Taylor Shard Keeper Part 2 (Patreon)

Danny shook his head. "There's no way they're going to believe you."

"Why not?" Annette asked with amusement, taking another sip of her tea. "My prints are in the system."

"They're in the system?" Taylor asked in surprise, fairly sure her mother had never mentioned actually getting arrested before.

Annette laughed. "I could tell you stories but honestly, everyone that works for the college has to pass a background test which means fingerprints."

"That makes more sense," Taylor admitted.

"That's one of the…" Danny trailed off as Annette gave him a look. "Right, so you're just going to walk into the station and tell them that you're back from the dead?"

"No, I was going to grab you and walk into the station and tell them that I've been missing for over a year," Annette replied.

Danny shook head. "Except there was a body."

Annette shook her head. "That just means that a biotinker faked my death."

"Where's the lab, where's the proof?" Danny asked.

"Do I look like a lab tech? I'm just a literature professor that woke up on the porch and had her husband freak out," Annette replied with a shrug.

"I didn't freak out," Danny argued.

"No, you just dropped your favorite mug," Taylor pointed out.

Danny glanced at the rug by the sink that had saved the mug then looked at Taylor. "It survived and honestly, what were you expecting? You said you had something to show me and the next thing I know Annette steps around the corner and says boo. I'm allowed to be a bit shocked."

"If you say so," Annette teased. "Do you have a better idea than just showing up at the station and having them check my prints?"

Danny glanced at Taylor. "Not unless Taylor's new powers include a way to remove bodies without leaving evidence?"

"Not currently," Taylor admitted. "But I might be able to come up with something if you give me a day or two."

"The shop?" Annette asked thoughtfully.

Taylor nodded. "Or the adventure world."

"I don't suppose grounding you would keep you from exploring your pocket dimensions?" Danny asked hopefully.

"It would probably make it worse," Annette pointed out, saving Taylor from lying or pleading the 5th. "At least she has a brute rating."

"One of the only reasons I'm not freaking out more," Danny admitted.

"Considering the condition of the city and the school, the more I explore, the safer I'll be," Taylor pointed out.

"You're not going back to Winslow," Annette stated firmly. "Your information ability should let you breeze through the homeschooling tests."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that cheating?"

"You're generally fine using thinker abilities outside of tests unless you can't avoid it," Annette explained. "Provided they haven't changed the rules again."

"Good to know," Taylor said.

Danny frowned. "Do we actually know how the scroll worked? Is her body still there?"

Taylor shook her head. "No clue. I could check but I don't want to."

"Any fingerprints on the body should be decayed beyond all use which leaves things up in the air enough that I don't think it will matter," Annette pointed out. "Besides, we live in a world with tinkers, worst case, I spend a couple of days with the PRT so they can make sure I'm not a stranger or something."

"In that case, we should probably talk to the cops tonight, they're usually a bit less on the ball at the end of their shifts," Danny mused.

"We should probably leave Taylor here, she's a new cape and we don't want to draw too much attention or give them a reason to connect the dots between the school and me coming back from the dead," Annette said.

"You're worth it but I'd rather avoid official attention," Taylor agreed, not seeing a point in joining the wards or letting the PRT know anything about her powers.

"Stay safe," Danny ordered, wishing he could stop Taylor from using her powers but knowing it wouldn't work.

Taylor nodded. "I'm just planning on poking around, at the first sign of danger I'll teleport out."

"That is not as reassuring as you seem to think Little Owl," Danny pointed out.

"Best I can do, the more I figure out, the safer I'll be," Taylor argued.

"While I can't argue with the logic, I don't like it," Danny complained as he headed for the door.

"It's not like my powers came with an instruction manual," Taylor replied as her mother hugged her.

"Stay safe," Annette ordered.

"You too, if the techs get too stabby, leave," Taylor suggested.

"I'll be fine," Annette assured her. "I want my life back. I invested way too much in college to let the PRT screw me out of being able to use my degree."

"Good," Taylor replied as her mother let her go. "If you're not back by tomorrow, I'm coming to get you."

Annette shook her with a bemused smile. "At least give it forty eight hours."

"No promises," Taylor replied, only half joking.

Danny grinned as he walked out the door. "I blame you for this."

"Her independence streak or her tendency not to follow the rules of law and order?" Annette asked 'innocently' as she followed him outside, closing the door behind her.

"Yes," Danny replied with a grin as they headed to the car, glad to have the love of his life back.

'Worst case, I bring her back to life again and destroy the PRT,' Taylor thought as she headed up the stairs to grab her new book. "Hopefully the book wasn't a waste of time," she mused as she hurried into her room and over to her bed where she'd left the book. She grabbed the book on enchanting brooms and used her information power. She watched the rather amusing documentary of a teenage wizard waving a wand and enchanting a broom followed by a cute little witch in cat eared pajamas that enchanted her mother's cauldron to fly around in.

She grinned as the video clip ended and the information flowed into her head. "Okay, that seems easy enough in theory. Of course, in theory anyone can draw a person. In practice, stick figures are a thing."

Taylor picked up the ring and slipped it on then activated it, causing her clothes to vanish and a dark shadowy cloak to appear around her shoulders with a half mask on her face. "At least I waited until my dad was gone," she muttered as she stared at her breasts which were a bit larger than she remembered. She walked out of the room and headed into the bathroom to look in the mirror.

Taylor stared at the unfamiliar athletic looking teenage girl reflected in the mirror. "This would be perfect if it came with clothes. Wait, it's supposed to be an alternate costume." She grabbed a towel and quickly wrapped it around her waist then swapped back, the cloak, mask and towel vanishing as her clothes reappeared. She mentally flipped the switch and changed back to her costume identity and grinned when the towel was still around her waist. "On second thought, that's awesome."

Taylor swapped back to her normal appearance then ran down the stairs and into the garage to grab the handsaw. It took her a bit of work to find the proper tool. "To adventure!" she said enthusiastically then focused on her Shard of Exploration. She frowned when she appeared in a small forest clearing without the saw. "Damn, I was hoping I could take things into the shard."

"So much for grabbing a gun and shooting monsters," Taylor muttered as she looked around for something she could use as a weapon. She frowned when she noticed her hands were grey rather than what she'd consider normal. "At least I don't have to deal with four arms."

She walked over and picked up a heavy looking branch and the baseball sized rock then headed down the trail, curious what she'd find and aware that she was burning energy staying in the world. Less than twenty seconds later an adorable looking blue bunny with glowing purple eyes bounced out from behind an oak tree and down the path towards her.

"Are you friendly?" Taylor asked hopefully then jumped back and swung her branch at it when it jumped at her with a mouth filled with metallic razor sharp teeth. "Shit!" she blurted when she missed and it clamped its jaws on her arm. "Huh, that doesn't actually hurt," she mused as the rabbit-like monster gnawed on her arm. She tried petting the 'rabbit' only for it to bite her fingers.

"I'm going to call you Sophia." Taylor blinked and quickly swapped to her costume when the 'rabbit' spit a glob of nasty smelling green goo at her face. "Fun, even monsters don't like Sophia," she said sarcastically then hit the rabbit in the head a couple of times with her rock until she heard a cracking sound and the beast went limp and fell to the ground.

"I'm going to need a bag," she muttered as she picked the dead monster up and looked at its silvery teeth. "And some pliers."

Taylor set the rock and the rabbit on the ground then started trying to debark the branch, giving up after twenty seconds of trying and failing to strip the bark off the wood. "I need a knife."

"Screw it, it doesn't need to be perfect for a test of concept," Taylor said as she focused on the broken branch and tried to push magic into it. "So much for it being easy," she muttered after a minute of trying to get her power to activate with barely more than a twitch from the broken branch.

She spent the next couple of minutes mentally reviewing the lessons she'd picked up from the book and running through the various mental exercises, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong. "Work damn it!" she snapped and pushed a bunch of mana into the stick, causing it to float off the ground and start glowing with a faint blue light. "Nice."

Taylor was more than a little disappointed when she tossed her leg over the broom and it failed to take off like a bat out of hell, merely going as fast as a shopping cart rolling down an incline with even more bouncing. "That's going to need some work," she muttered as she flew up into the air, wanting to get a better idea of what she was dealing with.

She stared and almost slipped off her flying branch when she got above the treeline and saw a glowing pillar of light sticking up out of the trees in the distance. "That's probably worth checking out." She slowly spun her branch around, pausing when she saw another pillar of light sticking up from behind a hill in the opposite direction. "Yep, definitely worth checking out." She flew down and grabbed the dead rabbit-like monster then flew back up and headed towards the pillar of light behind the hill.

She'd made it halfway to the hill before everything went white and she found herself tumbling out of the air thanks to the lightning bolt that struck her. She hit the ground and bounced, still dazed from the bright light and the lightning arcing over her hands. She caught a glimpse of a giant lightning covered feathered wing in the sky before it flew out of sight. "Yeah, I'm not bringing anyone here that's not a brute," she muttered as she found herself set on by a pack of purple bunnies.

Taylor grabbed a rock and spent the next couple of minutes killing the insane bunnies that wouldn't stop trying to eat her then bundled them up in her towel and teleported back to the garage. She watched the saw hit the ground then walked over and dumped the collection of rabbits in the ice chest they used for drinks at parties then frowned when she realized there wasn't any blood on the rabbits or even marks where she'd hit them with her rock. "Weird, I'm going to need tools and a book for leatherworking."

Taylor mentally checked her supply of energy. "I still have two hundred and twenty energy, that should be enough for an hour of my adventure world, might as well test it then I can work on getting more energy for the shop."

She swapped back to her normal appearance and grabbed one of the eight rabbits then focused on her adventure shard and slipped into the zen state of mind she needed to jump worlds. She glanced around when she found herself in a clearing with two dozen teenagers in leather armor fighting green dog sized jello monsters with copper swords. "Mage!" the older man in fancy looking black robes called out when one of the slimes managed to knock one of the teenagers over.

Taylor watched one of the six people in black robes dash over, point their staff at the slime as it jumped at the girl and sent out a pulse of force that sent it flying backwards several feet. "Thou shalt not pass!" the kid called out before he started shooting firebolts at the slime from his left hand.

A girl in white robes ran over and helped the girl with the sword to her feet then tapped her on the head with her staff and healed her. "Work on your dodging."

"I know, I just slipped in a pile of goo," the girl complained.

"Less complaining, more killing," the man wearing chainmail near the racks called out then turned to look at Taylor. "New recruit?"

"Where can I find the crafters?" Taylor asked as she held up the rabbit.

"They're back in town," the man gestured towards the other end of the clearing. "You should probably pick a class and get a bit of practice before you head back since you're already here and the road isn't safe for unskilled children."

The man in black robes smiled at Taylor. "I have an extra set of robes and a staff, you look like you'd make a decent mage."

"You say that to everyone that isn't a muscle bound idiot, we could use more healers," the woman in a white robe complained.

The man in a black robe snorted. "Don't listen to her, leveling up as a white mage is a pain in the ass."

"Just because you couldn't hack it, doesn't mean she's not the next Belaria," the woman countered.

"What's the difference?" Taylor asked as she looked at the twenty something man in armor.

"Black mages learn by destroying challenges and white mages improve their spells by healing people," the black mage explained as he went back to watching the students.

The man in armor snorted. "Most mages worth their salt pick up spells from both styles."

Taylor glanced between the two mages. "I wouldn't mind learning both but healing sounds useful."

"Don't blame me when your tank can't save you and you lack the firepower to carve your way through the hordes of monsters you'll be fighting," the black mage grumbled.

"You could always teach her a couple of spells," the white mage pointed out.

The black mage shook his head. "That's why people hunt slimes, they've got to earn enough tokens."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Taylor said as she walked over to the white mage. "How does this work?"

The white mage reached out and touched Taylor's forehead with her finger, trying to get an idea how much potential she had. She stared at the unfamiliar symbols that represented the girl's only spell, only recognizing the bit for lightning. "Interesting, you already know a lightning spell, you made the right choice."

"No idea where that came from but I'll take it," Taylor said cheerfully, wondering if it had something to do with getting hit with lightning.

The black mage scowled at his fellow mage. "Great, now you're stealing people with natural potential for black magic."

"Being able to heal yourself is important and decent white mages can always find a group. As for how everything works, the robes are enchanted. You put the robes on and practice the two healing spells until you learn them then you give them back," the woman explained as she handed Taylor a white robe.

Taylor pulled the white robes over her head then blinked as she realized she had access to a healing spell that would deal with minor wounds and a spell that would cure hangovers and minor cases of poison. She smiled as the woman gave her a wooden staff. "What does the staff do?"

"They increase your magic so you won't run out of mana as fast," the black mage offered.

"Run around healing people and curing them when they turn green until you run out of mana or learn the spells," the woman ordered as she gestured at the trainees fighting the slimes.

"Sure, watch my rabbit," Taylor replied as dropped her rabbit and ran into the melee to find people to heal so she could learn the spells. 'This is awesome, trumps are great!'

"At least she's enthusiastic, I might need to show her a couple of tricks," the fighter mused as he watched Taylor run into battle.

"Still seems like a waste," the black mage grumbled.

The white mage smirked as she watched the new recruit run around and heal people, getting better with each spell. "She's going to be a fantastic healer."

The black mage shrugged then went back to paying attention to the rest of his magic users and occasionally calling out orders.

Taylor spent the next ten minutes healing people before she walked back over to the trainers. "I got a popup window that said I learned the spells. Can you teach me anything else?"

The white mage shook her head. "Sorry, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to the guild in town and pay for training."

"Figures," Taylor muttered as she finished taking the robes off and handed them to the white mage.

"Unfortunately, the guilds don't allow cross training without paying through the nose," the black mage grumbled. "On the upside, you already have lightning so you might be able to neglect to inform the guild that you have healing spells."

The warrior trainer raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to get her in trouble?"

"It's only illegal if she lies, not volunteering information is perfectly fine," the black mage replied with a shrug.

"Let me guess, I'm going to have the same problem with the crafting guilds?" Taylor asked warily as she picked up her rabbit monster.

"You're only allowed to have two professions without paying through the nose, finding tokens or bribing people, I suggest making them count," the woman offered.

"Any suggestions?" Taylor asked as she put the staff back on the rack.

"Tailoring and enchanting," the white mage replied.

"Mining and weapon smithing, obviously," the weapon's trainee offered with amusement.

"Gem cutting and engineering are good," the black mage said thoughtfully.

The white mage snorted. "Only if you want to go bankrupt. You generally want a gathering profession that ties in with your crafting profession unless you have some friends to cover for you."

"I'll see what I can find," Taylor replied as she started walking towards the exit to the clearing and the road that was supposed to lead to town. She'd barely gotten a hundred meters out of sight of the starting area when a group of six teenagers dressed in glowing gear stepped out from behind trees. 'Shit.'

"Give us your tokens kid," the older teenager with a glowing staff ordered.

"I don't have any, I was healing," Taylor replied as she glared at the group that was trying to rob her.

"Bullshit," he replied as he pointed his staff at her. "Last chance idiot."

'I should have grabbed some combat magic.' Taylor raised her hands and reached for the other spell that she could feel floating around her mind.

"What the fuck!" the rogue blurted after a bolt of lightning lanced out of a cloudless sky and struck Ralph, causing him to fall over spasming.

"I wasn't expecting that to work," Taylor admitted as she stared at the man on the ground.

The rogue pulled himself back together and shot Taylor in the chest. He fumbled his second arrow when he saw the first one bounce off her neck without even leaving a mark. "She's a ringer! Run!"

"Fuck!" one of the other bandits shouted as the group bolted, leaving their leader on the ground twitching.

Taylor watched the group break and run then walked over and kicked the fallen mage in the head as he tried to roll over. "Wrong target asshole," she complained as she quickly stripped his backpack, boots, robes, belt, coin purse and staff."

She took a quick look through his backpack and when she found several tokens that would give her free skill training and several stacks of cloth, leather and basic crafting goods that would help speed up her crafting endeavours. 'Leatherworking, mining and gem crafting tokens which means I should be able to grab tailoring and enchanting first.'

'It's worth a shot,' she mused as she put the gear in the backpack then headed towards town at a run, knowing she was burning through her energy every minute she stayed.

Taylor blasted a wolf with lightning that got a bit too curious, stuffed it in her new magic backpack and continued running. She gave the random adventurers staying in sight of the scary looking guards by the gate a warily look then walked up to the gate of the small walled town.

"Welcome to Cider Falls, please enjoy your stay and pick up some trades," the guard on the left suggested. "You're allowed two major trades."

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she walked through the open gate and looked around the fantasy town that could have come straight out of an MMO, with the exception of vacant eyed npcs with symbols over their heads. She smiled when she saw a sign over one of the crafting booths with a wand. 'Okay, let's see if this works.' She walked up to the old gypsy behind the counter. "Do you offer training?"

"Assuming you don't have other skills or you have a token or a waiver from the guilds, of course," the woman replied with a smile. "I teach the art of crafting wands and enchanting your gear with magic."

Taylor shook her head. "I don't have any craft skills yet."

"In that case, step forward and let me check," the woman said as she reached out her hand.

Taylor stepped forward and held out her hand. "How?"

The woman grabbed Taylor's hand and pushed mana into her teaching spell, burning the basic knowledge into her mind. "Congratulations, you're an enchanter."

Taylor blinked as she focused on her enchanting skill and a popup window appeared, showing a collection of enchanting options like a video game. "That's useful."

"Very, come back when you've mastered the basics and I'll be happy to sell you more secrets," the woman replied cheerfully.

"Sounds good," Taylor replied as she headed towards the booth with a spool of cloth that was next to a booth that sold clothes. She closed her enchanting window by hitting the button on the top right hand side of the popup. "Crafting and weaving," she mused as she studied the signs on the booths. "Can I learn both skills?" she asked as she reached the counter.

The man behind the counter filled with outfits shook his head. "I'm afraid not, I saw you with Matilda which means you'd be over your limit."

"It's unfortunate," the woman working the spinning wheel replied as she stood up and stretched. "I'm going to grab some cider, make sure no one uses my spinning wheel, I'd hate to get in trouble with the guild."

"I'll make sure no one damages it," the man offered as he grabbed a stack of cheap looking cloth and tossed it on the table in front of Tailor. "Sit down, you can make some puppets for me which should unlock the skill."

"Puppets?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I hand them out to children, they run around and dance and keep them out of mischief," the man replied as Taylor sat down.

Taylor paid attention as the man quickly showed her how to sew the dolls then handed her a need and spool of thread. "Thank you."

"We're a crafting town," the man replied with a shrug before getting back to his own work.

Taylor carefully followed the directions on the first three dolls before she accidently stabbed herself with the needle when a popup window appeared and informed her that she'd unlocked tailoring. "Should I keep working on it? I unlocked it."

"Already?" the man glanced at his friend's spinning wheel, knowing she wouldn't mind if the girl used it to unlock her skill as long as she could claim it wasn't her fault. "Nah, you should grab the cheap wool and spin some thread to replace what you used."

"Didn't she just tell you not to let anyone use it?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And I promised I wouldn't let anyone damage it, you'll just have to be quick before anyone notices," the man replied with a grin then went back to working on his own project.

Taylor glanced in the direction the woman left then quickly circled around the table and sat down. "Which wool should I use?"

"The grey stuff," he said pointing at the basket of grey wool near the wheel. "You'd best hurry."

Taylor got started, happy that she remembered a documentary on spinning wool that was enough to get her started. She wasn't particularly surprised when she picked up the weaving skill less than a minute later. "I got it."

"Good, get back over here and finish your puppets," the man replied with amusement. "If anyone asks, you picked up the skill from your mother or something, it's not particularly uncommon."

"Sure," Taylor agreed as she got back to work making puppets.