Hailey and Kait appeared in a grove of trees. Birds sang, leaves fell, and springtime was in bloom. Towering far above them was a mountain.

A Hailey stood not far from them with her arms crossed. “Took you long enough.”

The real one ignored herself while she dusted ice filings off her pants.

The fake Hailey continued, “You can call me mark 3. So, can we get this over with?”

Hailey shrugged, “Yeah, but what are we even doing.”

Mk3 pointed up the mountain. “Getting to the top.”

“Oh jeez,” Hailey said, intimidated. The mountain wasn’t your ordinary bloke of a hill but a full-sized climb.

“Yeah, its big, but you better not slow me down.” Mk3 started jogging towards the mountain without another word.

As Hailey realized she was getting straight to it, Kait said, “Sorry, but I think it’s getting late, and I don’t think I’m of much use at the moment, so I’m leaving.”

“Oh, sure. I can handle this on my own.”

Kait nodded, then disappeared.

Hailey leaned down and picked up all the gear Alchemia had bubbled up to the portal. Given how massive the mountain was, this could take a while.

She heard Mk3 yell to her, “Hey! Slowpoke, get over here now. We don’t have all day to waste!”

Longer than a while, she corrected herself.

Alchemia was confused when she realized she was a liquid metal, but she regained her senses after a moment.

“Yo, bud, can you hear me?” she thought she said. Uhh, wait, she probably didn’t say that- “So, things went off without a hitch. In case you’re confused, I’m channeling you. Since I’m no medium, this will only last a few seconds, but just saying, right now, you’re a puddle of mercury. It might take a week or two to get you out. Yeah, that’s it. Jaine, out.”

And then she was back to square one, that puddle of mercury.

Alchemia realized the horrific situation she’d been placed within to not long after. She was literal mercury. If Jaine decided to bury her in the ground for some reason, she was pretty sure she’d forever be quicksilver, left to her thoughts for decades on end until she died of old age, probably killing her for good. Thankfully for her, mercury couldn’t stress out, so she remained perfectly calm, placing faith in her new friend.

Jaine carefully placed the mercury in his duffel bag. To be honest, he had no expectations that would work. Many of his clients expected him to do the impossible and try to save them from fates they had, like, a .1% chance of surviving even with his help. A few idiots even emailed him asking to be put in a younger vessel. He’d usually try to keep those clients calm by acting assured, and he did the same with Alchemia.

Jaine packed up and walked out. It was an anticlimactic affair, but he knew it’d change his life. Sometimes, Jaine regretted his profession. He often failed in saving people, and when he did, he was blamed for their death. To some degree, they were right. He was below average as a necromancer, and when he failed to save a life, that was on him for his inability to get better. Had he killed those people? He didn’t want to know.

But it was a simple fact; he worked for money. He didn’t come to save people or to cure their disabilities, but for that moolah. However, it was the times where he walked out feeling a hero that he stopped regretting. No matter how he’d failed in the past, he’d succeeded now.

Kait shook off her dizziness, then looked around the room, confused why she was moved.

She placed her hand on her chest, ensuring the catalyst was still there. She stood up and walked to her room, storing it beneath her bed again.

She walked out of the house and made her way to the base of the mountain range that surrounded the city, not too far from the Joul’s home. Then, she took her broom for another stroll through them.

Hailey jogged behind mk3, barely keeping pace with her other self in exhaustion. It didn’t help that mk3 made sure to bark at her each step of the way, insulting her and claiming she wasn’t giving it her all. Who did she think she was, a military sergeant!? Hailey was happy that mk3 had banned sweat, at least keeping the climb comfortable.

“Come on, get up here and get this over with!” she cried out to Hailey, twenty feet up the rockface.

Hailey could barely stand after thirty minutes of jogging uphill and was halfway to collapsing. She was also pissed at her other self. How did mk3 expect her to keep going if they weren’t even a fifth up the mountain!? She spoke through gasping breaths, “Just...give me...a...break...” Hailey collapsed, unable to go on.

“Urg, really?” Mk3 threw herself down the slope, stopping at Hailey’s corpselike body, her skin pale and cold from the mountain’s chill. “You are out of shape.” A bottle of water appeared in front of Hailey’s face, and she delightfully drank it down. “Look, I don’t think we need to struggle too much here. Stop making this difficult, and ask for what you need. No cheating, obviously!”

After finishing a colossal gulp of water, Hailey gasped. “What’s up with you ‘parts of me’ and cheating? Couldn’t you just teleport me to the top if you’re so impatient?!”

“That wouldn’t do.”

“Why!?”

“Cause I care about doing my job, and I’m not gonna let you half-ass this!”

“I don’t get it.” Hailey cried. A cup of coffee appeared next to her, and Hailey drank it down before standing up again.

“Now get moving! You should know by now, the more you want to move, the more you will move!”

Hailey groaned, then stumbled forward. This wouldn’t be very fun.

Clera was busy calling her husband, sitting in her office room chair, tapping a pen on her desk. “Yep. She’s in a magic sleep.”

“No, I don’t think kissing her forehead will release her from her slumber!”

“Yeah, I’m not sure either.”

“I don’t want to do that to her...Kait’s trying her best to take responsibility. Besides, Taylor said he didn’t want that to happen.”

“Well, two to one is a majority vote, but that’s ignoring Hailey’s vote. I think she counts most.”

“No, you don’t count since you’re off in Kalasa.”

“Yeah, I honestly don’t know why she doesn’t just live in his mansion.”

“Really? She’s barely got her life together, and isn’t he, like, eight years older than her?”

“Sure, she is twenty, but I’m just saying that I don’t trust celebrities.”

“Yes, even if he’s Aloe’s son.”

“We can agree to disagree here. So, how’s work going?”

“Nothing at all? That’s disappointing.”

“Err, you’re coming home to help? Don’t kid with me. We still have a few hundred in debt you need to pay off.”

“Yes, you’re staying till you rectify your mistake. And before you say ‘but I’m not getting an artifact anytime soon,’ I just want to tell you that I don’t give a burning forest whether you do or don’t cause it’s your job.”

“Nope.”

“Still nope. You’re getting the debt cleared, or you’re never coming back. Love you~”

After waiting for her husband’s obligatory response, she hung up and continued her paperwork.

Taylor was at the library, studying a thick book, Book One of The Complete Dictionary of Magics, Their Rituals, and Their Uses. If someone found they had an affinity for the right magic, they could find a career, but he wasn’t looking for that. He wanted to help.

So, after some research with the book, he had a list written on a piece of paper:

Postcarrio: a magic that allows one to change tiny actions in the future to make more extensive overall changes. I think this would be super useful. ritual cost is $135

Doppelgear: a magic that lets someone create literal copies of themselves, it seemed similar to how mk2 was made, so I felt like keeping it in mind. Ritual cost is $105

Appetizer: I’m tempted to think this is a joke by the authors, but it’s a type of magic that lets someone heal souls with food. I couldn’t help but write it down. Apparently, the ritual cost is only $15, so I decided to throw it on here.

Fortune reading: I’m relatively likely to have an affinity for this since my grandfather was one, but I’ll ask Taila about this before I pay.

Aquaformer: the book is vague about it, but apparently it lets someone ‘manipulate water with souls and souls with water’ it’s pretty rare, though, and the ritual cost is $150

Sumnus: Interacts with dreams and stuff. The ritual cost is $60 because its demand is high. Kait seemed skeptical it would work, though.

After his bout of research, Taylor checked out the book, texted Taila, and went home.