Elevation of Mana Chapter 29 Contract

Isha had pulled me to the side, us getting a rare moment of privacy so we could talk.

"I kept practicing last night," she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Cool, what did you learn?" I asked.

"I can make them already cooked, which is good, I think they taste better like that too, but I was hoping for your opinion." She held out one of the little faux tuber cakes for me, and without hesitation I bit down on it. She was right, it was better.

"So, you tell anyone else?" I asked.

She frowned a bit, looking divided on how to proceed. "No, did you tell anyone?"

"It is your power, for you to use and share as you like. If people were starving I might have felt divided, but they're not, it's your secret to share when you want to. Though I do think you should," I explained.

"Not sure if that's what I want. Mom and dad will be happy, and our hut will do better, but they might push me for more and more, people are like that. Look at some of the things they ask you to do."

She wasn't wrong. My parents would step in if people got pushy asking me for things, but that didn't mean that I didn't get requests all the time. Lots of it was stuff they could do with a bit of effort, or stuff I didn't know how to do. Mostly it was my wood lathe trick that people wanted, Elaya couldn't get the visualization on it quite right, and there were plenty of things that could be made easily with one, but some things just weren't possible for me. I was still keeping the idea of quick and easy wooden cups and bowls for later, people might have known carving them was possible, but they'd not made the connection yet.

"Maybe talk to dad? If he could learn the same thing it would make even more food for everyone, and having someone teach him would help. He might even make an agreement to pay you for making food to help the village, if someone strong made a deal with you that restricted what you could do then that would be that."

There were agreements, not contracts as such, but close enough. Quick things where people traded might be worked out alone, but for larger things the terms would be presented to the influential people of our village publicly, so that everyone knew.

"What about you? You already know, so if we can't figure it out at least nobody else would." She gave me a questioning look.

"I'm still a kid," I observed.

"Yeah, but a scary one. Your mom and dad would take your side if someone tried to push things too, and if we had an agreement then I could hide behind that." That was fair enough, after killing a full sized monster with a massive blaze of heat I was pretty well respected by most of the men in town.

"Alright, how many of those little cakes are you willing to make for everyone?" I asked.

There was a sort of noblesse oblige, or since it was based on magic, magus oblige, something like that. The more you had, particularly power-wise, the more you were expected to make available to help others. It wasn't everything of course, but something. Mother and father both worked for pay most of the time, but if there was a need, they quickly stepped up to fill it. Again, this also helped keep the peace with out neighbors. I hadn't been pushed too much to this yet because of my age, but I could do something for others here, particularly my friend.

We went back and forth for a good while. Eventually we decided that our contract would last through the winter, it would be long enough for her to grow a bit, and others to acclimate to her abilities. I managed to push through two major points, the first was that she would teach my father her magic, if he agreed to learn, the second was that she had to provide a set amount of her little cakes to the village. The third point was from her, she wouldn't be allowed to work for anyone else for the duration of the winter, and was expected to push excess amounts of her light, I hated that term, into making me honey. I didn't expect her to make much, but I did want some of the stuff and it would be a perfect excuse. There were some exceptions, she could do things for herself and her family, but there was a minimum amount of honey I'd be getting every ten days regardless.

From me she'd be getting two of my purple beads; I didn't care about them, and could make more if I really needed to. The first for the teaching, the second for her work for an unknown amount of time. I also had to pay her a pittance in either small woodworking projects like tool handles, or equal agreed upon items every ten days. Things that I could do in minutes, but something to show that our agreement was ongoing. It was important to have something that could be easily pointed at, and my little payments to her would be it.

Once everything was hashed out we went back to our tasks until dinner. That would be when we told everyone and when she got her first payment. Things were easier that way, as everyone was together to witness it.

As we prepped for the evening meal, getting things together and finishing up the last of our tasks for the day my aunt stared at me.  Auntie Atie always had the most annoying ability to tell when I was up to something.  I'd asked a few times and she simply told me that I had the most guilty face ever.  That said, she also knew when to step in, generally right before things went off.  She, and several other of the women in our hut were now loudly discussing what I was up to this time, and suspecting it had to do with Isha, since we'd been seen together.

I didn't think too much about most of the others who lived with us all that often, but they were there.  There were two couples and two single women other than my parents and I, and all were closer to my parents than me.  This was a normal enough thing, as most of the huts in the village were a sort of communal affair.  It mattered because of the potential futures.

Both of my parents were strong, quite strong both magically and socially, and while they weren't there yet there was a possibility.  If one or both of my parents started to gain a white lock of hair like Elaya had, our village would probably split.  Not immediately, but there would be a push to gain enough members for it, and it would occur.  The reason was simple enough, an elder was too respected, and too many cooks in one kitchen would cause problems.  In larger settlements there would be a hierarchy, like Atal being ruled by Atal, but Elaya wasn't that far along yet and wouldn't be able to just force things through like she could now, this would cause strife.

I thought about this and looked at my parents and aunt as we made our way over to the main fire-pit.  It was cold, painfully so, but my actions attracted father's attention eventually.

"Something wrong son?"  He asked.

"Just wondering if you had any white hairs," I responded.

"Ha!  No, not yet, nor does your mother, she gets me to check her over every now and then."  He gave a wry smile, they were private about their affections, but I was a direct result, so I knew what was going on.  I wasn't sure where or when though, as while people were clearly having sex, everyone seemed to hide it pretty well.

"What about auntie?  Maybe she'll beat you both to it," I teased.

"Not likely, her light hasn't fully manifested yet.  She's getting stronger, but slowly, if and when it does it would be at least another twenty years or so before she started to become an elder.  At least that's the most likely thing, rarely people do gain white hairs without a fully manifested light, but that is very, very rare."  I wanted to ask more questions on that subject, but we'd arrived to dinner, and Isha was sitting there nearly bouncing as she waited.  "On another subject, why does your friend look so anxious to see you?"

"You'll see," I answered with a chuckle.  I thought several of the people in our hut might object to our deal, but dad probably wouldn't be one of them.

Soon as we arrived both of us went over towards where Elaya sat with her social group.  She raised an eyebrow in curiosity while off to the side mother glared at Isha.  Isha's mother was also looking at me, with a mix of curiosity and unhappiness, seems she hadn't told anyone about our deal either yet.

"We've come to an arrangement," I told the elder, who stopped what she was doing to look at us.  Shortly a number of representatives from the village, as well as those who were curious, came over to listen.

As we worked our way through the arrangement the reactions were mixed.  Dad spent most of his off to the side laughing.

"This is a major thing," Elaya observed, "Are you sure?"

"Isha, we should talk, this is months of work he's getting from you.  It's a good price... but you still should have talked to us first," her mother said, clearly interested in what exactly her daughter could now do.

Mom looked less than pleased.  "She's getting a lot from you, and she's using you to protect herself.  You get little from this Elian."

"I'm aware," I answered my mother.  "The thing is, that she's not getting anything that I care much about.  However, a good source of sweet things is something I want."

My father howled at that one, as did several of the other men of the village.  None of them cared about money or trading so long as they had what they needed, and everyone liked good food.  They understood my side instantly, the women of the village on the other hand cared about pretty things a lot, because they wanted the status.  Men got theirs through their skill hunting or making things, but for the girls, if you didn't have magic, it was much more about how much decoration you could accumulate.  Social connections were important for everyone, but for them, who spent so much of their time in large groups working together, hierarchy was important.

Dad eventually stopped laughing when mother fixed him with her eyes, instead going on to explain.  "Both of them are getting what they want, and we'll gain too.  She's teaching me her trick as part of this, so don't worry so much love."

Mom moved her eyes back to Isha, they were not kind.  "I do not like my son being used."

"He's using her too," dad waved it off.  "Better, he's doing it to help the village, not just for selfish reasons."

Our parents could, in theory stop us from this, they didn't though.  Mother didn't like it, but would admit that my things were my own, whereas father really did approve.  Isha's parents were a little trickier, as they didn't like that their daughter was making such big decisions on her own.

"If you do not allow it, I'll refuse to help anyone other than myself," she finally threatened.  "My power is mine, to use how I want, and I won't let you tell me I can't.  Perhaps I'll just make a deal with Elian's mother or Elaya to let me get my own hut too, I'm pretty sure I could manage it if I wanted."

Those were some real threats, and while I thought she'd get an earful later, it was enough to quiet them for now.  It also quieted everyone else, because a magic user putting their foot down so harshly often did.  There were only a few in the village who could oppose her too much on this, and they either didn't care too much, or thought our deal was a good idea.

After giving a few moments for more objections Elaya read out our terms to us once again, putting it a bit more formally, but keeping everything the same.  "These are the terms you accept?"  She asked when she'd finished.

"Yes," I said.

"Yes," Isha answered as well.

"Your initial payments?"  She motioned.

I produced the beads she wanted while she began summoning the food as required, looking winded by the end of it.  When it was all done the elder nodded.  All of us had basically perfect recall, so there wasn't much a need to write these things down.  Most of the village had been right here for the verbal contract, and everyone that had could recite it verbatim if asked to, it was done.