Page 38 of The Tree of Spirits (Paragons #2)

QUESTING FOR brEAKFAST

Y ou couldn’t set off on an important Quest on an empty stomach. So Kato, Conner, and I went to the hideout for some much-needed breakfast.

“Anyone up for pancakes?” Conner asked, pulling a flour sack out of the grocery bag he’d set on the counter.

I raised my hand. I was starving.

“Fine, but I’m making them.” Kato snatched the mixing bowl right out of his hands. “You always put too much sugar in the batter.”

“Hey, what can I say? I have a sweet tooth.” Conner winked at me.

“You can sweeten the batter naturally with orange juice.” Kato grabbed a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice from the counter. Took a taste. Nodded in approval. Then emptied the rest of the glass into the mixing bowl.

“Hey, that took me like a whole thirty seconds to squeeze!” Conner protested.

Kato started stirring the batter. “Your work ethic is impressive.”

“Hey, was that a joke I heard?” Conner looked at me, grinning. “Way to go, Red! You helped him find his long-lost sense of humor!”

Kato batted Conner’s hand away before he could taste the batter.

“I’m famished,” I said as I watched the first pancakes start to sizzle in the pan.

“Then you shall have the first batch,” Kato promised me.

I grinned at him.

“You will need your strength. And that means consuming lots of calories.” Kato pointed the spatula at the pancakes.

They smelled so good, I had to stop myself from grabbing them out of the hot pan, gooey batter and all.

“The Templars sure won’t be playing around,” Conner said. “We’ll need a lot of magic to defeat them, especially when they’re wearing those techno suits. With those suits, they can fight a lot longer before their endurance runs out.”

“Ah, right. Performing magic requires endurance,” I said.

“Aww, you remember what I told you yesterday.” Conner looked very pleased about that.

“It’s kind of hard to forget passing out on your sofa.”

“You passed out?” Kato flipped the pancakes. “You pushed her too hard, Conner.”

“Hey, we had to act fast. Someone had to save your precious Watchers before they got pulled into Shadow Fall. Or worse. You know how it works, Kato. The longer you’re invisible, the greater the risk of your getting pulled into Shadow Fall—or even deeper, more menacing dimensions.”

I winced. “That sounds dangerous.”

“That’s where the magic stamina comes in, Red.

While you’re invisible, you’re in an area hovering just over the dimensional divide.

You need to use your magic to anchor yourself there, so you don’t get pulled under.

” He glanced at Kato. “I think we can all agree that the Watchers don’t have any magic stamina.

So as soon as the big splash of the initial spell faded, they’d get pulled under very quickly. ”

Kato spun the spatula in his hand. “Forget the Watchers.”

Conner laughed. “Don’t let the General hear you say that.”

“I’m serious, Conner. You need to take better care of Savannah. It was dangerous pushing her like that yesterday. You could have put her in a coma. There’s a reason we don’t push Apprentices too hard, too fast. They need time for the spirits’ magic to settle.”

“Yeah, but she isn’t like other Apprentices, now is she?”

Kato slid me a glance. “He knows?”

“If you’re asking if I know that she had magic before the Blending, then yep, way ahead of you, bro. I met her before the Blending. In fact, I saw the Blending happen.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Kato looked at me like I’d hurt his feelings.

And that hurt mine.

Conner rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, Kato. I asked her not to tell anyone about me. I figured that as soon as you knew I’d gone anywhere near her, you’d rush in to save her, just like the perfect Prince Charming that you are.”

“Stop calling me that. I am not perfect.” Kato flopped four small pancakes onto my plate.

“Of course you are. You’re the perfect Knight.” Conner looked at the pancakes. “Just like these are the perfect pancakes.”

“He’s not wrong about that,” I said after taking a bite. “These pancakes are amazing. In fact, they’re the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my life.”

Kato gave me a smile that was even better than his pancakes.

“Careful, Red,” Conner warned me, snatching a pancake out of the second frying pan. “Don’t feed his ego.” He took a bite.

“Well?” Kato asked, brows lifted.

“They’re ok, I guess.” Conner piled the rest of the pancakes onto his plate.

“Apparently, you find them more than just ‘ok’,” Kato observed coolly.

Conner shrugged. “I still think they’d be better with more sugar.”

Kato passed him the bowl of powdered sugar.

Conner’s eyes went wide. “I take back all the mean things I’ve said about you.” He sprinkled the powdered sugar over his pancakes. “Well, for the last five minutes, anyway.”

Kato’s pancakes were so good that none of us spoke for the rest of breakfast. We were too busy eating. And I ate longer and more than the both of them. I was happy to let them plan our Quest while I planned my pancake conquest.

“Wait, what were you doing in her closet?” Kato interrupted Conner.

“Hmm, maybe I should have started that story from the beginning.”

“You think?”

“So, I was in her closet looking for the celestial globe that one of the Templars dropped.”

Kato frowned. “And she needed you to get it out of her closet?”

“Na, I looked for it because I was bored after she shoved me into the closet. She can be pretty pushy when she wants to be.”

“Yes, but why?”

“I don’t know.” Conner gave him a cherubic smile. “Maybe she learned it from you.”

“No,” Kato said with strained patience. “I meant, why did she shove you into her closet?”

The corner of Conner’s mouth twitched. “Oh, well, she didn’t want her brother to see me in her house. I can’t imagine why. I’m a charming fellow.” He licked powdered sugar off his fingers.

“Yeah, I think my brother finds it far more amusing to tease me about my ‘boyfriends’ than he would to discover an actual boy in my house,” I chimed in.

Conner looked at Kato. “I think we could take him together.”

Kato rolled his eyes. “You are ridiculous.”

“ I am ridiculous? What about you? What was with the whole lame escort-her-to-her-door-but-not-one-millimeter-further maneuver you pulled? That’s not chivalrous.

Chivalrous would have been to escort her inside.

What if there were monsters under her bed?

There could totally be monsters under her bed, Kato! ”

Kato snorted. “Given her penchant for attracting trouble, that is very likely.”

“Hey, when did this conversation become about dissing me?” I protested.

Conner hit me with a wicked smirk. “We could always go back to talking about you and Mr. Knight Commander Perfect Date over there instead.” He made very loud kissing noises.

My stomach twisted into knots. “No thank you,” I said weakly.

“You should try not to tease her so much,” Kato told him.

“And you should try to tease her a little more,” Conner countered.

“There’s no time for nonsense.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of your personal motto, Kato. Actually, I think you have that printed on a t-shirt too.”

But Kato wasn’t letting himself get distracted from what he wanted to say. “Being a Polymage is a big responsibility. You need to take it more seriously.”

“Being a Polymage is also fun. Being able to do all these different kinds of magic is fun.”

They both looked at me like they wanted me to weigh in.

“I guess it can be both: serious and fun?” I suggested. “I mean, being a Polymage is about dabbling in all kinds of magic, right? So why not also dabble in all kinds of emotions too?”

“You know, I think she’s wiser than both of us,” Conner commented.

“Yes,” agreed Kato.

Cool, I’d gotten them to agree on something. I gave myself a mental pat on the back. Because giving myself an actual pat on the back would have been way too embarrassing.

“So, what’s it like being a Polymage?” I asked them.

Kato canted his head ever-so-slightly to the side. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, do the other Knights get you? Because the mentors seemed kind of divided on the topic of Polymages.”

His dark brows drew together. “In what way?”

“Some of the Knights consider Polymages to be arrogant.”

Kato frowned in confusion, like he’d never considered the idea.

But Conner laughed. “Oh, Red, of course they think we’re arrogant. We have all this magic, and we aren’t afraid to use it. Meanwhile, they’re all trying to understand why they didn’t become Polymages too. If only they knew that we?—”

“No,” Kato cut him off.

“Why not?” Conner countered. “She’s one of us. She should know the truth.”

My pulse skipped a beat. “What truth?”

“We should tell her, Kato.”

“It’s not fair to burden her with this.”

“Uh, I kind of think she’s already living with that burden. She’d feel better knowing she’s not alone.”

And now my heart was racing, panicking. “Ok, now you guys really need to tell me what you’re talking about. Because it can’t be worse than what I’m imagining.”

“What are you imagining?” Conner asked me.

“I don’t know, but it’s really, really bad!” I squeezed my hands together to stop them from shaking. “Now—please!—tell me.”

Conner slid Kato a glance. “Do you want to do it? Or shall I?”

Kato let out a heavy sigh. “Seven.” He braided his fingers together, then, deciding that wasn’t right at all, braided them the other way. “Like you, I had magic before the Blending. And so did Conner.”

I gaped at him. “So, you think…” I cleared my throat. “You think having magic before the Blending and being a Polymage are related.”

“I sure don’t think it’s a random coincidence,” said Conner. “There have only ever been three Polymages, and we all had magic before the Blending.”

“Ok, but there haven’t been very many Knights, so maybe?—”

“You misunderstand,” Kato told me. “We’re not just talking about Gaia or the Knights. We’re talking about everywhere . We are the only three Polymages in all the Many Realms.”