Ukila Local Time: Early Morning. (January 16, 1512)

I’m distracted throughout my entire morning routine, almost dunking Smoulder’s ear in my juice when I check on Letonga for the seventh time. But she’s sleeping. Still.

Which makes it worse. If she was awake, I’d be able to check on her and know if she’s alright.

“-you going to- Alexis, are you listening?” Uthica asks as I emerge from my eighth visit to check on Letonga.

“Me? Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just worried about Letonga,” I answer, looking down at my stubborn shoe. Oh, wrong foot. Switching my new shoe to the proper foot, I start inspecting myself in a shimmering pane of water. Pants are on backwards.

“Letonga is the Eldinsworn?” Uthica asks while tossing a few mana-beasts that look like supersized snakes to Redstone. Even as she does so, she creates a small platform for Smoulder to jump on. It’s simple compared to my usual obstacle courses. Incredibly simple. But Smoulder indulges Uthica, jumping on and off the little square repeatedly.

“Traitor,” I declare, giving Smoulder a peck on the head as I tie the silk laces that hold the pants in place. Great for one size fits all, but a lot of work to get right. I’ve been spoiled by magical clothes that automatically resize themselves. It’s okay. I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Oh. Right. I must really be out of it. Using a few metal clamps, I resize everything in an instant. Much better.

Turning to Uthica now with pants secured, I say, “Was. She got thrown out last night. They didn’t even leave her in a good place, just shooed her into the jungle.”

“Exiled? Do you know why?”

“I can guess. She was in a conversation with someone else. Dude had a device that started beeping. Maybe scanned her?” I say, pacing back and forth as I think. “Pretty sure it told him about the connection I made with her. So, it’s probably my fault she got kicked out.”

“Alexis,” Uthica says, halting my pacing by putting two hands on each shoulder. “First. There’s nothing that proves it has anything to do with you. Seconds. She is part of a group who tried to kill us. Twice. And that’s not counting their efforts when I was with my people. You don’t owe her your sympathy.”

I shrug, meeting Uthica’s gaze. “You’re right. And… it doesn’t matter. If I could do something to help her, I would.”

Uthica pulls me into a hug, causing me to ‘meep’ before returning it. “You’re a good person, Lexi.”

“Thanks,” I reply, not sure she's right, “You too.”

Uthica shakes her head as she lets go, holding me at arm's length as she gives me a small smile. “No… No, good is a word I surrendered long ago. Now I simply try to not be evil.”

My first instinct is to object, but Uthica’s already marching out the door of our shelter. The canyon wind is cool this early in the morning, but thankfully one aspect of my System that remains completely unchanged is my resistances. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re better than before.

I seal the entrance to our shelter with a wave of my hand. Probably don’t need to do so anymore, but it’s hardly an effort.

We begin our journey for the day with flight giving Midnight and Redstone the opportunity to spread their wings while we gauge the distance to her final beast wave. I hesitate to say final objective, considering how many stages she’s already completed. When I joined her, she’d already completed six stages.

At the rate she’s going, the next one might send her to Earth. Or require something equally crazy. Like putting cream cheese on a raisin and oat muffin.

After establishing that our destination is incredibly far away, we decide to teleport. But only after I attempt to improve the efficiency.

Now that I have more experience with repairing and optimizing my spells, I’m able to go back through and redesign it once more. And this time I do it with Uthica’s help, getting her to critique my design.

“Hmm. Wait… you’ve only been using a single spell for everything?”

“I… uhm, yes?” I reply, then tilt my head as I amend my answer, “Well, not quite. I also have yoink.”

When I demonstrate the more destructive use of teleport, Uthica just shakes her head as chunks of stone ping off our shields.

“We’re designing a proper suite. Are your time spells this poorly optimized?”

“Uhm…” I reply, taking a second to think before replying. “No, they’re better. But not by much.”

“Hmm. Well, we’ll start with a combat version,” Uthica says, setting aside several pages worth of runes. Smoulder comes over, and sits down next to us as we continue. A few rocks go flying in the air outside our shelter as Midnight and Redstone once more wrestle to establish dominance. Midnight’s a good sport about it, letting Redstone think he has a chance, despite being nearly twice as strong.

With Uthica’s help, I end up creating two combat variations of teleport. My existing spell is mostly kept the same, though we manage to eliminate a number of redundant and counterproductive runes, optimizing it for combat. It only lowers the cost by thirty percent, but it’s a noticeable improvement.

We also create a version that never includes anyone else, allowing me to be far more slippery without having to worry about consequences. Something I could’ve easily designed long ago.

The real revelation is when Uthica takes me through the typical setup for using long range teleports.

She thought I was already using a similar method, considering the distances we were covering. When she finds out I’ve just been looking to the horizon and teleporting us before she has a chance to realize we’ve done several hops, she blanches slightly.

For three whole minutes, she remains silent, simply writing formulas and runes on a tablet. When she’s done, she hands it over. It lists the basics of long-distance teleportation, which takes advantage of increased setup time by using three distinct spells:

Mark a destination. Designate a set of people to be included in the effect. Actually teleport.

With the changes, the teleport portion of the spell jumps in efficiency by more than ten times. As in, I’ll be able to teleport halfway around the globe without System assistance. Which is handy, now that I don’t have it. Combined with the ability to record a target location in my spell book instead of needing a beacon, I’m… none of this was mentioned in the Builder’s books. They all used beacons, or were tightly tied to the System’s Nexus points.

Because, of course they were.

When we’re finished, I’ve added seven new teleportation spells to my Spellbook.

“Okay. Ready to tear it up?” I ask, staring at a spot high in the sky over the horizon. Combined with the mountain we’re currently standing on; this is going to be the largest unaided teleport yet.

Uthica takes my hand, Smoulder hopping from her shoulder to mine. “I hope there is no tearing involved. It would be quite painful.”

I’m about to explain that it’s an idiom, but she has that glint in her upper eyes that tells me she’s trying to keep a straight face. Dirty move.

Trying to keep the smile off my own face, I turn back to the distant peak reaching out my elemental hand, currently infused with fire for the style points, toward it. Then I pull it back towards us as I activate the Teleport spell while saying, “Get over here!”

Totally unnecessary.

Which is what makes it so fun.

As this is the first maximum distance teleport we’re trying, I would’ve preferred to use Facet to observe it closely. But considering how much I’m already spending on the spell… well, I’ll have more once we arrive but not before.

Luckily, when we arrive, we’re not deposited into another hidden city. The floors aren’t lava either. So far, so not bad. The air’s a little thin, and we’re currently in free fall. But dragons. Also, my flight’s been restored, so that too.

After less than a second to get my bearings, I teleport us to a distant mountain valley.

Mostly, it’s just slightly different foliage than what we left behind. Plus, a frog-like creature hopping away from us in a panic.

That happens a lot when you teleport in from nowhere.

“Are you okay?” I ask Uthica, surveying what I’m now certain is not in fact a mountain. A tall hill, yes, but still just a hill. “Everything intact?”

“Hmm. I’m not sure, I think I’m missing an arm,” Uthica replies, causing me to spin so fast I nearly tumble.

This time she doesn’t bother trying to hide her smirk.

“I… why… you…” I turn away from her, pushing my way past a giant frond that clings slightly to my hand until I coat it with earth. Her laughter follows me as I push out to get a view of the terrain further south. I don’t look at the land, so much as search for distant peaks.

It took even less out of me than we expected. Less than ten percent of my Facet to travel as far as the greatly aided eye can see, twice. Which is an extra ten times more efficient than Uthica and I had predicted. If it wasn’t for the curvature of Ukila, I wonder just how far I could go?

When Uthica rejoins me, I’m drawing in a metal tablet, glancing up at Akilo as I work through the numbers.

It should be possible.

“What’re you doing?” Uthica asks when she sees my work, while Midnight comes over to nibble on my hand.

“Well, other than your missing arm, the first trial seems to have been a resounding success. Cost way less than we expected. Glad to see you found it by the way,” I say, waving the metal pad in her direction with the hand that’s not being munched on. “I think… pretty sure I could teleport us back to Akilo.”

Uthica pulls the metal pad out of my hand, looking over my notes as Smoulder intercedes with Midnight on my behalf. “Not worth the risk. If you’re correct, then you will be able to return. But if you’re wrong, you could be trapped in that horrible space between worlds. And what if resources don’t regenerate properly there. You’ve mentioned how thin the mana can feel.”

Not giving the pad back, Uthica starts pacing. “But… with a proper beacon. An actual enchanted beacon instead of your spell marker… and a focus item linked to the beacon… such as how the System sent us here…”

Uthica stops, glancing in my direction. “We could do it. Safely even.”

“Sweet.” Now that I’m free from Midnight’s grip, I’m already rubbing my hands together, anticipating being able to jump directly to our next target. From Akilo.

“But… we’d want to set up a proper beacon here on Ukila first. Then use the System to return to Akilo. You’d be able to come here whenever you want. Assuming you want to.”

Staring upward, I sigh. “Well, so much for that plan.”

“What plan?”

“I was hoping to cheat our way to the next target.”

Uthica pushes me, less gently than usual as she laughs. “We’re already doing that.”

Picking myself out of the bush I’d landed in, I push her back, but she doesn’t even sway. Need to up my physical attributes. “I wanted to cheat more.”

“Shall we continue?” Uthica asks, smirking as she hands my metal notepad back.

I nod, selecting our next destination from the horizon with less care than before. No need to make every jump at max distance.

Three more teleports and we’re standing at the site of Uthica’s last summoning spot, a chasm filled with life surrounded by a barren landscape.

“You’re sure this is it?” I ask, scratching my chin.

“That’s what the System says,” Uthica answers, Smoulder and the dragons crowding in behind us.

“It’s just…”

“Yeah…”

“I’m not sure I want to fight here,” I say, taking in the vibrant red and black pattern on a winged gliding lizard. Only one of thousands of similarly beautiful creatures visible at a glance.

“Me neither.”

“We could… just not,” I suggest.

“I wouldn’t if we had another choice.”

“Well. I guess we’ll just need to be careful.”

“Hmm. Very careful.”

Uthica steps over the adorable creatures that inhabit the isolated valley. The birds don’t scatter as we pass through. Instead, they cluster around us, as though curious to our intentions.

When we reach the spot Uthica’s supposed to activate the final heart, we share a look, before scanning the valley again.

“Do you think it’s going to make them all go wild?” I ask.

Uthica stares at where she’s supposed to place the heart, such a simple step to complete a powerful ritual. “I… don’t know.”

“Maybe this is one of those quests with a hidden objective? Like find a way to finish it without destroying this valley?” I suggest.

Sitting away from the heart, she nods. “Even if not. There are preparations we could make. It would be more work but… I think it’d be worth it. Even if the System doesn’t offer any additional rewards.”

“My castles… I think I can create some to serve as defence towers.”

“Hmm. And I shall deploy my runes. The valley will be safe.”

It’s weird how important it feels to protect the valley. But as I see Smoulder sniffing a smaller creature that resembles her, I know it’ll be worth the effort.

Besides.

I have time.