“Thank you for asking, mother. I was trying to hide it so I would not worry you. You are right, I am not myself. Ever since the soulmarking ritual, things have been different. My memory is strange, and... I feel stronger and faster than I was before. Is that normal? To suddenly feel stronger after you’re soulmarked?” Hugo said. He hoped that they would focus on the last bit, not the parts before.

His parents looked at each other. His father said, “Well, I don’t know personally, of course. I do remember that uncle Langa said that the changes came to him quicker than most. I think he was talking weeks, not hours.”

Mother nodded, “We can ask grandmother about it when we return. Thank you for sharing that with us, dearest son.”

“Thank you for your concern, dearest mother,” Hugo said.

She smiled widely at that. Apparently Hugo had gotten the reply right. The conversation revealed something unexpected. It seemed like neither of his parents were soulmarked. Otherwise they would have an idea of what was normal and what was not.

If he was right, that would be strange. Not just that his parents would want him soulmarked when they themselves were not. But also that they would accompany him up the mountain in the first place as mundanes. Half the reason that hopefuls had escorts up the mountain was additional protection from attacking monsters. The mountain guides couldn’t be everywhere at once and when a monster slipped through the ranks, it was the escorts that used their magic to protect the young people.

These two nox weren’t soulmarked, but they decided to put themselves on the line for their child anyway. Hugo didn’t know if that was brave or foolish. Perhaps both.

The rest of the train ride passed quickly. When the airship was spotted in the distance, Hugo overheard Fermi whisper to his brother Feynman “Well, I’ll be damned. There really is an airship headed our way.”

Hugo walked over to the door where they were getting their equipment ready. Despite Fermi’s apparent skepticism, he had spent the last hour filling his runic munition with mana. Once the train stopped, they hopped off immediately and set up the cannon on a tripod.

There was a brief discussion about shooting down a random airship without confirmation of ill intent. But then again, the airship was bristling with weapons and headed directly their way. Just like last time, they decided to preemptively attack.

Remembering something at the last moment, Hugo didn’t have time to think of an innocent sounding way to ask his question, so he just blurted out, “How does it know when to explode?”

They both looked at him strangely. From last time, Hugo knew that they hadn't activated the proximity sensor, his awkward question would remind them. Wordlessly, Fermi reached over to the runic creation and touched a rune on the tip and made it glow. Then they turned back to the airship and lined up the shot.

“Go Trinity, Go!” Feynman yelled as they set it off.

It flew through the sky, heading directly for the airship. It seemed like it was going to miss until it grew brighter and changed trajectory, arcing up through the air.

“Yes! The mana tracking works!” Fermi said and grabbed his brother’s arm.

The runic weapon was on a direct collision course now. The total flight plan was measured in seconds, but felt like forever.

A bright blue shield appeared around the airship, emanating from the numerous protrusions around the airship’s envelope. Trinity didn’t seem to care though, it pierced straight through the shield, and detonated on the airbag.

A flash of light lit up the whole countryside, followed by an enormous thunderclap. The shockwave burst out in a sphere. The smoke from the explosion shot out and then drifted up, briefly resembling a mushroom.

Hugo almost couldn’t believe what he had seen. The power of that creation was immense. The shockwave hit them then, strong enough to rock the train as it hovered over the shimmer vein.

The wreckage of the airship had fallen behind a hill in the distance, and was sending up a huge cloud of smoke. They all stared at the black plume without saying a word.

“What in the gods name was that?” a mountain guide on the train yelled. He had just arrived from the back of the train and was staring in wonder at the black line in the sky.

“Uh, we uh,” Fermi said, “The airship was headed to attack us. So we had orders to protect the shimmer train, and specific permission from Enrico to use our new runic creation to do so.”

“Damn, man. That was overkill for a leviathan, let alone one little airship,” the guide said.

“Yes sir,” Feynman said.

“Well, we should get going then, we don’t want to be around when some of the bigger monsters come to investigate,” the mountain guide said.

In short order, they were speeding away, their shimmer train hovering over the veins of the mountain. Hugo relaxed back into his seat and closed his eyes. That was the last of his urgent predictions. The sabotage at the walls wasn’t for another few weeks.

When the train arrived in Tallinn, they transferred to another one, this time heading clockwise on the wheel. Two stops later, they arrived at their destination, the city of Paarl. They grabbed their bags and started the long walk home. Just like in Reval, the nice part of town was near the train station, and it got progressively worse the further away you were.

Hugo’s new parents led him past ornate mansions with manicured gardens, past large houses with small yards, and into the part of town with normal sized houses. As they walked, he was reminded of the nox’s love affair with symmetry. Not just symmetrical houses and symmetrical landscaping. The houses on either side of the street were mirror images of each other. He predicted that the constant symmetry would get annoying eventually.

They stopped before they got to the really bad parts of town. But that was only because humans lived in those parts of town. The family he was now part of was poor. Well, poor for a nox.

Still, the house looked pretty nice from outside. It had many of the same architectural elements as the houses they had passed. The entry door was in the center of the house, and there was a series of columns holding up the larger second floor. There were eight windows visible, only slightly scrunched together, and of course symmetrical around the door.

The only thing notable about the house was that there wasn’t another one across the street. That and it was painted flat white. Most of the other houses in the neighborhood had some color, designs painted into the façade. The richer parts of town used more vibrant paints, but even in this part of town, there was a lot of color. Except this house.

His parents dropped their bags on the doorstep and knocked on the door. Hugo started to wonder if this wasn’t their house. Were they visiting friends or renting a room here? It didn’t look like a hotel, there were no business signs around.

A few moments later two people answered the door. They were older nox, a man and a woman. They threw their hands out wide when they saw who it was.

“You have returned! We are so happy to see you,” the man said.

“Nobomi, come quick. Your parents and brother have returned,” the woman said.

There was a banging sound and a little girl raced out to meet them. She jumped into her mother’s arms and gave her a kiss on both cheeks. With two hands, she held fast to her mother and the other two pulled her father in for another pair of kisses.

“Nobomi, calm down. We have returned, all is well. Come, let us go inside where we can talk,” the mother said.

“Themba, I keep telling you, you are too lax with that girl. If she does not follow proper protocol now, how do you expect her to behave properly when she is an adult?” the older woman said.

As Themba walked in, she responded, “Mother, you were much more lax when I was a child. My manners as an adult are above reproach. It will be fine.” She turned to the side and said, “Madoda, can you please get the bags, I am exhausted.”

“Of course, dear,” his father said.

Hugo made a mental note. His sister was named Nobomi, his mother Themba, father Madoda, and the other two seemed to be his grandparents.

“Where is everyone?” Themba said as they sat down in the front room. Hugo noticed that even the seating indoors was symmetrical. There were eight seats, facing each other. The men sat on one side and the women on the other. Hugo took a seat near his father.

Grandmother said, “Still at work. They should get home in about an hour or so.”

Nobomi seemed really excited to sit across from him, practically bouncing in her seat.

“Xhosa, quit torturing your sister and give her kisses,” Themba said.

Hugo smiled and walked over to Nobomi and gave her a kiss on both cheeks, as he had seen her do to their parents. She giggled and hugged him back.

“Now that we have that out of the way, will you finally tell us?” grandpa said.

Everyone looked at him expectantly. Hugo said, “Tell you what?”

“Did you get soulmarked?” Nobomi practically yelled.

“Oh, that. Yes, I was soulmarked,” Hugo said.

“Thank the Acomarians,” grandma said and slumped in her chair. Grandpa gave a little cheer as Nobomi danced around in a little circle.

“One step closer to lifting the curse,” Themba said.

“Now we just have to get you a domain, little Xhosa,” grandpa said.

Hugo just smiled and nodded. He had no idea what the curse was all about, but he wanted his magic domains back. He almost felt naked not being able to create a shield to protect himself.

The family meeting seemingly over, they separated and put away their bags and clothes. Hugo was left with the conundrum of needing to put away his things, but not knowing were his room was.

“Hey Nobomi, can you take my bag to my room? I am so exhausted from the trip I can't carry it anymore," Hugo said. He thought of the lie so she would show him where his room was.

“Ug, you are so lazy. I bet you aren’t even tired,” Nobomi said. Hugo could tell she wasn’t really angry with him, and immediately grabbed his bag. He followed her to his room and thanked her for her help. She smiled and went to her room, which ended up being just across the hall.

His room was a lot nicer than he expected. It was large, had a bed and desk. It even had its own bathroom and efficiency shower. It didn’t seem to run on mana like the ones in the academy, but it was still nice having a private space.

Getting changed and showered was an adventure. Just getting his shirt off took more concentration than he expected. His high dexterity meant he didn’t fumble, but he didn’t even know what the right movements were in the first place. Having four limbs seemed easy when he wasn’t thinking about it, but when he tried to do something specific with them, he had to move slowly to get it right. He would need to practice.

Dinner was a huge affair. Aunts and uncles came home from work and even a cousin. It meant that there were a total of eleven people sitting down to a meal together. The table seemed just a little too small for the amount of family sitting there, and Hugo found him bumping elbows with his cousin often.

Grandmother made an announcement after dinner was eaten, that Xhosa had gotten soulmarked. The entire family cheered again.

“Does this mean that we finally get our own house? The curse is lifted? This house is too small and I hate it here,” his cousin said.

“Lonwabo, manners!” his mother admonished him. “The curse is not lifted yet. We need a mage in the family for them to give us permission to build a second house.” She glanced across the street.

“Don’t worry about that, I am sure Xhosa will be a rank sixteen mage soon enough,” his mother said.

“I am hopeful too, but let’s not get our hopes up too soon,” grandfather said. Everyone nodded and they dropped the subject.

It all came together in his head now. His parents weren’t soulmarked, and he hadn’t seen any magic in the house. He bet that none of the nox here had a magic domain, which for them must mean that their family was cursed. Gaining the soulmark must have given them hope they would lift the social stigma of not having a mage in the family. Now he felt kind of obligated to do his best this year. This family really needed him and his magic domain. If he had to guess, it was the reason they lived in the poor part of town.

The family sat at the dinner table and talked for a while after that. They talked about their days, friendships and hardships. It was nice. It was a family life Hugo hadn’t felt in years, it felt warm and comfortable.

After dinner Hugo walked up to his sister's room and said from the door, “Hey, Nobomi do you have a minute?”

She walked up to him and hugged him, “For you, I always have a minute. In fact, you can have two.”

He smiled, “Thanks. I wanted to talk to you about my journey up the mountain.”

She looked to the sides and whispered, “We aren’t supposed to talk about that. Real nox don’t get soulmarked on the mountain.”

Hugo hadn’t known that, but it made sense in retrospect. There were much fewer nox up there than got soulmarked every year. He said, “Yes, this will stay just between us two. Ok?”

She nodded.

“The first time I tried to get soulmarked, it didn’t work. So I tried again, and weird stuff happened,” Hugo said.

“What kind of weird stuff?”

“Lots of things, I will tell you about it all later. But the important part is that I forgot a lot of things. I don’t know a lot of things that everyone else knows.”

“Do you have amnesia like Princess Zimkhitha?”

“No, not amnesia. I still know who I am. I still know you are my sister and I love you. It’s just that I forgot a lot of things. I don’t want to worry mom and dad by asking them questions all day. Can I count on you to help me remember?”

She nodded seriously, “Yes, absolutely. I will be your knight errant. I will tell you all the things and make sure no evil hedgie tells you that you are secretly a revolutionary.”

He patted her on the head. “Yes, you can be my knight errant.”

“I accept this solemn responsibility,” she replied and brought all four hands together.