“I am sorry that I was not there to help,” Little River Stone said, his deep voice loud in the cavern.

  “It’s fine,” Loch said, clapping the large sasquatch on the shoulder. “You were doing exactly what we needed you to.”

  Loch walked away from the sasquatch, approaching the giant crystal. It looked the same as the last time he’d seen it, after defeating the Si-Te-Cah. Little River Stone had been right with his guess. The giant glowing stone was a Natural Resource.

  EMPOWERED STELLAR QUARTZ

  A natural battery, storing energy. Not just any energy, but one specialized. Cerie, Little River Stone and even the former Silverbark Elves had said that the Connection of Earth was different from any other they had known about. Cerie and Little River Stone knew of Loch’s trait, Unfettered, something that they said he should not have. It was why Thor had been interested in him, and Loch suspected that it was why Freyja had taken Kelly, hoping to get to him through her.

  He smiled at the thought of how that had worked out for Freyja.

  Loch wasn’t sure what exactly Unfettered meant, figuring he wouldn’t find out for decades, not until he someday stepped off Earth into the wider Connection. He knew that was what Thor was waiting for. Why Thor had invested in him. Someday he’d pay off that debt, but not for a long time and Loch’s goal was to get powerful enough that Thor couldn’t force him into anything.

  But that was decades away. There was so much to do before then.

  “Is it ready?” he asked, turning back to Little River Stone.

  “Yes.”

  Loch smiled. It was time.

  ***

  He stood in the field, the bodies of the giants gone. Even the bones. Those had been carted away by the Clan, turned into a Resource. It felt weird using bones, but they were strong, providing excellent armor and weapons. Spear and axe shafts made from the bones would be close to unbreakable.

  The giants had cleared a large area in their search for the cave containing the crystal. With the spring, grass was starting to sprout. Loch felt bad that it would soon be destroyed, but there was no hope for it. This area would never grow anything. The plan was to put down cobblestones or some other material, form a solid staging area.

  The special energy the Quartz contained, the reason why the Si-Te-Cah had wanted it, was because the energy was used for maintaining portals. Any energy could be used, but Stellar was far more efficient. Serio Greenleaf and Henry Bolton had spent weeks studying the crystal, learning to understand how the energy worked and how to manipulate it.

  When Little River Stone had left to find his people, he had come back with more knowledge. Together the three had solidified the plan Loch had already come up with. His plan would have worked, their plan just made it all better.

  Nothing would grow in the area because it was going to become the Clan Brady portal nexus.

  Loch pulled out one of Kristin’s notebooks from the bag hanging over his shoulder. It wasn’t a spatial bag, those were still hard to come by. The only things in Loch’s bag were notebooks. He had a collection of them, all linked to ones carried by other people.

  Flipping it open, he checked the status of Drew’s group. They were making good progress, expecting to hit the Epsom Traffic Circle in about two or three days. Loch penned a quick reply and closed the book. He opened a couple more, reading the updates, making any replies he had to. Opening the last one, Loch didn’t reply, just read the message and smiled.

  ***

  Loch set the portal stone in the ground, activating it and backing away. He moved back some more steps as a line of energy shot up from the stone. It rose to a height of about ten feet then started to widen out, the edges crackling and snapping with little bolts. The shape grew oblong, as wide as it was tall, the interior a light blue color.

  He held his breath, grabbing at Harper and Piper’s hands, taking one in each of his. They squeezed and he squeezed back, all three focused on the portal. They watched, waiting, the time dragging.

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  He started to worry. Was something wrong? He knew that he should have made Henry wait, or brought Serio along. Concord wasn’t going anywhere, it could have waited another month. But no, he knew that was selfish. Everything had been checked out multiple times. There was no issue with the portal.

  It had to be on the other end. The message had said it was all fine. What was taking so long?

  A leather booted foot appeared, stepping out of the field of energy. A leg, and body, the tip of a spear piercing the barrier. Most of the rest of a woman stepped out, parts of her still on the other side. Loch recognized her.

  Lisa, one of Kelly’s Valkyries, now Stormmaiden.

  She looked around, studying everything and then focused on Loch, instantly relaxing. She smiled and leaned back into the portal. It looked odd, half her body out and the rest on the other side.

  Lisa stepped fully out, followed by another one of the Stormmaidens. They both smiled, nodding to Loch and giving bigger smiles to the girls. They moved out of the way. All three Bradys leaned forward, watching a booted foot appear, then a leg, a spear and slowly the rest.

  Harper and Piper released Loch’s hands, running to the portal.

  They hugged their mother, barely giving Kelly time to step fully out of the portal.

  “Hi girls,” she said, hugging them back, smiling warmly at Loch. “I’ve missed you all.”

  The girls didn’t let her go as the three walked over to Loch. He leaned down, kissing Kelly.

  “I missed you,” he said.

  “Missed you too.”

  The four Bradys hugged, not letting go for a couple of minutes.

  Lisa cleared her throat, drawing their attention.

  “Don’t mean to interrupt but they’re waiting,” she said, nodding at the portal.

  Loch realized that no one else had stepped through.

  “Where are the others?”

  Kelly took his hand, pulling him toward the portal.

  “They’re waiting on the other side. I have a surprise waiting.”

  She pulled Loch into the portal. He didn’t hesitate, following her through. It was his first time and the transition wasn’t what he’d expected. Loch had read a lot of stories over the years and going through portals usually had adverse effects on people. This one just sent a tingle through his body, nothing too bad. Stepping onto pavement, he looked around.

  A couple hundred people stood in a large group off to the side. They had backpacks, suitcases, wheelbarrows, wagons and anything else that could be used to carry supplies. The group looked a little worse for wear. Kelly had told him about the conditions they had spent the winter in. Her people had had it harsher than Clan Brady.

  Then the Northwood branch of Clan Brady, he amended, since every single person that had been in Kelly’s caravan and group had taken the Oath and joined Clan Brady. All those people waiting to go through the portal were already part of Clan Brady. He knew they weren’t the possible surprise.

  “Ta da,” Kelly said, pointing to a large building.

  Loch’s eyes lit up and he smiled. People were going in and out of the glass doors. The ones going in had bags, boxes, suitcases, wagons or just themselves. The ones coming out had their bags and such full, or their arms. He could see a large pile of coats, hats, clothes, hardware and food items already being stacked off to the side.

  He looked up at the sign over the doors. He’d never been a fan of the store but now it was the greatest thing he’d ever seen. A Talmart, and a large one at that. Not like the one in Concord that had been on the smaller side. This was a Supercenter and even bigger than any others he’d seen.

  “With all that we’ve already gotten,” Kelly said, pulling him toward the building. “We don’t even have half of it emptied.”

  “This is amazing.”

  “And just look at all this,” she said, pulling him closer and turning him around to look at the buildings around the store.

  Apartment buildings. Multiple stories. At least five or six. Over a dozen that he could see, and probably more beyond. There were shops and offices.

  “I should have brought more people,” he said, pulling his wife in close.

  “No rush,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. “We have all the time in the world.”