Published: May 9th 2025, 2:00:05 pm
4-7 Years after Elaine became a professor at the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft
I could tell from halfway across town that something was wrong with Sara. She was sniffing, head down and shoulders hunched over as she dragged her feet along the cobblestone streets, heading back towards home. If she looked any worse I would’ve rushed right over and demanded to know what was wrong.
“Sara’s going to need some tender loving care.” I told Auri, briefly wondering if I should send the phoenix out to grab Iona and Nina so everyone could be around. Then again… it would be harder to open up to everyone, versus just one or two people. At the same time, I did have to give a lecture in a little less than an hour, and I didn’t want to be late. Mmmm… decisions…
A sure one was to send a quick message to Night and Tobias. Iona had told me about Night’s third class and what it could do - Mirror was absolutely broken, I’d been right - but he’d graciously accepted my invitation to crash in the [Manor] when needed. Three rooms were set aside for him and his apprentice, and they used it for extra training and studying, before returning to their island home.
It was hilarious and heartwarming to see the crush Sara had on Tobias. Iona and I had a bet going on how that’d end up. My money was riding on them briefly dating, then separating and moving on. Iona was sure Tobias would remain oblivious until they were both adults. Artemis, Nina, Auri, and Fenrir also had their stakes, and the fact we were betting on Sara’s love life was a secret of the highest level.
Wait… fuck. Had the Rangers been betting on my love life back in the day!? Artemis had that extra-amused smirk when she bet…
Either way, Sara would be mortified if Tobias caught her in this state, and the last thing I needed was for her to grab a skill that let the ground open up and swallow her whole.
Night,
Sara’s having a moment.
Elaine.
I didn’t need to explain more than that. The benefit of working with an ancient Immortal!
Unless he thought it’d be an excellent character building moment for Tobias, but I doubted he’d annoy me just for that. I [Teleported] the note over to him, and saw him briefly smile before starting Tobias on a new set of drills.
“Brpt!” Auri flitted over to the library, an instinctive and an entirely unfair gut clenching fear rippling through my stomach once again. That much fire next to that many books… intellectually, I knew it was going to be fine, didn’t stop me from worrying. Auri came back with eight stone tablets rotating around her, eight different ‘tender loving welcome home’ snack mixups. “Brrpt?” She asked. I pointed to one.
“Let’s stick with Sara’s favorite. Brownies and milk.” I said. “We’ve got nine minutes at her current pace. I’ll do the milk half.”
I knew Auri could set things on fire with just a look, and was grateful she’d chosen not to immolate me for my joke.
“Brrpt!” Auri agreed to the division… and promised swift and terrible vengeance once the Sara crisis was resolved. Possibly by rearranging all the books in my library again. I was honestly impressed by her dedication to making the entire thing alphabetical, even managing to translate various works and slot them into the correct spot.
The phoenix hadn’t been baking the same things time and time again, no, baking was a sacred art to the bird. Using some black magic that I could see, get the theory of, but continued to utterly baffle me, she basically baked the brownies as she mixed them all together, then carefully managed to pull the heat from them. What would take me over an hour with the oven, between cooking and cooling, took Auri seven minutes. The brownies were steaming on the table as Sara slunk in through the door and dropped her bag. A subtle Wind spell wafted the scent of brownies in Sara’s direction, and I saw her nose twitch as the scent hit her. I grinned and high-winged Auri. She fluttered up to her perch and stuck her beak up in the air, waiting for her admiring audience to heap praise on her skills.
Sara peeked into the kitchen a moment later, her huge eyes doing nothing to hide the tear tracks on her face. The teenager’s horns were coming in, and hormones had Sara firmly in their control.
“Hi Sara. How was school? You okay?” I asked, gesturing to the brownies and milk clearly set out for her. She accepted the invitation, only pausing for Auri.
“Thanks Aunt Auri, the brownies smell divine. And they’re my favorite!” She said. The elf brightened up on the first bite, before hunching back over and sniffling. We let her be while the first three brownie squares went down the hatch, then I asked my questions again.
“Sara? Is everything alright? What happened at School?” I asked. A defiant look was my only answer. I looked at Auri - who cheekily winked at me, before fluffing herself up and going back to beak-in-the-ceiling - and sighed.
Teenagers. I swear, I’d never been this bad as one… no matter how many stories Artemis retold of the mischief I’d gotten up to. I had no idea how she’d managed to mess with my [Astral Archives] skill. They totally hadn’t happened like that. My actions had been perfectly reasonable and well thought out! Mostly.
“I can’t help you if you don’t share.”
The tears were back, but some vibe, some second mom sense I’d developed over the years, told me it wasn’t that bad.
“You’ll still love me even… even if I got a bad grade?” Sara sniffled.
It took every single ounce of my self control not to burst out laughing in Sara’s face. That was not what she needed, and it was somewhat understandable. She’d staked her pride on being the best student ever. Open-minded, willing and able to learn like nobody else could. It was an excellent way to try and duck a number of aspects to the elven curse… but yikes, I hadn’t expected this reaction to a bad grade.
I [Teleported] around the table and hugged Sara from behind.
“Of course I’ll love you if you got a bad grade. I’ll always love you.” I promised the hormonal teenager. “Do you want to tell me about it? Talking helps.”
She sniffed again.
“Aunty Artemis gave me a B- on my homework.”
Must. NOT. LAUGH.
“Professor Artemis, when she’s teaching.” I idly corrected, giving myself more time to collect my thoughts and the proper framing. Sara was taking What a squishy civilian needs to know about combat, fighting, and survival, and I had to side-eye Artemis’s naming sense. Undeniably useful for an Immortal. “No need to get so worked up over it. Consider it a secondary learning opportunity. Research the areas you got wrong, repeat and drill them until you’ve gotten them right. Don’t make the same mistake twice.”
“But I did research it!” Sara protested. “I did give the correct answer that was in the books!” I quickly scanned her homework, still inside its bag, along with the textbook Sara had dutifully brought home with her. Huh. Would you look at that, Sara did have the right answer. According to the textbook.
I honestly wasn’t sure if that was relevant to Artemis or not though…
I raised an eyebrow, not that Sara could see it. Auri laughed hysterically on her perch, even going so far as to ‘fall off’ it onto the table.
“Honey… you know Artemis cheats wildly.” I gently pointed out. “This could be a constructive lesson on cheating, life and fights being unfair, and dealing with unexpected situations. Or maybe she made a math error when summing up the points.” That one I knew wasn’t the case, but it was worth Sara considering other options. “Or she disagrees with the textbook and the lectures have different content. Or, knowing your perfectionism streak, she’s deliberately throwing you a challenge to see how you’ll handle it. Or she made a genuine mistake marking the question. None of this is a reflection on you deliberately.”
“You think?” Sara asked with a mix of wonder and anger.
“I know.” I affirmed.
Sara lit up.
“Oh! It’s basically secret, bonus homework! Thanks mom, love you, bye!” She grabbed the entire plate of brownies, jumped up, ran out the door, ran back into the kitchen, balanced her cup of milk on the tray, then ran back out and to her room. I slowly shook my head as I watched all her antics.
“That girl will be the death of me.” I told Auri.
“Brrrpt.” Auri fluttered up to my shoulder, then did her best effort at patting my back with her tiny wing.
“But we love her.” I agreed.
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Half of my [Luminary Mind] thought processes were working through the initial diagrams of my Heal rune, the rest of me was devouring a half-dozen different books on runecrafting, working through student examples, and crafting my own basic runes. Mostly retracing paths others had already taken, making the building blocks that would eventually end in my ambition. I was so focused on my various tasks that I missed Sara bursting into my office.
“Mom! Mom! Uh, Professor Mom! It’s DONE!” Sara triumphantly slammed a thick stack of notes onto my desk, then looked a little sheepish.
“Um. Whoops, sorry mom. I got a little excited there.”
I rubbed the top of her head.
“No harm, no foul. What have we got here?” I asked, already skimming through the entire design.
“My first major biomancy project!” Sara proudly proclaimed. “Me!”
I chuckled as I saw one of the elements in my initial design in hers as well. They grew up so fast! Sara was planning on Celestial Healing and Forest Biomancy as her first two classes, and entirely skipping the idea of cycling her classes. She knew what she wanted.
“Would you like me to review it?” I offered. “Work on getting you gold on your presentation?” She shyly nodded.
“Please?” She asked.
I grinned, and gestured to a cozy armchair.
“First off, timing. You’re not done with puberty, give it a few more years to let everything settle and finalize.” I said. Sara pouted at that, and I moved right along. “The two heart structure is something I looked into myself. The immediate issue is blood pressure. Fundamentally, you haven’t built in a redundancy with this approach, you’ve built in a second point of failure. Oxygenating the brain is crucial, and either your blood pressure is far too high normally, with all the attendant issues, or a single heart alone can’t provide enough pressure to properly move blood around. If you’re relying on healing to get the second heart back in action, then you’re already relying on healing.” I found myself effortlessly slipping into my Professor Elaine persona, delightedly lecturing an eager student. Fond memories of my own biomancy notes and projects danced through my mind as I continued to spend quality time with Sara. “The grid capillaries are interesting, but it’s one area where nature and the gods…”
We spent the evening chatting about her project, staying up far too late. Which was also part of the School experience.
=====================
There were just barely enough [Professors] that I could be recused from being on any of Sara’s examination panels.
I was allowed to hand out the certificates. Everyone was in the audience, including Arachne.
“The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft is pleased to recognize Sara’s achievements in the field of Medicine. She has earned a gold rating on her graduation.” I beamed as I handed Sara the first of many certificates, and my daughter shook my hand. All grown up, but she’d always be my little girl. “The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft is pleased to recognize Sara’s achievements in the field of Biomancy. She has earned a gold rating on her graduation.”
I couldn’t be more proud. We traded a tearful hug at the end.
“I love you. Congratulations.”
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105 Years after Elaine became a professor at the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft
“Dawn! Letter came in for you. You friends with some dwarves or something?” The [Captain] shouted from his office.
“Um, no.” I said, having not spied on things with my skills. “Why do you ask?”
“The ‘letter’ is the size and shape of a large rock. Get over here and get your mail out of the way.” He barked in a friendly way.
My curiosity was piqued, and I quickly grabbed my mail. The [Captain] had been literal with his description.
From: Sara
To: Elaine (That’s her name), possibly going by Dawn, Sentinel Dawn, Dawn, Dawn, Dawn, or Dawn. Also Iona, the Dusk Valkyrie, Aoife Auri Stentor, Fenrir.
She missed a few Dawn’s there. I liked my languages. I swear half of the ‘to’ field was to tweak the [Courier’s] nose. She knew where I was and what alias I was working under.
The cover letter was far too short, she’d discovered over the years exactly how to push my buttons.
Hi moms!
Love you, miss you!
Things are going well here, and if you want to know more, COME VISIT. I know you’ve got the time and means to pop over for tea, and if you want to spoil your grandchildren rotten, you better make time!
Anyways, this letter is to say I WAS RIGHT. HA.
Proof attached.
All my love,
Sara.
I sat down heavily, the stack of papers taking on new meaning as tears welled up in my eyes.
“Bad news?” The [Captain] asked, suddenly no longer trying to throw me and my mail out of the office. I sniffed.
“Yes and no.” I vacillated. “I… I think I’m going to need to take the next three weeks off.” I glared at the man, daring him to argue it. He demonstrated a wisdom no [Adventurer] had and immediately agreed.
“Take as much time as you need.” He said. I didn’t bother restraining myself in the slightest. I mixed flying at mach 5 with [Teleportation] to reach our home in record time, opened up [Portcullis], and threw myself into my favorite library study corner. A [Teleport] brought the stack over, and I started to skim it.
How to mostly distinguish combatants from civilians in sieges and other battle situations. A comprehensive treatise on image manipulation and [Persistent Casting] by Sara.
I started to read, tears dripping freely as I analyzed the dense essay.
Fight or flight reflex releases hormones… acid production from various muscles indicates use… grouped conditionals for actions… sustained movements… statistical narrow bands demonstrating trained warriors versus civilians… the mage problem…
“Ciriel.” I whispered to the goddess. “Ciriel, she’s done it.” I was freely crying.
That is one of the finest additions to the field of medicine I’ve ever seen. Ciriel replied with awe. I’m going to declare it part of the holy book.
The image of [Priests] trying to haul around the brick regularly made me laugh, the tears not stopping. It wasn’t perfect, but I knew it was going to save countless lives.
If only I had known. If only I had been more clever. If only I had thought of it.
“Thank you.” I whispered to Sara, wishing the winds would carry my words the hundreds of miles.