"You're going to be late for work, dear," woke me the following morning, issued in Gran's kind but stern voice.

Words to haunt any soul. Pretty sure you could rouse someone from a near death experience just by uttering them. I was very awake now.

It's rare for me to sleep so long, but as the memories of my meeting with Celistar came trickling back into my skull, I realized it had been no normal sleep.

That said, I felt amazing. Top of the world, kicking all the asses. That kind of amazing. I sprinted through my morning routine, grabbed an egg sandwich and the all important hug from Gran.

Okay, it may have been two hugs.

Then I ran out the door. I could feel my new Stream circulating through my legs and decided to take advantage of it. I took some of the Nebula and pushed it into the bottoms of my feet. As you may have guessed, doing such a thing for the first time while borderline panicking about being late for work isn't a good recipe, and I more or less blasted myself into the air.

By 'more or less' I mean that I suddenly found myself screaming - both figuratively and literally - through the sky a solid four or five meters above the street. I wound up crashing into the top of a roof, which was thankfully not too sloped. Luckily for me, I was also out of the area we lived in, meaning the roof here was for a commercial building, so I didn't just directly crash through it and ruin someone else's morning.

Applying the Nebula to my feet more carefully this time, I hopped down. It burst when I landed, but otherwise saved me any fall damage. Impressive, considering how clumsy I tend to be. I'm the kind of person who can trip over a flat floor, and that's on a good day.

I tried recreating the trick with the Nebula, but each time it seemed like it just wasn't stable enough and it'd burst just a few steps in. So I just ran normally.

Well, normal-ish. I seemed to be a bit faster than I remembered from previous trips into work. Since of course this wasn't the first time I'd been rescued by Gran from getting fired. Maybe a side effect from what Celistar had described as "being complete". Which, if I had the opportunity, I'd have to ask her about. But I was guessing she'd probably done a fair bit of work just to meet with me like that, and likely set back her recovery. There was a good chance I wouldn't see her for a while.

Like she'd said though, 'our fates were entwined', so you could say that the moon fairy had a vested interest in making me stronger.

Something was definitely wrong at work. I could sense it before I got in the building. Just a big current of unease underlying everything. Made the hairs on my arms stand on end. Still, I needed to figure out what was going on, so in I went.

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My improvements in cardio showed on the stairs as well, as I was able to effectively sprint up them, while only being barely winded at the top. Not sure what exactly this was, but I definitely didn't mind.

Viktor was standing next to István when I walked in. I was holding my lab coat in one hand, not having put it on yet.

"You won't need that today, Charley," István said. "We're going out on a special retrieval."

Something about the way he said 'special' amped up the weird vibes I was getting. "Do I dare ask what's 'special' about it?"

Viktor turned to look at me, which was easier said than done for a man of his stature in the relatively cramped lab space. There was a reason he usually stayed by the door when he came to visit. "It's special because it's obviously a trap of some kind."

Well, that's direct.

"We turned in that unusual artifact box you found yesterday to the authorities on the subject," he continued, the sarcasm in his voice evident. "Now today we have a mandatory Rift recovery. No matter how you think about it… very suspicious."

I could definitely agree with that. I'd never even heard of us getting an order for a Rift recovery, and didn't have any idea such a thing was even a possibility. So having one pop up directly after we had done what was supposed to be the right thing was ominous indeed. As the saying goes - let no good deed go unpunished.

István nodded at Viktor's words. "Very suspicious, for sure. That's part of why we want you to come along. You know how to fight, that much is evident." I wasn't sure, but at István's words, Viktor looked a little sheepish. He wasn't still dwelling on his self-imposed competition, was he?

"The extraction is this afternoon, so for this morning, I want you to work with István on improving yourself. He's both stronger, and better teacher than I am." Viktor admitting as much was surprising, but at the same time the more I learned about him the more I realized he was very much a no-nonsense kind of guy, something I could appreciate.

As for the man himself, István seemed quite excited. "I am not sure how you've done it, but you even seem stronger today than before. You would not happen to be sneaking Artifacts out on us, would you?" He asked, his eyes sparkling.

"Totally," I replied, leaning into his joke, "Since otherwise you'll have me identify them and I'm tired of that."

He smiled, having gone through pretty much the same process I had. "Now that is no joke," he said, "I would much rather risk life and limb at this point, than to have to recategorize our entire inventory again."

Viktor was watching the back and forth with what I can only describe as a 'big dumb grin' on his face. "I'll leave you two to it, then. I am not sure what to expect, but I know they will not be expecting either of you. It should be pretty cold today, so wear the jackets."

I didn't understand what he meant by the last bit, but it was clear that István did, so I decided to leave it off for now. At this point I felt I had built a bond of trust with my employers, so I wasn't about to worry about the small things.

Viktor left to get some coffee, as per his morning ritual, leaving me with István, who was apparently going to teach me some things. Considering the man I knew, it was likely I'd be learning a lot.

He laid out both hands on the table, palms up, and instructed me to do the same.

"That is good," he said once I had them where he wanted them. "Let's begin."

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