I would have asked how we would connect, but Rachel leaned forward and said, “I’m going to have to hold your hand.”

I disassembled the glove with a command and she leaned forward to take my right hand.

In my head, she said, “This is how the Ghosts do interstellar flight—at least when I’m involved. I don’t have enough power to manage it alone. Could you start pulling in power?”

“How much? A lot?”

“Everything you can. I’ll tell you to slow down if I have to.”

I considered asking her if maybe I should start slow, but we didn’t have time for any in-depth discussion of anything. If I’d learned anything during my lessons with Kee, I’d learned to draw ambient energy from the multiverse.

I wouldn’t be able to start at full. She’d have a little while before I got up to maximum speed. Hopefully, it would be enough.

I stopped trying to hide,  extending myself into the realities around us with minimal effort and began to pull in everything I could. From what Kee told me, grown Artificers could pull in enough to live forever without obvious food, fly across the universe, punch through from one reality to another, and even extinguish or revitalize stars.

What I was doing wasn’t even a trickle by comparison–which is why she felt comfortable with having me do daily exercises designed to increase my capacity. In all honesty, even if I was continuing down a path that meant power akin to deities, it wasn’t inspiring on any given day. I couldn’t do much new from one day to the next. From what I understood, the cool stuff would only start to happen with a thousand years of practice.

All the same, by comparison to the first time I’d tried, it was a flood. If Kee had seen, it might have been enough to earn me a toddler appropriate, “Good job,” and maybe a pat on the head.

Rachel, though, said, “This is what I was talking about. Why couldn’t I have inherited more of these genes? You can draw almost as much as a Ghost—not the older ones, but the younger adults.”

Then I felt her begin to manipulate it. She wasn’t letting the flow of energy move through us. With the power I pulled in, she changed the flow of the landscape around us, hiding us in the turbulence of the interactions between nearby realities.

I pointed a way around the column of Magnus’ attention, and it didn’t move much. As we passed it, it made a hesitant twitch in our direction, as if Magnus thought he saw something and then thought better.

I felt the jet gain speed and the main engine re-engaged, carrying us toward the mainland.

I thought to Rachel, “How long do you think we should keep this up?”

“I don’t know. How about as long as you can still sense Magnus searching for us?”

We’d begun to cross Florida, but I could still see the column of energy in my mind. Magnus was making circles that grew ever wider out from the island.

Even though it was more than one hundred miles away now, I could still see it. He seemed to have realized we’d gotten away, but he had a lot of power to work with and didn’t seem to see any reason to stop.

Over our connection, I said, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep it up that long. I might be able to keep it up until we get home.”

In my mind’s eye, Rachel frowned, “Don’t do it so long you fall unconscious, but do what you can.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it all the way home, but we’ll probably make it there before his giant search beam does. If we put the new artifacts in with the others, I’m hoping he won’t be able to sense them within the base.”

As I said it, I checked behind us, sensing that the column was still circling outward from the island, not even having reached Florida yet. This was a good sign. Magnus didn’t seem to have any idea it was us or he’d be pointing his attention at Grand Lake.

Knowing how quickly the jet could go, we might get home in less than 30 minutes, maybe even 10. I could hold out for that long, but it might be a challenge. It also might be worth it in case Magnus changed the beam’s direction without warning.

If I did make it, it would be the longest sustained use of my Artificer-related skills that I’d ever managed. I told Rachel, “I’m going to have to put a little less into it if I’m going to make it the whole way.”

“Do what you have to,” she said. “It’s still more than I’d have to work with.”

Adjusting to the idea that this was a marathon instead of a sprint, I cut what I was doing by a quarter and felt better. I hadn’t felt bad, but this felt like something I could continue forever, or at least for the ride home.

“That was a dip,” Rachel said, “but it’s still good. If you could keep this up, I think I could fly the two of us out of the solar system if you could only shift out of phase.”

“Sounds great,” I said, “what happens after we’re out of the solar system?”

“Without a more powerful Ghost, we either wait for help or freeze to death. It’s not a good idea, but with a Ghost, we link up and jump to the next planet. Maybe in one thousand years, you’ll be able to try it.”

After that, we didn’t talk much. It felt like running cross country. Rachel kept me updated on where we were and I kept the power flowing, using a touch to  follow the patterns of energy around us.

As we neared Grand Lake, I could no longer see a hint of Magnus’ search. Grand Lake itself didn’t stand out to Artificer senses at all. Lee had hidden himself perfectly, leaving no trace despite more than 50 years of visiting the city. Not even his apartment and martial arts studio glowed with a hint of his presence.

Kee had pointed that out to me herself, adding that, “Even though you know him,  you have to remember that he’s not just an impulsive fighter. He’s been alive for billions of years and so have I.”

My memory of Lee wasn’t the only thing in my mind as we neared Grand Lake. Though the city showed no sign of Lee’s presence, I felt a wisp of power. It was there for a moment and then gone. It didn’t feel like any Artificer I knew.

It couldn’t be Magnus and Lee’s device either, I knew what that looked like now.

Though I was tired, I didn’t think that I was deluding myself and mistook a stray bit of my power for something in the distance.

I didn’t like it.