Stronger Together chapter 150 (Patreon)

After dropping all the gear off at home we considered calling  everyone to see what we'd gotten but eventually decided to just head  over to Harry's. Yang and Barb tagged along so we could have a magic  lesson. Once Yang had caught up to us in terms of training we'd all  resumed lessons together. My fire spell and aspect were one of the first  things I had learned, now Harry was trying to teach me wind magic. Barb  already knew wing magic and had tried to give me some advice but I was  having a tough time understanding the stuff. It was too...flighty.

All  magic had a unique feel or texture to it, since magic came from  emotions there was naturally a flavor to the energy similar to certain  emotions. In that same way certain people had a knack for certain kinds  of magic. Much like Barb did for veils and Yang did for fire. My natural  knack was lightning. I had no clue what about my personality made that  fact true, but whatever it was it did not mix well with the inconsistent  flighty nature of wind magic. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get  those damn wind spells to work, not even the weakest one.

We  got to Harry's place and knocked on the door, which was swung open  violently by a very frazzled looking Susan. Her eyes zeroed in on us and  she quickly disengaged the baby from her shoulder to hold her out. "Oh,  good. The help is here. Take her. My brain is about to melt. I think  she's teething, she won't stop screaming and if I don't get a nap soon  my control is going to snap and I'm going to eat my boyfriend!" Yang  stepped up to take the fussy baby, who settled down and nuzzled into the  brawlers warm skin. Susan threw her hands up "Oh look, my baby likes  you better than me. Sure, why not. I'm going to bed."

She  whirled on her heel and stalked back into the house leaving us standing  in front of an open door with a baby. Of course, we had to add one more  to the list because even as we watched a tiny yapping ball of fuzz came  speeding out of the house, tripping on the door jamb and spilling out  onto the porch. A cooing Barb leaned down to pick the puppy up. "Oh,  Mouse are you protecting the baby?" She nuzzled the miniature hound,  snuggling into his fur and scratching him behind the ears. "Who's a good  boy? Who is? That's right." She cooed into the dogs face, rubbing her  nose against his until the adorable little fuzz ball sneezed on her and  she started laughing.

Yang and I both chuckled at the cute  little pup and we all trekked into the house, trying not to make noise  lest we awaken the mommy beast from her slumber. Yang was making faces  at Maggie trying to get the little girl to laugh and was succeeding in  getting giggles from the baby as she reached her little hands up to pull  on her face. It always warmed my heart to see Yang bonding so well with  Maggie and Bea. The hole in her life from being ripped away from Ruby  seemed to heal a bit every time she was around the girls.

She  caught Barb and I staring and gave us a deadpan look through he  stretched cheeks as the baby pulled at her. "What?" She said, her voice  distorted by the child's grip "Do I have something on my face?" We both  burst into laughter and even Mouse was chuffing his little doggie  chuckle. She shook off the grabby baby with a laugh of her own "Do we  have to go down to that drafty basement. We can just take Mags and  Mousey back to our place for a play date and learn more magic another  day. Susan's sleeping and Harry's down stairs entertaining himself  anyway."

Before we could react however there was a sound  of a throat being cleared off to one side. We turned to find Harry  leaning against the wall with an amused expression on his face. "For  future reference, most kidnappings are best planned in advance, not spur  of the moment, loudly discussed in the living room of you potential  targets. Also you can keep the baby, but the pooch stays. He's quiet and  already house trained. Plus he's smart enough that in a few months I  can probably train him to bring me beer." His wry smirk was fond as he  took in the three of us with the dog and baby.

Yang  chuckled and spun Maggie protectively away, shielding the kid with her  body "We've come for your infants and cute fuzzy animals the  ad-arrrrgh-able pirates are here! Avast ye scurvy land lubber." The  formerly cranky baby dissolved in a fit of  tiny baby giggles at the  swooping motion and the pirate accent. She took in our complete lack of  amusement. "What? You guys suck, that was funny." She held up the  laughing baby as evidence. "See. Mags loved it." The giggling baby  swatted at us from her place hanging in the air, clearly completely and  blissfully unaware of what was going on around her.

I  rolled my eyes "Yang, the fact that the infant who doesn't speak English  is the only one laughing at your jokes isn't an endorsement. It's a red  flag. But it's good to know you found someone who appreciates your  sense of humor. Statistically it had to happen eventually." Yang glared  exaggeratedly at me and I kept my face serious for a minute before  sticking out my tongue to let her know I was kidding. Kind of. It was  cute how good she was with Maggie I wasn't really going to be a dick  about her bad jokes. I turned to our mentor. "So, looks like I'm flying  solo on the lessons today. Yang has the baby and if Barb is willing to  put that puppy down I'll eat your coffee table."

Barb  shrugged, clearly not arguing my point, not that I could blame her. That  dog was so damn cute. Harry just chuckled "Fair enough, kid.  Firecracker picked up wind already, and we know Barb learned it ages  ago, so you're the only one dragging your heels on this one anyway."  Yang as always loved when he called her that. So much so that she didn't  even mock me for being behind her in this one type of magic. Not that  it would have exactly been a fair comparison because I'd already learned  fire, force, and lightning. He waved me towards the basement "Come on,  lets go work on it."

He turned  and headed for his lab and I had to hurry to catch up "So I have to ask  boss, what's the deal with the basic elements? Aren't we going to be  learning actual magic, like enchantments and rituals. It just seems like  we're starting with only evocation. Which is cool but I was hoping for  some more versatile stuff." I knew Harry preferred evocation, but I also  knew he had a strong background in thaumaturgy and I was more than a  little interested in that kind of thing. Still, Harry was the   professional wizard here not me, so I was genuinely asking. I was pretty  sure there was a reason for it.

Harry  didn't seem offended, if anything he seemed happy with the question, he  chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. "I was wondering when you were  going to ask. The evocation is a pretty standard training tool for  younger wizards. It requires less fine control and teaches them how to  tap into different types of magic. Having a wide array of elemental  energies you can cast from is actually pretty important later on down  the line." We stopped at his ladder and climbed down to his lab "When  you cast a ritual you rarely use neutral magical energy. Certain aspects  are better feulled by more specific types of magic, not to mention if  you're fueling it off a leyline they need to match."

That  made perfect sense actually. Since magic had different attributes  different spell functions would work better if matched to a  corresponding attribute. Spots where you needed faster energy flow could  be made with lightning magic, places where more stability was needed  could be made with earth, and so on. I hadn't considered that "Sorry  boss, I was just curious. I get it now, didn't mean to question the  master." I didn't think Harry was upset, but I felt a bit bad  questioning his competence when he'd done so much to help us and train  us in magic.

He  just laughed and waved it off "Not at all kid. I'd be a pretty shitty  master if I didn't let you ask any questions. The fact that you're  thinking about that kind of thing is good, it shows that you have your  future progression in mind. Too many wizards fall into the trap of  instant gratification. They learn to blow stuff up and then think  they're powerful. Asking about things like enchantments and rituals  means you recognize that creating things with magic is more important  than destroying, and I'm damn happy to hear it."

He  smiled fondly at me for a minute then shook off the pride with an  annoyed flick of his eyes to the side at what I assumed was Lash mocking  him and cleared his throat. It was always interesting to see outward  signs of his interactions with Lash. He didn't really talk about her,  which I could hardly blame him for, but knowing she was around was  weirdly both comforting and unnerving. Harry turned towards the other  end of the lab. "Anyway, wind magic. You're having a lot of trouble with  this one so lets take it from the top. Tell me everything you know  about it."

I  closed my eyes, trying to immerse myself in the feeling that Barb and  Harry had described. "Wind magic is supposed to feel light and flighty.  It's quick but doesn't linger, fluttering from one task to the next.  It's also ever changing, it doesn't flow in straight lines but prefers  to move in curves and whorls." I tried to envision wind, how it made me  feel, how it made think. The fear and excitement before a tornado, the  awe of watching a hurricane, the relief of a cool breeze on a hot day. I  lost myself in the feeling of all of those things, just like Barb had  told me to do, then I cast Harry's wind spell "Ventus."

Even  the breath from my mouth was wind. It carried the spell out into the  world, delivering it into the air and displacing more air, setting off a  chain reaction of shifting currents. I felt the magic, felt the  soulfire, entering the air around me and changing it just like Barb had  told me it would and I pushed, shoving more magic into the spell. My  concentration was shatter by a loud thump. I jumped and looked around to  see...a cup. I'd knocked a cup off the desk. That much power would have  dropped a lightning spell on someone that could turn them to ash but  with wind it only managed enough force to knock over an empty mug.

Still  Harry we overjoyed "Nice! Well done kid. I knew you would get it." He  clearly saw my disappointment and laughed "Getting it down is the hard  part, and wind spells are almost always wasteful. You can tighten it up a  lot I'll admit, but there's so much air around us to move that learning  to tweak spells like that is one the first things and wizard learns  about wind magic. That said you do know wind magic now. You cast the  spell and that's a place to start. I was honestly expecting it to take  you another few days." He walked over to clap me on the shoulder "Now  that you got it once, time to work out the kinks. Let's take it from the  top."