Spending Quality Time with the Family You Chose Is Always Worth it
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“Man, this class is hard,” Isaac muttered, looking at the diagrams Catria had handed out to all the automation students. “I’m really glad I’m not in it.”
It turned out that automation magic was really fucking complicated, which was probably why most people couldn’t do it. Ignatius had said that wizards could make automatons a little easier than mages could, but even for them it was a really high level spell that had so many moving parts—literally and magically—and automatons had a tendency to explode if any part of the spell wasn’t perfect, so most people didn’t bother.
So much for Isaac’s plan to make a sex automaton, which was why everyone thought he’d wanted to take Catria’s class. His plans to free Nicholas from the control of an evil demon were also looking a little dicey, but he was still going to make those work.
“Same,” said Peter, writing his own homework at breakneck speed. He wasn’t in a hurry, that was just how he always wrote. His handwriting was always perfect, too, though when he wrote slower he made the letters look really fancy and nice like they were in books, which he wasn’t doing now. “Let me know if you need help with anything.”
Isaac nodded, reaching down to pat Jacob’s head between his legs. He was staying here tonight and he’d been doing homework too, but had suddenly reminded Isaac that Silas wanted him to suck a dick before bed every night. “I should be okay. I’m not worried about figuring it out tonight. And I think I can compare it with the way wizards do automation spells; they’re impossible but Ignatius is going to give me some of Ronaldo’s diagrams.”
James had an automaton too, Isaac thought. It was made of clay and it wasn’t as smart as other automatons, but maybe he could help. He would help if Isaac told him why it was important.
Spencer poked his head over Isaac’s bed, looking down at him. “Sorcerers have an automation spell too, if you want me to show it to you. If it would help.”
Isaac blinked. “Really? You know how to do an automation spell?”
“Yeah. I mean it’s not fantastic or anything but I taught myself how to do it when I was ten because I thought it would make my dad like me. Hold on.”
“God, Spencer,” Skip said.
“It’s fine,” Spencer promised, climbing down the ladder. He had the blanket from his bed over his shoulder. “Nothing I ever did was going to make Dad like me and I got a lot happier once I stopped trying.”
“I can relate to that,” Peter muttered.
“Right?” As they were talking, Isaac’s balls tensed up and he took in a short breath as he started to cum, not warning Jacob per his instructions.
“I can also relate to the fact that it’s not actually fine and you just tell people it is so they won’t feel bad for you.”
“Yeah, well…” Spencer lay the blanket out on the floor and knelt on it, a pen in hand. “Do you think anyone will mind if I ruin this sheet a bit?”
“I’ll just tell them I did it,” Isaac promised, panting. He fixed Jacob’s hair as Jacob pulled off his dick. “I can get away with anything.” He watched Spencer’s back for a second. “But you have to stop acting like it was okay that your dad was an asshole.”
“Isaac,” Spencer complained. “No fair.”
“Isaac is being very fair,” Jacob said, wiping his mouth. “He always plays by the rules except for the ones that are stupid. Emotional repression in the name of masculinity bullshit is stupid and we should talk about our complicated feelings for our fathers or father figures.”
“Do you want to start?” Spencer asked, as Isaac got off the bed to come kneel beside him. Skip hopped down from his bed.
“Not particularly. But I also have spent an inordinate amount of my life attempting to make my father happy and it has simply never worked and you know why? Because the types of people who make you work for their affection are never going to give it to you anyway.”
Spencer sighed. “I know. Guys, it’s not like I don’t realize that my dad was a piece of shit. It’s really okay.”
“It’s not okay for someone to treat you that way, babe,” Skip said quietly.
“I know. But thank you.”
“Okay,” Isaac said, rubbing Spencer’s back. “Let’s stop jumping up and down on poor Spencer. We’ll convene again tomorrow.”
“I hate all of you,” Spencer muttered. “But I also love all of you. Tomorrow it can be Peter’s turn. Sorcerous circles have to be balanced in particular ways or they don’t work. They’re not like wizard circles where the circle itself is magic, it’s an actual circle that channels the power because the Forces don’t like to behave. I know you’re going to learn about this in a little while so I won’t spend a half hour explaining it, but an automation spell needs six Chaos rivets in it, which are these spikes that make sure the flow of Order doesn’t get out of control. Otherwise the automaton is just a torch with a lot of moving parts.”
“It’s a bit worrying how many automation spells are also explosive spells in disguise,” Isaac muttered.
“Yeah. Things that aren’t alive weren’t meant to move on their own so the amount of power you have to put into one to make it happen is insane.” Spencer was drawing a circle in ink on the sheets as he spoke. It was pretty complicated, but parts of it looked like things Isaac had seen before. “Let me know if you want me to slow down.”
Isaac shook his head. “I can see why sorcerers are able to pass as mages.”
“You…can?”
“Yeah,” said Isaac, blushing a little. “The Chaos rivets look a bit like a terminal Dark spike. The Pillars terminate into the Forces, so that’s probably why.” They also had a structure similar to heiroclastic knots that wizards used. “Though it’s weird, because Dark spikes are usually done higher up the Pillar, near the fifth element, and…” Isaac realized he was rambling, and cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s interesting,” said Jacob, and Peter nodded.
“Yeah, but it’s a conversation only I can participate in, it’s not fair.”
Peter poked Isaac’s cheek with his cane. “It’s fun to listen to someone you love talk about something he knows a lot about.”
Isaac shrugged, smiling a little. Magic was one of the only things Isaac knew a lot about, and he barely knew anything compared to Oliver or Yancy or someone. “Thanks. Anyway, Sorcery and magecraft are a bit similar, is all I was saying.”
“Tell us about it next time,” Spencer said. “Okay, so that’s the circle. This one, uh, kind of sucks, because it turns out it’s hard to draw in pen on a blanket? So just a warning it’s probably only going to move for like ten seconds and then it might catch fire, if everyone maybe wants to get ready to put a fire out.”
“I’m on it,” Jacob said, which made Spencer laugh.
Spencer and Isaac stood back, and Spencer held out the pen. “Sorcerous automatons are controlled through a focus. I made the pen the focus because I didn’t have anything else on hand.” He flicked the pen at the blanket like it was a wand.
The blanket got up, and it started dancing around like a ghost in a play. Isaac laughed. “That’s so cool.” Baker woke up and barked, chasing the automaton around.
“Yeah, man, you taught yourself how to do that when you were ten?” Skip asked. “What the fuck?”
“Yeah, well…” Spencer shrugged again. “Hopefully my dad is eating ass in hell because it was really hard.”
The sheet caught fire and they all yelped, and Isaac freaked out more than he should have, mostly because Baker freaked out, and Isaac used Light to conjure a bunch of water, but at the same time used Water to make it rain. Skip and Peter also conjured some water, and immediately everything was drenched.
A knife thunked into the wall, pinning the scorched sheet there, and Jacob cleaned his hands. “Told you I’d deal with it.”
Spencer was the first one to start laughing, but Isaac followed him and then Skip, followed by Peter and Jacob a second later. It was hard not to be happy when he was with them. Baker was bouncing around in the water, having a great time. So was Isaac.
The water had ruined everyone’s homework, but it was early in the night yet and Jacob’s bedtime wasn’t for an hour. They could have fun a little longer.
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How Best to Use a Sword 