By dinnertime, Henry’s parents had recovered from the shock of seeing their son again for the first time in twelve years. The three of them had spent a few hours alone in the kitchen while the rest of us tried to dry our clothes and shoes in front of the fireplace in the living room. As far as I could tell, their talk had gone well. Hanna had at least stopped throwing things at Henry.
“Well, it’s nothing fancy,” Jack said as he motioned down the length of the dining room table. “But at least it’s warm. So please, dig in.”
“Thank you,” I said while picking up my spoon.
From where she sat opposite me, Audrey raised her eyebrows in surprise. I threw a scowl back at her. Just because I never thanked her for anything didn’t mean that I was incapable of saying thank you to people who deserved it.
Shifting my gaze back to my bowl, I ate a spoonful of the rabbit stew that Jack had made. It might not look like much, but the meat was well cooked and the herbs brought out the taste of the vegetables too.
For a while, all seven of us only ate in silence. Outside, the storm still raged. Rain beat against the windows while strong winds created a howling sound as they tore around the building. Flashes of light shone occasionally, followed by the rumble of thunder. But inside the dining room, the candles burned brightly.
“So…” Hanna said into the silence that had fallen. “What have you been doing for twelve years?”
“Mom,” Henry protested.
“What?” She swung her spoon in an exasperated gesture, which made a few drops of stew fly through the air and splatter across the tabletop. “You’ve been gone for twelve years and you expect me not to ask what you’ve been up to?”
“I’ve told you what I’ve been up to. In my letters.”
“Your letters? Bah. One letter every six months where the only thing you tell me is that you’re still alive. And no return address, so I could never reply.”
Henry squirmed slightly in his seat.
It was such an odd thing to see him, with his tall and muscular body, squirm like that. From the day I had met him, Henry had always had this air of casual confidence around him. Never letting people make him feel uncomfortable. So seeing his mother put him in his place like that was a lot of fun. I was definitely going to remind him of that the next time he mopped the floor with me in the training room.
“So?” Hanna pressed while arching an eyebrow at her son. “What have you been doing? Where do you even live now?”
Henry cast a quick glance at me before saying, “Eldar.”
“Eldar? What a terribly boring city.” She shook her head and ate another mouthful of stew before swinging her spoon around again to indicate the rest of us. “And these people? You said that they were your travel companions, which is a very vague answer, son. So, who are they?”
“Uhm,” he began while his eyes darted to me again.
“You.” Hanna stabbed her spoon in my direction. “My son has been looking to you a lot, which means that to him, you’re the most important person at this table. And you’re his…?”
“Friend,” I said at the same time as Henry said, “Boss.”
Hanna raised her eyebrows. “Friend or boss, which is it?”
Scratching the back of his neck, Henry cleared his throat and then shot me a small smile. “Both.”
“Huh. And—”
“Hanna,” Jack interrupted. Chuckling, he shook his head at her. “Let the poor people eat. I didn’t make this stew just for it to go cold on the table.”
“Yes, yes. Alright.”
For another few minutes, only the clanking of spoons against bowls filled the silence. Along with the faint crackling from the fireplace. The dining room and living room were more like two halves of the same room rather than two separate ones. And it was rather cozy.
The table for eight that we were currently occupying was sturdy and of great quality, but well used. As was the dark brown couch by the fireplace and the lone armchair beside it. This was a place where people used everything while also taking great care of it. It made the whole house feel very homely.
“I’m afraid you will all have to share one bedroom,” Jack said once he had finished eating. “Our home isn’t really built to house seven people.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Henry said.
“But,” Lance began as he looked between Jack and Hanna, “what about the third room upstairs? I didn’t mean to snoop but I saw it while I was waiting for the bathroom.”
Henry went rigid while his parents exchanged a glance.
“We don’t use that room,” Jack said slowly.
“Oh.” Lance blinked in surprise before a curious expression settled on his features. “Why not?”
“Lance,” I warned in a low voice.
“Because that is Nick’s room,” Hanna said.
“Who’s Nick?”
Storm clouds gathered in Henry’s gray eyes as he turned to face the Binder. “My little brother.”
On the other side of the table, Audrey and Paige exchanged a surprised look. But neither of them said anything. Apparently, the only person at the table who was incapable of reading the room was Lance, because he continued talking even though the air was crackling with tension at that point.
“You have a brother?” he asked, and looked around the room as if that brother would just pop up from behind the couch.
“Had.”
“So then where…” At last, understanding struck him. “Oh.”
Sadness flooded Hanna’s weathered face. “It’s still Nick’s room. Which is why we don’t want people to use it or to go in there and start moving things around.”
At her words, a brief flicker of pain shot across Henry’s face. But he smothered it before his mother could see it.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Paige said, and genuine concern shone in her eyes as she looked between Henry and his parents.
“Thank you,” Jack said.
Henry just swallowed and gave her a tight nod.
“Twelve years ago now.” A sad smile blew across Hanna’s lips, and she looked up at the ceiling as if she could see all the way through the wood and up into Nick’s room. “He was supposed to have had his whole life ahead of him, but instead…”
The windows rattled as the wind and rain continued beating against the walls outside. I drank some water from my mug while studying the people around the table. Jack and Hanna had that heartbroken look in their eyes that I had seen on Henry’s face when he had told me this story. Now, Henry only clenched his jaw and stared at the crackling fireplace across the room. Audrey was studying Henry as if seeing him in a different light, while Paige watched him with genuine sorrow in her blue eyes. But Lance… Lance still looked curious.
Before I could do anything to make sure he kept his mouth shut from now on, he shifted his gaze between Jack and Hanna while saying, “If you don’t mind, can I ask what happened?”
“You wanna know what happened?” Henry slammed his fist down on the table and shot to his feet before whirling towards him. “You did. People like you happened.”
“Henry,” his father began while raising his hand in a calming gesture. “Surely—”
“No,” Henry interrupted. Cold fury burned in his eyes as he glared at the shocked Binder on the other side of the table. “He needs to hear this.”
“I… I’m sorry,” Lance stammered. “I meant no offense.”
“Shut up. You wanna know what happened to Nick? Alright. Nick and I were both born mages. I got wind, but he got a really rare one. Plants.”
“He was such a sweet boy,” Hanna filled in before Henry could press on. “And he loved to grow things. You should have seen our farm back when he was… Back then. Plants and flowers everywhere.” While waving Henry back down in his seat, she blew out a long breath and gave us one of those sad smiles again. “They were his greatest love. He could talk about anything and everything plant-related for hours.”
Jack chuckled. “We all stopped listening after a while.”
“Yes, but he loved it. And it made him happy.” Her eyes drifted to Henry. “But then Henry graduated from the academy in Castlebourne where he had to give up his wind magic to the Great Current, and Nick, who is… who was just a year younger, panicked.”
Reaching across the table, Jack squeezed his wife’s hand. “We did everything we could. We petitioned the academy and everyone we could think of with influence in all of Castlebourne, asking if Nick could be allowed to keep his magic since it could have helped the city too. But…”
“They said no.” Hanna’s voice took on a hard edge. “They said that no exceptions could be made. Everyone had to share their magic equally, or all mages would start asking for exceptions.”
“So Nick also graduated and gave up his magic,” Jack continued. “And since there have been so few mages like him, plant magic isn’t available through the Great Current. The loss of identity for Nick was… devastating.” He swept his gaze around the table while a pained look crossed his face. “You have to understand, this was his whole life. Everything that brought him joy, everything that he was, how he saw himself and the world around him, was connected to his magic. And without it, he just couldn’t cope.”
“We tried to help him,” Hanna said, while choking back a sob. “Henry did too. He always protected Nick. But this was something that none of us could protect him from. None of us could help him with.”
Jack blew out a breath and squeezed her hand again before looking up at us. “Nick decided to end things a few months later. When Hanna found him, it was already too late.”
The silence that descended over the room was so thick that I could almost see it in the air. Understanding filled Audrey’s eyes as she looked between the three of them. Tears gleamed in Paige’s as she did the same.
On the other side of the table, Lance stared at Jack. His mouth hung open and stunned shock shone on his features. But before he could say anything, Henry’s voice cut through the silence like a blade.
“So tell me, Lance.” He practically spat the name. “Was forcing my little brother to give up his magic the right thing to do? Was he selfish for wanting to keep it?”
Wood creaked as everyone turned in their seats to stare at Lance. His blue eyes flicked from face to face, and he opened his mouth as if to respond. But then he just closed it again.
Because for once, the Binder had no answer.
