I pulled the book from my storage and noticed a lot of messages pop up in my vision. Looking down at the communication book, I saw a few new entries after my last one.

  D: Hey, I just found the book, are you okay?

  E: You didn’t know where it was?!

  E: I’ve gotten word that the Collector did an audit on the city crystal, they know someone took a lot of experience, was it you?

  E: Not mad, just impressed

  E: Did you lose the book again?

  E: Just found out you left town, be careful.

  E: There has to be something wrong with the book, I’ll ask my dad about it since he knows how these work better than I do.

  E: Do you have a communication trait? Dad says you have to have the book nearby to make use of it with that.

  E: Hopefully you get this, but someone is after one of your teammates, i’m going to look into it

  E: Calmar sent me a letter asking me to look into XGC for you, I don’t recommend poking them. A lot of their competition ‘disappears’ when things get too hard.

  E: I took a meeting with this guy, Jason Davids. He tried to get me sympathetic by complaining about you. He wants me to convince dad to overrule his father’s decision on inheritance. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him dad couldn’t do anything about it if he wanted to. The David’s are there due to a system appointment, not him. The shit had the audacity to call me useless in my own home.

  I saw the messages in the book matched what were in my system log. I responded through the system:

  Hey, I had the book in a Spatial Closet so I haven’t been getting any of these. I’m gonna leave it in my room from now on, should keep it working.

  I didn’t expect an answer right away as I put the book back on the shelf where I’d originally found it. If it hadn’t been a secret message book, I might’ve just left it on my desk, or maybe asked Calmar or Grimoire about how it worked. It seems like a design flaw to let me use it with system messages, but only near it.

  I got a new message.

  E: Probably a good idea. At least now I know I’m not crazy. Did you have anything to do with the massacre at the auction?

  I paused, considering what he wrote. How much do I trust him? Do I even want him involved? I decided on soft response.

  Severn just talked with me about that before I fell sick. Has anything happened with it?

  I avoided the question while still looking for more information. It wasn’t a lie, either.

  E: Apparently, there’s been a series of similar murders in the city. Not a lot of details going on, but the kill count is around 20 now.

  I blinked, heading for the training room to practice with the Shadowbolt wand. I’d have worked with the warhammer or halberd I’d bought, but after exploding someone’s head, I thought trying to adjust the output of the wand would be more beneficial. What if the bolt hadn’t been pointed at an angle going up? It could have hit Zaion…

  I responded to Elias’ message while I got ready for practice.

  That’s a lot. How much do they know about the murderer?

  I flicked my hand out, summoning the wand with Personal Armory. On a whim, I swapped them with the Bleedout Knuckles suddenly. They appeared in a moment. I struck out with a fist and then spun into a kick. As I was swinging my body around, I swapped the knuckles out for the warhammer. It crashed down with a heavy thunk, leaving a dent in the wood of the floor.

  I went through swapped into my sword and it wouldn’t swap. I blinked, looking down at the hammer. I moved my hands closer to the end of the handle, still trying to swap. When I reached the tip, it finally changed out hte hammer for the sword and I stared at it curiously. Would it be better to just, store the hammer and change position? I didn’t even really know why I was playing with this trait. I’d wanted to focus on the wand.

  I swapped back to the wand, I looked at the targets that I usually threw my knives at. Taking a deep breath, I started to pull on my mana, feeding it into the wand. The tip began to absorb the light surrounding it, creating a tiny sphere of dark. I aimed at the center of the target and stopped feeding it.

  A streak of darkness flashed forward, impacting the center of the target. It obliterated the target, sending wood and hay flying in every direction. I waved my hand as dust spread in the room and walked over to open a window. As I got it open, I heard someone laughing behind me. “Hi Deacon.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I won’t lie, that was impressive.” He said, still amused as he let out a sharp whistle. A gust of wind gathered all the dust and sent it out the window. I was still next to it and sputtered, coughing as it all flew past me, backing away to get out of the path.

  E: Small, possibly a gnome. Long hair. Green eyes. Not connected to a criminal organization.

  No shit. He probably hasn’t had time to. I thought as I waited for Deacon to finish. “Couldn’t you have waited till I was clear of the window?”

  “Probably. But I like messing with you.” Deacon admitted, walking over to take a better look at the target. “You’ll probably want a more durable target. Maybe the wooden dummies? Or some kind of stone instead of hay?”

  E: So, what do you know about them? I doubt Severn came to you for no reason. He’s an ass, but knows how to do his job.

  I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Deacon, how obvious is it that I’m connected to the incident at the warehouse?”

  “Very.” He said without missing a beat. “Not directly, but you definitely let the guy loose.”

  “Shit.” I muttered.

  “Why?” Deacon turned to look at me. “What’s going on?”

  I bit my lip, then looked at the door and the window with my eyes. Deacon sighed and whistled up the sound barrier. “You are paranoid.” He said.

  “I’m messaging Marquis Elias. He just asked what I know.” I told him without waiting.

  “Dani…” Deacon groaned, putting his head in his hands. “How?”

  “Message book in my room.” I admitted. “Apparently, we used to talk a lot.”

  “Of course.” He let out a long sigh. “Well, tell him whatever you want. The guards already have enough to slap you around legally.”

  I shrugged. “Alright.”

  I’m the one who set him free. I bought him and offered him a job before taking off the collar.

  “Told him. Let’s work on something we can control then.” I said, showing Deacon the wand. “What am I doing wrong?”

  Deacon looked like his brain was trying to shift gears to keep up with me, but they’d started grinding together instead of changing tracks. Something must have clicked into place, since he held his hand out for the wand. “Let me see it.”

  I handed it over and he took a look at the rather simple wand. “It’s not complicated. It gathers mana at the tip. Longer charge means more power. Show me how you’re using it.” He handed it back to me.

  I channeled some mana from myself into it and pointed it at the wooden mannequin. It had the same power as before, and when I released it the chest of the wooden mannequin ruptured, spraying wood fragments everywhere. There was another whistle as they were all caught in a gust of wind and safely deposited into a corner.

  “Okay, I see the problem. You’re using internal mana, which you don’t have enough finesse to power an external spell properly.” Deacon said, examining the damage to the mannequin. “Though that was a fast casting and will probably help in emergencies. The actual spell probably won’t activate that quickly.”

  “Wait, really?” I said as another message popped up. I ignored it for a moment. “Does the wand really help that much?”

  Deacon nodded, “There’s a reason most people serious about magic have wands or other foci. If I use my more destructive spells without my guitar, I have no way to adjust the intensity, up or down.”

  I thought back to the one time I’d seen him cast one of his more powerful spells. The adventurer had seemed to rot in seconds. I shuddered, “Point taken.”

  “Instead of feeding it mana, try to focus on casting it like your heal spell.” Deacon pointed at another mannequin. “And release it fast. If the dummy survives, keep practicing, otherwise it’ll have to wait for tomorrow when we go out.”

  I did as he asked, just trying to cast the spell without pushing mana from inside me into it. I felt the wand gather energy around it, the tiny dark sphere building slower. I released it and the bolt launched from the tip, slower than before. I could actually track it as the bolt impacted the center of the mannequin. It barely left a dent.

  “Good. Do it again.” Deacon said, motioning to it. “Keep going until you learn the spell, or the wand stops working.” He headed out of the room, and I felt the sound barrier dissipate. “Don’t be up too late.”

  E: Well, you might’ve done the city a service, since all the people he’s killed since the warehouse have had evidence of keeping children locked up and abused.

  Well, that’s a positive. I thought as I started practicing with the wand. As I did, I watched the percentage for the spell tick up slowly. It was trying to pay attention to how the spell worked, but it didn’t make sense. Heal didn’t make sense either, since all I did was say think about casting it and it worked. There weren’t any special tools, just activating the spell and it going.

  You mentioned Jason earlier. Is there anything you can do to get his accusations towards my friend discarded? I’m worried he’s going to try something.

  I tried to focus on the wand as the spell cast, and there wasn’t anything going on with it either. I turned Mana Sense up to try and get a better look, and all I saw was energy flowing into the wand and then the spell forming. There was nothing to copy or adjust. It didn’t make sense.

  E: I can see what I can do, but there aren’t a lot of strings I can pull. Was he the one behind the attacks on your friends?

  I sighed and turned Mana Sense back down. Trying to figure it out was just going to give me a headache right now. I’d probably have to talk with someone who studied magic if I wanted to make any progress. For now, just practicing it would be fine for my purpose.

  We think so. The current theory is he’s working with XGC somehow. It’s the only group that makes sense.

  I kept at it, and when the spell hit 100%, it added itself to my spell list. I lowered the wand and held my hand out. “Shadowbolt.” A wrist sized bolt of shadow leapt from my palm and hammered into the wooden dummy, knocking it over. It hadn’t done as much damage as the wand with internal mana, or looked like when it was normally cast with the wand.

  E: That’s not good. I’ll look into it, but make no promises.

  I clicked my tongue in annoyance and sighed. The sky had grown dark by the time I’d finished, and I was tired. Emotionally tired, unfortunately, which meant getting to sleep was going to be a pain. I thought about the flask Deacon had gotten me and pulled it out. My stomach still didn’t feel great, but I took a swig from it anyway.

  E: Sorry I can’t help more.

  I took a breath and let it out in a sigh.

  I’m trying all my options. Just trying is enough.

  It was true, even if I didn’t like it. Paige’s situation was a problem and I hadn’t even visited them to see how they were doing. I was looking forward to leaving the city again. Even if we weren’t going to help Melvin, I wanted to blow off some steam. Random violence seemed like a great stress release.

  Done with the wand, I used Personal Armory to make it disappear and took another swig from the flask. I looked around the training room and considered how I wanted to wear myself out to get to sleep, or try to use those cigarettes from Zeratus. My stomach still hadn’t stopped hurting, feeling like it was trying to tear itself apart… Wait…

  I did some math and swore under my breath. With some resignation, I broke out the cigarettes and headed for my room. “Probably going to find blood too. Stupid fucking…” I kept swearing as I asked a maid for some of the special tea I’d had last time I’d gotten cramps before lighting one of the cigarettes.

  I was not dealing with this sober.