Entry IV – Of Time and the Unseen Veil
In the casting of the Great Sundering, Merlin bound all time-magic unto the mundane realm. No longer may wixen step backward nor forward in time's stream, nor shall we manipulate its strands. That branch of Art is now bound to a greater purpose.
Yet behold! A marvel: the mundane shall forget our workings, 'ere ever they are wrought. We may cast 'midst the market square, and Time shall make the miracle of mundane means. Time itself, our steward and shield.
But the cost is felt. Spells drag like iron o'er stone, and the strength of will and magic double or greater for each act. I feel the strain in my bones with every rune traced. Still - we are free.
Chronicles of the Sundering: A Personal Record by Mine Own Hand
by Archmage Elowen Thorne, Keeper of the Black Flame, Scribe of the Meridian Vaults
"Would you like fries with that?" Felix's voice was dead. Retail had killed his soul. All that was left of him was a shambling body, and covid threatened to finish that off. It would be a mercy.
"Do I want fries with that?" The man in front of Felix mocked in a high-pitched voice. "If I wanted fucking fries, I would've said something! Now take the damn mask off and get me my burger!"
"$3.59 please." Felix said, pointing to the card reader. The man grumbled and pulled out his card, slapping it against the reader like it had insulted his wife.
"Tip? TIP? I'm not giving you a fucking tip for standing there and taking my order! What kind of scam are you running here?" His eyes narrowed at me. "You look too young to be working here anyway. What are you, some illegal or something?"
Felix didn't sigh, barely reacted.
Fourteen years old, and already he was jaded from dealing with the general public. Poverty was bad enough, but this was a fresh circle of hell. He'd already learned that explaining he had a work permit meant nothing. There was no winning with some people. Enjoying the park? 'Lazy kids don't know how to work'. Working? Just more chances for abuse.
"Here's your receipt. We'll call you when it's ready." Felix said.
He snatched it out of Felix's hand.
Wanker.
"Covid's a hoax you know." He stomped off, and the next person in line stepped forward. Clearly, McDonalds was a
critical
business that had to stay open. People would die if they couldn't get their supersized fries. Extra-large sodas were an essential good.
"Felix, go take your break." Charlie said. "Might want to check in with Bill. My timecard was off last week."
"Aye." Felix took his uniform hat off and circled to the back. Snagged one of the medium fries - $2.99 on the way to the break room. Because this was a
fancy
McDonalds. Fifteen minutes of work and enough food to fill his belly made the fries totally worth it. It wasn't like they didn't throw away a ton of them every day.
Which was an idea. He wasn't legally allowed to close, but when had that ever stopped retail managers? It wasn't like mom would be at home to miss him, and if he could close, he could probably snag dinner as well.
He popped open the manager's room door and froze. Hairy ass, shaved legs in the air, he did
not
want to know that Bill - the boss - was banging Karen. It did explain why she never did any work and got away with it, why she could order everyone around in spite of being a line worker.
Felix froze a moment too long, and Bill turned on him with a roar.
"Get OUT! You're fired!"
He slammed the door shut and bolted back through the kitchen. No way was he getting his last paycheck.
"Everything alright Felix?" Charlie asked me. "Heard some yelling."
Felix jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
"Bill's banging Karen in the breakroom, and I just got fired. Yay me."
Charlie frowned.
"That's illegal as hell though." The gears were turning in Charlie's head, obviously putting together things he'd seen himself.
"Like that's going to stop anything? Like I can afford to pitch a fit?" Felix gestured to himself. "Nah, I'll just have to try to find something else." Unsaid was how everyone was getting laid off because of Covid, and how everyone was looking for a job. Unskilled 14 year old? He'd been damn lucky to score the job in the first place. With the economy going to shit, he was
fucked.
And not the fun kind like Bill.
Charlie hesitated a moment, then finished wrapping up the burger and handed it over.
"Here, on the house. Take care of yourself." He said.
There wasn't a moment of hesitation or doubt as he grabbed the burger from Charlie. Felix didn't care about the corporate rules. What were they going to do, send the cops after a burger? When Charlie would be taking the heat for it? Nah, hot food was hot food.
Felix stripped off his uniform, chucked it in a corner - what did he care what happened to it? - and briskly walked away in the oppressive heat, the sky perfectly blue without a single cloud in it. He wasn't going to stick around to eat his feast, although the price of it felt like sour milk curdling in his stomach.
He was about to eat $6.58 in food for a single meal. That was enough to get him through an entire week of meals, when spent properly. He was getting stiffed out of around $168.75, but it wasn't like he could complain about it. Felix couldn't afford a lawyer, and he knew how shit worked. Wealthy business owner versus broke kid? That never worked for the kid.
So much for getting on top of the bills. Mom was good at figuring out which one could be pushed. Would it be some great cosmic injustice if he could get shoes that weren't primarily made of duct tape?
At least his bus pass - $100 for the month - wasn't a complete bust. He hopped on and headed to the library, one of the few places he could access over the summer with blessed air conditioning. Thank god that Sacramento tended to be a dry heat. On the way, he scarfed his food down as quickly as he could, bitter experience had taught him that food in hand didn't always result in food eaten.
Felix wanted to look over people's shoulders at their cellphones, get a glimpse of news and entertainment. He was 'too young' for a cellphone, which he knew to be one of the many gentle lies his mom told him. Truth was, they were too poor, and his mom just barely managed to afford an older model. With how much of the world ran off of phones these days, it was mandatory.
Nobody wanted to sit close enough to Felix to even give him a chance to look. The smell of the trailer park heating oil had permeated his clothes, giving him an unpleasant odor. It didn't matter how often he washed, how well he scrubbed. It had permeated his clothes, wafted out of his pores. There wasn't a thing he could do about it, and he was used to it.
Most of the people on the bus were wearing masks. Small mercies, but the gentleman coughing up a lung should've stayed at home. He got a large berth.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Fired or not, summer vacation or not, Felix had too much to do. He hopped off the bus at the Sacramento Central Public Library, threw his trash in the can, and walked in.
"Afternoon Mrs. Marie." He politely greeted the librarian at the front desk.
"Mr. Sutter. You're early today, everything alright?"
Felix paused for a moment, but was too embarrassed over getting fired to say anything.
"Everything's fine. Just getting a head start on my reading today." He mumbled through his mask.
Mrs. Marie looked like she wanted to press the issue, but let it be. Felix grabbed two sheets of printer paper and a pen, then shuffled over to where the textbooks were. He grabbed
Geometry and Trigonometry: 7th Edition
with a sigh. Felix sat down at a table, cracked the book open to chapter 14 - Trigonometric Functions. Sines and cosines.
Felix neatly took notes in the first quarter of the first sheet of paper - 10 cents each, but Mrs. Marie was kind enough to turn a blind eye to the hard-working student - then got working on the practice problems. Four hours later he flipped to the back of the book with the answer key, and groaned. He'd gotten about half of them wrong, and he started to carefully trace what went wrong with each problem.
One more time. One more time.
Felix's mantra had served him well over the years.
Felix didn't consider himself particularly smart or bookish. He'd be happy if he never saw another textbook in his life.
But that was no way to escape the endless cycle of poverty. No education? He'd spend his entire life in the trailer park, poor and miserable. A scholarship was his best chance at escaping, and he didn't have the brains to show up to class and figure it out the first time. He didn't have the hours needed to learn everything and get the perfect grades needed during the school year. Everything about being poor conspired against his time. Felix's solution was dead simple.
Do it all once during the summer. Get the idea somewhat learned, get the entire reading done, and it would hopefully be enough. A streak of perfect grades in high school was unlikely, but hopefully he could get
good enough
grades for a shot at college. Get a job as an accountant or something.
The alternative was selling his body to the military. Not a choice high on his list.
Not be poor
.
Be rich enough that he didn't need to carefully check the price of everything at the grocery store. Be rich enough that he wouldn't need to do the walk of shame and put something back on the shelves.
Enough
. Day dreaming wasn't something he could afford.
One more time.
He worked through all the problems he got wrong the first time, ending with two that he couldn't work out the right answer for. Or the answer that was in the back of the book. He'd found a few typos so far, and with how much publishers charged for a textbook - $219 for this specific edition new - his initial faith that there would've been
effort
in making them had long since shattered. It wasn't like he could ask a tutor or anything to help clarify things. That cost
money.
Felix glanced up at the clock, and started to swear at the time.
"F-" He bit off the rest of the curse. This was the
library,
and if Mrs. Marie stopped letting him have his two sheets of printer paper, he'd be screwed. Nevermind if he got banned
entirely.
Happened too many times already, more injustices simply for the circumstances of his birth. Felix resumed his unimaginative teenage cursing in the confines of his mind.
Enough with geometry and trigonometry. Biology tomorrow. He was starting to hate the soft science, it was impossible to properly double check if his answers were right or not. Was 'pumps blood around the body' a good enough answer for 'what does the heart do?' The back of the textbook went into far more detail for the answer, which all boiled down to the answer Felix had written.
Felix carefully put the book back on the return cart. Mrs. Marie had been quite clear that he wasn't supposed to put it back on the shelf, even if he could put it back exactly in the right spot. He briskly walked out of the library, waving the two sheets of printer paper with cramped writing filling both sides to Mrs. Marie.
"Excellent work today Mr Sutter!" The librarian whispered to him. Felix grinned, resolving to tuck the notes away at home with the rest of them. The camper was small, but it wasn't like they were burdened with possessions. Organizing his notes was the larger challenge.
Felix walked out of the door and ran into his friend.
"James! Hey, gotta catch the bus, how's it going?" Felix barely broke stride, and James hurried after him, looking furtively from side to side.
"Hey Felix, man, buddy, how's it going? Still at McDonalds?"
Felix groaned.
"Nope, not anymore, just got fired."
"Ah damn, that sucks dude. Hey, you know anyone who's buying?" James asked with one more glance around.
Felix stopped.
"No, James, you didn't." He moaned. "We promised. We promised not to touch that stuff."
"Aww come on man." James said. "It's not like I'm hurting anyone. Don't get high on your own supply, you know? You know a better way to make some dough? And don't give me none of your 10-year plan bullshit, you know that's not going to work. Whole world's fucking dying."
Felix just stared and watched his oldest friendship go down in flames. Another thought hit him.
"Ah fuck, you're not even doing weed. It's legal. You're doing the hard shit."
"Shhh!" James wildly looked up and down the street. "Not so loud!"
Oh god.
Felix thought.
James is going to get caught. He's so bad at this.
The bus chose that moment to speed past the stop. Felix took one half-hearted step after it before slumping in defeat. He'd seen enough drugs to know how it utterly fucking destroyed everyone nearby, and didn't want to get caught in the fallout. At the same time.
"Look... James. You're my best friend. Just give me time to think about all of this, alright? I think Rachel might be interested."
"Which Rachel?"
"Harlow. Now, it's getting late and I just missed my bus. It's a long fucking walk back home."
James looked guilty, which wasn't much of a change from his previous expression. He was totally getting caught.
"Sorry man, didn't mean to hold you up. Take care dude!" James said.
"Take care. You know I don't want to be near that stuff, but good luck. I mean it." Felix said, then got walking.
The bus he missed was the start of a perfect arrangement of public transportation to get himself home in a reasonable amount of time. Now it was going to take an hour and a half of walking, instead of an hour on the bus. Nothing he wasn't used to, just another burden to bear.
The dark-haired, grey-eyed boy had a lot of thinking he could do on the way back, and reading over his notes while waiting for lights to change. The summer was dry and hot enough that he didn't need to worry about puddles, just dehydration.
Lost his friend, lost his job, lost his cash... today
sucked.
At least his belly was full, and the library was still open to him. Felix knocked on a nearby power pole to ward off the bad luck.
A dust-covered Felix walked his way up to the trailer park, grabbing the mail on the way in. Two letters stood out from the rest, bulky squares in unusual parchment instead of sleek envelopes. Something to look into later.
Felix got into the dark trailer, and tossed his keys into the tray. He found a well-reused note on the table. Honestly, there was
almost
no point to it, Felix knew the drill by now.
Hi love!
Working late, don't wait for me. Fix yourself dinner, but don't worry about me, I already ate.
Hugs and kisses,
Mom
Felix fixed himself up some rice and beans - $0.34 plus sauce, which he'd never been able to properly calculate - and glanced in the trash and dishwasher. They were completely unchanged from this morning, the letter a loving lie. He'd only caught onto it recently.
Felix figured he'd have all evening to watch television or maybe go online with their ancient laptop. Blessed luxuries, both of them. Almost drowned out the Harlows arguing next door, or the excessively loud music Davis was playing. The music was much better than the other noises that could be coming from that direction. Felix could easily sleep through it all.
But first, while he was eating, he sorted through the mail.
Overdue notice, spam, spam, overdue notice, MLM pitch, spam, new bill, spam, spam, spam. The two odd letters were at the back, somehow resisting getting looked at first.
Felix Sutter
Only bedroom in the trailer
14 Lucky Park Circle
Shady Pines Mobile Estates
Sacramento, California, United States
The second letter was addressed much the same, only different.
Felix Sutter
Petaapitsalli in chanko
14 Lucky Park Circle
Shady Pines Mobile Estates
Ueyaltepetl ipan in siuatlampaern ueyatl
Curious if there was anything more to the letter with the unknown language, Felix turned it over. There was a fancy seal on the back of the thick envelope. A winged snake coiling around a pyramid. Intrigued, he opened the second letter first, and almost immediately went cross-eyed.
Temachtilkaliuiestli iuan tlamanalistli...
Well, what did he expect when he picked up the letter
not in English?
Felix scanned, but there wasn't a single word he could understand in the entire thing. His Spanish was
acceptable,
but the language wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before. He was just reaching for the next letter when there was a knock on the door.
Ugh.
Missionaries.
At least, that was the best he could hope for. Felix scooted his chair back and walked over to the door, opening it in one swift move.
"Hail S-" Felix's irreverent remark was cut off as he saw what the man was wearing. Or not wearing. He only had a pair of heart print boxers, a sash, and a pair of shoes on.
"Hello -" The man started to say, when Felix cut him off with a voice-cracking screech.
"Put on some pants!" Felix slammed the door shut and locked it, stomping back over to the table.
The man muttered outside the door for a moment, then opened the door and entered the trailer. Felix blinked. He'd dropped his keys outside the door, why hadn't he picked them up and put them where they belonged? They didn't have a gun, but there were a few sharp knives right next to him.
The man walked in, wearing a halloween costume of long, flowing robes - kind of like the grim reaper, without the mask. A distinct upgrade from boxers. The man was powerfully built, stopping just short of a bodybuilder. His square face was framed by golden hair, and he had a mean pair of mutton chops in the same color. The man tossed the trailer keys back into the tray, like he knew they should be there. Felix started to wonder if he could break out of the window, or if he could talk the invader down. Terrible scenarios flashed through his mind.
When people broke in during the day, they were after his stuff. Not like he had any, but Davis had gotten his trailer ransacked last year.
When people broke in during the night, or close enough, they were after
him.
"How does the traditional greeting go this time around?" The man wondered to himself as Felix tensed up, then snapped his fingers. "Ah yes. You're a wizard, Felix."