Hope

Aaron had emptied his stomach of all there had been, then kept dry heaving. The ring had been removed from his finger after Rainer had to jump out of the first barrage’s way but that seemed to make it barely better. Everyone stood around him, worriedly, as he sat in his chair

“I will have to redo these,” Aaron cursed in between retches, vaguely pointing at his ruined paperwork, as everyone stood around, worried and awkward. They had been taught a lot and were good at what they knew… But they would hardly know anything about this. It was simple enough to teach someone to clean and bandage a cut. Half of them would even know how to stitch or do basic resuscitation. Yet what in the world were they supposed to do about some kind of magic-induced sickness? And so, they could only stand around and hope.

Thankfully, it wasn’t getting worse.

"I will go get some towels," Kalista offered standing up.

"Take Irwyn with you," Waylan suggested.

"I think I should stay here, no?"

"And just stand around, all anxious with us?" Waylan raised an eyebrow. “Nah, better the kids look at you and don’t notice nothing wrong in here.”

“I am not that much to look at,” Irwyn shrugged.

“But you are,” Maxim jumped in. “How many casters do you think they have seen besides you?”

“Zero,” Kalista provided with cheer.

“Go show them that you are still alive and on their side,” Maxim nodded.

“Oh, I think that wasn’t everything yet…” Aaron interrupted, then dry heaved again for a few seconds. Nothing more evacuated though.

“We will also bring some water,” Kalista stood up and borderline dragged Irwyn out of the office, back into the mess hall. “We are going to bring that up every chance we get for at least a month.”

“Cruel,” Irwyn smiled.

“I am already figuring out what numbers to fake when he asks us to refile reports,” she grinned right back. “I had a good look and the balance sheet he checks everything else against is half melted.”

“It sounds like the paperwork has increased substantially since I left,” Irwyn raised an eyebrow. The kitchen was just a few steps away though they stopped before actually entering, letting all the kids see them just talk.

“Well, yeah, but no one can really complain,” Kalista shrugged. “After Old Crow left Aaron made this whole plan of how we could take over and transition into something better suited.”

“And it seems to be working rather well,” Irwyn nodded.

“For the most part,” Kalista agreed carefully, then paused. “You can do one of those fancy privacy bubbles, right?”

“I can improvise,” Irwyn shrugged and did so. It was not difficult to create a bubble, then make it invisible, isolate, mute, and suppress. He had some doubts about how effective it would be against mages who knew how to get past such protections, but it was more than good enough for the moment. “Done.”

“Just like that,” Kalista shook her head in disbelief, then turned away from Irwyn, removing her blindfold for a few moments before resuming the conversation. “And it’s firm too.”

“Firm?”

“I sneaked a peak at a few mages lately,” she nodded, blindfold fully back on. “But they were… slower. And the magic I could see in their spells was a lot looser, like strands of cloth unravelling and flying to the wind.”

“Leaking magic is a sign of insufficient control,” Irwyn had a good guess of what Kalista might have seen. “And mine is very good for my age.”

“I suppose that even magic doesn’t change the simplest truth of life:” she chuckled at that. “You are either rich, talented, or fucked.”

“More than you know,” Irwyn nodded. “I have seen that the majority of mages are… startlingly impotent.”

“Woe be to our Duchy’s population.”

“Not what I meant and you know it,” Irwyn sighed.

“You could at least pretend to be embarrassed,” she smiled.

“That would only encourage you,” he scoffed. “Though as I was saying: Most mages are genuinely weak.”

“And you are not?” she asked, curious.

“That depends on who you are comparing me to,” he explained. “Compared to the average? No. My age? Absolutely not. But I have witnessed some proper leviathans. Did you know that the Duke had apparently slain a dragon?”

“The big lizards, breathe shit?” she blinked at him cluelessly.

“You should really read the Book of the Name at some point,” Irwyn grumbled. “Dragons are the scariest monsters by its account.”

“It is pretty long, and I have different pastimes,” she shrugged unapologetically. “But this is not why I asked for privacy. Don’t look, but: The rightmost corner of the room from us, bench, right by the window.”

And so Irwyn did not look, at least not directly. He instead rather, he manifested his remote eye by the side of his head, making sure it was not visible. What he beheld was a single child, sitting by themselves, playing with something cube shaped and quite possibly looking in Irwyn’s direction. That wasn’t the important part though, so Irwyn felt more closely, and then realized why exactly Kalista had asked him that.

“They have magic,” Irwyn concluded. It wasn’t much… but they were a child. He couldn’t tell how old without looking from closer but somewhere between six and ten would be Irwyn’s guess. That was when most of the Tears were recruited. And he thought he would have most likely noticed if the child had been around before he had fled the city.

“Yep,” Kalista nodded. “Twice orphaned, poor lad. I noticed the spark though and have been losing my head over it a bit ever since.”

“I honestly have no idea how talented he might be,” Irwyn shrugged. “But I could ask. And if they pass whatever criteria there are they might be taken in by whatever institution manages the education of young mages.”

“Vague,” she frowned.

“Because I don’t know how any of it works,” he shrugged. “Or he can just stay here. It could be that the little spark is so weak as to not be notable or even worth nurturing to the powers that be. I cannot even tell its element from how little there is, if he has one at all. I know nothing about this.”

“Well, you did figure out most of it on your own,” Kalista said slowly.

“Old Crow helped me,” Irwyn shook his head. “And from where I stand now it is obvious that I had my talent keeping me afloat me through a lot of that ignorance. To an absurd degree, in all honesty.”

“How absurd are we talking here, Irwyn?” she seemed somewhat skeptical. “Even if you are outside the norm, you never had any problems.”

“I learned recently…” Irwyn said as he summoned a glove of Flame to envelop his hand. Then he let loose enough heat to make it feel like a blazing fire from a few steps away to Kalista before dismissing it again. “...that universally all Flame mages have some burn scars. Even with the best education, they mess up eventually and melt a bit of themselves - a bit of an elbow, a patch on the chest, and some such. Except, Kalista, I never burned. I still do not – that isn’t normal even for geniuses. It is not something I have neither learned nor really earned. This is just how I have always been. From what I have seen, I am basically to mages what someone born invisible would be to thieves.”

“Flex understood,” she grumbled but let it go.

“Hey, I have enough praise for myself to stretch all the way back to the office.”

“Honestly… a few months with a Blackburg and you suddenly develop a sense of Pride,” she shook her head, though in good humor again.

“What can I say,” Irwyn grinned. “I have to make up for the years of self-doubt and hiding.”

“It’s been quite the three months, huh,” she sighed, a bit… wistful. “You and Waylan have certainly changed. But so have all of us I suppose.”

“A crisis does that to people,” Irwyn nodded. “And I went through like three, I think.”

“Where did you have the time to find a girl?” she teased, shaking her head.

“It was not so time intensive as to be exclusive with the other,” Irwyn rolled his eyes.

“Any relationship takes a lot of time, Irwyn,” she chided.

“I meant the crisis… crises? crisisis?? What is the plural form of that, even?”

“Ask Aaron, not me,” Kalista shrugged, snickering. “Speaking off, we should get those towels. And a pitcher.”

“True,” Irwyn nodded.

They had been talking for a while right in front of the kitchen door so they finally entered. The room was rather spacious, full of various appliances… which Irwyn did not give much attention to since he instead found another familiar face.

“Narcinia,” he smiled at the cook.

“Busy,” she snapped back, leaning over a pan and refusing to turn around, “I think the stove broke again.”

“Yes, the Flame is uneven,” Irwyn felt, glancing over curiously. “I did not know this neighborhood had a butane supply.”

“A what?” Kalista asked.

“Cooking gas - and no, we have a tank,” Narcinia finally turned around. “Hey, Irwyn, what do you mean uneven.”

“It happens to be a good bit hotter on the right side of the stove.”

“How would you know?” Kalista questioned.

“I just… feel it?” Irwyn inclined his head. “Magic, obviously.”

“It was fine just yesterday,” Narcinia muttered, turning back to her cooking. There was also a large pot boiling and two more pans sizzling. “Say, Kali, could you try convincing Aaron to get me proper steel instead of this.”

“What I see is already miles ahead of your last kitchen,” Irwyn pointed out

“There is no such thing as a fully equipped kitchen,” Narcinia chided. “You can always improve something.”

“I feel like that cannot be true in practice,” Irwyn opinioned.

“And Aaron already vetoed a new stove twice,” Kalista added. “Though you might get on his good side with a pitcher of water and some towels.”

“I am cooking for 60 people with a busted stove,” she scoffed. “You know where supplies are.”

“Honestly, you could be at least a bit fawning over Irwyn suddenly showing up again,” Kalista harrumphed, but went for one of the shelves.

“I. Am. Busy.”

“Sure thing, duchess of the soups,” Kalista rolled her eyes, finding a few towels - closer to rags, really - picking a pitcher, then filling it from a large barrel in the corner. Irwyn had half-forgotten most of Ebon Respite didn’t really have proper plumbing or sinks. “She will freak out when her brain catches up.”

“Is she often… like this?” Irwyn also found her reaction strange. Kalista handed him a platter of cloudy glasses.

“Ever since she got a bigger kitchen. Not to mention her being probably the only person here more at ease with Old Crow gone,” Kalista shrugged. “She gets way into it now. Well, the meals are tastier and it’s better than her brooding all day long. You should mess with her by turning your eyes normal again when she realizes.”

“Normal?” Irwyn paused.

“Well, I am presuming they are not so… golden most of the time?”

“Oh,” Irwyn had, in fact, himself forgotten that his eyes were nowadays perpetually golden. “No one else seemed even surprised.”

“It is a mild change comparatively. Just magic,” Kalista shrugged. “I am more interested in how you got so buff.”

“Just magic,” Irwyn shrugged right back.

“Very funny,”

“No, seriously,” Irwyn shook his head, flexing an arm slightly. “I have been like this for literally less than a week.”

“That is such crap,” Kalista cursed. “How much must that cost?”

“No clue,” Irwyn admitted. “Turns out unfathomable riches obscures such meagre concerns as cost.”

“Must be nice,” she sighed.

“An all-inclusive vacation in a City Black mansion at no cost is nice, true,” Irwyn sagely nodded.

“Ugh,” she grunted and squinted at Irwyn.

“Shame I did not have the time to visit the spas… or whatever the upper crust does to relax.”

“Let’s just go back before you make my blood boil.”

“Envy is unhealthy,” Irwyn still nodded and so they went.

When they returned the room seemed rather quiet, though the mood was quickly revived by Waylan jabbing about ‘the incredible difficulty of getting towels quickly’. Kalista immediately used that as an excuse to leave the cleaning of vomit to their sneak and nestled next to Rainer again. The clean-up was not that difficult and quickly over with. Although Aaron remained pale and out of sorts, he appeared fine enough. The conversation quickly returned to the ring which had led him to that state.

“The obvious next step is for me to try it on,” Kalista raised the ring above her head so that everyone could see.

“Aaron just barfed his guts out over it,” Maxim pointed out

“Well, we have to see if it’s just Aaron or the Honing in general, right?” Kalista shrugged.

“And you read by example,” Waylan nodded. “But it seems to me like that ain’t happening, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” Rainer said, easily snatching the ring from Kalista with nigh inhuman dexterity. ”You are already lightheaded from Irwyn being too bright.”

“That is not actually an insult,” Irwyn pointed out.

“Do me a solid and take it as one anyway?” Rainer smiled, moving the ring across his fingers with almost hypnotizing speed.

“You don’t have…” Kalista started, but before she could even finish her sentence Rainer had already put the ring on.

“We should have brought a bucket first,” Maxim observed as Rainer paused. The young man stared blankly for a moment, then grimaced, heaved backwards and…

“Just messing with you,” …laughed at the top of his lungs. “Yep, I am totally fine. It’s just Aaron being too smart to be even smarter, I guess. This thing is nice.”

“Who do you think you were fooling?” Kalista just scoffed.

“Not convincing enough for you?”

“Please! If you were actually going to puke you would have turned away,” she grinned. “After all, we both know full well what would happen if you ruined my dress.”

“Noted for the next time I play out violent sickness,” Rainer muttered.

“How are you feeling?” Irwyn inquired.

“I am… thinking faster?” Rainer shrugged. “Not feeling particularly smarter though. I suppose with this I can make stupid decisions with unmatched speed.”

“Give it over,” Kalista moved to snatch the ring and was not stopped, then put it on. “Oooooh, this is nice.”

“Are we doing rounds now?” Waylan asked. “I am also curious.”

“Have at it,” Kalista quickly removed it and threw it Waylan’s way… missing severely.

“You would think that seeing exactly where you are throwing would make you better at it,” Irwyn grinned.

“I am sure you have a perfect pitch,” Kalista shot back.

“Don’t say that or he will try to sing,” Waylan grunted, putting the ring on. “Yeah, feels convenient.”

“Pass it over,” Maxim nodded. “Where did you even get it?”

“A gift from Old Crow, actually,” Irwyn shrugged. “Delivered by Waylan, even.”

“I knew I should have rummaged through the package,” Waylan grimaced as he handed the ring over to Maxim.

“And you just what, don’t need it?” Kalista inclined her head. “It sounds really useful for magic.”

“It was seemingly obtained before it became clear that I would grow so close to House Blackburg,” Irwyn shrugged. “And the Duke’s family has deeper pockets than we can fathom.”

“So Irwyn’s ‘friend’,” Waylan said. “Apparently offered to just get him a better one upon being unimpressed with this.”

“Pretty much,” Irwyn admitted.

“Damn. Maxim, you need to go seduce a Blackburg too,” Kalista cursed.

“Can’t exactly turn myself into an actual mage, can I?” Maxim just shrugged with good humor. “If Irwyn is anything to go by, looks are not exactly the way to go.”

“Hurtful,” Irwyn smiled.

“And trueeeee,” Waylan laughed.

“So, how did you actually meet your ‘friend’,” Kalista winked.

“Surprisingly enough, Old Crow arranged some kind of a meeting,” which Irwyn ignored. “I am not exactly sure how but he seems to have some kind of line to the Duke… or at least someone close enough.”

“Or maybe it just has to do with these,” Aaron suggested, pulling up his sleeve. For a moment nothing was visible… then a black mark bubbled to the surface right in the middle between the wrist and elbow. And, to his surprise, Irwyn realized it was tangibly magical. Weak, or perhaps just heavily concealed, but surely belonging to the Void.

“This is?” Irwyn frowned.

“Old Crow’s parting gift,” Rainer explained. “He said that the Guild was due reparations after Alira’s rampage and he was the only Fowl left in the city at he time.”

“Supposedly it marks us as Blackburg assets,” Kalista nodded. “Except no one knows whose assets exactly. Because there isn’t actually anyone who recruited us.”

“But if anyone who can track these found out and questioned it, they would just be told they are not qualified to learn that information,” Aaron smiled at that. “And no one actually important spends any time in Ebon Respite… well, until now, I suppose.”

“You are diverting,” Kalista complained. “How. Did. You. Meet?”

“Well, it’s not exactly a short story,” Irwyn said. “I might as well talk about everything after leaving for context.”

“We have time,” Aaron shrugged. “Start from the beginning.”

“Fair enough,” Irwyn nodded. got seated, and talked. And talked and talked and talked…