Magi's Path (Aether's Revival Book 3) Daniel Schinhofen (books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📖

“but that is after sparring, and we don’t want to distract you from that. I will speak with the others and we will have solid ideas about the games we’d like to play, if that’s okay?”

“That’ll be fine, Elsa,” Yukiko smiled. “We look forward to it as much as you all do.”

~*~*~

After they had finished sparring for the evening, Gregory was with the male children in the bath, the women and girls having gone first.

“What happened to your arm?” one of the youngest asked upon seeing the scars.

Gregory glanced at his arm before taking a deep breath. “Bane wolf.” Seeing the wide eyes and fear, he spoke on, “It’s fine. Bane wolves would never attack you here, but I grew up in a small village out on the northwestern fringe. On my age day, a bane wolf came into the village.” He glanced at the others and saw he had their rapt attention. “It was after a friend of mine, and I yelled at it. As I had just received my blessing from Aether, it decided to come after me instead.”

“Did you run?” one of the boys asked.

“I couldn’t,” Gregory said. “You see…”

He explained the whole attack to them, and even let them touch his scars.

“Will they go away?”

“Maybe in time, but I’ll have them for a very long time, according to the proctor who saved me.”

“But you saved your friend?” another spoke up.

“Gunnar is still alive, yes,” Gregory smiled. “Friends are important. They help you when you need it most.”

The kids all exclaimed that they were friends with each other, and Gregory grinned. “Good. Hold onto the friendships, help each other grow and succeed. Now let’s finish bathing. We don’t want the women to think we’re just lounging around in here.”

~*~*~

Freshly bathed and changed, the children rushed off to see if they could help with dinner. Gregory found his wives and the novices in the parlor.

“I thought you three were gone already,” Gregory said as he entered the room.

“We were just having a chat,” Yukiko said. “They’re leaving now, but they wanted to wait for you.”

“I’m glad I didn’t take longer, then,” Gregory chuckled.

“That would have been problematic,” Jenn agreed.

Victoria was the first one to Gregory. “Thank you... For doing this for all of us, but also for taking the extra time to explain things to me.” She bowed formally to him.

“You’re welcome. I know how hard it is to get your feet under you when you first get here. Luckily, you, like me, found friends to help.”

Victoria moved aside, and Nessa went to stand before him. “You’ve shown us that we can succeed, even without a great clan. We will give everything we have to show that we’re worthy of joining Aether’s Guard.” With a deep formal bow, she stepped aside.

“Nessa is right,” Daciana said, having taken her place without giving Gregory a chance to reply. “The help you give us… that all of you give to us,” she added, looking back to Jenn and Yukiko, “means a lot. I know I push more than they do, but that’s because I know I have to if I want to achieve what I want. Knowing that you support me... us in that gives me hope.”

When she stopped talking and bowed, Gregory shifted so all three of them were in front of him, and he bowed back. “The clan would be stronger with you. Moreover, you are friends, and that makes it even more important to help you. If you keep giving your all, I’m sure you’ll get to where you want to be.”

All three women blinked at him, and their cheeks pinked.

“They do need to be going,” Yukiko said, coming to stand between him and them. “Elsa, can you show them out?”

“Yes,” Elsa said, moving from where she’d been watching from beside the door. “Please follow me.”

Chapter Thirty-seven

 

Gregory waved goodbye to Elsa one more time as the three of them left Gin’s. Their evening of games and dinner with the children had left them happy, and training the next morning had been enriching and fun for all of them.

“It’ll be a month or more before we see them again, probably,” Gregory said a few minutes later as they walked down the street.

“Yes,” Yukiko agreed, “but it was good to see them. They all enjoyed spending time with us.”

“Elsa is almost a mother to them,” Jenn commented. “At the very least, she’s a very protective older sister. She broke up that argument faster than we could react.”

“Just using their names and a look,” Yukiko giggled. “My mother did the same to me a few times.”

“I’m sure all of our mothers did,” Jenn replied.

“Which shop were we going to first?” Gregory asked, wanting to push the topic away from mothers.

“Hemet’s is the closest,” Yukiko said.

“That’s our first stop, then,” Gregory said, taking a right at the next street.

The jingle of the bell announced them as they entered Hemet’s Curiosities. Hemet came out of the back and gave them a slight bow of his head. “How might I serve you today, Apprentices?”

“Hemet, it’s good to see you again,” Yukiko smiled. “We only need a few items and hope you have them.”

“I have many odds and ends,” Hemet grinned.

“Do you have storage earrings that can hold at least a middle-initiate’s aether?” Yukiko asked.

Hemet’s lips pursed and he looked into the distance for a second. “I believe I might. Is that all?”

“I hope you also have a ring that does the same. Greg doesn’t have pierced ears, so a ring would work for him.”

“Three storage items that can hold at least a middle-initiate’s aether?” Hemet asked to make sure that was all they were looking for.

“We could also use a dozen bane cores to recharge our rings,” Yukiko