Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; Earth; Outside of Shanghai; Song Medical

With the anti-magic Artifact in the room, I obviously can't call my cousin straight away, so I set out on a journey back through the underground tunnel until my magic comes back. It shouldn't be too far, as only the trapped hallway was affected when the Artifact was still in its original place, but I still take Alina with me for some security in the form of A&D magic.

Turns out my guess is correct, as we're barely inside the tunnel when my magical power comes rushing back in. I sigh in relief. Being inside an anti-magic field really is the worst! Alina immediately casts a Shield spell around us, and I give her a thankful nod.

Next, I cast my Video Call spell and reach out toward Vic. It takes a while, but she accepts nevertheless. A magical projection of the blonde woman appears before me, hidden from everyone else's view. She looks stressed. Her hair is messy, and she has deep circles around her eyes. "Hi Sara, what can I do for you?" She sighs.

Holy smokes! What's going on up there? "Hello Vic… Sorry to bother you, but we've got something rather urgent down here. But before that, are you alright?"

Another sigh, and she puts a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, it's all good, just a lot to take care of. Grandma Amelia absolutely downplayed how much I'd have to deal with here in the Solar System. Coordinating with all the other watchers alone… My days could be 40 hours, and it still wouldn't be enough.

"Anyway, it's still fun and I don't want to rant too much… You said you've got something urgent?"

I nod at her. "Yeah, we just made our first major discovery, but it causes issues and we don't know what to do with it… So that's why I'm calling you right now," I can't help myself and tease her a bit with the suspense.

Of course, she latches right on, and a curious expression enters her face. She even leans forward a bit. "Ohh? Tell me more. What is it?"

"We've found an Artifact."

Now that's why I used the video call spell. Vic's expression is just too good. I wish there was a screenshot button somewhere… Anyway, Vic reels back, her eyes going wide, and her mouth opens in disbelief. It opens and closes a few times before she finds her words. "You found WHAT??"

"An Artifact, capital A," I reply with a smirk.

We stare at each other for a few moments in silence before Vic gets herself together. "Well, of course you did… Tell me more, you said it causes some issues?"

"Indeed. You see, it's an anti-magic Artifact which we can't exactly take with us. And as it is an Artifact, we also don't want to leave it lying around."

Vic nods slowly, understanding dawns. "I see… Yeah, carrying it around would be dumb. So what do you want to do now?"

I chuckle slightly. I think she forgot that I called her to ask for advice. "We don't know… That's why I'm calling you."

"Oh, I see…" She scratches the back of her head. "Well, I actually don't know what to do either. At least not straight away… I'd have to do some research, but it's a bit urgent for you, right?"

I shrug. "Not that urgent actually… But we want to be done with our current location before Prince Kai issues his first challenge Sunday… We're at a Song Medical research center. It's too valuable to fight over it, especially now that we've found an Artifact barely inside the building. Clara suggested asking you what to do, and if you don't know, maybe escalate it up the chain? Aria Axtendus told me she'd be here too. Could you ask her? I mean, an anti-magic Artifact should be valuable for the greater Empire, right? Especially one that strong. It even restricts my magic quite tightly."

Vic's eyes bulge out again. "It's capable of restraining an Archmage?! Holy shit, give me a minute to call Aria."

She disconnects the call without another word and my awareness returns to the tunnel and Alina. She raises an eyebrow in question.

I shake my head. "It's going up the chain… We'll know more in a few minutes."

"Uh-huh," Alina replies with a short laugh.

It takes more than a few minutes – almost ten – until Vic's return call comes knocking. "Welcome back, Vic," I greet her with a small wave.

She gets right to the point. "I just had a talk with Aria… Why didn't you tell me that she knows about you?"

Oops. I blush a little. "Sorry, I forgot in all the excitement…"

"Well, it was a bit awkward… Anyway, she was very excited about the Artifact. In fact, she was so excited that she'll come down to get it herself. I forwarded her your location, so you can expect her shuttle soon."

Oh, that's fast. Also, she's coming herself? I hope she knows that she isn't supposed to know me… "Thanks, Vic, you're the best. I guess we'll take it from here then. Can you tell Aria to meet us at our yacht? It's a good place to land a ship."

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"Will do, see you, Sara!" Vic disconnects the spell, and I turn around and head back toward the security room.

"Come on, Alina, we've got to get the others. We're going back to the yacht to hand over the Artifact to the officials."

Alina hurries behind me. "The real officials or another one of your connections? It's hard to know with you these days, you know?"

"Uhh, both?" I let out a short laugh. "It's Aria Axtendus…"

Alina misses a step, and I have to catch her so that she doesn't fall over. Back on her feet, she just shakes her head. "Why am I even surprised anymore?" She mutters under her breath.

We arrive back in the security room to find the others sitting on the ground and playing cards. "Really?" I ask with a laugh.

Tim looks up with a grin. "Yeah, what else are we supposed to do? Being without magic sucks!"

That's true, of course. The horrid feeling of not being able to access my magic has come back right after Alina and I started to walk back. I wait a moment until the four have finished their current round, then I tell them about my conversation with Vic and the resolution for our Artifact problem. Tim and Nick barely react when I mention Aria Axtendus. They're starting to get used to it. Good!

After that, we start our journey back toward the yacht. It's a good thing that Tim stabilized the tunnel instead of just getting rid of the debris. Walking through an unstable tunnel without magical support would have been scary as hell. It's still not the best feeling, and we hurry through it until we reach the stairs that lead back to the surface.

Just to be sure, Nick stays back with the Artifact while we ascend with a Shield spell around us. Luckily, there's no other group close to us, and our precaution turned out to be unnecessary. But I say it all the time… Better safe than sorry.

Lydia calls down for Nick, and he rapidly ascends the stairs. Too rapid for Lucy… Once he's halfway up, her spell fizzles out, and she shouts some obscenities at her boyfriend. Things like him being a slowpoke all the time, except now, when she was counting on it. That earns her a few laughs, and we start heading back toward the yacht.

We walk quickly, eyes vigilant on our surroundings, but nothing stands in our way to the yacht. Once there, I have Clara open the airlock, and we get in. I reactivate the traditional shields around the small ship, and we sit down to wait. Who knows how long Aria is going to take?

Two whole hours! That's how long we have to wait until our sensors notice another ship approaching. Before we can enter any kind of battle stations or whatever the equivalent is here on such a small ship, there's an incoming transmission, identifying the other ship as a shuttle from Aria's personal starship. Clara acknowledges the message, and we get ready to leave our yacht and greet the Axtendus heir.

Obviously, we stay inside until the other ship has touched down and the dust has settled again. We could have gone right back in for a shower otherwise. I'm the first one out and immediately approach the shuttle – a shuttle that is actually a little bigger than my yacht… Anyway, my friends follow behind me with Lydia carrying the Artifact.

As soon as I'm close, the hatch opens and a man, wearing a suit, identifies himself as Aria's assistant and asks us to step inside. We do so and enter a small chamber that probably functions as an airlock when in space. The man waves his hand, and the door before me opens up to a large space in the center of the shuttle.

There are benches with straps on both sides, but the center is occupied by a rather large conference table. At the head of it sits the blonde girlfriend of my oldest brother. Aria Axtendus smiles and gives me a quick, knowing wink. As soon as we're all inside the room, the assistant closes the door behind us and keeps standing beside it. Aria welcomes us and waves away the awkwardness of meeting a direct ducal heir by asking us to sit down. Even Nick handles it like a pro and barely reacts to her presence. It's crazy to see how they all changed over the past year… From completely freaking out on the barest mention of someone from the Big Five, to just calm acceptance.

"I've heard you found an Artifact?" Aria starts the conversation with a raised eyebrow. "Is that what I'm experiencing right now?"

Lydia nods and holds up her hand. "Yeah, I've got it right here."

Aria leans closer. "Can I take a look?"

"Sure," Lydia THROWS it toward Aria.

I gasp in shock, and everyone else does the same. Luckily, Aria catches it like a pro. But still…

"Are you crazy?" Tim shouts in shock.

Lydia just chuckles. "Don't worry, I accidentally dropped it earlier. The thing is completely fine… Clara said it's almost indestructible anyway. You have to throw a building on it to damage it."

Aria's bark of laughter breaks the awkward silence that followed after Lydia's declaration. "You should have seen your faces… Your friend is completely right, of course. Most of those Artifacts are made of stuff that makes tristanium feel like paper wrap. Anyway, I see now why this Artifact is such an inconvenience for you. But you've come to the right woman with your problem. I can take care of it for you. Now there's just one question left. What do you want in exchange for the Artifact?"

My head turns to her. That is unexpected. I assumed that she would just take it and we'd get points for it or something. But an exchange?

"What do you mean?" Lucy blurts out.

Another short laugh from Aria. "You know how much this thing is worth, no? Simply rewarding you with a few points for the challenge would be a ripoff. Instead, I'm going to buy it from you…" She shakes her head. "No, that's not entirely correct. I'm borrowing it from you in exchange for something of your choice. After the challenge is over, you have the right to get your Artifact back in exchange for what I'm giving you right now or something of equal value if you don't have it anymore."

Interesting… So what should we get from her? "Can you give us a moment, please?" I ask her and she nods before walking a bit away.

I focus back on my group. "Any ideas what we should ask for? We pretty much have everything already with us or on the Stargazer… Our preparations have been extensive, and asking for money would be dumb."

Tim nods. "I agree… We don't need money… Especially not now. Maybe later, but then we can sell the Artifact for real."

"True," Alina agrees.

Nick looks thoughtful but speaks up after a moment. "I might have an idea, but I don't know if it's viable."

"Do tell," I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I might be wrong, but I think people from The Empire have been here during the past year to prepare for us students exploring the planet. Think of removing all the defenses that were too lethal, for example. Now imagine those people mapping the planet while doing so. If those maps exist, that would be the perfect thing to ask for. We could go straight to points of interest instead of searching for them with our sensors or historical data."

"Brilliant!" I clap my hands loudly, which also seems to call Aria back to our group.

"Have you decided?"

"Yeah, we'd like to have a detailed map of our surroundings. It should cover the largest area you can manage and include all the interesting landmarks for us."

Aria whistles at me. "That's a big ask, Sara, but also brilliant. I see what I can do. Give me a moment."

I tell her that it was actually Nick's idea, which earns him some praise from the Axtendus heir. Aria then proceeds to make a few calls.

In the end, we negotiate for a bit and finally end up with a detailed map that covers all of China. It's less than we hoped for, but still a very good start. I haven't studied the map in detail yet, but my first glance looks promising. There are four more Song Medical Research Centers. And all of them carry the Alpha Zulu designation!