Ethan tucked the torn piece of parchment into his robes and shook his hands out. He wasn't much for greasing people up to do what he wanted, but today, for Barry, he had to play the part. That morning, the duo had met up with Amelia and asked her for information on the Feyhammer House. Not only did she come through on that, but she also gave Ethan a list of spells that might work for his upcoming task. More than anyone else, she had figured out how his class worked and what he had been doing with the anomalous materials group. She didn't treat it like some big secret, instead offering what little aid she could with a smile.

  Unfortunately, she had studying to do and wouldn't be able to attend their small adventure.

  "Things are going to get complicated for me, but I had to drop that history class." Barry grumbled as though this was a class he actually wanted to take.

  To Ethan, it sounded very boring.

  With everything they needed for a modest outing in tow, Ethan approached the wooden pavilion. He held his badge in his hands, with no intention of saying a single word until the attendant scanned it. It wasn't one he had seen before, so he couldn't rely on their relationship to smooth the process. The woman took the badge, scanned it, and then wore a fearful look on her face.

  Well, this might have been easier than he expected.

  “Two traveling to Garnweald in Feyhammer House City.” Ethan studied the look of the woman’s face. She just nodded, pressing something he couldn’t see and then handing his badge back. The scribe turned, walking almost robotically back to Barry.

  "Good job. I guess that worked."

  "A little too well, I am afraid." Ethan pinned his badge back to his chest and watched as the edges of the gate were stained with the familiar magic. "I thought that was going to be a whole thing. I wonder what kind of access they gave me, if that's the reaction I get from the people working the portal."

  "I find the best approach is not to complain about these things. Let's go."

  Ethan held his breath as he approached the entrance to the gate. This wasn't a short-range transport like yesterday. This would send him hundreds of miles away into the heart of some region he knew nothing about. Of course, he hoped he wasn't stepping on anyone's toes by showing up and searching for an anomalous object. And yes, he had an ulterior motive for bringing Barry along. As long as they stepped lightly, everything should be fine.

  Barry coughed and desperately tried to suck in air when they got to the other side of the portal. Ethan looked around, taking in their surroundings. Feyhammer House city was very similar to Gale House. There didn't seem to be a theme in how the buildings were constructed, and there were far more signs denoting which building belonged to which crafting guild. But the streets were just as clean as the Mage City, and the people were friendly enough. The district they had arrived in, Garnweald, was far busier than any district described or seen back home.

  “What time are we meeting back here?” Barry’s head swiveled around, taking in all the various sights around them.

  Ethan clicked his tongue, looking at his list of anomalies and estimating how long it would take to visit each one. There were two within this district alone, which made him wonder how something like the water-generating crystal could exist in such a packed city. “Let’s meet back here at noon, if only to get some lunch.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Barry said. He waved as he waded into the crowd of people, and it was easy for him to get them to part since he was so massive.

  Alex had included short descriptions of what each anomalous item did. They were tiny things that truly wouldn't influence the world around them too badly. Ethan wasn't sure how he should feel about it. The job was so small that he was sure any member of the anomalous materials group could finish it in five minutes. Were they lazy or just too busy to attend to such things? Since he couldn't decide, he wandered the streets of the busy crafter city, watching as massive crowds moved from here to there.

  The magical energies that lingered in the air were intoxicating. Ethan had trouble keeping his balance as his head whipped back and forth. He locked onto each nearby building, feeling the faintest spark of energy coming from within each one. It was absolutely nothing like the mage-based magic used back at Gale House, and he had to shut off that feeling to avoid falling over. Instead, he followed the road markers, intent on finding his way to the first anomalous listing.

  Leaning against the wooden railing of a paddock, Ethan whistled. The area was about five minutes from the Gate to the north. It was off the main avenue, nestled alongside a narrow backroad. He could see why the anomaly hadn’t been addressed and he learned quite a lot about what the Anomalous Materials Group defined as something worth dealing with.

  Trotting in the paddock before Ethan was a wooden horse. A toddler sat on its back, screaming with joy as its parents watched on with glee. This wasn’t the kind of object he had expected to find. He wasn’t even sure how he would contain it, so he decided to skip it. Containing something that had become an attraction would be in bad taste. Unless the wooden horse gained a hunger for living flesh, it was harmless.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Nearby people watching the living wooden horse revealed enough information for Ethan to get the picture. Animating a wooden horse wasn’t that hard. Most people in Gale House could do it, if they had the background. Even here in Feyhammer, there were enough skilled magical craftsmen to get the job done. But this object hadn’t ever seen the touch of a mage or a crafter. Instead, it was said to possess a spontaneous soul, not unlike that of a monster. Unlike monsters, this soul was entirely empty, making it less than a proto-soul.

  The scribe pretended to know what most of that meant, but moved on. As much as he enjoyed making toddlers cry, there were other objects he could work with… And even one that piqued his interest.

  After visiting a few shops and private residences, Ethan was ready to see the most interesting anomaly on the list. His knowledge of how this stuff worked was still limited, but the short description Alex provided was interesting. Near the western reaches of the area dominated by the guilds, he found it.

  “Can’t let you pass.” A surly armored guard stopped Ethan at the line of a magically projected caution sign. “This area is tainted with magical power.”

  “Indeed.” Ethan craned his neck, trying to get a better look down the alleyway. The guard moved to block his vision, but he saw it for a moment. He saw the air shimmer and his brows knit. “Can you explain the… magical corruption to me?”

  The guard lifted his visor, revealing an aged face of a human. “Why are you so interested?”

  “I’m part of the Anomalous Materials Group.” Ethan tried not to let the smile make him look like too much of a jerk. But it was hard. His face dropped when the guard scrunched up his face.

  Obviously, he had never heard of it. “Okay. Does that mean anything to me?”

  Ethan cleared his throat. “I fix stuff like this. I’m from Gale House.”

  The guard looked between Ethan and the anomaly behind him. “First year? Looking to get chewed up?”

  “Perhaps if you explained how it works, I won’t get chewed up.”

  The guard dropped his visor, shrugging. “I don’t get paid enough to stop you from getting killed. Gravity works weird in there. Some places it gets higher, others it gets lower. People have been crushed. Thank the gods none have died, but we got pretty close last week and none of the scholars at your school can do a thing about it.”

  The Anomalous Materials Group should’ve taken care of this one. Alex’s note only said “gravity weird” as a note for this one. Why was something so potentially dangerous below their notice? Unless they couldn’t fix it.

  “Crap. I don’t think I can fix this.”

  The guard lifted his visor again. “Should you be able to fix this?”

  “Yeah, maybe. Does the gravity thing have a central point?”

  The guard jerked his head to one side, leading the way down a narrow alleyway and into a building. He entered a random building, headed up some stairs and paused by a window. It gave a view of a respectable courtyard with a cute garden. A few things within the garden were floating, while others seemed crushed as though through great pressure.

  “Right in the middle.” The guard pointed to a spot in the center of the courtyard.

  Ethan squinted, spotting the slight difference in the shimmer. Yeah, this was way outside of his ability. He couldn’t deny the slow pulsing feeling in his chest, though. Was it his class or system calling out for him to investigate? The only thing the scribe knew was that he needed to investigate. Withdrawing his pen from his soul, he shot a look at the guard.

  “What? Where do you keep your pen?”

  The guard grunted a response at first, his visored head turning to look back down to the courtyard. “But seriously. If your headmaster couldn’t do anything about this, what do you hope to accomplish?”

  Ethan rubbed his chin. He didn’t have an answer, because he didn’t know how this was supposed to work. Mentally kicking himself, he steered away from hopeless thoughts. The way he was supposed to fix this was based on how he wanted it to be fixed. That’s how his class had worked until now so why would it change? The description of Primordial Scribe said it all.

  “I plan to rewrite the laws,” Ethan said, not sure if he believed what he was saying. “Somehow.”

  “Good luck with that. I’ve done my job warning you… Try not to get squished. I always liked that garden.”

  The guard left him there in the abandoned building with his thoughts. The list of spells Amelia had given him wouldn’t work here. Not on their own, anyway. He could get started with Luna’s technique of siphoning away all that excess energy. It was an act Ethan viewed as draining water from a pond before getting to work on the muddy bottom. The mud he had to contend with was gravity-based magic that would crush him if he wasn’t careful.

  Ethan cracked the window, finding a nearby decorative vase and tossing it out. At first, it floated weightlessly. Then it smashed into the ground with enough force that it dug into the stones, shattering them with force. Heading out into the courtyard wasn’t an option. He took a deep breath in, feeling with Luna’s technique. If he had experienced more types of magical energy, perhaps he could have determined what type this was.

  “Seems like gravity mana to me.” Ethan shrugged, pulling that energy into his soul and doing the processing technique. He couldn’t tell if the mana had weight or if he was just imagining things.

  The mana seemed to pool at his feet, drawn down and pressing against the floorboards. The entire floor groaned. Ethan felt his heart skip a beat. Going from a gentle groan to a sudden crash, the floor beneath the scribe’s feet fell away. A flash of blue filled his vision as he fell, weightless for only a moment before he crashed onto the ground of the bottom floor. The entire building above came with him.

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