Chapter 72: Meeting the Family
Location: Magicon Empire; Axtendus Duchy; Close to the Silvani System; VS Sulfira
We reappear inside another jump room, and Mom quickly leads me outside. What I find is heaven! A space station full of clothing stores. Mom grins broadly at my reaction and I’m quick to close my mouth again. “Are you ready?” She asks.
“Oh, absolutely!” I point at a store to our right. It’s got fancy-looking bags in the shop window, and I can see some other things beyond as well. “Let’s start there.”
“Go ahead, I’ve already stilled my thirst for shopping, and I guess I have to reduce my spending a bit after that encounter with Peter…”
Looks like she isn’t that much in the shopping mood right now… “Oh, okay… let’s just do a few stores then and we can return to do a real shopping trip later. By the way, who is Alejandro?”
“Yeah, let’s do that, but don’t let me hold you back right now, go crazy. It’s not that we’re financially challenged. As for Alejandro? He’s a distant cousin of your father, but he’s got a major position in VHI, so Peter knows him quite well.”
“Ah, thanks…” I suddenly remember something that bothered me earlier today. “By the way, what did you mean earlier when you said the Silvanis don’t have powerful Mages? If they are so rich, why don’t they just buy all the power enhancers they can get?”
Mom looks at me with a strange expression, then understanding dawns. “Right, you never learned about the nuances of the upper power levels. To reach Archmage you either have to advance completely on your own, which takes a lot of dedication and time plus a little bit of what we call talent, or if you use enhancements you need a much larger amount of talent, to give your core the final push so that they can merge. From the way things look, young Timothy is quite talented, that’s why they hope to be finally able to push for a Duchy once he reaches Archmage.”
Wow, that’s something completely unexpected, but it also explains why there aren’t that many Archmages around. “So let’s say someone wasn’t a Mage in the beginning, do they even have a shot at Archmage?”
Mom shakes her head. “No, unfortunately not… That’s one problem that my family tries to solve since the invention of Magitech.”
That doesn’t bode so well for my friends… At least they can get access to magic with the awakening cores. I have to ask my parents for them once we arrive at home.
We continue shopping for a bit longer, but I quickly notice that Mom’s isn’t mood doesn’t really improve, so I decide to cut the trip short and we teleport back to the Sulfira, where we reappear on the bridge. A glance at one of the holograms shows me that the Stargazer is still connected to the ship. Good, now where are the others?
“Miranda, where’s Maja and the others?” I ask the solution at hand, and she answers without delay.
“Jack and Alex retired to their room on the Stargazer. Maja is over there too and checks all systems. Thomas, Shay, and Lucy are… What the hell? They are outside and looking at our weapons. The rest seem to check out the ship. Currently, they are in the medical room.”
Yep, asking the AI is way quicker than looking for them on my own. I decide to join Simon, Lydia, Ronja, and Greg on their ship tour as I don’t want to put on a spacewalker suit to get outside, and yeah, I can imagine what Alex and Jack are doing.
So I say bye to Mom and ask Miranda for directions, which she quickly provides. “We jump in about two hours if you want to join me on the bridge,” Mom calls after me when I leave. I acknowledge her with a thumbs-up and quickly find my way to the others. Lydia notices me first and waves.
“Hey Sara, you’re back!”
“Yeah, we’re leaving in about two hours by the way. Found something interesting?”
“Not really, sure, it’s a fantastic ship and all, but it’s still just a ship. It’s also so similar to the Stargazer, just bigger and way more modern. Oh, and Shay, Thomas, and Lucy were excited about the weapons and decided to check them out.”
“I heard about that… Mind if I join you for the rest of the tour?”
“Not at all,” this time it’s Simon who replies. “Though Ronja might still take a while in here.”
He’s right. Ronja is nose-deep in a box of weird medical devices I’ve no clue what they are used for. “No problem, I’ve got the time. I can tell you about Mom’s and my trip if you want. It was quite the experience…”
“Sure, why not.”
“Alright, let me tell you about the Silvani System, The biggest shopping paradise ever…”
The others were quite excited after my description of the luxurious shopping town on the planet and especially Lydia voiced her willingness to go there with me one day. An invitation, I gladly accepted. Now though, I’m back with Mom on the bridge. The others were all informed about my return and decided to join me there. Luckily, the bridge is big enough to fit twelve people quite comfortably.
“Are you ready,” Mom asks, “this is going to be a long jump, so some of you might get a bit sick. We’ll also be entering a wormhole shortly after, for our final approach to the Valterion System.”
“Uhh, do you maybe have some buckets then, uhh Lady Duchess?” Greg asks a bit awkwardly.
“I don’t think you need one. And call me Jasmine, none of that Duchess stuff. You all did quite a lot of jumps to get here, so you probably get a bit dizzy if even. If worse comes to worst, I’ll clean it up. Now get ready.”
Simon claps Greg's shoulder. “You’ve got this, mate.” Greg nods.
Power gathers around Mom and starts to encompass both ships, when the space bubble is fully formed, there is a moment of stillness, then I feel a strong shifting sensation, and everything turns purple. When the windows clear again, we’re somewhere different. A different wormhole is before us, and we head right for it.
Greg and Lydia both wobble a bit on their feet, but that’s the extent of their discomfort. Mom was right. She on the other hand doesn’t even look winded…
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“Sara, dear, would you or Simon be so kind and take over the Stargazer? We can’t use the wormhole when both ships are connected like this, so they have to enter separately.”
I look at Simon and he shrugs. “I can do it,” we both say at the same time. There is an awkward silence afterward, then Simon shrugs.
“Fine, fine, you can do it. It’s your family’s home system after all.”
“Thanks, Simon. Does anyone besides Maja want to join me over there?” I point in the vague direction of the Stargazer.
“I’ll come with you,” Lydia says, “just give me a minute.”
“No problem, we can also walk if you want.”
“Yeah, I’d like that. Let’s go!”
The three of us leave the bridge and start walking toward the airlocks to switch over to the Stargazer. “Are you excited to meet the rest of your family?” Lydia asks.
“Oh, you have no idea. But at least I don’t think that there are too many surprises left… I mean with Mom being the granddaughter of the Emperor, I don’t know what else could await me…” I continue walking and only notice after a few steps, that both Lydia and Maja stopped walking. I turn around and find them both staring at me with their mouths agape.
“She’s what?” Maja finds her voice first and I stop as well. Oops, I forgot to tell them?
“Yes, that was my reaction as well, that’s also the reason why everyone knows her.”
“Crazy,” Lydia mutters and we slowly continue walking. We reach the Stargazer without any further issues and continue walking till we reach the bridge. Maja disconnects us from the Sulfira and Lydia sets up a video connection to the other ship.
Mom’s grinning face greets me on our old-school video screen. It truly is a step back from the modern ship we were just on, but it’s also home… “Hi Sara, ready to go?”
I grin back. “We are, as soon as Maja finishes disconnecting, we’ll be right behind you.”
“Good, see you on the other side, and don’t be too surprised over there. I guess your father is very excited to see you.”
She cuts the call and I’m left staring. That sounded ominous… I wonder what Dad’s planning. Anyway, Maja finished the maneuver, and the Sulfira heads straight for the wormhole. We are right behind.
The other ship vanishes with a purple flash. It has entered the wormhole. I signal Maja to wait for a moment and turn to Lydia. “Any last bits of advice? You probably know more about my dad than I do.”
“Not really… You’ve seen it with your mom. That she is the Emperor’s granddaughter was complete news to me. What I can tell you about your dad is that he is a war hero of The Empire. If anything gets dicey around the borders, he gets sent out to help. But I don’t think this will help you right now…”
“Yeah, you’re right, thanks anyway. Maja, take us in. I’m ready.” I cast the spell, and we vanish into the wormhole.
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Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Valterion System; VS Stargazer
We’ve made it. When the windows clear, I immediately look for the Sulfira and find her a good bit in front of us and a bit to the right. I look back at Lydia. “Okay, call them again and ask where to…” I trail off when I feel a space bubble forming around the Stargazer. This is not mine! What’s happening?
“Never mind, Maja shields up! Something’s happening.”
“On it,” she calls out and gets to work. In the meantime, I clamp down with my Space Sense as hard as I can and somehow, I resist. The normally invisible space bubble around the ship flickers and finally disappears. I’ve made it. But who was it?
“Call Mom,” I shout to Lydia, but again, before any of us can react, the bubble comes back with a vengeance. This time, I’m too slow and watch helplessly, as the ship including us enters hyperspace and gets carried somewhere. Shit!
It happens all in an instant, and so I can’t even come up with a plan of what to do now. We reappear somewhere and when the window clears, we are very close to a planet. “Where are we?” I call out and Maja furrows her brows.
“That’s strange. We’re still in the same system… Just closer to the planet.”
Now it’s my turn to wonder… Wait, Mom said, I shouldn’t be too surprised and that Dad is very excited. Was that him just now?
Just as I’m thinking this, Space magic surges again and a man appears before me, already moving in for a hug. I only notice his light red hair, before he almost crushes me in his hug.
“Can’t breathe,” I manage to wheeze out and the pressure lessens.
“Sorry about that,” the man’s voice answers. It’s deep but still pleasant. He releases me from the hug and takes a step back. I look at him. He looks the same as in the picture Mom showed me and the similarity to Conor Valterion is almost frightening. Sure, his face looks a bit different, but that’s an eleven-thousand-year timespan for you… Still, the hair and eyes are the same. The same as mine as well. That can only mean one thing. The person before me is my dad.
“Hi Sara,” he says while grinning. “I didn’t expect you to resist my teleportation. You’re quite strong, huh?”
That’s the first thing he has to say to me? What the hell? No ‘Hey Sara, I’m glad, you’re finally here,’ nothing at all. I frown.
He quickly realizes his mistake and blushes. “Sorry, sorry. I’m not good at this. You can’t imagine how much I’ve missed you.” A tear streaks down his cheek. Let me start again. I’m Aidan Valterion and I have the honor of being your father. Nice to finally meet you again.” He holds out his hand to shake.
I hesitate a moment and his eyes widen a bit. Ah, screw it. I ignore his hand and hug him again. “Hey Dad!”
He sniffs into my shoulder, and we hold each other for a long while. I notice Maja and Lydia standing awkwardly to the side and release Dad from my hug. He wipes away his tears. I point at the others. “Those are some of my friends, Maja, and Lydia. The others are still with Mom.”
Dad offers them his hand. “Nice to meet you. And thanks for bringing my daughter here safely.”
Lydia grabs his hand first. “An honor to meet you, Sir. And it’s more the other way around… Sara did most of the work, I was just riding along.”
“Ahh, none of that. Call me Aidan.” He shakes Maja’s hand as well, then turns back to me. “I’m still curious… How did you resist my first attempt to teleport your ship? Have you already advanced from Senior to Master in those 20 years?”
Didn’t Mom tell him? And why doesn’t he feel for himself? “Uhh, I’ve actually only advanced to Junior quite recently… But something is messed up with my magic… I stopped you with Space Sense. Didn’t Mom tell you?”
“What the heck?” He starts frowning in concentration. “Huh, you really feel only as a Junior… We have to look into that and no, Jas didn’t tell me.” He scratches his chin. “I guess, I was a bit overeager with teleporting you here? She probably wanted to tell me in person or let you handle it…
“Aaaanyway,” he puts an arm on my shoulder and stands next to me while looking out of the window and pointing at the planet below with his other hand. “This is Nua, our home. It means new in Irish, the language of our ancestors from Earth. A shame that it was destroyed… I’d have loved visiting my origins.” His voice drifts off a bit melancholically.
I have to suppress a chuckle. He’ll find out soon enough. Maja keeps a straight face as always, but Lydia struggles a bit too. Luckily, Dad doesn’t seem to notice. “That’s nice, Dad. I can’t wait to see it all.”
“Good, I’d love to show it to you. Now, do you want to wait here till your mother arrives, or should we go ahead and visit the planet? I wonder why she’s not jumping anyway…”
“Let’s stay up here for a little longer,” I reply. “Say, Dad, is it allowed to randomly jump starships here in the system?”
“No, of course not. Random jumping around would lead to absolute chaos… I have some privileges, of course. I mean who would want to stop me?” He chuckles.
“Ah, that explains it. You see, Mom got fined in the Silvani System… I guess, she wants to hold back on rule-breaking for now.”
That has Dad laughing. “She got fined again? Hah, do you know how much it was this time?”
“Yeah, I was with her when she negotiated with Peter Silvani. It’s three ships for free.”
That shuts his laughter up quite quickly. “Damn… That’s an expensive one… I wonder if she learned it this time. But it won’t matter here. Hang on, I’ll give her a call.”
Utility magic surges, and he waves into open air. Wait a minute, is he doing a magical video call? The communication itself happens silently, but from his grinning and silent chuckles, I guess he’s having quite a bit of fun at Mom’s expense.
The call ends and he comes back to us. “Okay, I convinced her to jump here, she’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Uh Dad, did you just do a magical video call?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Err, I didn’t know this was possible?”
He frowns. “Why wouldn’t you…? Ohhh, shit, I’m sorry. You grew up in one of the idiot nations…” He glances at Lydia and Maja. “No offense.”
Lydia laughs. “No worries, I’m the only one of us who isn’t from the Estriduros Republic.”
Maja just shakes her head. “Yeah, don’t worry… I’m the last one to cry after the republic.”
I just laugh, all those ridiculous things don’t shock me anymore. “You guys have a lot to teach me and the others, Dad!”
“So it seems,” he answers. “So it seems… Well, maybe it’s best for you to just visit one of the colleges after all.”
“Yeah…” I answer absently, my focus is currently on the flash of magic appearing next to us, then his words register. “Wait, what?”