Sometimes it feels like people don't understand the words coming out of your mouth, sometimes your right about that.. Events unfold including but not limited to: John playing spy (while still making time to get a good laugh in at Hannah's expense) And Hannah get's annoyed over language barriers.

 

“Hannah?”

I turned my head from Sarah’s shoulder slowly and sniffed a little.
Gran smiled at me in this strangely warm way, it kinda reminds me of the looks I get from Rosemary to be honest?

“Things getting a bit too much?”

Despite my reservations I nodded a little and pushed my cheek into Sarah’s shoulder a bit tighter.
Gran’s smile got slightly wider and she put a gentle hand on top of my head.

“Sarah, can you take her out into the yard for some fresh-air?”
She glanced around us a little and seemed to focus on the book I brought downstairs with me.
I cringed slightly at the curious look in her eyes.

..why did I bring that down?..

She’s going to be mad I was going to bring a book to this big family barbecue/weird festival thing isn’t she?.. Mum would be..
She’s always been big on not reading during ‘family time’.
She banned books from the dinner table when we were five or six.

..okay.. so that may have been mostly my fault?..
Would anyone who knew her REALLY even have CONSIDERED that a young Sarah could have POSSIBLY been the source of a family wide ban on reading books at the table?.. I certainly wouldn’t!

No offence to her of course.. she’s just not a ‘book’ kind of person.
Too much energy mixed with not enough patience.

“Come on Han.”
Sarah pushed her chair back a little and eased me off her shoulder.
I almost made a complaining whine but managed to hold it back at the last minute.

John shot a look at Sarah as she stood up.
For some reason he nodded to her before turning back to his half-full plate without looking at me in the slightest.
Sarah didn’t visibly seem to care what he was up to though.

At first I thought she hadn’t even noticed his nod but when she turned back to me I could tell that she was a little tense now by the tightness around her eyes.
She scooped up my book from the table without another word, taking my hand in hers and gently pulled me out of the room.

We’d barely gotten through the big wooden doors before the noise in the room behind us went up several levels.
I jerked my head back to stare at it but someone shut the door a moment later and the sound instantly disappeared.

They probably have some kind of silencing enchantment on the doors and walls.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they had them on other rooms in the house too.
It’s not a particularly hard set of runes to put down, even for a novice.

“Shouldn’t we see what that’s all about?”

Sarah led me to the front door and shot a glance over her shoulder before turning to answer me properly.
Her eyes still seem unusually tense for some reason.

“John’s got it covered, while you were out of it doing your writing thing on your glasses people started coming in for breakfast.”

She shot another look back into the house before closing the front door behind us and stepping carefully around the doormat.
I’m not sure why she bothered, I stepped on it and I’m perfectly fine, the sudden breeze of fresh air that came with the enchantment I put on it activating was rather refreshing honestly..

“Grace made a bit of a scene and seemed to be trying to get closer to you, the boy’s did too, from what we could pick up something happened last night that’s pretty major, involving you obviously.”
She sighed and ran her fingers through my hair, pulling me a bit closer to her as we walked.
“The moment they noticed me listening too closely all the conversations died out. John took the chance to insult me for being nosey and when I was busy getting angry at him he muttered that he’d find out what was going on so I should ‘just play along’.”
She winced a little this time.
“Then he laughed at me, and told the boy’s some embarrassing lies about me, I almost killed him before I realised that everyone was convinced we hated each other at that point.”

I perked an eyebrow up at her curiously.

“No I’m not going to tell you what he said, let’s just say that your ‘friend’ in there is VERY good at acting like an asshole for an audience..”
Her lip twitched a little in amusement.
“..you’d almost think it came naturally to him.”

I smirked this time.
That’s just the sort of thing I’d expect her to say.

While they don’t exactly ‘hate’ each other.. John and Sarah don’t particularly like each other either.

In school, while he professed his deep love for her at any chance he could get, he seemed to tolerate her for my sake more than anything.. although.. I guess he was really tolerating her because he figured she would become ‘Arista’ soon enough?
..that’s kind of depressing actually now that I think about it..

Sarah, in return, didn’t seem capable of acknowledging his existence.
She called him ‘Joe’ from the first day they met and refused to call him anything else until we graduated.
Looking at it objectively, I think she might have been a bit jealous of him honestly?

She’s never been good with people that become my friends.
She doesn’t get on with Fena and she’s hated Felicia since before I even MET her.

We stepped off the path and onto the grass without really noticing.
After my second step I froze and stared down at my feet.
Something was tickling the sides of my feet through my sandals..

..Grass apparently.. grass and flowers..

The odd thing about that would be the fact that there wasn’t much tall grass around this area; this is the ‘neatly trimmed’ part of their garden when compared to the untamed brush closer to the trees.

With an annoying amount of certainty about what I would find I slid my eyes behind me and groaned.

I’m leaving FOOTPRINTS!
Little, girly, fresh bloom of multi-colored flower filled footprints!

I jerked out of Sarah’s slight hug and staggered away from her a little but it didn’t help much.
Every step I took the grass around my foot would suddenly sprout up with life and color.

PERFECT!.. jus.. just BLOODY PERFECT!

This is what I get for trying to protect people from me!
I’m a bloody DISNEY character!

Snow white can sing to birds, Cinderella can talk to mice and I can grow plants by stepping on them!

“Han?”
Sarah sounded worried.
She took a step closer to me and I didn’t hesitate to lunge into her for a hug.

I buried my head in her chest and gave off one single sob before I could contain it.

It’s not fair!
I was normal damn it!

For one frustrating, pathetic, annoying, USELESS hour I was NORMAL!

Magic is one of the weirdest things in the world.
It’s confusing, it’s often stupid and it doesn’t seem to care about following silly things like ‘logic’.

I’ve not got any magic to use anymore!
That’s about as close to ‘normal’ as I’m ever going to get!

It’s not like I can just.. just TEAR my core out or something!

I’m doing this to protect Sarah and everyone else from me but.. but I kind of thought I’d found a upside to this whole mess?
For once I could be normal.. but I can’t!

Sure I don’t set things on fire or freeze them or explode in golden light anymore but I’m still a freak!

“Come on Han.”
Sarah practically lifted me off my feet to turn us towards an old oak tree on the far side of the yard from the house.

I trudged along in my own little bubble of gloom but she didn’t seem to mind doing the steering for both of us at the moment.

Eventually we reached the oaks thick roots and I dropped to the floor with a sigh.
Sarah sunk to her knees, eventually coming to rest pressed up against my side.

Her arm moved and landed on the back of my neck as she tugged me a little so I’d roll into her shoulder for another hug.
She caught me a little off guard by planting a quick kiss on the top of my head.

“Take deep breaths Han. There’s only us here, I don’t know what set you off again but just breathe and relax okay?”
I nuzzled into her hug a little more and shivered.
The bark of the tree is really rough on my back, I kind of wish I had something more substantial than a bikini top on honestly.
“That’s it, just breathe.”

I stared out across the grass at the big house where everyone else was busy talking about me or something like that at the moment.

Inevitably my eyes drifted down to the grass and I heaved another annoyed sigh.
The footprints look ridiculous.

It looks like some kind of outdoor modern art exhibit..
They’d probably give it some pretentious title like ‘Footprints of children lost’ or..
I dunno.. something silly like ‘Keep off the grass’?
I’m not really into modern art but you get where I’m going with this.

It just looks like someone put a lot of time and effort into shaping this specific area of grass to have perfectly formed footprints of wildflowers in an otherwise evenly cut lawn.

“Oh..”
I think Sarah noticed the footprints.
I’m not sure how she didn’t notice them to start with, their kind of obvious after all.
“It’s not so bad Han.. how often do you walk on grass anyway?”

Ugg.. she doesn’t get it!

It’s not JUST the grass.
The grass is where I’ve noticed it first obviously but I know how my magic works.
That same ‘fix-it, repair it, grow it’ effect that I give off with my golden diversion normally is being grounded through my feet and straight down into the earth until it dissipates naturally.

I fixed a bay window and a wall that were both little more than piles of rubble at the same time with just ONE of my golden domes!
I’m doing the same thing still, but constantly and from my feet.
It’s just harder to notice at the moment because my big blast yesterday already fixed everything in the house..

I’m going to leave footprints of repaired new-ness everywhere I step while I’m wearing these cuffs!
Fix cracks in pathing slabs with a step, de-age wood with my big toe.. this.. this sucks..
Hell, I could probably make a fortune getting paid to march up and down through farmer’s fields if this is working the way I think it is!
I’m sending concentrated blasts of ‘repairing/fixing/growing’ magic into the earth under my feet after all, I’m pretty much a natural fertiliser at this point!

I’m.. I’m not normal..
Even by a mage’s pretty twisted definition of the word I’m about as far from normal as I can possibly be.

..this SUCKS!..

======

Sarah shifted her butt to get more comfortable and sighed loudly.
The movement jolted me out of my dazed little world of starting angrily at my footprints.

“Here.”
She lifted her free arm and offered me the book we brought out with us.
I’d kinda forgotten we even had it to be honest.

“Maybe this can help you with.. that?”
She nodded her head towards the flowery footprints and grimaced slightly.
I think she’s worked out at least some of the reason why I’m upset about them.

She handed over the copy of ‘Enchanting your toenails. A beginners guide to being armless but not harmless’, her eyes scanned the cover again as she let it go and she snorted a little in amusement.

I could feel my lips twitch upwards slightly at the sound.
She cut her eyes over to mine and we shared a look.

In near-perfect sync we threw our heads back and laughed.
At first it was slightly forced but as always, the more we heard each other laugh the more it made us actually mean it.

We laughed so hard my belly hurt after a while!

Finally the feeling died down and we were left catching our breaths, trying to not look at each other.
We worked out long ago that the one thing that can start us laughing again after a long stint like that is looking at each other as we try to calm down.

“That’s such a stupid book title..”
My lips twitched again but I clamped down hard on the giggle that almost made it past them.

I needed that laugh.
I needed to laugh with Sarah about something stupid again.

Everything’s just.. it’s like everything in my life is coming to a head, just pounding away at me with more and more negative stuff.
Ever since my second awakening and the unwanted gender change, everything seems to be going either wrong or out of control.

My emotions aren’t helping.
I’m big enough to admit that I’m not calming things down very well with all these heavy mood swings I keep having, this new ‘run’ instinct I seem to have developed doesn’t make it any easier either.

Did I even.. no.. I didn’t even manage to find out what Trudy was doing to help keep things from blowing up in our faces in the end, did I?

I had a moment of melodramatic self-hate because everything clicked in my head about not being Al anymore and I just ran.. then I hid, even I’m not convinced that I can call it ‘studying’ at this point.
I was hiding, from Mum, from Sarah, from Al and John.. hiding from LIFE in general.

I was a bit overwhelmed when we came back.
I can’t believe John destroyed my favourite hiding spot..
I’ve got more, obviously, but it’s the principle of the thing.
He’s such an ass sometimes!

It was sweet of him to come and check on me, creepy that he can find me so easily and nice that we could goof around together again like old times.. but he’s still an ass!
He’s paying me back for that bloody bolt-hole too!

No need to bring it up right now, he’s making himself useful by spying on this ‘family meeting’ that got me practically exiled to the garden with Sarah, in the nicest possible way of course.
I’ve got other bolt-holes I can use if I have to for now anyway.

I have a load of much better bolt-holes out there honestly, just because the little buried Russian one was my favourite doesn’t mean it was well kept or designed after all.
Al used to claim the ward stone’s on any enemy bases he could take over, unless he had to destroy them in the process of defeating their previous owners at least.

If they weren’t magically warded and, in most cases, blatantly magical in construction then I would have inherited quite a nice world-spanning portfolio of land with the related buildings built on that land which I could sell for a tidy profit.

As it is, most of them are practically useless because.. well.. I’ve pretty much got no use for them?
I’m the only one who can easily access the locations and I can’t pass on the ownership of the ward stones to someone else without taking down the wards first.

It’s easy to claim a stone after you’ve already broken the wards to go after their owner, especially when you’re secure in the knowledge that the Hub will send a full regiment to clean up any mess left behind by people noticing a massive magical building appearing out of nowhere, it’s a bit harder to pull off dropping the wards on a magical building without people to cover it all up for you afterwards though.

That’s all beside the point anyway, just because I don’t NEED a new bolt-hole doesn’t mean I’m letting HIM know that!
The first time he picks a fight with me over something I’m throwing the whole thing back in his face.

With John it never hurts to have a battle plan for the next time he feels like being a dick!
If he makes any comments about me ‘holding a grudge unfairly’ I’ve even got a response in reserve for that moment too.

‘I’m a woman, it’s my prerogative to hold a grudge on idiot men now.. and who’s fault is THAT?’
..I’m rather proud of that line honestly..

I’m almost looking forward to the next time he starts something just so I can see the almost offended look of joy on his face at being bested so well by me!

I never thought I’d see the day when I WANTED him to be a jerk for the sake of petty verbal revenge.. these mood swings must be really messing with my head?
I’ve never really been one to hold a grudge over things but the idea of having something to throw back at John makes me feel all warm and fuzzy at the moment.

Maybe it’s-

======

“Hannah!”

I jerked, scraping my back lightly against the bark of the tree and crashing into Sarah’s shoulder.
Why’d she yell?
She’s got the book still in her hand for me to take so I can’t have been spaced out THAT long!

When I turned to glare at her she shot me an apologetic look but waved the book again for me to take.
I gave her just one more long glare before reaching up and taking the book from her.

The moment it left her grip her arm dropped into her lap as if it ached from holding it up for so long.
..Geez, and I thought I was the weak one..

The book’s spine settled perfectly in the V shape my thighs formed where my legs came together.
I opened to the first page, resting the front and back covers on either leg for simplicity’s sake.
Whole position felt surprisingly natural honestly?

I’m not sure I could have sat like this as a guy?
In all my years as Al I’m pretty sure I never sat like this if I COULD do it, mostly because I would have done it more often if I knew that I could.. it’s surprisingly comfortable.

I paused long enough to push my new glasses up my nose again which made my nose itch a little so I rubbed it a bit too.
For some reason Sarah made a little grumbling noise at me but didn’t say anything when I glanced at her.

I flipped to the chapter list and scanned it thoughtfully.
A couple of them look like they might be in some way relevant to me at least, that’s a good start.

Powers help me but.. I’m kind of interested in the one chapter titled ‘How to paint your nails with no hands’, from a purely ‘Runic Mage, always looking for new ways to write runes on things subtly’ kind of way of course.
..maybe it could be useful for doing my nails too..

Nail polish can get expensive, ya know?
Especially if you accidentally spill your sisters favourite bottle over your bed sheets while trying to get ready to pretend to be her for an evening in a rush.. and you now have a slight fear reaction every time you have to open a bottle to do your nails..

..not that I ever had that happen to me.. ever..
..um.. MOVING ON!

I flicked past the introductory chapter and skimmed a few pages to get an idea of what the books actual content is like.
By the time I flipped my third page Sarah made a little groan sound again.

My head turned slightly and I squinted at her.

She wasn’t paying attention to me.
She was too busy trying to devour the words on the page as fast as possible.

I glanced between her and the book.
Slowly a slight smile formed on my lips.

Just to test the theory I quickly flipped through a few pages, pausing on them just long enough for her to start reading before moving on.
With each progressive page change she seemed to get more and more annoyed.

Finally her head flicked up to glare at me.
Our eyes met and she realised that the game was up.. who knew the way to get my notoriously book-shy sister to actually READ something was to pull out a magical book on nail’s and feet?..

With a put upon sigh I snapped the book shut and passed it over to her.

She put her hands up defensively as if she didn’t want it but I can see how much she wants to read it now that I’m actually looking for the signs.
My eyes aren’t perfect anymore but with these glasses on I can still make out enough of her facial twitches to see THAT much at least.

I shot a thoughtful look across the garden area and smiled.

The book slid from my hands to land in Sarah’s lap.
She protested but one glance from me with a slightly raised eyebrow stopped that pretty quickly.

I know she wants to read it, she knows she wants to read it.
I’ve decided I’m not in the mood to read now, it’s that simple.

It’s amazing how much good a cuddle session with your sister can do for your mood.

I’m still feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything and I DID wake up at five am or something close to that this morning so I’m not perfect but.. the picnic table over in the middle that nice warm looking patch of sunlight seems rather comfortable for some reason..

“Wake me up if the worlds ending, okay?”

Sarah glanced up from the first page of the book with a mildly confused look on her face but she followed my body language and noticed the picnic table too.
She let off a huff that was part acknowledgement of my words and a bigger part of her mocking my choice of nap location.

A little smile played on my lips as I walked over to the table.
It dimmed slightly when I felt the grass and flowers sprouting up around my feet with each step but I shook that annoyance off with practiced ease.

I’m not thinking about that sort of thing anymore!
It will work itself out eventually and I JUST got out of that dark-moody mind-set with some help from Sarah.. I don’t WANT to go back to that, it’s kind of depressing honestly.

My flexible legs barely had to tense to push me up onto the table top.
I fumbled a little getting my sandals off at first but they dropped to the grass after only a few seconds of struggle each in the end.

Like a lazy cat I sprawled out across the table, belly up.
The sun feels SO nice on my skin.

The wood of the table had a nice fresh spring to it.
It took me a second to realise that my feet coming into contact with it when I stepped up a moment ago must have ‘youth-ified’ the table into fresh young wood.

I almost managed to build up an angry frown about it but pushed the thoughts away with a shake of my head.

I WANT to relax.
There’s plenty of time to get worked up over everything later, for now I just want to lay here in the sun and try to turn my horribly pale ‘Arista’ skin a nice bronze color while my magic’s not here to get in the way by ‘protecting me from skin-cancer’.
You’ve got to love magic when it comes to protecting you from illness but not being able to get a tan can get REALLY frustrating after a while.

My hand ran behind my back after a moment so I could sweep my annoyingly long hair out and over the edge of the table to keep it from catching underneath me if I move around when I hopefully get to sleep.

I sighed once more and felt my muscles just go slack under the warm sunlight.
Summers are awesome, specifically because of moments like this!

I rocked my hips a little and settled in for a nice long mid-morning nap.
Hopefully I won’t have any more mindscape visits or weird dreams about squids to get in the way this time..

======

My body jolted and I snorted awake, wincing my eyes down into slits as the sun burnt into them brightly.

For some reason there’s a lot of noise all of a sudden.
..I was having such a nice nap too..

No mindscape, no squids or dreams of any kind really.. just pure unhindered sleep, it was absolutely fabulous!.. until now..

“’Ere Greg, check out the totty.”
My eyebrows scrunched up a little bit at the unknown voice.

I recognise the accent at least, low-brow Londoner.
A bit too ‘Essex’ to be a cockney but definitely the kind of voice you’d hear down a pub in the west end.. or so my past-incarnation memories tell me at least.

“Oi, she can ‘ear ya, mate. If she’s ‘ere then she’s probably a wolf-sheila an’ related to ya so ‘ands off.”
The eyebrow scrunch got a bit worse this time.

That’s another easy accent to recognise but I’ve got no idea how to narrow it down more than to just say ‘Australian’ sadly.
The last time I had an incarnation that had even MET an Australian, the country was known as ‘New Holland’ by most of the court nobles of the time.

It took FAR too long for me to connect the dots and work out who they were talking about.
I blame the whole ‘sleep’ and ‘rude awakening’ thing.

My body went from horizontal to seated in one smooth movement.
It’s still weird being able to move my body that easily.. I just basically pulled off an unaided sit-up without straining in the slightest?
Even Al struggled to do that!

My squinted eyes didn’t help me focus on the talking men, especially when combined with my blurry eyesight, but I glared in their general direction while my hand fished around for my new glasses.

My wandering hand finally caught the arm of the glasses, with a deft flick I had them unfolded and perched neatly on my nose.
I couldn’t resist smirking a little at the fact that I didn’t just poke my eye out by accident.
That whole thing must have looked so cool!

The two men were frozen on the path leading up to the house while looking at me.
Judging by the fact that they’re the only ones here I think it’s safe to take a guess and assume that THEY were the ones talking.

Honestly.. neither of them is worth calling home about..
Both mid-forties, both over-weight with large beer bellies and both wearing disturbing Hawaiian-style shirts, worthy of John at his most annoying.

The one on the left with the green shirt, brown shorts and orange sandals looked like he was going bald, the one on the right with the blue shirt, white shorts and brown sandals had military-short brown hair.
They both stared at me like deer caught in the headlights of a big-rig.
It would be kind of amusing if they hadn’t just been talking about me like I was a piece of meat.

“Greg! Come get tha’ chair’s out tha’ car!”
The military-short haired one winced but took the chance to leave quickly.

I’d have winced too, the Australian sounding woman that called him had a voice that I’d consider REALLY grating if I was feeling kind.
She must have had some volume to her as well to be so easily heard from the Stables, even with my now muted magic-less hearing.

When he’d disappeared into the treeline the balding one offered me a weak smile that I think was his attempt at being charming.

“No offence luv, can’t blame a man for looking if you’re gonna lay out like that, eh?”
When his question only earned a flat look from me he quickly found some kind of mumbled excuse to practically run off into the house.

The moment he was out of sight I slumped my shoulders and let the frown fade from my face.
While it’s not pleasant from this side of it, I’ve LITERALLY been there when it comes to watching sunbathing girls when I shouldn’t.

Hopefully they’ve learnt their lesson from being caught by me and won’t try it again any time soon?

I slid off the table and glared a little as the grass seemed to rise up to meet me when I settled my feet down on it.
I quickly busied myself putting my sandals back on before pacing across the grass to the path on the shortest route possible, just so I didn’t get too caught up on the whole ‘magical flower growing feet’ thing again.

My attention was a little slack by the time I’d reached the path.
I was a bit busy looking around for Sarah honestly.
She wasn’t sitting under the tree anymore and I couldn’t see her anywhere else around the tree-line either.

With a backwards step I tried to focus on some slight movement I think I saw on the far side of the garden area but before I could decide if it was just a tree moving in the breeze or not my foot hit something and I went tumbling backwards, butt first, with a startled scream.

At the last second someone’s strong hand came out to catch my arm while another arm wrapped around my back gently.
I couldn’t suppress the gasp of surprise that came out when my fall stopped short and I was left staring up into a rather cute looking set of dark brown eyes attached to a nicely tanned face with thick, black curly hair draping down roguishly to the nape of his strong muscled neck.

“Ya alroight there sheila?”

My legs went slightly limp at the deep rumble of his voice, when mixed with such an adorably thick Australian accent to match its practically lethal!
My eyes drifted down his neck to his muscled chest that’s barely covered by a thin tank-top and my mouth went a bit slack to match my legs.

..hello tall, dark and handsome!..
I don’t know what they feed you back in Oz but DAMN does it do you good apparently!
Do they really have huge snakes in Australia.. or is it just you?
..powers your gorgeous..

His smile slipped a little with worry for some reason.
..oh powers.. I didn’t say any of that out loud did I?!..

PLEASE tell me I didn’t say that out loud!

What was I even thinking?!
He’s cute sure but I’m a girl and I’m against the whole ‘guy’s when I’m the girl’ thing because straight guys are creepy!

My mouth snapped shut finally and his mouth moved back into that warm.. sexy.. smile.

Is it hot out here?
It feels like it’s hot out here..

“Ya got a name ta’ go with those big blue eyes sheila?”

He talked about my eyes!
He’s looking into my eyes, despite the stupid big black glasses I have on.

GAH! Why did I have to develop bad eyesight TODAY of all days?!

“mmm.. pa?..”
Nice try Hannah.. really nice..
How about we try that again with actual.. ya know.. words this time?..
“uh.. um..”

Well.. operation ‘talk to him’ is an official failure.
All I managed to do was make him smile and make myself blush!

..he’s got a really cute smile though..

Seriously, is it warm all of a sudden?
I SWEAR there was a breeze going on a second ago but my body’s burning at the moment!
Especially my-eeyi!

NO!

No, no, no, no, NO!
Deep breaths!
Meditation exercises!
Things..

..stuff..

ANYTHING!
Just.. just no more staring at him and no more of.. THAT!..

“..ah..”
His eyes crinkled a little in amusement.

Sensational success there!
Congratulations Hannah, you’re officially brain-dead in front of the really cute Aussie!

“Hannah? What on earth..”
Oh, THANK THE POWERS!
Sarah if you get me out of this situation with at least SOME dignity intact I will name you as my new personal deity!

Her footsteps were loud and fast as she ran along the path towards us.
She’s really close now but she’s not stopping?

Why’s she not stop... ah crap..

“Get your HANDS off my SISTER!”
Like an avenging angel she flew in from my left and sucker punched the cute Aussie.

With a surprised grunt he dropped to the floor, his arms coming loose from around me as he went making me fall along with him.
I managed a strangled yelp before we collapsed into a tangle of limbs.

For a long moment I was frozen on the path, stunned still from the sudden drop..
“SARAH!”
..then I found my voice again.

She stared at me with angry eyes and slowly seemed to recognise that it was her I was glaring at, not the guy she just ‘saved’ me from.
Finally, after what felt like far too long, she cringed and shot me a nervous, apologetic look.

Before I could really go at her for being so rash and impulsive we were both distracted by two distinctly separate male voices laughing.

The one I recognized as having come from the house was pretty obviously coming from John’s voice.

The other one was coming from further up the path and, with a glance, I could tell that someone with a thick crop of black hair on his head that looked suspiciously like the cute Aussie was kind of busy virtually collapsing to his knees with laughter.

..great.. there’s TWO of them..

I sighed loudly and flopped back completely onto the path with the Aussie’s leg awkwardly pushed into my back.
..and John saw at least some of that..

To quote one of my wiser British incarnations.. fan-bloody-tastic!..

“Less laughing, more helping me up John or else!”
He’s smirking.

I can’t see it but I can just TELL he is.. mostly because I’ve MET him!

He ambled over to me casually, not even trying to hide his laughter.
When he finally got to my side he offered a hand and casually pulled me to my feet as if I weighed nothing at all.

Sarah helped the cute Aussie up to his feet, apologizing as she went and trying to inspect his cheek where she’d hit him.
I shot him an awkward sheepish look as well.

Without a thought I tried to build up a mild blast of magic to vent out as a golden dome with the express purpose of healing him up good as new.
A moment later I realized my mistake and cringed.
My chest went cold for a second and the cold feeling slowly moved down my legs to my feet.

The ground around us shook a little and we were suddenly standing in small oasis of pathway covered in fresh roots and lined on either side by knee high grass mixed with multi-colored flowers.

The flowers were pretty at least?.. that’s something right?
I’d take my bright-side’s where I can in this kind of situation.

Judging by the shocked look on the cute Aussie’s face, the frustrated one on John’s, the silence from the laughing guy down the path and the annoyed huff from Sarah, they all knew in one way or another that I was the cause of the sudden horticultural explosion.

“..damn it..”

I could feel my shoulders slump a little as I scanned the garden around us.
The magic’s obviously spread out through the earth with an annoyingly wide range to it.

The long grass goes all the way back to the picnic table I was laying on a minute ago in a wide circle around us.

It makes sense that the magic would spread a lot further through the ground compared to my usual golden domes.
From a maths perspective, magic flows through objects better than air.

I kind of wish I could have accurately judged how much magic I put out through my feet there honestly
For all I know I dumped my whole body’s worth of excess magic out all at once!

It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to just leave the new magesight enchantment of my glasses on at least one lens constantly at this point?
It would drain the power from them eventually, probably after a few hours at best, but John’s here so I COULD just get him to refill the storage seals on them if they run out.

Hopefully this won’t be a long term problem but I’ll have to come up with some kind of backup ‘magic storage device’ if I’m stuck without any magic for more than a week and-

======

John put a hand on my shoulder
I jumped and swung around to smack him instinctively.

He caught my arm before it even got within an inch of his face.

For a moment I was stunned that he’d stopped me, then a bit embarrassed for reacting so badly.. then a little annoyed at how easily he caught my arm..
With a grunt I tried to push my arm closer to his face just to prove that I could do it still, but he didn’t even twitch.

“What.. on earth are you trying to do?..”

I cut my eyes up to his and laughed nervously.
He didn’t seem in any way impressed by that answer.

I could feel a few sets of eyes on us and had to fight down a quickly blooming blush.

We stared at each other hard for a few seconds, trying to work out who would crack first.
In the end I gave up waiting for him and decided to cheat instead.

Keeping my voice as low as I could manage while being sure that he would hear me still I leaned into him a little and smiled winningly.

“How about you don’t make a big deal about this and I don’t bring up the fact that you pee’d your pants in kindergarden.. AFTER your awakening.. ever again?”
He flinched and dropped my arm like it was toxic.

See?.. Rule one for dealing with John, always have some kind of plan to fall back on!

I’ve had that one in reserve since a few weeks after I found out John was the latest incarnation of Maxarimus..
I’ll admit that I laughed myself sick after working it out the first time, but with him being all ‘psycho stalker-ish’ at the time I didn’t exactly have a good reason to bring it up in conversation.

Just from the look on his face and the hint of a blush on his cheeks, it was totally worth the wait!

“Take it they’re datin’, darlin’?”
My eyebrow twitched at the question coming from behind me in that lovely deep, recognisably thick Aussie accent.

“..ya know.. at this point it honestly wouldn’t surprise me?..”

SARAH!
I spun to face her and growled at the back of my throat.
She didn’t look even slightly apologetic, just smug and amused at having gotten a reaction out of me.

“Head’s up tall, dark and gorgeous, she’s got a boyfriend already. Big guy called Tor, really scary guy. Mum’s at the point of planning their wedding so it’s probably pretty serious..”
Her mouth dropped open in surprise.

I quirked up an eyebrow, challenging her to go double or nothing.

DON’T try to out bitch me Sarah!
I had you as an inspiration growing up and I’ve had YEARS to learn new tricks that you’ve not even HEARD of!

“Let’s move this along, shall we?”
John put a hand on my waist and with a surprisingly gentle push moved me to the side so he could see the hot Aussie better.

“Hi. I’m John, sometimes called Max. The big one with the fat fiancé is called Sarah; the little one with mental problems is called Hannah.”
He stuck his hand out to shake the hot Aussies one and barely seemed to notice when Sarah beat me to the punch.. literally.. by taking a swing at him which he ducked apparently without even noticing.
The Aussie smiled and shook John’s hand strongly.

“All Seppo’s this crazy or just you lot?”

No! Don’t smile at him, cute Aussie!
DON’T encourage him either!

John doesn’t need encouragement.. also.. what the hell is a ‘Seppo’?

The Aussie flicked a loose black curl out of his eyes making MY eyes follow the errant curl despite myself.
He cocked his head to the side thoughtfully for some reason.
The new guy behind him, the one that was laughing earlier and looks a lot like the Aussie, came up on his left with a naughty smile on his face and offered his hand for a shake next.

“I’m Charlie, that’s my brother Jack.”
The cute Aussie dropped John’s hand and jabbed his finger over his shoulder at the other Aussie.
The new one, Jack, shot me and Sarah a lopsided grin before nodding a greeting to John as an afterthought.

“Twins?”
They both glanced at each other and turned back to nod at him in sync.

“It runs in the family”

..that’s kinda creepy when someone who isn’t US does it..
I cut my eyes over to Sarah.

Her ‘pleasant’ smile has become a little strained.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out why.

While no-one else was watching I slipped my hand over and gave hers a reassuring squeeze.
She squeezed back instantly and her smile looked a bit better.

I may not still be Al, or technically her biological twin, but we’re still TWINS.

It’s taken me a while to get past the shock and the hurt from the dramatic change I’ve gone through but I’m putting my foot down on this one.
We have our own weird language.
We messed with people by swapping places or talking in sync with each other all the time as kids.
We grew up together as twins, we both remember it that way and that’s what’s important.

I’ve lost so much this week.
I’m NOT losing my twin.. I’m not losing my Sarah!

Our hands slipped apart before the boys stopped measuring each other up and Jack gave up trying to ‘subtly’ overpower John’s handshake with a stronger one of his own.

I swear those two are worryingly alike already..
Obviously John has a lot more maturity and experience behind him but he’s currently not acting like it!

He’s acting like my goofy friend John, not the wise but smug and annoyingly self-centered ‘Maxarimus’.
I kind of want to say that’s a good thing?.. but on the other hand, he’s JOHN.. sooo.. yeahhh..

Before I could make a comment about their childishness, probably something about ‘dick measuring’ only being funny if it’s an actual competition, a new voice joined the mix.

“Bleedin’ roight? What ‘appened ‘ere then? You piker’s been playin’ silly buggers again?”

We all turned to look down the path and watched as a slightly older looking version of the Aussie twins came towards us dragging a rather large looking steel drum barbecue behind him.
The twins shared a look for a second and nodded, shifting their faces into identical guilty looks.
The new, older one, sighed deeply as if he’d expected that kind of reaction.

He let go of the handle on the barbecue leaving it sitting on the path and came over to us.
His shrewd eyes took in the tall grass around us in one glance and he slowly crouched down low.

With a careful flick of his wrist he cut all the grass on our left nearly even with the grass further into the garden.
A step and another flick he cut down the tall grass on the other side too.
Finally he stood up again and twirled both hands in the air.

The freshly cut grass whipped up around us as if caught in a strong breeze and moved off into the distance to land somewhere pretty deep into the trees around the garden area.

“There, good as new.”
He turned to shoot the twins a warning look.
“Don’t do that again. We’re visiting guests, act like it.”

The twins seemed like they were honestly sorry for their ‘actions’ but the moment the older Aussie looked away from them they shot me a look and winked happily.

My cheeks flushed for what felt like the hundredth time today.
To change the topic quickly I coughed and turned to the new, older one instead of looking at them.

“You’re a wind mage? That’s got to be useful.”
He used wind to cut down the grass and then blow away the leftovers.
Wind mage’s are rare in the states, they tend to pop up in places across the southern hemisphere mostly which would make sense with him being Australian.

No-one’s ever proven it one way or another but the current accepted theory on the topic is that certain mage’s reincarnate in certain areas for ‘insert one of fifteen different reasons here’..

Personally I like the idea that the leylines throughout the earth act as a kind of filter, drawing people in towards area’s heavily connected to their core’s element.
It’s nice and neat, it would explain why certain countries tend to almost universally have certain types of mages.
Practically anyone reincarnated on American soil seems to be a fire mage.. sadly the very neatness that’s so inviting about that theory is probably a big indicator that it’s completely flawed.. that’s just how life tends to be.
Everything’s messy, especially when you add in magic.
..if it’s not messy then you’re not doing it right..

“Yea’. Strike a light, what else would I be?”

His accents a bit thicker than the twins one’s but he’s still understandable mostly.. what’s ‘strike a light’ mean?
..why can’t they just speak English?!..

“Ah, you a fire user? If I had a dolla’ for every fire user we seen over here I’d be grinnin’ like a shot fox.”

My cheeks flared up and I had to resist the temptation to stamp my foot in frustration.
What the HELL does a ‘shot fox’ have to do with anything?!

On top of that, this is so frustrating, it’s not like I can show him my messed up magic!
Even if I could, what the hell do I tell him about it?

‘I’m an ex-fire mage, currently suppressed AND diverted ice mage’
It hurts even MY head to fully understand just how wrong that is?!

“Calm down Han.”
Sarah’s arm slipped around my shoulders and I sunk into her instinctively with a sigh.

She’s right.
Why the hell am I getting so worked up over this?.. so what if they talk weird?!
..It doesn’t matter in the long run..

I nuzzled into her a little more and just tried to focus on staying calm for once.

“Come on Han, let’s get you inside yeah?”
She sounds pretty worried and her arms are a little tense around me but I’m fine with going inside right now.
Too many Aussies out here with confusing words and confusing good looks and.. and just generally confusing everything.
“Come on.”

We started walking away from the group, back towards the house.
John made a noise to get our attention.
I didn’t turn but Sarah twisted her head and shot him a look of some sort.

“We’ll talk about it all later John, Hannah needs to rest.”

I’m not sure how he reacted to that but judging by the fact that he didn’t say anything else in response or try to stop us for walking off I assume it wasn’t a bad reaction.
I huddled into Sarah’s side a bit more as we got nearer to the house.

“Thanks Sarah.”
She didn’t respond verbally but her arm squeezed me a little more which said enough.

..I love my sister sometimes..

======

“Han?”
The ‘foot magic’ book slipped from my fingers and landed awkwardly in my lap at Sarah’s voice.

I’ve been reading for a while now.
The book is surprisingly interesting, if not exactly useful so far.

It probably helps that the minute we stepped in the door Gran was there leading us off to the ‘library’.
The chairs in here HAVE to be enchanted in some way because they’re SO comfortable.
I’ve not had to move even slightly since I sat down

I REALLY like this library.. although that might just be because I’ve been left alone in here for so long.

“Hey Sare”
She came over and settled into the chair next to me.

Seemingly without even noticing it she reached out to take my hand.
I’m not sure if she was trying to comfort me or herself by the look on her face.

“How are you feeling Han?”

I stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, where’s this coming from?
She’s not normally the type of person to openly ask something like that.

“Don’t give me that look Han, I may be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes but even I can see that you’ve been hurting since this morning.”
My hand flinched away from hers slightly but she clamped down on it and stared me in the eyes with obvious concern on her face.
“Why are you doing this to yourself? John said he’d take the cuffs off the moment he put them on you.. you’re not acting like yourself since you put them on, it’s like you’ve drawn in on yourself suddenly?..”

My eye’s got a bit misty for some reason.
I quickly reached up to wipe them clear and bumped my thumb into my new glasses.
..stupid glasses..

Fully aware that I was being held under the watchful gaze of Sarah, I pushed the glasses up to my forehead and settled them in my hair so I could carefully wipe at my eyes a little with the back of my hand.

Sarah had the decency to not comment on it but I could tell that she was dying to ask about the fact that I was crying again.
She may not have known much about the way Al changed before my second awakening because of their years of separation while he was off on missions, but one thing she knows for a fact is that Al wasn’t a crier.
Even as a kid he was more likely to bottle things up than cry about them.

“Han?”

I sniffed and wiped my eyes again, slightly slower this time.
My nose feels runny too for some reason.
..I hate how that feels..

“I’m dangerous Sare.. I told you that. I don’t like being like this, I feel so weak and useless without my magic but the alternative..”
Her hand snaked out to take a hold of mine again and she squeezed it gently.
“You.. you don’t know the things that go on in my head Sare. I’m barely holding my mind together as it is and some of the personalities in here..”

I sniffed hard again and squeezed her hand slightly just because I could.

“I saw how scared of me you were when I woke up this morning Sare. I wasn’t me last night, I know which personality took over and I know she didn’t mean any harm she was just.. she wanted to have some fun like she used to when she was alive.. but you tried to stop her so she stopped you.”
Another hard sniff came out of me and made my nose hurt a little bit this time.

“My incarnations.. even the nice one’s.. they work by different standards and rules then I do. If she’d been someone else.. someone worse.. I could have killed you Sare?”
My head sunk down a little and my chest heaved weakly.
“..I could have killed you..”

For a painfully long moment I was stuck in the loop of possibilities.

If even half of the incarnations that Storyteller mentioned are real..
Well.. goddesses of death and madness aren’t exactly known for being kind, understanding individuals, ya know?

“Oh Han..”
Sarah eased out of her chair and squeezed herself next to me on my chair so she could wrap an arm around me properly.
“Han.. you’re not the first mage to use magic on me while she’s having a bad moment, ya know? I DO work for the Hub after all and I have a life of my own. One full of danger, threats and things most people would consider terrifying.”

She lifted me up a little so she could fit herself properly into the seat and then planted me back down on her lap.

I felt a bit childish being in that position but she was so warm that I didn’t bother arguing about it for the moment.
I kind of need the contact right now.

“I WILL admit that I was worried and a little scared this morning..”
My butt shifted on her knee awkwardly at that, a pretty obvious give away that I felt uncomfortable with what she’d said.
“..scared FOR you, not OF you Han..”

She squeezed me again and settled her head on my shoulder from behind.

My eyes misted up again at that.
I’m not sure how true it is but it’s nice to hear her say it anyway.

“I’ve known you for twenty-four years Han, if there’s anything in life that I’m sure about, above all else, it’s that you wouldn’t hurt me no matter the circumstances or how much I deserved it.”
My back leaned into her hug a bit more and I squinted my eyes down almost painfully tight.

“You don’t know that Sare.. You don’t know them, you don’t know what they’re like..”
She paused for a moment and shifted me slightly off of her hip.

I couldn’t see what she was doing because I was facing away from her but she was doing something.

Slowly her fist came down onto the top of my head and she softly pushed it down on my skull as if she was miming hitting me with a lot more force then her gentle touch would indicate.

“I don’t need to know them Han, I know YOU. Despite how much of a badass you like to think you are, you’ve always been a big softy.”
She huffed something that may have been a laugh in another situation.
“If one of your incarnations took control of you and tried to hurt me for real, you’d find a way to stop them.. you always do..”

My hand came up to wipe at my eyes again.

She’s wrong!
There’s no way we can know that!

She’s thinking of me as ‘Al’ again.. Al could overpower a rampaging incarnation easily..
Hell, Al overpowered ALL of them, just from sheer willpower alone!

..compared to him I’m useless..

“Shh, shh, shh..”
Sarah slid an arm around my waist and jogged her knee a little.
I felt exceedingly stupid for a moment, trying to be understandably upset while she jiggles me up and down like an overgrown toddler is really hard to manage without at least snorting out a laugh at the situation.
“Han, you think too much.. just let it go..”

She jogged her knee again.
I think she noticed the effect it had on me the first time because this time she didn’t stop until I unwillingly cracked a smile at her stupidity.
The moment she saw the slight upturn of my lips she stopped moving and smiled at me warmly.

“I trust you Han. You don’t need to cut off your magic to prove to me that you’re safe to be around.”
My butt shifted awkwardly again.
She just doesn’t get it.. I don’t know what I would do if I hurt her with my magic..
“John thinks there could be some bad long term effects from you wearing the cuffs like this. They were designed to stop you freaking out, not to fully suppress you like they do now.”

My lips twitched again despite myself.
John’s willing to tattle on me to Sarah.. he must be pretty desperate to get me to take them off if he’s willing to work with her to achieve it..

“I’m okay Sare.”

I’m not okay.
She can probably tell that but hopefully if I say it like this she’ll at le-
..wait..

“I’m fine.”
..nothing?..
“I’m fantastic actually..”

Holy crap!
There’s no way I’m THIS lucky is there?!

Its old magic, self-sustaining from the power of the very earth itself!
How the hell can a pair of enchanted handcuffs that stops me reaching my magic bypass tha-
..my magic..

Ohh John.. that’s either the stupidest mistake you’ve ever made or a loophole that you left in on purpose!

The cuffs are draining all my magic away, right?
The moment my stupid, abnormal locus point body draws in more magic from around me the cuffs are dumping it back out through my feet before it can settle too much.
There’s still some kind of backlog happening over time obviously, the fact that I still vent magic when I try to touch my core mean’s there’s got to be SOME magic left pooling in my body but.. but it’s taking longer to build up because most of it gets syphoned off into the earth!

I can’t reach my magic.
I can’t use my inner-eye to see my lines.
I can’t even feel the emotions of my magic as it rolls within my body.. and neither can the brands!

The brand he put on me.
It’s pure old magic, but it’s got an emotional element to it.
Old magic doesn’t work on intent. By its very nature it’s neutral.

There’s got to be some small, tenuous connection between the brand and my core?
It’s the ONLY way the brand could judge if I’m ‘lying’ or not.
It has to compare the emotions showing in my magic against the one’s I’m speaking.

I’m a mage.
Even the sounds coming out of my mouth have some slight touch of magic in them.

That’s why no-one bothers to try and hide their magical signature when they touch things, leaving residue behind, there’s no POINT when we leave behind so many different samples of our magic just by EXISTING.
For example, if I touched a coffee cup I could hide it easily, but there’s no point even trying because if someone wanted to get a sample of my magic then they could still get one from the very air around where I was standing.
It’s a little harder than just taking something I touched and walking away but it’s still not difficult to do!

The brand is meant to compare the emotions of my magic against the emotions present in the minor traces of magic that leak out in my voice and shock me when they don’t match!
It’s genius!
..the fact that the old magic came up with the idea all on its own is almost worrying..

The important thing though.. the amazing bit about it all is that.. with the cuffs on, I’ve got no access to my magic!

The brand can’t reach my core to check my emotions directly!
My voice has no magic to check either!

For all intents and purposes, when I have these cuffs on, I’m not a mage..
How did John put it?
‘Less access to her magic than your average dormouse’?.. something like that at least.

He was right, completely and utterly right!
The brands are practically useless while I have these cuffs on!

I need to think on this.. something.. something’s..

======

“Han?”
I twisted on Sarah’s lap to face her and couldn’t suppress the grin on my face even if I wanted to.

“I’m fine Sare. I’m completely fine!”

Her head leaned back away from me a little and she got a bit bug-eyed in surprise at the vehemence in my voice.
She winced a moment later when I shot to my feet by pushing off of her lap but I’m a bit too busy to apologise at this point.

“..you sure on that one?..”
Her doubtful grumble didn’t deter me in the slightest.

Without actually meaning to I started pacing the floor as my mind went over all the possibilities.

I need..
..I need..
I NEED paper!

Paper, a pencil and a whole lot of luck!

“Can you get me some paper and a pen or something Sare?”
She stood up slowly.
With careful movements she stepped in my way so I couldn’t keep pacing.

I came to a stop and stared up into her eyes with a manic grin stuck firmly on my lips.
My smile was so wide it was hurting my stupid puffy cheeks but I couldn’t care less!

After a long moment of staring at each other where my foot started twitching a little with frantic energy that I just NEEDED to let off in some way she stepped to the side.

A slight smile played on her lips as she watched me pick up my pacing again.
My hand twitched and fiddled with the ends of my too long hair while my other hand came up to my lips so I could nibble on my fingernails nervously.
I know it’s a bad habit but it helps me think!

Sarah’s smile slipped from thoughtful into a full blown smile.

She’s seen it now.
I know the look on my face for what it is.

I have an IDEA.. and damn is it going to be amazing if I can pull it off!

“I’ll be back with your paper and pen Han. Don’t start writing on the walls before I get back or something..”
With one last glance at me she opened the door and smiled at me smugly.

That was ONE time!
I ran out of paper in the flat and we had those nice blank white walls in the kitchen.
I just.. I had an Idea and I had to get it OUT of my head before I EXPLODED!

This.. does John even KNOW what he’s handed me by making these cuffs?!
If I’m right.. if the math works out and I can balance the runes in some way..

I think I can make the brands useless?
Make myself safe around people if I have an episode AND still have access to my magic.. all at the same time!

“..hurry..”
She nodded and slipped the door shut without another word.

My head turned from the door to take in the library as a whole.
Some little voice in the back of my head squealed in happiness as I stared at all the books lining the walls.
I’m not sure if that was my imagination or a real thing but I could almost squeal in joy myself at the moment anyway!

REFERENCES!
I have an IDEA, I have a THEORY and I have REFERENCES!
So many books!

I.. okay.. where to start?..

I wonder if they have anything on using tattoo ink as a medium for writing runes on a human body?
Failing that.. who knows?.. I’ll work something out!

I’ve got an idea!
I’ve got HOPE!

“..this is so awesome..”

No-one answered me.
I didn’t expect them too, that was just for me.
..so many books, so little time!..

I rubbed my hands together gleefully.
“Let’s get started, shall we?”