God Watches Over You
When Simon Cullum was ordained, he did not think that his duties to the church he presided over would include keeping an eye on a reclusive fae-ish mage.
Why the Church sent him, a man who simply had the Sight, and not one of the more exorcist type priests who could actually manage some sort of spell work, Simon could not exactly say. It might have been because Elias Ainsworth had not caused any dangerous trouble for the past century or so, thus the Church didn't need to send someone who specialized in magical combat to keep an eye out, but Simon liked to think it was more because he was good with people, even odd ones like Ainsworth.
The parishioners of the churches he had visited during his training had all been well taken with him. Simon was a naturally affable man, good at truly listening to people and knowing when to speak or remain silent. More than that, he was good at reading people and giving those little nudges to get their thoughts going in the right direction.
Of course, Elias Ainsworth was a tough man to read since he usually did not possess a human face, but after the grand failure of spying on the mage (why the Church had asked him to do it that way in the first place, he wasn't sure), Simon had the opportunity to simply interact with Elias and learn to read him.
Quite honestly (and Simon had told the Church as much in one of his early reports), it was a much simpler way of overseeing the mage. Stop by the house, get a bit of medicine (at least for Simon because it truly helped), bother the recluse with pleasantries and reports on how his human cliental fare, then use his reactions to tell if he had a direct hand in things that were unscrupulous to humans, not making something that would be used for such by others (Simon knew Ainsworth had fae clients as well and fae would be fae, messing with humans according to their whims).
Simon did this faithfully for ten years, creating a rapport of sorts with the mage. Then came Chise Hatori and things changed.
Buying a human on the Black Market was the biggest trouble Ainsworth had caused in all the time Simon had known him and the reasoning was the same general calm yet kind type that Simon had come to expect of the mage. The magic using community was bothering him to get an apprentice, he was still curious about humans, the girl was of a supremely rare type of magical breed that had trouble surviving in this age and somewhat needed someone else to ensure her life wouldn't be cut short for a normal human. Much like giving Simon tea to quiet his coughs, Ainsworth's practical actions had their own kind of kindness towards the girl since his goal was to keep her alive, which could not exactly be said of all the other buyers in that must have been in that hall.
Still, the Church was fussed by the action as it was objectifying a child of the Lord and they didn't exactly trust a non-human like Ainsworth to properly care and look after a young lady. Simon had assured them however that he had a good long talk with Ainsworth about the needs of humans and how the mage should listen to the girl if she ever said anything about her needs, to which Ainsworth had actually listened to with interest for once. Yet Simon still had to deliver a small To Do List to Ainsworth.
But Chise was good for the mage and Ainsworth was good for Sleigh Beggy. Simon had the pleasure of watching both come out of their shells because of the other, finding home and love in one another.
He just prayed that the desperation with which they seemed to cling to each other wouldn't ruin them.
May God watch over you both.
Author's Note
Just something that was floating around in my mind. We don't see a whole lot of Simon, but it is his job to keep an eye on Elias, so I made this.