The following Sunday evening, Pax sank back in his chair in the dining hall and pushed his empty tray away with a tired satisfaction. The last five days had passed in a blur of crazy activity.

  Pax had given every willing rebel mage in the base an additional minor element and spell slot, finishing the last few just before dinner. That left him with just sixteen more to finish for the first part of the quest. Even better, his efforts had resulted in a few squads being able to leave early. With a full complement of Tamed companions and upgraded mages, the rebels were dubbing them the savage squads with boasts about how they’d rip their way through their empire counterparts.

  Pax hoped that would happen, but felt they could at least rest easy knowing they’d done everything humanly possible to make it happen. At least the committee had finally come around, leaning heavily into the new magics and pushing Pax and his friends to do all they could before the full deployment tomorrow morning.

  A wry smile crossed Pax’s face. Funny how quickly they’d changed their tune with deadlines looming and reports flooding in from individual rebels about the advantages Pax’s crew gave them.

  The only disappointment was, despite their best efforts, not everyone would have a companion by tomorrow morning. Even with all the people gaining and leveling Taming skills so they could help, it was still a time-intensive process.

  Not to mention, they were finding increasingly slim pickings of adult beasts within easy reach of the base. So, now the plan was to continue spreading the effort to the other rebel cities, where the nightly waves provided much more fodder.

  Over the last five days, Pax had joined in on as much of the Taming work as he could fit in the early hours of the morning. His crew was making fast work of completing Part 2 of the quest. They only needed another thirty-eight Tamings to check it off.

  That gave Pax a real chance to reach his goal of leveling his Tamer to level 5 before they completed that part of the quest. He’d gained another 65 points toward the 400 he needed, leaving him with just over a hundred and twenty left. He really wanted the bonus level offered by the quest reward to boost him from Tamer 5 to 6. It’d be an enormous boost to jump two levels in the skill so quickly.

  Pax was also making progress with his goal to maximize the final quest reward by reaching level 4 mage in time for it to boost him another full level to 5. He was only a few points away from leveling Haste, which would give him four more leveling points.

  He actually only needed two more points since he’d gained both a leveling and an evolution point from reaching Scorching Touch level 2 during his Taming efforts. With his crew letting him do most of the hands-on Taming work, the flame spell had come in handy more than once. The burst of heat to his skin proved a great deterrent for anything that thought he might be a tasty morsel. His melee efforts had also leveled his Unarmed Combat, which sadly, wouldn’t earn him any leveling points.

  Now, only a few points away from Haste level 3, Pax was determined to level it before they deployed tomorrow morning. He’d stay up all night in a training room if that’s what it took.

  “You’re not looking so excited about tomorrow.” Amil pointed his empty fork toward him with a smirk. “Is it because you’re still stuck at mage level 3 with the rest of us?”

  Dahni grinned while Bryn shook her head at their antics. Rin and Tyrodon hunched over a notebook, too intent on what they were doing to pay any attention.

  “Feel free to come to me if you’re having issues understanding everything at mage level 3.” Pax plastered on a superior look, full of mock concern. “You know, since I’ve been at that level for so long and am almost to level 4 while you’re nowhere close. I’m sure I could help the two of you.”

  Dahni flicked a piece of his roll at Pax. Whisk sent out a lightning-fast protrusion from under Pax’s chestplate and snapped it up before it could land.

  “No fair,” Dahni complained.

  Tell him to throw more food. I like this new game.

  Pax snickered. “Whisk thinks this is a new game and wants you to please keep playing.”

  Dahni didn’t hesitate. A chunk of meat flew through the air, followed by a string of vegetable chunks aimed with surprising accuracy.

  Pax flinched back instinctively at the incoming barrage, but Whisk just jiggled in pure pleasure. A burst of thin appendages flew out to snatch each morsel.

  A host of his friends quickly joined in, throwing food from their plates and filling the air with a storm of flying objects streaming toward Pax. Whisk was more than up to the task. The space around Pax suddenly popped as Whisk pushed himself out into the shape of a thorny, impenetrable hedge.

  Food impaled itself everywhere, only for Whisk to engulf and consume the morsel before more landed. Laughter rang out, and his friends redoubled their efforts for a long minute before they ran out of food they didn’t mind throwing away.

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  “Nice fighting style, little brother.”

  Pax craned his head around to see his brother and a few of his crew watching the show with amused expressions.

  “As you can see, we use every free moment to train our fighting skills.” Amil gave Titus a sly look. “How are you at deflecting incoming projectiles?”

  “No. No. I’m good.” Titus took a step back, laughing as he waved both hands in front of his face. “Besides, you don’t want to see how Astra responds to someone attacking me.”

  Amil’s smile vanished as he cast a wide-eyed look around the upper reaches of the dining hall.

  “Don’t worry. She’s currently enjoying her new nest in the companion quarters down below.” Titus leaned over to give Amil’s shoulder a cheerful clap. “But glad I could help you with some practice against overwhelming fear.”

  “Good one.” Dahni guffawed and then laughed louder when Amil scowled at both him and Titus.

  Still smiling, Titus turned away and glanced at Pax’s empty dishes. “If you’re done with your meal, want to head to Jane’s quarters for a last session with her? Mistress Harkness said she gave her an earlier shift today, so we could spend the entire evening with her before we march out tomorrow.”

  Pax’s amusement disappeared, replaced by a mix of nerves and fear of loss. They’d made a lot of progress with Jane, but Pax had been shying away from taking the ultimate step to restore some of her memories. He’d done his best to be careful and slow with the process. He was working with his mother’s mind, after all. Any mistakes had the potential to be permanent.

  But now they were out of time. If he didn’t attempt something tonight, they’d be leaving her behind at the base without ever gaining the chance to speak to their actual mother. If any of them didn’t make it through the war, Pax was sure they’d regret not trying something tonight.

  He shook off his worries. He’d just have to take the risk, while still proceeding as slowly and carefully as he could tonight. Remembering the strong woman his mother was, he thought she’d agree with his plan. A chance to reunite with her sons would be worth the danger. It wasn’t like any of them had a guaranteed future. Life as they knew it would change soon for everyone. The only guarantee was that all of them wouldn’t survive what was coming.

  ***

  “Are we all agreed?” Pax aimed his question at Mistress Harkness and Titus, who sat with Jane on a couch in the private room Harkness had reserved for them.

  The two of them exchanged a worried glance before looking back at him.

  “Are you sure this is safe?” Harkness asked, concern deepening the lines on her face.

  “No, I’m not,” Pax answered honestly, counting on the woman’s pragmatism to understand. “But it’s the only option we have, and I know it’s what Kindra would want. Don’t you agree?”

  Titus looked like he wanted to add something but held his tongue while Mistress Harkness’ gaze moved between Pax and Jane, her expression conflicted. She wasn’t ignorant about what was coming. The base would feel like a ghost town after the bulk of the troops left tomorrow for war.

  Her future would involve feeding the new troops who arrived for training, but they’d leave just as fast. Then, if the empire ever discovered this location, both she and Jane weren’t likely to survive the retaliation. A chance for Jane to remember being Kindra and to speak with her sons was something worth taking a risk for.

  Harkness let out a slow sigh before nodding. “I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical when the two of you first approached me about working with Jane. But your magic, Pax, has given her a new lease on life. She’s not in pain anymore and is healthier than I’ve ever seen her.

  “I don’t know how you and your friends did so much here in just three weeks, but I have to trust you. And I have to trust that if Jane, or Kindra, could speak for herself with all of her memories, she’d probably give anything to have a conversation with her boys again.” Unshed tears shone in her eyes as she met their gazes.

  “Thank you again for all you did saving her so we could have this chance.” Titus’ words were soft before he aimed an encouraging look at Pax. “If anyone can bring her back, my little brother can.”

  Pax blinked back the sudden rush of emotions their confidence stirred in him. “Thank you. Both of you.” Then, before he could lose his nerve, he grabbed the wooden stool and positioned it behind the couch so he could place his hands on his mother’s head.

  Jane turned her head to look up at him, her gaze full of innocent confidence as she met his eyes. He hoped she would still look at him that way when he finished. Until now, everything he’d done with her had healed the long-term damage from years ago, tight scars that were difficult for healing potions to untangle. Of course, she was happy for him to do more work with her.

  As he sat behind her, he felt a sudden need to give her a chance to object, even if she couldn’t truly understand what he was about to attempt. He hopped off the stool and came back around to kneel in front of his mother. He took her hands. “Jane, do you understand what I’m about to try?”

  She gave him a simple, cheerful nod. “You fix me, right? I like it.”

  Her happiness at his healing was contagious, and he smiled back, despite the nerves jangling inside him. Then he forced himself to give her a somber look. “This time is different. This time, I want to try healing your memories instead of the pains in your body. Is that alright?”

  Her brows furrowed in confusion. “Memories?”

  Pax struggled for a minute. How could he tell someone about things they didn’t remember anymore? Still, he had to try. “A long time ago, you had two little sons—me and Titus.” Pax motioned between himself and his brother. “Then someone hurt you really bad. You had to forget all the bad things to survive. But you also forgot about your family. I want to help you remember us.”

  Her gaze traveled between him and Titus, puzzling out what Pax’s words meant. Pax thought he saw something there—a flicker of recognition different from her usual expression. And then it was gone again, so fast he thought he might have imagined it.

  She turned back to him and gave him a happy nod. “Yes. You fix me.”

  That had to be enough for him, though his throat almost closed up at her easy trust. He did his best to keep his tone upbeat. “You got it, Jane. I’ll do my best to fix you.”

  Pax took a few cleansing breaths as he walked back to his stool, mentally running through everything he’d learned using his Ascendant Mana skill over the last week and a half of intensive magical work. He pulled out his shield and propped it up against one leg in case he needed the mana stored there. Then he tapped into the mana battery that had quickly become an essential tool in recent days. He’d been filling it up at every opportunity, making sure the total kept inching up despite everything he used it for.

  Nothing was more important for him right now than bringing some spark of his mother back tonight. This wasn’t something he could afford to mess up.

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