Page 32 of Found in Obscurity

“Good. Everything okay with Kit?”

“He was given a clean bill of health, yes.” He eyed the fox, who huffed and turned his back on Lorin at the mere mention of the vet. Lorin had thought they were over being prickly about it, but apparently, he was very wrong.

“Wonderful,” his grandmother said, then surprised him by continuing the conversation. “And what did you do with the rest of your day?”

“I went into Mom’s magic room,” he said, letting the silence settle over them for a long moment before she spoke again.

“That was quicker than I expected,” she said, honest as ever.

“Yeah. I wasn’t there long. And I haven’t even seen everything, just…”

“You just being in there is enough of a step, Lorin,” she said quietly. “Nobody said you had to dive headfirst into any of this.”

“Yet you prepped this place with the intention that I do just that,” Lorin found himself saying, uncomfortable with her compassion after all this time and falling back into old habits.

“With the hope,” she said. “I hoped for you. I didn’t prepare it as a shackle, Lorin, whatever you may think of me. It was always your choice. I never forced you. Not when you left, and not when you came back. That cabin is your birthright. It’s yours to do as you please with.”

Lorin wanted to argue with her, but couldn’t. He still felt so lost in it. Rocking on a raft in a stormy sea and trying to find which direction was land.

“How do I even… Where do I start, Grandma?”

“Looking for your calling?” she asked, addressing the easier part of it and leaving the more complicated tangle be for now. He hummed in agreement. “You have to let it find you. Your mother’s, or my magic for that matter, clearly never held any significance to you, so you can safely rule it out.”

“But there’s so much out there.”

“That’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? You can find your own little niche you’ll feel right in.”

“So I just…meander?” He frowned.

“It’s more dabbling than it is meandering,” she said. “Look, the Magic Shop will be in town in two days, and it will be staying for a few days so everyone can grab what they need. Go. Get some books, look at things, see if anything calls out to you.”

“Anything?”

“That shop knows more than any of us would want it to, and The Owner is always happy to give some advice. Get different things. Get information. That’s the only way to find what really speaks to you.”

“Two days from now?”

“Have you got rocks in your ears?” she sniped, back to her usual self.

“Okay.” He sighed, knowing it was probably the best option he had. “Okay, I’ll go. See what happens.”

“That’s the spirit,” she said, and the word brought back the memory of the face in the dusty mirror.

“Grandma? Are spirits real?”

“Spirits like…ghosts?” she asked, and he hummed in confirmation. “Why wouldn’t they be real?”

“Oh.” He wasn’t sure that was the response he’d been expecting, if he was being honest. Especially not in that matter-of-fact voice she’d just used. “But…”

“But people don’t just disappear after they die either, Lorin,” she said, and he held his breath again.

“They don’t?”

“Their magic lingers. In the things they touched, the things they loved the most, the things that meant the most, the places they considered their own. Sometimes, that means they just stay in those places. Surrounded by those things.”

“Like a magic room?” he asked, and she fell silent for a moment.

“That is an oddly specific question. Is everything okay?”