Magical Engineering

By the time I reached the dining hall, I found Glorp and his siblings already sitting in front of plates of scrambled eggs and toast, and Rabyn sitting across from them discussing the finer points of pastry making. Glorp’s oldest sister seemed to be the most interested in his words, and it looked like Rabyn might have found another apprentice already. I was impressed.

“You’re up early,” Glorp said as I pulled a chair out and grabbed a seat next to him.

“Yeah, I decided to take a walk around the place before leaving the world again. It feels like home here now, and it’s hard to explain why that’s weird,” I replied.

“Because family makes a home, and now you have your family here. I imagine Glorp understands that better than most of our odd assemblage of people,” Rabyn said. He was likely entirely correct in that assessment. I somehow had missed that connection Glorp and I shared.

“Alright, that’s entirely fair. It’s been a long time since I lived with my family, and I missed it a lot more than I realized at the time,” I said, as Rabyn vanished to the kitchen.

“I get it. I never really expected to have something like this with my family again, either. Dave, please be careful in the archives, this place will fall apart without you,” Glorp said, a half smile on his face. He looked worried.

“Don’t worry, I know you and Rabyn won’t be there to save my ass, but Elody and Connie will be, and you’ve seen how much of powerhouses they are,” I replied, both trying to reassure him and pointing out the fact that we had plenty of muscle coming along.

“Still, just be careful. With Gorpila planning to learn to cook, we are going to have to have a giant party when you get back, and she’s going to be disappointed if you aren’t here to try it,” he replied. His sister nodded next to him.

“I promise, plus we’ve got another meeting with the council coming up anyway, gotta make sure I’m back in time for that,” I said just as Rabyn reappeared and dropped a plate of eggs in front of me.

“Eat up, pretty sure everyone is starting to wake up finally, so you’re probably heading out pretty soon,” he said as he took his own seat again.

Rabyn had been correct as soon, everyone started to filter in for breakfast. The moment John joined us, Rabyn grabbed him and Gorpila and pulled them both back off to the kitchen. It looked like her choice had been made, but considering the smile she had on her face, I didn’t think she minded. Half an hour later, my own breakfast was interrupted by a chat window.