Jozua walked into the basement lab where his dad and grandad did most of their work. Since blowing up the house last summer, they had decided to take a break from inventing new fire based charms, and had taken a few quieter research opportunities. Grandad was working on some kind of new medical charm, and dad was studying an unknown magical artifact somebody had found in a German castle.
Jozua climbed onto a barstool beside Dad’s workbench and peered at the odd looking box that was sitting in the middle of it. He was careful not to touch it because he could almost feel malevolent magical energy coming off of it from a foot away.
“Careful,” Dad warned.
“Is it cursed?” Jozua asked, eagerly.
“Oh, yes,” Dad confirmed.
Jozua grinned and leaned closer, still careful not to touch, but wanting to see it closer. There was some kind of old script written along its base. “What does it do?” he asked curiously.
“I’m not sure,” Dad admitted. “If I’m reading the runes correctly, it’s something about control or maybe the loss of it.”
“Like maybe it takes over the victim and makes them do stuff?” Jozua guessed. “Like an enchanted imperius or something?”
“Maybe,” agreed Dad, nodding. “That’s certainly within the realm of possibility.”
“Cool,” Jozua said and Dad gave him a frowning reproachful look. “I mean, it’s cool that you get to stop it from ever hurting anybody,” Jozua explained quickly. “You can break the curse, right?” Though he framed the thought in the form of a question, Jozua’s faith in his father’s skill was absolute.
Dad laughed and ruffled his hair. Jozua frowned a bit at that because he was fifteen now and that was too old to be getting his hair ruffled anymore, but he forgot the offense when Dad answered, “Well, I’m still just trying to figure out what it does and how. Breaking the curse will come later, and the university might bring in somebody a bit better trained for that than me.”
“Universities train people to break ancient curses?” Jozua questioned, his interest peaked. That was the closest Jozua had ever heard of where a real modern day job came even close to being an exploring adventurer like in his stories.
“Of course!” Dad confirmed.
“That’s what I want to be, then,” Jozua declared.
Dad chuckled and squeezed his shoulder which was much preferable to the hair ruffling, so he didn’t complain about it. “Good for you. Here, want to help me study this thing until you go back to school? It’ll be good experience and will look good on your college applications.”
“Would I? Absolutely!”
“Good man,” Dad praised, and Jozua preened. His dad called him a man. “Now fetch me my notebook.”
At that, Jozua suspected he’d be more of a fetch, carry, and hold this guy than a real researcher, but he figured that was good enough. You had to start somewhere.