"Only mildly," Bethany answered Ryan's question almost immediately. "If you weren't as attractive, maybe a bit."

"Thanks," Ryan said. "I'm not certain of how I look, but I've been told that exercising regularly has given me a toned body that is not unpleasant to look at. Sadly, I cannot say for sure, as any time I look into a mirror, I don't see my reflection. There are two possibilities there. The first is that I'm so damn good looking, the mirror can't reflect it properly, and ends up confused and just not reflecting it at all. The second is that I'm so damn ugly, the mirror is too horrified to show me out of fear of what I'd do in response. Wait, no, three. I could be a vampire, as I've heard those don't have reflections, either."

"You exercise?" Bethany asked, and he felt her embarrassment mixed in with her amusement. "Sorry."

"It's fine," he smiled. "I don't really use equipment. I do some pushups, crunches, planks, and squats, along with a few stretches. From time to time, I also use a pullup bar. Mostly what others would consider 'warm-up exercises'. I try to do it at least four or five mornings a week, when I first wake up. Tyler helps me."

"Do you mind if I ask how you use the pullup bar?" She asked.

"Same way you would, probably," he answered. "If you mean how I get on it, I use a stool, then Tyler takes it out from under me. Do you mind if I ask what you think of my looks? In true honesty?"

"You're attractive," she told him. "Maybe not as hot as your servant, but definitely above average. I'd say that the only thing off-putting about you is how your eyes tend to wander to a spot, then remain on that unwavering for awhile, but I understand that you can't exactly control that."

"I do enjoy how uncomfortable it makes people," he grins. "The atmosphere of a room can tell a lot, too. So Tyler has a hotter body than me?"

"He does," she told him. "Even with a shirt on, I can tell that he's got a little more muscle than you, and not to the point where it's obscene."

"So if you had to pick," Ryan said. "Between him and me for your husband based off looks alone and nothing else?"

"I'd pick him," she answered, and Ryan sensed Tyler's discomfort rising quickly.

"Sadly," Ryan said. "Tyler is disinterested in having romance, and even the topic of it makes him uncomfortable. He's too set into his servant's mindset, even if I see him as a friend more than a servant. But, hey! I'm available and don't have that issue. And I'm a Novar.

"To be serious for a moment," he said. "And yes, I know, it's such a shock for me to be, but to be serious… what do you think of being used that way, Bethany? Are you really fine with being married off to meet your uncle's goals?"

"I don't have much choice," she said. "And as I said before, you aren't unattractive. You have a nice body, and from what I've been told, you seem a decent person. At least, for a member of the Families."

"I'll take that as a compliment," he smiled. "And the implied statement is true. I'm doing my own planning and plotting, even as we speak. Not even Tyler knows the full extent of said plotting. He can probably guess at some of it, though. Tyler, hazard a guess."

"It is not my place to do that," Tyler said.

"You'd have no issue saying it if we were alone," Ryan said. "Come on, hazard a guess. What do you think I'm plotting?"

"It is not my place to make such a statement," Tyler said, and Ryan felt his servant's discomfort growing as his servant looked between him and Bethany.

"If you're worried about offending her, don't," Ryan nudged his servant. "Come on, hazard a guess."

Tyler sighed, and Ryan grinned.

"You're probably trying to figure out how to convince her to join you in bed tonight," Tyler finally said. "Because you now know that there's someone who will sleep with you, even if only for a political union of your families. That is the only thing I can come up with based on what I know of you, sir."

"He's right," Ryan told Bethany. "So how about it? When we get back to the main island, want to come to my room with me? I don't promise to be an expert, but I can promise pleasure."

"While my uncle," she said. "Would be pleased if I got pregnant with your child, I would prefer to wait to at least see how today goes."

"And if it goes well?" He asked.

"Then maybe I will," she told him, and he sensed a moment of hesitation in her mind. "How old are you?"

"Six thousand, five hundred, and eighty-two."

"He's eighteen," Tyler responded.

"That's what I said."

"No, it's not."

"Ryan," Bethany said. "Did you just give your age in days?"

"Perhaps," he smiled a little.

"How did you even know that?" Tyler asked.

"I plucked it from the depths of my mind," Ryan answered, uncertain as to how he knew it, himself. He supposed it had to do with being a chronomancer. He could even tell how many minutes he had been alive. And seconds. "What about you, Bethany? How old are you?"

"I'm nearly nineteen," she answered. "I'll turn it a little after you leave here, and we're almost to the island."

"Shame I'll miss your birthday," he said. "I'll make sure to send you a gift, though. If everything works out."

He wouldn't be sending that gift, but he wasn't going to say that. Ryan knew he had to play the part of someone who wasn't resetting time again and again. Otherwise, people might get suspicious, and if things went too far, he'd need to reset early.

"Thank you," she said as the boat began to slow down. "Here we are."

The boat stopped, and Ryan waited for Tyler to help him off the boat. As they stepped onto the docks, Ryan generated water over the mouth and nose of the mage who had driven the boat. The mage began to struggle against the spell as Ryan stretched, as if unaware of it. He kept the spell running, the mage inhaling water, more replacing it immediately. He could sense the confusion of his servant and of Bethany, as well as the panic of the other mage.

It didn't take longer for the mage to collapse onto the boat, and Ryan continued suffocating and drowning him until he no longer sensed the mage's mind.

"What the fuck?" Tyler muttered.

"He heard too much," Ryan said, and both of them turned to face him. "So I killed him to ensure anything sensitive spoken was not to be shared, even if only among the servants. I trust Tyler, and they are Bethany's family's secrets."

"How did you aim that?" Bethany asked. "Your back was to the boat."

"Magic is magic," Ryan said. "It is flexible, it is bendable, and it obeys my will. When it wants to. Tyler, my arm? Bethany, guide the way?"

Tyler took Ryan's arm to help him as Bethany led them through the foliage of the island. Ryan looked through his senses of water and air, uneasy. There was a feel to the air which disturbed him. It had begun on the boat as they drew near the island, but on the island, it became denser and denser.

He frowned as he thought that. The feeling was getting denser. That meant it wasn't just an unnerving feeling. There was something tangible he was sensing. At least, as tangible as magic might be. While he wasn't certain what it was, he knew it had to be magical in nature for him to sense it that strongly.

Tyler and Bethany didn't seem nervous or uneasy at all, which told him that whatever it was, he alone could sense it. Ryan pulled in his elemental senses, yet continued to sense whatever it was. He gave a soft sigh, then stretched his senses of air and water back out.

After twenty minutes of walking, the trio reached an open area, and Ryan saw a water elemental almost immediately, as it decided to drift into his view. It performed a series of patterns he only recognized half of, then drifted away.

"Bethany!" Ryan heard Damien call out from somewhere to his left and front. "You've arrived!"

"Hello, Uncle Damien," Bethany said as they walked towards him. Ryan could tell that Tyler was looking at something to their right, his head constantly turning over, then back to in front of them, curiosity in the servant's mind. "Ryan and I met at lunch, and we were both curious about the Heisar. So this is it?"

"It is," Damien said as Ryan began to detect Damien's form within his elemental senses. The man was looking at Ryan, and the teen could sense the family head's curiosity. "I know you've never been near your family's Hesiar, so I suppose this confirms you really don't have sight. Sorry if that sounds rude, Ryan, but there were a few of us who weren't sure if it wasn't just a trick by your family."

"How close is the Heisar?" Ryan leaned his head towards Tyler, his voice lowered.

"About fifteen feet to our right," his servant answered.

Ryan nodded, then stretched his sense of water out as he pulled in his sense of air. After fifteen feet, the ground fell away, but otherwise, the air's moisture content remained the same.

"No worries, Damien," Ryan said as he pulled his sense back to the manageable range and extended his sense of air back out. "By the way, I may have broken one of your servants."

"Broken one of them?" Damien asked, confusion clear in his mind.

"Yes," Bethany responded. "He overheard some stuff he shouldn't have. A conversation between Ryan and myself on our way here. I told him why I'm here."

"I see," Damien said.

"Don't worry," Ryan smiled as he sensed worry in the man's mind. "It doesn't bother me too much, and I won't tell Father. At least, not if all goes well here. Now, on to the topic of the Heisar. Something that's always made me curious, Damien, but what causes Heisars? I've never studied them much, and have never had too much reason to. I know Father is going to teach me sometime in the next few years, as I'll need to know stuff relating to them for when I take over as head, but since I'm here, I figure, why not ask?"

"Come," Damien said, and Ryan noticed him beckoning, then sensed the man's embarrassment. He smiled a little, which only increased Damien's embarrassment. "There are some seats set up over this way."

Damien led Ryan to the seats, and Ryan sat, Tyler sitting to his left, and Bethany sat to his right. Fruity drinks were brought to them before Damien began to explain, sitting in front of Ryan.

"A Heisar," Damien said. "As you know, is essentially a giant well of resources. They form randomly, and we only know their width at the start. We can only discover their depths by digging down and exploring them. As we do, we discover resources within them. Most are resources shared by other Heisars, but some Heisars have unique items, or items that only appear in them or maybe one or two others.

"How those form," Damien said. "Was a mystery at first. Over the last century, however, much studying has been done, and theories have been formed about it. The most credible theory is that a Heisar is a resource sink for Earth itself."

"A resource sink?" Ryan asked.

"Yes," Damien said, and Ryan saw him nod, then a quick flush of embarrassment hit the man's mind. Ryan gave a small smile, increasing that feeling in the man. "Mages at Tier Five and above can generate resources. You can create fire, water, earth, air, light, and energy. While some of those dissipate naturally, all of it is done through magic. Through mana. An intangible thing. But what about the excess water, earth, and air that's around?

"A magic crystal," Damien continued, pulling an object from his pocket. Ryan could only sense its vague dimensions through the way the water in the air formed a void and the way the air brushed against it, but he guessed it was a magic crystal, one around half the size of his fist. "Is a source of an element. Not one which generates it under normal circumstances, but which can bolster it. A water crystal like the one I'm holding can purify an immense amount of water. You can plant it in the ground to increase soil moisture. You can feed it to certain creatures. You can-"

He cut off as a water elemental entered Ryan's senses, drifted over to Damien, and extended a tendril of water, pulling the water crystal out of the man's hand before drifting off.

"-have it stolen by a water elemental," Damien sighed. "This is the fourth time since this thing formed one's stolen a water crystal we've pulled from it."

"A water elemental just stole one?" Ryan asked.

"Yes," Damien responded. "We aren't sure why they're doing it, either. They take it somewhere else and then just drop it. The incident yesterday involved one taking an entire box of them, then plucking the crystals out and throwing them at a tree. We collected them again once it left."

"Who knows what causes elementals to do what they do?" Ryan asked as he made a mental note to ask the elementals what they were doing once he was capable enough. "So what you were saying, Damien, is that magic crystals is used magic?"

"That's one way of wording it," Damien said. "The current theory is that Earth takes any excess elements and condenses them down into these crystals or imbues them into plants and animals, the high levels of ambient magic in the Heisar causing the formations of the creatures and items. It's the world's way of minimizing the impact of adding so much to it, even if it has an impact, itself."

"Just less of a severe one," Ryan said. "And more of a beneficial one."

"Exactly," Damien said. "Do you have any other questions? I was wondering how you've been enjoying your stay so far."

"Quite well," Ryan answered. "I'm still adjusting to the new environment, but with Tyler's aid, and now Bethany's, I'm sure I'll do just fine. Do you mind if we receive a brief tour of what's been excavated so far? Tyler's never been to a Heisar before, and I know he's been curious at what it looks like inside. After, we'll be heading back to the main island to rest."

"Of course," Damien said. "There isn't much yet, though. Just a few tunnels."

"That's alright," Ryan said. "Tyler can be quite eager about even the littlest of things."