Bastien leans over the edge of the boat to look at the water and doesn’t say you’ve been doing a fine job so far, because he has a weird feeling that would just make the lad self-conscious.

“I am sure you will be a minor character, in the background behind the mother’s labor pains and the father’s panic—but a good one. And the baby will grow up knowing a mage was good to them—perhaps? It was magic, yes?”