Keiran

Nailu clung to my leg and stared up at me with big, blue eyes. He wanted something, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I was afraid it was for me to pick him up or play with him, neither of which I wanted to do, but I didn’t know.

Would our parents be upset if I cast a mind reading spell on him? Would it even work on a child with such an undeveloped mind? I glanced at Senica, who was sitting with her eyes closed, mentally shifting around the pieces of her lattice as she tried to line everything up. She was too busy to advise me with this, and I’d told her I could handle it.

That meant I’d have to muddle through it on my own. To do that, I needed more information. Divinations were the obvious answer, and it wasn’t like I was going to hurt my little brother. I was just going to find out what he wanted and determine whether it was appropriate to give it to him.

Besides, I couldn’t deny being a little bit curious about what I’d find. It had never occurred to me to study the mind of a baby, an oversight in my own preparations for reincarnation. I’d simply taken for granted that my consciousness would overwrite whatever fumbling thoughts my new body might have. Admittedly, that was more or less what had happened, so it wasn’t like I was exactly wrong, but I hadn’t taken any steps to mitigate the potential disaster.

How foolish and overconfident I’d been in my own abilities. So many things had gone wrong in my reincarnation plan, and it was only looking back on it now that I realized just how much my mind had begun to degrade at the end of my previous life. When I truly went over how I’d spent the last few decades, the decisions I’d made and the contingencies I’d put in place, I realized how poorly I’d actually prepared for my reincarnation. I was lucky it had worked at all.

Nailu’s mind was both simple and strange. He had some thoughts, but they weren’t structured in a way that made it easy to read them. Instead, he operated mostly on impulses and desires. Right now, he wanted me to pick him up. Why did he want that? Because he liked being picked up and so he could get a good look at my face.

That was simple enough. I wrapped him in a cocoon of telekinesis to support his weight and brought him up to eye level while he giggled as happiness surged through his brain. That desire to look at my face immediately morphed into a desire to touch my face, which I was less inclined to play along with.

So far, he seemed like a typical baby to me. It wasn’t that I was expecting anything else, but I wondered what he’d be like in the future, and if I could see any signs of it now. Senica, for example, was a gifted apprentice, especially considering her humble origins. She wasn’t the best I’d ever seen, but she was in the upper echelons of students.

Nailu didn’t exhibit anything that made me think he’d follow in her footsteps. Maybe it would just take a few more years to develop, or maybe it never would. While I studied the stream of information passing through his mind, the focus of which changed by the second, I tried to tease out anything that might indicate an aptitude for magic. Letting a bit of mana out into the air around him didn’t seem to catch his attention in any way, but I couldn’t determine if he didn’t notice it or if he saw and just didn’t care.

While I experimented with my little brother, I also watched over Senica’s work. A lattice could be put together in as little as a few minutes if the mage doing it was experienced in that sort of work, but Senica wasn’t. She was going to take an hour, assuming she made no mistakes, which was still a fraction of the time it had taken me to put together my lattice the first time around. And hers was going to be at least twice as efficient as mine had been, too.

It probably wouldn’t come close to touching the lattice I’d used in this life, however. I’d done something unconventional and made mine into a sort of spider web that stretched across the inside of my core instead of merely a mosaic of treated mana clinging to the walls. I hadn’t ever let Senica see it, nor had I hinted at the possibility. It was an insane level of over-optimization for a stage two core that would have required her to put in decades of mana control exercises in order to pull it off.

Nailu got bored of me soon enough and went back to exploring the garden. He had a whole corner that had been separated for his use, which contained nothing but sand, a few wooden toys, and a trowel that I was almost positive had been Mother’s when I was a baby. He was more than happy to wield it now, however inexpert his technique might be, and soon, sand was flying through the air.

I briefly considered the logistics of making him some sort of minor shield ward to protect him when he almost accidentally smacked himself in the face with the blade of his trowel, but decided to just manually keep him from gouging an eye out for the time being. I’d talk to my parents about it later.

Around the same time Senica hit the halfway point, my nose crinkled as an unpleasant aroma hit it and I caught a spike of discomfort in Nailu’s mind. I glanced over to see him looking back at me with pure, innocent, guileless eyes, as if he had no clue what had caused the problem. But I knew, and so did he. He could pretend otherwise, but I was in his head. He knew what he’d done, and now he wanted me to fix it for him.

“Lucky for you,” I told the baby, “I happen to know a spell for this.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly for this, but any mage who’d spent any amount of time fighting quickly sought out and mastered spells designed to pull blood and guts out of clothing and hair. The best spells could do it instantly, leaving no stains or residue behind, without even taking the soiled garments off. The current predicament wasn’t exactly a mess of monster viscera, but it was close enough.

A few seconds later, my little brother was clean and fresh again, something that amused and confused him in equal amounts. Not being given to copious amounts of introspection, he quickly forgot the experience and crawled back off to play.

* * *

I’d overestimated Senica’s abilities slightly. It actually took her an hour and a half to finish, but she did it on her first attempt. The last piece slotted into place and the whole lattice lit up in my senses. She gasped and her eyes snapped open.

“I did it?” she said aloud, though not to me. “I… I think I did. I did it!”

“You are officially the first mage I’ve tutored to reach stage two, to the best of my knowledge. To be considered a mage in the old world, you had to advance your core and be able to cast intermediate spells in at least three disciplines,” I said.

“I can do that,” Senica interrupted.

“I know. That’s why I said it. Do you mind?”

“Sorry.”

I took a breath, then continued. “That you made it this far with the handicap of having so little mana compared to the apprentices of my time is a testament to your intelligence and your dedication. And perhaps you also had a really good teacher.”

I pretended not to see her roll her eyes. She’d worked hard to get to this point. “Unfortunately, there is no organization to recognize your achievement. There is no school to graduate from. But in my eyes, you are a mage. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, Gravin,” she said. Her voice was solemn, but her eyes twinkled with restrained mirth.

“However,” I said, raising the volume of my voice slightly. “Do not think for a moment that you’re anywhere near the end of your path. I have many, many more spells left to teach you, and you have years of mana controlling exercises ahead. That having been said, it’s time for me to take a step back in guiding you. You’ve learned enough to pursue your own interests. I’ll always be here to advise you when you want, but from now on, you’ll decide what to study and how to do it.”

Senica waited a moment to make sure I was done, then said, “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t really expect you to just cut me loose like that.”

I gave her a wolfish grin and said, “Oh, I’m not letting you go just yet. We’re riding the same wagon; I’m just giving you the reins. I still expect you to work hard.”

If anything, I thought my sister looked a bit relieved. Perhaps she’d thought I was abandoning her for a moment. If so, she’d quickly banished such a foolish idea. She was family, and that meant she was stuck with me. I expected her to live at minimum another four or five centuries, and to do that, she’d need to get vastly better at magic.

Those were milestones far off in the future, though. Today, I wanted to recognize her progress in an official capacity. She was only fourteen and already, she’d met the technical qualifications to be considered a full mage. Whether any magical institution would have actually passed her was questionable, as they generally demanded a wider breadth of spells mastered before they considered an apprentice to have graduated, but all things considered, she’d done extraordinarily well.

“So, what would you like to do next?” I asked.

“Hmm.” She tapped a finger against her lips. “What do I want to do? What… do… I… want?”

After a moment of her silently pondering, I leaned back and let myself fall into a net of telekinesis to keep me from falling over. Nailu, seeing me floating in the air, crawled over and pulled himself upright using my dangling leg. Then he started making grabbing motions with his hands. I lifted him to float in the air next to me and we both watched Senica think.

“Take your time,” I told her.

“It’s an important decision. I need to consider my options from every angle. Maybe… more fire magic.”

I stared up at the clouds drifting by and kept my mouth shut.

“On the other hand, I’ve got a lot of weak spots that could be filled in,” she said. “Maybe that would be better.”

I ignored her musings and kept my eyes on the clouds. Next to me, Nailu gurgled and flipped himself upside down. He blinked at me in surprise, perhaps uncertain why I’d failed to keep him upright as he squirmed.

“Maybe I should just take a vacation for a bit. It’s a long run; I’ve got to pace myself.”

When she saw that she wasn’t going to get a response out of me, she dropped the act and turned to face me directly. I glanced over and raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“What do you think?”

“I think… You don’t need to decide right now,” I said. “Look, this is an important day. I’m proud of you. But you’ve still got centuries of life left if you continue to learn more magecraft. It’s fine if you take a day or two to think through your options. It’s fine if you make a decision and then change your mind a week later. It’s fine if you devote yourself to solidifying your current skill set before you start learning something new.”

Senica huffed out a sigh. “Gravin, I still want your advice.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Seriously, this is the part of your career as a mage where you get some independence.”

“I’m sure.”

“Well… Let’s see…”