"You were wrong, by the way." Orison said.

Zeke looked at him in confusion. "About what?"

The young mage said, "They were swept off the boat not but about thirty seconds after we went below. Why do you think I was in such a hurry to get down there?"

Zeke said, "Then I"m the one who"s confused. How was the boat so steady and pointed towards the swell?"

Orison said, "They were old and powerful. One made a "calm the seas and storms" effect, keeping us sitting pretty. The couple pooled their spiritual resources to create a thought form summon called guardian angel. That was what steered the boat. What swept them off of it was whatever the fourth one did... The survivor"s story didn"t include it.

"It might be a little mean spirited but they aren"t exactly nice people just because they do good deeds. Temple knights are righteous but they"re also judgmental. They"re also not above interpreting doctrine to the advantage of their organization. Not to mention, the survivor was one of the first wave to hunt down Ignatius.

"To be fair, it"s not as if the ifrit was some kind of good guy but he hadn"t really done anything outside the gray. He was good to us and that might have been circ.u.mstantial but I don"t weigh things like that. As my retainer and Zora"s husband, he was a friend. My friend that they managed to kill the second try. I don"t hate them enough to hunt them down but they"re no friends of mine."

While they waited, they switched to teaser suit incognito style and switched out James" wet suit for an enchanted incognito armor set that Orison had made for Jimmy but was waiting til now to give. By the time that James came around to the land of the living, a bruised and weakened middle aged man made his way to the module. The young man almost laughed at the despairing face of the man when he saw the people behind the door.

After going through a round of explanation, or intentional avoidance, the older man said, "I don"t mind being the lookout by the beach while you two explore but you should leave the boy here. It"ll be safer for him."

Orison quipped, "That is circ.u.mstantial safety at best but I leave it up to him with one provision. If he decides to stay with you, make him a disciple. He needs supernatural prowess for safety"s sake as well."

The man looked dubiously at the expectant boy and said, "So if he went with you, he"d get inducted?"

Orison nodded. James was confused but looked between the two. Zeke was trying not to snicker at the young mage"s manipulations. Someone would be forced to induct James. The island would be too dangerous in the long run for the kid otherwise. He also wasn"t that emotionally invested and if the man was willing to sacrifice some of his faith pool to induct James, saving Orison resources, he would ecstatically hand over the teenage burden.

Somewhat angrily, the man said, "My choice is to either watch as an innocent gets stained in some heathen color or take him into the bosom of the order with no ecclesiastical training or test of faith?"

Without so much as blinking, Orison said, "Yup."

The man looked at James and said, "The training will be harsh and the discipline harsher. If you do not hold metal and a good heart capable of devotion to righteousness, you will fail and possibly die."

James looked at Orison like he was waiting for a counter offer.

The young mage said, "If you follow me, I"ll give you power but no matter what you"re made of you might still die. Who knows what this island hides. h.e.l.l, we might die... Oh, and Zeke will be in charge of your martial training."

For whatever reason, James ended up choosing them.

Orison thought, "d.a.m.n you, old man. Couldn"t you have hid the condescension in your eyes just a little bit better."

With two days of rain and two of sunlight plus the occasional dowsing of water, James was submitted to the "four days of h.e.l.l" induction method. The one that Orison had devised in the St George hotel. Except instead of a bathtub, the boy was left outside on a tilted plank while Zeke and Orison took turns watching over him. The enchanted equipment, minus the bottoms, kept exposure to the elements from being any real problem and oddly seemed to temper the process quite well.

Despite economic use, that was the end of the inert spirit mushrooms for the time being as well. It would be awhile til there would be more. Not that Orison was intending to induct anymore people anyway.

Out of the pack that Orison had Zeke carry for show, he left the man some provisions. Out of some weird sympathy compulsion he "found" a couple of books and a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle for the man. They were Neil"s impulse buys from a used book store. The time they"d be spending there couldn"t be considered that long but alone, it would be a form of torture.

Even though Orison said they would be back around a month later if they didn"t find anything, it was a blatant lie. It was also a lie that the modular shelter was something that had been in the cabin but since no one had the opportunity to look around in it too much, the man didn"t know any better. There was a small guilty pleasure rush in seeing how uncomfortable the man felt at being left such a beneficial thing not realizing it was brought only to weather the first few days comfortably.

On their first day in the bush, James asked, "I"m gifted now, like the other kids at Granny Georgia"s, right? What can I do?"

Orison said, "It"s hard to tell. It"ll take a little time for your body to spread the essence around, find its grooves. From what I can gather, it follows nature for the most part. Unless you come from a heritage of some kind, it could be anything really. Cross your fingers for a latent awakening like Zeke had.

"Before you ask, it"s rude to poke into other people"s gifts. Also, have other people introduce you from now on. Certain supernaturals and gifted can use a name freely given against you, even a nickname."

James asked, "Why did you have to take my little brother? He could have come with us since Granny Georgia could keep us safe."

Orison said, "Granny Georgia is a good second choice. I feel better knowing if that"s where he"ll be, Neil can help out. Having some responsibility will do the detective a lot of good."

"That doesn"t really tell me why-" James was cut off by a glare from Orison.

Relenting a little, the young mage said, "Your brother has a special kind of gift. It"s useful but not overly good at keeping someone safe. It"s the kind of gift that gets people exploited." He thought to himself, "And I"m not talking about Jammers. Although, there"s plenty to exploit there too. No, it"s that d.a.m.n knowledge of future events and secrets. I still have no idea what his personal gift is, either."

Once they were a reasonable distance from the beach, Orison directed Zeke to piggy back ride James and they took off with serious intent to cover ground. There was little of interest or note in the outer circle of the island. More importantly, the faster they put distance between themselves and the man at the foliage line, the more time they had to be cautious later. After all, the man could change his mind at any time and start following or making his own way in.

Orison darted through the trees and scouted while Zeke adjusted path according to the young mage"s direction. James marveled vocally at them both for the first hour and then was silent for the second. By the third hour he started complaining about being sore and Zeke looked like he could use a breather.

When James tearfully peeled his pants off after Orison notice how much pain he seemed to be in, the young mage winced at the bruises and blistered chafing. Unwilling to waste time on the medicine he had to take care of things or time and material intensive ritual work healing, the young mage took out a crystal tincture bottle from the capsule supplies and placed a drop under the boys tongue. Within the short time it took to eat a large handful of walnuts and jerky, James was pulling his pants back on with a smile of relief after they were cleaned of blister seepage and a little watery blood.

Orison said, "I didn"t think that through enough. We"ll take a break every hour and I"ll give you an ointment you can put on at each break to keep that from happening again."

James said, "To tell the truth, it didn"t hurt that bad until the air hit it. The big sunburn blisters I got last year hurt more."

Zeke said, "It"s the next morning that hurts the worst."

Orison said, "Not an issue. If we"re ready?"

After that, James and Zeke got one hour breaks and on the third, Orison rubbed some of the ointment on Zeke"s sides and lower back. Since the ex-soldier was practically being used as a mount, when he asked for a short lower back ma.s.sage, Orison relented with a grimace but he quickly had a change of heart after feeling the knots and inflammation in Zeke"s muscles. He was pushing them too hard and they were letting him do it because they expected him to know what was best.

"Enough speed run. We"re walking manual for the next bit until camp," Orison said.

Zeke looked at him in concern and said, "As much as we were killing it today, can we afford the time?"

The young mage replied, "I know I made it seem like a do or die but the truth is, best time possible isn"t the top priority. I just want to make sure that we have room for error. I pushed you two hard today but tomorrow will be half that and as long as we don"t have too much of a problem, we should reach our first checkpoint before the end of the day."

Guiltily, James said. "It"s my fault isn"t it? Should I have stayed with the old man?"

Orison sighed, "How could any of this be your fault? No, the real problem is, when at rest, we"ll slowly be slid back towards the beach. We"re on a giant, slow moving treadmill."

Zeke said, "Then shouldn"t we be moving through the night? We can rest after we get where we"re going."

The young mage shook his head. "On the outer ring, the biggest danger is moving around at night. Most of the issues are terrain related but there are nocturnal predators too. Mostly poisonous spiders and snakes looking to catch prey unaware. We"ll be fine in the pop tent but no night bathroom breaks... I"ll leave an empty bottle for emergencies, James."

At one point, he whispered to Zeke while James was distracted, "I didn"t tell you yet but our suits can process liquid waste. I wouldn"t suggest the other. It"s meant to process that too but it"s unpleasant feeling and takes time."

"Is that why you wear that flappy shirt thing all the time? So no one can notice when you sh*t your pants?" Zeke said with an evil leer that was probably only an amused smile... probably.

Orison was glad Zeke had reached a point where he felt close enough to tease but was still annoyed by the comment. "I wear the over robe because I like the flappy thing it does. I only sh*t my pants once so I know how the operation works. I don"t suggest it. Long term wear, like over four days, isn"t recommended either. There"s an upgrade for that but we"ll probably never have a chance to buy it."

Later that night, in the pop-up tent after James fell asleep, Zeke said, "Since we"re going to be reaching your first checkpoint tomorrow, mind telling me what this whole trip"s about?"

The young mage had been rather skimpy on the details. Considering how things had turned out with Neil and Jimmy, that had been a good thing in his mind. There was little harm in coming clean to Zeke as far as Orison could see at that point.

He said, "I have a legacy. I"m already a climber but you, Jimmy and Neil aren"t. You have the potential for it now but they don"t. This place has four legacies made by a group of climbers who had planned on turning this into a training world for their organization.

"Due to unknown circ.u.mstances, they abandoned the project and sealed away this place. With this reality in its death throws, this place developed a crack in its seal. By the mid seventies, this place"s seal unraveled enough to dump itself partially into the real world... That dude down there had already reported the place to his society and they had already successfully took control of the area.

"Ignatius brought their wrath down on him when he was looking for alternative places to claim. The rest is just dark history that won"t repeat so it"s pointless to share. The rest will be fairly self explanatory when we get where we"re going."

Zeke said, "One last thing. You told me about keys but what"s the difference between a legacy and a key?"

Orison said, "A legacy good enough to support climbing is called a knowledge or wisdom key. A knowledge or wisdom key structured enough to be taught to another is a legacy. Not all legacies are "real" enough to be a key. Not all knowledge or wisdom keys are structured enough to be shared and therefore, not a legacy."

The next day was much the same as the first but with less soreness and pain spread around. Once the first landmark was found, it became easy sailing. There was an issue with mire and quicksand at one point but quicksand wasn"t a real threat unless someone panicked and a mire wasn"t that dangerous when there weren"t threats capable of getting into or through equipment.

Once they found where the underground entrance should be, it took the remaining third of the day to get inside. James was worn out but Orison pushed on ahead. There WERE dangers in the tunnels but not unavoidable ones. One of which required the entrants to complete the journey without stopping.

What confused Zeke and James was that Orison seemed intent on getting them as worn out as possible. He explained when confronted that it was useful for the next part. Hearing that, Zeke light weight tortured James with silly looking exercised that ensured every muscle group safe to stress, at this point in the boy"s development, had some fatigue. Eventually they reached an alcove with shimmering light that looked like a reflection off a pool just around a bend inside.

Giving some last minute instructions, Orison said, "You go first, James. When you come out, we might still be in. Just hang tight and keep yourself occupied. The ring I gave you has some goodies in it to help."

James looked at the overly large ruby ring with strange writing all over it and back at the two of them one last time before. As he walked around the bend past the alcove, there was a flash and then darkness lit only by tufts of bioluminescent moss.

"The light will return, here in a couple of minutes. I"ll go next. Just wait a couple more and then go in," Orison told Zeke.

The ex-soldier agreed and soon enough it was Orison"s turn. Walking around the bend, he was blinded by a flash before seeing five separate pictures of people in front of him. Thinking that there was only supposed to be four and the fifth not being something that the survivor mentioned, it meant the man hadn"t seen it or that it was the important one and he had hid it. Not having a whole lot to lose since the inheritances weren"t some overly fantastic thing anyway, Orison chose the young bald headed scholar.

Come to find out, it wasn"t a legacy but a free training for someone who already had one. The scholar was a man who collected all kinds of bits and pieces of knowledge from all over but never really felt like he had made a legacy worth handing down. Instead of doing what his companions did, he took advantage of the magic device that sped up perception to create a training room filled with his eclectic knowledge. This allowed someone to study it for as long as their minds could handle compressed time perception.

Not wanting to stress Zeke and James out, Orison figured he could cram a couple years worth before he"d start going stir crazy and that wouldn"t hold them up for more than a month, maybe two at max. That was a lot of time to be puttering around in the room they"d find themselves in afterwards but hopefully Zeke would use the opportunity to train up James some so that the boy would have a little more stamina at the very least.

Out of picante, the young mage thought about the strange ring that had been reduced to a ring of holding after Orison disabled its less pleasant features. The books were in his s.p.a.ce and he had no way to translate them. After a couple of weeks, he hadn"t found any information on a direct translation but he did find some clues on how to break its "code" by comparing it to similar languages in the library.

Months flew by but there was progress everyday. The biggest help was that there was the impression of a scholar in the mental illusion that carried the personality of its owner, along with the memories. That man was a constant goad and a source of inspiration when Orison hit dead ends. It would still take time to properly translate and there were chances for mistakes but all in all, Orison only wanted it for the theory anyway. He had enough knowledge from other sources to use as fact check and stress test on newly presented information to some degree and could always shelve dubious or unclear content when there was more reference from other sources.

Feeling like he"d reached a decent stopping point and thoroughly sick of staring at the script, Orison turned to flip through knowledge relating to the concepts he had. The scholar didn"t have much on summoning but did have some other knowledge under a blanket term "conjuration" which included material from healing and restoration to spatial magic. The young mage felt like he only got a taste of what the scholar had to offer when he was interrupted a month in.

Shunted from the dream stasis violently, Orison groggily looked around to see that a portion of the glowing pool he was no longer floating in, had a huge crack in it. To one side, a five foot tall skeleton was pierced through with pulsing, corruption filled roots. On the other sat a metal ball that had been wrapped up in roots as well before they had been charred by the light coming from a glowing sword.

From the old man"s vantage point, Orison wasn"t able to be seen and he wanted to get the orb that looked a great deal like Gan"s conduit when it was out but not in use. s.n.a.t.c.hing it up, he placed it into his s.p.a.ce before reactivating his teaser suit and coming out. The old man looked at him with real pity. It suddenly pierced through the fog of his slowly reawakening consciousness what he was seeing all over.

"They"re gone son. And we need to be going too. There are unholy things stalking this island now," the old man said firmly but kindly.

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