“Jason. Son. In life, there are things that you want to do, and things that you need to do. That’s true whether you’re a dimension-hopping wizard or a landscape architect who only gets more handsome with age. Next time you’re in a position to kill—every time you’re in a position to kill—then you have a choice to make.”
“It’s not always a choice, Dad.”
“Like I said: some things you need to do. That’s not unique to you; it’s something plenty of people face. Soldiers, cops and yes, magicians from another universe. But don’t fool yourself into confusing what you want with what you need. If you get the choice and you realise that you want to kill someone, don’t think about whether to kill them or not. Think about whether you want to be the person that killed them or if you want to be the person who showed mercy. You’re more important than them and what they deserve. Those will be the moments that decide who you are, son, and every choice is a chance to turn a little more in one direction or the other.”
“The two wolves.”
“Exactly,” Ken said. “You’ve got the good wolf and the bad wolf fighting inside you. You get more chances to feed them than most, and it sounds like maybe you’ve been feeding the wrong one.”
After letting everything out to his father, Jason finally felt a crack in the angry vigilance that he hadn’t been able to shake. He needed to act smarter and more diplomatically if he was going to keep his family safe and prepare them for the future. Playing chicken with ancient orders of magic would only hurt them in the long run.
He was back on the road when his phone rang, and Shade closed the hard top on the car to cut down on wind noise. It was Erika.
“Jason, I’ve got a production meeting running long and Ian can’t leave the practice. Can you pick up Emi from the academy for us? She stays late for the advanced program, so she can’t take the bus back.”
“I’d love to.”
“Thanks,” Erika said. “Normally, I’d ask Mum, because even she’s never too busy for granddaughter time, but she’s with Nanna out at Uncle Robbo’s farm.”
“No worries, Eri. You’ll come and pick her up from my place?”
“Damn right I will,” Erika said. “I’ve been writing down questions all day. Oh, Wally says g’day, by the way. He asked if you’d to do an episode; we’re filming all next week.”
“Give him a firm maybe,” Jason said. “I don’t know what my next few weeks are going to look like.”
“Alright, I’ll call ahead to the school and put you on the list of people allowed to pick Emi up. You’ll need to check in with the office, the first time.”
“No worries. See you this afternoon, sis.”
Jason took the turn for Castle Reach as Shade retracted the roof once more.
“Back to school,” Jason mused.
Arriving at the academy, Shade, for once, was not wildly out of place. The cars present to pick the kids up all cost more than a teacher’s annual salary, ranging from dark German sedans to bright Italian sports cars.
“Who needs a Lamborghini here?” Jason asked. “I bet none of these pricks need to outrun bikers hopped-up on vampire blood.”
Most of the students had been picked up an hour earlier. Only those in extra-curriculars or the advanced program like Emi were still around. That left a handful of cars in the largely empty parking lot, with a cluster of parents gathered outside, chatting as they waited. There were also what appeared to be a number of household staff sent to pick up young scions, who had formed their own little group.
Jason parked and made his way to administration to register himself.
“I thought Mrs Asano’s other brother died,” the elderly receptionist said.
“Well, we all thought you died in 2006, Mrs Wilkins, yet here we both are.”
“Oh, now I recognise you. The one with the mouth. You know, we remember your brother and sister very fondly.”
“Story of my life, Mrs Wilkins.”
Jason headed back outside to wait for Emi. Through their auras, he felt the gathered parents turn their attention on him. One of the people wandered over.
“Excuse me,” the man said. “You look a lot like someone I used to know.”
“G’day, Silas,” Jason said.
“Jason, that’s really you? You look good, man. Especially given that I went to your memorial service. What happened to the whole being dead thing?”
“You’ve heard the saying ‘too sexy to die?’ Not just a saying, as it turns out.”
“Well, you did me a solid,” Silas said. “You remember Asya Karadeniz? She’s looking good too and I almost got a leg over with the whole shared grief thing.”
“You and Asya? Does she have self-esteem issues these days?”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Silas said wistfully.
“Aren’t you here to pick a up a kid? You should try and sound less date-rapey.”
“It’s my little cousin,” Silas said. “He’s on the soccer team. With your cousin, I think.”
“Right,” Jason said, remembering that Toby would be sixteen now.
Jason had two cousins, on his father’s side: the children of his Uncle Shiro. Like his sister and himself, the cousins were separated by about a decade. The older, Koji, was Jason’s age and they had spent a lot of time together as children, although not by choice. The younger, Tobio, had been ten the last time Jason saw him.
Jason was contemplating how to handle meeting his cousin when Emi arrived in the parking area.
“Uncle Jason!”
“That one’s mine,” Jason said. “Good seeing you, Silas.”
“See you around, I guess. Congrats on not being dead.”
Emi was positively bouncing as he climbed into the car.
“Shade, you’re a convertible now? That is so cool!”
“Good afternoon, Miss Emi.”
“I came up with so many questions.”
“So did your mother, apparently.”
“So, that Farrah lady is really cute. Are you and her a thing?”
“That’s what you want to ask? An alternate magical universe and that’s your first question.”
“That wasn’t a no,” Emi said.
“No, we weren’t a thing. She was a friend and a teacher. She meant a lot to me, but not like that.”
“Was?” Emi said, her excitement doused in cold water.
Jason smiled sadly. His niece really was too sharp.
“Yeah,” Jason said. “You’ll see that when you watch more of the recordings.”
“About the recordings,” Emi asked. “Does it magically translate? I assume they don’t speak English in an alternate universe and it would explain why everyone’s speech is out of synch, like a seventies kung fu movie.”
“That’s exactly right,” Jason said. “The ones that translate weren’t much more expensive than regular ones, and you were the intended audience, so I picked them up. The hardest part was calibrating the crystals to English, which took ages.”
“How did you talk to people there in person? Did you have a magic translator item?”
“I’m pretty good with languages,” Jason said.
“Is that so?” Emi asked in Japanese. “Mother told me that you were bratty about learning when you were at my age.”
Jason was getting better at paying attention to when he was switching languages and taking more active control over it. He responded to her also in Japanese.
“Your mother and your Uncle Kaito used to talk behind my back, except right in front of me, using Japanese.”
“You do speak it! You sound a little like the translation recording crystals, though. Do you have a translation power?”