Wait. Old habits?

That was a good point.

It was not the first time I was dealing with an experiment going awry. Hell, this thing wasn’t the worst one I’ve seen.

Back in the MIRE it wouldn’t be much of a problem, that is if it was one of OUR experiments, not something that we found on the field…

If it would be something we’d find somewhere…

I would’ve burned it.

Not going to work here, will it?

The lone thought of the MIRE brought back a flood of memories.

Not all of them were nice. Most of them concerning work and the pain of watching yet another person screw up something, or more likely cleaning up the mess after a screw up.

Yeah, magical janitor alright.

-What are you doing?

From my meditation I was shaken awake by that question. It was Kon.

-Ah… Nah, just reminiscing…

-Right now?

-Well…

-Yeah, fair point! - said For, who just a moment ago was busy inspecting the ash on the ground. - Weren’t you supposed to be some kind of cleaner or something?

-Glad you remember…

She took a quick glance at Rob and switched to different kind of communication.

-Weren’t your MIRE supposed to be responsible for cleaning messes just like that?

-Yeah, I was…

-Can you do something with it then?

-I was getting to that - I replied, starting to get irritated. - Yeah, we were responsible for cleanup after experiments, but I always just burned the evidence… I mean, cleaned the contamination with fire.

-Ah.

-And, since we are dealing with ash, it’s not like I can burn it, can I?

-There had to be someone else that was working with you then, right?

-Sure… But I was the one doing the main job. Rest was just to collect what was useful or even possible to recycle and that’s about it.

-And you always used fire?

-Yep.

-You sure? Even if that “anomaly” of yours was made out of fire? Didn’t you once say that someone had created a living flame or something? How did you deal with that then?

-I mean, there was that one guy who essentially made a fire elemental, true… - I replied, reminiscing. - But the cleaning process… Well, it cleaned itself.

-It did what?

-Eh… When he “created” that thing, all the notes and overall components were burned. Some on purpose, to fuel the spell and all, some accidentally. Like papers. The only thing that was left was the elemental itself, so we didn’t have much work to do, you see…

-Makes sense. But what did you do with the creature?

-Captured it. We had some cells, or rather special chambers, that we used to contain hazardous subjects.

-I imagine you can’t make something like this…?

-Make? Make a fucking room? Don’t be stupid.

-Yeah, right. You probably don't even have materials for something like that… I can only imagine what kind of material the walls were made out of…

-Oh, you can imagine. And you’ve seen something like this already.

-I what?

-You do own it even.

-What the hell are you talking about?!

-Oh, for fucks sake, Origin Crystal. I am talking about the Crystal. What else do you think we had to contain magic?!

-I don’t know… some weird substance…

-Even if we did, it would for sure employ some of the Crystal. And it would probably work even worse than your cell.

-I thought you said the cells in the Edge were absolute crap.

-Because they were. At least the locking mechanism was.

-Pfeh.

-In any case, we used those to capture CREATURES. Not some hazardous materials that were able to self-spread. Honestly, even back then I am not sure how exactly we’d contain it…

-It’s really that bad…?

-I mean, I’ve never seen something that spreads so fast… It’s essentially a terrifying weapon. Or a disease.

-That we cannot heal… - she nodded. - Yeah, I can see that. It’s…

Our train of thought was interrupted by a sudden burst of flames.

Right next to us, a small fire has started.

-What the fu…

-Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t expect for that to work!

It was Kon. Right next to us he was apparently playing with fire magic. What for? I have no idea.

As he was apologizing, he immediately patted down the flames and cut off mana access from the spell.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

-What are you doing?

-I… see, when I heard you talking about those ashes… I thought it was strange that you said that the fire wouldn’t work. I mean, I do believe you, but it was just sitting wrong with me that something made out of wood wouldn’t be flammable…

-I…

I had no answer to that.

There I go making assumptions again.

I swear, overthinking and unnecessarily complicating things really started being a habit of mine.

Well, at least we had one person that was a bit more grounded…

-Damn. You’re right - I finally said after confirming what he just said. - My bad, I guess… Good on you.

He just briefly smiled.

-While I do agree that it changes things - said For - it also brings a lot of other problems.

-Yeah…. flammability…

-Exactly - she agreed with me. - While you’d most likely be fine, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of an explosion.

-Explosion? - asked Kon, confused. - We aren’t going to explode it, just burn it in a controlled way…

-I mean, if it’s controlled then we’ll be fine. But that doesn’t mean that mother nature isn’t having any other plans.

-What…?

-Oh for fucks… I mean wind! If there’s going to be wind blowing, we’d have an issue on a far larger level than any of us would be able to control.

-Oh right… that too… But I feel like we can focus on controlling wind first - I pointed out. - Better to stop the cause than just try and fight the side effects, you know…

-I mean, it can work… both of that is hard work, though.

-Never said it’s easy.

-Right… but wait, what do you mean by “too”? What’s else?

-Nah, I am just worried about using fire over all… you know, we do have someone that’s even less fire-resistant than you now.

-Oh.

She gazed towards Il. All that time she’s been listening to our conversations, or at least it seemed so. Constantly glued to my side to connect to our small “network”, she was barely speaking.

-Il? You fine with that?

-Huh? Wha…? Ah! Right. Yeah, I should be fine. I know you have your fire under control. Don’t know about the wind though, but if anything is to go south I am sure you can contain whatever fire is going to be burning.

-Don’t overestimate me.

-I am not.

I resisted the urge to smile.

-Riight… - mumbled For, interrupting the silence that suddenly fell on the discussion. - Shall we get started then? How are we doing this?

-Yeah… Okay. Who’s the best at wind magic here?

-That’s probably you - shrugged For. - You know very well that your magic knowledge is from another dimension.

-Let’s not get crazy.

-You know I am right.

-Pfft… Sure. Well, even though you say so, I would rather keep my “magic knowledge from another dimension” focused on fire and controlling that. Since I am now mostly alone I’d rather not split my attention.

-You’re not alone.

The words alone made me remember.

Right. Il was with us. And I don’t mean that it’s just as another person. Sure, she was competent and knew a lot about magic, but it was more…

But, back then, was it her? Or another her?

Did it even matter?

-Are you sure about that? - I asked, although I knew the answer right away.

-Of course. You know that I also am from MIRE. I do know some things about magic, thank you very much.

-I didn’t mean… I know. But can you really be sure about your magic in this new form of yours?

-There’s been no problems so far.

-Yeah, but how much were you casting? Maybe a small spell here and there, just some basic stuff to help yourself in everyday things. What we are doing is going to be a bit more involved, you know.

-You don’t say? I am not stupid.

-Okay, if you are sure. I am just worried.

-I know, I know.

-Great then!

-Mh. I guess another “genius from another dimension” is a good replacement for myself…

-Stop trying to sound cool - shut me down immediately Il. - Let’s get to it.

-A…ah. Right.

For was a bit put off by our conversation.

I kind of understand that. To someone else that conversation really could give some wrong ideas… or right maybe.

In any case, we started preparing.

First thing was to decide on incantations we were going to use.

Of course for me and Il there was no point in even discussing that, alone we were more than capable of creating spells, so instead we split our duties and decided to help the other two.

For was instructed by Il, while I was dealing with Kon.

-So, what am I supposed to do? - he asked when Il finally split from me and instead connected with For.

-Your job is going to be the easiest one.

-That's… good?

-You’ve been pretty good at detecting magic changes, you know? So I feel like the best job for you would be watching for any changes in that regard.

-Changes…? What changes?

-Il is going to manage the winds of this place, right? For is going to help her watch for any changes in that regard, at least those that come not from natural causes. I want you to do the same for me.

-Same…? Why use two of us then? Isn’t she enough?

-Maybe one of you would be enough - I agreed. - But since there’s two of you, you can split the bill. It’s always easier to watch over a smaller piece, you know?

-I mean… I guess…? But what then, you need me to use a certain spell or something?

-Nah, not really.

-So why…?

-But I want you to have one in the event of something going wrong. I don’t want you to improvise.

-Ah…

-Don’t get me wrong - I added. - You really grew and I think you’d be capable of doing that yourself, you already demonstrated that you have the necessary imagination to create something, but still lack experience. Better to have a backup plan.

-I understand.

And so we spent about ten minutes discussing how exactly he’d act in an emergency. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that it would be any useful… By that I mean I didn’t expect we’d fail.

Okay, sure, it was probably not very scientific of me. Working with experimental magic is always a risk, especially when you have people that are somewhat unstable… And we had plenty of those. Me included.

But for some reason I couldn’t imagine this going wrong. Call it a hunch or whatever, but I just had a feeling that everything would be alright.

The spell we prepared was one that was not an original work of mine. Instead, it was something that I’ve already seen used, and in a similar circumstance even.

I doubt that the original creator would mind. Not like I cared. Hell, I am not sure if he was the original creator…

-I think… I will be able to do that… But I am scared about the scale… - he finally thought. - What if the failure is too large? And I won’t be able to make it?

-Don’t worry about it. If we fail so spectacularly it means that I’ll also be free from the distraction of controlling the burn, so I’ll be able to help you. And besides, I am not the only one. For and Il are also here to help.

-Right.

Just as we finished, I also heard from For.

-We are done.

I am not sure if they waited for us, because I definitely was not paying attention to the time… Or was it just a coincidence?