Chương 21: Chapter 20

My leather boots slapped against the stony road as I ran in front of my mother. She had offered to carry me as we made our way over to Magatha's, but I had decided not to waste the opportunity to work on my Path of Running. For once, the sky above us was clear blue with not a cloud in sight. The gentle buzz of insects filtered through the sound of the leaves rustling interspersed with birdsong. It was the perfect morning and I was free!

"Don't get too far ahead, Bastian!" called my mother. Like the dutiful son I was, I heeded her words, pivoting and jogging back to her. As I got close I started giggling before dodging her outstretched hand as I raced past her. My smile must have been infectious because she matched it as she turned to give chase. My laughter grew louder and I picked up speed as I looped back around trying to outpace her.

Unsurprisingly, my short legs were no match for my mothers longer ones and, even with one hand holding up her brown skirt from the dust of the road, she caught me within a few seconds. As she picked me up and spun me around, I laughed some more, complaining half heartedly.

"Down! Down!" She put me down and continued to chase me down the road for a few more minutes before I tired out enough to simply walk. As I recovered she filled the silence of the road with her words.

"What is the name of the road we're on?"

"Northern Horndale Pass," I answered quickly, still puffing.

"Good. And where does it lead?" she asked, quizzing me.

"Which end?" I countered. Details were important. My mother was clearly amused at my antics and raised an eyebrow at me.

"The Eastern end."

"Dinaliby!" I yelled.

"Which is in the country of?"

"Ajinar!" The quizzing continued for the rest of the trip, my mother keeping me entertained while also trying to educate me. I shouldn't call it trying, since she was clearly succeeding. She kept the questions focused to our immediate surroundings for now, though I expected in the future we would expand and start looking beyond the countries on either side of the outpost. To the east we had Ajinar, with the Capital being the city of Ajinport. It sat on top of the Dungeon known as the Endless Plains.

I had tried to ask more questions about the Dungeon itself, but my mother had skillfully avoided answering them, instead using them to segue into new questions. She only lightly touched on the political structure of Ajinar, definitely not phrasing it that way, but when I didn't know the answer she had explained that Ajinar, like Meravia to the West, was ruled by an aristocracy.

Ajinar was smaller than Meravia and only had four Ducal families, each overseeing a province, with the Royal Family ruling from Ajinport which rested next to an inland lake that connected to the Southern Sea. The people of Ajinar were mostly human or beastkin, with equal representation among the Ducal Houses, though the Royal family of the country were bearkin which kind of meant that the beastkin had more power than the human families.

"Why don't we see any beastkin?" I asked. It seemed odd that I hadn't seen any of these beastkin using the Northern Horndale Pass.

"The Ducal House Fenrith controls the Southern Pass," answered my mother.

"They are wolfkin and many beastkin traders use their pass and pay their tolls to…earn favour with them. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Go south so wolfkin like them?" I offered.

"Exactly, you're such a clever boy," my mother cooed. Deception ticked up a point and seeing it made me feel sick. I did my best to ignore it as the discussion continued. The conversation turned to the other side of the Horndale mountain range. To the West, where my mother and grandpa were from, lay the country of Meravia.

Its capital, Helenica, was one of the oldest cities on the continent and according to the people of Meravia, the birthplace of the Helenian language which was treated as the common tongue on the continent. While my mother didn't say it, I had to wonder if the use of Helenian as the common tongue had influenced the countries around it. Because like Meravia, Ajinar was an aristocracy. Helenica sat upon a Dungeon, which I was beginning to suspect was the case for most major cities.

In this case the Dungeon was called the Echoing Depths, and was apparently far more profitable than the Endless Plains Dungeon of Ajinport. If we had continued following the road in the western direction we were headed, the first city we would have arrived at beyond the Horndales was Drevorn. It was ruled by the Ducal House of Landrin, who laid claim to all the land between the city of Drevorn and the lower reaches of the western slopes of the Horndale.

"And that's why House Landrin and House Firthholm don't like each other," explained my mother.

"Because they both think mountain belong to them?" This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Yes, dearest. But they both keep to their own side of the mountain." I put on a thoughtful look that was only half fake.

"Which side we on?"

"Neither," she answered.

"That's why we don't see any tax collectors, and perhaps why a few of the others choose to live up here. It would be too much effort with very little to gain by one House or the other to claim we are on their lands. The other House would have to respond and in the end they would spend more coins than they would gain. So, they leave us alone because they don't want the expense or the hassle. If you go down the slopes, on either side, you'll find little villages set up to mine stone and ore or log the trees.

Maybe even a few hunters in the fur trade on the western side."

"Not on Ajinar side?"

"Not enough coin in it. The Endless Plains has plenty of beasts and monsters with fur that can be hunted." I pretended to look confused and my mother just smiled a little as we continued our walk, diverting off the road and into the forest. I smelled Magatha's garden long before I saw it. Even with winter now over, her garden was in full bloom and it looked more colourful than the last time we had visited, though something about it seemed off.

Magatha stormed out of her cottage before we had even reached her garden. Unlike the first time, when she had seemed incredibly pleased to see my mother, this time the young Hedge Witch looked ropable.

"Did your father send those self-righteous bastards to my doorstep, Penelope?!" My mother nodded her head.

"He told the members of the Shining Light Guild where everyone on the mountain was. If he'd lied, they would have found you anyway, and it would've been worse." Magatha gritted her teeth, her blonde hair tied back in a bun with stray strands loose in the gentle breeze. Her fiery green eyes finally started to calm down as she unclenched her hands from her pale brown dress.

"Why have you come, Penelope?" she asked.

"To make sure you were okay," answered my mother as I tried to watch the garden, my mother, and Magatha all at once.

"I know how some of them can be and wanted to be certain they hadn't crossed any lines."

"Crossed lines? Look at my garden!" Magatha spat with a wave of her arm towards her garden. I finally focused my full attention on the small bushes, herbs, and plants within the low-fenced space. Some were fine, but it was clear from the hoof prints and broken or squashed shrubs that someone had walked a horse through the garden. What a dick! I agreed mentally, my thoughts going to the sneering man. Or could it have been one of the women? I didn't know, but I was ready to be as furious as Magatha about the insult!

Walking forward I knelt down touching some of the broken plants. Behind me I could feel my mother watching me and hear the sound of Magatha's feet as she descended from her porch to join in or perhaps prevent me from doing more damage. My fingers gently traced one of the squashed plants and I paused as they ran over the purple flower. It was half destroyed, petals missing, but it felt fuzzy against my fingers and I cocked my head to the side as my Path of Aethersensing increased.

I lifted the flower to my face to have a closer look when Magatha moved up next to me. Looking up at her, she no longer appeared furious. Instead her gaze was now filled with curiosity. That should have been the warning I heeded, but I was so focused on my new discovery that I didn't think anything of it as she handed me a leaf, a yellow flower, and finally a small bulb-like tuber that she pulled from one of the many pockets on her dress. I raised the yellow flower to my nose.

It smelled nice, its scent faint but sweet. I handed it back almost immediately. The tuber was the same and had a smell like freshly turned soil. The leaf, however, fuzzed in my hands, and I saw my Path of Aethersensing increase a second time. Holding the leaf up to the sun that was shining down between the trees, I could see faint lighter green lines that spread through the leaf that hadn't been visible when I was looking down at it.

Magatha removed the leaf from my hand before I was finished looking which broke me out of my trance. I looked about only to see my mother frowning and Magatha levelling a pointed stare at her.

"You used a Spell on my son. What was it?" demanded my mother. I went white. I hadn't felt a thing. Aethersensing hadn't picked up on anything. What had I been doing? Why was the leaf so interesting to me?

"It was just a Lower Inhibitions Spell, Penny. It should already be wearing off. Now, why don't you tell me why your three year old son can sense aether?" My mother didn't answer immediately, instead looking at the three plants in Magatha's hand.

"It was on the flower?" she asked, to which Magatha gave a small nod.

"Don't you dare ever do something like that to my son ever again!" growled my mother, and for the first time ever I saw what she looked like angry. Her brows were drawn down, her lips pursed, and eyes furious. I couldn't feel any aether around her, but that might have just been because I was still learning. She looked like she was ready to go to war. It reminded me once more of just how much I loved my mother, and just how much she loved me in return.

Magatha had the good sense to look a little ashamed after my mother's rebuke.

"I'm sorry, Penny. You're right. I shouldn't have approached it like that. I was still furious about those golden assholes… and then I saw the way your son paused when he was handling the duskpetal and I just…I didn't think. I'm sorry. It won't happen again." My mother's glare softened but only marginally.

"See that it doesn't." I, like my mother, was still annoyed. But, that annoyance was at war with my curiosity, and as per usual the latter was winning. Mostly, I was impressed with the subtlety of Magatha's magic. When I thought of magic I thought of fireballs, lightning bolts, and swords coated in shadow. Magatha had managed to influence me by performing some simple magic on a flower and letting me smell it. It was so devious yet powerful that I was somewhat gobsmacked.

It also had me wondering how developed Magatha's Aether Core was. Could it match grandpas or was it closer to my mothers? I didn't know, but I hoped to find out.

"So, Penny, why can your three year old son sense aether?" Magatha asked a second time. Mother's glare eased into a frown.

"Father is teaching him."

"He's a little young isn't he? Though…I suppose he's certainly got some talent in it," Magatha commented before turning back towards her cottage.

"Well, I suppose you should come in then. I'll put on some of my special tea for us by way of an apology, Penny."

"And how are you going to apologise to Bastian?" countered my mother as we followed Magatha inside of her home. Magatha glanced over her shoulder at me, green eyes alight with mischief.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll come up with something."