“Well, the local village elder had a son named Otus...” Gregory said, launching into the tale.
Chapter Twenty-four
Walking the last few feet to Gin’s home, Gregory, Yukiko, and Jenn were all smiling and eager to see the kids. Jenn beat the other two to the door with a burst of aether. Knocking, she waited with a big smile.
A minute passed before Elsa opened the door. “How can—?” She cut off when she saw who was there, and with a squeal, she hugged Jenn hard. “Welcome back!” she said as she continued to hug Jenn.
Jenn returned the hug. “Thank you, Elsa. We’re glad to be back.”
Elsa let go of her and stepped over to Yukiko, who was the next closest, and hugged her. “We all missed you, but we haven’t stopped working.”
“Except for this moment, it seems,” Baylyss’ voice was not unkind as she gave the group a small curtsy. “Welcome back to the Watashi residence, magi. Would you care to come inside?”
Yukiko gave Elsa a hug back before letting the girl go. “We would love to. Thank you.”
Elsa let go of Yukiko, looking a little guilty. Her gaze went to Baylyss, then to Gregory, before going back to Baylyss.
Baylyss’ lips twitched. “Fine, fine, go ahead, but you’ll be doing extra work to make up for your lapse.”
Elsa beamed, then hit Gregory in the chest as she bounced over to him and hugged him hard. “Welcome home. We’ve missed you.” Her voice hitched on “we,” as if she’d changed it just before saying it.
“We’ve missed you too, Elsa. We’ve missed all of you,” Gregory replied, giving her a hug back. “Besides this lapse, Baylyss, have they been doing as they should?”
“Minor issues came up, but nothing that would warrant real comment. They’ve all done their work, and have been keeping up on their training, as well. Elsa has been the one guiding them through it.”
Elsa’s arms tightened a little more around Gregory before she let him go with a soft sigh. She moved to stand beside Baylyss just inside the door. With her features composed, she curtsied. “Welcome to the Watashi residence, magi. We are glad you have returned, and will have things prepared for you. Would you care to come inside?”
“We would, thank you,” Jenn replied with a grin.
Baylyss shook her head slightly, an amused smile on her lips as she stood aside. “Did you wish for me to gather the others for you?”
“Since they’ve done as they’re supposed to, please? We can give them the gifts we’ve brought back,” Gregory said.
Elsa’s eyes sparkled as she closed the door behind them. “Do you wish me to fetch them, ma’am?”
Baylyss nodded. “Gather them to the garden, as I’m sure the magi are going to train after they do so.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Elsa said, leaving at a dignified, yet quick, pace.
“Did the three of you enjoy your time away?” Baylyss asked as the magi exchanged their boots for slippers. She frowned slightly when Gregory’s boots shifted to become slippers, but she didn’t say anything.
Gregory saw the frown and said, “Don’t worry, they never seem to track anything on them. I chalk it up to part of the enchantment.”
Baylyss bowed her head. “I didn’t want to question you.”
“But you worried for the home,” Gregory replied, “which is your job. I don’t blame you. It’s why I wanted to ease your fears.”
“Most magi wouldn’t bother,” Baylyss replied. “I’ve come to accept that you three are far from the norm. Please, follow me.”
They bowed their heads and, with their slippers in place, followed her.
All the children were in the garden, smiling, but standing ready for them. Elsa stood in front of the others, and she curtsied when they entered the courtyard. “Magi, the staff awaits your command,” Elsa said.
Gregory chuckled, before he silenced himself. “Thank you. Baylyss has told us of the troubles that happened.” He watched a few of the kids shift uncomfortably. “But she said that you all did good jobs and have not failed in your duties. Moreover, you’ve all kept up with your training.”
The two children who’d looked afraid and ashamed now looked at Baylyss, who was standing near them with a smile on her lips. Gregory watched them clearly resolve to do better as they looked back toward him.
“We said that we’d bring something back,” Gregory said. “Since you’ve done what you should, we have these gifts.” He stepped back, as Yukiko and Jenn had the carvings.
“They are simple gifts, but we thought you might like them,” Yukiko said, pulling out the first carving and showing them a female magi in a fighting stance. Her second hand held up a male magi in a different fighting stance. “Elsa, these two are yours.”
Elsa looked at the carvings, then stepped forward and took them slowly. “I will treasure them... Thank you, Yuki, Greg, Jenn.” With a bright smile on her lips, she stepped back.
“We have a set for each of you,” Jenn smiled. “Come forward when we call for you. Once you have them, go put them away, and then come back so we can start our training.”
“Yes, magi!” the kids all said with big smiles.
~*~*~
Gregory chuckled as they headed back to the academy. “They were focused today.”
“They were, indeed,” Yukiko agreed. “Elsa more so than the rest, but as she does, the rest follow.”
“She’s their leader,” Jenn nodded, “but all of them are in it for themselves. They wouldn’t be as focused if they weren’t, which is good. I would hate for one of them to be forced into doing it.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good,” Gregory agreed. “If any of us sees any hint of that, we need to pull Elsa aside and talk with her.”
“I’ll talk with her tomorrow,” Yukiko said, “just to make sure.”
“Probably for the best. Nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.”
They walked in silence for a bit before Jenn broached a different subject, “Greg, what’s Bishop like?”
Gregory considered her question for a bit before he answered, “When I knew her, she was just the proctor who came to administer the age day ritual… she was firm, but fair. When I traveled with her to the academy, though, I saw the harshness she has. She’s quick and brutal where needed, but she also shows compassion.” He paused, thinking of the dead waif in Linom. “She’ll be as hard as Chen was, but she respects those who don’t quit. She’s stayed with the clan since joining it, too, so she’s dedicated to it. I think if you just be yourself and do as much as you can, it’ll be fine.”
“We watched her duel Harrison,” Yukiko added. “She cares for a friend who no longer sees her as one. She’s a master of her blade if she was able to take the bane wolf’s head off and not cut Greg.”
Jenn nodded. “Katana... not wakizashi, but she’ll have insight into fighting someone with a longer blade.”
They walked on quietly for a while again. “I think she suspects something about me,” Gregory said after a moment. “I told her I talked to my aether, not knowing that wasn’t normal. She also saw my arms covered in aether with the bane wolf. The only people I know who can do that are physical enhancement magi. I never thought of it before, but she probably knows I don’t have that magic by now.”
“Do you think she told Lightshield about you, and that’s why he was so interested?” Yukiko asked him.
“Possibly? He sent her to be the proctor of that part of the fringe before my birth, though. My mother also talked with her after having a vision of me as a magi... I need to ask Bishop about that.”
“Do you think she’ll level with you,” Yukiko asked, “or would it give more away?”
“I can ask her about it, having recalled it from a memory,” Gregory said. “I don’t think it’ll give anything away to ask that way.”
“What if she knows?” Jenn asked.
“She can’t know, but she might suspect,” Yukiko said. “Greg is right; his approach is sound. Besides, maybe he can glean some informatio
n from her.”
“You burned aether on your arms just after becoming a novice?” Jenn asked after a moment. “You didn’t mention that in your story.”
“Huh...” Gregory thought about it. “I didn’t. Weird.”
“Or you had some subconscious knowledge that it shouldn’t be said,” Yukiko added. “Darkness helping guard you, maybe?”
“Could be.”
“Do you think you could do it again?” Jenn asked.
“Not sure I want to try,” Gregory admitted. “I remember a lot of pain when the flames vanished. I didn’t think about it, but now that I think back, it was both of my arms that hurt, not just the one that got bitten.”
“Oh...” Jenn said.
“Lack of channel from the body path, maybe?” Yukiko suggested. “We have channels now, just not as deep or wide as Jenn’s.”
“Hmm... Maybe. Something to check later, but I don’t want to rush it and hurt myself, either. They did tell us there would be pain for pushing aether through our body and not following the body path. I felt the edges of it last year when we ran, but it wasn’t like the flames.”
“That’s a good point,” Yukiko agreed. “Something to test eventually, but we don’t need to test it right now.”
“And I thought he was special before all this...” Jenn said with a soft smile at Gregory. “I’m not sure I would have had the courage to approach you if I had known all that.”
Yukiko giggled. “You would have. Like me, he called to you, as we talked about. We know it might have been because of our past lives, but all that matters is that we’re here now.”
“Yes,” Jenn smiled.
“Agreed,” Gregory said, touching their hands briefly.
“Tomorrow is our last free day,” Gregory said after another few minutes of silent walking. “We need to ask Dia what our schedule is going to look like. If she knows who the instructors are, she has to know when the classes are.”
“And how that will impact our schedule,” Yukiko nodded.
“We also need to find out what our new arrangements at the clan hall are,” Jenn said softly.
Gregory smiled and nodded. “Maybe we should jog?”
“Yes,” Yukiko and Jenn said together before going faster.
Gregory laughed as he hurried to catch up to them.
Chapter Twenty-five
When they arrived back at the clan hall, the three lovers were in high spirits. Dia watched them approach from where she was sitting on the porch smoking her pipe, the purple smoke trailing away from her.
“Dia,” Gregory greeted her with a smile. “We had a few questions, if you have the time.”
“Sit,” Dia said, motioning to the benches. “What did you wish to know?”
“First, what’s our schedule going to look like?” Gregory asked.
“Ah, a good question, and the answer to it is complicated,” Dia replied, exhaling a smoke ring away from them. “Tactics class starts at the sixth bell, so your morning schedule should be fine. However, depending on what is taught that day and whether or not you have a game, things will change drastically. Some days, the instruction will run into the late afternoon, and others, it will end by midday. If you have a game, well… as I said, you are there until it is over.”
“How do we train, then?” Yukiko asked.
“Around it, as we can,” Dia replied. “If class is out by midday, you will come back here and we will have Gin train you before your magic training. If class runs late, we’ll push dinner back so you can train both, but it does mean your meditation will need to be after dinner. When one or more of you have a game running, we’ll have one of the staff waiting for you to cook you a meal if it’s after dinnertime, but you will have to miss training that day.”
“Our games will be on different days?” Jenn asked.
“Possibly. The academy can run a dozen games at once, but that’s not even half of your class. All games to start are one-on-one. As the year progresses, they will run more complex campaigns with three or four players against each other, or even teams.”
“So we won’t be training together, like the end of last year,” Jenn sighed.
“For the first month, you will,” Dia said. “The first month is all instruction, most of which you’ll already know since you’ve been playing. You could challenge your instructor to a game and, if you win, you’d be excused for that month.”
“We can do that?” Gregory asked.
“Yes, but be warned— most instructors hate being challenged just so you can avoid the lectures,” Dia said, blowing out a large smoke ring before puffing a smaller one through it.
“Egil would be peeved,” Gregory nodded. “I don’t want to antagonize him.”
“The first month, we’ll train together. After that, we’ll do as much as we can together,” Yukiko said.
“Do we still get our days off?” Jenn asked.
“Not as such,” Dia smiled. “You will have five weeks off, set in one-week increments that are chosen by the instructors. How those will be decided is up to them and their assistants.”
“Hopefully, we have them off together,” Gregory said.
“Keep me informed about your friends,” Dia said, changing the topic. “I’m interested if they can keep their training in the face of the others.”
“Uh...” Gregory said with a hint of hesitation, “Daciana and Nessa are doing well, but there’s another with them now.”
“Oh? Would that be Victoria?” Dia asked with a small smile, getting surprised looks from the three. “Bishop told me about her. I would dare to go so far as to say that I know more about her than you do. If she’s joined your friends and is as intent on training and joining the clan as they are, then I will simply wait to hear news of three instead of two.”
“Yes, Dia,” Gregory said, bowing his head.
“Was there anything else?” Dia asked.
“Is Bishop inside?”
“She was, last I knew.”
“Thank you, Dia,” Gregory said, standing up.
“Gregory, we’re going to go check with Murium on the subjects we have questions on,” Yukiko said. “Meet us there after you speak with Bishop?”
“Yes. I shouldn’t be long.”
~*~*~
It took Gregory a bit to track Bishop down. I should’ve started with her room, he chided himself as he knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Bishop’s voice commanded from the other side.
Gregory opened the door. “Bishop, may I speak with you?”
Bishop looked over from her seat at the table. “Pettit, come over and sit.”
Gregory did as she suggested, but he felt out of place. Bishop was wearing casual clothing— a steel-gray shirt and black pants with no kimono or bright colors to be seen. He’d only ever seen her in her proctor armor, but then remembered she’d been wearing this same outfit at breakfast, though it hadn’t struck him then.
“What did you need?” Bishop asked, closing the book she’d been reading.
“It’s not a need. It’s a memory I had a question about.”
“Ah, walking the spirit path does tend to bring memories up,” Bishop said. “I’ve heard you’ve been using the Peaceful Fist to train?”
“Yes, Proctor.”
“Bishop, not proctor,” she chided him gently. “What memory?”
“When I was young— very young— my mother spoke with you during the age day ritual. I was across the square with my friends, waiting for the ritual to start, but it was very close to the day I’d told her that I was going to be a magi for the first time.”
Bishop’s eyes focused on a distant point. “Your mother? Strawberry-blonde hair, a serious expression?”
“She was smiling most of the time that I can recall… she was sad a few times, but when she spoke with you, she might have been serious.”
“I remember her now,” Bishop nodded. “I can see why your father would mourn her loss so much. She was a concerned mother, and beautifu
l. You have her eyes,” she added, looking him square in the eyes.
“Yes. I wanted to know what she spoke to you about.”
“She told me that her son would be a magi. At the time, I simply thought she was just being hopeful— many parents wish for their children to be magi. I didn’t think of it again until she died, and I’d again forgotten about it until I heard your father’s name after his indiscretion.” A smile touched her lips. “Then, a child told me flatly that he would be a magi... that he would grab his aether and make it see him.”
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