“So! I see that my favorite niece is still in one piece, yes! And not being on fire either!”

I caught Mia’s eyes and we shared a moment of incredulous worry.

Uncle Vlad waved his hands at us and laughed “Oh be not worrying yourselves so much! I wouldn’t have been leaving the fire spells on the desk for intrepid children to be stumbling upon!”. He winked at me as Mia lowered her head in shame.

I, however, jumped at the obvious invitation. “So it really is a magic spell?! You’re really a wizard?”

He locked eyes with me and nodded sagely, “Aye, Max. I have studied the ways of the volshebnik. But I am not the master that my master was. I have been on two poiski… hmmm... quests.”

Mia and I were staring at him like he was Santa Claus.

I said “What kind of…” the same moment Mia asked “Did you know…”

Vlad chuckled warmly and said “Such enthusiasm! Ahhh, but I must have seemed this way to Moishe. Come! Let us go for a walk. I have something I must be doing a little ways east of the grove.”

I wondered at what he meant by “the grove”, but as for his suggestion, there was obviously only one option. Mia and I didn’t even look at each other before dashing over to where our backpacks were and then peeling out of the door that Vlad had left open. Vlad had trotted off towards the backyard with purpose and when we caught up he immediately started in.

“Of course I knew you would be taking the parchment Mia. I knew as soon as Anna introduced me to you that you had the sight.”

Dude, I thought, he is talking about magesight. Holy crap.

I caught his attention with a hand onto his arm. I think I whimpered a little.

He laughed again. “Yes, you too Max. We with the sight are guided to each other, I am thinking. We are being rare people, my children, yes? How else would we be learning these thinks that are needing to be learned, yes?”

Mia caught my eye and whispered feverishly, “Prophecy, max!”

“Ho ho! Perhaps!” Vlad was leading us to a small stream and I briefly worried if he was going to have us walk through it to cross. “But perhaps it is being something slightly less complicated. Perhaps it is being more like, let us say, gravity, yes?. The rain falls, the rivers flow, and volshebnik find each other. My… hmmm… comrade, Michael, he is using a beautiful word for it: conflux. Yes, I am liking this word.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Mia and I whispered in stereo. “Confluuuuux”, which set us both to giggling.

Vlad giggled as well, and then moved to stand close by the small river’s edge. I observed that I had a very strong desire to meet comrade Michael.

Vlad looked back at us and paused dramatically, angling his head and raising one eyebrow, then said “And now, are you both being ready to be impressed?!”

Our gazes were locked on him as we nodded desperately. We could not have been more ready to be impressed.

Half of uncle Vlad’s face scrunched in a mischievous grin and he turned away, lifting his right hand towards the water. Gradually the surface of the water that he was pointing at began to lower. A two-foot wide rectangle of force pushed down on the water from edge to edge causing the water upstream to billow up and swirl around like it was confused about its course.

I turned to look at Mia. She gaped, her dark, almond eyes glowed with excitement. I realized my fists were balled at my chest and quivering, and with effort, I lowered them.

Vlad exhaled and the rectangle of force reached the bottom of the river. Sunlight shone on the riverbed’s many pebbles rendering them in bright greens and reddish browns. A thin silver fish flopped around for a second and then plopped into the water that was still flowing downstream.

Wait what?

The river continued to flow, despite being interrupted by a complete section of NO WATER. My brain sputtered for a few ticks and then gave up with a single sparkling thought: magic.

Holy crap.

“Uncle, the river is still flowing!”

I’m fairly sure I squeaked a little.

“Yes, my darlink. Balance, always balance.” He made a horizontal gesture like he was zipping open or closed a piece of invisible luggage, and then put his hands on his hips, and turned back to us. “If we are collecting something on one side”, he held out his left hand, “then we are returning it on the other.” he matched his left with the right. “Nature is always reaching for balance, yes? The art that is making itself known to you is being good for reaching deeper into that balance”, he reached out with both hands, thumbs up, “not for undoing it.” and he made a gesture like he was throwing something to the ground.

I had seen a few too many fantasy movies for me to wholly accept that little chunk of wizard’s lore. Keeping the balance was for monks, not for wizards.

I silently decided that I should probably make an effort to avoid being like Bavmorda. I then thought about how cool it would be to turn someone into a pig.

God damn it.

I slipped a couple times crossing the streambed. After the second time I almost fell I thought, “isn’t there a magic spell to remove slime?” but my inner light-wizard chastized me for the greedy and ungracious thought and kept it unspoken.

My inner future Bavmorda then pointed out that I had just discovered the Lost city of El Dorado, and I was worrying about being greedy. I compromised and set the question aside for another time.