Chapter 25 Arturo

“Okay so just so we’re super, duper, hyper clear,” I pointed my finger into my dad’s direction with every word. “You will not do anything to scare away or intimidate the boy Melodia’s bringing over for dinner.”

“Okay I get it,” he laughed while nervously looking over at the door that was due to open any minute now. Today was the day this Ray kid was coming over to help Melodia with whatever project the two of them had to do. Mom had even talked her into asking him to stay for dinner.

Pickati had the ward ready to go, and he was already running his scan. After Ray arrived, I’d find an excuse to head back upstairs. Pickati would tell me if he was safe. If he was a mage I’d head back down, ready to keep an eye on him and speak the activation phrase if he did anything. If he wasn’t, I’d stay upstairs and work on the Internal Stabilization spell. I was close to pulling it off, and I only needed one more quiet night of progress to cast my first spell.

Mom was in the kitchen making a dinner for five. Unlike Dad who looked a little too nervous for my liking, Mom was on cloud nine. She hummed as she went, doing little dances as she cut and cooked.

“Hey Arturo, can you help me?” I heard Melodia call from the living room. I gave Dad one last flat look before going to see what she wanted.

“You okay?” I arrived at the living room in time to see her mutter under her breath and shift the table a bit.

“Yeah can you help me move this table,” she let go of the table as I walked over to it. I raised an eyebrow and put a single finger underneath it. The table weighed nothing.

She smirked before shooing me away. I let go of the table as it settled into place. Pretty daring of her, casting a spell like this while our parents were home. Was this a new development, or had I never noticed until now? Boy was I looking forward to being able to do the same with my book bag.

We heard a knocking at the door and looked at each other.

“Time for the moment of truth,” I told her as she hurried to the door. I went after her, making sure to watch Dad and stop him in case he looked like he was about to interfere.

She opened the door and I finally got a good look at her new friend and potential mage.

The first thing I thought was this kid was pretty. Like the kind of face that could be one of those teen idols girls Melodia’s age screamed over in a few years. I would have been concerned if she hadn’t already gone out of her way to explain this boy was just a friend and nothing else.

“Hello there,” he greeted as he gave us a big smile. Charming too huh?

“Hi Ray, you ready to finish this thing off?” I had to keep myself from staring at her. She was still a little nervous, but she was speaking to him almost as easily as she spoke to the rest of the family.

Ray entered our home, getting into range of Pickati’s scan. I watched his face to see if he noticed anything, but he passed through it without saying a word. The two of them made their way to the living room as I followed behind them.

“So what are you two working on anyway?” I tried to justify why I was still around before I headed back upstairs.

“Don’t worry about it,” my sister shot me an annoyed glare that caught me off guard, “go do whatever, we have things handled here.”

Well I guess that was my cue to head upstairs and check in with Pickati. I wondered why she wanted me out of the room so much. I slowly walked up the stairs and peeked back at the last second as the pair of them pulled out a bunch of books from their bags.

Books about the Inca Empire. So that was why she wanted me out of there. Too afraid her big brained older brother would do the project for her. Not my fault history was my best subject. I left them to their own devices before walking up to my room where Pickati was patiently waiting next to a circle carved into the wall.

“So what do we know?” I asked as soon as the door was open.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well if he’s a mage, he’s doing a masterful job hiding it,” he floated away from the carved circle. “I can’t feel any magic aside from the typical locked kind most children have. He doesn’t even have much of it.”

“So we’re in the clear?” I sat down at my desk as Pickati floated over next to me.

“We’re in the clear,” he nodded before his eyes trailed off to the side, “well, magically at least.”

“What other kind of threat could he be?” I pointed out as I reached over for my own versions of the spell books Melodia was making. Apparently Pickati thought this was the best way to learn magic.

“Well he could be some sort of emotional threat if has some ill intentions towards her.”

“I don’t think so,” I hummed, “I didn’t get that sort of vibe off him.”

“I’ll leave it to your judgment then. Either way, we won’t be needing this ward for tonight,” He landed in front of me and looked down at the book. “So, are you ready to try casting your first spell?”

I nodded as I felt the now familiar sensation of bringing up my magic. I quickly infused it with the concept of gravity, then layered the concepts for ‘self’ and ‘internal self’.

“Okay, you have it down so far,” Pickati encouraged as I pictured a pool of water in the middle of the woods. It never moved, and nothing changed about it. It stayed the same, even as the years and months flew past. I turned the image into a concept and layered it into the spell.

“Arturo, drop the spell now,” I did as he commanded, killing the spell before I could even cast it.

“So what concept did I make instead of stability this time around?” And here I thought the pool of water would work this time around.

“You made a concept of stagnation,” I winced. “If you had cast it, you would have slowly lost the gravity inside your body slowly over the course of a few days. Unless you feel like developing heart, bone, and other organ issues, I would recommend never using it.”

“Okay let’s try this again,” I said as I already felt the mana exhaustion coming in. I did my best to ignore it for now, but it still hit my pride as an elder brother. My sister was walking around with this spell up all the time as a training weight, and I was already winded trying to cast it once. At least we were going to eat dinner right after this. Gave me a chance to refill my stomach.

“Ready?” I nodded and brought my magic up again. We went through two more attempts, neither of them making the spell I needed. Instead I got another ‘stagnation’ concept and a ‘locking in place’ concept. By the time I was done with the third attempt, I was ready to either get into bed or eat my weight in food. I had maybe one last attempt in me.

“Hey don’t feel to down on yourself, your sister got caught up on this part too,” for some reason, that didn’t make things any better Pickati. I heard a knocking on the door as he laid down and went back into his plushie form.

“Arturo,” oh it was just my sister, “the food’s done. Mom wants you downstairs.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there,” I got up and opened up the door. Melodia flinched back when she met my eyes.

“Yikes,” she said before smiling smugly at me, “let me guess, stability?”

“I have never been more annoyed by a single word than I am right now,” I sighed and started making my way downstairs. “Having so little magic to work with doesn’t help either.”

“How many tries did it take for you to get like… this?” I raised an eyebrow, wondering what I looked like. I ducked into the bathroom as we passed by it. I flipped on the lights and flinched back when I saw my face. I had bags under my eyes and I looked paler than normal. It wasn’t enough to make people think I needed to go to the hospital, but they would think I needed a good night’s sleep.

“All this from three tries,” I mumbled as I leaned forward and touched the bags. “I’m almost afraid to know what I’ll look like after a fourth try.”

“Don’t push yourself,” my sister chided while standing next to the entrance, “trust me, mana exhaustion is the worst.”

“I’ll take your word on that,” I sighed as I felt my stomach growl. “Let’s go fill this thing with some food.”

We reached the dining room to see Ray sitting on one side and my parents on the other. Dad caught my eye and motioned for me to sit next to him so Melodia would sit off to the side. I sat in the place where he wanted my sister to sit without a word as she sat down next to her friend.

Mom opened up the pot at the center of the table to reveal the best looking Peruvian style fried rice I’d ever seen. We all served ourselves, Mom and Dad giving me weird looks when I served myself a way bigger plate than normal. Instead of paying them any mind, I glanced over at Ray who was looking at the serving spoon a little hesitantly.

“You alright?” I asked as he jumped a little and then looked over at me.

“Oh sorry. Back home my mom serves everyone’s food for them,” he explained with a nervous chuckle.

“Hey don’t overthink it,” I reassured him. Partly to be nice, partly because the sooner he served himself the sooner I could stuff my face with soy sauce covered rice. “Just take the big spoon and put the rice on your plate.”

“Yeah, there’s no weird rules or anything, take as much as you think you can eat,” Melodia reassured as she reached for the spoon and passed it to him, “come on, my mom’s fried rice is really good.”

“Okay then,” he took the spoon and I watched him fill his plate.

He served himself a little less than I would have expected, but as soon as he put the spoon back and reached for the rice with his fork, I started digging in.

I was pretty sure what I did to that rice would be considered a war crime in some countries. The look in Ray’s eyes seemed to say he was trying his best to not do the same.

“So how did your project go?” I asked once my stomach actually felt full. “You finished it yet?”

“Pretty much,” Melodia shrugged, “Ray still has a little bit left, but I’m all done.” She gave me a certain look as I understood the unspoken message. She was clear and ready to head out tomorrow.