Chapter 26 – Changes

  “I’m telling you there are enchantments everywhere. Honestly its not bad, but it’s frustrating since I have no idea what half of them do but dare not touch anything and break what isn’t broke.” Maintenance Lead to Building Manager of FBI Headquarters.

  “Think they will be, ok?” Val whispered after taking another drag from the hookah. “It’s been like a few minutes.”

  Kurt was starting to get worried and agreed with her. So, he did the only rational thing and crumpled his bottle cap and pitched it at Alec, hitting him right in the forehead. It wasn’t a difficult feat since he was stock still and all of six feet away. The slight pain seemed to snap the dwarf out of his stupor and his mouth started working.

  “How the fuck? When the fuck did you… How!” He all but shouted the st part as he pulled at his beard. “This isn’t possible. You’re fucking with me now. Right?”

  “Nope, and the best part is yet to come.” Val said.

  “HOW! How is making a theoretically impossible object not the end!” He was in a right state and stood to start pacing behind the couch. His face was going a brilliant shade of red as he ranted.

  “It’s yours.” Kurt said simply and watched the color drain from the dwarf’s face.

  There was a thump and Alec disappeared from sight. Val leaned down and looked under the couch to see the dwarf completely unconscious. “Yeah, he’s out.”

  Kurt sighed. “I’ll get him. You handle her.” He nodded to Na who was still frozen in pce. “Try to keep the wine off the furniture. Not sure how well the cleaning rune works on that.”

  Walking around the couch, Kurt collected his unconscious friend and dragged the man to the center of the room and propped him up in a recovery position. He turned back around to see that Val managed to coax the wine gss out of Na’s hand and safely onto the table.

  He returned his attention to Alec, debating on how to wake him up then settled for a tried-and-true method. Kurt grabbed the dwarf’s feet and lifted them up off the ground before dropping them. He had learned that it would make an unconscious or semi-conscious person feel like they were falling.

  Thump-thump. Alec’s feet hit the floor and he sat bolt upright. Kurt put his hand on his shoulder and steadied him, expining that he passed out. after a few moments, Alec went to help Val with whatever had come over Na.

  The jinn went from still like a statue to hyperventiting then to lightheaded and back to ser focused within the span of a few minutes. Kurt thought it was rather impressive, but Alec assured him that it was a common occurrence if she got fixated on something then there was a major twist.

  Eventually they had all calmed enough for them to continue the conversation. Na sat with the mouthpiece between her lips and was puffing away as she listened to Kurt and Alec talk.

  “How did you do it?” Alec asked, still not touching the ring sitting on the table.

  Kurt rolled his eyes and passed the ring to him. “Just put it on already.” He was tired of it being treated like a bomb that nobody wanted to touch. Alec took the ring and Kurt began to briefly expin how the ring worked.

  Alec fiddled with the ring for a moment, inspecting it before sliding it over his right ring finger. His eyes widened when it molded to fit him like the identify ring Kurt had made. “Umm. Out of curiosity, how much does it hold. I saw you pull that stuff out but…”

  “Three-point seven metric tons. Well three thousand, seven hundred and ten kilos if you want to be specific.” Kurt answered.

  “Do you have any idea what that would sell for?” Na asked from her end of the couch, smoke streaming from her mouth as she spoke. “Even the rgest bags of holding are not much more than that and have other restrictions.”

  “Yeah, I sold the first one to my boss for a ten million but I’m pretty sure I could get more in the right auction” Kurt admitted. “Before you ask, no I will not accept money from you or your cn.” He pointed to Alec.

  Alec shut his mouth with a click. He opened it again a few seconds ter. “But how? How did you make it? The spatial enchantment is supposed to interfere with others and can only be stand alone.”

  “That is my secret for now.” Kurt said and saw Na’s eyes widen before focusing back in on the ring. “Just know it is stable. You should have felt it brush your mind when you put it on?” Alec nodded. “Great then just touch something and will it to be in the ring.”

  Grabbing an empty bottle, Alec stowed it in the ring. Kurt expined the other functions and shared that he could pretty much summon the objects to anywhere in arms reach. The dwarf then had a little fun by storing and summoning a bunch of random objects. Nearly anything he touched went in then back out.

  The dwarf then went a step further than Kurt had managed and stored his shirt right off his body. He then resummoned it but must have missed something since it ended up with the shirt inverted, his head sticking the wrong way through the neck hole.

  Cursing, Alec unsummoned the shirt then tried again, this time getting closer but one arm not in a sleeve. With a shrug and a murmur of needing practice, he put his arm through and returned to the couch.

  “Thank you, Kurt. This is honestly too much but I know how stubborn you can be so… just, thanks.” He said after a few moments.

  “Will you be making more?” Na asked, finally shifting her attention back to him. “I know it will likely take months to make another, I am sure I know more than a few people who would pay handsomely for one. My uncle is, of course, within that category.”

  Kurt shrugged. “I will be making more but I’m not sure when I will sell them. There is some stuff going on with my new job at the moment.” He shared a look with Val, who nodded and gave him a supportive pat on the leg.

  “In any event, please keep me in mind if you can make more and sell them direct outside of your guild.” She said.

  Kurt looked to Alec with raised eyebrows. “Yeah, yeah, I will catch her up on you. But I need to know what this new job of yours is. You didn’t get involved with the government, did you?” He asked with a narrowed eyed gnce to Val. He caught him up on some of the details, leaving a lot out about his actual role with Na around. Kurt liked her but wasn’t trusting her with his secrets quite yet.

  Eventually they said their goodbyes as the night was getting on. Alec made his promises to be in touch while Na thanked him for dinner and the hospitality. She also reiterated that she would not divulge anything she learned that night due to their friendship.

  Some races had funny rules to Kurt. The more magical beings such as the fey races and many of the long-lived ones had strict rules about friends and guests. He was normally treated like an outsider to most that knew of his condition, and he was thankful to pass as normal human or half elf unlike Val. Her heritage was not quite as easy to conceal without completely obscuring it, not that she seemed to mind recently.

  After their friends left, Kurt and Val cleaned up the remains of the dinner and drinks. It only took a few minutes before they were done and on their way to bed.

  They woke the next morning early enough to watch the sun rise again. It was getting easier as winter approached, and the crisp morning air reminded them it was around the corner. Kurt still had a few things he wanted to get settled before winter really set in.

  After breakfast, Kurt went and made a third ring. He gave it to Val, and she of course took the opportunity to make jokes about it being a little soon for an engagement ring. Within another few hours he made a fourth and his st one for the time being.

  While he was getting faster, he had begun to fantasize and that led to some specution at not only improving the rings but also some other enchantments he had thought of. After he ate lunch, Kurt set about making one of the items he had thought of in his idle moments over the past week.

  He had noticed Val always struggling with wet hair or, in her specific case, fur. She hid away her kitsune features when bathing to avoid the hassle of drying them. He also knew that there was some extra steps with drying long hair, not that he ever had that problem.

  With that in mind, he broke out his books and began leafing through them. He was looking for a control water spell that could be converted to a runic enchantment. The spell was going to have the hard coded feature of only removing water, but he also had to make a channel spell. He could likely create something that would instantly dry someone but that could lead to issues. If it was a channel spell that took a few seconds to run, it would give much more control.

  He found his create water spell and then the ‘manipute water’ version and began to study it. He hadn’t cast it in a very long time and wanted to refamiliarize himself with it. He grabbed a sheet of paper and began drafting his design. This enchantment could be in the traditional circle since he pnned to carve it in stone, having the perfect one in mind.

  As usual, he started with the outline before drawing the base component. He then added direction, sending the excess moisture to collect and flow from a certain point on the rock. The st part was what he called the control circuit. It was how the enchantment would activate and deactivate and under which conditions.

  An hour and a half ter and he was sealing another page in his grimoire and making his way up the stairs and out toward the garage. He passed by Val, who was on her phone texting someone. They shared a few words as he passed.

  The rock that Kurt had in mind had been acting as a door stop for the past year when he wanted to prop his garage door open. He needed to make the surface actually enchantable, so he went over to the side of the shop with his tools.

  Kurt pced the mostly ft-bottomed stone in his vice as best he could before going to his tool cabinet. The bottom drawer had most of his power tools and he pulled out every amateur’s favorite, the angle grinder.

  With some safety gsses firmly in pce and the proper disk, Kurt began to ftten out the bottom of the rock. He did have to stop and wet the surface several times, trying to deal with the dust and heat. It was a slow process, but he eventually ended up with a mostly smooth and ft bottom.

  He did leave a little V channel in the bottom to help with his next step in the pn. In his workshop he began inscribing the circle for the enchantment. It was his first time using the rotary tool for his carving, but he figured it out.

  Soon he had a fully carved runic circle. The next part was just him cleaning up the surface and setting in his gold wire. He chose gold since it was naturally corrosion resistant, and he thought that would be a good idea for something that would be wet.

  Kurt found that the gold set rather well in the rock, due to its rough surface after the rotary bits went over it. Eventually he had the carved section fully cd in gold and was able to test it.

  Pcing the rock on the floor, Kurt removed his sock and reached for a bottle of water from his bench. He poured some water on his foot and tapped the rock with his toe. It took a moment until he saw results of his creation.

  He felt some of the enchantment flow through him and then watched as the drops of water began to migrate down the side of his foot. The drops curved around and followed in a line to the stone. Then those drops flowed down off the stone and onto the ground where they formed a small pool.

  It seemed that the simple little device worked, and he pnned on testing it that night. Seeing that it was almost dinner time, Kurt put his tools away and went to start dinner.

  *****

  Val had spent most of the day in leisure. While she was enjoying her new routines and being with Kurt, he was a little to productive for her sometimes. She didn’t mind working hard or even burning the midnight oil on occasion, but the man never quit. Other than the previous night, she hadn’t seen him socialize with anyone more than absolutely necessary.

  She had started the morning by helping him with a few things around the house but after the basic chores were done, she just sat back on the couches and read books on her tablet. She had fallen behind in recent days and wanted to catch up on a few web series. She had managed to make her way through most of the ones she kept up on when she got a message.

  Val opened the chat icon showing her only real friend from the order. Kristi was another half breed like her and Kurt but from a slightly more unique lineage. They had gotten along well and stuck pretty close after the initial orientation. A lot of that was because they ended up in the same program with Jay, but things changed.

  While Val remained hopeful and handled the rejections well, Kristi did not. Val wasn’t sure if that was because of what she was or if it happened more from her own personality. Either way after the third candidate turned her down, she dropped from the program despite Jay trying to keep her going.

  Even after that they would meet up whenever possible for lunch or just hanging out and chatting. Kristi didn’t get much time off because she had joined a response team and often was on standby for the field offices. It appeared that she had some down time to chat.

  “Hey Kristi! What’s happening?” Val said, typing in the chat app.

  The bubble with the dots appeared a second ter. “Not much. Just rotated off. Apparently higher got a few more teams up and running so we can have more than twelve hours off at a time.”

  “Oh? Anything good happening? I haven’t gotten a chance to message you since you joined the rotation.” Val felt guilty about it and hoped her friend would understand.

  “No worries. Yeah, I got pced on an active team, paired with some Oni that seems to be pretty calm for one of his kind.” Kristi said and Val didn’t have to work hard to imagine her tone. Her friend had never been too serious unless it was time to work. She also had the tendency to be more open and expressive while texting than in person.

  “Do anything yet?”

  “Nothing much. We did set up an ambush and snagged these guys with a ritual circle set up by some creepy ritualist. It wasn’t much, they just drove over the circle and then disappeared.”

  “Sorry you didn’t get to shoot anyone.” Val said.

  “HA!” was quickly followed by a ughing emoji. “How about you foxy? What is going on the past like 2 weeks?”

  “I am on a team. Well, field office team.”

  “What?!?!?! NO WAY! Come on, details sister, details.”

  Val chuckled to herself as she began telling her friend about Kurt. She did find it funny how this retive stranger would know more about her partner than her own parents. Though, in the several months they had been in the order, they had grown quite close. Almost too close.

  “Sounds like you found a good guy.” Kristi said.

  “Yeah, he is. We actually have gotten into a little trouble of our own. Had run ins with some weird cult or something.” Val began. “Funny you mention circles because we did the same thing like 2 days ago.”

  “Wait, 2 days?” the text bubble didn’t go away, so Val waited patiently. “That’s when we nabbed those guys in that ritual. Were you in a grey SUV?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “HA! My team is the one that came in for the assist!”

  “No way.” Val was stunned at the reveal.

  “Yup, no idea what happened after that, but I know there was chatter about a team having to go pick up something from a grocery store or something.”

  “I should have put it together when you mentioned your TL and the ritual.” Val felt embarrassed and was gd they were only texting so her blush couldn’t be seen. Kurt went outside and seemed to be in the middle of something, so she didn’t question it.

  She also didn’t think much of it when she heard tools running out in the garage. It was only when Kurt walked back through the house carrying a rock that Val got interested. After her ears picked up the sound of a whining buzz, she really got interested. She wanted to go check out what he was up to but also wanted to keep talking to her friend.

  “Hey, I gotta get going.” Kristi said. “Sorry but I am supposed to meet up with someone about equipment or something.”

  “No worries.” Val typed.

  “We should get together soon. I know the Hubs have access to the order, so I’ll hit you up when I next have time off.”

  Val had a thought cross her mind and decided to follow her intuition, it had been right about Kurt after all. “Let me know, we can have you over for dinner.”

  The dots in the message kept popping up and going away. It was clear that Kristi was having a hard time with what to say. Finally, she responded in her typical way. “Oh, sure. We can figure it out ter. C ya!”

  Val snorted and closed her messaging app. Very much like Kristi, she thought to herself. Val really did like her but also knew that she wasn’t the most social of people by nature. She would have to ease her friend’s rampant antisocial nature and at least get her to meet Kurt.

  Hearing the noise from the work room switch from the buzzing to a tapping, Val knew that he was close to being done so she went and pre heated the oven, getting it ready for the ‘smothered burritos’ that Kurt had on the menu for the evening. She had never had that before and when she tried to ask about it, he just said not to worry and that everyone likes Mexican food.

  Naturally, he then went on about how it’s not traditional Mexican food and that its really just a spice pallet that is often used. He then promised to take her to one of the more traditional restaurants when they had enough time off.

  She finished pulling out all the food he had prepped that morning just as he rounded the top of the stairs holding the rock again. Val saw the expression on his face and just had to know what was going on and followed as he headed down the hall. She wondered when a good time would be to mention Kristi but figured that the opportunity would present itself soon enough.