4 Chapter 004

When the laughter died down, Trimagus looked to Gunther, frowning.

"You felt it, right?" After the boy nodded, the elder continued, nodding along. "She's got a strong touch of earth to her. Not as strong as I do, or even you, to fire…" Eyes wandered as he looked to the exit that the girl stormed off to.

"I'm going to be teaching her how to harness that power then let her run wild in The Realm. Let's see what happens." He chuckled and turned to the painting he'd stepped out of.

"Oh yeah. I need a few things. Sell off these old ingredients, and a couple of scrolls I found. That, along with my share of … whew.." His eyes bugged out, and he groaned in mock pain. "Five fucking hundred fucking years from the store should be enough to at least refurnish the tower, and get it livable for the quartet you're sending me."

"Ahem. Master." The boy said, tucking his hands behind his back, his suddenly somber attitude and stance making him appear a cherubic old man with too smooth of a face. "The store hasn't made a profit for over a hundred years."

This raised a brow of the fire mage, who nodded for the other man to continue with a jerk of his chin.

"You see, I was at the end of my cycle, and you were no where to be found. My grand daughter was too young, my son wasn't capable in the ways of magic … or war, honestly." This last comment was forced out with some bemusement. "And, then there is the taxes from the dwarven country as well as the payment for Kilren…" With a deep breath, Gunther finished with a quick rush of words. "You barely have a couple hundred thousand gold."

"What. The. Fuck?!" The room exploded. Literally. Fire washed over the entirety of the room, licking at the walls and ceiling. Luckily, it had been made resistant to this particular form of flame. Gunther was not so lucky. Having only robes and boots on, his face was instantly singed and then blistered.

"I'm sorry Master." The boy said through gritted teeth. "I did try to keep everything the way you had it, but unfortunately with the mithril mines dried up, and the dwarfs leaving the island, it's almost impossible to get any new clients."

"So, it's a location issue?" Tri said with a broad smile, eyes the color of burning embers. "I can fix that."

Crackling his knuckles before he reached into his satchel, he stepped forwards towards the actual balcony that gave an amazing view of the small harbor. He digs deeper, frowns and starts rummaging around in his back before sighing and turning back towards the patiently waiting Gunther.

"I mean, I could take care of that. If. You know. I had the ingredients.." He muttered, and frowned.

"Quite right, Master. That's also the reason I haven't moved the island, either. Those particular ingredients are not an easy task to obtain." His hand motioned towards the doorway the girl had left earlier. "I lost two family members before I realized that it wasn't going to be a simple as a virgin' tears to obtain. "

"A virgin… " Brows furrow, then laughter erupts, the room returning to a normal temperature as the man is once more easily distracted. "Are you making an erectile aid potion?" Tossing his hands on his hips, he looked in disappointment at Gunther.

"Hmm. No, Master. I mean, I was. But, I'm not now. I mean.." Sputtering, he finally said in exasperation. "I was over a hundred and I felt the desire to procreate!"

Laughter was his answer, which trailed him as he headed for the door.

"I shall have the four enter your tower and clean it from top to bottom. But, I feel as if you're already wanting to begin searching for … something." Gunther's shoulder jerked faintly. "All I can assume is that you're tired of being inert and wish for some activity."

"Yeah. I need to get the basics for the clone. And, I need a couple of other ingridents to start a little plot of land for Alaina."

"What about me?" The girl asked, walking back in in a flowing white robe, her rich brown hair was pulled from her face, showing the youth and beauty she offered.

"Oh, we were trying to figure out how much I should pay Gunther here, since you're a virgin." Trimagus said off handedly, motioning for the girl to approach.

"What?!" The shocked girl gasped and stared at the man, before turning to her Great Grandfather, waiting for the boy to defend her. Gunther did nothing more than shoot a look of dissatisfaction to Trimagus, but otherwise remained silent.

"Oh. Damn. She's deaf." Trimagus mimicked concern as the girl approached them. Then, to the girl.

"Look. You and the other four are going to be working for me. Well, they are. You.." He patted a large, hot hand on her shoulder, causing her to feel warm and cosy. "….You belong to me now. So, I'm going to need you to prepare for a long trip."

"Ah ah.." He shushed an unvoiced complaint, and continued. "We're going to be gone for a few months. When we get back, you're going to be a lot more prepared for your next task."

Heading for the painting, he jerked his chin towards Gunther, an unvoiced question asked, who nodded. Tri nodded back and motioned the sputtering girl to follow.

"Don't worry. It's going to be a lot of fun." He promised, and wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulder. "Let the world burn." He said, confidently, as he tugged her into the painting.

She shoved her hands in front of herself to prevent running into the wall, and ended up staring out over a world a wash with flame.

"It's .. beautiful." She muttered, and looked to Trimagus, who was staring at her to see her reaction.

"There! That's what I was hoping for. Perfect." He motions to the ocean of flames that surrounded them. "You're going to help me make this place great again!" He told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and finished the grand wave.

"I am?" She asks dubiously.

"Yeah. Just wait until the others get here. Once they get to work, we get to work. And, I have a feeling the things we're going to do, you're going to love."

Hours later, the group was walking through the ancient halls of tattered and aged decorations and furnishing. Trimagus gave a few rules:

1. Nothing that happens in the realm is talked about to anyone not in the realm, or of the realm.

2. No one is to harm another person in the realm.

3. Everything in this realm, including the people, belong to Trimagus. Nothing is owned, only borrowed.

4. Don't stray too far to the edge of the island.

5. Work hard, and be rewarded for it. Failing to do this will end in being thrown off the island.

The ashen faced group spoke to each other in hushed whispers, taking another few hours to return to a semblance of calmness. Trimagus gave them their jobs, who was cleaning what, who was inventorying, etc.

Finally, he motioned for Alaina to follow him, and left the group without a glance. In the inner sanctum, the room he'd woken up in, Trimagus finally drops into a seat and motions for the girl to do the same.

Finally, he looked at her for a long moment. The long brown hair that reminded him of the earth, the sky blue eyes, pale skin that seemed smooth and unmarred was all quite appealing. Especially with the dark green knee length shirt, and the brown shorts that stopped just at her thighs.

She had moderate sized breasts, perky and barely touched by gravity. Her ass looked like it was sculpted to be held. Subconsciously, the man licked his lips in a lecherous fashion before shaking his head and glancing towards the rest of the room.

"Alright. Resonance. Do you know what that is?" The mage slouched back in his chair, supporting his turned head on an extended pair of fingers. "Please tell me Gunther hasn't been completely fucking worthless."

"Isn't that where an element is calling to a magic user?" Alaina responded, after a few moments of nibbling on her plush lower lip.

"That's …kinda right. In the most basic sense, that'll work." Groaning, the man pushed himself out of the seat and stumbled lazily forwards a pair of steps before correcting his stance and walking the rest of the way across the room with more firm strides.

"There are two ingredients to magic." Pausing, he laughed. "Well, I mean there's the ingredient to use magic that you offer as components to do the more powerful spells that you can't power through your own inner strength." Waiving a hand, he continued. "But, that's not what I'm talking about here. "

Stroking his chin, he visibly considered what he'd said. "Sections… No. Partitions? No. Halls? Nah. Methods… strokes… parts!" Snapping his fingers, he looks back at Alaina and nods. "Parts. There's two parts to magic." He said excitedly, smiling like a boy who'd just discovered is first hair.

"First, is the inner strength, it's like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. There's really not a lot of specialization it can do. All the spells you use, come from that inner strength. The magical soul." Eyeing her, ensuring she was somewhat following along, he continued.

"The other part is the resonance. Like you said, it's elemental."He gave another pause to watch her carefully. "Do you know the elements?"

Perking up, she smiled and bounced in her seat, causing parts of her anatomy to shuffle in an appealing manner. Trimagus raised a brow, enjoyed the show, and waited. "Fire, Water, Air, Earth?"

After ensuring she was finished, the red haired man nodded and added. "There's also Time, Space, Matter, Death, Life, Darkness, Light."

The girl frowned, and pouted, causing Trimagus to chuckle. "It's okay, not even Gunther can remember it all, all the time." He wandered back over to ruffle her hair, before continuing once more, still standing in front of her.

"Think of magic like a bed." Motioning towards the large, overly sized bed nearby, he walked in that direction. "You have the mattress, which can be used without any bedding." Dropping down onto the bed, he indicated she should join him.

She did, hesitantly walking to the bed and settling on the edge.

"It's functional, but it doesn't look pretty and it doesn't really offer much more than the basic requirements." Dropping back, he flops on the bed and sighs with a stretch. "Resonance is the bedding. Silk, cotton, demon hide, all of the kinds of bedding available give the mattress more functionality. Make it a bit better."

Alaina looked away, her breathe catching as she realized she was on a man's bed, alone in his room, with no real escape available to her. What's more, she'd been feeling increasingly warmer since she'd arrived, and even more since the lecture had began. The hand on her shoulder caught her unaware, and easily pulled her back onto the man's chest.

She startled, and began to pull away before a strong hand held her in place. "Think of the resonance as the bedding. The stronger the resonance, the better the bedding is. The more elements you resonate with, the more options of bedding you have."

She forced herself to listen, not sure where to look or what to do now that they were laying in such an intimate manner. "I… I see.." She said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"To get stronger, you can exercise the resonance, like magic or a muscle. And, it'll slowly grow over time. Or…" The calmness suddenly came to an abrupt halt as she could feel the raging heat that had suddenly enveloped them. " …you can get it from someone else."

She looked towards the man's face and gasped at the cold smile that came with the last comment. "How do I do that?" She asked, softly, fearfully.

"I'm glad you asked that." He said, reaching a finger down to caress her cheek. "Really glad you asked that. Here. Let me show you."