Hendrix had received his long-sought out freedom, but one problem remained. What to do next? This world was not the one he was thrust from when his idiot brother talked him into such a foolish plan and now he didn’t even have the things he used to. His home was no more and his ties outside the family had all but perished. Terrific. But at least he was able to breath fresh air again. And his eyes were treated with the sights of new cities, establishments and the like from the old. He had been in Canelux for a while since his release, mainly sticking to Adeluna, Mamlak and recently the Highlands where he had found a very interesting device. It didn’t seem like it was a device meant for day to day life. Rectangular in shape, it spotted a window like component that didn’t reflect anything, which was very curious to him. He supposes that in time he would learn how to use it, if it wasn’t broken that was, but before he knew it, he had reached the desert up north.

Lovely.

He had already dedicated himself to the travel and by the time he started to regret his decision, it was too late. The only salvation out here came in the form of the city that quickly became obvious what it was when he entered its walls. Sularia. He pouted, realizing that it was the city that held his other siblings, particularly the only one that would likely remember him. Steele. Carrie, the other one that would, probably wouldn’t be caught dead here. Considering that the nearest establishment after this one would take days to reach and that night would come before too long, he had to take his chances which…sucked. He supposed that it made sense by the time he reached the Black Court district that it was the right one to look for his relatives and their families. This was going to be a pain, he knew it to be true. He took out the device and started fiddling with it when he got to the courtyard and knocked on the door.

“This ought to be simple, just come out and say “Hey, it’s your older brother. Please let me in before I die of the extreme cold at night or starvation or thirst…” He shook his head while he continued to examine the device. “Suppose that’s better than the way Sol would approach it. Which would include sparking from his ears and blowing crap up.”

There was a lot of laughter on the other side of the door. “I got it Mama! I GOT IT!” It was a little girl’s voice that was high pitched as the door opened up. Blue eyes looked up at him and there was a head tilt that matched. “Mama this guy smells kinda like papa does.” The girl had a head full of black messy curls and it looked like she had been roughhousing with someone or something.

“I’ll be right there Estelle.”

“HEY ESTELLE,” there were two boys yelling now as they pounced on their older cousin.

“GET OFF I’M TRYING TO WATCH THE STRANGE MAN!”

“YOU’RE A STRANGE MAN!” One of the twins yelled back. Their white hair glistening in the sun.

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” With a heavy hand, she grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on which was a small coat rack near the front door. She began to beat one of the boys while the other laughed at his twin's pain. Estelle turned it on him and let out a roar as the boy now panicked and picked his brother off the ground trying to avoid her.

“Dad’s right Casimir,” one twin whispered to the other. “Dogs are scary.” Estelle chucked the base of the now broken coat rack at them making the boys scatter.

Eldora was now behind her daughter with her hands on her hips. “You shouldn’t have gotten that mad… You might be wrath’s daughter but you don’t need to smack your cousins like that…” She got down on Estelle’s level and put her finger against her lips and in a hushed tone she told her daughter, “Even if they deserved it.” She winked at Estelle who was smiling now as her mother took the broken rack from her and put it against the wall.

“Sorry about that… The twins torment Estelle and like her father she has a hell of a temper.” Estelle was now timid behind Eldora’s skirts as one eye peeked at Hendrix. “It's alright Estelle his name is Hendrix. He won't hurt you” She pat Estelle’s head and finally, the girl came out from hiding. “Come out of the sun you look dreadful. Sularia sun is too hot for most people.” She scooted Estelle towards the kitchen and the girl seemed to understand so before long Estelle came back in and held up a glass of what looked like juice up to Hendrix. “This is our daughter Estelle. The two brats you saw earlier were Casimir and Corbin… Dante’s children with my sister Lotus.”

Eldora offered the best smile that she could. “What’s that Mama?” Estelle’s eyes were glued to the tablet.

“I don’t know sweetheart why don’t you ask him?” Eldora tilted her head and Estelle put her hands on her hips for a minute as she tilted her head in contemplation.

“Do you know what it is Mister? It looks funny.”

When the door opened, he was expecting one of his knuckleheaded brothers (either Steele or the ones he had yet to meet) but instead, some girl came to greet him, or at least spoke at him. Hendrix looked at her and from the brief words, she certainly belonged to Steele. The hair and eyes were also dead giveaways to that conclusion. The voice that answered her belonged to someone he had briefly met. “At least I’m at the right place.” Or at least he had thought so before two more of the little “darlings” came out and things escalated with the girl beating the holy hell out of them.

If she wasn’t Steele’s daughter, then he wouldn’t know a thing.

He watched the affair until its conclusion and the boys scattered like roaches did when their home was found out. Not too much longer was Eldora’s appearance. Their meeting had been very brief but she knew him not to be a threat. Violence wasn’t his cup of tea, that much was for sure. “I take it that my dear little brother isn’t home right now?” Who knew how that wolf would take seeing his presence. But to be fair, Hendrix wasn’t the best brother there had been. Often he would be bullied by Sol and he wouldn’t lift a finger since it wasn’t nothing new to himself. It was merely a fact of life that the strong picked on the weak. Fighting against it would only enrage the provoker. Much like how Estelle handled her cousins. “Dante…not familiar with him, though if that were his children, then I’d imagine they get their smarts from him.” Which didn’t seem like a good thing considering.

“No, I don’t know what it is”, he said to Estelle as he took the juice. He had all but forgot that the device was still in his other hand. “Also, you don’t have to call me Mister. Technically I am your Uncle, well one of them. Anyhoo, I’d imagine this thing is from this time. I don’t recall such a thing back then.” He handled it to Eldora and sipped at the juice. “Or maybe you know someone that might.”

“He’s… busy.” Eldora didn’t know how to answer that question to the best of her ability. “We don’t normally stay here in Sularia. Steele handles all of Xunatar’s dirty work when it comes to the Isle. He should be back to get us shortly though.” She patted Estelle's head.

“Dante… Pretends to be dumb.” It was Lotus now as she came down the stairs holding her growing belly. “They act just like him. Not shocking considering they look like him.” Lotus looked tired as she took a sigh and stood next to her sister. “This newest little one is a trip. She is so different compared to the boys.” Lotus’s bicolored eyes met Hendrix’s. “I’m Lotus, Eldora’s younger sister… Unfortunately, that means Undine is my older sister as well.”

Estelle was still looking up at Hendrix. “Are you sure?” She had a cute little head tilt to her that mocked her mother’s whenever she did it. “So… That means you are Uncle Hendrix?” Eldora nodded to her and gave a smirk to Hendrix as the little one pieced together what to call him.

Eldora took the tablet and looked it over. “I know someone who could look at it and fix it. She might even do it for free. It’s better than going and asking Angela for her help.”

“You wouldn’t take him there…” Lotus got wide-eyed for the moment. “You don’t know what she could do to him… or you for that matter.”

Eldora waved her hand a bit. “Marin is fine. You just have to know how to speak her language. She isn’t crazy like most people say she is. She could fix this up for you and even tell you how it works. It wouldn’t be too much better to gate us to Mamlak and go to her workshop.” Eldora’s blue eyes met Hendrix’s. “She is mighty talented. Revered as the best inventor from Arri since her birth. Not shocking… Angela has many great children from her womb and Marin is one of them.”

“It’s alright by me. If he sees me, might trigger flashbacks and he’d be back to that scared little pup again.” Hendrix didn’t speak of it out of malicious, but of a matter of fact. “Knowing that Father probably didn’t tell him that I’m out. Honestly, I didn’t do anything against him but I also didn’t lift a finger to defend him against Sol when he tormented him. I don’t think you’d want to see that side of your lover.” As far as he was concerned, there wouldn’t be a family reunion any time soon. Then again, he wasn’t one for family ties for they bugged him greatly.

He glanced over to Lotus who was describing the brother he had never met, and likely would never see. The twerp just sounded annoying; he feared that any interaction would dumb him down a bit. It was clear though from the twin brats and the one that was inside Lotus that his hands would be full. At least he hoped so. “Some spells you lot have on my brothers” as he considered the two of them as well Undine as they gathered his sibling’s attention.

Great, he was an uncle to kids he barely knew from siblings he barely cared about. Wasn’t this just peachy? Eldora knew of someone or at least hinted at it while her sister didn’t look like it was a good idea. Hendrix scratched the back of his head lazily, “I have dealt with crazy before. My whole family is full of nuts or all ranges, even the ones I haven’t seen yet from the sounds of it. Whoever she is, I can handle it.” Mamlak seemed a ways off but if they were to head over there, he would want to do so immediately. “Well, whenever you are ready. I’m just want to see what this thing is.”

“Aye, even your brother Colden has his heart taken by another Rosenite.” Matter of fact, he was enthralled by the very image of Crystaline. “Though she is a very pretty and sweet girl. Just the girl he needs to round himself out. She isn’t like the Black Court in that aspect. We’re shaped by the misfortune of our court while she is more hopeful.” Eldora gave him a smile.

“Alright but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Marin is… exotic even for Rosenites. She graduated the top of her class when she was at the academy but I think it was just to get rid of her… Though she is intelligent and maybe near the level her mother is… She has habits that make her not as useful as her mother.” Lotus looked concerned for a bit and sighed. “Angela is one of the best healers Revaliir has to offer. Her alchemy concoctions are revered as the best. Her children are nothing to sneeze at as well. Most of them have gained her intelligence.”

Most.

Eldora left Estelle with Lotus while she took Hendrix by the hands. “You’ll have to give this to her yourself.” With that, a rush of magic happened over them and suddenly they were in the busy Mamlak streets. In front of them was a rather large building with many windows though all of them were blacked out by curtains.

Approaching the door Eldora stopped and stared at the notice by the side of the building. In big block letters, “Trespassers will be fed to experimental plants.”

“Good to see she hasn’t changed a bit…” Eldora let out a sigh and grabbed the large brass knocker on the door and gave it three good hits.

An opening appeared above the door and a scope shot out. It looked from Hendrix to Eldora. “Go away.” It was a rather sweet sounding voice.

“Can’t you help out a cousin who told a friend you would help him?”

The scope began to extended and contract hitting Eldora. “No.”

“I’ll give you rare alchemy if you do.” Eldora went to snatch the scope but it retracted into the building. There was an unlocking noise as the doors opened by themselves.

Eldora looked to Hendrix and motioned her head to follow her. “Marin?”

“PUT THE DEVICE THAT YOU WANT FIXED UP IN THE AIR AND HAVE YOUR HANDS UP WHERE I CAN SEE THEM.” Her voice resonated from every wall. The building was mostly hollow and have contraptions everywhere. There were sheets that covered up large projects while the smaller projects were out everywhere. Gears, tools, and anything else she worked with were strung about in a chaotic way.

Oddly enough there were no spiderwebs which meant she kept up with the upkeep of the building by herself.

Dante…Colden… man, he really didn’t want any more siblings. The ones he had he wished he could give them away like unwanted puppies. It couldn’t be helped though and he let it slide. Maybe they wouldn’t be as much as pains in his ass, one could hope, right? Hendrix sighed knowing that a faulty belief like hope was a waste. Logically speaking, he didn’t have a chance in hell.

Still, he didn’t voice any of these to the women present but he did listen keenly to this Marin person they described. She sounds like a bag of fun. Hopefully her intelligence would override any sort of traits he’d find annoying. In any case, she gave him back the device and they were on their way to Mamlak; he didn’t have time to snap his fingers before they were transported there. The hustle and bustle of the city life made his head hurt a little- he wasn’t used to so many sounds at once thanks to his imprisonment in the tombs.

While he covered his ears somewhat, he managed to take a gander at the building where he assumed Marin lived. It was a rather large place for one person. When they reached the door and knocked, Hendrix stumbled back a bit, not anticipating a freaking scope come out and look at them. “What in the hell…” What had he gotten himself into this time? The banter between the cousins kept on and on until she gave into an exchange. While his mind told him to just go away and never come back, he decided to follow Eldora. Big mistake. The place looked like chaos came and went with all these tools and contraptions lying about everywhere. “Maybe this was a bad idea after all”, he spoke to himself, shaking his head as he did as she so nicely requested. His hands rose to the air, one of them containing the troublesome device that got him into this in the first place.

The sound of pulleys starting to move was heard just before the sound of sliding resonated above them. “If it was such a bad idea you wouldn’t have come in.” It sounded so innocent as the flying woman on the zip line put the sweets she was eating in her mouth as she literally flew above Hendrix and snatched what was in his hand.

She hit the end of the pulley and the zip line flung her into a pile of pillows. She was a small woman with shoulder-length brown hair. She had soot all over her and large goggles were over her eyes. She pulled them up to reveal the only clean skin on her. Orange eyes peered back at Hendrix from the pile of pillows.

“I know what this is.” The sound was muffled through her chewing the sweets. “It might be an easy fix but this thing is special.” She swallowed the treats before she got up and moved towards Hendrix. Her orange eyes watched him. “Where did you find this? You are also a demon like me but not quite. I am a half demon…” She shrugged a bit as she started to take it apart right in front of Hendrix as if she had done it a thousand times before. It was with precision.

“If you don’t know what will happen when you take it apart… what if it explodes?” Eldora tilted her head.

“So what? If it explodes if will just be a normal typical day in this workshop… Probably the tenth one today?” She took the parts she had in his hand as she pulled his hand down to hold them. “Yo,” she held out her free hand and a belt of tools flew to her. “The mana lines in this device were severed by sea water… High concentrations of salt too. This has been dropped in the deep sea.” She blew into the components. “Shouldn’t be too hard to get out.” She laid the belt of tools over his arm. “Thank you.”

She started by gently scrapping out the salt before taking a special powder and redoing the mana lines within. Her hands were steady beyond words as they carved the mana lines in and reset more of the components. “We just have to wait for the lines to dry and you should be okay to see what it does.” She took her belt from him after putting her tools away and placed the device on a table before grabbing the pieces he had. “Should only an hour or two. I’ve found that speeding up the process of the mana lines being dried makes them crack and break after a small amount of time. An hour of drying gives the product use for a long, long time. Most people would be dead before it will break again.”

“Do you hear something?” Hendrix’s eyes looked around for the source of the foreign sound and the look of disappointment on his face rose when he saw what it was. Who the hell lost their kid? As she grabbed the device from his hand and whizzed away, he noticed his mistake and saw that it was a short woman instead. Terrific. He swung around in time to see her landing. “Guess I misspoke when I said I saw every kind of crazy. Just why in the world would you swing about like that?”

He looked to Eldora, wondering what sort of lunatic she had brought him to see only to have to turn his attention to Marin. “I found that in the Highlands”, he spoke plainly with crossed arms. Her being half demon would help explain why she was so…eccentric. Just a bit really, he absolutely thoughts that she herself was insane. The best of minds were often plagued with that double-edged blade. Still, he wasn't quite prepared to deal with this sort. 

“So what is it?” He peeked over while she was taking it apart. She had said that she knew what the strange object was. His eyes did narrow when she started to use him as a makeshift desk without his permission. His own response was a few grumbles that came from his lips as he gave in and “assisted” her. “This is ridiculous.”

Regardless, he did find her work interesting as she prepared the device as best she could before giving them her diagnosis. “Joyous. At least it wasn’t badly damaged.” He wasn’t looking forward to spending another hour in this mechanical and mad wonderland of hers. Hendrix sighed and started to walk around the place, carefully avoiding many of the inventions of concern over what they could probably do if he got too close. “How does one find anything in this mess?”, he said as he explored around a bit more.

Marin looked up at him with her big orange eyes and rolled her shoulders. “Why wouldn’t you want to swing about like that in a workshop with all kinds of things that could kill you? The thrill? Plus it is way faster to use a pulley system in here than it is to use the stairs! WHICH!” She pointed to them. “WHEN I HAD THIS PLACE BUILT! They were supposed to be easily accessible… That’s not the case so I had to invent my way around it. To get back up all I have to is use the pulley system by the door and I can lift myself back up onto the second and third floors.”

Working diligently. “Highlands huh? Had a sister out in the–”

“Basse lives in the Plains now found a husband or rather… Lover I suppose,” Eldora interrupted her.

Marin looked up at her with interest. “Basselina? My Basselina? Oh man… That means there really is no hope for me.” Her fingers were still moving in all the right places despite having looked up. She made a disappointed face.

“You won’t find anyone if you are a shut-in.” Eldora commented but Marin seemed to ignore it as it wasn’t a bad trait for her.

“It’s a Wayfinder’s Tablet. It displays any kind of system of tunnels or temples… OR anything really like that. Even the inside of this building. It will be a multidimensional map of it on the little screen there. I can’t build one from scratch but I can fix them. The primary components that make it up are sturdy and formed with divinity.”

Tilting her head she looked up at Hendrix. “Do you want it fixed or not?” She contemplated not finishing it but ultimately she did if only because she liked the red of his hair.

“Oh no, it was totally fried. There are only a few people on the continents who can do mana lines and I’m one of them. Most people can’t condense their mana down into a fine powder like I can. It’s taken years to get it as good as it is. Lots of things exploding stuff like that. My project for graduating the academy had to do with mana lines and how they are formed. Which meant I had to create a formula that worked with my magic. Everyone is different after all… Which is why so few people can do it.”

Once he asked his last question she pondered the answer. “Everything has a quadrant in this building. Depending on where it is in the building tells me exactly what it is and what it does. Similar inventions go together in the quadrants next to it. It’s not just a mess to be a mess you know.”

Eldora rolled her shoulders. “Xunatar is calling me back to the Isle. Marin, can you bring Hendrix back to Arri for me if he wants?”

“I guess.” There was a hesitant answer from her as Eldora disappeared. “Man, I don’t want to go home. It’s too hot.” It was awfully cool in her building for the summer which meant she was keeping it that way. “Here,” she pushed projects off of a seat and moved it for him. “Least I can do.” It seemed like once Eldora had left her personality shifted a bit to an easier to deal with demeanor. She didn’t like lots of people and two tended to be too much for her.

Marin went over to one of the sheets and pulled it down. It was a tall shelf with many things on it. The ladder was completely busted by what looked like force. She reached down and grabbed a claw-like object as she attempted to use it to grab something high up. She used a lever to make the mechanical hand grip and release but she was far too short to reach it. “Damn it…” She looked around trying to find something safe to stand on.