Book 3, Chapter 6

“Absolutely not,” Mother said.

“Not a chance,” Father said at the same time.

Senica stood there, hands on her hips, face worked into a scowl, and demanded, “Why not?”

“You’re twelve!”

“Gravin is eight!” Senica shot back. “He left home when he was three.”

“You know that’s not the same.”

“This is so unfair!”

Our parents exchanged glances. Mother sighed and said, “I’m sorry, sweetie. You’re just too young for this. Trust us, we know better than anyone what it’s like to face down a monster at your age.”

“I’m not like you were back then,” Senica said. She held up her wand and a lick of fire shot out of the tip.

Father looked past her to me. I was standing near the doorway while they talked. Senica’s interruption while everybody was discussing who might be willing to go to Ghalin’s aid had not gone over well, and we’d had to have an emergency family meeting when she’d refused to drop the idea.

“Maybe true, but I’m not going to let you intentionally put yourself in harm’s way,” Mother said.

“What are you thinking, son?” Father asked.

“Me? I have nothing to add to this conversation,” I said. “I’m just waiting for you all to sort this out, since I assume you’re going to need me to send everyone back.”

“You’re not going?”

“I’m hearing some surprise in your voice.”

“We… I… just assumed…” Father trailed off.

“I have a lot of other projects right now,” I said. “And you don’t need me for this. A squad of ten mages tossing out fire blasts can take care of this problem. That was all Noctra ever did when a monster came wandering near town. Senica can do that, as long as she follows directions and doesn’t run off.”

“Wait, you think Senica is ready for this?” Mother asked.

“Of course he does, and everyone knows how smart my little brother is,” Senica said.

Somewhat surprisingly, my unexpected support seemed to have swayed my parents, at least a little bit. “What do you think?” Father asked, turning to Mother.

“There’s no reason to send a child to do something like this,” Mother said.

Maybe I hadn’t swayed them as much as I’d thought.

“Something to consider,” I said. “Senica is a child now, but she’s already one of the best mages here. Do you really think she’s going to be content to stay in our little village for the rest of her life? And when she does go, having experience in these kinds of situations is only going to help her stay safe out there.”

“Too young,” Mother insisted. “She can get that experience when she’s older. There’s no way my little girl is going to the front lines of a monster invasion.”

“But Mooooom,” Senica said. “You heard what Gravin said.”

“No. No way. Not a chance.”

“I can mitigate the risks for her,” I said.

In fact, I’d been building up a cache of equipment for Senica for years now. Unlike me, there was a whole plethora of enchantments and inscriptions she could benefit from. I’d held off on giving them to her for the simple reason that I wanted her to know how to cast spells without relying on them. A good mage didn’t need focusing tools, and anything like that should be used to go beyond their normal limits, not artificially raise their skills to meet the bare minimum.

The only piece I’d given her, despite repeated requests for more equipment, was her wand. That had been more because it was tradition to present apprentices with their first wand than for any other reason. Even then, the wand was as much her creation as it was my own. I’d helped her, guided and shaped the process, but it was her mana and her spells that had shaped it. It contained her mana crystal at its core.

“What kind of mitigation?” Father asked.

“A shield ward, for start. Tetrin has some that anyone else who goes can borrow, but I made one for Senica myself.”

“You did? When did you have time?”

“Oh, years ago. There’s a whole box of trinkets for her when I think she’s ready for it,” I said. “A few enchanted rings. A bracelet. Some spell books with intermediate-tier magic in them. Supplies for her to practice with. Healing potions. That kind of stuff.”

Senica’s eyes lit up with excitement and, maybe, a bit of greed. I’d seen that expression plenty of times in my first life. I’d worn that expression. Eventually, I’d learned to make my own enchanted objects that were far superior to practically anything I could pull out of some abandoned fortress or tomb, but when I was young, I’d often felt the thrill of stumbling across some powerful staff or amulet.

“You won’t be getting the whole collection,” I told Senica. “It would cripple your training if you started relying on crutches like this. But for an opportunity to gain some valuable combat experience, you can have a few pieces that will reduce the risk of you getting hurt to practically nothing. It’s still up to Mother and Father whether they allow you to go at all, of course.”

“I don’t like this,” Mother said flatly.

“Kids, give us a minute to talk,” Father said.

That was a good sign for Senica’s cause. Together, we walked out of the house and back to the teleportation platform. I’d gotten the new emitters out of storage and had them in my phantom space, just waiting for me to install them. The whole family meeting had been a distraction keeping me from finishing up the work.

“Do you think they’ll let me go?” Senica asked as she followed after me.

“Maybe. Mother doesn’t want you to. Father doesn’t either, but he knows you want to and he thinks you’ll be safe enough that he’s considering it.”

The emitters were easy to slot into place. Each one was basically a specialized storage crystal with a metal base that served as a handle. I’d made them specifically to a uniform size so that they were completely interchangeable, and I’d already removed all the old ones, so I just had to crawl around the platform’s outer edge and plug a new one in every few feet.

“You could sneak me over there even if they say no,” Senica said.

I paused. “I could,” I agreed. “But I won’t.”

“Gravin, come on. I’m your big sister. You have to help me.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

She huffed and threw herself down to sit on the edge of the platform. “Worst brother ever,” she muttered. “So what’s in this box of stuff you’ve got for me?”

“Nothing if I’m really the worst brother ever,” I told her.

“Did I say worst? I meant best,” she said shamelessly. “I appreciate all the magic you’ve shown me and the tutoring you give me. And I will appreciate you even more when I’m decked out and ready to kick some ass.”

I snorted at that. “You think so, huh? How full is your mana crystal?”

Unlike me, Senica didn’t have a phantom space to hold her equipment. Her wand sat in a leather band that looped around her thigh and was specially designed to hold it. There were even a few runes carved into the leather that ensured the wand wouldn’t fall out if she was upside down. They only released the wand to her touch, and she’d taken to wearing the thing every waking minute since she’d gotten it.

She drew it now and peered at it. It was about a third of the way full, though it took her longer than it took me to figure that out. It wasn’t that she was bad at sensing mana or anything. It was just a lot harder to sense how much empty space was inside a crystal, for lack of a better term. Getting a feel for how much mana a storage device could have compared to how much was actually there took a bit of practice.

“Not as much as I should have,” she admitted. “But there’s still enough for ten or twelve fire blasts, and you could give me some mana to top it off.”

“Wow. So, you want equipment from me, a teleportation from me, and for me to give you a bunch of mana too? I might as well just go there and take care of the problem myself at this point.”

“Come on, help me out here.”

“You don’t even know if our parents will agree to let you go yet,” I pointed out as I slotted the final emitter into place. The platform let off a low hum that lasted a few seconds before fading away. “That should do it for that one. I’m going to have to fix the inbound platform sometime, too. Going to be expensive. Maybe I’ll have Ryla swap the emitters over and just bring the old ones back next time she goes on a trade expedition over there.”

The door to our house opened and our parents stepped out. Mother’s lips were pressed into a thin line and Father had an uncertain smile that barely seemed any friendlier. They spotted us immediately and started walking our way.

“Guess we’re going to find out if you get to go,” I said, taking a seat next to Senica.

“We have reached a decision,” Father said. Based on how unhappy Mother looked, I suspected Senica was going to get her wish. I wondered exactly what had been said to convince Mother to change her mind. “Senica can go with the rescue team, if, and only if, Gravin agrees to go with her.”

That sly bastard. He knew I had no intention of going, but now it was my fault if Senica didn’t get to go. At the same time, this was a good lever to get me to go help out some strangers I felt no desire to go out of my way for. That was probably the real reason Mother had agreed.

More than once over the years, my parents had attempted to get me to engage with the other villages on this island. I had no interest in being anybody’s hero, especially not when it was such a massive inconvenience to my own plans. I had better uses for my mana than to fly around, looking for problems to solve.

My agreement to help spread knowledge of magic was my solution to that. It was better to give these people the tools to empower themselves than to spend all my time babysitting them. If some of them tried to take shortcuts and ended up drawing a horde of monsters down on them, that was their problem to solve.

That wasn’t an attitude that sat well with my parents, and more than once I’d had to remind them of who I was when I declined their attempts to get me to intercede on someone else’s behalf. This, though, this was a new trick. They knew I was far more willing to go out of my way to help my family than I was anyone else.

“That’s low,” I said, begrudgingly respectful of the trick.

Senica turned wide eyes on me. “You’ll go with me, right?” she asked.

“I really am too busy for this,” I hedged. “Lot of work to do here.”

“Gravin… please?” Senica begged.

“Tetrin and Hyago both need me to talk to them about something. That could be time-sensitive.”

“Well, son?” Father asked.

“Senica really would be fine on her own,” I said.

“But we’d feel much better if you were with her,” Mother told me.

“Damn it,” I muttered. I heaved a sigh and said, “I need to go make sure I don’t have any fires to put out before we leave.”

“Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Senica crowed as she threw her arms around me.

Sometimes, having a family was a real pain.