Skyl was looking for Stan, the restless old man.
"Stan Lee? Our hospital did admit a patient by that name, but he recovered pretty quickly and was discharged," the receptionist said after checking the records for Skyl. The file showed that Stan had been admitted fourteen days ago and had left ten days ago.
"Which room was he staying in before he left?"
"And you are...?"
Skyl raised a hand and cast an Illusion spell, charming the receptionist.
She immediately gave him the room number.
Stan's old room had already been reassigned. There were three patients in it now. Two had cancer, one stomach cancer and one lymphoma, while the last had leukemia.
When Skyl walked in, the cancer patients were playing chess, while the girl with leukemia lay by the window listening to music. The man with stomach cancer greeted him first. "Hey, are you the new doctor? I'm David."
"I'm not a doctor." Skyl opened Mora's Book and began gathering the echoes in the room.
"Your book is glowing!" shouted the boy with lymphoma.
The girl with leukemia said nothing.
Skyl nodded and gave them a warm smile. "It's magic."
"Man, that's pretty good." David, the stomach cancer patient, nudged his queen forward. "Check."
"That's not fair. You always win."
"I've got a few more years of life experience than you. Chances are, you won't beat me before we die." David shrugged. "Are your parents coming to see you today?"
"Probably. David, how come your family never visits?"
"They still don't know I'm in the hospital." David shrugged again.
Skyl noticed that the girl with leukemia had been secretly peeking at Mora's Book out of the corner of her eye the whole time.
"Don't tell anyone I was here, okay?" He winked.
The girl grinned, but all her teeth had already fallen out, so she hurriedly covered her mouth and ducked under the blanket.
The boy with lymphoma began to tremble. The painkillers had worn off. Shivering, he asked, "Do you know any magic tricks?"
"Of course. I'm famous far and wide." Skyl noticed an untouched slice of cherry cake by the boy's bed. "Will you trade me that cherry for a magic show?"
"Go ahead and eat it," David said. "None of us can eat that stuff."
Skyl popped the cherry into his mouth, then pretended it got stuck in his throat. He stumbled around in distress for a moment before suddenly vomiting up a white dove.
All three spectators applauded enthusiastically.
Skyl plucked three tail feathers from the dove and handed one to each of them. "There. May your pain turn into a bird and quietly vanish into the blue sky." He opened the window and released the dove.
Mora's Book had already collected the echoes, so Skyl pushed open the door and left. The three patients were still savoring his magic show, and a few days later, all of them were discharged from the hospital. Their illnesses had healed without medicine.
…
Skyl now knew where Stan and Thor had gone.
After Stan was admitted to the hospital, Thor had stayed by his bedside. Bored out of his mind, his daily entertainment was watching TV.
About ten days ago, he saw a Fox broadcast about New Mexico. Locals had discovered a strange hammer in a meteor crater. It was so heavy that no method could lift it.
Thor recognized it at once as Mjolnir.
And right around then, Stan also "happened" to recover. The two of them eagerly boarded a plane for New Mexico and set off on their grand quest to recover the hammer.
Skyl was getting ready to head to New Mexico and drag those two unreliable idiots back.
Before that, he summoned Lady Moonshadow.
"Oh my, a new world." Lady Moonshadow looked delighted. "At least you have a conscience. Though it seems you've already been here playing around for days before finally remembering me?"
"Your beauty is forever refreshing, milady." Skyl bowed his head in greeting. "This world isn't exactly safe. But we did agree before to explore the vibrant reaches of outer space, and now we can finally make good on that promise."
Lady Moonshadow brightened immediately. "Wonderful. Where's your spaceship?"
Skyl fell silent for a moment.
Lady Moonshadow asked, "So... you don't have a spaceship yet?"
"Not at the moment."
"And by 'not at the moment,' you mean we'd have to build one ourselves." Lady Moonshadow shook her head and smiled. "Fine, I'll help, but I'm only responsible for the enchanting. If you want to sail through the cosmos in a wooden boat, we can leave tomorrow. If you want a better hull, I'm afraid that's beyond me. There are limits to what a mortal body can do."
There were spaceships in the Elder Scrolls cosmology, and with Lady Moonshadow's knowledge, there was no way she wouldn't know the designs. But as she said, even the cleverest housewife can't cook without ingredients. Building a spacecraft from scratch by hand was simply beyond what a mortal body could accomplish.
Skyl smiled and decided to call in a favor. "I happen to know a billionaire who's also a technology genius. His company has enough industrial capability to prepare a spaceship for us."
Lady Moonshadow stared at him suspiciously. "You've got some other plan in mind, don't you?"
"More or less. This trip may be for sightseeing, but it's also an adventure."
"And what's the purpose of the adventure?"
"Probably to recover a pen," Skyl said simply.
Lady Moonshadow narrowed her eyes. "An artifact forged by some Daedric Prince?"
"Close enough. This pen is the tool the Creator used to draw worlds." Skyl spread his hands. "Like the harp of Eru Ilúvatar."
Lady Moonshadow looked speechless. "How does someone casually misplace an artifact that precious?"
"That's why I said this universe is dangerous." Skyl said, "Besides that pen, there are also strange artifacts like a reality manipulator, the Heart of the Universe, and the Ultimate Nullifier. Any of them can create or erase worlds. As far as truly ultimate artifacts go, the only ones we can confirm for now are the Creator's Pen and the Infinity Stones."
Lady Moonshadow was an old goddess who had seen plenty in her time, so she wasn't especially tempted by divine artifacts. She waved a hand and got ready to deal with the spaceship first. After obtaining Tony Stark's address, she opened a Gate of Annihilation and teleported straight into his seaside mansion.
Tony was in the middle of developing a magical-implement version of the Iron Man armor.
"Sir, someone has entered the house."
"Where?"
Tony checked the surveillance feed and saw a purple-skinned elven woman standing in the living room. She casually poured herself a glass of whiskey from the liquor cabinet, then raised it toward the camera in greeting.
"Hello, Stark," Lady Moonshadow transmitted with telepathy. "Skyl needs your help."
…
Not long after Skyl showed up again, Nick Fury came looking for him.
"Where the hell have you been this past month? Without your food truck, I can barely enjoy a meal anymore." Nick's car was parked by the roadside as Skyl strolled down the sidewalk. "Where are you headed? I'll give you a ride."
"The airport. Actually, you might as well drive me straight to New Mexico." Skyl settled comfortably into the passenger seat. Nick's vehicle looked like an ordinary black SUV, but in terms of armor, mobility, and firepower, it might as well have been a light tank. The interior was lavish too, understated but impressive.
After traveling through so many worlds, this was actually the first time Skyl had ever ridden in a luxury car.
Nick narrowed his eye. "Hold on. New Mexico? You're after that hammer too?"
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