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Rin Tohsaka

Those who know her would describe her as distant, talented, beautiful, and kind.

Rin Tohsaka

Those who KNOW her would describe her as teasing, short tempered, useless with technology, and kind.

The Rin Tohsaka that is present in this story however is still seven years old, and reeling from the death and murder of her parents. Rin Tohsaka is still angry that a man she hates is now her legal guardian. Rin Tohsaka is now dealing with a soul crushing situation that no child should have to deal with, she's alone.

She puts on a smile for her friends in school but whenever she got home, that smile was replaced with a neutral look. Not happy, not sad, just numb… At least until Keira Kotomine came around, in which case. Rin was all frowns and scowls, but that is neither here nor there at the moment.

No, the scene we meet this version of Rin Tohsaka is during the afternoon.

Rin's footsteps seemed to echo as she walked home. The click clack of her school shoes ringing out as she got closer to the empty courtyard. What once was a well kept family garden was quickly becoming a barely maintained brown lawn. Some plant vines where even starting to make their way up the side of the walls of her house.

A dreary sight if you ever saw one. The gate screeched as it was opened, thanks to the newly forming rust. Rin didn't spare a moment to notice any of the new depressing details about her home. Once inside, Rin left her school shoes at the front door and began to make her way to the kitchen.

"Oh hello, I wasn't expecting you to be back so soon today." Zelretch said with an awkward chuckle as he pored himself a hot cup of tea. Rin responded appropriately.

"WHO ARE YOU! AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" Rin screamed as she jumped away from the kitchen. Zelretch smiled and bowed towards Rin.

"My name is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg but most people just call me Zelretch." That caused Rin to pause somewhat.

"R-really? Well then prove it." Rin folded her arms and tried to scowl at Zelretch, but just like Illya. She ended up looking more like a puffed up kitten. Zelretch merely nodded at the request as he put down his cup of tea and casually opened up a hole in space like he was pulling down a zipper. Rin's eyes bulged slightly at the casual display of power, but she was a Tohsaka damn it. She had to be brave.

"H-how do I know this isn't just some light based illusion?" Rin tried to sound skeptical but the quiet awe in her voice said otherwise. None the less, Zelretch played along and gestured over to the rip in space.

"If you walk over here, you'll see unlike a mirror, this is actually a hole connected to a parallel universe. One where the difference lays with you Miss Tohsaka." Zelretch's eyes danced with mischief, not literally of course that could only happen in specific types of worlds but getting back on track. Rin slowly walked towards the shimmering hole in the air but when she stood in front of it. Rin couldn't help but gasp slightly.

Standing in front of her wasn't a girl her age with say maybe red hair or a bigger nose. What was staring back at her was a boy who looked like a tinier version of her Dad, minus the facial hair.

"That can't be me." The two said in synch, catching both children off guard slightly.

"S/he's a boy/girl!" The two looked back at each other in surprise once more.

"That's the nature of the multiverse, it contains every path, every soul, and every possibility and impossibility you can and can't imagine." Zelretch then click his fingers and another hole appeared, showing an another version of Rin looking through a tear in space, their face also looking shocked.

This version of Rin held all the same facial features of the female Rin but her black skin told of a very different heritage. That's when Zelretch walked beside Rin and stood before the holes he made and just like Rin. A different version of him appeared in the holes. One female and the other a young man.

"People react to the discovery of the multiverse differently. Some people give up and indulge in all the physical pleasures that they can find, not caring about morality, not caring about connections. Because why should they? There's an infinity number of them, how could anything be important in front of infinity." The Zelretchs said in synch, causing all three Rin's to look down with tears welling up in there eyes at this cold truth.

"I personally disagree with this notion!" Zelretch stomped his cane on the ground, causing the Rins to look up at them.

"I see infinity and instead of finding myself valueless, I choose to learn. To take infinity and spread it around, to add impossibilities and probabilities. I choose to make my name a multiversal stamp of sorts. Are you trapped in another world? You're best bet's Zelretch, that sort of thing." Zelretch clicked his fingers once more and closed the holes in space.

"I once showed this same thing to your very great grandfather, curious man. Boisterous and friendly the one minute, only to be shouting furiously the next at a minor tease. Now that I think back on it, he might have been biploar." Zelretch's muttered that last part to himself before focusing back on Rin.

"Anyway, I didn't bring up your family's history just for nostalgia. I challenged your very great grandfather to recreate a crystal blade I left with him. Maybe you've seen it before Miss Tohsaka, sitting around your father's workshop perhaps?" Rin fidgeted a bit under the curious look Zelretch was giving her.

"I've seen it… Dad would always make sure to work on it every second week, until the Holy Grail War at least." Rin's shoulders slumped slightly at the reminder of her dad's death. Zelretch hummed in acknowledgement and sat back down at the kitchen bench resumed drinking his tea.

"It must be close to three hundred or four hundred years since I met your family Miss Tohsaka. If your family dedicated all of it's efforts into recreating the Jewel Sword then it probably would have been completed a few generations ago." Rin flinched at the assessment, but by doing so. She didn't see the happy smile on the mad bat's face.

"Good! I would've been terribly disappointed with you all if you just drooled over that little trick for who knows how many generations of your family. Of course I would also be disappointed if you didn't work on it at all. So you've struck a happy medium with what you've done." Zelretch rattled on like he was distracted but kept his focus on Rin, who was reacting to his mood swings rather well and rather predictably.

"Ah! Well… Uh… Thank you?" Rin managed to get out a reply despite her confusion at the powerful trickster. Zelretch grinned madly and stood up with a flourish.

"No! Thank you Miss Tohsaka, as a reward for you and your families hard work on that little project I assigned them all those years ago. I hereby invite you to my party!" Rin blinked as Zelretch offered her a rather lavish invitation card. Zelretch waited for Rin to finish reading the card, the incredulous look on her face was well worth the wait.

"I don't mean to be rude Mister Schwe Schwo Sch..." Rin blushed as Zelretch chuckled at how she was butchering his last name.

"Mister Zelretch is fine Miss Tohsaka." Zelretch said before taking another sip of his pipping hot tea.

"Right um… The date for this party is for three years from now." Rin pointed to the date on the card, which Zelretch just nodded his head at.

"Yep! The 15th of July! 1997! We'll have all sorts of guests coming around and I'll even have a present prepared for you as well! I can't have my sort of maybe future student come to something like this and NOT get a gift! It just wouldn't sit right with my sense of humour." Zelretch puffed out his chest and folded his arms at that last bit.

"Y-you mean sense of honor… Right?" Rin asked hesitantly and felt rather concerned as Zelretch nonchalantly added a half hearted.

"That too." Rather concerning indeed.

Zelretch then took a long sip of his tea, waiting to see if Rin would register what he said before. The look of shock that was slowly dawning on her face was a beautiful and hilarious thing to see. Before Rin could ask what he meant by her being his sort of maybe future student, Zelretch stood up. Downed the rest of his hot tea in one big swig, gently put down the tea cup, and started to make his way to the exit.

"Well it was nice to meet you Miss Tohsaka, oh and if I may offer you some advice. The Second Magic is, at the end of the day, just a really fancy way of asking for help. There are some rather good people living around here who could help you with your study of magecraft. Now I best be off, places to be. People to trick. That sort of thing." Zelretch bowed dramatically and ignored all the questions Rin was asking him.

"Wait! What did mean about people who could help me with my magic! Or, or that hint you gave! Wait Mister Zelretch." Rin ran after the old man who had his backed turned to her and reached out to grab his cape. Only for her hand to go through a cloud of colour that were on Zelretch at the time. Leaving Rin confused, slightly angry, but most depressing of all. Alone, Rin was alone once again.

With a sad sigh, Rin went back to her kitchen and started to make herself dinner. It was a lonely affair as usual but for some reason. Rin had a feeling that these lonely quite days weren't going to last, after all. If Zelretch was here, then surely something big was going to happen. It was a gut feeling to be sure, but Rin had a gut feeling about the Holy Grail War which she felt was pretty spot on to what happened.

These gut feelings would serve Rin well into her future.

~Emyia Residents~

There were usually only four people at home for the Emyia family. These people being Kiritsugu, Mayia, Sella, Leysritt. Illya and Shirou were obviously at school, Zelretch did… Whatever he does when not at the house. While Michael and Sebastian lived in there respective homes, only visiting briefly to drop off Shirou or maybe visit for dinner.

This was a good thing as only three people were present for Kiritsugu's current suffering. The sound of retching filled the house as Sella stood behind Kiritsugu and tried ease his pain with as many healing or calming spells she could manage at the moment. Mayia could only watch on in horror as Kiritsugu's vomiting became more and more intense.

Even Leysritt looked uncomfortable as the toilet Kiritsugu was vomiting into started to gain a noticeable coat of blood as time went by. Once Kiritsugu finally stopped hurling, Sella started to reapply as many healing spells that she could manage. Kiritsugu didn't seem to gain any benefit from these attempts however, as his body was still trembling.

Sella shook her head and stepped out of the bathroom and let Leysritt pick up the cursed man. Perhaps it would be hilarious to see the normally stoic Kiritsugu be carried around bridal style but the situation was anything but funny. Mayia opened the door for Leysritt so she could put Kiritsugu back into his futon. Once he was safely tucked away, Mayia looked over to Sella.

"We need to examine his body, I can assist with some of the medical preparation but I won't be able help with any magecraft." Mayia didn't let her voice waver as she gave Sella the order, which the maid compiled with as she rushed off to grab whatever supplies she needed. However try as she might Mayia couldn't shake off a certain feeling of uselessness.

Many times in her career with Kiritsugu, she lamented not having magic circuits. It made everything harder, from performing medical check ups to remaining in stealth. The difference here was simple though, in those past situations. There was always a workaround of some sort.

Like observing how Kiritsugu's body reacted when he used magecraft and eventually working out a baseline of health. Or taking advantage of how much easier it was laying out traps that her enemies wouldn't notice because of their tracking spells. This time though, she really couldn't help. No workarounds, just a futile hope that Sella wouldn't give them a hopeless situation after she finished giving Kiritisugu a check-up.

Mayia waited with Leysritt in the dining room, with the only sound coming from Sella's magecraft and the clock on the wall. Finally Sella came out of Kiritsugu's room with a grim look on her face. Despite knowing the answer, Mayia asked.

"How is he?" Mayia watch as Sella sighed and seemed sag down towards the table.

"What I discovered is… Troubling to say the least. To be more precise, Kiritsugu will no longer be able to use his magic circuits. I suspect what Kiritsugu was vomiting up before was the physical attachments to his magic circuits. So physically, he's over the worst of the curse. Spiritually however that's where things start to get tricky." Sella rubbed her temples as she felt a headache from coming on.

"Now this is only a hypothesis but I suspect Kiritsugu will experience a couple of months of increased energy. Not enough to be comparable to a sugar rush but enough to be noticeable, then for the rest of his days. He'll experience a slow but steady decline in energy until… Well, it'll be comparable to a battery running out of power." Sella's explanation hung in the air as everyone tried to process the facts. Mayia took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh before looking back at the two maids.

"Then I guess we have a few things to think about. First of all, do we tell Illya and Shirou about this?" Sella frowned at the question, even more so then before. Surprisingly, it was Leysritt who spoke up first.

"No, I don't think we should." Leysritt's soft voice seemed to echo in the room before Sella looked at her with a chilling glare.

"Why is that? Lady Illya has been through enough suffering as it is! To shock her with father's slow death without her knowing?! It's just much too cruel." Sella pointed accusingly at Leysritt but she remained unfazed.

"Sella, we have only been alive for about three years. Do you remember when it was just us? Just Master Kiritsugu and Lady Irisviel and Illya?" The question made Sella pause, but before she could work up her anger again, Leysritt continued.

"I remember how happy we all were. Then Irisviel gave us the details of the Holy Grail War and what that meant for us and them." Leysritt looked sad, despite her face not changing expressions.

"We still had about half a year of time before our masters really started to prepare for the war, but all those memories seem to have this shadow in them. Like I knew that all those happy times were just going to… Stop one day." Leysritt looked down at the table as she seemed to return to a memory.

"Leysritt." Sella tried to sound like her normal, strong willed self but Leysritt interrupted again.

"I didn't recognize those feels back then, but I believe I held… no hold a certain anger to both Kiritsugu and our former masters. For bringing us into this world, and giving us these people to protect. Only so that they may be sacrificed at a later date." Leysritt looked up from the table, only to see Mayia looking at her with a cold gaze.

"And do you plan on acting on this anger of yours?" Mayia asked in a chillingly calm voice that did nothing to hide her murderous intent. Leysritt shook her head but not out of fear.

"No, Lady Illya loves her father more than anything in this world. If I hurt Kiritsugu, it would be like hurting Illya. I don't want that and… I don't want their remaining days to have that same shadow hanging over them. I don't want to remind Illya that someday, she'll lose her father. And just like her mother, there will be nothing she can do to stop it." Mayia closed her eyes once Leysritt finished talking. Sella put up a token resistance to the idea but Mayia could tell it was half hearted.

"Alright, we won't tell the children about this however. If they find out about Kiritsugu's condition by themselves. We tell them everything, about the curse and about our reasoning. Agreed?" Mayia demanded despite the wording she used. Both Sella and Leysritt nodded in agreement. The three sat in silence for a moment and drank their tea. It was one of the packets of green tea that Mayia bought when trying to get into tea making as a hobby. It was a soothing flavour with just a touch of bitterness to keep the mind sharp.

Once Sella finished sipping her tea, she looked at Mayia with a conflicted expression.

"Perhaps we could ask Master Zelretch to remove the curse?" Sella felt uneasy just saying his name, she wasn't alone in that feeling.

"I… I'm not sure that would be a smart idea." Mayia looked down into her tea as she said this.

"When Zelretch fixed Lady Illya, he was definitely doing so for a reason. A part of a plan or something along those lines. What's more, he asked for payment. Payment that directly involves the children and will possibly put them in danger… Again." Mayia took a large swig of her tea before continuing. Sella winced at the small display of unkemptness but didn't dare bring it up.

"I get the feeling that if we ask for his help in curing Kiritsugu, he'll ask for some absurd price in return." Mayia went quite again for a good few seconds before refocusing on Sella.

"If you would like to try and ask for his help, I won't stop you Sella but I wouldn't get my hopes up either." Sella nodded at that and the three went back to drinking there tea in silence. The silence didn't end until Illya returned home later that day.

~?~

Thomas resisted the urge to yawn as he walked along the forest path. His blue coat was covered in lines of small ruins, some of which started to glow and hum. Causing Thomas to stop in his tracks. He gave the tree line a disproving look that he usually saved for either his daughter, his wife or Michael.

A great ball of wind shot out from the tree line, only to dispel into a breeze as it hit Thomas barrier. Then with a quick flick of the wrist, Thomas flung a jewel into the tree line and smirked in satisfaction as the forest lit up with electricity and the screams of his would be ambushers. The rustling of leaves then gave away the attacker running at him from behind.

Judging from the noise of the running, it had to be a fairly bulky man. Thomas turned around the moment his attacker's weapon bounced off his barrier and lashed out with two enhanced punches that tore into the man's chest and overpowered what meagre magical defences he might have had.

Thomas then tossed another jewel into the other side of the forest, this time with the sounds of his attackers trying to escape in time, which only served to help Thomas locate them and toss his jewel into the best place to shut them down.

The smell of freshly charred corpses and forest filled the air. It didn't bother Thomas much though, he had gotten used to the stench from his years of taking missions both for his family and as a magical mercenary. Once he was certain that there were no more attackers for the time being, Thomas started to search for the bounded field that his would be foes put up to trap him.

It could only be a make shift bounded field at most, as Thomas had only recent arrived in this part of Europe and he had taken extra care not to be tracked. He did however let himself be spotted by one of the amateurishly made familiars, he had to keep the Aratus family on his trail least they start to search for either his wife or daughter.

Thomas spent twelve minutes searching along the forest trail until he stumbled, quite literally, upon one of the anchors for the Bounded Field. Picking himself up and wiping away the dust on his coat, Thomas turned his attention back to the engraved stone.

The rock didn't belong in the forest, much too smooth and round, like it belonged along the sea side or a lake. The rock also had glowing emerald lines through out it.

"Ah so that's the trick." Thomas hummed to himself as he crushed the stone into a fine powder, and watched as the glow faded into nothing.

"Very clever, they must have someone skilled with earth manipulation and crafting if they can mix in Mana conductive sand into stones." The whistling sound carrying through the air was the only thing that saved Thomas life, as he brought up his barrier. Only to be blown across the path with the ensuing explosion. Thomas switched off his barrier and rolled with impact of the blast then swiftly rolled to his feet.

The sight that greeted him actually caused him to groan in frustration. A giant of a man, easily as tall as six foot six, stood before him in bulky amour with rings of fire swirling around his forearms. Then to add insult to injury, some silencing spell must have been in effect because the man made no sound when he started to charge at him with fireballs in his hands.

Thomas jumped over the attack but not with out some fire singeing his coat. Grunting as he landed, Thomas held in a sigh of relief at the fact that his coat didn't catch fire. The sound of whistling gave him enough warning to jump to the side of the forest path, just in time to see the fireball whizzing past his face.

Ignoring the explosion that went off behind him, Thomas really began to take note of his opponent. For one, the man's amour didn't show off any runes or magic symbols, something which all magus love to flaunt even in combat. Himself being no exception to the rule, so the fire couldn't be coming from the armour.

Thomas dashed forward as he dodged two more explosive fireballs. Trying for some light hand to hand combat, Thomas found his foe wasn't lacking in this art either. With most of his blows being parried… but not blocked interestingly enough. Thomas took note of this little trait as he back peddled and tossed out two electrically charge gems.

The man did try to jump back but was struck by a stray arc of electricity, and the results showed as the man writhed about in pain for a moment. Thomas had to hide a smirk at this and pulled out his combat knife. The armoured man clearly wasn't frilled with the idea of close quarters combat again as he began to toss fireball after fireball at Thomas who deftly dodged each throw but wasn't making any head way either.

That's when an idea started to form in his mind.

'His armour must not be for blocking attacks, but for guarding against his own magic. An assassin then! It would most certainly have worked on your average magus but...' Thomas smiled with an air of haughty smugness as he threw his knife at his foe mid dodge.

The knife dug into the man's shoulder causing a pause in the barrage of fireballs, instead of closing the distance like last time. Thomas flicked the last of his lightning gems at his foe and watched as the electricity danced onto his combat knife, and caused his giant of a foe to spasm and shake, no howls of pain were heard though. Such was the silencing spell and so Thomas watched the odd event of a corpse falling to the ground without a sound being made.

The smell of smoke filling the air did cause Thomas to look away from the corpse as he remembered that he had been fighting a fire user. With a sigh at the waste of resources, Thomas threw some ice gems into the beginning forest fire and watched as the starting blaze was engulfed into large shards of ice. Looking more crystal then icicle.

With that little distraction over, Thomas continued along the forest path.

'That's the last lot from the Aratus family for now. Which gives me two weeks down time to gain some new allies myself. I swear, Michael was the only reason I got involved with that Magus Killer. Still I've gained a deadly ally and the favour of his family, a reasonable gain all things considered.' Thomas paused for a moment as his destination was in sight.

'While losing some face with some researchers at the Clock Tower is bothersome, this is an excellent chance to curry favour with the church.' Thomas smiled as he exited the forest and made his way down the path. Not too far off in the distance was a church, or at least what passed for one.

The building had all the signs of wear and tear, ranging from faded and flaky paint, old replacement wood, and even little claw marks on the support stands underneath the building. But despite this the building still seemed to have this warm and welcoming aura about it. Thomas even felt his guard relax just a little because of it and smiled, it reminded him of youthful days.

Shaking his head free of such sentiment, Thomas knocked firmly on the old wooden door three times. The person who opened the door was an older man who wore a priest clothes but had the body of a fighter. Any doubt Thomas might have had about this man's character was swiftly banished as he smiled and reached for a hand shake.

"Good evening, you must be Thomas Edelfelt. I'm Garan Drang, it's a pleasure to meet you!" His voiced had a noticeable German accent but Thomas didn't care, the man had the kind of warmth you just couldn't fake. Thomas grabbed his hand and shook it firmly.

'Oh, this is the hand of a working man.' Thomas had to stop himself from chuckling, Michael's love for children's shows was rubbing off on him it seemed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well." Thomas smiled back at the happy German priest and started to head inside once Garan gestured for him to do so. The inside of the church smelled of candle smoke and fruit. Waiting inside were two more people, another burly man from the church and a young woman in a classy suit.

"Thomas, this is Bazett Fraga McRemitz and Kirei Kotomine. They will be joining us for this hunt." Garan then walked over to where the pair where sitting. Thomas joined the group and gratefully took the apple offered by Garan.

"Bazett, Kirei, this is Thomas Edelfelt. He'll be assisting us." Bazett nods at Thomas in acknowledgement. Kirei greeted him with a smile and Thomas immediately felt something was wrong. Like he was staring down a beast rather then a man, it had been years since he met someone like this.

"It's a pleasure to met you Thomas, I hope we can have a wonderful partnership on this mission." Kirei greeted him with warm tones and smiles. Thomas wasn't buying it for a second but his companions didn't seem to mind the man, best not to make a scene for now.

"Now that we're all here, we can go over the finer details of the mission." Garan said as he pulled a folder from underneath a bench.

"The demon in question has recently taken up residence in cave deep within the woods, our scoots were able to confirm this when they found a bear with it's arms ripped off and it's chest imploded." Garan took a brief moment to pray for the creature, with only Kirei join him in said pray. Thomas noted that Kirei's sounded mechanical but held a degree of honesty, it didn't suit the man at all in Thomas opinion.

"Now our job is relativity simple, kill the demon and provide relief and support to anyone who suffered by the beast's hands. However there is one hitch in the information gathered." Garan pulled out some of the files from the folder. Each page containing a wildly different location, ranging from city alleway to the African Savanna.

'Strange, truly strange. Most young demons take shelter and try to fortify themselves, if this one knows how to run. Then we may have a fun hunt on our hands.' Thomas tried to hide the small smirk appearing on his.

"These are all the locations where the demon has been encountered, through either combat, detection, or the locals holding enough faith to scare it off. The demon knowing how to escape is troubling enough but the second problem is this." Garan pulled out some more pictures, each of a different shadowy creature.

"These are all photos of the same demon." That caused everyone to look at Garan with some surprise.

"My friends, I have two theories on how this is possible. The first is troubling but what hope is the situation. The creature is merely a Magus experiment involving demonic energy gone wrong with the test subject being warped by the power." Garan's voice lacked a certain confidence.

"The second theory I have is the one I hope is wrong, that we're dealing with a demon who's been empowered by something. Allowing it to shape shift and give it some form of intellect, what ever could empower a demon to a state like this must be either contained or destroyed." Garan started to put all the files back in the folder.

"Any questions?" The silent confidence was all the answer Garan needed. That night, the hunt began.

Chapter Finish

Welcome back to another chapter of The Sword and The Blacksmith!

You know, I swear these chapters are getting longer. Oh well! My plan is coming together wonderfully! The stage is set and you've met most of the actors. AH! I'M SO EXCITED! My joy aside, how's the story feeling for you lot? Is there not enough character interaction? Or maybe you think my pacing is off?

Please let me know by giving me a review, it really does help. Before I go, let me introduce you to my bonus rounds! And no, I refuse to call these bonus bits omake! I may be writing a fan fiction based off Japanese media but no! I refuse to use anything that can't just be translated into proper English!

So until next time ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have a lovely hot chocolate on hand with some biscuits or cookies to dunk with your drink. BYE BYE!

Bonus round! GO!

"Hey Michael." Shirou asked while taking a break from practice.

"How did you get involved with Magecraft? You really don't act like any other Mage I've met." Much to Michael's surprise, Rin and Illya were also looking at him with curiosity.

"Are you sure?" Before Michael could try to dissuade the group from it's current course, Luvia pipped up.

"It's really a wonderful story! Come on Uncle Mike! Please!" Luvia pouted at him, which merely got a sigh out of Michael.

"All right, take a sit. Because it's one heck of a long story…

My involvement with the Moonlite world didn't start for quite some time. In fact I guess you could say it was a miracle I got involved in the first place. My family was a normal one, happy, content and trying to make a living. Dad was working as a construction worker and Mum managed to get some work as an assistant chef. We really were happy.

So what happened? Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. It really put stress on us, as well as scaring Mum and me something fierce. Then it was time for Mum to go in for her first operation, I remember she pulled me aside and asked me to be brave. She told me that we would beat this cancer and that things would go back to normal, Dad also told me the same thing.

The operation was a new one, meant to help the body fight off the cancer even after the operation and all that…

Mum had a serve allergic reaction to the medicine used, they tried to save her but… Well… I was seven years old when that happened. Everything after was a blur, the funeral, the reading of her will. It's all very blurry but slowly we started to heal.

I wasn't sad all the time and Dad even worked up the courage to try and go on some dates. A lot of them were one off's with the occasional girlfriend lasting a month or two. It really did help Dad heal and some of those dates are actually family friends still. It was when my Dad was shopping for Christmas presents that he met her.

'Pardon me, could you please direct me to the closest Library? I'm supposed to met up with a work colleague but I'm not having much luck getting there.'

My Dad didn't think much of it and gave her some directions, they went their separate ways but weirdly enough bumped into each other again that same afternoon at a coffee shop.

'Oh hey, it's you. Did you find the Library alright?'

'Yes, your directions were quite clear.'

'Say, do want to get some coffee together? If you're not busy or anything.'

'That's sounds lovely thank you Mister...'

'Bruce, Bruce Wingdom. It's a pleasure to met you Miss?'

'Jenna, Jenna Barre.'

So they sat down for coffee and swapped details. At first Dad didn't call them dates, he was just meeting up with an interesting new friend. Then came the "first" date, then the second and third. I'm sure you can guess the rest. It was when Dad asked her if she would like to move into a house together that she revealed what she was. I just happened to be getting a glass water at the time when I over heard them talking.

'Listen Bruce. I can tell your really serious about continuing this relationship but before we go any further, there's something you have to know about me.'

'Okay? What is it?'

She took a deep breath and activated some spell.

'WHAT IN THE!?'

'SHH! You might wake up Mike!'

'But… How...'

'This is what I needed to tell you about, I'm not a normal person Bruce. I'm what's know as a Magus. I dedicate my life to the pursuit of knowledge and the Root.'

I heard her breath hitch but then she continued.

'It also means that if you don't have an acceptable amount of magical potential then I won't be able to justify my relationship with you to my family any longer.'

The house was silent for a while before my Dad spoke again.

'Then I'll take whatever test needed, because I would like to see where this relationship goes.'

And that was that, Jenna found that Dad had just enough magic circuits to count as a first generation Magus. So she continued dating him and not long after, married him as well. I was told about what Jenna was as well, my lack of surprise also lead to them finding out about my ears dropping.

It was on my ninth birthday that I was also told some more news.

'Mike we have some news for you.' Dad came into my room with a big goofy smile on his face.

'You're going to be a big brother.'

That was the start of everything.

Bonus round! STOP!