Chapter 258: Family’s Parting on the Eve of Change

“Father, you forgot your pipe,” Theresa said, waving the pipe as she poked her head in from the balcony.”

“Hoo! I would’ve missed that!” her father said, taking the prized pipe, then tapping it in his palm. “All those fine herbs Alex gave me would’ve gone to a right waste if I’d left this behind.”

“Oh, Alex, tell me you didn’t!” Mrs. Lu looked up from organising their clothing. “You know how much I hate the smell of that stuff!”

Alex raised his hands in a ‘not guilty’ gesture, laughing nervously. “I picked the nicest smelling herbs I could find, Mrs. Lu: the smell’s like incense from Ar-Bishah. Mr. Lu’ll impress your friends!”

“More like make me retch with that habit of his,” Mrs. Lu sighed then turned toward her husband. “Zimo, please don’t smoke anywhere near me when we get shipboard. You know I won’t be able to get away from you puffing like a dragon then!”

“I won’t, I won’t, I promise,” Mr. Lu said, also raising his hands in a ‘not guilty’ gesture.

Mrs. Lu returned to organising their luggage while Theresa went to help her mother. Her father leaned in toward Alex.

“Technically, if I go up on deck and maybe lean over the ship’s rail a bit,” he whispered. “The pipe’ll be over the ocean, not on the ship. And that’s the ticket, my boy…just so long as I don’t fall overboard.”

He winked, then turned to busy himself with packing the sets of hardened glass steins he was taking back with them. Glass goods were a lot less pricey and of much higher quality in Generasi than in Thameland, or even the Rhinean Empire so, Mr. Lu and Mrs. Lu had bought several sets for the family inn, and a nice set for his brother.

They’d even bought a whole lot of goods for resale back in the Empire. Fleeing Thameland had been hard on most folk, especially financially. For the Lus, it had meant leaving the inn behind, which was their sole source of income. So, any opportunity they found to earn a bit of coin, they took—Mr Lu had explained that to Theresa and Alex when they’d asked why her parents had been scouring local shops for so many fine wares.

“Right, there’s just one more thing,” Theresa said to her mother as they finished buckling the last piece of luggage. “Alex?”

Grinning, he nodded to Mr. and Mrs. Lu. “I’ll be right back.”

Alex headed down the hall to his apartment to fetch an iron-plated box he’d hidden under his bed. Selina was just finishing up drying her hair after a bath in the downstairs bathrooms, and Brutus looked up bleary-eyed when he opened the door.

“Are they all packed?” his sister asked, with a note of sadness in her voice.

“Almost,” Alex said. “We’ve got one more thing to do then it'll be bedtime. We’ve gotta be up bright and early in the morning.”

“Alright, hold on a sec, I wanna say good night,” she said, slipping on her shoes. As they stepped into the hall, Brutus’ heads flopped back down on the floor.

“I wish they could stay longer. It feels like they just got here.”

“Yeah, I hear you,” Alex said. “I’m gonna miss them too, but they’ll be back.”

“Yeah…but we won’t see them as much anymore.” She frowned. “And when The Ravener’s gone, they’ll go back to running the inn and they might not have time to come see us at all.”

Alex looked down at her. “Yeah, that’s true, and if they do visit, they won’t be able to stay as long as they did this time, plus getting here from Thameland takes even longer than from the Rhinean Empire. But remember, there’re always ways around that and I’m gonna work on them.”

“Hm,” she grunted.

“What is it?”

“Later,” she said as they reached the Lu’s door.

When the Roth siblings entered the apartment, Mr. and Mrs. Lu looked up and spotted the box Alex was holding.

“What’s that?” Mr. Lu asked.

“A gift,” Alex handed him the iron-plated box.

“Oof, what kind of gift? It’s heavy.” The older man groaned as he placed it on the table.

“Well, the only way to find out is to open it up, so here you go,” Theresa said, handing her mother a small key.

With a puzzled look, she slipped the key into the lock and raised the lid.

“By Uldar’s beard!” Mr. Lu swore.

“H-how much is in here?” Mrs. Lu gasped.

“Two hundred gold coins,” Theresa smiled.

“Just a little gift from your daughter, Selina and me,” Alex said, putting his arm around Theresa’s shoulders. “Don’t spend it all in one place.”

“Wha-we-we can’t accept this.” Mrs. Lu stammered.

“Oh, yes you can, please, mother,” Theresa said, closing the box. “It’s yours. We want you to have it: what good is having coin if you can’t share it with the people you love?”

Mr. Lu stared at the box for a long moment. His eyes began to shine. “…it’s too early for you to start taking care of your parents. You’re too young and so are we.”

“That’s for me to decide,” Theresa said.

“And me,” Alex said. “And if I get my way, there’ll be plenty more where that came from.”

“Don’t tell anyone you have it,” Theresa cautioned. “And be careful. And don’t let my brothers spend it.”

“Oh, we’ll make sure it’s used well,” Mrs. Lu said. “Thank you so much, Theresa, Alex…and you too, Selina.”

“You don’t have to thank me, you’ve done so much for Alex and me,” Selina said.

“It’s not just for these coins, it’s for…” Mrs. Lu sniffed. “It’s for being the best children anyone could ask for.”

“It’s the least we could do, mother and father,” Theresa lowered her head to them. “I just… loved having you here.”

“We’ll be back,” Mr. Lu promised as he and his wife gave their daughter and the Roth siblings a tight hug. “We’ll come back as often as we can.”

The next morning was an early one.

At the crack of dawn, the Roths and the Lus were up and loading baggage onto Claygon’s powerful form while he crouched in the hallway with all four arms extended. Most of the smaller bags were being ferried into his arms by Alex’s Wizards Hands. It made for a very efficient operation in the insula hallway.

While the adults weren’t showing any sign of tiredness, Brutus was constantly yawning and Selina kept wiping sleep from her eyes.

Suddenly a familiar voice came from down the hall.

“Am I too late to help?” Khalik asked, striding toward them while straightening his shirt. “It would be a little un-neighbourly of me to lie about while you are all loading yourselves up like pack mules. Though, I can see that Claygon is doing most of the heavy lifting.” He laughed.

“Ah, you’re at the tail end of things,” Mr. Lu said. “But, it’s the thought that counts. Can you join us at the docks? Unless you’re busy, of course.”

“Nothing would make me happier than to see you off,” the prince smiled. “Come then, let me help you with the last of these bags and then I guess we shall be off.”

With the prince jumping in, they were finished loading up Claygon in no time and could finally be on their way. Together, they handed the Lu’s apartment key to the superintendent, then caught a sky-gondola straight to the docks.

The trip to the port was a much pleasanter one than the trip to campus on the day Theresa’s parents had arrived; this time, there was no demon summoner attack to drive the city into a panic, just the quiet, normal activities of an early morning in Generasi.

“I have to admit…” Mrs. Lu said. “As much as Generasi didn’t make a very good first impression, it really made an excellent second one. I’m going to miss this place. “It’s…absolutely beautiful.”

“Yes, yes it is,” Mr. Lu agreed. “I just wish the trip to get here didn’t take so long.”

“About that,” Alex said. “I’m making learning more teleportation spells a priority. So by the time I graduate—at the very latest—I’ll be able to just teleport you here. It’ll literally be even quicker than walking from your apartment to ours in the insula.”

“Listen to him, now,” Mr. Lu said. “Talking about such wonders as if they were nothing. I swear, my sense of what’s possible and what isn’t is going to be all twisted around when we get back my brother’s.”

“I know,” Mrs. Lu agreed. “I feel spoiled here. Even walking to the well to fetch water will feel like so much trouble.”

“My teacher and some of my classmates said that as the mana goes up in the world, then a lot of the stuff that only works in Generasi now, will spread everywhere,” Selina said. “Maybe everyone will be able to teleport anywhere one day.”

“That is true,” Alex said. “Though that’ll probably take hundreds or thousands of years for the rest of the world to reach the ambient mana levels that Generasi has. But in the meantime, I’ll see if I can build some magical devices to make your lives more comfortable. It’ll take time—magic apparatuses that function outside of Generasi’s ambient mana aren’t exactly cheap—but I’ll see what I can do. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll make you something that’ll let you teleport on your own.”

“I don’t know about all that,” Theresa said. “It’d take a lot of the fun out of travelling if you could teleport wherever you wanted. You’d never see the world that way, just the bits and pieces around where your trip started, and where it ended.”

“That does not sound so bad,” Khalik jumped in.

Alex glanced at the prince, remembering that his journey from Tekezash had been difficult.

“Think of it this way,” he continued. “If easy teleportation for the world becomes possible, then people will not have to worry about travelling in fear of monsters, bandits, evil folk, or even the weather or seasons. Leave the long way for those who want to experience all the world, and let quicker ways be for those who want to travel just for the sake of reaching their destination.”

“Hm, maybe you have a point,” Theresa said. “I know I’d feel more comfortable if you could just be magicked home, mother and father.”

“Haha, then Alex will just have to keep working hard,” Mr. Lu laughed.

“Alright folks, we’re here,” said their sky-gondolier as he began his descent.

Returning to the docks—smelling the sea and hearing the crashing of the waves—brought that feeling of nostalgia back to Alex. He half expected to turn around and see The Red Siren docking into port, and he wondered if Fan-Dor and Gel-Dor were at sea somewhere nearby. It’d be nice to see them again.

Once they’d left the sky-gondola and walked down to the waiting ship, it didn’t take long for the Lus to register, board, and for everyone to pitch in and unload the luggage Claygon was carrying. When everything was all stored away in the cabin, the first mate soon called out over the docks.

“Last call!” he roared in a sing-song voice. “Time for departure! Board now or get left behind!”

“…it looks like this is it,” Mr. Lu said.

“I’m going to miss you.” Selina hugged the Lus tightly.

“We’re going to miss all of you too,” Mrs. Lu hugged Theresa, Alex, Selina, Brutus and Khalik. She even patted Claygon.

Mr. Lu exchanged a firm handshake with Khalik, and then patted Claygon on the back.

“Remember, stay on the roads,” Theresa said. “Don’t travel at night. If you meet bandits or monsters, don’t-”

“Oh, Theresa, we’ll be fine,” Mrs. Lu placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “It’s not as if we haven’t travelled to the Empire before.”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Theresa said, her eyes moving back and forth between her parents. “Just…make sure you write as soon as you get home. I’ll be worried.”

“Oh, you mean like how you wrote to us so diligently about everything that was happening in Generasi?” Mrs. Lu asked pointedly. “Including all the dangers?”

For an instant, Theresa froze, but then her parents burst out laughing.

“When are you going to let that go?” the young woman asked.

Mr. Lu shrugged. “Maybe on the death bed. Maybe longer. Who knows?”

“But listen,” Mrs. Lu said. “I know your…‘trip’ is coming soon-” She said, referring to the expedition. Her eyes looked from Theresa to Alex, and then to Khalik. “-and…I know you’re going to make everyone proud, but be careful over there. A month or two ago I would’ve asked you to forget about this expedition altogether but…what was it Miss Gemini said at the ceremony?”

“Something like ‘you’re the sort of people that make others safe by being around’,” Mr. Lu said. “When all those demons attacked…I expected the worst was going to happen. But what did we see? You all came back to us nearly unharmed, and you had people thanking you for saving them.”

“You’re our daughter,” Mrs. Lu said to Theresa, before turning to Alex and Selina. “And I’d say you’re our son and daughter too, if I weren’t afraid of disrespecting your parents. But all three of you have grown so much. Alex…Theresa, things will be better for many folk if you step up and face down the demon summoners and Raveners of the world. I know that, and it makes me so proud of you. And, you’ll also have a team behind you.”

She looked at Khalik fondly. “And I know you’ll take care of each other, just like your professors will take care of all of you.”

“We love you,” Mr. Lu said to Alex, Theresa and Selina. “Always. And we will write as soon as we get home.”

There was a deep bark and then Brutus licked both of Theresa’s parents' faces.

“And we’ll miss you too, Brutus!” Mrs. Lu laughed.

‘I love yous’ and ‘farewells’ were exchanged and more than a few tears shed before Alex, Theresa, Brutus, Selina, Khalik and Claygon left the ship. Shortly after, the gangplank was raised and the ship slowly made its way out of harbour and out to sea.

“Goodbye!” Selina cried, waving.

“Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. lu!” Alex shouted.

“Farewell!” Khalik called.

Claygon waved with two arms.

Brutus whined.

“Goodbye mother, goodbye father!” Theresa called.

Mr. and Mrs. Lu’s voices drifted back to them over the water as they shrank into the distance.

And soon, they were gone.