Restart Again: Volume 3

by Adam Ladner Scott

  She giggled. “We’ll have to finally make that sparring ring you wanted.”

  “You know, that wouldn’t be a bad way to kill two birds with one stone: You could get some good strength training done by clearing all those trees up north, and it would be a great opportunity to teach Marin how to use Shatter,” I suggested.

  “That’s exactly what we’ll do,” she said, clapping her hands together.

  “And, while you two work on that, I can finally build my forge,” I added as a grin spread across my face. Lia giggled again, and I looked down to find her smirking at me. “What? What’s so funny?”

  “You really want that forge, don’t you?”

  “Well...yeah!” I answered, feeling defensive. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with that!” she laughed, patting me on the back. “You don’t get this excited about most things, is all. It’s cute.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh and hung my head. “I’m not trying to be cute. It’s just...I’m good at being a blacksmith, and I haven’t had a chance to work at it for a long time. All I’ve been doing for so long is fighting. I’m good at that, too, but I don’t want to be good at just that. I can do more than just fight.” I paused for a moment, surprised by the honesty of my statement. “Besides, Layne got me all excited about working on some projects with him. I want to start some of those, even if he can’t be there with me.”

  “I get it,” she said quietly. “What were you two planning on making?”

  My free hand shifted up to rest on the pommel of my sword, and my thumb circled slowly around the band at its base. “Nothing in particular,” I lied. “I wanted to make a sword for him, seeing as he said he never had one. I’m sure he wanted my help on some of his projects, too.” I took a deep breath and sighed out through my nose. “I think I’ll still make that sword for him.”

  Our house came into view ahead of us, and the thought of our awaiting bed pulled a yawn out of both of us. “I think that’s a great idea,” Lia said, wiping her eyes. “An idea for tomorrow, though. All that talking about being tired made me pretty tired.”

  I yawned again. “That’s for sure. We’ve got some busy days ahead of us, too.”

  Lia smiled as we entered the house and made our way to the bedroom. “I can’t wait.”

  ***

  15. PEACE, AT LAST

  I wiped the sweat from my brow and stepped back to admire my work. It had been an extremely productive start to the day; Elise had been more than true to her word, having the supplies delivered to the Corells’ house before Lia and I had woken up, which gave me ample time to ferry the materials back to our house while the morning sun was still low in the sky. Having already prepared the building site weeks prior, I was able to get right to work laying the foundation of my furnace.

  Between my years of maintenance on Ashedown’s forge and my new magic abilities, I was able to finish the basin and air ducts of the furnace all before noon. The beginnings of a chimney were formed at the back of the structure, but the act of stacking the bricks would take an additional few hours, regardless of my enhanced speed. I grinned as I imagined showing my work to Amaya’s father; he would no doubt critique my use of magic “shortcuts” in the base work and grumble about a lack of respect for the process, while Amaya would reassure me he was more than impressed. Although we were separated by more than a century’s worth of memories, I could hear them perfectly in my head.

  We’re coming back for lunch, Lia’s voice chimed between my ears, adding to the voices from my memories. Be forewarned; Marin is VERY cranky today.

  Perfect timing, I chuckled in return. I’ll start getting things ready. I left my brick-stacking behind me as I made my way into the house and retrieved our sparse lunch supplies. While I sliced our last loaf of bread up for sandwiches, my mind wandered out through the forest along my extended mana, passing Marin and Lia on their return trip.

  The site of our future training arena sat a half dozen miles to the north, beyond the marked boundaries of any logging companies or parceled land. What was once a flat, densely packed corner of forest was now a sprawling field, littered with uprooted stumps, weeds, and broken branches. The center of the space was dominated by a massive pile of neatly trimmed logs, stacked six high and over a dozen across. After marking a few logs in my mind for use in my upcoming afternoon of work, I returned my attention to the task at hand, plating up the fresh greens and cured bihorn meat Hana had sent along with Marin earlier in the day.

  I heard my companions coming long before they entered the house. “Lux!” Marin shouted as they entered the clearing. “Lux, where are you?”

  “Inside, Marin,” I called out in answer.

  She appeared through the door a moment later with her nose wrinkled and her mouth set in a frown. “Lux, I thought I was supposed to be training today!” she yelled, immediately flopping onto the couch in our living room.

  I raised an eyebrow in her direction. “You...weren’t training?” I asked, suspicious. “What were you doing, then?”

  “Moving trees!” she complained. “That’s all I’ve done all morning! Lia just knocked them down and then expected me to move them without any help. Moving trees is not a one-person job, Lux! Just look at my hands!” Her hands shot up into the air, suddenly appearing above the arm of the couch. The lighter skin of her palms was covered in a smattering of splinters, cuts and blisters, and she flexed her hands pitifully as I approached to examine them.

  “Looks like you need to get a pair of gloves,” I laughed.

  “Gloves aren’t the issue!” she shot back. “It’s the moving logs by myself that’s the issue!”

  “Were they too heavy for you?”

  She sat up and whirled on me, snorting in disgust. “Of course not.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “That’s what I wanted to know,” Lia chimed in as she entered the house.

  “The problem is that I want to do more training, not haul stuff around!” she moaned. “I could’ve just stayed with Marten if I knew that’s what we’d be doing.”

  “Marin, this is training. You’ve done plenty of combat training, but you still need to build up your strength,” Lia explained.

  “I do not!” Marin countered, flexing both of her arms to show off her sculpted biceps. “And besides, why do I need to do strength training when I have the gauntlets? Those are plenty strong on their own.”

  Lia shook her head. “You can’t just rely on tricks and magic gloves to keep you safe,” she chided. “What happens if you don’t have your special gauntlets, hmm?”

  I turned away to hide my snickering and retreated to the kitchen to retrieve our lunch. “Alright, you two,” I said as I returned, offering a plate to each of them. “It’s time to eat. Marin, you should listen to Lia: she knows what she’s doing. Besides, with the level of combat training we’ll be starting on soon, we’re going to need that space cleared for our arena. It won’t be safe to train at the house anymore.”

  Marin’s ears perked up. “Well, you could’ve just said that earlier!”

  “I did say that earlier,” Lia replied, narrowing her eyes.

  “Hey, now,” I said more sternly, holding up my lunch with emphasis. “Sandwiches now, arguing later.” With a final pair of grumbles and shifty looks, Marin and Lia moved to the dining room, and we started in on our light lunch.

  “Lux?” Marin asked between bites. “Why aren’t you helping us build the arena? I know it’s supposed to be my ‘training’ and all, but if we’re all going to use it, wouldn’t it be faster if you helped, too?”

  “It’d be faster, sure, but then I wouldn’t be able to finish my forge,” I answered. “Judging by my progress so far, I’ll probably wrap up sometime tomorrow morning, and then I’ll be able to help you two put the finishing touches on your project.”

  “But why do you even need a forge in the first place?”

  “I don’t need one, per se, but it’ll certainly be han
dy. I’ll be able to make any metal tools or fixtures we need around the house, and more importantly, I’ll be able to maintain our weapons and armor by myself.” I stared wistfully through her head in the direction of my passion project. “Also, I just really want it. I haven’t been able to work at a forge since I was in Alderea, and I miss it.”

  Marin stopped chewing mid-bite and looked me over with a raised eyebrow. “Where’s Alderea? I’ve never heard of it before.”

  I nearly choked as I swallowed a mouthful of my lunch. That can’t be right. I’ve told her about that. My eyes scanned over to Lia, who sat quietly with an amused grin. I told her about all of that, right?

  Her reply came with a devious laugh in the back of my head. Nope.

  No, it definitely came up! I scanned back through my memories of the past month of training, searching for the conversation I knew was there. There’s no way it didn’t come up.

  I promise you, it didn’t.

  Marin waved her hand in front of my face. “Hello?” she asked expectantly. “Lux? Hello? You in there?”

  “Sorry, Marin,” I answered, shaking my head. “Alderea isn’t a place you would know. It isn’t exactly...here. In this world.”

  “In this world? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “So…” I trailed off, rubbing my temples. “I’m not from Doram like I said before. I actually wasn’t born in this world at all; I showed up outside the gates at Yoria a few months ago. I can’t really explain how, or why, because I don’t know myself, but that’s the truth. I just sort of…” I paused and snapped my fingers for emphasis. “Appear. This is the fourth world I’ve lived in.”

  Marin set down the remains of her sandwich and slowly looked between me and Lia for a few moments, then threw back her head and laughed. “Alright, fine!” she said, waving me off. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  “What?” I asked, shaking my head. “That’s the truth, Marin! I swear.” I looked at Lia and motioned helplessly with my hands. “Tell her!”

  “It’s true, Marin,” Lia agreed. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. You can ask my parents; they know, too.”

  “Oh, suuure,” Marin replied, oozing sarcasm. She stood and poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher in the kitchen, then returned to the table and laughed again. “He just appears,” she chuckled under her breath, snapping her fingers. “Okay. Sure.”

  I sighed and leaned back in my chair, teetering it unsteadily on two legs. “You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to, I guess. But it doesn’t change the fact that you still have a lot of trees to move—by yourself.” She rolled her eyes in my direction and aggressively finished the last bite of her lunch. “Unless, of course, you don’t think you have the strength to manage it. I guess I could put the forge on hold if you asked me nicely for—”

  “Don’t you even start with that!” she snapped, wagging a finger in my face. “I’ll move more logs than you would have anyway, and it won’t even be hard.” Without waiting for a response, she spun and walked away into the living room, pausing at the far door. “C’mon, Lia! We’ve got some ‘training’ to do!” Clearly satisfied with herself, she walked out onto the deck and disappeared.

  “I’m sure she probably believes you, at least a little bit,” Lia reassured me as she stood to follow her rambunctious student. “You’re pretty hard to explain otherwise.”

  “Honestly, I should’ve expected that. Out of all of the possible responses to my story, hers is probably the most normal.” I stood alongside Lia and put a hand on her shoulder. “You and your parents are the weird ones here, being so accepting and all.”

  “Guess you’re glad you met me then, huh?” she asked, grinning up at me.

  I planted a kiss on her forehead. “I am, indeed.” I motioned to the door with a tip of my head. “You better get going before she decides to knock the whole forest down herself.”

  Lia giggled and gave me a small nod, then dashed off through the living room, leaving me alone to clean up our dishes. I smiled after her, watching her progress through my Detection as she sprinted through the forest to catch up with Marin. The grin stayed on my face as I stacked up our plates and stashed away the remainder of our bread and meat. Everything I have now is because I met her, I thought to myself. I would have burned away into the void by now if I were by myself. Although my sword was stashed away with my armor, my hand moved to where it would sit on my hip through instinct, and I could feel the gold-banded pommel beneath my fingers. It’s time.

  The remaining work on our construction projects progressed without interruption. My estimate for the completion of my forge proved to be spot-on; after a particularly efficient afternoon of bricklaying on the chimney, it only took a few hours the following day to construct the open-air stall around the furnace using the logs from our new supply. I built a workbench with the emberwood scraps, complete with a pegboard with multiple empty spaces for tools that I had yet to buy or craft. Marin and Lia returned soon after for lunch, and when we had finished, I joined them at the build site in the northern forest.

  Even though I had seen the clearing grow throughout the work process via Detection, it was still an impressive sight to behold with my own eyes. What had once been a small grove surrounded by densely packed trees was now a massive field of upturned dirt with a towering stack of logs at one edge. Judging by the average height of the emberwood trees around the clearing’s edge, the space was at least a hundred yards across and nearly twice as long. While it was more than large enough to suit our needs, the ground was loose and uneven from the copious root systems that had been recently removed, which left it unsuited for any intense physical activity.

  “Are you sure you don’t want any help?” Lia asked me as I took a meditative stance at the edge of the clearing. “You don’t have to do the entire thing in one go by yourself.”

  “Thanks, Lia, but I’m fine. I can handle it.” In truth, I had my doubts about the task set before me; while the concept of leveling a foundation had been successfully proven when we built our house, the field was multiple orders of magnitude larger than anything I had attempted to suffuse with mana before. However, as Lia had said, there was no particular reason the entire arena had to be leveled at once apart from my own stubborn ambitions, and the lack of consequences for failing the task helped to bolster my confidence.

  After a few minutes of quiet meditation, I reached out with a gentle wave of energy to cover the surface of the clearing before me. Once my mental mapping was complete, I pulled the energy back a half-dozen yards from the treeline into a stadium shape, then began to suffuse the dirt below it. Mana crashed out from my core like a burst dam to fill every cubic inch of space before me, and I felt a significant flagging of my energy reserves for the first time since our incident at the Mountain Gate. I continued to push the mana deeper into the earth, increasing my Combat Acceleration enhancement in tandem with the immense amount of information flowing into my brain.

  I felt my lungs straining as I fought to maintain my concentration on the vast sea of mana before me. My advancing wall of energy halted when it reached nearly ten feet down; our initial plans, drawn up in my sketchbook back on our living room table, had called for twelve feet, but the immense pressure I felt in my head told me that I would pass out from exertion long before I reached the mark. Too focused to find the Shatter rune on my ring, I spoke the command with a final gasp.

  My mind immediately went black as the mana activated and disappeared, and I blinked in and out of consciousness multiple times in quick succession. I felt a powerful tremor beneath my legs, followed by the thud of my head connecting with the ground as I fell backwards. There was a heavy taste of dirt and iron in my mouth as I cracked open my eyes, only to close and shade them with my hand a moment later as the afternoon light set off a splitting headache behind my eyes.

  A soft hand brushed along my jawline, and I felt Lia’s comforting presence beside me. “You know, that would�
�ve been easier if you had let me help.”

  “No, don’t worry, I’m fine,” I coughed, curling into a ball beside her. “Thanks for asking.” I sent an emergency wave of energy rushing out from my core, attempting to dampen the symptoms of the mana withdrawals that continued to grow throughout my body.

  “I would be worried if we hadn’t both known this was going to happen,” she quipped, poking me gently in the temple. The playful gesture sent a spiral of pain through my head, and I weakly rolled away from the attack. “You’ll have to deal with your mana hangover on your own while Marin and I roll out the arena.”

  “Mana withdrawals,” I corrected her.

  She laughed. “Seems more like a hangover to me.” I felt her kiss me on the forehead and brush a stray strand of hair from my face. “Get some rest. Marin and I can handle the next part, but we’ll need you for—”

  “Lux!” Marin’s excited shout rang out across the clearing, followed by the approaching thump of heavy feet. “That was incredible, Lux! The whole field just—”

  “Marin, please,” I interrupted, waving in the direction of her voice, “my...head. I’ma jus...Is a bit…” I paused as my speech began to slur, and I added a second burst of mana to my recuperation efforts. “I need to rest for a bit. Lia knows what to do next.”

  “Oh!” she squeaked, skidding to a halt a few feet away. “Sorry, Lux!” she whispered, still far too loud for my comfort. Lia led her away from my resting place in the dirt, leaving me in blissful silence. A minute later, I heard two heavy thumps from the pit in front of me, and while I didn’t dare open my eyes to confirm it, I knew from our planning that the process of packing down the arena floor had begun.

  I half-meditated, half-dozed at the side of the pit for the following few hours as Lia and Marin steamrolled the arena floor with the largest of their downed emberwood trees. As I slowly fought past the aches and nausea of my mana withdrawals, I was able to spare a minute amount of energy to watch their progress through Detection. After the dirt had settled and been packed down by a few initial passes by the log rollers, the arena floor sat six feet below ground level, surrounded by a sheer wall of dirt and stone. While our original plans had estimated a near eight-foot perimeter wall, I was still pleased with the results: the sunken battlefield would help dampen the noise of our training as well as catch any errant spells or attacks that would otherwise endanger the surrounding forest.