There is a distinct difference in the makeup of crystalized mana when compared to mundane physical crystals, but it is easiest to verify by breaking open the crystal in question. Since altering the natural shape of a mana crystal decreases its capacity by a disproportionate amount, this manner of testing is most often used to verify the veracity of crystalline gemstones as being genuine. Counterfeit mana crystals are simple enough for a mage-type class to detect, but those without such abilities are more easily deceived.

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Raina stood a bit away from the crashed sandskimmer, watching Lilin’s back as she walked stiffly away. "Do you think she'll change her mind?"

“Hard to say.” Jair shrugged and climbed up onto the sideways sandskimmer. "We're a stubborn family. I know how far I'll go."

"But this place, it isn't good for her. She has to see that."

"We're also a self-sacrificing family." Jair grinned. "I'm just more selective about who I'll give up my everything for."

Raina blushed. "You say things like that so casually."

"It's true, and I'm way too old to worry about what anyone thinks."

"Physically, you're younger than I am."

"Physically doesn't mean anything." Jair began inspecting each of the component pieces to see which ones would need to be replaced and which could simply be repaired.

Raina watched him work in silence for a time, then, "Is it really okay to leave her there? After what happened…?"

"What do you want us to do? Kidnap her? She wouldn't cooperate."

"And you can't talk to your dad, convince him to…"

"What? Stop being himself?" Jair snorted. "Trust me. If there were any way to fix him, change him, I'd have found it by now. If there's anything, it's not something I'm capable of."

"And you don't think she can manage it?"

"She's been trying." Jair scoffed and waved a hand back toward the house. "You saw how well that's been going. Enabling only perpetuates. It would take something much more extreme to get his attention."

"Like her leaving with us?"

"No. Even her disappearance only pushes him further into… That. If anything, removing her is likely to make him worse. But he doesn't respect me and never will, which makes it hard for me to get through to him."

"But you'll leave them there?” Raina climbed up beside him, but still stared after where Lilin had disappeared. “I don't understand. How…? I know, we have to work with what we have to work with and things aren't always ideal. But this is obviously not a good situation. How does she convince herself this is the best place for her?"

"Normal is what's familiar. Not what's right, or good. It's all she's ever known. Her desire to improve things there is stronger than any instinct for her own best interests." He located a crumpled fin and pulled it free, then set about bending it back into shape.

“That’s terrible. They’re just exploiting her better nature.”

“Yep.” Jair finished with the fin and screwed it back in place.

Raina followed him around, observing with curiosity.

"You interested in mechanical things?" Jair asked, since there was clearly no point continuing to talk about Lilin. She would make her decision one way or the other, and speculating about what she could or should do would get them nowhere.

"I'm interested in this. Sandskimmers are one of those things with a kind of mystique to them."

"Needlessly so. They're tricky to learn, but once you get the hang of them they’re no harder than any other vehicle. You need to be able to feel the balance of it, adjust to the minutest vibration, but it's mainly because the parts are expensive and easy to lose. None of them are Veori native ingredients, which makes importing them a notable obstacle. Not to mention the power requirements are pretty high."

"Aren't most of them solar powered?"

"Yes, but that only goes so far. The wings get dusty, the intakes wear out..." Jair pulled out an angled piece and held it up to demonstrate the thinning toward its edges. "It's a lot more work to keep it running compared to grabbing a passing sandshark. They tend to keep themselves running quite well without nearly so much effort. There's a reason sandskimmers are the domain of the wealthy."

Raina glanced back the way they'd come. "You'd call your family wealthy?"

"Oh, theirs is on a payment plan, leased through the packing coalition. As long as they keep up on deliveries, they won't have to pay any additional interest, but if they're below quota the fees start building up. Everyone knows once you start to fall behind it's a fast slide to destitution."

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"That sounds exploitative."

"It allows independent groups to get started and earn money from the start without needing a huge loan or tens of thousands of nirei up front. The fact that it's on a limited contractual basis sidesteps the necessity to pay off the entire thing yourself—they can rent it for a few years and pass it back to the coalition with no further obligations."

"Still. I bet the return on investment heavily favors the owners."

Jair shrugged. "If you want to completely redo the economic paradigm of Veor, you'll need to wait at least a year or so. Once our investments return enough to give you sufficient startup capital, you can test your adjustments to your heart's content."

“Right. Your spectacular income. I’ll be sure to start planning around it as soon as you’ve paid off your crippling debts.”

"True. I don't have nearly as much money to play with as I'd prefer. Losing the artifacts, the dragon's hoard, and my discretionary nirei to the king's fines is surprisingly limiting. I suppose I could try for the other half of the royal treasury, but I already grabbed the stuff that could be sold easily. Anything more would be a bit too much risk without any guarantee of return." He sighed heavily. "If only I could annihilate seascourge as easily as they can annihilate dragons."

"You want to be the prime predator on the planet?"

"Is that really so much to ask for?"

"Tiny bit." Jair smiled. “Thankfully, financial domination isn’t the only path to influence.”

“Oh really?”

Jair nodded. “Increasing a house’s prestige and power can be done several ways. One of which I happen to have a very strong head start on.”

“Knowledge? Because I think you’ve already burned a lot of bridges with your blackmail.”

“Not all knowledge is about exploiting others.” He grinned and passed her a worn coil. “We’ll need a replacement for that.”

“Sandskimmer repair is your big plan?”

He shook his head. “That’s unrelated. You ready to plan out your ascension to Archmage?”

Whatever she’d expected, it wasn’t that. She burst out laughing and shook her head. “That’s impossible, even for you. I’m only human.”

“I understand if it’s too hard and you’d rather not. We can stick with High Mage for you if you want, but becoming the second verified human Archmage in history would be a much better accolade on your resume. Your house would be swimming in alliances in no time.”

“Jair, becoming any kind of advanced mage tier requires years of training and preparation before even attempting—”

“Nope. It normally requires years of training and preparation. You have me instead. More training and preparation than you’ll ever need. And I can get you there in a few years.”

“It normally takes three years to advance a tier, that’s not much of an advantage—”

“Eight months to High Mage. Five years to arch.”

Raina blinked. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

Jair grinned back at her. “You won’t quite be ready to handle Sekir on your own, but even a Master Mage will be a big help when we head to Meliarn.”

She stared at him a long minute before finally clearing her throat. “You’re serious?”

“Fully. We’ll need to spend some time on Nuprima doing incredibly painful and extreme training, but I somehow think that won’t be enough to deter you.”

“Archmage…” Raina murmured, shaking her head. “You know that you could have offered me the throne of Veor and I’d be less shocked.”

“Do you want it? You’re already, what, twenty-eighth in line. I can make that a much shorter jump.”

“Don’t even joke about that. A lot of those are my friends, relatives, or allies. I’ll have enough to do managing my own house without trying to juggle the rest of them too.”

“So, personal power rather than political control, then?”

“I suppose…”

“Why do you hesitate? That doesn’t sound like your usual reluctance.”

“You've been saying so much outrageous stuff, it's hard to tell when you're serious or not."

"When have I said something that I didn’t follow through on?"

"Well... uh..." Raina frowned. "I'm sure you must have at some point. You can't be entirely serious all the time. And you just offered to murder half my family."

Jair grinned and tossed a faulty fin over the edge. "Serious? No. Truthful? Different matter. I have no need for anything else."

"You've been making over the top threats to people seemingly at random."

"I am fully prepared to follow through on any of them if they call my bluff. I don't make empty threats. I may prefer not to engage in such behavior since it complicates the timeline later on to have a certain sort of reputation, but that doesn't mean I'd hesitate."

Raina shivered. "That's... cold."

"I'm not a person who has the luxury of warmth. I know too much about everyone and everything, and if I were to pretend otherwise it would only get people hurt. Even inaction is constantly permitting things to get worse. I'm not going to be able to change the world without being willing to go to any extremes."

Raina laughed uneasily. "Yeah... change the world."

"This is why I need you, by the way." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "I'm no longer a reasonable judge of my own decisions. I have a perspective so far removed from the day to day that I could easily just..." he shrugged. "Anything. I could justify anything."

"So I'm supposed to be your moral compass?"

"Among other things. Also, just a friend who I don't have to hide from or lie to. You can't overvalue that."

"Right."

Jair sighed. "I keep doing this. I don't want you to be uncomfortable. If you want to leave, you can."

Raina snorted. "You think you can scare me off that easily? I know you. I trust you with my life. I'm not going to go running off just because you're making threats against the continent my family and I live on."

"I'm not going to do anything to damage Veor itself, that's Sekir's deal."

"Yeah. Sekir. That's another thing you're going to need to explain at some point."

"What do you want to know? He's a sorcerer, he resurrects in a new body whenever he's killed, and he weasels his way into the leadership of Veor by exploiting Farshen's grief and madness. His leadership is based around a platform of defying the seascourge, and he manages to get their attention to the point where Veor becomes a second Zoraam. Compared to that, anything I might do is pretty tame."

“I… see.”

“Don’t worry, we have years yet before we need to worry about it. For now…” he held up the last few pieces that couldn’t be fixed by hand. “We’re going to need to exploit your not being in debt and replace a few things.”

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