Hello readers!

I’m back. I  hope you all had a good holiday and a good week. While the author (Melinda) was out on her daily walk, I snuck onto her laptop. What? She left her laptop on and alone in her apartment. It’s not my fault the portal happened to open just then to allow my eager fingers access. Besides, I just had to share a picture of a rainbow slicing from my world to yours!

I saw it while dad was delivering the “I have to go away for a while” talk. Picture this. We’re sitting side by side on an ornamental stone bench on my dad’s favorite balcony. Beyond the over-decorated balustrade, the meadow stretches out towards the Enchanted Forest. Those giant trees weren’t happy about my dad’s travel plans either though it could have been the rain making them droop. Or I might be projecting my sadness onto them. Uncle Miren claims I do this a lot. But what does he know?

Nothing. I’m a sensitive child, and I have magic too. My magic doesn’t do very much yet, but I have faith it will grow. So we’re sitting and talking, both of us sad. Okay, I might have cried a little. It’s not right. I should be with him. How am I supposed to learn to use my magic if I’m here in boring Mount Eredren and he’s out there doing interesting magical things?

Exactly.

I can’t go with him because it’s not safe. 😔 When has it ever been safe to be around him? My dad’s a magnet for trouble. If it doesn’t come looking for him, he goes and finds it. Of course, he can’t help it.

There are two varieties of magic–the premeditated kind and the intuitive one. Guess which one my dad has. I’ll give you a hint; it’s not the first one. Most of the magical stuff my dad does is accidental. If you asked him to do a magic trick for you, he’d just stare at you dumbfounded. But sling a blade at him, and he’ll throw up a shield to deflect it. All the cool spellwork he does is situational. Take him away from the stimulus, and he’s a regular guy.  Since his magic is 99% reactive, I have to be there to see what he does. You know from reading Curse Breaker: Enchanted, my dad’s a quiet one.

Nature tried to cheer me up by drying up the rain and producing a rainbow. And for a few minutes, I was distracted by it. But now I’m sad. I want my dad to stay here but he can’t. So long as the stupid Lord of the Mountain owns my dad, he has to do what the Lord says.

This is all Uncle Miren’s fault. My dad indentured himself for my ungrateful uncle before I was born. And sometimes, he regrets his decision. My dad never says so in words, but I see the regret in his luminous eyes. And I endorse it.

Enjoy your weekend. I’m going to spend as much time with my dad as I can before he has to leave.

— Ran, son of Sarn