Forty minutes ter, David pulled his car into the only open parking space in the lot for Sunny Side Up. A light rain was beginning to fall so the trio hurried inside to find Carol already seated with a very worried Mike.

  “David, I hope you did not invite anyone else today. This is already too dangerous for outsiders.”

  “Sorry, sir, but they invited themselves. And Malcolm does know some martial arts, while Carol is an organic chemist. They believe they can be helpful and were very persuasive.”

  ‘Uncle’ Mike considered this for a moment. “Malcolm, give me your hand. Doesn't matter which.”

  Malcolm complied, pcing his right hand into Mike’s cupped hands. “Hmm. Martial arts. Yes, maybe level three, possibly only two Spirit and not much else. I can work with that. Not easily, but I can. Be seated.”

  The others complied, and he continued talking: “So you told them enough to pce them in danger. I have one thing I must teach you now, possibly the most useful spell ever developed. Generally called ‘Edit Memory.’ Tap the Spirit sigil and rotate it towards you slightly and then rotate forty five degrees clockwise. Now if you get the angle right, then you need to touch your target and then just tell them the memory you want to impnt, change or erase, both what it was and what it will now be. Do any of you know the serving woman approaching our table?”

  They all replied in the negative, so when she set down the menus, Mike grabbed her hand gently. “The man across the table from me is Malcolm. He was the man who took your virginity.”

  Mike’s eyes fshed gray for a second, then hers did, she got an odd look on her face, walked around the table and spped Malcolm. “We do that and you never talk to me again? I’m going to have to get one of the other girls to handle this table. Sorry,” she said, gring at him.

  “Now, David, go after her, and remove the false memory,” Mike began, but Malcolm, his face far redder than the sp should have made it, interrupted: “No. It, ah, well, it’s not a false memory.”

  “Perhaps I used too much power and the memory was contagious?” Mike mused.

  “No, I didn’t recognize her at first, but when she spped me and I saw her name tag, I knew who it was. We’d been friends, who were both interested in other people who weren’t returning our attentions. One day we were just talking, alone and, well, there might have been some stolen beer involved....”

  “That was Lorraine?” David interjected.

  “Yes,” Malcolm said sadly. “That was Lorraine. I’ll try to talk to her.” He rose from the table and hurried after her.

  “Well, that did not go as pnned… So, David,” Mike began after everyone let out a little nervous chuckle over what had happened, “I heard reports of a strange fireball, an exploding dog and a giant hand - have you been attempting spells on your own or do I have another magic user to worry about?”

  “It was not a dog,” Sandra replied before Dave could. “Demonling.”

  Mike sat back hard, exhaling a breath before speaking again. “The rest of it you did, though?”

  Nodding cautiously, David answered: “Yes. When that thing set fire to my shoe, I attempted a force redirection effect, extracted the fire and sent it back to its source.”

  “But of course that did nothing as they are immune to their own Fundamental Force. But that’s a level three spell you pulled off with no training. And the reports of a ghostly hand?”

  David replied: “Also me. I combined Spirit and Air to simute the telekinesis spell from Dungeoneers, and wound up with…”

  “Greater Ghost Hand, a level FIVE spell effect,” Mike interrupted, clearly impressed. “I’ve never been able to do more than level four with Spirit and three with Metal myself. And you are untrained!”

  Malcolm and Lorraine returned to the table; he was silent, and she seemed a little distant. “I can take your orders now,” she informed the others.

  After they pced their orders and she left, everyone turned to Malcolm. “She was still mad, but understood, and agreed to meet me for dinner so that I can, well, grovel some more and beg her to forgive me so that I can forgive myself. Strangest thing is, when I said I would not try to have sex with her again, she said ‘don’t make any promises you can’t keep. I think we’ve both learned a lot since then.’ Not sure if I should be ecstatic or terrified about that.”

  David ughed gently. “She’s very pretty and if she really understands you at all, you should be both ecstatic and terrified.”

  Carol ughed out loud at this.

  “Anyway,” Mike resumed, “now that this is at least temporarily settled, have you attempted or performed any other spells?”

  Sandra volunteered with: “Well, he has kept my armor working; the exchange spell would only work when we were at his pce if he was touching me. And I could read his nguage, also when we were touching but not when we were not. Also, ever since we had sex, I have been able to talk to him without the Transtion Stone,” Sandra offered.

  There was a moment of silence at the table, and then Mike rose to his feet, his eyes homing in on David like ser-guided missiles. “You. Had. Sex. With. My. Daughter?” He asked, his voice level but icy.

  David had never seen him like this before: he started to flinch away, but then decided that might make things worse. “Yes, sir, I did,” he admitted.

  Mike sat back down again as if nothing had happened, gnced around the table, and said: “I always knew the boy had good taste.” Laughter erupted from the others.

  As Lorraine brought their food out, things settled down a bit, and as she walked away, Carol said “oh, and then there’s my hair; he did the color.”

  Mike froze for a moment, examined her and then turned to David, a hint of the iciness returning to his voice, but also a touch of awe. “How did you do that?”

  Almost as surprised at his reaction to this as he had been to Mike’s faux outrage, David shrugged and said: “I just figured that most pigments are based on pnt or mineral compounds so summoned the Wood and Metal sigils, maniputed them until I could see the color I was looking for, and then I just painted her hair.”

  Mike exhaled loudly then hissed: “Grab the Spirit and Air sigils, focus on the center of the table, and show me exactly what you did with the Metal and Pnt.”

  “You mean, create an Illusion?” David asked.

  “Absolutely,” Mike replied.

  David mentally accessed the Spirit and Air sigils, and a glowing blue disk appeared at the center of the table. Mike stood up to get a better view. As David concentrated, images shifted and flowed over the disk, some emerging into three dimensions. Finally, the image stopped changing and remained fixed. Excitedly, Carol began drawing something on her napkin with lipstick.

  Mike sat back down and exhaled loudly once more. “Can Miss Organic Chemist expin why what David just did is so impressive?” He asked.

  Carol held up a hand, made a few more marks and then looked at David. “Remember when I said I wished I knew how to duplicate this color?” She said, pointing at first her hair and then Sandra’s.

  “Yes,” David replied, confused. The image at the center of the table began to fade.

  “You just showed me how right there. Essentially, you performed organic chemistry on my head in your head.”

  “There are Master mages reluctant to attempt seemingly innocuous spells like that. What you did was at least a level eight effect; most fake the same thing with Spirit alone as an illusion, which fades in a few hours, but you triggered a full change. And with no visible side effects. You have the potential to be the most powerful mage I have ever seen! Far beyond my ability to instruct. But I’ll have to try. But first the easier task. Malcolm, do you have a few hours free today?”

  “Well, one reason I came back early was that I figured out the fix to a bit of code that has been giving us trouble for the st few weeks, so I do need to go in to the office before I forget it. Should be able to come by a little after noon. I’ll call you if I won’t be free, same number as three years ago?”

  Mike nodded. “That sounds good, and yes, I have been able to keep the same phone and address. I should be able to get you to a solid level three in Spirit effects and maybe even unlock Metal One with about two hours of training. Not sure you can progress beyond that, but we’ll never know if we don’t try. Do you have to go to the office too, David?”

  “Though I can do most of my work from home, I do,” he admitted. “Malcolm’s code is what needs to be server-side, and I’m his ride. I‘m more of a user interface guy and can do that from anywhere."

  “Too bad that training you two together wouldn’t work; you’re unlikely to be able to do most of what I would show Mal, and I can’t even do some of the exercises I would ask of you. Well, I’ll go home and try to work something out. You all return to your lives for a bit and we’ll touch base ter.”

  Everyone agreed to this pn. Carol left first in her car, alone, and Mike paid the bill while David, Malcolm and Sandra went out to David’s car. None of them noticed two tiny blue creatures watching them from on top of the restaurant’s sign, and failed to notice one of them leap down and try to follow their car, even pacing it while it was on congested back streets and unable to go over twenty miles an hour; once David hit a faster moving stretch of traffic, they left it in the dust.

  The other one waited for Mike to leave and followed him for a block before he noticed it. He gnced around, saw no witnesses, took a small piece of scrap metal out of his pocket, and continued walking. When he hit a certain point he flicked the piece of metal at the little creature, and the metal flew unerringly at it, striking it hard on the shoulder, spinning it around and causing it to fall over onto a sewer grate; it burst on contact with the metal grate like a water balloon hitting a brick wall.

  Mike looked around to see if he could spot any other little surprises but found none, so resumed his walk. Two blocks ter he was at his home and was surprised to find the door unlocked. Kim had done this a few times before, so it probably meant nothing, except that she came earlier than he’d pnned, but he shifted to a defensive stance and went inside.

  “Kim?” He called out. The house seemed empty. He took a few steps in, was about to call out again, when a single mp flicked on. The light illuminated a single figure seated in Mike's favorite reading chair, a man with long, slender limbs and a face that initially seemed handsome but held some otherworldly quality that made it more disquieting than appealing on a second gnce. He was bald except for a single long braid behind his right ear, and he wore a white business suit. His eyes were a startlingly bright green color.

  “Hello, Magister,” the figure said, rising to its feet. “I forgot this was the world I locked you on, or I would have come to pay my respects sooner.”

  “Elgarin! Well, since you’re here, could I get you a drink? Something to eat?”

  Elgarin’s menacing ughter filled the room. “I didn’t come for pleasantries but to gloat. You see I’ve now taken, though only one of them directly and by my own hands, all three of the women you have ever cared about from you.”

  Horrified, Mike cried “No!” And slumped into a chair.

  “Last night one of my creatures went out hunting without permission. One of my Urskynes saw it die but didn’t witness how it was destroyed. It did, however, smell you or one of your bloodline in the area. A little search on one of the wonderful inventions of this world, the Internet, and I found this address. Imagine my surprise to see you leaving just as I drove past! I followed you and found the Artificer. He worked too slowly and had no protections on his person, sadly. Spent the night cleaning up the mess and seeing what I could salvage of his stuff, then came back here in time to see you leave this morning. I was about to follow when I saw a woman heading here; she let herself in and I called in, well, you’ll see very soon. “

  “You’re a monster!” Mike decred.

  “Perhaps, but there are far worse than I. I do owe you a debt of gratitude, as this gives me a chance to drop the illusion I’ve had to maintain while wandering around this world. Ah, good, they’re ready for you. Kim, you know, but perhaps you have forgotten Celeora? Your second great love? She stumbled in on me making a deal with, well they remain behind so no need to mention them. But she had to be silenced of course, and the best way was to let them have her. And now, I bid you adieu. Forever.”

  Elgarin began moving his fingers rapidly; Mike stood and tried to block him but then saw the two things that came out of the kitchen. Celeora had been a beautiful woman in life, but now she had been dead for some time and still walked. Kim’s death was clearly more recent but she shared the same bnk stare, same grasping cws, same bared fangs.

  Mike shifted to a defensive stance as he saw Elgarin vanish in a burst of green light out of the corner of his eye.

  He cursed and tried to bring up every defense he could but the two things that had been women he once loved were too fast. He probably could have destroyed or at least fought off one long enough to escape but two was just too much for him…