Chapter 198: No Shenanigans, Just Magic


    Olivia often thought the flat was too quiet, too empty. What had once been a home for 4 was reduced to 2, one on the path to higher education, another on a path nobody could follow. She let her gaze linger on the empty foyer, morning sun illuminating dust motes, warm blankets to cuddle with folded neatly and draped over the arm. Bankets for two.


    She shook her head as if to dispel her ennui, and slapped her face, as if the pain would banish what time could not. Nothing for it: it was best to get on with the day!


    Noah was out front tending to his small garden, overflowing with plants as much as space could allow in a city flat. Olivia peeked out the window, letting the vitality of the plants boost her into a happier mood, humming a bit as she bustled about to make breakfast. High school would be out soon, and Noah would graduate, and he would start the same journey Sienna had already begun. She wiped away a tear; It made her motherly heart swell.


    Speaking of Sienna (perhaps Olivia had been a touch melodramatic), she was out early, attending her jujitsu class, and wouldn’t be back until lunch. Then she’d eat ravenously, that girl. Olivia wondered if she had enough for her in the fridge. Perhaps it was time to shop for some groceries after breakfast.


    Done with his daily plant care, Noah wandered back inside, pink cheeked from the early day wind. Such a reliable soul, her son, who immediately helped wash the dishes and plate the food. His smile was reassuring—he''d always seem to sense her mood.


    “I love you, Noah,” she couldn’t help but say.


    “Love you too mum.”


    What else could she do but brush a kiss to the top of his head?


    It was odd, that day, despite the normalcy the week had started: Sienna back from her university, Noah studying for his A-levels, and she herself still at her job as an art curator.


    It was all ordinary, until, well, the knock on the door.


    That itself was quite ordinary, although many knocks knocked against their door with nobody to hear. It was perhaps more ordinary to hear no knocks at all.


    So, it had only been slightly odd that the door was knocked, that Olivia went to answer it, and opened it to see a man she did not know, who introduced himself as:


    “Lucas Rose, ma’am. Or some people call me ‘Lucky’. I’m an agent of the Agency of Special Investigations.”


    Olivia had never heard of that agency before, which was a bit odd, but the young man politely showed her his badge. It was nonsense to her, although suitably official looking. There were many agencies that Olivia had not heard of, and not everyone could work for a well-known agency like Scotland Yard or the National Crime Agency, like her late husband. (Although perhaps she only knew the NCA because her husband had worked at it.)


    “What is your business with this household on this fine day, Mr. Rose?” she greeted.


    “Well, ma’am. We have news of your husband, John Aurelius. He’s alive,” he said, in a very polite and very ordinary sort of tone.


    Olivia supposed there was no possible way to break that sort of news in any way that wasn’t conducive to heart attacks and fainting spells, although she gallantly managed to avoid both.


    “What??”


    It had been a normal day. It was an odd day. Olivia Aurelius was hoping it would be a miraculous day.


    The two were shuffled into a black SUV, typical for these suit types, and Lucas Rose drove onward to Sienna’s jujitsu studio, nosing the government issued vehicle through London’s morning traffic like a black lab on the hunt for gaps, perhaps driving a tad more aggressively than Olivia’s image of how government agents should drive.


    Sienna, when they found her, was confused, but complied, changing out of her blue jujitsu gi into casual wear and shoving it into her duffle bag, now smooshed down by her feet in car. Sienna was demanding an explanation of the situation, of which Lucas tried to politely explain that their father was alive, and Sienna wasn’t quite having it, demanding to see papers—something!—that would validate his claims. She was checking over Noah and Olivia, making sure neither had been harmed or threatened, and making a fuss in the back seat until Lucas finally dialed someone and handed over the phone.


    “Hello?” Sienna said into the phone, putting it on speaker.


    “Oh! Love. It’s me, your dad,” a very familiar voice explained. The emotion couldn’t quite carry through the speaker, but Olivia could hear the weight in his voice, despite the casual tone. “I’m afraid it’s a long story, and a bit of an inconvenience to come back from the dead, so Mr. Rose there is just bringing you to the Agency’s building to settle everything. No shenanigans, I promise.”


    “No shenanigans?” Sienna repeated, and if her voice had just a bit of a wobble, Olivia made sure not to say anything to her headstrong dear.


    “No shenanigans, love.” A pause. “Just magic.”


    *****


    It had been over two and a half since John had last seen his family. And just, look at them! His children were all grown up, growing up, Sienna perhaps a hair taller than she had been two years ago. She had her mother’s raven locks, curly and untamed, just like her personality, although she tied in back in a ponytail in a futile effort to keep it from her eyes. Just like the rest of her, not even her irises could be pigeonholed into one classification, her right hazel eye with a spot of sectoral heterochromia. John’s sharp senses could tell she had been pulled from her jujitsu classes, which she had been dedicated to for many years now.


    Noah was the shorter, younger brother, although not by much. His hair curled just at the ends in pleasant cowlicks, and John liked to think it resembled the tapered leaves and petals of his plants. For once, however, he was less reserved, barreling into John together with Sienna with a rare power he thought only his jujitsu-master-daughter could muster.


    “Oof. Hey bud. Criminal.” He looped his arms around them, wanting to squeeze them so sight as to never separate but careful not to actually exert that much strength.


    “Dad,” Sienna complained, half fond had exasperated, “You come back from, from—wherever!—and the first thing you call me is criminal!?”


    “From the dead, sweetheart,” he supplied.


    “That doesn’t make any sense!”


    He gave them one last squeeze and attempted to pry them off, but they wouldn’t budge. “Kids, you’re going to have to let go or get a first person view of me snogging your mother,” he said wryly.


    “Whatever, snog her then,” said Sienna. “Nothing we haven’t seen.” But she reluctantly released him along with Noah, shooting him a look that demanded answers.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Noah just smirked, cheeky bugger. He never needed many words.


    Olivia had been waiting patiently, although she looked just as wrecked and disbelieving as the rest of their family. She was trembling, as if she wanted to but couldn’t quite believe what her eyes were seeing. John gently approached, taking her hands withing his, clasping them within his.


    “Olivia,” he said. “Not even death could keep me away from you, my love.”


    “You sap,” she said, eyes watery and smile wobbly, “even death couldn’t give you better pick up lines?”


    “You like my pickup lines.”


    “God help me, I do.”


    A hesitant hand brushed over his face, skimming the closely shaved facial hair. A delicate finger traced up his face, fluttering and wing beat soft, cresting to the crinkle of his eyes. “You look different.”


    “I do,” he said softly. “It’s still me.”


    Her soft palms skated over his cheekbones, grasping just a bit. John was just a teensy bit afraid that she wanted to shake his head, literally. Sienna did get her temper from somewhere. “You better have a bloody good explanation for this, dear,” she said, almost a threat.


    “Death isn’t good enough?”


    “Absolutely not,” she said, and kissed him.


    *****


    The orientation on magic was…chaotic. Nothing could quite contain Sienna and do doubt magic would only add to her chaos.


    “Why do they keep calling it ether, Dad, it’s just magic, isn’t it?”


    “I don’t know criminal,” he said. “They called it magic in the other world.”


    “Probably want it to sound science-y,” Noah reasonably reasoned.


    “It’s fucking stupid!” Sienna said, exasperated. “It’s clearly magic!”


    “Language,” Olivia chastised reflexively. “So,” she began, her grip on his hand just a bit tight for comfort, “you died, went to another world, and only now made it back?”


    “Yes, love.” The hand tightened. “Is that a good enough explanation?”


    “Hmph. I’ll allow it,” she said false-imperiously. Her eyes crinkled with her smile, looking at him as if she couldn’t get her fill. John felt the exact same way, tracing every detail of her face to re-commit it in memory, in better detail than he had ever been able to achieve. With every rank, he mused, he’d do the exact same thing.


    “So we can get magic?” Sienna asked, practically bouncing in place.


    “If you want.”


    “What about your studies, Sienna?” Olivia reminded her.


    Sienna scoffed. “I think justice will be more important than ever.”


    “Magic is supposed to be a secret.”


    “I wonder,” said Sienna ominously. “In this century? It’s only a matter of time.”


    “Sienna…” her mother warned. “We just learned about this from the presentation!”


    “I won’t do anything,” she assured, crossing her arms at the distinct lack of trust. From her own family! “But the government, all the governments are foolish. This’ll come out, sooner or later, and it’ll be better if they prepare the way than suppress it.”


    Nothing would ever dissuade Sienna, of course. John wondered if it was so simple. Nara would be investigating, and so would he.


    Why keep magic secret?


    What was going on with the global astral space?


    John and Nara would find their answers. The question was, would the rest of Earth find out too?


    *****


    A few days later, Nara’s entire family were shuttled through the Copenhagen branch’s orientation on magic, Magic for civilians. Nara watched it with them, just to make sure it wasn’t blatant propaganda, and she had some fun (if she could call it that) figuring out what statements were wrong intentionally or just out of ignorance. As far as she could tell, most were of ignorance.


    Personally, Nara thought that Earth shot themselves in the foot by not allowing for public research of magic. When you only have so many people to research magic because it’s a secret society, progress slows down, and you catch fewer of the geniuses that’d be in other fields. Fewer Aliyahs, fewer Henris, fewer Amaras, fewer Theodores. Not to mention the circulation of information; the rapid development of the Mediterranean area was attributed to information trade along sea and the silk road. Nara herself is a great example of this, a living repository that exchanges information from one world to the next.


    The family now was making their permanent choices (and mistakes) over what essences they’d have to live with for the rest of their lives. The local Agency was interested in the process, her books but especially the Magic Society’s full list of combinations, which Nara sold to them for a mind-boggling amount of money, which she had split 50-50 with John. Some agent had run off with a copy of the books, no doubt to find a photocopier (or something magically better) post-haste, while another figured out how to extract information from the magic society tablet as quickly as technology or manual labor would allow. She forced the tablet-taker to stay in the room with her, as she didn’t trust the Agency not to ‘forget’ to return her tablet to her, so now there was an avid group of white-coats with latex gloves squabbling over the tablet and handing it like it was some sort of crusty Egyptian artifact. She ended up giving them the book version of the compendium so they could at least get started.


    Oskar was ruminating over Resolute, Light, and Life for Mystic. “A paladin!” he had said with some poorly concealed excitement. A paladin that may or may not wield a gun instead of a sword, so Nara strongly suggested he pick up a knowledge stone with his combo and aim for the same skill-book ability that Eufemia got. He eventually chose Resolute, Light, and Void for something a little less stereotypically ‘holy’ paladin, although she had assured him that there was nothing wrong with a stereotypical holy paladin. Healing tanks were incredibly useful.


    Her father chose Renewal, Sun, and Water for Dawn, so she didn’t need to worry about him (or have it out with him). It was a healer and supportive combination, sun had some offensive capability, but it wasn’t inordinately destructive, not with those accompanying essences. If he wanted to be some ‘faith’ healer, the Agency could put him to work. The Agency had some sort of program for free healing (especially of children), and everybody wanted to believe in miraculous recoveries for children anyway. Children were morally unproblematic recipients of cleansing magic.


    The rest of her family were similarly receptive of her advice, the agency’s advice, and Erra’s advice. Her sister was the problem child of today’s discussion.


    The series of orientations spanning the role of civilian essence users, core usage, magic, secrecy, and whatever else an essence user needed to function in modern society had covered that legendary essences (or R5—rate five, as they called it here) weren’t ‘inherently better’ than ones rated to manifest more frequently. The books covered this. Nara covered this.


    Elizabeth was insisting on a Dimension, Vast, Void, for Time combination. A triple rarity confluence. Notoriously, notoriously, notoriously difficult to use. There was a reason why Encio didn’t have it (aside from not even money being able to buy three legendaries at the same time, they just didn’t all exist on market simultaneously), and he had access to some of the best trainers on the planet.


    “I’m not giving you a triple R5 essences,” Nara said.


    “You said I could pick whatever I wanted!”


    “Within reason! I’m not obligated to give you essences! If you read the books, you know how much this costs, even if it spirit coins don’t quite translate in value! Hell, spirit coins—ether coins—are worth even more here!”


    The fact that she could change the essence or make them was neither here nor there, and not something that anybody here needed to know.


    “This is what I want!”


    “I’m not giving it to you!”


    “You’re always so fucking controlling Nora! Just let me make my own choices!”


    She threw her hands up. “If you want it so badly you can pay for it yourself.” She leveled Elizabeth with a glare. “That’s what I fucking thought.”


    She, of course, started to cry. Elizabeth had never been above throwing a tantrum for what she wanted and leveraged it all throughout their childhood so that Nara would be the one to apologize first because she wasn’t as prone to tears, regardless of whether Nara was in the right or the wrong. Elizabeth was more emotionally hurt, so of course Nara should apologize first. She hadn’t grown out of this manipulation, and the public embarrassment of it all wasn’t something that’d deter Elizabeth.


    “You can pick only one legendary, and anything else” Nara said, unmoved by her tears. Elizabeth should learn by now they had always garnered more distaste from Nara than sympathies, because they were always used to her own detriment. “That’s the final rule. If you want the other two legendries, you can try to negotiate with the Agency for them.”


    Nara left the room, unable to stand being in the same room as her sister crying and getting coddled by their mother.


    She leaned against a corridor and groaned; she should be unsurprised that the narcissist wanted a narcissist triple legendary combination. Nara thought that if she had said a triple legendary to Amara at the beginning, that they would’ve tried to talk her out of it too, although she didn’t even know of what legendary was at the time? Should she just have given it to her to spare herself this mess? Let her suffer the consequences of her choices, she thought bitterly.


    “You don’t think you are being controlling, perhaps?” Chrome hedged. On her return to Erras, she had collected the materials necessary to resummon him, and now here he was, both in her head and in his full physical glory.


    “You don’t really think that.” Partly, because Chrome didn’t care much about the intricacies of relationships between humans. Relationships were ephemeral, culinary was forever.


    He snorted. “No. She’s being ridiculous. Even the wealthiest and most spoiled of Erras scions don’t even entertain the thought. Triple legendary simply does not exist on the market at any point in time.”


    “You, what, wanted to question my resolve?” She said, ready to feel even more bitter and sullen if that was the case.


    “Not really, no,” he said idly. “This doesn’t conflict with your values of personal choice?” Which seemed to be the main point of this conversation. It was a test, in a way, but not a test of her resolve.


    “She has a personal choice to choose nothing at all. I’m not obligated to fulfill her every wish and dream.”


    He seemed satisfied with that. “It seems I’m unneeded in this case.”


    “No,” she said. “I’m glad I have you in my corner. All three of you.”