by Darkbringer
“But,” she chuckled lightly seeing how much I was starting to squirm and fidget. “You have to choose your own path, whatever that might be. If your poor mother can ever help you find answers to help guide you along that path, you can always come and ask me anything. I’ll do whatever is within my power to support my child – even if that means allowing them to find their own path in ‘secret’. If my child needs me, they can always come to me.”
Finally, she let go of me and just smiled lightly. “All I ask is that you remember one thing, my boy. The blood in your veins is greater and stronger than most other’s across the land, and the strength it might bring to bear is something not to be abused. Learn. Grow. Prosper. Follow your own path. All I ask is that you walk in the light and never fall to the darkness. That’s all this old lady wants from you.”
She knew. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, mother knew I had magic and that I’d been practicing it in secret. And, from the way she talked, she probably knew from the moment I first started learning on my own all those years ago. She never mentioned it, as she was giving me the freedom to strive and learn on my own. I should’ve known! It was the same with me as a toddler while trying to explore and walk the island – she let me roam and explore day by day at my own pace until I’d finally mastered the strength to go wherever I wanted freely.
And I’d always thought she’d been busy and wasn’t paying attention to me. That’s not true either. I’d learned all the flows of energy throughout the forest and had gotten to where I considered it ‘my forest’. I knew when animals, people, or anything happened within the forest. I had built a connection to it, with my magics.
Never once had I thought that mother was a much greater wizard than I, or that she had lived on the island much longer than me. I’d mastered the forest and knew it. Mother is Mistress of the Isle. I was never out of her sight. No matter where I’ve been, or what I’ve done, she’s had a protective eye on me, watching over me. She simply gave me the freedom to learn, stumble, fall, and get back up on my own.
My eyes opened wide at the sight of yet another amazing woman who’d been near me all this time, without me even knowing it. I’m definitely going to have to make some time so we can spend it together and get to know each other better. There was a lot of things which I was still trying to learn with my magics, and mother had just indirectly told me that she’d answer whatever questions I might have.
I’ve studied the blade with father and De’Nara. I’ve studied hiding, hunting, and exploring with Le’Nara. It’s time to get serious and put some true effort into expanding my magic with Mother. I don’t know if I’ll leave the island when I turn twelve, but I can’t stay here forever. I’ve got to follow my own path out into the world some time, wherever it might lead me.
“Are you ready?” Mother asked; almost as if she was reading my mind.
“Ready? For?” Did I miss something?
Laughing lightly, mother ruffled my hair once again and then in a bright flash of light, we were elsewhere. A woman screeched, and several people stopped to stare in our direction while someone yelled for the guards.
“Why, to leave of course,” mother answered as if nothing at all was unusual about the scene around us. “I haven’t given my child his gift yet, and it’s time that I do so.” Slowly she started walking down the street and looking around as if she was looking for something in particular.
Two men in chain armor clanked down the street yelling for us to stop and mother simply waved her hand and they both disappeared. The screeching woman yelped again and then collapsed in a faint. The road and courtyard where we strode down was rapidly clearing of people. Apparently, the folks here weren’t as used to magic being used as I was back home.
Before long, the road was clear and it was just the two of us leisurely walking down it while mother peered into the different shops. I couldn’t be certain where we were, but the city itself was huge and packed tight with shops one against another. Refuse and waste littered the streets and horse dung stained the cobblestones.
We rounded a corner and was stopped by a human roadblock of men in armor. A dozen guards with shields lined up across the street, swords were drawn, and a dozen more was behind them with bows readied to fire. A knight in steel armor rode upon a massive black charger behind them, and he pointed a lance in our direction. “Surrender witch and be destroyed!”
Mother tilted her head and laughed lightly. “Shouldn’t it be ‘surrender OR be destroyed’? What’s the point in surrendering, if you’re just going to be destroyed afterward?”
“Witchery is forbidden in Kent!” The knight was almost frothing at the mouth. “Stop thy slanderous tongue witch, and surrender now!”
Mother laughed lightly and then waved her hands as if dismissing a fly. “Mik’hail,” she looked over at me, “this gnat is annoying me. Deal with him kindly. I’ve got other things to be doing right now and can’t be bothered.”
“Deal with…” ME?!
“Yes. Yes. Mother’s busy right now. Shoo shoo!” She waved her hands at me as if I was a fly now also!
Mother! What the hell!
“FIRE!” The knight lowered his lance and the twang of a dozen bows rang in the air all at once.
A volley of deadly arrows rushed through the air towards us, and mother was busy looking in her bag as if she hadn’t even noticed! With a sudden forceful yank of energy, I pulled energy from the earth all around. Tearing up a huge section of the roadway between the guards and us, I instantly shaped a wall between us. Arrows thwapped and bounced off it, or stuck in it, and the knight was yelling at his men again. “ARCHERS RELOAD! SWORDS ADVANCE!”
This was becoming a dangerous situation quite rapidly, and I had to do something to defuse the problem before mother or I ended up seriously injured. I’ve never experienced real life or death combat before, but I had seen people die a horrible death in my past life. I wanted to avoid that at all costs, so I refused to use any sort of lethal magic against these people who were just protecting their homes and enforcing their laws. We were the invaders here and had no right to harm them.
But, at the same time, I wasn’t going to just stand here and become a pincushion and die! I couldn’t think of any magics to put them to sleep, and as they reloaded and charged closer, I simply fell back on the magical talent which I’d been practicing the most – my earth magic. The energy in this city was bright and vibrant so I can see why Mother would travel here as the place felt full of power. Thoroughly enjoying the experience, I tapped into it and pulled as much as I could safely hold and maintain at once.
And then, eyes blazing brown from the earth energy flowing throughout my body, I released a wave of magical force all around us. Well, almost all around us – the energy circled around mother without touching her at all. I have to ask her about that trick sometime!
With several loud bangs and clangs, the guards toppled over that were running towards us. Their shiny metal armor was now brown, rusted, and fused together solidly. The archers were looking perplexed, as their arrows had melded themselves to the bows they were holding and refused to fire. The knight was slathering like an idiot and kicking his spurs into the side of his horse trying to get it to charge, not yet realizing that its feet – and everyone else’s nearby were buried nearly a foot deep in the stone.
Mother finally looked up from her bag and glanced around before laughing lightly. “Nicely done, my boy. I’ve got what we need now. Are you ready? If they don’t want our business here, we’ll simply go elsewhere.”
Before I could tell her that might be a good idea, there was another bright glow of light and we were suddenly standing in front of a counter in some large shop. Several people jerked suddenly and looked at us nervously, but no one was yelling for the guards or trying to fill us full of arrows. In fact, the woman behind the counter simply looked up and asked us in a lazy voice, “Can I help you, ma’am?”
“Certainly.” Mother held out a steel card to the woman who took it and looke
d at it lightly. “I’d like to transfer a thousand gold coins from this account to a new account for my son. He’s proven he’s ready for it, and he’s old enough now to get one.”
“Certainly ma’am.” The woman wasn’t even looking at us now, as she was starting to pull out papers from beneath the counter and scribble on them. From what I could tell, paper pushes in ALL worlds seemed to be bored with their jobs.
My knees were starting to feel a little weak now that the adrenalin was running out of my system, so I wobbled over and flopped down in one of the many chairs nearby. Apparently, Mother was setting me up my own bank account.
I just find it shocking to think that she might have been testing me in a life and death situation somehow to see if I was ready for it first!
But then again, Mother might not have even seen it as a life and death situation. She acted more like the men were nothing worse than pests to be shooed off.
Just how powerful was she exactly?!
To be honest, I think I might be afraid to know….
Learning to Bank
After mother had finished her business with the woman behind the counter, I had to place a few drops of blood on a metal card to activate it, and then I had my own account with the merchant’s guild! From the long lecture I endured, I learned all the rules of the card I was given.
First, it was magical and only the person blooded to it could use it. If a merchant didn’t know me personally, I could be asked to shed a few drops of blood on the card to prove it was mine. For a valid owner, the card would give off a white glow. For anyone else, a black glow. Having a card glow black was terms for immediate arrest no matter which kingdom or land I traveled to. I’d have to prove to the landowner, merchant’s guild, temple, or local knight order that I was the proper owner of the card, and that might take a while to accomplish as my blood would have to be compared to the samples held on file here at the branch where I opened the account.
I was responsible for all debts that were acquired by the use of my card. The merchants (and other places which accepted the cards such as most temples, knight houses, schools, and moneychangers) used a magical system which recorded account transactions. Sometimes there could be a delay in all places information being updated, so if I had 1,000 gold in my account and purchased a sword in one shop, I might also be able to purchase armor in another shop for 1,000 gold, and then jewelry in a third shop for another 1,000 gold.
In that case, of course, I’d end up being 2,000 gold in debt and penalties and interest would start to accrue on my account. If I didn’t arrange to pay my debt within three months, a bounty would be placed on me for my arrest (Which would also be added to my debt – I was responsible for paying my own bounty fees in such a case!) and my property and holdings could be taken and seized to pay my bills.
There was no “bankruptcy forgiveness” in this world. If what I owned couldn’t be sold and cover what my debt was, I could end up getting a forced servitude or even slavery! Money, responsible management of it, and merchant accounts were a serious business in this world!
Should I die, my account funds would be transferred to whomever I designated as my “heir” (right now it was Mother), and a 10% fee would be applied for the transfer of ownership. Use of blood for verification had to be fresh, drawn in the sight of the merchants, and wouldn’t work with “old blood” such as if someone tried to take a few drops from a bloody rag or bandage.
Just as withdrawals could take a while to be verified and updated, deposits could also lag behind. I might deposit 1,000 gold in a small town, travel to a large city, and then the coin wouldn’t show as being in my account for several days until everything passed through the proper channels. Sometimes a merchant might take me at my word and allow me to spend coin that wasn’t in my account, but that was simply a merchant being nice and lenient. They didn’t have to give me any such leeway and the best bet was not to deposit coin that I might need to spend in the near future.
With the use of magic, what the people of this world had developed was very similar to a modern ATM system, if one simply ignored the delays between transactions updating.
Another difference in how things worked in this world, and how I knew them to work on Earth was the use of “proxies”. I could designate people various access to my account – at a modest fee each month of course – and allow them limited ability to transact with my funds. For example, I could add De’Nara and Le’Nara to my account and set them a daily limit of 2 gold which they could spend for a room at an inn and meals somewhere, and they both could access my funds to that limit.
As long as they already had cards of their own, any merchant in good standing with the guild could act as a representative and authorize the transactions, with blood being shed by all parties involved. If the person I wanted to authorize to use my account didn’t have a card of their own, they’d have to come to one of the main guild houses like this one and get one first.
Merchant cards were generally a sign of wealth and prestige as most commoners simply traded copper, silver, gold – or bartered goods for goods. There wasn’t any chance in hell that I’d be able to use my card to get an apple from a farmer I passed on the road. They were used by merchants and other organizations for large transfer of funds from one place to another.
Many shops would offer a small discount for people who had merchant cards. People who had them were desirable customers that you always wanted to keep for repeat business, and that made them something quite useful to have. The only drawback was they had a monthly fee on the account, and the larger your total deposit, the larger the fee became. If you had 100 gold or less in an account, the fee was one silver. From 100 to 1000 gold, the fee became one gold. For every 0 after that, the fee increased one gold. (10,000 gold limit was two gold a month. 100,000 gold limit was three gold a month. 1,000,000 gold limit was four gold a month. )
I’m certain there’s some way for explaining it using a math formula, but I’m not going to wrack my brain to figure it out. It’s good enough for me to know that my monthly fee is currently one gold per month. Since the average commoner only earns about thirty gold a month, it’s no wonder the cards are considered “for the wealthy class”.
And, if I somehow increase my deposit to where I have more than 1,000 gold in my account, I’ll be spending two gold each month in upkeep fees -- it’s all something I’ll have to be careful of so I don’t overdraw and get myself in debt.
It took most of the afternoon for them to fill out all the first time paperwork, have an alchemist draw several vials of blood, and explain everything to me. Still though, when it was all said and done, by the time mother and I went back home, I finally felt comfortable enough that I could finally claim to understand how banking worked in this new world.
Family Secrets
Getting back home, mother teleported us directly into her and father’s chambers and put some tea on for brewing. Smiling, she asked, “Feel a little more manly now that you have a way to earn your own coin? Did you enjoy your time off the island? I hope it wasn’t too bad to spend some time alone with an old woman like me.”
Truthfully, it was a nice experience in its own way. Enlightening to say the least. I got to experience several things first hand, such as the fear people in some lands felt towards those with magic, a brief battle for my life (at least I felt like I was fighting for my life, even if mother didn’t even seem like she hardly even noticed the whole incident), and I got my own bank card. Honestly, even though I was a bit frightened with our encounter with the guards in the other city, I’d enjoyed myself quite a bit.
The old me from Earth never would’ve admitted such a thing to my parents back then, but I’d learned a lot in the short time I’d lived previously. I’d learned how important family was, so I gratefully walked over and hugged mother tightly.
“I had a good time out with you mother, and I’d love to do it again some time,” I told her honestly. “I don’t know if I could say I feel manlier, though.
Having my own coin is both liberating and frightening. I enjoy the freedom it offers, but also fear that I may make a mistake and get myself in debt, or somehow disappoint you or father. I never want to do that.”
Mother gave a happy laugh and returned my hug tightly. “You don’t have to worry about something like that. Believe it or not, I’ve had to bail your father out of debt many times over the years. I’m certain you can’t mismanage your coin as badly as he does.”
“Father’s bad with managing his coin?” He always seemed so serious and business-like, it's not something I’d expect from him.
Mother simply laughed lightly and ruffled my hair. “He’s terrible. I don’t think he has a clue how much coin is in his account. All he seems to know is, ‘Woooo I like this, here’s my card, now give me give me!’ If he sees a sword he likes, he gets it. Food he enjoys, he buys it. A suit of armor that’s rare and shiny? He gets it. Cost isn’t something he cares about.”
“Not that I really blame him,” she added with a sad little smile.
“Come. Sit. Let’s have tea. You’re old enough now, there are things you should know about our family.” She sat on the couch and patted lightly beside her for me to sit. Cups, plates, and a teapot floated across the room to pour and serve themselves to us. Somehow, the mood seemed to be serious, and it was a little unsettling as I took the teacup and sipped at it gingerly.
Since now didn’t seem like the time to interrupt her, I sat quietly until mother felt like continuing. “First, I suppose you should know that your father has 57 years, 3 months, and 2 days left to live.” She paused and watched my reaction, and I have to admit I was quite shocked! That’s a very precise figure!