Roar of Dragons

[Luke – 13 years]

"-which doesn't make any sense, when you think about it," I say. "But I guess it's just another case of magic doing its own thing rather than following any specific principles."

"Probably," Tyler says. "But considering that dragons are mythical, we can't actually know for sure how it works. Is it actually pure flight magics? Gravity manipulation? Or something else entirely? It's that extra bit that we can't really know, as no other creature really reaches the supposed size of a dragon."

"Exactly!" I say. "And that's on top of the oddity of how giant magic beasts don't have any sort of magic running which keeps them from crushing themselves under their own weight, too, so there's definitely something extra going on."

"To be fair," Tyler says. "Dragons aren't rumored to be as large as some of the bigger beasts. Like, thirty feet to the shoulders at the most. There were dinosaurs bigger than that."

"For all we know, dragons were a type of dinosaur," I say. "Just one which left no fossils behind. But yeah, we were totally wrong when we talked about it last month. Dragons probably don't need enhancement magics. Even if they were of such a great size, they're dragons, the supposed peak of magical beings. If there are large beasts that would theoretically need it but don't, then dragons definitely wouldn't."

"Which is why dragons might not actually need that much mana for flight," Tyler nods. "They probably fly by making magic do magic things. Which goes back into the question of what makes magic work? It's definitely not science even if we can figure out the rules, as the rules often change randomly without any discernible reason as to why."

"Yeah," I say. "And even Adrian King himself has directly stated that magic is something entirely separate from science. He didn't expand on that, but considering that he's the man who taught humanity magic and is older and more knowledgeable than anyone could ever imagine, if he says it, then it's probably true. And it's not like we've been able to put a scientific aspect to it. You change a formula slightly in a scientific medicine, you can end up with a massive difference. Then you get alchemy and can use, like, four hundred different things. Hell, I just learned earlier than magic can feel other magic and react to it even when there's no real reason for it to be able to."

"Sort of like magic itself having empathy magic for other magics?" Tyler asks.

"Yeah."

"Have you ever fought a mindpaw bear?" Tyler asks. "It can sense all other mindpaw bears in the area without using any active magics. Sort of like empathy, but their minds are basically connected, but not as a hive. It's so strange fighting them. Dad and I had to fight some earlier this year. They ambushed us."

"Ooh, I've never fought one of those before."

"HEY!" Parker exclaims. "Luke! Tyler! You keep changing topics, like, every twenty seconds! And I can't follow any of it! What am I even doing here?"

"Looking pretty while we wait for our turn."

Parker's mouth opens and closes as his left hand shifts in the air as he attempts to come up with a response. Eventually, he settles on turning red, though it seems more like he's embarrassed rather than angry. Weirdo.

"Luke," Parker groans. "We're in your backyard. We came out here to swim. What turn? You two just randomly started talking about magic and Tyler! How are you even able to keep up with him? Isn't it a bunch of gibberish?"

"Nope!" Tyler answers. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"I want to swim!" Parker exclaims, then runs to the pool and jumps in.

We are all in our swim trunks, with Parker wearing his usual brown ones, me wearing yellow ones, and Tyler wearing blue-and-red ones. It seems Tyler and I got distracted, but Parker could have jumped in without us.

"Alright," I run to the pool and jump, pulling my knees up to my chest as I surround myself with a spell.

The moment I hit the water is right after Parker resurfaces, and I catch a glimpse of his eyes widening before I'm under the water. My spell caused the water in the pool to splash even more than normal. While I can't see what happened, I know that a huge wave was formed and that it crashed right over Parker. As he tumbles, I can sense the electricity in Tyler quickly drawing nearer.

Just as I surface, I realize that he's cast the same spell I did. I hastily throw up a barrier so the wave parts around me, Parker still getting hit by it.

"Argh!" Parker exclaims once he's not being assaulted by water anymore. "No fair! I was in here first!"

"First one in gets tidal waved twice!" I stick my tongue out at him.

Parker twists his right hand as he pushes it toward us, and some of the water of the pool picks up and streams toward me, slamming me in the face. I could have blocked it but decided not to, opting to send the same spell at Parker just as a huge orb of water slams into the back of my head.

As Parker dodges my own stream, he calls up an orb of water from the pool to shoot at Tyler, who sweeps a hand up in a scooping motion to draw up some water to block the attack. Tyler counterattacks with a trio of non-damaging water darts, which Parker dodges. I redirect the stream of water I'd sent at him so that it still strikes him in the face, then I sweep my left hand out to create a wall of water to block the darts from Tyler.

Parker must think it's not fun to have me blocking or dodging most of his attacks, since he focuses a lot on Tyler as we goof around. His efforts triple anytime Tyler and I team up against him, though return to normal once I stop and even reduce when I team up with him instead.

Even after hanging out with Tyler, I can tell my best friend's still not comfortable with him, since he doesn't really team up with Tyler to try and take me on. I'd absolutely love for that. Since this is just fun play, I'm not going "all out" in the play and am doing things on a more normal level. Tyler is, too.

But if they both came after me, I think it'd be even cooler. Parker especially, since he has less mana to start with and less control over water magics than Tyler and I do. Teaming up with Tyler for this would probably make things more fun for him.

Not all of the water we use as we goof around comes from the pool; some of it, we conjure ourselves. The pool's system is able to handle that and was even set up just so that it could handle a higher excess caused by water magic play. Parker can't really conjure water that well, but he's goofed around like this enough that he can at least use what's already here, too, so he's not left out.

After a bit, Dad charges toward us while in his own yellow board shorts. He was recording us on his phone for a little while, probably to save in our memory album. That makes me happy because I'm really hopeful that Tyler isn't just hanging out with me short-term and we do become long-term friends like Parker and I are.

Once Dad reaches the pool, he jumps in with the same spell that Tyler and I both used when we jumped in. He wasn't here when we first jumped in, so it's purely just to hit us with a big splash. His cast is even stronger than how Tyler and I cast it, probably for added effect.

"Haaah!" I thrust my hands forward, summoning up a wall of water as Tyler and Parker both cast parting spells to help deflect what gets past me. "Take down Dad!"

The three of us team up against Dad, sending streams and darts and orbs of water at him, and summoning walls and waves of water to stop his attacks. Slowly but surely, Dad manages to take us out, binding us with ropes of water and holding us up above the surface of pool. If I really wanted to, I could break out, but this is just for fun.

There's no real reason for us to stop casting just because Dad's tied us up and is holding us over the water.

"Revenge shall be ours!" I call out as I fake-struggle against the water ropes. "Just as soon as I get down from here!"

"Release me, foul beast!" Tyler giggles, kicking his feet as he wiggles, trying to see if he can slip free. "We won't fall here!"

"Death to the kraken!" Parker jerks his body as best he can. "Death to the kraken!"

"A kraken, am I?" Dad asks, then gestures with his hands.

The water ropes shift to resemble tentacles and a few more appear around Dad.

"No!" We all start wiggling. "It's gonna eat us! Help! Help!"

Mom starts laughing from where she's recording us, but there's someone else with her, a guy about sixteen years old, with the same platinum-blond hair and electric blue eyes as my parents and me. He's wearing blue board shorts with a yellow lightning pattern on the sides, and I wasn't expecting to see him here.

"Gabe!" I wiggle since I can't wave. "Hiiiiiiii! What are you doing here? Dad, let us down! Gabe's here!"

"Let you down?" Dad grins at us.

"Oh, no!" Parker exclaims.

"Crap!" I say.

"What?" Tyler asks.

Then the water tentacles release us and we all fall into the pool from ten feet up. As soon as I surface, I start to swim to the edge.

"Hold on," Gabe says. "Let me get a picture of the three of you."

He was either recording or taking pictures while Dad had us up in the air, and I do want a picture of the three of us so I beckon for Tyler and Parker to come over. We swim to the edge of the pool and line up with Parker on my right and Tyler on my left, then wrap our arms across each other's shoulders.

"Ha on three!" I exclaim. "Three! Two! One!"

"Haaa!" We exclaim with smiles.

"Alright!" Gabe laughs as we start laughing. "Give me a second, Lucas."

"It's Luke now," I tell him as I climb out of the pool. "What're you doing here?"

"Who's this?" Tyler quietly asks Parker.

"Someone from another lightning bloodline," Parker responds. "He's like a big brother to Luke, but doesn't come out this way very often. He lives near the east coast"

"There we go!" Gabe says. "I've uploaded all of the pics to the drive, Luke. Figured you'd want some snaps."

"Can you get one of me and Dad?" I ask.

"Sure," he answers, and I'm already back in the pool by the time he finishes the word. "Luke!"

Dad's reached this part of the pool by now, and Parker and Tyler move to the side so Gabe can get a picture of me and Dad, then Dad swaps spots so we can get a picture of me and Gabe. Dad rejoins us in the pool after that, Mom taking a picture of the three of us.

"What are you doing here?" I ask as I jump onto Gabe's back. "Did you come just for Interception Day? What about your mom? Did she come, too? Please say no!"

"Luke!" Mom exclaims.

"What?" I ask. "I always get bad vibes about her! So, Gabe?"

"Came to hang out with my favorite cuz," Gabe reaches behind himself and tries to pull me off. "And my favorite aunt and uncle."

While he's not really blood family, he's still like it to us. Even though we're more like brothers, he calls Mom and Dad his aunt and uncle and me his cousin, but he never amends what I say when I call him my brother.

"We're you're only ones!" I lean back, pulling him under the water.

"And yet you're not my least-favorite!" He laughs after we resurface. "Just got into town a little bit ago and came straight over. Aunt Mel, Uncle Tristan, mind if I hang out here a couple of weeks?"

"Sure," Mom answers. "You can use your usual room. The bed might need remade, since it hasn't been used since your last visit."

"Thanks!" Gabe says, then looks at Tyler. "I don't believe I know you?"

"This is Tyler!" I tell him as Dad gets out of the pool. "He's my new friend! Of course, you also know Parker, my best friend!"

As I say that, I pull both of them back in so I can wrap my arms across their shoulders again.

"And together, we're gonna take you down!"

I flick both of my hands up, sending streams of water from the pool in front of us at Gabe's face.

"Hey!" Gabe backs up as quickly as he can while pulling water up from the pool to block the attack.

"Before you boys start that even more!" Dad calls out. "We're going to make dinner! Gabe, make sure to wear Luke out!"

"Ooh! I'll help with that!" Tyler ducks out from under my arm and swims over to Gabe. "Parker! Join us! Three-against-Luke!"

"Yeah!" I pump my left fist up into the air, pushing Parker with my right hand. "Three-v-one me!"

[Xander – 12 years]

I've never been inside of a bank before. Anytime I went with Ms. Johnson when she had to go, I waited in the car so that no one would think I was trying to steal from the bank. Mr. Trey isn't letting me wait in the car, though, so I'm holding Trenton against my chest as we enter.

It's not very busy, but it's very fancy. Lots of magic in the walls, in the floors, in the ceiling… even the security guards I can see and sense are strong magicians. They have at least three times as much magic as normal people do.

There are desks off to the side, each one in front of an office, and then a counter on the left, with additional employees behind it. In the center of the room we've entered into are chairs and couches with small tables, both end and coffee, with plants and magazines on them.

"Hello, Trey," a woman says as she exits one of the offices to the right. "How are you?"

"I'm doing alright," Mr. Trey answers. "Are you free right now?

"I am," she answers, then looks at me. "Is this handsome young man Xander?"

Handsome? Since when am I handsome? And why would she call me that? Is she into little boys?

"It is," Mr. Trey answers. "Xander, don't read too much into it. Some people just compliment kids."

That's confusing. Why would they compliment kids just for complimenting kids?

"Come on in to my office," the woman tells us.

"This is Zoe," Mr. Trey tells me as we follow her… not to the office she came out of. "One of the managers here."

I nod because I feel like that's the right response even though it's weird. Ms. Zoe takes us upstairs in an elevator, then to a huge office. Mr. Trey tells me to sit after he and Ms. Zoe do, but is it really okay?

"You're not going to ruin the chair," Mr. Trey pats the chair beside his. "Come on, sit. Make sure to take your backpack off first."

I pull off my backpack and sit, setting my backpack between my feet.

"The check, Xander," Mr. Trey whispers to me.

Oh, right. I pull the check out of my backpack, from the special envelope Greyson put in the front pocket forever ago to protect papers. No matter what happens to the envelope, any papers put inside remain perfectly straight and smooth, no wrinkling or bending or creasing. His magic is pretty awesome.

"Xander gave some specialist advice to Gatewood Energy on one of their projects," Mr. Trey tells Ms. Zoe. "I could have just had it deposited with one of the tellers downstairs, since I've already created accounts for him, but a request I had would have necessitated getting a manager."

"Alright," Ms. Zoe says, then looks at me. "Can I see the check, Xander?"

I hold up the check and show it to her.

"Xander," Mr. Trey sounds like he's trying not to laugh, and when I look at him, he's smiling and his shoulders are bouncing. He is trying not to laugh. What'd I do wrong? No! "That's another way of asking for the check. They have to take it in order to perform a deposit so that they can void it out and hold it as proof they've received it and aren't just transferring funds."

My face heats up. I'm so fucking stupid.

"You wouldn't have known this," Mr. Trey tells me as I hold the check out so Ms. Zoe can take it. "Since you've never really done things with checks before. Don't feel stupid for that, alright?"

I can't help but feel stupid.

"Seeing this amount," Ms. Zoe looks at Mr. Trey. "I take it you're wanting to know if we can make some of it available today?"

"I know there's usually a wait and a hold," Mr. Trey says. "And I could give Xander some money now and then take the amount out once it's cleared, but I feel it would be better if he was able to use some of it immediately.

"Xander," Mr. Trey looks at me again as I try to figure out what they're talking about. "With checks, money is usually available either by the end of business day the day it's deposited, or the day after. However, that's for checks under a certain amount. Over a certain amount, they hold the funds until they can verify the other bank has it and the funds are transferred over. This way, if the account the funds are coming from doesn't have enough, or the writer of the check cancels it, or it's fraud, neither the bank nor the customer has to deal with that. How long the wait is varies and can be just a day or two, or up to a week. With a holiday tomorrow, things would also be delayed further."

So people who get paid in big checks can't use the money right away, they have to wait in case there's a problem. At least, I think that's what Mr. Trey is telling me. I nod again.

"Alright," he says, then looks at Ms. Zoe. "Would that be possible?"

"It would be," she tells him. "I need to check on something first, though. Do you have the information for the account it's to go into?"

Mr. Trey pulls out his wallet and hands her his ID and a sort of paper card that's been laminated, then tells me to show her my ID as well. I pull it out of my wallet and stare at it for a few moments. After I stayed with Mr. Trey for a week, he took me to get a new ID so that my address would be updated.

It feels wrong, having such a fancy house listed as my address.

"Xander," Mr. Trey whispers.

I was taking too long!

I hand Ms. Zoe my ID, and she checks both of them and hands them back to us, but doesn't hand back the other card.

"If you'll wait just a minute," Ms. Zoe reaches for her desk phone and makes a call.

"Xander," Mr. Trey whispers while she does that. "Why don't you put on your headphones or your earbuds for a little bit? Just while she makes the calls. It might be a few minutes and I'm sure you'll only get confused."

That means that I'm not supposed to hear what's being said. That's okay. I probably would get confused.

I pull my headphones out of my backpack and pull them on, then pull out my phone, unlock it, and open up the app Ms. Katie helped me download and set up. The app is connected to the headphones, and once I've opened it, I press play on the audio story I was listening to before.

"-when the lightning wolf is enraged," the narrator continues from where he left off. "This nature of the lightning wolf's is one of the reasons why domestication of it is implausible, and why there are no dog breeds descended of them."

The narrator is discussing lightning wolves and what is known about them. It's sort of like a documentary, but fully audio. I might watch the lightning wolf documentary another time. Watching those seems better to me. It's not as dull and is a lot easier for me to follow over just a voice droning on and on.

I do, however, learn that lightning wolves seem to have sudden increases to their mana pools when they feel threatened. No one can sense an increase to them, but their mana pool drops much more slowly when casting spells, as if it's suddenly become many times as big without appearing so.

Mr. Trey tries to get my attention after about fifteen minutes, and I pause the audio story and pull off the headphones. Ms. Zoe is off the phone now, though she'd made several calls while I was listening. Someone else came in here a couple of minutes ago, too, but all he did was hand her a manila envelope before leaving again.

"Yes, Mr. Trey?"

"Learn anything interesting?"

"Lightning wolves keep mating with water wolves for some reason," I tell him. "And that somehow makes storm wolves even though neither of those have wind magic but storm wolves do."

"That… is certainly interesting," Mr. Trey says. "Zoe's ready now."

Ready for what? I look at her as I clutch Trenton against my chest more tightly. Ready for beating me?

"Xander," Ms. Zoe says. "We were able to get the funds verified and transferred. The whole balance is available now," she opens up the envelope she was handed and pulls out cash and a card. "Trey asked if we could get one grand in cash for you. The rest of it is in your bank account."

She then counts out the money before handing it to me. There are five $100s, five $50s, ten $20s, and five $10s. Mr. Trey tells me to count it as well to verify the amount, even though Ms. Zoe already counted it and that'd be doubting an adult. Since I don't want to get into trouble for not listening to Mr. Trey, I count the money out as well.

"Trey also asked for us to print up your debit card now," Ms. Zoe says as she holds out a card. "You'll need to show your ID when you use it, as it's a minor account. The rest of your money was deposited into it, though the card currently has a limit of $250 per day."

"That means," Mr. Trey says. "That you can use the card to spend up to $250 per day. It doesn't roll over, so if you don't spend any money from the card one day, you can still only spend up to $250 the next day. If there's a time where you're spending more, you'll have to ask me, and I'll contact them and have them raise the limit if I approve of the purchase."

"The limit for minors is normally either $50 or $100 a day," Ms. Zoe tells me. "Though some families do up the limit for different reasons, including if they feel their child can use it responsibly."

But I'm not his child, I'm his foster-child. He probably doesn't feel that I'm responsible, either. Wait. It's Mr. Trey who told me about the higher limit. Ms. Zoe told me that there's normally a lower limit.

Why would he raise the limit for me?

"This way," Mr. Trey says. "If you're hanging out with your friends, you don't have to worry about restricting how much you eat as much. You can still feed yourself, and maybe buy some other stuff if you want. It's yours to do with as you want, within the rules I gave."

This is making my head spin. Too much talking. I understand that I can spend $250 a day using the card, though, but I'm not sure why.

"Take the card, Xander," Mr. Trey whispers, and I do. "The money on that card is yours. It's from the check you were given by Tristan, that you earned for helping them with their project. As long as it's legal for you to buy, you can use it for anything you want. Just remember to follow the other rules and you'll be fine."

It's really for me to spend? I look up and meet his gaze.

"That money is yours," Mr. Trey tells me. "You'll need my permission to spend more than your daily limit in a day, but as long as you aren't buying stuff to cause problems or break rules, and it's legal for you to buy it, then you can spend that money as you wish. Okay?"

He's being honest here. This is really mine? It's all mine? I can spend up to $250 a day as I want? That's… how many cheesecakes is that? If it's $20 a cheesecake, that would be… uh… at least twelve cheesecakes. Oh. Twelve and a half. Except I don't think half-cheesecakes are sold for half the price but for more than half the price.

That's… that's a lot of cheesecakes. A day. I'm not even sure I could eat that much! Though I guess if it was other food, I could probably eat that much in cost in a day if I were eating out.

"The limit has been increased for today as well," Mr. Trey tells me. "So that we can go shopping and you can spend some of it on stuff you want. Not food, Xander."

"Backpacks?" I ask. "So I can try and enchant a new one to replace this one?"

Ms. Zoe gasps when I speak for some reason, and that seems to cause Mr. Trey to chuckle.

"We can buy you a new backpack," he says, then looks at Ms. Zoe. "Thank you, Zoe."

"You're welcome, Trey," she says. "Have a good day."

"You as well," Mr. Trey tells her. "Xander, put the money away, then let's go."

I put the money into my backpack and the debit card and my ID into my wallet, then pull on my backpack and leave with Mr. Trey. He drives me to a store that sells MountainStorm Gear stuff so I can look at the backpacks there. How did he know I wanted to get ones from this brand?

"Mr. Trey?" I quietly ask while looking at the backpacks.

"Yes, Xander?"

"Can I get this one?"

"What did I say?"

"Um… I don't remember. I'm sorry!"

"I said that you can spend it on what you want," he says. "As long as it's legal and you're not doing it to cause problems or break other rules. Does that backpack fit into any of those?"

"No."

"So what does that mean?"

"I can buy it?"

"You can buy it."

"Okay," I hesitate. "Can I buy three? Just in case I mess up?"

"It's your money, Xander."

The backpack is dark green with neon green strips on it, and I like how it looks. I put three of them into the shopping cart, then look at some of the clothes. There aren't any long-sleeves or non-workout pants that keep a person cool as well, but I can still buy normal ones to wear around the house so I pick out some more clothes.

This is my money. Mine. I don't have to get permission to use it. It's okay for me to spend it on clothes, and those clothes are mine. I earned it.

But will the cashier let me use it? Will the card decline because I'm being tricked somehow?

"My goodness!" The cashier says as I put stuff on the counter. "This is a lot of stuff! Did you just have a birthday?"

"My birthday is at the end of August," I tell her. "I helped Luke with a big project of his and he paid me lots, and Mr. Trey said I can buy what I want with it as long as I'm not breaking the law or doing it to cause problems or break rules. My backpack is getting really worn out, and I want some new clothes."

"That's nice," she says. "Is it okay if I ask who Luke is?"

"It is," I tell her.

Wait. Maybe this is one of those cases where she's asking who Luke is, not for permission to ask that.

"He's a neighbor," I tell her. "He's about a year older than me. Very noisy."

"He's a year older?" She asks. "And paid you a lot for a project? What sort of project?"

"I think he's nine months older than me?" I answer. "Sorry for being wrong. It's not a year. November and August. But we're in the same grade. We don't go to the same school, though. He goes to a private one and I'm going to go to Dragon Falls Middle School. And this is Mr. Trey. He's my foster-dad. He said I could spend the money on whatever I wanted as long as it's not illegal or to break rules or cause problems, since I earned it. But he said not on food. I wanted to spend it on food. We're having an argument on that because I eat a lot and don't want him going broke trying to feed me. But I haven't gotten into trouble for arguing with an adult. I'm worried I will, but he just goes 'no, Xander, stop worrying about how much I'm spending on feeding you' and 'just eat how much you need, Xander' and 'I bought you a second popcorn maker just so you can have separate ones for buttered and unbuttered, Xander, do you really think I'm worried about how much it costs to feed you?' It's really weird that he keeps telling me 'no' and I'm not getting into trouble. Do you think that's weird?"

She looks at Mr. Trey, who's covering his mouth while his shoulders are shaking. When she doesn't answer me, I think that means she's not entirely sure.

"I think it's weird," I say.

Mr. Trey laughs.

"Do you eat a lot?" The cashier asks.

"Lots," I nod. "Like, when we go to a restaurant and they don't know me, they think I'm not going to eat everything I order. But then I do and they're all like 'where are you putting all of that food' and it should be obvious it's going into me… I'm not Greyson. I can't just teleport it away."

"Who's Greyson?"

"He's a dork."

"A dork?" She frowns a little.

"Yeah," I nod. "A big one. Not 'big' as in 'he's big' but as in 'he's sometimes too much of a dork'. I met him a few years ago. He likes doing magitech stuff. And magic in general. And griffins. Not doing them, that would be inappropriate. He just likes griffins. Like, the other day, he went up to the North Pole and befriended an arctic griffin and rode around on it for a bit. That seemed kind of fun."

"Hold on," Mr. Trey interrupts, but that seems directed at the cashier, who's still scanning my things. He looks at me. "Xander, when did you put swim trunks in the cart?"

She's taking a lot of time to scan stuff, inspecting them and their tags, double-checking the tags and looking at the register for each scan, taking her time removing security tags… it's weird. She doesn't seem slow, so I think she's just trying to give time since I'm talking a lot to answer her questions.

Oh. I'm rambling. But it's not like Luke does, and I still need to answer Mr. Trey.

"I tried them on while you were in the restroom," I tell him. "I like their green. And I was thinking, I could use the other ones for when I'm doing my swimming lessons, and then that pair while I'm swimming in the pool for not-lessons, and then… where's the other pair? This pair here for when I'm swimming in something like a pond or a lake, like I was doing with S.G. and them yesterday. And look. I'm getting duplicates, just in case. Sort of like how there are two pairs of swim trunks for the swimming lessons. Was that wrong?"

"It's your money," he says. "You can spend it how you wish, Xander."

"But not on food."

"But not on food."

"What if it's magic food?" I ask. "I like the taste better, and it'll even help me recover my mana a bit better. But you don't need that since you don't use magic, so it'd be a waste of money for you, right?"

"Did you have anything in particular you were thinking of?"

"Heavy cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt," I answer. "And maybe blueberries and strawberries."

"Why do I get the feeling those are the ingredients for ice cream?"

"Because they are," I say. "Oh! But then if it's ice cream, maybe also pie or cobbler. That needs… I think flour and butter and eggs. Can we ask Ms. Katie to help us?"

"We can," Mr. Trey tells me. "Are you asking about making it, or are you wanting to know if Katie can come and join us for getting the ingredients?"

"She's the one teaching me," I say. "So she knows the recipes better than I do. I don't clearly remember the stuff for pie and cobbler."

"Alright," he says. "I'll ask if she can meet us."

"Thank you," I say. "And I'll pay for dinner today. I want to celebrate getting paid. I wasn't expecting to get to help Luke with a project, and he even said he'd just intended to show me how he makes remote-controlled cars."

Only as I say that do I really start to understand what happened. I earned half a million dollars today. Half a million dollars. And it's not just because of how my magesight works, but because I actually knew how to fix the problem Luke was facing. A problem that I might have been maybe one of three people in the world who could help with.

Maybe… I'm not so worthless, after all? But I'm still stupid.

"Oh!" I realize something. "Mr. Trey? Do you think Luke will let me see him make a remote-controlled car another time? I wanna see the difference between how he makes them and how Greyson does. There will probably be fewer explosions."

"Probably," Mr. Trey says. "And… probably."

"Explosions?" The cashier asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Greyson's a big dork. And it's not even wrong to call him that because he says it's okay to. He knows he's a dork. In fact, I forgot his name after meeting him and accidentally called him a dork and instead of getting mad at me, he told me to just call him a dork from then on. It took more than three years before I finally learned his name again because he refused to tell me so that I'd keep calling him a dork. But then I bribed him into telling me on Saturday by telling him I wouldn't accept his help with my broke brain unless he told me."

"Okay," Mr. Trey says. "There's something there that we need to address, Xander. But for now, let's finish the transaction."

"Okay."

"You mentioned an S.G.?" The cashier says. "Is that another friend?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I kept seeing him when I went bowling, and then he and his friends started talking with me last month. Now we hang out. They're all gonna be in eighth grade this coming school year, too. They're kind of noisy, but also kind of goofy. I like hanging out with them. They even invite me to sleepovers. They're the first to ever do that. Well, Luke wanted to invite me once, before them, but I was already asleep at that point so it doesn't count."

"You go bowling?" The cashier asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "I started about a year and a half ago. Maybe a little bit longer? I don't remember clearly. S.G. started going a little while after and was usually two lanes down from where I was. It was him and Connor. Then Sam moved into the area back in November and he started coming, too. Then they met Isaac earlier this year, and he started coming. They're all really good at bowling, too. The best on the school's team apparently can't even reach a 200, while they're all usually around 200 to 275 if they're actually trying. That's apparently really impressive for a thirteen-year-old, and there are four of them doing that."

The cashier stops asking questions after that and speeds up her ringing me up to a more normal pace. Once that's done, Mr. Trey teaches me how to use the debit card, and whispers into my ear the PIN for it, which I have to put in to confirm the transaction. Then, the cashier has to scan my ID, and only after that is the transaction done. All of my purchases are put into bags that Mr. Trey brought in with us, and the cashier hands me the receipt.

Mr. Trey and I head to the car and put the bags in the back seat, then Mr. Trey starts driving us away.

"Before you start getting upset," Mr. Trey says. "I want you to at least explain what happened Saturday. You keep evading actually explaining, and I think it's time you told me more."

Letting that little bit out in the store was on purpose. I figured the cashier would just think I'm a weird kid, and that Mr. Trey would start the conversation once we got in the car. I also knew that I'd struggle to start the conversation on my own, but it's important that he knows because of something Greyson texted me earlier.

"I know," I sigh. "Sorry for not telling you the full truth, Mr. Trey. But I was scared. But Greyson says that he had to spill the blueberries to Grandpa Adrian, who's going to be paying us a visit after looking into me due to you reaching out to ask him for help regarding my broke brain."

"Grandpa Adrian?"

"Yeah," I sigh again. "So apparently, I'm one of the Lumaria Kings, and the reason I was struggling with using magic was because I was subconsciously casting several ridiculously high-level spells in order to keep myself alive, including repairing the staples that kept my soul attached to my body and having a magical brain to take the place of my physical one."

"I'm going to need you to go back to the beginning."

"Okay, so when I was four years old…"