Elenda, tall and slender with dark hair wrapped round her head under her headcovering, stepped back from the last of the hams with satisfaction.

  “Are you done?” asked the other woman, Bora Lambden. She had hired Elenda, since she was an Earth mage with a specialty in preservative magic, to put magic on all of her hanging pork, now that it had been smoked and was ready for storage.

  “I'm done, and it'll keep if you did your smoking properly,” Elenda said, looking over at Bora with a slight smile.

  Bora's eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting I don't know how to smoke meat proper?” She was round and short, but she made the best bacon in town, and she knew it.

  “I would never suggest that. You always fly off the handle,” retorted Elenda. “I feel sorry for your husband, living with a temper like yours.”

  “Oh, you feel sorry for him? Is that why you're chasing him?” accused Bora, stepping closer, face reddening. “I saw him the last time he went to your place for something. Came home all at a stand and red-faced. Don't you get enough at home?”

  “I don't have to chase anyone, Joram has me quite happy,” Elenda said, sneering at the other woman.”Besides,” she added contemptuously. “Joram won't pay attention to anyone else. He doesn't like fat women.”

  And on that note she turned on her heel and walked away, toward her own house. Inwardly, she was giggling to herself. It was so fun to wind up Bora Lambden. And it wasn't hard. She apparently couldn't stand her, because just something small like making it clear she hadn't done magic for flavor-smoked ham, but full-smoked... and off she went. And accusing her of trying to get somewhere with Jonke Lambden? She snorted to herself. He and Bora deserved each other. And really, it wasn't her fault. She couldn't lift the full flitch of bacon up to the hook in her storehouse, and so when Jonke brought it....she always got payment in advance....he's had to help her. It wasn't Elenda's fault if bumping up against her as they lifted it got him going. Not that she blamed him,. She knew she was the prettiest woman in town.

  She'd been very fortunate to have only grown to a height slightly taller than most women, and even more fortunate that she took after her human mother in eye and ear and face. She'd been way too tall as a child, and been teased for her Elven blood, until they'd had to move. Elenda still felt sad thinking of how she'd loved that house.

  But she was home now, and her daughter had finished her sewing. Alandra was a very good girl. She always tried her hardest to be the best she could be, and Elenda was quite proud of having such a good child, unlike some others in the village, she thought.

  “Mama, will I have Magic like you?” asked Alandra suddenly.

  Elenda turned from where she was checking the stew for dinner and said,

  “Almost certainly, Alandra. It is not yet awakened, but I'm sure it will soon. Elves awaken at birth, men at manhood, so you will fall somewhere between.”

  “So...sometime soon? I was ten at the last Midwinter festival!”

  “Maybe,” her mother said with a smile. “Now, I must finish the pantry so that I have time to make the dinner. Why don't you go see if you can do any of the little Magics that you see me do all the time?"

  "All right, Mama."

  Elenda smiled as her daughter walked off. She was named after her beloved mother's mother, who had been a gentle and helpful presence in her home as she grew up. She herself had an Elven name, despite being only half. It was her mother's nod to her heritage, because otherwise she had grown up in a human household with human traditions, and had only found her Magic at womanhood at sixteen. Her husband was a blacksmith, working with extra strength and Fire mastery to make swords. She herself made good money doing Earth magic to preserve hides and food and medications, and it let her keep her house and raise their daughter without needing to hire anyone to help.

  Elandra had not had any desire to learn battle cast forms and go off to adventure, with all its risks and rewards. It was quite unwomanly and undignified. Her husband had done a bit of adventuring in his twenties, and then married her at thirty and happily settled down. He had a fair bit of gold put away, and it would serve their daughter well as a marriage portion, even more so if she did turn out to have magic.

  Magic was very useful for a woman. It made keeping things clean and vermin out of the stored food ever so much easier, and it helped to gentle the animals, keep the chickens in the yard, and even make one a little coin now and then for pin money. She did that in the Autumn by helping others with preserving their meat and grain. The hams and sausages she had put magic on never rotted before the following Summer, and they were all eaten then, and her anti-rodent spell stayed on, presuming the woman kept her grain bins and chicken runs in order. If her daughter did have magic, she'd be able to marry high...she looked well, with the height and lean build of an Elf but the soft and rounded human features, and her mother's long heavy dark hair with just enough curl that the wisps that escaped her braid curled prettily round her face. Her grey eyes were free of the Elvish slant and hooded eyelid, and not as large as an Elf's, but large enough to give her a very appealing look. Best of both worlds, really. Alandra might be able to catch a rich merchant's son, and then wouldn't that make them all sit up! She'd be set for life then, even when Joram passed to the gods. It was nice to think of an old age spent amidst cushions and furs over the lap and grandchildren to snuggle, and everyone doing just as you told them.

  There were issues and worries enough in the village. The way some of the other women kept house! And it wasn't her preservation cantrip at fault. If you don't properly salt down the meat, it will rot, unless you put a lot of magic into it. And then to say she had shorted the job because she didn't like her!

  She didn't care about Mistress Lamben. It was Bora Lambden who hated her in such an awful way! And it wasn't like she did anything! I mean, if Elandra had given birth to four children in three years, she'd want some help with just keeping everyone clean, too. It was important for any serving woman to know what she was getting into with that crowd.

  And then there was May Corcan. She thought way too much of herself, just because she'd married the richest man in town! But the joke was on her, because her mother-in -law was an awful, selfish old beast.

  Her life was good. She had a nice house, a good husband who earned a good living, and her one daughter was a good obedient little girl, who would turn into a good obedient wife and stay her mother's good girl. Unlike that Charrie boy...He'd entirely neglected the God's blessing and run off to be a soldier or merchant or something, and his mother had cried so much. That was why she didn't want to have sons. Sons left you, but daughters stayed close.

  As she put the last jar up on the shelf and felt the satisfaction of a job well done, her daughter called,

  “Mama! I did it, Mama!!”

  “Did what, Alandra?” said Elenda, coming out of the pantry and into the large kitchen.

  “I found my Magic!" she said, very excited. "See, I said "Spark! and I sparked!"

  Elenda looked as her daughter snapped her fingers, and indeed, she sparked!

  “Well, then, we will have to practice sparking the fire, won't we? And your father will have some things to talk to you about when you get home.”

  Her father was delighted.

  ”You'll make a very good marriage if you've got magic,” he said “That's a dowry in and of itself. Elenda; we'll have to see what element she has affinity with.”

  “Yes indeed!” said Elenda. "Spark is so easy for her, so she may have Fire, or Air."

  "Fire would make sense, since that's my element."

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  "Fire's very useful," said Elenda. "She won't ever burn a meal and she can always keep beds warm with heated stones and keep things from molding in storage."

  "Useful things for a woman," approved Joram.

  "And Mage talent in a bride means Mage talent in your children, so that will get her attention."

  "I'll teach her all the useful cantrips," said Elenda happily. "She's worked out Spark on her own, but things like the air barriers take a more delicate touch."

  Joram nodded.

  "I use those when the wind's setting wrong so my fire draws right," he said. "It's just like forging; takes you some practice to get right."

  "Well, she's ten now. We've got three years till she gets her blessing...unless, since she has her Magic, she should have it now?" She frowned, thinking.

  "I'd feel better knowing what her magic was. I can't imagine she'd need training to be safe the way the master Mages do, but it would be good to know."

  "I can start her meditating so she has control," Elenda said. "That's good for anyone with any Magic at all. And she inherited your temper, so she needs control.”

  "I'm a very easygoing man!" protested Joram. "It's just, if I'm driven far enough, I'll explode like a fire mountain."

  "Well, and so will she," Elandra said. "Or are you forgetting the Harvest festival when she was three?"

  He winced. Neither of them had forgotten that epic tantrum. She didn't remind him that it was his fault that his daughter had lost control. She'd done that enough times already.

  "So magical control and emotional control go together," said Joram, "and we can teach that, once we know what her element is. We're both mages, we don't need to send her off to a School."

  She nodded happily.

  "I'll see when they're going to be sending a load of wood out. We'll go then."

  "Yes, that's the way to go. I haven't heard of any bandits in the area, but a load of wood is low value and not worth their time, I shouldn't think."

  "Mm, yes," she said. "We can stay at the Temple overnight and return the next day with the wheat factor's wagons. That's what Martin the Peddler does when he comes out."

  "Yes, we get adventurers, because of my work, but not so many that you can count on them being on the roads. And it's not just any adventurer I'd trust to escort you, wife. Some of them adventure ahead of the Law's reach."

  "No, no. I'll go with the wood, and keep us both safe."

  "A good plan," Joram said. "And a good dinner. I'm off to the tavern. Someone came to the forge today to commission a set of swords."

  She sighed.

  "All right."

  He stood, moved round the table, and kissed her cheek.

  "I know you don't like it, but better there than them coming here." At that, she made a face.

  "Yes, " she said. "Come home as soon as you can."

  After he left, she cleaned up the kitchen and built up the fire, thinking.

  She would need to wait on marriage a couple of years to grow to full womanhood, but then she'd have her magic to bring to a marriage as well. With magic as her dowry, she'd need less gold from their savings: gold that could be spent on giving them a nice house and better things, more meat, spices more often, and perhaps even a girl to help. And, once she married, Joram could take an apprentice, or have a journeyman come for his journey year. They had agreed that, with their daughter growing up, and no brothers or sisters, it was best to just wait on introducing an apprentice. They had time, as the Half-Elven lived longer than humans. Not that it was wise to make a great point of it. Part of the reason they had saved up was to move if necessary, and find a new village where no one knew quite how old they really were.

  Not that people knew that here. They saw Joram and figured him for his early forties, with his wife in her early thirties. It was just better that way. She didn't look exceptionally Elven, and neither did her husband. No one needed to know that they were Half-Elven: there's so much prejudice around them. Everyone loves the magic they can do, but they don't want their bastard children around. She pushed down old pain.

  Alandra quickly learned the small useful forms of magic for a household. Spark lit candles and the fire, and Cleanse freshened clothes and dealt with dust between washings. She learned a very gentle Summon Breeze to air the house out, and a light shield that, when cast on windows, let the air through, but not bugs. A slightly stronger shield kept the chickens in the yard. She also learned a little Healing form that most mothers knew; it worked for skinned knees and bumps and little bruises, and a little Repair charm that made shoes and belts look like new, though it didn't work on cloth, so she learned darning and patching for that. She spent some time every day sitting and feeling her magic inside her, like a little fire just getting established on the hearth. She sensed that sitting like this fed the fire, and there was a great sense of possibility within her: it was like climbing to the top of the tall tree and being able to see for milen around.

  “Oh, she's quite the little housewife!” said her mother to another woman outside, “Her fancy stitching isn't quite good enough yet, but she can keep the house tidy and the animals tended as well as if she were a grown woman. And she's got plenty of time to finish learning her sewing, since she's only 10.”

  “Never too soon to think of dowries.”

  “Well, Joram has some put aside from his wild days, and if she has my magic, she'll have plenty to bring to a marriage.”

  “Oh, indeed. Just having the preservation magic makes such a difference in the meat keeping sweet. And how nice to open windows and keep flies out, too!”

  “I'll send Alandra over to work on your windows. It's good practice for her.”

  “Oh, I'll love to see her!”

  It didn't take long before seeing Alandra trotting about the village at her mother's heels, helping do the magic or doing it herself, became very commonplace. Her mother kept her busy. She must learn how to properly iron clothing, mix the spice blend for hams, and how to properly sweep out a room. Learning to bake as well as her mother meant they had extra to send about the village to the Uncles and Aunties who had few or no people to make them little goodies. Her mother was fond of sending out a little of this or that to them, and once she knew that Alandra was trustworthy, she was sent with a little pot of stew or a little container of sour cabbage on an everyday basis.

  And the Aunties and Uncles liked her. She was interested in hearing their stories, but learned quickly not to stay too long, or Mama would be upset.

  Mama hopefully wouldn't be too mad that Old Uncle Harry wanted to tell stories. He was already in full flow with an audience of two of the other kids in town.

  "Did you really kill the Spider Queen with one blow?!" asked Joey Crider.

  "Well, it helped that our Mage had already hit 'er with a couple a firebolts," he said. "Nothing like having a good team to back you up."

  "I wanna grow up and be a tank like you," said Johnny Fletcher.

  "Aaah, everybody knows you can't be no tank, Red," said Joey.

  "Better than you, Squinty!" flared Red.

  "Are you guys gonna fight, or you gonna listen to stories?" Alandra asked as she came in, carrying a covered pot.

  "Mistress Elenda sends you some mutton stew, Uncle Harry," she said respectfully.

  "Hey, Beanpole," said Red amiably. "Haven't seen you around for a bit."

  "My mother has me working every hour of the day, now that I've found my magic."

  "No!"

  "Really!" came from the two boys.

  "Well, ain't that a turn-up," said Uncle Harry, smiling. "Don't haveta if you don't wanna, but yeah, if you want to show us...”

  She looked round the room, and saw an unlit candle, and walked over to it, pinching the wick between her fingers, then pulling it away as she said,

  "Spark!" and flicked the energy within her, lighting the candle with a little thread of flame.

  "Whoa..." said Red.

  "Wow!" said Squinty.

  "Be dipped for a piece a toast!" said Uncle Harry. "You really do have it."

  She made a little breeze and blew out the candle, since it would be wrong to waste it.

  "So what makes the best party, Uncle Harry?" asked Alandra.

  “Weelll...” Harry said, and thought a moment.

  “It depends on what ye fight, ye ken? But a good all round party is two tanks, two who can do ranged damage, a trapsmith if ye're in a node, and a Healer and a Mage. Two Mages if ye can, with different specialties.”

  “Oh, cause if something's got fire magic, fire won't take it out,” said Squinty.

  “Yes indeed,” Harry said, nodding. “My opinion, Air's the best to have. The Air Mages, they can call down lightning, and knock things over with the wind. If ye get a sword that does some lightning damage, then you're in business. Or poison. But ye have to be careful when ye get into some of the more enchanted pieces. Lots of them require something of ye to work. Have to make sure you can pay the price.”

  He glanced at the window.

  “And I'll bet that yer mam'sll be calling y'all in for yer suppers and evenin' chores soon."

  Alandra jumped. She'd been over here much too long listening to him talk, when she'd just been bringing him a small pot of stew for his dinner.

  “Thank you, Uncle Harry,” Alandra said.

  “Ah, thank you for listening to an old man's stories. And tell yer ma thanks for the stew."

  She blushed and hurried out, followed closely by the two boys.

  “Time for supper? I'm just shutting down,”said Joram, as he banked the fire in the forge to survive overnight and began to make sure everything was put away properly.

  “Papa, Mani Horant won't play with me cause she said her mother said my mother is wrong and bad.”

  He heaved a deep sigh as he closed the wooden shutters and barred them from the inside. “Well, you know Mistress Horant can get an argument up with a dead tree stump, let alone any person.”

  “That's true,” Alandra said, and giggled a bit. Joram smiled. He reached a hand out to her and they walked down the road to their home.

  “I don't like it when Mama says hurting things to people,” said Alandra suddenly.

  “Well, flower, she is who she is, and we just have to accept that. She's never said them to you, has she?”

  “No, but....”

  “And I'm a big guy. I can take a little teasing, and who better than your wife to know your flaws? Plus, who else would have me?” He sighed and let go of her hand. “Run on ahead and get me some hot water so I can wash before I sit at table.”

  She smied at him and ran.