[Xander – 13 years]

"Good morning, Xander," Mom greets me as she approaches. "Did you sleep well?"

"Kind of," I answer as I finish tying on my apron. "But I didn't realize I was sleeping until I woke up. But I do know which parts were dreams and which parts were just me doing stuff in the dream plane which weren't dreaming. I think."

"Did you work on the puzzle and talk with Dream Lord again?" She asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "And I did some other stuff. I… I might have gone and visited my former foster brother. I don't think he realized it wasn't a dream anymore. I don't think that'd count as a dream. He felt really sorry… but I don't forgive him. But he was a victim, too. Just like I thought. So when Dream Lord asked me if I was okay with him eating the nightmare we'd interrupted, I said it was."

"That was nice of you," she says.

"He was a victim, too," I say. "So he was scared. But he shouldn't have joined them. That was Very Bad."

"What did you do after that?" She asks as she sits down on the stool to the left of Trenton.

That's not the stool I sit on, I sit on Trenton's right when I watch rather than help. Mom doesn't normally sit instead of cook, though. Today is another planned change to the schedule, sort of like how the athletics/fitness classes other than swimming are all changing this week. Starting today, I'm to make breakfast on Wednesdays, and Mom will be the helper if I ask.

That's too many changes this week. Maybe I should've asked if we could delay it until next week. It's too late for that, though.

"I returned to the puzzle for a little bit," I answer. "Then I went and visited Carter. He was dreaming about going for a ride on a grown Solaris, and there was a me riding Aurum."

"Who else was there?" Mom asks.

"It was just us," I answer as I wash my hands.

"Just the two of you?"

"He's got a big crush on me," I say. "And dreams about doing stuff with me a lot. There's a lot of horse riding. For someone who doesn't want to be a horse rancher, he sure likes riding horses."

"He's got a crush on you?" Mom asks.

"Not only me," I say. "But his crush on me is his biggest one, so I show up in his dreams more than the others. There are a couple of boys from his school he's crushing on, too. One of them's in his grade, one of them's a senior. Apparently, it's common for youth to crush on people a few years older than them, too. But the feel of the crush is different, so I guess it's not the same? I dunno."

"Okay," she says. "And the two of you were riding horses? Anything else?"

"I dunno about for the original dream," I tell her. "Since I took over for the other me when I showed up. Then Carter and I were talking about his plans for the next collab video with Sig. They were talking about seeing about renting out the Dream Best Entertainment arena place that we did the testing at for my augmented reality stuff. Without a big group, they can't do a game like that, so they were thinking of maybe doing freerunning or something. But then they remembered about how it's winter, so it'll be really cold… and there'll be a lot of snow."

"What did they decide on?" She asks.

"They haven't decided yet," I tell her. "And they need to check with their guardians, too."

"Okay," she says. "And you went to visit Carter and not Sig? Even though you're dating Sig?"

"I visited Tate for a few minutes after Carter," I tell her. "We talked about Dream Lord, then I went and visited Sig."

Tate's never heard of Dream Lord before and was really curious about him.

"Okay," she says. "What did you two do? You and Sig, I mean."

"He was dreaming about beating Carter in a one-on-one basketball game," I tell her. "So I sat and watched from the side. Then he cleaned up and came and snuggled with me under the stars. Then I left after a bit 'cause I was hungry and there was a space with a bunch of food lined up and ready for me to eat."

"Okay," she chuckles, then looks at the dishes and ingredients I've been pulling out with my magic as we talk.

It goes a lot faster if I use telekinesis to grab everything, so I've been doing that.

"What are you making?" She asks. "We didn't discuss the plan for breakfast for today."

"Oh," I say. "Breakfast pizza."

"That requires eggs," she says. "Unless you're doing an eggless version?"

"Carter suggested trying it with barbecue sauce," I tell her. "That I might be okay with the eggs on it if I use barbecue sauce, too. But I ain't gonna put it on the ones for you and Dad, just the ones for me."

Since there will be breakfast sausage on the pizzas, there's no real reason to do patties or links. I still make some links, anyway. I'll slice mine up and dip the pieces into syrup, like usual. No eggs for the side, and I'm not making bacon, not even for the people who like it. The breakfast pizzas already have eggs and sausages, so extra eggs aren't necessary and bacon is an extra side they can make if they want it.

Extra sausage is always good.

In addition to those, I make biscuits, which we can dress with honey, syrup, jam, or butter. No sausage patties for them today, since there's sausage on the pizza and for a side, though I suppose someone could put their sausage links or slices of them onto the biscuits to make a biscuit sandwich.

For sides, I do a simple fruit salad with diced apples and peaches, mandarin orange slices, strawberry chunks, and banana coins (sliced bananas). No special glaze or anything for that, but I do use a serving bowl with an enchantment on it to keep everything fresh, so that the apples don't brown.

And of course, there's my morning yogurt parfait.

"Morning, Katie," Dad says when he joins us. "Morning, Xander."

"Hello, Dad," I respond.

"How'd you sleep?" He asks.

"Alright, I guess," I answer. "There was an uncomfortable bit, but then I went back to other stuff, and hung out with Carter, then Tate, and then Sig. It was a magic horse and unicorn ride with Carter, and I talked about Dream Lord with Tate. Then I watched Sig dream about beating Carter in a one-on-one basketball game, then after he cleaned up, we snuggled under the stars. That was nice. Sig knows a lot of constellations, but he doesn't know specific stars. He knows Errai, but he didn't know what its actual name was until I was talking about it before."

"Which one was Errai, again?" Dad whispers to Mom.

"One of the ones in Cepheus the King, I believe," Mom whispers back.

"The second-brightest star in it," I tell them. "Also known as Gamma Cephei. Some scientists believe it'll take over as the North Star from Polaris around the year 3,000. Because of, um… blah blah blah equinoxes. Or something like that."

"Xander," Dad snorts. "You can't just say 'blah blah blah' whenever you don't remember something."

"It's not that hard."

"Okay-no-I-" he snorts again. "Never mind. How much longer until breakfast is ready?"

"I'm estimating around three minutes."

"Alright," he says. "I'll set the table, then."

Dad sets the table and once I finish preparing breakfast, I put it all on the table and we eat. Since I did the cooking today, they do the cleanup after, so I head upstairs until it's time to brush my teeth, then I make sure things are ready for my lessons. Trenton gets set on the bleachers in the gym as well, so that he's in position and able to watch us like he normally does.

When Sig texts me that he's ready to go, I start to leave the house.

"Xander," Dad says as I pull on my sneakers.

"Yes, Dad?"

"Why do you always go to the street to teleport?" He asks. "Or teleport to the street? Why not teleport inside, outside of when I suggest it?"

Isn't it obvious? There's a reason Carter's family told me it's okay to teleport straight to and from the door, and why the store manager at the bulk grocery store told me the same thing.

"When walking, riding a bike, riding a hoverboard, driving a car, and so on," I say. "You come from the street and leave to the street. Therefore, you do the same when teleporting."

"That's the reason?" Dad asks.

"Yeah," I say. "Wasn't it obvious? You seem confused, though…"

"No," he says. "I think most people would teleport straight to the door, not to the street and then walk up to the door. And I think most would just teleport from inside their house when leaving and to inside when arriving, if they're not going to the door instead."

"But that's not how you arrive and leave when using other methods."

"Other methods don't make you suddenly appear," he says. "And when you arrive, you go to the door, don't you? And when you leave, you leave through the door. Walking up to the door is just part of the travel itself. Your travel is instant, so walking is extra. That means it's okay to teleport to the door or after exiting it."

Oh. I guess that makes a little bit of sense.

"Now," he says. "You might want to save going to the door for friends, since they're more familiar with you. But it's okay to teleport to and from doors. And here? You can teleport to anywhere in or on the property, and from anywhere in or on it as well. This is your home, too."

"But that's bypassing the door to enter," I tell him. "So it's breaking and entering."

"You're teleporting into your own home," he says. "I'm fairly certain that's fully legal. And I, the owner, am saying that it's okay. So it's okay, Xander. You won't get into trouble for teleporting into or from out of the house.""

He's being honest.

"Okay," I summon a hoodie into my hands, since my shoes are on and tied. "Do you not have work today, either? You're normally gone by now."

"I'm leaving in a few minutes," he tells me.

"Okay," I give him a hug. "Bye."

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"Bye," he returns the hug.

Once I separate from him, I teleport to Sig's. This time, I teleport straight to his front door rather than the street. This feels wrong, but Dad was honest when he said that it's okay.

"Hi, Xander!" Sig greets me when he opens the door after I knock.

"Hi, Sig," I say. "I teleported straight to the door this time. Dad said it's okay to do that for friends, rather than to the street. But it feels wrong, since we arrive from the street to get to the door."

"Huh?" Sig feels really confused for some reason.

Was I not clear? How else can I word it?

"No, that's fine," he says. "I've always wondered why you went to the street instead of the door. Let's go!"

He steps outside and closes the door, and I give him a hug, then let him know I'm teleporting us. Once I finish the countdown, I teleport us to the boys' locker room in my rec center.

"Hey!" He says. "You teleported inside! You don't normally do that!"

"Dad said it's okay to teleport into the house," I tell him. "Since I live here."

"That's cool!" He says as we start changing. "By the way! I had some awesome dreams last night! I don't remember all of them, but I remember one! We were snuggling while looking at the stars! Well, I don't remember it clearly, but it was pretty cool! Did you have any good dreams last night?"

"How come you know the names of constellations but not the stars in them?" I ask.

"Huh?" There's a lot of confusion in his mind. "How did you know we were talking about the constellations? I can remember that much from the dream, too."

"Because I was there?" I frown. "Don't you remember? You even said it."

"But that doesn't mean… ooooh!" He exclaims as realization fills his mind. "You dream-walked into my dreams, didn't you?"

"Yeah," I nod. "But just two of them. Um… oh, right. I forgot to ask if that's okay, didn't I? But I've done it a few times and you haven't said anything."

"I don't remember my dreams that well," he tells me. "And, uh… I mean, they're dreams. Even if I do, I'm not gonna know if it's the real you or just my dream of you. I'm not a natural mind mage like Tate, after all."

"Oh, right."

Sig continues talking, but I try not to focus on it while I finish changing. I don't know why others like talking while changing, but it's weird. That happened in the locker rooms at school, and it's happening in the locker rooms here, too. Only Carter doesn't really try chatting with me if we're both changing at the same time, though he'll talk with others. Oh, and Nash doesn't really talk while changing.

Rather than going shirtless for the fitness sessions like he used to, Sig wears an athletic short-sleeved shirt. Despite me telling him it's okay for him to keep wearing the stuff he normally does, Sig's been wearing a shirt for everything he normally wouldn't have for this session ever since I began wearing a long-sleeved swim shirt. That makes me feel bad since I know he's uncomfortable, but he's doing it to himself.

Once we're changed, we head into the gym, where Coach Adam's waiting. He has an obstacle course set up for us for today, though we have to do a warm-up session first, as always. That includes the balance beam, and he really does have it just sitting on the ground, rather than on a stand of some sort.

I fall off of it seven times before I'm able to cross it from start to finish, while Sig manages it on his first try. At least it's not even a half-foot drop, so it's more like I'm stepping off of it than falling off.

"Hey," Coach Adam tells me. "It's your first time really doing something like that, so it's okay to have made mistakes. The more you do it, the better you'll get at it. The purpose of this is to help you with balance, after all. You've already got decent balance, but you're better at it when standing still, not when moving around. That's one of the reasons we're doing this now.

"The goal is to fall one less time each week," he continues. "So if you fell seven times today, then your goal by the end of next week is to make it with no more than six falls. And if you're practicing outside of class, remember not to rush."

I doubt I'll do this outside of classes.

"Okay," I say.

"Let's get to the obstacle course," he says. "It should take around ten minutes, if you're able to do it without mistakes."

The obstacle course is tough, and neither Sig nor I make it through without mistakes by the time it's time for us to shower. At least with this, a mistake just means going back to the start of the segment and not the whole thing. But Coach Adam has us running it over and over, for us to try and make it through each time with fewer mistakes than the previous. On the last run, I manage to make it through with only three mistakes.

"Good job, boys," Coach Adam says. "Before you head to the showers, I want to acknowledge that we didn't do the rope climb today. I felt it best to add a limited amount of new stuff for this week, so we'll attempt the rope climb next week."

"So that's why we didn't do it?" I ask.

"Yes," he nods. "So that I'm not just loading on a bunch of new things this week."

"Okay."

"And on another note," he says. "Did your dad talk to you about what I'd asked him?"

"Yeah," I nod, then look at Sig. "Dad said he was gonna tell your aunt at bowling, and then after, he said she'd let you know."

"About next semester?" Sig asks. "She said she didn't have a problem with that. I think she'd actually be more comfortable with it. And I think it'd be cool! But are you really okay with it?"

"Um… I'm not sure," I admit, then look at Coach Adam. "So I need time to think about it. But Grandpa Adrian promised he'd make sure everyone is trustworthy. I think that means it'll be like the SMP and they're at least part magic person from a transcended origins species. But there might be a full human in there, I dunno."

"That's fine," Coach Adam says. "I just wanted to know if your dad had asked you. He said it might take you some time to decide if you're comfortable with it or not."

"I dunno yet," I tell him. "Um," a marble and packet appears in my right hand. "Here's the spell formula for teleport, and a packet explaining how to understand. But it's $1,000 to buy the spell formula marble."

"Your dad told me, yes," Coach Adam says. "He let me know already, and I brought the cash for that. Gave it to Katie, and she said she'd pass it to you."

That's honest.

"Okay," I hand him the marble and packet.

"The teleport spell?" Sig asks. "You want to learn teleportation?"

"To pick up the other boys," Coach Adam explains. "It'll be easier for their parents if the boys are picked up for it rather than them having to drive them over, then pick them back up. If I teleport for it, it'll go a lot faster. And since one of my grandmas is a dragon, I have an affinity for spatial magic. I should be able to learn it well enough to teleport myself and others by the time the next semester begins."

"You're part-dragon, too?" Sig seems really confused.

Didn't I tell him?

"Our dads were triplets," Adam gestures between himself and me. "Not sure who the third one was."

"Is," I say. "Our uncle's still alive, he just lives in another part of the country. You know where that big Rift was? The one that resulted in Dream Lord showing up and closing it, but accidentally putting a seal on all of Earth for a month? He lives near there, and has a pair of twin sons who just turned ten. They teleport probably as much as Greyson. I had to put anti-them wards on the workshop so they can't just show up in it, since it has secret stuff now. They used to sometimes teleport in to check out what Greyson was making."

If they try to teleport in, they'll just bounce out of it, and if they try to walk into it, they'll just bounce off of the ward. The ward which affects them is different from the normal anti-teleport ward, which is currently set to drop whoever it was into a volcano. They're not actually trying to steal secrets or sabotage things, so it's okay to not do that. And the ward changes are mostly a challenge from Grandpa Adrian, anyway.

So the ward is designed to just prevent them from entering.

"Oh," Adam says. "Didn't know that. Thought he was dead like ours are."

"Mine's not dead."

"He's not?"

Did he not hear? I can't remember if I talked about it with him or not, or on a stream or not. Even if I talked about it on a stream, that doesn't mean he'll have heard about it.

"He faked his death so he could watch over my biological mother as she resurrected," I tell him. "He and my biological mother are living in the Kingdom of Britain, on one of its sub islands. One of the bigger ones. She finished resurrecting when I was seven, but they didn't know I was alive. They thought I was dead."

"But doesn't now?" Coach Adam asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Grandpa Adrian's the one who found out they were alive and thought I was dead. It was my birth that killed my biological mother, just because my soul was too powerful. But because she's half-phoenix and has a ton of mana and had never died before, she had a resurrection available. Hers take seven years, mine apparently take less than half an hour."

"Have they come to visit you?" Sig asks. "Now that they know you're alive?"

"Grandpa Adrian asked me if I wanted to meet them," I tell him. "I said no, because they're only my biological parents. Dad's my dad, and I don't want to get taken away from him. And I was looking stuff up, and apparently, if the biological parents show up in a situation like this, where they think their kid is dead because of whatever reason, courts will usually want to give custody to them. And I don't want that. So I said no."

Grandpa Adrian said that's not an issue, but he can fool my ability to detect lies.

"So you don't talk with them at all?" Sig asks. "What if they want to be a part of your life, but are okay with you staying with Mr. Caldwell?"

"They're staff for the SMP," I tell him. "My biological mother's one of the Agents, and my biological father's the Master of Trials. We've talked about admin and server stuff, so we do talk a little. Anyway, I wanna get showered, I feel gross from sweating on the obstacle course. And I'm hungry."

"Alright!" Sig says. "Let's go shower!"

"Thanks," Coach Adam tells me, holding up the spell formula marble and explanation packet. "I'll start practicing this."

"Okay."

Sig and I head to the showers and once we're done there, head to the kitchen for our post-training cookies and smoothies. Then, I teleport him home.

"See you," Sig says as we hug.

"Bye," I tell him. "Have a good rest of your day."

Since it's Wednesday, I'm not going over to his house after school lets out. My nap takes up a lot of time, and I'd need to leave early to make sure I can make it to Youth Group on time. Because of that, I don't end up being at Sig's for very long on Wednesdays, so I don't go at all.

Once Sig's inside, I teleport back home and get ready for class.

"Mr. Wilson?" I ask. "Is it okay if I just do enchanting today, and do packets to make up for it?"

I don't think I can manage to focus on a class very well right now.

"I was expecting that after yesterday's class," he tells me. "That's perfectly fine. Let me know if you need my help with anything."

"Okay."

I sit in my usual spot and being working on the enchantment on a dark grey crystal sphere about three inches in diameter. A few greenish and brown streaks flow through it, but they're faint. Glowing silver enchantment lines cover it, very thin and intricate.

If I tweak this one slightly, and adjust this line, then I'll need to rotate this rune just a little bit. A smidge, as Dad would say. These markings are wrong and won't cooperate, so I'll need to redo them entirely. Now that those have been redone-

Wait. The flow there. It's never been that good before. The magic likes that shift. Wait. That makes it so I can do this, and if I adjust this, and then this. Also this. Reconnect these lines. This one's an error. This section needs redoing, so I do that quickly and it works.

Adjustment after adjustment. Tweak after tweak. Redo after redo.

It works! It works! It works! I did it! I did it! I did it! So much accelerated time has gone into this, so many unexpected explosions! But all of the magics are flowing right now! That means it works!

I create a renewing bubble of breathable air around my head, just in case, then tap into the magics I imbued the crystal with. The enchantment markings are no longer visible to regular eyes (I think), but a new set of markings begin glowing across the surface.

Then, a gate appears in the air. Rectangular, three feet wide, and seven feet tall. It's dark grey in color, but glows faintly with a purple and light grey light.

"What's that?" Mr. Wilson asks.

"A gate!" I scramble to my feet. "I think I made a pocket world! I need to check to make sure, so I've created a bubble of renewing breathable air around me. Grandpa Adrian already gave me a guide on everything I need to do to make sure it works. I'll be back once I'm done with that. Don't mess with the sphere, please."

I set the sphere on Trenton's lap, then step through the gate. The other side is just a big blackness, sort of like the place I go to at night, when I'm asleep. But I can see the magics making up its boundaries.

Just as I defined it, the space is approximately one hundred feet across, spherical. It's better to make them spherical to start out since that's the most stable. The gate opened up towards one side of it, and I'm floating in the air.

As soon as I realize that, I shift to winged human. That's a lot better.

First analysis spell. Second analysis spell. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. Ninth. Every spell is coming out right. That's good. Now to set out the orbs enchanted with those same magics, so they can monitor it over time.

Those all sink down to the bottom of the space, but that's to be expected. It's designed to imitate Earth's gravity in a specific way, so there's an actual bottom.

If I did everything right, the air here filters and renews as needed. That's what one of the orbs will monitor, though I'll need to actually be breathing and stuff without my own bubble here to know for sure. Or have someone or something else do that.

I'll see if I can't make an orb to do that. Everything I wanted to do for once I manage this is done, so I exit the pocket world and switch to wolfkin form. Maybe that was a bad idea, my tail is wagging a lot.

"Pocket world," Mr. Wilson says as I turn off the gate, and it closes correctly. "That's a pocket space which is suitable for life, yes?"

"Yeah," I answer as I turn the gate back on and poke my head through. Everything's still here, so I pull my head back out and turn the gate off and cancel the air bubble spell. "And the gate is to make entering and exiting easier. The goal is to make one I can eventually just teleport into, but this works for now. This is just the testing stage. I need to make sure the environment inside is fine. And it's not really a world yet, because it's just a big empty space, so it's still just a pocket dimension.

"But eventually," I say. "The goal is to be able to have big spaces inside to do things in. Like a superior version of the rec center. Or whole homes. Rather than a greenhouse, I could maybe, in the future, design them to have tailored environments for the crop sets. And for the superior rec center, that would include enough space to have really big mazes, rather than limiting us to just the space in the gym. Well, I can kind of do that now if I use spatial expansion magic, but I think this would be better.

"That'll all come later," I tell him. "Right now, though, I need to make sure it's stable. Redesigning the interior has to wait until I know for sure everything is working fine."

Today is a really good day, now that I've figured this out. More than one thousand hours of accelerated time spent working on this project, and there's still plenty left for me to figure out. But I made significant progress on it with this. The most difficult part is over.

I guess that means it's okay my tail won't stop wagging.

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