What am I? I was so scared they wouldn’t take me seriously. I was scared they’d ignore me or tell me to go away. That they’d be mean or maybe even attack me. Being afraid of me though? It hurts. It hurts really bad. I didn’t want any of this. I try to say something back. I’m a human or a mage or a friend of the Fae. Instead my face breaks and I just start crying. I mean really crying, snot and tears and all the stuff I was starting to think I was done with.

  I try to wipe the tears away and the short one, Brede, stares at my hand. My wrapped up hand with not enough fingers. Then he grabs the tall one by the arm hard and shakes him. “Agnar, apologize! Can’t you see she’s just a little ‘un? And look, she has the mark of Fae friend besides. You look like you’ve had a tough’n there youngin.”

  Agnar looks confused for a minute and a little mad at being shaken. Then he straightens up and looks at me. “Please forgive my outburst girle, I’ll make it up to you. In fact, I’ll make sure no one else is as mean as I was.”

  “My name is not girlie, it’s Marie,” I say, sounding whiny even to me. “And I’m not just a little’un I’m a mage and I made the portal just like godmother said. And it was hard and all I do is fight and study and I feel dirty and there’s no toilet paper or even toilets and I thought it would be better if I had someone to talk to.” Oh my goddess Marie shut up. “I-I’m sorry, I’ve just been so lonely.”

  Brede walks up to me and wipes my eyes with his thumbs. His hands are so big and rough, they almost remind me of dad’s but he used moisturizer. “I’m sorry, chile, Marie. It looks like you’ve had a hard time. But it’s ok, you’re with friends now. If nothing else we owe you for lettin’ us over. But I tell ya what, if you don’t mind doin’ some fightin’ and maybe some workin’ we’d be glad of your help. Now that’s better than pity or bein’ takin’ care of. Why don’t you tell us your story?”

  Agnar walked through the doorway and took a seat where I had the ingredients. “Yes, please Marie, tell us how you got here. While you do I’ll make you a necklace. I’m sorry I got startled but you’re awfully strong. In fact I’ve never seen anyone so strong. I’ll make you a little necklace so people don’t get scared, ok? Just till they get to know you.”

  “OK, I said.”

  And then I started talking. I told them about Hecate. I told them a little about Morrigan but I said I wasn’t supposed to tell her name. I also left out that she came to me as a crow just in case. But I told them about my family before the System and the accident. I told them how we cheated to get me a class and how many times I almost died. They kept quiet the whole time and listened. And it wasn’t like when adults usually listen where you can tell they’re playing pretend. Like they don’t care what you’re actually saying just waiting for you to finish so you’ll go away. They were really listening. They only interrupted once to ask a few questions about the snake and the dream. I told them what I remembered about the dream which wasn’t very much. When I got to the Lynx Agnar gasped a little but Brede just nodded. The whole time Agnar has something in his hand that he’s cutting up with a dark black knife. I start to tell them about the archive but my head felt like it would explode. I managed to just say I had a secret the System wouldn’t let me talk about but it helped. They seemed ok with that and just told me to keep going.

  When I got to the bears Agnar actually interrupted. “I’ll say this, if you’re willing I’ll give you a discount on learning to make runes. You have decent enough mana manipulation and you can’t just keep going around digging holes in the ground every time you fight something.”

  I glared at him, “It worked didn’t it?”

  They both laughed at that and I kept going. I know I shouldn’t have but I told them about my feelings and my worries and how I thought they might not even take me seriously. I told them about how bad I felt killing sometimes and how I liked to fight but only if it was really a fight. I told them about my homework and that’s when Brede interrupted.

  “How do you manage that?” He asked.

  “Oh, it’s because of the System secret. Sorry I don’t want my eyes to pop out of my head or something.”

  He looked like he might say something else, but then just nodded for me to continue. So I did. I told them about music, movies, and poetry. I talked about making leather and my own clothes. About soap and electricity and everything I’d wanted to say for months to someone. I told them about my wish list. I told them I missed my family and my friends. I told them I hoped they could help fix my hand. By the time I was done talking the sun was coming up again.

  They sat there for a few minutes. Maybe they were making sure I was done or maybe they just needed to think for a while. It didn’t feel bad though. I felt lighter, like I had used Scales of Ma'at on my insides. I knew I had told them too much but I hadn’t broken Morrigan’s rules.

  Brede spoke first, “You’ve been as straight with us as you could be, so let me do the same. We know who your godmother is, but just us. That’s why you found us waitin’ when the portal opened. She came down from the sky as a giant crow and I nearly shat myself right there. She said she sent someone to open the gate and we’d better be real pleasant with them or she’d know. I don’t know why she didn’t say more’n that.”

  “I know why,” Agnar and I said together. He looked surprised and then smiled at me. “I’ve met her before, she likes fucking with people. The last time I saw her was in the middle of a battle. She said she chose me to be her champion, and sent me to fight this big goblin. Well, big for a goblin. He’s hissing and carrying on and swinging a halberd taller than himself. I get to him and block a swing that sends me flying half a field and over a fence. I get back up and some archer has filled the asshole full of holes. So I’m standing there, not even in the battle anymore and I hear her say “I told you he’d make it over.” I turn around and there stands Lugh handing over a mithril mace and looking pissed off at me. What am I gonna say? Sorry? The worst part is she might have saved my life and I’ll never know for sure.”

  Brede and I both laugh. The story is kind of funny but seeing Agnar so animated when he had looked so serious before made it even better. I’ve missed hearing other people laugh.

  Brede turned back to me. “Now for some answers. Good news is your hand can be fixed, bad news is none of us can do it. Well ok some might but not for any price you ought to pay. Your Patron goddess didn’t do the best job in your tutorial it sounds like.”

  I start to say something but he holds up his hand. “Don’t take it personal. She was handed a mess by the System and she did right by you. But she skipped some important stuff. When you reach level 50 your species upgrade will fix you up. If you get a good upgrade you might be able to regrow stuff on your own. You need something better than level 2 human though.

  About that snake, that thing has to die. I reckon one of the Asgardians showed you that cave so you could take care of it for them. That thing can get big enough to swallow the whole planet if something ain't done. Don’t worry too much though it's a poor one so even if it grows pretty fast it ain’t all that strong compared to you. We’ll help you kill it though, ain’t no Fae wantin’ to deal with those damn Asgardian assholes more than necessary.

  Lastly, a warning. I get you been alone and you’re young but you gotta be careful about spillin’ your secrets like that. You can trust us, if for no other reason than Morrigan scares the shit out of us. The two of us wouldn’t harm you without that but not everybody is as nice. You being young actually makes you a little safer. Fae like kids. Well that sounds awful. We don’t have kids easy and we kinda put ‘em up on a pedestal. Some of us even steal ‘em from time to time. Not that you need to worry, being a godchild and friend of the Fae. Actually Morrigan might have grabbed us specific. I know you got some questions but how about we eat something first?”

  “Oh ok.” That was a lot. I’m not sure how I feel about being able to get my fingers back. I don’t think I really believed I could. I’m too drained to think about it too much. But I have so many questions. Like a million of them. Maybe I can get away with one. “What do you eat?”

  Brede gets up and walks through the portal, coming back with some kind of brown canvas book bag. It looks like it has a lot of buckles and straps. “Oh I reckon the same as you, meat and cheese and bread and the like.”

  “You have bread?” I ask. “And cheese?”

  “Yeah and some eggs and bacon too. I wish I had some mushrooms so we could have a proper omelet.”

  I jumped up. “ I DO have mushrooms!”

  He pulls out a large frying pan and I get my pot out of the way before restarting the fire. Agnar is pulling out four metal plates when I realize they knew I had mushrooms because I told them. I grin. Maybe they tricked me or maybe they wanted me to be included. Or maybe this is my payment so they don’t have to charge me? My grin slips a little at that. No, even if that is why this was still nice. Morrigan was clearly being sneaky too, maybe they have to. Or maybe it’s some System thing I don’t know about. The bacon is starting to smell really good and Agnar starts cutting it on one of the plates with a little shiny knife. I cut up my mushrooms and hand them over, looking for something else to do.

  Agnar sees me looking and hands me the plate and a block of cheese. “Shred some of this will you?”

  Hmmm. It takes me a second but I make a mana cheese shredder and cut up a small pile. When I look up Agnar is kind of watching me.

  “Thank you,” he says, taking the plate.

  Pretty soon I’m eating the best omelette I’ve ever had in my entire life. Before the System, if I cried about something or got upset, dinner was always awkward. I knew I had gone too far, or maybe Benji had to make me cry. This felt different. I didn’t feel ashamed. I felt happy. And maybe a little guilty about being happy. They really did treat me like a friend. So when they finished I gathered up the dishes, stepped away a little and used Waterfall and some soap to wash up. I did my pot last, but luckily it came clean. Brede came over and dried the dishes, putting his away and handing me my pot back. Agnar seemed to be doing something with twine and whatever he’d been working on.

  “Alright young ‘un, and mind you humans are all young to me I mean no disrespect, you’ve shown more patience than I’ve seen out most, children especially. Right now I can give you three answers. After that we’re gonna have to trade. Those are real answer mind, you can ask my favorite color and it won’t cost ya a thing.”

  I smile, “What’s your favorite color? Mine’s purple.”

  “Yeah that’s a good ‘un. Color of royalty. Me, I like a nice midnight blue,” he said pulling the bottom of his shirt out with a grin on his face. “Come on now, what do you got? There’s no stupid questions.”

  Oh good. “Why don’t you guys talk like thee and thou and old timey and stuff? I have a skill to translate but it’s not running.”

  Agnar laughed at that, “Wouldst thou prefer in thine heart that speech cutteth deep? Understanding not with a tongue unparsed to thy mind? Certain in style and path we tread these lyrical alleys, is that of thine desire?”

  Brede rolled his eyes. “Television, movies and music. Same as you I reckon. Agnar is less affected than me being quite a bit older, I’m only a smidge over two hundred, he’s five hundred and eighty three.”

  Agnar made a noise in his throat, “A smidge? You’re two hundred forty this year.”

  “Wait,” I said, looking at Brede “You guys have tv?”

  “Agnar, you explain it. I ain’t never been much for illusions and such. You understand all that better’n me.”

  Agnar looked up from what he was working on again. “Different Fae have different magic. Brede and me are both underdwellers so we both have some affinity with stone and metals, but it’s different. Brede and his folk, which you would call dwarves and we call Dverger, are alterationists. They can pull stones and metal and other stuff out of the ground easily and shape it even easier. We, the Dokkalfar, or what you would call dark elves are good at illusions and runecrafting. We have a good understanding of mana flow and can use that to enchant items or set wards and traps. Mixing the two we’ve found ways to spy on humans from Fae.

  After we left this world due to iron poisoning we kept tabs at first, and later started using our craft to watch plays and concerts. Eventually that led to stealing cable. We can make systems of runes that cast light and sound and regardless of what Brede says I don’t understand it that well. The Elves that figured all of that were some of the smartest to have ever lived and one of the few times that light and dark elves ever truly invested in working together. And since I’ve already brought them up please understand that all of the works you have about us were influenced by the light elves, we’re no more treacherous than they are. In fact they can tell you that themselves, we’ve been on fairly good terms since we started working together to steal your entertainment. I guess we could start fighting again since that’s gone.” He nodded and then went back to his project.

  Brede looked back to me, “Yeah anyways, thanks for coming to his Ted Talk. What else do you got?”

  “What’s a Ted talk?” I ask.

  “Oh, right,” He said, “It’s like a podcast with video. People go up and talk about stuff they’re supposed to be experts in. Kind of like a class on the tv.”

  “There we go,” Agnar says suddenly. “Hold your Q&A for a few minutes please, Brede, I’ve finished.” He holds up the twine and at the bottom there’s a round stone hanging from it. On the stone is some kind of complex rune. In the middle is a square that’s turned so the corners point up, down, left and right. There are eight fork things sticking out of it all the way around with three lines parallel on each of the handles.” He walks over and flips it upside down. On the back there’s a single line. “When I give this my debt is done. That doesn’t mean we aren’t friends or anything but I can’t go around just giving you stuff. Understand?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Good. To activate it you have to bleed on this line. That makes it work for you. Go ahead and take it.”

  He hands me the stone and I hold it with the line up. Making a mana knife I cut my right thumb and press it on the stone. My blood goes into the line and then disappears. I stand there for a moment and look at Agnar. He just stares back. Oh yeah. I put the necklace on. “Thank-”

  “Stop,” Brede says suddenly. “Thanking someone can mean you think you owe them something. Now Agnar and I won’t hang you up like that but you gotta get outta that habit quick. You thank the wrong person you can end up in a bad situation.”

  “Can I say something like this is really nice, or I love it?”

  “Yeah, that oughta be alright.”

  I look at Agnar, “This is really great.”

  “I’ll take that with the intent it was given,” he says. “Brede is right, I wouldn’t have held that as a debt against you. You’re welcome.”

  “Um, what does it do?” I ask.

  “It’ll stop jumpy elves from freakin’ out if they don’t know you.” Brede said. “When someone examines you it traps their skill and tells ‘em somethin’ else.

  “Double check my work?” Agnar asks, ignoring him.

  “Level 12 Basic Mage,” Brede replies. “Still surprising, but not enough to make someone have nightmares.”

  “OK I promise I won’t start crying but why are you acting like I’m scary?” I ask. “Why did you ask what I am when you met me?”

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  Brede looks over at Agnar, “Go on then big man, tell the young ‘un why you near wet yourself.”

  Agnar scrunched his face up, “Why do I put up with you again?”

  “We make big heaps of money.”

  His face lit up, “Right you are. Like I said Marie, this necklace is my apology for that outburst. That said, you are, without context, absolutely terrifying. Now we know you’ve done what you had to to survive, had divine assistance and honestly you still should have died several times. We’re very glad you haven’t though. Not just because you let us through, it has been a pleasure to make your acquaintance and hear your story. But you’re the highest level person either of us has met.”

  “Me? But Morrigan said that like a thousand other people got to twenty before me.”

  “Yes, and I’m sure there are people higher than you. I doubt we’d like to meet them. In fact people getting to your level in the next few months is all but guaranteed. But they do it in groups. Against weaker enemies. Your growth and fighting is frankly astounding. We’re new to the system too, and well, you’ve identified us right?”

  “No?” I said. “Why? We’re not going to fight, right?”

  “Oh honey,” said Brede. “You really ought to identify anything just to make sure you’re not in danger. Go on, do it now.”

  “OK.” I use Advanced Identify and remember to turn off distance since it would be silly to use now.

  Level 0 Dark Elf

  Level 23 Spellsword

  HP: 142

  Level 0 Dwarf

  Level 20 Advanced Stoneshaper

  HP: 214

  “Wait a minute. I’m stronger than you?” How? They look so tough and strong and cool. I could take them out with a few shells, easy. “What do you do when strong things attack you?”

  “Well, there’s where you could use some improvement, “Agnar says.

  “Be generous with your assessment now, she’s strong but young,” Brede said quickly.

  “Right again. Yes, I’m sure you could kill both of us in a fair fight. Probably in an unfair fight. Ok fine, we’d be lucky to even get away from you if you wanted us dead. But look at it from our side. We know that we can trick system skills into saying whatever. So a portal opens and there’s a little girl standing there, looking tough as nails and she’s higher level than anyone I’ve seen with more health than the two of us together.”

  “Sorry?” I say.

  “Hah,” Brede says.

  “I am absolutely never going to hear the end of this. It’s ok though, you really are quite a nice girl for an absolute monster. But that said, your aura is kinda awful.”

  I scratch my head, “I think I told you earlier, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  Agnar nods, “Yeah, that just makes you scarier. You can learn how to use it though. The other problem is your mana constructs.”

  “What? No! I’m really good with mana constructs. Hecate even told me.”

  He put up a hand, “Don’t get me wrong, for an amateur you’re amazing. But you’re leaking mana like crazy. Unless that’s on purpose?”

  “Well I do have Psychokinesis but I wasn’t using it, so I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “What level is your Mana Sense?” He asks

  “It's just Mana Sense, so third level I guess? Is there a better way to rate them?”

  “No, no, that's fine,” Agnar replies. “Actually your Mana Manipulation is amazing with that in mind. Once you improve your senses though you’ll see what I’m talking about. I can’t believe you’re level 30 like that though. It’s so uneven. Do you just brute force through everything?”

  “No,” I say, trying not to smile, “I also dig a lot of holes.”

  Brede laughs, anyway. “I think we can help you. More important the Fae we bring can help. I assume Morrigan told you about makin’ deals though? No boons or favors or bits of yourself. Try not to get things you have to pay in the future. If someone want you doin’something then agree, you'll get paid afterwards.”

  “Yeah, I know. I know I shouldn’t have told you guys all that but you’ve been so nice and I just want to say.” Whoops, that was close. “I just want to say I’m glad you’re here. It feels good to have friends again.”

  “We’re glad to be here too chile,” Brede says. Whole world of resources for us and iron don’t do diddly. And I’ll be glad to call you friend. I hope you know though Agnar is over there plannin’ out all kinds of adventures he intends to talk you into.”

  “Hush you, she’ll need to pay for lessons somehow,” Agnar replies.

  “Lessons? Will you teach me some stuff?”

  “We both will if you want to learn. But they don’t come free, not even for friends. Unless you can make it so we both benefit but that will come later.”

  “Alright now back to the questions,” Brede says. “We gotta go back afore long.”

  I panic. “Back? Wait, why? I thought the Fae were coming here!”

  “Calm down, we are. Who do you think has to go report where the portal is, and get the settlers together and bring them back? We’ll set up a settlement here, and a teleport to the nearest city on the other side but it’ll take several weeks,” Agnar says.

  “Weeks?” I say, as I feel my face fall. “Can I come with you?”

  Brede rubs the top of his head. “I’d like to say yeah but I can’t make that call. We haven’t had humans in centuries. Agnar what do you reckon? Weeks don’t mean a lot to us but I guess we’ve had more of ‘em. How much trouble you think she’d get us into?”

  Agnar stood rubbing his chin. “Oh you’re gonna hate this.”

  Brede grunted, “I already do, go ahead though.”

  “They can’t get mad at us if we come with a hero,” Agnar says.

  “No,” Brede says pointing a finger at him.

  “Yes,” Agnar says calmly.

  “She ain't even grown,” Brede says, taking a step towards Agnar.

  “She can kick both our asses, and it’s not like I won’t help,” Agnar replies getting in Brede’s face

  “That’ll be a lot of help when you die and Morrigan takes it out of my ass,” Brede’s finger taps agnar’s chest.

  “HEY!” I yell.

  They both look over at me like they forgot I was there.

  “What are you talking about?” I ask.

  “Agnar wants you to go kill a damn cat dragon with poison breath.”

  “The Tatzelwurm is only technically a dragon, and it’s barely bigger than a person. And I want her to help me kill it in return for five lessons in whatever she chooses.”

  “Technically or not, the breath can kill you,” Brede says. “And five lessons? You’d be a hero too if you killed that damn thing. You ought to teach her whatever she wants to know for that.”

  “You’re forgetting that her being a hero would make her welcome in the city and likely give her status enough to get better help than us.” Agnar says.

  “I’ll do it,” I say.

  “You’re forgettin’ that her havin status might make it more dangerous for her in Fae than if no one knew her.”

  “I said I’ll do it.” I repeat.

  “Youngin’ you really oughta think this through.”

  I hold up a fist, “Don’t worry Brede, you can just tell Morrigan you couldn’t stop me if everything goes wrong.”

  “Great,” He replies, “Between the two of you I might not last the year. Fine I guess, but that means we can answer questions on the road. You need to get anything from that tree house?”

  “Do you think you can make me a sword or two out of that mantis I told you about?” I ask.

  “Might be that I can, I need to take a look at it. I guess we ain’t in that big of a hurry. Lead the way Miss Marie Let’s go see this tree house of yours.”

  *****

  The way back to the treehouse we talk about things that don’t matter to the System but I care about. Agnar really likes pop music like Lady Gaga and Adele and Michael Jackson. I know who one of those people is. Luckily I can find out about the other ones. Brede really likes hip hop and I don’t know any of the people he talks about, Red Man or Joyner Lucas or Non Phixion or a bunch of others. I write them all down in my System journal though for later. We talk about tv shows and movies and books and I find out that they had a harder time getting books than movies or music. Which means I may have a lot to trade the Fae after all.

  The whole walk the snake pops in and out of my head again. I don’t want to mention it. I’m worried they’ll go “Oh yeah, you gotta stay here and kill that, sorry kid.” Then it’ll be weeks before I see anyone. I’m not ready for that again. I actually don’t mind a day by myself I don’t think. Maybe even more than that, but I want it to be because I want to be by myself not because I don’t even have the ability to talk to anyone. Is that selfish? Is it even wrong to be selfish sometimes? Ugh. There’s a few minutes of quiet as we arrive and I know what I have to do. My heart hurts when I open my mouth.

  “What about the snake?” I say quietly. It almost feels like a sitcom. Like I’m the kid saying something I have to tell the adults quietly and hoping they don’t hear. Dammit, that’s exactly what this is. When did I stop thinking of myself as actually being a kid?

  “Hmm?” Agnar says. “Oh, the snake. Don’t worry about it, we’ll put together a hunting party and help you kill it. No charge since we’ll all benefit.”

  “Aren’t you worried it’ll get even stronger?” I ask, mad at myself for jinxing it.

  “No, it’s likely at the end of its growth cycle and will have to kill a lot to raise its level. You said it had gotten to 37? I’d be surprised if it passes 40 before we get back. It should run into the same issue you’re about to, not having any good prey to hunt.”

  “What do you mean? What’s its growth cycle?,” I ask.

  “Your patron missed some basics, didn’t she?” Brede cut in. “Beasts and monsters that can’t think like us, that ain't sapient grow differently. They gain experience like we do, sure but they’ll naturally just level up until they get to their species limit. Why do you think the wolf was the first thing you seen above 20? It was already dangerous.Same with the bear. If the bears went around fightin’ like you they woulda hit 50 before you found them, instead they just kept doin’ bear stuff, fishin and the like.”

  I thought for a minute. “But it’s not like they all have the same limit right? Some of them are bigger and stronger than other ones? Like they’re born with more potential or something? Also, what’s up with groundhogs?” I stop a yawn at the end of the question. Wake up Marie, you can stay up one day.

  This time Agnar answered, “yes, just like us they have different attributes. It can even affect the amount of stats they gain per level. That part can happen to people too. Just because two people have the same class doesn’t mean that they get the exact same stats. I’d likely get more strength points than you and fewer dexterity points if you were a spell sword.”

  “What about intelligence and wisdom?” I asked.

  “We would have to compare, but since that’s likely to depress me I think I’ll decline.”

  Brede walked up beside me and nudged me with his elbow. “We have the better classes and it’s a sore spot. Don’t poke fun at him too much, it’ll hurt his feelin’s somethin’ awful,” he whispered loudly enough for the whole forest to hear.

  “I heard that, and in case you didn’t notice her class is better than yours too,” he said.

  “Sure, but I ain't about to cry about it.”

  I feel like they pick at each other a lot. They definitely seem like friends though, otherwise I think Agnar would actually be mad. That raises a whole bunch of other questions but since we’re back to the tree house they can wait. I let go of the sled and open my closet at the bottom. Laying the metal spider legs down I pull start pulling out the mantis pieces. I hold the bladed arms up for them to see.

  “I was thinking of making swords out of them but I’m not good at metallurgy yet. Actually I’m really kind of bad at it. I tried to make a frying pan,” I say, holding up the piece of metal I’d beaten into a kind of a circle.

  Brede looks over it, “yup that’s pretty bad. I’ll grant you haven’t had any teachin’ on the subject so we don’t know if you have any talent. Either way you won’t be makin’ swords out of anything for years, even if you're a genius at it.”

  “Well maybe I can trade something to have you do it? Or another smith if this isn’t something you like to do. I would like to learn how to make stuff with meta-” I cut myself off with a yawn. “Sorry, I want to learn metal working.”

  Brede glances at me for a second and holds his hands out, I give him one of the arms. He holds it up and starts knocking on it with his knuckles. He bring is close to his head and taps it listening to the sound. “I take it you wanted to use part of the arm as a handle?”

  “Yeah that’s what I was going to try, but I was afraid I would mess it up.”

  “Well you got that right, kinda. With the beast bein’ dead the arm lacks mana reinforcement. The arm would just break off the blade,” Brede said.

  “So I can’t use it for a sword?”

  “Well now, I didn’t say that. It depends on what type a sword you’re lookin’ for. This blade is actually pretty tough, I reckon you can use it for a good while before enemies start bein’ too tough for it. Longer if you can get it enchanted. Since you been fightin’ beasts can I assume you don’t actually know how to sword fight?”

  I look down, “I’ve watched some videos and stuff but no one ever showed me how to fight. I’ve had to figure it out.”

  “Chin up young ‘un,” Brede said. “You clearly done fine on that front. Why don’t you and Agnar have a spar real quick, melee only. Don’t be fryin’ my business partner up. I think he has a spare sword.”

  “I can do this,” I say, making a mana blade and attaching a shield to my right arm.

  “Absolutely not,” Agnar says. “The shield is fine but I’m not losing my good equipment, you’ll probably slice right through it. Here.” He pulls a sword out of their rucksack (he taught me that word when I called it a bookbag) that’s clearly too long to fit. I guess it is like my book bag. It looks similar to his blade, long and double sided with a wide hilt.

  He tosses it to me and I catch it, and almost drop it with my left hand.

  His face goes blank, “I’m sorry Marie, that was thoughtless. Are you going to be able to use that in your current condition?”

  “Yup,” I say with a smile as I make a mana gauntlet over my left hand.

  “Of course you are, what was I thinking, “ he says with a wink. “Ready?”

  “Yup,” I say, trying to sound exactly the same.

  “Flat of the blade, don’t chop me in half please.” With that he moves towards me. He’s so fast I want to say he’s running but really it’s like he’s gliding. His sword comes down and I slap it away with my shield. He dances backwards and around me, following the shield and my arm. I jump backwards and swing the sword towards his stomach. I make sure to use the flat part.

  He brings his sword down kind of diagonally and it makes mine follow it down, missing him. I step forward and swing with my shield but he pulls up his hand and blocks with the hilt. I swing up with the sword and he kind of swings his hand out while stepping forward making my swing go to his side. Then he reaches out with his other hand and pokes me the tip of my nose.

  “Maybe you aren’t as scary as I thought,” Agnar joked. “If you promise not to kill me lightning maybe you should use one of your skills.”

  He backs up and puts his sword in front of this. I know what he thinks. I’ve told him about some of my skills and fights. He thinks I’m going to come running at him. He’s right. But not with lightning. I’m a lot stronger than I used to be. Strong enough to push a bear in a pit. Strong enough to carry a metal mantis bigger than me and put it in a closet. Strong enough that I turned Scales of Ma'at on when we started walking and forgot to turn it off. I turn it off of me.

  I have to do this just right. His back is to the stream. I cast Scales of Ma'at on him and make him as heavy as possible. At the same time I push off running towards him, shield first. He blocks with his hilt but I keep going and he’s blasted over the stream. Oh crap, oh crap, of crap. I went too far. I turn off Scales of Ma'at and start to run over to him.

  Agnar rolls forward and jumps up before I get to the stream, “I’m ok!” He says with a grin.

  “I’m sorry,” I yell a little too loudly. “I was trying to get you in the stream.”

  “He asked for it,” Brede said. “To be fair you were clearly holdin’ back a lot so he had to taunt you a little to see what you could do. I seen enough though. You ain’t a blade dancer like Agnar for sure. I recommend you learn a style of fightin’, but you might be better off with a human teacher for that. Not havin’ magic till recently they don’t rely on it. I’m sure Agnar’d at least teach you not to cut your toes off though.”

  “Am I that bad?” I ask.

  “Worse,” Agnar said. “Even without that spell you’re faster and stronger than me, and I was able to dance circles around you. You have no idea what to do with your feet, every swing is like you’re playing baseball and you use the same few moves, which is basically trying to cut me in half one way or the other or knock me a way. Given that you’re mage with long range attacks that’s not the worst thing but you definitely need to learn some footwork. You need to start with hand to hand then.”

  “I thought I was doing really good. Well you know, except for the fingers and stuff,” I said.

  “Don’t you go getting down on yourself now, you’re still the strongest one here. You just need to be refined. Given your way of fightin’n I got the solution.” He holds the blade up and breaks it off the arm. It comes off way too easy and doesn’t even look broken, it looks like it was always just a blade. “No, if you look at the spine here, it’s solid, this thing is pretty much inflexible. Means you can’t bend it. So what I proposed is to go up hands breadth from the bottom,” he points at the place on the back of the blade. We can make a hole here with a grip your size and strong enough it ain' t gonna break when you hit somethin’ or somethin’ hits it. You don’t need a hilt to fight beasts and such, and this’ll slice through a lot. I also think Agnar and I could work out a shield that’ll go one your other arm. A small buckler that you can attach your mana shield to, we can have it auto cast if the shield gets hit. That way you don’t have to worry about wolf bites, and bird talons.”

  “You can do all that? That sounds awesome!”

  “Well you know we ain’t doin it for free. I’ll make you one sword and shield for the rest of the mantis and the spider legs. I’ll also make you a back sheath for it with a bear hide for the other one. Agnar, what’ll you charge to rune the shield?”

  “He asks after trying to rob you blind. What does she even have left?”

  I think for a second. “If I had a way to perfectly play music in my mind could you make a rune or something recorded it?”

  “You’re already askin’ for more before you settle this? Unfortunately no, the best I can do is make something that plays it out loud, but most people aren’t even good singers even in their head.”

  “Uh, do you need anything infused with lightning?”

  “Not currently, but if you agree to infuse something for me in the future I’ll do it.”

  “I’m not supposed to do that. I wish I could write in other people’s journals, I could give you books or something.”

  Agnar looked at me confused. “What are you talking about? We have no journals.”

  “The…” I stopped. “I’ll tell you a secret if you’ll do the rune for me.”

  “It would have to be a really good secret,” he said. “Also wouldn’t you be making me pay for Brede and me knowing it?”

  “OK, Brede doesn’t take the other blade and you do the rune and I’ll tell you both a secret.

  “Now wait a minute, that blade can fetch some money, how do we know the secret is worth it?” Brede said.

  I thought about that for a minute. How could I convince them? “Are there ways to copy knowledge? Like if I memorized a book could we use magic to copy it to something else?”

  “Yes, so long as you have the materials, enough paper and ink or graphite you can do something like that. It’s actually very interesting, you rune the pen or pencil or even type writer, key it to a person and then have them dump the memory. It isn’t used that much though, we all have very good memories,” Agnar said.

  “OK. um, do it and I’ll keep making the secret worth more until you agree it was worth it,” I said.

  “Young ‘un you’re towin’ the line there,” Brede said with a warning. Then he grinned, “I reckon your godmother’s be proud. Alright I gotta know this secret.”

  “Deal,” Agnar said, “You can’t say that and not tell us now.”

  “The System will let you record things in a journal in your head. Start thinking about writing something down in the System.”

  “Well look at that,” Brede said. “That is neat, and yeah I could see how you could make some money. Just copy books and stuff in there. I’m satisfied, that might be worth more than the blade if I’m honest. Consider us even.”

  “Dammit,” Agnar said.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I’ll give you a lesson on runes if you tell me how you intended to make this more valuable. I don’t even know if you get how useful this might be. We could spend a year in a library, buy some raw materials and open a book store that never ran out of copies. You don’t get it, there’s no copyright in Fae. You just made us rich.”

  “Up until someone else figures it out,” Brede says.

  “What do you say? Deal?” Agnar asks

  “What will Brede give to know this secret?”

  “Hah. You thought she was a monster before Agnar. When we’re done with her she’ll be terrorizin’ the elders in to makin’ toilet paper and tooth brushes. I’ll make both blades into swords, so you’ll have a backup. Will that do Miss Master Autological Mage?”

  I cover up another yawn. “Deal. I have to say this carefully so give me a second.” I think of how I can tell them. I just can’t tell them about the archive so maybe I just tell them what I can do with it? I talk slow in case a headache starts. “I can write or say everything humans have ever written. And I can’t tell you how.”

  Both of their eyebrows went real high.