Alex stood before the mirror in his darkened room, examining the golden symbol on his shoulder. The mocking jester’s face stared back at him—its grin as malicious as ever—faintly glowing like some self-satisfied tattoo. Alex inspected it carefully, looking to see if it had changed. Did it actually look different or was he imagining things?

He peered at it in the low light.

Yeah, it definitely looked smaller.

A chill went through him.

‘Why is it shrinking?’ he wondered. ‘Is something happening to it? Is Uldar going to-No wait.’

He looked more closely, stretching the skin with his fingers.

No, it hadn’ gotten smaller. His shoulder had gotten bigger, but The Mark had remained the same size.

He sighed, not knowing if he should be relieved or not.

“You’re imagining things,” he said to himself. “Nothing’s going to happen. You haven’t read of anything happening, and you’ve never heard of Marks going through changes.” Then of course, there wasn’t really any detailed information written about The Marks that he’d been able to find so far. So, who knows if they did change.

Still, on the eve of his nineteenth birthday—nearly a year after he’d gotten The Mark—he couldn’t help but wonder if something was going to happen.

He shook himself.

“You’re just speculating, man,” he told himself. “Nothing’s going to change and nothing has changed. The only thing that you’re doing is making yourself tired. …and technically, you’re not really going to be nineteen until late tomorrow evening, so stop thinking about stuff that you can’t change for now.” One thing he could change when it came to The Mark was to get Thundar to teach him some body illusion spells to hide it. If anything happened in Thameland and his shirt had to be off around other people, it needed to be concealed. Maybe he could talk to him about that tomorrow.

Turning away from the mirror, he went to the window and opened the shutters to let the night air in and watch the starry sky for a while. The sky was clear, and the moon was full. A cool breeze played over the skin on his bare torso, but it was pleasant.

Very soon, he’d be looking up at the moon from Thameish lands. The expedition was structured in a way that he and his team would be teleported to his homeland for a block of days, then teleported back to Generasi for on-campus days. While the expedition would count for two of his courses—second year Art of the Wizard in Combat and Alchemy—he’d be taking three other courses back at the university.

“Exploring, researching, and fighting deadly monsters on site, then back here for my other classes,” Alex said. “I’ve got to plan my schedule so that there aren’t any conflicts between classes and my shifts at Shale’s. It’s gonna be a hell of a year.”

The expedition was taking over his thoughts, and he was finding it harder to think of anything else as the time drew closer.

“Come on, man,” he said quietly. “Future problems for the future. Let’s just think about today.”

Closing his shutters, he did a few sets of pushups, then turned in for the evening.

The next morning, he awoke to the most wonderful smell drifting into his room. His eyes shot open and he flew out of bed.

The scent was very familiar.

Dressing at the speed of a sprinting Swiftling, he bounded out of his bedroom to find that he was the last person to wake up. A big breakfast was laid out on the table: flapjacks with fruit syrup and whipped cream; thick, greasy bacon strips, and spicy sausages. The perfect breakfast feast.

A platter in the centre of the table caught his attention. There, in all of their delicious glory, was a hill of cookies that made Alex’s throat catch when saw them.

He’d know his mother’s recipe anywhere.

“Happy birthday Alex,” Mrs. Lu said with a warm smile as she placed the last dish on the table.

Selina and Theresa were already in their chairs while Brutus was sitting beside his master, looking at the breakfast with three pairs of longing eyes.

“You’re up, finally!” Selina smiled at him. “I nearly went crazy: I wanted to eat so bad-Oh, happy birthday by the way.”

“And so the dead arise.” Mr. Lu smiled, pulling out the chair between him and Theresa. “Come, my dead young friend, have yourself a feast.”

“Happy birthday, Alex,” Theresa smiled warmly. “Come and eat before it gets cold.”

Alex sat down with his family, and being in their company, let his fears from last night melt away.

“I can’t believe that it’s been a year since you left Alric,” Mr. Lu said. “In some ways it feels like you were there just yesterday, in others it feels like it was ten years ago.”

“I know,” Alex said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe it myself, Mr. Lu. Sometimes I just can’t. So much has changed since then. This time last year I was still at McHarris’ place…thankfully, for just a little while longer.”

“Right, McHarris,” Mrs. Lu made a sour face. “A poor businessman and a worse neighbour. I wonder whatever happened to him.”

“Well, last I saw him he was being grappled by Peter and Paul,” Alex said.

“Wait, really?” Mr. Lu asked. “McHarris is a piece of work, but I didn’t think he was a criminal.”

“Did…did I never tell you about…the eggs?”

“No, not a word.”

“Oh well, then,” Alex slapped his hand on the table. “So the day I got fired-”

He regaled them with the story of how he’d discovered that McHarris had been using bad eggs in stuff he’d been selling to his customers, and how he’d managed to get the guards set on him.

“Ew,” Selina made a face. “Ew! Ew! Ew! I had some of his cookies. Ew! I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Selina, don’t you dare,” Mrs. Lu warned her. “I didn’t slave away since long before sunrise just to have you throw up all your food back onto the table.”

“I won’t, but the thought of eating rotten eggs is nasty,” the young girl said. “Ew!

“Well, he got what was coming to him,” Theresa said as she cut some sausage.

“No arguments here,” Alex said. “Still…I kinda wonder what happened to him after that.”

“Oh, we saw him at the port,” Mr. Lu said. “When we were leaving Thameland. He came later than everyone else and he looked like he’d gotten beat up.”

“Aw, man, he’s not in jail?” Alex asked.

“Well, he wasn’t, last we saw of him,” Mrs. Lu said. “I guess ‘getting noncombatants’ away from Thameland trumped keeping him in the dungeon. Don’t know what happened to him when we got to the Rhinean Empire, though.”

“Good riddance,” Theresa said. “…I wonder what happened to Peter and Paul.”

Her parents shook their heads and said they didn’t know.

“Well, maybe we can try to see how they are when the expedition’s on,” Alex said. “We’ll be in a different part of Thameland, but maybe we could get a message sent over.”

“If you find out,” Mrs. Lu said. “Send us a message so we’ll know. Remember, some of the guards used to come to the tavern for their evening meal; so, I’d like to know if they’re alright.” She sighed and looked sad for a moment. “I’m sorry we won’t still be here when your expedition starts, but we have to get back to the boys soon.”

“We’ll miss you,” Alex said.

“Pfeh, I just hope that Evan’s gotten all that stuff about going back home to fight out of his head,” Mr. Lu grunted. “The boy doesn’t know a spear from a candlestick and he wants to go and fight monsters. Fighting men would be bad enough, but monsters! Ridiculous. I’m not even sure if I should tell him that you two are going back. It might give him ideas.”

“Well, if you do tell him,” Alex said. “Tell him that we’re not going alone. Some of the greatest minds in wizardry and some of the best fighters are going with us. It’ll be a lot different than a bunch of guys going back home with some spears and swords.”

“If I tell him, I’ll be sure to emphasise that,” Mr. Lu said. “Hopefully that gets the idea out of his head. I told my brother to beat it out of him, if he had to.”

“You know what? Tell him that I’ll beat him up if he doesn’t stay put,” Theresa said. “Even if I have to track him down halfway across Thameland…and I won’t be happy if I have to do that.”

Mr. Lu snorted. “That might provoke him even more.”

“After a couple of punches it’ll provoke him a lot less.”

Alex snorted. “I’m pretty sure your punches these days would do a lot more than simply ‘provoke’ him.”

“Well, if he’s bedridden, then he won’t be going anywhere and doing anything stupid.”

“Hah!” Mr. Lu said. “By Uldar, where did my cute daughter go, and who gave me this living weapon instead? Ah, nevermind. Finish up, breakfast, all! If we don’t, we’ll waste the whole day.”

###

“You know what my favourite thing about your family is?” Thundar said. “All your birthdays are around the same time, so it’s just wall to wall feasts.”

“Indeed, but my waist is not going to be very happy with me by the end of all of this gorging,” Khalik said, patting his belly. “Still, I’ll be glad to finally see what this place is like. The last time we were to come here, we missed out thanks to that mana vampire.”

For Alex’s birthday supper, his friends had decided to take him to the restaurant he, Khalik, Thundar and Najyah were heading to when they’d gotten jumped by the mana vampire. He was a little irritated that they hadn’t gotten over here since the attack, but the truth was, they’d been busy and had pretty much forgotten.

The campus restaurants were nice—especially the one he’d taken Theresa to for their first date—but this place felt like it was on an altogether different level. It reminded him of the patrizia’s ballroom—with high vaulted ceilings, and plenty of space—but while the roof of Isolde’s cousin’s ballroom was glass, the restaurant’s ceiling was the illusion of an undersea world.

Illusionary fish, whales, sharks and merfolk swam overhead—an appropriate theme since it was a seafood restaurant.

The group had a secluded table on the patio overlooking the canal at the back of the restaurant. Selina was nodding and waving at gondolas and other watercraft passing below. Glowing candles floated in mid-air, each burning with a different colour and a flame that gave off no heat. They made the atmosphere even nicer.

In some ways, they reminded him of the light from his forceball as it shone in his room when he’d gotten The Mark a year ago.

“This place is expensive,” Mr. Lu said as he speared a piece of calamari. “But by Uldar is it worth it.”

“Agreed,” Grimloch shoved a massive piece of shark steak down his throat while others watched…bewildered.

Only Thundar looked completely unconcerned. “Relax, that’s no more cannibalistic than me having a nice piece of beef.”

“And that still seems strange to me,” Isolde muttered.

“Hah, me too, even after nearly a year. By the sapphire sea, I can’t believe we have known each other for almost a year,” Khalik said. “Time passes quickly. Especially when people have gone through as much together as we have. To think that the last time we were to come here, the evening became about a mana vampire attack and not a celebration meal.”

Alex said. “You know…there’s been some hard times, but seriously…all of you. These have been some of the best times of my life. Even considering recents events.”

Theresa reached over and squeezed his hand. “Some of mine too. And I think it’ll get even better for you once you see your gift.”

“Indeed,” Khalik said. “We all pitched in a little to get something for you that I think you have been wanting for a while.”

He gestured to someone inside the restaurant and a porter began pushing a cart toward the patio with a set of tools and containers sitting on it. Alex’s eyes grew wide.

It was a full set of beginner’s alchemy tools.

Flasks, beakers, magic tools for heating, a sample of Kamookak’s moss and…

Alex’s jaw dropped.

“Is that a mana spectrometer? Those things cost like ten thousand gold coins!”

“Aha!” Khalik and Isolde exchanged grins and the prince said. “You would think so! And it would have, were it new, but this is a used device we managed to find at a ‘business liquidation sale’. And, to be honest, it was a little on the broken side.”

“I spoke to Professor Jules after we bought it,” Isolde said proudly. “And she agreed to repair it. Now she wanted you to be aware that this is an older model and to not expect it to be quite as accurate or as quick as those we use in class, but she said that it should serve your purposes. And she also asked me to wish you a very happy birthday.”

“Wha-I-wha-” Alex stammered. “I don’t care if the thing was a box of scrap when you bought it! This is…do you know how far ahead I’ll get with this?”

Now, he could begin making any potion he wanted. He would just need to rent some space and then craft away, once he got the ingredients he’d need. And, he had more than enough coin to buy them now. Hells, he might be able to buy some mushroom samples from Kybas to get his own potion garden started.

“What kind of business was it that failed?” Alex asked.

“Well, it was a shop owned by a country nobleman,” Khalik said. “It was shut down because—apparently—he was deeply embroiled in the middle of criminal activities and many of his assets were seized.”

“Indeed,” Isolde said. “Apparently he had hired thugs to raid a rival’s orchard or something of that sort.”

“Well,” Alex said. “His loss is our gain.”

“Indeed. I shall expect you to make many potions for all of us on our trip,” Isolde said.

“Isolde…you’ll be swimming in potions-Wait a minute,” Alex said. “This…noble. You said he had thugs raiding an orchard?”

“We weren’t given all the details,” Khalik said. “But I believe it was a nobildonna’s apiary he was raiding, and not an orchard.”

Theresa froze. “Did…did these thugs use a vespara?”

“I do not kno-” Khalik froze. “No! It couldn’t be!”

“Who?” Alex said. “Who was the nobildonna that these thugs were raiding?”

“Goodness,” Isolde’s eyes widened in realisation. “Do you think it…I believe it was Nobildonna Moggi.”

Alex burst out laughing—cackling like a witch—and Theresa joined him a second later.

“That must’ve been the guy!” Alex cried. “The guy that hired those vespara trainers!”

Khalik and Thundar collapsed in laughter, while Isolde just sat, dumbfounded.

It seemed like one thing hadn’t changed between his eighteenth and nineteenth birthday: he was still making life miserable for shitty businessmen. Still, a year after they had come to Generasi, Alex had to say…

…his nineteenth birthday was turning out to be a whole lot better than his eighteenth.