They were the last three to the dining room, and they bowed to the assembled group. “Sorry for the delay,” Gregory said.
“We just finished cooking,” Steva said.
The main table was filled with food and all the seats were taken once the three of them sat down. The next table had food and the staff, minus Steva, who was setting out one last tray on the second table.
Gregory smiled. Every dish was kabocha squash and adzuki beans, cooked in different ways. The memories of his first solstice with Jenn and Yukiko came back to him, and his smile softened as he took his seat.
Discussion at the table was lively as everyone chatted about which of the offerings they liked most. Yukiko and Jenn made sure their friends tried the ones they preferred. Victoria, like Gregory the previous year, looked a little lost.
“Vicky?” Gregory asked, getting her attention. “I know. You look like I did last year. A wise woman told me then that it’s okay. This might be the end of a year, and the release of what was to embrace the new, but it’s okay. It’s okay because we’re here, your friends and family in the form of the clan. We’ll help you find your footing again so you can embrace this year and all the ones to come after it.”
Victoria’s eyes glittered and she bowed her head. “I didn’t know I’d feel the loss of my old life so poignantly before now, but, yes, I want this new one. I’ve wanted it all my life, and some of it more intensely over these last few months.” She looked up, her purple-blue eyes locking on his green ones. “I don’t feel lost. I feel hope and excitement. In Aether’s Guard, I found my purpose, and with my friends, I know that I will realize all my dreams.”
“Yes,” Daciana grinned. She nudged Victoria, breaking the eye contact Victoria had with Gregory. “Me, too.”
Nessa chimed in her agreement, and the moment passed for the table. A few of the older magi smiled, recalling their own time in the academy and the friends they had made. A few felt some sadness as they thought of friends who had passed or left the clan, but seeing the newer generation, they also felt hope.
Gregory had looked down when Victoria’s gaze had broken from his. Blinking slowly, he took another bite of the kabocha waffle. Yukiko’s hand on his thigh got him to look at her. Her soft smile warmed his heart and he exhaled slowly through his nose as he ate. Yuki and Jenn are beside me and will help me know the path we should walk.
Breakfast lasted far longer than normal. They were all full and near bursting with energy. Once they had all finished, Dia led the apprentices and novices out of the clan hall to the porch.
With a smile, Dia said, “When the bell sounds the hour, the first part of today’s events will begin. You have until midday to complete this task. There are items of power hidden throughout the yard for you to find. If you find them, you may do with them as you wish. Do not stop looking unless you are absolutely certain you have found them all. I will come to collect you when it is time to stop. Let Aether guide you on your search.”
She stepped back into the hall and closed the door just as the ninth bell began to chime. Ling, Clover, and all three novices started to rush off. They’d only made it a few feet when Yukiko and Jenn called them to stop.
“Why? Aren’t we supposed to find them first?” Clover asked.
“The first hunter is the best hunter,” Daciana nodded.
Victoria blinked slowly, looking at Gregory. “Dia said we should let Aether guide us.” She looked at Clover and Daciana. “And she never said we were competing.”
Ling nodded slowly. “You’re right… she didn’t.”
“Last year, we cooperated,” Yukiko said. “While we can’t follow Aether, obviously, we did let Gregory lead us last year, and we found them all.”
Gregory had his eyes closed the entire time they spoke, letting his resonance drift out from him. He felt Yuki and Jenn beside him, then the others as they came back. Each of them felt true, solid, or firm to his mind. As he soaked in the feeling, small twinges of something echoed farther away from him. Focusing on one and thanking Darkness for her help, he started walking, his eyes still closed. “This way.”
He led them to the rock garden. He was amazed at how certain he felt walking with his eyes closed— he never misstepped, even as he went around some of the larger rocks. Pausing beside the central rock, Gregory exhaled. “Daciana, two feet down and three feet that way.” He pointed, knowing he was aimed right at the rock.
Daciana nodded slowly as she gathered her magic to dig as Gregory directed. As she worked her magic, Gregory felt her aether weaving and shifting to her will as it left her body. His resonance harmonized with it, and his breath caught for a moment as his understanding of earth magic changed.
“A small chest,” Daciana said excitedly, making the earth push the item out of the newly-excavated hole.
“I got it!” Clover said as she moved it away from the rock.
“Fill it in, please,” Gregory said. “We should try to restore things if we can.”
When Daciana did as he asked, a small frown touched her features for a moment— her magic felt different. It was like something was caressing her magic as she moved it to fill the hole in. A small shiver traveled down her spine when she glanced at Gregory, who was exuding an air of comfort.
“What’s in the chest?” Victoria asked.
“Wait,” Gregory said as Clover reached to open it. “Ling, check it.”
Ling frowned, but she knelt next to the chest and extended her senses to it. Her breath caught as she felt the magic coiled at the lid. “You felt that?”
“It felt wrong to me,” Gregory said. “You can manage it.”
Ling looked back at the chest, extending her aether to the lid. She chewed her lips for a bit before she nodded. “Hemet just showed me this. Step back please, just in case.”
“No,” Gregory said softly. “You can do this. There’s no need to step back. Just take your time. We have hours.”
Ling swallowed as she stared at the chest. Gregory’s absolute certainty in her ability to manage it made her nervous, but also flooded her with the drive to prove him right. Taking a deep breath, she reached out to the enchantment that Hemet had put on the chest. She was certain it was Hemet’s, as it felt identical to what he’d trained her on.
The others looked from Ling by the chest to Gregory, but didn’t move away. Minutes ticked by as they watched, waiting for anything that indicated success or failure. The chest suddenly flared with heat and Ling’s eyes widened, but when the heat and light vanished, she exhaled noisily. The others exhaled with her, except Gregory, who had been watching her with resonance.
Ling opened the chest. Inside were five small pouches, each branded with a different icon and dyed a different color, but all of them also had the clan emblem. Ling pulled out the first pouch, which held a black circle on dark blue leather below the clan emblem.
Victoria reached out, “I think that’s for me.”
The others each took one that seemed to go with their magic. There was a pouch of gray leather with a stone icon for Daciana, making her smile as she put it on. Nessa’s was white with a thundercloud marking it for her. Clover’s was green with a stoppered flask representing her magic. The last was for Ling, which was plain brown, but the marking was a multicolored, runic circle.
“Pretty sure those are storage items,” Yukiko said. “Dia will tell us later, for certain.”
“They are,” Ling said. “I saw Hemet making the one Daciana has the other day when I was working on another task.”
“This way,” Gregory said as he started to walk again, a smile on his lips as the others all followed him.
~*~*~
Dia found them sitting on the porch, meditating, as the twelfth bell struck. “Done early again this year?”
“We believe so,” Yukiko said, “but you can verify for us. We found the chest with the pouches.” She motioned toward the others, who all had them on their belts. “We also found five identical rings, which matched the ones we’re wearing.” She tapped her healing ring. “Three sets of earrings, which we believe are for aether storage because they’re mythrum. We wanted to ask if extra aether is useful for alchemists and enchanters?”
“Extra aether is useful for anyone, but more useful for those using combat magic,” Dia replied, having seen the new earrings already gracing the novices’ ears.
“Five bands of shielding,” Yukiko went on. “They match ours, so we’re pretty sure that’s what they are. And two necklaces identical to ours, which lets someone vanish from sight for ten seconds.”
Dia’s gaze went to Ling and Clover wearing the necklaces. “That is indeed everything.”
“But that means there wasn’t anything for them,” Clover said.
“We don’t need more items from the clan,” Gregory said. “We are as well-equipped as most initiates or adepts, I would think.”
“Better than most,” Dia smiled. “And now, all of you are, as well.”
“Yukiko suggested we give you our older items so you can use them for the next class of novices,” Nessa said. “We’d like to.”
Dia smiled. “The clan will accept anything you wish to give us that will help the next class, but now it is time for the midday repast. Come.”
They trooped behind her, most of them feeling hungry even though they’d eaten their fill during breakfast.
The dining hall was filled with every clan member. The entirety of the staff were grinning at them.
“I see that my students know that working together is better than working against each other,” Gin said.
“It took all of them to get them all,” Hemet smiled. “Did you like the traps, Ling?”
“They strained me, but yes,” Ling replied.
“The poison on the third chest was unpleasant,” Clover said. “If the ingredients for the anti-toxin hadn’t been with the second chest, we might have had real problems.”
“You’re lucky to have found that chest before the third,” Rhea smiled. “You mixed everything perfectly.”
“I honestly didn’t expect you to find the pouches,” William said. “And if you did, I had expected Daciana to be the one to lead you to it. How did you know, Gregory?”
“I used my resonance to feel for anything that called out to me,” Gregory replied.
That had some of the older magi giving him appraising looks.
“The food is ready,” Velma said as she brought the first cart to the table. “Hot pot.”
“Let us enjoy this meal as a clan,” Bishop said. “The younger magi have somewhere to be after it concludes.”
“Are we going to—?”
Bishop silenced him with a raised finger. “They do not know. Let us surprise them.”
“As you say, Bishop,” Gregory said, bowing his head to her.
Both Yukiko and Jenn shared a smile, though, as they knew what was coming and what that meant for them.
