We walked out and clockwise away from the Black Gold door. Far enough that when I had to create a very small blue halo strike from the sky to recharge, it hopefully wouldn’t attract any Uglies.  

Both Dan and Adriana let me transfer neutral magicicles to them. They progressed quickly with both magic and Mentat training with the help of the others.  

Jessica continued to progress, completing her eidetic memory and lightening calculator ability, something I thought would require both a physical brain, and Mentat magic cast on it. She spent a lot of time on practicing the magic twists for Mentat magic, which I now only had to show her once for her to memorize it. 

Adriana was scarily competent at whatever she worked at, quickly catching up to the rest. She was also a pain, constantly challenging me to explain why thing were done a certain way. Most of the time her questions prompted me to “remember” why, which actually started to make my head hurt. If I could manifest my last life, I would have beaten him to a pulp for leaving me in this state. 

Lana worked hard, but you could tell she did not have the talent for Mentat or magic. That was till she got to the point where she could create the glowing line magic I used to draw twists, Air Pen. She could draw twists faster and with more accuracy than me who had a lot more experience, or Jessica with her perfect memory. She didn’t stop there, soon being able to build a different twist with both hands, and even pushed the magic beyond its original intent to create fantastic 3D pictures. She started pestering me to create a way to animate her pictures. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I had “remembered” light and illusion spells after she bugged me. I had my hands full with soul magic, let alone try to interpret spells into the more versatile twists that I used. 

Ajay was enthusiastic, smart, and showed talent. He also had a short attention span and would often flip from one thing to another, never really shining at any one thing. It was fun to watch Adriana discipline him when one of his tangents went too far. 

Dan progressed steadily. I don’t think he will ever become a really powerful mage, but I get the feeling that if he integrates magic into his fighting, he is going to be a juggernaut.  

I progressed my magic ability to the point that I only needed to draw out the complicated twists for Soul magic. I had learned lightning instinctively from the wolf soul marble, being able to cast it without having to think about it. Later had expanded on it using my knowledge of electricity and the physics behind it, which had made casting slower, but much more powerful. Later when I learned Air from the monkey's soul marble, neither was used on an instinctive level anymore. Fast as my casting had become, it was still me envisioning the twist, and pushing magicicles into that framework. Now I felt like I was getting back to that pure instinctive, instantaneous casting that I had absorbed from the wolf’s memories. Only now it was mine, refined by my experience and enhanced by my knowledge. 

After several months of work, we agreed that it was time to jump into our next lives. We returned to the Black Gold door. 

I just finished drawing the complex Soul Inheritance magic twist between me and Jessica then looked through the glowing lines at her.  

“Ready?”-Me 

She looked at the hugely complex twist, something that she now had the knowledge to truly understand how absurd it was, and how easy something could go wrong with even the smallest error. She looked back at me, her face becoming determined. 

-I think I’m more afraid this is going to fuck up than she is. Concentrate moron, no frying the most beautiful woman that has ever been honestly interested in you. Yep, you are really progressing with that emotional and mental control Mentat training. 

I slapped my hand together, the sharp pain focusing my irrelevant thoughts. I started pulling the different types of magicicles that I “knew” had to be supplied to the elaborate twist. The glowing lines of the Soul twist started to brighten, the outer power bus rings first, then the into the multi-colour interior. The structure got brighter till it was almost painful to look at, then it flashed and collapsed into a bright point of pale green light. The point paused for a moment before slowly floating towards Jessica. When it touched her outstretched hand her soul image wavered like she was a still pool and the bead a drop of water. When her image stopped moving, she appeared frozen at the moment she had touched the point of light. I stepped closer, looking to see if there were any distortions left by the waves. I looked closely everywhere over her body. 

“Pervert! What do you think...”-Adriana 

“Shut up Adriana!”-Me 

I spoke harshly and loudly, quickly forgetting what I had said as I concentrated. Finally, when I had worked my way down to Jessicas shoes I got up and dusted off my knees. I quickly drew a new twist in the air, relatively simple in comparison, and powered it. The resulting pale bead touched Jessica’s forehead, and she collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut. I caught her before she fell to far and held her until she regained her senses. 

“What happened?”-Jessica 

“You are Ok. This is just a side effect, you should be able to stand now.”-Me 

I grinned at her as I held her. She blushed and quickly stood up under her own power.  

“So, before Adriana explodes, can you explain what just happened?”-Dan 

I looked over to see Adriana’s face going through a range of emotions while Dan was standing next to her with a mischievous grin on his face. 

“I was checking for soul distortions. Normally I would have to cast another spell that would create a visual image of Jessica’s soul, but here we are soul images, so I got to skip that step.”-Me 

I looked directly at Adriana. I stood in “King’s Dominion” pose and spoke clear, and firmly at her. 

“We do not have bodies here, nor the failings that come with them.”-Me 

She stopped, blinked, then looked sheepish before looking down. I think I heard Ajay gulp. 

I relaxed my stance and looked back at Jessica. 

“How are you feeling, cold, hot, dizzy, sociopathic?”-Me 

I grinned widely. She mock glared back at me.  

“You know that Adriana is going to tell me what she got so upset about.”-Jessica 

“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to get your revenge on her soon enough.”-Me 

I heard Adriana sputter in the background. 

“Somehow I think it is you I should be plotting revenge on.”-Jessica 

I have no idea why she was looking at me with such a level gaze. 

…. 

I was the last to go through the Soul Inheritance magic, having set a timer on my revival. No one would say what happened while I was frozen, but Ajay and Lana would giggle whenever I was close to Jessica. Adriana just looked smug, so I knew something embarrassing happened.  

After that I transferred more neutral magicicles to everyone and made a quick trip out to recharge via halo strike. After way too many charring experiments, I could now create a very small halo reaction along the nothingness border. Just enough to leave a small dime sized burn on my hand from the pencil lead sized bluish white line into the sky. I had managed to drop the power down and keep the reaction going long enough to recharge without turning into a charcoal brickette.  

When I returned to the Black Gold door we sat down and discussed what we going to do next. I had finally convinced Ajay that it was a good idea to return to a modern world and continue his education. I also had to promise that I would teach him everything I knew about magic and wouldn’t stop him from going through to a magic world next.  

Dan and Jessica were going to join Ajay and I traveling into the advanced modern door that I had scouted out when I first returned. Lana and Adriana were a different story. 

“I don’t want to go back there yet.”-Lana 

Lana looked at me with a firm, I’m not going to change my mind, stance. 

“I don’t want to lose you guys, but I don’t want to go. I’m going to go to the Mystic Meadow door.”-Lana 

The Mystic Meadow was one of the mystic type doors that she, Ajay, and Adriana had found. Lana looked down at the ground, waiting to see what we would say. I looked around at the others. Jessica nodded slightly when I looked at her, I gave her a quick smile, then grabbed Lana up in a hug. 

“You absolutely have to return and tell us what being a Fae is like.”-Me 

“Hey, what about m....”-Ajay 

I could hear Adriana cuffing him upside the head. 

“You know you might give me brain damage.”-Ajay 

“You don’t have a brain, and I seriously doubt you used it when you did have one.”-Adriana 

I ignored the two as I hugged the girl that was now my little sister. Lana spoke softly into my chest. 

“Thank you. I just need to get away from being human.”-Lana 

 I kissed her on the head then held her away from me. 

“Seriously, come back, I don’t want to end up turning into a sprite when I have to come looking for you.”-Me 

I dropped my arms and took a step back. Jessica stepped beside me putting her arm into mine. 

“You know he would end up more Puck than Oberon.”-Jessica 

Lana giggled at my disgruntled look at Jessica. 

“No, he’s too much of a fool. He would be the guy who ends up with donkey’s head!”-Adrianna 

Everyone laughed as I leveled a devastating glare at Adriana. 

“I’ll stay here till one of you returns. I’ve had enough life for several life times, and I have lots to practice till you all return.”-Adriana 

She smiled at the rest of us.  

“Do any of you want to stick around and wait for Andor and Evert to show up?”-Adriana 

“Hmm, Can I rethink my promise to return?”-Lana 

I chuckled with everyone else. After a little more chatting, and a few tears, we left Adriana by the Black Gold door and followed Lana and Ajay towards the Mystic Meadow. 

I continued to cast Soul memory expansion on everyone as we walked and worked with Lana on her Air twist. She had chosen Air when ask which she would like to learn first. While she had mastered Air Pen to the degree that anything I did looked like children’s scribbles, she struggled with any other aspect of the air twist. Jessica was working on both Air and Lightning, so she joined in the practice and theory. Ajay had chosen to learn Lightning, whereas Dan was not at the level that he could learn either. 

A half dozen doors later we arrived at what looked like a roped off piece of forest meadow. The plants were vibrant, a riot of flowers and ripe fruit, and the trees gave the impression of great age. There were a plethora of butterflies in metal hues, many with wings that looked like crystal or glass. The whole vignette gave the impression of the mystic wonder found in fables and faerie tales. I didn’t see a door till I noticed a ring of white mushrooms in the center of the meadow. 

“I can see why you chose this one.”-Me 

I hooked my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a side hug. 

“Remember your Mentat training, and that you have to return before you go through too many lives so I can us Mental magic and make sure you are ok.”-Me 

“Yes Mom. Really, I’ll be ok. And I’ll return because I promised, not so you can play all knowing Wizard and root around in my head.”-Lana 

I put on my best shocked look. 

“Why does everyone think I want to mess around in their heads?”-Me 

“It’s your own fault for letting us look behind the curtains oh great Wizard of Oz”- Jessica  

Jessica pushed past me and hugged Lana. 

“Come back with wings.”-Jessica 

Lana hugged Jessica back, tears in the corner of her eyes. When they were done, Jessica stepped back to my side. Dan stepped forward and shook Lana’s Hand. They nodded to each other before Dan stepped away. Lastly Lana grabbed Ajay in a hug. 

“I'm going to kick your ass with my faerie magic when I come back.”-Lana 

“Not if I zap you like a moth first.”-Ajay 

After Lana let go of Ajay, she turned a ducked under rope, and walked towards to the center of the vignette. As soon as she was completely inside of the faerie ring she disappeared. We all stood silently for a minute. 

I pretended not to notice Ajay’s teary eyes. 

“We should get going too.”-Me 

I turned with Jessica and followed the breeze into the grey distance.