To begin, Lexie lay down, closed her eyes, and tried to figure out exactly how her soul had made the card.

It was hard to do so because everything had happened so quickly and chaotically, and she'd reacted based on a survival instinct she didn't entirely understand mixed with whatever else was going on in that creature's soul. It was sort of like what had happened with her during the Diana fight, except this time, Lexie's soul had actually completed merging the three intents into one card.

How that had happened, she didn't know. She only remembered feeling engulfed and then waking up days later.

But maybe, if she checked out her soul, she would be able to note the link to the card.

Lexie had restarted her subconscious soul scooping exercises ever since she recovered the strength to do so. She closed her eyes and concentrated, bringing it to the forefront of her mind.

However, nothing about her soul stood out as different. Though she could sense her soul particles and pack them into a figurative bucket, she still couldn't figure out the general shape of her soul, much less what it looked like. She couldn't detect any link to the card she'd made, either, at least not like this.

She was still a novice at soul magic, and this was something that she would need an expert's guidance on. Naem probably wouldn't help her. He was already cautious enough about the soul scooping thing, and he clearly wasn't a fan of the way she'd made the card in the first place. He would assume that helping her meant that she wanted to make more cards like that, even if she swore that wasn't the case. He would also fear what would happen if she kept advancing in soul magic, as he made it clear he didn't want her to do that as well, at least not for some time.

Her father wouldn't want to help either.

Ironically, the only person she knew who would probably be happy to help her was the man she spent so much time avoiding…Professor Madswick.

Lexie bit her lip. She was tempted, so tempted to meet with him about this, but she didn't trust him, and she wasn't that desperate for the card yet. She also wasn't desperate enough to go on the Undernet again and risk encountering the creep.

Ah. Two equally tempting yet equally abhorrent options. Truly a rock and a hard place.

But she really, really wanted this to work. It would change everything, help so many people, and prove a lot of people wrong. She didn't want to think too much about the far-reaching consequences in case she got overly eager, but she couldn't help but think about how many lives could be saved with this new card magic.

Maybe if she activated the card, she'd be able to tell how the soul connection worked, but she was a little cautious about activating the card in her room when she didn't know what the card did exactly, and she also wasn't sure how to turn it off.

Yeah, activating it here was definitely a no.

Maybe she would try it when she met Naem again, or if she met up with her dad. That way, they could help if anything went wrong.

They probably wouldn't be too crazy about that, though.

Lexie sighed.

She kept thinking of more options, searching for a way to bring her dream into reality.

It also occurred to her that if this worked, it would officially count as an exceptional discovery, wouldn't it? Wasn't that one of the criteria she could use to earn travel points to go home? She wasn't officially a part of the Chosen program, but maybe they would make an exception. Or maybe, with this discovery, she would be promoted to system developer and earn travel points that way. Either way, it brought her one step closer to seeing her brother again.

Longing, and all the accompanying emotions that she'd spent years trying to temper, blossomed. This whole time, she'd been pressing Isaac and Naem, trying to think of a way around the rules so she could see her brother again, and it turned out that the easiest way just might be the most legitimate method after all.

Emphasis on the might be, since she still wasn't sure what she was doing here.

Maybe she could find the linking mechanism by analyzing the card itself. The card had visible pathways, though it blinked in and out of existence inside her inventory, which might make it harder to read. Still, with time, she could trace it.

She thought about it a little more and realized something. The card she'd given Jett. It was attached to his soul, wasn't it? Or at least it was attached to Albion's soul, and so there had to be a linking pathway somewhere there, too. Would it resemble the one on her soul card? Possibly. Even if it didn't closely resemble it, if she could identify which part of the Albion card held the linking pathway, then maybe she could reverse engineer that to create a new linking pathway for any other body cards she was making.

"Smart," Lexie muttered to herself. "You're a freaking genius, Lexie."

"Look at that. So full of herself even in her dreams."

Lexie's eyes popped open, and she saw Xena smirking above her.

"How long have you been here?" Lexie asked.

"Long enough to see you complimenting yourself in your sleep like a weirdo." Xena crossed her hands over her chest. "What are you being a genius about this time?"

"Oh, nothing much." Lexie grinned. "It's just that I might be on the verge of a major medical breakthrough."

Xena's eyes widened. "Really? Tell me."

Lexie couldn't resist. She briefly explained it to Xena (without mentioning the soul cards) about how she thought she could make cards attached to the pathways in the body. They would remain in the individual's inventory and automatically activate when they got hurt, and either speed up or support system healing, or they would trigger healing for things that the system couldn't heal.

She explained it in a lot of enthusiastic detail and using a lot of hand gestures, and though Xena looked lost a bunch of times, she seemed pretty impressed.

"Huh," Xena said, now sitting beside her. "That would actually be insane if you made it."

"Wouldn't it?" Lexie was excited and glad that someone else thought the idea had merit. "There are still a few things I need to figure out first. I need a bunch more medical textbooks and books on in-depth physical pathway structure. Preferably, I also need to shadow a healer and understand exactly how their pathway works."

"Oh. How about Dee? She's helping you out anyway, right? You can call her and see if she would be open to being shadowed."

"You think?" Leixe hadn't been aiming for someone as high up as that. As a Saintess, Dee was probably extremely busy, and she did a whole lot more than just simple healing. As a matter of fact, healing was only a small part of what she did.

Then again, Dee was the only healer she knew apart from Flora's healer, whom she'd never met. She could ask Flora, of course, but it would probably be easier to get Dee to say yes because of Xena and their preexisting association.

There was the minor concern of Lexie being partially Eldritch to deal with, but hopefully that wouldn't pose too much of a problem. She didn't think Dee could sense her Eldritch soul, or she would have already.

"I dunno," Lexie said. "You sure she won't be too busy–"

"Too late, I'm asking her," Xena said, her eyes moving quickly in the air as she mentally typed out the message. "Alright, sent. She usually gets back to me in like an hour or so."

Lexie was so grateful for a friend like Xena. She threw her arms around her in a brief hug. "Thanks, Zee. I appreciate it."

"I mean, that's kind of what friends are for," Xena said. "Besides, this way, when you're a genius developer one day and you have a building named after you and kids have to learn about you in textbooks, I'll be famous by association for being your best friend."

"I think you'll be famous for more than that, Lightlark Princess."

She wrinkled her nose. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that."

It got quiet for a second, and Lexie asked, "Are you still planning on moving to Planet Fae once school is done?"

Xena looked to her feet, and a little bit of doubt entered her face. As selfish as it was, the doubt made Lexie happy. It meant that Xena was reconsidering leaving.

"I don't know," Xena said. "Going there would be the best thing to do for everyone, and it would help so many people, but Emma…I don't know how she'll feel if I just leave her like that. She'll probably think it's because I found my real family and want to abandon her."

Lexie was about to deny that Emma would assume that, but then she remembered how hard Emma had taken it when Xena had gone to the Fae planet for that short trip. It wasn't just out of worry that Xena was kidnapped. There was a part of Emma that also worried that Xena had voluntarily reunited with her birth parents and forgotten all about her.

"Have you spoken to her about it?" Lexie asked quietly.

Xena shook her head. "Not yet. I'll do it when I'm older. And when I've made up my mind." Xena turned to Lexie. "Speaking of which, I came to remind you of the party in two days because I'm pretty sure you forgot."

Lexie groaned. She had forgotten.

Xena grinned. "I already have your dress and Dewie's tux. I came to drag you two over to try it on. It's really pretty."

"I'll take your word for it," Lexie said, but Xena wasn't taking no for an answer, taking Lexie's hand and dragging her up from the bed.

"The party is supposed to be fun," she said as they went to Dewie's room. "There's lots of food, karaoke, and a band, a glow-in-the-dark escape room, and a bunch of other fun stuff. I've heard that sometimes they have celebrities attending, too. I think Kai is helping organize it this year, and he's friends with a bunch of celebrities, but I don't know who'll be there."

"That sounds like a lot."

"Oh, believe me, that's nothing. Since it's only the end of the semester, this one will be more lowkey. The end-of-the-year party is a lot bigger."

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"Great." Lexie had heard about that one, too, and apart from Rufina's party, it was supposed to be the thing most people looked forward to at the end of the year.

Lexie wasn't looking forward to the Elementals' party, but she wasn't dreading it either. It would just be a fun, final night to spend with her friends.

***

After dinner, Lexie walked with Jett to her lab and asked if she could see his Albion card again. Jett was a little apprehensive.

"You're not taking it back, are you?" he asked. "Because the only reason I sleep through the night now is because of that card."

"No, I'm not taking it back," Lexie said. "I just wanted to check out something on the card."

"Oh. That's okay, I guess." He materialized the card, and she took it from him. "I didn't tell anyone that I have it, by the way. Professor Madswick asked me a bunch of questions about why I no longer bug him for help, and I told him that I've finally 'accepted my circumstances' like he told me to. He probably doesn't believe me, but I don't care."

Lexie snorted, but she only half-listened to Jett's chatter as she analyzed the card. She tried partial activation for the card, but since the card was keyed only to Jett, it didn't work. It actively rejected her mana cloud at the beginning of the pathway.

So instead, Lexie closed her eyes and went into deep meditation. She had her mana cloud tracing the outside of the pathways instead, not activating, just sensing.

Doing so took her back to two years ago, when she was first learning mana activation, pushing and pulling her mana clouds. It was crazy how far she'd come since then.

Lexie memorized the pathways in Jett's card, and then she opened her soul card and tried to find similar pathways. She isolated what she knew was the telekinetic pathway, and she guessed another pathway to be the void pathway based on its nodes.

And then Lexie finally found what she was looking for– a winding pathway that looked like a loopy signature of some sort. It was similar to another pathway in Jett's card in that they both looked like signatures from different people in the same font.

Lexie wondered if the linking pathway from every card would have a different appearance depending on who the card was linked to, rather than just where the link was. That would make her job infinitely more difficult, but it was already going to be a challenge, so what was one more thing to add to it?

Lexie also saw some nodes and connections that she perceived to be the sensor and catalyst for the automatic activation. She took a mental image of that card and opened her eyes, handing the card back to Jett.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," he said.

Once Jett left, Lexie got to work mapping it out. Obviously, she didn't find much on the NET about linking pathways, but she did find something in a Fae Script discussing soul-linked artifacts. It was attached to a long story about a travelling Elf and his magic lantern, and Lexie saw a repeated word that didn't have a human translation, but from the context, Lexie guessed it to mean a soul signature.

With that knowledge, Lexie began drawing a potential pathway for a body card that would link to the pathway in her body to the card. It was going to be a bit tricky since she was working in reverse and her father often warned her against that while making cards. Card making was supposed to begin with the intent of the magic, but since she didn't have the intent, she could only hope to get the pathway down and tweak it from there.

It might not work. It might come out as a bastardization of what she wanted, but she had no choice. At least it was a good start, and eventually, she would get on the right path.

If she did make the card, the problem would then be where to get the power source to support the activity of the card. She couldn't get it from the Eldritch, although she'd thought briefly about a symbiotic relationship between Eldritch and humans where the card transformed some of the chaotic energy from the Eldritch into a magic source that would then power the cards.

But such a thing was probably too far-fetched and dangerous for Lexie alone to even attempt.

For now, she could use a generator and her land card to create a mana well effect that would enable the cards to work. Eventually, she wouldn't be able to use that anymore, but for now, they would have to do.

That meant also that this single card would have more links and would be the most complex card she'd ever made in her life.

This would likely take her some time to figure out.

But if it worked…if it even kind of worked, it would be so worth it.

Xena told Lexie later that Dee was apprehensive but had agreed to let Lexie shadow at least one or two sessions. Lexie was thrilled, and Xena handed over her number so that Lexie could chat with her personally and send a thank you.

Lexie texted Tate a couple of times each day to see if he would agree to meet with her father, or even just talk to him. Tate was ignoring the texts. He wasn't answering her calls either. Typical. It seemed that since he didn't get the answer he wanted, he was now throwing a tantrum and giving her the silent treatment once more.

Well, it was his problem then.

Still, Lexie couldn't help but be worried about him. She wished she at least knew where he lived so she could check up on him during the break. She asked Isaac, but he didn't seem to know either. So Lexie tried her best to forget all about it.

Lexie also spent most of the last couple of days recrafting the telekinetic card for Astrid.

She decided not to have it fully powered and instead incorporated it into the Fae system by drastically reducing the power level. Perhaps later, when she trusted Astrid enough not to go blabbing about her secret, she would give her the fully powerful version.

Still, even the half-powered version, the card enabled Astrid to lift a lot more than before, and the card itself had a power level of nine out of ten. Which meant that Astrid would need a lot of mana for it, but luckily, she was an A-Rank, so she had the mana to spare.

Lexie wondered if she should attempt to attach Astrid's pathways to the card. That would cut down her activation time and mana waste, but that was a task for another day.

Lexie named the card <All for One> because it bundled multiple objects together and made them into a single entity that Astrid could carry. She met and gave Astrid the card at a general simulation meeting for the whole class.

After Astrid squealed in excitement and hugged Lexie tight, Dr. Miosa walked in and announced they would be having a test, where they were supposed to write out what they could have done differently in each of their simulation scenarios for the semester. If they were able to answer adequately, they would earn extra credit.

"We know we've been very hard on you this late semester," Dr Miosa said to start the class. "And we're highly aware that we're asking a lot of you. Usually it's not done like this. Usually, you have at least a year to prepare for these labs, and in that year or two, you build the mental and physical fortitude to bear these simulations. But these are unprecedented times. The [villains] are running amok, and as hero students, even as young as you are, you will all be targets the second you leave these walls. We're trying to prepare you as best as we can, and this is the only way to do so. But remember that you have a choice and you are never required to walk this path. If any of you choose not to return after the break, we would completely understand, and you will be given a glowing recommendation letter to any other institution you decide to attend later."

The class looked at each other. They weren't expecting such a talk, and neither was Lexie. She'd begun to regard the scientists running the simulation as cold and clinical, so hearing Dr. Miosa express such sentiments was...weird.

But in a way, it was comforting as well. Lexie somehow understood the position they were in. It was cruel to enact such a thing on children, but these children were voluntarily entering a profession where they would potentially face the cruelest of humanity, and they were going to be hunted as early as right now. They needed help dealing with it.

Plus, as much as Lexie hated the simulations, they had helped dull her response to fear and pain, helped her think rationally despite those emotions. She'd also introspected on each of the simulations after it was done and thought about what she could have done differently.

So in a way, whatever they'd done worked.

It still sucked though.

Therefore, before the test, when Dr. Miosa's eyes met hers, Lexie gave the woman a small smile.

Miosa nodded back.

The test ensued, and Lexie quickly wrote down what she would have done differently in the first scenario, which was to activate her shield card and call for help.

Then, instead of trying to shoot the attackers, she should have focused on breaking the force field or the windows themselves, which would have triggered an automatic alert throughout the entire school and would have led to the intruders being caught.

She didn't have to write anything for the second scenario since she passed it, but just to square that away, she wrote down, "For the second simulation, I would have chosen not to die."

All in all, she received an 82% for her score, which wasn't bad considering.

The feedback she got was, Very good.

For simulation one, your answer is correct. It would have led to success and the survival of your teammates, provided they'd also played their roles well.

For simulation two, please endeavor more to work with your teammates, learn about them, and weigh their strengths and weaknesses against whatever plan you make.

Okay, good to know.

Lexie had tests in most of her other classes, but she was pretty sure she aced those, too.

In her spare time, she worked on Sir Hoppington, tweaking a few things here and there.

Then, she gave the card to Torin at their last training evaluation before he left for his dungeon raid.

"Activate it when you're in trouble," she told him. "It should relay whatever you see right to me." Lexie had also put an automatic activation sensor in there that would activate under extreme environmental conditions, but since the card wasn't linked to Torin, and she didn't have time to test it thoroughly, she didn't know if it would work. She told him as much just in case.

"That's amazing," Torin said, and for the first time, he smiled genuinely, without the awkwardness. "Thank you, Lexie."

She grinned back. "No problem. It's what friends do."

***

The Elemental party was held at the Kai Skysoarer's Tower, which was spacious and decked out just for the occasion. There was a large indoor pool in the center of the building, leading up to an even larger fountain of what looked like a duck spitting out water to the beat of whatever song was playing.

There was no ceiling above, allowing for lots of open air into the building, and up high on the walls, the Skysoarer yellow family crest was crafted into the brick.

It was evening time, so everything was dim apart from the strobe lights hovering around with a few PHORBS. Though there were people all over, the main party happened in the common area, which had disco lights, a stage set up, and different funky-painted rooms.

Lexie spotted Kai Skysoarer immediately. He was standing on a kitchen counter, talking to a bunch of people, including Flora and a few other third years.

Flora spotted Lexie first and waved.

"Lexie!" she yelled, interrupting whatever Kai was saying and causing him to look at them, too.

"Lexie! Xena! Dewie!" Kai said as he hopped lithely off the counter. "Welcome. Glad to see you guys. We have food and drinks everywhere you can imagine. Make yourself at home."

"Thanks," Xena said as she frowned at the swirling blue liquid in the bowl.

It constantly changed color.

"Torin's not here?" Xena asked.

"Nah. Torin was lucky to escape this circus and got taken on a dungeon raid," Flora said.

"He said you gave him a card before you left." Kai's eyes, sharp and astute despite his joking smile, zeroed in on Lexie. "Did you make it?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It's a card he can activate whenever he's in trouble, and it will relay back to me whatever he sees. Just in case."

Surprise glittered in his eyes. "That's awesome. I'm impressed."

"She makes lots of amazing stuff," Flora said. "I bet you've maxed out your genius by this point."

"Actually, I haven't," Lexie spoke slowly because she suddenly remembered that she'd never affixed her mental class to card magic either.

She'd been so focused on whether or not to level up her mana that she forgot about the mental portion of it. With a higher mental level, she could better memorize and understand card pathways faster, and she would gain points that she could assign to any part of the intelligence spectrum she wanted, including perception which would make her perceive intent better. Overall, it would help make her smarter in the discipline of card magic.

She would need to affix her mental class to her card magic affinity, but it wasn't as limiting as affixing her mana class because it didn't require her to pick a starter deck. And she didn't necessarily care about the surveillance aspect in this case because she didn't care about the Fae knowing how smart she was.

"Is that Jett?" someone suddenly asked, and Lexie spotted him at the other side of the party, looking awkward and alone.

"Yeah, it is." Lexie called loudly, "Hey, Jett."

He caught her eyes and smiled with relief. "Hey Lexie."

"Did Xena invite you?"

"No, I did."

Lexie turned around. Rufina was approaching with her two minions.

Lexie was instantly tense.

"You did?" Xena asked.

"I did. Because I wanted to ask him a question."

The warning was there in her eyes. Lexie's stomach tightened, but she still wasn't ready for the blow.

"I wanted to know exactly how and why Lexie Sparrowfoot was talking to his demon."

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