We were eating breakfast when Mahya asked me, her voice casual but thoughtful, “You think you get the RV back from your core?”

  “I think so, but why?” I raised an eyebrow, pausing mid-bite.

  “I hoped to get an offer after I fihe blueprint, but nothing.” She shrugged, a hint of frustration ione. “Maybe, if I actually vert the RV, with a core and everything, I’ll get an offer. I don’t think doing another Jeep will do the trick. I mean, I got the Magieer after the boat, motorcycles, and the ATV. So, variety is the name of the game here.” She leaned back with a distant look.

  “But if you add a core to it, the first time my house absorbs it, it will eat the core.” I shot her a warning look, imagining the RV disappearing into the house.

  “No.” Mahya shook her head with fidence. “I will simply remove and store it. Uhe rest of the stuff, I won’t bury the core deep. I’ll put it in a pce with easy access.” She leaned forward, pointing her fork for emphasis. “This way, we either have your house on wheels, or you leave your house open; I repce the core, and we have a vehicle on top—a win in my book.” She gave a quick, satisfied nod, clearly happy with her solution.

  “Yeah, OK. Makes sense.” I nodded, still chewing ohought as much as my breakfast.

  Well, it felt like déjà vu. For the sed time, we took the RV apart. This time, Al helped us, so it went faster, at least. We fiaking it apart in five days. Mahya didn’t want my help with the engraving, hoping it would help her get the css faster.

  Al told me in the m, his voice casual, “I am going to visit a friend. Send me a message if you need me.”

  “No problem.” I gave him a quiod, already distracted by the tasks I had to handle.

  After finding Oxford Assaying & Refining in Anche, I sold a hundred gold s a on an I shopping spree. I bought all the avaible s by weight from eBay and then ordered fabrics, perfume, makeup, 5,000 sungsses, and some other best sellers from Alibaba in a.

  Mahya came to me, her tone businesslike. “Do you have crystals?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many?”

  I opened my new Iory. “482.”

  She showed me a circle about the size of a plum with her fingers and said, “I need five crystals this size and a few smaller ones fht fixtures. You know the size.” She made a slight gesture, like it arent. “I also he standard Purify and Void crystals for the toilet, Fire crystals for cooking aing, and Ice for the fridge and the AC.”

  I frowned. “I’m not sure I have enough.”

  She handed me a bowl filled with various crystals. “Those are from the green sharks. If it’s not enough, Al should have some.” Her voice was matter-of-fact, but I could see a glint of excitement in her eyes.

  “I think it will be enough. If not, I’ll text and ask him,” I replied, gng at the bowl before st it.

  It took me three days to sort out Mahya’s crystal order by size. The regeion oh was awful pared to Lumis, so I had to stop and actively regee while casting Absorb Mana to speed things up. Then, it took me another full day to apply the correct aspects, stantly battling the crystals along the way.

  This experience reaffirmed in my mind how much I hate w with aspects. I read quite a few books about them and would tinue learning them them in spells, but I decided I wouldn’t try to build spells with aspects. Magic script was much more fun.

  After thinking about it for a while, I applied Lis’s method: I had the magiowledge; I he engineering knowledge, or more precisely, programming logic or putational thinking. A sear my library turned up two promising books. Code: The Hidden Language of puter Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold and Programming Logid Design, prehensive by Joyce Farrell.

  Before returning to school, I took a week to drive to the major cities of Aska and visit tableware manufacturers. I bought all the stock they would sell, intending to engrave runes in my downtime.

  After returning, I studied early and applied everything t with magic script and runes. It took me a month, but I had seven spell marbles pnned out. I couldn’t write the actual runes or symbols, so I copied Mahya’s method and wrote their names on the blueprints. My inal pn included marbles for snakes, herbivores, and predators (cws, fangs, etc.). Later, I added one for unknowures that relied heavily on imitating the Appraisal skill to locate the valuable stuff, and potential spell marbles for the , Purify, and Mana Shield for Mahya.

  During this time, Al popped in occasionally to che us, and when he saere busy, he disappeared again.

  When Mahya fihe RV, we did the ritual to ect her to the core and the core to the RV, and I was right! After removing the core, there was no problem “feeding” it to the house so it could pretend to be the RV. When the RV was ready, Mahya got an offer for the css Are Meist for five ability points. She whooped and jumped for aire minute whe it.

  To celebrate her and Al’s achievements, we went to a club to party. The club was buzzing with neon lights fshing around like they had a life of their own. It felt as if the heavy bass was shaking my ribcage. The pce acked, the air thick with serfume, and alcohol. Al showed up with his friend Kevin, and of course, in true Al fashion, the guy was massive—big enough to lift the DJ booth with one hand if he felt like it.

  Mahya and I hit the dance floor, letting the music do its thing. Every now and then, she’d throw her head bad ugh, the kind of ugh that cut through the noise even with the bass pounding. Meanwhile, Al and Kevin practically glued themselves to each other, sharing drinks and ughing.

  Mahya and I had fun dang and drinking until she picked up a guy she liked. I decided to be a Roman in Rome and also pick up a woman. I caught the eye of a woman across the room. She smiled, and that was all the invitation I he crowd seemed to open up just enough for me to make my way over. After that, the night blurred into a mix of music, lights, and faces I probably wouldn’t remember the day.

  Some people gave me sideways gnces for pig up a more mature woman, but I wasn’t ined to expin that despite looking 20, I was over 50. It was nobody’s business, and they wouldn’t have believed me, anyway.

  Ange was a fun dy, and I spent the entire week with her while she was in Anche. More precisely, she spent the days with the two friends she came to Anche with and the nights with me. I had a lot of fun with her a myself totally rexed. After all, I was on an endless vacation. I even gave one of Al’s “endurance” potions a sed ce. It turned out that in the right circumstahey were pretty awesome.

  Two days after Angie left, I jolted awake in the dead of night. The floor beh me trembled violently, and the bed shifted, scraping across the hardwood floor with a low, grinding sound. My heart raced as I clutched the edges of the mattress, the quake rattling the walls and sending kniacks toppling from the shelves. A low rumble filled the air, like the growl of some unsee deep within the earth.

  The floor buckled under me as the quake hit full force. The sound was deafening—a low, rumbling roar that drowned out everything else. I could hear the creak of the walls straining uhe pressure, dishes rattling in the cupboards, and the windows vibrating as if they were about to shatter. Each aftershock sent a jolt through the room, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was me or the ground shaking.

  Gsses i ked together like wind chimes caught in a storm, and I could hear the distant crash of something heavy falling downstairs. For a sed, I just y there, trying to steady my breathing, but when the bed lurched another half-meter, I scrambled out of it and bolted for the door, my feet slipping orembling floor.

  By the time I got downstairs, the shaking had stopped. It was eerily quiet, the aftermath of chaos lingering in the air. My heart still pounded as I spotted Mahya kig the cou frustration.

  She was muttering, “Stupid, idiotic, moroninoyihquakes. Useless, mind-numbing, pointless, nerve-wrag tremors.” She punctuated each curse with a kick at the couch, her frustration growing with every hit. She broke the back of the couch, her foot got stu it, and she almost fell.

  I ughed, and she gred at me for a sed, her eyes narrowing in annoyaheried to dislodge her foot from the couch, stumbled slightly, and almost fell again before bursting into ughter. “I hate those quakes!” she excimed, throwing her hands up in frustration.

  “You had them before?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded, still catg her breath. “After your sed visit, we had two, day after day. This one was stronger.”

  I checked my phone for news. It took a while, but I finally found a site rep a 5.2-magnitude quake in Anche.

  “We should leave,” I said, gng around nervously. “I don’t want to be here for the waves.”

  “Yeah, me her,” she agreed, her voice tense. She sighed, brushing a hand through her hair. “I wao work up to the csses I wanted, but I think leaving is better. At least the Guidance offered them for full price, so I unlocked the option. I’ll just have to work harder to get them elsewhere.”

  “I’ll tact Al in the m,” I said.

  She nodded a back up the stairs to bed.

  Rue lifted his head from the couch, his ears twitg, and announced, “Rue think shaking nice. Like ear scratg all over Rue.” He thumped his tail zily against the cushion.

  I ughed, reag over to scratch his ears. “You’re a strange one, buddy,” I muttered, shaking my head. Then I headed upstairs a back to bed.

  I didn’t have to text Al in the m. He showed up while we were having breakfast, grabbed a roll from the table, and poi at Mahya, his expression serious. “We should leave. The st quake was much stronger,” he said, flopping into a chair as though the weight of the quake pushed him down.

  “We were about to call you about it,” I said, gng at him.

  “Good,” Al replied, nodding firmly. “When are we leaving? I do not wish to be here for the waves.”

  “We’ll finish breakfast; I o store a few things. You call Melinda to return the keys, and we leave,” Mahya said, her tone practical as she sipped her coffee.

  “Umm,” I hesitated, scratg the bay neck. “I still have about 50,000 dolrs to spend. We won’t be ing back here, so I want to spend everything.”

  Mahya shot me a look, raising an eyebrow. “Go spend your money fast and e back. We’re leaving today,” she said, her voice leaving no room for debate.

  It took me half a day to burn through the money, and holy, I kly why I was in such a rush—I wanted out of here more than anyone. I just wao ensure I cleared every st dolr before we left.

  My first stop was the tech store. I loaded up on ptops, tablets, and anything else that looked useful. I saw a couple of extra monitors and thought, “Why not?” So, I tossed them in the cart. There was no point in holding back—it was not like we were ing back here anytime soon.

  up, pawn shops. I have always loved digging through random junk. I found some det jewelry and haggled for the skill upgrade. The guy at the ter didn’t care—he knew I to something, but as long as he got his cut, it didn’t matter.

  The jewelry store was the st real stop. I bought rings and earrings and spent most of the mohere.

  Finally, standing outside an Italiaaurant, I was down to the st thousand bucks. The smells of fresh pizza and garlic were terrific, so I ordered a ridiculous amount of food to spend the rest. As I waited, watg people rush around, I felt it. This was it. I wasn’t ing back here. The previous time we left, I didn’t have this sense of finality. Now I did.

  When I returhey were waiting for me, and Mahya tapped her foot impatiently, her arms crossed. I lowered the window and asked, “Do you o do something, or we just go?”

  “We are ready,” Al answered, standing by the door, looking eager to leave.

  “Okay! So hop in, a’s leave this pd for all.” I turo Rue in the back. “Rue, move to the cargo space, buddy. Nobody sit beside you. You’re too big.”

  “Yes boss!” Rue announced, his tail wagging as he hopped over the back seat. I was so gd the Grand Wagoneer had a spacious cargo space, especially with the third row folded down.

  I drove us to Chugach State Park, where we found a secluded spot to store the Jeep. After taking out the ATV, Mahya’s eyes widened, and she excimed, “What did you do to my baby?!”

  “Rue got too big. I had to,” I said, shrugging.

  She lifted the duvet c the floor, iing my makeshift solution with the aluminum sheet. After a moment, she nodded in approval. “Excellent solution.”

  Before crossing the Gate, I looked bae st time. This time, I knew, deep down to my bones, I would never return here. Closing my eyes, I whispered a final goodbye to Sophie and my mother. The trees, mountains, and the ke in the distance all seemed to wat silence as I sent out a prayer to the Guiding Spirits, asking them to protect this pd its people in the days to e.

  A slight ch of guilt tightened in my gut as I turned away, but I khe truth: my staying wouldn’t make a differehe os stretched before me, and it was time to embrace what y ahead. With a deep breath, I stepped through the Gate to Lumis, feeling a weight lift from my shoulders. I wasn’t running away anymore—I was moving toward something new.