Shada had dealt with many children in his day. He had helped raise his own and even cared for his grandchildren. While limited as a spirit he could still help Shinobin in small ways with his magic.

  The nights, in which he had indulged in cultivation, were no longer quite so peaceful. The first time Luca got hungry in the middle of the night had jarred Shada out of the meditative trance.

  Shinobin would wake easily, when Luca needed things, her Physical Cultivation helped greatly with fatigue and sleep loss. She didn't actually sleep as much as Shada assumed. She was also using part of the night to cultivate, but it looked similar to sleep. Shada had expected people to sit in the lotus position or something, but laying comfortably seemed a common choice.

  Shada's memories of modern Earth parenting did not match what he experienced on Sierrallas. Luca slept peacefully next to Shinobin, in her bed, or was being held most of the time. Breastfeeding at home was treated with surprising casualness.

  On a recent morning Shada was practicing Essence Shaping techniques while Shinobin and Luca were preparing for their day.

  Surprisingly, he had yet to figure out how the basin worked as he was normally talking with Vanestra, at this time, or simply doing anything to avoid watching his mother get ready in the morning. He decided today was a good day to ask about it.

  “Shinobin? Do you know how that basin works?” Shada asked. “Magically speaking of course.”

  “Shada, you can call me mom or mother you know. Our relationship is a bit weird, but you are my child. Even if you are a ball of spirit stuff with an adult mind, I don't mind,I made peace with our situation. It will be as the Goddess wills afterall,” Shinobin said, without answering Shada's question.

  Shada was surprised by such a religious response, but the gods were real here. Ignoring their desires would be a mistake. He decided to indulge Shinobin's request, he already did with Vanestra afterall.

  “I will try mother. So about the magic basin of miraculous cleaning power. How does it work?”

  “You see the water rune here? With that and the modifiers the enchantment exchanges essence for water to fill the bowl with an exact amount,” Shinobin explained.

  “So just like the Splash spell, but with modifiers? Just standard conjuration magic?” Shada asked.

  “Yep, nothing particularly fancy," Shinobin said.

  "What about the cleaning and purifying?” Shada asked

  “That is a bit more complex. There is an enchantment, here, that purifies the water. It basically banishes anything not water to the Etheric Plane, but the key are these Celestial runes, which determine what is and isn't dirt or filth. Without them the basin would destroy anything not water, which would be dangerous. You can do something similar with the Lingua Arcana, but the enchantment would be much more complex,” Shinobin said, she cleaned up.

  “I haven't really gone over banishing magic. I have focused on conjuring spells. What difference does the language make?” Shada wondered.

  “Specificity, the Lingua Arcana typically has one symbo,l or word, for one elemental concept like light, water, force, etc. Dirt, filth, or foulness are too general and don't really exist in the Arcana. You would have to specify everything that you considered dirt or filth. Even then you would likely miss things. Celestial is a more complex language and calls on Divine insight.” Shinobin tried to explain.

  “Are you telling me that by using Celestial in the enchantment you are calling on a god to determine what to clean?” Shada asked aghast.

  “Every use of the Celestial language does, Shada. It is used to call on divine power and insight to do things that the gods are particularly good at. That includes healing, cleansing, and purifying,” Shinobin said casually.

  “Don't they get annoyed?” Shada asked in confusion. “I mean you are calling on them to basically clean your bathwater!”

  “I doubt they notice. They taught people the language after all. The exact details are unknown, but I am just sharing what I was taught,” Shinobin said with a shrug.

  Again the response to real gods essentially cleaning water seemed too casual, but this was not Earth.

  “Ok, so the enchantment in the Lingua Arcana uses banishment to get rid of anything the Cleanse and Purify runes specify?” Shada theorized.

  Shinobin turned trying to look at Shada, but gave up. “That's basically it, yes. The modifiers and such are tricky, but that is how the enchantment works, but how did you know the rune names in Celestial?” Shinobin asked curiously and with a bit of surprise.

  “Ah, Polyglotism works on all languages; written, spoken, signed. It doesn't matter. Polyglotism gives insight into it all,” Shada explained.

  “Shada, do you know how impossible that Skill is? Language acquisition Skills aren't unknown, but they specifically do not work on magic languages. Everybody has to learn them the hard way. Most don't even bother to go past rote memorization of specific spells and Prayers, because the languages almost seem to resist being learned and used. It takes people a long time. It is hard and most never reach proficiency. Then here you are inferring words from symbols at less than a year old. It's infuriating if looked at in a certain way.” Shinobin huffed as she returned to getting ready.

  After cleaning up, Shinobin carefully unwrapped Luca from his cloth cocoon. She changed his diaper ,or rather she took the diaper off, cleaned it with the basin, and returned the dry piece of folded cloth to his naked butt. No need for multiple diapers, no need for long laundry sessions, just a few dips, a few words, and a soiled diaper was pristine again.

  Magic wasn't fair, and sometimes felt like cheating, Shada thought. Shada left the room to have a lesson with Vanestra, because if magic was cheating he needed to know how to use it properly.

  “Good morning Grandma. I have a few questions today,” Shada said after floating into main room.

  “I have seen less curious children than you Shada. You always have questions, but ask away. I promised to teach you and so I will answer if I can,” Vanestra replied as she worked on knitting tiny baby socks with the finesse of a machine.

  “Conjuring and banishing magic. So far you have only shown me magic that uses element concepts like Flash, Splash, and so forth. Are there similar simple banishing spells?” Shada asked.

  “Of course, but banishing magic is dangerous. Do it wrong and you can remove a chunk from yourself or other things nearby,” Vanestra replied.

  “That makes sense. Does that mean it can be used as an attack?” Shada asked.

  “It can, but only on things with low magic resistance, which for living things increases rapidly with only a few points in the Magical Stat. You need to have twice the Magical Stat of your opponents to make it work. Since you can't know that beforehand, it is often easier to conjure something to attack with, than make direct magical attacks, like banishing parts of their bodies. Your resistance to your own magic is near zero,” Vanestra explained in her teaching 'voice'.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Ok, so will you teach me how to use banishing magic?” Shada asked.

  “Eventually, I think you need to study the theory from books more first. It is far more finicky than conjuring,” Vanestra replied.

  They had a brief discussion about the theory, texts, and what to focus on, but soon Shinobin and Luca were ready to head into town. Shada popped a few items in his Inventory, for practice supplies, before the trio left the cottage.

  —

  Their Shadows formed an unseen box around them. Shinobin jogged down the forest path with Luca on her back. If Shada could feel things he would have noted the increased heat and humidity. Spring had given way to summer in this part of Sierrallas. He could see the heat haze as the sun cooked the dew off the field at the foot of the city of Westlin's wall.

  Filap was there to let Shinobin into town as normal. Only a few words passed between them. The plaza beyond the gate was already busy with people heading to work and enterprising people selling street food. Westlin was a vibrant city.

  If there was one thing Shada missed about having a body it was food. He wasn't a foodie, but he enjoyed eating, and there were many new things to try on display. He decided to have Luca try things for him, when they were older, so he could experience them through Luca's senses.

  There were more delvers and hunters in town than there had been in the spring. Shada could tell they weren't local by their more militant clothes. It appeared to be a seasonal thing; with people moving between different Dungeons and Beast Glades throughout the year. Over hunting or harvesting either was a bad thing. Letting the essence accumulate and concentrate in only a few creatures resulted in extremely powerful and dangerous beasts and monsters.

  Once they made it to the clinic, they found Mina waiting. Mina was dressed in comfortable looking clothing in the organic nature themed style favored by many Wylderfolk. It looked out of place with her fair features. Westlin, the baby, was strapped in his own little cocoon on Mina’s back.

  “Good morning Mina!” Shinobin said cheerfully; as they moved near. Unbeknownst to either woman there was a Shadow carefully checking Mina for anything dangerous.

  “Merry met, Mistress Aseralis,” Mina said with a twinkle in her eyes. She liked to play the proper servant in public, which annoyed Shinobin who preferred more informality.

  “Are you ever going to stop this silly game?” Shinobin asked with a bemused smile.

  “Never Mistress, proper nannies must address their employers respectfully, or so I was taught,” Mina said, her mouth now smiling along with her eyes.

  “Well best get the boys inside. It is a bit warm today,” Shinobin said as she turned and entered the clinic. She didn't see the Shadowy elven guards that followed her or the one that peeled off to patrol the building.

  “The nursery should be finished today. I had the process started before Luca was born, but the finer details were lacking until yesterday.” Shinobin told Mina as they walked into the back of the clinic together. It was still too early for patients to arrive, but the waiting room would soon fill up.

  —

  The nursery was relatively small. The walls had a white wash or plaster coating hiding the stonework, several rugs covered the floor, thin logs framed the walls and ceiling in a log box like effect. The furniture was the smooth and polished fused organic wood the Wylderfolk favored. A well padded rocking chair, in the Imperial style, and a large double crib fit the setting surprisingly well.

  Shinobin and Mina helped each other out of their baby carriers. Neither really needed the help, but it was still easier this way.

  There was a Shadow by the door, another outside the nursery, and one that would follow Shinobin. They took Luca's safety seriously. Shada suspected they used telepathy to communicate.

  “Luca was fed before we left, but he is a voracious thing right now. I am sure Westlin is the same,” Shinobin said to Mina. “I will be back to help feed him as I get a chance. There are plenty of snacks and foods in the cabinets if you get hungry Mina,” Shinobin said as she headed to work.

  “That is kind of you. Goddess knows, I have to eat a lot to keep the milk flowing for these handsome young men. Thank you,” Mina replied.

  Shinobin talked to Mina for a few more minutes, while cooing over both babies. She eventually left to handle patients.

  Shada stayed behind with Luca for a while. It had been decided that Shada would use Shapeshifting to ensure that Luca would look mostly like a Wylderfolk child. He did this each morning at the cottage, but changing Luca's coloring didn't change the magnetic beauty he got from his fae-blood.

  Westlin would, on occasion, get transfixed looking at Luca and need to be distracted by Shada's simple magics. Westlin himself was a half breed, but of Imperial and Wylderfolk blood. Mina didn't discuss the father. Mina's baby was rapidly growing dark blonde wavy hair and had a natural tan. His eyes were more honey than Wylderfolk brown. He didn't inherit the Wylderfolk spots. They did look similar, but babies tended to look similar regardless of the world they were born on.

  Once everyone settled; Shada moved to a small, mostly empty, closet that had been set up in Shinobin's office, which wasn't far from the nursery. He liked to think of it as his laboratory, but it was really just an enchanted closet with shelves, a light, and various magic supplies including books. He had it made so he could practice and study while Shinobin and Luca were at the clinic. As a spirit he didn't really take up space and could adjust his perception easily. So to him a closet was more than enough room.

  He had everything he needed to practice with. He had a small glowstone, books, and adisposal basin.

  He read the texts Vanestra provided and noticed that etheric resonance was a key component of both conjuring and banishing magic. Conjuring created an attractive resonance that pulled things towards the spell form while banishing created a negative resonance that pushed things away from the spell form. The spell form also had a small component that created a bridge between the Physical and Etheric Planes. This meant that conjuring magic pulled things from the Etheric Plane while banishing magic pushed things into it.

  There were simple banishing spells, but they were strictly used as examples. Most banishing spells were more complex, due to added safety features, but not too complex.

  Not surprisingly, the first spell was the simplest and safest. It was called Shade. It briefly banished light in a small area. Nothing particularly useful, but these were used more for teaching and learning than for their practical applications. The effect of Shade was bizarre to Shada. It was the reverse of the Flash Spell. It took a couple of tries; but when he got it, the spell created a ‘flash’ of shadow. It wasn't something possible to replicate with science as far as he knew. Maybe two beams of light could be tuned to cancel each other out via wave interference?

  Push and pull, positive and negative, conjure and banish. It all had to do with essence resonating with certain materials. Could that principle be applied, in relation, to existing objects? If so, why did the Psychokinesis Skill use raw force conjuring?

  Shada decided a small experiment wouldn't hurt. He used Pebble to create a small round stone. He then tried what he did to develop Psychokinesis. He tried creating a stone without using the spell form. He used Essence Perception to get a feel for the changes in the essence when he used the spell. He imbued his intent into a ball of essence and conjured what he knew of rocks, stones, and silicon dioxide. His first few attempts did nothing, but he kept trying and studying the spell form. The first sign of success was a smattering of sand like dust. Several attempts later he made a very ugly rock appear.

  The Guide let him know that he could learn a stone conjuring Skill, but that wasn't his goal. He had proven to himself that he could convert spells into Skills, which were almost always more versatile than spells. However, he didn't want highly specific Skills cluttering his Skill Lists. Conjuring without spells was just the first step. His goal was to learn if he could make things move without force conjuring.

  He destroyed his mess by tossing the dust and pebbles into his trash basin. He then used the Pebble spell again. This time he wanted a pebble to experiment on.

  His idea was simple. Conjuring pulled things from the Etheric Plane. Could he make it pull a nearby object on the Material Plane? The logic seemed sound, but he didn't have any direct manipulation spells to work with.

  Shada’s attempts to move a pebble without force resulted in several accidental conjurings before he figured out the trick. He knew he was onto something when he made a pebble vibrate for the first time. He had been right, he could use essence, without force, to move things. He just had to match the object’s essence resonance, but this proved quite tricky to do reliably. He continued to experiment on pebbles for the rest of the day. He had to stop when he felt the tug on his tether that let him know Luca was being moved, to a carrier, for the return trip to the cottage.

  The bottom of his closet laboratory was covered in debris. His experiments had been mess and some attempts had caused the stones to shatter or deform oddly. He was excited by his discoveries and he finally knew how all the impressive stonework was getting done. He didn't know if it was Skills or spells, but he now knew that it must be this new type of magic.