After they moved my room up to the third floor, out of the guest room I’d been staying in, I’d started joining them for breakfast. Today they’d eaten extra early, and set off just as the sun was coming up. The first thaw had come about a month ago, but we didn’t leave then. It had been the correct call, as we got as much as the whole previous month’s snow in the next couple of days. This time, I recognised the road we were taking. It had been the same road we had taken from battle grandpa’s. There was no snow falling today as we filed out through the gate of the city. It was named after the guy who ruled this place, Drake’s Redoubt. I wasn’t sure if it translated as Drake’s Fortress, Drake’s Castle, or maybe something else. We were still having some trouble with more abstract translations. So although I didn’t know his relative rank, I did know he wasn’t beholden to another ruler.

There were a few wagons that didn’t fit with the rest of the fancy carriages, like the one I was riding in with Tommen, Natasha and Cole. They contained the disassembled fruit of our winter labors. Except for the leg, that was in with my stuff. I didn’t even notice that battle grandpa had been missing one. I had taken my time with the one we had with us now, as Keith simply wouldn’t let me take the easy way out and implant mana into it.

I felt like I had gotten back at him, as the steam engine didn’t have any magical parts to it. He had really wanted to make the oiling magical, but eventually I did get him to cave on drip feeding oil. The oil we had settled on to use was something from the wyvern I’d killed. Apparently Dragons were even bigger, and didn’t hunt for cattle, they hunted mostly wild game. Unless they weren't. After I had put Keith through the wringer, and we started running out of work left to do on the engine, Tommen had pushed me to start training with Larrik.

Larrik didn’t seem too excited about this, and it only got worse for him after he taught me a proper stance and he couldn’t beat me anymore. I still had poor reflexes compared to him, but after the initial training he really didn’t have much to teach me. His fighting style of sword and board didn’t really work when my entire body can be both a sword and a shield, at the same time. Tommen did enjoy it when I’d make some over the top weapon, but none of them were practical.

I ended up sticking with a polearm, but when Leona stepped up to try and teach me magic it went far better. Even if I didn’t speak the language properly I could chant the spells, and I could also manipulate mana in a way she couldn’t. If she wanted a fireball, she had to structure it with her voice and her hands. If I wanted a fireball, I could just force mana into my hands, and then hurl it like a baseball. Spells might not have been a massive problem, because if I started getting one of the words right the spell stopped working. If I got a word in their language wrong I might not find out until I started applying the pronunciation or meaning to a new one. After three months of daily lessons with Remin and Daniel, I was still getting common words mixed up. They were trying their best, but I couldn’t make the kind of progress they wanted from me, especially with how much work we’d been needing to get done during the first two.

I got to sit in on more than a couple of Cole’s lessons for Tommen, but they seemed all directed at basic formulas and strategies to keep mana from mixing when you didn’t want it to. For experiments, Cole would often use me as a pure mana dispenser, but I didn’t mind that much. Archibald would find me when he’d burn himself out on the last idea I'd given him. Currently I was walking him through what I remembered of a sewing machine, but I couldn’t give him more than the fact it was two threads, not one, and how the first had to pass over the whole spool of the second. He had seemed to be making some progress before we’d left, I could tell because that’s what he always laughed at. I was surprised when he didn’t come, but also a little relieved. He would still, on occasion, just start laughing when I was around, even if we weren't working on anything. Cole had explained it was because he had made the armor I was copying, but surely it wasn’t that funny, especially after all this time.

When we got to Kruthburg, I was surprised to see Rodney was waiting for us in the Baron’s hall. I had completely forgotten about him, but Leona and Larrik went right up and started talking. I did my old reliable handshake introduction.

“Creighton.”

“Rodney. Good meet of you again.”

“Yes, Good meet you too.”

Behind Rodney, the battle grandpa was waiting with his wife, son and daughter. He was a vassal of Drake, an apparently close one. I performed the bow they had taught me, not that I had needed many pointers, and the Baron had me rise with the gift we’d brought him. I still didn’t know how he’d lost his leg, but now that I was paying attention his right leg was currently made of wood starting below the knee.

“A gift that is fine, My thanks given.”

“Honor is mine.”

This time the little girl didn’t try and get to pet me, although with how long we were going to be here, she’d have a couple more chances. The wagons of wood and of the shipbuilders were here, but there were still a few stragglers coming from farther away than we had. They had shown me on a map the route we were taking, and it made a certain amount of sense. If we built the skyship down here, it would have to climb all the way over the mountains on its first voyage. If we build it on the slope on the other side, it wouldn’t need to climb more than a few feet at a time, and we’d be able to follow a river. Whenever it ran deep there would be places to set down.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Cole’s old lab was still untouched and he, Tommen, Keith and Natasha started setting themselves up while we waited. They had taught me more advanced mixtures than the basic ones Tommen had, recipes that included three part mana recipes. A lot of them had I had to be careful with, as they were a lot more powerful than any I’d used before. The names of the different types were by far the easiest to remember, as the mana itself responded to its name with attention. I still couldn’t figure out how exactly to apply this to spoken spells, but there was little else for me to do while they rushed around trying to double check everything was ready.

~~~

“So, you’re sure you didn’t want to go with them?”

“I’m too old to go on any more adventures.”

“I’m not certain that’s true. With all the extra storage space, they could have brought most of your lab.”

“That’s not what I meant. They are all plenty capable. I wouldn’t be bringing anything by coming along.”

“Experience isn’t nothing, Archy. Rodney is going.”

“He could never settle down. I’m certain they’ll be fine, and we both know I promised I’d not try and go again.”

“We both know this wasn’t what she meant.”

“It was what I meant. I know they’ll succeed, and they don’t need me to do it.”

“Is that why you kept pushing Creighton away? So he wouldn’t try and bring you like he brought Keith?”

“That could be part of it. If you’d make me guess, I mostly kept pushing him away because I'm jealous.”

“He does have absolute control over mana.”

“Not that. He’s got a long future in front of him. And better friends to share it with.”

“At the start, maybe. You don’t think you got there in the end?”

“I spent all this time trying to set my apprentices up for success, but now that they’re going off to earn it, I feel envy.”

“As we get older, It’s natural to feel this way when they go off to achieve something we failed at.”

“Says the man twenty years my junior. You better get your act together, or you’ll have no one to inherit by the time you’re my age.”

“Okay, we’re not going there. You and I both know I still have some time, at least.”

“Time always seems to go faster when you’re relying on it.”

~~~

Is your ward doing well, Jerahmeel?

Yes. I would say so.

You really aren’t going to help him with the language?

We are not to do things for them that they can manage themselves.

You can intercede on his behalf, he’s not on Adamah any longer.

I know I could, but I should not.

He seems to be struggling, though.

One must struggle. How often did you used to be the one reminding me of that fact?

Fine, fine. Do with him what you will.