Free Techromancy Scrolls: Adept by Erik Schubach

It is okay. Nobody is going to marry you off. You need to calm down. Laney, look at me.”
    I turned to lock eyes with her, amber energies trailing from my eyes at the motion. Her emerald eyes were blazing with green power, it was so beautiful. She smiled and said, “Laney, breathe. Think about breathing. Concentrate on one thing.” I nodded, choosing her eyes, and took deep calming breaths.
    She smiled again and I smiled back, I couldn't help it. Then I covered my head with my arms as she did when metal rained down on us when I felt my vision return to normal. It was darker in the room, half the overhead lights were out now.
    Donovan was in motion, squatting and sifting through the mess of metal items around us as he distractedly asked like nothing had happened, “Sell you off to a noble family? It is how I was blessed with the most amazing daughter I could have wished for.” He kept picking stuff up and then dropping the items back on the floor to move to the next.
    All commoners were property of the realm. I didn't want to be sold, I knew it was the right of the Keep or my mother to do so, but I couldn't leave mother and Jace. I fought the power from rising again, Celeste tilted her head still staring into my eyes. She smiled and said, “She is not cattle father.”
    His examination of the debris stopped as he suddenly looked up at her with concern and love in his eyes. She glanced away from me for an instant as she held a hand toward him. “I do not feel that way father. I love you. But I admit to feeling that way in the beginning.”
    He stood as her eyes met mine again, she was like a calming force on me. I did not wish to distress her. Then she smiled and tilted her head toward her father but keeping her eyes on mine. “There is another way father. She could become my squire. As Knight ascendant she would hold the rank of nobility and her family would rise to the station.” I blinked, a squire?
    The man looked at his daughter for a long three heartbeats then nodded and reasoned it out, “That would have the desired effect. We would not lose a potential Terchromancer and she would be beholden to none but you. But she is a child daughter, she is no warrior. Duke Fredrick would never allow it.”
    I was about to say something, I'm not sure what but Celeste beat me to it. She chuckled, “But she has already proven herself in battle. She took down as many marauders as a Knight of the Realm did in that same battle. She yet stands and Sir Bowyn is recovering from wounds suffered. She has shared in the spoils of that battle. I think that more than qualifies her. And she is no child, she has reached the age of majority just as I had two years hence.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I blushed.
    He nodded and then looked at me and I broke eye contact with her. He asked, “Would that be more acceptable in the stead of the stockade and being spirited out of the realm? It would be a shame to lose someone with your potential.” He looked around the floor as he said the last part.
    I looked back and forth between the two. My mind was reeling. Trying to process this. They wanted me to become a squire, a Knight ascendant? Me? Laney Herder? I would be beholden to an angel? Wait, squires live in the quarters of the Knight and their families live in the castle with the servants unless they had a manor. They would want for nothing. Even if I was losing my own freedoms to dictate my own life, it would be worth it for mother and Jace to be cared for.
    I opened my mouth to accept but what came out instead surprised me, “My potential?”
    He chuckled seeing my own shock at my question. “Yes. What I just witnessed from a newly ignited Techromancer was not normal. He grabbed something off the floor and held it behind his back. “What is the object I am holding made of? Copper or iron?”
    I looked at him and Celeste looked intrigued too, she said, “Just concentrate, try to touch it with your mind.” I nodded and tried to