BT - Book 1 - Chapter 75

Micah’s finger traced over the Folio, his mouth barely moving as he tried to make sense of his notes.  In front of him, on the shack’s rickety table, lay the outline of an enchantment meant for a set of boots or shoes.

He turned the page, frowning slightly before dismissing the book and tapping his chin.  The half completed enchantment in front of him seemed to be mocking him.  Almost but not quite complete, it would theoretically let Micah fly at will so long as he had the mana needed to feed it.

Unfortunately, the unforgiving math behind the seemingly disconnected jumble of runes didn’t seem to agree with his goals.  Micah had already come up with three different ways to finish the enchantment, but all of them were mana hogs.

He needed shoes that would let him either fly or skim for a modest mana cost.  An option that used up almost as much as haste simply wasn’t tenable.  Frankly, unless he needed to get a jar of jam from a high shelf, haste was a more useful spell in combat anyway.

Even with top end reagents and a massive investment of temporal energy, he couldn’t make the enchantment practical.  Every combination of runes he could come up with either overheated or forced the mana through fruitless loops and curves of the spell form, wasting much of its potency.

He squinted angrily at the half completed diagram, trying to will it to make sense.  Deep in his gut, Micah knew that there was a way to make the enchantment work.  He’d read accounts of Karin Dakkora walking through the air and raining spells upon her opponents despite not having access to air magic.  She must have figured it out.

Micah snorted, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes as he tried to clear his mind.  Of course, comparing himself to Dakkora was probably a bad idea.  Despite her consuming madness and eventual demise, the historical accounts unanimously agreed that she was the greatest ritual caster to ever live.

Comparing his achievements to hers was begging for disappointment.  Maybe after a lifetime of study and about sixty levels he’d be on the same footing as Dakkora.  Until then, he was just a child putting on his ill fitting parents’ clothing and playing make believe.

Still, he couldn’t help but think back to the moments where he’d created sonic orb and explosive thicket.  Technically, creating a new spell should involve months of research in order to recreate the spell form to accomplish a new task.  Instead, Micah had been exposed to a stressful situation and something just clicked.  In a matter of second intuitively made changes that should have taken him weeks of hard study.

Some part of him wanted to try and recreate that situation.  Begin casting the enchantment while his life was threatened and try his hardest to trigger the same instinctive response that had allowed him to modify the spells.

He knew that it was a bad idea, driven by frustration and the same self-destructive part of his personality that convinced him to send his physical body into Elsewhere, but still.  It might work.

Micah’s hands itched.  All he had to do was intentionally set the enchantment up to miscast so that it would explode.  The risk would trigger his ability.  It had in the-

“Micah!” Trevor’s voice knocked him out of his spiral.

He stood up and exited the shack, shielding his eyes against the light.  Trevor was waving excitedly with one hand while the other was clasped in Drekt’s massive grip.  His brother was cheerful as ever, but Drekt avoided Micah’s gaze and as hard as it was to tell with his dark skin, Micah could swear that the warrior was blushing.

“When did ‘this’ happen?” Micah asked, smiling slightly at Trevor’s happy face.

“Last week,” his brother responded excitedly.  “We were staying up late working on some guild business and one thing led to another.”

“Have you told anyone?” Micah grilled them.  “Do you have any idea what the guild will think?”

“By the Sixteen Micah!” Trevor exclaimed angrily.  “I came here to tell you good news and you’re just like everyone else  I thought at least you’d understand and be happy for me.  Fuck the guild.  If they’re going to make problems for us they can burn in the deepest reaches of the hottest hell for all I care.”

“Agreed,” Drekt responded sternly.  “You are a friend Micah, but my friends do not try to undermine my sexual preferences.”

Micah blinked, taken aback but the sudden heat from the two of them.  Wait.  Did they honestly-

“Trevor,” Micah began slowly, trying to keep his voice calm.  The last thing the situation needed was for Trevor to misinterpret him and explode again.  “You’re Drekt’s mentor through the guild, right?”

“Yes?” His brother answered the question hesitantly, sensing from Micah’s restrained tone that there was something more afoot.

“That means you are in charge of his training,” Micah continued.  “You are in effect his direct superior, functioning almost like a squad leader to him during his training period?”

“Yes?” Trevor was even more reluctant.  Behind him Drekt buried his head in his free hand and groaned, realization striking him.

“Tell me Trevor,” Micah’s patience held, barely.  “What is the guild’s opinion on a mentor or squad leader dating a guildmate?  It’s more than possible that there might be legitimate concerns that they’re abusing their position to take advantage of a naive and impressionable new member.”

“Oh,” Trevor’s eyes grew wide.  “So this isn’t because Drekt is a guy-”

“Gods no,” Micah rolled his eyes.  “There might be some bigotry and harsh words whispered by bored gossips, but that’s how humans have always reacted to things that are different.  You’re my brother Trevor, and Drekt is a close friend.  Just don’t start spilling details about your partner, guy or girl.  I know you love to kiss and tell, but you’re my sibling and that shit is gross.”

Drekt scratched the back of his neck sheepishly while Trevor stuttered.  Telivern just snorted from its spot folded up next to Ravi dozing in a sunbeam.

“Congratulations by the way,” Micah grinned at the embarrassed pair.  “You’ll have to hide your relationship at least until Drekt officially graduates from being your mentee, but it’s good to see you this happy.”

“Just as an aside,” he continued, failing to keep a straight face as he cut them off before they could speak.  “Neither of you are allowed to break up.  My plans for saving everyone involve both of you helping me fight my way down into the Depths.  I won’t be able to do that if the two of you are busy moping and not speaking to each other.”

“Don’t worry,” Trevor gushed.  “Drekt’s perfect.  He’s so nice.  Every time I talk to him he always explains things to me politely.  Occasionally he cracks a dry joke, but nothing mean-spirited.  Despite being so strong, he’s the most gentle person I know.   I just feel so safe in his-”

“You do realize that Drekt is standing next to you and that this monologue has probably dealt more hit points in embarrassment damage than he received in the entirety of our last dungeon crawl, right?” Micah raised an eyebrow.

Drekt mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to him.  If the blush wasn’t visible before, it certainly was now.  The big man clearly wasn’t at his best talking about such things, not that Micah blamed him.  Trevor was completely shameless and dating him would try the patience of the Sixteen themselves.

“Sorry,” Trevor didn’t even blink.  “We’re actually here because the guild had new applicants.  The Redflower sisters that you wanted us to watch out for just joined up.  I’ve already been approached by leadership about putting together a newbie team with Drekt and them.”

Micah’s breath caught in his throat.  It had been almost two years, and he’d known that this day was coming, but that didn’t change a thing.  It still felt like yesterday when she’d walked away from him with Trevor, a brave smile on her face.

In the past fifteen years, he’d been adrift with only a couple touchstones.  People came and went in a blur, only for him to be forced to repeat the timeline.  At first, he’d managed to remain grounded, but after the second reset, everything began to fade.

He barely remembered Bart’s face, and a pang of guilt filled him over how little he cared about the young man’s death.  For a while it had been everything to him.  To go back and make things right, but Micah couldn’t honestly even remember the last time he thought of the man.

At some point he’d come unstuck.  Things started moving quicker and quicker as his entire reality became the singular goal of getting strong enough to stop the Durgh.  People, places, and hobbies all just seemed illusory and hollow in the face of the storm that was coming.

All that mattered to Micah were the handful of touchstones that he had remaining.  People that he valued that kept him tethered to the mortal world and his current timeline.  People like his family, Drekt, Telivern and Ravi.

And Jo.

Realistically, he knew he shouldn’t be this hung up with her.  They’d only dated for maybe six months between two timelines, decades apart.  Maybe it was that she was the first girl he’d had feelings for.  The intensity of their relationship sure squared up with what he’d read about infatuation or puppy love.

On the other hand, it might be how truly lonely he was.  Years of living in the forest and only making infrequent visits to his parents house weren’t the greatest for his psyche.  True he had Telivern, and more recently Trevor and Ravi, but it wasn’t the same.  He cared for all of them, but not in the same way that he’d cared for Jo.  Not with the same intensity.

“Why is he more surprised by this than us dating?” Drekt rumbled to Trevor, an amused smile playing with the corners of his mouth.  “Seriously, he always has some sort of stupid idea or a quip ready no matter what we say.  Why are the new recruits enough to floor him?”

“He dated her,” Trevor’s stage whisper did nothing to conceal what he was saying.  “I think she’s the only girl he’s ever loved.  He doesn’t talk about it a lot but it sounds like things were rocky.  A lot of on again off again sort of stuff.”

“Everything is on again off again when you keep jumping backwards in time,” Micah crossed his arms.  “Plus, I never said I loved her.”

“C’mon Micah,” Trevor pursed his lips.  “I’m your brother.  I know you think you’ve perfected your aloof and mysterious master routine, but I don’t want you to think that I can’t see through it.  You get all misty eyed and distracted whenever I bring her up.”

“I cared for her,” Micah admitted.  “There was a lot that I would like to fix from my previous lives, not becoming a portal into some chaos dimension first and foremost amongst them.  Second is probably clearing up the misunderstandings I’ve had with Jo.  She understood me on a level that not many people have, but I just wanted her to be something she was not.  I’ve made peace with that and grown as a person.”

“But do you love her?”  Trevor crossed his arms back at Micah, raising a solitary eyebrow.  “Yes or no.  It’s an easy question Micah.”

Micah opened his mouth to respond, a sarcastic answer on the tip of his tongue, but no words would come out.  He didn’t know.  As much as he wanted to tell Trevor off, Micah honestly didn’t know.  Yes or no.  It really should have been an easy question.

“Let’s invite her and her sister to join our team,” Drekt broke the pensive silence gracefully.  “It’s clear that she’s part of Micah’s bigger plan, and we should start there.  Maybe he’ll be able to answer your question later, after he’s had some more time with her.”

Micah sighed, and shot Drekt a grateful look.  The big man was right.  Even if he didn’t have the answer today, sooner or later it was something he’d need to sort out.