Beauty and the Magician (Tales of the Red Witch Book 1)

Chapter 31 - Even a stubborn magician can change

"This is what you let her out of?" Annika asked him.

It was evening and quiet around his little shop. Quiet because Toby and Mr. pig were fast alseep. A state of being Eben hardily wished he was also enjoying.

A few long days had passed where Eben, Rose, Gertie, Toby and Mr. Pig busied themselves rebuilding Hafenstadt. And with a little help from Landet Gress' army, they had the city largely back to normal. And maybe, some parts of it were a little better than normal. And due to Toby's and Rose's quick actions, no one was killed in the attack, though many had been badly injured. Eben looked at his smug smudgy apprentice with new appreciation. And perhaps, he also looked at him with a sense of pride that he had never felt before. He had still wished that they had obeyed him and stayed safe at Other, but he was also certain that their reckless action had done much to lessen the strike against Hafenstadt.

Eben had kept his eyes out for the witch, but she had not reappeared. At least not out in the open. He had warily eyed every bird, bat, and cat that crossed his path. She could be anywhere, watching him, looking for her next opportunity to coerce him into giving her the chest. It was a frightening thought that kept him up at night. Not that he had time to sleep anyway. Not with a city to rebuild. The spells to repair the buildings were complicated but Skywark had made him learn them and Toby had easily picked it up as they went. They were, however, incredibly draining. Poor Toby had barely made it to the stairs before falling asleep. He had had to carry the boy up to his room.

With so many still recovering and still much rebuilding left to be done, it would be a while still until the city would be able to return to normal operations but at least he was able to use his magic to rebuild the damaged homes. He had started with his tante's home. He had invited tante Gertie to come stay with him at Other, but she had only complained that she would not take his charity and instead stayed with Ms. Streever, though she had come by for meals. Unsurprisingly, her and Rose had gotten along famously and greatly enjoyed his squirming as they discussed him at length over the table. It was deeply annoying but the fact that they were all alive and together was enough to lessen the torture. And a small withered part of him felt the comforting pull of family. He made him reassess why he had felt the need to be alone.

Maybe he had thought once to protect them from magic by pushing them away or maybe he thought he would be stronger by not having friends or family to tie him down. He was wrong on both accounts.

His tante was home now in a brand new magically protected tenement building with brand new furnishings curtesy of her charitable nephew and a cat beast who was all too happy to help her decorate. Eben had made a point to recover her old wooden rocking chair and a certain lumpy armchair and see them cleaned, repaired, and returned to the space by the window where they belonged. Rose had grumbled about how they didn't go with the new furnishings, but when she saw the loving look on Gertie's face when Eben had brought them up, she had promptly shut her mouth and smiled.

"Yes." Eben answered as he lounged on his couch in front of his massive fireplace. His head fell back and stared unseeing up at the ceiling.

"What is it?"

She really was far too curious. Even though he wasn't looking at her he could tell she was pacing next to the sofa holding the ancient wooden chest in her paws. He discovered it was something she did often when nervous and when there wasn't anything left to clean.

"A vessel for dark magic apparently... and before you ask, no I don't know where it came from...I don't know how old it is... and I don't know what it's made of."

He turned his head lazily to the side and looked at her. She had stopped pacing and was glaring at him as if she was willing him to incinerate with her mind.