Spell Weaver-Chapter 112. Sleep is a Waste of Time

There was a long pause, and for a moment Alex wondered if the spirit had fallen asleep in the final moments of the spell's completion. But then, a reluctant grumble rolled through his mind.

"It would appear," Maelis said slowly, "that your hypothesis about the combination of two magics was... more plausible than I would have thought."

Alex's grin widened even further. Coming from the grumpy spirit, that was practically considered praise.

"This is it, Evan. I can feel it, I'm so close." Alex moved quickly over to the desk, where many of the earlier notes and papers had been scattered from the blast. "One more step and I think this is completed."

"You're going back to working on it right now?"

"Yes!" Alex felt his phone vibrate in his pocket but ignored it. "This has the potential to be huge. There's a lot to figure out here, and you have to admit, if I can get it working, the possibilities really open up then."

Evan fed off of Alex's excitement and moved back to his side of the workbench. "Well, what're you waiting for? Get to it! I'll keep working on learning this lesser rune — I feel like I'm close to getting it myself."

Scorched and crumpled papers littered the worktable and many had spilled off onto the floor. Ritual diagrams and geometric shapes were hastily drawn around or even overtop of magical equations in Alex's increasingly messy handwriting. Winter air blew through the gaping hole in the eastern wall and beyond it could be seen the edges of splintered wood and a small crater in the ground. A line 20 meters into the woods showed trees that bore black scars where lightning had arced out of the building.

Alex barely noticed the cold, at least not since he'd activated a modified heating ritual under his feet to stay warm against the late February chill. His [Parallel Mind] split his consciousness and let him maintain and monitor the ritual occasionally while he still worked. One half of his mind mostly focused on guiding [Mana Thread] through yet another experimental pattern while the other scratched calculations and potential designs to a smaller ritual schematic.

"The larger circle worked perfectly," he muttered to himself for the hundredth time as he adjusted his latest drawing. "All I need to do is reinforce the modified ritual circle. Maybe if I learn a stability rune… No, no—Maelis said that the runes weren't the issue." His voice trailed off as he pressed the tip of his pen to the top left corner of the paper and scratched hard in his exact pattern down the page before pushing it off the table.

Some time had passed since his breakthrough with Maelis and Evan. Since then he'd been testing, failing, and testing again, over and over in an attempt to find a solution to shrink down the ritual circles again. Evan had left some time ago, saying that he needed to head into work and would text him later, though Alex couldn't remember exactly when that was. Alex knew he couldn't wait to show Evan and Maelis the finished product and have a functioning spell circle.

I just need to find the right configuration to make it work on a smaller scale.

He reached for another piece of paper and he saw his hand shake slightly. Pausing, he looked at it questioningly. His eyes felt tired and his usually neat hair was stuck up at odd angles from constantly running his fingers through it. He shook his hand in frustration and figured he just needed a little bit more caffeine. Oddly, when he reached for his mug, he found it to be empty and cold.

Something nagged at the edge of his awareness, though Alex couldn't figure out what it was. He looked around and noticed that Valtherion was nowhere to be seen.

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“Val?”

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He realized that he hadn't seen his companion in… Hours? He really couldn't remember how long it had been. He reached out to their bond and sensed the mana worm's presence somewhere in the direction of the main house.

Alex gave a tired smile and was happy that Valtherion had hopefully found a warm place to take a nap.

He wondered if he should take a nap.

No. No time for that, I need to focus.

Alex turned back to his work and willed his focus on the intricate patterns.

Just a few more adjustments and I'm sure it'll work. I'm almost there.

"Damn, buddy. Trying to add a drive-through window to this place?" Mark's attempt at humor fell flat as Alex didn't even look up from his work. Mark approached the desk carefully, stepping over crumpled papers.

There was a pause and Mark waited several long moments before speaking up again. "Hey, Alex?"

"Mm." Alex's response was barely a mumble, and his hands continued to move—one sketching patterns while the other shaped threads of mana in the air.

Mark's eyebrows scrunched together. "I've been trying to reach you for days. Have you checked your phone at all?"

"Not for a few hours," Alex mumbled as he stretched out the current design and grabbed a new sheet of paper. "Just need to adjust that a little bit more... And then..."

"A few hours? Alex... Do you know what today is? It's Saturday, dude."

"Thursday," Alex corrected absently, starting his next schematic attempt.

"No, it's Saturday. Edwin said Evan left on Wednesday morning. That means you've been here for three or four days straight." There was a short pause as Mark leaned toward Alex. "Jesus, dude. Have you even showered?"

"Nuh-huh." Alex's response was distant.

Mark let out a large sigh and ran both of his hands through his hair as he took a step back, his usually relaxed demeanor cracking. "Look, I really need your help. Something happened with the party I've been running with the last week, and—"

"Mmhmm."

Mark's jaw tensed imperceptibly. "—there was a situation with the contract that I was on to close a Rift for the Guild. I’ve been working with this team that’s pretty good and I could've sworn that I heard the call… but now they’re saying I didn't and I'm really worried. Some people got hurt and apparently the healing is really expensive—I never realized because we've always got Sam around—but now some people have been talking on the forums and they're talking about maybe I'll need to pay."

"No worries, I'm sure we can pay for it." Alex scratched his ear with the back of his pen before bending back down to work. "How much?"

The room went very quiet, and despite his focus, Alex could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Six."

Hearing the answer, Alex went back down to scribbling on his parchment. "Six what? Thousand?"

The crack of Mark's fist slamming into the workshop table echoed through the room. The rightmost third of the table cracked deeply as the strength enhanced blow connected with the wood. Alex jerked back out of reflex, and he canceled his [Parallel Mind] which caused both halves of his consciousness to come together quickly.

"Six people! Six people are injured and two are dead. I don't want you to pay for it, dammit! I want the help and advice of my best friend!" Mark's voice shook with uncharacteristic anger and Alex could see his eyes become slightly misty.

Alex blinked rapidly and only then truly saw his friend for the first time since he entered. He blinked again and looked down at the table to see the crack along the width of the desk and Mark's fist still indented into the wood.

The worry and frustration etched across his friend's usually unflappable confidence and cheerful face sent reality crashing into his tired mind.

"I... Mark, I'm sorry. I didn't—"

"No, I'm sorry." Mark flexed his hand and closed his eyes. He shook out the hand that had been clenched on the desk and rubbed his face. "I shouldn't have... That was..." He took a deep breath. "It's just been a really rough week, and when you weren’t answering..."

Alex looked around. "I had no idea I'd been here that long." Alex rubbed both of his eyes and felt his exhaustion hit him all at once. "This party stuff? Is it serious?"

Mark's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. Pretty serious. But you look dead on your feet. I mean, like you're about to pass out. And I..." He shook his head again. "It can wait until tomorrow. I'll bring Sarah, okay? We can all talk about it then."

Alex swayed on his feet and felt the exhaustion hit him in a wave. He spoke up as Mark turned to walk away from the table with his shoulders still hunched. "Mark, wait." He reached out and steadied himself against the desk. "That was shitty of me. I’m sorry. Three days? Really? That means… What? You and Olivia have been gone for a week and a half?"

Mark's anger had already faded and was replaced with concern for Alex. "Yeah, man. Edwin's been trying to get you to eat and check on you but…" He gestured at the scattered papers.

"I just got so caught up in making this work." Alex looked down at his friend's reddened knuckles and felt a wave of guilt. "I don't know… I was just so determined, I didn't even think that it was this bad. Really though, that's not an excuse. You needed me, and I was too obsessed with this project to even hear you."

A small smile tugged on Mark's lips. "Well, you've always been a little all or nothing. Remember finals week of junior year?"

"That was different," Alex protested weakly before pausing. "Actually, no. It is like that… isn't it?"

"Totally. With the crazy hair and everything, dude." Mark's smile widened into something more genuine even though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Well, maybe not the exact same. Before, when you’d get obsessed with things, your excitement would burn out pretty fast. This seems like a whole different level. Just don't totally disappear on us, okay? We care about you, you idiot. And believe it or not, we need you."

Alex stepped forward and pulled Mark into a hug, which was something that his friend usually initiated. He felt Mark's surprise before his friend's arms wrapped around him in a big bear hug.

Alex grunted as he was squeezed tight. When Mark released him, he said, "Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we'll figure it out together."

As Mark headed for the door, he paused and turned back to look at Alex. "Get some sleep, Alex." He paused and sniffed at his own shirt from where they’d made contact, before wrinkling his nose. "And maybe a shower. Actually—definitely a shower."

Alex managed a tired laugh. "Yeah, yeah. Text me when you guys are heading over?"

Mark gave him a strange look before shaking his head. "Man, you really are out of it. Did you forget that I live here?" Mark gave his own chuckle and waved over his shoulder as he walked out and closed the door behind him.

Oh right.

After Mark left, Alex looked at the cracked desk and his scattered notes with new eyes. He began to gather papers with shaky hands and paused when he realized the absence of something. He looked at his right hand and realized it was the first time in several days straight where he wasn't practicing his mana shaping exercises.

I really did lose myself in this, didn't I?

He stacked up the notes neatly onto the table but didn't bother continuing any of them. He realized that there had to be a balance. Somewhere between helping his friends and pursuing his own growth. Somewhere between stagnation and progress.

He touched his pocket and felt his phone as his thoughts drifted to Sam.

If it really is Saturday, then Sam has been gone for over a week with his parents in the Safe Zone. I need to check on him too. Make sure he's okay.

Alex clicked off the workshop lights and knew that the heating ritual would dissipate in the next hour. He looked back into the workshop and felt a brief urge to continue pursuing his magic as he looked at the large hole in the wall. With a sigh, he squashed the drive to do so and turned to walk to the house.

Now that he actually stopped working, he could feel his bed calling his name. As he made his way across the yard, the cold February air greeted him, and a fresh waft of air made it all too clear that he'd locked himself in an artificially heated workshop for the last several days straight.

But first, a shower.