Chapter 30

Tullia Remus nearly jumped out of her skin when Boyd turned up in her travel cupboard.

All of the mages had special cupboards that were set aside for this purpose. Nothing was to be put in them, so the mage didn’t injure themselves when they blinked in.

Tullia offered Boyd dinner, and he found himself agreeing to a small meal despite have recently eaten. As he polished off his plate, he told them what had happened when he visited Antonia. That, of course, created a lot of discussions.

They were all excited to learn that other people did live on the planet. They also wondered who else had come here from Keltria and made it to the other islands if a spaceship carrying people from the Pix and Prol races had landed.

Some were worried if they would be persecuted if other people did learn that they were here. Boyd was learning that the Therians had had problems like this in the past. It was the other reason they had left Earth.

Boyd shrugged, “What are the chances they have High Wizards?”

The family looked at each other.

“Probably not very high,” Tullia replied.

“Well, you do. Do you honestly think, Catia and the High Senate will stand for strangers to come here and try to dictate how you should live? You also have four million people who wouldn’t tolerate aggression from a neighbour.”

“If they are from Keltria and hold a grudge, tell them to get over themselves. This planet is big enough for them to go away and leave you alone. If you visit and they send you away. Easy, don’t go and visit them or trade with them. It’s not like you people need anything they have, is it?”

“Well spoken, young man,” The oldest family member, Helena, replied. “Living in fear of things that happened a millennia ago is no way to live.”

That ended that discussion, and the family went back to more normal topics.

As they were leaving the table, Boyd pulled Tullia aside.

“Tullia, is it possible to get my clothes washed?”

Helena overheard and asked, “Don’t you have a keep clean spell on your satchel?”

“Um, no,” Boyd replied sheepishly.

“Silly boy, show me the satchel,” Helena demanded.

Boyd picked it up from where it was leaning against one of the table legs and handed it to Helena. The satchel could be worn over the shoulders as it had two back straps.

Boyd considered it was more a small backpack than a satchel. It was 35cm long, 28cm wide across his back, and folded out to 12cm in breadth on the base. A long flap folded over the opening, and it had a half-length, flat pouch on the front.

Helena looked inside and pulled out the two slightly crumpled tunics, and then looked in it again.

“Why don’t you have a dimensional storage spell on the satchel?”

Boyd looked at her blankly. Helena sighed and pulled out the last few contents, being his personal grooming kit, a book on magic, two pairs of socks, two spare pairs of shorts and his thongs.

“You like to travel light, don’t you?” Helena commented.

“It doesn’t hold much,” Boyd commented defensively.

“Very well. The first spell is to create a dimensional storage space inside the satchel. We can do a small one on the front pocket too. You can make them virtually limitless, but then you end up with it looking like a junk room inside.”

Helena walked him through the three variations she knew, and they decided on one to make it hold six times the space it currently had access to. Helena forgot to mention that she meant cubic space, not six times the length and breadth.

Boyd was flabbergasted when he did the spell and found out how much space he could now fill. It had gone from a total volume of 12 litres to 2,540 litres rather than the 72 litres he had been thinking of. The space was as big as one of Catia’s containers.

It reminded him that women didn’t think the same way men do about storage and what they should cart around with them. He wasn’t the least bit surprised that the women giggled at his incredulous face.

Helena patted his shoulder, “Don’t panic, Boyd. Just drop your things in it, and the space will sort it out. If you put your hand in, a list will appear in your mind, and you can check what is inside and then call the item to your hand.”