Page 65 of The Goddesses' Gifts

“I wouldn't recommend that on the first try,” Tamnaeth chuckled. “Just a little today.”

“How?”

“Put a little spin on it,” he shrugged.

“Put a little …” I sputtered and trailed off in exasperation.

“It’s just like anything else, Oshruli,” Tamnaeth drawled. “Decide what feels like the right way to make your current twist.”

I scowled and closed my eyes, trying to envision the flow of my magic, but I didn’t feel any change. Next, I tried rotating my palms, as if twisting something between them. The flow of my current shifted and started spinning.

“Very good,” Tamnaeth encouraged me.

A thread of the ley line caught my current and started to wrap around it. I gasped and felt as though I were drowning in energy, choking on it. The circuit shut down and I flopped over onto my back. I was overfull. Uncomfortably bursting at the seams. It hurt.

“Now you should probably find something to do with that extra energy or you'll make yourself sick,” Tamnaeth said. “Make a pretty fireball or something, son.”

“Right,” I said, straining to focus on channeling the excess power, “one pretty fireball coming up, Grandpa.” Still on my back I clapped my hands, fingers pointed at the sky and a sizable white fireball shot from their tips. It was so hot that my fingernails actually singed. I shook them in the air as they smoked and said “gah!”

Tamnaeth laughed at me. “Maybe you took a little more in than I thought.” The old elf smiled down at me. “Do you feel better now?”

I did a backwards roll, landed on my feet in a crouch, and stood up. “Yeah,” I said. “A little energized, but not dizzy.”

“Excellent,” Tamnaeth said. “Maybe you can take me to visit my other grandson while we are out of the apartments. Maybe that granddaughter too if she's about.”

I smiled at the implication that Tamnaeth actually still considered me a grandson and gave him a piggyback ride back to the chateau where the twins were likely studying with their tutor.

After months of practice and experimentation, I had the theory turned into practice. I asked Aunt Alyndra to oversee the final few trials, and she was amazed. “Oshruli, you've discovered something groundbreaking; you know that?”

“I just wanted to do something nice for mother,” I shrugged. “And you can't tell Uncle Lhoris yet. Please?”

Then I recruited my siblings to plan a picnic.

It wasn’t hard to get my parents and Uncle Lhoris to join us for a picnic in the orchard. They hadn’t had all three of us together for a while, so they could hardly say no to the family time. We ate together and mostly discussed Tamnaeth’s health.

“He’s not taking care of himself very well,” I admitted to Uncle Lhoris. “I wonder if we should hire a nurse or aide.”

“I doubt that will go over well,” mother said. “He won’t let the housekeeping staff in to tidy for him. I doubt he will take to letting anyone else in.” She shook her head and frowned in concern. “I’ve had to talk to the house matron a few times about allowing him to grieve. But perhaps it’s time we intervene.”

We drank our lemonade while the twins ran about the orchard and climbed trees in the early summer breeze. I wished I could join them, but I was too old for that now. This grim topic was an important one that required my participation.

“Maybe we need to take turns looking in on him and helping,” father suggested.

He’d never been overly fond of Grandpa. I suspected it had something to do with Tamnaeth turning him away when he’d first escaped the warband. He’d never said a word to me about it, but it wasn’t hard to figure. So, the fact that he was including himself in the care of the elderly elf was significant.

“Ya know,” I said. “I spend a lot of time with him to begin with. He doesn’t mind when I help. Maybe I should just ask Aunt Emma if I could move myself and Grandpa into a larger apartment together.”

Uncle Lhoris nodded, “If that’s what you really want, Ruli, I have no objection. I do believe you’re the closest to him among the four of us.” He smiled at me. “I’ll discuss it with Alyndra.”

With that heavy subject out of the way, I called my younger siblings over.

“Is it time, Ruli?” asked Illian. The twins were mussed from their play and had a light sheen of sweat on their lavender skin.

“Yes,” I grinned and double checked to make sure I was still sitting directly over the ley line. I sat cross legged and thumped my palms on my knees. “Come sit in my lap, mother.”

My parents and Uncle gave each other bemused looks. “What’s going on, Ruli?” mother asked.

I rolled my eyes, “Come on. The three of us have a surprise for you. It requires I use magic and you have to be that close. Please?”

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