The next several days were both stressful and tense. Lios carried on with his normal routine, though it took more effort to complete more rune dances as the majority of his sparring partners didn’t come around too much. Now it was just him and Maya. Even Rose was coming around less frequently; instead, she was spending her mornings helping her mother at the tavern.

  Lios hadn’t known her family owned a tavern until it was mentioned a few days prior, the day after his birthday. She still hadn’t selected a class for herself, not quite rebellious enough to follow through just yet. He would have to make a point to start visiting her at work.

  One would think that as tavern owners, her parents wouldn’t be quite so adamant against her becoming a bard. At least, that’s what Lios thought, as bards tended to bring in customers, especially in this place where folks had to go somewhere to hear music. Instead, both her mother and father considered it a worthless profession. One maintained by vagabonds and ruffians, not the sort of thing a prim and proper lady should pursue.

  For now, though, it was the fifth morning after he had told his parents his story. They hadn’t spoken much since. Despite her words, he could tell his mother was rather shaken by what he said. Lios would often catch his father staring after him both at home and while working at the barracks. There was no hostility, no anger, but his eyes trailed the boy, nonetheless.

  “Lios Lios! I did it! I finally did it!” Maya’s shout broke Lios free of the anxious thoughts. He turned to glance at her and saw her breathing hard with sweat dripping down her face.

  “Oh, what did you finally do?” He looked at the spear in her hands pointed down, the tip around waist height.

  “I did the Spear dance you do sometimes! I followed every step, and guess what! I felt it, I felt something in my legs!” She beamed at Lios, then finally broke her stance to stumble down to one knee, the spear plunging into the dirt.

  Lios observed with shock. Without knowledge of runes, or what he was doing, she had mimicked a spell to the point of expending mana? He knew she had been trying to emulate his spear techniques, even those that he used for his rune dances, but had no idea she would stumble into it so perfectly. His smile matched hers at the realization, and he chewed the inside of his cheek.

  “Say, Maya, do you have any interest in spellcasting?” He asked with a cheeky light in his eyes.

  “I don’t know, my aunty told me that spells are hard to learn...” She looked self-conscious, falling from her excitement, plagued by self-doubt.

  “Don’t worry, I can teach you. If you want. That spear dance you just did — that was a spell. The way you moved your feet let you draw imaginary runes in the grass. Somehow you managed it without even knowing about the runes!” He let out a laugh, some of his tension releasing as he took in his friend's achievement. It was astounding to think that something he tried so hard to accomplish would be mimicked so thoroughly. She didn’t seem to have enough mana to fully cast the spell now, but he felt she would be a fantastic spear dancer.

  “Wait really? I did magic? But everyone knows you can't cast spells without the system, and I still have a whole year!”

  “You did! You really did. But you're out of mana now, it seems. That’s why you feel so weak and fatigued, but if you keep practicing, you’ll build up your reserves, I think.” He started to pace, grinning at the thought of Maya learning to cast. “I can teach you the runes, how to make a spell. The steps, though, that’s the hardest part. Especially in a fight, your opponent can easily make you stumble, so you have to be careful when you fight.”

  “I would. I would like to learn to cast spells then. If you can really teach me. Uhm... Thank you, Lios, really.” She blushed for some reason as she thanked him, accepting his lesson.

  He didn’t waste any time. He took the spear from her and showed her the dance from start to finish, explaining each rune as he wrote them with his feet. Her eyes never left him. She nodded at each suggestion and watched intently, taking all of it in.

  He then had her perform the same dance, paying special attention to her footwork but noting that she maintained her stance and strikes the entire time. As he observed, he noticed a small trickle of energy flowing from her and took several seconds for him to realize what it was. It was mana. It was mana, and he could sense it due to his new skills.

  The thought made him ecstatic. He could sense mana. He couldn’t see it necessarily, but he was given a vague idea of where mana was around him, and he didn’t even need the skill to be active. As the mana flowed from her legs to her feet to the ground, he could sense it. When she ran out about halfway through the spell, he could tell that too, observing as it first trickled, then sputtered and stopped coming. Despite her shoulders sagging at that time, she kept dancing until all five runes had been drawn.

  She stumbled on the fourth, but finished the fifth perfectly. Four out of five on only her first time intentionally trying to draw the runes. Talented. Far better than me. Contrary to what most might expect, Lios embraced this fact. All he really had going for him was the amount he dedicated to training. He wasn’t particularly smart or coordinated, but he worked hard, and that made up for it.

  Well, I suppose all the ideas I stole from Earth are there too. That’s certainly helpful.

  “Great job Maya! You’re a natural! Is this something you might be interested in pursuing?”

  “I think so. It’s really... relaxing? Maybe that’s not the best word for it, but completing each step... I can feel it? Ya know?” She couldn’t quite articulate how it felt to have mana confirm her movements were correct, how it felt to accomplish something that others said was impossible. But Lios knew, he knew well how it felt to manipulate mana without the System. In the past few days he had done so with the system’s interference, and it was a different experience altogether. It felt like someone was holding his hand and guiding him, and therefore less like a personal accomplishment.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “I know what you mean. How about we go inside and I start teaching you the runes? You can have my book too. I already memorized all the runes in it and copied it over to my own notes.” He didn’t wait for her to confirm, just started moving toward the house.

  She followed wordlessly, wiping sweat from her brow. She, like all the kids, had grown drastically since they started training, but still their bodies were young and the sun was hot, they weren’t quite to the level that sweat stopped dripping down their faces. Even Lios wasn’t exempt from the signs of physical exertion yet, though he appeared to need more movement to show them.

  Shortly, they sat at his kitchen table with his mother teasing him about bringing another girl over. Asking how Rose would feel about it. Unlike Rose, who only laughed off the comments, Maya blushed and sputtered at the teasing.

  After a while, his mother stopped poking fun at him and went to tend her garden. A number of vegetables were close to being ready to harvest. Once they were she would trade the excess with other townsfolk for different vegetables.

  With her out of their hair, Lios began to teach Maya about how to craft a five-rune spell. He went over the intricacies of Lexico runes, how they required precision and what could happen if the spell failed for whatever reason. It was a great exercise for both of them. His tutoring proved the knowledge he had once read, and he experienced many level ups in [Runic Inscribing] as well as the last two levels for [Distant Recollections]. Levels one through eight had been gained after telling his parents about a life once lived.

  In the end, Maya and Lios sat at the kitchen table for several hours. They only stopped when Elaine came back in and started preparing dinner, causing Maya to realize she needed to get back home immediately.

  With just Lios and his mother, and of course the adorable unnamed foxes, the silence was tense. Both she and his father rightfully didn’t know what to say, and Lios didn’t want to push them into accepting him. If they didn’t, that was their choice and one he fully respected. That didn’t mean that the awkwardness and tense air didn’t hurt him, but it was something he could accept.

  It wasn’t until midway through supper, a healthy and hearty seared fish with some sweet potato and carrots, that the silence was broken. Lios had been staring down at his plate, picking at the food, while any conversations that were started faltered shortly after. Then, to his surprise, his father spoke up, clearing his throat.

  “Say, Lios, what did you decide to name the foxes?” He coughed into his fist, a touch of hesitation lacing his words. There was a pause after the boy’s name as though wondering if there were a better way to phrase the question.

  “What? Oh... I still haven't decided.” The boy had been halfway through a bite but didn’t bother to finish it before responding, earning his hand a thwack from his mother’s fork. “Ow! What was that for!”

  “Don’t speak with your mouth full, Alexilios!” Elaine scolded him and raised her fork as a threat.

  Before he could retort or even apologize, Ezekiel coughed into his hand again. It was the most nervous Lios had seen the man. “Well, I had an idea on the matter. How about Luka and Sky?”

  Both Elaine and Lios stopped what they were doing to turn toward the sheepish warrior. The man was doing his best to pick out any oddities in their ceiling, avoiding eye contact as his cheeks flushed.

  “Why... Why those names, Dad?” Lios felt his voice crack, mind spinning as it was he could hardly process what his father had said.

  “I mean. Well. Your uhm... Their names were Lucas and Skylar, right? So, to commemorate the first ones to raise you... maybe? Luka and Sky?”

  “Honey, that’s a brilliant idea!” Elaine exclaimed with fervor, looking down at the foxes, who had yet to learn to beg despite being given scraps from the table frequently. It probably helped that they were fed a helping of scraps and trimmings twice a day with plenty of snacks in between. Reaching down to the smaller of the two, she stroked her head between the ears, eliciting a soft squeal of approval. “Do you like that name, Sky?”

  The fox, of course not understanding the words, yipped in approval. Jealous of his sister, the larger of the duo tottered over to Lios and pawed at the boy’s legs.

  “Is your name Luka?” Lios asked in a quiet voice, images of his parents flashing into his mind. Good memories, smiling faces, faces filled with pride from the day he graduated.

  He leaned down to pet the fox, feeling a tightening in his chest but refusing to give in to the overwhelming emotions. All over again, he felt as though, with the simple suggestion of what to name his pets, his father accepted him. Exactly as he was, his father had just declared acceptance.

  “Are those names, are they really okay?” The boy asked, having taken a few moments to show his adoration to the kit at his feet.

  “Of course they are. Your parents... your other parents were a huge part of you becoming you. If we couldn’t accept that... well anyway, I think the names are good for them, don't you?”

  For a brief moment, after listening to his father stumble over his words like a fifth grader playing the lead role in his school play, Lios just stared shellshocked. Then the words registered. The awkwardness faded away in a flash; only the sentiment mattered in this whirlwind of emotion. Lios shot out of his chair, half his food left unfisnished and picked at, and wrapped a surprised father in a hug. He squeezed the man tightly, knowing that even with his recently enhanced strength stat he would not be able to hurt the vice captain of the guards.

  “Theyre great names. Yeah, I think they suit the kits just fine.” Lios nearly cried as he said so, this time out of joy from his father’s acceptance.

  When he pulled back and resumed eating, Lios saw his father blinking rapidly, cheeks red. He made no comment about the man’s struggle to hold back his own tears; instead, Alexilios only felt touched by how much that hug, the acceptance of his father’s peace offering, had meant to him.

  The tense air did not entirely evaporate, but it dissipated with each time the family called the young foxes by their new names . After supper, Lios excused himself to head outside and train a bit more, eager to have all of his skills reach level ten. Skills were unable to exceed one’s class level; even general skills were capped with the highest-leveled class.

  Even though it had only been a few days, many of his skills were already nearly at level ten. As soon as they were, he would get to choose his class. It wasn’t entirely necessary to wait, but the higher level a skill was, the greater the influence it would have on one's class choices.

  So he went out with the suns spewing oranges and reds on the horizon as they began setting, dusk coming later as summer neared. Still thinking about his father's gesture, he began his meditations, a warmth that had felt absent of late filling him. He flitted about his self-imposed battlefield, writing spells in the dirt that went uncast. No reason to disturb the neighbors with such a flashy display, after all.