"Case get up and get dressed? I've got some stuff to show you."
They made quick work of getting prepared.
Hazy shadows were around the signs of the sunrise to come. Casey knew they were shortlived things.
No one had gotten up besides he and John, and every household had at least a vehicle occupying their driveways. A few had mist from sprinklers.
They took the truck and drove steadily to the east. He saw every building he recognized being left behind.
He stretched and yawned. They drove with the windows cracked, and the cool morning air and draft kept him awake.
"So where are we going?"
"To some place you really need to see." His father smiled.
The trees were thick at first but they were shorter as the journey continued. He saw copper power lines running along metal towers.
They were yellow and orange with the sunlight behind them.
His ears popped, and his body felt a little lighter.
He gave his father a glance, who just proceeded to smile, and whistle.
Then the trees gave way to grassland for miles. A light brown building grew with their steady approach.
He saw power lines that were different from any he had seen in Old Providence. Were they powerlines?
"What are those, dad?"
"You can tell already?"
"Yes. It's like mana."
His father smiled. "Wow."
As they pulled into the plant, there were many red trailers. A few were open, and empty, but others were locked up with chains. He thought that they were probably supplies.
There was also a small substation besides the building. On the green poles nearby were many transformers, with heavy copper lines running out the property. Strangely, light seemed to bend around them a bit.
His father wove passed a pot hole, and got to the only parking area at the right of the building. A small number of cars waited here; knowles was written across their sides.
"So this is a Weystation. It's something that the general public aren't allowed to see, or know the whereabouts of. Let me show you what's inside."
They got out the vehicle and he felt the lightness even more. It was like the composite mana wanted to come into his body on its own, and he had to stop it.
Casey saw that this property could use grooming. He also saw an iron stairway on the outside that led to an upper floor.
"That's the control room, Case."
His father walked across the lot, and then across the pea rocks, they crunched, before he got to the lower story's entrance.
He followed his father in.
The inside was gray, and fluorescent lights were on the eggshell ceilings. He saw a bathroom on the right and two offices were on the left. There were metal covers over something that he and his father stepped over. Casey assumed maybe infrastructure, and if it were, maybe wires to the control room? Low voltage wires?
"This is my office, and sometimes my home away from home."
His father had unlocked the door. There was gray carpeting, with a very nice mixed brown desk, a chair to match it, a picture of a much younger smiling Casey, a beautiful ornnate blue box leaned up against the wall. And a little too much cologne floating in the air. Casey touched his nose.
His father let him soak in the view. And he saw and remembered everything.
"Let's go to the main show now?"
There were standing beige metal cabinets, with breakers and switches, that they walked between. Casey and his father came to a glass wall and a single gray door. And there weren't anymore areas or rooms to explore, only this place.
He came besides his dad to see a silver altar inside the dark room. Only a single light lit it all, and gave a soft glow to a red pearl and the podium.
Casey felt a force pulling him towards the pearl. Enough so that he took a step away.
"Its not real Case, it's just an ability the owl had before I killed it." He smiled. "It's a monster core. They come from purple and above abberations and creatures."
"A creature that can make me feel something even when it's dead?"
His father nodded, and went on to explain. "This Weystation taps into the mana routes of our planet, the Weylines. We then send some of that mana into the cores to then send out on those lines you saw earlier, to scare off anything else from approaching. This is what keeps everyone safe."
"I see. That's really something I wouldn't have thought of. Is this what your doing?"
"This is it. Its where I'm usually at when I go missing, and now it's time to show you how I check for issues. It shouldn't need servicing until next month, though." His father walked to the door and looked at him. "Hurry up Case, I've got to go inside."
Casey immediately flooded his body with composite mana. It felt like a lot more had been added to his earlier limits. The compression had helped immensely.
His father nodded and smirked before entering.
Casey saw him emerge from another doorway. The one he had entered initially been connected to a hallway.
As soon as John stepped out red lightning began flashing. They were wild snakes that striked him with every step that he took. His father held up his thumb and continued his strides towards the altar.
It shined under the lightnings glow.
John picked up the red marble and turned it. He held it up to the light. It seemed that he looked for cracks. After a while more he sat it back into a tight fitting slot, and left the room.
"You smell burnt."
"Consequences of the job Casey. Let's finish this tour upstairs?" Casey nodded, and John continued. "Anyone less than a mid red would get killed in there."
"And what rank are you, dad?"
"I'm light red. But you shouldn't really judge someone's strength by their color."
Casey turned his ear to his dad. "What do you mean?"
"What do you think of the color system we use?"
"It's really simple and easy to map. Blue is basic, purple is middle, and red is advance. There's nothing much not to like."
"But the device only measures mana output on spells. It doesn't provide enough details about the individuals it's attached to, or the phenomenon the mana is producing. Colors are important but you can't always rely on it to judge someone's strength."
Casey smiled. "I won't dad." He asked. "If you were to grade me, how strong would I be despite my color?"
"Maybe light purple? You're creative in a fight, and physically pretty tough. A lot of those hits that the monster gave you should've been it."
Casey shrugged.
They made it up the stairs. The wind blew gentle outside. It also moist and cool, Casey suspected the morning's draft, or rain in the distance.
John pulled open the gray door.
"Case this is Micheal, he's on the synchroscope and other controls. He's really a capable guy."
Casey shook his hand. They were hard and he had the thought that Micheal probably had many trades.
They went over some panels and old computers the were about seven feet tall
"So that's about it. Now it's time for you to leave. I've got something for you first though."
"What would that be dad?"
"Heirlooms."