Jason’s guests left. Shade served as designated driver for Craig, Ian and Asya since the only ones who hadn’t been drinking alcohol were Greg and Emi.
“What if a cop pulls us over and there’s a shadow man in the driver’s seat?” Ian asked after Greg had driven away.
“You mean Paul?” Erika asked. “Nah, he’s running bingo tonight.”
“Right,” city boy Ian said. “Small town.”
Erika remained behind; Jason wanted to discuss the family’s essence situation. After seeing the others off, Jason, Erika and Farrah settled into comfortable chairs to talk.
“I know we said that we would hold off on the family’s essences until you felt the time was right,” Jason told Erika. “We’re going to move forward with Hiro’s, though.”
“I’ve been teaching him formation magic,” Farrah said. “He’s still a novice, but he’s far enough along that with the right essences and awakening stones, he’ll be setting himself up as a good formation specialist. After some trading with the Network, we have those ready to go.”
“Hiro has purchased some land and he and Farrah are going to start planning out the development,” Jason said.
“We need to know what capabilities Hiro will be bringing to the table before then,” Farrah added.
“He’s bought land already?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “A nice stretch of clifftop land down the coast, nestled right in a gap between national parks. A development group bribed the Deputy Premier to get it approved for commercial development, only to pull out of the project very suddenly, for undisclosed reasons. They sold the land to Uncle Hiro for a steal.”
“And you expect the family to move there?”
“I have no expectations,” Jason said. “It’ll be available to the family, which I suspect they’ll be glad of sooner than I’d like.”
“You really think things will get that bad?” Erika asked.
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “I don’t see a scenario where magic goes public and it’s a safe, smooth transition, though. Even if there aren’t any magic complications, which seems unlikely at best, there’s no telling what kind of social upheavals could take place. If everything works out, then great. If not, we’ll have a sanctuary.”
“I’ve seen enough of your society to know that while you claim to be equal, you are anything but,” Farrah said.
“The families connected to the Network will be the new oligarchs,” Jason added. “We don’t have to join them, but we don’t want to be beholden to them. We need an infrastructure in place to pass magic on to the next generation. The Asano estate will be the centre of that.”
“The Asano Estate,” Erika repeated. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”
“I keep telling you that everything is going to change,” Jason said. “I think that the reason you’re dragging your feet on the essences is that you understand that. You know that once we start magicking-up the family, we're on a road heading straight off from normal that doesn’t loop back around.”
“You’re right,” Erika said. “Ian and I have been talking about this a lot. I told you that it was hard living an ordinary life knowing everything I know now. I don’t like that feeling.”
Jason narrowed his eyes at his sister.
“You’ve decided something,” he realised.
“I don't want to dabble,” Erika said. “We don't, me or Ian. I know you're looking to bring Emi all the way in…”
“I would never do anything with her you were against,” Jason said. “But whatever you may want, a day will come where she has to make her own choices. I think we both know how that’s going to go and I want to give her every advantage.”
“I know,” Erika said. “That’s why we’ve decided that we want to go all the way in too. If we’re going to live lives of magic, we want to do it properly.”
“We can make that work,” Farrah said. “Monster hunting isn’t for you, but we can set you up with utility combinations. Jason has already picked out an essence set for you, based around magical cooking.”
“Magical cooking?”
“Yep,” Jason said. “I picked it up while I was away, so I get to teach you for once. You can be the world’s first magic celebrity chef.”
“Be serious, Jason.”
“I am. The Network is going to be looking for ways to normalise magic, once it goes public. The idea of dimensional pockets full of monsters is going to freak people out. A TV chef making meals from ingredients taken from those same places will let them shift the narrative.”
“You want me to be a propaganda tool?”
“How else do you expect to get through to people?” Jason asked. “Facts and reasoned argument?”
“Fair point,” Erika acknowledged. “I take it you’ve made plans for Ian, then?”
“Ian’s a doctor,” Jason said. “There’s no reason that has to change. The Network has been integrating healing magic and medical science for decades. We’re looking to give him some healing powers and take him to the clinic I work at. They can teach him to incorporate magic with the skills and knowledge he already has.”
“I think he’ll like that,” Erika said.
“I would have discussed it with him before this,” Jason said, “but I didn’t want to push you faster than you wanted to go.”
“What about Emi?” Erika asked. “What plans do you have for her?”
“We don’t have anything set in stone,” Jason said. “It’ll probably be three years at least before she can receive magic, so we have plenty of time. We want a power set that doesn’t waste her cleverness and also keeps her safe.”
“There’s a combination we’ve been considering,” Farrah said. “It’s a known combination that uses magic to protect other people. Unlike most protection-type combinations, it’s more about standing back and directing events, rather than getting up close with enemies.”
“Why does she have to have enemies?” Erika asked.
“She doesn’t,” Jason said. “But she will. I think you know that.”
“She already wants to do what you do,” Erika said. “She should be too old to want to fight monsters when she grows up. It all still sounds ridiculous. Not many of your recordings had monsters in them. You mostly just talked about them a lot.”
“Did you show her the recording of you murdering the Geller kids?” Farrah asked.
“What?” Erika asked.
“I didn’t murder any kids,” Jason assured her, glaring at a grinning Farrah. “It was a combat trial in sort of a magic holodeck thing. No one was even hurt, let alone died. And you know I hate that recording, Farrah. I definitely didn’t bring it with me.”
“She hasn’t seen you fight, then?” Farrah asked.
“I’ve seen him fight,” Erika said softly.
Farrah felt the turbulence in Erika’s emotions and threw a questioning glance at Jason.