26)

What now?

“They seriously burned your house down?, Was anyone hurt?”

He sighed. “According to Allegra, my wife’s uncle started it by not letting himself being mind tricked into staying out of her argument with Yuki, then came after her. Most likely she just panicked when she wasn’t able to just use magic on someone, and David ducked when she threw a combat spell at him”

“After that, discounting Allie’s attempts to make it sound like she wasn’t at fault, it escalated with David kicking her into a wall, and her trying to shoot her fire spell all over the house trying to nail him until they both realized the whole place was on fire and everyone ran.”

“The worst of it was I just finished paying off the mortgage.”

Dam. “Well if you and your family need a place to stay, I got the room.”

There was an amused sound. “So I've heard, but once I cut my wife loose from her family, I have a contingently plan ready to go.”

“Son...you know I just realized I still haven’t learned your name. How serious is this, why is everyone so intent on getting your kids?”

There was a pause before he cleared his throat. “She named me John.”

Oh...She gave our son my name. I’m going to have to think about that later.

He continued. “Yuki’s grandfather wants a Sorcerer in the family because he sees it as a way to restore his family to greatness, and he knows my grandmother will never let Ami go if she gets her claws into her. Meanwhile my grandmother thinks it’s better for Ami to be taken into the custody of her and her coven so she isn’t imprinted by me with the patriarchy's female depowerment agenda.”

Huh? The what now?…”It sounds like your going to have your hands full for a bit, I'd offer to help, but I think freeing you up by making sure the kids are being taken care of is the best thing I can do for you.”

“and I appreciate it...Dad. I already said goodbye to the kids and I’m coming up to my off ramp. Thank you so much for doing this, and I will give you a update soon. So bye for now.”

I gave him a bye in return and we ended the call.

That was… a lot to think over. Thankfully I could hear the two elder kids heading my way as a distraction from having to figure out how I felt about all of that.

“Sara, keep Aran busy for an hour or so, Ami, you and me are going to the training room.”

The elder girl started to whine. “The TV is broke, what am I supposed to do with him?” while the younger looked both a little intrigued and nervous to hear about a training room.

“Take the lamp that looks like a lantern off the lid of the barrel in the game room, there’s wooden blocks, Lego's and some other odds and ends in there. Ami, with me. ” I waved at her to follow as I headed to ball room.

Which I hoped she would do in silence, but instead I got, “Where are we going, how big is this house, is that the attic up there, why is this room so big, like for dancing, does that fireplace work, can we start a fire?”

My answers, in order, upstairs, very, a affirmative grunt, because it’s a ball room, yes, but now it’s for training, I think so, I never had any reason to fire it up, and finally, no and stop trying to put off the training I mentioned.

She squirmed. “Great grandmother said it wasn’t safe for me to do magic without a witch to teach me.”

I sat down on the floor, smiling as I, with some hesitation, was able to once again cross my legs to sit without any pain from my hip as I tucked my feet under my knees.

“The more I hear about your great grandmother, the happier I am I never met her.”

The girl looked a little shocked, then pleased. “She does try to be nice to us, even Aran, but I don’t think she knows how.”

She looked down, a little sad. “I don’t think she’s ever had much in the way of nice from others, so she never learned to be nice herself.”

Well, that’s a bit of insight I wasn’t looking for from a kid.

“Okay kiddo, today isn’t about teaching you how to use your magic. Grand-nanny is right in that I am not qualified to do that, what we are going to work on is how to not, use your magic, now sit.”

I pointed at the floor in front of me, she look curious as she scrambled down to the floor.

I circled my fingers around in the air, crossing over in the middle, “This is called a lazy eight, it’s the symbol for infinity and I want you to picture it in your head.”

She look at me questioningly, I nodded at her. “With your eyes closed.”

She clenched her eyes shut.

I sighed. “Not like that, this is supposed to be a way of relaxing, just let your eyes shut and picture the lazy eight.’

I could see her relax her face.

“Now put it in motion, so it spins around, crossing over itself, spinning around and around, no beginning, no ending, just a endless journey.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

Now the hard part.

“You're scared for your family.” She tensed up. “Keep the eight spinning, you’re a kid, making your self sick with worrying isn’t helping things, keep the eight spinning.”

She sniffled.

“Take a deep breath, then let it all go, going over things over and over again is your head isn’t helping anyone, it’s just making you sick, let the eight spin instead, because it means nothing but it takes up the space in your head that you are filling in with fear and anger, you don’t need those feeling fight now, so you need to block them off with something, and the eight will do.”

She opened her eyes. “Does this really help?”

I nodded at her. “It helped me on and off over the years, and it kept me human when the full moon came up, keeping me in control instead of my...condition let’s call it, taking me over. So I though it might help you with yours. Helps when I have to go to the dentist too.’

She game me a little smile and closed her eyes again.

“And if the lazy eight ain’t cutting it, make it into a ribbon, and put a single twist into it to make it a Mobius strip, then try to put that into motion.”