The office door burst open, startling everyone inside. My father stepped in, his expression unreadable.
"Henry?"
"Ah, Lord Father. You're back."
His eyes swept across the room. "I sent someone to fetch you. What's going on here?"
William cleared his throat and rose halfway from his seat. "My Lord, the young master was sharing his thoughts about the famine and…" he hesitated, choosing his words carefully "about cleansing the poisoned soil."
My father's gaze moved from William to me, then to the others. His eyes lingered on Robin a little too long. "And what are you all doing here?"
Chaos followed. Everyone except Isolde stammered a half hearted excuse and hurried out. Isolde, of course, just slipped out silently like a shadow.
"Doyle, stay. We need to talk."
Once the door shut behind the last of them, my father turned to me again. "Henry, it's time you met your grandfather."
"My grandfather?"
"Yes. He's asked to see you. He's waiting in the meeting room. Go now I'll talk to William and Doyle and join you shortly."
I hope this isn't about Hyness.
As I left William's office, Mnex's words from yesterday came back to me.
Your grandfather couldn't bear it. The guilt crushed him. He built a garden around her grave not for beauty, but for penance. He sits there every day, talking to her like she's still alive.
That's what I expected. A man shattered by grief, hidden away from the world. A ghost among flowers.
I imagined a frail, hunched man in torn robes and wild hair.
"Be careful when you meet him. We know nothing about the mages of this land. And whatever you do, don't mention your grandmother. Just answer what you're asked… or better yet, stay silent."
Ugh. He really knows how to hold a grudge.
I mess up once, and suddenly I'm the poster child for bad decisions.
And honestly, how was I supposed to know someone would try to kill a three year old? I thought I'd get a slap, maybe a scolding. Not attempted murder.
"Yes. And because of that brilliant assumption, you nearly died yesterday. Ask next time."
Mnex's voice grumbled in my mind as I approached the meeting room. The door stood ajar.
Inside, a man I assumed to be my grandfather stood alone by the tall wooden window. The filtered sunlight poured through small rectangular panes, giving the room an almost sacred glow.
His long white hair was tied into a neat bun. His posture was straight, regal.
"So, you realized the land was poisoned," he said, without even turning around.
I froze.
Mnex, that beggar guy, can't be my grandfather, right?
"If that beggar turns out to be your grandfather and he wants revenge over his wife's death, well... your next meeting might be with TABAAL."
"Yes, sir," I replied, unsure if I was speaking to Mnex or the old man.
"I've heard you started speaking before you were two. Then you began reading."
Was that a question? The silence demanded a response.
Mnex? Is that true?
"Calculated as early signs of accelerated cognitive function. Quite useful in the long run"
"Yes, sir," I cut in, sparing myself from the lecture.
"Then tell me, how did you know the land was poisoned by magic?"
Here we go.
Mnex?
"Telling the truth means admitting I exist. And that makes you insane. Lie."
But it still has to make sense.
"Well? Speak up!" the man snapped, turning to face me.
The broken down figure I had imagined shattered completely.
He bore the lines of age, yes, but not defeat. His face held no visible grief but his eyes told another story. A quiet storm brewed behind those ice blue irises.
He looked... sharper than my father. Even dignified.
"I apologize, sir. I had imagined someone different. My father said I was to meet my grandfather."
I stepped forward and gazed out the same window he had just been standing before. It was nearly ceiling high.
"I can't say for sure. But when I touched the soil where nothing grew, and it just… felt wrong. Almost like something was clinging to it. But when I touched the healthy patch, it was clean. That's when I thought maybe magic."
"Hmm. You can sense mana. Very interesting."
Mnex? Did I nail it?
"Statistically more true than false. My analysis did show mana infused particles so magic is a probable candidate."
"You're quite sharp for your age. When your father was your age, he could barely string a sentence together, let alone read."
I glanced at his face. It didn't sound like an insult more like a memory wrapped in melancholy.
"Henry!"
My father's voice cut through the halls like a whip.
Please tell me Doyle didn't blab everything.
Moments later, he barged into the room, red in the face. William trailed behind him, and Doyle came last avoiding eye contact.
"What are you doing behind my back?"
"I don't understand, Lord Father."
"I'm talking about your schemes with William the chickens, the manure, all that nonsense."
"Oh, that... While walking Robin through the city, I overheard people talking and…"
"Who is the lord of this house?"
His voice thundered. I lowered my head.
"You are, sir."
"Then stop acting like one. And that garbage you fed William that you're going to clean the soil with chicken manure and lightning? What do you know about either of those things?"
"What did you just say?"
My grandfather's voice interrupted, firm and cold. But his eyes were now on me.
Wait... is he hearing voices too?
"Henry, did you just say you're purifying the soil from magic… with lightning?"
And just like that, the presentation restarted.
I went over everything again chicken diet, manure use, even the incubators. Mnex had to jump in a few times when my brain got fuzzy.
It was during this exchange that I finally learned my grandfather's name, Percival Galahad Godfrey.
Back when Mnex first told me about him, I was too busy sobbing like a broken faucet to ask. Oops.
"There's merit to what my grandson says," he finally said. "Magic may taint the soil, but it never lingers forever. Its effects, however, persist unless removed. Mages have studied this for ages."
He turned to my father.
"One mage cannot cleanse a region this size. The poison spreads. With time, it could reach the entire kingdom. It would take hundreds of mages to reverse this damage."
Then, he looked back at me.
"But with Henry's method, we might cleanse it by next planting season. If he's right, this strange plan of his might just be our salvation."
My father cut in. "What do you mean by that, Father?"
"Poison," my grandfather replied calmly, "can be medicine if used right. And if Henry follows through, this might not only cleanse the soil… it might make it more fertile than before."
That made the room go quiet. Then his gaze returned to me.
"But what I really want to know is, where did you learn all this? These ideas… they're not exactly common knowledge."
"Well, that'll take a while to explain," I said, scratching the back of my head. "It wasn't like I read it all in one place."
I began pacing slowly.
"Once, I noticed the stones around the fireplace were warmer than others. Then I learned chickens lay eggs. Then I found out they sit on them. Why? Probably to keep them warm."
I could feel Mnex yelling facts in my brain while I paraphrased with a grin.
"Fattening chickens? That's easy, I mean just look at them. And as for the 'hot or not stick'… well, it does what it says. Tells you if it's hot or not. But since we need exact numbers, we'll mark it properly so we don't cook the chicks by mistake."
Silence.
Then, someone whispered:
"Hot… or not… stick?"
...
Thanks to my grandfather's intervention, the idea which was about to be dismissed as childish babble was salvaged. Or rather, Mnex's idea was salvaged.
People left the room one by one, still visibly deep in thought. I was the last to head for the door. My father and grandfather remained seated.
Just as I reached the doorway, my cursed tongue, apparently immune to trauma, betrayed me again. Yesterday it nearly got me killed. Today? Who knows.
"Sir... I'm glad we met. I wish we had more time. Maybe we could've gotten close."
I should've stopped there.
But I didn't.
"You worked so much you missed time with your family. Now you're making up for it by… not spending time with your family again. That's... kind of tragic."
I didn't look back, but I heard nothing but stunned silence.
I think their jaws hit the table.
Mnex, now would be a fantastic time to give me the schematics for a thermometer and a hygrometer. We've got chickens to steam.