“Is he from New Zealand too?”
“I’m not sure where Gordon’s from,” Jason said.
“The realm of the All-Devouring Eye,” Shade said. “Colin also originates from there, although from the border territory with Legion’s realm.”
“The realm of the All-Devouring Eye?” Emi asked.
“I’m pretty sure it’s in the South Pacific,” Jason said.
“Uncle Jason, why do you tell such obvious lies?”
“So it’s harder to notice the subtle ones,” Jason said. “Tell the truth as much as you can, and if you have to lie, make it obvious. That makes it easier to slip the important lies past people.”
“Miss Emi, I’m not entirely certain that your Uncle Jason is a good role model,” Shade said.
Anna accepted the video call and Gladys’s face appeared on her laptop.
“Well?” Anna asked without preamble.
“I didn’t find him at all like you described,” Gladys said.
“Oh?”
“You said amiable, right?”
“Discounting the implied threat of being in my home, he was oddly charming,” Anna said. “Emphasis on the odd.”
“I didn’t find that at all,” Gladys said. “With a category three in front of him and his family in the next room, he was hard and sharp. It was like looking down the point of a sword. I swear he was ready to fight right there. Have you seen his aura, Anna?”
“No. He’s a category above me.”
“I’ve never felt anything like it,” Gladys said. “It feels like a weapon and I swear it was almost as strong as mine. Add in that insane control and I don’t think I’d win, aura to aura.”
“We knew he was dangerous.”
“This is more than dangerous, Anna. I don’t think he’s stable. Right now, he’s looking down the barrel of a world full of forces he doesn’t understand and he doesn’t know how to protect his family. He’s flailing in ignorance and he knows it, so he’s going overboard because it’s all he has. He’s fully aware that it’s a flimsy shield, so he’s doing everything he can to prop it up. I don’t think he’d be an entirely reliable ally.”
“You’re advocating not trying to pull him in after all?”
“Oh, we definitely want him on our side,” Gladys said. “His aura control techniques alone leave us in the dust. Also, not for nothing: that is not a man I want to make an enemy of. What he needs more than anything else is someone he can trust, and if we can provide that, I think the dividends will be amazing.”
“Agreed,” Anna said. “That will be a big ask after what the Lyon branch did, though.”
“No kidding,” Gladys said. “Right now, he’s a gun that’s ready to go off. It’s kind of sexy.”
“Gladys…”
“I know, I know. I’m not a cradle robber, Anna. Give it a decade, though, and that boy might be in some trouble. Have you considered trying to honey trap him? You won’t have trouble finding people willing to throw themselves in front of that bus.”
“I’ve had people running background,” Anna said. “It seems that he had a family rift stemming from his childhood-friend-turned-girlfriend, who is now his sister-in-law.”
“Ouch.”
“Yes,” Anna agreed. “Our analysts suggest that he likely has a deep sensitivity to betrayal in general and romantic betrayal specifically. Even if we play it fairly straight and just make sure an agent is available and open to forming a relationship, he’s likely to be sensitive to that kind of manipulation. If something went wrong, it would go very wrong.”
“How wrong?”
“Marching through our headquarters with a chainsaw wrong.”
“Probably best be careful, then,” Gladys said. “Especially while he’s on a hair trigger.”
“Our analysts think that an open alliance with well-defined terms is what he’ll respond best to.”
“Well, he has a lot to bring to the table,” Gladys said. “I was able to probe his magical knowledge a little.”
“He was only gone a year and a half. How much can he have picked up?”
“You’d be surprised. I was. He claims to only have a basic grounding in different kinds of magic, but I think that’s more than enticing enough.”
“That makes sense,” Anna mused. “Our definition of the basics is different to someone from a magical alternate reality.”
“Fortunately, we bring things to the table as well,” Gladys said. “He seems to genuinely appreciate our treatment of his grandmother. Fortunately, he was smart enough to feed her a healing potion as soon as he removed the disease. Getting that healing in immediately gave us a good head start on the treatment. Now she just needs some regular, specialised therapy.”
“I suggest you start charging him for it, preferably in magic materials.”
“That won’t alienate him?”
“It keeps the arrangement honest and keeps it out in the open,” Anna said. “That’s exactly what he wants.”
They arrived at the marina and Emi goggled at Jason’s opulent boathouse.
“How much money do you have?” she asked.
“I’ve got a huge pile of gold, so a lot.”
“You have a huge pile of gold?”
“Yeah. Actually, let me show you a trick.”
He took a bar of gold out of his inventory. To Emi, it looked like he plucked it out of thin air.
“I know that could be just sleight of hand,” he said.
“That’s too light,” Emi said as she watched him wave the bar in his hand.
“The gold bar?”
“Yeah. It should be heavy.”
Jason held out the ten-kilogram metal bar. Emi took it in her hands, but it immediately slipped through. Jason reached out with a shadow arm and caught it, then put it back into his inventory.
“See?” he said.
“Your arm got longer,” Emi said. “And it turned black.”
“Yep,” Jason said. “Magic powers, remember.”
“How did you get them?”
“I’ll explain all that when your parents get here.”
“Can I get them?”
“Not until you’re older,” Jason said. “At least a few years.”
“Really? How many years?”
“It depends on when your body is able to accept them. For most people, that’s around sixteen or seventeen, but that’s just the centre of the curve. My friend Rufus had to wait until he was nineteen.”
“Do lots of people have them in Africa?”
“Lots of people have them in the place I’ve been all this time.”
“That’s not the same thing as saying yes,” Emi said, causing Jason to chuckle.
“You’re trouble, you know that?” he asked.
“Is trouble good?”
“Trouble is very good,” he said, ruffling her hair. He chuckled as she pushed his hand away.
“You’ll understand everything soon,” he told her. “As to whether you believe it, that’s another thing. For now, let’s go take a tour of the houseboat, yeah?”
“Is it a magic houseboat?”
“Can you keep a secret?” Jason asked. “Look who I’m talking to; of course you can. Don’t tell anyone, but this houseboat may be the single most magical item on Earth.”
“Are there a lot of magical items on Earth?”
“A lot more than I thought, as it turns out.”