Roar of Dragons

[Greyson – 10 years] → starts during Xander's PoV

If I alter this runic setup just a tiny bit by shifting these three lines just this much… that should increase the power output without affecting anything else, apart from the energy cost. As a test, I activate it and examine the barrier on the laser car. No, that was wrong. The barrier is stronger, but it's drawing too much energy from the battery.

Should I switch the formula to be a direct casting? I won't have need of a battery if I do that, but it'll cost more mana. Without the battery, I can add in another mana source, though, so it won't be too much of a problem.

At least it's a magitech battery that it uses and not a scientech battery. The energy put out is completely different and trying to get enchantments to run off of that is a nightmare.

Not that it's stopped me from trying… but it's pointless.

Maybe if I changed this rune to… yeah, let's go with that. Okay. Now I need to adjust this line… and that one needs to be slightly more curved. This one should be moved over about an eighth of an inch and reconnected. Okay, let's try it now.

The energy draw is lighter, but still not light enough to make me happy. I want the laser cars to last longer, which they can't do if making the barrier 1.4 times as strong increases the energy draw by too much. A balance needs to be struck between having a barrier that can hold out longer and how much energy it requires to keep the enchantment active.

Though it seems I need to put this on hold for a minute, so I turn off the barrier and turn to face Grandfather Adrian, who's been spending most of the day examining things, explaining stuff to Cal and Dad, or debating with Cal and Dad. Those two are currently quietly discussing something near the sleeping room.

"Your dad has reluctantly agreed to let you keep coming here," Grandfather Adrian tells me as he conjures a chair to sit on. "After reviewing the full contract that you've agreed to and having a few more things explained to him, that is. He's agreed that it's better to have oversight on your experiments and creations than to have you keep sneaking off to do it."

"Acceptable," I say. "I would continue regardless of his wishes. My projects are for the future of humanity and must not be stopped. They are going to change the world."

"That, they are," he indicates a piece of scrap metal on the table. "Can I pick that up?"

At least he asks first. Cal and Dad do, but they didn't always. Henry still doesn't.

"You may."

Grandfather Adrian picks it up and examines it.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Greysonian orichalcum."

"You named it after yourself?"

"Xander calls it that," I tell him. "Well, he calls it 'Greysonian orca', but he's not good with bigger words and usually mishears them. I've attempted to explain that it's 'orichal', not 'orca', but he's stuck on killer whales. And the last bit of it is something he has an aversion to saying, so I think that factors in, too. It's an alloy I made in order to be more receptive to mana flows while still maintaining durability and resisting outside influence on the spell matrices within them. I wanted a stronger version of it, but the fire elemental I asked declined to help me craft it."

"The one you attempted to put into a box?"

"It would be easier to smelt things that way."

Grandfather Adrian sighs.

"I've managed to acquire a few pieces of this from various items you've used and left around," he holds up the piece of scrap. "This would be very useful in some types of magitech."

"The whole point of it was to make a material that's better for certain types of magitech," I tell him. "Mainly ones which run without mana being converted to a power source but rather, where it is the power source."

"Is that what led you to inventing it?" Grandfather Adrian asks. "Needing it for your mega computer?"

"That currently runs on both," I say. "Mana converted into the magitech energy we use in order to run the functions, while mana itself is used to fuel them. Unless I can find an infinite fuel source which can produce high amounts of mana at a rapid rate, that will not be able to run on mana alone. As it currently functions, it needs roughly as much mana produced every day as a tenth of what I can hold, and that's with an energy source."

"A tenth of what you can hold, and in a day?"

"Approximately 9.713% much as I can hold," I nod. "And it's not complete, either. How much it needs per day will only increase as I work on the project, even as I optimize its enchantment matrices and reduce the costs. Fortunately, it doesn't need that much power for that side of things, so power cores are sufficient for now, especially since I don't have it running at all times. Ah. The mana cost I stated is how much it would cost if it were on nonstop when being utilized for its intended purpose."

"I see," Grandfather Adrian examines the laser car I was attempting to upgrade. "Did you make the alloy for your remote-controlled cars? The small pieces of scrap I've found were usually in places where you'd used them to grab something you didn't want to try and grab yourself and got damaged by a monster."

"Nah," I say. "I developed it when Xander was trying to make the puzzle sphere. He's not good with enchanting and doesn't like having to put in two separate power sources – a mana battery and either a scientech battery or a converter to make mana into magitech energy – and so needed a metal that would work for the sphere with just mana running the whole thing."

"Let me get this straight," Grandfather Adrian holds up the piece of scrap again. "You invented an alloy that has uses in military satellites, military-grade weaponry, enchanted machines, generators, magitech power plants, and more… so that someone could make a puzzle?"

"And how were sticky notes invented?"

"That's not the same thing," Grandfather Adrian says. "Though I suppose I can understand your reasoning for inventing it. It's not as if I haven't done similar things."

He sets the piece of scrap metal back onto the table.

"I'm not sure how much you were noticing while you were… in your lower mode earlier," he says. "So I wanted to apologize again about grabbing your ear. It's common at my house to pinch the ear of a kid who's trying to run off and I did it out of habit. I do know that some people with Autism don't react well to being touched in certain areas, usually the ears, neck, back of their head, shoulders, and/or back. I'll keep that in mind for the future, okay?"

At least he's apologizing for it.

"Okay."

"If I weren't blocking your teleportation," he says. "Where would you have gone instead of your closet?"

"Here," I answer. "Its a safe place. And full of magitech. So I can do magitech. But I don't really know what I think during that. My mind doesn't… register things properly when I'm in my need-calm mode. The last time it happened, I apparently built an unmanned rocket to Mars."

"And where is this rocket now?" Grandfather Adrian seems a bit concerned.

"On Mars," I answer. "Fortunately, its cloaking magitech keeps it from being noticed by the rovers. I'm not sure how to get it back… but I'll eventually find a way. Once I can finish sorting through those memories, I might be able to figure out how it was built."

"What does this rocket do?"

"It doesn't have any extras," I tell him. "I was being very stupid. At the very least, it should have been designed to start terraforming work."

"You're ten, Greyson… it's okay to not think about things."

"I built an unmanned rocket to Mars, I should be thinking about things."

Grandfather Adrian snorts, but then turns serious again.

"Greyson," he says. "The way you reacted when I touched your ear earlier… there was something different than other times I've seen an Autistic get triggered by a touch for one of those areas. More in your mind. It wasn't just the touch, but… did something happen to your ears? Your reaction seemed like it's a trauma-based aversion rather than a normal Autistic aversion."

"Um…" I find myself wiggling a little and stop. "Know how Mom and my step-dad abandoned us in January of 2019?"

"I do."

"Well… it's my fault," I tell him. "That's why I've got to make sure we stay together and are taken care of."

It's my responsibility because it's my fault.

"And how is it your fault?"

"Mom and our step-dad…" I find myself shifting a bit as my breathing quickens, but I can't stop the second one despite my best efforts. "They… they said I didn't use my ears, so I didn't need them, and… and my step-dad… he held me down and-and Mom got a knife-and-and-then they regrew and-and-and they-they freaked out and they-they abandoned us because it freaked them out and it's all my fault for having really good healing and now my brothers and me are all alone and it's my job to keep us together and-"

Grandfather Adrian pulls me off of my chair and onto his lap, and I curl up and press my head against him. I don't want to cry but my body's making me, and it's shaking a lot, and… and my ears are here but they were cut off and I don't want them to ever be cut off again! My grandfather holds me tightly and gently rubs my back and it feels good, like I'm safe. I want to be safe. I want to be very safe.

"What's wrong?" I can hear Cal asking once my sobs turn to sniffles.

"Greyson just told me about why he gets triggered when his ears are touched," Grandfather Adrian says. "Autistics don't always have a reason for it, it's simply how they are. But Greyson's stems from trauma. Are you aware that your mother and step-dad cut off his ears?"

"They did what?" Cal sounds angry, and I can feel the rage in him upon hearing that.

It's not as fierce as Grandfather Adrian's rage, though. If I could feel only my own mind, I would right now because of how fierce his rage is. But at least I know he's mad about it, too.

"His ears regrowing are apparently the reason they abandoned the four of you," Grandfather Adrian says. "You can be sure that I'll be handling them now. Personally."

That feels very threatening. I'm glad it's not aimed at me.

"You said they're in Vegas?" Grandfather Adrian asks.

"Yeah," I sniffle, my head still buried against his chest.

"Do you know where they are, specifically?"

I pull my head away from him and turn around as I summon my laptop and move back to my chair. After a few minutes of looking-

"Is he hacking?" Cal asks.

"Yes," Grandfather Adrian answers.

-I locate the specific hotel my mom and step-dad are staying at and show it to my grandfather.

"Thank you, Greyson," Grandfather Adrian answers. "Now… please stop hacking. And don't cancel their hotel room, that'll give me more work in dealing with them."

"Fine!"

"Couldn't you do the trick you used to show me relations to find them?" Dad asks. "The drops of blood thing?"

Grandfather Adrian used a blood-based tracking spell? I'm guessing that he demonstrated it to Dad and Papa as part of trying to prove that he's related to us while I was in my need-calm mode.

"Wouldn't that have shown something when I did it?" Cal asks.

Cal did the spell, too? I guess Grandfather Adrian taught it to him so that he could also use it and reveal all blood relatives nearby.

"It has a limited range," I say. "And that range is smaller for descendants than siblings, and further smaller for those who are neither. Part of that range is affected by how powerful you are. As a person with a more normal level of mana-"

"He has twelve times as much as a 'normal' person," Grandfather Adrian says.

"A more normal level of mana for a Lumarikang," I clarify as I summon my puzzle sphere to work on solving it some more as we talk. "Your range would cover about all of Lakeview from our house, maybe a little bit into Dragon Falls. That's for just siblings and descendants."

"I limited the range of my spell when I did it," Grandfather Adrian says. "There are two more of my descendants in the area – in Lakeview, even. Matt and Adam King. I'm not sure if you know Adam, but you might know Matt as he's just starting high school this coming school year, so was only a year above Travis."

"I've not met him," Cal says. "But I do know of him. He plays guitar at the park sometimes, and posts videos of him and his friends doing stuff online. Kind of popular. He and Adam are related to use? Cousins?"

"Seconds-cousins," I correct. "Their dad was cousins with ours. They're from the main branch rather than a side branch like ours."

"And… what's a Lumarikang?" Cal asks.

"That's Greyson not using the current name for our family," Grandfather Adrian snorts. "He apparently found out that that was my last name. My accent back when I met others here made it sound like 'King' rather than 'Kang' and 'Lumari' eventually became 'Lumaria' after the name became split in half. We haven't been the Lumarikangs in a very long time, however. None of my legal paperwork contains the name, either. I'm surprised you learned it, Greyson."

"I was researching whether or not you were a safe person to be around," I tell him. "That was before I learned you could erase Earth from the solar system if you wanted."

"Let's keep things grounded in reality and not your dreams," Dad finally speaks.

"He's not actually wrong," Grandfather Adrian tells Dad. "Greyson himself could obliterate half of North America if he wanted to and was at full mana. 'Obliterate' as in it would cease to be at all, with the ocean eventually filling in what used to be part of the continent."

"I haven't actually learned that yet," I tell Dad. "I can do cross-continent teleportation, but that's much different than a cross-continent blast or erasure."

"And I would stop him," Grandfather Adrian says.

"I haven't had reason to learn something like that," I add.

"I hope you never decide to," Cal says.

"On another subject," Grandfather Adrian has apparently decided we should drop the topic. "Can you guys tell me a bit about this Xander kid? Since he seems to be the one I'm going to be researching after the holiday, anyway?"

"A sweet boy," Cal says. "An orphan who's been coming to the restaurant for years, though we didn't learn his name until last year, when he came in after school on his birthday and still had his ID on. Always polite."

"He never said much," Dad tells Grandfather Adrian. "And always ordered the same thing, then left and ate it in our parking lot. We weren't sure what was going on, but he'd also been quite timid and seemed okay, so we didn't pry. Only recently learned his history, of being an orphan who'd been abused in a previous home. Trey – his current foster-dad – is a good man."

"Xander's sick?" Cal asks. "And they can really only get treatment from you?"

"No," I answer. "Xander's not sick."

"It's something else," Grandfather Adrian says. "But yes, it's something which only I can help with. Depending on the situation, I may take the hit myself rather than requiring payment."

"Xander was in a car accident when he was four," I say. "It resulted in severe brain damage. As the god he is, however, he simply created a magic brain to take the place of his real one in order to continue living. I was not aware that he did so subconsciously and so after we met and I saw this, I did not mention it to him."

"Considering your apparent interest in medical-related stuff," Grandfather Adrian looks over to the shelves of medical books. "Both mundane and magical… I take it you healed his brain with your magic after discovering this? Or will, the next time you see him? Trey reached out to me after a doctor's visit on Friday."

This bit gets tricky, but Grandfather Adrian will discover things anyway as I can't actually stop him when he's personally doing something.

"There was no need for that," I tell him. "Xander's dad was Matt's dad's twin. He's a Lumarikang. After he learned about the spells yesterday and I learned he was casting them subconsciously, I gave him one of my mana potions so that his natural regeneration would kick in. His brain is all healed up, though my calculations were incorrect."

"What calculations?" Dad asks.

"I estimated it would take seconds for his brain to heal," I say. "He's a reincarnated god, after all, even if an evil god messed with his mind and reincarnation so that he doesn't remember the truth and believes himself to be a mortal like we. It took his brain approximately two and a half hours. The probability is high that his regeneration simply needed to wake up, after being inactive for eight years."

"Even I would not be able to heal from that in seconds," Grandfather Adrian says. "I take it Xander is the friend you look up to?"

"He is a god."

"When we meet, I will thank him for asking you to acquire power cores through legitimate methods."

Cal looks like he's trying not to laugh for some reason, and I can feel the amusement in his mind. What is funny about that? Grandfather Adrian was being serious.

"Please be careful when approaching him," I tell Grandfather Adrian. "Xander is very… sensitive. The evil god messed with his head too much and he doesn't believe he's worth higher things. Just knowing he's a Lumarikang is no doubt making him full of anxiety and fear. He's fearful of people attempting to milk him for money and I have no doubt that he has not told his new dad."

Trey is a good person, so I'm certain he won't try to make money off of Xander. So certain, in fact, that it's 100% certainty, which is extremely high for me.

"Greyson?" Grandfather Adrian looks at the puzzle sphere. "Can I ask how that's powered?"

It appears the topic of Xander's state is being shelved.

"This?" I examine the puzzle sphere a little, then shrug. "I dunno. Purely through mana flow, though, rather than mana converted into the magitech energy. He must have optimized the formula pretty well, since I haven't needed to change the battery. The battery must also be able to contain an immense amount of mana. I've been meaning to ask him about how he created it, as I'm sure it would work better for my cars than what I currently have."

"Can't you guys use your magesight and see it?" Dad asks. "Or does it not work that way?"

"Xander obfuscated the enchantments," I explain. "He does that to basically all magitech items he tinkers with in his station, which makes it difficult to reverse-engineer at a glance and I've never tried. The obfuscation also shields the mana battery. Before you ask, obfuscating also makes it difficult to alter the enchantments, so it's a last step. That's why I haven't done it to my mega computer and instead, put a mana wall around. If the inspections are finished, can we please remove all non-authorized personnel from the premises?"

Based on the way this conversation has gone, there is no need for Cal or Dad to continue to be here.

"Greyson…" Dad says with a slight warning note to his voice.

"It's past dinnertime," Grandfather Adrian says. "And while I could teleport to get something for us as I did with lunch, it might be better if we all went to get something to eat."

"If you're paying, can we do steak?" I ask.

"Greyson!" Dad exclaims.

"Anyone else in the mood for steak?" Grandfather Adrian chuckles.

[Sig – 13 years]

"Welcome home," Aunt Rachel says I come in the back door.

"Thanks!" I set down my helmet and give her a hug and she returns it. "I need a shower, though, so-"

"Hold on," she says. "I want to talk with you for a minute, Sig."

"But I just got hoooooooooome!"

"I know," she ruffles my hair, then pats me on the back of my head before releasing me. It probably would have been my back, except I'm still wearing my backpack. "You'll probably want to go to bed after, though, considering you've been out playing all day. It's just a couple of quick things."

"Well, maybe some video games before bed," I tell her. "But definitely a shower before that."

"Uh-huh," she looks doubtful about the video games. "Sig, I know your parents let you do basically anything you want as long as you don't get into trouble."

"Well, yeah," I grab a glass from the cups cabinet and fill it with water. "It's not like I'm getting arrested or needing to go to the hospital."

"I know, sweetie," she says as I take a long drink of the water. "I want you to listen to what I say and try to understand it, okay?"

I finish my long drink before responding.

"Oookay?"

"While it can usually be assumed that you're with one of the other boys," she says. "And one of their dads usually knows what the group is up to… when I'm staying here or when I'm watching you, could you tell me where you're going, with whom you'll be with, and what time you're expecting to be home? I'm not asking for a step-by-step of your day, but if I'm taking care of you, I need to know this stuff."

Argh! This again!

"But Mom and Dad-"

"Hold on," she ruffles my hair again. "Sig, if I know where you are, it gives me peace of mind about your safety. I can't help but worry when you vanish and we don't know where you are."

It stresses her out? But why?Nothing ever happens and at least one of the dads usually knows where we all are.

"But the dads-"

"Sig," she says. "This is just for when I'm taking care of you or staying here. I'd like it more often than that, but I'm not your parents. When I'm here and you're suddenly gone and I don't know where you are, it makes me start wondering what happened to you, if you're okay, if you've been in a car accident."

This is annoying, but I really don't want to fight with her and if it's only for when she's staying with us, then I guess I can do it. I don't get how it changes anything, though.

"If it's only for when I'm staying with you…"

"Thanks," she ruffles my hair again. "By the way, I was called earlier and can move into the new house tomorrow."

"Wait, really?" That's exciting news!

"Yes," she smiles.

"Do you need help moving in?"

"Of course," she ruffles my hair again. "And the dads are asking the other boys now if they want to help this week. I'll be paying all of you for it. Tomorrow, one of Paul's coworkers is going to let us use his truck. Tom has work and doesn't like others driving it."

Mr. Michaels has never liked anyone else driving his truck.

"Cool!" I say.

"Once I move out," she tells me. "Can you still let me know if you're leaving town for something? I'm aware that at least one of the dads usually knows this sort of stuff, but it's for my own peace of mind."

She really won't quit…

"Fiiiine," I groan.

"I'm just worried about you," she gives me a tight hug. "You told me before seven this morning that you were going to the park and that was the last I heard from you. Only because the dads let me know you were hanging out at Connor's after did I stop worrying. And Paul called to ask me about you going to the pond with them."

"He did?" I ask.

"Yes," she gives me another tight squeeze. "He let me know that you boys explore the woods and go swimming and such fairly often, and they always made sure all three of the dads know. While he knew your parents don't care what you do as long as you don't get into trouble or need medical attention, he felt I should at least know.

"Part of today's letting me know," she adds. "Was asking permission, too. Trey is still fairly unknown to them, so they aren't sure how much they can trust him. They were only comfortable with their sons going because Tom was going to be there, but they wanted to get permission for you. Since they knew your parents wouldn't care, they asked me."

"You don't even know Mr. Caldwell," I say. "You gave permission?"

I'm really annoyed that they asked my aunt for permission when they know my parents don't care.

"Only because Tom would be there," she says. "And Paul assured me he knows Xander's case worker and that she wouldn't have placed him with Trey if she didn't trust the man. Also that she'd assured him they'd done extensive research into him before even considering allowing him to take in Xander."

Oh. Mr. Thompson did tell us about Xander's case worker making sure his new home was safe for him, to explain why they were as comfortable with him as they are. They aren't completely comfortable with him, but Mr. Michaels was there as well.

"He's really cool," I nod. "And when we all got to the pond and the water elemental told us that we could go swimming there, he even turned and walked away so we could change into our swim trunks! Though Xander was kind of staring him down, too… I think he wanted to make sure Mr. Caldwell didn't peek?"

That was pretty funny and we were all giggling a little at it. We were talking with Mr. Michaels on the way to the restaurant, and we don't think Xander even knows he was staring down his dad. Mr. Michaels told us that Mr. Caldwell mentioned while they were talking that he could feel Xander's gaze on him.

"If Paul told me that he had even the slightest hesitation," Aunt Rachel squeezes me a little. "I would've said 'no', and he would've nixed the whole group going so that you weren't left out. Only Isaac's dad was available for the full afternoon, so they couldn't have two of them."

Mr. Thompson would've listened to my aunt even though my parents were fine with it? That's weird. Also really annoying.

"I'm glad you said yes," I tell her. "Mr. Caldwell's a really cool dad. He keeps asking the other dads for advice about Xander, too. Like, Mr. Thompson told us before we left not to even mention the snacks that we might see Xander eating. We were really confused about that and asked.

"Apparently," I let go of her and step back once she lets go of me. "And we're not supposed to mention to Xander that we know, but apparently, he's really insecure about when he'll get to eat again and what he'll get to eat. Mr. Caldwell was asking Mr. Thompson about how to handle that, and Mr. Thompson said that making sure Xander had food to eat at any time, even when they're out, would help with that. Food that he could just grab and eat if he got hungry or felt like wanting to eat.

"He said he told us this so that we'd know why we shouldn't ask Xander to share his snacks," I grab my glass and refill it. "Because Xander might feel pressured to share them since he wants to hang out with us and is worried that saying no would make us mad at him. It wouldn't, but he's got a lot of anxiety. So anyway, if he feels like he has to share the food, then it won't be his food anymore. And that would just go back into him feeling uncertain about having food."

I'm really glad that the dads explain why we shouldn't do stuff rather than just saying "don't do it". It was really tempting to ask Xander for some of his snacks when we saw them. I'm glad Mr. Michaels made sure we all had trail mix for the walks, too. That probably helped a little.

"That's good of Trey to do," Aunt Rachel tells me. "Now for something else…"

"This doesn't sound good…"

"Not for you," she gives me a reassuring smile. "I was already planning on moving down here, but the reason I showed up the day I did was directly related to what you were told that day."

"Huh?"

"After you told Paul about your parents extending their surprise vacation," she tells me. "He called me and let me know. The four of you are like sons to each of the dads, so you spending the night at his place several nights in a row isn't a problem and he'd have been fine with you staying there until your parents returned.

"However," she continues. "With the vacation being extended, he felt it best if you had a responsible family member here as well, just in case. I already had most of my stuff in storage, so I packed the rest of my things and drove here. For the week before that, he'd been giving me regular updates on how you were doing."

Aunt Rachel came here because she was worried about me?

"Really?" I ask.

"Really," she answers. "And now I'm getting a house here, if your parents take a vacation without you again, you're more than welcome to stay with me. In fact, I'd much prefer it if you did. It will make me feel better knowing that you're safe and taken care of, especially being so close to you now."

"Okay," I say. "Um… that's probably gonna happen this weekend. They almost always go for a week-long vacation to Niagara Falls the weekend after Interception Day."

"Is that something you're interested in doing?"

"Too commercialized," I tell her. "It's cooler when the place is relatively untouched by people. When you can just get away from all of society and hang out, like at the pond earlier. All of the crowds and stuff just makes it unfun."

The place isn't built up a lot or anything, there are just to many people on what ferry tours and stuff they have for my liking. So it still looks relatively natural, it's just… full of tourists.

"Okay," she says. "Have your parents mentioned a trip to you?"

"Nah," I answer. "They know I don't care for it. So you were already gonna move down here?"

Okay, that's a little bit of a topic change, but it was already planned? It's not just because Mr. Thompson told her my parents left me alone again? I didn't even know he was telling her stuff like that, and it makes me wonder why.

It's doubtful she'd tell me why, though. "Adult stuff" or something like that.

"My original arrival date was going to beyesterday," she chuckles. "Packing had taken less time than I expected it to since the furniture was part of the rental, so I didn't have much left. You and your parents are the only family I have and I did want to be closer, especially since I like you. The houses we'd looked at together were ones I'd already checked out online before coming down here."

"Really?" I ask.

"Really," she says.

"Cool," I say. "How come Mr. Thompson was telling you about me?"

It doesn't hurt to try!

"Don't worry about that," she softly smiles. "Why don't you go take your shower now?"

I knew she wouldn't tell me. That kind of upsets me, but there's nothing I can do about it. Darn.

"Alright!" I say. "But first… where are Mom and Dad? I just realized but they aren't here. They're normally watching TV right now."

"They went out and won't be home until later," she tells me.

"Oh," I say. "Okay. Gonna go take a shower now!"

I finish my water and put the glass in the dishwasher, then grab my helmet and head to my room to drop it and my backpack off. My shower is quick and I realize as I go to play on my computer that I'm too tired for it, so I use a hairdryer to finish drying my hair quickly, then wish Aunt Rachel a goodnight and head to bed.

Today was an awesome day, and I'm happy I got to hang out with everyone and meet a water elemental. Hopefully, the rest of summer vacation is this cool.

[Luke – 13 years]

Adjusting that didn't change anything? The hell? I tried shifting an entire portion of the setup to a different spot, but nothing worked. Even the metal I used today was different, in order to account for potential interference caused by it that I wasn't noticing.

That doesn't seem to be-huh?

I lean back in my chair and let my head hang over the top of its back so that I can watch the door to my workshop. My neck starts to get cramped in this position after a minute and I realize I probably should have waited until he was closer.

Then there's a knock on my door, and I immediately send an electric-magical pulse to the correct spot on the panel by the door, which unlocks the door and lets out a chirp on the other side of it. I can't hear the chirp, but I know that it's accompanied by the light on the lock turning from red to green and a statement that the door is briefly unlocked.

The door opens and Parker enters, dressed in black shorts and a light blue sleeveless shirt. It looks good on him. That's not really important and I'm not sure why that popped into my head.

Especially since there's something more important.

"How'd you get up here?" I ask as he closes the door. "This is a pretty restricted zone."

Parker's never actually been in my professional workshop before, just my fun one at home.

"I'm the best friend of the son of the owners," he snorts as he approaches. "I asked your mom and she let me up here. After this morning, I… yeah."

He looks a bit uncomfortable.

"Is this about me ditching you after breakfast?" I ask. "Sorry, man. I'm just… this project is frustrating me. Nothing I do works. My whole life is a failure."

"Don't be so dramatic," he rolls his eyes. "No… I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"Um… not saying something when Greg and Alan were being jerks to you the other day," he says. "I've been friends with them since we were in preschool together and… I didn't want to get between my friends. You and them. I didn't know what to do and didn't say anything… I'm sorry."

Parker has his "absolute honesty" expression so I know he's serious. He's not aware that he makes that face when he's admitting to something big.

So him being silent wasn't him siding with his friends but not knowing what to do?

"You're forgiven," I lift my head up and spin my seat around so I'm facing him. "But if it doesn't have to do with me ditching you to try and work on this… what happened?"

"Please," he huffs. "Anytime you get obsessed with one of your magitech things, you start ditching me to try and figure it out… though that doesn't look like a generator?"

"I'm taking a break," I tell him. "The generator's that one over there. I figured maybe I could modify a remote-controlled car's controller to operate off the user's own mana and was trying to do that. Sometimes, working on other things give me a eureka moment and I figure something out. I was messing with the mechanics of the generator earlier and… my life is a complete and utter failure."

"Stop with the dramatics," Parker rolls his eyes. "You'll figure it out."

"Maybe, maybe not," I sigh. "I think there's really only one last hope for me to figure out how to scale down the formulas. It works fine on a larger scale – I've checked – it's just the smaller one that's problematic."

"Can I ask what the last hope is?"

"It depends on if Mom and Dad agree to it," I tell him. "Mom said 'no', but I know Dad's leaning towards it, so it depends on if he agrees to let me try and is able to convince Mom to at least let me try. So what happened this morning?"

Parker sighs, knowing he's been caught trying to shift the topic away. He can't just bring it up and not tell me, though!

"I went to the park with Greg and Alan," he tells me. "And some of the kids from my old school were there… including Xander and his other friends. I went over to say hi and Greg and Alan just… started making fun of the way that Xander speaks."

"Wouldn't that just be making fun of how they speak?" I ask. "Xander talks normal."

"Not all the time," Parker shakes his head. "I'm not really sure what causes the shifts, but there are times when the way he talks is more… I dunno, deliberate? It's hard to describe. His voice is a little bit louder, too, but not, like, yelling-loud. I think it happens when he's not uncomfortable, but also not comfortable? Like it's more his 'normal, but not comfortable' way of talking. I dunno. Like I said, it's hard to describe, and I'm nowhere near good enough at this to know what causes it. So I could be wrong on that, too. I'm thirteen, not a psychologist."

"I hadn't noticed," I say. "I guess he doesn't use it around me?"

"He does," Parker snorts. "I told him you probably hadn't noticed. It bothered him a lot and I tried to make sure he knew he was fine. It's not like S.G. and his friends noticed – they were defending him, too, and it was clear they didn't know. They just tend to accept people and not notice minor things like that while you're just oblivious."

"So that happening made you want to apologize?" I turn around and examine the portion of the controller that's frustrating me.

"Well… I got into a fight with Greg and Alan," he says. "And that's kind of when I realized that… they've gotten bad recently. They used to be good. But now they're not. So we aren't friends anymore. I don't like coming between my friends and if some of them are being jerks to the others for no reason, I don't want to be friends with them anymore. You and Xander get along great-"

"Xander hates me," maybe if I alter this line just a tiny bit?

"Yet accepts that you can protect him," Parker says. "And puts up with your babbling. And him not liking you is probably why he's okay with you helping him overcome his fear of drowning. You two still get along."

"I guess," I start altering the enchantment. "You really came here just to apologize? You could've done that tomorrow, you know. I wouldn't have minded waiting."

"No," Parker says. "I came here to drag your ass out of here. Dude! You are obsessing too much! You really need a break! And you already said you have to wait for your parents for the last thing you think you can try!"

"That doesn't mean I can't realize something before then," I tell him. "That other thing might not be necessary."

Parker groans, then grabs my arm and tugs on it.

"Come on," he says. "It's already past nine and you haven't eaten."

"I had some food and-"

"According to your dad, you had snacks," he tugs again. "Come on! I'm gonna cook something."

"Really?" I look at him. "What is it?"

Parker's a great cook.

"What do you want?" He asks. "We've got plenty of food at home."

"Chicken piccata, please!"

I clean up my tools, then grab my things and leave, Parker's dad taking us to their home. It probably is a good idea to do other stuff, but getting my mind off of the failed project is proving difficult.

At Parker's place, we go to the kitchen and I sit on a stool at the counter as he begins working on preparing food for me. Now that I'm away from work, I'm realizing just how hungry I am. Fortunately, his parents don't mind me grabbing snacks.

Because he doesn't like to do half-measures when cooking, Parker even makes the egg noodles from scratch… complete with their twists. It's kind of funny that he's like that with cooking because he has zero interest in actually being a chef.

While it does make preparing food for us take extra time, the meal ends up coming out quite good so the extra wait for food is forgiven. It's chicken piccata with buttery noodles and sauteed cauliflower and mushrooms. He made enough for both of us, and considering how much he eats, I'm guessing he didn't have dinner yet, either.

"So were you hanging out with Xander and them at the park all day?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "Xander, S.G., and them all left around lunchtime. I hung out with some other kids, then grabbed a bite to eat before coming back here to play some video games. Then you weren't answering your phone, so I realized you were probably still absorbed in your project and asked Dad if he could take me to the office."

"Oh," I say. "Well… thanks. I really did need food."

"No problem," he snorts. "I'm used to you being an idiot. Now. I do kind of still feel bad about what happened with Xander earlier. I know it's not my fault, but… do you know something I can make for him for tomorrow? That's not cheesecake. That takes awhile. And there's already one in the fridge for him."

Parker's language of apologies is baked goods, while Xander's very receptive to them, as long as they taste good. That's kind of perfect.

"Can't go wrong with cookies!" I tell him. "He seems to like ones with fruit in them, like lemons, blueberries, or strawberries. Could do one of those!"

"Alright," Parker nods. "Let's do that. Oh, but first… how much do you think my parents make?"

"Parker!" His dad exclaims, having been getting a drink from the fridge when Parker asked that.

"No, hold on," Parker tells him. "I think Luke's just an idiot again."

"Again?" I ask. "I looked up how much high-end caterers made and it's about eighty grand or so a year, but your parents do mage-focused high-end, so probably a hundred grand a year, right? I didn't want to ask how they managed to afford this house or how you're attending the academy, though, since I figured that'd be rude."

Parker's dad is now staring at me with a mixture of shock and amusement on his face.

"Luke," he says. "Do you think that's how much we make total?"

"Yeah."

"That's… an individual wage," he says. "And we own the company on top of that, and it's high-end mage catering. We make more than that each, and having lived in a middle-class area for longer than Parker has been alive until we moved here last summer, we had plenty of money to save up and invest. We own three percent of a clothing company Parker likes and started that back when they were worth significantly less. That's in the tens of millions now."

WHAT?

"Wait, really?"

Parker starts laughing hard enough he clutches his stomach as he bends over.