“Tate has been captured!” I scream as I rush through the door and into the apartment. I practically steamroll over Avis in the process, though that wasn’t intentional.

  “What?” Prisha jumps up from the table, “What happened?”

  “Long story short, The Saint told me.”

  Everyone stares at me, no one saying a word. I just dropped a bomb on them and their reaction is just to stare at me? I figured we’d jump into planning mode and figure out how to rescue them.

  “The Saint?” Prisha inquires.

  “Tall holy guy? That guy?” Avis adds.

  “The head of the Order, Saint?” Dardania adds to the pile on.

  “Yes, the Saint. That doesn’t matter. Tate has been captured and is going to be cleansed.” Like, why aren’t they freaking out about this? Was I missing something?

  They all continue to just stare at me.

  “Did you hit your head?” Madison questions as she slides into the room. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had massive bags under her eyes.

  “Why is no one freaking out about this?”

  “Well, I think we are all thoroughly confused as to why the Saint would voluntarily divulge that information to you.” Prisha says, her face slowly contorting in confusion. I guess I could see why they would be skeptical.

  “Sounds like a trap there sir.” Avis says as she sits back down at the table and takes a sip of his coffee. He holds it up, points at me, and then the coffee. I nod. He swiftly pours me a cup and sits at at the empty spot at the table.

  “Though, what if it isn’t?” Dardania sits back down next to Avis and mindlessly thumbs through her book. “If it’s not a trap, then Tate could be killed.”

  “If it is, we could be the one’s that get it.” Avis offers his rebuttal.

  “Schr?dinger’s murder.” I mutter as I take a sip of my coffee.

  “Huh?” Avis grunts at me.

  “If we choose to assume it’s a trap and Tate dies, did we kill them? We have no knowledge of what will actually happen until it’s observed. So if we choose to observe it, are we the reason that it happens? Prior to that, theoretically both things equally have a chance of happening.”

  “When did you get so smart?” Prisha asks which feels like it’s both a compliment and an insult.

  “I’m going to ignore the part that sounds like an insult and just say always.”

  “Well, whatever you are talking about, I think we should ere on the side of believing that it’s true. If not, well then, we will figure that out when it happens.”

  “I agree!” I add, “If it’s a trap, then we figure it out. Otherwise what? We let Tate potentially die?”

  “I guess.” Avis agrees.

  “Okay, let’s work on a plan then.” Prisha walks over to a bookshelf to grab a few books and bring them back to the table. “Let’s get started then.”

  * * * * *

  I’m not one for planning, I’ll leave that one to the brainy types. Instead, I need to find a way to power up and fast.

  I am holed up in the room alone as the group plans our jail break. Gravity magic is great and I think will lead to some amazing things when I truly master it, but in the meantime I need faster spells that pack a punch and are more useful. So, lets start with the basic four elements.

  Fire is started by the combustion of an item, at least on a literal level. If I were to theoretically inject energy into the molecules of a piece of cloth, it should change their potential energy into kinetic energy causing it to heat up. Add in the oxygen and boom fire should happen. I am not a scientist and I only have a rudimentary understanding of how this all works. So I’m not entirely sure if that’s how it actually works.

  The area here is rather humid meaning greater amounts of water are in the air. I could strip the water from the air and solidify it into a liquid and then control it. I think. I’m not sure what would happen to the oxygen in the area if I were to strip the water our of the air. Would it all turn into carbon dioxide?

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  Lightning is caused by a large discharge of static electricity but I’m not sure how I would even make that happen? It’s caused by two different poles and a jump of electricity or something?

  “Ugh!” I slam my fist into the ground. Why didn’t I become a physicist? Instead I opted to only go to community college and then never go back after I finished my two years because I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do. Now I’m stuck in another world with magic that theoretically operates off the principles of the natural world and I don’t remember my ninth grade science lessons.

  “How does Justice work?” I think out loud. Godrick has the ability to enact his own form of justice upon the world. His imagination theoretically is the limit for what he is able to accomplish. I personally haven’t laid eyes upon how it works, but I would think he can basically do whatever he wants assuming he is issuing some form of punishment on someone.

  “Maybe I’m thinking too limited.” I’m trying to grasp the way the world works, but even in my world, we lacked so much information about the universe and how it works. Take the Theory of Everything, we have yet to understand how traditional physics and quantum physics fit together. I can’t even begin to understand quantum physics, which means that I on a base level know jack shit about the universe. Perhaps I need to stop thinking this way. It worked for Madison, doesn’t mean it will work for me.

  Let’s assume that I have complete control over the energy in the area. I’ve proven that I can in fact control it quite well. I’ve been able to adjust it to lower and increase the gravity in a set location. What if rather than use my science brain, I use the fantasy side of my brain. Operate under the principle that all things are possible and that by simply having control over the energy I can make it happen.

  I’m convinced that’s the real power of the High Priestess and The Magician, control over energy. The magic others have used has always been very specific, other than The Saint. Dardania has only ever used word magic and Prisha uses the more complex version of that. The other members of the Arcana only hold a single power as well. So if I had to guess, that’s their power. Whereas mine is the ability to manipulate energy which grants me the ability to do whatever it is I choose.

  So, with that assumption, I’ll just picture it like this: There exists an infinite number of possibilities that could occur in any single moment. I’m simply choosing which possibility to observe, thus making it into a reality. Similar to the idea of a quantum state is in flux until it’s observed.

  “Okay, so the water in the room comes together into physical droplets rather than dispersed in the air.” I say out loud as I imagine that exactly that occurs. I can feel the energy in the room begin to vibrate as I imagine it. It requires an obscene amount of concentration to visualize it and still maintain contact with the energy. I’m scared if I open my eyes that I’ll lose control.

  “Holy shit you did it.” Avis mutters. My eyes snap open at the sound of his voice. I immediately notice water droplets filling the air all over the room. I slowly look around and it’s as though it had been raining in the room and it simply just stopped. I slowly raise my hand to cover my mouth, tears forming in my eyes. I did it. I finally cracked the whole magic thing.

  “I think I was over thinking it before.” I say as I stare at the barrage of water droplets in front of me. Avis beams at me, he looks extremely proud. I can’t help but let the tears fall. I’ve felt so useless this whole time. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quite seem to make it work. Gravity magic felt like it would work and I was excited to be able to use it, but I couldn’t make it work in a fight. I couldn’t make it work in a way that was useful in most scenarios. This on the other hand, this I can make work.

  “How? I just… how?” Avis mumbles softly.

  “According to all the smart people around me, magic is based around physics, but our knowledge of physics is still so limited. So I just decided to forget all I knew, and it worked!”

  As I relax the water dissipates and returns to the air. Avis slowly strolls over to me, kneels down, and presses his forehead against mine.

  “I knew you could do it chicken legs.”

  “Thanks you ole brute.” I smile as I wipe the tears from my face. Avis raises his head to look at me and kisses me gently. I immediately feel my face become flush and my heart start to race. Every time this man kisses me its the same way. I don’t quite think I’ve ever felt like this with someone before. Then again, we have been put into a few life and death situations which can probably make your love for someone that much deeper.

  “So, are we done with the planning?” I inquire as I take a deep breath, trying to steady my breathing. This man has apparently taken my breath away.

  “We are. It’s simple.”

  “Oh. I figured it would take longer.”

  “The best plans are the simple ones.”

  “I suppose. So what is it?”

  “Break Tate out. Diversion, all the normal stuff.” Avis stands up and begins walking out of the room. “I will let you finish your meditation or whatever though.”

  “I think I’m done for now. I think I figured out the basics of it, let’s hope I can do it in the middle of a fight without having to stop and ohm my way through it.”

  “Meditating in the middle battle would be bad.”

  “I agree.” I chuckle, just picturing me throwing up my hands and immediately sitting down to meditate so I can figure out how to do a spell. It’s funny, but an entire waste of brain power.

  “So when does this plan start?”

  “Whenever you’re ready.”

  “Wait, now?” I’m taken aback by how fast this is moving.

  “Yep, now.”

  “And Madison? Is she on board? Okay? Etc?”

  “Yes, I don’t know, and don’t know.” Avis turns towards the door and turns the knob, I reach for him to stop.

  “Are we sure we’re ready for this? This is it, the big one.” My heart is pounding. I thought I was more terrified of taking on Trevor than I was of the Order, but I’m not so sure. “Once we do this, there is no going back.”

  Avis freezes for a moment with his hand holding the doorknob unmoving, his hand starts to shake nervously for a moment. He takes a deep breath, steadies his hand, and turns towards me.

  “We are. If we sit around and wait for the right moment, we’ll be waiting forever.”

  “I’m scared. I know it’s not usually cool to just say that out loud, but I am.” My hand was shaking too. I imagine for Avis, it’s even worse. The Order has made his life a living hell, and this will be his best chance to really do damage to them. I’m just a newbie who has only heard stories and dealt with very little in comparison, but still, I’m scared.

  “Me too.” Avis reaches for my hand. “But, I’d be kinda stupid if I wasn’t.” Avis squeezes my hand gently before dropping it. He spins around, opens the door, and walks through it.

  “Let’s do this shit!” Avis exclaims!