Chương 2: Chapter 1 – Dad is Floating

Seventeen Years Later The slugs had gotten to the strawberries again. Laura felt her mood drop as she sifted through the sad remains of her savaged plants, still glistening with the vandals' dried slime trails. She had tried everything – coffee grounds, eggshells, copper tape – but to no avail. Was it finally time for drastic measures? Decades ago, her grandmother had taught her how to deal with slugs the old-fashioned way.

"Take a pair of large scissors and cut 'em in half, Laura," the wise old lady had said.

"Then place the halves all around the plants, to set an example." It worked, somehow. While Laura doubted the slugs' ability to be intimidated, her grandmother's garden beds had always been slug-free. And so had her own, actually, until her daughter had a major tantrum after witnessing the gruesome, yet effective method of pest control. But Lena was almost twenty now, and probably wouldn't mind that much anymore, right? And she did love strawberries, after all.

The next time a slug crossed her path, she would–"Mom?" Laura barely suppressed a flinch as her daughter's soft voice cut through her musings.

"Yes, dear?" she replied with some exasperation as she turned around to face Lena who had snuck up on her, as she tended to do.

"The internet is down." Well, that explained why the girl was not staring at her assortment of monitors for once.

"Seriously? That's the third time this week! Why are we even paying for fiber?" Laura grumbled, patting the dirt off her gardening pants. The outages had already interrupted two video conferences with important clients, and she had another one later this evening… A brief glance at her phone revealed that it, too, had no reception. Just like the last time. What a pain… She sighed, her relaxation from tending to her plants all but evaporated.

Moving back to the countryside had been great for raising the kids and her husband's recovery, but it sure did have its downsides.

"I'm going to the barn," Lena muttered.

"Alright, but bring Dad a sandwich. Pretty sure he hasn't eaten all day."

"Mhm." As usual, communicating with her daughter felt a little one-sided. Lena only spoke up whenever the conversation revolved around computers, those strange cartoons with the big eyes and tiny noses, or the weird hobby she shared with her father.

The two of them would spend hours and hours drawing 'ritual circles', impressively complex mandalas that apparently had a 'beautiful symmetry' and were based on some sort of mathematical framework – their long-winded explanations flew straight over Laura's head, but she was glad the two of them got along so well. While her daughter trotted off to the kitchen, Laura stuffed her gardening tools in the shed, stopping briefly to watch the distant figures of children playing with sticks at the edge of the forest.

There were a lot of them, maybe twenty or so. Probably a school trip. Poor teachers. After washing dirt and grime off her hands, she called her clients via landline phone. There was a fair bit of static in the connection, but she managed to excuse herself for the evening appointment.

They seemed rather thankful for the delay, which Laura had expected – she was currently tasked with rearranging their entire organizational structure, causing major friction among the departments and making middle management shiver in fear of layoffs. She was just about to make a sandwich of her own, when a slightly panicked "Mom?" from behind her made her jump.

"Yes, dear?" Laura's annoyance disappeared once she noticed her daughter's expression. Instead of the perpetually neutral mien Lena shared with her father, her eyes were wide as saucers and met her mother's without flinching.

"Dad is floating." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. = = = = = Kai frantically parried the instructor's longsword with his own, pushed back by the other fighter's relentless assault. Being this outclassed was immensely frustrating, but nobody else in the club could handle Oliver either. At least Kai was holding his ground, his ten years of experience allowing him to land a hit or two every now and again.

The humiliation of an impending loss stung anyway. The fight ended abruptly when Oliver won the bind and delivered a brutal thrust to Kai's torso. He swallowed the frustration, took off his helmet and fist-bumped the instructor.

"Good job, man. Thanks for the match."

"Likewise," Oliver grinned.

"Glad you could make it today. I heard exams have been rough?"

"That's putting it lightly. No idea why I'm still doing this to myself…"

"Business management is good money. Good money means good swords," the instructor chuckled, only to furrow his brow when a strange melody rang through the practice hall.

"... Wait, is that the phone? It's been so long that I've forgotten the ringtone…" He sauntered off, leaving Kai to catch his breath and chat with the other club members, who had watched the match with varying degrees of interest. Barely a minute later, Oliver returned in a hurry, phone in hand.

"For you," he said, putting it into Kai's armored hand.

"Your mom. Some kind of emergency." A brief, static-laden phone call later, Kai jumped in his beaten-up car to drive to his parents' home twenty kilometers away. His mother had said absolutely nothing of value, just vague mentions of something strange happening to Dad. It did sound urgent though, so he had little choice but to go there in person. When he finally pulled into the old farmhouse's yard and stepped out of the car, he was immediately greeted by his tense and obviously agitated mother.

"Come on, you need to see this!" Pushing his irritation aside, he hurried after her towards his father's hobby barn. It quickly became apparent that something strange was going on – blue light spilled out of the broad doors, making his head hurt with a weird pressure he could not quite place. He forgot the discomfort once he laid eyes upon the inside of the barn. As usual, the walls and floor were plastered with schematics for 'spells' and 'rituals', but for some reason, a few of them were glowing.

The most notable thing, however, was the sight of his father floating half a meter above the ground, enveloped by the same eerie light. Daniel Brandt had a manic look on his usually expressionless face. He seemed… younger, somehow. His hair was blonde instead of grey, his many wrinkles had smoothed, and his eyes had an almost disconcerting intensity while staring holes into the air. Kai shook himself out of his stupor.

"What the fuck?" he asked nobody in particular. Looking around the barn, he saw his sister staring at the glowing schematics as if hypnotized. No point talking to her, then; she wouldn't even notice him in this state. So, he turned around to the one person who seemed somewhat lucid.

"Mom, what is going on?"

"... I have no idea," his mother hissed.

"Lena suddenly told me 'Dad is floating,' and that's all I know. He hasn't said a word in the last thirty minutes. The glow gets brighter when we try to touch him. What the hell are we supposed to do about this?!" What were they supposed to do here? Kai almost suggested just calling the police, but he immediately discarded the idea. He doubted they were equipped to deal with paranormal events, and even if they were, the entire Brandt family would probably end up as lab rats in some kind of top secret laboratory.

The only thing he could come up with was talking to the apparent source of the issue.

"Dad?" he asked hesitantly, then with more emphasis.

"Dad? Can you hear me?!" Just as he was about to give up his fruitless attempts at communication, his father took an impossibly deep breath. The entire barn seemed to shudder, and Kai felt cold sweat race along his spine. Daniel slowly exhaled, slowly descending to the ground as the glow around him subsided. Then, he lifted his hand, pointing outside towards a large tree, and spoke.

"[Mana Bolt]." Droplets of light seemed to trickle out of his palm, coalescing at the tip of his outstretched index finger. The air around the ball of energy shimmered like it did above a road in the summer heat. Then, with a quiet 'woosh', it suddenly raced towards the tree. It impacted. The trunk was smashed as if hit by a truck. Splinters of wood hissed across the yard as the huge pine fell in what seemed like slow motion.

"[Arcane Barrier]." Before they could hit anyone, the splinters struck a translucent barrier that formed out of thin air.

"[Dimension Step]." In an instant, Daniel was no longer standing in the middle of the barn. Instead, he appeared next to the falling tree in a whirl of light, stretching his hand towards what remained of the trunk.

"[Displace]." And then the tree was gone, as if it had never existed. Only the debris and a broken stump remained. He slowly turned towards his stunned family, eyes wide with euphoria.

"It's back. I have it back."