Family Business 10: Family and Magic (Patreon)

Family Business
Chapter 10: Family and Magic

-VB-

I spent the whole next day with Lux. I did tell Sona during breakfast that I would be indisposed of, which she took to gracefully with a smile and a nod.

Instead of spending the entire day in her bedroom (which had the better bed between ours) frolicking like rabbits in heat, I spent a productive day with Lux. Namely, I spent the day practicing magic with her.

Now, I won’t say that I didn’t go out of my way to be chaste. No. In fact, I touched Lux a lot, especially along her waist and thigh, which were very bare due to Lux’s own choice of attire of the medieval equivalent of t-shirt and short pants (something I have actually been getting flak about from my parents, but since I enjoyed watching, I let it be; it’s actually becoming a trend among the young people in Jorasmang City).

“Why do you not use other methods of magic, Mars?” she asked with her nickname for me. “You only ever use your potions, bombs, and oils.”

“Other methods of magic, like the scepter you prefer, just don’t work for me. It’ll fizzle out. Want me to show you?” I asked her, and she nodded. She handed me her manasilver scepter, and I took it with a daft hand. I spun it around me in this brightly magic light lit underground chamber, twirling it like Lux liked to do.

And then I grabbed the shaft by the middle, thrust the manastone-set head of the scepter at the far wall away from the both of us, and let my magic flow through.

And then nothing.

My magic literally fizzled and died even before it went halfway through the scepter.

Shrugging, I handed it back to Lux. “It is what it is.”

“I don’t get why our magic systems are so different,” she pouted as she took the scepter back. “It makes no sense.”

I scoffed. “You know just as I do that magic is still a vastly unexplored subject, even in magic-embracing civilizations across the continents, but severely less so in the domain of Demacia. I won’t be surprised if we are extremely behind in magical technology and other applications. Why, both of us know of easy ways to make water-drawing easy for the commoners if only magic was allowed to be used in public.”

Lux frowned and nodded slowly.

“Do you remember the East March Plague?”

She shivered, which was enough of an answer.

Despite the existence of magic, the common reality of humanity remained the same. In this medieval era, disease outbreaks were common. In places like Noxus and others, the magicians were able to help with that by casting healing spells or cleansing an era, even if it was considered wasteful. In Demacia, they didn’t have that luxury. Only medicine helped, but medicine was expensive.

It was for simple reasons like this that I knew Demacia would lose in the long run.

It was for this reason that I was slowly gathering magicians into my city, and taking steps to changing the commoners’ perspectives on it. How else would I do it other than cheap education I provided (which included stories about how more people would have survived diseases if magic was publicly allowed in Demacia) and writing plays where magic was good (for the sake of the commoners, of course)?

“Imagine if Demacia was fine with allowing magic to be used to cleanse the wells and remove sick people from drawing from the well. What would have happened?”

“Less people would have been sick and died.”

“Exactly. But because of our people’s prejudice to magic, what happened?”

“They died.”

“Yes. Over a thousand people died in the Eastern Marches because the people, the ignorant people digging the dirt for scraps underneath the haughty nobility in the Great City of Demacia, couldn’t be allowed to use magic to improve their lives. Exactly like what happened to the people in the Jorasmang County under its previous lord.”

Lux sighed. “I know, I know. You told me this already like five times now.”

“Sorry. It’s frustrating for me.”

“Me, too.”

“... So you wanted to show me your latest spell?”

She perked up at the thought of showing off. “Yup! I practiced really hard for this!” She twirled her scepter and launched … oh, that’s one of her signature spells. “I call it the Lucent Singularity!” But does it do the same thing the canon spell did?

“What does it do? Aside from lighting up the room?” I asked her as I stepped towards it, but staying well outside the spell’s area of effect.

“That’ll all it does?” she asked curiously.

I blinked before looking back at her.

“Only light up an area?”

“Yeah, I mean, I just made this spell so that I can see where I’m going in the dark in the forest.”

I hummed. “But it’s too small for something like that nor is it efficient.”

“It is?”

“I’ll give three examples: lost, civilian, and military. In the case of the lost, you would use this as a magician who lost his way in a dark forest. Why would he use this spell instead of a light spell that simply points forward? Less mana and all that.”

She considered the question.

“In the case of civilian use, I suppose that it’ll help with searching an area, like a deep river or tall grass, but what magician would need to light up an area to search for something? Perhaps in the mines as well, which would be more useful than air-burning torches.”

“Torches burn air?!”

I ignored her comment and continued on. “In the case of the military, because of the way you cast this spell, you would be vulnerable to being spotted. It isn’t exactly subtle, you know?”

She frowned. “So it’s a useless spell?”

“Not quite,” I said. “What if you detonated the source of mana in this spell?”

“Detonate…?”

“Blow it up.”

“Oh. Oh!” she said out loud with wide eyes. “But then wouldn’t that make the spell dangerous?”

“Of course, it would. It would be a way for you to defend yourself.”

She pondered on that. “I already have a spell for that, though.”

“You do?”

“Yup! It stops people from approaching me. Kind of like a temporary jail made out of light?”

I knew what she was talking about. I pulled out a potion and drank it. I immediately felt its effect come over. “Alright, try it on me.”

She hesitated. “But this one hurts…”

“I just drank a potion of my own making that reduces magic-related damages. Try it.”

She did, and it was another of her canon spells, the Light Binding.

I winced a little as the world jarred, and found myself unable to leave the jail cell made out - as she said - of light.

“Solid,” I said as I tapped one of the “bars” that made this cell. “It’s a good spell.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

She grinned.

Yes, smiling Lux was a beautiful Lux.

-VB-

During dinner, I sat between Sona and Lux.

I think the girls knew it, but I wanted to make sure.

“Lux, you know how I spent a lot of time with Sona, yes?”

“Yes?”

“She is, just like you, a lover of mine. Will it be a problem?”

Lux stared at Sona for a second before pouting. “I wanted to be your first.”

Sona merely giggled. She handsigned me that she already knew about our incestous feelings.

“Really?” Lux asked, who was also familiar with my new “revolutionary” method of helping the mute and deaf communicate with people. “Was it that obvious on my part?”

Sona nodded, and Lux groaned.

I just laughed as tension bled out of me.

I was just glad that the two of them were still talking with each other instead of competing for more of me as many lovers are wont to do. Just glad, yes.

Our parents certainly won’t be if they learn of this, though. No, they will not.