July 2023 ver.

“Ow.” She scowled at the light sting of her nose being smacked. The brawler pushed the back of Rowan’s hand from her face. She sat up to take in the sight of him sprawled between her and Topher. She pitied her brother. Being on the other side of Topher wasn’t sparing him much. Devin shuffled herself and furs further away. Exactly why she chose to be at the end rather than trapped in the middle. Though, hopefully, she wouldn’t freeze with the extra distance from everyone else.

x x x

The next morning Franziska transitioned them to their first activity, “Now that we have eaten, perhaps we can go over material you sent.” She stood as she addressed Rowan.

He did the same, “Sounds like a good idea to me. Get all the business stuff out of the way. It’ll be clearer than trying to convey it in a letter.”

“Indeed. It is quite intriguing to witness as well. Although, rather odd to me that it is not more well known.” The woman continued on as she went to a locked chest beside her work table. “Given what it appears capable of.” She removed a cloth sack that barely had any contents from what Devin could discern. The void mage gestured for them to follow. There wasn’t much else to do. The rest of them weren’t going to sit around waiting. Everyone ended up filing out behind Fran. Naretha would be the only one to branch off, wandering behind their settlement with the utensils they’d used for their meals.

The boys practically bounced after Rowan, so close that they collided when he stopped, “Guys, little more space? I’ll be here more than one day, promise.” They wiggled like they wanted to protest, but took a step back. Frani was also motioning for space as she wandered further.

Devin stood with Avery to Rowan’s other side. Her brother was ready to explode with excitement and brought his journal with him.

“I have discovered many attributes. We will start with basic. Capacity of small piece.” She removed a stone the size of a pea. About what Avery’s ring held and set it on an average, regular rock. The woman joined them. She settled the bag on the ground. Her hand struck out in front of her with fingers splayed. The command came in her native tongue as her fist clenched.

The piece spontaneously cracked in half. Devin jumped where she stood as the entire rock and a semi-circle of dirt beneath it were gouged up and compressed to the designated focal point of the spell. The collected earth then dropped to the ground with a new density akin to a cannonball.

Rowan’s eyebrows lifted, “Huh.”

Franziska tucked her hands into her sleeves as she met his gaze, “Size matters. Knowing that, while such small amount is capable of storing more than you would think, my spells possess more mana charge than it can hold. If it cannot hold it, it breaks and full effects are felt.” So if Avery had overcharged his ring it would have blasted him with his own spell? The older woman was ready to move on.

“However,” she fished another piece out that was also rather small, “If broken but preserved, it does not become useless.” She passed it to one of her children, “Otto, please demonstrate.”

Devin hadn’t fully processed that she may have just given her young a dangerous task before Topher was hollering, “Why does he get to do it!?”

“Because she said so!” Otto lifted his chin, quite full of himself and essentially rubbing it in his brother’s face.

The mother rolled her eye, “Both will have turn.”

This wasn’t enough to satisfy her human child, “But why does he get to go first?”

“Because your brother has been helping me work,” She attempted to reason with the boy again.

He cried against the sound logic, “That’s not fair!”

She challenged, “Explain how it is not fair.” Now the brawler was remembering why children never seemed like a great idea before.

His lips pressed together even tighter as he glared at his mom, “It just isn’t! I should get to go first!” He went to snatch the object from Otto.

“H-Hey!" One boy latched onto the hands of the other and soon they were all staring rather unamused at the tangled mass of child rolling about on the ground.

“Topher! Otto!” Fran went to say more, but then Rowan touched her shoulder.

“You’re the bad guy all the time. Let me do it.” While she hadn’t been expecting him to step in, she relinquished control to her friend. Their cousin inched closer, examined the way they were knotted around each other, then lunged in. He came back with an ear apiece. “Boys! If you can’t take turns then neither of you get to do any magic today at all!” Rowan swapped to a grip on the backs of their collars. They whined in unison as they were further dragged apart.

“This is all your fault!” Topher accused Otto. She didn’t get how kids thought at all.

Otto, of course, countered, “Nuh uh! It wasn’t your turn yet!”

Rowan upped his threats, “Don’t make me send you back into the house too. No more arguing, got it!?” Timid compliance. He loosed them then threw out a palm. “Give me the stone.” Topher deposited it as commanded. They both stood with shoulders scrunched up, sulking, and very purposefully not looking at each other in the slightest.

One mage turned to the other, seeking direction that she soon gave, “Give your weakest spell.” Rowan looked at the substance he had pinched, shrugged, then stared at it even harder. It morphed to a red color. It was still functional despite being a piece she claimed to have overloaded before. “Of course you chose fire. I am sure you have noticed that color corresponds to the element it is filled with. It seems to have a unique one for each and for every viable combination.” Fran commanded, “Now. Again.”

He flashed her a nervous glance, given her display from just seconds ago, “Uh, okay?” The man held it out further from him and once again charged it with the same spell. It glowed briefly before settling back to the same state as before. Their cousin put it together quickly, about to say something when someone else burst first.

Avery spilled the question, “You can keep putting more into it if it’s not full!?”

The void mage nodded then added, “Yes, but if overcharged as demonstrated before, all that is stored will be released. It must be used with care.”

She wasn’t given time to naturally shift to her next observation before Avery was asking another question, “Have you tried combining spells? Like using the stone as a proxy to make common spell combinations? Healing magic or lightning o-or maybe lava magic!?”

Single green eye fixated upon the teenage boy, “No. Actually. I have not.”

“M-May I?” Franziska was already giving him some. He handed his journal off to his sister then put some distance between himself and the rest of the group for safety purposes. Avery pivoted enough for them to see.

Of course it took a little more for him to cast than it did Rowan, but after a wave of a hand and a few demands for wind the stone was soon matching the color on his ring. From there he switched to calling upon water.

Devin took a step forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Rowan, “…what’s he making?”

The man cracked his stupid grin out, “He’s going big. He’s making lightning.”

She canted her head with the squint of an eye, “Wind and water make lightning?” The stone flashed a dark green blue before changing to a far lighter, almost purple, shade of blue.

Their cousin nodded, “Yeah, natural lightning is… well I can’t explain it very well. That’s more gramps’ forte.”

“The atmosphere stuff?” was her shortened way of supplying that she knew the basics.

“Right!” That pointer of his lifted, “Wind and water magic combined correctly nets a spell that creates the right charge conditions for a lightning strike.” Her ears went flat as Avery signaled he was ready. How loud was this going to be? He targeted nothing in particular in the distance.

She knew it was coming and yet the booming thunder clap puffed her fur. A few blinks cleared the glare it left in her retinas. It wasn’t a candle, but it was significantly less bright than she thought it would be. Maybe because it was small. Maybe because it was artificial.

Avery spun around, “Y-you guys saw right!?” He was super charged as well. “This stuff is so awesome! I’ve never been able to cast lightning before!” The stone had fizzled back to gray and he returned it to Franziska.

She rolled it in her grasp, “List of useful qualities grows longer, stepping stone for combination balancing. I will have to make note of it.” Speaking of notes, Avery eagerly reclaimed his journal to scrawl something himself.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The void mage didn’t seem to have more demonstrations yet, merely explanation, “I have also tested if grouping several separate pieces together will have same capacity as whole. It does. However, the spell will be split as the material is. Thus weaker versions of initial charge. I also learned that one should not break single intact piece while charged.”

The boys tittered like little gremlins, one proclaiming, “Mama got wet!” At least they were regaining some pluck.

Frani blinked at her son ratting her out with a deadpan, “Very.” She didn’t linger on this long. “There are still more attributes I wish to touch on. Though…” Her gaze fell upon her boys with a scowl that gave her shivers, “I may not be able to demonstrate one since mine boys cannot behave today.” They both averted from her.

She sighed and handed the stone to Avery again, “Please recharge with spell of choice.”

“O-okay?” He tucked his book under arm to accept it again. “Um… earth?” The teen frowned as it didn’t react. Avery had to up his dramatics to get the thing to change to a brown color. The void mage reclaimed it, took a few steps then commanded the spell to release only for nothing to happen. She did it once more to hammer the point.

Rowan took a guess, “Only the caster can invoke the spell?”

“Not quite.” The object was passed to him. He took it slowly, questioning if what she was suggesting was really going to work. The young man went to use it.

“Is something supposed to happen?” Topher asked. It didn’t work for Rowan either.

Franziska huffed, “I was afraid of that. Only mineself and Topher would be able to demonstrate.” The boy took a step forward, excited, only for his mother to give him the brush off, “No, this is not exception to your punishment. No magic practice for either of you today.”

The woman simply elaborated on the topic verbally, “You are not close enough in relation to demonstrate.” She was stating it as emotionless fact, but having it brought to light still hurt. “Though similarities can be found among strangers, it is quite common for those closely related to possess similar energy signatures in their mana. Enough so that the stone cannot differentiate finer detail and another can invoke stored spell.”

“Now, it can also be released without spell effects. Or perhaps more accurately stated, reabsorbed. Physical contact will be necessary.” So once again the material changed hands. “Envision energy of your spell. See it flow back into your body, refilling your well.” He had to close his eyes, but it was successfully drained to gray once more, and Avery seemed to sense when it happened. Another little smile came over him at this. “Of course, conversion remains imperfect with energy lost just as it is when invoking. Never more than half can be reclaimed.”

This time the sack was held open for him to drop it in with the rest. Rowan, who also remembered he was still holding onto his own, drained and added it to the collection. The void mage then fished out a much larger portion. An irregular mass larger than her fist. The felines gave it alarmed stares. It was clear as crystal as Franziska had already stored her own magic within it.

“I-Is that safe?”

“Not really, no.” She gave another command to the stone. It glowed as more mana was dumped in yet again. “I have been adding charges to this to no avail. It still seems to be nowhere near its maximum after weeks.”

Avery was squeaking panic, “So you could have overloaded it just now and crushed us all?”

“No. I can feel that it is still not full. There is a sense of… I am not sure how to put to words. I am curious as to when it will reach its limits.” She replaced it in the sack as it was. “This concludes mine discoveries.”

x x x

The boy was staring at her. How did people interact with kids? Especially really young ones like this? Avery was doing just fine with Otto. Though they seemed to be chips off the same block. Otto kept excitedly asking more of him. She looked to her hands fiddling with each other, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Should she say something? What should she say? The girl couldn’t bring herself to even think of anything.

She started in place as she noticed Topher was leaned into her space, “You’re always with Uncle Rowan. Aren’t you?” He was puffing a cheek at her. His stare was accusatory.

“Uh, n-not really?” The brawler cobbled together a meek smile, “He visits you more than he did us. We’d only see him once or twice a year. He’s too busy traveling.” And apparently too busy trying to balance all these different aspects of his life. The boy eyed her in such a scrutinizing manner for a young child.

“You are now.”

“Y-yes. My brother and I are old enough to travel now. We weren’t before. Maybe when you’re our age you can do it too.” Surely Rowan wouldn’t still be at this ten years from now though. Right? The thought alone depressed her. She didn’t want to say something like that to Topher. “But… you’d miss your mothers if you left, wouldn't you?” She didn’t want to be too encouraging either.

Topher finally gave her some distance to stare at the floor, “Yeah, I guess.” They both sat next to each other. Devin heaved a breath of relief getting through a full conversation with the youngster.

“You look like Oliver.” She blinked. Her focus returned to the kid. He was gazing up at her again.

“Who?” There had been no mention of an Oliver.

“Oliver!” Topher sprung off to go digging around the tupiq. He eventually hopped back to present a stuffed animal. A brown cat.

Her face flushed. “Oh, I suppose I do.” It was shaped exactly like the one she had back home except slightly lopsided and patched. This was the one that Aunt Luci had made for Rowan, wasn’t it? The very first one of the set.

x x x

“Uncle Rowan!” Otto ran over, “How do you spell your name?”

“You guys are already reading and writing?” He collected the items offered by the boy. Stone on stone materials. “I can only write in Sibellian script.”

“That’s okay! Mama said um. Um.” Either he was having trouble remembering what she said or finding the words. “Cy-bell is more important!” Or maybe, apparently, he was struggling to say ‘Sibellian’. He really butchered it. Then he nodded to stress the fact. So Rowan wrote his name and presented it. Otto read each letter and asked if he was right.

Of course his uncle was beaming with pride, “Yup!” He then darted over to Avery to do the same. Before she knew it the chimera was looking at her with a big smile and offering the tablet.

“D, E, V, I, N?” Otto went through each letter like the others.

“Mhmm!” She lounged again with a curl of the tail.

“You should put down your real name for him.” Her face darkened with dread. That damn man was cackling from across the living space.

Otto tilted his head, “Huh? Devin isn’t your name?”

“It’s… a nickname.” She really didn’t want to get into this. Again. Those two really liked rubbing it in her face whenever they possibly could.

“What’s it really? How come you don’t use it? Could you spell it for me?” She sighed and took the items back. She had to sit up for this. Devin proceeded to write ‘Dravidant’ as best she could in the small space allotted with such a thick writing instrument. Otto eagerly latched onto the object again then his eyes went wide. “That’s… so many letters.”

“Yes. Yes, it really is.”

“How… do you say it?”

It wasn’t really that hard, but, “…just keep calling me Devin.”

“Um.” It didn’t take any pressure at all for him to agree, “O-okay.”

Franziska came to peek and chuckled, “Is not that long.”

“It isn’t?” His mother took the slab of stone and licked a finger to rub away the other tediously long name to write her own in the space. She returned it to her child. “Mama is this your name!?” He started counting the letters aloud.

“Mhmm!” She kissed the top of his head, “It is pronounced Franziska. Fran is only nickname like Devin.”

“What about mommy?”

“Retha is also only nickname.” Her child shoved the slab at her. Another light chuckle, “This one is pronounced Naretha.”

“Why are they so loooong?” He placed a finger on the object to count the letters as he had for Frani’s name.

A new smile lit Rowan’s face, “Say, you can count pretty well now too. How high can you go?”

“Thirty! Topher can only do twenty.” Always a competition.

The uncle looped an arm around his child, “Ya know, I think the boys might be ready for card games.”

Her hand slid over her eyes. ‘Oh no.’

x x x

She felt a small breeze. It made her twitch. She wasn’t quite asleep anyway. Devin rolled over. The pelt that served as a door was falling into place. Her gaze roamed. She slowly sat up. It was Rowan’s spot that was empty. The girl climbed out of her burrow of blankets, taking only one with. The exit was brushed aside to peek out into the night. He was sitting a few feet away, snapping some twigs. The brawler slipped out behind him.

Her steps were quiet, and he jolted as she stopped next to him, “Can’t sleep?”

Rowan stared blankly at nature some more, “No. I know I could use a spell, I still might, but I don’t really want to sleep yet.”

She sat next to him. For a while. They had been here nearly a week. It would be time to leave the day after tomorrow. Or maybe it technically already was tomorrow. A devious curl spread over her lips at her thoughts.

The girl donned her best casual tone, “So. You are kind of a slut, eh?”

His attention snapped to her so fast she thought he’d break something, “I-. W-we didn’t-.” He looked away and cleared his throat, “Fran and Narls and I d-didn’t actually… you know.”

“Ah.” More silence, thumb twiddling, and scenic views. Devin let her head tip up. The stars seemed brighter so far north, “It’s pretty nice here.” Perhaps it was the crisp air. She took a lungful thinking about it.

“Yeah.” His answer was empty.

“The boys seem really attached to you.” He rubbed at his neck. She went on, “And you really seem to enjoy being with them.” Her cousin still didn’t say anything and she sighed. “You know, I bet gramps would support you if you wanted to stay here all the time. If you wanted to put all your efforts into helping bring up Topher and Otto.”

Rowan resumed snapping twigs, “Yeah, that’s kind of why I haven’t told him. Part of why I didn’t tell you either.” He paused before pulling out an apology, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys. Just because I couldn’t tell you about the chimera thing didn’t mean I couldn’t tell you that Topher and Otto were… are…” For some reason he couldn’t say it.

“You certainly could have given us a little warning, especially if they’re not supposed to know yet,” she shrugged, “but maybe we should have been able to put two and two together.”

“I tried to tell you, if that’s worth anything. I just… couldn’t.” He slumped.

“Eh? Why not?”

“Because I-. I regret it.”

She couldn’t contain the shock of it, “What?” But the way he got along with the boys…

“I regret agreeing to it. I was barely seventeen. Fran is my only friend from… before. I wanted to help her. Then Retha’s situation on top of it.” He was tangling a hand into his hair. “I didn’t think it through enough. I didn’t think about everything it would mean or could mean. I don’t-.” His head dropped. “I don’t mean that I don’t like them. Topher and Otto are great kids. Even when they’re little spat-throwing demons.”

He briefly smiled at the ground, “I love them. A lot actually. And I know I’m not the one raising them, but I… I shouldn’t be anyone’s father in any sense of the word. Every time I come here all I end up thinking is, ‘They’re so happy. How much longer is that going to last?’ Because it can’t last. Because they’re mine. Because they’re forever connected to me. I tried to stay away, like that would help, but I couldn’t even do that right either.” He took a deep breath, “If I knew it was going to feel like this, I never would have done it.”

Devin could only bring herself to scoff, “You really do believe your existence causes tragedies, don’t you? Rowan-.”

“No. It’s not that.” Blue met green. “Devin… I know you feel differently, but you’re lucky. You’re lucky you’re not actually related to gramps. We’re messed up. He is. My mom is,” he looked away to chuck his broken twigs, “and I am too.”

She clutched her knee. She had to before she slapped him. Instead, a few teeth flashed in a smile. “You know, Rowan,” the hurt bled into her voice as a tremor, “no one can piss me off quite like you do.”

The man dragged himself up, ready to flee from his own words, “I’m sorry, that came out…” He didn’t know how to finish so he avoided it entirely, “I’m… I’m going for a walk.”