Gifted

I watched as Magatha dug at the roots around one of her plants, the dirt getting under her fingernails as the fresh, loamy smell washed over the pair of us. Squatting in the garden right next to her was leaving my thighs burning but I figured if I suffered enough I might get a few steps into the Path of Body Strengthening before the day was done. Unfortunately, the day was very much not done.

“This tuber is called a greyknuckle, owing to its colour and the ridges you see along the sides,” Magatha explained, holding a fist sized lump of grey that I might have thought was a rock. “It’ll be the core ingredient in what we use today.”

“What are we brewing today?” I asked, only mildly curious as I reached out to poke the tuber. I felt no fuzziness so this plant wasn’t one that was filled with aether.

“My special tea,” Magatha answered as she patted the dirt back down.

“That doesn’t sound like it uses aether.”

“It doesn’t.”

I frowned at her answer. “I thought you were going to teach me things to do with aether.”

“You’re getting those lessons from Cornelius,” Magatha countered. “But before we get to alchemy, which can be dangerous, first we’ll learn a few mundane brews… which can also be dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?” I demanded with narrowed eyes. How could boiling some water and throwing in some tubers be dangerous? Sounded more like cooking to me. Oh gods, it was cooking! I didn’t want to cook! I was having buyer’s regret and the day had barely begun.

“Some plants have analgesic effects, some taste like meat, others make for a sweet or bitter tea, while others still can ward off disease or increase blood flow. But for every plant that can help you, there are five that can harm you. Some that will make you soil yourself, or break out in a fever that will last for days and wish for death. Some will even just kill you. So, first we will learn the basics before I teach you anything more.”

“Okay,” I replied. “But… what’s analgesic mean?”

“Means it makes things hurt less. Which can be good, but too much can be bad. Do you understand?”

I nodded, realising Magatha was babying me a bit. But then, I was a four year old and she didn’t know just how weird… I mean smart, I was. Mum sat nearby, watching, though she had brought a few bundles of parchement and her quill along. They were order forms apparently, to make sure we got our winter supplies delivered to the outpost before the weather shifted. We had a few months yet, but the Adventurer’s Society moved slowly apparently so it was best to get them in early in case mistakes were made.

“How do you always know we’re coming?” I asked, keeping the conversation going while Magatha had me washing the gray tuber in a small, wooden bucket.

“Noticed that, did you? Your boy is quite observant.” Magatha directed her last comment at my mother who looked up from her own scribbles.

“He is far smarter than you’re giving him credit for, Magatha,” Mum replied without looking up from her scribbles.

“Oh don’t be like that, Penny. And just call me Mags.”

“Can I call you Mags?” I asked.

“No, as your teacher I am Miss Magatha.”

“Sounds too formal,” I grumbled as I held out a cold hand with a washed greyknuckle tuber.

Magatha didn’t take it, just watching me for a moment before turning to my Mother.

“I know you said he’s smart, Penny, but just how smart are we talking? Can he use his aether already?”

My mum’s quill paused in its movement and I mentally sighed.

Might as well have just screamed out yes, Mum, I thought. Whatever you do, don’t ever play poker!

“Why do you ask?” Mum replied, not answering directly though the damage was already done.

“I’m deciding what to teach him, Penny. That’s all.”

Mum glanced at me, and I knew she was trying to decide how much to share. For me though, I could see it was already too late. Even if we didn’t tell Magatha anything, she would suspect enough to concoct her own story. I really didn’t like the idea of sharing more than I already had, but I also didn’t see a world in which whatever Magatha came up with wasn’t to my detriment. Fully trusting the Hedge Witch wasn’t in the cards, given I hadn’t even trusted mum or gramps with the whole truth; but perhaps giving her a little more to work with might help me get more out of these lessons. Especially if they were actually useful and I kept getting them for another five years.

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Mum looked relieved when I gave a slight nod of my head.

“Bastian can see his Status,” she said quietly, as though the trees had ears.

“What?!” Magatha screeched, whirling on me. “I thought you said he’s only four!”

She looked down at me like I had grown a second head and I simply grinned back, enjoying her surprise.

Take it all in, Mags! I’m amazing! I thought, my smile remaining plastered to my face.

“Yes, well, he can. It’s why Dad is teaching him. He’s only got a minor aether core but he is set on learning to cast spells, so Dad is working with him so he can complete the Path of Aethersensing early enough to move on to the Path of Aether Manipulation.”

“Only a minor aether core?” Magatha replied, her surprise fading to pity. I hated the look in her eyes as my smile wilted under her gaze.

I’ll beat the odds,Witch, just watch me! I thought in defiance.

Magatha gave me an odd lock.

“That’s a little unfortunate and will make any lessons on aether more than a little challenging.”

“Just bad luck,” Mum agreed. “Dad is looking into solutions, unless you’ve got a suggestion?”

Magatha shook her head. “Nothing in the Horndales to help grow an aether core. At least not near us. Maybe there are creatures in the far north that might help but I wouldn’t know. We’ve got the Storm Eagles which can be used in potions or rituals to help grow the Storm Affinity. Mountain Trolls for unlocking the Path of Lesser Regeneration and the Grimfaced Owls for the Path of Nightvision. But nothing for aether cores outside of Dungeons and Rifts.”

She glanced at me as she finished and smiled gently. “Remember those creatures and what they’re good for. While they can help to unlock and advance some Paths, we can also use them to brew potions that produce the same effects as the rewards for those Paths.”

“Is that how you made my potion of nightvision?” I asked.

“Good memory. Clever boy indeed. You must have more than a few mental Paths that you’re working on?”

She was clearly fishing for information so I just smiled and shrugged. Her frown in response made my Mum laugh.

“You’ll need to do better than that to outsmart my boy, Mags.”

Magatha looked like she had bitten into a lemon but brightened up at Mum calling her Mags.

“We’ll see,” commented the Hedge Witch. “Come on inside, both of you, it’s time to start brewing.”

I had been right. Brewing was just cooking and it was horribly boring. By the end of the day, I had been offered the Path of Brewing. A basic Path which apparently rewarded Mental Stats and even a few Aether Stats towards the end of the Path. I was admittedly tempted by it if only for the extra Aether, but I also knew they would be months away and unless I did some brewing at home, the Path would progress slowly. I decided I would give it more thought once we got home.

The rest of the afternoon I was left to my own devices as Magatha flirted with my mother. Mostly unsuccessfully from what I could tell. With Mag’s attention elsewhere I was given free rein, so long as I didn’t break anything. So, of course I went searching for aether-imbued potions and plants. Every step in my Path felt great but I realised part way through when I doubled back that Magatha was doing the same thing Gramps did. I could tell after one of the small, ferny plants I had touched didn’t feel like it had aether in it on my second round. Still, I wasn’t complaining as I had gotten a handful of steps in record time.

That night, as I lay in bed, I continued to worry over my next Path choice. My first thought was to add in another weapon path and work towards unlocking the Path of Weapon Mastery. The question was, who would I get the lessons from? George might know how to wield other weapons, but would he teach me? If not, Gramps would need to find me tutors, which meant I couldn’t work on the Paths for now unless I wanted to accept a glacial pace while I fumbled around figuring them out for myself.

Then there was the Path of Brewing. It seemed like a straight forward Path to learn and I was getting lessons in relation to it, but did I really want to learn alchemy? How would that even work if I was running around all over the place? I didn’t really want to lug a cauldron, even a small one, with me everywhere I went. It seemed like the weakest of my choices, if not for the fact that it would reward me with more Aether Stats and the fact that I had a teacher.

Picking the Path of Coordination up once more was an option, and the completionist in me screamed to do it, except for the problem where the Path was only one twentieth of the way to being finished. It did have the benefit of almost certainly going up with my sword training which made it a strong contender.

Finally, there was my Path of Infiltration. Among all the options it had two things going for it that none of the others did. For one, it benefitted from my Shadow Affinity which should boost its growth. That was a huge point in its favour. The other was that it was an Elite Path and so would give the most powerful rewards. The negative was also that it was an Elite Path and so progress was far more challenging and specific, with a lack of places around the area for me to infiltrate.

I couldn’t deny that the Path of Infiltration was the one I wanted to take, but I thought it was a bad choice here and now. If I was just a little more immature I would’ve taken it anyway, but after I infiltrated Etta’s place, if I even could, what would I do next? All that was left was the Kellins’ and Gramps had insinuated that infiltrating the same place twice wouldn’t progress the Path. Even with the bonus from my Shadow Affinity there was no way I would hit the next tier from just those two and Mum wouldn’t help me infiltrate Mag’s or Martin’s and Griselda’s homes.

I sighed in acceptance, pulling my covers more tightly around me. The Path of Infiltration would have to wait. In that light, and without news of any tutors from the old man, it really came down to the Path of Coordination or the Path of Brewing both of which had issues. Which was why I filled my empty Path slot with the Path of Hatchets. I wanted to ask Mags more about brewing before I made a final decision and if I picked back up the Path of Coordination and then swapped to Brewing I would lose a week’s progress. Not a lot, but more than I could tolerate. On the other hand, a week’s worth of work on the Path of Hatchets might be enough to get me to the second tier, which meant some easy stats and progress I could bank for the future.

With my decision made, I let sleep claim me and dreamt of hatchets splitting cauldrons.