Advent - 1.2

Previous Chapter

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On the way home, Morgan spotted slight chaos in the streets. It was never truly dangerous but people were using their powers. Some students in their mid-teens ran along the sidewalk, trying to keep up with the bus. They were surprisingly successful until they ran out of steam a few minutes later. Morgan smiled at their laughs. It looked fun. Then an older woman with an angry expression walked up. The bus turned a corner before Morgan saw anything but she was glad she didn’t have to deal with that.

Other people were doing all kinds of slightly inhuman things. A delicate woman lifted her car’s front to get it out of a clogged parking lot. A businessman had a small flame burning on one hand to heat the coffee he held in the other. If she overlooked those tiny differences it almost seemed like the world was normal but it was hard to forget. Especially when some girl in a knock-off superman suit flew past the bus. The colour was slightly wrong, closer to purple and orange than the familiar blue and red. As she hovered over a crossing and looked around, the hero-wannabe waved to the onlookers. Morgan spotted a stylized A on her chest. Then the girl was off.

“Madness!”, some old man in the seat behind her muttered, “What’s become of this country?”

When she got home, Morgan stepped into the back of her parents’ shop. She greeted her father who was looking through some crates and cages that must have gotten delivered this morning. They were running a small pet-supplies shop at the end of Princes just opposite the Parish Church of Saint George.

“Welcome back, kitten. How was school?”

“Fine, I guess? You know Mrs Martin, my maths teacher? She’s breathing ice.”

He lifted an eyebrow.

“What? Ice? I get fire, but ice? Why would she breathe it?”

“Relics are weird like that. And it’s more like her breath is really cold. She said she has a blood temp in the negatives.”

“Oof. That sounds harsh. She’s fine, though?”

Morgan nodded.

“Didn’t seem to have a problem.”

The door to the saleroom opened.

“Kitten! You’re home!”, Morgan’s mother swooped in for a hug, “How was school? Anything wild happen?”

“A bit. Nothing too bad, though. Is lunch ready?”

“Nothing too bad? Oh, you’ll have to tell me everything. Please, sweetie, come on! We can take a lunch break, right?”

She looked to her husband.

“Well, I have to finish inventory and someone needs to be present for customers, so no. Not really”, he said.

“Aww, alright. Tell us everything over dinner, okay?”

Morgan’s mother gave her a peck on the cheek before storming back into the storeroom. Just in time as the jingle from the door opening rang. Her father smiled at the turbulent woman.

“We got some sandwiches in the fridge, just help yourself. They’re all for you. We got ours down here.”

She nodded and found her way out of the storage. Up one set of stairs and she came into her home. Morgan’s parents had somehow bought the building, putting the shop on the ground floor and living in the two storeys above. That made the family have much more room than they could effectively use. The attic was changed into a large playroom for their two cats and the children. Morgan greeted Stumpy, the reddish-brown cat with three legs, with a pet. He purred in return. Crawla was intelligently named by her when they took the black kitten from a shelter six years ago. She rubbed on Morgan’s leg and was rewarded with a pet as well.

The girl dropped her bag next to her room’s door and made her way to the fridge. The sandwiches were there, as promised. Both Ellie and Olivia had school in the afternoon so she could eat the two slices herself. One was tuna and egg, the other the classic ham and cheese.

Morgan washed her hands and sat down at the kitchen table. The tuna sandwich was first while she considered her earlier idea to help Sylvester. She could make potions. That included a healing potion, though getting fresh spring water sounded like a pain. Rather than that, she wanted to make a more specialized version. It was called Chilled Dream. The recipe sounded much easier. It required frozen mint, ground sugarcane and marigold tea. She knew where to find all three plants. Mint and sugarcane were in the kitchen and she had some marigold in her room from one of her biology projects. The potion was supposed to cool the burn and give enough energy to make new skin or flesh grow underneath. The burned tissue would be frozen by the magic and pushed away from the body.

She finished lunch and scoured the kitchen for the ingredients. As she picked up the mint leaves, heat started to form around her nose. Morgan closed her eyes and after a moment the feeling was gone. When she looked again, she was standing hunched over and between her eyes sat a huge nose with spotty skin. That wasn’t supposed to be there. Morgan’s heartbeat hastened and she ran into the bathroom. She noticed her legs moved a little different and her hands sought support as if missing a walking cane. It didn’t slow her down but it felt really weird.

When she finally reached the mirror, Morgan stared. What looked back from her reflection was an old hag. Drooping sacks of skin hung from her eyes, wrinkles distorting her face to be unrecognizable. Her eyes looked slightly milky and a wart sat on the left of her suddenly pointy chin. Her smooth brown hair had turned into thin white strains hanging untamed from her blotchy skin. She opened her mouth only to find yellowed and gnawed off teeth. Putting a finger to them, she found they were razor-sharp, no matter the decrepit look. The tiny wound on her finger closed quickly, only letting out a single drop of blood. Instinctively, she licked it, narrowly avoiding her tongue with the long, pointed nails. Then, Morgan caught herself.

She thought back to what happened. The warmth from her nose flowed through her body when she was about to use her Relic. The only explanation she could think of was that trying to do so turned her into this old hag. This witch. She looked at the mint leaves in her hand. Her nose caught the scent and she felt the desire to finish finding what she needed.

Morgan shook her head. She put the leaves down and tried to will her body back to normal. Nothing happened. The witch despaired. What was she supposed to tell her parents? Would they even recognize her? She let out a cry that immediately cut off. The croaking voice coming out of that throat was not hers. Even the face had no resemblance to her or anyone else in their family. She would be shunned and thrown out. Then, she looked at the mint. An idea formed in her mind. One she quickly recognized as coming from the knowledge the Relic had given her. If she finished the potion, she would return to normal.

Morgan got to work with renewed determination. Far more nimble than her spontaneously old body had any right to, she rushed through the flat. First, she set up the kettle. A few petals of marigold found their way into a tea strainer. Then, she quickly dug up the sugarcane. It was not far from where the mint had been. Some quick movements of her fingers and the mint was ripped into thin strands and put into a thermos. For the sugarcane, she needed to use the mortar. It was a little too tough for her fingers to pulverize. Once that was done, she poured the boiling water onto the marigold and let the tea sit. Her hand gripped the thermos. Right, the mint needed to be frozen. Before Morgan could wonder how long it would take, she found herself holding a finger into the can. A slight warmth moved from her nose through her chest and into her arm. Half a minute later, ice crystals had formed on the edge of the thermos. She knew the leaves were now thoroughly frozen. The sugarcane joined them and the still-hot tea was poured on top. Morgan jumped half a metre to the right as the hiss of hot and cold filled the kitchen. She pulled a spoon from the cupboard and pushed it into the tea. More warmth flowed through her body and into the liquid. Cyan and white fumes soon rose from the open can and Morgan pulled the spoon out. It was done.

Once more, her nose heated up. This time she didn’t close her eyes and saw it wasn’t glowing or anything. It simply shrunk back to normal size as her body rightened itself. Morgan ran a finger over her smooth chin finding no wart or wrinkle. She sighed in relief and sunk on the next best chair.

It took her at least half an hour to calm down. The Chilled Dream was a success. Her Relic told her so. She also understood whenever she planned to actually use it, she would turn into the old hag. That might be a bit of a problem. Morgan hoped she could learn to control it better. She found some time to clean the kitchen and brought the thermos into her room along with a glass. The potion wouldn’t harm her and she wanted to taste it.

When she poured the liquid it looked like white tea that didn’t sit long enough. The potion had a slight yellow colour but it was mostly see-through. Morgan took a sip. It tasted minty and sweet, a little like iced tea, and was cold on her tongue but more refreshing than freezing. The feeling washed through her body and when the energy found no burn to heal, settled in her chest. Once more the Relic brought a hint of knowledge to Morgan’s consciousness. Chilled Dream would heal burn wounds and other heat-related injuries but if it couldn’t find anything to fix, the potion’s power would remain in the body for up to six hours, ready to work its magic.

Morgan was satisfied with the first use of her Relic. It looked to be rather useful and versatile. The ‘unique’ rarity might not make it flashy by itself but she could see a lot of uses for the recipes in her mind. There was only the matter of turning into an old hag. She remembered how she had taunted Brad about his control issues. Apparently, it was quite difficult. Morgan considered. She had pushed away the thoughts of using her superpowers, not wanting to get caught up in some Marvellous adventure. Now that she tried, there was an itch in the back of her mind. Maybe it was stupid to avoid her Relic. Everyone had something more now. It was only a matter of time until somebody went crazy. And from there, it wasn’t far until it happened near her. Morgan knew she had to prepare herself.

The girl flipped open her laptop, opened the browser and pulled out a notebook. It was time to do some research.

She had browsed the forums and news sites on and off the last few days so it didn’t take long to find what she was looking for. A lot of people were trying to get attention with outrageous claims. Morgan had a lot of organizing information ahead of her. She first went through the news sites she trusted. BBC, The Guardian, Sky News and so forth. That would be a good baseline. She carefully read each article, looking for signals of speculation. Everything that was written to sound confirmed, she planned to use as a baseline.

Apparently, The Guardian had someone working for them that had levelled up just yesterday. He was with the proofreaders and had a Relic that worked similar to photographic memory. The article claimed he had gotten a blue box pop-up telling him about the level up and to choose an upgrade. The upgrade was for his Relic and he had only one option to pick that let him organize the stored information more efficiently. That was all. No improved attributes, nothing about traits. This was the most reliable information Morgan had found since initialization.

After that, the article went into an interview with the levelled-up employee and put in a lot of speculation. She skimmed it and wrote down the key points but quickly moved on to the next clues. There honestly wasn’t much else. Some music streamer had uploaded a video of playing drums without touching the sticks. He had gained a Relic with the power of telekinesis. The attempts to play guitar at the same time had turned the event into more of a comedy show but that only helped the video go viral. Soon, Morgan got lost in clicking through all kinds of videos. She was watching a black cat compilation she had seen at least twenty times when Olivia peeked into her room to say hello.

Morgan smiled at her sister and then looked down at her notes. She had not even filled half a page.

“What you doing, Morg?”, Olivia asked as she walked over.

“I was doing some research but…”

“Got distracted, I see. That video again. You like cats way too much.”

“Black cats!”, Morgan insisted, “They are far superior to every other colour.”

“Yeah, yeah. Any flashies at your school?”

Morgan nodded.

“My maths teacher has ice magic. And someone with fire powers went crazy and punched Syl.”

“What the fuck?”, Olivia looked taken aback, “Is he fine?”

“Syl? Yeah. Got a burn but it didn’t look too bad. Mr Lee put on some salve and sent him home.”

“Ouch. Well, my day was far less exciting. Besides the supergirl wannabe flying past the windows in the afternoon.”

“Oh, the one with the A on her chest? I saw her from the bus on my way home.”

“Kinda annoying to show off like that. I wanna fly too”, Olivia whined.

“Eh. You can’t complain with your plant magic.”

“Right.”

The girl smirked. She pointed a hand at the marigold and it quickly grew by a few centimetres.

“Livy! Careful with that! I don’t want to throw away more plants.”

“What? I got it under control. See?”

She waved her hand, the flower wiggling back and forth in an uncanny dance. Morgan sighed.

“Alright, go. I gotta do some work.”

“What you working on?”

Olivia tried to look over Morgan’s shoulder but the witch quickly moved her hands on top.

“Just some things.”

The younger girl’s eyebrows rose.

“Fine, have it your way. If you want to control your Relic you just gotta practice.”

She winked and left with a wave.

Morgan looked down at her notes. She had covered most of the writing but at the top, a lot of the first line was still visible:

How to control powers?

“Fffff…”

Morgan held back the swear. She didn’t fully understand why she was hiding her Relic from everyone. At least her family had a right to know. She didn’t even have to show the transformation, just say she could make potions with the right ingredients. There was still something in the back of her head that told her to keep it to herself. The biggest part of it was definitely the ‘unique’ classification.

The news had only confirmed three rarities until now. Common, being simple physical upgrades. It included speed, strength, dexterity and for some reason regeneration. Resilience was an uncommon. Her dad had that one. Other confirmed uncommons were sensory improvements and simple magic for only one element. It was highly likely Brad and Mrs Martin both had an uncommon Relic. The photographic memory from the article she read earlier also fell into that category. Above those stood rare. Flight was one of them, standing out easily. It also had magic with more than one element. There had to be more but many were probably hiding their abilities, just like Morgan.

Above rare was pure speculation. The gamers had gone to what they knew and were claiming the existence of very rare, epic, legendary, mythic and divine. Morgan was sure most of those didn’t exist. After all, if potion crafting was a unique, there could only be one or two additional steps in between that and rare. Unless the difference only started to play a role once she got a few levels. With the recipes available, Morgan had trouble imagining more powers aligning with potion crafting would come up for her. Anything she could think of was available. They didn’t always align exactly but when digging a little deeper, had the desired effect. When she tried to think of a mana potion, for example, the recipe that came up was called Elixir. There were several potencies of different scale but they all increased energy regeneration, whatever that meant in detail. She knew it would help restore the powers of someone that had used their Relic too much.

Morgan looked out the window, her eyes finding the thermos still standing on her desk.

“Oh, fuck!”, she muttered, “I totally forgot.”

She jumped up, put the can into her backpack and rushed out of her room.

“Hey, Morg”, Ellie called from the living room. The TV was running some kids show.

“Hey, El. Gonna be out for a bit. I’ll be back by dinner.”

Before she could hear an answer, Morgan was down the stairs and out the door. She slowed down her steps to a brisk walk as she stepped onto Tombland and crossed the street to catch the next bus. She was lucky as one came by just then. A few minutes later she exited at Castle Meadow. The Norwich Castle hid behind the green trees up on the hill. For a moment Morgan wondered if dragons would be a thing now and if so, would they catch princesses?

She shook her head and made her way west, away from the monument of past glory. Her steps led her to the colourful triangular roofs of the market. It had been rather deserted for the last year but now life had returned to the covered stands. She passed around and made her way onto Bethel Street further west. The forum with its library was imposing to her left. She had never liked the building much with its brick flanks and the pulled back glass front. At least there were a lot of nice books.

From there, it was only a short walk to Sylvester’s home. He lived with his father in a small apartment not far from Chapelfield Gardens. Morgan rang the bell and soon heard her friends voice through the intercom.

“Yes?”, he asked.

“Hey, Syl. It’s me.”

“Morg? Come on up!”

The door buzzed and after a flight of stairs, she found her old friend standing in the open door.

“Dad’s not home right now”, he said as he beckoned her inside, “He’s checking on Simon and Jude’s. Someone apparently snuck into it again.”

“Oh, I see. Could’ve saved a trip, then. Whatever. I got something for you.”

They settled down in the kitchen where Morgan pulled out the thermos.

“Some tea. It’s supposed to help with burns.”

“Oh? What kind?”

“Dunno, but it’s cold so I believe it.”

“Some power thing?”

She shrugged.

“Probably.”

“Alright, gimme some.”

He found a glass and poured some of the proclaimed tea.

“You want some?”

Morgan shook her head.

“I gotta get back soon for dinner.”

“Right. Your parents still busy all the time?”

“More than ever, now that everything’s open again.”

She followed her friend’s hand as it reached for the glass. As he lifted it to his lips, his eyebrows rose.

“What? You expecting something? This isn’t a prank, right?”

Morgan schooled her expression.

“Just drink. It’s good.”

Sylvester shrugged, before taking a careful sip.

“Sweet”, he remarked, “And what’s that? Is this stuff magical?”

Morgan just smiled. Then he downed the rest in one go. Sylvester let out a content sigh. His lips pulled into a soft smile as a hand went to his sternum and slowly traced down to his chest, right above the burn. Then his eyes widened. He looked down and hissed silently through his teeth.

“What’s this stuff, Morg? Holy shit. Where did you get…”

A hacking cough interrupted him. Then, the bandage underneath his tee slowly got pressed outwards.

“Oh, shit”, Morgan exclaimed, “Take off your shirt!”

She jumped up as Sylvester struggled with the offending piece of cloth. With her help, he managed to rip it off his head. The bandage cracked from the movement, pieces of frozen cloth falling to the ground, followed by a large chunk of dead, burnt skin. Underneath, fresh pink revealed itself.

Sylvester carefully touched the tip of a finger to it. He flinched back. Then he looked up at Morgan still standing above him.

“Guess it worked, huh?”, she said.

“Damn well, it did, Morg. Wow. Thank you.”

She smiled.

“You’re welcome. There’s still some left. You can keep it. I just need the thermos back tomorrow.”

He nodded, still baffled.

“Fucking magic…”, a mutter escaped his lips.

Right then, Morgan flinched back. A blue box had popped up in front of her face. She tried to ignore it and look past but it didn’t want to go away.

“Thanks, Morg”, Sylvester said, “That really helped.”

He was looking up at her through the blue screen only she could see.

‘Level Up!’, it read.

“Yeah, you’re welcome. Gotta go.”

“Wait!”

Before her friend could stop her, she was already out the door and on the street. She tried her best to see past the blue box until she found a secluded corner in Little Bethel Street to read in peace.

‘Level Up!

‘Choose an upgrade for your Relic!’

Morgan was ecstatic until she scanned the next line. Her eyes widened. Her heart pumped like crazy. Then, the nausea came and she tipped over against the wall. Unfocused, she followed the words once more, hoping they were not what she thought. But the truth didn’t change. She bent to the side and plastered the corner of the house with bile. Breathing heavily, she opened her eyes again. That damn box was still there and with it the cursed line:

‘Children’s Nightmare: Eat minors of intelligent species to restore your health and energy. More effective if they are fresh.’

She sunk down, barely avoiding the gunk on the floor by dropping to the side. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Why? What had she done to deserve such a terrible power? Why her? Why not some actual psychopath?

She sniffed and turned on her back. The bare asphalt had a moderate temperature, neither cold nor hot. Slowly her pulse calmed down. Morgan brought her hands in front of her face. Once more, the question went through her mind. Why? The blue box didn’t want to disappear but at least she could hide it behind her hands. She closed her eyes and slapped her cheeks. With a grunt and a tumble, she managed to stand up in the early evening air. The sun was bathing the tops of the trees in Chapelfield Gardens in a golden light. Children were playing on the grass, laughing and screeching in their happy ways. Morgan followed their running with her eyes. One of them spotted her staring and pointed. Again, her sight focused on the blue box. She pulled her lips tight and steeled her resolve.

‘No!’, she thought, ‘I’m NOT taking that’

And the box reacted.

‘Relic upgrade denied on user request. Recalculating…’

She frowned at the box. Was it some kind of computer? Then, the text changed again.

‘Recalculated. Available upgrade stored to backup. You may choose it any time you level up. Providing alternative. Selecting random traits. Please choose one.’

Morgan sighed in relief. She would not have to take the cannibalism power. The child cannibalism power. That would be the end of her mental health. Even just having the option was extremely disturbing. And it would show up every time she levelled up? Morgan shuddered. Finally, she read on.

‘Trait: Natural Agility (common): Improves dexterity of the user.

‘Trait: Arcane Strength (common): Improves strength of the user.

‘Trait: Poisoned Blood (uncommon): Reduces effects of poisons on the user. The user’s blood turns as poisonous as they can take without harm.’

The shouts from the kids pulled Morgan out of her thoughts. She waved and gave a wry smile before turning around and walking off. The blue box didn’t disappear, yet. She felt she had to choose one of the options for that to happen. Poisoned Blood was out immediately. It might be useful for some of her concoctions but it would harm anyone trying to help her if she got injured. Morgan knew it was only a matter of time before something bad happened to her. She didn’t want to be the reason things got worse.

That left strength and dexterity. Both of them sounded useful in their own way. She had told Sylvester she didn’t have a strength Relic but that would not influence her choice here. Going through her mind and carefully considering the recipes, she found most of them required grinding this or that ingredient. It would be useful to take strength for that. On the other hand, a mortar and pestle were more than enough, for now, and there were a few potions where she needed to be extremely precise. One of them was the improved health potion that combined closing wounds, restoring blood and numbing pain. Usually, those would be three different concoctions. Having them all in one sounded incredibly convenient. Making that Basic Rejuvenating Potion needed her to mix them in the perfect ratio with just the right timing. Dexterity sounded much better for that.

What settled her decision was the memory of her first upgrade option. If she got more terrible things like that, Morgan would only take traits. That meant strength was very much still on the table and she didn’t have to worry all that much. As soon as the system noticed her decision, the blue box vanished.

Immediately, she felt herself standing slightly taller. Her body found a more efficient and more comfortable position. Morgan slowly raised her hand to her face, feeling every muscle move. The feedback from her body was clearer than it had ever been. The tiny little shakes and inefficiencies were gone and she could move exactly as she intended. Well, almost. There was still a limit to how slow or fast she could go and she could not move in a way that would harm her muscles or ligaments. Still, it was a drastic improvement to the unathletic girl. She had never before felt so flexible and all that without a single yoga lesson.

Slowly, Morgan made her way home. She had some time yet before dinner and didn’t feel like facing her family right now. Her mind went back to the option the system had given her earlier. It clearly was an option and she was incredibly grateful for that. The main concern she had was anyone else getting something similar. The exact same was not happening. What else could it mean to have a unique Relic? She was the only one to have been offered fucking child cannibalism. The girl shuddered. It was incredibly scary. But it was only child cannibalism. What if someone got a Relic or an upgrade that made them eat normal people? What other terrible things might this system bring upon this world?

Morgan forced herself to think of something else. Kittens and rainbows. Yes, that was good to think about. Cute, fluffy kittens, black as the night. Colourful half circles in the sky. She got on the bus. A group of guys in their late teens sat at the far back, blasting hip-hop from a boom box. It smelled faintly of alcohol. Morgan’s nose itched. For a moment she was worried the transformation would happen right then and there but the feeling disappeared just as quickly as it had come. She was grateful for the distracting music. It was far from what she normally listened to but it still managed to get her mind off things.

Soon after, she arrived home. Her parents were in the process of closing the store, one last customer buying some cat food, while her father was taking the sign from the sidewalk inside. She forced a smile when he nodded to her.

Finally getting back into her home, she slumped into the couch next to Ellie still watching TV. Her little sister was too distracted to react but still cuddled up when Morgan pulled her close. They sat that way for almost an hour when their mother called them into the kitchen to help prepare dinner.

Today was curry and there was quite a bit of cutting to do. Morgan found it incredibly easy with her dexterity upgrade and at the same time had difficulty not playing around with the knife in front of her little sister.

Her mother was standing close to the stove, keeping an eye out one the cooking food while talking to Stumpy. The cat sat on the counter a little away from the heat and sounded like he was complaining. The woman answered calmly and too quiet for Morgan to hear. This had become the norm since initialization. Morgan’s mother, Bethany Moore, or Beth for short, was now Dr Doolittle. Sort of. She didn’t have the doctor part down, besides some basic animal care but she spoke to them just the same. After a while, Crawla entered the conversation and seemingly helped Beth to convince the other cat to stand down. Just before the curry was ready, the woman brought some food for the two cats. Soon after, everyone was eating. Gourmandizing silence filled the kitchen for a few minutes before everyone had reached a basic level of satiety. Then, the age-old question came.

“So, how was school? Anything exciting going on?”, their father asked.

Olivia piped up first.

“Other than that superhero wannabe flying past the windows and taunting everyone? Not really.”

“Oh? What kind of hero?”, mum asked.

“She had a supergirl kinda spandex costume with a huge A instead of an S. Purple and orange. With a helmet with visor covering most of her face. Looked kinda expensive.”

“I saw her too”, Morgan said, “She flew through the streets on my way back.”

Dad shook his head.

“Some people.”

“She was probably just having fun”, mum giggled, “What about you, Kitten?”

“There was this guy, Brad. Fire power. He was in my biology class. Got super angry for some reason and was about to punch the girl next to him. Then Syl jumped and knocked him to the ground. Took a hit in return, though.”

“Wait, Syl got hurt?”

“Nothing too bad. A slight burn on his chest and his tee is trash. Mr Lee put some salve on it and sent him home.”

“Oh, my! How terrible.”

Her father stared.

“Morgan. You gotta be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She nodded, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

“Of course, dad. I wouldn’t jump someone with a burning fist.”

He stared at her for a minute.

“Good.”

“Dear, don’t be like that. Morg is 17. She can take care of herself.”

“Thanks, mum”, Morgan said.

Bethany turned to the youngest member of their family.

“What about you, Little Sparrow?”

Ellie made a face. She was at that age where her nickname was embarrassing.

“Nothing happened. We don’t have anyone with Relics, other than the teachers.”

“Don’t be so disappointed, sweetie. It’s good to be normal.”

The girl harrumphed.

“Right, normal. As if anybody is normal anymore. Even Morg probably just hides some super magic.”

For a moment, all faces turned to her. Morgan had been the last in turn to talk about her Relic five days ago and decided to keep it to herself. They quickly looked away, not wanting to pressure her.

The witch gave a weak smile.

“Even so, that doesn’t mean we can’t live like normal people with a little bit extra”, mum said.

Olivia snorted.

“You can talk to animals, mum. I make plants grow super fast. That’s more than a little extra. I could probably get a job as a farmer and make multiple harvests a year. Or become a florist and just have a few seeds ready to grow into whatever people want.”

“So unfair…”, Ellie mumbled.

“You’ll get your super awesome Relic, El”, Morg tried to lift her sister’s spirit, “Just have to wait a bit.”

Ellie turned to the remains of her food and ignored her. Mum smiled softly at her eldest daughter.

“I’m just happy if all of you are safe”, she said, “Try not to get caught up in a fight, okay?”

The conversation trailed off to less dramatic topics. Dinner was family time and everyone loved it, most of the time.

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