"Why Is Mana Control so rare? I mean no offense, but I have been somewhat surprised by the lack of... skill that I've seen so far. Aside from Master Long, even the court mages all seemed somewhat lacking. Amelia's control is better, and she prefers raw power and brute force. Sorry, babe." I smile at the indignant look she gives me.

"Hah!" Devlen lets out a sharp bark of laughter. "They're good guys up at the castle, but it is a bit of a cushy job. It's partly due to talent, but mostly people just aren't willing to put in the hard work. Sure, everyone dreams of making it rich, but it's a long road. For the average person, at least." He laughs a bit more. "Your new techniques may be just what are needed to help some people breakthrough. Coen raved about that glass fiber so much that I had to ask a fire mage to help me make some even though I unlocked control years ago. And Oliver showed me that movie board you made for the princess, that's just ingenious."

"Yeah, she seemed so excited that I had to come up with something for her..." We pass through a pair of double doors and I stop in my tracks. "Oh, this is exactly what I what I was hoping for." What I thought would be another room is actually a three story library filled with thousands of books.

"Heheh, it's not usually the first stop on the tour. But, I had a feeling you'd be interested."

"Oh boy, I think we lost him." Apricot giggles.

"He's got the same look on his face that you get when he makes chocolate." Amelia joins in on the fun, but I'm beyond caring. "Hey, babe. Don't get too caught up, I still want to look at houses later."

"Half an hour." I beg. "Gimme just half an hour and I can duplicate every book in here. Hmm, I'll need more ink." I'm already pulling out my staff and a crate of soil to grow trees for paper before I come back to myself. "Oh, I'm so sorry." I apologize to Devlen with a bow. "I've just had so many questions about magic, and there's only so much I could figure out through experimentation. I got ahead of myself when I saw all this"

"Did you really mean it? When you said it would only take you half an hour?" He's got a serious look on his face.

"Give or take a few minutes, yeah." I nod.

"Well, damn!" He shakes his head. "We usually task our water mages with reproducing the books and it takes them ages, it's one of the most hated jobs for the Guild. I'll need to talk to the Guild leader, and the head librarian, but if you could make us duplicates as well..."

"Gimme the ink and I'll do it." I state, eager for the opportunity. "Won't take me any longer to make two copies than it will to make one."

"You've got a deal." He says before turning to the main desk. "Margrit, be a dear and tell Florence to come down. Tell her we've got someone volunteering to copy the entire library. Then send someone to buy as much ink as we'll need. I'll authorize the expense." Turning to me, he continues. "I need to run up to Stanwood's office. Is that for the paper? Good. Go ahead and make what you think you'll need. I'll be back as soon as possible. Hope you don't mind a crowd, because this is going to draw one." He says in parting.

"He did not just say that to the biggest showoff in the kingdom, did he?" Amelia shakes her head before laughing.

"Oh you love watching him do stuff like this, and you know it." Apricot counters. "Gods, look at that roll of paper."

While they're laughing at me I'm rapidly turning seeds into trees, and trees into paper. Several metric tons worth, in fact. I don't have enough room to recreate all the books at once, so I went with a large roll. Damn thing is so heavy I have to use my leftover wagon wood to support it.

"What is going on out here?" A woman with a face that looks neither young nor old comes out of a doorway in the back of the room. She seems nothing like a librarian, more like some high society lady that just had her luncheon interrupted. "Dammit, Devlen. This is my library, you can't just go making decisions on your own like this."

"Sorry, Ma'am." I apologize once she rounds the roll of paper. "He went to get the guild leader. Told me to get the paper ready while I waited."

"Look, young man, you're sentiment is admirable. But, there's no way you can copy the entire library in one go."

"Oh, gods. She made it a challenge." Amelia mutters, causing our pixie to giggle.

"Hush you two." I hiss softly back at them. "I'm sorry for the disruption Ma'am, but when I say I can do something, I can do it. Now, I hope you have an empty inventory, or someplace to keep the duplicates. Because half an hour after I get the ink, you're gonna have two libraries." I tell her flatly while examining the books with my magical senses. Fortunately most of them have the same dimensions, so I'll just have to adjust how many pages each book needs.

"Good thing we cleaned ours out last night." Amelia says. "How did we end up collecting so much junk so quickly?"

"It's fine Florence." A stocky man enters the library with Devlen. "I'm rather interested in what an Archmage can do when he wants to."

"Oh, fine. But you'd better not damage a single one of these books." She huffs, defeated.

"I've already repaired dozens of tears on this floor alone." I sit down cross-legged with my staff in my lap to continue the scan while waiting for the ink to arrive.

"Damn." Apricot curses. "His eyes are glowing. He's really taking this seriously. You lunkers may want to clear the stacks."

"Uh, that may be a good idea." Devlin concurs.

"That's not really necessary." I correct. "Just make sure nobody is blocking any of the shelves. I can work around them but it'll slow me down a bit." My scan is going well; I've repaired every bit of damage there was, and even found a few books that were lost under or behind shelves. I'm just cataloging the size and page number of all the books now.

"We'll clear them out anyways." The head librarian signals her aides who begin clearing the aisles. Meanwhile the word seems to have gotten out and the edges of the room are starting to fill with spectators.

A young man comes running up then, panting he pulls a few large jugs, and a few dozen small pots from his inventory. "I got everything Salvador had and sent Tommy to Benedict's, he should be here in a few minutes."

"Thank you." I levitate the ink to me, opening everything and collecting it in the air behind me. Normally, I'd get fancy and make some shapes with it. But this is all about speed, so I just hold it in a simple sphere.

Ink ready, and my initial scan done, I'm ready to go. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Then, using magic I pull out a book from the top left corner of the nearest shelf. Flipping through the pages it takes me ten seconds to form two near perfect copies. Near, only because I am using specially formed paper instead of leather for the covers.

Ten seconds to copy a book may seem quick, but even if I do a single book a second, I still won't have completed the first floor in time. So, I kick things into gear. Ten more seconds, and a shelf is copied. Ten after that, and the first bookcase is cleared.

I hear gasps but just let them wash over me as I copy case after case of books. Stacking copied books up in half meter cubes, I wrap them in paper before moving them to the side. Amelia comes up to my side and starts storing them in her inventory. I'm halfway through the second floor when she backs away, leaving the rest for me.

"Gods damn!" Devlen swears, and several people mimic him. "Twenty-three minutes. And, it would have been faster if he hadn't had to wait for extra ink."

"I had the chance to catalog the books and make the paper beforehand." I correct while standing up and stretching my back. "Where do you want these ones? They were lost in the stacks" I bob a double handful of books up and down in the air above where they were found.

"On the desk here, thank you." The head librarian says distractedly as she leafs through a selection of copies, checking them for accuracy. "Perfect!" She finally spits out. "Better than perfect. This one was barely legible before." She retrieves the original from the shelf. "I was going to hand copy it myself this weekend, but look at this. Not a smudge, not a smear, the writing even looks cleaner and look, this droplet was removed. How did you even manage that?"

"Oh, I could only do that for the few hand-written ones, the magically copied are as I found them, minus smudges of course. I can sense the depth of the ink to determine what is and isn't an intentional mark."

"I keep all the originals, could you possibly..?" She trails off.

"Sure. Uh, some other time though, that pretty much wiped me out. And I promised Amelia we'd go look at houses today." I smile back at my girls. "Sorry for making you wait."

"Oh, it was worth the show." Apricot answers. "These lunkers don't know what they're missing without Magic Sight. All they could see was the books floating out and ruffling a bit."

"That was still pretty impressive." Stanwood, the Guild leader adds. "Like a wave was washing over the library, and you were the ocean, but not a drop of spray went awry. Just how high is your Mana Control, young man?"

"Oh, 'bout halfway to Mastery." *Ding* "Exactly halfway." I correct.

"Ah." He seems overwhelmed. "May I ask how you were able to raise it so high?"

"Just go as small as you can, as fast as you can, while doing as many things as you can. Then go smaller, faster, and more." I explain as simply as possible to the room at large. "Then you gotta start doing the impossible, or what you think should be impossible. How many here can make lightning?"

"We don't have any Electromancers in the guild." Stanwood states.

I just shake my head and say six words. "Light. Dark. Earth. Air. Fire. Water." Each word accompanied by a ten centimeter spark above my held up palm. "I unlocked Control by making a glass sculpture in mid air using nothing but Fire magic." I then conjure a hologram of the finished product before turning away.

Putting the wagon wood back into my last free inventory slot, I then walk up to and put my arm around Amelia. "Ready to go? We can come back later to do the paperwork after you've had a chance to read through it."

"Oh, I did that while you were showing off. Devlen even had that one girl, Hana, write it up for us." She says snuggling into my side, wrapping her own arm around me.

"That's good then, just show me where to sign. Sorry, Devlin, Master Stanwood. I think we're gonna postpone the rest of the tour." I say with a yawn. "I need to walk around, get some fresh air to clear my head."

"Perfectly understandable. I'm a bit surprised you're even standing right now." Devlin nods while Stanwood and the others crowd around the image of a glass kitten.

"Oh, it's not that bad, and I've always recovered from Mana drain quickly." I explain to his worried look. "It's just all the books; I wasn't really reading them, but a lot still came through. Just needs a bit of time to settle down in my brain, ya know?"

"Of course..?" He says like he doesn't understand at all. "I'll walk you out. Hana, please bring the forms."

"You really okay, babe?" The blonde at my side asks worried.

"Yeah, It's already starting to get better. Just remind me not to skim an entire library again, at least not for a few days." I joke.

"Dumbass." She may call me names, but she's hugging me tight and that's good enough for me.

"I see somebody got bored and fell asleep though, lucky little guy." Mittens is curled up asleep inside her shirt. "So, how are we doing the whole house hunting thing? We just gonna walk around until we find a place that looks good, and then throw money at the owners until they leave. Or what?"

"No, silly. And, quit trying to stick your fingers down my shirt, you'll wake him up." She swats my hand away. "I was going to take us to the person that helped Mom and Dad find their place."

"I know a couple people that might be able to help." Devlen interjects as we reach the reception area again. "Let me write down the directions for you while Hana shows you where to sign."

"Thank you." I nod and follow him and the elf over to the desk.

A few minutes later and we're walking out the door, paperwork and referrals in hand. As soon as we're down the street and around the corner I slump, letting Amelia take most of my weight.

"You dumbass!" She says with more worry than heat. "How bad is it?"

"Like I stayed up for a week straight cramming as much knowledge as I could into my head for the mother of all tests." I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. "Kinda surprised my brain isn't leaking out of my ears right now." I only half joke.

"Come on there's a tea shop over here, we can sit down until your brain stops sloshing around." Amelia guides me across the street.

"Thanks babe, you're the best." I kiss her on the forehead. "You too Apricot." I give her an Air Magic kiss. "Just don't look so sad like that, okay? I know you'd help haul my stupid ass around if you could."

"Quit reading my mind, you stupid lunker." She swipes tears away from her eyes.

"Don't give me new ideas for magic, not while I've got this mess sloshing around up here, at least." I was going to fake groan but it came out a bit more real than intended. "I promise you I will master the spells to make you big and us small. I don't care what it takes. There's no way my girl isn't going to be able to hug me when she's feeling worried." I extend some tendrils from my hand to hug her as tight as I dare. Joined a second later by Amelia's water spell.

"Stupid lunkers."

""We love you too."" Amelia and I say at the same time before all three of us break into giggles.

Half an hour, a couple pots of tea, and a platter of sweets later has me feeling human again. Or Plantkin, I suppose, if you want to be precise. Not that I got to eat a lot of the sweets, not with these two piranhas at my side.

"You're looking better, babe." Amelia says after splitting the last sweet with Apricot.

"Yeah, he's not quite as green as usual." Apricot concurs before giggling at her accidental pun. "You know what I meant." She huffs when we just give her a flat stare.

"Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better. You guys ready to get a move on?" I down the last of my tea.

"Yeah, but let me hire a carriage." Amelia answers. "We've got a bit of ground to cover, and there's no need for you to stress yourself."

"I'm not going to fall apart, but go ahead. Since I know you won't listen to me anyways." I mutter.

"Well, he may be an idiot but at least he knows when a fight is unwinnable." Apricot flies up and lands on top of my head.

***

The rest of the day was spent riding around and looking at different houses. The person Turner and Kaitlyn used didn't really have anything more upscale and, at the very least, we want a detached house with a big yard. So, we thanked them for their time before heading to Devlen's recommendations.

At the next stop we had pretty much the opposite problem as the first place we went. They seemed to only deal with mansions and large manors. And, while it was nice to walk through a couple of them, they just don't really suit us.

The last place, though. They were more our speed, with large but tasteful homes, most on good sized lots. Many were even in a similar style to Marta and Abigail's home.

"I liked that last place, but the neighborhood was too far from the markets, we'd have to take a carriage everywhere." Amelia says while we're in a carriage heading back to her parent's.

"You sure you don't want to go back to my 'throw money at them' plan?"

"Oh, hush."

"I'm serious." I say, seriously. "We keep looking for homes, but why don't we look for where we want to live? And, just let me build our dream home? I'm gonna want to overhaul any place we get anyways."

"I got so caught up that I kinda forgot you could do that." She raises her palm to her face before sighing at her own silliness.

"You really loved that first neighborhood right?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, but the lots, as big as they were, were still too small for what you wanted..." She starts before trailing off as she catches on. "We could just get two connected lots."

"All we have to do is ""throw money at them."" We say together. "I know it hurts your merchant sensibilities, but I can literally crystallize money from thin air." I do just that, and toss her the resulting Mana Stone.

"Fine, fine. At least today let us get a good idea for what we like and what we don't. Tomorrow, we can ask the housing agent to find us two connected lots that are willing to sell. For a reasonable price." She adds, shaking the Mana Stone at me. "Just because we can basically mint our own coin now. -gods, did I just say that?- Doesn't mean we need to be stupid about it."

"Of course not." I agree. "Besides if we flood the market, the price will go down the drain anyways."

"Yeah, we should talk to Devlen and find a distributor."

"There's my little merchant." I lean across the seat and pull her into my lap. "What do you think, Apricot. Did you like that first neighborhood? You've been kind of passive about the whole thing." I ask the pixie that's still hanging out in my hair.

"Mhm. Told you before I'm good doing whatever you guys want." She says sleepily. "Home is more who you're with than where you're at. As long as we're together, I don't care if we live on the moon."

"One day, maybe." I rub my chin between thumb and forefinger. "I don't think I have enough raw power to get us and all the stuff we'd need into orbit, not yet. Let alone all the way there, and I don't even want to risk messing around with teleportation until I have a better understanding."

"Are you serious?" Amelia asks flabbergasted. "What am I saying? Of course you are."

"Yeah, the people of my world did it without magic. It's not easy, but it's not exactly hard either." I explain. "Just make an air tight room, and go up. I can use magic to fix the air so we don't suffocate. Actually, do I use oxygen, or carbon dioxide? It's gotta be oxygen, I'm too active. I'll have to figure out some tests later, just to be sure. Uh, where was I?"

"Suffocating on the moon." Apricot squeaks out.

"Oh yeah, the higher you go the less air there is, and the moon is basically in empty space. Ever wonder why there are no plants or water up there, just plain rock? No air means no water, no water means no life. So, once we got there I'd need to make a gigantic glass dome for us to live under." I make a cartoon image of a house in a bubble on the moon. "I'm simplifying things... a lot, but you get the idea."