I let out a sigh of relief and disconnected from the Spirit Gourd. Kene and Dusk both also released spells that they’d been holding, and Rebecca’s mana-garden seemed to relax.

“Grandmother,” Rebecca said, inclining her head to the old witch. I did the same, and around the table, I could see everyone else inclining their heads as well.

“Oh great, it’s you,” the father said. I glanced over to see him groan and rise to his feet, actually putting his beer aside. “What do you want?”

“Is it not,” the witch said, teleporting mid sentence to stand behind their father, “enough for me,” she teleported again, this time behind Kene, “to wish to see my grandchildren?”

Dusk started laughing, and I had to shush her. I got the sense that setting off their father would have consequences – not for me, Dusk, or Kene’s grandmother, but for the rest of the family, who would have to deal with him when we left.

“Whatever,” the father said. “Becky, you deal with her, I’ve got enough to deal with.”

With that, he collapsed back onto the couch. The witch shot him a scornful gaze, then looked at Rebecca.

“My offer stands, dear.”

Then the witch turned and looked over the grandchildren.

“Well, well, well. Who wants to go first?”

“Me!” Kendrick, Kaleb, and Kara all said in unison. The witch threw back her head and laughed, and I gave Kene an odd glance.

“What’s up with this?” I asked in a whisper.

“Oh, she’s just like that,” Kene whispered back. “She is our grandmother. She might be… Terrifying… to study under – I had to do some risky stuff for potion ingredients more than once – but as a grandmother, she’s actually quite nice. She cares.”

“Well!” the witch said. “How about…”

She dug around in her pockets for a while before pulling out a large centipede. And I do mean large. It was easily the size of my palm. She stared at it for a moment, then shoved it back into her billowing, ragged robes.

“No, no, that’s lunch for tomorrow.”

She then pulled out a sandwich wrapped in butcher’s paper, and shoved it away too.

“And I need that for a potion. Where did I put those gifts…”

Kendrick and Kaleb both giggled at that, assuming she was making a joke. I actually wasn’t entirely sure if she was or wasn’t, especially after the salad conversation we’d had.

“Ah, here we go, here we go.”

She pulled out a ring made of a gray stone that I actually recognized – Structure-ore – then fished around in it for a moment. She pulled out a sword on fire, then shoved it back in.

“I want that,” Kendrick said.

“Maybe when you’re older,” Rebecca said, in the tone of someone who absolutely would not be getting him a flaming sword when he was older.

Eventually, the old witch pulled out a wand, then handed it to Kendrick.

“It’s got a basic hex on it, it can cause a stinging sensation. It can also cast a few defensive charms on you. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.”

Rebecca started to open her mouth, but the witch hopped on top of the table, spun in a pirouette, and pushed a book towards Kaleb. To my surprise, I actually recognized the book – it was the introductory witchcraft book that Kene had given me, with some basic enchantments, potions, wards, and rituals in it.

“This is for you. Once you open up your ungated mana, you could start using a few things in it, like building the lightstones.”

The witch leapt over the chicken and landed in front of Kene.

“You, grandchild, are going to go to the sevenfold-eightfold-tower-place soon! Good for you, seducing someone with such great fortune. You’ll need this.”

She handed them a pair of… things. One was red, and the other blue, and they were shaped like miniature ziggurats.

She whirled to me and patted me on the head.

“You and Dusk aren’t technically my grandchildren – yet – but worry not! I have brought you gifts as well.”

She handed me a leather scroll, then handed Dusk a strange talisman made of bone and feathers that glowed with abnegation magic.

“In case you need to store a spirit for a while longer than you should,” she explained to Dusk. She apparently felt no need to explain to me, though, as she leapt over the roast vegetable platter and in front of Rebecca. Three vials of a glowing greenish-gold potion were handed over.

“No, this is too much,” Rebecca protested.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Nonsense! No sense! No cents! Money smell!” the witch cried, before diving off the table and re-appearing behind Kara. “And your gift is quite special. It’s not every day a young girl turns sixteen.”

“She isn’t sixteen for another two months,” Rebecca said.

“Close enough,” the witch said, shrugging. “Drink these, child.”

She pushed over a pair of vials, one of which was a purple-pink color that didn’t quite register to my eyes, and the other of which looked like milk with pepper flakes suspended in it.

Kara, to either her credit or detriment, didn’t hesitate, instead swallowing both of the potions quickly.

“Stick out your tongue,” the witch said.

Kara did, and the witch grabbed her tongue, leaned in close, and examined it. As the silence stretched on, I leaned over to Kene.

“What’s she doing?”

“It’s an old fashioned way of divining mana types and legacies. It’s a bit more artistic than it is scientific, but it works. She did the same thing to me, though I also got checked out with an official tester too.”

While the witch studied Kara’s tongue, Kendrick and Kaleb had gotten into a scuffle over the wand. I wasn’t sure which one of them had grabbed it and fired it on the other, since both insisted that they were innocent, until Rebecca threatened to take away both the wand and the book.

“Haha!” the witch cried, interrupting everyone. “I’ve got it. Kara, you’ve the Threestar Artificial Gates legacy, and a base of two mana gates.”

“Wha’ ‘oes ‘a’ ‘ea’?” Kara asked, her voice garbled gibberish, since the witch was still firmly holding her tongue.

“Speak up dearie, I can’t hear you,” the witch said, letting go of Kara’s tongue. She waved her hand and mana swept over her fingers, cleaning them off.

“What does that mean?” Kara asked.

“You’ve got five mana gates, and it’s a choice type legacy,” Kene said.

That led to a round of discussions about what sort of mana types she should pick, and indeed, if she should even open all five gates. Five types of magic meant she would have a lot of things to balance, after all.

The father, to my surprise, actually bothered to participate in this discussion. He didn’t get off the couch, of course, but he did shout his opinions from the couch.

In the end, since she didn’t exactly know what she wanted to do in life, she picked knowledge mana – that would help her with calculations and sums if she did go into business, and even if she didn’t, it was a solid, dependable utility mana type – and left her other four gates unchosen for now.

To my surprise, the witch’s arrival actually seemed to calm things down within the family, even after she’d finished distributing gifts for the holiday. I suspected that part of it was the power dynamic – with the witch in the room, Kene’s father was no longer the dominant power.

The witch got herself a plate and chatted away happily with the family, occasionally making remarks that were utter nonsense or totally out of pocket.

“What is your grandmother’s name, by the way?” I asked Kene as the witch levitated the twins in the air on strings of shadow, causing both of them to laugh hysterically, and Rebecca left to start the dishes. I rose to go help her, and Kene followed as they responded.

“No idea. I think she’s forgotten it herself, to be honest. I’ve always just called her Grandmother.”

Kene and I helped his mom wash up while the father grumbled about how loud they were all being and made Kara increase the sound amplification spells on the mirror. Once we were done, I finally opened the scroll to see what it was.

It was a spell diagram, though not in a style I recognized. It reminded me of a…

My thoughts trailed off as I felt the witch appear next to me in a flicker of mana.

“You are a beast mage, aren’t you?” the witch asked. “I thought that’s what I could sense of your magic. Beasts and plants are the overwhelming impression of your mana.”

“I’m working that way,” I said.

“Good. That spell comes from a bird that roosts in southeastern Aergarde, called the Surveyor Eagle. Put it to good use.”

She paused.

“Or don’t. I don’t control your mana. Only you control your mana, unless something’s infected your soul, in which case, you may not control your mana. But mana is mana, except when it isn’t, and when it isn’t, it still is in a way…”

She continued rambling as she walked away, and I tucked the scroll into the library and alchemy room in Dusk’s cottage. From her explanation, and from what I could make of the spell structure – unfamiliar though it may be – it seemed to warp my perception of space, essentially acting like binoculars or a telescope.

Hardly the kind of thing that would redefine my magical style, but it was absolutely a useful utility spell.

Kene and I spent a while longer chatting with Rebecca, Kara, the twins, and the witch before we said our goodbyes, thanked the witch for the gifts, ate some of the pie, and left.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Kene said, sighing in relief. “If dad had kept drinking without grandmother showing up, it could have gone poorly, but…”

They trailed off and shook their head.

“Thank you for introducing me,” I said, taking their hand. “And I’m glad it went better than you expected.”

Kene and I talked for a while as we walked, not heading anywhere in particular. I felt like Kene just needed the time to take the mental pressure off of them, and I was happy to let him vent to me. As we wandered, Dusk hopped off my shoulder and onto Kene’s, affectionately curling up on his neck, which helped relax him a bit more.

By the time Kene was relaxed, the sun had gone down, and it was only my prowess as a mage that made me confident in continuing to walk.

“So, did you want to grab a hotel? Or maybe head into Dusk’s cottage?” I asked Kene.

“Dusk’s cottage would be cheaper,” Kene said thoughtfully. “Are you sure that you’re okay with me staying with you?”

“I am,” I said. “Are you?”

“I am,” they said. “You’ve stayed with me plenty. But I can sleep on the couch if you’re not comfortable.”

“Oh hush,” I said, smiling, then I grew serious. “Not that I’m saying you have to stay with me. If you’re more comfortable on the couch, by all means, take it. Or I can sleep on the couch while you’re in bed. But you shouldn’t have to stay on the couch out of some… Sense of duty.”

“Fine, fine,” Kene said, laughing. “But where should we park the portal?”

That was a reasonable question. We headed towards the nearest park, and took a few steps into the trees, then opened a portal.

Technically speaking, we could have just left it on the street, but Dusk was only a second gate spirit, even if she was an extremely potent one. The wards and defenses she had from when she was a key were around, and had even been enhanced some with Bwbatch magic, but I wasn’t eager to test out the defenses unless I absolutely had to.

Once inside, Dusk hung up her new bone charm inside the alchemy room, and I took another look out of idle curiosity. It seemed to be an abnegation based variation of a spirit trap spell with an internal power source that recharged over time, and even had methods to barter with whatever was trapped within.

It was always hard to tell how long these sorts of things could hold, since it depended so much on what was trapped within, how hard they fought, and other factors, but this seemed to be incredibly solid construction, and Kene and I agreed it would be able to hold even a Spellbinder spirit for at least a few hours.

With that done, I cleaned up, washing off the stink of the apartment, and headed to bed. Kene washed off as well before joining me, and before I could fall asleep, they’d pulled me in close, holding me tightly as we drifted off.