A cool breeze made its way through the treetops. Not enough to endanger Isak in his watchtower perch, but enough to offer some relief on a warm summer morning. Leaves and branches rustled and creaked. Somewhere off in the distance was a voice that died down into something unintelligible by the time it reached the watchtower. Isak was busily making certain that he had forgotten nothing here before turning his gaze out over the village.

Inicios appeared almost as quiet as any other day with tiny specks of people going about their business off in the distance. A trading company’s steam crawler was parked at the edge of the village. Even from up here Isak could see that things were busier than usual with a connection to the wider Empire making a routine stop.

Well, slightly less than routine. This particular steam crawler would be handling some unique cargo when it left the village tomorrow.

It was still…too mundane.

Too quiet.

Isak shook his head and attempted to return to what he was doing. Instead, he found that he was very thoroughly done in preparing to leave his watchtower perch for such a long period of time. He had been done the last several times that he came here to ‘check one last time, just in case I missed anything’. Really it was just one final excuse to spend some time here before his journey tomorrow.

He took a seat at the top of the watchtower to relax for a moment and take in the view one final time. Eventually his gaze drifted to the southwest. Clouds dotting the skies were the only thing visible, but half a world away in that direction sat the island where that held the key to the rest of his life. A few continents and oceans away sat Black Reef Institute.

The place where he would truly learn to be a mage, with new friends, and new opportunities. No more being stuck in a frontier village when there was so much more out there. No such thing as a poor mage either, so he could even move his parents out of here too. All he had to do was make it through mage school.

With a ro–...unconventional familiar.

One which Isak had left down in the treehouse proper while he climbed up to this perch. Ever since he received it from his mother, gift box included, he had kept it in there to not be as close to it. To keep him from being reminded of it too much. And to keep from thinking about how clearly this was The Lord and The Lady testing him.

A final look from his watchtower was had, with his dark brown eyes coming to a rest on that spot where he had seen shifting colors charging towards Inicios all those months ago. Fingers dug into wooden rungs of the ladder before Isak shook his head and returned to the present. Other students either wouldn’t believe him or likely had far more heroic deeds of their own, Isak thought to himself as he climbed down.

Wooden rattles sat silently on the wall. All disarmed unless Isak’s father decided to reset the traps. Now that he thought about it, they may never be used again. By the time Isak returned he would be proficient enough with magic to find better work than hunting and trapping. Or at least, he could hunt bigger and more dangerous things. On purpose this time rather than self-defending his way through a horde of horrors from the space between the stars showing up out of nowhere.

Isak stared out the hatch that served as a window into the simple wooden structure. The woods outside were fuller now. More foliage on plants. Flowers in bloom. Animals had even returned to the area. The army investigators that arrived after the mome beast incident had concluded that nightspawn were the likely culprit behind the missing wildlife around Inicios. It was deemed possible that there was more than just mome beasts out there but no lingering traces had been found even in a follow up visit.

Not that it mattered.

Wildlife had returned to the area. Some would even make halfway decent familiars if they could have been captured. Or maybe Isak could have done enough trapping to make enough money to buy a worthy beast…after also buying his way into a big enough city that might have any kind of decent selection.

Instead…

The teen’s eyes rested on the small wooden box that sat in the corner. The product of his mother at her most frugal, and one of Kazimir’s ‘creations’. Both well meaning. Both had doomed him to a lifetime of humiliation. Isak kneeled down by the small box. It was just a simple thing. Unadorned wood. Cheap in make. Lightly sanded in a likely attempt to remove any decorations that would have revealed that it had previously been a box of cookies or iron nails repurposed into a cursory attempt at presentation.

Isak’s fingers found the gap in the wood, prying it open to torment himself with the sight of his familiar.

A ‘pet rock’.

Which was, by all appearances, a completely normal rock.

A roughly oval gray rock on some off-white cloth upon a bed of straw.

He slammed the lid shut and tucked the box under his arm before climbing down out of the treehouse.

“That’s it.” Isak said to himself with a huff. “Now I’m not going to find a ‘nice Lavi girl’ to marry even harder.”

The young mage seethed his way through the forest lit by morning’s light, footsteps falling heavy upon the well walked path.

“In fact? She doesn’t even have to be human!” The human nodded to himself. His village had exactly two non-human citizen species within it. One of which being the lone lizardfolk captain of the local guard. But the minotaurs? Isak would be lying if he said he didn’t find minotaur girls attractive…and having seen the occasional orc lady in the postal service? Well no doubt there would be some orc girls his age at school. That one goliath dancer he saw in a traveling theater troupe? She– “You know what? I’m not focused on non-human girls. Open to the idea, but not focused on it. Just not Lavi. And it’s just a coincidence that I’m not even sure if there are non-humans who are also Lavi. After all, it's her heart that matters most. And a non-human heart would literally and metaphorically–”

Isak continued to lie to himself all the way back home. As his house came into view he saw a starling perched upon a lone green shrub. It stared at him for a moment before Isak rolled his eyes back at the bird. “We could have been going on lifelong adventures if you had shown up sooner.”

The blackbird chirped at him before taking flight. Isak shook his head and continued until he saw his father in the family garden. Amado set down a watering can and waved his son over to him. “Everything looking good out there?”

“No horrors trying to end us all, this time.” Isak said with an uneasy smile.

“If you see any more, just show them an illusion of your mother giving The Look.” The man said with a wink as his son held in a laugh. “They’ll crawl right back into whatever forsaken place they came from!”After his own amusement died down he set a hand on Isak’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll still put the treehouse to good use. I’ll need all the help I can get without my hunting partner.”

Isak winced but offered a smile in return. “If you can wait long enough, I swear I’ll be making enough that you don’t have to work anymore!”

“Tempting…” Amado ran a hand through his beard, eyes narrowed as he pondered the possibilities. His face told a story of considering multiple possibilities of varying quality. “Very tempting…maybe just a bit of hunting for leisure and getting out of the house. Or maybe just fishing.”

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“Just tell everyone that the fish put up a fight worthy of legends.” Isak offered.

“Alright, you convinced me!” He stared off into the distance wistfully, then cracked a grin. “Who am I to argue with the local expert on legendary fights?”

Before Isak could try downplaying that particular feat his father pulled him into a hug.

“I raised the man amongst men who saved the village with just a few starter spells and a lot of smarts.” The young mage sighed in defeat into the forced hug before returning it. “And one who turned out to be a mage!”

His father was never stingy with the praise which always made Isak feel self-conscious. Though he could never outright turn it away. “Yeah, yeah…”

“And that’s before you went to magic school! You’ll be changing the world soon enough, son.” The man finally released his son from the hug to give him a more sympathetic look. “Nervous for tomorrow?”

“A bit.” Isak said.

A lot, was what Isak felt.

Amado looked to his son who was now as tall as he was and likely to outgrow him soon enough. He gave him a warm smile and spoke. “I raised you on hunting all manner of beast and monster. What has you nervous still?”

Isak chewed at his lip, staring off to the side as he considered his words. There was a lot to worry about. But there was no need to worry his dad.

“Well…people, I guess. Not as many chances to solve things with a spear.”

“Good thing you’ll be learning magic!” Amado chuckled to himself. “And if you can deal with Wastelanders then you can deal with some city kids. City kids who are going to be just as scared as you even if they’re trying to hide it.”

The young mage wanted to say that it was exactly that feeling of being the strange one that had him worried. Of being some nobody from a village that wasn’t on most maps. And a human at that. Not even one of the more common varieties of humans. Being of the Lavi tradition just made him a rarity within more rarities.

Instead of worrying his father with these anxieties, Isak took the much more sensible action of pretending everything was fine. “Yeah uh…just gotta get in there and start studying. Focus on that instead of being nervous!”

Amado ran a hand through his beard as he thought for a moment. “Now that you bring it up, I think your mother had one last thing for you to do that might help with your nerves. If you’re done packing of course.”

“Really? I mean yeah, I’m done packing.” Isak had technically finished packing on the same day he got his luggage. Not that he had much to take. There was plenty of empty space still left in the luggage for uniforms that he would be picking up in the district capital as part of his trek to Black Reef Institute.

The boy’s father nudged him along towards the back entrance to their small house. “Better see what she wants! Not good for anyone’s health to keep her waiting.”

Isak noticed a mischievous hint to his father’s smile but ignored it as he made his way inside their home. The smells of lunch being made immediately hit him as he entered. Not that they had far to travel in the small space. Scanning for a place to set down his things, Isak’s eyes stumbled across a moderately sized wooden box that sat beside the meal table.

“Get something from the traders, mom?” Isak asked as he set down his mostly-new-in-box familiar on the table, just above the surely more important purchase sitting on the floor.

“Those are for you, Mister Mage.” Ezter shot him a glance over her shoulder while she kept preparing lunch. “Think of it as the people of this village repaying you for saving their sorry butts.”

Surprise and eagerness was tamped down by Isak feeling like dirt for mentally complaining about this very box mere moments ago. “You…did tell them that I am the one who still has to make up for burning down everyone’s winter festivities?”

“No, I told them that they’re alive because of the only mage to come out of this village and that he needs some financial assistance in getting prepared for magic school so that he can go be a successful mage who makes lots of money and takes care of his poor mother and finds a nice girl at that magic school so he can give that poor mother of his lots of grandchildren.”

Said mother’s lunch preparations got louder as she made her way through her rant. All metal, stone, glass, and fury that Isak believed to be mostly directed at the other villagers. He did have to compliment his mother’s boldness and her masterful ability to wield guilt. Even if it was to squeeze some gifts out of the village. Even if it was technically for his benefit.

“Open it up!”

Isak pulled the box over towards him, lifting the hinged top to–

“Oh and save all the wrapping cloth! We can use that.”

Isak opened the box and vowed to be a successful enough mage that he never had to fret over saving rags ever again.

A myriad of items carefully wrapped in cloth greeted him. Taking one out, the young mage found that each had a small paper tag pinned to them to denote who had given the gift.

“You convinced everyone to give me all these gifts?” Isak asked.

“Payment, but yes they’re all yours! Now open them already!”

“You don’t wrap ‘payment’.” Isak mumbled as he unwrapped the first, a rectangular wooden box with dark splotches scattered about on it. He opened it to find an old fountain pen and ink cartridge set with several refillable copper cartridges.

Nothing special by any means but still immensely useful to a young mage no doubt needing to take many notes. “One less thing to buy once I get to Majra.”

“Well isn’t that convenient!” Ezter said with a smile that Isak recalled seeing on his father’s face outside in the garden.

Isak did have to admit that this was very practical as a gift…or payment for life saving services rendered. He looked at the name on the tag, finding “Mois” signed upon it. In the box he spied a wrapped object that bore the name of his wife “Palomba” with whom he ran a general goods store.

Unwrapping it he found a leather-bound notebook held closed with a brass buckle. It too was very practical without being explicitly necessary. Most necessities would be provided by the school but Isak had been dreading having to use all the publicly available supplies that would have made it even more clear how…humble his origins were.

Catching his mother’s eye, Isak was able to glean that this was very much deliberate. Pulling more gifts–er, parcels of payment from the box he unwrapped more practical niceties to aid him in his studies.

A small mirror, bone needles, steel needles, a compass, varying dice, a basic alchemy kit, books on magic in various subjects, flint and steel, obsidian arrowheads, compressed charcoal, a phial of cocoa powder, a small knife, and plenty more.

“Isak, once you’re done unwrapping all of those I need you to take this to Captain Zolin in the base.” Ezter had finally finished with a large plate of stuffed bell peppers that she then secured under a ceramic cover and fastened with a rope to ensure little could threaten her hard work on the way there. “Don’t worry I made some extras for you.”

The young mage looked from the extra stuffed bell peppers to his mother, blinking a few times before he got up to cross the distance and pull her into a hug. “Thanks mom, for all of those.”

The shorter woman hugged her son tight, all too aware that this was the last night she would see him for almost half a year. “All I did was encourage everyone to help you do well in school. And to not overwhelm you with all of these when you’re already nervous for your trek.”

The tiniest part of Isak wished that some of this had gone towards a proper familiar instead. Looking over his mother’s shoulder as they still hugged he reminded himself that these were all modest parcels of payment. Even adding all of them up it wouldn’t have gotten him much of a familiar.

Which would still have been more than an actual, literal, completely un-metaphorical rock.

One he surely didn’t deserve for being ungrateful like this.

“I still appreciate it mom.” Isak said, releasing his mother from the hug.

“And I know you’ll make the best of everything. This family always does.” She said with more than a bit of wetness in her eyes. “Now shoo! Captain Zolin is expecting you.”

After giving his mother a kiss on the forehead he hurried out the door with a covered plate of food. As he left, the young mage noticed his father was no longer working in the garden and had likely gone off on some last minute business before Isak’s trek tomorrow. Isak himself was distracted with similar thoughts as he made his way to the center of the village while munching on stuffed bell peppers.