Author's Note

"Make your bed every morning. That way, if you get nothing done that day, you can at least come home to a nice clean bed to rest in."

Anyways, so I ended this chapter here because it fest appropriate. Don't worry too much about a wait, the next chapter is almost done with editing, so it should be out within the next few days to a week.

XVII

The walk to Nesa's seemed to go on forever, when in reality, it more than likely only took a few minutes at most. Tramara didn't talk much, and Aurora had fallen asleep in my arms, as my past rung in my ears. A small smile plastered itself on my face, as I dove deeper into my past memories.

So lost in thought, I didn't even notice we had arrived. Stepping in front of Tramara, mostly forgetting she was there, I reached up to the door with my hand condensed in magic. Touching the door released the silent spell I had unconsciously cast, and a near silent whisper grows into near deafening boom in about three seconds.

My perception of reality shifted, and I was suddenly half the height I used to be. My ears were ringing from my first time casting this spell.

"Nessy! Come out and play for a bit!" My 8 year old voice shouted, shadowed by my real voice. I had that stupid smug grin on my face, as I knew she had just gotten home, and was likely relaxing from her long day at the medical tower.

Before I could delve any deeper into my memories, Nesa opened the door with tears in her smooth, almond shaped eyes. My surroundings returned to the present, as my past crumbles away. Nesa's youth seemed to flake away in an unfelt wind, and in her place stood a silver haired woman with the same tears in her eyes.

"Can it truly be you?" She asks me. I looked Nesa over, and smiled gently at how well she aged. She grew to be about two meters tall, with slightly tanned skin. Her eyes held a spark of wisdom and experience that I had never seen in her before. Granted its been a thousand years, so that is to be expected.

"Hey Nesa. I could use your help with a broken wing if you don't mind." I say with that stupid smug grin I used to wear all the time. She chuckles, and whimpers almost at the same time. Giving a true smile, I opened my unused arm to the middle aged elf. Without hesitation she accepts my hug.

"Where have you been this whole time my friend?" She asks softly. I could hear her emotions thick in her voice. Her deep green dress/tunic gently flowed around her as she moved, almost as if gravity had a loose hold on it.

We embraced tightly as my tears threatened to overflow. That is, until I remembered something that I subconsciously held close to my chest starting to struggle for air.

Backing away to let Aurora breathe, I respond with, "Purposely trapped in stone so I could see my mother again."

"Still the foolish boy I knew all those centuries ago." She says wiping tears from her eyes before continuing, "Come lets get you taken care of before we talk more, no doubt my granddaughter here couldn't fix your recklessness." I chuckle in response as Tramara blushes, and puff her cheeks out in mock anger.

With that said, she gracefully turns to go back into her house, expecting my group of three to follow her.

Entering Nesa's home nearly brought me to my knees as memories flood to the surface of my mind. Laughter, crying, singing, and so much more echoed in my ears. Shadows of Nesa, our small gaggle of friends, and I danced at the edges of my vision. Feeling tears falling down my face, and hearing Aurora whimpering from them, I smile and lean down to give her a hug.

"Worry not my child, I'm simply lost on memory lane again. Seems that I will be visiting my past plenty while here." I tell her as she returns my embrace.

"I'm not worried, just overwhelmed with your memories. We are linked on a deeper level than you think, father." She responds. Nesa glances back to me with a smirk at that. She chuckles, and motions for me to lay on her couch. Laying down with a smirk of my own, I let Nesa get to work.

"Just like the old days, Right Nessy?" I ask as she removes my bindings. Nesa hums in thought with a smile.

"Yes, just like the old days. I would constantly be patching you and Clockwork up almost every time I saw you. Always getting into some kind of trouble that you needed me for." She responds as the last of my bindings fall away. I smile softly at that. Nesa had healed many of my wounds 1000 years ago. From broken bones and burns, to simple cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

"Come here Tramara. Let me show you how to treat such severe wounds." Nesa says as her hands ignite in a familiar deep pink, almost red, aura. Tramara moves next to her family's current matriarch, and ignited her hands in her bright leaf green aura.

"When wounds of this nature come before you, you have to start from where the fractures first occurred. This is easily found by following the damage back by how old it is." Nesa begins her teaching, "To do so on wounds this fresh, apply a gentle soothing spell, and trace the wounds with your magic. The wound that reacts the most is where you start applying it." I could feel the two moving magic through my wing, and wince a bit when they found the right spot.

I could feel the bones in my wings start to move and set back into the proper positions. They worked to regrow bone, and stitch tissue back together in my wing. Flexing my magic to help accelerate the process at just the right time made Nesa hum neutrally, and cause Tramara to gasp. She was in no way expecting this, and I groan due to my magic being burnt out still.

"Glad to see you still remember how to assist me Osiris." Nesa comments idly as she finishes fixing my wing, "Even though you're still so reckless to do such things while drained."

"How could I forget the tender touch of my favorite healer, or her methods for that matter?" I respond with a bit of dramatics thrown in. Nesa chuckles as I sit up, and I flex my wings to stretch out the minor stiffness. Nesa and Tramara's eyes widen as I show off my wingspan. I could feel my primaries just barely touching the walls of the room, at an impressive six meters across.

"Your wings are magnificent Prince." Tramara says in slight awe. I chuckle and bow my head as thanks as I retract and ruffle my wings.

"Thank you." I say to both of them, " I feel much better." Standing I look to Aurora with a couple thoughts in mind, but file them away for later as I focus on a promise I made to a friend long ago.

"Nesa... take me to Clockwork please?" I ask her. Her face hardens before she sighs. She motions for me to follow her further into her home.

"Tramara, please stay here with Osiris' daughter. This is a very private ritual." Nesa says as she leads me away. I didn't see Tramara's response as I followed behind Nesa. We moved through the house in silence. Both of us knowing what was going to be happening soon.

After a few moments of moving from one room to the next, we eventually came to an intricate metal door that was covered in not only gears, and levers, but arcane runes as well. Nesa stops and looks over the door.

"In all the time between his death and now, I've never been able to open this door." Nesa tells me as she places a hand on one of the pristine gears. I give her a sad knowing smile, before placing my hand on top of hers.

"I know." Was all I said in return as I fed trace amounts of magic down my arm, and into my hand. The runes on the door light up in response to my magic, and gears start turning. I hear the mechanical whirls, and clicks and the inner workings of the door come to life after sitting still for assumed decades.

"How long ago did he pass?" I ask in curiosity as I wait for the first actions of the door to stop.

"Thirty years." Was her quiet reply. I place my free hand on her shoulder and give a gentle squeeze. She gives me a sad smile in return.

The door falls silent, and we both return our attention to it. A small outcropping with a black crystal pops out of the door. Sighing in frustration, knowing that I have to wait even longer to open this door, I start to ramp up my power, and groan in pain from doing so. My magic is still mostly recovering.

Forcing magic into the crystal causes the runes to dim and start flashing randomly as magic is being built up in the crystal before us. It wasn't that big of a crystal. only about the size of a cat's eye, but due to the way the crystal is used in the mechanized door, I was probably going to regret doing this so soon.

I groaned in pain, nearly doubling over as my body screams at me to stop pouring so much magic out. Growling in response to my body's reaction, I bring even more power to bear.

The crystal is now glowing brightly and cracks begin to form inside of it. With a final shout of pain from me, the crystal shatters, and the shards coalesce into a solid key covered in runes, and normal sized. The magic had given the crystal extra mass to compensate for the lack of material. The key floats in mid air, and was slightly glowing from the remaining magic inside it.

Panting in near exhaustion, I grab the key that was floating in midair before me.

The door before us started whirring and clicking again, causing the surface of the door to move and shift out of the way. Soon enough the door reveals a keyhole for said key that I have.

"Why did we make this require so much magic?" I ask as I get my breathing under control, and feed a few trace wisps of magic into the key. As I did this, the keyhole starts to spark and glow with magic.

"If you need to rest, you don't have to open his workshop right now." Nesa offers in a comforting tone. Chuckling at that, I stop feeding the tiny amounts of magic into the key, causing the keyhole to fall silent again. I put the key into my pocket, and back away from the door.

"It's not a matter of needed rest." I tell her as I cast my most simplistic summons spell. I double over in pain this time, but what I summoned appears before me on the floor; a silver glowing bottle.

Nesa gasps, seeing a bottle of liquid moonlight before her. I smirk as I reach for said bottle, but Nesa stop my hand with one of her own. I look up to her with a mild questioning look.

"When did you figure out how to make this?" She asks me in awe.

"Shortly after my mother fell." I respond, "And yes I have enough for everyone that is still alive." She smiles softly, and removes her hand from mine.

Grabbing my personal hidden bottle, I uncork it, and start draining the liquid from within. After a quarter of the bottle is pulled into my stomach, I feel my exhaustion start fading. Half gone, and I can feel my magic surging with new strength. Three quarters, and I'm at full power again. And finally, once the bottle is empty, my magic soars to new permanent heights.

My body is graced with a slight after image made from how much magic I have. I grin at my new power before standing, and taking out the key again. Flooding the key with power, the keyhole on the door immediately becomes a beacon of light.

I quickly slam the key into its hole, and twist a half turn. A gear rolls out of the way of another crystal. Turning the key another half turn causes another gear to reveal a second crystal. I turn the key twice more with the same result, and now there are four crystals in the four quadrants of the door.

Hearing another click, I release the key before slamming my palm over it, causing the key to sink all the way into its hole. The runes of the door pulse outward from the key, and light four rings of runes around the four crystals.

"How do you know what pattern the crystals need?" Nesa asks me. I give a smug grin in response.

"Because there is no pattern here." I say before raising both my hands, and firing four beams of magic simultaneously into the four crystals. As the crystals feast upon the magic I was pumping into them, the door's runes all start to light up, and spread to the inside mechanisms of the door.

A couple moments of this pass, and the door gives a hiss as the crystals stop feeding from me. Stopping the flow of my magic, and resting my magic power, the door begins whirring, clicking, and clanging. Quite suddenly the noises all stop, and a lever pops out of the door a few centimeters.

"Would you like the honor?" I ask Nesa. She shakes her head, despite the fact that Clockwork is her brother. I also noticed the beginnings of tears in her eyes. She was more than likely present when he locked himself inside. Quickly wrapping her in an embrace made her gasp, and this frail old elven woman quickly returns it.

"I am always here for my friends, especially when I'm not able to physically do so." I tell her in my calmingly firm elven, "Your struggles end soon Nesa."

My elderly friend looks up at me with tears falling from her eyes, but a small smile on her face.

"I never doubted you my Prince." She responds softly. I give her a happy grin, and release her while smoothly looking back to the door. She sighs and pulls a silken handkerchief out from her bosom and wipes away her tears.

"Shall we?" I ask her. She smiles at me, and grabs the lever with me.

"Alright, fist we go up with it, then pull, and then down with it." I tell Nesa. Pushing the lever up was a chore, as the rest of the door is mechanical, if I remembered right. With a fair amount of force used, the lever finally reached a vertical position, and the door starts whirring and clicking.

Feeling the bar shake a bit and fall a couple centimeters, I start pulling on the bar. Said bar took exception to that, and my grip failed me as I fall on my rear. Nesa lets go of the lever, laughing. A couple ancient curses may or may not have left my mouth.

"Are you okay?" She asks still giggling every now and then. I groan and chuckle at the same time as I stand up, rubbing my rear end. It was a bit sore from the fall onto Nesa's oak flooring.

"Yeah, just a surprise to be on the floor." I respond with a smile before we both grab the handle again, "Alright, round two, with a little less stupid this time." She snorted in amusement at my old saying for when something went wrong.

We both started pulling again, and the lever slowly leaves whatever hole it came from, and clicks once in the next spot.

I look at Nesa, as she looks at me. "Ready?" I ask her. She nods, and I can see tears in her eyes again. She probably doesn't trust her voice at the moment. Nodding in return I pulled on the lever.

As we manage to get the lever back down to a horizontal position, the door itself starts to move more pieces of its insides. How I would love to tear the door apart, and see how it ticks.

Said door was also starting to release steam from valves inside it. We were about three quarters to the down position, and I can hear giant machinery come to life from either inside the door, or Clockwork's workshop.

We finally got the lever in a down facing vertical position, and just as we let go, it got sucked back into the door.

Once that was done, the door starts rumbling, and all the visible gears start turning. I could hear pistons, safety valves, sprockets, and so much more, as the door prepares to open once again.

The gears we could see sped up until they were nothing but circular blur, and a hole is made at the center. A small disk, with what looks like a spot to insert a dagger, fills in the hole. All the sounds come to a, very muffled, screeching halt.

I sit there, and stare at the hole in confusion, as it wasn't apart of the original design. Taking a closer look at the unknown disk, I see that it looks to have been made in a rush.

"Did he say anything to you about changing the door at any point in the last thousand year?" I ask Nesa. She shakes her head, and looks at the door for a bit.

"it looks like it wants a blade. Did you bring one with you to the forest?" She asks me. My thoughts stray as I try to think. The confusion messing with my mind. As I'm searching my memories, one almost seems to leap at my attention. I review my memories of my mad dash from the palace.

Without hesitation I flick my right wrist back, and slam my hidden blade into the slot on the exposed disk, and hear a few clicks, and my blade is pushed back out of the slot. The disk shines brightly for a couple seconds before returning to normal.

The gears on the doors lurch for a second as a split runs down the center of the door, and it finally opens up. I cant see anything that is inside, but as soon as I took a step in Clockwork's workshop sputtered to life as the light crystals are uncovered. A machine in the far reaches of his workplace chugs to life to power said crystals.

Before Nesa or I could say anything, I notice a small machine, that looked kind of like a metallic spider, crawl up to me. It chirps a few time before presenting a slot on its head. I blink a couple times, shrug, and put the hidden blade into the spider's top slot.

The spider seems to be waiting for more, and so I twist on the blade to the left a bit to find no give in the spider's mechanism. Turning the other way let me turn my blade to a horizontal position. The spider chirps again, and pulls away from me as it's top opened up, revealing a bright blue crystal. I reach for the crystal, and the spider backs up before firing a mana bolt at one of the light crystals, which promptly absorbed the magical projectile.

"I see." I say as I reach towards the crystal with my magic. As the first wisps of my magic touch the crystal, and it lit up in an all too familiar spell, except there are extra charges in the spell.

"Hello Osiris." I hear as light gathers inside the crystal before a ghostly image of my oldest of friends appears before me in full size, "It has been awhile, and I'm afraid that things took a sour turn in your absence."