(Jason, 16)

Elizabeth Anotis, current queen of Anotis, smiles at me from her bed as I approach her. The elderly queen's brown hair has long-since turned grey, her blue eyes yet to pale from age. My scan spell, nearly always active, picks up the source of her ailment almost immediately. A pair of healers wait nearby, in case her illness grows worse without warning, and half a dozen guards are positioned in the room as well.

"Queen Elizabeth," I give her a slight bow. "I am Jason Jeshema, son of the Seven Sages."

"I always wondered if I would meet you before my time on Midlaris came to an end," she smiles, her voice raspy. "I take it you met my son and chose to visit me, in case the opportunity never arose again?"

"Not quite," I smile at her. "I heard about your condition from an Anotis troupe visiting Varil City right now, and thought that maybe I or my Mama Elena might be able to help you, and wished to see for myself. My mamas and papas told me stories of encounters with you, from before they left society to live alone. I am sure if she knew about your condition, Mana Elena would have come to visit."

"I would not trouble her," the queen smiles at me. "And as for you, even if your identity has been verified, I do not believe my attendants would allow you to examine me to learn what you can yourself."

"I already know," I tell her. "You have multiple growths within you. Foul growths that will continue to spread. They are spread throughout your body. I doubt you will live beyond another month or two, though that is my inexperienced opinion, so I could be off on my estimates."

"That is secured information," her expression darkens. "How do you know this?"

"No one told me," I tell her. "I have ways of learning if someone is ill and how so that I do not share with others. Mama Elena is impressed and desires the knowledge of this trick. I know of several potent potions that Mama Elena told me of which could help decrease the symptoms while easing your suffering and allowing you to live a few months longer, but the ingredients are not easy to obtain. I would have to ask her if she knows something that would work."

"Thank you," she smiles. "You need not trouble yourself."

"I am partly doing this on behalf of Varil as well," I tell her. "As you are an ally of its, and I am as well. Unless your rejection is out of desire to simply stop suffering, rather than prolonging it."

She smiles at me, and I try to think about what I know of this disease. It is always lethal, as no one knows any way to cure it, only temporarily ease the symptoms. As I think about it, I remember that Lucas was on Earth, a world that had a lot more advances in medical knowledge than we do here.

Did he ever know anything about this disease? I search my memories of my life as Lucas as I try to find that out. As I do, I chat with the queen and her attendants. It takes me almost ten minutes to piece together enough to understand what this disease might be.

If it is the same thing, then this is cancer, a state where her body's cells mutate and continue to multiply rather than stop. I had to look through my other memories to figure out what it was talking about, with cells and such, but found enough memories of a biology lesson that explained it well enough.

In order to cure her, I would need to erase all of the existing mutated cells. I would also, for good measure, need to ensure that her body did not continue this over healing. Actually, now that I think about it, this may be the reason why those targeted by heavenly corrupted creatures became sick and died. These are the same symptoms.

I pull out a piece of paper and pen and write some stuff down, then pull out a comm plate and activate it. A moment later, it responds.

"Where are you?" I ask.

"Why?" The Mad Witch asks.

"Because I need you and need to know where to put the gate, Mama Elena."

"I'm in the kitchen," she tells me. "Why do you need me?"

"Read the note," I open a gate to the kitchen and toss the note through. "I'll need those ingredients, the note explains why."

A few moments pass as she reads the explanation and the specific relaxation potion I want.

"Alright," she says. "Give me about five minutes, then open the gate back up."

I close the gate as she ends the communications, and five minutes later, I reopen it. As we wait, I am given looks that are a mixture of confused and stunned, probably because of the enchanted item I used and the magical spell that, as far as they know, connected two places.

Mama Elena enters and as I close the gate, she opens up her spatial storage and begins setting up her portable alchemy station.

"Hello, Elizabeth," she greets the queen as she works. "You should have sent us word, I would have come down and helped you."

"I know," the Anotisian queen responds. "But I would never take advantage of your hospitality like that, Elena. You are a good friend of mine, but I would still feel as if I were using you, were I to request your aid. It may have added a decade onto my life, had I sent for you as soon as I learned of this illness, but it seems the time for Casper to take the throne has finally come. If all you do is ease my suffering, then I would be most grateful."

"I guarantee you," Elena says. "That if what Jason wants to do succeeds, then we will definitely ease your suffering. Completely."

"Thank you," Elizabeth smiles at her, though I see the doubt in her eyes. Mama Elena did just make a bold claim regarding something which is always lethal, so it is only natural that even she, a Sage, would be doubted. "So he truly is your son?"

"Not by blood," Mama Elena tells her. "But he is our son nonetheless. We have raised him since his birth. From what we can tell, his blood parents were slain by ogres and corrupted the day of his birth, after having been chased out of their village, which the brutes had destroyed. Samuel found him while out hunting the beasts, due to sensing a high number of them in the area he was traveling through for a reagent I needed."

So that is what Papa Samuel was doing? The area they told me he found was hundreds of miles from home, which always made me curious as to what he was doing so far away. Now I want to know what the reagent was and why she needed it.

"I see," Elizabeth says. "He seems like a respectable young man."

"We did our best," Mama Elena gives me the stink eye before beginning to work on the potion. "But he does get up to no good from time to time. At least he's a good boy and not someone intent on dominating the world."

Even if I were, Papa Samuel and Papa Michael would probably stop me before I did too much damage.

"He's just more than a little mischievous," she continues. "We put an absolute seal on the library, bound to our active magical signatures, and he still managed to figure out a way into it. He could have used a gate, that spell you saw him use to bring me here, but Samuel and Alyssa set up a spell to alert them the moment spatial magic was used to enter or exit the library, and his marbles don't allow him to imitate an active magical signature."

An active magical signature is the signature as the person is actively using it. Something like the marbles only store the passive magical signature. They're essentially the same thing, as they register the same. However, sealing spells and enchantments can be set to register or work for only magic that is being used actively, rather than simply recorded. A nifty little discovery we made after researching stored signatures a little. Even we aren't fully sure of the difference.

In theory, me using magic through the marbles would count as making the signature active, but that does not seem to be the case in practice, and it is something I have yet to figure out. My mamas and papas tell me to make sure that I am not in too much hurry to discover it.

"He also has a tendency," she continues talking as she works. "To sneak sweets out of the house, even though he is in Varil City studying at university. Samuel and Jared have attempted several enchantments to trap him, but he no longer triggers them."

"I just temporarily disable them," I inform her. "It's actually rather easy. I've also made Papa Samuel and Papa Jared aware of this. That's why they started setting the traps on the insides as well."

"You also somehow avoid getting caught in those," she tells me.

"I teleport the cookies out."

She groans.

"I'm making sure they're made aware of that," she says.

I already have a countermeasure, but my response would probably alert her or them to suspicion of that, so better to change the subject.

"How long will it take you to make that?"

"Only twenty minutes or so," she informs me.

"Okay," I say. "So I'll have to put up with you talking about me with her for twenty more minutes or so. At least, until after we finish. Then I'm sure you and Queen Elizabeth will continue."

"I like your son," Elizabeth smiles at Elena. "How about we discuss Casper? You never met him, but I am sure you have heard of him. We can talk about Jason when he is no longer around to hear it."

Mama Elena laughs, and the two of them talk about Casper as the Mad Witch makes the potion.. As soon as she finishes it, she gives it to the Anotisian queen, who drinks it without question. I suppose being the Sage of Alchemy earns a pass on suspicions.

"It will help ease you and make our job easier," Mama Elena tells Elizabeth as the queen drinks the potion. "Jason, stand on the other side."

I walk around to the other side, then as the queen begins to relax, Mama Elena and I hold out our hands and begin to use holy magics and curse magics at the same time as we push our mana into out patient to make it easier to sense and target the abnormal cells.

My note to Mama Elena explained everything I knew about the disease and outlined what I wanted to do, and I can sense her doing the same thing as me. She targets the more sensitive areas, starting with the queen's brain, while I handle the less-sensitive portions of the disease. I might be talented, but erasing and healing stuff like that is beyond my current level of ability.

At least, with minimal damage to the affected areas, meaning more healing would be needed, and thus, more risk of something going wrong.

My mama and I spend two hours performing this spell, and when we finish, she performs a scanning spell targeted on the queen's body to check for the illness, then both of us collapse onto the ground, exhausted. We're quickly brought chairs to sit on, and a servant brings us refreshments.

"What did you do?" One of the healers asks. "She is unconscious."

"She should wake soon," Mama Elena informs him. "If our work was done properly, then we cured her of the ailment in its entirely. If we did not, she may regress back, but it will take a long time for that."

"Curing it?" The healer asks in disbelief. "No offense intended towards yourself, Sage Elena, but such a thing is not possible, even for you."

"So you mean to tell me," my mama asks. "That you know more about my abilities than I do? Let me tell you something, girl: I am the Sage of Alchemy for a reason. I am a master of healing magics for a reason. I know my limitations. And I have a violet level of magical power. So does my son, who did know a way to cure it, even if only in theory. And we used that on your queen, healing her as best we could. By my spell to check the health of patients, I did not detect a single trace of the illness anymore. Perform your own checks if you wish, but you will not find anything I did not."

The healer gives us another look of disbelief, then begins to check the resting queen's body. Mama Elena stands and begins putting her mobile alchemy set away. When the healer finishes her checks, she tells the other to check the queen, and he does. They both check again, then look at us, and Mama Elena smiles, sitting back down now that her equipment has been put away.

"Are you going to insult our abilities once more?" She asks. "And deny what you have verified yourselves?"

"How did you do this?" The female healer asks. "No one has ever found a way to truly remove it without severe damage to the patient, possibly even killing them, yet we found no traces through our checks!"

"It is a method," Mama Elena says. "Which is far beyond the abilities of ordinary healers. Only mages such as Jason and myself could ever manage it, and you saw how exhausted it turned us and how much time it required to perform."

Admittedly, that was because of how badly the Anotisian queen was affected by it, but even if she were much earlier into the illness, we probably would have still needed to expend a lot of power to cure her.

"Elizabeth," Mama Elena says as the queen begins to wake. "You should begin to recover your strength soon, but it would still be best to take it easy, as you have no doubt weakened from the illness. We were able to restore it, but not build your muscles back up. That will come naturally with time and recovery."

"Thank you," the queen smiles at us. "I do feel much better now. Your son truly is remarkable, if he was able to come up with that on the spot with only a few minutes' thought."

"Yes," Mama Elena looks at me, frowning just a little. "He did."

She is definitely going to ask me about it later. They know I'm reincarnated, and will no doubt inquire if that solution came from my memories of my previous life, my life from another world. At least they aren't aware I'm a Magus, too.

That would complicate things. A lot.

"Is there anything we can get for you?" Elizabeth asks as a maid helps her into a sitting position. "I do not need to be told that I am healed to know I am, I can feel it in my body. If it is within my power, I will grant it to you."

"You know I do not need any such thing," Mama Elena smiles. "Though our own Elizabeth has been talking about coming down to buy some silk for a dress she wishes to make."

Speaking of Mama Elizabeth, I need to talk with her about regarding the uniforms for my advanced training group. The full-on combat sessions will begin either the end of this term or the start of next, and I want the gear for them ready by then.

"I can arrange things for her," the queen tells Mama Elena, then looks at you. "How about you, Jason?"

"May I see the Crown of Anotis?" I ask. "I read about it in a book in the university's library. As an enchanter and developer of magical tech, I became interested when I heard about it."

"Be careful," Mama Elena warns her. "Jason can read magic like you or I would read a book. You show him that crown, and he might be able to recreate it after only thirty seconds of looking at it."

Queen Elizabeth laughs, but sends for the crown to be brought here. It only takes a few minutes for the ornate wooden box it's stored within to be brought to us, and the box is set on the bed beside the queen, who opens it for me to view the crown.

The moment I see it, I recognize it and exclaim in surprise.

"That still exists?"

A crown of brown metal and forged with green leaf accents, set with green and brown gemstones and magical crystals.

"Not the reaction I was expecting," the queen chuckles.

"My apologies," I smile at her. "I am quite knowledgeable in ancient magical items. The way this crown was described, I did not connect it with another item. Do you mind if I pick it up?"

"You may," she gestures to it. "Please put on gloves, however."

I open up my spatial storage and pull out a pair of gloves, understanding her caution. Only those of the bloodline it is connected to can touch the crown without issue. Chances are, however, that he would allow me to touch it as well.

I slip on the gloves, then reach into the box and lift the crown out of it, staring at it for a few moments before shaking my head.

"Its magical power has grown weak," I tell the queen. "I estimate it has maybe another sixty to seventy years of charge left. I'm surprised it still exists, its creator wasn't trying to create an enchantment which would last that long. He was bored and fiddling with things."

"You know the origins of the crown?" The queen asks.

"I do," I confirm. "I also know how to recharge its power back to full, but your guards might take issue with it."

"As grateful as I am to you," she tells me. "I will not allow the crown to be removed from the premises."

"That's not it," I use force magic to hover the crown in front of me, then I draw my knife. "It's because I'm going to bleed on the crown. But once it recharges, the crown will return to its full power, including many of the features it currently does not run. The land is not the only thing it guarantees the fertility of, and it also prevents illness and poisoning in the master or mistress it is bound to. Were it fully functional, you would not have had to deal with that illness."

Even though I did not understand how it worked back then, either. She will likely understand soon why, and probably learn who I am.

Before anyone can protest, I slice the back of my left arm and use my magic to guide some of the blood out and onto the crown. Three of the guards move towards me as the queen opens her mouth, Mama Elena beginning to cast a spell.

With a gesture of my right hand, I cancel Mama Elena's spell and freeze the guards in place, the crown rotating in its spot to show the queen that the largest of the crystals is absorbing all of the blood, and I apply some holy magic to the cut to heal it.

"Wait a few moments," I tell her. "I can sense it waking up."

"Disgusting!" A voice exclaims in my head, and I know that the only other person in here who can hear it is the queen. "That blood tastes foreign to me, yet the soul it is from… Nolan?"

"Hello, Ezarit," I greet the crown. "My name is Jason."

"When did you change your name?" Ezarit asks.

"I'm surprised you're still bound into the crown," I tell him as the queen stares at the crown, her eyes widened slightly. "One would expect that after all these years, the enchantment would have faded away."

Which makes me wonder just how many of Nolan's creations really still exist. The artifacts in the tombs and such… they still have power, don't they? I still need to learn what those artifacts are, none of the records I have found actually list them. Maybe I can ask Jacob to visit his supposed tomb with me?

"Is that the crown?" Queen Elizabeth asks.

"Yes," I answer. "His name is Ezarit, and he's a… he's a spirit bound into the crown by the High Magus of the Twelve Magi."

Actually, he's a god, and I did not possess the memory of when I bound him into an object until I saw the crown. I never connected the Crown of Anotis to something I made until I saw it, as a result. The memory of creating the crown and binding Ezarit into it had been forgotten, and only returned when I set eyes upon my creation. Naturally, that meant the knowledge of the artifact itself had been forgotten, so there was no knowledge to make a connection with.

There were some gods who refused to return to the heavens, and I suppose Nolan tracked down any who managed to stay on Midlaris after the Magi destroyed the passages to it and bound them into things.

"Yeah, call me a spirit and not the god I really am," Ezarit says sarcastically. "Your body and biology are completely different from before, but I know the soul that fed me. You are Nolan."

"We have people around," I tell Ezarit. "How are you still bound into the crown? Especially since it's shattered at least once and has been at least three thousand years since the enchantment was placed? The shattering or restoration should have consumed the last of the enchantment's power if it were still around only six centuries ago."

"Because you are that powerful, Nolan," he responds.

"It's Jason," I correct.

"Whatever you go by now," he says. "Considering what you are, it's not surprising you can put that much magical power into an enchantment. As a human, you were able to kill even an ancient dragon alone. You slayed angels, demons, and gods alike without angelic or demonic weapons. And for your sake, I've changed it so that only you can hear me at the moment. I wouldn't be able to communicate with you if you were not Nolan, as your biology is not bound to me."

"What is going on?" Mama Elena asks.

"The crown talks," the queen answers. "His name is Ezarit, Jason?"

"Yes," I nod. "He's an ancient spirit bound into the crown by the leader of the Magi in a fit of annoyance. As Ezarit had forced humans into service for him, the Magus Nolan decided to force him to serve humans. I wasn't aware any of the Magi Artifacts still had any power in them, and did not expect the Crown of Anotis to be Ezarit. Since I fed him my blood to reawaken him and fuel the enchantment with more power, I can hear his voice as well. Otherwise, only the one he is directly bound to – in this case, you – can hear him from any range, and your heirs can hear him as well, as long as they are within a somewhat small range.

"If he ever gets mouthy," I tell her. "Or disturbs you, say the phrase 'ilae val ru nie', and he won't be able to talk for twelve hours. Should you say it again during that silence, he will be able to speak once more. To extend it to four days of silence, add 'kol' to the front of the phrase and 'nal' to the end. Only you and those of your blood can do such a thing.

"He cannot act against you," I say. "The enchantment binding him is powerful enough to ensure he cannot. In addition to benefiting the land, you will live out the rest of your life healthily, and should you take on another lover, be forewarned that Casper may find himself with a younger brother or sister. Your bloodline itself is more fertile as a result of the full enchantment working."

Mama Elena smacks me on the back of the head.

"You should have explained everything, then asked permission," she tells me as I rub the back of my head. "Did we not teach you to not act on your impulses?"

"I think you're the only one who tried," I give her a cheeky grin. "Someone is attempting to contact me."

I open up my spatial storage and pull out my comm plate, stepping back as Mama Elena returns the crown to its box, then speaks with the queen, apologizing for my actions.

"I am a little busy right now, Papa Samuel," I answer the call.

"I am using his comm plate," Niko responds in Marran. "Do you think you could take the time to do something? We have a situation here in Mar."

Mama Elena gives me a curious look.

"What kind of situation?" I ask, dropping my voice as I lift the comm plate, lowering the volume on it and creating a sound barrier around me so that they cannot eavesdrop on us.

"The church," he explains. "Has laid siege to the castle, and it has been in effect since sometime after Father left for Varil, but before your Father Samuel brought him back. When I brought the priests here to be tried and executed, Father decided to inform me of it. Your Father Samuel has been bringing food into the castle to render the siege ineffective, but they are worried that the soldiers partaking of the siege will attempt to infiltrate the castle soon. The church is causing a loud commotion, and I was wondering if you could summon him."

Him?

"Do you mean him him?" I ask. "Or someone else?"

"I mean him," he says. "If you do not have one of the pearls, then I would understand. It was only a hope."

"You do mean him, then," I say. "I can try to locate a pearl, but I must ask you, Niko: are you absolutely sure of this? You know what summoning him means."

"I am," Niko responds. "Please, Jason?"

"I will do what I can," I tell him. "It might take me a few hours, though. I will inform Papa Samuel to let you know if I'm unable to summon him. I have some of the beans, I can let him possess me instead if that would work."

"I think summoning him would be best," he tells me. "They might not believe it if it is just you. The aura presence is quite different."

"Alright," I say. "I will summon him. Goodbye, Niko. I will see you later."

"Goodbye," he says, and we end the call.

I return the comm plate into my spatial storage as I disable my sound barrier, then walk over to the queen and Mama Elena.

"An emergency has come up in Mar," I tell them. "And Prince Niko has asked me a favor to help them. As the situation resulted from my past actions, I will do it. I apologize for leaving so suddenly on this, but I hope you recover your strength soon, Queen Elizabeth. Mama Elena, would you like me to open a gate back home?"

"No," she tells me. "I can contact your Papa Michael and have him do it."

"Very well, then," I dip my head to her, then open up a gate.

I turn my attention to the crown.

"If you tell a single soul," I tell it in the ancient tongue. "About my true identity, or hint about it, or any other such thing, I will do far worse to you than simply binding you into the service of the humans you abused. I may not be who I once was, but my memories of that era – and of what you were doing when I came across you – make me despise you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," he responds, worry clear in his voice.

"Good," I smile, speaking in Anotisian once more. "You all have a wonderful day."

I step through the gate and find myself above the ocean off the northeastern coast.

"Cold!" I shiver.