I sent the letter off by post, so now it's just down to the waiting, the attempted training, the personal practice and the daily j-o-b. Oh, and a visit to the market for fresh foods on the end days.

The job goes pretty well for the tenday, with a steady stream of customers keeping me busy while Henrig does the books, manages the deliveries, and keeps the stock ordered. Busy is good, since it makes the days fly by.

On Threeday evening, Henrig called me into his office with a grim look on his face.

"Grintel, I have bad news."

Great.

Just… Great.

"I'm taking tomorrow off. Here's your key." He lost the grim look and chortled to himself. "Grint, if you could see the look on your face. Priceless."

I managed a weak laugh.

"It's a bit soon for that kind of joke, Henrig. I don't have a secure chocolate supply. You need to think those things through," I mock-growled. He'd gotten me pretty good, I had to admit. Plus, I wasn't losing the job, and it helped immensely that he was putting a good deal of trust in me, having me open and close the store on my own.

I'm deeply honored by that trust. I know he's not risking his livelihood, but he is taking a risk with something he loves. I'm sure that if I did steal everything from the store and he'd be able to cover the loss out of his wife's funds. Nevertheless, I'm more than a bit flattered. My last world would never dream of leaving a 17 year old in charge of a cash-based business with effectively no oversight. Of course, if I screwed this up, I'd ruin my name, and probably bankrupt my parents, so his risks were not very high. That was the highlight and the lowlight of my tenday. I also got a couple rounds of measured telekinesis in, with my maximum push weight all the way up to a half-stone. I'm glad when he makes it back on Fiveday and I can return the key. Such a heavy thing, despite its tiny size. Unfortunately, he has me keep it. Which is both flattering and bothersome, if not in equal measures.

The rest of the work days flew by until Nineday finally arrived.

Following our family's semi-standard schedule, after breakfast we went shopping in the market and picked up supplies of fresh, perishable foodstuffs. Then we reviewed the visualizations for healing and tried a few new methods for telekinesis. They have enough paper cuts and small injuries from the tenday to not need additional healing targets, but they didn't have any breakthroughs, unfortunately. During the telekinesis attempts after luncheon, my dad did finally get a pebble to wobble a bit off the ground before he turned seriously pale and needed a break. It's thrilling by itself, but it also proves that the ability is not unique to me and can be learned and performed by others. Fantastic and sobering news. Now, we may need to deal with the wider world of political and national ambitions. I shove those things to the side, not because they're not valid, but because I don't want to deal with them now.

I wish I could see his stats, but my personal stats and skills are growing fairly well.

{Status:

Mental:

Acuity:

Perception:

Memory:

10

8

10

Psyche:

Wisdom:

Insight:

Willpower:

7

8

14

Physical:

Strength:

Coordination:

Endurance:

7

7

12

Skills:

Energy Conversion

2.957

Energy Emission

2.583

Energy Control

2.196

Channeling

0.068

Instructor

0.022

Meditation

2.588

Walking

5.020

}

Clearly, walking around in constant Leatherskin mode has paid off with decent skill increases in channeling, control, and conversion. I did not have as much growth in emission. I'm not sure why that is, but two possibilities spring to mind. First, it could be that it's because the energy is staying inside me, but I doubt that is the case. Alternatively, since it wasn't a heavy drain, just a constant one, so I just didn't use as much power. The second one seems more likely. I let myself relax into sleep.

Tenday morning breaks early with a loud thunderclap and torrential rains. Bother. I didn't want to get out of bed, but now it's even less tempting to get up. Except. The perpetual sound of trickling water overwhelmed my laziness in short order, and I hurried to the garderobe for some urgent business as well as my general morning cleanup.

Now fully awake, I braved the rain to fill a large pot with water. It's a soupy day outside, seems like it's time for a soupy day inside. I have all the spices and ingredients I need to make a decent chili. Setting the pot on the stove, I tossed in garleek, onions, dried chilis, ground cumin, ground pepper, and assorted other herbs. Next, I topped the pot up with a couple pounds of dry beans, enough to provide for three people's lunches and dinners.

Checking the stove, I find that it's out and the embers are minimal, so I take a few minutes to clean out the stove, and then I build a new fire inside it. I'm in no hurry so I used the slow but steady heat "ray" technique to ignite the kindling at the base in just under a minute. As the flames catch, I spread out the heating area to get more wood ready to burn. After 5 minutes, the fire has caught nicely, the stove is drafting well, and I close the firebox door. The pot is starting to hiss and pop as the water trapped between the pot and the stove boils off. With chili on the back of the stove, I make a frittata out of some fresh eggs, finishing up just in time for my parents to join in a warm breakfast.

After I inhale my breakfast and while my parents finish up theirs, I finely dice several tomatoes and add those to the pot, giving it a quick stir.

"Bean soup for lunch and dinner, that sound ok?"

"Food we don't have to cook ourselves is generally fine," dad replied.

"Do you want to work on the techniques today, or take a day off?" I was totally feeling lazy, so I kinda hoped we'd just call it for the enddays and have a relaxing day.

"I think we should take a break. I've got some house repairs to work on and your help would be good. Your mother was planning to do some laundry today, so we should start by filling the tub for her, then we can get about the fixing."

"Yes, thanks," mom interjected, "I'd like to get that going soon, especially since I'm going to need to take up the living room to hang it out, given the mess out there."

Ten minutes later, I'm pretty soaked, but a change of clothes and toweling down fixes that problem. Once I'm dry, dad starts me on a tour of loose fasteners, damaged knobs, stuck doors, creaky hinges, checking for leaks in the roof, and repairing other household hazards. No one task takes very long to fix, but all of them end up eating the rest of the day. We did get a break for lunch, which was ok, but the beans were not quite fully cooked yet. Dinner was much better, having thickened to a stew-like consistency and being much closer to a proper chili, even without any meat.

Happy to have contributed and with a full belly, I retired to my room. I had pet rocks to play with, just as soon as I finished up a bit … more … meditation.