Book 3 Ch 8: Wizard

The dawn came a few hours later. The wind coming off the lake was cool. It was something like mid-fall at this point, though the seasons had never been as coherent as Michael was used to on Earth. Then again maybe the natives would’ve found the seasons on Earth just as incoherent.

Michael began his morning training, devoting it to Bruntus aloud even though he no longer needed to do so. He worked his way through all of the basic movements he knew with a blade. Once he was done he shifted the blade into a mace and worked his way through those movements as well. He’d gotten to the point where he was barely breaking a sweat after even a full hour of training so he focused primarily on technique. He clearly remembered those first swordstrikes he made in Stent, the feeling of nailing a perfect swordstroke. Now he would shoot for several hundred in a row at that level. Lys, Davi, Pyotr and basically everyone he’d sparred or trained with had told him he had a very straightforward style, but it suited him. He’d rather be perfect at the basic movements than ruin the foundations he built by attempting to fight stylishly.

Once he was done he said some brief prayers and got to preparing breakfast. He started a small cooking fire and began to fry some of the thin strips of pork he still had, tossing in a few freshly foraged mushrooms and seasoning it with salt. It wasn’t a perfect meal, but it was filling and before too long Ollie poked a sleepy face out of his tent.

“Save some for me?” he asked as he emerged from it like a clown from a clown car, his height making his entrance or exit from anything mildly comical.

“Sure did,” responded Michael before scooping another bite into his mouth.

“Thanks, mate,” said Ollie as he got himself a bowl and started to eat.

They ate in silence for a short while and eventually the fog from the lake began to drift toward them again, revealing the same shades they’d watched the previous day.

“Oh good, TV’s on,” said Ollie as he shoveled a mushroom into his mouth.

The phantoms began to move about their daily routines. It seemed much the same as the previous day except there were a few minor changes that indicated to them that the phantoms weren’t repeating the exact same actions.

“Do you think they go through every day of their lives here? Or just a few days?” asked Michael as he watched them drift about in an approximation of life.

“I don’t know. Don’t really want to be here long enough to find out,” replied Ollie.

“Fair enough,” replied Michael.

They finished their breakfast while watching the phantoms move around and then put out the fire.

“So, how’re we supposed to keep busy until your god-stuff starts working again?”

“It feels like it won’t be much longer,” said Michael, receiving a slight pull that was beginning to grow from his Seer title.

Ollie shrugged, “Guess I’ll watch these things for a while then.”

Michael left him to it and decided to search the ruins a bit more. It took some time, but eventually he found the area where the road to the manor would’ve been. He found some indication that a stone wall and gate had been there at some point, but between whatever damage had been done to it and the ravages of time, there wasn’t really much to see. He decided to head back to where Ollie was and found him watching a specific figment very attentively.

“More adultery?” asked Michael.

“No, though they did sneak a quickie in in the garden just a bit ago. It was bold, and I’m pretty sure a different figment saw it from a balcony.”

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“Scandalous.”

“I know, it’s like I’m sitting with my mum watching Home and Away.”

Michael would’ve said Days of our Lives, but he realized they may not get civilized TV in the outback. He shared as much and was surprised when Ollie held up a hand.

Michael went quiet and reached for his mace, looking for an enemy, but saw and sensed nothing. He looked in the direction Ollie was and saw one of the figments walk directly into the ground.

“A basement?” asked Michael.