Chapter 8
Once Zeth was finished with his Empowerment Ritual in the shed, he went back to the house. It was late, and he needed to sleep soon.
He crept through the dark rooms, trying not to wake anyone up, but as he did, he found everyone wasn’t asleep yet, after all. His mom was sitting in the living room, knitting something with a pair of needles.
“Oh, you’re up late,” he said. “What’re you working on?”
“Sophie needs some warmer clothes for the winter,” she said, not looking up from the piece. “This’ll be her first cold season out in the fields.”
Zeth took a slow, deliberate breath. Don’t start an argument, you’re not gonna convince her no matter what you say. He wanted nothing more than to yell at her for stealing his money, breaking her promises, for siphoning potential from Sophie’s life into keeping this dying farm running for another few months, but it would serve no purpose.
“You were out late too,” she continued. “Working hard?”
“Yeah,” he responded. He’d properly butchered the pig after the ritual and taken the meat to the far-too-expensive magic coldbox they’d bought back when they first started making him work as their little slaughterer. “Did some renovations which took up the majority of the time, but I did get the pig killed and put away.”
She smiled, still looking at the cap she was sewing. “It’s good to see you finally coming into your proper role, rather than continuing in that little mining phase.”
He bit his tongue.