Mid-Life Magic

He’d listened to lots of stories from adventurers in pubs around the capital when socializing with classmates at the Academy. He’d seen them, big – sometimes luminous - tapestries scrawling up the side of an adventurer’s neck. Intricate indicators of levels, classes, and specifications.

Everyone was at least tangentially aware of Adventurer’s Brands. Children stared at them with wide impressionable eyes as they drank in the grissiled veterans of the dungeons and monster hunting. Adventurer’s Brands didn’t just get darker and more visible as the adventurer leveled up. In the middle of the them, the identifier for the guild hall that first branded them with the sigil for the Adventurer’s Guild.

They also hurt like hell if the stories were to be believed.

“Waaaait a minute mom. Can you just, let me ask her to clarify something first?” His mother harrumphed a flat glare at him, rolled her eyes, and then gestured impatiently for him to proceed while glancing away. Suppressing what was halfway between a smile and a frown, Darius turned to the mage at the counter. “Does the Adventurer’s Brand grow as the adventurer levels up?”

“You know your stuff.” She smiled, impressed, and some of her frosty demeanor thawed a little more. “That’s not a commonly known fact, but yes. They can grow. It depends on the adventurer, what their class is, how fast they level up, and how long they have it for. The brand will start to grow around Level 50. Which is – ”

“The beginning of Iron Rank.” Darius interrupted and Pretty-Green-Eyes smiled broader.

“Yes. The Beginning of Iron Rank. So, your mom has quite a ways to go – depending on how fast she levels up, of course – before she needs to worry about the brand growing.” He put an elbow on the high counter and was holding his chin thoughtfully as he nodded along to the mage’s words.

“This sounds good.” He offered thoughtfully. “But I’ve heard, quite a lot really, from more than one adventurer, that those Adventurer’s Brands are very painful.” And the not yet accusing glace he gave the mage was as mild as he could make it, considering she almost talked his mother into doing something that hurt and was lying to her about it. There were a few guffaws from around the room of pretending-not-to-watchers.

“Oh.” The secretary’s eye widened and she let out a little laugh. “Ah yes. They do say that don’t they?” Her giggle was musical and a little bit insulting to Darius, but he waited patiently for the woman to clarify. “No. It doesn’t really hurt. Maybe…” she squinted and eye, holding up her forefinger and thumb pinched together, “maybe it tingles a little bit. Buut the stuff about it hurting is just adventurers making stuff up to impress the non-adventurers.”

“You promise you aren’t gonna hurt my mom?” He pressed with some suspicion in his voice and lightly narrowed eyes.

“I promise on the guild. The brand doesn’t hurt.” He held her eyes for a long moment before shrugging.

“Alright. I believe you. What do you want to do mom?” Before he’d even finished the sentence his shorter mother was bouncing on her toes, pushing her way up next to him at the counter.

“I want to do that. Let’s do that. I’m gonna be an adventurer.” He laughed, running a hand ruefully down

his face and left his mom to discussing where the brand would go. The two women debating the best place to hide it, taking turns throwing out suggestions.

Her forearm was no good as it was often exposed. Hands had the same problem. Legs, no. Just. No! At one point the mage suggested her back and one of the younger-souding adventurers called out, “Her husband will definitely see it there. It can become visible while you’re distracted.” Which caused Sabina’s entire face to flush red from her collar to the top of her head under her hair. Even her ears had the bright red blush as she covered her face with a hand.

“I’m… I’m…” The secretary-mage glared daggers in the direction of the comment and Darius clenched his jaw as he turned to find the fellow who had said such. He hadn’t realized he’d even reached for his wand until his mother grabbed his hand unobtrusively. “Ma’am, sir. I’m so sorry about that. It was entirely uncalled for.” By the time Darius had turned around, no one was looking in their direction.

“It’s okay.” Sabina sighed, her face still pink with embarrassment. Then murmured quietly and shyly from behind the hand over her mouth. “He’s probably right.” Then she spoke again, louder, “I want it located somewhere I’ll be able to see it if I want. And maybe be able to show it off if I stick with this in the future.”

“Right.” The mage offered kindly and she glared around the room. “Let’s finish discussing this in one of the back rooms. Some of our other members are inordinately interested in your private conversation.” Darius felt his shoulders sage with relief when his mother finally disappeared behind closed doors, and he turned to lean his back against the counter and settle in for a semi-comfortable wait.

They were gone almost no time at all, which suggested to him that his mother had known all along where she wanted to get her Adventurer’s Brand, and just hadn’t wanted to say in front of everyone else. Or Darius. Which was fine by Darius. He did not need to know if it was going to be somewhere… sensitive.

“Now we just need to get your application fee and your first month, or quarter, or annual dues.” The mage continued once she had settled herself behind the counter. Beside him, his mother froze and he felt himself rolling his eyes and reaching for his bag of holding before his mother even spoke.

“Heeeeeyyyy, Darius.” She turned to him with a nervous grin, her small white teeth showing behind quivering lips. “Guess what I left at home?”

“You have got to start carrying you bag of holding on you. I bought it for you so you were never without the things you would need.” He scolded her with the same admonishment they’d had a dozen times.

“I have my bag of holding.” She replied tartly. “I just don’t have my money in it. I use it for my crocheting supplies.” The sentence came with a prim sniff of distain.

“Well, you have to stop going places you need money, without having money with you.” He was opening his bag of holding and pulling out his money purse as he continued to scold his mother.

“We came straight here from our picnic. Come on. Who takes money on a picnic?” The derisive snort she made as he raised an eyebrow at her and began to gather up the gold coins he’d been counting and putting back into his purse was quickly followed up with, “A very smart and well-prepared person like my son, who knows that money is often needed at unexpected times. That’s who.” Her face made the puppy-dog pleading look that was so adorable and her eyes were goldish now as she waited hopefully for Darius to reverse his decision. He smiled and returned to counting out the amount needed to pay for the first year of her dues.

The small pile of gold, silver, and copper disappeared inside a drawer behind the counter. Then it was done. His mother was being congratulated. A small cheer came up from the rest of the room, which was clearly an excuse for more drinks. She waved across the dingey room and then tugged on her son’s sleeve.

“Oh, oh, oh. Can we look at the job board? I want to see if there’s anything I’m capable of doing on it. You know, easy stuff for an Earthen Ranker.” He gave her a playful glare, pretending he was fed up with her until her smile drooped and he shook his head and grinned.

“Of course, we are going to check the job board before we leave. The faster you earn that loan back the better.” Her responding smile was brilliant, and she skipped over to the board, the basket full of herbs hooked over one elbow bouncing and swinging as he trailed behind her.

“Yeay!” Sabina squealed in delight as her son caught up to stand beside her. “Look. Look. They’ve got gathering quests for all these.” Her hands gestured grandly to a swath of untouched requests. There were dozens of requests for obscure herbs and medicinals that were apparently rare enough that an identification guide could be purchased from the guild. “I want to this one, and this one. Ohhhhh, and definitely this one. I have lots of those. I havesome of these, but I don’t know if I have enough to meet the request. Oh. Partial fulfillment is allowed and encouraged. Great.”

She murmured over the requests and pulled off the little identification number tabs attached to them until the secretary called over. “No more than ten request at a time.”

“Oh. Alright.” Which made Sabina promptly turn around to return to the desk.

“No amount of arguing is going to change that rule.” She began but Sabina cut her off.

“I’m not here to argue, I’m here to complete these ten requests so that I can go back for more.” The look of surprise which the secretary mage quickly schooled away made Darius grin. Of course she had the requested plants on her right now. After all, he had learned his penchant for preparedness from someone.

Thirty-seven minor quests or job requests for gathering rare botanicals. That’s where they eventually stopped. Not because his mother’s bag of holding was empty – because clearly, she had more things in it than just her crochet supplies – but because the guild hall only had that many requests for botanicals.

Sabina Serapha Quintalla paid back her son for her first year’s Adventurers’ Guild dues and application fee before they left the Trebal Guild Hall. As he feared, everyone present knew her name by the time they walked out the door. She wasn’t going to be able to hide this for as long as she thought she’d be able to. It soured his mood as he worried how long it would be before that brand began showing the world that the impossible magic she used wasn’t impossible. Or what kind of trouble she’d be in because of it.

They stopped for sweet treats to celebrate on the way home. His mother would have bought it with a piece of stunning amount of gold she’d earned from the guild gathering quests, but the merchant – selling candy for coppers – didn’t have change for a gold coin even so late in the day. He chewed mechanically, trying not to worry more as they took the road back from Trebal to the hamlet his mother and stepfather resided in on the outskirts of Centralia.

Then they bought ingredients for making his favorite dish for dinner before they left the market. It was probably intended to ease his worries for his mother, but the vague, formless worries stayed with him long after the walk home.