Chapter 70: 70: Fruity Deliberation

“Well, I’m going to have to find the others first. I won’t make this decision without discussing it with my people, I’m not their overlord or whatever,” I told her in response to her question.

In my mind I was already thinking of candidates though. It would either be Troy or Kit. I was thinking Troy mainly because he would then get a body that aligned wholly with who he was. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’d be a great fit for getting some actual magecraft done.

Kit on the other hand would make for an amazing mage. He was almost overly excited about the whole idea of magic, to the point of learning as much as he could even if he couldn’t actually wield it himself. 

“Ah yes, I forgot about that. I dreamed of this sort of cooperation and harmony between my peers and others in positions of power back in my politicking days, but to see it actually manifested is rather jarring,” Esra mused, staring through me for a moment.

“Me? Position of power?” I asked, bewildered. I mean, sure… that whole Millowhall thing had happened… but they were small fry, right?

“Rynadria, in terms of raw magical might, you are already one of the most prominent mages that reside on this continent,” she told me seriously. “When you reach the level of control and elegance that I possess, you will be a force to rival the so-called gods. Of course, so will I by that point.”

I squinted at her, wondering if she was messing with me or something. Surely that wasn’t true?

“Why are you staring at me like that, girl? It is a factual statement and I am a more than reliable source on this matter,” she grumbled after several seconds of eyeballing.

“No reason,” I shrugged pretending to be interested in my hair again. “Anyway, I should go find the others. They’re probably in the tree. Cya soon!”

I didn’t quite run away, but it wasn’t quite walking either. Behind me I heard Esra grumble something under her breath and follow along behind me. Crap, she wanted to be there for the conversation.

We found the rest of them playing cards on the second floor, which we were starting to call the glass balcony, on account of all the tree glass that allowed light in. Adam was very animatedly explaining the rules of some card game that I wasn’t familiar with to Otho and Mer, but they all stopped when we stepped up.

“Hey you two, should I deal you in?” Adam asked, a twinkle of mischief in his eye.

“Actually… we kinda need to talk about something really important,” I told him apologetically.

Troy put his cards down first, face down before leaning on the table with his elbows. “What’s up?”

My friends —the Order of Eleos, I guess I should start thinking of them as, since we were all meant to be players in regional politics or something now— all put their cards down too, switching from silly to serious mode seamlessly.

“I am going to be creating another mage fruit soon, and since hiding it didn’t work last time,” Esra began, pausing with a pointed look in my direction. “I think it would be best if I were to gift it to one of you Avonsiders, rather than some foppish noble for a bag of gold.”

There was a collective intake of breath around the table as everyone realised just what that meant. We had to choose someone for a life altering change that would give them massive power. It was a heavy decision, although there was the option of more in the future too. I’d probably need to make one at some point soon.

I started with Troy, bringing up his problem with meds, something that hadn’t crossed my mind much with everything that had happened. With a meaningful look, I stated, “This would solve your problem, if we gave it to you.”

“I’m aware,” he nodded calmly, then sighed, giving the grove beyond the windows a wistful look. “But it would not solve the problem for all those others in the same boat as me. I am also probably not the best person when it comes to actual magecraft. No, that gift would be wasted on me. I believe it would be best to give it to someone who would utilise it to its fullest potential, and ultimately help the order and those with said, uh… problem.”

“You are turning down an offer of power?” Esra asked curiously.

He shrugged, staring down at his weathered hands for a moment. “In a team, everyone has a role to play. Mine is that of advisor and leader in things of administration and combat. I have never been good with abstract thought, math and all that. What point would it serve to give the thing to me? Hell, giving it to someone I trust and who could wield magic to its fullest potential would be a far greater addition to any power I could wield.”

“If only the leaders of this world thought as you do,” the older woman muttered with a sad shake of her head.

“Aye,” Otho sighed with a pained roll of his eyes. “Could certainly use some more level heads in obrec politics.”

Adam spoke up next, leaning forward with confused interest. “Sorry if this is an awkward question, but what is this problem exactly?”

Oh Adam, why yes… that was an incredibly awkward question. Although that made me wonder how Troy had managed to hide what was, uh... in his pants, so to speak. They had all slept in the same room extremely often. If anyone could be a master of stealth, I guess it was Troy.

“Not something I’d like to discuss currently, sorry,” Troy said quickly, although still as calm and assured as ever.

Made sense, not wanting to come out to everyone. Something I learned early on in my research of the subject was just how effective transition using standard modern Earth methods could be. Which of course meant something else, the number of trans people that any one person had met was almost certainly higher than they thought it was.

Many trans people chose not to disclose themselves at all. Why bother, after all? Unless you were going to get sexual with someone or advocate for transgender rights, there wasn’t much reason to out yourself and go inviting attack in a world that was not nearly as accepting as it pretended to be. Too many people seemed cool and normal until topics of race, sexuality or gender came up, then they went off the deep end into the asshole pool. Although, maybe both Troy and I were just paranoid? I don’t know.

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Pulling a chair out for Esra and then myself, I sat down heavily and pushed a few insistent strands of hair out of my eyes. “Well, then we should figure out who’d be best at magic then. Oh and if I remember my lessons right, warlocks like Grace cannot become mages and vice versa. Something about conflicting sources of magical power or whatever.”

Esra nodded as she sat down. “It appears that you were listening after all. In between sunbathing all day.”

“The sun feels good on my plant skin,” I grumbled, poking my tongue out for a split second.

“I am aware,” she replied dryly.

“Kit would be best at magic, absolutely no doubt,” Adam said, turning to look at the quiet guy in question. “As much as I’d like to become a cool mage and fling fireballs around or whatever, I think I’m best suited to the uh… knight role in this little fantasy thing we have going on.”

“Kit is very interested in magic, that is certain,” Mer agreed, smiling at him as he stared red faced down at the table. I could tell he wanted this really badly, but also that he was probably unwilling to speak up and ask for it.

“Kit, do you want to be a mage?” I asked him gently, trying my best not to smile at his bashfulness.

Pushing the cards around on the table with his index finger, he asked quietly, “What about Mer and Otho?”

I briefly considered them, Otho might be a good fit but I wasn’t sure that Mer was. Unfortunately, we hadn’t known them that long and while I did trust them, my trust didn’t extend that far.

“I’m afraid they aren’t part of the order,” I told him, giving an apologetic expression to the two obrec in question. “Possibly down the line we can give them a fruit each, but for now… I think it’s best to keep it between those of us from Avonside. Excluding James, obviously… wherever the hell he’s ended up.”

“Jesus, is it bad that I haven’t thought about him in weeks?” Grace blurted with a disbelieving laugh. Her cheeks blushed a pretty pink when she realised she’d just interrupted, and she mumbled, “Ah… sorry, continue…”

I grinned at her, then turned back to Kit. “So, do you want the fruit? You already know a little about magic as it is.”

“I mean… I guess… if you want me to,” he shrugged, giving me a weak smile.

With an exasperated sigh, I leaned forward. “You need to be sure, Kit. This is a life changing decision. We all believe in you, we think you can do it… but you need to believe it too.”

Rather than speak, he bit his lip and played with his cards some more, sliding them over and under one another. His eyes were unfocused, drifting listlessly as he thought. What was he thinking? He was always so closed, to the point where I had almost no idea about his past, even after travelling with him for months now.

He’d mentioned recently that he’d lived in LA, but that was about it. Had he left family behind? A girlfriend? A boyfriend? Shit, I didn’t even know his dang sexuality. He showed interest in Mer, but maybe it was just platonic?

“Okay,” he nodded, startling me out of my thoughts. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you all for a month… missing out on the journey back, all that stuff. At least I don’t have anyone back at Avonside to explain my shiny new hair to.”

“You don’t?” I asked, feeling the sudden urge to hug him.

He shook his head, expression falling slightly. “Part of why I agreed to come out on this crazy adventure. I had a few friends from the uni, but they left when everyone was given the chance. They were big anime fans, saw themselves living out their isekai fantasies or whatever. Kinda funny how being a hard sci-fi nerd saved me from that stupidity.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a little half hearted amused snort. Standing up out of my seat, I clapped my hands once, “I guess that genre does lend itself to exploring this type of situation with a touch more realism.” To Esra I asked, “How long do we have? I assume it’s kinda urgent?”

“Indeed,” she said, also rising from her chair. “The fruit cannot remain in my grove for long, it will deteriorate.”

“How do we do this then? Just… go over and I grab it, then take both it and Kit out into the ring?” I asked, feeling a flutter of anxiety run through my insides. Goodness, I didn’t like having responsibilities. Bring on the day when all of this mess was behind us and I could just hide in my grove for the rest of my life.

“Yes,” was Esra’s response as she motioned for Kit to follow. “And soon, say your goodbyes now boy, we must be swift. Enough time has already been wasted on talk.”

“If we were wasting time, why didn’t you say so?” I frowned, but shook my head, dismissing my own question. “Nevermind.” She’d probably just grump out some silly excuse anyway.

Mer was up at the same time Kit was, pulling him into an awkward hug. “See you on the other side, friend. I presume you will be much more attractive than you already are by then.” Unlike Kit, there was no hiding Mer’s interest.

He laughed, a small, silly thing that had me hoping for his future. He’d been getting more and more melancholy recently and it had been worrying. I should have spoken to him, should have tried to help or something… I wish there was more time in the day. The end of this journey couldn’t come soon enough.

“Okay, I’m ready,” he said with a steadying intake of breath.

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