You can find previous issues on my author page here.

Donovan and I were able to grab a few hours of sleep before Vera managed to wake up. We all went out for breakfast before we had to head downtown to meet Steve. Vera and Donovan really hit it off as they finally had time to get to know each other. I smiled over the lip of my coffee cup. The steam warming the end of my nose. They were chatting away in Italian getting weird looks from everyone at the Village Inn at the edge of Nebraska.

They were both deep into a conversation about a quaint little coffee shop in Venice when my phone buzzed. I set down my cup and grabbed my phone. It was from Steve.

“Are you and Vera on your way?” He had written.

“Almost. Donovan too.” I wrote back.

“Hurry up!” He replied.

I smiled and shook my head. He sure was smitten.

“Do you have any plans for this training?” I asked suddenly to Vera. She smiled and looked over.

“A few.” She said.

“Am I going to hate them?” I asked.

“Quite possibly,” Vera said, smiling.

“Perfect,” I said, and we all laughed. “We should probably get going.” They nodded and went and paid before ushering them all back into the car and headed out, making our way downtown.

As I pushed the door open to the bookstore, Steve looked over with a massive smile on his face. Something so rare. Wow, I couldn’t help but think this was a different side to him. This cranky man seemed to be slowly thawing finally, after years of dealing with him. I knew it had nothing to do with me, but I couldn’t help but be excited about the thought.

“Morning, Steve,” I said, smiling back. He looked like he was thinking about scowling in my direction, but his smile gained traction again.

“Morning.” He said. He ushered us into the back room and threw some giant tombs onto the worktable. “So, I was able to find these that had some mention of old societies that seemed to match The Society of the Pen and the Sword that Vera helped me out with yesterday.”

We spent the morning combing through the old books, and Vera helped us trying to decipher if they seemed to have the right society. There were talks of tremendous power, a power that seemed to be all-consuming. If people didn’t seem to have a pure heart, they always seemed to be turned towards the darkness. Like they had seen with my aunt and just one of the items. No one since my great ancestor who had created them seemed to have been able to do good with them for very long. Eventually, that lead to The Society splitting the two and keeping them apart over 100 years ago.

“So, what am I supposed to do if I start to turn?” I asked, thinking there was no way I had a pure enough heart to withstand the pull to the darkness.

“Almost all of them have had to be killed to get the items away from them. The ones that weren’t killed had to be locked up for the rest of their days. Their minds lost to the darkness.” Vera said, wincing as she looked at me.

“Great,” I muttered.

“We’ll be here for you. Keeping you on the right path.” Donovan told me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

“Well, should we start with some of the training Vera?” I asked. She nodded and stood up from her stool.

“So, the first thing we need to work on is just getting them on command.” She said.

I stood and walked across the room from her. I nodded and a deep breath. I looked at my arms. I snapped them down while opening my hands as I had done before, and…nothing happened.

“Well,” I muttered. Steve couldn’t help but start laughing at me.

“Well, how have you done it before?” Steve asked.

“Um.” I thought about it. “I guess I’ve always been attacked and then bam they appear.”

Steve slapped his hands and rubbed them together. The evilest grin appeared on his face.

“Well, this just got more fun,” he said before pulling up a fireball.

“No!” I screamed, but it was too late, and he had already thrown it. Needless to say, nothing happened, and I think I lost my eyebrows. “I hate you.”

Thank you, Sean Eike, for the image this week.