Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard

I walk closer to the blast door with Dave right beside me. He's constantly twitching, his nervousness obvious. "Anything you can tell me about the door and the command center behind it?" I ask him while studying the door before me.

He shakes his head. "Not really… It's thick, and I mean really thick… Oh, and it slides upwards. Fabio already took a look, but said now that there's power, he can't do shit to it."

"Hmmm," I hum and look for a panel or something to access the door controls. A few others have joined me in the meantime and watch the door too.

"Looking for this?" Lucy asks and points at a control panel that has previously been hidden behind a sliding cover left from the door.

I rush over and tap it. "Yes! Thanks, Lucy."

The panel comes alive and asks for identification, as I should have expected. "Can you hack that, Clara?"

"I can try… But it'll take a while. I'm not even sure what software this is running. I'll keep you updated, but I'd look for another solution first."

Hmmm, not really promising. Maybe cutting the power again? But they've probably tried that already. Teleporting is probably out too… Or at least Clara won't supply the coordinates, as it's a jump into the unknown. Wait! Do I even need coordinates?

"Hey, Dave, have you guys been inside before?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

I grin. "Have you by any chance some recordings from there? Maybe I can teleport in and out with that data."

He looks a little happier now and calls out for Fabio and Kylie. They talk for a moment, then my interface pings with an incoming message. I open it and am greeted by a perfect 3D model of the inside of the command center. "That's perfect, thanks!"

"Clara, do you think it's possible to do the jump with that model we have here?" I send along the AI Call spell, and Clara answers directly inside my ear.

"Yes, it should be… It looks a lot more promising than that panel over there. So far, I've got nothing… Not even a single step in the right direction. All I can say so far is that you need to be authorized if you want to go through that door."

"Dang… Okay, then let's try it."

I close my eyes and focus. Clara, meanwhile, converts the data from the model into something usable for teleportation and calculates the coordinates I need for a jump into the room. Probably triangulation or something.

Anyway, seconds later, I have the coordinates and cast a Teleportation spell. Once I'm ready, I open my eyes and look back at Dave. "Can you tell them to go to one of the corners in the room, please?"

He nods and gives me a thumbs-up in confirmation shortly after. I take one last deep breath and trigger the spell. I immediately know that something is wrong, as I'm somehow suspended between my origin and destination. My Space Sense screams bloody murder, and I think it's the only thing that just saved me from certain doom.

I can't really describe it. I'm still right where I was standing just now, but also not…? Like an out-of-body experience. Part of me? Is inside the command center, and I can also see Toby and Lena in one of the corners. But the whole room also looks and feels like a black hole. Like I'm immediately sucked to who knows where if I dare to finalize my teleportation. My Space Sense seems to fight against it with everything it has, and it looks like it's losing.

I have to do something!

I focus on the Teleportation spell that still courses around my core. A core that's losing incredible amounts of magic every second. I'm already halfway through my power supply. That has never happened so fast since my cores merged!

But there are more important things to worry about now! I mentally catch the spell and hold it steady. Normally, I'd just let it dissipate to cancel the spell, but this time it's like someone holds it together with an iron grip.

I send a very quick glance at the Space around me and notice that my body outside of the room has become fainter, while the one inside, within the black hole, has turned more substantial. I have to hurry!

I push and pull with everything I have at the Teleportation spell, and finally, after another few agonizing seconds, I manage to shatter it.

Everything stops!

I hold my breath and send a quick prayer to whoever may be listening. It feels like the universe is choosing which of my two bodies to send my consciousness to. With one final push and some heavy work from my Space Sense, the original body out in the hallway wins, and the other one and the black hole disappear as if they had never existed.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Panting, I'm back where I started and fall to my knees. My interface informs me that less than a second in real time has passed.

Holy Shit!

Then I hear the groans all around me and look. Everyone is on the floor, and a circle of about five meters around me is completely empty. They stare at me, and Tim is the first one to find his words. "What happened?"

"I…" I try to speak, but my voice cracks and I fall into a coughing fit. Alina finds her feet first and brings me a bottle of water. I gulp it down, which seems to help.

"Thanks, Alina." Then I look at Tim and try to explain the fucked-up shit I just experienced. "Something interfered with my teleportation… I was literally stopped by my Space Sense. Otherwise, I'm not sure where I would have ended up. It felt like something was sucking me in, and Space Sense was the only thing keeping it at bay. I had to forcibly disrupt my spell to get back here… It was scary as hell. There's no way I'm trying again."

"Holy shit…" Tim replies. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Just drained. But what happened here?" I point at my friends, Shay's group, and the three archaeologists. Most of them are still in the process of getting back up.

Tim shrugs. "Dunno… You were just standing there when… I guess you exploded? Normally, you disappear with a small flash. That didn't happen… This time, you just stood there when there suddenly was an explosion of pure magic. I've never felt power like that before… It brought us all down, and those closest to you were thrown away. Scary shit, let me tell you."

Now it's my turn to stare. I did this? No wonder I'm so drained. "Holy…"

I shake my head and stand back up. My knees are still a bit wobbly, but they hold. Finally, I look back at the blast door, which is still closed, obviously.

"Any progress, Clara?" I talk to her out loud, as I don't have the magic to spare right now.

"Nothing. And I don't think my answer will change anytime soon…"

Dammit. I glance back at the others, then back at the door. Time to make a decision.

I lower my voice to a whisper. "I'm authorized, right?"

Clara obviously catches on. "Yes, you are."

I wait for another few moments and take some deep breaths. Let's do this!

While turning around, I whisper another quick message to Clara. "Can you inform Maja, please? And get me to Lisa's ship, I need to talk to her too." She confirms, and I raise my voice to address everyone else. "I'll be right back. I have one card left to play, but it needs some preparation. But I promise we'll be getting Toby and Lena out of there."

I trigger a Teleportation spell, and in the moment I'm disappearing, I catch the shocked looks on Lucy and Shay's faces. Then I arrive on Lisa's Hilara and ask the crew to lead me to both Lisa and Vic. They look a bit shocked at my sudden arrival, but lead the way nonetheless.

The two girls are inside a small office and get up upon seeing me. "Sara, you're here!" Lisa exclaims and hugs me. I do the same with my cousin after and ask them to sit back down. I join them at the table and take a deep breath.

"It's time…"

"What?" Lisa starts, then her eyes go wide. "Seriously? So soon? What happened?"

Vic takes a second longer to understand, but with Lisa's questions just now, she also gets it, and her mouth opens in shock. "Are you sure?"

I nod at them both. "Yes… I almost died just minutes ago because of something that could have easily been prevented if I weren't in disguise."

"You what?" Lisa and Vic exclaim at the same time. "What happened?"

I let out a long sigh. "Have you heard what happened inside the shipyard?"

"Yeah, Prince Kai wiped them, just like he wiped us out here," Lisa shakes her head. "I knew he was strong… But not that strong. This almost felt like my mother in strength. I think he really is at the cusp of reaching Archmage."

"That's not all," I add and let my gaze wander through the room. It's a cozy office with pictures of a younger Lisa on the wall. I also recognize a younger Bernd and the Axtendus twins on some of them. A wave of sadness overcomes me… I could have been part of all that.

Vic's hug arrives just at the right moment, and Lisa joins in too. "We can play catch-up as long as you want, Sara," Lisa whispers, and we hold each other for a few moments.

After they have returned to their seats, I clear my throat and tell them what I actually wanted to say. "The Prince locked up two of our archaeologists inside the command center. And now that there's power, we can't open the door that easily. Clara says the software is too old to crack in a reasonable time, and when I tried to teleport inside, something interfered with my teleportation…"

I shake my head at Vic's outraged expression. "And no, I didn't do a reckless jump. Dave had a perfect recording from the inside, and Clara said it was safe to jump. My best guess right now is that there's another Artifact somewhere inside the room."

I shudder slightly when I recall the feeling of being suspended in time between two bodies. Then I take another deep breath and tell them what happened. Both girls look quite shocked at the end, but come to the same conclusion that it probably was an Artifact that stopped me.

"I see…" Lisa says. "Yeah, getting rid of Sara Green to quickly open the door seems to be the best solution. The only other thing is asking Aria for assistance. Maybe we would be allowed to cut open the door."

I think for a moment, then shake my head. "That's a viable option… But honestly, I'm sick of pretending to be someone else. And calling Aria now will only cost us points while there is absolutely nothing for us to gain. I mean, once the competition is over, Grandpa John will announce me as the rediscoverer of Earth anyway. Why not introduce Sara Valterion a bit sooner? Hell, most of the other competitors probably won't even notice."

Lisa laughs. "Hah, I see you've made your decision already, so I won't stand in your way. Just one more thing… Can you record the others' reactions? I'd love to see them."

That has me laughing too, and I even have to wipe a few tears away. "I've got an even better idea. Why don't I take the two of you with me?"

They agree, obviously, and so I teleport the three of us over to the Stargazer. Due to the gravity anchor, it's harder than normal, but nowhere close to what I experienced earlier. Being kind of an Archmage probably helps as well. Still, I'm starting to run on fumes and have to take a few breaths once we arrive inside the newly set-up jump room aboard.

From there, we take the elevator to the top, and I bathe in the high magical density while entering the disguise chamber. My finger shakes when I tap the screen. After this, there's no way back. This means saying goodbye to Sara Green forever!

The process starts, and I get to wait for five minutes. Once everything is done, the mirror activates, and I stare at my real face. Sara Valterion is back in business. And I'm here to stay!

I open the door and greet Lisa and Vic with a broad smile. "Are you ready?"