"Well, I've got to go run into town. We're fresh out of rosemary and your father wanted chicken for dinner," their mother said, rising to her feet gracefully. "Be nice to each other, and no magic while I'm gone," she said before turning to James, pointing a finger at him with a scolding smile.
"Especially you, James. We don't need a repeat of the time you tried cooking half the garden with your flames," she tutted, and Vien stifled a laugh behind another cookie. His older brother shot him a look, which only caused him to snort while Meredith began giggling.
"But mother, it was only one time! And how am I to practice if you're going to be in town all day?" James complained.
"You'll just have to wait. Why not practice your violin? I'm certain Vien would be happy to help you," their mother countered while James sighed. Vien knew that his brother hated playing the violin, no matter how good at it he was. He would rather be up to his elbows in water while he developed his photos, but he occasionally humored their mother with a song or two. Vien thought it was sort of ironic, really. His brother, good at something he disliked with a passion? It was almost as if the universe was trying to apologize for his lack of magic.
"Don't worry mother, I'll make sure he doesn't kill half the gardens again," Meredith piped up in that childishly innocent voice of hers. Their mother laughed softly, patting her head before reaching for a cookie.
"I'm sure you will, dear. But I really should be off, I'd like to get back before dark," their mother laughed, taking a bite of her cookie before turning to walk towards the front door. "Goodbye, children!" she called with a wave, the three at the table calling various goodbyes as they watched her disappear out the door. As soon as she was gone James leaned back in his chair, propping his scuffed riding boots up on the table as he snatched another cookie from the tray.
"James, get your f-feet off the table. You know mother doesn't like it when you do t-that," Vien protested softly, a frown quirking at the corner of his lip as he took a sip of his tea. His brother just scoffed, taking a large bite of his cookie as he propped an arm beneath his head.
"Oh, mother will never know. At least I'm not hiding a hole in the wall behind the tapestry in my room," James jeered with a smile, and Vien stuck his tongue out at him. Meredith tilted her head confusedly, taking a moment to stuff a cookie in her mouth before speaking.
"You still haven't fixed the hole in the wall?" she asked, downing her mouthful with half a glass of milk. Vien sighed, running a hand through his mess of dark hair.
"It's not my fault. I don't know how to repair walls, and it's not like I could work a spell to f-fix it," he protested, a faint edge of bitterness working its way into his tone. But his sister, the ever-caring child she was, immediately began offering to help.
"I bet I could find some sort of healing spell that works on buildings! That way you could get rid of that ugly fish tapestry you dislike so much," she said in a chipper tone, making an exaggerated face of disgust at the mention of the tapestry. It was a sad, raggedy old thing, whose only purpose was to conceal the decent-sized hole he had accidentally made in the wall when James had startled him. He resisted the urge to wince at the memory of holding one of the machetes their father had given him, pretending to swing at an imaginary foe while his brother stormed in. James had been asking where his camera had gone when he was startled, and he narrowly avoided putting a gash in his brother's cheek. The wall, however, had fared far worse.
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