Tyler leading PT was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Something about watching grown ass adults with decades of battle experience doing pushups and morning jogs around the camp while singing cadences was hilarious. None of them were winded whatsoever. These people were second-evolution elites who could run ten miles without breaking a sweat, so jogging a mile was like walking to them. It seemed useless—so I wanted to know what they were thinking. So I perched on a tree above the team when their jog ended and listened.

  “This can’t be training.”

  “It’s not. It’s punishment.”

  “I don’t think so. It’s probably just some custom. Guess we’re actually doing things their way.”

  One rolled their eyes.

  “Hey, give it a chance. It forged Mira, didn’t it?”

  “No. This forest forged Mira.”

  A soldier turned around and hushed them. “Stop complaining.” They did.

  It was relieving to know people were receptive and doing their part. That said, I couldn’t see how our world’s PT was going to translate into anything, so once Tyler sent the military members to do work, I materialized behind him.

  “Whoa!” he said, stumbling backward. “Mira!”

  “What? Is there a reason you’re so nervous to see me?”

  “You appeared out of nowhere!” He stood up and glowered at me. “How long were you watching me?”

  “Since you kissed Sarah goodbye this morning.”

  His face turned bright red, and then his eyes widened. “I was still in my house!”

  “So you did do it…” I said with a mocking grin.

  “God, I hate you!”

  I activated Moxle Dilation, rushed to his side, and hugged him. His face was priceless.

  “Stop!” he whined. “Come on. I get it, I get it. I love you. What do you want?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “I was just walking by and decided to check on the soldiers… see what they say when no one’s watching.”

  He leaned against a tree, arms folded, refusing to look me in the eye. “What’d they say?”

  “About what you’d’ve expected. Humiliation ritual. Punishment. Custom. Doubt, doubt.”

  “It’s not a humiliation ritual!” he yelled, as if I were calling it one.

  “Never said it was. But… what is it? It’s kinda strange to see superhumans doing mortal PT.”

  “It’s not about PT.”

  “Then what is it? I don’t care. This is your project, so I’m not judging it. I’m just… curious.”

  “Culture.” He looked away. “Discipline. Cadences bind people. I don’t know. That’s the idea. It’s starting to feel humiliating—to me—though. Wish I wouldn’t’ve done anything, to be honest.”

  “Oh,” I laughed. “If you wanted that, why didn’t you put them through Kalas’ regimen? If they already think they’re getting punished, you might as well do it.”

  His eyes widened, and a sly grin curved on his lips. But it soon receded.

  I folded my arms. “What?”

  “It’s just… if I teach them Kalas’ regimen I won’t catch up. It’s like… my secret weapon.”

  I laughed and slapped the top of his head. “You have Malo, you worm. In four years, you’ll be stronger than all of them. Now get back to it. I want a show tomorrow.”

  I spread my wings.

  “Hey Mira,” Tyler said.

  I turned back and saw him staring at me.

  “What?”

  “Thank you. For everything. And… for being the best sister ever.”

  I smiled sharply. “Awwwwwwwwwwww!” I rushed him and made him regret it. He kept yelling “Stop!” as I hugged him, even going so far as to slap my scalp in a state of panic. I dropped him, humiliated, and turned away. “Love you, guy.”

  I left and entered the Wraithwood Alchemy Association. Like most buildings of value, it was a multi-story building carved into a tree with a staircase.

  “Mira!” the manager said, dropping to a knee.

  “None of that…” I said dryly. “Just… ma’am. Anyway, where’s Nakan?”

  “He’s upstairs. I’ll take you.”

  I followed him up the stairs, gathering eight other arraymasters before entering the fifth floor, which was a conference area. Inside, I brought out Lithco.

  “Meet Lithco,” I said to the stunned arraymasters. “He’s going to explain what our project is.”

  Nakan, the head of the association, was surprised to see his queen casually bring out her Guide.

  Lithco sighed. “Greetings. My name is Lithco. Contrary to the fact she made me like this, you should not model my behavior whatsoever. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s talk about your new project.”

  He summoned an image of a ward system.

  “A converter?” Nakan said.

  “That’s correct,” Lithco said. “Your task is to compress and release mana from third evolution cores in steady pulses for crop production.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Nakan said, followed by a flurry of agreement from the others.

  “I’m serious,” I said coldly, and the room fell still. “I used a platinum reward for the technology—so there’s nothing stopping you from doing it but your own will to learn.”

  “Forgive me, Lady Hill, but you’re misunderstanding the nature of our complaint. As your guide will surely tell you, people throughout the multiple try to create seeds capable of growing near mana veins and they almost always fail.”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Or so they tell you,” Lithco said. “Most successful golden crop operations are hidden by powerful privacy requests, but I can say that they’re common enough to make you shiver. You have the skill to pull this off.”

  Nakan took a deep breath, worry scarred into his expression. He probably felt uncomfortable knowing that the first task I gave him was a mythical task that would push the furthest extent of his talent and ingenuity, and would spectacularly fail.

  “Plus, you’re not alone,” I said. “Kai Dairook is going to make the seed channels and cores more robust, and Jaylin and I are going to breed them with hard ruthless science. You have a full team approaching this from multiple angles. So stop worrying about general failure and start worrying about the possibility that Wraithwood’s Arraycraft Association won’t be a groundbreaking authority on arraycraft in three years.”

  I cracked a smile and turned to the door. “Compile a list of questions. I’ll have a transcriber bring you a book. See you tomorrow.”

  To my surprise, someone started clapping, and the rest of them followed as they realized that not only would we be doing something that’s widely considered impossible—but we planned to make it happen.

  In ten years, Wraithwood would be the number one authority on alchemy, at least in the first three domains. But I wouldn’t be satisfied with that. I wanted the strongest army—the best arraymasters. Aiden would become the greatest Beast tamer—our soul cooking was at the grade of top soulmancy. I wanted Wraithwood to be the best—and I think the excitement was contagious.

  That was good.

  I wanted people to be proud to be Wraiths.

  I walked outside and heard a commotion. Aiden was back, and he had a henko, one of the large land otters we rode to Wraithwood, and was speaking to the soldiers. “As of today, we have an alliance with beasts in Areswood Forest,” Aiden said. “Not every beast. But there are many who make deals with me. To hunt for us, relay information, cull invasive populations and the like. Those are under my protection. You’ll know because there’s a glowing rune on their body. You can’t see it right now, but that’s because you don’t have the marking skill. But once I teach it to you—you’ll see it. And once you do, you’ll know not to harm the beast. If you do—there will be serious consequences.”

  Aiden saw me and waved. I started walking toward the group.

  “Speaking of consequences, meet Mira Hill, the mother of plants and the godmother of beasts,” he said. “She will be the one raining hell on anyone who purposely harms a tagged beast.”

  I sighed at his brazen declaration, but I nodded. “Yeah.”

  The soldiers sniggered at my dry answer.

  Aiden flashed me a smile. “Let’s try this again. Mira—yesterday I made a deal with hundreds of first evolution beasts to act as our eyes in the forest. With their help, I can get real-time information on over twenty miles of forest. By next year, I’ll have an information network with vast strategic military capability, in addition to countless other benefits. What are you going to do to someone that messes that up?”

  “I’ll rip off the limb of my choice and feed it to the wolves,” I said dryly, unsure whether I was being serious or not. “How do we tell?”

  “A passive spell,” Aiden said. “Close your eyes and chant, and you’ll see.”

  I sat with the soldiers, and we chanted together. When I opened my eyes, I could see a strange character written on the henko’s fur with an ethereal blue glow.

  I stood and smiled. “If you see that, ask ‘em to point out other things to kill. These animals are smarter than we are.” I winked at the henko, who smiled and shook his fur as I walked away.

  Wraithwood was moving.

  It had a pulse.

  Everywhere you looked, you found people moving with energy and excitement. It was spring in Wraithwood—and our new world was just beginning.

  I walked past a pile of dead beasts Aiden had brought, and the cooks were scrambling to butcher, as our stockpiles had been burnt during Ikala’s coup. I then walked into Wraithwood Cafe and bought some tea before returning home. I had my own project this spring.

  As I entered my house, I summoned Sina, Ryn, and Dain in their small forms. Recalling them just made them sleep, so they yawned and stretched their legs. Ryn was the laziest of the three; he took one look at me and then jumped onto my bed, curling into a ball and waiting for permission to go back to sleep.

  I laughed and nodded, sitting down and accepting a flurry of puppy hugs from Dain and Sina.

  “Okay, pups. Here’s the deal. I’m going to figure out how to return your flames…”

  Ryn shot off the bed and jumped down to me as I giggled.

  “But I need to figure out where your mana channel blueprint is stored. It’s gonna be deep in that head of yours, but if you help me find it, I will be able to restore your magic.”

  Sina jerked her body to make the other two back off. Once satisfied with the space, she sat before me, closed her eyes, and bowed her head—offering for me to enter into her mind to search for the enigmatic nearan line that would make that dream a reality.

  I put my hand on her head, and blended some of my neara into her channels, going on a deep search.

  It was awful.

  The next morning, I walked into the threading chambers at five am to meet with Kai. He took one look at me and said, “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Oh nothing. I’ve just been wading through pools of psychological soup searching for abstract concepts.”

  “Are you… trying to figure out my sister’s emotions?” he asked.

  “I wish.” I plopped my butt down in the center of the floor. “At least with that, crying and yelling indicate something.”

  “Then what are you doing?”

  “I’m literally searching through living brains looking for where they remember their mana circulation system and spells. But magic happens in the subconscious, so no one’s like, Yeah, I circulate mana in the shape of a five point star, and rotate it eighteen degrees while pumping my hands to make shit explode.”

  “Wait, you’re literally searching through brains.”

  “Yeah… I’m a freak. Whatever.”

  “No… It’s just… you don’t hear that every day. And it’s just more like… is that… safe?”

  “Surprisingly,” I said. “I was worried I’d scramble SIna’s brains doing it, but she just claims it’s a bit uncomfortable, but not bad. It’s not fun. I’ll put it that way.”

  “Wait, you were experimenting on her?”

  “No…” I shook my head, taking a deep breath. “I know things now. There’s tens of millennia worth of… stuff in my head. A loose pile that’s not all related, not all useful… it’s missing gaps. But I know stuff. I knew I could do it, it’s just… weird. But yeah, I’d never experiment on someone living, let alone someone I love.”

  “Huh… Okay.” He looked like he wanted to say something, but he chose not to speak about it. Instead, he sat down and said, “Where do we start?”

  I pulled out a package of seeds. “I picked these up from the farmers. They’re mana seeds designed for crop enrichment. They’re way too weak, so we’re going to be bolstering them through a mixture of science and magic.”

  “That sounds… cool. Care to explain more? So I know what the goal is?”

  “Yeah, sure. Humans… aliens… beasts. Every entity with mana capabilities is born with a mana seed. It’s like a battery that attracts and absorbs mana. It’s rudimentary for humans. We can’t even use magic with it unless we establish a core. But for something as simple as a stalk of grain, it becomes a power repository. Mild at first…” I shook the bag of seeds. “But we can breed these plants to have unique traits that absorb more mana into the edible portions, and absorb aura and neara from dead beasts. That’s what we’re doing. We’re going to find seeds that can intake mana without exploding, and breed them with other plants that have those traits. I’ll then isolate those genes responsible and use magic to modify them, create something new, and then breed that with other plants.”

  “Whoa…. That’s cool but…” He looked at the seeds in the bag. “Aren’t those the same seeds?”

  “Yes, they are. That’s a limitation. That said, mana seeds aren’t like normal seeds. According to the guide, they’re pre-primed with a mana circulation technique that’s pre-approved and proven to grow. We’re destroying that and putting in new circulation techniques. By doing so, the plant evolves to match the new situation. So, in essence, you’ll be creating a new plant with every circulation blueprint. So your job is going to be to use a mana circulation technique on one hundred seeds a day, log exactly what you did, and then do another one hundred seeds with another technique and log that, too. You’ll do that every day until the nucleus is proven to grow in more than thirty percent of the seeds with the technique, and then you’ll replicate what you did.”

  “You mean the circulation technique.”

  “Yes, the circulation technique. When you create a nuanced circulation technique, you need to be able to replicate it later.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, I’m serious. You are going to have the profound joy of doing the same thing thousands of times and recreating it in periodic intervals ad infinitum.”

  He chuckled toward the ceiling. “So this is punishment.”

  “No. It’s science. Everyone loves it until they have to do it. Now let’s get started.”