Family Meal

  Surprisingly, the night felt far more normal than he had expected. After getting the class situated in their three rooms, he had taken the opportunity to get bathed. Now he somehow was bringing food back to the class with Chel, whose path he had crossed upon leaving the changing room.

  “What’s that sigh for?”

  Theo kept his hands steady on the tray full of delicious-looking dishes, eyes forward down the dimly lit hallway. “Feels nostalgic.” He didn’t expect to be having a meal together with everyone while on a mission, though this wasn’t as much a formal mission as it was a personal journey.

  “I suppose,” she murmured while effortlessly holding her trays of rice and other dishes. “Was worried for a moment you were upset that I forced you to help.”

  He shook his head. “No, not at all. If anything, I’m glad I ran into you. I don’t know how you’d be able to hold everything yourself.”

  “I’ve got enough hands—it would just take a bit more time. Here, get the door for me.”

  Theo shifted the weight of the food onto one hand and placed a palm onto the wooden door, unsealing it before sliding it open with his foot.

  “Oh, I lost.”

  Raising his head, Theo locked eyes with Professor Moriya, who had tucked himself under the blanket of the sunken table at the front of the room. Beside him was Korinna, and across from her was Faris—all tucked under the blanket as well.

  “Ehehe. Pay up, professor,” Kor cackled, holding a palm up to Moriya.

  Never having cared for Kor and Faris’s betting games, Theo raised his eyebrows at the three before carefully setting the tray onto the table. “You three really have nothing better to do, huh?”

  “We really don’t,” murmured Faris with a yawn. “I’ll probably turn in early.”

  To Theo’s disbelief, Moriya produced a single gold coin from his pocket just as Chel set her trays on the table and took the seat across from Moriya and beside Faris. “Wha—” he gaped. “A whole gold? For a bet? From the professor?”

  “Nothing new,” scoffed the physician, setting eating utensils and a bowl of rice in front of everyone, including Theo, who awkwardly took a seat at the front end.

  Utterly triumphant, like nothing else could ruin her day, Kor flipped the gold piece between her fingers while smirking at Faris. “Hey, hey. Wanna bet on something else?”

  The caster could only shake his head hopelessly and sigh. “You can play dumb all you want; I’m still going to bed early.”

  “So? Doesn’t mean that there won’t be anything else worth betting on.” Her eyes were shining. “Come on, Ferry. Come on.”

  While that would have once elicited a rebuke from the prideful caster, Faris now waved his hand dismissively and picked up a spoon from one of the center trays. “I don’t have the energy for you right now. Save your breath.”

  “Yes, yes,” chided Chel in a motherly tone, placing a spoonful of fragrant, cooked greens from one plate into Kor’s bowl. “More eating and less bickering, please.”

  “I haven’t had rice in a long time,” commented Moriya as he put a spoonful of white grains into his mouth and chewed.

  Theo took his opportunity to survey the room. All the boys’ coats and bags were in a neat pile in the corner, and three sets of bedding had been laid out on the floor near the back, which was lined with a fine straw-like material that was not only soft to walk on with bare feet, but comfortable to sleep on. Different as southern traditions and customs were, he remembered most of them from the short time he had spent in the south as a child. If he ignored all the miserable memories, it was almost exciting.

  What he was most worried about, however, were his students. But Selene had mentioned that she was going to bed immediately, Elias was too lazy for his own good to get himself into trouble, and Callie was a native around these parts, so perhaps it was all overthinking.

  Still…with Callie’s history…

  “The Academy sometimes has rice, but it’s not the same,” chirped Chelsi conversationally, taking a slice of a rolled-up omelet. “Much more delicious in the south.”

  “Wait, we can talk?” blurted Kor with a mouth full of rice.

  “What, you were going to let—” Faris pointed the end of his spoon to Chel beside him. “Her tell you that you can’t speak?”

  Theo was in the middle of grabbing some vegetables and meat when the word, “Well…” involuntarily left his mouth, knowing how scary the physician could get after having both worked with her and been her patient.

  Moriya chortled and politely swallowed his food before speaking. “Ha. Scary. Very scary.”

  The affluent chemist seized her opportunity. “Hey, hey, now that we can talk, d’ya wanna bet on somethin’ again?”

  “What do you want to bet on?”

  “Nate…” Chel threatened in a low voice, narrowing her eyes at her partner.

  The professor shrugged while reaching for a slice of omelet. “I have gold. Lots.”

  “Too much, it seems,” added the physician critically, giving up on the lost cause and returning to her food.

  “I guess I’ve never asked,” began Theo awkwardly, “but do you come from nobility, professor?”

  “Ha,” scoffed Chel.

  Moriya halted mid-scoop. “Ty didn’t mention?”

  Theo looked up from his food with wide eyes. “Uh...no?”

  “Well, then.” The professor dropped the egg in his bowl before rummaging through his pockets. “Why yes, yes I do. My parents died when I was a kid, so I inherited their entire estate and gold. Of course, I sold the estate when I moved to the Academy, and being war fodder costs next to nothing, so now I’ve got all this gold to throw around. On top of a full-time professor’s stipend that I carry over Circles, might I add.” And then he pulled his hand out of his pocket, flashing to the students not the typical ten, or even twenty pieces of gold, but a handful of at least fifty.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Theo’s jaw dropped.

  “Holy crap,” breathed Kor, her curiosity and playfulness replaced with shock and awe. “Y-you keep that on you?”

  Moriya nodded, stuffing the money back into his pocket before casually returning to his meal. “Yup. I’ve got one of those magic pockets so they don’t fly around when I’m fighting.”

  “You’d think he’d go clink, clink every time he took a step,” snickered Faris under his breath.

  “All of his gold probably weighs more than him,” muttered Chel in a slightly more aggressive tone than usual.

  Kor nodded to Chel this time. “How about you?”

  The physician was taken aback. “Me?”

  “Yeah, you loaded too?”

  Her easygoing smile turned forced. “My family is probably somewhere around middle-class. Though we are quite frugal people, so it hurts to see Nate spend his money so frivolously.”

  Moriya’s answer was dripping with skepticism. “I don’t see why I can’t spoil you. You ask for reasonable things. The money’s there.”

  “You could save it for other things!” rebutted Chel exasperatedly.

  “Yeah. Like you.”

  Chel rolled her eyes, clearly having tried to win this argument in the past. “Forget it.”

  Money, thought Theo to himself. He used to care about that, didn’t he? Before Em, in the early days when he did work and ran errands for others, sometimes even for nothing, like in the south—but what could he do, being as small and powerless as he was? And when the old sorcerer finally took him under his wing, the monthly allowance he had granted him was more than generous. To think that it grew with every passing year, until he had accumulated a sizable stash of gold himself…it was something that he, too, was frugal beyond all reasonableness with. Something he had never batted an eye at if it meant that he could spoil Ty.

  A red scarf to shield the winter cold, from the store where Callie had gotten her ribbon. Fluttering in the distance until it disappeared down the hill, along with that crystalline blue.

  He shook off the memory and returned to eating.

  * * *

  “You sure you’ll be fine?”

  “Yes, don’t worry. Get some sleep.”

  “Uh-huh.” Theo narrowed his eyes at Elias, who was busy peeling a mandarin at the sunken table of their room. “You keep an eye on her, okay?”

  “Yes, tact,” responded the duelist seriously, even though he didn’t bother meeting his eyes.

  Sighing, dismissing the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, Theo bid the two a good night before closing the door and moving on to the girls’ room.

  Knock, knock.

  “Hey, it’s me. Just thought I’d do one last check.”

  “Yes! One sec.” He could hear light thumping on the other side of the door before it opened to reveal the tiny physician. “All good here,” reported Chel as she gestured to the empty room behind her.

  “Oh. Sel’s not here?” Theo could see that there were three beds in the back, just like in the boys’ room, one of which was clearly disturbed.

  Chelsi cocked her head. “I thought she headed over to your room. How long exactly did it take for you to bring those dishes down?”

  For a moment, Theo thought about explaining how he had taken extra time to canvas both the exterior and interior of the inn after returning the dishes, but he ended up nodding to not appear overly anxious. “Okay, I’ll go check. Don’t forget to put the seals back on before you sleep.”

  Chel gave the tactician a hopeless look. “Will do. Have a good night, boss.”

  The door closed in his face before he could object to the nickname.

  Feeling the fatigue finally sink in though he still wore an unforced smile, Theo returned to his room.

  A single candle at the end of the table. A pile of cards in the center. Three people surrounded it: Kor in the same seat, Faris across from her, and Sel sitting where he had sat for dinner. And then the professor in the back corner, already fast asleep.

  “Ah, you three…” he chided softly from the doorway before closing the door and sealing it. “It’s almost ten, shouldn’t you guys be asleep?”

  “Shhh!” Kor tried to wave Theo away as she scrutinized her cards. “We’re doing that modified two-person complete Fairakarta. I’m trying to think.”

  But Theo continued to shuffle over, yawning into his hand as he took a seat beside the similarly sleepy Faris. “What happened to sleeping early, Faris?”

  Resting his chin in the palm of his hand, Faris eyed Theo out of the corner of his eye and stifled a yawn before scrutinizing the new card Kor had placed into the center.

  Dark 2.

  “Promised her one game. It’s become…”

  “Three so far,” smiled Selene innocently, eyes wide and alert as she ate a spoonful of rice mixed with veggies and fish. “Two to wan. Fawis in the wead.”

  “I just wanted to win some money off him and give Sel an audience,” pouted Kor, leaning over the table to give the icy noble her best whiny pout. “We’re on vacation; sleeping early is b-o-r-i-n-g.”

  Meanwhile, Faris averted his gaze and placed a card from his hand onto the table, entirely averse to her moans and groans. “Yeah, yeah,” he exhaled softly.

  Earth 9.

  “Ooh. That one, huh…hmm. That’s hard.”

  Theo pulled his knees up to his chest and peeked at Faris, who had since closed his eyes and was now nodding off. He turned to Selene. “How’s the food? Do you like it?”

  She nodded enthusiastically, swallowing the food in her mouth before responding. “The vegetables are very yummy. Much fresher than at the Academy, since lotsa farmland around here. I like it.”

  “Okay, I think…I think I’ll put this one down—hey! Are you sleeping?”

  Theo turned back just in time to see Faris jolt awake and rub his eyes to inspect the new card and look back at his own cards with a rare, vulnerable softness plain on his face.

  Except…he was dozing off again.

  “Here.” Theo brought his hands up to Faris’s cards and gestured for him to pass them over. “Let me see.”

  “No, I’m okay,” asserted the sleepy caster a bit more lucidly, moving his hands away, but not before Theo could snatch the cards out of his hand.

  “Aha.”

  “Fine. Whatever,” he continued to grumble, waving a dismissive hand and leaning back in his floor chair. “If you lose, it’s your gold she takes.”

  With a smile on his face, Theo laughed as he examined his hand. “I’ve got plenty, don’t you worry.”

  “Yeah, right. Even if you know how to play the simple version, complete is entirely different.” Faris eyed his cards in Theo’s hands as if they had miraculously changed. “She’s going to rob you.”

  Ten cards as opposed to Kor’s fifteen—technically putting him in the lead, which meant nothing when he had no idea what he was doing.

  Theo put a hand up to his mouth, half-reading the cards, half-wondering what his strategy would be.

  Do I pretend I know nothing and lose graciously? Or do I try to win and give away the fact that I know what I’m doing…while still probably losing?

  “Ticktock, tactician,” grinned the chemist from across the table with the air of a winner already around her.

  “Cut me some slack, okay?” sighed the tactician, placing down a Water 1 on Kor’s new field card.

  “Ha! This isn’t even a challenge!” boasted Kor loudly, slapping her palm down on the table. “I should have you try to play against Sel!”

  “Hey,” barked the shadow from the darkest corner of the room. “Quiet.”

  Afraid of angering the professor any further, they continued to play while whispering under their breaths, Kor dropping more and more cards from her hand and Theo barely losing his. Until all that was left were three cards in his hand and two in Kor’s. The spell-candle flickered, Selene had finished her food, and Theo was about a pin’s width from losing his sanity.

  But I’m so close. And…

  He glanced at Faris, whose head was resting on his shoulder. His hair draped over his serene face, eyes closed, and hands loosely clasped in his lap.

  “Light 4,” he whispered as he tossed one of his cards onto the table.

  “What!?” Korinna hissed. “How did you—you had that all along? You kidding me?”

  Theo blinked, not sure himself what he had done as he mirrored Kor’s utter disbelief.

  “Karma, maybe?” giggled Sel behind her hand.

  With a dramatic sigh, Kor tossed her two remaining cards onto the table. Light 6. Wind 5. “I give up. You win.”

  “Wait—” A mix of conflicting emotions washed over his half-asleep brain. “That’s it? Really?”

  “Yup,” said Kor mid-yawn, standing up and taking a gold coin out of her pocket to toss on top of the cards. “I’m spent. You got lucky this time, but wait until next. That’s Moriya’s coin for ya.” She turned to Sel. “Had enough entertainment for tonight?”

  The brightness in the princess’s eyes shone as she nodded and stood up, taking her bowl with her. “Mhm!”

  “Good-night, tactician,” smiled Kor as she walked away. “Don’t forget to re-apply the seals tonight.”

  “’Kay.”

  Then, before she closed the door behind her, she finally gave Theo the mischievous wink that he had been waiting for.

  That damned chemist, he thought to himself as he tapped on Faris’s shoulder gently, followed by, We’ve all changed, haven’t we?

  Faris jolted awake, straightening up in his seat. “W-huh? Oh, shit. Where—”

  “Mornin’.”

  “Damn. They’re gone? What time is it?”

  “Yup. Almost midnight. Go to bed—I’m going to seal the room.”

  “O-oh. Okay. Okay…” Shakily and dazedly, the caster got to his feet. “Good…good-night.”

  “Good-night.”

  After doing a last check of his classmates’ rooms and their own, Theo extinguished the spell-candle, arranged the Fairakarta cards back into a neat deck, walked over to Faris’s bedside to return the gold piece to its rightful owner, and then turned in for the night.