"I think... we can rush the vault tuning a bit so you can put that gift there. But a ward is a temporary measure, yeah. And Aaron is going to be okay, we have been through worse."

"Yeah, I just-" he shakes his head, eyes catching on the burn on his side. "I'm sorry," he says again. 

He'll take wards, definitely, and will push himself harder to get to the point where he can drop this Gift in the vault. 

"It's okay dude. I won't even have cool scars."

(Topher elbows him.)

They clean off the room. The blue mats pretty much got incinerated, but they have replacements. The floor and ceiling are intact - being fireproof warded - and only blackened by smoke and ash.

They inform the rest of the family and Stephen takes time off from work. He offers Alex a hug but it's not offended if the boy doesn't want to be touched. He just mutters something that sounds a lot like "tracked and killed that bastard".

Morgan checks people for wounds and injuries. Aaron gets Admonished for not treating his burns better.

They ward Alex, and renew some other fire-related wards around. They give the twins' room, the same ward that the library has, which is more costly to cast, but douses off all flames in the area. Just in case.

Alex and Topher can both throw themselves at the task of getting rid of that gift.

...Alex appreciates that Stephen isn't offended by it. And the wards.

(Jamie agrees with the sentiment.) 

With all of his attention on the one goal, it doesn't actually take them all that long to reach it, thankfully. 

That's great, then they can fly over to the Grayward's old home location, and let Alexei get access from there.

Can Jamie come along for this? Jamie would like to come along. Just in case. 

Oh, definitely. Aaron and his early warning system is coming too, though Topher is thorough enough to make sure that Alex can handle this.

Oh yeah, it doesn't hurt to be sure, though.

(Flying!!)

And he prepares to access the vault.

And as instructed he falls into a trance and... something opens to him, or leads him through into an out of body-experience. A vast expanse of some deep color, not black, but the color seems to shift whenever he tries to figure out what it is. But contrasted against that vastness there are lines, straight lines that suddenly branch out in hard angles following a pattern that is reminiscent of both trees and a circuit board, it stands on and on as far Alexei can perceive, never individually getting brighter than the dim light of a star. The network of the vault with the forest, allowing drawing and connecting lifeforce between it and the vault.

And at the center of this all, five bright stars in a pentagon, but at the same time a spiral, space is not an easy concept in this place. The five stars "open" themselves, allowing Alexei to connect each individual lifeforce aspect to them.

Wow.

He'd been told what to expect, but he still wasn't quite prepared. Still, he isn't isn't so distracted by the strange beauty of it to stop him from doing what he'd come to do. He reaches out with his lifeforce, directing it towards the stars.

And once every star has reached, they fold onto each other and then "bloom", he still in the ethereal space, but has gained access to the gift vault. They are organized around "above" the five stars, breath gifts to the breath star, with flowing tendrils of light interconnecting the entire thing.

Five tendrils reach toward him, and he is now attuned to the vault. Identified. Recognized. Authorized. To a limited degree. It's hard to notice but there are definitely layers to this thing beyond what he is already seeing. But he can do things with the vault.

Including, deposit his Health gift there.

He doesn't waste any time, practically throwing the fire gift into the vault. He can't be rid of it quick enough.

As Topher said, it's very literally a piece of him being torn apart. Surgically, whatever magic empowers this is entire structure is very good at carving out what needs to be carved out. It's almost fighting back at him pushing the gift away.

He is not sure how much time passes. But at some point of transition, he can feel himself drained and the fire gift in his place, almost bouncing in its column while the tendrils start root it in place properly.

With that done, the vault closes back into the pentagram amidst the vast field of lines and then back to his body.

He staggers when he comes out of it, sucking in a gasp. He feels exhausted, like he's been fighting for hours, and there's a deep ache spreading through his body. 

He hadn't quite expected it to feel like this, though in hindsight he really should have. He had just torn out a piece of himself. 

Aaron reacts first to steady him. "Are you alright? Did it work?"

He grips him for a moment, catching his bearings, and then staggers upright.

"...Yeah, I... yeah, it's gone." He swallows, "I feel... kind of sick." 

"You are still above regular levels of health. But you are not actually whole. It will go away soon enough."

"Wait until you manage to learn how to take gifts from the vault. It feels the opposite while still be disconcerting."

"Like being overstuffed or something? Bursting at the seams?"

"Like that, very similar to how one can feel a gift build up, but all in one go."

"How long should it take before we can do that?" He asks their magic teacher, "And do you guys need to do anything else out here, or should we start heading back?"