Chapter 88 - Fun in Winter II (Patreon)

“SNOW!” Sora shouted, jumping into the drift.

“Did you talk the Headmaster into this?” Alexandria whispered to Erik, knowing the headmaster was his advisor.

“No.” Erik answered quietly. “I think he just wanted to turn the snow on before the winter break.”

“It’s so pre-” Vivian’s comment was cut off as a snowball smacked her directly in the face, followed by Sora’s laughter.

“Oh, it is on.” Vivian said, rolling up her sleeves. 

The five of them began a great snowball fight, eventually rolling into other students who’d also gotten the same idea. In a predictable fashion, the 1st years split into five groups - the Light, Grey, Dark, ‘I’m not joining any of them’, and Erik’s side.  

It started with a wall. Hazel, Vivian, and Erik had all rolled up large snowballs, then stuck them next to each other. Then they filled up the gaps with snow, creating a defensive line to make snowballs behind without getting hit back.

It only took a few minutes before the first wands were pulled, and magic started being used. At first it was pretty weak - Alexandria tried to use magic to throw a snowball - but it rapidly escalated as senior classmates joined in on the fun. Hazel bailed soon after.

“Oi! Snow only!” An adept yelled.

Most of the students joined their respective faction, but a few trickled over to Erik’s side. ‘Because being on the underdog’s side was fun’.

The snow walls quickly turned into snow forts, with enchantments written in ice. Ramparts, walls, castallans, and snow manufacturing rapidly came into being. The Dark’s side even made a full gate and portcullis, with a gigantic mound of snow as ‘oil’ if anyone tried to directly storm their gates.

Nobody tried it.

Sora led the charge on turning the snowball fight aerial. She dropped down, grabbed six snowballs, took off, dropped four, and was able to throw the other two. Not being hidden behind the walls, virtually everyone took a shot at her. Most of them fell short, Sora was able to dodge the few that came close, but she eventually took hits. None of them were so bad as to knock her off the broom, but some landed hard.

Vivian was content to throw around a few snowballs, but when things started to ramp up, she chose to hide behind the walls and just make snowballs for everyone else. She was completely correct in her logic - if she never stuck her head out, she wouldn’t get hit, and she rapidly made friends with a number of the older students, by sheer virtue of being helpful and helping them have more fun. She ended up with a date for the Yule Ball with a cute 3rd year by the end of the event.

Erik kept being torn between trying to organize everything, and simply enjoying throwing snowballs at everyone else. Similarly, Felix had a blast turning off his brain, picking up snowballs, and hurling them as hard as he could. Sacramento hadn’t gotten measurable snowfall in his lifetime, and it wasn’t like he was able to pop off to the Sierras to see it. Those sorts of things took money. He eventually got distracted by the miracle of snow, and dropped by next to Vivian, before playing with it. Different snow, different packs, all the different things he could make - and it was COLD when it got shoved down his robes!

Alexandria declared herself the ‘Dark Magus Alexandria’, convinced one of the upper years to build the snow tower a little larger, and stood defiantly on the top. She pulled out her wand and tried to use magic to throw her snowballs, to anemic success. Standing out in the open got a number of snowballs fired her way, which she tried to shield against. She did better shielding than throwing by far.

“Why not throw, and practice defense only?” Erik asked his fiancee.

“Because how will I get good at magic if I only practice what we’re taught?” She replied in a whisper.

Further conversation was halted as Erik took a dozen snowballs to the face, and the next few minutes were left with him spluttering.

The snowball fight evolved - or devolved - from there.

A coven in the Dark faction whipped up a pentagram, held hands, and started chanting. A minute of magically-charged air later, a tornado of snow started forming. In retaliation, the Light side started to create small tidal waves of snow, trying to bury everyone else. Some wixen in the Greys made hoses of snow, turning them on people, and everything went to hell. Explosive snowballs, golems made out of snow, snow conjured in great heaps - the wands were out, spells were being cast, and the only rule seemed to be ‘snow’.

“I’m getting out of here.” Erik announced, tugging on Alexandria’s arm.

“But it’s so neat.” She whispered, pulling back. “I want to watch.”

Erik was briefly torn between loyalty and common sense, and chose life. The rest of the coven had already bailed. He went back inside, and figured the coven would be in their usual spot.

His guess was mostly right. Vivian had scrounged up hot chocolate and snacks for everyone, and had invited a number of other friends they’d made to their room. A roaring fireplace had come from somewhere, and Erik was all too happy to kick off his wet outer layers, sit down on a plush armchair, grab a cup, and let the warmth soak into his bones.

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Twas the night before Yule, and Erik was doing one final review of all his gifts that he had prepared for his friends.

It was a hellishly tricky time of the year for the young heir. At the same time, he loved the event like none other. An excuse for gifts, a challenge for his skills.

First, there was the question of who got a present. His friends and family were obvious. But then what about Duke Morsin’s retainers? Castle staff? How did he distinguish his present from the Duke’s gifts? How did he flavor each one, subtly design it for every person? How to flex, without showing off? A familiar present, but not something so exotic it suggested that Erik was out of touch?

There was nothing like personally hand-making a gift, but Erik had several hundred people he needed to get presents for. It was flat-out impossible to hand make a present for everyone. Perhaps, if he specialized in certain types of magic, he’d be able to do it when he was older, but for now, he had to rely on Sora and his other friends-eventual-retainers to do the shopping for him.

Erik wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t going to have them pick up their presents, or even each other’s presents. 

Then there was the question of how the gift would be interpreted. Chloe, for example, loved her rats and summoning them. But if Erik gifted her a package of reagents so she could perform another ritual, that could easily be interpreted as ‘work harder’. The trick wasn’t to directly give a present that would be interpreted as ‘work harder’. The trick was to give presents that people liked, and they’d give their best effort for the Morsins. An indirect way to say ‘I see you and recognize your work, and I appreciate it’. High morale made for better workers.

No, for Chloe he got a chocolate rat (it was absolutely a mouse, but that was the power of penmanship), and a tiny brass crown for her rat king (who already had his own).

Yule was also a time where Erik could give gifts and clear debts, in a way that would be awkward otherwise. For example, he could reward Elderstone for his defense at the start of the year in a way that culturally fit.

Cores. They were endlessly useful, and every family had a voracious appetite for them, given how they powered magic and enchantments. The supply and demand was rough, and they weren’t exactly interchangeable. A large gift was one of the most direct ways of thanking the Elderstone family, while increasing their power. It was also a promise to the rest of the Morsin vassals - prompt, loyal service would be generously rewarded under Erik’s rule.

That was just the first of the many noble vassal families that lived in Ireland and pledged fealty to the Morsins. Erik could just gift the Elderstones and ignore everyone else… but that would be a minor snub to them, and a major snub to the family that had helped him get a ritual circle for his coven. At which point, not giving the rest of the families a present upgraded from a minor insult to a large one.

Thus, Erik needed to get everyone a gift.

All the various people at Camelot required their own gifts. Fortunately for Erik, there was a well-defined etiquette around who got what when it came to members of his peer group, and that particular batch didn’t require too much thinking. Wooden trinkets for nearly everyone, a way of stating ‘I’d like to be friends’. Erik doubted he’d get too many in return - the Morsin name continued to hold weight - but an easy gesture that helped indicate which way he wanted to take the family.

The gifts that required the most thought went to his close friends and family.

For his father, Erik wrote down a list of every other present he acquired, and his justification as to why he got that particular one. The Duke loved nothing more than to see his son grow and learn.

There was only a single name left off the list, Maeve, Erik’s mother. Erik spent an entire day with her, regaling her of stories from his past half-year in Camelot, and his growing relationship with Alexandria.

For his fiancee, he wrangled permission for her to take a single unrestricted book from the Morsin library - including letting her look through the secret archives. Duke Morsin’s take on it had been… interesting.

“Ha! Brilliant plot. It’ll come back to us in just a few years. Atta boy.” He’d said, heartily patting Erik on the back. His comment had somehow managed to sour the entire thing.

Vivian had required last-minute changes. Erik had originally whipped up an entire dossier on her new boyfriend and his family, only for Vivian to dump him after the Yule Ball because ‘he was a bad kisser and far too pushy’. Instead, Erik rummaged through some old loot, and picked out a bracelet he thought Vivian would like. To add the personal touch, he washed out the bloodstains personally… not that he was ever going to say that to her.

Hazel was easy, but Erik knew he was going to deeply regret the present he gave her. An invisibility necklace, so she could always avoid ‘the itching, itching eyes’ that she claimed burnt her skin. Magic had been known to do weirder things… assuming it wasn’t all in her head. 

Erik strongly suspected his present to Felix was going to cause the most awkwardness, but damnit, his covenmate needed it. The more the Morsin heir learned about Felix’s situation, the worse he felt. He didn’t know what it was like to be that poor, and knew it. At the end of the day, no amount of fancy presents was going to help Felix and his family - just his mother, according to Erik’s notes - help with a roof over their head, food on the table, and a fire in the hearth. Or, errr, noonies, right, and in a warm climate…. What did noonies do to cool down? There were no cooling charms. Something to ask Felix, although Erik strongly suspected the answer was ‘we don’t, we suffer’ because any solution would involve money.

Money that Felix now had. Nothing major, he didn’t want to upturn their lives or make Felix think he was buying the boy’s friendship, just $5000 in an envelope. $5000, and a long letter explaining why Felix should accept it.

The rest of the coven were also joining Dragon house once the break was over. Felix had tried to keep a lid on it, but it was clear that he was lonely in Dragon house. Thunderbird house had simmered down after the explosive first day, but it was clear that Erik and the rest of his coven weren’t exactly welcome there. Dragon house didn’t have the same ward protection that the rest of Camelot had, true, but it had been made clear they wouldn’t tolerate any actions towards one of their own. That, and the Praetorians were on top of things to the point where Erik believed the risk was mitigated and reasonable enough.

What was he going to do, spend his entire life hiding? This was his one good chance to enjoy school and life before the burdens of leadership were firmly thrust onto his shoulders.

Alexandria was enamoured by the idea of private tutoring, Erik liked the idea where he’d be judged on what he did, not who he was, and Sora believed the house fit her better than any of the others.

Vivian was the only one that took some convincing.

Erik spent too much time wrestling over various presents for Sora. Broom-related presents were the obvious one, but he knew Sora was so much more than a broombrain. That, and she already had a nice broom, and he knew some of his other friends were getting her broom-related presents. Vivian was absolutely going to make jokes about ‘broom-polishing kits’ with a waggle of her eyebrows.

In the end, Erik settled on a nice, fur-lined pair of boots, perfect for all conditions. 

Satisfied that he wasn’t missing anything, Erik rolled over and went to bed. He spent some time worrying if people would like them, but was able to go to sleep.

There was only one stray thought in his head as he drifted off -

I wonder what people got for me?