Adamant Blood

Mark woke up feeling drained, but he was okay. He could do 3-hours-of-sleep nights every now and then.

In the kitchen, one of the stories on the television was about the missing sky whales. Orange City had needed to divert them hard since they were coming straight for the city instead of to the side, like usual.

Dad was making pancakes as he watched the news on the kitchen screen. “Well that’s a shame.”

Mom looked up from paperwork. “What?”

“No sky whales,” Dad said. “I bet a lot of people were out last night trying to see them.”

Mom smirked at Dad, saying, “I remember how you and I used to go sky whale watching.”

Mark focused on his math homework. He was still in high school and he still had homework, even if the last year was always filled with kids prepping for the Tutorial, like him, who had a much-decreased workload compared to everyone else. Life still went on past the Tutorial, though, and grades still needed to be up high enough to graduate.

But if Mark would have gotten a superhero rating in the False Tutorial then he would have abandoned high school completely and filed for a GED later. That’s what all the real heroes did.

Brawnies still got math classes.

… Maybe he should really go for mage. Like Mom and Dad. That would require a true commitment, though, which meant… Well. What did it mean? Funneling all his money into arcanaeum? Get a job and spend years paying for school? Mark wasn’t sure, actually.

“Mom? Dad?” Mark asked, “How much is a real mage education? Like, actual accreditation? The full four years. The kind of education that would let me walk anywhere in any city in the world— except for the noble districts of Daihoon, I guess.”

Both his parents looked at him, their eyes going wide.

And then they looked at each other.

A moment passed.

Mom started with, “It’s a hundred thousand goldleaf per year at Orange Arcanaeum. That price is set by the citystate. It’s more like 425,000 for four years because of incidentals. The actual price is 350,000 per year, but the citystate pays that, and only because that’s what it costs to get a real mage to teach real magic to a lot of people. Almost no one pays full price, though, because there are scholarships everywhere. If you want to take a full-scan from the arcanaeum to determine what magics you might have affinity toward then you might be able to get scholarships in those directions.” Mom said, “But even before all of that… The second you burn your first spell into your mana veins… When you get your first magic you’re no longer eligible for the True Awakening of the Tutorial.”

Dad said, “You can put off the Tutorial indefinitely if you don’t learn magic. That’s why they don’t allow mage-learning outside of the arcanaeums; so kids can have the Tutorial option when they turn 18. There are lots of places where Curtain Protocol still exists long after 18, like here in Gladegrove. Most residential places in the ECU are fully Protocol’d.”

“But if you want real mage learning then we’d have to sell the house and probably the fishery to afford it, but...” Mom said, “Your father and I talked about that… and...”

Dad said, “And we decided last night that we won’t do that. You’re going to have to get loans. The easiest loan is a 4-year semi-servitude to an accredited mage. It’s a common arrangement. You work your magics at their discretion and you get paid for it, but you would have to move and live with them wherever. Maybe even on Daihoon.”

“Or you could get loans from the citystate, and go into the wall guard!” Mom said, “That’s more common than the mage service option.”

Dad spilled more ideas out there, “Or you could get a normal job and save up and go to arcanaeum later. Years later. It would take a few years of saving to get there, and you’d still have to take out loans, but you can do that. You could even take 10 years to do 4 years of classwork, working all the while, and live in a place like Gladegrove here.” Dad said, “That’s the long-term option, but it’s better than having 25 years of loan payments.”

Mom eagerly added, “Or you could go to university, for free, and get a common education and become a lawyer or some other high-paying job and outright pay for arcanaeum in your 30’s! That’s a great option, too. And then you can be a lawyer mage, and become one of those people who work with demons and make the real money.”

Okay.

That was A Lot.

Mark’s head was spinning.

He had never put too much thought into magery, but his parents had. A lot of thought.

And then Dad added another option, “Or there’s the Chosen System, and you can do the god-thing. I hear at the lower tiers it's basically standard hero stuff; report for duty a weekend every month sort of thing. Keep a temple clean while living in accordance with the god’s ideals. Some low level powers are even available to those who live under Curtain protocol, so you could take some power and responsibility and still have the Tutorial open for you later.”

“Freyala is all about healing and protection and if you go for her you only need to work 5 days a month at the local hospital.” Mom said, “And then you get healing magic. I know you want healing magic! She’s the best way to get that.”

Dad eagerly said, “And with healing magic you can be almost as physically strong as a weak brawny, but you gotta work hard for that muscle and height and everything and heal yourself up all the time.”

Mark smelled smoke.

“The pancake is burning,” Mark said, wonderfully thankful for the distraction.

Mom and Dad had just thrown out a mountain of information to mull over, and Mark… Mark would have to take some time to think about all that.

Dad rapidly reoriented back to the stove to flip the pancake. It was mostly black on one side. “That one can be mine.”

Mark asked, “So? Uh. Let’s go back... Uh… Lawyer Mage? I, uh, like money, I think? But demons.”

Mark didn’t want to be anywhere near demons, and yet, all of the truly powerful people in the world used demons. Archmages were famously contracted to demons. That’s how they got all their archmagery powers.

Mom said, “Demons are incredibly dangerous, but they’re what allow us to survive the dangers of mana.”

Dad added, “They’re what cause all of the major dangers of mana, too.”

“Well yes, Markus,” Mom said, to Dad, “But that’s a far off thing anyway, and…”

Mark tried to pay attention, and he mostly did. He was a pretty good learner. But this was not learning; it was decision making, and all the paths open to him were so very wide.

None of them were what he actually wanted.

- - - -

A few days later, during dinner, Mark made a decision that was not fully thought out.

Mark said, “I don’t want to go into debt or sell anything or do the Chosen thing…” He frowned. “Not fully, anyway. But... I could work to save up, right? For real mage accreditation, I mean?” He looked to his parents. “… Is it really okay to take 10 years to do 4 years of learning?”

He’d have to live under Curtain Protocol, but that was pretty normal for most people. He couldn’t go to the Hero Quarter or out beyond the walls… Not for a while, anyway. But was that really okay? Was that really an option?

“Absolutely!” Mom said, struggling to not be too happy.

Dad said, “It’s a great idea!”

Mark felt a little bit better about everything.

Yeah.

Okay.

This could work.

Dad added, “And winter break is coming up, right? Want to go visit Orange Arcanaeum? We can pay for a year for sure, and maybe you can get a scholarship, too, but you should expect to pay for 3 years on your own, son.”

Mark breathed deep. Here was the moment of truth, though. He asked, “We can… We can really do this?”

“It’ll be tough,” Mom said, and then she paused, not sure how to say whatever else she needed to say.

Dad said, “Now son, you don’t have to do this, but you could quit rugby and all of your Tutorial training and even quit school to take the GED and graduate next month. You’re smart enough. You can cram for the test and just get it done, because as soon as you get your GED you’re eligible for Basic Income. With that in your pocket, then you can start looking for a job before all your friends do. A lot of kids are going to graduate from high school in six months, and you could get the drop on them.”

“But you don’t have to miss out on high school,” Mom said, firmly. “That is absolutely not what we’re saying. It is an option, though, to get more money now for less hardship later.”

The world felt smaller.

Mark said, “I… hadn’t thought about that.”

“Just think about it,” Dad said. “Anyway. Winter Break is coming up in a week or two, right? We can get you an arcanaeum full-scan and see your latent mana dispositions. If you get a good one you could get a scholarship and an even better Basic Income if Orange City wants you to stay here. Any inclination toward mancers of any kind, kineticists, anything at all that isn’t brawny, and you could get money.” Dad added, “Spellwork isn’t as good as inborn-power, but if you end up with anything telekinetic-based then you might be able to be a halfer instead of a quarter like me. Either way, you can stack a lot more spells into a person than you can Talents.”

Mom happily added, “Maybe even multiple spells!”

Mark easily said, “I want that; yes. Let’s do that.”

- - - -

Two weeks passed in a breeze.

Christmas day was all string lights on the cabbage palms and fake snow sprayed on the windows and a whole lot of food. Mom, Dad, Devon and Trace from the Fishery and their families, and Mark, celebrated the holiday in their big house. There wasn’t much under the tree because the family was already trying to save money in preparation for Mark going to arcanaeum, but there were a few gifts.

Mom and Dad got him a new bike. He had needed one and his repairs on the old one were falling apart. Mark hadn’t asked them for a new bike at all, but here it was anyway, and this one was made of composite steel. It would take a monster to break it, or maybe just a brawny, and it weighed 2 kilos. It was light.

It was too expensive.

“It’s too expensive,” Mark said, later, when it was just the three of them.

He was still embarrassed that he had broken his bike. He had taken care of that bike for 5 years. He still couldn’t believe he had smashed it like some uncontrolled… Well. Brawny.

“It’s not too expensive, honey,” Mom said. “And besides! You need a good one for getting around a campus full of mages.”

Dad smiled, saying, “Those guys like to be bastards to us Basic Income people, so they’ll probably break it anyway.”

Mom scoffed at him. “That’s just on TV shows…” And then she said to Mark, “But take care not to get on anyone’s bad side.”

Mark felt his chest tighten. He said, “Thank you.”

They hugged.

Mom put her head on Mark’s chest, holding him tight, saying, “You’ve gotten so big, honey.”

Mark laughed. “I’m still shorter than Dad!”

“I meant…” Mom teared up. “You know what I mean.” She looked up at him, and her next words were choked off by a happy little cry. She hugged him again, tighter, murmuring, “You’re going to do great at arcanaeum. I just know it.”

Dad wiped away a manly tear, saying, “You’ve gotten so tall, son.”

Mark was only 5’7”, directly between Mom and Dad, so Mark joked back, “Maybe you two are shrinking.”

Mom laughed. Dad smiled.

The next day Mark and Dad went to the tram station. They hopped on a graffiti-marked tram and rode all the way into the city, and then further north, to Orange Arcanaeum.