The Lost Queen Book 2 - Kehlani

16. Magicians

1 hour, some torn fabric, and a complete breakdown later, I have it off and Sara has her notes.

I wiggle all over the couch. "This is so much better."

Kina rolls her eyes. "I'll send dinner." Her and Sara leave.

Alden comes in. "Movie tonight?"

I want to leave but I'm exhausted. "Sure." Maybe he can show me how the tv works.

He kisses my hand. "Thank you, baby."

After we eat, I get pajamas on, then snuggle with him with a blanket. He explains it.

I wake up in the morning sleeping on him. He took me to his bed last night. I'm getting kind of used to that. I always sleep better with him. He rolls us over and rubs my arm. I love the tingles.

I open my eyes and he's gone. I must have fallen back asleep.

After a confusing morning, I manage to get put together with a simple dress on. These are the best. I head up to Alden's office and the normal people are there. Nadine is there with her mates too. I sit in a random spot at the table.

"MAYRA. ARE YOU IN THERE?" Kina screams from the hallway.

I dive under the table.

Alden peeks and whispers, "What did you do?"

"I don't know."

"MAYRA."

"She's not in here, Kina."

"When you see her, ask her WHERE THE HELL SHE PUT ALL HER UNDERWEAR. Servant told me she doesn't have any. She had a million pairs yesterday. I swear that child is always doing something." She storms out.

I sneak out from under the table slowly, never taking my eyes off the door.

Alden shakes his head. "What happened to your underwear?"

"I sent them to the ship. I didn't want to run out."

"Now you ran out here, baby."

"Yea, it was a mess this morning. The servant had to send the guards to the mall to buy some."

Alden stands up and glares at the door guard.

"NOT ME." He runs out of the room.

Clark pushes Alden down. "Sit. It's fine. It was simply a weird problem. The servants figured out a solution. Let it go."

He rubs his eyes. "Burn them, I'll buy you new."

Nadine's mates nod. Nadine shakes her head. "Idiots."

Jenny cracks up laughing. "Of all the issues."

"I like them though. They're pink."

Alden goes after the guard. The guard runs like hell. Clark tackles Alden. "SIT DOWN MAN. HE DIDN'T BUY THEM."

Alden gets off the floor then picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. He takes off for the door.

"BRO, KNOCK THIS s**t OFF." Victor speeds over and pulls me off. He puts me on my feet. "Go sit down."

I run to a seat. Nadine smiles. "Don't talk about them anymore."

I nod fast.

Victor gets Alden to sit. "Now stop being stupid."

Clark nods. "I have you taking 4 limos for castle transportation. Also, 2 common cars to learn the technology."

Dipak sits back. "Yea, they are better than carriages. It's amazing you did all this without AI."

Victor answers. "We checked your village out. It seems our planet is 5 or 600 years more evolved than yours. Your village, minus AI and future technology, was exactly like our villages 500 years ago."

I raise my hand. "I remember our village. We didn't have a pool, vacation building, or running water. I had to have the servants fill my bath. I don't think our world is 500 years ahead. Maybe more like 300. But yea, we are further in the evolution of our planet. I don't think it's anything bad."

Tre smiles. "And the boxes everyone carries, those aren't the future technology are they?"

Victor answers. "No. They are smartphones. Connected to the internet. That's too hard to explain. But everyone in the world can connect to it." He pulls out his phone and shows them the video of me laughing with the bird. "We can make phone calls on them, send messages, take pictures or videos, then put stuff online so other people can see it. We can't give you the internet, we don't even know how."

"We can't do anything with that technology, other people made it. If you want to stay and figure it out, you're welcome to. But that's the best we can do."

"It's not common knowledge?"

"Only for geniuses."

Tre laughs. "I'd like to come back and study it. They are convenient. The pictures and texting are worth it. Being able to call anyone."

"I want to come back and study medicine too. What I saw of it seemed advanced."

Dipak smiles. "And is your castle magician still available?"

"Exalos."

Alkawn shakes his head then nods. "He's the magician for the school now. He is 1 of the main defenders of it. He's the only magician they have. For the safety of the students, we can't summon him or send him away from school."

Tye laughs. "I want to put him and Omar together. See what blows up."

"Omar is our teacher of magic."

"That could be interesting. I want to be there for that too. Write that down." I stare at Alden until he writes. "You can bring Omar here, but we will have to travel to Exalos. We shouldn't remove him from the school. But there are dorms there, so we could stay."

Jenny puts her hands up, "We're not blowing up anymore of the school. Alden did enough damage to that thing. Wait for the next school break. We can summon Exalos here for 2 weeks. Omar can come visit, and we'll put them in a wing that's not redone yet."

"That could work."

"I'll figure out the dates and text you when I figure it out."

Victor shakes his head. "No phones Jenny."

"Then how?"

Dipak nods. "We can take 1 of your AI back, and you keep 1 of ours. We can communicate through them."

"That's probably for the best."

I jump straight up. "I CAN MAKE AI NOW." I glance around and see 1. "AM I MAKING AI NOW?"

"Not yet."

"MAKE THEM."

"How many?"

Marcus stands up. "Wait, Alden, come talk to me for a minute. Mayra, wait for a few minutes."

I plop down. "I can't believe I forgot that."

Marcus and Alden walk out with the only AI we have.

"What's that about?"

"They have penis."

I stare at Nadine and shake my head.

"Yep."

Then the boys come back in with the AI. It comes to me. "How many did you want?"

"NONE." I jump clear over the table and land on Tye. I hit my elbow on 1 of the chairs and cry.

Tye sits me on the table and fixes my dress. "You're fine."

I show him my elbow and stick my bottom lip out.

He makes it better. "I imagine at least some of you have healing powers. Let's check for that now."

Marcus scratches his head. "What was that about?"

"The woman told her brains can have boy parts."

He laughs. "Yours don't. You're safe."

I peek at the brain. "How many can I hold in the ship?"

"130k in hidden areas. 850k if all areas are full."

"Fill up the hidden areas. Make an additional 10k and bring them here."

"Yea ma'am."

"Let's check for healing. We need a human."

"I'll get 1." Dipak walks over to the door and does something to it. Then he comes back in after a minute dragging someone. The human drops to the ground.

"Where did you go?"

"Door magic. I went to a bar and grabbed a drunk 1."

"I want to learn door magic. Write that down." I stare at Alden until Clark writes it.

Tye slices the man's back, then me, Alden, Victor, and Clark try to heal it. We all get it.

Tre smiles at Jenny. "You want to try?"

"I don't have healing magic. I've already been checked. I do have concentrate magic though. That would be the only way I could do it."

"What's that?"

Jenny does something with her hand and parts of the room light up. "That's a spell to show what magic has touched... Now, kind of like what Mayra was saying yesterday, with teleportation, it's either open to a magician or not. Healing is the same way, it's either unlocked for you or not. Which also reminds me, I know an unlocking witch. SUMMON ASHE."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Where was I? Oh, concentration magic. I can't heal this man, but concentration magic allows me to collect healing magic out of the space I'm in. Once I get enough, I can heal him. I will try. Also, I have no idea how much it's going to take. I may not get enough." She faces her palms up and red specks start floating above them. "This may be enough." She touches the man and the wounds half heal. "Guess it wasn't enough. But you get the idea, concentration magic. If anyone else wants to try it, I would not try healing magic here. There isn't much to collect. And not everyone has collecting magic."

"What's a common magic to collect?"

"The 4 main powers. Earth, air, fire, water. They are usually everywhere." She holds her hands out. "I do not have earth power." Green starts collecting. She shakes it off. "This room has a lot of earth power in it. Try to collect earth magic in your hand. Concentrate on making a flower bloom and collecting the magic for it. Hands up so I can see. If you have earth magic, try water magic. Making a big wave in the river. Mayra and Johen have collecting magic. They are collectors. You can let it go."

Johen smiles. "That felt weird."

"Yes, and every single magic feels different. Different textures and temperatures... colors. It's different. But I'll give you a little advice about it. Some of the most rare magic, like projection, you can collect magic for, but you would probably never collect enough to try it. It's so rare. Even the magic surrounding it is rare. So never think you can do everything because you're a collector. Hell, you saw me healing him, there wasn't even enough healing magic in this room for me to do it correctly. And healing isn't rare honestly."

"I have been summoned." Ashe runs over and gives me a hug. "Hi sweetheart. We missed you so much. We're so glad you're back."

"I missed you too."

"Mom, we're doing something over here."

"Sorry child. What do you need?"

"Can you see if anything can be unlocked on them?"

"Everyone sit down, and I will explain what I do. The choice is yours if you let me try it. Magic ranges from common, any magician can do those. Think of simple spells. They can make an orb. Those are common. Now, the next tier up is the not-so-common magic. Earth, air, fire, water. Others in this category would be healing, or barrier magic. Still fairly common, but not everyone can do them. 3rd tier, between 10% and 25% of magicians have them unlocked. Examples would be conjuring, transmutation, abjuration. I guarantee you know some of these mages, but probably only 1 or 2. 4th tier, is the truly rare magic. These would be between 3% and 9% of magicians have them unlocked. Think, necromancy, teleportation, possession, exorcists. These are very rare. In the 5th tier, less than 3% of magicians have them unlocked. They are Time, Anchor, shapeshifting, projection, and concealment. There are a few more, but they may be extinct currently. Any questions?"

"All magic is in those 5 tiers?"

"Yes, that's how we rank magic. We place it in 1 of the 5 tiers depending on how many have it at any certain time."

Tre looks up from his paper. "What is it you do?"

"I can unlock certain magic for people. Think of how magic flows in your body. Through your head out your hands mostly. For some magic, there may be a jam of magic that needs released. I can remove that and open it up. You will then have that magic. Not every magic will open. I can only check for simple blocks and clogs."

Dipak nods. "Now you can also unlock different magic?"

"Yes, I am an unlock. I forgot that for tier 5. I can not open all magic, some amount of the magic must be in you. And the more rare the magic, the less likely it will be there."

"You can unlock it now?"

"No, I have to see the magic in you. Some will jump out at me. I will follow the path and see what is going on. Maybe I can unlock it."

"Go ahead and try with me."

She steps behind Dipak and puts her hands on his shoulders. "That's very rare, and you have a lot of it. You're a shapeshifter."

He chuckles. "Yep."

"Conjuring, water, battle, barrier, healing, charming, abjuration, ... That's all I'm seeing. You may get more later, but that's a hell of a list. Quite a few rare in there."

"I have healing, barrier, and abjuration now?"

"Yes. I thought you had barrier already. Healing was stuck in your elbow and abjuration was floating around in circles in your head. I was able to fix the paths."

She does everyone 1 at a time and gets to me last.

"And my queen. Let's see what you have. Water, battle, barrier, abjuration, healing, exorcism, anchor, purity, divination, charms, collector. Now I need to summon someone. I'll be right back."

"That was a lot."

Kina throws a sword at me. I duck and grab it out of the air. She comes at me with a different 1. "WHY ARE YOUR UNDERWEAR GONE? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU 2 DOING?"

"I SENT THEM TO THE SHIP." I swing at her.

She blocks. "WHY?"

"SO I WOULDN'T RUN OUT."

"I can't some days." She hands me the sword. "Aver said you're supposed to fight with someone and to give you the swords."

"Thank you."