Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

“I understand. That is…quite reasonable, given what happened.”

I sighed, putting a hand on Sera’s forehead. She mumbled something unintelligible and rolled over, but didn’t wake. “Go on. I’ll see you soon enough.”

“I’ll have the owners bring you her share of the winnings.”

I nodded. I wasn’t going to thank him for that.

I turned my head away, and Derek left us in silence.

By the next morning, Sera was almost ready to move. Her legs wobbled as she tried to stand, though, and I had to catch her from falling backward.

“I want to go home.” Sera frowned, burying her face in her hands.

I stood up, awkwardly putting a hand on her head. “I’ll make it happen, then. Don’t try to get up without me.”

She grumbled a little bit, but finally slumped back down on the couch.

It took me about a half hour to find someone in management and convince them to send a couple of the staff to help me carry Sera home. We were fortunate that injuries and mana exhaustion were common enough events that they always had overnight staff.

While we were heading down to pick up Sera, one of the staff members — a bouncer, from the look of him, remarked, “At least she didn’t get torn up like the last team.”

“What happened to them?”

“Ogre nearly tore one of the guy’s arms off, then smashed his partner in the face. Had to rush them both to the hospital.”

That revelation did wonders for my mood.

I decided that next time, I’d put my gauntlet back on before punching Derek.

All in all, three of us took turns carrying Sera until we managed to get her back to her dorm. And by “taking turns”, I mean the two of them took turns, and I “supervised”. I wasn’t strong enough to carry Sera more than a block at best.

The medic deemed her “stable” before we left, but advised me to keep a close eye on her, and to take her to the hospital if she started coughing blood.

A lovely image, that.

All in all, we were both in a pretty terrible mood by the time we set Sera down in her own bed. She looked pale, like she’d suffered serious blood loss, but I hadn’t seen any bleeding.

I thanked the two staff members that helped carry her — it wasn’t their fault she’d gotten hurt — and grabbed her some food from the cafeteria. By the time I got back, she’d fallen back to sleep.

A few hours later, Sera woke in a ravenous state. I handed her the food I’d retrieved. It wasn’t fresh, but I still deemed it edible. She devoured it.

“How are you feeling?” I tried to put a smile on my face, but it was one of those obviously fake ones that I knew she’d see right through.

“Terrible.” She took another sip of the mana potion that I’d put next to her food. “This tastes like burning.”

At least she was feeling strong enough to complain. “You’re going to be drinking that lovely fire for a while. Your arm is in the worst shape, but it looks like you were drawing from other mana sources, too.”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Which ones? It’s important that I know in case I need to get you to a hospital.”

Sera took another sip of the potion, grimacing, and then whispered her reply. “…all of them?”

“What was that? I’m not sure I heard you.”

“I said all of them, Corin. And, before you get into a lecture—”

I folded my arms. “You seriously risked drawing mana from your heart and your brain , Sera? That’s dangerous enough for people who have attunements in their locations. You could have killed yourself!”

She slammed the potion bottle down hard. “I am not in a mood for this argument, Corin. When your arms are hurting too much to move them, and your legs are drained to the point where you can’t stand, you’ll do what you need to do. ”

My jaw tightened. I wanted to argue, but this wasn’t the time. “You’re hurt, so I’m not going to fight with you. But I’m not comfortable with you pushing yourself like that.”

“You don’t have to be. That’s the great part about this being my body , Corin. I can do whatever I want with it.” She jabbed a piece of egg with her fork. “And I do appreciate your concern, I really do, but I’m not a child. And I’m not your retainer. You can’t give me orders.”

I leaned back in my chair. “That’s fine. I know I can’t order you around. But you’re…my sister, so I was worried about you.”

Sera’s eyes narrowed. “Sister, eh?” She took a bite of the egg, setting her fork down. “I think this might be the first time you’ve called me that without sounding sarcastic.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “You’re probably right. I’m sorry. I’ll try to be twice as sarcastic next time to make up for the lapse.”

It took days before Sera was walking unassisted again, which meant I got to spend a lot of “quality” time with her.

Normally, the mana in her legs would have recovered in hours, but she’d drained herself so significantly that her body was having to prioritize what it restored first.

The first mana potion helped speed the process along a bit, getting her to the point where she could stand, but she refused to drink the other two, claiming that they made her feel nauseated.

I looked into that a little — it was apparently a pretty common side effect. I decided to dig into how mana potions worked a little later. They wouldn’t offer permanent improvements like the enhancement elixirs I had tried to research before, but I knew it’d still be useful to figure out how to manufacture them.

We were heading to the dining hall when it occurred to me to ask a critical question. “Did they ever end up paying you?”

She shook her head. “I got a letter explaining that I’d get my cut in about three weeks. It’s pretty significant, though.”

“How significant is pretty significant?”

“Two hundred silver sigils.”

I let out an appreciative whistle. “I’ve never had money like that.”

She chuckled. “No kidding. I don’t think I’ve ever had a quarter of that. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with it.”

“Might I suggest investing in one of your favorite Enchanters?”

Sera let out a snort. “I’ll think about it. It does mean I can afford to have you make me a gauntlet, at least.”

“I could make you something much better than that gauntlet with two hundred silver. But it’d be smarter for me to practice on some smaller things first, so I was sort of serious about the investment.”

“I’ll think about it. For now, food.”

It was her first day back at the dining hall — I’d been bringing food back to her room while she’d been unable to make the journey — so she set into the hall with reckless abandon.

By the time we sat down, she was carrying two full trays, and I was carrying another tray for her, in addition to my own.

There was zero chance she’d be eating all this, but fortunately the dining hall did let us pack up any left overs. Which, by the look of it, would be virtually everything.

We hadn’t talked much about the fighting. She’d been pretty miserable during the recovery, so I tried to keep us focused on other topics. Now that she was back on her feet, though, I had some questions.

“That binding thing you were doing. That’s how Summoners get their new spells?”

She looked contemplative, even as she eviscerated a potato. “Sort of. The binding spell teaches my attunement how to make an inferior copy of whatever I hit with it. It’s not like having a real contract with a monster. A real contract is much more versatile.”