Back to the Party

Peter and Arholo were sitting together fighting in whispered tones.

"Yeh tell her ye cowardly Fae," Arholo said.

"No she can hurt me, too," Peter replied shoving the wing bearing his scar in his face.

"Better for ye to lose a wing than for meh to mah head," Arholo said touching the top of his head for effect.

"We will just have to tell her together then," Peter said crossing his arms.

"When?," Arholo asked looking over at Jessica flying around keeping the event running smoothly.

"We have to do it soon. The longer we wait, the more likely she is to attack us," Peter said with a twinge of fear in voice.

"Let's do it her' she won' kill us in front'a her parents," Arholo said in a tone that you could tell he thought he was just so smart.

"Her parents will help her," Peter replied shaking his head.

"Nah Mrs. Strongwell, she would defend us I am sur' of it," Arholo said standing to his feet.

He waved his arms to call Jessica over. She spotted him and gave him the 1 second finger signal. After she finished helping a child select the right icecream for herself she walked over to her boys. She smiled brightly and hugged them feeling relieved to finally have allies and get closer to a plan.

"Hey boys, are you enjoying the festivities?," she asked clearly distracted. Normally she could do 10 things at once without breaking her concentration but at this particular moment she was handling a great many more things than normal because this was an unplanned event and she had taken it upon herself to make things run smoothly. "Attention everyone," she called out using a crowd mega phone spell, "Keep it going and all that but there is another storm coming that will hit this area in about an hour. Please set up protective rain gear for your stalls and businesses." There were already shirts of what was now being called The First Ritual available to purchase. Jessica had bought one with a picture of her being stuck by lighting and was proudly wearing it.

"Ar' ya wearing a picture ah 'urself?," Arholo asked her amused his smile not quite hidden under his beard.

"Screw you, if it was anyone else I would buy it why shouldn't I wear a picture of myself if it looks this cool?" She replied twirling around.

"Look, Jessica, there is something we need to tell you," Peter started.

"Is it something that I will feel the need to take care of right away?," Jessica asked looking him in the eye.

"Ya tit is tit is," Arholo said.

"Then wait until I am not running a fucking metropolitan cities worth of people to tell me," Jessica stated and flew off to go help some people who seemed to be struggling with a broken holo umbrella. Peter tried to called after her and began to shake his head defeatly. Arholo was in shock she had never walked away before gathering data that was to offered her. She was actually more distracted by the screen that only she could see reviewing the stats of the people she had just met with. Suddenly her eyes did the gleam thing a quick flash of gold light starting from the right to left blink and you will miss it fast. She cast a quick spell and suddenly all of the tables were covered by floating dome shaped roofs. That way it was like each table had an umbrella and they were clear and not going to distract anyone from the coming storm.

About an hour later the committee had finally found enough event coordinators and they started taking over and she them told them the umbrellas would dissipate in 24 hours.

She went back to M.U.G. and built something that no one on Karth would have thought possible. She received the title Path Maker for it she quickly worked to build a 4 more the entire process taking about 4 hours. She had been itching to go back and do this since she used the spell on the telepad and gained new insight into the spell running it.

"Hey Q's," she greeted the Fae as they entered her shop.

"Hi Jessica," they said in unison waving their hands it an upward motion and covering them in a time bubble. This spell intrigued Jessica and she could see to the rest of the world was paused and the three of them were standing free outside of the normal flow or time.

"So you two know time magic too?," She asked impressed.

"Tell us what you know," They asked her in very nearly her own language just a few cycles behind.

"That's right you three actually bothered to learn shit in the past 5 thousand cycles," Jessica replied in her own tongue. She told them about her theroy's and the people she had met with. They agreed to take two of the three remaining seats on committee. They would actually volunteer sighting the recent events as reason for them to step up. She asked if they knew of one more. Quickly realizing that would make their brother flash through their minds she bowed and said sorry. They waved off her apology and said there was a female Fae they suspected could help. They called her with their minds and discovered she was standing outside. They returned to their original positions and dropped the time bubble. Jessica began to show them the device and the other Fae entered. She cast a time sphere this time and spoke in Jessica's exact tongue.

She didn't bother to ask what Jessica knew she asked, "How many?"

"10 one is still a child," Jessica replied.

"Then I will take the final committee seat. We can be the ones who put to vote the child take the internship."

"You can reveal how closely he guessed the for the contest," Jessica replied, "He is actually from your family. It is Jimmy he even knew it would buzz to tell the person to stop holding back."

"Jimmy did that?," the Fae said suddenly speaking English looking surprised, "But he is such a little shit."

They all started laughing at her and soon she joined them. Having settled the plans they resumed normal time. They spent a few minutes exchanging pleasantries. Jessica showed them the devices she had made and whispered into their ears what they were for. Hearing what they could do each of the Fae's eyes twinkled a little.

She asked them for help to set them up and each of the Fae agreed taking one of the devices. They helped her put the other two on holo lifts and they went outside.

She got to work setting up the first one. Taking one of the devices she placed in the center of the circle. She open the side of the 2 meter by 2 meter square metal box and pulled out long cables from inside. She then laid the cables across the telepad so that they reached from the center of the large stone pad to the outer ring. They Fae watched carefully where she placed them so they could copy the pattern on the other telepads. She then pulled out her wand and slashed it down calling out, "Embed." The spell she used caused the cables to phaze the down into the stone.

The Q's looked shocked she hadn't used phazing magic that often and it still freaked them out that she could. She looked over at them and winked as she put the wand away.

"Have you guys seen the spell enough by now or do you need me to tell how to properly phaze?," Jessica said a smirk on her face.

"Just" "tell" "us" the Q's passed the sentence back and forth and the female Fae joined them when they said 'us'.

"Ok I am starting to figure out why Peter finds that creepy," Jessica said getting a chill down her spine when a non Q joined their doublespeak. She shook her head and walked over to them. The joined hands in a circle and Jessica linked her mind with theirs and carefully opened it to allow them to see how to phaze. She didn't have an exact understanding of it because she had done it on instinct the first time but the emotions behind the unique magic and how it felt to use it was a clear way for them to understand and be able to complete the spell on their own.

She could see them itching to try it now and said, "Hang on I have to check that it worked on this one. She went to the box and placed her hand on the top.

A screen appeared above it:

1 steel bar will power this pad to transport 10 people

If you are using leftover magic from someone else's steel bar please select from these charities to donate a suggested donation of 1 Nickel too

There was a list of 5 charities to choose from and the last one was a jab from Jessica to the former chairman it was called New hair for the fat bastard (money from this charity is actually given to the newly found Archaeology workshop to provide unpacking to struggling families for free) Jessica relaxed a bit. Now that she wasn't going to be going on bonused out quests anymore she needed some way of covering that expense.

Please select a destination:

This was followed by a list of all 25 of the telepads currently place around Karth including the one on the space station.

Jessica nodded satisfied. She then looked at the box and her smile fell into a frown.

"Is something wrong with it?," the female Fae called out.

Jessica shook her head then nodded, "It is functioning properly but now that it is on the pad I am starting to realize I chose function over form."

The Q's began laughing. She was right of course that the box did look silly.

"Can you reshape it without changing the magic?," the Q's asked when they had settled a little.

Jessica's eyes flashed this time quickly around the rims of irises. The 3 Fae who had started to approach her unfurled their wings and back away slightly off the ground. Jessica pulled out her wand and reached into her everbag. She pulled out her hand mirror. She held the shape of its frame in her mind and pointed her wand at the metal box. "Mimic"

The metal turned to liquid for a few seconds and then copied the handle of the mirror as its base and the upper frame on top, the center where the mirror would be was hollow except that since she had activated it the screen was open there. It moved the insert slot to just below the screen. When it finished moving around and was settled completely Jessica looked back at the Fae and smiled.

"What do you guys think? Will that work?," she asked. They moved forward again and landed next to her. The female Fae took the mirror from her and took pictures of it from ever angle and forward them to the Q's. Jessica was still waiting for an answer. She tapped her foot and blew out a loud breath of air.

The Fae looked at her annoyed expression confused. Jessica pointed at the machine and looked at them bulging her eyes.

"Yes it looks great," they said in unison.

"Mae the Fae stop talking with the Q's," Jessica said as another chill went up her spine. She had never had a problem when the Q's talked together it was having a different voice in the mix that was bothering her.

Mae laughed and said, "Sorry I didn't mean to that time. I promise."

"Are you sure that the magic isn't affected by the remodel?" The Q on the left asked.

Jessica nodded, "The size was mostly to keep all of the cable inside of it. I made it thinner so it wouldn't be as heavy and the flow of the spells inside are basically like a liquid they can take the shape of the container." As she told them this she doubled checked the code and spell on the screen then closed her admin menu and set it back to public use.

The fae took the ones they were carrying to New Japan, Main MOON city, Main STAR city and Jessica took the last one to the island that had all of the people still on it. She set it up and did a quick blurb into camera.

"Magic users can still use their own power but everyone else has been having to use the old systems like planes and shit and lets get real you never get anywhere waiting in an airport." She winked and walked away from the now functioning telepad. You could program a return trip for yourself from pads that didn't have one on it and even bring someone else back if you selected your options properly. So if the guys on the station wanted to order some food delivery person could port up and get back again and they could get to Karth if needed. She could have built more of these things if she felt the time was worth it but honestly the people of Karth were way better off today than yesterday and she was getting tired.

"Mommy," she said, hugging her mother who had been chatting with Harmon.

"Yes, Darling, I see you did a lot today we should go home and get you some rest," Mrs. Strongwell said to her daughter. Her father was holding a sleeping Amarilla so no free ride for Jessica from him. Harmon scooped her up eyeing the situation.

"Honestly, how is it that you are 17?," He joked with her.

"Hey if I live to be 250 I am still a big baby," she said wrapping her arms around his shoulders for the princess carry.

"Even when you are 250 you will still be MY baby," Mr. Strongwell said side eyeing the elf.

Jessica fell asleep on the way home and dreamed of flying over New Japan. The only one of her ancestors with her this time was Jesse Strongwell. He didn't say anything just hugged her and laughed with joy. She roused slightly when Harmon set her down outside of her room. Mr. Strongwell had given him strict instructions not to enter. She peeked out her eyes and made her way to her bed and flopped down onto it.

Purdy ran into the room past Harmon giving him a bit of a scare. Purdy turned back to Harmon without jumping on the bed. He yowled slightly looking at the elf who tilted his head not understanding what the cats problem was with him now. Purdy went it front of the closet and forced the sliding door open he looked at the elf and yowled again. Harmon spotted a large fluffy comforter on the top shelf from where he stood and finally understanding what the cat wanted he used a gentle wind spell to pull the comforter down and lay it over Jessica who was already sound asleep Purdy nodded and jumped onto the bed. When Harmon didn't leave right away the cat lifted his head again and hissed.

Guess I am dismissed, Harmon thought to himself and closed the door.

Jessica slept for 10 solid hours. Her dreams were of Karth finally being free of outside influence. The world was still not perfect but as close as anyone could dare to dream. She watched the people of Karth getting their magic back and it filled her heart with hope. She woke up the next morning more determined than ever to make that dream come true.