D rank delivery quests paid 50 silver. That was quite an upgrade from the 20 copper we were getting from the F ranks. Kalli ensured that we only did delivery quests by threatening to make me do any kill quests by myself. Shara picked up a quest too but got a malicious look in her eyes when I asked what it was, answering. It’s a secret.

We piled into the back of the escalade and were soon on the highway headed south. Shara was excited as usual. The repository was created to give awakened from all walks of life the opportunity to see relics of the past. Depending on your rank with the guild you can even gain access to check relics out for a short time. Any guild member is allowed to handle the artifacts. Starting with B rank, you may take certain non-restricted artifacts in special viewing rooms for further study. It isn’t until at A rank that awakened are allowed to check relics out of the repository.

Knowing video games, I suspected A rank wasn’t the highest level.

Is there anything higher than A rank?

Shara rolled her eyes. A rank is actually pretty low. After that, you get to S rank. Once you’re S rank there’s a variety of ways you could go. Some mages choose to specialize within the guild at that point. Others want to increase their rank to the highest possible level. In that case, they could raise their rank as high as SSS. There aren’t any local guild members at this level currently. Most either specialize or become named. If you are named then your rank doesn’t matter. Mother is a named mage.

Her explanation brought to mind one mage in particular.

Is Lavender a named mage?

The kid scrunched up her nose at the sound of Lavender’s name. No. She never joined the guild. We call mage’s like Lavender ancient mages. Some of them have been around before the guild was even created. How do you know about Lavender anyways?

Kalliphae beamed at the girl. We did a quest for her once.

Shara turned and gaped at the pyromancer. The enchanter actually issued a quest?

Not really. It wasn’t a traditional quest. We saw this thing on TV…

Shara shook her head. That woman doesn’t do anything by chance. If you met her, then it was arranged by her. If I were you, I’d replay every conversation you ever had with her. Her words always have double meanings.

Kalli gave Shara a concerned look. It sounds like you don’t like her very much. Is she a bad person?

Shara hesitated for a moment. It’s not that. I guess I’m still mad that she chose him over me.

Do you mean Eddie?

Her eyes blazed and I felt a surge of annoyance flare in the kid. Of course, you would know him. The apprenticeship spot was supposed to go to me. Of course, Lavender doesn’t always play by the rules. If she had then she would have picked me. She probably chose him to prevent him from turning to evil.

Kalliphae placed a hand on Shara’s shoulder. You wanted to be Lavender’s apprentice, didn’t you? Perhaps we can put in a good word for you.

Shara shook her head dejectedly. It's no use. If mother couldn’t persuade her then nobody can.

That reminded me of something Shara said about her mother.

You said that your mom is a named mage. What about your dad?

Shara smiled at the mention of her father. Oh, daddy? Well, he’s new to the family. Mother chose him for his affinity. It will be a while before he achieves named status. But daddy will totally do it.

They didn’t marry for love?

The kid scrunched up her face at me and replied. Most magical families have arranged marriages. Magical traits are almost always passed down to future generations, and any good parents want to give their children the best chance possible in life. Therefore they look for a mate with the best skills and traits.

Shara’s comment made me curious about what kinds of traits the daughter of a named mage would have. I focused on the girl out of the corner of my eye without trying to make it too obvious. I specifically wanted to see Shara’s skill menu.

Skills

Traits

Controlling Voice

Bloodline: Shaw

Draw

Affinity: Blood

Affinity: Darkness

Nocturnal Regeneration

Control

Prodigy

The first thing that stuck out was the bloodline. I had one of those. Did that mean that my father was from one of those magical bloodlines? Then he abandoned me? My mind raced as I tried to make heads or tails of the trait. It wasn’t like I could just ask Shara. Then I would have to admit that I inspected her. That I even could inspect her. I didn’t know how big an invasion of privacy that was. I decided to ask questions about affinities.

Just how important are affinities?

Shara smiled. Affinities are so important that you probably don’t want to be a wizard if you don’t have any. They enhance the magic that they are attuned to exponentially.

I knew that Kalli also had an affinity. That was likely the reason the Hellquist family wanted her to marry into their family. The awakened world seemed to be more interested in what skills a suitor brought to the family as opposed to the unawakened notion that family pedigree mattered more.

I turned my attention to Kalliphae, who had gotten very quiet. She was cradling a familiar-looking nesting doll in her arms. She had visibly glowing palms of both hands resting on the surface. I watched in awe as a meter became visible to me beneath the egg.

Mana: 1011/10,000

Mana: 1012/10,000

Mana: 1013/10,000

I laughed which caused her to look up at me in shock.

You’ve got a long way to go.

She raised an eyebrow. How would you know?

I flinched. I had to explain. But how?

Do you know how I can somehow see things in items?

Kalli laughed. Yes. Sometimes you do weird things. Like with the cursed amulet earlier when you knew what it was called.

Yes. Like that. Well for this one I can see that the egg is absorbing your mana. You put 1013 units of mana out of a total of 10,000 needed. So like I said, you got a ways to go.

She looked down at the egg, clutching it closer to herself. Do you mean it's actually working? I’m going to make it hatch?

I don’t know about that but it’s definitely building up to something.

Kalliphae smiled and resumed her egg roast. I was inspired by her, so I took out the wand that she gave me, intent on feeding it a little mana of my own.

Kalliphae’s Training Wand (Edited)

A stick infused with magic that has become a young girl’s first wand

Level Required to Equip: 1

Item Level 2 (Edited)

Accumulated Mana: 2,650

Magical Attack: 2

I was really bad at using my wand. It was probably because I didn’t use mana in the traditional sense. I stretched my arms behind my back as if that would somehow help with the training of a wand. The first mission at hand was to get the wand up to my level. That was a simple edit.

Kalliphae’s Training Wand (Edited)

A stick infused with magic that has become a young girl’s first wand

Level Required to Equip: 1

Item Level 6 (Edited)

Accumulated Mana: 28,000

Magical Attack: 6

The wand began to hum and vibrate in my hand. It was as though the tiny twig that the wand was made from had somehow come back to life. I felt the end that I held in my palm thicken and mold itself to fit the contours of my hand. The tip on the other elongated end took on a reddish hue as though it remembered Kalle’s magic and wanted to pay tribute.

I looked up to discover both Kalliphae and Shara gaping at me. Kalli asked. What did you just do to my wand?

I lied.

I added mana and it leveled up.

The pyromancer gave me a strange look. Wait, you can put mana into it when you aren’t casting a spell?

I was about to try to come up with something when Shara blurted out. Channeling mana without using a spell is an uncommon technique. There are monks back east that utilize this technique to accumulate mana within their bodies.

I decided to practice what we were talking about and began infusing mana into the wand. It was interesting watching the accumulated mana slowly go up.

Mana: 28,025

Mana: 28,050

Mana: 28,075

At least I’m faster than Kalli.

Kalliphae growled at me as she caressed her egg. I heard that.

It was still slow going. It was almost easier just to wait until I leveled up and raise the wand's effectiveness that way. Shara continued. The problem with mana infusion is that it requires a lot of mana. With mana regeneration being as slow as it is, a low-level person can only maintain the link for a short time. How long can you last, Melvin?

I spluttered and tried to come up with a good answer. Kalli saved me by chiming in. You are very knowledgeable Shara. How do you know so much?

Shara rolled her eyes. Mother forced me to have a tutor since I was old enough to talk. It’s not that I want to know all this stuff. It was drilled into me since I was just a kid.

Aren’t you still a…ow.

Kalliphae kicked me and replied. It must have been hard doing all of that work from a young age. You probably didn’t have much time to play with your friends.

Enrique looked over his shoulder from the front seat but said nothing. Shara looked down at the ground and explained. I wasn’t allowed to have friends as a kid. Mother told me that nobody was good enough for me yet. Occasionally Eddie came over but he is so annoying. Daddy makes time to play with me though when mother isn’t looking.

Kalli got up and sat next to Shara, putting her arm around the girl. Don’t worry. We’ll be your friends.

Shara pouted. I doubt mother will approve.

The delivery quests that we picked up were both on the way to San Diego. Each one came with a delivery reward and a bonus that seemed to be customary for low-grade quests. The first quest involved the delivery of magical hair growth formula to a magical barbershop. The owner offered us all temporary magical hair styling.

He explained the service to us, “I can give you any hairstyle and make it last for a set duration. If you want something temporary, I can make it last anywhere from an hour to a week. Permanent is like a normal haircut. It will last until it grows out.”

We had a good time flipping through the catalog looking at styles and colors I had never even dreamed of. I pointed at one style that consisted of a mohawk with multi-colored spikes, “Do you think this one causes damage to anyone who hits you on the head?”

Kalli giggled and said, “You are so not getting that one. What do you think about this one?”

I looked at the style Kalliphae chose. It was a short brown pixie cut. I frowned at it and she asked, “Don’t you like it?”

I shook my head rapidly, “No no no. It's not that. I just really like your hair the way it is.”

She gave me a quizzical look and then turned to the barber, “I’ll take this one, please. Oh, and Mel here will take that one.”

When we walked out of the barbershop, I was surrounded by two girls who were howling with laughter. I threw my head back in mock outrage and my red ponytail flipped over my shoulder. Kalli slapped my arm and groaned. I do not do that.

I had to admit, the girl did look kind of cute with the pixie cut.The short hair made the freckles on her nose stand out even more.She was perfect with any hairstyle.

Noticing my discomfort with my new hairstyle, she reassured me. Relax. It's just for an hour.

We went with the short-duration haircut because Shara was concerned that her parents wouldn’t approve of her changing her look. She had chosen a style for herself with very curly blond hair. She now had two bodyguards with hair so long that she might as well call them Rapunzel A and B.

The second stop was another restaurant. Kalli and I both agreed that we wanted to try every magical restaurant we could get our hands on. Why not pick up quests that guaranteed us a free meal? The place we went to sold magical kabobs with meat from monsters I didn’t recognize. It was very good. Not up to Phylis’ standards, but still very good.

I stuck my head out of the window in shock when we arrived at the repository. The giraffe’s neck sticking out of the sign gave the store away for what it really was. I laughed as the faintly glowing sign came into view.

[Magical] Toys’R’Us

I looked back at Shara.

Didn’t they go out of business?

She raised an eyebrow at me. Do you mean the toy store? Of course, they went out of business. Where else would you hide a repository of magical artifacts? In plain sight of course.

Walking into the repository reminded me of my childhood. The long hallway at the entrance reminded me of the magic I always felt when we entered the massive toy store. The difference began when we made it to the end. Where the first shelves of toys should have been was a reception desk. A woman in a yellow uniform with an ID card that said ROMA greeted us, “Good afternoon. May I please see your guild cards.”

Enrique collected all of our IDs and presented them to the receptionist. The woman examined the cards, writing our names down on a list until she got to Shara’s, “Oh, good afternoon Lady Shaw. Would you like me to summon the administrator for you?”

Shara spoke in a disinterested voice that she had never used with us, “No thank you. I have no business with the administrator today.”

If anything, the receptionist seemed to check us in faster at that point. She quickly handed us back our ID cards and pointed us to a corner where the entrance to the rest of the store was, “For those of you here for the first time, just follow the written directions on the wall. Everything is clearly marked.”

Whoever organized the repository must have had OCD. Everything was organized by category. They started with affinities. Kalli was very excited to view the fire section, so we started there.

The red room was filled with every day looking items that I wouldn’t have believed were magic if not for the labels on the wall telling us what they were.

Item:

Flame Touched Diamond

Components

Diamond, Mana, Fire

Item Rank:

C

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Wendell

The items in the repository felt a little lackluster to me. Shara filled us in. Most of the relics you’ll find here are donated to give the public a taste of magical items throughout history. The best relics are all hoarded in private collections. That phoenix dress that Kalli is wearing is an example of a rare relic.

As we went through various rooms, I began to get a feel for what a magical artifact looked like. It could be anything in a given room, but I could feel a sort of heartbeat when I held it in my hands. It was a good thing that the artifacts were kept on pedestals which encouraged visitors to handle them directly. I came to realize that the heartbeat I was feeling was the mana that lived within the artifact.

It wasn’t until we entered the dark affinity room that I found something that would prove to be interesting.

Unidentified Bracer

While mana has been identified to reside within this magical gauntlet, very little has been discovered about its true purpose.

Shara explained. They don’t know what everything does. Especially the older stuff. Every year there are auctions where items like this always get a lot of interest. It could be a child’s toy, or it could be an ultra-rare relic worth millions of gold.

I took a closer look at it.

Item:

XXXX XXXX

Components

Mana

Item Rank:

S

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

M

Was it made of nothing but mana? I pointed at the relic.

That thing says it’s S rank.

Shara nodded. It doesn’t matter what its rank is if nobody knows how to use it. This description says that it's been around forever and nobody ever figured it out yet.

The item owner stuck out to me. I had seen M before. Could this item yield some clue to my mysterious bloodline trait? I reached out to touch the relic.

I hadn’t even made contact when the bracer exploded in a cloud of diamond-shaped particles. These quickly sought my outstretched hand and flowed across my body like Kalli’s flames had done so many times before.

I yelped as the particles shredded my clothes when they came into contact with them. The mana from the artifact felt strangely familiar as it washed up and down my body. Unlike Kalli’s flames, it did not retreat.

I found myself covered in a solid coat of mana that looked like snakeskin with an alternating red and blue diamond pattern that matched the contrasting colors of my eyes. I blushed as I noticed just how form-fitting the relic was. I looked up to see Kalli staring at me. She quickly turned away, her face red as our eyes met.

I don’t know why, but I had the feeling that the relic coating my body would listen to me if I just supplied mana. I pushed mana in, mixing my essence with the mana that was the armor. It felt like someone had taken out their mana and molded it into a suit of chainmail.

With my mana fused to it, I could feel the layer of armor that now surrounded my body. With this newfound control over the artifact, I could shape it at will. It was kind of like Kalli’s phoenix dress. I willed the mana into a pair of sneakers along with woolen socks that warmed my frozen feet. I made the pants into a pair of thick shorts that went past my knees. For the top, I molded it into a hoodie. I looked down to appraise myself and realized that no matter what I did, the pattern was always diamond-shaped and it was always half red and half blue like my eyes.

I looked up at Shana and asked. Why is this in the dark mana room?

She didn’t get a chance to answer when a pair of security guards stormed in and looked at my shredded outfit on the floor, asking, “What is the meaning of this?”