It was the last week of Cantam, marking the end of spring, summer was just around the corner. Reese’s sword training was…
THWACK.
The same.
School on the other hand was getting slower, the last day almost here, where they would break for the heavy planting season.
But after work, the magical day he had been working towards had finally come. In his pouch, was 90 silvers worth of both silver and copper coins. Exactly the promised amount of one gold and 30 silvers, or the equivlent. Charston seemed less than excited to give Reese the book. “Here’s your book as agreed. Don’t come back.”
For a moment he didn’t know if the man was joking or not, as he stood there waiting for a punch line or a laugh that didn’t come.
“Well, what are you standing there for? The store’s closed, get out.”
“… But, you still want me to work here, right?”
The old man seemed almost confused by the question. “Why do you want to still work here? You got your book.”
“I mean, despite your abuse. I kind of like working here. Pay sucks but the benefits are nice.” He considered the handful of books he had been able to read in his time there. Under the guise of inspecting for more bugs. Also, he kind of like the crochety old man, he had more stories then there were books in the store.
Plus, there were still more books he wanted. A new tome on “Runic Magic and Enchantments” had caught his attention. It seemed like a great jumping off point from this one. The 5 gold price tag though, would take some time to afford. Maybe he could get Charston to come down a bit on that one as well.
“Ha, you just want more free books.” The old man tried to dismiss him.
“I mean, I do want more books, but I’m willing to work and earn them. And, honestly, I like listening to your stories.”
“Bah!” Again, he tried to wave Reese off. He didn’t really need his help, even if it was useful at times.
“I’m serious. You know a lot, stuff I’ve never seen written down before.” He could only sigh, it didn’t feel like he was winning this. “Look, if you really want to let me go, fine. But, I’m willing to keep working if you’ll keep me around.”
The old man didn’t really seem able to process it all. Just as he grabbed for the door, Charston stopped him, “Wait… You know how to bind books now, so that’s useful. I’m used to people trying to get over on me. You’ve seen them, they talk you down to a price that’s just not reason. Five silvers for a book that’s Five gold. I guess, I assumed you were just here to get that book for cheap.”
“I guess, I could still use some help…” He paused, considering, a rare and pure smile graced his old face, “Why not. Aren’t many kids who like books like you do. Don’t worry about tomorrow though, I’ve got someone visiting, I’m keeping the shop closed.”
With a nod and a smile, Reese left the store, unable to see the old man wipe at his eyes when he walked out of the shop, nor would he ever see that. Charston always made it a point to hid his feelings behind brashness and abrasion. Even more so around those he considered his friends. He never really considered that the kid would become one of his.
Emilie wasn’t around today, something about cleaning out the store for summer, so the evening proved the perfect opportunity to get started on the new book. Which as he opened contained page after page of Explanations, examples, even a few simple ‘starter’ projects. It was very weak on the theory of it all. But for the practical aspects, it was exactly what he needed.
On his work bench were some small mana stones. All very crude and of poor quality. No one would use them in a real-life project being to small and weak, but for him, they were perfect.
The first pages of his book were great. He had seen a handful of enchantments, but never put together why they all seemed to have gold. The book literally explained it.
Channeling mana around had to be done with gold. Gold would conduct all the mana forces without issue. But was obviously expensive. Silver could be used, but would need to be kept clean. Tarnish could cause issues, particularly with Fire, Water and Pure Light mana. Copper would be good for moving Fire Mana around, but other manas wouldn’t move well.
Glass was weird, literally, the entire passage on glass was it was weird and should be avoid. Well, the book used a word that meant unpredictable or strange. It was hard to tell what it meant.
To make an enchantment, you had to draw a pattern on an item you wanted enchanted. Usually with gold. The pattern seemed to determine what actually happened, but some enchantments needed more mana, more power. So, you would use mana stones to boost it.
It was all quite simple, when it came down to it. But there were warnings about mixing enchantments, only one per object. Why though? The book was sparse on the details there, just don’t do it.
The rest of the book was mostly example enchantments. Some of which looked familiar to spell glyphs, but not the same, also, massively simpler in every case. It was a notable point, where they simpler because this book was aimed at entry-level enchanting or something else?
The last chapter held some interesting warnings, and risks. The very last page in particular held a macabre warning on something called “Flesh Enchantments”, but didn’t go into any real detail beyond a note to stay away from them.
Looking back the similarities between the new enchantments and the spells he already knew, was interesting to say the least. Opening his notebook, he compared one he had sketched out. A very simple ‘Light Fire’, not even a fire bolt, just a spell to create a flame near your hand. In the book was a flame enchantment for a sword. The two had similarities but were clearly different. The same three sets of line appeared, but the enchantment had a much simpler construction. Some of the shapes reminded him of the movements he did when he silently casted a spell. There was connection here, a deep one. He just couldn’t see it all yet.
The book gave great examples, and explanations of how to build simple circuits. But continually failed to mention the theory or ideas behind why. All enchantments needed to pull mana from somewhere, even those with mana stones, but again not all. Why?
More notes in his notebook, questions to ponder later. For now, he wanted to try something.
One thing he clearly struggled with was mana storage. He could use and manipulate what was around him, but he could never hope to store any. So this one enchantment that extended a person’s mana reserves really appealed to him, but it was an extension and it seem like you need a gate for it to work. So that was out for now.
Another seemed simple enough, the symbol should channel metal mana into the object it’s attached to, hardening it. In theory, it would take mana from the user to charge up. Of course, he didn’t have any so, it wouldn’t work either. Maybe he could modify it to use a mana stone instead, one day.
Finally, he came across the best fit so far, “Swift sword”. It seemed a perfect first enchantment and he wanted to try it. According to everything he was reading though, most enchantments had to be directed thru a person like casting. There was nothing explaining why, but not this one. For some reason you could use a mana stone or gem to power it, and he just so happened to have a small, almost useless sound stone it called for.
This speed enchantment was a bit more complicated than the others. Still, it was worth a shot being the only one he could actually use, for the moment.
An hour passed, and his work bench was covered in gold leaf and foil. One of the small cloudy stones glowed as the circuit fused to the wooden sword. What was a wooden sword worth 3 and 2 silvers worth of gems and gold, had now become, an enchanted wooden sword... that was still only worth 3 copper. But, it felt like it worked as he moved it around in his hands. It would be well worth testing, tomorrow. Charging the stone would take some effort when it depleted, but for now, it would work for at least a few swings.
“Let’s see if Gezal and Fortus notice this.”
The sword felt totally different then it’s unenchanted counter parts. Every time he swung it, it seemed to move faster than it otherwise should have. A fact that was made clear by the pain in his arm the sword literally pulled it along. Gezal couldn’t keep up, as Reese sliced at his side.
SMACK.
“0-1”
Fortus watched his son move. Immediately he could tell it wasn’t right, the way the sword moved. It was like a poor imitation of a “Flash Slash” technique, but only it was just the sword was moving fast, not Reese.
Again, Reese and Gezal tapped swords. A few forward thrusts pushed Reese back, but a quick block and parry made Gezal lose his tempo. A quick thrust forward, and Reese made contact.
SMACK.
“0-2” Or at least it would have been.
“Stop for a second. Reese let me see your sword.” Fortus’ voice was flat, as it always was, but around the edge a subtle cue of annoyance could be heard.
With a sigh and an eye role, Reese reluctantly handed his sword over.
As soon as Fortus grabbed, he knew something was wrong. The sword felt like it wanted to move forward with every motion. A slight nudge felt like a debilitating slash or thrust. It was clearly enchanted, but it didn’t feel like the infusion he used the last time.
Looking over the hilt he realized why. There hidden under it, was a small and simple enchantment. Somehow Reese had managed to install a speed enchantment to the wooden sword. Even if a part of him was impressed by the work and effort, it was in one word…
“This is cheating. Reese you can’t enchant your sword.” Fortus put the sword to the side and grabbed a new one. The various soldiers and knight stared at the wooden sword on the ground, unsure they heard right.
“Hey, did you really enchant that wooden sword?” One of them asked.
“Could you enchant my sword?” Another one laughed, and yet, they almost sounded serious.
Of course, his father didn’t find it amusing, “Don’t encourage him.”
Fortus threw the new wooden sword in his direction, a plan, simple, unenchanted sword. Reese knew exactly how this would end.
THWACK.
Falling back to the cool ground, Reese considered how good it felt against the burgeoning welt on his side. The whole exercise felt hopeless. He wasn’t allowed to enchant his sword, either directly or indirectly, he couldn’t use traditional sword techniques, his general sword skills were passable, but he couldn’t compete with someone older than him in the case of Gezal or in the case of his father someone who spent a life time learning the sword.
He hated losing. His old life just felt like a string of his own failures, compounding on top of each other. This place, felt like it was the same. The longer he laid, the heavier he felt. What was the point?
“Reese, get up.” The sound of disappointment in his father’s voice was evident, and familiar. It felt like in either life he couldn’t escape it.
“Why? I can’t win, and I’m not getting stronger.”
“You won’t get stronger if you keep laying on the ground, now get up.”
He wasn’t going to get stronger if he kept getting hit either, but there wasn’t much of a point laying on the ground. Once he stood up Gezal pointed his sword out, ready to try again, but Reese, just didn’t.
“There’s no point Gezal, you’re going to win.”
The older boy shrugged and forced a smile, “I mean you are getting better.”
“Not enough.” He couldn’t stop looking at that enchanted sword.
Ignoring what his father said, be picked up the sword, his sword and tapped that enchanted wood to Gezal’s own. Of course, he was quickly stopped by his father.
“I told you, you can’t use that.”
“What’s the damn point then!”
Fortus looked to Gezal, who was waiting for another match and sparring partner. “Gezal, go find someone else to spare with.”
With a hard stare, Fortus looked over his son, and gave a subtle nod agreement. “Ok, you want to use that sword, you can face me. I’ll show you why I don’t want you using enchantments while sparing. We’ll do this one without restrictions.”
With a swallow of uncertainty. Reese nodded his own agreement. Everyone else stopped sparing to watch the carnage.
CRACK!
It wasn’t even a match. Reese couldn’t see him move. The sound of the sword slamming into his side, and cracking in two was deafening. He didn’t even have a chance to block.
The fall to the ground was not soft. Not that the others where, but this one, particularly harsh.
“Come on, get up. You want to use enchantments, to see what a real battle is like?” For a second Reese was paralyzed as his side screamed so loud, that it became numb. If he didn’t already know what a broken rib felt like, he would have sworn his were broken now. Of course, he did know better, and they weren’t.
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The second time, Fortus was still just too fast. Reese couldn’t see him again. Like he was standing still, and then would just appear alongside of him, as small slivers of wood clouded around him. It was ‘Flash Step’, but at a whole different level. One he had never seen.
CRACK!
Another sword broken. Under his shirt, Reese could feel something slick and sticky. His entire right side was a mix of numbness and pain, and what he was now guessing was blood.
He knew the techniques his father was using. ‘Flash Slash’ and ‘Flash Step’, maybe also ‘Impact’ or ‘Stone Blade’ given how hard they hit. The first one was similar to the enchantment he put on his sword. It technically used sound mana. It was dangerous if you didn’t know what you were doing, you could break your legs or worse. Fortus of course, was a master of the Imperial Styles, he knew what he was doing.
Fortus grabbed another sword, only to pause when he saw the right side of Reese’s shirt turning red. His face dropped and his own blood grew cold.
“Reese… I didn’t mean to do-“ It didn’t matter what he was going to say. It didn’t matter what the rules were. Playing by the rules, cheating, magic, techniques, all Reese knew right then was there was an opening.
What little sound mana he could pull from around him, he shifted into his right leg with a flick of his fingers. A quick infusion cast. Bounding forward, he let his sword swing on its own. Following the path, the enchantment set for it. His own version of Flash Step, and Flash Slash.
His father wasn’t prepared. He dropped his own sword to parry, but it wasn’t fast enough this one time.
SMACK.
It was one hit. The first hit he ever made on his father. He had to cheat, had to break the rules to do it. But he got that one hit in.
“Damn it Reese.” His father scowled at him. Mad both at himself for hurting his child, and at Reese for just ignoring everything he tried to teach him.
“2-1” He couldn’t help but smile as he said it. Everything hurt, but Reese couldn’t stop smiling. He knew he had lost, and just had the one hit. One meaningless point he had clawed and bleed for, it was his. Like finally crossing that finish line long ago.
Fortus gave up and left the field. No one else was sparing anymore either, as they watch Fortus leave. Reese was left to consider his side. If only he had a gate, he could have healed that wound. Instead, he’d have to go home, find some bandages and change. He didn’t want to get his mother involved. She would have been mad at Fortus, Reese knew that wasn’t fair.
It was his fault after all. Wasn’t it?
When all was said and done he would be late for school. Again.
“Are you ok? You’ve been holding your side all day?” Emilie looked at him with worry before turning to Gezal. “Gezal, did you hurt Reese this morning.”
“Wasn’t me today. But, damn, he actually got a hit in on his father.”
“Your, father did this?”
“I wanted to use an enchanted blade; he gave me a choice. If I used that blade he’d go all out. I used the blade.”
“By the gods, that’s awful.” On her face was a mixture of anger and sadness.
“No. I don’t think he meant to hurt me this bad. I’m just not strong enough.”
It was Gezal’s turn to defend him, “Reese, you got a hit on your old man. Enchantment or not, I don’t think anyone’s done that in years.”
Reese shrugged as he left the school house, “I still lost, 2-1.” Spoken flat, as the truth was. Yet, it also ignored just how high that mesa was.
“So, are you actually, ok? I don’t just mean your side.” Emilie’s eyes held sincere worry and concern, as did her voice.
This wasn’t a direction he really wanted to go in. Of course, he was fine. His body was sore, but he would live. His mind hurt, but that was just because his body couldn’t do what he wanted it to. His father, well, Reese didn’t blame him. He agreed to go all out, knowing there were risks.
In truth, the thing that hurt him the most was that utter look of dread on his father’s face after he realized what he had done. It was a look Reese had seen before.
You do something wrong, because you want to, because it feels good maybe you don’t even realize it’s wrong… But then you look at the carnage, the suffering you made and you insist that’s not you. That’s not what you wanted, even if at the time it was. How do you live with yourself after realizing some part of you is truly a monster?
The most satisfying answers would require explaining it, to offer insights into it all. But as Reese had learned in both life times, the only real answer was always somewhat unsatisfying, just keep moving.
Which he did, right back home with Emilie in tow. Her concern was touching, but he wanted to turn her attention elsewhere. He had finally made use of his workbench as an enchanting table, and he had to show it off.
Enchanting his sword was a good starting point, but he needed something else. Some way to enchant his body, or augment it somehow.
Armor could be enchanted. Though most of the enchantments dealt with making it stronger or lighter. The handful of other examples seemed to be about increasing a wearer’s natural mana ability. Given the description and nature of the circuits, they probably wouldn’t work on someone who was gateless.
“What if you had a sound enchantment on the armor?” Emilie suggested and pointed to the same enchantment he had used on his sword.
It would probably work, technically. The problem was the armor is what would move, not him. That could lead to issue, like broken bones and ripped tendons. Still, it seemed to at least be the right direction.
He knew he could inject mana into his legs and have it, kind of work. Could he come up with an enchantment that did something similar?
“I like the idea, but I need something that injects that enchantment into me. If it’s in the armor, then the armor would get faster. Not me.”
“I see… This is complicated.” She wasn’t wrong.
Going over Reese’s notebook, she noticed some of his newer ideas, one in particular was strange. It talked about using mana stones to add numbers?
“Reese, what’s this?”
“That’s, a larger idea I had.” He paused to consider how to explain it.
“I’ve been playing with these mana stones before I even read this book. I was thinking, what if you could manipulate mana forces in a controlled sequence. Like here.” Reese took a charged fire mana stone and put it next to a dull one, causing the duller on to glow. As he moved it away the glow on the dull stone dimmed.
“The more powerful the stone, the quick the uncharged stone will start glowing and picking up mana. You can arrange these in a way that makes the uncharged stone glow when a condition is meet. Like a particular mana threshold. You could even measure residual mana fields using the same concept, but that’s another idea.”
“Uh huh. I don’t get it, how does that add?”
“Well, you’re literally adding the mana potential of each stone. Like, say you measure this small one as “1” and this bigger one as “5”. You put them in line, you can vary the distance of the uncharged one until it lights up. That’s a “6”. I mean, it’s non-linear, but you could setup a scale easy enough. You’d also probably want an anti-fire stone as well to subtract, but anyway. That was my original idea, it was all… analog. This is my new one.” He took the notebook and turned back a few pages.
The new diagram was strange to, well, anyone and everyone. It had 3 triangles with circles inscribed in a square with a circle end? It was odd, unlike any spell glyph she had seen before.
“Is this a spell or an enchantment?”
“It’s kind of like an enchantment. It’s called or rather I’m calling it an N-AND gate, or a ‘not’ ‘and’ gate.”
Emilie was even more lost.
“It’s pretty simple, the end of the magic circuit leaks a bit of light fire mana, but if you apply a light fire mana potential to each of these input lines it turns off.”
She shook her head, it she just didn’t understand the idea.
“I know it seems odd like this. But you can chain these together, and in different configurations to do complex things. Like add.” He pointed to the more recent page which read “half bit adder”.
For the next hour, Reese would explain the concept of binary mathematics and logic gates. How you could combine these adders in series to add even greater numbers. Emilie picked it up pretty quick, but just couldn’t understand the value or utility beyond curiosity. Reese would have to show her a working device. One day.
However, that led to the next challenge he needed something fairly rare to make this all work, Vortosum. A rare mana stone, that could change a mana force’s sign from light to dark, and back again. There were probably other materials that could do the same thing, but this was the only one he found in his books.
In the distance, the evening bell tolled. Emilie excused herself and headed home for the night. Leaving Reese to stare at his notebook and workbench. In truth, he didn’t really know why he was doing this. There was a certain amusement to it, but it felt like a calling from inside himself. He needed to do this, but couldn’t explain why.
Waiting for dinner, Reese continued to study his original problem of enchanting himself. He needed more physical abilities; a faster sword was better than a regular one. But it wasn’t enough.
The more he considered it all, the more it became obvious. Since he was wasn’t capable of doing what he needed to, the words “Flesh Enchantment” rang in his head. The words made it seem like you were enchanting a body. But, is that what it actually meant and could he use it?
His father was cooking tonight, for better or worse. So his mother sat in what amounted to the living room, resting her legs while she worked on some wicker project, maybe a basket?
Reese considered his mother for a few moments.
Lilith never talked about her past, or her skills. She was a healer, a good one from what everyone said. Though, she couldn’t do deep healing after something happened to her. Again, she would never elaborate. Still, if anyone in the family was likely to have an answer or at least a direction, it was her.
“Mom, I was wondering if you had some advice or could help me out?”
The look of surprise was subtle and accompanied by a faint smile. “Oh, you want my advice?”
“Well, you used to be a sorceress, didn’t you?”
“Used to be… You make me sound old Reese.”
“Sorry.”
“But, yes a long time ago, I was a sorceress.” She said with a mocking tone and larger smile. “Ok, I guess I can help. What’s your question?”
“The new book I have has a minor passage that mentioned something called flesh enchantments, but never elaborated beyond that. Do you know what they are?”
The smile on Lilith’s face dropped, replaced by one of concern and distance. “I don’t really think you should be looking into those they’re not good things.”
This told Reese two things, His mother did seem to know what they were, and they were dangerous. Both promising leads, depending on why.
“I get they’re dangerous. My book said the same thing. But, why?”
She said nothing.
“It’s just. I don’t think I’m going to get stronger with my magic without outside help. If my normal enchantments don’t work, maybe these will?”
“Reese, they’re dangerous and they don’t work the way you think.” Lilith sighed, and paused for a moment to consider her son’s tenacity. It would eventually lead him toward that knowledge anyway.
Conflicted, but resolute. She’d give her son just a basic overview of what he was looking for. Leaving out hard examples. “Lets… go upstairs to the study. I’ll explain what they are.”
Inside the study, Lilith pulled a kind of key from her pocket. It was a strange looking thing, the bidding itself was much like any other warded key. However there were small gem stones along its length as well, that kind of looked like mana stones. As she turned the key a faint glow emanated from the crystals, like mana was require to open the lock along with the warding.
Reese had never seen inside the locked desk. He had tried to pick it once long ago, but stopped, assuming his skills just weren’t good enough. Having seen the magic used he knew why he’d never succeed. Inside the desk was a rather large book, without any semblance of a title, or gilding. Just plan leather and, another lock on its cover.
This time a smaller key was used, but just the same, it had mana gem along its length. The book opened with a satisfying clink, and the first page was revealed. Reese couldn’t read the text, it looked like high elvish. He had only seen examples of the language, and had no idea how to read or understand it.
“This was my spell book from a long time ago. It was given to me by… someone I trusted, but probably shouldn’t have. There are very dangerous spells in here. But near the back are enchantments. I never used enchantments myself.” She paused, hesitant to turn the page.
“Reese, I don’t want you to write anything you see here in your notebook. These aren’t good magics, and you can easily hurt yourself or someone else. I’m showing them to you, because I trust you are wiser than you look, and because I know your curiosity will seek this out anyway.”
Reese nodded. His heart beat in his chest, both fearful and excited to see what was coming.
The pages flipped and he saw the elvish words but still couldn’t read them. He did notice the diagrams were quite intricate and complex, these were not simple spells. She paused on one page in particular. “This, is a flesh enchantment. It’s a strange term, not inaccurate but not what we use. Most mages would call these seals or curses.”
“So, they seal your abilities?”
Her head wobbled, “Sort of. A flesh enchantment is like an enchantment you put on a sword or some armor. But, it’s also different. You can’t use the same kind of spells, and when you try… you can really hurt someone.”
Pointing out some of the symbols on the visible enchantment she continued, “This enchantment, you probably guessed, is a flame enchantment, a Light Fire spell. If you were to put this on someone, what do you think would happen?”
“Nothing good I take it?”
A morbid chuckle left her mouth. “That’s putting it lightly. No, nothing good. The enchantment would constantly apply a light fire spell to the person’s body.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“Sounds like it would hurt, a lot. It’s probably, lethal?”
“…Yes. It’s a horrible death, and if you do it… right. It’s very prolonged. I’ve never used these, but I’ve seen them used. Against people I thought deserved it. After seeing them writhe in agony for days though… No one deserves that kind of pain.”
She flipped the pages. “This one is an interesting one. It’s called Abronox. Sometimes you’ll find this on armor. It’s not lethal.”
“What’s it do?”
“It’s kind of like a cheap dispel enchantment. If you want armor to dispel an attack you would make a magic circuit which creates a pure dark mana spell. But, pure dark mana crystals are very expensive. Instead, you can do this. It’s not as good, but it will still create a dispel effect. It also stores some of the mana that hits it. The problem with this enchantment is it seals your ability to regenerate mana on your own, even when on armor. So while you wear the armor your gate can only recharge itself through the enchantment. Spells cast casted on you get absorbed, but for a mage or even light magic user it would destroy their ability to cast anything useful. Engraved on a person, it would do the same only you could never take it off.”
She closed the book, leaving it unlocked. “Anyway. Those are flesh enchantments. I’m not sure exactly what ink is used, but they’re usually tattooed on a person’s body. If you really want to make them stronger, sometimes mana stones are put under the skin too. It’s painful both during... and after.”
“So there’s not any beneficial ones?”
“No. At least none that I’ve seen in any of my books. They all damage your ability to hold or manipulate mana at best. At worse, well… Spending days on fire isn’t the worst I’ve seen.”
For a few minutes the two sat in silence. Reese digesting what he had learned, while Lilith processed some old memories and horrors. A final shake of her head and she looked down at Reese with a bitter smile. “Unpleasant topic, isn’t it?”
He nodded, and began to leave. As Reese left, he turned and noticed his mother looking at the last pages of the book. A rather large and very complex enchantment covered the page. He couldn’t make it out in any detail, just the size and rough structure. The outline looked strangely like the mark his mother hid on her back.
Dinner was strangely silent, with Fortus having a look of concern as he constantly glanced at his son’s side.
“Reese, are you ok?” Fortus was his usual calm and collected self, but along the edges was something else, just barely visible. Regret?
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
Lilith on the other hand suddenly became concerned.
“Reese did something happen today?”
Fortus interjected. “It was just a minor issue during sparing.”
“I was asking Reese.” Lilith’s stare was sharp enough cut.
“Dad’s right, it was just a minor scrape up during sparing. I wanted to train without restriction. I got hit harder than expected.”
“Is that why your side is bandaged up?”
“I’m fine.” He protested, but Lilith insisted on seeing his side.
As she moved some of the bandages, the deep red and blue marks were evidence of physical trauma. For a second, she tried to apply some healing spells before turning to her husband. “Fortus, what is wrong with you?! He’s seven!”
“Lillith, you’re right, I should have stopped the sparing match. Reese just, wanted to continue.”
“Unbelievable.” She stopped the usless healing and rebandaged his side quickly.
Stepping in where she wasn’t wanted Nemi made an observation, that Reese would even have to admit was quite valid. “It sound’s like Reese was at fault for antagonizing dad.”
“Shut up Nemi!” The two yelled in unison.
The argument continued. Meerlet was her usual quite self, just watching. Eventually the argument grew heated enough that the children began to leave the table.
“Come on Meerlet, lets get you to bed.” Reese took his sister to her room, leave Nemi to clean up the table. Since she always insisted Reece could never do it right.
Even up the stairs the shouting could be heard loud and clear.
“Why are mom and dad yelling?” The young child asked, one of the rare times she actually spoke to him, to anyone really.
“They disagree about some things. They’re trying to get it out of their system, and yelling can sometimes feel good even if it’s not the best choice.”
“It sounds like they’re mad about you?”
“Kind of. Eh, it’s complicated. Want me to read you a story?”
Meerlet did something she had never done before, at least not to Reese. She hugged him. “I’m not mad at you.”
He returned the hug. “Heh, thanks kid.”
About an hour later, Reese sat in his room reviewing more enchantments and his earlier discussion and notes with Emilie. The idea seemed possible, maybe? Flesh Enchantments were a thing, somehow, they bonded to the body, like how physical enchantments bonded with an object. However, you could remove a physical enchantment, just carve it away. Could you do the same thing with a Flesh Enchantment? More to the point, could you turn an enchantment on or off? It seemed dangerous, given what his mother said, but it was something to consider. More questions in his notebook.
“Gods take you Fortus. How many girls since the last time?” Lilith practically screamed.
The discussion down stairs was still on going. Spilling into Fortus’ infidelity now. By the sounds of it, he had been less than faithful, again. Not sure how it came up, but well, there it was.
More than anything right now, Reese wished for a pair of headphones.