Two years after the decimation of the Volturi I'm in my part of the woods training Nessie on her swordsmanship.
Right now she's trying to find holes in my defence, swinging or stabbing her sword towards me again and again. I parry them all easily and every time I stab her in return, pointing out her weaknesses.
"You've been practicing your footwork, that's good. Your balance and placement have both improved. I think you're ready."
"Ready? For what?"
"Tomorrow morning, wear comfortable shoes. We're going hiking. I've got a place I've been wanting to show you for a long time. It's a long hike, but I think you're finally ready to see it."
Over the next 24 hours, Nessie was really excited. The next morning we started walking and talking along the way. After a few hours we'd nearly reached the summit of a mountain.
"Wait, so you're saying life has just 3 rules?"
"No, they're more like guidelines really. But yeah, these 3 are the ones I tend to adhere to the most. And I've already told you about them a few times. Paradox, humor and change."
"I think I remember. Paradox. Life's a mystery. Don't waste your time trying to figure it out.
Humor. Always keep a sense of humor about everything, especially yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.
Change. Know, realize and then accept that nothing stays the same."
"Well done."
"Please tell me we're getting close?... Uncle? It's been three hours."
"Now, we're here."
"We're where?"
"At what I came to show you."
Nessie gets a little confused and looks around. She sees nothing other than a nice view of the forest.
"The view?"
I look down to her feet and point.
"No, right there next to your foot."
Nessie looks down and sees a small rock and a flower. Then she looks to me, and back to the rock and flower.
"You mean the flower?"
"No."
"Better not be.."
"The rock."
She looks to me, her agitation clearly growing.
"Is there something special about this rock?"
"Is there something wrong with it?"
"Oh come on! Uncle! This is what I was finally ready to see?!"
"Well, the whole trip up here, you were excited, you were happy."
"Yeah, because I thought I was gonna see something!"
"You were like a kid on Christmas morning. You said so yourself. The whole trip up here it made you feel good."
"Because for the past three hours I've been waiting to see this amazing thing."
"Well, what changed?"
"That there's nothing here but this rock!"
"I probably should have told you that before we left, huh?" I duck down to pick up the rock and hand it to Nessie. "But I guess I wasn't sure what we'd find either. I never am."
I walk further up the mountain letting Nessie calm down. "Sorry you're not happy anymore."
I walk a little further, until.. "The journey."
I turn around and wait for her to elaborate. "The journey brings us happiness, not the destination."
"Good."
"You do know you're crazy, right?"
"I know. Takes a lifetime of practice."
Half an hour later I'm in the basement of our mansion, turning a pile of iron into silver and then silver into gold. I'd decided we'd start traveling when I'm capable of creating things out of thin air.
The power of creation Rob gave me might be more powerful than Arc of Embodiment, but it's WAY harder to practice. Arc of Embodiment is all about using your imagination and the magic does the rest, but this power requires actual, perfect knowledge of what you want to achieve and the materials involved.
Unfortunately this proved to be harder and more time consuming than I thought it would be. 'I suppose it was kind of stupid of me to think this wouldn't be so hard.' For this transmutation for example I had to study the atomic, molecular and chemical structures of all the materials involved. If I made even the slightest mistake, or lost focus during transmutation for just a split second, it would all crumble to dust as if Thanos just snapped his fingers.
After my first few failures 2 years ago, I did figure out that if I can eventually create something out of nothing, I could also turn something, or someone, into nothing. Once I learn how to do so in less than 30 minutes I might actually be able to use it in combat.
After my daily creation training, I join Alice and the wolves upstairs.
"So how close are we to traveling?"
"I'm sorry babe, I don't think I'm getting closer at all. Everytime I make some progress it seems like my goal gets further out of reach."
I sit next to her on the couch and Alice leans into me while Luna rests her head on my lap. I start petting her.
"Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. Time is not an issue for us anyway. But don't you think maybe you're being a little too cautious? You're already the most powerful person in this world, what kind of threats are you expecting exactly?"
"A universe with creatures that can destroy worlds with ease. That is what's awaiting us."
"What?! Why didn't you tell me sooner? I would've trained."
"You can still train actually. What if we worked our way up to that world? I know the perfect place to start your training. A world with gods and goddesses, monsters, dungeons, heroes and adventurers. Does that sound interesting?"
"Yes! When do we go?"
"Let's call everyone over for a party tomorrow and then we'll leave right after."
"Alright! I'll plan the party, and you prepare for our journey."
"Uuhm, I've already prepared remember? The storage space filled with vehicles, materials and weapons."
"What about food? Clothing? You think too much about stuff you think is important, you forget about the basics."
... I look at my wife for a few seconds slowly forming a smile on my face.
"What? Do I have something on my fa.."
I give her a deep long kiss, pick her up and spin around a few times.
After I let her go, she's in a daze for a few seconds with a goofy smile. "That was nice... What did I do to deserve that?"
"You gave me an idea. I've been trying to turn metals into other metals because that's what you can use for weapons and armor and stuff like that. Basically, you can use it to become more powerful. But when you start studying physics and chemistry, you don't start with nuclear fusion. You start with the basics.
You just made me realize that I've been trying to skip a whole bunch of steps. So thank you."
"Does you making a breakthrough mean we're putting our traveling on hold again?"
"No, I can train along our travels. But for tonight I've got to thank you a bunch more." I pick her up in a princess carry and take her to the bedroom.
Needless to say we had a lot of fun that night.