"Eve," I told my friend, "I told you we're busy."

"But I want to play magic too," she whined.

"We're not playing anything. This is serious," I told her. She kept on making a mess of the beans when she tried to count them.

We were all out in front of the manor where the road to the door passed. There was stone cobbling near the stairs, so it was a good surface to put the dried beans on.

It was spring again and I was now 4. I had been spending the winter trying to learn arithmetic from Sam's memories. It was a must for any mage. I also tried to spend time with Nayen since he seemed a bit lonely in the stables with his father injured in the village.

"Tilvrade, don't you think we can do something else for a bit?"

That didn't mean he should be lazy though.

I sighed and shook my head, "Nayen, whose side are you on? Didn't I tell you I'm teaching you about runes today?"

Nayen had taken to the mana training enthusiastically, excited whenever I taught him how to condense it or move it around. I guess it was neat to feel the chill of mana gathering in your core, but it was hardly anything to be happy about. Still, I graciously helped him. Perhaps he would be able to use mana reinforcement someday.

The deal was, however, that he would have to learn more advanced things so that he could help me too.

Even if I did have an advantage over everyone else in this kingdom because of Sam's memories of magic, I was only one person. I needed to have others who could help me out, make runes and arrays with me to make progress in this world's magic.

I was going to tell Nayen about all the icons and the magics and then, maybe one day, Nayen could do all the stupid arithmetic calculations while I brought the latest inventions to the royal court.

Couldn't go wrong aiming to be a royal mage, I figured, though I had yet to hear if Farand had one of those.

So here I was, trying to teach him some basic arithmetic with dried beans from the cellar, when Eve came to disrupt my lesson.

"So as I was saying," I tried to show leadership and get on with the lesson, "if you have 23, that's how many beans there are here, then you divide them into two, like this, and you'll get 11, see?"

I started moving the beans apart, but there was one extra for some reason. I threw that one away. Nayen must have miscounted the beans before. He's still learning. Deep breath.

"So looking at the rune-"

"Tilly, Fafi's eating the bean," Eve interrupted again, pointing at Sir Barker's dog who was on the stone path with us outside. It seems she had seen me throw the bean and was wondering if it was edible. Stupid dog.

"It's a bean, she can eat it." I said patiently, "Anyway, we want to know how far the tethers need to be from the centre of the vessel, so if there are 23 inches between the icon and the mana source, then the half way point is 11, and the other side here is..."

I frowned a bit. There was something about a right angled triangle and the ratio of the other angle, but it was all getting mixed up in my head. Why couldn't I just draw the rune icon and give it mana?

"Why is the drawing from the other day so complicated? We've been staring at these beans all week now..."

Nayen asked.

To be honest, I had started teaching him arithmetic because that's what I needed to figure out how the tethers should be placed. I kind of just assumed he'd know what a rune is. Maybe I'd have to start over again with some of the basics.

"So, the rune is-"

"Tilly, Tilly! Look, it's a butterfly!" Eve shouted and stuck her hands in front of my face. She opened them and there was a gold and red pair of wings that fluttered up and down as it tried to escape.

"Wow, you caught it?" She had closed her hands so that it couldn't get away. No wait, I can't be distracted by the butterfly. "That's no fair. I said we need to concentrate."

"It's pretty. Where did you find it?" Nayen suddenly looked really interested in that butterfly.

This was it. I couldn't do this anymore.

"Hmph," I picked up my notepad and stomped away. Eve and Nayen could talk about butterflies. See if I care.

I looked over my shoulder as I got nearer to the door. They could at least call out to me or something...

Clitter, clatter, trop trop trop

Instead of Eve and Nayen though, I looked at the procession of horses and men that had turned into view around a corner in the road.

There were two carriages, one like ours with shutters over the door handle that were left open in the spring air, the other more of a wagon pulled by a single ageing horse.

"Tilvrade, it would be best if we went inside," Simila was behind me on the stairs.

I looked at the man on the wagon over my shoulder. It was the peddler from last year. Was he back to make trouble?

"Nayen, please go back to the stables. Eve, come inside with us."

Simila also gave my friends instructions and then took me inside.

Father was in the study

"My lord, my lady. The peddler from last year has come with Lord Scafel." Simila told them. She must have recognised the violet crest on the carriage.

"Thank you Simila," father responded and my parents both went downstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wasn't brought to greet the lord and the peddler, and I was even excused from the table for the next few days as my parents must have invited him to dinner.

Instead, I was mostly holed up in my room over the next 2 weeks reading fairy tales and trying to learn a bit more arithmetic.

It was afterwards that I heard something of what had happened.

Nayen told me that the lord had come claiming that he would have to hold a hearing on Riddith and Nolsrun, the baker and the miller, on behalf of Viscount Ikburr. Apparently father had refused quite angrily when they were still in the stables and then they were insulting each other back and forth as they went inside.

That already seemed like mess enough.

But then the lord and the peddler left a few days later and I was brought back down to the breakfast table.

Mother and father were arguing again, this time about me.

"Tilvrade and Brendal don't need to go to the capital, Sivis. It's better if they stay here."

"My dear," my father was saying with some annoyance, "I have that old merchant's place in Seventhill. Remember the one you said was nearby that you thought could use some redecoration? We will be outside of the East Gate. We should be perfectly safe. Isn't that the reason we brought Simila with us?"

"I just worry, Sivis."

Mother just said her thoughts but didn't press any further.

"Cond Yse is ill. I am sure he will put things aright here if we just told him. Viscount Ikburr is pushing his authority here. Fortunately, he isn't bold enough yet to act openly. We need to do something this summer."

"What did the lord try to do?" I decided I should interrupt.

Obviously something bad had happened when the peddler came back, but I hadn't really figured out what a few bags of wheat had to do with father.

I was mainly just worried about Eve and her father, Riddith. Nothing was going to happen to them, right?

"Tilvrade, do you remember Lord Scafel from when we passed through Ibbergreen two years ago?" I nodded. Nayen had told me it was the lord from Ibbergreen who came here. "He has been eyeing Olwick, ever since it was vacated by the lord before us. The previous lord was a relative of Sir Barker, so with his and the Count Yse's help, I was able to come here." I hadn't known much about Olwick before I was born, except that Gregrick had been the steward 11 years ago. "Now, however, I have few allies in Gristol or Fort Efeles, so that old man is making silly plans with that brown nosing peddler. We won't let him and Viscount Ikburr push us out of Olwick though."

"And Eve's father?" I asked.

Father was strong, he wouldn't let the old man from Ibbergreen do anything to us, but I was still worried about my friend.

"Don't worry about Riddith." Father said, "I won't let them make problems for Olwick."