The forest was silent. The quiet of a pacifying kind, not an unnerving calm before the storm. The warm sunshine seeped between emerald leaves of old trees, towering over a grass patch, where a young boy laid, his eyes closed. His attire was that of a Conflux Council's scientist, mainly composed of an intricate robe, a set of pants and a pair of soft leather boots. A ceremonial mantle, which would usually bear the emblem of Conflux Republic and the title of a researcher, was carelessly tucked under his head.

  "Sleeping again, Jonathan?" sounded a young female voice. It belonged to a woman in same attire, carefully threading between trees.

  "Oh, Sylvia, nice to see you here," Jonathan opened his eyes and sat up on the forest floor.

  "You know, you spend too much time sleeping."

  "It's not like I have anything to do in my free time but dream about different projects I have at hand."

  "I see. Even in sleep you are a head researcher."

  "That's right." Jonathan looked around for a few seconds "How is your project on ecology doing?"

  "We finally understood why the Great Barrier Ridge formed. Quite an interesting phenomenon, if you ask me."

  "Really? What was that then?"

  "You couldn't even imagine that outcome. The leylines."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Mana flow in leylines, both underground and airborne can affect matter. The extremely strong mana shifted tectonic plates in a span of a decade."

  "No way... It's been two hundred years since we knew about their existence and we realised that only now?"

  "I know, right. We were oblivious to that purely because usually the flow was weaker and natural erosion easily counteracted any changes."

  "What about aberrations?"

  "What about them? They do suck in mana, but we usually fought the most dangerous ones, so they had no time to affect the ground."

  "Ah... Got it..." Jonathan's gears were turning.

  "You just took in some inspiration?"

  "Something among the lines... Follow me." Jonathan, deep in thought, was lifted from the ground by invisible forces and he moved towards closest tree. He then led Sylvia between trees and they appeared inside library.

  "Your astral projections are still incredible to witness first-hand." The environment shook a little.

  "Please stop, you know it becomes unstable when I am aware about that. I don't want to lose the idea before I tell you."

  "Sure. What did you came up with?" Sylvia looked around the dusty library Jonathan led her into. There was no path back and the bookshelves extended into infinity in all directions.

  "You said that aberrations affect leylines," Jonathan said and pulled out a heavy book from a shelf. He slammed it on the table and opened in the middle, showing the map of the continent they were living on.

  "No, you did not..." Sylvia frowned.

  "Yes, I did, Sylvia! Usually we affected the leylines that already exist. That was how we established a communication network during war. We slowly dragged the flow of leylines to the correct places and anchored them into place with a crystalline pillars. But we could only do so near the continent, they don't flow underwater long enough and we cannot build there."

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  "That is correct."

  "We need the a way to drag the leylines away over sea, and aberrations could do just so, if their cores are inscribed. This way we can make a mana highway across the ocean and finally continue our exploration!"

  "Oh Jonathan... Your ambitions are Council's blessing and a curse. Did you consider how that will affect the continent?"

  "Not yet, but it shouldn't be that hard to predict?"

  "No, Jonathan, it's not just hard, it's so incredibly, insurmountably hard, that a human mind can't take all the information required to even estimate what would happen. Did you know that cities with at least a thousand mages already make the surrounding leylines shift? We can't just pump mana away from the continent." The crazy glint in Jonathan's gave Sylvia shivers. "Not that again."

  "Oh, I so love talking with you! You are my muse, Sylvia!"

  "What is it this time?"

  "You said a human mind can't estimate. But what if there will be a mind, not belonging to human?" the boy laughed and jumped with excitement.

  "One day you will get yourself banished," warned him Sylvia.

  "And until then I will present to Council new directions of research."

  "At least leave me out of it. I don't want to leave this world before I finish the ecosystem studies. Also, how many active projects you have at hand already?"

  "Let me see... There is Mana applications in metallurgy, the adjacent research of Advanced Enchantments utilising manasteel, my pet project of automatic calculation device, we constantly search for new stable spell shapes, the experimantal methods of making mages out of Nulls, astral body control..."

  "Don't you think you are stretching yourself too thin?"

  "Maybe... But there is so much to try and learn!"

  "I know you for nearly a century, Jonathan. Are you sure, you can take on all of this?" said Sylvia and frowned. When did Jonathan become an adult?

  "I don't know Sylvia. I don't know..." Jonathan's eyes lost their happiness and became dull, only a small wrinkles around them reminding of his jovial personality. He looked back at Sylvia, now noticeably higher than her, even considering her heels.

  Sylvia sighed, "Please, find successors before you perish. The machine you invented can't sustain you for a long time. Without developments in astral body, your material one will only weaken."

  "Unfortunately, I am aware. I hope I won't turn into abomination if I die like that."

  "You won't. I won't allow to."

  "Maybe I could study astral bodies, you know."

  "You are at it again? Then please do, before the greatest scientist and theorist of Conflux Republic turns to dust on a shelf, like some kind of insect."

  "Then I might need your help in this task. Can you please make an order for an item?"

  "The item in question being?.." Sylvia lifted an eyebrow,

  "A way for us to talk."

  "Like now?"

  "No, without you having to be asleep. I want to test if I can interact with physical world using this gadget." The feeling of longing filled the entire astral projection, seeping out in the world. Jonathan gave a mana clump containing the memories of a blueprint to Sylvia.

  She let it seep in inside her brain and thought for a second. "That is incredible. Did you come up with that after you accidentally knocked off that staff with a mana crystal? You should try to manipulate them first before ordering the quill made entirely out of mana crystals, they are not cheap..." Sylvia looked at Jonathan's wrinkled face and sighed, giving up on persuading him. "You know... Maybe if you became scientist earlier you could invent and construct it yourself."

  "The past is long gone now..." Jonathan looked one last time at Sylvia and spoke again, "Good bye, Sylvia. The world of living awaits you."

  She felt a tugging at her chest and the world around her plummeted in darkness, as her astral self got pulled by the connection to the body. Eventually, her mind found its place again and she woke up to the sound of hissing air, being pumped by bellows. She opened her eyes and looked at an elderly man interwoven in multitude of pipes, tubes and enchanted items, controlling everything. It was the final invention of Jonathan, before he succumbed to the terminal illness, and the only thing that kept him alive. Sylvia looked at her aged hands, gradually taking in the out of body experience and trying to remember everything she talked about with her old friend and colleague.

  "Lady Sylvia, you are back," said a young man in square glasses, fresh out of internship. In his hands was a notebook, prepared for Sylvia to note down everything of importance.

  "Greetings, Alan. Anything happened while I was away?"

  "Nothing, Lady Sylvia. Do you need to note something before we move on with the schedule?"

  Sylvia looked at her friend's dried husk, barely kept alive by the machinery, "Not really. But I need to visit a mechanical department to place an order for something Jonathan asked. And... a church."

  "I'm sorry? I thought you didn't believe in Twins?"

  "I thought so too, but..." the deep sigh gave away her distress, "May as well pray while I visit the pastor. The church's people are the best psychologists in the world, and I desperately need some advice."