July 2023 ver.

“Are you okay?” Rowan’s face dipped into her view.

Devin threw a fuller glance to her cousin walking at her side, “Yeah.” They were approaching the town limits. He was trying to pay attention to where they were going, but was fretting over her at the same time. So he kept on with the weird looks.

“Are you sure?” He drifted that little bit closer, lifting a palm, “Usually you want to tell me all the new stuff you’ve been working on, but you’ve been quiet since Avery and I got back.”

“Sorry,” this time her eyes drifted away, “I’ve been thinking. A lot.”

He persisted with his pestering, “I know I’m not around much, but you can still talk to me about anything. That’s what family is for.” But she didn’t have a response for him this time. She wasn’t ready to talk about it.

They both waved to the guards greeting them at the gate instead, “Hey, it’s been a while since we’ve seen Rowan head out with you.” They looked happy for them.

Devin replied, “Yeah, it’s nice to have him back.”

“Hope you guys have been doing well!” Rowan tacked on.

“It’s been uneventful, so pretty damn well!” They gave hearty laughs at their good fortunes.

After they passed, she resumed with her thoughts, falling silent again. What their grandfather had presented to her was a hard decision. But she didn’t have to decide today. Except, depending on what she chose, there was a time limit. She found she kept looping around to the same path again and again.

The two arrived at the edge of some woodland. The area where a swath of the trees had been cleared away for use as building material to be exact. Short grassland dotted with stumps. A few of them had obvious additional damages. This wasn’t their first time out here. However, she wondered, ‘What if this is the last?’

Rowan crossed his arms as he came to a stop, “Are you sure you’re okay? That you’re up for this? It’s okay to not be okay. We can do something else.” She only went a couple more steps herself.

“Like what? A rousing game of chess?” She cast a scowl his general direction.

“Well,” a wobble, “I’m more of a card game guy, but if that’s what you really want to do.” He lifted his mitts like he were helpless to refuse.

Devin shook her head at him, “You think you’re really funny, don’t you?” The girl took several more paces out.

“That wasn’t a great one, I’ll admit.” A big grin again. Yeah. Cocky his entire life.

She brought her fists up, “I’ll stick with this, thanks. Have to squeeze it in while I have you, don’t I?”

He shifted at what was an unintentional stab at his tendencies, “I’m sure there’s others who would spar with you. Maybe not many in a small town like this, but someone.”

“I could probably find someone, but…” She didn’t want to find someone else. The girl dismissed it with another shake of her head, “Just come at me already. No holding back.”

Rowan never made an effort to take a defensive position. Even after this most recent blunder of his. He still just stood with his arms crossed. He fancied himself a general magic user. A nonspecific mage. When he was ready, one hand went to his hip while the other swept out in front of him with only two fingers extended.

In a blink icicles formed from nothing in succession, roughly pointed at her. The first shot out, careening closer with intent to skewer. She very easily slid to the side and the hunk embedded itself into a stump behind. The brawler sprinted forward, trying to stay low. Rowan quickly adjusted as more solidified their existence.

Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Each was set on her core. She weaved to one side to have the next fired at her change in trajectory. But she was faster. The mage made no move and she drew back to sock him in the gut. A wall of ice exploded upward between them.

Her fist drove into the frigid blockade. He’d already forgotten something crucial. The points of her new ring slammed into the ice. Within a heartbeat cracks tore through and burst the artificial wall. Her attack carried and connected with his gut.

It knocked the wind out of him and he lurched forward. This counted as a win for her. Rowan stumbled a couple steps holding his new minor puncture wounds.

She sighed, “Look, I know I needed you to go easy before, but I’m serious this time. I’m ready for you to go all out.” It was too easy if he kept holding back. She knew he was capable of much more or he would have died already.

Rowan gave her a sheepish smile having been caught red-handed, “All right.” It didn’t take anything for him to heal such a minor injury. A simple swipe over it. “If you’re sure, but be ready, okay?” For a second she hesitated, noticing fear flash across his face.

They reset their positions. Devin squirmed at the way he stared her down, but the first move didn’t come. However this went, she had to close the distance. But what was he thinking? Maybe she should pull out her ace now, “You wanted to know what I’ve been working on, right?” Devin struck a new pose. One like a young belle offering out her hand to dance.

The magic energy within, her mana, sparked to life and flooded through her muscles. She leaped to the side, twirling as she went. She landed lightly and low before twirling again back to her full height. By the time she struck the ending pose, a copy had taken shape beside her. A perfect duplicate ended the performance with her.

His chilling seriousness lapsed, “Oh-ho! That is new!” His audible awe had the two Devins grinning.

The duplicates shot off in opposite directions, hoping to flank him. Rowan made no discernible move to call upon his magic. In fact, he crossed his arms and kept his eyes straight ahead.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The ground shifted, catching her by surprise. A crashing wave of fresh topsoil rippled out without warning. Rowan was its epicenter. Like the earth was a roaring ocean moving to swallow her. Since when could he cast without incantation!? Even their grandfather couldn’t do that anymore!

There was no choice but to jump. The second their feet lifted, vines sprung out from beneath the doppelgangers. They were surrounded in an instant. The vegetation snapped tight. Her double faded to nothing at the first sign of pressure. The real Devin, however, growled as she was entangled in the thorns.

Rowan turned with a smirk as he found the real one, “There you are!” He’d have no trouble claiming a hit center mass with her trapped. The icy skewers she had so easily dodged before were taking shape again. She writhed in panic, catching against the thorns even more. Adrenaline pounded through her, taking over. There were only seconds remaining between her and defeat. Without thinking, she put all of her effort into one lunge. The feline sunk her teeth into the tendrils wrapped around her right arm. A jerk back ripped it away. The icicles streaked toward her. One more tear and she leveraged herself into a new position. The attack narrowly missed and some of it sliced through what was left of her spiky prison.

She landed with a grunt, but was soon gliding on quick feet again. Devin went to take a couple jumps back. She needed enough time to buff up a different tactic.

“Don’t think it’ll be that easy!” A fire roared into existence, but not to engross her directly. Instead a wall of flames arose to encircle them both and cut off her means of retreat. Devin hissed. She glanced from the fire to her cousin. Even at this distance she could meet his eye. A decision she’d soon regret.

He gave a little three-fingered wave-salute, “…Sleep.”

The tension she had been thriving on vanished. The sting of her cuts faded. The girl stumbled as her vision blurred.

“No!” She slammed her feet back into her fighting stance. She had not trained long and grueling hours strengthening her mental fortitude with their grandfather to fall at the first sleeping spell thrown at her! Devin dared to meet his eye again before snarling, “And don’t you underestimate me!” She slid the toes of one foot in front of the other. Left hand flourishing toward the ground as her right arm lifted to arch over her head. A new fire burned in her legs now.

The fist fighter charged at double speed. It would wear off quickly, but if she could just close the distance! A fresh flash of fire swept outward. She shielded her face with her arms, pushing through as her flesh and hair were scorched. Almost there!

A sudden pain gripped her chest. Devin fell to her knees a mere foot from her cousin. She clutched at herself. “I… I can’t breathe…” She coughed and gasped, but her lungs wouldn’t fully expand. What did he-?

“Shit. Drink this, quickly.” Rowan had come to her side immediately. “I really wasn’t expecting you to pull that move.” He had a vial of some blue substance pushed to her mouth. Devin drank it as directed. A few seconds later she gasped again, but deeply and fully.

“The hell was that!?” She was winding down physically, but her mind was still churning over what unfolded. She stared at him, wide eyed.

He rubbed his neck and looked away, “Paralysis.” His words were thick with shame. “I hit you with it when you were shaking off the sleep spell. I guessed that gramps had slugged you through the same mental training that he did for me.” Rowan shuddered a bit at the memory, “So I doubled up while you were distracted. It’s not supposed to work like that though. I’m sorry. I know it was all out, but I didn’t mean to actually put you in danger.”

“How is it supposed to work?” Devin recovered enough to stand up. Rowan took a hold of her arm to start waving a healing hand along her cuts. A slight glow arose, emanating from his palm.

“It’s called immobilize and causes temporary paralysis in extremities. That move you did, it was the double speed one, yeah?” The young man glanced at her face for confirmation.

“Yeah?” ‘What about it?’

“I don’t think our magic played well together. The paralysis isn’t supposed to be able to hit hard enough to affect breathing. Even in someone who hasn’t had resistance training. Our latent energy is supposed to be able to fend off infection by another’s enough to prevent it reaching that deeply. The strain of dashing through it must have been more than your body could handle. I’ve heard similar stories mixing enhancing magic with debilitating magic, but I’ve never actually seen it happen.” Devin examined her aforementioned body. He had tended to all of her cuts. What he said made enough sense to her.

She bit the inside of her cheek and her ears went limp as this painted a glaring fault in her move set, “I’ll have to be more careful using it.”

Rowan went to drop himself on a stump with a nod. The way he slouched it seemed he was thoroughly exhausted. Far more than her and he hadn’t budged at all.

“Did you burn a lot of mana?” She came to sit on the ground beside him.

“A good chunk. Don’t get me wrong, I still have plenty left.” Maybe it was more that he was beating himself up over the mistake. He heaved a breath out, “I really am sorry. I didn’t know that would happen.”

“Well, if I had noticed the spell to begin with… it probably wouldn’t have went that way either.”

Rowan peered down at her, “That new move was something though. Where do you pick all this stuff up?”

The praise made her feel bubbly and a little bashful too, “W-well, It’s all from a book gramps special ordered for me. It explains channeling magic through the body rather than the mind. Since I’ve always been more into the physical side of things.”

“Wait,” he had to gesture for a pause, “so, you taught yourself from a book? And all of those moves come from there?”

“For the most part. The doppelganger move gramps helped me make by cobbling together motions from others.”

“That’s one thing I’ll never be able to do.” He looked at the sky. The concept of making a spell was a far off dream.

“R-really? You’ve never made a spell? I probably couldn’t do it by myself, but I really would have thought you would be trying to come up with spells all the time like gramps.”

He shook his head, “No. That is… way too much research. Gives me a headache thinking about it. Plus then I’d have to go back and learn all of the actual fundamentals…”

“Okay, so a headache or are you just lazy?” She couldn’t resist giving him a hard time.

“…both? Either? Doesn’t matter. Same result.” They were both smiling again.

“Speaking of spells though, why didn’t you use one to counteract the paralysis? You’re able to do that aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Habit, I guess? Sure it’s less costly to rely on your magic completely, but it’s safer to conserve mana. I always have a few mixtures to counteract those sorts of things.”

She was a tad perplexed by this explanation, raising an eyebrow, “But not one for petrification?”

“Uh, heh, don’t tell gramps, but when I came to that village… I did have some. I got carried away administering what I had to the villagers. Which was the real nightmare.” It didn’t seem like a happy memory for him.

“Oh?” She drew out the syllable to indicate she’d appreciate more of the story if he was up for it.

“Yeah. Helping people is fulfilling, but they can be horrible to each other. They were sick and still tried to fight over the remedies since I didn’t have enough for everyone.” More fidgeting, “Just to regain control I accidentally set a house on fire.”

“Accidentally?” They could both hear her air quotes.

“I swear!” The man was practically pleading with her. “I didn’t think it through and made a spectacle and uh… well I put it right back out. It was fine.”

“How,” she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer, “did you decide who to cure?”

“Well. I guess it should have been a hard decision, but it wasn’t. Younger kids only require half the dosage of an adult. So I administered it to the kids who were closest to being completely stone.”

She sat and thought on this for a while. He had to fight adults to cure children… it really wasn’t all glory. But what would have happened if he hadn’t come along? If it hadn’t been him who helped, would they have chosen the kids to save?

“Rowan?”

“Hm?”

“I’ve been thinking… I’m the same age you were when you left home the first time.” She fiddled with her dress, smoothing the skirt flat atop a leg, “I should start making some decisions about what to do with my life other than sit at the shop all day.” The girl lifted her chin, looking up into ocean-like irises. “I think… I think I want to do what you do.”