“Mack, I have tested her to the extent which I am able. She is quite strong in energy reading. Her eyes need some training, but she has the ability.”
My mouth was full, so I nodded to show I was listening and following. Not sure where he was going with this, though.
“She will never be a chaos magician. She doesn’t have the right combination of skills for it.” Seiji lifted a staying hand. “That said, she can use her eyes to good effect. The lockers, for instance, she can undo once trained.”
I stopped chewing, trying not to gape at the man, but my eyes were in danger of falling out. I beg your fucking pardon?!
“Most of what I do is because I can read the energy. I know what element, what force, to apply for the best effect.” Seiji pointed to the teenager sitting on the couch not five feet away, happily explaining her amulet to an interested Hannah. “She can do the same. She’ll need more tools, more time, but she can do it.”
I hastily swallowed to blurt out, “If she was fully trained and on a case just like this one, how much could she do?”
“Hmm…I think everything but that dark creature in the mines. And whatever it’s done to create its lair in the depths. But she could tackle the rest. It would take her longer, as I said, as she’d need to use more tools to manage. But it’s feasible. To be precise, she can see energy, and with the right tools, she can destroy, redirect, and rebuild energy patterns. She won’t be able to handle things like portals or vortexes, as she’s not powerful enough to deal with them. But she can put up barriers against them, buy time for a true chaos magician to come in. With the right prep and time, she can handle small stone lockers as well.”
“Fuck,” I breathed almost reverently. I had no idea my apprentice could become a badass like this.
“Mack, do you know a single Energy Reader?”
“Not like you mean, no. I know a Reader, my brother-in-law, but that’s not the same, right?”
“Hmm, it’s a different type of energy they’re reading. He’s reading life energy, a different subset.” Seiji frowned. “I am sure you can find someone through the agency, but…this sits ill with me.”
My tingling spidey sense said if I spoke the right words, I might be able to keep Seiji. I didn’t know him well, but I had this feeling he’d be an awesome friend. I just had to make some friendly overtures.
“Can you train her?” I batted hopeful eyes.
“Rather, may I?” He glanced longingly over his shoulder. “I am a relative stranger to you, I understand why you might hesitate. Still, the potential I see in her… It feels a travesty to not train her.”
“Seiji, honestly, I’m totally in the dark on how to train her talent. So if you’re willing to teach her, I think you’re the best fit.” I could see him hesitating, and it was a bit much to demand this of someone I’d known for a day. “In truth, she’s my first apprentice. I’m floundering a bit on how to properly train her. I’d be so relieved if you helped me.”
His hesitation faded, replaced with a smile. “I think you’re doing fine, Mack. She’s picking things up quickly, from what I’ve seen, and she had all sorts of stories about you while we were shopping.”
For some reason, his words made me shy, almost embarrassed. “Um, well, thanks. That’s good to hear.”
His tension eased and his expression smoothed out. “I will try and train her while we work here, and if all goes well, then we can discuss how to manage lessons after we separate. How’s that?”
“I think you’ve thought of a great way to handle it.”
“Let us do so. I will bring her mostly with me unless I am going into the mines. The beast down there is not something she should be around until fully trained.”
“Yeah, good call.” Now… “What is the beast in the mines?”
“I do not know.” Seiji made a face, mouth puckered up in distaste. “I wish I did. I am not sure how to combat it, or how we might safely go in after it. Lachlan says hunting for it will bepure barry, whatever that means.”
“Oh. Oh, that’s not good.” I winced and started looking around for Davina. Ah, there she was, in the kitchen behind me. “Davina, correct me if wrong, but doesn’t pure barry mean something epically fun?”
“Aye, that’ll do.” She came closer with a plate of steaming food and plonked herself at the head of the table, joining us. “Why?”
“Lachlan said hunting down the beast in the mines would be pure barry.”
Davina stopped mid-spear of her fork and groaned, head dropping dramatically. “Shite.”
She said that single word likelord deliver us, which basically told me all I needed to know. I knew Lachlan to be an adrenaline junkie; his form of addiction just came with hunting down spookems most normal people would flinch from. Or, you know, run from.
Lachlan clearly overheard some part of this as he sauntered by with a beer in his hand. “What’s this about barry?”
“Beastie in the mines,” Davina clarified while giving her cousin a patented I-knew-he-was-stupid look only family could deliver. “You think it’ll be barry to go in after it.”
“Oh, aye, pure barry.” He looked wistful. “Dark mines that haven’t seen the light of day, ever, a beastie we can’t put name to, intersecting mines with no map and no knowledge of the layout—oh, aye, that’s pure barry.”
