Of course it wasn’t that easy. Once we got back, I had to explain the new situation to my other watcher. Caleb was less than impressed with my various explanations and the fact that I overdrew my mana, again. In fact, after some testing, he relegated me to a two-month period of convalescence and book study. It seemed my constant abuse of my body had damaged my mana channels.
As for Caleb’s thoughts on Alexa? The mage did not deign to inform me.
Alexa, on the other hand, had a more arduous time of it. She had a number of belongings still at the camp which had been returned to us. In turn, Alexa returned a number of smaller items I had never noticed her owning till then, including a surprising number of explosives. Interestingly enough, the Templars allowed her to keep her spear and armor. As a mostly secret organization, none of her materials had designs on them, so they did not require cleansing.
Perhaps the greatest shock of all for the ex-initiate was the closure of her bank account and the return of a small portion of funds within it. Once I was back on my feet, I helped Alexa run a number of “adult” errands including opening a bank account and applying for a credit card. As a former ward of the Templars, she had never needed to do either herself.
Without the salary and funds provided by the Templars, Alexa quickly began running the various quests on the board that she could handle while I convalesced. If I didn’t know better, I would have said she was distracting herself from the abrupt change in her. But I did, and late-night sobs from her room indicated that, newfound serenity or not, Alexa still had much to work through.
As for myself? The longer I existed in this strange new world, the more I realized how simplistic my earlier perceptions on it had been. There were deep currents, not only among the organizations that existed here but within those currents. A single misstep could pull me under. As it stood, I knew the Templars were waiting. And now, I could not help but wonder, who else?
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The End