Mark of the Fool
Chapter 660: Daily Teleportation

“Alex, when are we going to learn about fire magic again?” Selina said, yawning as she came downstairs to the dining room. “I know you’re busy, but if you have time, I’d love to learn some more.”

“Oh, we will.” Alex heaped steaming links of breakfast sausage onto a platter in the middle of the table. Nearby, Brutus was drooling, watching the food.

“When?” she asked, sitting down.

“Soon,” he said. “Theresa! Breakfast time!” He called upstairs, joining his sister for breakfast. “I promise.”

“How soon is soon?” Selina pressed. “We were making really good progress when Khalik’s parents were here, and I’m ready for some new spells. Learning spells, especially fire spells, makes me want to learn even more.”

“I wish I could be teaching you right now, Selina,” Alex said honestly. “It’s a crunch period for me; you know why I’ve had to do the work I’ve been doing, but remember, it’s only temporary.”

“I know, and I still have that magic lore to look up,” Selina said quietly. “I just miss hanging—”

“I overslept!” Theresa came down the stairs two at a time, looking frantic. She headed to the magically-cooled pantry, pulled out a slab of meat, slapped it in Brutus’ bowl, then plopped down at the table with Alex and Selina, quickly piling sausage links on her plate. “I’m so hungry,” she mumbled, wolfing them down. “Sorry about this, I went to bed way too late last night.”

“I told you not to wait up for Alex,” Selina said.

Alex looked at Theresa. “You were waiting up for me?”

“Right until I feel asleep,” she said, her mouth full. “Sorry.”

“No, no, I’m the one who should be sorry. Or, well—” He thought for a moment. “Let’s say we just share the ‘sorry.’”

He looked at Theresa and Selina in earnest. “…look, I know I’ve been away a lot—I don’t like it either—but I’m trying to make it as temporary as possible. I swear, things’ll go back to normal soon.”

Theresa gave him a gentle smile, reaching out and squeezing his hand. “Alex, I understand. I get it. You’re doing what you have to do for us, just like how I’m hunting dungeon cores with Claygon, Grimloch, Thundar, Ripp and the others. I miss you a lot, but we have to do what we have to do. And that’s the way it is. But, once we’re done, we owe ourselves a long vacation.”

“Heh, yeah,” Alex laughed. “Preferably one that lasts for a few years.”

Theresa giggled, while Selina remained quiet; her eyes fixed on her food, barely looking up at either the wizard or huntress.

“I get it too, Alex,” his sister said softly. “I don’t like it, but I get it. I just hope it’s over soon.”

“It will be,” the young wizard said. “I’ll make sure it is.”

After breakfast was finished, Alex teleported around the kitchen, enlisting an army of Wizard’s Hands to wash and dry the dishes as he gathered his cloak, satchel and staff.

Selina and Theresa grabbed their bags, and joined Alex, Brutus and Claygon, in the centre of the dining room.

“Alright, everybody ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” Theresa said.

Selina grinned. “This part’s fun.”

“A lot of fun…” Claygon agreed.

Brutus simply panted, all three heads nuzzling Theresa, Alex, and Selina, while he wrapped his bone-sheathed tail around one of Claygon’s lower hands.

“Yeah, it sure is a hell of a lot of fun, isn’t it?” Alex grinned, and closing his eyes, then touching his companions, he called on both the Traveller’s power and the Mark of the Fool.

Hannah’s energy came as easily as breathing, while the Mark showed him a cascade of images of every success he’d ever had with the power, no matter how small.

He imagined the space he was standing in with his family, then the junior school’s front gates, and making some minor adjustments to his energy flow…

The Traveller’s power flared.

And the Roth family vanished.

A heartbeat later, Alex opened his eyes, finding the five of them in front of the junior school.

Apart from a few students whose parents teleported them to school every morning, hardly anyone else was there.

“Love you Alex, “ Selina said, giving him a hug.

“Love you too. You sure your friends don’t want me to pick them up? It would literally take seconds, and they’d be here the same time as you every morning,” Alex offered.

Selina shook her head, adjusting her book bag and walking toward the massive front doors. “Abuela likes walking through campus and most of my other friends are probably still getting ready, but thanks for the offer anyway. Have a good day, Alex! Theresa! See you later, Brutus! Bye, Claygon, love you!”

With that, the young girl turned and hurried into the building.

“You know, I don’t remember the last time she threw ‘love you’ around so much,” Alex muttered. “Feels good.”

“Maybe…because…she misses you…” Claygon suggested.

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Alex said.

“Maybe it’s also because she loves you, you fool.” Theresa shook her head, giving him a wide grin.

“An unlikely hypothesis, but acceptable,” Alex said, putting on his best ‘Professor Jules’ impression. “Alright, let’s get you three to the portal.”

In a heartbeat, the junior school disappeared, and they were suddenly in front of the expedition’s portal building.

“See you later on,” Alex said, hugging the huntress. “You want me to wait with you until Grimloch gets here?”

“No, it’ll be fine. I’ll think I’ll just head to the Castle and prepare for the hunt,” she said.

“I wish I could teleport you all the way there.”

“How far can you teleport, now?” Theresa asked him.

“Thirty-five miles, give or take,” he said, subconsciously puffing out his chest; he couldn’t help but be a little proud.

“That’s even better than before.” The huntress rubbed his arm.

“Father’s…progress…has been…impressive…” Claygon said.

“Yours too, Claygon,” Theresa said. “Your form’s getting better all the time; it won’t be long before you’re using that war-spear as well as Zonon-In did.”

“Better. I want to be…better…than she was…” Claygon said, in a voice that sounded like a determined young man’s, or a heroic squire in some epic fable.

“That’s the spirit, buddy.” Alex clapped him on the arm, it rang with a metallic clang.

“Anyway, we’d better let you go,” Theresa said, kissing him goodbye. “Come on Brutus. Let’s go, Claygon. We might be able to spar in the courtyard for a while before Grimloch arrives. Just don’t crush me, okay?”

“I…will not…” Claygon promised.

The golem and the huntress waved at Alex as they made their way toward the teleportation building. Brutus scampered after them, his bone-sheathed tail whipping back and forth.

“Alright, just a few more things to do,” Alex said.

The Traveller’s power flared, and he teleported back to the city to make the rounds, visiting his bakeries, checking-in with Troy and the other managers of the two new locations.

Lines were already forming outside of them, making Alex a little giddy.

His next stop was at his latest venture, the Roth Family Magic Item Shop and Studio. The building was a squat and sturdy one—reinforced against magical explosions—with several floors and lots of windows. The floors above ground would display items for customers to purchase, and samples for custom orders. The light in the building had an interesting quality to it. The windows were frosted, giving the space a murky look, much like a mysterious grotto where witches peddled potions. A work crew was busy cleaning and replacing—frankly ancient—pieces of equipment the previous owner had used.

Alex was happy with the daily progress he was seeing, he figured he could open as soon as he crafted enough magical items. Potions could be made quickly and he knew he could guarantee that they would be in stock from day one, but he wasn’t sure other magic items would be available on opening day. But, for now, that was a ‘later’ problem.

After his morning inspections were all done, he teleported back to school, appearing in the middle of the campus green. He could have teleported right to Magic Lore III—his first class of the morning—but walking across school grounds was relaxing, and with his insane schedule, he’d take every bit of relaxing he could get.

Walking along campus—now a third year student—he found himself feeling a bit nostalgic.

Youthful faces were everywhere, reminding him of himself and his cabal mates not so long ago. In some ways, it seemed like a lifetime had passed since he was in first year.

“I probably looked a lot like them,” he whispered, noting the excitement on their faces and how they were looking every which way, taking in the wonders of a university he’d grown accustomed to.

“Look! They’re flying!” cried a pudgy young man, pointing at a trio of Watchers soaring through the air on their stone disks. The young man’s friends also pointed and gawked, completely awestricken.

Alex chuckled as he passed them. “If you think that’s a sight, wait until you see Baelin when he’s mad.”

He left the path and entered the school, taking the stairs two at a time, moving past huge auditoriums where first year Magic Lore classes were held, then up the stairs to smaller classrooms on the upper floors.

The higher he climbed, the more students he knew—both third and fourth year—who greeted him by name as he approached.

The third year wizard stopped for a while, chatting about how summer break had seemed to fly by; the Games of Roal, and what classes people were taking this semester, before continuing on to Magic Lore. Alex had a sobering moment when he realised how few second year students had made it to third year; the attrition rate between second and third year was depressing.

Another grim reality wormed its way into his mind. ‘I wonder what Carey would think of going into third year?’

He sighed, shaking his head to ground himself, focusing on his breath.

‘Don’t dwell. Acknowledge it and let it pass.’

With that, Alex entered his first class of the day—Magic Lore III.

The classroom was tiny compared to the massive auditoriums where first year lectures took place; his first year class would have held hundreds of students, this room had enough seats for maybe forty.

And one of the forty was waving at him.

“Hey, Alex, welcome.” Khalik gestured to an empty seat beside him. “Thundar is not here yet, but he should be on his way.”

“You’re here way too early,” Alex took the seat beside Khalik.

“Someone has to keep you company,” the prince said easily, petting Najyah who was nestled on his shoulder, fast asleep. “So, my friend, how are you finding your classes so far?”

“Honestly? Easy at this point,” Alex said, listing them, “Third Year Blood Magic’s interesting, but there’ll be a lot of repetition for me; I had to learn a lot of it because of the ritual I used for Brutus and Theresa, but according to the syllabus, a lot of that stuff’ll be covered in the course this year. Then there’s alchemy. We’ll be forging magical rings at first, but that’s something I learned how to do from self-study. I’ll be getting my Art of the Wizard in Combat credit from the expedition, so that’s done. Mangal’s fourth year Summoning should be very interesting though. We’re finally getting into full Binding and Relational Contract Summoning, which means we’ll have to make a pact with a spiritual entity as our final project.”

“I still cannot believe you are in fourth year summoning.”

“Professor Mangal insisted.”

“So you have told me, and I still hardly believe it. Do you think you will master fifth-tier summoning spells soon?”

“I’ll be working on that later,” Alex said.

“Good,” Khalik mused. “You are working hard, friend.”

“So are you,” Alex said. “All the spell practise, the training and the studying that you, Isolde and Thundar are doing; it’s even making me feel tired.”

“Well, we cannot be left behind,” Khalik said. “We simply cannot let you leap ahead of us so quickly.”

“Well, we’ll all need to be ready for what’s coming,” Alex agreed, looking around the mostly empty class. “Is it just me, or does this all seem kinda…”

“Quaint?” the prince offered.

“Yeah, that’s the right word,” Alex said. “I remember when I used to walk to class from the insula, or take a sky-gondola around the city. Well, this morning I actually teleported to five different places!”

“I hear you; I remember those days in the insula. Now, I’m living in a comfortable villa in the city where I can spend time with Sinope, and make connections,” the prince said. “Sometimes, I yearn for those simpler days. Things seemed different before what happened to Carey.”

“More innocent somehow,” Alex added. “And that was when we were fighting demons. By the Traveller, is this what getting old looks like?”

Khalik looked stricken. “I am not ready for grey hair.”

“Neither am I!” Alex agreed.