Just to save us some headaches in the future, I did attempt to cast Summon Minor Elemental without having any sort of pre-arranged contract with anything. It predictably failed- I had no connection, either to a relevant plane or particular elemental. Frankly, I would have been disappointed if it did work. That would have invalidated quite a bit of the new book I had.

  It was quite possible someone more skilled than myself- or with more upgrades- might be able to force something without a connection, but in this world it was expected. The only elemental planes I knew of appeared to be sealed off- separately from the material plane which still allowed some passage. I didn’t have any personal knowledge of those connected to other worlds, no matter how ‘similar’ they might be.

  I really wanted to go on a journey to solve this particular issue, but doing so would ruin my other connection. Specifically, the one about Mided Rolil, one of my fellow apprentices under Uvithar.

  I was never close to any of them. While studying, we were often isolated- even if we happened to be in the same room sometimes. As many of us had joined Uvithar at different times, we rarely had combined lectures or anything of the sort. And the other apprentices didn’t share my predilection for battle- perhaps unsurprisingly, since they were mainly unaspected. Maybe some of them had the Aspect of the Sage, which would be even more reason to devote themselves to study. But for most, simply using their magic was enough to gain experience and levels. Their main struggle would have been picking out where they wanted to spend their next points.

  Still, a weak connection was far more valuable than no connection at all. We were already more than a week out of date when we got the info, so there hadn’t been too much rush, but waiting around further days might miss an opportunity. I did want to find Uvithar. But I also didn’t want whoever he was hiding from to find him. Did that include the particular mages I had met? Perhaps. I needed to come up with a believable lie depending on what I learned.

  By which I meant I would ask someone who was good at such things to come up with a believable lie for me to learn. Unless the truth just worked better.

  Midnight and I gathered together to do some Scrying shenanigans.

  “Alright,” I said. “After I finish my turn, we’ll set a random timer for when you begin to keep Mided off guard. If we can capture even a small glimpse, we can use that to try to determine whether or not he’s still in Adrela.”

  I’d only seen Adrela once, but I could probably recognize the general architecture. Then again, maybe the mage’s tower was different from the rest of the aesthetic. That wasn’t too crazy of a thought. People did all kinds of things with buildings.

  I held the blond hair I’d been handed, gathering mana and starting the swirling mists that filled the Scrying Orb. Once I had used up the potency of the spell, we’d-

  Oh, there he was. “Yeah, that’s Mided,” I said as city streets came into focus around him. It had taken some effort to connect, but whatever protections he had paled in comparison to Zentha. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but we’d spent so much time trying to find people who didn’t want to be found and were good at that. Maybe the hair was that helpful. I’d have to mention that.

  “I am pleased it was not an ordeal,” Midnight commented.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Usually it’s a whole thing. Hey was that-” I paused. “Is it racist to say that it’s weird to see an orc in Adrela?”

  “Is it unusual?”

  “Yeah. They’re out of the image, though. Wait, was that…” I almost let the spell falter. “Can you bring up the recording while I hold this? Of like a few seconds back?”

  We didn’t really need any fancy angles here, because we had a multidimensional display with this cube and the various cameras recording it. I just had to keep Scrying focused on Mided, and that was good enough. I could do that while looking at a recording.

  “What do you need?” Midnight asked as his side began to display something. His adaptive suit was still kind of crazy. “About here?” He was looking at the display projected in front of his eyes, which was really the primary one.

  “If you could change the angle to see that large cloaked figure…”

  “He’s big,” Midnight said. He stepped the video forward and backwards. His face was shadowed in darkness… which wouldn’t have mattered to us, but was a bit of an issue in the recording. However, connected to Midnight’s suit, some active contrast enhancement revealed a bit of something familiar. I wasn’t sure, but then I saw a glint of metal, just before Mided stepped out of range.

  “... Do you think that’s Flasher?”

  “I don’t know how Flash Circuit could be there,” Midnight said carefully. “However, it certainly does seem to match.”

  “You think Calculator is busy?”

  “He’s going to be,” Midnight said. “If he wasn’t already.”

  That was a fun joke. But yes, we were absolutely adding more work.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  We sent him a message to check the timecodes and angle we had marked. Mided was just walking along peacefully. Scrying faded about the time Calculator stormed into the room.

  “I’d say it’s a seventy percent match,” Calculator commented.

  “That’s not that high,” I shrugged.

  “Most people vastly overestimate their certainty. I do not,” Calculator said. “It is significantly more likely that it is Flash Circuit instead of literally anyone else. You need to Scry him now.”

  “Midnight?” I suggested. Theoretically we were equally effective. Swapping off uses was our tradition- for a good reason.

  “I’m on it,” my Celmothian buddy acknowledged.

  The familiar feeling of magic. I could sense some strain, as Flasher seemed to be more resistant than Mided. Did he not have Nondetection up? Or willpower?

  That wasn’t really important. There was a villain in our sights, potentially disrupting the other thing we were doing.

  I frowned. “How did he even get there? He’s not magic,” I said. “Was that included in your calculations?”

  “Yes,” Calculator said. “There are always exceptions to things that cannot be done. I recognized the specific dimensions of part of his arm. The facial structure matched. And…”

  Midnight’s Scrying spell came into focus, the mists parting to reveal a cloaked figure. On familiar streets. Midnight zoomed in to get a direct look at his face.

  “And this,” Calculator commented. “He is there, so clearly he has a method.”

  “What do we do?” I asked. Around that time, Flasher seemed to be more conscious of the Scrying. I could feel Midnight’s strain, then the spell broke off.

  Calculator paused for a second. “According to your report, that first individual you were tracking should be one of your fellow apprentices? He appears to be at risk… given the way Flash Circuit was watching.”

  “We should warn him,” I said. “Sending, maybe.”

  “Do that,” Calculator agreed. “I’ll gather a team. We’re going to bypass the niceties of leaving through Extra’s approved hall. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  I clutched the hair in my grip. I was going to put it back in the pouch it had come in once I was done with Sending. I didn’t want him to potentially reject the message, or for it to lack sufficient connection.

  We did still have to leave the building for Gate… probably. I had the suspicion that I could force through it, but it was better to not. Just outside, I saw Bolster and Twirl.

  “We heard there’s an emergency?” Bolster asked.

  I nodded. “I suppose you were the ones who were available?”

  “That’s right,” Twirl agreed. I noticed he had a proper weapon. An electrical baton, if I understood correctly. It had some super tech, though it was only a faint aura with it currently inactive. A good nonlethal weapon option.

  Bolster had a staff quite similar to mine. Except for it wasn’t magic or made of faux Yggdrasil. So it was really just a fighting-fit quarterstaff with metal shod ends. She was physically capable to begin with, so it made sense to include weapon training for her as well. It worked for me, as a backup when I was low on mana or simply an alternative to magic when it would be too slow or otherwise ineffective.

  Seeing they were properly equipped, I nodded. “Great. We’re going to try to head off a… situation. In my old world.”

  Calculator had picked out an alley we could Gate into that should be minimally intrusive. Unless something in the city stopped us. In which case, my former fellow apprentice might get captured by villainous forces. That would be inconvenient. Though maybe retrieving him from some supervillain lair would be easier, especially if he ended up on Earth.

  Or they might kill him. I didn’t want most of the people I knew to die, and that included Mided.

  Midnight and I split Gate’s cost. It was a simple enough target, but we didn’t want to risk wasting our mana and thus did it at full power. The Gate opened up quite easily, but it was better to spend a couple extra points than lose sixteen and have to try again.

  All of us stepped through into the alley next to a busy street. Bolster provided us three Disguise spells- one for Midnight and myself together. Otherwise we would be far too obvious.

  “That way,” Midnight commented. He was just a different color cat, which was the minimalistic sort of disguise. I looked like a tall human. Bolster was good at this stuff. I was glad, because that meant she could take on more of that work while I got to focus on combat spells. Though obviously she needed to know those too working for the Brigade.

  We walked along the street, and with great effort I didn’t look over my shoulder. It was entirely possible that Flasher was ahead of us now anyway… and Midnight looking back wouldn’t be as obvious.

  “Don’t spot him yet,” he commented quietly.

  We walked quickly, intending to catch up to Mided, whose last location was somewhere along this main street just a couple minutes ago. I hadn’t gotten a response to my Sending, which either meant it didn’t work somehow or that he did hear it and was running and hiding… from me. Which might be fine. I would have liked him to respond, though.

  I was surprised- no, we were all caught fully off guard when magic suddenly came out of the alley next to us. It was swiftly and expertly cast. I wasn’t that familiar with Medid’s spellcasting abilities, but it seemed better than I remembered. My memory could be several years out of date, though. Plus the time I’d been on Earth.

  The good news was that the spell had a limit to its power. It swept over us, and I felt my consciousness dimming. I held onto it, but Midnight toppled over. His suit activated so that he hit the ground safely, but I was leaning on my staff to keep vertical. Bolster was down. Twirl was unsteady on his feet.

  More magic. I had to provide a response. Mental Freedom seemed correct. I was a bit slow… and it wouldn’t have helped anyway.

  “Let’s see who you are!” Dispelling magic washed over us. Our disguises disintegrated. “... Turlough? Dammit, you should have known better!”

  Pfft. Everyone said that, but it wasn’t true.

  “You should have answered my Sending. Also, I said huge metal guy.”

  Medid looked like a fairly typical mage. If we were actually enemies, I probably could have clocked him over the head and knocked him out. “I assumed it was an illusory message. Since when can you cast Sending?”

  Oh. That made sense.

  “A couple months after I walked through a portal.”

  Bolster and Midnight were just picking themselves up- a forceful sleep spell could only do so much. That was about the time an orc tackled Medid.