Unlike the old village, New Alkerist had only continued to grow since its founding a few years ago. I wasn’t entirely sure where all these people had come from, but the introduction of the teleportation platform network across the island had certainly encouraged traveling. With the knowledge of exactly how to ignite a mana core spreading and with the removal of the Wolf Pack agents scattered all over, just about every village was doing significantly better than it had been a decade ago.

With that came a need for bureaucracy, as distasteful as it was. Gone were the days of just plopping down on an unused chunk of land at the edge of a village, especially since in New Alkerist’s case, the entire town was surrounded by farms and had a comprehensive road and sewer structure running through it. They’d known the town was going to grow when they’d founded it, and that meant I needed to do some paperwork to claim a spot for my greenhouses to stand.

Well, someone needed to do the paperwork. It didn’t have to be me, just so long as it got done. Fortunately, I had a family who all loved me and included a father on the council. By the time I showed up with the mana batteries and seed samples, he’d already run over to the town hall and claimed one of the pre-sectioned plots on the north side of town.

“Does this cost anything?” I asked.

“An administrative fee, normally. They waived it for me.”

“Oh. That was nice of them.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve got a lot more credit with the town than getting a bit of paperwork done,” Father said. “The air cooling enchantments on the building alone make you the hero of everyone who works there.”

“I suppose so.”

The whole island was a desert with occasional pockets of life nurtured mostly by the people that lived there. Despite the surprising number of streams coming down from the mountains, very little actually grew out in the wastelands where there was no mana to nourish the plants. The heat was ever-present and absolutely punishing, so it really wasn’t much of a surprise how much everyone loved having a cool place to work.

The plot itself wasn’t big enough for six greenhouses, at least not of the size I’d been planning. Once I thought about it, though, that was probably for the best. If I was going to have Senica tending to them, she wasn’t going to be nearly as effective as Hyago. I built the three greenhouses over the span of the next few minutes and placed the mana battery in the first one, but left the other two empty. I’d have to come back and do the enchanting later.

Creating physical locks was a difficult task compared to most transmutations. Locks were relatively complex to shape, and doing so while maintaining the transmutation spell magnified the concentration required many times over. It wasn’t anything beyond my abilities, though I generally preferred magical locks, but I hesitated to make one.

My initial intention had been to craft duplicate locks for all the greenhouses and supply Senica with a key, but locks weren’t really a part of the culture here. In part, that was simply because metal was a scarce resource, meaning that farming equipment was the top priority for it, followed by weapons as a distant second. Impractical uses such as jewelry were almost unheard of.

Creating locks might draw more attention than just leaving them open like everywhere else. These were hardly the only greenhouses in New Alkerist, not since I’d introduced an easy supply of glass via an intermediate-tier transmutation spell. They’d be less conspicuous if they looked just like all the other ones. With that thought in mind, I left them open and resolved to doubly ensure the wards and enchantments were well-hidden.

“Are you ready to go?” Father asked.

“Hmm. Yes, for now. If Senica agrees to help, I’ll bring her back out to do the initial setup together. It’ll be good for her to learn that part of the process, too.”

We returned home together to find that Senica had beaten us there, and that she had Juby in tow. He was sitting at the table while she played with Nailu, his eyes shifting around and his muscles tense. When we came in, he gave us a quick glance, then did a double take when he saw me. I could almost hear his teeth tightening into a grimace behind his lips.

“H-hey, Gravin,” he said. “I didn’t know you were joining us tonight.”

“I didn’t know you would be joining us, either,” I said, claiming the seat opposite him. “Is this a regular thing I’ve been missing out on?”

“Hah. No, it’s… you know, Senica invited me. It would be rude to decline, but I can go if it’s-”

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

“Juby. Relax.”

Unsurprisingly, that didn’t do much to calm him down on its own. I caught both Mother and Father smirking behind his back, Mother’s shoulders actually shaking a bit as she tried to hold in a laugh. Senica threaded her way past the table with Nailu in her arms, slowing down only to lean in and hiss into my ear, “You be nice to him or I will make you pay.”

‘I would never be anything but,’ I telepathically replied.

“Hmmph,” she said as she completed her walk past.

For his part, Juby looked like he was about to pass out from fright. I had never seen him this jittery, and when I’d met him, he’d been an orphan who’d been pressed into service by a local street gang. By the time I’d caught up to him, he’d fully expected me to kill him on the spot, and he’d still managed to carry himself more calmly than he was doing now.

“How long until dinner is ready?” I asked Mother.

“Another ten minutes or so,” she said as she threw a look at Father. “Less if I could get someone to come help me.”

“You know I would be delighted to assist,” he told her as he sidled up next to her and put an arm around her waist.

“Assist me with cooking or with something else?” she asked.

“Whichever you prefer.”

With a snort, she slid the pan of veggies she’d been frying over to him. “Finish these up for me, then.”

Ten minutes was plenty of time. “Come on, Juby. Let’s take a quick walk.”

I got a blank stare from him for a moment before he scrambled to get out of his seat. “Okay, that sounds good.”

We walked out of the house together, me ignoring my sister’s warning look and him so relieved to get out the door that he didn’t even notice. As soon as we were back out into the hot, dry air, his shoulders immediately relaxed and the tension drained out of him.

“Did I miss something before I got there?” I asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that on edge.”

“No… it’s just…” Juby let out a frustrated sigh. “I know it’s not a secret and that you guys tease her about it all the time, but we’re kind of making things official tonight and I’m a bit worried that your parents are going to have a problem with it, which I know is stupid but that doesn’t make me feel any better so I’m just kind of trying to keep it together, but it’s not really working and I keep thinking the best thing to do is just run away and now you’re here so that’s even more pressure not to screw anything up and-”

“Stop. Take a breath before you pass out,” I said. “I’m going to tell you a few things here. First, my parents like you, and more importantly, Senica likes you. Second, it’s normal to feel nervous about something important, even if you have no reason to suspect things could go wrong. Third, absolutely no one is going to be surprised by the official announcement. If they had a problem with it, you’d know already.”

“I, uh, I noticed you didn’t include yourself in your list of people who like me,” Juby said.

“Do you really care about my opinion?”

“Well, yeah. Obviously. You’re, you know… You’re you.”

“So what? Do you think I’m going to challenge you to a mage duel for the right to see my sister?”

Juby gave an awkward laugh. “I hope not. It’d probably be a short one.”

“I trust Senica. She’s smart enough to make her own decisions. They won’t always be the right ones, but she’ll learn from her mistakes just like everyone else.”

“Are you saying I’m not the right decision?” he asked.

“No. I have no idea if you’re a good decision or not. But you make her happy right now, and that’s got to be worth something.”

It might not be enough in the end. Plenty of people had entered relationships that made them happy in the beginning, only to have things fall apart later. That was just part of life. But if Juby wasn’t going to be her partner forever, which no matter what it seemed like today, was almost certainly the case, she’d realize that and do what was necessary. A relationship didn’t need to last to the death to be a good one.

Though mine had. Her death, specifically.

I was probably the wrong person to consult on matters of the heart.

“Anyway, my point is that you don’t have a lot of reasons to be nervous right now, so just take a minute to compose yourself, then come back and eat dinner while you make small talk. It’ll only take an hour and then it’ll be over.”

“Right. I know. I do. It’s just a big step for us.”

“You’ll get through this. Like I said, this isn’t a surprise for anyone. If my parents were against it, you’d already know. I want my sister to be happy at the end of this meal, got it?”

“Me, too,” he said. “I care about her a lot, you know?”

“That’s good. I’d be wondering what you were doing here if you didn’t.”

More importantly, it was going to be a lot easier to ask Senica to take care of my new greenhouses if she was in a good mood. I was sure I’d convince her one way or another, but depending on how well the night went, it might end up costing me a lot more to persuade her. Juby didn’t know it, but I had a lot riding on him making a good impression tonight.

We lapped the block and the house came back into sight. Juby paused when he saw it, took a breath, and straightened his shoulders. “I can do this,” he said. “It’s just dinner with the family. It’s not like I’m a stranger meeting them for the first time.”

“That’s the spirit,” I told him.

“You’ll help me get through this if I need to be rescued?” he asked.

“Me? Hell no. But I’ll keep my laughter quiet so it’s less distracting.”

“You’re evil. I knew it from the first time I saw you. I just didn’t know you were this bad.”

He was more right than he knew. Despite how badly his life had been turned upside down when I’d bumped into his group in Derro almost eight years ago now, he really hadn’t seen how vicious I could get firsthand. It was lucky for him that I had a soft spot for kids, otherwise things would have turned out quite different.

I clapped both hands onto his shoulders and steered him to our front door. He resisted for a moment, but it was a half-hearted thing. We timed it perfectly, returning just in time to see the plates being loaded. With a final look back at me, he made his way to his seat next to Senica, who watched me with narrowed eyes before turning to look back at her almost-official boyfriend.

“Well, you don’t seem to be hurt,” she told him. “Good walk?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, his voice still a bit shaky. “Good walk.”