122 Chapter 120 An (2/2)

”We teleported into the delivery room, past the elven guards, because I woke up when I could feel the little princess crying out. A magic rune was killing her.”

”What?” asked his mother faintly.

Joseph turned to look at Stella, who was leaning on one elbow.

”Oh, no. Don't look at me. I'm looking forward to this,” she said.

”The barrier around the elven forest blocks mana from getting in, so the elves are slowly dying as their mana is drained into maintaining the barrier. As magical creatures, the constant low mana causes issues with all of them, but mostly causes stillbirths and miscarriages. They have a rune in their capital that gathers mana there, which allows the women to carry the babies to term, but the spell is in the castle. The queen was so close, the mana was being drained out of the babies.”

William interrupted, ”New babies?”

”Yes, a new elven prince and princess were born. When we arrived, they were both blue and not breathing.”

His mom covered her mouth in horror, obviously upset.

”What did you do?” she whispered.

”I…rebuilt them?”

”What?” asked both of his parents.

”The rune was so strong that it didn't just drain the mana out of them, it wiped out whole sections of their mana pathways and distorted other sections. So, I rebuilt them magically, using some of Stella's circuits as guidelines, and some intuition of what felt right. The magic barrier around the kingdom draws power from the royal family, but with mana being depleted, it drains their life force instead of their magic. So, I broke the children's link to the barrier to prevent it from eating them too.

”That was actually a very carefully laid trap that almost killed me, even as I was successful in saving the babies. They aren't really elves anymore, they are something else now, but they are alive.”

”Wait, you almost died?” asked his dad, and his mother leaned forward to hear his response. All their food was getting cold, but none of them seemed to care.

”Yes, the barrier decided I was dangerous and wanted to murder me, so Stella grabbed me and ran all night to get me out of the elven forest. I woke up outside the forest and rested for a couple of days before I teleported back this morning.”

”And you didn't think you needed to tell us you almost died before you what..? started cooking dinner?” exclaimed his mother, horrified.

”The danger had already past. I figured we would talk at dinner anyway. Also, I need to go to the gnomes. I hope to find the trick to breaking the elven barrier without killing the king from them. And the elf queen had a hard delivery so she thinks I was trying to a.s.sault the children instead of save them. That's another reason I'm banished from the forest until I can fix the barrier issue and save the elves trapped inside.

”Stella did you cook this? It's amazing.”

”Yes, Master Joseph.”

”Oh, and Stella may have been…enthusiastic in getting me out of the forest so some of the elven guards may, or may not have been, um…cough…killed, as we left. Oh, they also know she is actually an ancient fey and not a human. They thought they were all dead already.”

”Oh…my…goodness…” said his mother. She was completely overwhelmed.

Joseph calmly reached for his drink while she sat back and tried to process.

After supper, there was a large gathering of all the people Joseph thought of as friends and allies. There were also a dozen people William considered close advisors. Tekaun, Chug, Daniel, Stephan, Derek, and Becky were all there. It was wonderful to have friends.

It was several hours before everyone was ready to go to bed. They talked about a ton of things, from how the barbariansnorthernerssoutherners, were doing, to the progress each were making in magic, to what his plans to study next were.

Joseph told them about the requirements to earn the basic, intermediate, and advanced mage t.i.tles. Stephan and Derek could go to the magical world whenever they wished, but Joseph was the only one who could bring others with him still. His plan was to get several protection spells, for in the future, and then keep up with the elements. He was hoping to discover other t.i.tles as he went, like elementalist, or something.

Stu came in and shouted, ”Master Joseph, you're a G.o.d! I've never seen so many dishes in all my life!”

Joseph laughed, then said, ”No I'm not, Stu. Not yet.”

He meant it as a joke, but everyone in the room got really quiet.

(PLEASE DON'T JOKE ABOUT THAT. PLEASE.)

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