It had been some time since Loren had needed to explain what his magic was like. Fortunately, Sam listened more attentively than his little cousins, and didn’t interrupt him to ask is he could shoot lasers from his hands (yes, but he didn’t know how, and lasers weren’t as good as plasma), fly (again yes, but it was a whole thing because how to do it was restricted to keep kids from trying it by jumping off their roofs), or have super strength (no, but he could fake it for short bursts, long enough to open jars).

Most people understood that Flame could make… well, flames, but the more refined stuff…

“So, Light, I understand…” Sam said. “And Change too, since if you make something hot or set it on fire it changes… but why Life?”

“Well, there’s a lot of different explanations for that,” Loren said as he finished scooping up the last of his noodle-broth rice. “All of it come from the fact that magic is psychoreactive. Ah, that is, magic is affected by what people think and feel about it over time.”

“Oh, like how house spirits get made?”

“Yes, like that. For most of history, fire has been used to keep people alive. We use fire to cook the food we eat to live, we use it to keep warm where it’s cold so we don’t die, to Flame mages the soul feels like it’s made of fire. So fire became linked to life, and that’s why Life is a part of Flame. At least, that’s the simple explanation. There’s something about the sun being a big ball of fire being the source of all life, but… eh, well, I mentioned it, and it’s not like I’m being graded. Smarter people than me put it in more confusing terms with bigger words, but that’s the gist of it.”

“Wow…” Sam said, wide-mouthed. He still wasn’t used to interpreting the subtleties of payatin expressions, since the overacting in TV shows probably wasn’t properly representative, but he pegged the other man as either awed or fascinated.

And then it was back to work. They added water to the cement that he and Harmony had prepared, slowly putting in more and more as they turned over the cement until it finally reached the right consistency. Then under a concerned Rick’s gaze, Loren added oil to the cement, turning it over with a shovel one last time so that everything was as evenly distributed as possible. Unfortunately, oil and water was still oil in water, even in an alchemical mixture, but sufficient agitation with a shovel was enough to force the two into a semi-emulsion, at least temporarily. Once that was achieved, Loren was able to use his flame to alchemically activate the mixture, the oil being consumed to power the effect.

It had some unfortunate side effects. For one thing, the cement became hot, but since it was a sunny day the heat wasn’t too noticeable, and while the alchemical reaction was meant to cause the cement to cure quickly, it was a period of time measured in hours, and they could keep the cement pliable by adding water to it, as long as they agitated it to distribute the oil again.

Loren collected several stains on his jeans and shoes as he helped haul buckets of cement from where he and Harmony had mixed it to the driveway. It took them all the rest of the afternoon, but eventually the driveway was filled in and smoothed out with hand floats and finishing trowels. Then he had to make sure that the alchemical curing was proceeding properly, keeping it even across the whole slab. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but if the curing was happening unevenly it might result in the imbued magic being diverted from other areas, slowing the curing overall to normal levels…

Near the end of the work day, Steve had them all clean up the site. There was a little wooden shed in the back—Loren had missed seeing it earlier—where some of the heavier tools, as well as the bags of cement and the welding machine was kept under lock, key and magic. Once everything was inside, Malory had raised cylinder of veneplate around the structure, the solidified planes of magic surrounding the shed; Steve had added a layer of spiritform around the cylinder as reinforcement and to prevent anyone from trying to claim the vene to subvert it. Loren had been able to contribute to the defenses by taking some of the leftover cooking oil, and using a Flamecraft that would slowly consume the oil and convert it into magic, allowing the spiritform and vene to last longer.

“Can you do that with wood too?” Steve asked. “It’s going to get expensive if you keep using oil.”

“Oh, easily,” Loren said as Malory opened the barrier so he could put the oil bottle behind the veneplates. “But it wouldn’t last as long, since wood will burn quickly. And there’s nothing I can use to burn the wood in safely.”

“Hmm…” Steve said thoughtfully. “Malory, could you make some kind of box or something as part of the plate?”

“That shouldn’t be difficult,” Malory said. “Though I’d need to make the cylinder slightly bigger so the fire can be on the inside and doesn’t set the shed on fire… I’ll sketch out something.”

Steve nodded, then clapped a friendly hand on Loren’s shoulder. “Well, how was your first day at work?”

Loren looked down at himself. His fingers ached from carrying the thin wire handle of buckets full of cement, his jeans and shoes were stained with smudges of cement. “I feel tired,” he said honestly, “and achy.”

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Steve nodded in understanding and Malory smiled. “You’ll get used to it. Your muscles are only going to get stronger from here.”

Oh, he hoped so. He really hoped so. Loren had heard there were ways to use Flame to increase muscle development—as with all things, there was a way to use Flame for everything—but it looked like he finally had a good reason to look it up now.

Still… as physically arduous as this was, Loren still preferred it. He wasn’t looking forward to when they would have to deal with a haunting again. While Sara still made him shiver slightly because he sometimes couldn’t see her and the way she moved sometimes contorted her into inhuman shapes without her noticing—she’d once turned her head completely around because she’d had no reason to move the rest of her, and hadn’t even noticed—they had both settled down to what could tentatively be considered normal.

Any ghost that wasn’t her, however…

He just didn’t know.

They left the site soon after that, with many of the workers leaving on their motorcycles. Loren accepted Steve’s offer of a ride to somewhere close to his house, something that Malory, Loni and Harmony also took the older man up on. The air-conditioning was turned all the way up, as while nearly everyone was covered in sweat—Loren wasn’t, but that just meant he was oily and grungy—no one actually wanted to smell it.

Probably because he was less actually sweaty than everyone else, Loren got to ride shotgun.

Malory and Harmony immediately started chatting, talking about some new G-pop band from the continent whose lead was considered an especially skilled Phaustrian. Loren had never heard of the band, and from what the girls were talking about, it seemed a waste of a Phaustrian’s abilities to just coordinate the dancing and singing of a musical group. Wasn’t that what practice and rehearsal were for? It might make some sense if they were… oh, doing things blindfolded, or had a tendency towards improv dance in their concerts, but from what the two were talking about, they seemed to be a bog-standard pop band—

Ah, no, wait, the Phaustrian was apparently a well-regarded local vigilant who had recently helped in containing a keres outbreak in a hospital. That was probably why the band was in the spotlight at the moment—and what had probably brought the group to Harmony’s attention in the first place—although he would be generous and assume that they were maintaining the attention with their talents…

Steve, goddesses bless him, was playing 60’s Lasablican rock music on the car’s speakers.

“Oh, Loren and me can get off here, Steve,” Harmony said, which was news to Loren. However, a look outside the window confirmed that they were a few blocks away from Loren’t apartment, so he couldn’t really argue.

“Thanks for the ride, Steve. See you tomorrow,” Loren said, feeling a bit awkward as he got out of the car, which was currently stopped in traffic. Closing the door behind him, he fell into step with Harmony, who was walking confidently towards… somewhere. “So… you live here now?”

She rolled her eyes as she walked. “I’m taking you grocery shopping. You need better food for tomorrow, and as your friend I have you make sure you have it.”

“You’re not my real mom,” Loren said childishly.

“Very mature. I don’t know how you’ve been eating so far, but if you’re going to be working, you’re going to need to up your calorie intake, especially if you’re going to be doing more heavy lifting and alchemy. This isn’t college anymore. No more cup noodle lunches and salt-bread breakfasts, or at least not just those. You need sugar, protein, carbs… stop being cheap and put that diabetes and cholesterol-proof Flame mage constitution to good use. At least you have a rice cooker in your apartment, you just need to use it.”

“I use it for dinner,” Loren said.

“Well, you’ll be using it for breakfast and lunch, too. What do you have to go with the rice?”

“Canned tuna Caldereta or Adobo.”

Harmony sighed. “You’re going to need to buy a pot or metal bowl so you can cook your own food. Doesn’t need to be a big pot, since it’s just food for you, but you need to stop eating canned stuff.”

“What happened to putting my diabetes and cholesterol-proof Flame mage constitution to good use?”

He got an elbow to the side for that. “It’s not just for you, dummy. What has Sara been eating?”

“Ghost food moon cake?”

“And when did you last buy her some?”

“Last week?”

“So you’ve only been feeding her once a week.”

“Hey, I have scents every day. And we hold hands.”

“Lewd!”

He rolled his eyes. “Hari, canned food saves time, and I’m only really feeding me. With me working now, I’ll have even less time to cook, especially in the morning.”

“Then ask Sara to help you. At the very least, it doesn’t take much imbuement for her to be able to turn on the rice cooker, does it?”

“I don’t want to bother her…”

“Bother her from what? She’s got literally nothing to do at night but watch you sleep and listen to the radio. You should get her a phone. A brick one. At least she’d be able to play snake.”

Loren stared at her for a moment before a childhood memory resurfaced. “Oooh… that kind of phone? Do they still sell those?”

“Most of them are second hand, but yeah. I looked it up. They’re pretty cheap, so you should buy her one. That way, if you’re ever going to be late coming home, you could send her a text to tell her not to worry.”

That… was probably a good idea. Actually, maybe he could buy Sara some toys? Something she could play with that only required minimal imbuement to push around…

He shook his head. “All right, I’ll buy her some toys.”

“Good, but not the point. If you cook your own food, then you can use cooking vene to make it something she can taste. That’s another sensory input she can have, and you can bet that once you tell her cooking means she can eat too—or at least taste—she’ll be happy to help. For that, she’ll be glad to turn a rice cooker on in the morning, and probably count the seconds until she needs to do it. Radio’s nice and all, but tasting something…?” Harmony shrugged.

They walked in silence for a bit as Harmony let him process.

Eventually, Loren sighed. “What the fuck do I even cook?”

Silently, Harmony reached into her bag and pulled out a bundle of folded sheets of paper, handing it to him. Taking it warily, Loren flipped it open. In his mother’s handwriting was a list of ingredients and a recipe for Caldereta. His pace slowed so he could read all the steps, Harmony obligingly matching him.

Finally, he said, “I’m not cooking this. We’re having corned beef.” There were too many steps, and he’d need to cut the beef!

“It’s a start, I suppose,” Harmony said. “Come on, let’s go to the supermarket.”