Alex once more found himself in a different location. He found himself by a simple pond in the middle of a dense forest.

Vita was crouching by the pond dipping a foot in. Alex's guide looked slightly depressed, though she was still very attractive with her brown-red hair, clear green eyes and shapely figure. The only animal to be seen was a unicorn drinking from the pond, which made Alex distinctly ackward. Unicorns were girly and this one was staring at him, as if he did anything it would charge and impale him with his horn.

"Hello." Vita said staring at the pond.

"Hi." Alex said calmly.

Silence stretched for a while and Alex remembered he had things to do.

"If I've exerted myself how long does it take for me to fully recover?" Alex asked.

"Regular exhaustion will take at least six hours, the longer you wait the faster you recover." Vita answered simply.

"I've healed my friend till I was breathing hard and sweating is that regular exhaustion?" Alex asked.

"Yes. If you felt pain it would have been spiritual damage, which takes alot longer to heal and dumb because it wouldn't have helped your friend." Vita answered absentminded.

"Is there a way to recover faster? My friend is hurt and I'm not sure he will survive the wait." Alex said, rememberring Eian's vital injuries.

"I'm sorry. There are ways to recover faster but I doubt you have spirit water or any of the other more exotic recovery means." Vita explained, she ahd turned and looked at him with sadness.

"So there's nothing I can do?" Alex asked, feeling dreadful.

"Can you describe his injuries to me? Mending targets the dangerous parts of an injury first naturally, so if you've applied extensive help to his vital injuries he will probably last long." Vita said, inciting hope in Alex.

Alex quickly described the state his friend was in, he racked his brain for anything he might have missed.

"His broken arm will need a little attention. If its as bad as you say it could cause him to be losing blood inside his arm. Also treat the chest injury and head trauma in equal intervals, I can't tell which is worse from your brief description." Vita answered sadly.

"Thank you." Alex responded.

"Your welcome." Vita did a sad smile and looked back into the pond.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked watching her sad face.

"....Yes. I'm sorry. It's just....I'm just sad people don't like me." Vita smiled sadly, causing Alex to semi-understand her situation.

-'If she was playing pranks on everyone, no matter how beautiful nobody will like you.' Alex thought sadly.

"Is there something in particular that has you upset?" Alex asked, he remembered she wasn't like this the last time they met.

".......A mortal woman called me a concieted bitch, whom gets everything because she's pretty and spat at me." Vita said sadly.

"Oh." Alex reflected and sort of understood how people could react that way to a bad prank.

"I am sorry." Vita said.

"It's okay. Everyone goes through at least one prank." Alex said and smiled at her hoping she would cheer up, she reminded him of a sad little puppy.

"Thank you. Not many people accepted my apology and some men demanded some obscene things." Vita smiled and it seemed genuine.

"Oh!" Alex said surprised, yeah humanity had some shitty people.

"It was sort of dumb though. I had to hurt some of them." Vita said smiling and looked back into the puddle.

Silence descended once more and Alex thought perhaps it was time to leave.

"I wanted to ask. Magic items. Can they hurt us if we try to use them?" Alex asked.

"Depends. Some people can place malignant effects on items. Detail what you are talking about please." Vita responded.

"We found a staff with a goats skull and black stones for eyes. We also found a simple ring." Alex responded.

"....Found? Or liberated?" Vita asked.

"What's the difference? We found it on a skeleton." Alex replied.

"Found usually means you find it in an abandoned building untouched. Liberated is used to describe something you take off a corpse, usually after you kill the wearer." Vita explained.

"Oh well I guess we liberated it from something that looked like an evil wizards skeleton. Oh! He was already dead when we found him though." Alex clarified.

"They should not have any curses then. You can't condition a curse to only affect some people, so wearing a cursed item usually kills you. No idiot would curse something they use and there are only so many things you can bind yourself to." Vita explained.

"What if we just find a magic item lying about then?" Alex asked intrigued by the possibilities.

"Then I suggest you not wear it. They could be traps and many people use them to kill would be grave robbers or theifs." Vita replied.

"Okay thank-you." Alex smiled, glad to have not have just have randomly find the items.

"It's smart to ask me though. Being reckless will only kill you faster." Vita smiled, which made Alex feel more of an idiot.

"Can I use the staff to heal Eian better?" Alex asked, hopeful.

"No." Vita replied sadly.

"Why?" Alex asked perplexed.

"What you described to me is a staff of death. It's alignment is the polar opposite of life and will not enhance any magical effect you use it for in any way." Vita explained.

"What about the ring?" Alex asked hoping it would be different.

"It depends what type of ring it is. If it is a ring attuned to death magic the same will apply as the staff, which seems likely as the wizard you describe sounds like a death wizard." Vita explained.

"So...they're useless?" Alex asked sadly losing hope.

"No, one of your friends could use them. As long as an item is not in direct conflict with your element you can get at least partial effect from the item, as long as they bind it." Vita explained.

"So how do you bind it?" Alex asked.

"Same as when you use magic. Extend your desire towards it and it will respond acknowledging you as its user after a short time, and so long as you are not over your limit." Vita explained with a smile.

"Do you know what they do?" Alex asked, hoping that at least the ring could help.

"Staves are used to strenghten the power output of a cast or channel, they also expell the spell from just aboves the staff top. Rings have a multitude of uses including what staves do, to many of benifits; including spirit regeneration and invisibily." Vita explained slowly.

Alex thought over all the information.

"What limit?" Alex asked.

"Your limit the amount of items you can bind. Itis currently one item right now. Anyone can bind one item, every five points in spirit add another. To a maximum of thirteen items per person, which regular humans can never reach." Vita explained.

"Okay, thank you so much Vita you've been a great help." Alex smiled.

"Your welcome. Thank-you as well for your forgiveness." Vita gave him a genuine smile, which belonged on a fashion magazine.

Vita held out a wooden symbol similar to the last. This time it had a circle around the edges of the infinity sign.

"The circle is the difference between restoring stamina to yourself and to others." Vita explained.

"Thank you." Alex said one last time and pulled power from the image.

He blinked and he was back.

*****

Alex went over his discovery with Sarah and they discussed its implications. Sarah was glad to be able to use the magical items. She bound the staff and felt it as an extention to herself.

Alex attempted to bind the ring, he felt no discernible effect afterwards. Jessica attempted to bind it and felt a strange energy permeate her, but could not use it in any way. They were convinced it was a death ring and would attempt to give it to Eian, if he recovered.

Alex recovered for about half an hour and healed Eian arm a bit. Another half an hour later, he alternated between his head injury and chest. He spent most his time healing Eian every so often, but the girls were chatting up.

"So. What are you going to do when you get out?" Jessica asked Sarah, as she was bored.

"I'll probably go stuff myself with snacks and find a wonderful book to go read." Sarah said smiling.

"Oh my god. Yessss. I need a soda. And maybe some ice-cream or chocolate." Jessica moaned dreamily.

"I could use a beer as soon as I get out. If getting stuck in this place isn't an excuse to drink I don't know what is." Alex said smiling.

"How old are you? I didn't think you were old enough to drink where you're from." Sarah said questioningly.

"Ha! I'm twenty and if you ask me that drinking age thing is stupid. Most countries are eighteen. I mean I can go become a soldier and die at eighteen, but I can't drink a beer? How dumb is that?" Alex asked.

"What's stupid is going to jail for something dumb." Sarah lectured.

"I don't mean get drunk, I just mean to relax. My friends usually buy it for me and we drink at a house party." Alex explained.

"You party alot?" Jessica asked watching him.

"Just with my friend James. You?." Alex smiled slightly.

"Sometimes, but only with more than three good friends. My parents always know where to find me though." Jessica said.

"How 'bout you?" Alex asked Sarah.

"Not my favorite thing. I mean if I have a good friend to talk to all night it's not so bad, but loud music gets to me after a while." Sarah said.

"Wonder if Eian parties." Alex mused.

"He's loud so I imagine he does." Jessica said.

The thought of Eian soured the mood and Alex went back to trying to heal him. Sarah was poking through the tomes of the dead wizard carefully, observing the language and diagrams. Jessica was staring at the jars and vials on the shelves. Alex was tending to Eian's condition for any sign of improvement.

Alex focused healing on Eian's skull after another half an hour. Sarah belatedly noticed her tattoo stoped glowing. She experimented with her new flames and noted the flame color had changed to green.

"That's pretty cool." Alex said.

"Green fire is hotter than red fire. I wonder if blue fire is next." Sarah mused aloud.

Eian began coughing roughly and Alex quickly caught him and lifted him.

"qhh..Hey. What's up guys." Eian said waking up.

"EIAN!" Alex said happy his friend was back, Sarah and Jessica rushed over.

"How'reyoufeeling?" Sarah asked so quickly her words jumbled together.

"Hey." Jessica said smiling weakly, unsure as to what to say.

"mmmmm." Eian replied rubbing his head.

"Hey man take it easy. You took a major beat-down." Alex explained.

"That explains why everything hurts. Where are we?" Eian said dryly.

"We're at the wizards lab." Sarah explained calmly.

"Who killed the bastard?" Eian asked.

"We're not sure." Sarah said.

"Huh?" Eian asked.

"After it threw you, we kinna just stayed away till it died from the fire and its injuries." Alex replied.

"Alex circled around it and dragged you away from it. Both it's legs and arms were injured so it couldn't chase us." Sarah explained.

"I think Sarah probably killed it. She kept throwing fire-balls pushing it backwards sightly." Jessica said.

"Oh well. Good riddance. Alex" Eian said, turning to his direction.

"Yeah?" Alex said.

"Want to go first next time?" Eian asked jokingly.

"Nah man thanks." Alex smiled.

"He wouldn't have survived Eian. I'm actually kind of amazed it didn't break your neck." Sarah said seriously, Jessica smiled knowingly.

"Kidding. Geeeeezzz. I wake up and can't crack a joke. What is it with you people." Eian said smiling.

They all spoke a bit and asked Eian if he needed rest to which he said no.Alex asked if he was sure and Eian said yes. They gave him the ring and he bound it to himself.

"Anything?" Alex asked.

"Nah my spirit tattoo stopped glowing though. I feel that well or energy my guide explained to me, maybe it's a bit stronger?." Eian said.

"We should all stay here and rest still. We've been at this for so long. I'm amazed we're not dead on our feet." Sarah said.

"True." Alex said.

They unananimously decided to rest there till Eian was fully recovered.