THE REINS CHRONICLES

AFTER arriving at the Main Hall, Jasmine took Mac to the top floor, where the Keeper's office was. Stephanie was waiting for them there, with a pleasant smile on her face.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Mac," she said, beaming, "I knew your father well,"

"Then you knew him better than I did," Mac retorted tersely, taking a seat without being offered, "why am I here, anyway?"

"Well, I've been looking for you for a while now actually," Stephanie said, eyeing her, "you're a biotic like your father, right? That's a rare innate talent, there aren't that many of you left. I owed your father from back in the day, so I want to bring you into the fold, so to speak."

Jasmine observed Mac curiously. She'd heard of biotics before; magi with a natural affinity for carnomancy, the manipulation of flesh. Supposedly, they made the best healers and patch-men, but there were so few remaining biotics left in the world, after being hunted almost to extinction for their blood, which was rumored to have restorative properties.

"So that's it, huh?" Mac said, "You felt bad because my old man is dead, so you decided to treat me as some sort of charity case to make yourself feel better?"

Stephanie just sat back in her chair, her face unreadable, "Basically? Yeah, that's right." she shrugged, "The point of the matter is, you probably don't know what you're capable of as a biotic, and we could certainly benefit from having one on our side."

Mac just glared at Stephanie,

"Take it or leave it kid," the Keeper told her, "I don't care if you hate or resent me, life in here is a hell of a lot better than life out on the streets. Trust me on that."

"Fine," Mac growled, "May I be excused?"

"Sure," Stephanie said, "I'll have someone help you get settled in."

Once Mac left, Jasmine was held back to have a private conversation with Stephanie.

"I need the details of your encounter with these scarecrows you mentioned." Stephanie said as Jasmine took a seat across from her.

"Well, they were like nothing I've encountered before." Jasmine said, "They were precise, skilled and ruthless. Honestly, if Ryan wasn't there, I'm not sure I would've made it."

"And how is Ryan?" she asked curiously

"He's off somehow," Jasmine said,"I think he's still dealing with Christie's death. I'm not sure he's even aware of it himself."

"I see." Stephanie sighed, "it's been six months, he's usually so detached about things like loss and grief."

"Also," Jasmine added

"What?"

"Well, first off; the two scarecrows both possessed mystic gears; a needler with a poisoned blade and a cleaver that could cut through anything."

"Interesting," Stephanie said, "Viper's Pure Thorn, and Edgesplitter's Serenity? To think two of the 10 Commandments would show up in the hands of a couple of homicidal scarecrows?" 

The 10 Commandments series were the most infamous collection of mystic gear in the world. Created by the legendary build-master Tomar Reins himself, they were said to be the ultimate magikal conduits. Until today, only four of them were known to still exist.

"What else?"

"They were after Ryan, they kept demanding the pureblood."

Stephanie looked troubled, she tapped on her tablet and it beeped as the windows clouded over and the doors locked. Jasmine knew of the privacy mode of the Keeper's office that kept everything that went on inside absolutely private. She wandered what sort of headache she was about to be dragged into.

"Jasmine, what I am about to tell you is highly classified," Stephanie said, "I'm trusting you that it will stay between us,"

"Yes ma'am." Jasmine gulped

"For months now, Keepers at other branches have been having a reoccurring problem; purebloods have been going missing. They're attacked without any warning, and anyone who was around them at the time, ranger or civilian, were killed." Stephanie said,

"You think the scarecrows that attacked us have something to do with that?"

"I think so, yes, there weren't any survivors or witnesses at any of these attacks, and not all the purebloods were actively affiliated with ARGUS, but they all have some relation to the 47 noble Houses, from branch families. So far there's been about a dozen or so of these incidents. Are you sure these were real scarecrows and not just some impersonators?"

Jasmine shook her head, "They were definitely ARGUS scarecrows, their skills, tactics and aptitude, they were specifically tailored to counter combat-trained magi. Do you think that another branch is behind this?"

"There's no other explanation for why covert ops specialists trained in anti-Ranger warfare would go around kidnapping purebloods." Stephanie said, then, she looked at Jasmine, "Jasmine, I am hereby assigning you a priority 1 assignment; watch Ryan closely. No doubt, these scarecrows will come after him again."

"Protection detail?" Jasmine whined, "can't you get someone else for that?"

"I need one of my best on this one, and that's you." Stephanie said, "and if it helps, this wasn't a request."

"Yes ma'am," Jasmine sighed begrudgingly,

As Jasmine got up to leave, she recalled something, "Oh, before I forget, when we took them down, they turned out to be some kind of substitutes, I managed to get a sample because they weren't ordinary blanks, and also their weapons were nowhere to be found afterwards."

"Okay, take it to the research department for analysis."

"Will do," Jasmine said, while still waiting in the office.

"Was that all?" Stephanie asked

"Yes…" Jasmine hesitated

"What else?" Stephanie urged

"One of them told me that my eyes were some sort of magik gift," Jasmine stated, "Do you know anything about it, ma'am?"

"I suspected; golden eyes aren't exactly common, even for us." Stephanie said, "Though I'm not very familiar with ocular gifts, so I can't really identify them. I'll look into it,"

"Okay, thank you, ma'am," Jasmine said as she left.

Sometime later, G came knocking on the Keeper's door, "I have some concerns," he said as soon as he sat down,

"I bet you do," Stephanie sighed,

"What's the deal with the Torris kid?" the animated skeleton asked, "why send Jasmine and Ryan after her?"

"I've been looking for the Torris family for some time now; a small family of biotics that had survived outside of ARGUS's radar for decades, which is not an easy feat. Her father was… let's call him an old acquaintance from back in the day. I owed him a debt, so I want to look out for his family." Stephanie said,

"But?" G continues

"Trouble was, I hadn't heard anything about his family in a while, then all of a sudden we pick up an anonymous tip and after a bit of digging I stumble on a child of the Torris family at a street sanctuary three months ago. Too good a chance to pass up… but also too good to be true."

"So you think someone's running her?" G asked

"It wouldn't be the first time a street kid infiltrated this sanctum with ulterior motives." Stephanie replied, giving G a mischievous grin, "Look into the sanctuary, I want to know how she got there, and what happened to her family."

"Will do," G said as he sprang to his feet

… )]≥( …

Elsewhere in the 45th sanctum, Ryan had gone to the workshops to meet with the forge master, Mas.

"Ryan? What're ya doin here? D'ya need sumthin'?" the old man said

"Hey Mas, what do you know about mystic gears?" Ryan asked

"Myst'c ge'rs?" Mas said, "True mast'rpieces; da greatest comb'nation of magik 'n' craftsmanship. Why?"

"Can they cut through dragon scale?"

"Dragon leather's highly durable, but it ain't indestructible."

"Really? Well, that's a fun thing to think about the next time I try to block a stab with my arm." Ryan shuddered, "Also, did you know that Draxonn was a mystic gear?"

"Ya mean y'didn't?" Mas asked dumbfounded, "My lords, Ryan, yer oblivious. Hand me da byrd."

"Why?"

"Because knowing you, you still don't know its matrix."

Ryan drew Draxonn and handed it over to the old man, who then placed it in a scanner. Readouts came onto the monitor beside it.

"Da first myst'c ge'rs were designed by yer ancestor, Tomar Reins, who created da Foundry. He used all sorts o' rare material when making his myst'c ge'rs, rumor was he used chaos matter in da byrds. Each byrd only needed a small bit of chaos matter for da core so it can shape-shift, but Draxonn is 100% Night iron, meaning yer sword is a one-o'-a-kind marvel."

"Was chaos matter that powerful?" Ryan wondered

"Ya kiddin'? It was one of da greatest materials to work with, but was almost impossible to come across, not to mention tempering it required absolute skill. It was said dat Tomar made so many byrds in his time, he used up all da chaos matter, which may be why no new byrds have ever been made in a thousand years."

"They haven't?"

"Nope, we just take old byrds and reforge 'em, which also takes great skill."

Mas took the byrd out of the scanner and held it in his hands with great reverence, "Da thing dat makes a myst'c ge'r so special though, is de fact dat they're designed to have their own network of magik within dem. They have a magik web."

"How's that possible, I thought only living things had magik webs." Ryan said

"Myst'c ge'rs have artificial versions of dem; da magik combines with da wielders, so da ge'r becomes an extension of them." Mas said. "dat's why da gear chooses its user."

"Whoa" Ryan said

"Yer sword seems to be a sort of mystic gear prototype, from my best guess." Mass said as he tossed Draxonn back to Ryan, "Dat's a piece o' history in yer hands right there, treat 'er right,"

"Okay, thanks old man." Ryan shrank Draxonn and put it away, then, he left the forges.

… )]≥( …

Ryan went back to his room, which had remained without a roommate for months. On the floor close to the bathroom was a large bundle of sheets where Ryan's pet schadenkhat, Riot, was snoozing. In just six months, she was no longer just a cub, and she was getting bigger every week; pretty soon she'd be too big to sleep in the residence. She now resembled her parent more, only much smaller, about the size of a Great Dane with a long slender body with elongated limbs, her forelimbs were now thicker than her hind legs with larger paws, and her long tail swished behind her. Her fur was black with silvery fringes, while her face was stark white, almost like bone, which made her large blue eyes that shimmered in the dark all the more prominent on her face. Two small horns jutted out from her head before her large mane of pitch black fur that looked like it was made of living shadows.

Riot had become popular around the dorm… well, more so infamous; she was very testy around people, and would allow only a select few to approach her without snarling or growling… or setting things on fire. One guy even lost a finger because he got too familiar to quickly. Obviously he wasn't a cat person. 

As Ryan laid on his bed, he instantly found himself dozing off, that's when a chilling voice caught his attention.

"Wake up, Ryan!" it said

He got up off his bed, instantly alert, "It's you again."

"I'm relieved that you remember me,"

"Hard to forget, you've only been bugging me for months since the Graveyard Island," Ryan said, "What are you? What do you want?"

The voice laughed, "Isn't it obvious… come to think of it, I never did introduce myself, did I? Well, I know we always liked the name Drake, sounds cool with just the right amount of menace. You're Ryan Reins, so does that makes me Drake Reins? No, that doesn't sound right, not dark enough… it needs to be something that chills the blood..."

"Darkblood?" Ryan offered

"There we go! Drake Darkblood, I like it." the newly named Drake said, "nice and alliterative, just like yours."

"Okay, Drake, where are you?" Ryan asked, looking around

"Just follow my voice." Drake replied

Ryan followed it to the bathroom, but when he got there, he slipped on a shirt and fell, head-first on the toilet, striking the side of his face. As he held his face in pain, he noticed the instead of blood, pieces of his face were falling off, like an eggshell.

Ryan got up to look at the mirror and was shocked by what he saw.

"We're the same, you and I," Drake said, "We might as well be two peas in a pod!"

In the mirror, where his face was hit was cracked open like an egg, and underneath, was another face. Almost exactly like Ryan's but the skin was pale and lifeless, the hair was dark ash gray and the eyes were blood red. This was the face of Drake Darkblood.

His mouth was curled into a menacing smile, "Like looking in a mirror, huh?"

Ryan woke up with a jump, to a knocking on his door. It was all a dream, thank goodness. He ran to the bathroom to look at his face, it was still his. He breathed a sigh of relief, then realized that there was still knocking on the door.

He opened it to see Jasmine, she looked different; more mellow, wearing blue jeans, sneakers and the same Christmas sweater from before.

"good morning," she said

"Yeah, what?" Ryan asked, wandering how long he was out.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine," he replied, "Just having some bad dreams."

"Well, I thought you needed a bit of company,"

He raised an eyebrow, "You're being nice, why? Are you dying? Am I dying?"

"No, you're good." She said, "It's just, you've been in a funk for a while, and we could both use a bit of socializing."

"Okay, I'm definitely dying." Ryan said with skeptical eyes,

"Fine, your aunt ordered me to check up on you." Jasmine said with folded arms

"Ah, there it is, the truth at last." Ryan smirked, "C'mon in."

She entered the room and went over to the TV, removing the shirt strewn across it.

"Ryan, this place is a pig sty, you need to clean up." Jasmine complained

"I'm always meaning to, just never get to it." He replies from the bathroom, "besides; that pile of laundry has sorta become Riot's permanent bed."

"And there are no Christmas decorations,"

"I'm not too big on Christmas,"

"Why not?" 

"My parents died on my first Christmas, for starters." Ryan said coming out of the bathroom.

"I… I don't know how to respond to that."

"Yeah, let's just say Christmas stirs up a lot of… unfestive feelings for me."

"Okay, Ryan, I was just planning on hanging out here for a while, but you need to cheer up, you need to go out."

"But I just wanted to lay here and sleep 'till new year." Ryan moaned

"Well too bad, you are going to enjoy Christmas."

"Do I have to?" Ryan pleaded, "I'd rather pick my teeth with Draxonn." 

Jasmine had to forcefully drag Ryan from his room.

"Why are you so cheery about Christmas anyway, don't you see the evil it promotes?"

"What evil?" Jasmine asked, "Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It's a time when kids can believe in a more magical world with Santa Claus."

"You mean lying to kids to believe in a fat old guy who watches them all year long like some creepy judgmental pedophile who also breaks into their homes at night?" Ryan said, "that sounds nightmare inducing."

"What about going to tree farms to pick out beautiful Christmas trees?"

"Deforestation. Trees give us oxygen, so cutting them down just to take home for one season then throw away, is a massive waste. We can only live if our planet does."

"Going out Christmas caroling with friends and family?" Jasmine suggested

"Who likes being disturbed at odd hours to listen to complete strangers singing old songs at their door? Think of the heating bill from keeping the door open that long."

"Having the family over for the holidays?"

"Let's be real here, everyone chooses to live apart all year-round for a reason; they can't stand to be around each other. So for them to pretend to be happy when they meet for the holidays is a joke. Families suck, no one can change that."

"What about-?" Jasmine started

"Overeating. Consumerism. Pressuring bad kids to pretend to behaved good for the sake of material reward, need I go on. Christmas sucks."

Jasmine punched Ryan in the arm, "You really enjoy taking the fun out Christmas don't you?"

"I can't help it if I'm right. Christmas only seems fun on the surface, but once you take a good long look at it, you see it for the evil it truly is."

"How can you be so negative?"

"Well, I guess it's because no one actually taught me how to love Christmas. Stephanie was always busy during the holidays and was hardly ever around, so I'd stay at a friends' house, and he's Jewish, so the two of us had this tradition of doing all the worst stuff during Christmas, just to prove how stupid it was."

"Wow, that's just sad," Jasmine said shaking her head, "I'm sorry for you."

"I'm not," Ryan said, smirking, "this one time, we raided the girls…" he stopped when he realized who he was talking to.

"Go on." Jasmine said with a raised eyebrow, "you raided the girls what?"

"Oh look," Ryan declared, gesturing to the mess, "food."

Jasmine shook her head as he went for the mess.

Once there, they saw that the buffet table was full of steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

"Aha," Jasmine said grabbing a mug, "what about hot chocolate?"

"Well, there is nothing wrong with hot chocolate." Ryan admitted, and while Jasmine was mid victory, he added, "but hot chocolate isn't exclusively associated with Christmas."

"But-"

"Eggnog however, is only associated with Christmas, and why would people want to indulge in a beverage consisting of raw egg as an active ingredient?"

"Shut up." Jasmine said

Their stroll led them to the arena, where an all-girl combat class was taking place for new initiates.

"Hello ladies," Ryan said from the stands.

"Ryan, stop distracting them." Jasmine cautioned

The instructor came up to them, "Jasmine, do you think you can give me a hand?"

"Sorry, I'm off duty. Why doesn't Ryan go instead?"

"Come again?" Ryan asked

"You heard me, prodigy," Jasmine said while smirking, "go and assist the instructor with her class."

"Um, okay." The instructor said, "Ryan, you're pretty good a fighting, right?"

"Pretty good?" Ryan asked feigning offence, "I am exceptional."

"Okay Mr. exceptional, c'mon and give us a hand." She said,

Ryan got up from the stands and jumped over the railing onto the dirt of the arena floor,

"Alright now ladies," the instructor said, "which one of you thinks they can go one on one with Ryan here?"

A girl raised her hand and stepped out, Ryan saw that it was Mac.

"Alright, new girl, step forward," the instructor ordered

Both of them stepped forward

"You really think you're good enough to take me on so soon?" Ryan asked

Mac scoffed, "From what I hear, I can do it with one arm tied behind my back,"

"Ouch, at least you got the trash talk down."

The instructor gave the start signal and Mac charged. She threw a punch aimed at Ryan's head, but he easily dodged, Mac kept up her attacks, incorporating jabs and kicks into her offence and Ryan was too focused on defending against her attacks to launch his own.

"Someone's been practicing," Ryan commented surprised, she was more skilled than he'd assumed.

"I've always held my own in a fight," Mac said breathing hard, "but I wouldn't call this a fight, you've barely thrown a single punch,"

"Yeah, you've kinda been keeping me busy," Ryan said

"What? Scared to hit a girl?" Mac taunted

"Nah, my aunt taught me not to see gender in a fight." Ryan said, before he lunged forward and socked her in the face with a right hook. She stumbled backwards a bit

"Damn, homeboy came to throw hands," Mac grinned, massaging her punched cheek

The instructor interrupted their conversation with a loud whistle, "this is getting boring," she said, "let's spice this up a bit,"

"You can't mean weapons sparring," Jasmine said from the stands, "Ryan is too much of a cheater,"

"Hey," Ryan protested

"Of course not," the instructor said, "I would never inflict that on initiates, but we will go magik free. I want to see some casting added to your fight,"

"Oh, I'm fine with that," Jasmine said, "Ryan's basically a novice when it comes to magik casting,"

"Hey," Ryan protested again, "I can hear all the hurtful things you're saying."

The two combatants squared off again, Mac took a pose and then launched herself at Ryan too fast for him to dodge, he pulled his arms in front of him to block her onslaught that still sent him stumbling back,

"What kind of magik was that?" Ryan asked as he shook his arms to get feeling back into them,

"Mac here is an internalist, specifically she can use carnomancy," the instructor said, "while I've never really seen it used outside of hospitals and labs, she does have a good grasp on its combat applications' reinforcing her own arms beyond what a typical magus can do."

"Really?" Ryan said, remembering when Mac healed Jasmine. There was more to it than just that.

"When am I going to see some of that Reins magik of yours?" Mac taunted

"I'm not like you, I need a little warm-up first," Ryan said as he lunged at her, grabbing her by the collar and flipping her over his shoulder, "Thank two years of middle school judo for that,"

"Not bad," Mac stated, unfazed by Ryan's attack, "but it isn't much good without a follow-up?"

"Yeah, that's what my middle school judo teacher used to tell me," Ryan said, "never could remember what came after,"

"Then let me teach you," Mac said as she charged him. The two of them danced around for a bit following a pattern of attacks, blocks and returns.

"Nice one, Ryan," the instructor said, "but that's a little subtle don't you think? I want to see a real fight."

"Only if you're up for it, Mac," Ryan said

She smiled, "Bring it. I can take anything you got."

"You might regret that," Ryan commented.

Ryan charged at her full force, when they met, a glyph glowed over Ryan's hand,

Lightning type; Thunderbolt!

Mac cried in pain as both of them were electrocuted. She stumbled back and was blasted with another electrified punch that send her doubling back.

She got up, glaring at him menacingly with smoke wafting from her burnt hair, then she attacked again, as Ryan deflected one attack, she followed up immediately with another, she created a glyph in her palm,

She jabbed the glyph into Ryan's exposed side and he stumbled back, dazed.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Mac said triumphantly as she backed away.

Ryan looked around, confused, swinging punches wildly at nothing.

"Ryan?" Mac asked confused.

Then, he dropped to one knee and grabbed the left side of his face, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, his body crackling with red lightning.

Mac tried to help him, but he held his hand up to her, "Mac, stay back!"

She froze when she saw that his left eye was bleeding and was red instead of blue.

A dark aura engulfed him as red and blue lightning continued to crackle around his body. He screamed in agony, dropping to his knees.

"Ryan!" Mac yelled as the dark aura grew.

"Get back!" Jasmine ordered, as she had her crossbow in her arm, took aim, and shot a bolt square in Ryan's chest.

He fell backwards, the aura around him dissipated and the tears of blood running down his face faded.

Jasmine ran to Ryan's side, "Someone, get a healer!"

… )]≥( …

Elsewhere, Mika and Seraz joined with Ramsey, Kraw and Ronan in a room.

"We're back." Seraz announced

"How did it go?" Ramsey asked

"Unfortunately, the pureblood eluded us," Mika said, "with the White Fang's intervention. Though she'll no longer pose a problem for us."

"Yeah," Seraz said, "and he has a special talent; lightning magik."

"Interesting." the one named Ronan said

"And we marked him." Seraz said, "even if shadowing him failed, we'll know exactly where he is."

Then, a monitor buzzed to life and a figure hidden in shadows appeared.

"Master." Ramsey said as they all bowed

"Ramsey, how goes the hunt?" the figure asked

"Master, we are in pursuit of the pureblood Reins as we speak. There is nowhere he can hide from us."

"Good work. The Reins boy should be under the custody of the forty-fifth's Keeper. She is not someone to be taken lightly."

"Yes sir."

"And, what of the artifact?"

Ramsey hesitates, "We have yet to identify any in his possession."

"Ramsey, before their fall, the Reins family was once one of the mightiest families in magus history, with more knowledge and resources gathered over centuries than nearly anyone else. If the forty-fifth has been hiding him for nearly two decades then they may bbe hiding more than just some pubescent brat. I expect results."

"As you will," Ramsey stated as the screen went dead and the man was gone.

… )]≥( …

Back at the 45th sanctum, Stephanie rushed into the medical building, where she met Jasmine in the reception.

"Jasmine, what happened?" she asks

"I don't know," Jasmine said, "Ryan was just playing around, sparring with Mac, she hit him with some kind of seal and then he went crazy."

"What kind of seal was it?"

"I'm not sure, I think it may have been some sort of magik disruptor." Jasmine said, "It was something like this,"

She drew out the glyph she remembered seeing before

"Oh no," Stephanie gasped, "Of course, she's a biotic. I should have expected this, I should have prepared for it."

"Stephanie, what is it?" Jasmine asked

"Ryan has a life seal placed on him placed by his mother." Stephanie whispered to her, after taking her aside.

"A life seal?" A life seal was essentially a curse, it was mostly deemed theoretical by the arkans, as its true function, the manipulation of souls, was believed to truly be impossible.

Stephanie nodded, "The life seal formula my sister put on her son was very unique, known by only her, it's entwined with Ryan's magik source in a very permanent way. If that becomes disrupted, the seal is affected."

"And that's what happens when the seal fluctuates?" Jasmine asked, "if I hadn't shot him, what would have happened?"

"If it ever malfunctioned, a failsafe Julia built into the sigil would have activated without issue to resolve the problem."

Jasmine wandered if that was what she saw all those months ago in the cave with the Pure One.

A healer walked towards them, "We've stabilized him, and the life seal has been fully stabilized."

"That's good," Stephanie said, "just to be safe, I think you should add a counter-agent for magik disrupters."

"Unfortunately the sigil is very complex," the healer said, "we don't have a specialized enough scribe to alter the inscriptions."

"Do what you can." Stephanie said, "please,"

"Very well, Keeper Fairchylde." The healer walked away

"Ma'am?" Jasmine asked

"Yes Jasmine?"

"I was wandering, if I'm watching Ryan, who's going to replace me to follow you to the summit."

"No one, you're still coming with me." Stephanie said, "And I could also use this as an opportunity to get Ryan situated as the beneficiary of the Reins legacy."

"The politics of nobility sounds tough," Jasmine noted from how exasperated Stephanie looked.

"You have no idea." Stephanie scoffed.

A short time later, Ryan comes to in the medical ward, Stephanie and Jasmine standing at the foot of his bed.

"We have got to stop meeting like this." Ryan said grinning

"It's just the second time." Stephanie laughed

"Exactly, so we should quit while we're ahead." He said, "I might actually end up dead the next time,"

"Here's hoping," Jasmine murmurs, receiving an elbow from her Keeper. "Uh, anyway, h-how are you feeling?"

"Like I just got shot in the chest with an arrow." Ryan groaned as he sat up, "Thanks for that, by the way. Now I can cross that off my bucket list."

"No problem, I've always wanted to shoot you." Jasmine said, "so you seemed pretty out of it, did you see something?"

"Nope," Ryan said, obviously lying, but why?

Ryan got up, "Well, I'm going to see what the mess has in terms of beverages because I can taste things I probably shouldn't."

"You shouldn't be getting out of bed so soon," Jasmine protested

"It's fine," the healer said

Stephanie stopped them as they were leaving, "I have a question for you Ryan,"

"Okay?"

"How would you feel about accompanying me to the Keeper's summit?"

Ryan paused and looked at her, "You're serious? Me?"

Stephanie nodded, "You've been a magus for about six months now, I think it's time for your social debut as the heir to the Reins."

Ryan looked conflicted, "Honestly, I was looking forward to going to the Expo,"

"Well the Keeper's summit takes place in the first branch."

"I know, Jasmine already told me."

"Did she also tell you that the entire city is on a floating island?"

"No, she didn't mention that," Ryan said, "The city flies?"

"It certainly does." Stephanie said, grinning mischievously

Ryan sighed, "When you smile like that, I always get antsy. Alright, I'll follow you to the 1st branch, but it better not be boring."

"No promises. See you around." Stephanie said and with that, she left.