Zerrious stepped through the open wound in the universe and onto the cobblestone road, looking around him as I followed behind and noticed that we were still a good hour from sunrise at least. "Any idea where we can find these tiny parts?" I asked Zerrious hopefully.

  "Not a clue," he responded lightly, glaring at the space around him. His vision was better than mine, although I supposed he couldn't see into the Aether like I did he saw things in the physical realm far better than I could ever hope to with a fine attention to detail, picking out important pieces like a prospector panning for gold.

  "I hate walking around aimlessly though," I wined lightly. It wasn't too dignified of a grown man to whine to a teenager, but it really was ridiculous how much we had walked to find things that we had no idea how to find. "Isn't there some kind of spell you can cast to find shops, or make some sort of map or something?"

  "Not that I know, or the divination specialist that taught me knew. So unless you have some way to make or find that kind of spell, we'll just have to figure it out."

  I stopped to consider that for a moment. We'd already determined that combining schools worked, even if it was sort of wasteful as far as Mana went it was able to reimagine spells for new effects. Maybe by combining conjuration with divination he could create a sort of birds eye view of the city, or at least parts of it.

  "What divination spells do you have?" I asked leadingly after a short moment of consideration.

  "Remote viewing, augur, and detect intention. Divination doesn't have much because it rides terrifyingly close to old magics that don't exist anymore."

  Um, push the spells to the side for a moment, entire functions of magic that straight up don't exist? How is that even possible? "They don't exist anymore. Like, it's lost knowledge or the magic was straight up changed to make it impossible?"

  "Uh. . . Both? The Gods removed it from the world, or so it's said. There are people that still search for it, but that's widely regarded as a bad idea. It's either because it's dangerous or because it's a waste of time, but no one is really sure which one."

  "No one is sure huh? Sounds like something you should be sure about," I muttered under my breath. "Either way, try combining remote viewing with conjuration, focus on making an eye high above the city and making some parchment with what it sees in your hands. If you can make it more vague which should get us what we need while still keeping the Mana cost manageable, especially with your Spellsmithing Name."

  "I. . . Don't know that that's a good idea. By adding a new school it fundamentally changes a part of it, it doesn't add to it. By adding conjuration it would probably just make floating eyes or something. Plus, I don't know if messing with the magic most closely related to lost magic is a good idea. I mean, it was lost for a reason," Zerrious said. He did make some great points. Coward points, but great points all the same.

  "Well, do you have any other ideas?" He didn't, but we also agreed that it probably wasn't a good idea to get too close to something the gods made disappear. Turns out, I didn't want to disappear as well, so on that front we wanted to play it quite safe indeed.

  "I'm sure we'll find something. There's got to be a blacksmith that can make gears and the like somewhere," Zerrious finally said after a long moment of stretched silence.

  "Um, these gears need to be like, super precise and really small. Is that really in the blacksmith wheelhouse?" I had no idea exactly how precise it had to be, but I was assuming the more brute methods of blacksmithing weren't going to work.

  "Blacksmithing isn't all hitting things with a hammer," Zerrious said with a slight laugh in his voice. "How precise does it need to be though?"

  "I don't know, but you need enough to make one turn of the hands take twelve hours, or twenty four if you want to make a military watch."

  "Why does twenty four hours make it a military watch?"

  "Not sure how that custom started back home actually," I said after a moment to consider.

  "Doesn't matter, I'm sure I'll figure it out." This was a complicated task, one I didn't actually think I could do with the knowledge that I have of it, someone making it up as they go would have a very rough time once it actually got started. Sure he knew all the basics of how it worked, but theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge are two very different sides of the same coin. I decided to let him believe that, but I didn't think this would be as quick a job as he seemed to think.

  We walked for a little longer, looking at the various Names hung above buildings and even the buildings without any signage in case there was something we would miss by not inspecting them. Eventually we decided to take a break as the sun came fully over the horizon and people started flooding the streets in the morning rush I had almost gotten lost in the previous day. We sat off to the side of the street, leaning against the wall with our packs on our laps, the many loops jingling with each slight motion.

  Zerrious seemed to think for a moment before pulling reaching into his pack and emerging with a set of tools. Enchanters tools, the same ones he had used before when crafting magic items as well as some blank sheets of metal. They looked like iron, they didn't have the same shiny quality as steel, but still tough all the same. I started to wonder how much he actually had in the pack of his. Plus, I actually wasn't sure I was the one bonded to all the rings in my pack, was he using me as a convenient pack mule?

  You know what, I had used him as a guinea pig and I didn't intend to stop, so this was pretty harmless.

  He held the sheets firmly and started cutting a small circle with an odd knife looking thing that he seemed to have used Mana on to make it able to cut the metal a bit easier, though it was clearly still no easy task from how heavily he was straining. I was curious but I didn't speak up and break his concentration as he precisely measured the circle with small tools that he kept pulling from the bag and placing back in. He finished the small disk, then cut a thin strip from the same metal and bent it around the small disk, using another tool that burned with a blue light that fused the pieces together. He brought the small item close and pulled out another tool, making intricate engravings on the inside of the ring. When he finished the circle he set a small gem that he pulled out of his bag and set it in the middle, using the same tool as before to fuse the pieces again, then he cut a second disk and fused it on top, sealing the engravings and gem inside. He cut another small symbol into the outside which flared blue before a few numbers appeared in a glowing green on the face.

  "I was right! I didn't even need to go to the blacksmith, I know how to make a magic one that will never be wrong!" Zerrious said triumphantly as he held it out to me. I had to admit, I hadn't considered the obviously more simple solution, even if we had been sitting here for two hours as he muttered to himself and slowly applied glyphs, each one taking forever as he decided which one would actually get him the desired effect.

  "That's awesome! How does it work?"

  He took no time hesitating to explain. "Ambient Mana is pulled in and stored in the center, and then it is fed into the scripting on the inside which tracks how many hours it's been since sunrise based on the connection to the person that bonds it and their position and space in time! This is brilliant!" he said as he held up the tiny cylinder that now sat blank. I winced slightly. I didn't fully understand it, but it worked based on Mana and it heavily relied on me being on this layer.

  "Ah, it is!" I said. I couldn't take this from him, it was a genius workaround to a problem that I had given him.

  Unfortunately he sensed the hesitation in my voice and pointed it out. "Well, it works on Mana."

  "Right, no need to wind it or find some other way to turn it." He seemed to think I didn't understand what he was talking about and how good it was.

  "And it works based on my position in reality, with the spin of the earth or whatever."

  "Exactly! It will always-oh. The Aether doesn't have ambient Mana, and it doesn't have a physical position. Shit." He moved to throw it away but I stopped him.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  "Wait! Maybe it wont work for us, but we can give it to someone who it will work for. Zerrious, it really is brilliant, and I never could have come up with that. So what if it doesn't do exactly what we need, it will do what someone else needs."

  Zerrious stopped for a minute, looking at the circle of blank steel. "I know what I want to do with it," he said after a long moment of me staring at him as he considered. It had started to get uncomfortable for me.

  Suddenly, fast as a coiled viper he struck at me, making a small cut on my elbow with a small knife made of Mana before backing off and wiping the blood on the small symbol which flashed green before the numbers appeared on the face once more.

  "What the hell!" I yelled more than asked.

  "Sorry, it's a gift. An apology for stealing you," Zerrious said as he put it away and ripped a page out of his journal and started writing on it.

  "What does that mean?" I asked, now curious rather than angry.

  He finished whatever he was writing and stuffed it into his pocket with the watch. "You'll see."

  Well that was needlessly cryptic. He walked off, looking at the Names above buildings once more while I started scanning the mononyms of people that we passed, looking for a sleep deprived Dave. We continued walking, eventually coming to a building that looked like a post office, or the equivalent in this world.

  "I should write to Nyah, I'll join you again in a moment," I said loud enough to be heard over the dull roar of people as the morning rush died to a heavy trickle. To my surprise he followed me in, grabbing a small bag and placing the watch and torn page inside.

  I didn't ask where it was going, that was for him to figure out, but I was curious.

  I quickly wrote my letter, putting the necessary information to have it delivered to the right person and put it on the desk which was currently empty. I didn't have money to make this delivery happen, so instead I left a letter asking really nicely to do a stranger a favor. If it got delivered, then good, if it didn't, then thee wasn't much I could do about it.

  I left the building with Zerrious close behind and asked where to go. Unfortunately, before he had a chance to answer me something caught my eye in an alleyway down the street.

  "Well-"

  "Follow," I said hurriedly as I took off down the crowded street as fast as my old body would carry me. I hadn't seen Dave, but I thought I had seen something better.

  If I remembered correctly, boo hags were supposed to be indistinguishable from really old ladies, but I had an advantage, I could see what people were called. Now, it wasn't too hard to fool, a simple disguise would usually do it, but there was always something legible.

  Not this, it looked like several mononyms had been layered on top of each other above her head to the point where I couldn't make out any of the letters. Now, I wasn't sure what could do that, but I figured wearing the skin of victims had some kind of adverse effect on identity, which I could only guess was how this racial trait worked.

  I sprinted between people, falling into the sword stances Zerrious had taught me, flowing through any breaks in the crowd at a full sprint. I couldn't keep it up for long, but I hoped that I would be faster than the mythical creature wearing a strangers skin. I was still much slower than Zerrious who was at my side in a moment, though he wasn't sure what we were after so he couldn't race ahead of me. She had disappeared around the alleyway before I got there, but I could only hope that it was a dead end.

  I exploded into the alley, Zerrious just behind me in a hand to hand stance I recognized but didn't know personally. I realized that I was also in a combat stance, but mine was because I needed to move quickly, his was because he noticed my stance and thought there would be danger. I didn't think boo hags were a danger during the day, but the alley also wasn't a dead end, but a side street that lead to another street. I felt quite safe in assuming that I had lost her down there.

  "Fuck," I swore, standing up straight and catching my breath. "We lost her. Zerrious, whatever that was, it wasn't human. I think we need to put off our little clockwork experimenting. Dave needs to take priority, he's in serious danger if he isn't dead already."

  "So how do we find him?" Zerrious asked as he nodded.

  "I think we need to ignore the dangers. Let's experiment with divination," I said gravely.

  "I don't know if that's a good idea, what if the gods-"

  "Fuck the gods. Someone is in trouble and if they wont do anything about it, we will. Plus, we don't know that the gods will strike us down or anything."

  Zerrious was still obviously trepidatious. "Sigurd, spiting in the face of gods is a terrible idea. I get that people are in trouble, but us trying to be a hero isn't a good idea. You're a brave man, but I'm not sure I am."

  "Zerrious, Emerson, a man from my world, once said something we need to live by if we are going to do what we came out here to do. 'A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer'. Frankly, I can't be a hero, but you can. Be brave five minutes longer." I wasn't even sure that was the right quote, and I sure as hell wasn't about to actually go against the gods. But, I'd convince a better man than me to do it.

  "Five minutes longer, huh? Do heroes die a lot in your world?" Zerrious asked, taking a deep breath and resolving himself as he raised his hands.

  "No, those heroes live forever, Zerrious. They live through the people they helped, no matter what."

  He took one more steadying breath, and then I saw the Aether twist into a pattern for a spell all around him, and as Zerrious wove Mana through the pattern the knots shifted and changed, moving along the strands of ambient Mana more and more until they seemed more like a serries of fly away hairs than a weaving.

  "It's not working," Zerrious said, still concentrating on holding the spell in place. I could see he had mixed it with enchantment, a smart move, make it more adaptable. The problem is, he hadn't specified a target. It could adapt, the problem with the original spell was that it couldn't move or see anything that you didn't already know was there, better for surveillance than actual scouting, while this one could show more, move around, and most importantly, find a target.

  "Tell it to find Dave, find the identity calling itself Dave," I said excitedly. We hadn't offended any gods yet, so I assumed we were safe to finish the spell.

  "Dave," Zerrious muttered, to no effect. "Find Dave." Again, nothing.

  "Zerrious, spells don't speak Kaldaran. Lace your voicewith Mana, and keep feeding it until you get what you need."

  Zerrious took a deep breath and muttered the word again, this time carrying a weight that hit the spell and caused it to start flailing a vibrating. Zerrious scrunched his face and raised his hands higher, trying to hold the spell.

  "Let it go," I said simply, walking up to him and moving his arms down. "Let the spell work." he dropped his arms and relaxed.

  "I don't think-" one of the strands flared with Mana and the others quickly wove into that strand and Zerrious went glassy eyed, nearly falling over as he lilted to one side.

  "Shit, Zerrious, are you okay?" I asked. Maybe the gods had decided to kill him. This was not the kind of death I was expecting from divine judgement.

  "I'm fine. . . I found Dave. He looks bad."

  "Where is he?" I asked, breathing a sigh of relief that my best friend was okay.

  "He's walking around across town. He seems pretty paranoid. We might get there by sunset, but he will definitely be somewhere else by the time we get there."

  "Alright, well, you just lead the way and keep an eye on if he goes anywhere."

  "That's not how it works, I either see where he is, or I see where I am." Shit, I hadn't considered that there would be drawbacks to magic.

  "Alright, keep an eye on him, and I'll follow your magic," I said simply, even though going across the city alone would be awful, let alone trying to follow an invisible light across the sky.

  "You'll just leave me here?" In complete honesty I was going to, but that did seem fucked up now that I thought about it.

  "Of course not," I said, leaning down and picking him up. I was glad for our training and hiking, it had made me quite strong, more so than most people my age back home, and made it so I could shift my backpack to my front and get Zerrious situated on my back in a piggyback ride. I hoped he didn't get dizzy with me moving and his sight not, but I really didn't want Dave to have to either endure the boo hag again or go another night without sleep now that we knew it was real.

  I moved at a quick walk, struggling to look up and follow the pulsing line of Mana against the sky, making slight adjustments as we moved and walking down the maze of streets for hours, working to catch up to Dave. As the sky grew darker the line of Mana got harder and harder to see, and it moved continually, making bigger shifts as we got closer to the other side of town.

  Zerrious was continually pumping Mana into his spell and I could feel him greedily sucking at the ambient Mana more and more as he slumped against my back, still holding on but obviously growing weaker as Mana sickness got to him. It had been a long time since either of us had come close to running out of Mana, especially since our centers were so efficient at packing it in.

  It was past dark, I was still trudging along, growing tired as the line of Mana was completely lost to me, the red and black just not standing out enough against the darkness of the sky.

  "Is he close?" I asked.

  "I don't know, should I drop the spell?" Zerrious croaked with his head buried in the back of my neck.

  "It's not doing me much good anymore, recover some Mana, we should be close enough."

  Zerrious moaned in pain as he dropped the spell. I remembered the headache using so much Mana gave you and it wasn't a fun experience. I kept him on my back as he pulled in any Mana he could to recover himself as I walked in the direction the spell had been going when I had lost track of it. I turned left to move around a building and moved around it, watching the Aether twirl about me. It had an unpredictable pattern, but it was always calm until something came and messed with it, so I figured it would be as good a way as any to see any living things moving around corners.

  Zerrious finally lifted his head and looked around. "Oh, this is where he was earlier today, he's just down this street," he said as he hopped off my back and took off down the road.

  "I'll let him take care of that, I'll catch up." I said. I hadn't gotten a ride from my amazing teacher all the way across town, after all.

  I walked calmly until I saw Zerrious in a stand off with a man who had what looked like a poker for a fireplace pointed at him, his bloodshot eyes darting around and his long hair matted with dirt all over what seemed like normal work clothes that had been worn for far too long with sweat stains clear in the armpits and around the collar. He held the poker out defensively with his yellowed teeth clenched, saying something I couldn't hear.

  Above his head read "Dave".