Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

“Finish…it…,” Sera mumbled.

“Right, right. You know, you really look quite unwell. You probably should see a healer or something. You humans are so fond of those.”

The karvensi took to the air, flying high above the writhing wyvern. “You really are quite a disappointment, wyvern. I expected better from one of the serpent’s children. But alas, few can match my own splendor.”

It gestured to the air above it. “This should put an end to your struggles, I think.”

A dark cloud gathered at the top of the stage, electricity crackling in its midst.

The karvensi turned away from the wyvern, bowing in the air to the crowd. “Enjoy the light show, humans.”

Lightning struck from a dozen angles at once.

The wyvern hissed, its flesh sizzling where each impact had struck. It rolled over, raising its wings toward the lightning in a blocking gesture.

“Really? You need more?” The karvensi sighed. “Fine. You’re resilient, at least, I’ll give you that. More lightning it is.”

More flashes from the cloud. Dozens upon dozens of them.

Finally, the wyvern lay still, and began to fade.

Sera reached up with a shaking hand, muttering a single word. “Bind.”

Symbols whirled around the creature’s fading form, and I laughed so hard it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

She was half-dead down there, and she was still thinking about adding another monster to her summoning collection.

Maybe we really were family after all.

As the wyvern faded, the audience stood in uproarious applause.

I rushed out of my booth, past a guard, and tried desperately to find the stairs.

I needed to make sure that Sera was safe.

It took a considerable amount of arguing, but I eventually managed to get one of the guards to let me into the “recovery room”, where both Sera and Derek were waiting.

Sera was lying on a sofa, shivering uncontrollably. A man I didn’t recognize sat in a chair next to her.

Derek was sitting in another chair, his feet up on a footrest.

“Ah, Corin. Thanks for coming down to see us. Wasn’t that an incredible show?”

I punched him in the face.

Derek fell backward at the impact, clutching his face. “What the—”

“You brought a first year student into this… pit with only minutes of preparation. Yes, she agreed to it, but she couldn’t have possibly known the degree of danger that she was in.” I raised a hand and pointed. “ Look at her , Derek. Look at the condition she’s in.”

Derek narrowed his eyes, still clutching his nose. It was bleeding. Good. “That’s on you, too. You’re the one I asked first.”

“Yeah, and I probably deserve more than what I just gave you. She can punch me as much as she feels like. For the moment, though, I’m going to see if I can get her warm. And you can help, rather than sitting on your ass.”

Derek’s clenched his fists, pulling one back like he was going to strike me…but he slowly growled and unclenched them, putting his hands back down.

“You’re right.” He lowered his head. “There was no way either of you were ready for that. I didn’t think that Elora… but never mind. That’s not important. Let’s see to your sister.”

I nodded curtly.

The man next to her turned out to be a Mender, but he’d quickly identified that her problem was from mana loss, and there was little he could do beyond making sure her condition didn’t deteriorate further.

I glanced at Derek. “Your weapons. Can you summon that golden entity, the one that transferred mana to her earlier?”

He shook his head. “I have to store mana in the weapons for weeks to get enough to summon them in a physical form. She’ll be long recovered before I can call on Tavare again.”

I took off my coat, draping it over Sera. She barely responded.

I glanced at the Mender. “Do you carry mana potions here?”

He shook his head. “No, they expire quickly. I do know an alchemist nearby, but those potions are expensive.”

My head turned to Derek. “The winnings. They must be substantial.”

Derek nodded. “She’ll be quite wealthy when she recovers, at least by first year standards.”

“We’re going to buy her mana potions. Enough for a quick and comfortable recovery. With your share of the money.”

He glowered at me for a moment, but let out a resigned sigh. “Fine. I will do this as recompense. But after this, no more punching?”

I nodded. “Not from me. I can’t make any promises about what she’s going to do when she gets up.”

“Acceptable.”

The medic gave us directions. Derek and I both boggled at the cost of mana potions — twenty silver for a single draught — but the winnings were more than sufficient to cover the three potions I decided she’d probably need.

Sera was completely unconscious by the time we returned. Her shivering had stopped, but the Mender assured me that she was alive. With the Mender’s help, we gingerly fed her a sip of the first potion and waited.

I sat her head on my lap, like mother had done for me when we were children. And, after hours passed with no sign of change, I fell asleep.

“Corin.”

“Corin, wake up.”

My eyes blinked their way open. Derek was sitting next to me.

I almost punched him again. My lack of punching ended up being mostly due to my arm being asleep. Sera was on top of it, still unconscious.

I didn’t remember the non-punching agreement until at least several moments later. “Derek.”

He nodded. “Good, you’re awake. I need to go. I’ve been here all night, and my family will be concerned.”

I glanced down at Sera. “Has she woken up at all?”

Derek shook his head. “No, no sign of it yet. The medic left a few hours ago. He’s convinced she’s on the mend. We fed her another sip of the first draught, but it’s hard to get anything into her while she’s asleep. You can give her the full potion when she wakes up, but she’ll need water with it.”

“No.”

He blinked. “No?… No what?”

“You don’t get to leave without apologizing to her.”

Derek sighed. “Look, I did stay all night, and I am quite sorry for what happened. It was irresponsible of me to drag you two into this with so little warning, but I needed a partner, and—”

“Did you know Elora was going to be summoning that beast?”

“No.” His tone was firm. “All I knew was that she refused to join me in the arena tonight. I had no idea she was planning this…charade.”

I tilted my head down. “And did you learn she wasn’t joining you in the arena before or after you asked me to come to your show?”

Derek winced. “Before. But I thought I could find another friend, a veteran, who could take her place! I just ran out of time.”

“And you were desperate enough to put children in danger.”

He sighed. “I was confident I could handle it myself. Summoned monsters are usually considerably weaker than real ones. I normally don’t even have to use my bound weapons. With them, I thought this would be trivial, even without Elora’s help. Obviously, I was mistaken.”

I could understand his perspective, but after seeing the degree of danger Sera had been in, I wasn’t going to let him off lightly. “You should tell her that.”

“I will! I can come back. But I have people who are going to be worried about me. I’d think you of all people should understand that.”

It was a low blow, but he wasn’t wrong.

I may have sounded a bit uncharacteristically snarly with my response. “Fine. You can tell your family that you’re safe. But you’re coming back. And if we’re gone by the time you get back here, you’re going to come to the campus and apologize to her directly.” My eyes narrowed. “And you will not ask her to join you again.”