Way of The Wand

Arron Tartian went to his wand factory once in two weeks. As the boss, he believed he didn’t have to show up to work as frequently as his employees. He preferred to avoid breeding any kind of familiarity between himself and his workers. Familiarity of any kind would only encourage them to beleaguer him with their personal problems, then they would swarm him with requests for off days to allow them address those problems, which would hamper the factory’s profits.

Today was one of those days he was supposed to show up at work, and he’d gotten up earlier than usual to prepare.

There was a knock on his door, and before he even had a chance to answer, his mother, Leonaria, walked in.

She looked at him and frowned at the big black coat framing his body.

“Where are you going so early in the morning?”

“Work mother, work,” he answered, the slight irritation in his voice hinting at his disapproval of her coming in without waiting for a go-ahead signal.

“I thought you only went once in two weeks.”

“It’s been two weeks,” Arron replied.

“Oh.” Leonaira nodded. She turned away from him and walked down by the side of the bed, skidding her fingers along the top of the fancy mahogany table lining the wall. She used her thumb to clean the dust her fingers gathered from the table.

“You need to get the cleaners in here.”

Arron shook his head, rolling his eyes wide. “Mum, any particular reason you’re here? There is something on your mind. Out with it.”

Leonaria sat with the grace of a queen on her son’s king-sized bed. “Tomi faces Daila in three days.” Her voice sounded heavy as she spoke. “Three days, till she makes a fool of herself and all the witches in this kingdom. You have a responsibility to prevent this embarrassment.”

Arron leaned against the wall, getting some of its gold paint on his black coat. “It’s out of my hands. You know how hard I tried to get the Afolabis to hand their daughter to me for training. They refused and gave her back to Jira instead. How foolish of them.”

“It’s not too late to act. If Daila beats Tomi, and she will, you know what happens to our company.”

“I do Mum, but like I said, there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“There is.”

The graveness of Leonaria’s voice made Arron straighten up. He wasn’t sure where he Mum was heading yet, but from her posture and countenance, it wasn’t going to be good.

He moved from the wall and closed the gap between them.

“What are you suggesting Mum?” He was surprised that his words came out a whisper, like he was concerned someone was going to over hear them.

“Desperate times son, desperate times.”

And just like that, Arron understood what his mother meant.