Country of Champions 31

"Where are they taking my mother?" Garret asked alongside a confused but calm Babs.

While Orison applied healing to himself and Stag, he said, "Aurora's going to make sure that she and her two new children are alright."

Garret, with near hysteria level panic said, "What!?"

"She agreed to attempt having Gravat's children in order to claim the resource legacy set aside for them. It was all legal and successful, I might add. It just became a little dangerous because she had twins and the, uh, potion meant to sustain her wasn't designed to support that much extra development," the young mage supplied.

He assured Garret and Babs that their mother was more than alright. Technically, she was the Aurora claimed widow of Gravat. The millions of merits to be doled out to care for the twins was only their part. The blue skinned man had also set aside some generous gifts for the future 'baby mama'. What Orison didn't know was that Gravat did all that at Aurora's request with little hope of his own. The Triumvir had a plan but Orison royally f***ed it up.

"So, she beat you up because she was p*ssed at you. You took it because accepting that whooping means that she still likes you but why did she beat me up?" Stag asked.

Orison smiled wryly and said, "Because you lied when she asked why you were smiling at what she was doing. If you had said that you were smiling because watching me get beat up was funny, she probably would have stopped kicking my *ss to give you a hug and praised you for your 'beautiful truth'."

With glazed eyes, Stag said, "I'll try to remember that for next time."

Finally nearing one o' clock in the morning, Monday, Gan and Gurrut finally stirred back to wakefulness. It wouldn't have taken nearly that long but Gan had always seemed to lag behind in the spiritual strength department and Gurrut was pretty low in spiritual potency himself. The young mage had taken a bit of extra care in stuffing their soul shells extra full and slowly pushed a little more in as they claimed a little.

After Orison filled them in of things they needed to know and was ready to call it a night, Stag asked, "Alright. One more thing and I won't ask anymore questions about it."

Wryly the young mage said, "Shoot."

"The Herne thing, how did a remnant end up back in me and why did it leave while I was working my exchange abilities for you?" Stag said.

Sighing, he satisfied the green haired man's curiosity. "During your time at Eo Pan, of which I have no desire to know anything about, our old mutual friend was still recovering in whatever place he managed to reach in the mid dimensions. Your sacrifices drew a fatal amount of his sustaining essence back down. To keep from dying entirely, he followed it, nesting in a place he didn't belong like some venereal disease.

"What was going on and what you were doing with your abilities managed to fool his protean form into believing that you were knocking a girl up. If that had been the case, he would have quickly essence leached you to death while developing back into adulthood at an insane speed. Instead, he lost his connection with you when he inhabited the fetus that grew too fast for the naturally attracted soul to latch onto securely.

"Side note, I'm pretty sure that one of the twins now has that soul. Secondary side note, I have the tiny sparks of his companion spirits. Best part, he was stripped of his tie with the great aspect that created him because he now resides in the body of a baby with a touch of Fomorian spiritual bloodline."

As if a light bulb went off, Stag said, "That's why you did things in such a complicated way. Tribal fey and Fomorians don't get along. You were using-"

Orison cut him off. "Don't... The line's already paper thin on technicalities. It's good enough to know that Gavati and I won't instinctively want to hurt each other on sight. None of her children will either. Though, the more I think about it, they all could dislike me for a lot of other reasons. But damn it, I tried my best to please all involved with everything I had. If that isn't enough, f*** them."

***

Monday morning saw things back to regularly scheduled programming but with a few extra people. When Gan and Stag looked ready for whatever was coming, Orison slightly disappointed them but made them happy at the same time when he informed the two that they should enjoy a day of relaxation. It would be awhile before they'd have another.

Once at school, the young mage and Garret went to juice box and then to first day of First Wave. Adena wasn't there and she had been removed from their group. It seemed that Mr Firebrand had an entire week of evaluations and personal training for her to attend to. With the way they left off, it wouldn't surprise Orison if the man made sure they'd never set eyes on each other until the day she was three months over seventeen.

There was a side repercussion of that as well. Not knowing the change in situation, the powers that be behind the Rowdies program default assumed that Adena's absence was Orison's fault and upped his instructor to one from Summit training. That meant that for the following week, he'd be tortured daily by someone who was strong enough to beat him down unless he started flashing the aces up his sleeve which he wasn't willing to do.

The young mage didn't mind anyway. People got better faster when they were challenging something beyond themselves. That's what he told Garret every time the teen gave him a bitter look.

Esme and Trisha were keeping their distance as well but for different reasons. It came out that Mrs Lacquer was having an affair with someone who had been named as a devil devotee. Orison knew it was The Third Triumvir's previous adjunct. He had no idea how that batty old scientist Truimvir would take it but besides being devastated, Mr. Lacquer was closing ranks with his family until the dust settled and Trisha was trying to be a good friend and partner to Esme during the rough patch.

The sudden social disconnect for Orison gave people the wrong impression and along with his own mentor's actions against him, people thought that the young mage's rising star was fading fast and that he was destined to become a treasure troll. A couple of students in First Wave had even approached Garret to see if he'd be interested in switching teams. They were confused that Garret stayed put and the instructors had Orison mentally evaluated because he seemed happier than usual in a situation where most would buckle or be stressed out.

When Tuesday came rolling around, Rio informed the young mage that he'd be staying the night over at Daphne's grandmother's. To his annoyance, Orison asked him to the living room for a talk. When he tried to interrupt, he was shut down with a sharp bark that wasn't customary for the young mage to deliver.

He began, "First of all, I made this ring for you last night. It'll take you a few months to move on from the magic on the wand but once you have, there's more material in there for you to continue studying."

Face going pale, Rio asked, "Are you kicking me out?"

Orison chuckled with a touch of wistfulness behind it. "No. I do want you to start carrying all your valuables and things you care about with you at all times, though. Don't open the spacial pocket on the large gem. It's got a moderate amount of essence source material I call eternium in it.

"The six smaller gems are also spacial pockets about the size of a footlocker each. The ring, as a whole, works as a focus. Only draw power from it when you have to. Try to keep storing magic in it instead until it's full. You never know when you'll be in places where the air will be supernaturally dead or hazardous to draw from."

Shaking a little, Rio said, "You're freaking me out. Am I going somewhere?"

"I'm just giving you something and following it up with worry wart advice like I always do. Why would that freak you out?" Orison said, trying a little harder to hide his weird mood.

Rio let out a sigh of relief and fiddled with the ring before he said, "This one here is locked with magic."

The young mage nodded and said, "I put three locks with increasing difficulty on it. I want you to use it as practice. Please don't use the wand to ruin it. It'll help you learn two of the spells on your wand faster. Of course, if you find yourself in a dire or strange situation, I guess there might be something in there that'll help. At least challenge yourself for a few days first."

The next couple of days grew hectic again as Orison primed himself and took the test for a master's degree in Planar Acquisitions. Once again, he didn't do outstanding but he passed. While he went through the process of politely declining an invitation to join core administration as an academic, among many other invitations, he split up the remaining juice box time between the other four.

Taking Orison's advice from long ago, Gan picked up Engineering. Garret and Gurrut used theirs to get their secondary education finished. Stag used it to pick up some biology with a focus on mundane and supernatural horticulture.

With the achievement tucked under his belt, communication opened between himself and LeStrange again to make sure the young mage wasn't going to jump over to the Third Triumvir's group of people. Aside from catching a nearly lethal case of the 'being busy' himself, Jacques had thought over Orison's words and relented that he had been a little thoughtless in his actions.

"Yeah. When people are clowning you behind your back for putting your student on the spot only for him to show you he didn't even need supernatural ability to defend a B-class privilege, I imagine that would open your eyes," the young mage thought unkindly.

When he got off the touchscreen, Garret said, "I imagine you're going to start missing your peace and quiet again. I bet all the people who were dogging you are going to feel some regret and start trying to butter you up again."

Orison shrugged. "The circle's closed. Let the jumping clowns jump whichever direction they see fit."

The very next moment fate made him eat his words because he was notified that Roy had come to see him.

When the man, fit and restored back to a year or two before his natural age, came to the door, he didn't waste any time getting to the point. "I gave it some thought. If you're okay with someone a little long in the tooth for a training wheels team, I'll join you. Between the years I've sold off and the ones you sold in my name, I can flip without breaking contractual obligation."

The young mage invited him in and sat down with some iced tea.

After taking a drink, Roy added, "I mean, people don't really think about it but having an equ- Don't take this the wrong way but I thought this would be a Long Island or something."

Orison chuckled and said, "I've kind of made a bad impression on you with drinking popping up every time we meet but I actually don't do it that often. Not that I mind others doing it as long as they're not slipping into high functioning alcoholism."

Tucking that away, the equipment specialist said, "Not that I'm trying to hard sell myself but a person with my skills is pretty much on every acquisitions team and I thought you might like working with someone you know."

Carding through his memories, he hadn't been that close to Roy in the other timeline. The guy had gotten distracted at his lady friend's house and hadn't made it to the party, even. After that event, things had went sideways really quick and people had kept their distance once Orison had tasted a small run in the Irregulars. Gan had used his connection with Captain Rogers to get them to Plague Barrens but once they managed to reach their destination there, things went from 'not great' to absolutely nightmarish.

Orison said, "It's not that simple. Yes, I can use you because the slot I thought Adena would be using is now sitting empty and her abilities could be replaced fairly efficiently with some portable engineering equipment but I need trust. I have a lot of secrets. My mentor knows most of them. So, it's not as if I'm keeping dangerous ones from Avalon or something but, still."

Roy grew thoughtful for a moment and said, "Things that make something like an NDA pointless."

The young mage nodded and said, "On top of that, this is high risk. Who knows how long we'll run before you'll be looking for a new job or a square slot in a memorial somewhere. Do you have anyone who depends on you for support?"

A little depressed, Roy said, "Nope. I took this job to keep mom alive a few more years but she passed away about eight months ago. I pretty much sold life as fast as it was legally allowed but even the cheapest extension medicine was enough to make... I honestly don't know why I tried so hard some days. Every time I got one for her, she seemed to die a little faster. I think she wanted to so I would stop."

Orison nodded again. "And you would have been pushed to take in a kid if you didn't have one yourself. That kid would see you fading way before your time and might be tempted to do the same. One of many ugly patterns I see popping up when I allow myself to.

"I have a trial by fire coming up on Tuesday. It's going to be in the Plague Barrens. If you feel like a little excitement before a potentially quick end is worth it to hang with us, then I'll see you on Monday to draw up a two year contract."

Roy was reaching for a long zipper on his uniform when he paused as the destination sunk in. To his credit, it was only for a moment before he removed a contract from behind a shrapnel plate.

He chuckled at Orison's look and said, "I don't know if that's for the preparedness I bring or the little trick that just about every Planar Response person knows to keep important documents from getting messed up while on duty."

Skimming through the contract, the young mage didn't see anything of note. The terms were actually a little too good in his favor considering how much of a limb Roy was going out on but there wasn't much reason to doubt sincerity.

When he asked about the too tilted contract, Roy answered, "People say you can't put a price on life but that's a damn lie. For an equipment specialist, it's plain as day for the first few years, at least. Sell for a 100k buy for a mil.

"The way I see it, you gave me around ten and bought two more on top. The contract's a CYA, um, cover your assets. You've got six years worth of equipment use and two years of my time to spend them.

"All I'm really asking is for you to be responsible for the equipment itself and my magic channels if they're damaged from overdraft. If you hit a jackpot, I'm not going to complain if I don't actually get ten percent but I hope you'll cut me decent for hazard."

Orison agreed, He put the paper copy in his ring and signed the e-copy on Roy's wrist holo-screen. Afterwards, he took the specialist to the training room and had the Rogers brothers leave to give them privacy.

"This isn't something I'm supposed to ask you but if you trust me, I want to know your lineages. Not because I'm nosy but to see if I have anything that can help you. I know how far on a limb you're going just to 'give back'. Your motivations are your own. I don't expect you to be a saint but I expect you to keep my secrets in turn. That's the real contract and it's only enforced with personal integrity," Orison laid out.

Roy blanched but didn't refuse. " Fleur family gargoyle scandal, four generations removed. D-class Rogers great grandmother... Tennessee d-devil dog, f-four generations removed."

Shame and embarrassment rolled off him in waves after proclaiming the last.

Once Orison had set up a magic circle in the alchemy lab, a crumpled aluminum sheet and some matching aluminum 'jewelry' to cover the wrist and ear implants Roy had, Orison said, "I need you to close your eyes while I pull some things out. I need to see which reagents I have that you have a natural reaction too. Shy of ridiculously expensive tests, it's a pretty decent way to tell what lineage is dominant and what reagents will have best effect."

A few minutes later, Rio opened his eyes while the young mage said as he was taking things back down. "I can't do anything for you here but you're going to be in for a real treat in the near future."

Rushing back to the house, the young mage started hollering for Rio with no answer. Confused, Gan blurted out that he thought the teen was at Daphne's while Garret asked who Rio was. Orison's excitement dimmed by half.

With a slightly sad smile, he muttered, "So, you're already gone."