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“Thought someone was dying in here,” comments Jiron as he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.

Dave’s eyes dart around for several moments as if he’s not aware of where he is. Slowly, his breathing begins calming down and his eyes settle on James. “You okay?” James asks.

“Yeah,” he says, voice quavering. James can still feel him shaking from whatever nightmare he just experienced. “Thought I was somewhere else for a minute.”

“Where?” James inquires.

Turning his eyes to James, he says very quietly, “I don’t know. It’s fading.”

“That’s the way with some dreams,” says his friend. “Just try to go back to sleep.”

“I’ll try,” replies Dave.

What happened to him in the Empire must’ve really screwed him up. Worry about his friend keeps James from falling asleep for awhile, but eventually he makes it.

The next morning, he wakes up before Dave and gets dressed quietly so as not to wake him. Going to the kitchen, Ezra prepares a plate of food and sets it before him on the table.

From where she’s cleaning up at the washbasin, she asks, “How is your friend?”

“Alright, I guess,” he says. “Did he disturb you last night?”

“I think he disturbed everyone last night,” she replies.

“Sorry about that,” he apologizes. “He went through a bad time in the Empire.”

“I understand,” she says.

He eats in silence and when he’s through tells her that he’ll be out in his workshop should anyone need him.

Once out the back door, he sees where Illan has the recruits doing morning exercises as they begin their daily drill. Glad he’s not one of them, he walks across to his workshop and goes inside.

The sack of crystals Delia brought is sitting atop his workbench. He checks and finds them similar to the ones she brought before. Next he goes over and makes sure the receiver crystal isn’t aglow. A glow would indicate someone or something has disturbed the hiding place of the Fire. He’d hate to think what that would mean. Satisfied it has remained undisturbed, he goes back to the problem of what he learned in Saragon.

If the old man’s family hasn’t unraveled the mystery in the centuries it’s been in their keeping, what hope do I have?

Knock! Knock!

“Come in!” he hollers.

The door opens and Dave walks in. “Good morning!” James says cheerfully.

“You too,” he replies. The cheerfulness that he once knew in his friend is nowhere to be found. The harshness of his recent past has subdued his spirit measurably.

“What are you doing?” he asks as he comes over to the workbench. Looking around, he takes in the sack of crystals on the floor next to him and the other things James has in his workshop. Reaching down, he picks up one of the crystals out of the sack and takes a look at it.

“Just some thinking,” James replies.

“You always did do a lot of that back home,” he says.

James considers what to tell his friend about his life here, what he’s up to and what he can do with magic. “True,” he says. “I want to show you something.”

Putting the crystal back in the sack he asks, “What?” Turning to look at James he sees him holding out his hand, palm up. Suddenly, a glowing orb appears, springing to life upon his hand. “Whoa!” Dave exclaims as he leans closer to look. “How did you do that?”

James cancels the orb and it disappears. “Remember that ad I showed you in the lunch room?”

“Yeah,” he replies.

“Remember how it said ‘Magic! Real Magic! Ever wanted to learn?’?” he asks. “Since coming here, I’ve been able to do magic. I even brought Rocky to life.”

“Rocky?” questions Dave, not entirely understanding what he’s talking about.

“Sure,” he says. “That stone construct you always used to use during our role playing games.”

“Oh, right,” he says. “How do you do it?”

“Just concentrate, think what I want to do, and it happens,” explains James. “That’s the basics though it is a little more complicated than that.”

“Can anyone do it?” he asks. “Could I?”

“Maybe, I don’t know,” he says. “Most of the people of this world can’t. You need a calm mind and concentration, I don’t know if you’ll be