<BB> Cajun's Battle Board [Cygari of the Thousand Steps]

"Thanks, mister Aeryl," I say with a grin, "I hope she’ll like it."

I close my eyes and focus on Hannah’s room… maaaybe I shouldn’t planeswalk right in there. I focus outside her room, a little fuzzier, but should probably still be able to make it. I feel the world shift around me and open my eyes to her door. Perfect. I knock. Hopefully she’s here.

"Hi, come on in!" When I walk in, Hannah’s leaning over a book on her bed with a pen.

"Hey, Hannah!" She’s looking so much better than before. Looks like bringing miss Nisita over did a lot of good. "What are you working on?"

"You know, some material effects stuff, a bit of math. I'm a bit better at the material effects than the math, but they're apparently both important."

"Well, if you’re not too busy, I brought cake," I beam as I walk over to her mini kitchen-y thing. Looks like she’s got plates and stuff all cleaned up already, perfect. I set the Sunspear against the wall and set my bag down. "Mister Aeryl said it was mango cake."

"Ooh! Mister Aeryl’s mango cake is amazing."

"Sooo," I start, setting out the aetherglass containers on the table, "how are things going with your mom now?"

"Better! We had dinner as a family for the first time in… three months? Mom made something with some Ravnican spices and it was great."

I can’t hold back the smile. You did good, kid. "That’s fantastic! I’m glad she’s back. And I’ve got so much great news I don’t even know where to start...um, how about, I didn’t get in trouble for staying with you! In fact, the 7CI said they want me to keep working with them off the Arena! It does mean I’ll be moving, though. I’ll mostly be living in a place called Suld… Suldefsra? And I’ll be going to a real school there." My smile falls a bit. "I won’t be able to come over for the next few days because we’ll be so busy moving… buuut I can stay tonight, if you want," my smile comes back. "And after that I’ll be over to come over a few days every week."

"That’s amazing!" Hannah steps towards me and hugs me for not long enough before continuing, "Any night you can be here makes me happy. I’ll just make sure I send messages a lot when you can’t."

"Sounds like I’ll have to come over as often as I can." My face is almost starting to hurt from all this smiling. "Also, apparently you’re from the future? Or, like, I’m from the past maybe? Did you know that?"

"I definitely didn’t know that. I wonder how that happened."

"The 7CI said that time is weird on the Arena, so people from the future or the past can meet each other there. Normally you can only meet like that on the Arena… but I was able to come to the future with you!"

"I’m so glad you were, too!" She leans in and I stand tall to meet her kiss. It’s still a little weird, but knowing what it means to her, it’s definitely growing on me.

I can feel the blush afterwards, but I smile instead of hide. "I am too," I say as I give her another not long enough hug. We did have this cake to get to after all...


"Ooooh, and I found this awesome plane!" I remember as we’re eating. "There were all kinds of fruit trees and a lake, and somehow a cabin thing with my name on it, I think it had something to do with that weird lady we met after we tunneled, maybe?"

"I’m going to have to try to show you it the next time we’re in Augmentation. It’s so pretty," I smile at her, "but I know you’ll make it even prettier." I feel my smile grow as her face goes red and she proves me right. "And, hopefully one day, you can see it for real. I don’t think there’s a tunnel there yet… but maybe you could build it, like you did on the Arena? I don’t really know how that all works."

"I would love to. It’ll have to be a bit, though. After… things happened on the Arena, Mom and Master Sara want me to take a couple years growing a bit and learning stuff to prepare me for being away. You know, learning some spells, power scripts, whatever EPIC’s working on… probably how to use a weapon of some kind. So, you know, stuff. But whenever that’s done I can definitely make another one!"

"And you’ll have me there protecting you, too" I promise. "Not that there seemed to be much of anything there. What kind of spells are you learning?" I ask.

"Some ice stuff." I oooo as Hannah makes a cloud of mist. "Kinda learning to grab things from away, but not good at it. Learning how to hold aether without it going places. Mom wants me to learn Sever by the end of the month…" She gives me an uncomfortable look. "I don't really like being a Shaidostan much."

"Well, at least you won’t have to live there… will you?"

"I won't. I'll stay in Entela. It's where I belong most on Volaria."

"Good. And I’ve only been here a few days, but I think it’s where I belong most, too," I say with a smile. "But who knows, maybe one day you can help Shaidosta, like you helped me? After all, they have to listen to their princess, don’t they?" I tease.

"Master Sara says I have Entelan blood too. Maybe I can be an Entelan princess instead? Shaidostans hurt people and steal things."

My smile starts to drop, but I hold it for her. "We’ll have to ask her."

"Sure. But after cake."
---
Hannah leads me through some crazy maze of hallways across Entela. So many doors and twists this way and that way, trying to find Master Sara to ask her in person. Just as I’m sure that we’re completely lost, a little glowing girl in a black dress walks into view. How in the world...

"Hi, Master Sara," Hannah wastes no time, "Karina and I were wondering if I could be an Entelan princess."

"No, not really. Entela's procession doesn't really work that way. That's just Shaidosta and Theria."

Hannah doesn’t seem too happy about that. "Oh, okay... so I'd have to be a Shaidosta princess then?"

"Uh... yeah, if you're looking to be a princess."

"Don't worry," I look to her, "you can be the princess of the plane I found!" I give her a big smile.

She smiles back and hugs me. "That sounds great."

Sara turns to me. "If you don't mind my question, what plane did you find?"

"Um," should be fine to tell her, right? "When I tried to planeswalk back to the Arena, I ended up some other plane instead. Like a forest-y place, but there was a house there from someone who said she was a friend of a friend? She had a map there and it didn't look like there were any cities or anything, but I don't know how good it is yet."

"Huh. Interesting." is all she says, before she types something on her transceiver.

"Oh, and I found out part of what happened in the tunnel!" I add. I know I could tell her this one. "Time works weird on the Arena, so you and Hannah are from the future, or at least, my future. I was able to come to your time, but we're not really sure how yet."

"Hm. So you have a spell that lets you bridge between two points in time then?"

Hrm. Would explain what she saw. I give a shrug and a little laugh like the 7CI told me to do. "I'm a Festenian, we don't really get spells at all, and /definitely/ not spells like that."

"It does seem to explain the presence of a spell no Volarian could cast when you were surrounded by Volarians. Possibly a similar concept to how planeswalkers are unaware of their abilities before they first planeswalk?"

Okay, she is way too good at that. "Huh. Maybe? I guess I'll have to try to test it some more. And figure out how to test it."

"Testing is usually a good idea, yeah."

"Okay. You said I was an Entelan bloodline, right?" Hannah asked as we stopped.

"Yeah, you and your mom both are."

"Could I learn the Entelan power script? It's less scary than learning Sever..."

Sara takes a deep breath and sighs. "Yeah, I guess I have a duty to pass that on don't I? Only person alive that knows it and stuff like that."

"A duty to?"

"Yeah, hasn't your mom told you about that? Usually people with power scripts are expected to have a child to carry on their power scripts, so you don't do something like Oscura and have its power lost forever. Even the worst scripts have reasons to exist."

Hannah seems to be thinking about something, so I ask. "Couldn't you have a child? Like, later?"

"Nope." She drops her arms to her sides. "Part of the reason I'm still eleven is what stops me from that."

"What about Karina and I? I thought I learned in biology that-"

"Ask me again when you're 15, or when your mom talks to you about it. You're 10, it's not a problem you need to worry about for a while, okay?"

"Uh, okay, I guess... How'd you-" "I've been asked these types of questions before, it's pretty easy to figure it out."

"You can do that?"

"I'm most of an elemental," she says with a small laugh. "It's probably the most mundane thing I can do. Now if you've got nothing else, I heard Ativa had something for me."

"Okay, have fun!" Sara waves as she heads off to wherever. I turn to Hannah, completely lost about what just happened.

"So what about me and you and biology?"

Hannah shrugged. "I learned that you need a girl and a boy to make a child. But if we're supposed to make a child, how does that work?"

That caught me off-guard. I stammer for a bit and finally manage "We?"

Hannah turns to me, confused. "Yeah? I hope?"

"I... guess I hadn't thought that far ahead." Or had and figured something terrible would happen way before that, like it always does. I look up to her worried eyes. I want to be with you as long as I can. And if, somehow, we make it that far, if you still, if you haven’t...could we? It was a long shot. "But... I hope so too."

She throws her arms around me. I pause for a moment, then smile and hug her back. I needed this. To hold her and love her as long she would do the same. When we finally let go, she smiles. "We'll figure it out."

I look into her eyes and smile back. She had changed so much. Maybe she could change the sadness too. "We’ll figure it out." I tiptoe up as tall as I can and remind her how much I love her. I stand as long as I can, wondering how I ever thought this was weird.

I step back and take her hand as we head back into the maze of hallways. "Well Hannah, I think we've had a wonderful start."

"I can't wait to see what happens next."