the attack. The fireball leaped from her outstretched hand and rocketed toward the target fifty feet away. The target was an old oil drum that she was assured nobody would miss. Initially, it looked like Kalli was a bad shot. The fireball sailed through the air, four feet to the left of the drum. As it approached, she leaned to the right, tugging at the air like she was holding an invisible rope. The fireball shuddered and began to shift its trajectory. It sailed by the target, still a good two feet off course.

Kalli cursed in frustration as the fireball exploded against a pile of rubbish, leaving a crater. Eliza whooped. “Good job, Kalli. You almost got it that time.”

She sagged, heaving a heavy sigh. “But I still missed.”

“But it made a bigger boom,” the kid replied, trying to cheer her up.

Kalli gave a weak smile. “I suppose. I still got a ways to go. Once I get control of it, I’ll have to add more mana to make it even stronger. Then I’ll have to get control of it all over again.”

“You can do it,” the tiny child said with a fist pump.

She was determined. Melvin was going to see the new and improved Kalli when she got back to him.

“Kalli is going to kill me,” I muttered, fidgeting as we landed the chariot. “Just to be clear, this is a fun outing as friends. This is by no means a romantic date. I only go on dates with Kalli.”

Ulli insisted on traveling the old-fashioned way to get to our destination. I wasn’t sure if she just disliked the queasiness of teleportation or if she thought the drive made her mock date more romantic. Fortunately, Marcelle insisted on tagging along despite Ulli’s insistence that three’s a crowd. Alfred, on the other hand, had no qualms about taking the day off. That meant I was the driver and Ulli was the navigator. Marcelle sat in the back seat of the spacious chariot, thoroughly enjoying being chauffeured around.

“Where are we going anyway?” I asked.

“It’s a surprise,” Ulli said with a giggle. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

The destination wasn’t far from the tower. Hidden behind a mountain in the opposite direction from both Camelot and Ulli’s hometown was a theme park that made Disney World seem like a flea market. Magic roller coasters with tracks that looped through the clouds and disappeared underground were situated all over the park. There were huge domes nearly the size of the mountain that housed what I assumed to be more rides. A sea of people milled about at the entrance, probably lined up to go in.

I landed the chariot close to the front and looked around for a place to park. An attendant quickly ran over to the open-topped vehicle and bowed deeply. “Greetings, Young Master. It is a great honor that you decided to visit our humble establishment. Would you like me to park your chariot for you, or would you prefer to leave it here?”

“In the middle of the street?” I asked out of curiosity.

He smiled. “If you prefer, you may land anywhere you like in the park.”

I shook my head. “You can park it for me. Just give me your reader so I can give you a tip.”

“Oh, no sir,” he replied, waving his hands frantically. “We are forbidden from money from an heir. That would be tacky.”

I sighed. “Well, the offer still stands. Dad gave me unlimited funds after all.”

He replaced me in the driver’s seat without another word and took off. Ulli took my hand and tugged me toward the entrance. I asked, “What’s this place called?”

“It used to be called The Magic Kingdom,” Marcelle explained. “However, The Creator decided you might find that confusing, so it’s been rebranded as New Amazing Place.”

“Nap?” I was still laughing when we got to the gate. “Kalli would love this place.”

Ulli’s expression fell. “I’m sorry I’m not Kalli. I’ll try to make it fun anyway.”

We just made it to the back of the massive line when a group of people pushed their way through the crowd toward us. In the lead was a black man in a golden tuxedo. “Welcome, Lord Murphy. It is both an honor and a pleasure that you’ve selected our humble theme park. My name is Clairvoyance Irrelevance, designer of everything you see here.”

I wondered if he made all of his employees say that. Ulli swooned. “It is such a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Irrelevance. I watch all your shows.”

“Welcome, young lady,” Mr. Irrelevance said, turning his attention to the girl. He took her hand and bent to kiss it before stopping to look at me. “With your permission, of course, My Lord.”

I nodded and thought to myself.

Perhaps I should have come in disguise.