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“Annie is going,” Ere interjected before Benjamin could put his foot down.
“Two heads are better than one,” he said quickly, before his son could gather his arsenal of counterarguments.
“She’s not helpless, after all. A fire witch could come in handy.”
“I thought you said you lost all of your powers when you went on these quests,” Benjamin pointed out.
Damn the boy and his elephant memory.
“Yes, but certain powers remain,” Ere deflected. “You still heal faster than the average human even if you lose your immortality.”
“Well, we’re mortal to begin with,” Annie said, “so we can’t lose something we don’t have.”
“Right,” Ere agreed. Why must these young’uns be so logical?
“And just because Sorin and I couldn’t shift into our Beast forms doesn’t mean other powers are also always suppressed.”
“It’s not like I have any cool powers,” Benjamin grouched, folding his arms. “All I can do is see people’s true forms.”
“But I might still be able to cast some spells,” Annie said. “After all, spells use the energy that surrounds us. Not all spells draw from our own magic. Even if I lost all of my Gifts on this adventure, nothing prevents me from harnessing the energy of whichever world we’re going to.”
“Fine,” Benjamin allowed begrudgingly.
“You can come.”
“How magnanimous of you, Benji,” Annie teased with a small grin, nudging him with her shoulder.
He nudged her back with his.
“All right, kids,” Ere focused their attention back on the pressing matter at hand.
“Just remember some simple rules. No staying in the time and place you’re being sent to. No bringing anyone back to the present. You’ll arrive at the place and time in accoutrements that will help you fit in. You’ll be able to understand any language the locals speak, and you’ll naturally speak the local dialect in turn.”
“Sick,” Benjamin said.
Ere frowned slightly at his deplorable teenage slang, but decided that this was not the time to nitpick.
“You won’t have any accessories,” he went on. “No weapons, no money, no pocket snacks and other goodies.”
“And no smart phones, I’m guessing,” Annie interjected. “No smart anything.”
“Obviously not,” Ere concurred.
“The only smarts you’ll have is up here.” He tapped his temple to demonstrate.
“You will take with you nothing anachronistic, aside perhaps from your modern speech patterns. Though that anomaly has never given me undue issues.”
“Sweet,” Benjamin put in.
Ere resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes, the boy did it just to irk him.
“You’ll have to find a way to procure necessities. And you have to complete the task before the sands of the Jade Emperor’s arbitrary sandglass run out.”
Annie, for one, nodded excitedly.
“It’s like a jacked up easter egg hunt or game of Clue!”
Teenagers and their irrepressible optimism and naivete, Ere thought. They probably believed they were all invincible. Ah, ye ignorant youths.
