Movie Review

When the group exited the Barrier, John turned back to it, a hand raised.

“Okay, let’s see if I can set up some kind of password or defense,” he said, casting Instant Barrier.

Barrier Settings
Current Mode: Peaceful
Current Inhabitants: Zero
Special Properties: Planted World Tree Seed

Available Modifications:

Modes: Aggressive
Inhabitants: Plant, Beast, Golem, Machine, Aberration
Levels: Set, Scaling
Security: Mana Locks

“That security modification’s new,” Vivian pointed out.

“Might be because we’re outside the Barrier,” John mused. “If we were inside, I could try and stop them from coming in. Let’s see just what these ‘Mana Locks’ do.”

Mana Locks: Attempts by unauthorized persons to enter this Barrier will be met with a series of disks(2) they will have to align properly to open. The Barrier will resist them, attempting to reset the disks to their resting state. You may have (1) person’s mana synchronized to this Barrier, allowing them unhindered access. Party members always have unhindered access.

“Not the most secure thing,” Aeolia remarked, her invisible form wavering from her perch on John’s shoulder.

“Not like we have a lot of options,” John said, turning his head back to Vivian. “I’m betting there’s gadgets or more advanced magic that can make this like Fort Knox, right?”

The redhead nodded. “And they would be expensive, if that’s what you’re hinting at.”

“So we do what we can here and hope that we’re far enough off the beaten path for someone to not just stumble on it,” John said, selecting the security option. He felt the Barrier shift slightly, and in his mind’s eye, he envisioned two plate-sized disks rising out of a dome. Shaking off the visualization, he said, “Well, that’s done. How about we get on to watch that movie?”

Vivian’s couch wasn’t large enough to seat all of them, but that didn’t create too much of an issue when Senka offered to remain within John’s aura and Aeolia maintained her position on John’s left shoulder. With their number reduced to four, John took the center of the couch, with Vivian cuddled onto his left. Beth took the open right side of the couch at Teri’s insistence as she settled in at their feet.

“You sure you’re alright down there?” John asked as Vivian queued up the movie. “I don’t mind taking the floor.”

Teri shook her head, an excited smile on her face. “I’m fine. Besides, I’m closer to the screen this way. Let’s get the show on the road.”

“Alright, here we go,” Vivian announced, hitting play on The Fellowship of the Ring.

From the moment of Galadriel’s opening voice over to the roll of the end credits, Teri’s eyes had scarcely left the screen, her bowl of popcorn only half touched.

“Guess you liked the movie,” Beth said in an amused voice, shaking Teri from her reverent staring, her cheeks darkening slightly.

“Yeah, it was great,” she replied. “I’d heard that they turned the books into movies, but I never thought they’d be that good.”

“They really put their all into them,” John said. “Kind of a pity The Hobbit ones kind of fell flat. But it was a pretty tall order to follow one of the best film trilogies with a less bombastic story nearly a decade later.”

“At least we still have the book,” Teri remarked, stretching out her legs and arms. “What time is it?”

“Nearly eight,” Vivian answered.

“That late?” John exclaimed, pulling his phone out to confirm. “Huh. Would have thought Mom would have texted by now.”

“Maybe she thinks you’re out with me and doesn’t want to intrude,” Vivian suggested.

Aeolia hopped off John’s shoulder and whispered something into the redhead’s ear, causing her cheeks to flush.

“Actually, Aeolia and I were wondering if you’d like to spend the night?” Vivian asked John, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear as her face grew to match.

Beth let out a wolf whistle and jammed her elbow into John’s side playfully. Between her teasing and having an audience for this rather personal relationship issue, he felt his face mirrored Vivian’s.

Pushing down his social discomfort, he managed to say, “That sounds great. Um, I should let Mom know. Ya know, as a courtesy.”

He opened his phone and stared at the screen, debating how to word his message.

‘Mom was pretty chill with Vivian staying over, even with the sneaking thing. She should be okay with this, right?’ John thought, fingers hovering over the keyboard. ‘Do I go formal or take the casual approach?’

As he was still carefully considering his strategy, Beth leaned over and plucked his phone from his hands before bounding out of her seat, fingers already flying

“Hey!” John exclaimed.

“You’re going to overthink this and take forever,” Beth said, her fingers performing one final flourish before hitting send. “Short and simple should work.”

She tossed the phone back to John, who nearly fumbled it. Upon the screen was the message Beth had sent in his stead: “Spending the night at Vivian’s”.

It beeped as a new message came in.

Thanks for letting me know.
Have fun ;)

‘Your mother seems to be expecting something to happen tonight,’ Senka teased, and John could feel her smile.

Trying to deflect from that uncomfortable idea, John closed his phone and turned to Beth, his displeasure clear on his face.

Beth shrugged. “What? It worked, didn’t it?”

“Doesn’t mean it was alright for you to just up and commandeer my phone,” John groused. He really didn’t like having his stuff plucked from him, the number of toys, games and lunches being stolen from him by the likes of Frank and his goons were too many to count.

He **** those sour memories away, not wanting to equate Beth to them. Shaking his head, he said, “Just, please don’t do it again. Brings back bad memories.”

An uncomfortable expression marred Beth’s face and she quickly uttered out, “Sorry.”

Shooting the apologetic girl what he hoped was a reassuring smile, John asked the room, “So, now what?”

“I think I should head back,” Teri replied, sluggishly pulling herself to her feet. “The longer I’m out with no sign of progress, the more ammunition the elders can use against us.”

“Think it’ll play bad if we give you some supplies or food?” Aeolia asked.

“Manson and Cammie have already given us food, and just getting more doesn’t help with the current issue,” Teri said. “I think Vrexty will take that as a sign that we failed and are just stringing the clan along.”

“You think a line about setting things up will be enough to keep them from making things go bad?” Beth interjected.

“It’s the best option we have,” Teri answered, though her tone was far from confident. “The other elders aren’t fully on board with Vrexty’s plans and aren’t eager to continue running, so that tempers his ability to make us pack up and go. As long as we can show some results soon, things should be ok.”

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Vivian said, getting off the couch herself. “Did you want to take anything back with you? Just to show that we are working.”

Teri mulled over the idea for a moment before saying, “I think one of those sap balls could work. Spin it as us having a small Barrier with trees we’re trying to convert into more appropriate farmland.”

“Sounds like a plan,” John said, getting to his own feet. “I’ll go and get one.”

He excused himself and ventured back to the kitchen to collect the needed item.

“Coming along for the ride?” he asked as Aeolia remained seated on his shoulder.

“Might as well,” the winged woman answered as they walked down the hall. “You okay after that phone thing?”

“Yeah,” John muttered as they reached the kitchen. “You think I overreacted?”

“Not really,” she answered. “She didn’t have any reason to do that.”

“You’re not as mad at Beth as I thought you’d be,” John remarked.

“After hearing her argument with her sister, I think she deserves a bit of slack,” Aeolia said softly. “But if she does it again, I’ll have to knock some sense into her.”

John nodded, not wanting discord among his friends. He picked up an orb of condensed sap, bouncing it in his palm a few times as he made his way back to the others. As he walked down the hallway, he felt Senka manifest beside him, quickly matching his stride.

“What’s up?” John asked, sensing she had something to say.

“I figure we have some downtime, so perhaps we can look at the level up I received,” the spirit answered.

Heat rushed to John’s face. “Oh, right. Sorry, I kind of forgot about that.”

Senka lightly shook her head, coiled pigtails swaying with the motion. “It’s fine. Actually, during our downtime, I made a discovery. It seems I am able to access my character sheet on my own and can sort my level up without your input, though it seems I only can increase some of my stats.”

“You can?” John asked, a surprised expression on his face. “I figured since you knew you leveled up, it was tied to my powers and needed my input to get going.”

“Sounds like you jumped the gun on this one,” Aeolia remarked.

“Indeed we did,” Senka admitted. “To be fair, we were in the middle of hostile territory. Not the smartest place to do some navel gazing.”

“You can say that again,” Aeolia said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. John twisted his head to look at Aeolia then back again to Senka, confusion clear on his face.

“This some inside joke?” he asked.

“I suppose you could say that,” Senka smoothly replied. “We had a little personal chat between bouts of monster slaying.”

John hummed. While his curiosity was piqued, he held his tongue, not wanting to overstep any boundaries. Not that there was any time to begin a dialog as they returned to the others.

“One sap delivery,” he announced, lifting said item up before lobbing it to Teri. Before it could reach her, Kitai leapt from the goblin’s shoulders and deftly snagged the orb out of the air before gliding back to her usual perch, dropping her prize into Teri’s waiting hand.

“She’s well trained,” Aeolia remarked as Teri patted her pet.

“She likes to play catch,” Teri said as Kitai settled back into her resting position. She let out a mournful sigh. “Suppose it's time to go.”

“Don’t hesitate to call if you need anything,” Vivian stated as she summoned her keys from her choker. “Got your sphere?”

Teri nodded, picking up the invisibility granting item. Beth, lingering near the doorway, spoke up, “Any issue with me hitching a ride?”

“Of course not,” Vivian answered with a smile. “Where do you need dropping off?”

“I’ll get off with Teri,” the lithe girl answered. “My place isn’t too far from there and I want to do some running.”

“How far is ‘far’?” Aeolia asked, curiosity evident.

Beth shrugged. “A couple of miles. Even keeping it at mundane speed, I can make that in a few minutes. Pretty good at that.”

Aeolia's face twisted in thought, and John wondered if she was trying to remember if she had ever seen Beth running in the area.

“I didn’t really go in that direction,” Beth said, her brain taking the same path as John’s. “You wouldn’t have seen me. Probably for the best. If my sister figured out there was a guild in spitting distance, she would have moved us faster than you could blink.”

Aeolia nodded before moving over to Vivian, quickly pecking her lips and leaning close to her ear to whisper something.

‘Again with the secrets,’ John privately thought. This time, his innate desire to uncover such hidden things was countered by Vivian’s flushing face and Aeolia’s sly smile. It may have been wishful thinking mixing with the fantasies he’d had both before and after his life had so radically changed, but he had a feeling that tonight was going to be as memorable as Monday’s was.

Aeolia pulled back from Vivian who brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and cleared her throat, her expression a mix of mortification and anticipation. The winged woman gave her a hearty slap to her back and a wink. Shaking her head, Vivian looked to Teri and Beth and asked, “All ready?”

The two nodded and Vivian gestured for them to get a move on. John shifted out of the doorway so they could pass and Vivian paused to kiss John goodbye.

“This shouldn’t take too long,” she quietly said when she pulled away, her voice quivering slightly as her eyelids fluttered a few times.

“We’ll be here,” John replied after a moment of brain rebooting. “Wait. Um, I mean… Damn it, this is where I should be saying something smooth, not pointing out the obvious.”

Vivian giggled, and kissed his cheek. “I’ll take the real you over some **** one.”

John grinned down at her. “You saying I can’t be smooth?”

“Only if it comes naturally,” the redhead replied. “I prefer the real you over some kind of expectation checklist.”

Before John could give a witty remark, Beth poked her head back in.

“Are we going to get moving or do I have to piggyback Teri home?” she asked. “Thought we were kind of on a time crunch?”

“Yeah, we are,” Vivian answered, a slight **** in her voice as she pulled away from John. “Let’s go.”

John watched as Vivian moved to chauffeur Beth and Teri home, Aeolia sliding behind him.

“Think I prefer you dorky over smooth,” she let her opinion known. “Can’t really see you as some suave type.”

“I can pull off ‘sauve’,” John protested, his voice slipping into a Scottish accent. “I’ll take a martini. Shaken, not stirred.”

Aeolia and Senka looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“Really?” John exclaimed in exasperation. “You don’t know Bond? And Senka, how are you confused? You’ve got my knowledge!”

“It would seem some things were not shared implicitly,” Senka replied.

“Next movie we watch will be a Bond film,” John swore under his breath.

Aeolia clapped him on the shoulder. “Sounds like a plan. Just don’t do the accent. Doesn’t suit you. You guys gonna sort that level up, yeah?”

“This seems like the best time to do so,” Senka noted as John nodded.

“I’ll let you guys get to that,” Aeolia said, shrinking to her innate size. “I’m going to take a shower. Bit ripe.”

John subtly took a whiff of himself, not finding his odor overpowering.

‘I didn’t really move about all too much today, so I guess I’m not offending anyone,’ he thought. ‘Probably should take one before anything happens tonight.’

“Shall we adjourn to the kitchen to examine my level up?” Senka asked, jolting John from his hygiene related thoughts.

“Yeah, it’s as good a place as any,” John said. “Could use a drink anyway. Last bit of popcorn was a touch too salty.”

“Not that I don’t find this quaint,” Senka remarked as they re-entered the kitchen, “but perhaps we should invest in a proper meeting room.”

“Vivian said she has one,” John informed her. “I think it was the one Aeolia dragged us to when Vivian told us she liked to dance. Think it’s still messed up from our impromptu lesson.”

Senka hummed. “Seems a waste to have the space and not use it, but that’s neither here nor there. Let’s sort my level, shall we?”

John gave the display a once over, not seeing anything that indicated there was anything Senka could do.

“I have three points to invest,” Senka explained, noting his perplexed expression. “I suppose since I have complete control over them, there’s no reason to alter the display to show them like your ‘Skill Points’.”

“You just know you have them?” John pressed, his confusion giving way to curiosity.

Senka nodded, her hair ringlets bouncing. “I idly wondered how my level up would work and the information just sort of popped into my head. I get three points every level up and can either use them to increase my HP or MP by five per point or alter one of my skills in some way.”

“That last bit is a little vague,” John said.

“My abilities don’t improve with changes to my stats like yours do,” Senka pointed out. “This seems like a good compromise. I can only presume that adding perks to the knife will unlock new abilities.”

“Guess that’s my cue to pull that up then,” John said, summoning the blade and pulling up its sheet.

John grimaced when he saw the durability level. “Going to spend some time tomorrow doing maintenance on everything. Better now then later.”

“Very prudent,” Senka said. “I’d rather not find out what happens to me if my vessel breaks.”

“‘Vessel’?” John asked.

“I find it an appropriate term for the item I was born from,” the spirit replied.

“I’ll remember to refer to this with the correct term then,” John remarked. “Let’s see if we got lucky and can pick up a new perk.”

“Fuck, I jinxed it,” John groaned.

“That is a little disappointing,” Senka agreed. “But, assuming this selection only changes once a perk is selected, we can weigh our options and store up the points needed.”

“Good point,” John said. “So, which of these speaks to you?”

“The second one,” Senka answered. “Being able to conjure a copy of my vessel, even with reduced power, would enable me to take advantage of the cost reduction effects.”

“And if you’re doing a walkabout, I’m not really down a weapon,” John added, seeing the wisdom in her selection. “It is a good perk and only one more level up away.”

“Assuming the other two remain after that, I would prefer ‘Spirit Amplification’ over ‘Telekinesis’,” Senka revealed. “Unless you want to throw my vessel like some frisbee.”

“You know what a frisbee is but not James Bond,” John sighed, shaking his head dramatically. “It is the less impressive perk and I have Fiery Pursuit for ranged attacks. I can see how ‘Amplification’ can be used. Cutting my power to boost yours could make something consider me not a threat and let you pull off one hell of a sneak attack.”

“The flexibility is nice too,” Senka added. “Not that we’re in a position to buy the perk and test it. Only thing we can do is spend my points.”

John dismissed the weapon sheets and returned Senka’s vessel to his Inventory. “So what are you thinking of putting them into?”

“Mana is always nice,” Senka said. “Give me a moment to check which of my abilities can be upgraded and in what way.”

Senka stared at her sheet for a moment before saying, “I can’t affect any of my Attributes, Black Thorn can have its range boosted by two meters, same with Snaring Shadows. Cutting Shadow becomes two mana cheaper and Dark Veil can be made slightly larger.”

“What about our combo spell?” John asked curiously, causing Senka to shake her head.

“Nothing for that,” she answered. “From this selection I think just increasing my mana is the best path. We haven’t reached a point where one of my abilities is clearly something worth trying to improve over the others, so increasing my mana by fifteen points lets me continue to use all my abilities.”

John nodded at her logic and she invested her three points, bringing her total mana to 186. Her mana regen jumped to 1.86, leading John to think that it would be capped at one percent per hour.

‘Guess that’s going to be a constant thing,’ he thought ruefully. It was an annoyance, but if it was to remain the limit, then they would strategize around it.

“Well, that’s settled,” Senka said, closing her sheet.

“Figured you take a bit longer with that,” Aeolia’s voice sounded from the hallway.

“I don’t have as many moving parts as John does,” Senka called back. “There wasn’t much to debate.”

John twisted to face the doorway right as Aeolia came into view, wearing only a towel around her body, concealing just enough for her to be considered covered. While John’s brain shorted out, Senka raised an eyebrow and asked, “Should you be traipsing about like that?”

Aeolia shrugged, the towel shifting slightly. “Vi didn’t complain about it.”

“Oh, I can see why,” Senka joked, her eye gleaming with mirth.

Aeolia shot her a saucy grin then directed her attention to John. “Think you should freshen up.”

She finished her suggestion with a wink and John, getting his brain back in gear, said, “Yeah. Was planning to. Best to get that done before Vivian gets back.”

He resummoned Senka’s vessel and shifted her anchor to it. Senka nodded, catching his intent without words, and John excused himself. He missed the look of mischief in Aeolia’s eyes as he made his way to the bathroom.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.