Wyatt let out a deep breath, collected himself, and then made his way through the halls with Annabeth by his side. Thankfully, she didn’t pry into what happened. He just walked through the halls in silence, stepped out into the chilling cold, and made his way to the Applications of Fundamentals building.

  Once they reached the door, he opened it, followed Annabeth in, and made his way to his locker. When he got there, he found the lockbox with the few cards he’d collected on his journey to the mountain academy.

  However, two silver-gold cards waited atop the box.

  Wyatt didn’t remember the walk to the lockers, nor did he know why he’d come. When he thought about the reason why he’d gone there, even though he knew he should’ve gone to the cafeteria for lunch before Applications, he recognized the call—the Alf hymn echoing through the halls and calling him there.

  “Uh, Wyatt?” Annabeth asked, her arms crossed. She pointed back the way we came. “Not sure what we’re doing here, but we’ll get in trouble if we’re caught messing with our lockboxes during scheduled lunch time.”

  “Hold on,” he said, eyes locked to the cards.

  She saw them, eyes widening. “What… are those? Last I checked, you didn’t have anything that powerful.”

  He didn’t respond. The two silver-gold cards sitting atop his lockbox drew him here. Even now, he wanted nothing more than to grab the two cards and hold them tight enough that they’d never leave his side again.

  But now he ran into a dilemma.

  He looked around the halls. Nobody else was in earshot that he could see, but even then, he didn’t feel comfortable disclosing what he was about to say in a public place. He grabbed the two cards and stepped close to her.

  “Look, your guess about precognition is close. What I experienced,” he started, looking around to double check they were alone, “is more like a second life. I lived an entire life, a whole fifteen years, from today onward before being sent back in time. These two cards,” he said, holding up Wyrin and Illia, “are summons from then.”

  Her eyes steeled. “That shouldn’t be possible, but here they are. Doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know, but that’s what happened.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I’ve been sent back to save the world, Annabeth, and I know that may sound crazy—it sounds crazy to me, and I was there. That’s the truth, though.”

  She blinked twice and stared at him. Nodding once, she gave a sharp look over her shoulders and whispered, “You know, before seeing those cards, I probably would’ve called you crazy, but that’s strong proof. I can feel their power from here. They’re nothing like anything I’ve ever felt before, and I’ve seen Epics…” She looked between the two summons, the lockbox, and then back at him again. “But why were they here instead of with you?”

  “I have no clue, but I can’t leave them.” He thought about storing the cards in his lockbox, but his actions wouldn’t go without notice. His entry would be logged in NaviSys for both entering the lockbox during a restricted time and adding in two unregistered cards. “I’m not sure what to do.”

  He didn’t know where to store the cards and sure as Hell couldn’t leave them there for any passerby to snag. As he told Annabeth, if he added them to his lockbox, too many problems would pop up as a result. They’d be added to his collection under his academic identification.

  Any card he added, the teachers and staff could view through the NaviSys—teachers like Instructor Plight, who he didn’t know the allegiance of. Suddenly having two Legendary Cards in his deck would cause people to come looking for him.

  His Double Awakening would be discovered. As things progressed, he almost felt like keeping things quiet and on the down low would be impossible.

  To enable his future, he needed to find an ally he could trust amongst the staff or administration, but that would be hard. Demer’s policy on student-staff interactions was ironclad and strictly professional. Anybody found breaking those rules received punishment akin to practicing magic while unlicensed.

  So… expulsion, confiscation of licenses and cards, then civilian punishment. A big no-no on the best of days, absolutely cataclysmic otherwise.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Pretty much nothing was worth the consequences that came from that kind of relationship. Yet, he found himself in a situation where he needed that kind of support, to take on that kind of risk. He’d have to look up the article regarding the definition and instances of recorded fraternization between student and staff to try and finagle his way through loopholes were he to find someone willing to risk their livelihood if they were caught.

  If he could find a supporter, one he could trust with everything going on, then he’d gain an invaluable resource. Staff had the ability to take a Registry offline, making it completely private and untraceable, which would solve a big problem with not knowing a damn thing about the whole Gabriel situation. That would give him what he needed in order to see how and what Gabriel’s influence was doing to him and his powers.

  Because from where he stood looking down at his two cards, he could tell things had changed. Quite visibly, too.

  He looked around the hall one more time, his anxiety that someone would appear and catch them making his heart race. Once certain nobody else was in the Applications of Fundamentals building, he moved next to Annabeth so she could look at the two Cards with him.

  “Wow,” she whispered in awe, tracing her finger down the sides of the two cards’ portraits. Turning to him, he could see the thousands of questions she wanted to ask but held back. Rather, she spent the few moments they had looking over the cards. “They’re amazing.”

  “Yeah, they really are.”

  As always, Wyrin smiled at him. The Elfin Warlord gave Annabeth a formal bow of respect from inside the card’s ovular portrait. The background illuminated her inhuman features and elfin heritage—long and pointed ears, tall and lithe frame, and eyes twinkling with the vitality of Yggdrasil.

  Wyrin called the dense forest Yggdrassil’s Blessing, saying her power came from protecting the forest with all of her conviction. The forest looked just as its name implied—a Blessing of the great Tree of Life. The image of that forest alone filled him with health, vigor, and a sense of primal peace.

  “I’ve never seen anything like them,” Annabeth said, barely audible.

  The first time he’d seen Wyrin’s card, deep in the heart of a corrupted forest no other had ever ventured, he’d slain titanic parasitic worms—mostly thanks to Illia. The task had taken him ages and required him to perform a feat most delvers considered blasphemous.

  When all the parasites were dead, their taint was cleansed from the great forest, and he’d conquered the Hidden Dungeon Region a hundred times—only then did he take control of the Dungeon Region’s Core.

  Still, he hadn’t done enough. If anything, all of that had simply been a prerequisite. No, to gain Wyrin, he had to nurture the forest back to a previous era’s greatness, ensure nothing tainted the lands for a whole year afterwards, and learn the ways of the elves—the Alfin Legacy.

  Only then had he gained her card.

  Illia, even though she was the same rank, required far less time and effort. Rather, he had to find a phoenix matron, gain its trust, and then prove his worth as a caretaker and companion. His Summoner class aided him in ways he couldn’t describe, and in the end, he received his precious phoenix.

  At any point, he could release his bonded companion back into the wild and free her of the card’s restraints—at least, he could’ve prior to coming back to the past. He didn’t have access to all of his previous class’s abilities.

  “Summons are quite absurd,” Annabeth muttered. “They look so alive in there. I can only imagine how stunning they are in person.

  “Skriee!” Illia hawked. In all her flaming glory, she spurted a gout of silver-gold flame.

  Before coming back in time, nearly eight years ago, he’d raised her into a Great Silver Phoenix. His caretaking, Ichor, and carefully planned evolutions increased her rank from Epic to Legendary.

  That had taken years.

  But both of them now sported hints of gold, the same color as his eyes. Even the portraits containing the two cards looked more elegant. Golden filigree interlaced with the silver base design, weaving intricate patterns in the form of halos, angels, and other holier-than-thou symbolism.

  Could’ve done without all that, he grumbled to himself. The more he looked, the more he found a deeper level of alternated detail in both cards.

  Wyrin’s weapons, armor, and left eye glittered with gold. Runes glittered up the side of the longsword she carried. The runes weren’t something her card had before, and, as he turned his head to try reading them, they flashed and shifted into words.

  Annabeth looked at Wyatt strangely, so Wyatt read the realigned runes that had become words he could somehow read aloud.

  “The Lightbringer

  has lost his way.

  In his great name,

  this blade shall slay.

  When our paths cross

  again some day,

  Light shall return

  those led astray.”