[Sig – 13 years]

  "Why do we have to get up so early?" I complain. "The sun isn't even rising yet."

  Mr. Fuller just woke me up and Seph is already awake. It's way too early for us to be getting up, our only light really comes from the lantern hanging from the top of the tent and I doubt there's any coming from outside. It's probably not even five yet.

  "So that we can get into position before sunrise," Mr. Fuller says. "With the summer heat still on us, the antelope are more likely to go to water before the sun rises or early in the morning. We want to be in position before then so that they don't get spooked off while we're approaching."

  "But it's so eaaaarly!"

  "S.G.," his voice is firm. "I know you're at an age where you're prone to mood swings and getting agitated, and that it's a lot earlier than you're used to waking. But you agreed to come hunting, and you knew you were going to have to wake up this early. Either stop complaining and get ready, or you have to stay in the camp. That means either Hunter or I will need to stay behind as well, and that will make us grumpy. Am I clear?"

  That's just mean. He can't wake me up super early and then scold and threaten to punish me for complaining about it. Pointing that out will probably only make him actually punish me.

  "Yes, sir…"

  Does it really have to be so early, though? I want more sleep.

  Mr. Fuller leaves the tent, and I look over at Seph, who's already changing into his hunting clothes.

  "Does it really have to be so early?"

  "Yes," he answers. "The warmer it gets, the more likely they'll bed down. That makes them harder to spot and harder to target."

  "It's too early," I grumble.

  "It ain't that bad," he says. "Do some jumping jacks, they'll help you wake some. Get your blood flowing."

  Aren't we supposed to avoid getting sweaty?

  "What time is it, anyway?" I mumble.

  "About three."

  "Whyyyyyyy?"

  "You don't want to hunt, do you?"

  I huff and start changing. It really is way too early. Once I'm dressed, I exit my tent and meet with the others at the older guys' tent. There's not too much room inside of it so Seph and I are outside of it.

  "Want some coffee?" Mr. Fuller asks me. "We're making thermoses of it to take with us to help us stay awake and I need to know how much water to prepare."

  "Coffee's gross," I make a face. "Is there soda?"

  "Soda will make you crash," he says.

  "Awww…"

  "I can make the coffee weak and you can add some sugar and stuff to it," he tells me. "That should make it easier for you to handle. Reduces the bitterness."

  "You can try it how I like it," Seph tells me. "See if that works."

  "Alright."

  Mr. Fuller brews up some coffee for us, and Seph adds sugar and milk to the mugs for his and mine. I try it and while it's not good, it's not too terrible. It's at least a little tolerable. I still don't like it, though.

  Once the thermoses are prepared, everyone gets their gear, my bow and arrows being the same ones I've been using at practice, which are apparently Hunter's old ones. Hunter and Seph make their way to wherever it is they'll be hunting at, while Mr. Fuller leads me to somewhere nearer to camp.

  Mostly. It's still a twenty-minute walk from the camp. Our spot is out in the open, just beside one of those massive hay bales I saw yesterday. The stream I saw yesterday flows through not too far from here, making us a lot closer to it than I expected us to be.

  "We're not using a… what's-it-called?" I ask as Mr. Fuller sits down. "The things hunters hide in?"

  "A blind?" He asks. "No. They're helpful to use, but I don't usually use one unless I've failed to catch something for awhile. Look at the bale right here. See how it looks like something was poked into it?"

  Mr. Fuller indicates a spot off of the side to the center of the flat end of the bale, which does have a spot which looks like something was shoved into it. There's one of those on the other side of the center as well.

  "The farmer who owns this land moved the bale here," he says. "Specifically for hiding beside. Not everyone is able to get lucky enough when doing this, which is why I use a blind if I can't get one this way. But as long as we're quiet and don't move too much, the antelope should get within range. I usually catch something before the next season begins which is why I prefer not to use a blind first. The reason we came out this early is because if we're moving out here later, closer to the time hunting begins, they'll get spooked off by us walking."

  That just sounds ridiculous. Why would they get spooked off if they're not even around for it?

  "It's still too early," I grumble.

  "You're not very good at waking early, are you?"

  "Why do people wake so early?"

  "Just rest for a bit," he says. "And you do have some coffee, if you want to try using that to wake."

  I stare at the thermos sitting beside me.

  "Blech."

  [Xander – 12 years] → begins during Sig's PoV.

  "Xander?" The chocolate-mint cheesecake that suddenly appeared quietly asks.

  "Go away," I tell it. "You're not delicious."

  "I don't want to be delicious," it responds. "It's time for you to wake up."

  Wake up? But I'm already awake. Oh, wait. This must be a dream. That explains all of the food.

  "Can I finish eating the delicious cheesecakes first?"

  "How long will that take?" It asks.

  "Just look at how many of them there are," I gesture. "There's a ton. It'll take me, uh… I dunno how long to eat them all. Maybe if I accelerate time… um… there's so many, though. It might still take me awhile."

  "Xander," the chocolate-mint cheesecake snickers. "You're dreaming, and it's time to get up and ready to go hunting. Remember what you were talking about on the way here? That you wanted to try and catch a special elk you heard is in the area?"

  "Aw… so many cheesecake."

  "You can have cheesecake after the hunt."

  "Can I have it before?"

  "You've got some in your spatial stuff, doncha?"

  "If I always have some with me, then I always have some when I want it."

  "Alright," the chocolate-mint cheesecake chuckles. "Wakey time, Xander."

  "Okay…"

  I wake myself up and find Carter crouching beside me… with a pair of wolfkin ears rather than human ears. It looks really nice on him. What would Sig look like as a wolfkin?

  "Oh!" I feel my tail swishing a little. "You can transform, too!"

  "No," he snickers. "You woke up a little when I came back and I asked if it was comfy to sleep as a wolfkin, since you've seemed really comfy every time. You said it was and asked if I wanted to see what it was like, and I told you I couldn't transform. You said you could ask your great-grandfather if it was okay for you to shift me, then texted him and asked. I guess he said it was fine, since you told me that it'd be painful if I was shifted while wearing pants and underwear that didn't have tail holes. And speaking of that… as much as I'd like to go hunting as a wolfkin, think you could shift me back so I can get dressed?"

  I have zero memory of that but Carter is telling the truth. I must've been really sleepy, I know I don't always remember stuff I do when I'm that tired. For example, I never remember Dad waking me up so I can go to bed when I fall asleep in the car but wake up in my bed.

  "Okay," I reach out for a moment, then pull my hand back. "Um… can I touch you?"

  "Go ahead!"

  Oh, his tail is wagging now. He must be really excited to get ready for hunting. Today is definitely a big day and he did talk a lot about some of the stuff he wants to catch. His tail probably would've been wagging then, if he had it yesterday.

  I touch Carter's forehead and turn off the transformation spell. The effect is immediate and he's back to being just a human boy after.

  "Uh… Xander?" He looks and feels confused as I pull my arm back under the blanket.

  "Yes, Carter?"

  "So I noticed that it gave me infrared vision," he says. "Didn't mind it much, it's… sort of like when you shared your senses with me last night. How everything is layered but separate, so I can see each 'layer' separately while perceiving them all at once in the same place. Wow, that's hard to properly explain. Anyway, it also doesn't let me see through walls like in movies and I was looking it up. Apparently, it's just thinner materials that heat can pass through. Reflective materials will just reflect heat back, while denser materials won't let the heat pass through unless the heat is actually affecting the material. That'd still be more of me seeing the other material's heat rather than the origin's, though.

  "But it's still pretty cool on its own," he says. "And would be useful in the hunting. Also, I'm not entirely sure why I'd have infrared vision as a wolfkin so I looked up wolves and they don't have infrared vision. Anyway… uh… the infrared is still there. I can still perceive heat."

  "Oh, no," I cry. "I messed it up! I'm so sorry! I-I'm gonna call Grandpa Adrian!" My phone appears in my hand and I dial Grandpa Adrian's number. "He should know what to do! I don't know how I just gave you infrared vision and-"

  "Xander?" Grandpa Adrian answers the call.

  "I messed up and accidentally gave Carter infrared vision and I don't know how I did that and how to undo it and it makes no sense because that's not just transforming I don't think that's an entirely different way of perceiving and I'm sorry and-"

  "Xander," Grandpa Adrian firmly interrupts me. "Carter's family is one of the original mage families. His great-grandfather was many times as powerful as he is. The reason Carter is as weak as he is is because for the last few generations, his family hasn't really been training their magic in a way which increases their capacity. As a result, it stagnates at about where his family needs it for use on the ranch.

  "In addition to that," Grandpa Adrian continues. "His father married someone significantly weaker than himself. When a child is conceived, their base mana level is essentially 'set' by roughly one-quarter of the average of their parents', or one-quarter the sum of it. When Carter was conceived, his father had roughly 1,000 mana, while his mother was at around 200. That means the average was 600, and a quarter of 600 is about 150, meaning Carter's base mana – the amount he was born with – would have been around 100-200 units.

  "In addition to that," Grandpa Adrian says. "He hasn't 'properly' trained his magic. With his ranch work and hunting, he's been raising it by about ten percent a year, maybe a little more some years, boosted by his divine blessing. Due to modern developments in agricultural machinery, the actual need for magic has lessened somewhat. That's also slowed down his growth a little, which is why it hasn't really been noticed that he can gain up to double his capacity in a year."

  I don't see where he's going with this, though I guess that makes sense. Grandpa Adrian mentioned the blessing so casually, too. Does he think I've known what the blessing is? I had to ask Trenton to find out and I really doubt he knew that I'd done that.

  Next time we talk in-person, I'll let him know I can't understand what the blessings are, I can just see them. And I'm only accepting they're real because Grandpa Adrian wouldn't lie about something like that, I don't think.

  "Remember how Luke can perceive electricity?" Grandpa Adrian asks. "Over greater distances when he lightning-charges himself, but already over a decent distance without?"

  "Yeah," I answer. "It's because he's really powerful, right?"

  "It's a power set into his bloodline," Grandpa Adrian says. "And it grows stronger as he does. Tate's family has another such power – they're also one of the originals, so it makes sense. Their passive empathy comes from that.

  "That's a more difficult one to get rid of," he says. "Especially if the other parent also has mind magics, even a little bit. The magic itself is more complex, more deep. It makes the magic more tenacious, less willing to disappear. But elements? They're more willing to fade away if they aren't kept strong. And infrared vision is something the Martinses once had, but which faded due to them not reproducing with others whose own magical bloodlines strengthened or enhanced it.

  "When that happens," Grandpa Adrian continues. "But there's still a trace of it in the bloodline, a small shift can 'reawaken' that part of the bloodline. Think of it more like his body was already capable of doing it, but it was so slight he never noticed. And when you transformed his body, it reminded his body of what it could do. It 'turned on' that sleeping sense. Something else may have also prompted his body remembering not long before you transformed him, making it easier for his body to do so. Does that make sense?"

  "Um… sort of?" I answer.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Can you tell me what you understood?"

  "That Carter's as weak as he is because his dad and had children with people a lot weaker than him and they don't use as much magic as they did a long time ago," I say. "And his ancestors haven't been having kids with people whose bloodlines were fully compatible with theirs. They used to have infrared, but it kind of went sleepy because of this. Then when I let Carter see through most of my senses for a little bit last night, then transformed him into a wolfkin, it reminded his magic that he could, so it turned on."

  Him having infrared vision while using my senses last night had to have been the thing which made it easier for his magic to remember it could do that.

  "Really?" Carter asks, and I nod.

  "A good summary," Grandpa Adrian says. "So you didn't give him anything, you simply awakened something he had all along. I did consider the possibility of this happening, but assumed that he was weak enough it wouldn't. I suppose I should've mentioned it anyway. I'll keep that in mind for next time, just in case. Was that all you wanted?"

  "To ask right now, yes," I answer.

  "Alright," he says. "Happy hunting, Xander."

  "I'll try," I say. "Bye, Grandpa Adrian."

  "Bye," he chuckles, then hangs up.

  "That's really cool," Carter says. "That I could always do this, it was just dormant. So it's permanent?"

  "Um… yeah," I answer. "I don't know how to turn it off… I've never figured out how to turn mine off once my brain got fixed and it started being there all the time. Sorry."

  It doesn't affect my other vision and I can sort of ignore it, but it's probably annoying to him because it's something new for him to deal with.

  "No worries!" He grins. "Let's get dressed and ready for the hunt."

  "Okay."

  I transform back into a human and crawl out from under my blanket so I can get dressed. Once we're in our camouflage and orange clothes and out hunting boots, we leave the room to meet up with the others in the living room of the cabin. Tate, Knox, and Bo are here, along with Collin and some of his friends, and Tate's older brothers and some of their friends. Some of the other boys' siblings and other friends are here as well. The dads for many of the boys are here as well.

  We aren't all hunting together, though. Instead, Carter, Tate, Knox, Bo, and I will be making up one group with Mr. Martins and Mr. Cox supervising. There are three other groups of boys going hunting, each with two supervising adults, then the rest of the dads are all hunting in a group.

  That's five groups of hunters, each going to slightly different areas. Because we're in a special wilderness this time, we don't actually have to obey really any hunting laws as there's nothing governing this land on that level, as far as I know. We do still have to obey normal laws, though, but I'm not sure why.

  It's still good to do, though.

  Because of this lack of hunting law oversight, the blaze orange isn't actually needed but we're wearing it anyway for safety reasons. We can also begin the hunt earlier than normally allowed for most hunts and that's important, too. One of the things the group I'm in wants to catch is a creature which isn't easy to find outside of during dawn and sunrise, and during sundown and dusk.

  Well, that's the creature the others in my group want to hunt, if I'm understanding what I was told yesterday correctly. I want to hunt the elk Aurum told me about yesterday. He said it possesses temporal magics, which means it should be pretty delicious to a mage of it like myself just like the pocket hares were.

  Well, I figured out that last part on my own, he was more of warning me that it's here. The unicorn isn't sure how to hunt a creature which manipulates time and says that unicorns usually avoid monsters which do.

  Not that they're vulnerable to them, though. Unicorns are apparently immune to hostile time magics and they're able to transform into light itself, allowing for quick escapes. Even beings who use time magics usually aren't instant enough to catch a unicorn and he knows that accelerelks aren't.

  I'm guessing he knows that from experience.

  "Does everyone have all of their gear?" Mr. Martins asks, apparently the leader for the entire hunting trip.

  I have both of my normal stasis expansion pouches on my belt and my normal stasis pocket bracelets on my left wrist. I'm dressed in my hunting gear and don't use weapons for hunting but magic. That means I should have everything, but I did forget to eat a cheesecake.

  Not everyone else has all of their gear ready, though. Mainly the adults and a few of the boys outside of our group. As they finish gathering their things, Carter looks at me.

  "You've probably got time to each a cheesecake," he tells me.

  "I can't feel you reading my mind," I tell him.

  One of the books on magic Grandpa Adrian has given me taught me how to tell if mind magic is being used on me. He also assured me that there isn't a person on Earth he knows of other than himself who could actually breach my innate mental defenses. I'm just that strong of a mind mage.

  But there might be magic beasts and monsters which can, which is why it's important for me to know how to feel mind magics affecting my own mind and how to defend against hostile mind magics.

  "You said it while sleep-talking with me," Carter says.

  "I was talking out loud?"

  "We were having a conversation," he chuckles and looks at his dad. "Is it okay if Xander eats while we wait for it to be time to go?"

  "Sure," Mr. Martins says.

  I sit at the table and pull out a cheesecake, then start eating. One of the other kids here wanders over to me as I take a big bite from it.

  "Hey," he says. "That-"

  "Hey, Xander!" Carter interrupts him. "Forgot to ask you something! Did you ask your great-grandfather if it was okay to make and sell that thing I asked you about?"

  Interrupting people is pretty rude, and Collin is pulling the other kid away from us for some reason. Why did they not want him to talk with me? Was he going to be mean? They shouldn't hang out with mean people.

  "The thing you asked?" I try to remember. "Oh, right. Yeah. He said it's fine to do it 'as a hobby project', which apparently means I don't need to go through the company. You just have to either pay me in cash or send it to me by the bank somehow, like a deposit. He gave me the information you'll need to do it in… one of those transfer methods outside of cash. I didn't really understand it. And he said it's fine to make stuff like that for other people but because of how expensive it is, to always get the payment before giving the item to them. Stealing is really bad and he said some people – not specifically you – would try to do that and then claim it was a gift."

  "Makes sense," he says. "I looked up the rates for expanded spaces, and it's often ten to twenty grand per cubic foot of final space, sometimes more, especially if there's a cooling enchantment on it like the hunting packs have. I can't afford one for hunting, but having a pouch or something which can hold some small stuff would be fine. I've been saving up for one for awhile and have about twenty-five grand for it. That's what I was aiming for. It should be enough for one or two cubic feet of extra space."

  "Blech."

  "Does your cheesecake taste bad?"

  I didn't mean to make that sound and it was apparently more than just an immediate thought.

  "No," I answer. "But it takes me less than ten minutes to expand a backpack to its maximum possible expanded interior size."

  "It takes hundreds of mana just to do the enchantment for a single cubic foot," Carter says. "Not accounting for tools, skill, and the knowledge necessary, the price just for the mana is high.'

  Ugh. First Sig, now Carter. They're all obsessed with the cost of my work. It really doesn't take that much of my mana, but I get the feeling this is an even bigger deal for him than paying properly for the lanyard's enchantments was for Sig. The magics involved for this are kind of more complex by a lot.

  "I'm better at not wasting mana than other enchanters who can do this are," I tell him. "I've seen the enchantments on your family's bags and stuff and let me tell you, they are bad. So flawed. So wasted. I can do it for a lot less mana. Not only that, but mana is a lot easier for me to get than them since I recover it so quickly. By the laws of supply and demand that I remember from Grandpa Adrian's lessons, that means that my supply is cheaper. It's also exclusive, so I get to pick the price and tell anyone who wants it to fuck off if I don't want to share it.

  "And that means I set the price based on what I want," I tell him. "And I'm gonna say $750 per cubic foot of stasis pocket or $250 per cubic foot of expanded space with a temporal stasis placed on it. And before you try to contest this, remember that 5,000 mana you and your dad and brother put into the magitech tractors? I recover more than that in an hour. A lot more than that in an hour. So for me, mana is cheap. I ain't gonna charge $20 a point for what Grandpa Adrian calls a hobby enchantment when I'll have recovered it less than an hour from now. Understand?"

  Those values are already a little inflated, in my opinion. One of the reasons spatial and temporal magics cost so much mana is because most people cast them flawed. This is true even for enchanting. I don't cast them with that many flaws in them, so the cost is way, way, way lower.

  Then factor in the fact that I produce so much mana, and it the mana cost itself isn't really worth that much to me. I wanted to argue for lower, but Grandpa Adrian said to make them those prices. I can give discounts to friends if I want, but he said it's better to establish a firm price at the start.

  This way, my friends still see it as something expensive, not something they can just ask me for all the time. I doubt my friends would do that but he said it'll help their friends who aren't mine know not to. Making this stuff is even more of a hobby than making magitech and I don't want it to feel like a job.

  "Yeah," Carter says, though I can feel a wave of awkwardness coming off of him. "Yeah, I understand. So. Um. I guess… a spatial pocket?"

  "Spatial or stasis?" I ask. "Spatial would be cheaper for sure so you can get a bigger one. Or if you went with stasis, you could get a pouch with expanded space with more space than if you got a pocket.Oh, but it's more expensive but it's not a cube. Anything other than that is harder to make."

  Grandpa Adrian says that something which is more difficult to make and which takes a lot more effort should cost more.

  "And if you want it a cube with even-numbered sides," I say. "That's also harder to make."

  "Why would that be harder to make?" One of the boys I only met yesterday asks.

  "Because even numbers are evil," Carter answers before I can.

  "Uh… no, they aren't?"

  "Yes, they are," I say. "So they take more mental effort for me to do. Ones ending in zero are easier, though, because zeros are round."

  "Uh… okay?"

  "It's… don't worry about it," Carter says. "So if I wanted a stasis pocket three feet on each side, that'd be just-over twenty grand? But if I wanted it to be just an expanded stasis pocket, I could get one for about sixteen grand at four feet on each side? Not including the charges for the other enchantments and the even-number upcharge?"

  "That includes the standard set," I say. "Those are just standard. Also, I don't… know the math on those?"

  "The first one would be $20,250," he says. "And the second would be exactly $16,000."

  "Can you really make expanded spaces that large?" The other kid asks. "Isn't it really difficult to do?"

  I reach down to the first pouch on my hip and pull out most of the head of a monster, but stop before getting to the part of his neck where it's severed.

  "If his head's this big," I tell the kid. "Imagine how big his body is. And it's all in here. And it's an expanded stasis pocket. There's also plenty of space for more."

  "I'm sorry, I don't need to imagine," Carter's mind feels really amused mix with really shocked. "Xander, is that Akrolnomak?"

  "Yeah," I answer. "He is not that vulnerable to air magic, even when I compress it down into blades. Fire burned him nicely. Of course, a spell I'm not allowed to share as per Grandpa Adrian's orders was even more effective. Cut his head right off without issue."

  Carter starts laughing.

  "What?" I ask. "It's very serious! They were very wrong about him!"

  "I'd joked with Tate and the others that you'd be the type to want to actually fight him to see," he says. "I didn't think you'd actually go and do it! So your great-grandfather took you to hunt him?"

  "No," I answer. "I went hunting on my own."

  "You said he said the finishing spell isn't allowed to be shared," he says as I push the wyvern's head back into the pouch. "If he didn't take you to hunt it, then did he make you tell him about the hunt?"

  "No," I answer. "He apparently noticed me teleporting out there and went to investigate, and watched the fight from the den of a nearby dragon. They're apparently old friends. Like, they've known each other since before he met your ancestors kind of old friends. We talked after I hunted the magic bison to see if my mental ease with killing a wyvern was just because I'm one-eighth dragon or because I'm over being hesitant with hunting. I'm not over it."

  Carter looks like he's trying to say something for several moments while the other kid just stares.

  "There is too much there for me to process," Carter says. "How much is the upcharge for making it with even sides? A stasis pocket would be nice, but I could get a cube four feet on each side if I went with the expanded stasis pocket instead. If I got one side at five feet in length, that'd be even more. Twenty grand, before the upcharge for even numbers and it not being a cube."

  "For doing both of those," I say. "It's thirteen percent extra."

  "So that'd be $22,600," he gives me a number that's all evens. "Yeah, I can afford that. Can I get a pouch with a stasis expansion pocket that's four feet wide and tall and five feet long? My parents already said I can pay for it, since it's my money and all."

  "Um…"

  "Yes?"

  "How do you have so much money?" I ask. "Like, I know how I have lots of money, and how Luke does, but… ain't streaming not earning you much?"

  "There's some from that!" He laughs. "Money from sponsorships and all. But I also get paid for working on the ranch, and I get paid for some of the stuff I catch when I go hunting. So I've actually got a decent amount built up over the years. There'd be more, but I do splurge on some stuff, like my gaming computer, consoles, games, and stuff."

  "You get paid for working on the ranch?" I ask. "Ain't that just chores?"

  "Nope!" He says. "Your great-grandfather has implemented some pretty strict laws about children working in family businesses, even stuff like living on a farm or a ranch. They have to pay their children the same rate they would hired help for the work we do relating to the business and it has to be at least market value, not lower than that to get away with paying their kids less. So something like mowing the lawn? Nope. Taking care of the chickens? Nope, since we ain't raising them for business, we just have an excess of eggs that we're selling. Mowing hay? Yup, that's part of the business. Weeding the garden we use to grow produce to eat? Nope, because that's for the house rather than a business. Even shadowing my brother or parents when they took guests – customers – out on a trail ride counted as work for the business."

  Oh. That's good, then. Grandpa Adrian really likes making sure kids aren't taken advantage of. It's not fair if a kid has to help out with a family business and not get paid because "well, you live here, it's just a chore". Not making sure they get paid would just be allowing them to be exploited as child labor.

  "In addition to that," the other kid says. "Your great-grandfather has some pretty strict laws in place regarding a minor's income. A parent or legal guardian can't just access it and pull money out without good reason and the account has to be fully turned over to them when they turn eighteen. The minor is also entitled to knowing all withdrawals and deposits made. A full accounting of it. And there's legal recourse if their parents were stealing from them. Some exceptions are made, like if the kid ain't able to take care of themselves, but there's still some court oversight."

  Grandpa Adrian really doesn't want kids being exploited. That makes sure a parent isn't stealing from their kid and if they are, they get punished.

  "I didn't know about any of that," I say. "Would that affect you being able to pay for the pouch, then?"

  Transferring or withdrawing that much money would probably make an alert for this so it might not be as easy as just paying. There might be a process he has to go through.

  "No," Carter answers. "How long would it take for you to make it? Dad said I can pay once you start working on it."

  "Do you want it simple or fancy?" I ask.

  "Huh?"

  "The appearance," I say. "It'll have some silver accents, like mine do, but I can kind of make patterns. I've been practicing making patterns in leather."

  "Will that cost extra?"

  "No."

  "Sure," he says. "Can you do a flaremane horse?"

  "Yeah," I answer. "It'll take me about ten to fifteen minutes to make the whole thing, so I can do it after we finish hunting for today."

  "Wait," Carter says. "You can do it that fast?"

  "Yeah?" Why is that surprising. "I just accelerate my personal time. It doesn't make me age faster than reality, so it's fine to do. And that makes it not take up as much real time, so I can get back to doing other things. The only reason it takes me that long with accelerated time is 'cause I'm still not good at leatherworking. Oh, and I don't like that number you gave, it's all evens, but three times seven is a good one. So we can do $21,000."

  I wanted to stay firm on the price, but I really can't handle the number for the proper cost.

  "Or we can round up and make it $23,000," Carter says. "So that you're not losing money. And twenty-three's a prime number, which I like. And you're adding in extra details, so the price increases."

  That's a good argument, but why does he want to pay more? Oh. It's because he's like Sig and the others, and feels like this is way too low even though I explained why my pricing is cheaper.

  "I guess we can do that," I say.

  "Alright!" He says. "Lemme go let my dad know. We probably have about ten to fifteen more minutes before our group is going to be heading out, the area we're going to is a little nearer than for the others. If you're willing, would you be up for making it before then if Dad approves?"

  "Yeah," I answer. "I usually do crafting stuff before breakfast or doing other things. It was feeling weird, not."

  "Lemme go ask Dad."

  Carter gets permission and the money transfer is made after Mr. Martins talks with me for a minute, then I make the pouch for Carter.

  To ensure the design is right, I use my magitech glasses to guide me on cutting, sewing, and imprinting. The imprinting is done before I sew it all up and enchant it to make sure I don't mess with anything else while adding in the flaremane horse pattern. It's hammered into the leather with silver-white added to the mane and tail, to make it look like the one I dreamed about being born. Temporal magics are used to let me fix my mistakes.

  When I finish making it, I hand it to Carter since the payment's already done.

  "It's four feet wide and tall," I tell him as I swap back to my normal glasses. "And five feet long, just as you asked. Well, the inside of it is, and it's got a stasis enchantment as requested."

  "Thanks," he holds out a fist and I stare at it. "For a bump!"

  "Oh," I bump his fist. "You're welcome."

  Carter fixes the pouch onto his belt, then practices putting stuff in and taking stuff out for a few moments. As he does that, I realize that everyone else is wearing the necklace I saw Carter wearing yesterday.

  Every other person here has it.

  Which means it's not just some random necklace a bunch of them decided to coordinate wearing. It means something to all of them and I'm not included in that.

  Maybe I should've declined the request to make the pouch, if they're going to be so obvious about not including me. I understand that I'm not one of them, but they don't need to shove it in my face.

  That's really mean, and now I don't want to be here.