“One curious thing about growing up is that you don’t only move forward in time; you move backwards as well, as pieces of your parents’ and grandparents’ lives come to you.”

Philip Pullman

“I’m doing it.” I said as soon as she had left.

“There’s no rush to grow up.” Mother replied calmly.

“If I don’t rush it sounds like you will never see me grow up,” I answered

“I’m just saying this isn’t something you have to decide on right now. You have plenty of time to make a decision.” She continued, my parents had gradually grown used to talking to me as someone who could comprehend a lot more than a child but when she looked at me I was still her baby.

“I’m not waiting 100 years to look like I’m 10.” I complained.

“We’re not asking you too. Just don’t be in such a rush to grow up.” Father added.

“It’s not like I will suddenly become an adult. The elixir sounds like it is a lot slower growth than that but a lot faster than the speed I am currently growing at.” I argued.

“A couple of years older would be fine,” he compromised, “but what about our sailing? You said it yourself, life is good now. Why grow up quicker?” he asked me to think about the snap decision I was making.

“There’s no reason I can’t do both. Besides she already expressed an interest in coming out to see the reef she could always come out to it once or twice with us.” I added another item to my daily to do list. It was a lot to do but at the same time, the benefit of living on the edges of society in a preindustrialised world was that there were no distractions, no internet, no tv, no radio and unfortunately until Lady Acacia arrived no books to take up your time.

“I hardly think the open sea is the best place to have a go at practising your spell craft and spell song. We have been safe enough sailing but that is because we have been careful, cautious and alert at all times, something I hardly think you will be able to be while singing the sea alive or whatever else it is she is hoping to teach you.” He pointed out.

“Hmm, I don’t know he might be able to pick up the skills quicker on top of a mana reef after all.” Grandfather chimed in always ready to make the reasonable less so. The mere fact that he was supporting my idea made me suddenly less sure it was a good one.

“All I am saying is that there is no need to rush into anything.” Mother ended the conversation with, “We can come back to this later.”

Aleera and I headed off to see our garden, I was wondering what would happen if I started singing to the plants. As we left, Aleera hissed at me, “If she teaches you magic skills you are teaching me them too.”

“Fine, fine,” I answered. “I’ll teach you a skill or two if I Iearn any.” I waved her concern away.

“A skill for a skill, you owe me at least eight skills.” She bargained back, ever the opportunist.

“Okay, you mean merchant, I wasn’t going to hide anything.” I grumbled.

She raised an eyebrow at the idea that I wasn’t hiding anything.

“I mean I’m not going to hide anything more.” I shrugged as I struggled up the mountain after her. I wanted to grow up a little bit if only to get the longer legs that came with a bigger body.

Pausing at a particularly large rock I looked up at her in an attempt to get some pity, “Can I have a lift?”

“Fine, fine.” She laughed and lifted me up.

. . .

Our daily dinner that evening with our resident guest was a strange affair. Lady Acacia now included me in all her demonstrations. She treated me as she did Aleera now. As if we had already accepted her offer of tuition and the offer to help me grow up, even though we had yet to officially do so.

Aleera modelling her newly gained skills action after Lady Acacia’s instruction then the whole family and me copied them. It was not much different from earlier but now her focus seemed to be solely on my sister and I rather than attempting to correct Father who still sometimes failed or Mother and Grandfather who she seemed happy to let them learn at their own pace. Overall, I found it relatively easy to do having already been taught by Aleera in the first place and having already acquired the majority of her new skills, even if not yet quite at the same level as her.

Lady Acacia seemed suitably impressed, "Superb poise for one so young, we will do great things, great things." Ignoring the fact that my parents had yet to agree. Maybe she felt that flattery was the way forward and that I was the one she needed to convince.

The largest difference to dinner was not the skills of decorum but the fact that their practice and performance were now interrupted and interlaced with examples of magic something she now knew I found far more riveting than what were effectively simply good table manners.

“Now this is of course frowned upon at a noble’s table but I thought you would appreciate a simple example of what you will be capable of.” Instead of asking politely for the salt to be passed. She gestured at the salt only for it to slide along the table towards her. We looked on wide-eyed. If there was one product we had in abundance it was salt. We should probably provide each person with their own salt shaker in the future but for now it was an item to demonstrate her newest incentive for me to take up her lessons.

“Now obviously that effect is utilising more than one skill but the key components to that gesture were Word, Will and then supplying my own mana. It is from the school of Spell craft rather than spell song. A simple and direct transfer of my own mana to create an effect. It is also terribly poor table manners to do in a public place but within a private setting or as an exercise to train children it is acceptable enough.” She elucidated the particulars while still leaving us in the dark about how it was actually achieved.

“But you didn’t say anything.” I pointed out already imagining creating a whirlwind of my belongings floating around me. ‘Use the force Kai!’

“That was because I subvocalised. Silent spellcraft is the only polite spellcraft allowed at the dinner table only to be expected while dining. Anything more vocal shall we say would be a complete lack of decorum and simple crass behaviour in an adult.” she admonished.

“Words? What were the words you used then?” I asked as she seemed happy to be teaching.

“Oicca sal were the spell I used. The command for the action confirmed my intent while I expended mana via the gesture.” She anticipated my next question answering it before I could ask.

“Can every noble do this?” asked Aleera intrigued by the possibilities and possible future threats.

“Yes and no.” She replied. “Certainly, most will have mana and therefore magic to some extent. But for the most it will depend on what tutelage they have received and their talent in it. I am in all modesty fairly proficient at it.” She humbly replied.

I wanted to get started, pointing at things and demanding they fly over to me but could imagine the criticism I would receive were I to do it out loud and at the dining room table. Something to practice for later in the privacy of my room or secret tunnerls that I had been slowly expanding through the mountain. Oicca and So’mul. Two new spells to practice the question was whether I wanted to have a go on my own or whether it would be safer to wait for permission from my parents and tutelage from the tutor. Oh, dearie me, but it was so tempting. I mean what could possibly go wrong? Saving fighting the temptation for later I kept asking questions.

“Do you get a skill for each spell I asked?” A little worried that my already large list of skills would become even more unwieldy.

“No that would be far too convoluted and result in a completely congested skill list. What you receive is a skill called spellcraft. Each spell though can give you a level in the skill. The same for spellsong although having to learn the songs required that tends to take a little longer to level up.” She paused returning to eat her food now that her demonstration was over.

Aleera and I looked at one another and the salt in between us we opened our mouths inhaling to shout, “. . .”

“Not at the dinner table.” Mother interrupted shutting down Alera and I before we could even begin.

To our surprise, Lady Acacia came to our rescue saying, “While frowned upon in a formal setting such displays of power will often be used to emphasise the superiority of nobles to commoners. So should you come across a noble alone, such displays are hardly uncommon. Furthermore, as I iterated earlier in private it is certainly allowed as practice for children.”

We looked at our mother, while it may be allowed for other children it wasn't to be for us at least not tonight at this table.

Moving on, “What else can you show us.” Aleera asked excitedly, equally keen to see this magical world opening up to us.

“Well earlier you asked after examples of enchanting, runes and glyphs. So I have brought here an example of an enchanted cloth. Note the thead and the pattern it has been woven into in the corner of the cloth.” She said as she passed around a handkerchief or rather a napkin that she had pulled from her sleeve. We all noted the fine cloth, and evening finer embroidery stitched into the corner of it. Even mother seemed curious to see both the weaving as well as the effect it would cause.

“What does it do?” I asked excited. Imagining . . . well anything was possible really with magic. Maybe it could fly? A mini magic flying carpet.

“It keeps it dry.” She answered with a somewhat disappointing answer although probably a practical one.

“That’s it?” asked Aleera asked a little nonplussed at the magical effect imbued by the embroidery.

“That’s it.” she smiled at Aleera’s response. “But think of the applications. Here let me demonstrate.” She said as she spilled a little of her or rather a lot of her drink on to the table before mopping it up with the cloth leaving the stone table dry. Then she handed the cloth to Aleera.

“It’s still dry.” she exclaimed surprised.

“As is the table, my dear.” Still teaching a point.

“But where did the water go?” I asked confused. That simply didn’t make sense. Had it been boiled away evaporated or both. How could it absorb the water from the table in the first place if it was supposed to stay dry? "What would happen if you put it into a bucket full of water or the sea for that matter?" I asked that last question aloud.

“Well it is a simple enchantment so I dare say only half the bucket of water would disappear but for most purposes and the purpose it was made for, it suffices. As for the sea that would either overwhelm the enchantment or if it is cleverly conceived the cloth would stay dry despite failing to drain the sea. Still, it is only an enchantment on cloth, not a rune etched in metal or a glyph carved in stone which would have stronger effects. Still, I hope it highlights the importance of your sewing skills Aleera and demonstrates the importance of my lessons.” She added pointedly towards my parents.

“What about runes? Do you have one of those here too? I asked excited by the possibilities.

She pulled a thin metal plate embedded into a ceramic tile much like a coaster out of her purse placing it on the table before requesting our metal carafe of water. Then she opened a small pouch from her purse and put what looked like a few loose tea leaves in the carafe before placing it on the metal tile.

“Now the activation for this is fairly simple, simply supply mana and voila!” The metal square started to glow and with the glow came heat with the carafe quickly starting to boil releasing the scent of lavender tea across the table.

Once boiled she carefully poured herself a cup of tea for Aleera, herself and me. “That is a heating rune. Quite a common place rune in the capital although it is true that the best-etched runes are the ones supplied by the Dwarven Domain in the mountains of the North Eastern Kingdom of Greco. While the runes themselves seem simple enough theirs always last longer and work better than any who manage to copy them."

“And Glyphs?”

“I brought one of my stones. Here are a pair of Callstons. They are a set of paired glyph stones that allow your voice to travel to the other. Aleera if you would like to demonstrate.” She said as she handed one of them to Aleera. “Just fill the glyph with a little mana the stone will do the rest.” She explained while pointing to the door.

Aleera left the room to demonstrate, but her voice soon came back to us from the stone she placed on the table. “Can you hear me?” we heard her ask.

“Yes, dear, thank you. Come back in.” she commanded and Aleera soon rejoined us.

“These Callstons are not particularly long range but they should have enough range for you to stay in contact with your husband when he is out sailing on your boat as long as he doesn’t sail too far. A gift from me to you.” She said as she handed them to Mother and Father. Clearly a bribe to keep them happy and evidence she was still working on bringing my mother around.

“Thank you.” She politely responded although if she really wanted to bribe my mother she should be offering up the embroidered enchantments as those were far more to my mother’s taste. Still, I supposed in a world without phones perhaps the importance of what was effectively magic walkie-talkies could not be underestimated. No more worrying whether Father and I would return when we were only a use of mana away from speaking to us.

“Where did you get them?” Aleera asked as she went over to look at the stones in front of my Mother.

“These were gifted to me by a friend of mine. They were made in the Northern Compass Kingdom of Tramontana by the Stone Wizards who learned from the Giants of the Northern Reaches.” She answered. “Just as best Runes made by the Dwarves the best Glyphs are made by the Giants although they are a little simpler for others to copy as the originals were far larger.”

"Just a little sample of what I will be teaching Aleera in the future. Hopefully, it will not be too long before Callen joins us as well. In fact here is a small sample of the growth elixir unfortunately it is all I have on hand but with your permission, I should be able to source some more when Mercurio next returns. Mind you take care to only use a drop at a time less you stress his vessel. What you have will probably be enough to accelerate his growth to the equivalent of a 5-year-old."

"Thank you for your generosity." Mother said while frowning. I watched as she carefully pocketed the elixir leaving no temptation left on the table. While I stared at the empty space.

"The meal was lovely, thank you." Lady Acacia said before retiring. Leaving us with plenty of food for thought.