5 Decisions

A few days after the incident with the outlaws, Vance and Leon were both at home. Leon was taking a break from working while his leg recovered. The doctors told him it wasn't too serious, but he'd done some muscle damage by continuing to fight after being shot, he'd need time to recover and he was told to keep his weight off of the leg.

Vance, on the other hand was doing his best to try and take care of him, he insisted that he could take care of things like cooking and cleaning, despite never having cooked in his life. Leon would be lying if he didn't enjoy the laughs the two had while he was trying to direct Vance around the kitchen.

"No, that's not the salt."

"Oh, what is it?"

"It's a spice called Velicia. It'll blow your socks off."

"Sounds expensive...Should I add some?"

"Yeah, why no- not that much!"

The meal that afternoon turned into a mixture of laughter and tears as each brother found the others Velicia experience more than just a little amusing.

Unfortunately, like all days recently, the mood was eventually soured by the silence that came with the inactivity of the afternoon.

To Leon's surprise, it was Vance who brought it up first.

"We should probably talk about everything."

"Yeah." Leon sighed his answer.

This wouldn't be their first conversation on the subject, but they kept coming back to it once in a while.

"First of all, I want to get this out of the way. None of that's on you, Vance."

"Yeah, I know. But I certainly couldn't done more. I was lost in thought when those guys burst into the room, I should've heard them coming and warned you."

"And I should have torn them to pieces before they had a chance to act. It's hard to be perfect under circumstances like that."

Vance nodded at that.

"How's the leg?"

"Fine, Stings quite a lot. I guess that's a good sign, though." Leon changed his posture. He sat up a little straighter and drew up his classic smile.

"Alright, onto something a little more cheery. Spill the beans, before it all kicked off, you told me you'd figured it out, right?"

"Oh...Yeah." To his amazement, Vance realised he'd actually forgotten about that, he'd been preoccupied pretty much every second since the outlaws attacked, doctors trips, time spent at the market alone, trying to take care of his brother, the cleaning...

"Details, boy!" Leon did his best impression of an old sagely voice for some reason.

"Best I can tell, it's like a muscle? A really atrophied one that's never been used. I think I need to exercise it or something. I actually used it on the day, I think."

"Used it?"

"I think I did magic."

A few seconds of silence passed.

"I don't remember seeing a fireball or anything."

Vance chuckled at that.

"Nothing like that, Here." Vance handed over the coin that was still on the chain around his neck.

"The weight is gone." Leon noted immediately.

"Yeah, I think I moved it into dad's sword? I figured if the sword was heavier at the tip, it might spin less and I could just sort of, throw it into the guy."

A few more seconds of silence.

"Quick thinking. There's a decent chance you saved my life twice that day, you know."

Vance swelled a little at that. He'd made a start on making good on his own promise to himself, he'd actually protected Leon for once, finally!

"Can you still do it? I don't have to drown you again, do I?"

"I Don't know, where's dad's sword? I can try."

Leon directed him to where he'd placed the blade and Vance carefully retrieved it, bringing it back to the table.

"You know, if you need me to trickle water over your head while you do your weird demon magic, I really don't mind." Leon made a threatening tipping motion with the cup in his hand.

"Shush."

Vance sat down and held the coin in one hand and rested his hand on the blade of his fathers sword. He focused inwards and flexed his will again, now that he had time to observe and his life wasn't balancing on a knife edge, he could actually begin to tell that it was his right hand that was in contact with the source of mana, the hand touching the blade.

He learned quickly that he cool "Pull" on that mana and it actually entered his body. It didn't really feel like much happened, but it certainly caused that metallic taste to rise up in his mouth. Once he had hold of it, it was like a hand he didn't have was gripped around it, holding it in place, then he moved this imaginary arm over to the other side of his body, where he pushed it towards the coin.

He felt it get gradually heavier until he no longer held any mana. He let out a sudden, surprised breath. He smiled and tossed the coin to Leon, who caught it and smiled along with him.

"Looks like we need to get you a pointy hat and a staff."

"The hat's a bit much, don't you think?"

Vance noticed at this moment that he was sweating, he also had a little bit of a headache, though the source of the ache was clear to him.

"Seems like this "muscle" is weak, I need to exercise it, make it stronger."

At first, Vance found he could only transfer the mana between the sword and the coin once every few hours, if he tried to do it twice, his headache got a lot worse and he had to stop. After a week, he could comfortably move the mana around three or four times a day without giving himself a headache, it was working.

Leon was already back on his feet, though he was walking around gingerly at this point. He was watching Vance practice one day, eyebrows furrowed.

"Hey, I don't know squat about all of this, but I've been thinking. Can you...I don't know, split the mana up into smaller pieces? I'm wondering if the reason you're tiring out so fast is because you're doing the equivalent of heavy lifting. Maybe you could perform more repetitions if the amount of mana was smaller?"

"That's...A great idea, I'll try."

Vance picked up the coin, currently filled with mana. He gently pulled on the mana reserves inside and tried to pull out just a small portion, he found that when he tried, it was as if he could stretch the mana slightly, but it would always snap back to wherever the bulk of the mana was contained, in this case, the coin. He tried a few times, it seems like he could only pull all or nothing.

"No good, it seems like it's all connected or something."

Leon started to scratch at his modest facial hair when Vance spoke up again.

"Leon, I've been thinking. I need a teacher. I think I want to go into Vereece. It's only about 3 days by road if I take a carriage."

Leon pressed his lips together before he spoke. "Vance, it might be difficult. I'm sure we could travel that far, might be tricky once we're there though, I don't know the place that we-"

"Leon, I want to go alone."

Leon recoiled. "I'm not sure that's great idea."

"As usual, you're probably right, but hear me out. I know I'm blind and yes, it does make things...tricky. But, the last few years have given me a new perspective. I know now that there is something inside me that I can use, something I can build upon. I'm not particularly good with tools, I'm not great with directions so I won't be taking on dad's merchant lifestyle, I'm not as big as you and even if I was, manual labour often requires at least some precision."

He paused for a moment, thinking on how to continue.

"I Rely on you for a lot. The thing is, I don't want to. I want to stand on my own two feet and I want to come back as someone you don't have to worry about. I feel bad planning to leave just after dad, but I've finally made a breakthrough on this whole mana sense thing and I feel like I need to seize the opportunity."

Leon closed his eyes for a moment and pressed his fingers against his temples, he had known this sort of thing would happen eventually.

Vance was getting nervous, Leon was never this quiet for this long.

"I don't like it." he said in a matter of fact manner. "But, I understand. Mum would kill me if I tried to snuff out your ambitions."

"Dad would kill you for letting me go."

"Mum would make it more painful. At least let me help you get to Vereece, once you're in the city I'll feel better, that's my condition."

"Alright."

After a few days preparation, Leon prepared his fathers wagon. It was only on rare occasion he'd have cause to use the thing. Technically, his father didn't own a horse to pull it, he'd rent them locally, which Leon did on this particular occasion.

Vance gathered a rucksack which he filled with supplies and a set of spare clothes. He wore simple clothes, though he opted for the thicker clothes he owned. Leon gave him a small portion of his fathers saving, amounting to a handful of gold coins, and a smattering of silver ones. He warned Vance that walking around with a bag full of money was a guaranteed way to get yourself robbed.

Leon spent the majority of these days throwing constant streams of advice to Vance, who had never actually been to a settlement outside of Wethermane. His biggest worry was how Vance was going to earn money once he was in the city, but Vance had told him that he'd figure something out, not exactly inspiring, but at least he was thinking about it.

"By the way, why Vereece?"

"Elijah. I asked around in the market last week to see if anyone knew where he came from, some people seemed to think he was from the Vereecian college, so that's where I'm going first. If I can get a chance to meet him again, maybe he'll remember me."

"And then?" Leon prompted.

"And then I don't know. Something about every journey and a single step?"

Leon shook his head.

"If I don't hear from you within 3 months, I'm coming into Vereece and dragging you home, understood?"

Vance noted that he seemed serious, he was afraid he might literally tear the city apart if he had to.

"Understood." His voice faltered a little, he might be an aspiring magician, but Leon was still really big.

3 days later, the duo arrived in their wagon at the gates of Vereece. Leon was marvelling at the city walls which stood taller than any building back in their village and were entirely made of stone, they weren't that far from home and the difference was astounding.

He described the scenery around him to Vance, telling him about the smooth cobbles that paved the streets, the walls. He spoke at length on the guardsman which manned the gates on the way in, that he was dressed in heavy chainmail armour was at the top of his "Interesting facts" list.

They passed through the gate after brushing past the obligatory "Business in the city?" Line of questioning that the guard threw in their direction in that "Just say something so I can sit down again" voice.

Vance quickly found himself a little overwhelmed, back in the village it was usually quiet with the occasional person walking past, on very rare occasions he'd hear the distinct sounds of equine movement.

Here, it was an ocean of activity. He could pick out dozens of people in his vicinity as the wagon rolled onwards. It took him a feat of concentration to dial himself inwards and drown out the sounds of the bustling city around him.

"It's a lot, huh?" Leon asked from next to him.

"Yeah, it's louder than I thought."

"You don't have to go through with this, you know? We can call this a nice trip to the city, maybe pick up some supplies."

"Leon, We've been over this. I need to do this. Honestly, It is really stupid."

"Well, as long as you know."

Leon pulled the wagon up outside of a building labelled "Penny's nook".

It had the smell of beer and a mixture of foods, Vance noted the scents heavily leaned towards meat based dishes. He could hear people talking inside, though it was the middle of the day and didn't sound particularly full. In particular, he thought he could hear a woman's muffled voice ringing out over the others.

"Does the building have a second floor?"

"Yeah, looks like it has rooms."

"Perfect, this'll do great."

"You sure? We could go deeper into the city, maybe somewhere closer to the college?"

"It'll get too expensive, this is fine, thanks Leon."

With absolutely no warning, Leon grabbed Vance with the force of a pissed off mountain and dragged him into a hug so tight that Vance thought he might actually explode. After so long that Vance began to see his ancestors welcoming him into the beyond, Leon let go and started to fuss.

"Clothes? Money? Sword? Remember to be careful with the sword, don't draw it in the streets, it's illegal to do that here. The guards won't have a problem with yo-"

"Leon." Vance smiled at him and pulled his way to the edge of the cart, he turned back to Leon with a stern expression on his face, his eyes were closed as always, but Leon could feel Vance's focus was firmly on him.

"Thanks again Leon, for everything. When I come home, I'll make you proud, I promise." He spoke with such conviction that something in Leon just gave out.

But he wasn't crying. Absolutely not. Anyone who said otherwise is a liar.

Through poorly concealed sniffles, he reminded Vance that if he couldn't burn the house down with an angry glare when he returned, then he shouldn't have bothered coming home, or something to that effect, it was largely unintelligible.

Vance hopped off of the cart, landed well and tapped his cane on the ground just in front of him. he couldn't hear anyone particularly close, so he slowly made his way towards the door of Penny's nook.

"Good luck." Leon spoke at his little brothers back.

Leon waited there for over an hour. When his brother didn't come outside asking to be taken home, he finally turned and made his way back down the road. He stayed in the city that night at an Inn nearby, but Vance never came looking for him.

With stones in his gut, he started his journey home, alone.