Over the next two ‘weeks’ Cupe would not let us out of her sight, insisting that we remained close enough to keep an eye on at all times. I'm not sure what she had said at first when we returned to the village square, but later, when my hearing returned, she was very eloquent in both her scolding and praise in equal measure. It was a bit frustrating for me, as I had very little magicicle gas left around my core and wanted to charge up a soon as possible, but I understood why she was so insistent.  

It was also the reason that we were all together when we found our fourth, very brief, resident. 

We were walking through the residential section of the village when Sooty caught sight of a golden glow from one of the houses. We entered to find a young man in a praying pose mid de-rezz. I zapped the small whirlpool that formed, but left the de-rezz sun and silver glitter alone. Cupe cried as Sooty said a benediction as the sun faded and the pale bead flew off.  I collected his small crystalline marble, promising Cupe that I would keep it separate. That night I placed it in the now useful China cabinet in my sitting room. 

I had also gotten to watch as Cupe continued to make things for us from straw and the rubble from the building. She had shaped a huge wooden sword out of one of the posts left after the cafe's destruction. I thought that it was of a ridiculous size, but Sooty seemed extremely pleased and thanked Cupe with a formal bow. It was then I learned that we could blush in this form.  

She was also able to fashion some crude tools, like a shovel and hammer as well as straw hats and baskets. Cupe's eyes lit up we she said that she had some ideas on producing a cloth from some of the plants in the field. When I asked her at night why she was, or at least how she knew how to build all of these things, she was quiet for a bit. She later told us that she had learned while helping her husband, who had been a jack-of-all-trades handyman. I chickened out and didn't ask about her children. 

During those weeks I had made a few interesting discoveries. In the threshing yard the twelve crystalline magicicle points I had collapsed to provide anchors for my ground leaders, had become fulgurites. It seems like they were a mix of crystalized magicicles and glassed ground that reached down towards the reservoir. I had dug one up and spent a day examining then breaking it open. It was a rather pretty deep purple obsidian black on the inside, which earned it a place in the China cabinet. But its real worth was the discovery that it was a chaotic mess of chained together crystalized magicicle points, which I surmised could be used as a conductor point in the future. Looking closer many of the magicicle crystalline points had crystal structures that I had not seen before. Patterns that I might be able to replicate, forming new crystalline structures with new properties. The fulgurite also suggested a method that I might create a magicicle conductor in the future. 

The next discovery was with the crystalline magicicle straw, which had also been embedded in a much larger and deeper reaching fulgurite. For now, I left it in place intending on experimenting with it later. The straw condensed the free flowing magicicles as they passed through it. I had originally hoped that it would  change the “type” or “state” of the magicicle, maybe even  pressurize the magicless into a liquid state. But it had a much different effect than I had first thought. Instead of liquefying or changing the gaseous magicicles, they instead all became coherent. I had previously surmised that not only could a magicicles carry different levels of charge, something I had already proved, but that they also came in different types, had a spin, or frequency, similar to how atomic and sub atomic particles had. In this case  the straw tuned them all to the same spin. I had all sorts of experiments now to try. Did the size or length of the crystalline straw change the spin? How did the coherent stream of magicicles change the power level of my lightening? Was this spin on a ground based magicicle carding a heavier charge, or it was just more efficient when I twisted it into lightening? 

The last was finding the soul marble from the monster.  The multi-hued fog had taken several days to shrink and finally disappear, and when I had searched the irregularly shaped empty patch left by the voracious black whirl pool there was no soul marble in sight. It is probably lucky for my piece of mind that I had not crossed paths with any squirrels during the following week, I probably would have seriously lost my cool. Later, while digging for a fulgurite I thought might have formed  from the last yellow hued bolt, I uncovered a tennis ball sized, silver frost coated soul marble. 

Both Sooty and Cupe had later commented that I was giggled madly when I had dug it up with the shovel Cupe had made. Since I never did find a fulgurite, I guessed that it was never created, or had been amalgamated into the marble. 

Since all of the new experiments required power, I told both Cupe, and Sooty that I needed to cross the bridge and visit the phantom forest. It took a day to convince them that I was perfectly safe by my-self, and that it was a better idea for them to remain in the village. Somehow, I managed to avoid telling them exactly why I needed to go. 

“Wizards have their secrets”- Me 

I smiled as I walked up the gravelled road towards ridge. I stopped for a second as something occurred to me. 

- I'm really quite busy even though I'm dead. 

I shook my head, and continued walking along the right stone wall. I stopped at each intersection, sneaking up to it and scanning it before I crossed. 

At the last intersection as I peered around the corner of the stone wall, I spotted two goblins beating on a smaller creature. Another two goblins were laying on the ground in de-rezz.  

- Now this is the type of fight I like, where I get to sneak up and clobber the enemy before he even knows I'm there. 

I crept around the corner and lined up my stone headed club with the first goblin. Sooty had said it was all that I was qualified to ever use in a melee.  

The stone head of the club hammered against the first goblin's temple, sending it boneless to the ground. My return up swing caught the second goblin in its chest, lifting it into a V shape, landing face first on the ground. I didn't stop there, spinning the club and slamming the goblin’s victim that remained twitching on the ground. The razor rabbit stopped its convulsions and started to de-rezz. 

I looked around as I struggled to lift the club back into a guard position.  Only one goblin was still moving, now curled up clutching its chest. It tried to luge out as I swung the club down again. 

"Scummy Goblin shits”- Me 

I left all of them de-rezzing and continued towards the ridge not bothering to wait for the cycle to finish. 

- I'll pick the marbles up later if their still around 

When I made it to the ridge, I searched for a slightly secluded spot that I could at least partial hide in, and still had phantom grass or a pointy phantom bush. I ended up climbing further up the ridge than I had before, but I did find a good hide. 

- My Grain mill idea better work out cause this just plain sucks. 

I slammed my hand down on to a thorn from a phantom bush, and started drilling holes in to it with my crystalline needle. 

With a new crystalline pattern that I had learned from the fulgurites, I had enlarged the needle and added runnels on the outside, it now looked more like a very fine drill bit. I had also increased the spin speed by a lot. The only drawback was like all structures, it created its own ring system of free magicicles around it similar to my crystalline core. The ring tended to add turbulence to the magicicle flow, which required a bit more concentration to smooth out when I cast my lightening. 

The new runnels on the side allowed me to adjust how fast the flow of magicicle gas entered, and stopped the crystalized scaring from closing the hole before I was done. The control on the speed of the flow was particularly important this time as the pressure of the magicicles gas was significantly higher in the thorn bush than the previous grass stalks. It was a very short time before I started to feel like a balloon again as I backed the drill bit out allowing the crystalline scaring to close over the hole. 

I pulled my hand off the thorn, rubbing the spot till it closed over. 

-I wonder if this will ever get to feel less like masochistic fetish? 

 A sharp spoke of pain caused me to look down at my foot, a small black and silver snake with two tails had sunk its fangs into my ankle.   

 "Why you sneaky little bastard"- Me 

I reached down to grab it. It let go with its fangs and quickly slithered out of reach, then turned and raised its tails and wiggled them at me.  

- Little prick is try to cast magic at me! 

I snapped a blue bolt from the small unprocessed marble I held in my left hand, my usual marble still blackened, sat on my desk at home. The snake twisted out of the way before I had completed the cast, leaving blue arc to miss and char the ground where it had been. The small snake zipped to a new spot then started shaking its twin tales at me again. I snapped off another blue bolt, and the snake dodged again. 

- If I didn't know better, I'd think that tail shake was the little bastard flipping me off 

I set a leader on to it, but didn't actually fire this time. The little snake zipped off again. 

- So, you can sense magic, at least when it's touching you. 

The snake continued to shake its tails in a rhythmic pattern that would repeat every six seconds or so. 

- Bet your poisonous too, but you're a really bad match up for the afterlife. No poison, no magic, all you got left is your magic sense and your damn speed. 

I locked a leader on to a stalk of grass next to it, and paused before I fired. The snake seemed uncertain when the leader was close, but reacted the moment electricity discharged along the leader. 

- The stronger the power the farther away you can sense it. I think I remember that it's snakes that are electrically sensitive as well. 

I snapped off a few more bolts close to it, trying to get a feel for how sensitive it really was. 

- Ok enough you little silver streak, try this 

I dropped a leader of the ground and pushed it under its position. Another one I sent over its head, then I fired a really low voltage, high amperage bolt. The little snake started to dodge, but was too late. A cascade of small arcs played between the two leaders, dancing all over the area it was in, several catching the snake as it moved. 

I walked over to the stunned snake and brought my club down. 

I think I over did it while zapping its de-rezz. The sun faded almost instantly, the black miasma gas barely had time to turn I to sludge, and only a little grey dust fell before the pale bead flew off into the phantom forest. 

I waited while the large silver frosted marble formed, keeping my senses open for anything that might be attracted by the noise of the fight. This time I was lucky as the only thing that came by was an ooze. 

I gleefully picked up the snake's soul marble and headed back down the ridge. 

 

...  

As I came down the gravel road, I could make out something moving by the gate. As I got closer, I could make out Sooty wielding his massive wooden sword sending small shapes flying with each swing. I wasn't too worried as I moved faster, but still cautiously, down the gravel road. 

- Looks like a whole crowd of goblins attacked the gate, and sooty decided to try out his new sword for real. 

I was wondering how much fun Sooty was having when a small ball of red fire flew at me from the field on my right. I dropped to the ground as the flame ball lobbed over me and splashed on the stone wall to my left. I watched as the flames spread out in quarter meter radius and flashed out of existence.  

My head spun back to the right as I heard a distinctive hiss. A short lizard was vaulting over the stone wall from the field. 

- These guys again? 

I shot a blue bolt that caused the lizard to flip as its tail spasmed. I pushed my legs under me as a second and third lizard jumped over the wall. Two more shots sent them stunned to the ground. I sank a leader into the ground as I got up and sent out a dozen leaders blindly into the field, violet-tinged electric bolts cracked out, hitting at least one lizard from the hissing screech that returned.  

I ran to the wall to get better cover. While I sank another leader into the road, I scanned the field over the top of the wall. The last lizard on the road that wasn't in de-rezz had been hit with my club in passing. 

Shadows flitted back and forth in the concealing grain stalks. 

- The mage is probably using his minions as bait to distract me like the last one succeeded in doing. 

I sent a few blue arcs of electricity into the field at the shadows, but saved the ground leader for the mage. Even though they were just bait, it was very satisfying to hear the hissing screech whenever I hit one cannon fodder. 

- Ok now that I have convinced you that I've taken you bait, where are you going to appear?  

I continued to waste brilliant blue electric bolts into the field. 

- You're taking your sweet time sneaking up on me. 

I kept peeking behind me as I bobbed up and down behind the wall. Finally, I caught the lizard mage popping up behind the scotch mark left by his first flame ball.  

I whipped around casting a leader at the mage as he was raising a new flame ball in his claws. My ground leader fuelled violet-coloured bolt snapped out connecting the lizard mage to the marble in my hand. He fell behind the stone wall, followed by his flame ball. The flash of flame that rose up just seemed to add an insult to the lizard's fate.  

I looked back over the low stone wall to check on the remaining bait. 

-Yep, they were set to charge when the mage got me. 

I stood up and rapid fired into the field. Only one of the six remaining lizards made it close to the wall. 

Throwing caution to the wind, I raced down the gravel road towards the bridge where Sooty was fighting.  

 

I could see a smouldering black mark on the gate and a ring of lizard men threatening him from outside of his reach. Behind them were three lizard mages mumbling away, while another one tossed a flame ball.  

Sooty slashed the flame ball which sent a shower of flames exploding out like a firework, and during that moment several of the lizards ran towards him from the sides. The massive smoking sword flicked to one side sending one of the lizards flying, broken, into the river below. But that meant that one from his other side managed to get a bite in on his leg, it was sent flying as Sooty kicked out, but you could see the wound the lizard's teeth left behind. It has become a war of attrition, whether Sooty fell first or the lizards ran out of combatants. 

As I ran, I started figuring out the order of which lizard mage I would hit first when one of them flipped, its face a crushed mess. I was surprised to see Cupe on the guard tower reloading a sling. 

- Damn she’s good, but we really can't have the crafter out shine the wizard, right? 

An evil smile spread on my face as I grabbed a second small marble from my pocket and raised both my hands towards the lizard mages.  

The bridge was soon illuminated by a multitude of small suns. 

... 

The three of us were sitting in the restaurant\inn. Cupe was working on top of an old and extremely solid looking table that we had found in one of the workshops by the Grain Mill. She was industriously taking apart one of the threshing combs. 

Sooty sat on an old bench that been originally against the wall in this room. He was slowly grinding away at the black sooty bits on his wooden sword.  

I was sitting on a large cushioned chair that came from the second floor of the office building. Sooty had said that building is where they worked on all the records for the Lord's territory. The village apparently was fairly central, whereas the official seat of the Lord was in a hilly region to the north. The main major was highly defensible, but not conducive to easy travel, so the Lord spent several months of the year in residence in the manor here in the village.  

I was processing marbles from the lizards, which apparently were called Skints. 

I frowned as I looked at the marble in my hand. It was now clear, but had several lines of grey running through it showing where I had lost control of the magicicle flow through the marble while I was processing it. Something that I hadn't failed at since I first started processing marbles. 

I threw it in to the basket with the four others that I had previously failed at. The larger basket with the dozens of properly clear marbles failed to improve my mood. The problem was the chaotic state of the magicicle gas in side of me, it was interfering with my fine control. 

- It's like trying to write with a pen tied to the leach of an over excited puppy. 

I had spent very little time over the last few weeks doing anything in my inner system after the battle with the monster. Since then, I had ended up in a large fight again right after recharging, so now the magicicle gas clouds looked more like a boiling pot. 

I looked up at Cupe and Sooty. 

"I'm going to have to spend some time alone." - Me 

 I put up my hand to interrupt Cupe's protest. 

"No, I'm not going back to the phantom forest, I'll be safe in my room. But I'm not sure how long it will take. Time has a way of getting past me sometimes." - Me 

Sooty snorted. 

 "Sometimes? I don't think I have ever seen anyone stare at a rock as long as you did with that Fulger thing" - Sooty 

Cupe giggled as I rolled my eyes. 

 "So says the man that is perfectly happy swinging a log around all day"- Me 

Sooty snorted again. 

“It's a great sword, not a stick, a log, or an 'overly exaggerated sudden kindling packing assistant’”- Sooty 

I laughed. 

"That was a 'Sudden instance kinetic impact device', but I'm sure you could use it to pulverize perfectly innocent trees into kindling as well.”- Me 

Before Sooty could retort, Cupe waved her fulgurite glass edged knife at us. 

“Men. Your both dead and you still act like children.”- Cupe 

I gave her my best mock frown in response. 

“Adolescent tendencies aside, I'm not sure how long I'll be working in my room. There are a lot of processed marbles in the basket if you get hungry, and you have both proved that you can handle anything short of moving bits of geography so I doubt you will need me for anything.”- Me 

I stood up and headed for the door. 

“Good night, sir Volk.”- Cupe 

Sooty stood. 

“Good night, sir.”- Sooty 

“Ah, yes. Good night to you both too.”- Me 

I headed out the door to avoid showing my embarrassment at their attention. 

I just heard Sooty commenting as I walked away from the closed door. 

“I wonder if you have to be like that too be a mage, or you become that way after.”- Sooty 

… 

When I had finally got the storm of magicicles under control, I'd had discovered some interesting changes. 

Both cyclones had become all most black with how thick they had become, I guessed that they had grabbed about half of the free magicicles that I had gotten from the phantom thorn bush. But the exciting part was that at the tightest part of the cyclones’ funnels the magicicles were forming a faint wisp of liquid vapor. The vapor fell in a spiral creating a very fine ring around the crystalline core. It even looked like it was collecting on the surface of the core.  

- There isn't enough yet to do anything with, but I really want to find out how liquid magicicle affects magic. 

I moved my attention back over to the “planets” that were originally the soul marbles from the cute little fairy and my slime buddy.  Both were having different effects on the disk circling the core. 

The fairy's ‘planet’ seemed to be sorting magicicles into distinct rings.  

- I think it might be sorting out magicicles based on spin, but there is not enough to experiment and tell if it is, or has some other criteria. 

The slime ‘planet’ was now trailing a line of gold particles, the same gold colour from the ribbons that the sun absorbed during de-rezz. The same honey tasting gold flecks from the soul marbles where I ‘encourage’ that same sun to fade out early. 

- Is the slime planet filtering out the gold flecks? What else from the soul marbles ends up here? Or maybe there is another space where stuff from the marbles end up? Maybe that's were all the miasma, silver particles and gold ribbon are till we de-rezz. 

The thought of all that black sludge building up inside of soul was somewhere between gut-wrenching disgusting, and horrifyingly disturbing. 

- I’m going to have nightmares about this till I figure it out. Well, nightmares when I'm alive again 

I checked on the crystalline drill bit, pushed a bit more speed into it, and stripped the ring that was forming around it.  I then nudged it in line with my hand. 

- I'm not sure if it will help with the turbulence, but if it adds a predictable spiral to the flow of magicicles all the better. 

I turned back to my crystalline core and concentrated on increasing its rotation speed as I waited for more of the magicicle gas to settle into the accretion disk.