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Morning came, and Sand, though the lovely dream he had, in which he held her close as they walked back home on the grassy fields surrounding Darromar with the stars shining above them, still weighed heavy on his heart, he knew he had to move on. It was over…
"Phew" he blew some dust from a heavy tome he took from a shelf of the library.
Divination Techniques Vol. 6.
The first five did not work at all; he utterly failed to locate the Knight Captain.
How to scry on a single person…
"Oh dear, no…" the dream hit him gard again, and it took every ounce of his will to remember it was the Knight Captain he had to look for, not somebody else. He knew precisely where Rustyn was, anyway.
One thing he did not know was, about the same time when he fled to Neverwinter, a great funeral took place in Darromar. Almost the whole city mourned the powerful human mage who closed his always attentive bright blue eyes at the age of ninety-six; his faithful bat familiar fell down dead in his cage at exactly the same time. His divinations would help the city whenever in need, and the door of his shop, right next to the Wizard's Academy, was always open for customers who would like some foresight, or magical trinkets and books. Wannabe wizards would literally fight to get in when he would occasionally accept the invite and hold a speech, or even a class, at the Academy, such was his fame and honour; and also the way he spoke, which he claimed he learned from the elven teacher who taught him in first class. He had no descendants to pass his knowledge to; his material goods all went to his surviving siblings and their children. He never married, as he would always say the only one he could truly love was someone he could have never have. Fresh flowers would always adorn his white marble gravestone.
Xavier Feldem
Honorable diviner
May his spirit still guide us
And he himself be an example for us
- the people of Darromar
Sand closed the book and gave up: no matter how hard he tried, the Knight Captain would always elude his scrying attempts. He sighed and placed it back on the shelf, then sat down wondering. Jaral went up to him trying to console him. He took the cat in his lap and closed his eyes, finally giving in to revive in mind the days he spent with her…
"Well, you can't exactly enter class like this…" Sand took Rustyn from the orphanage a good two hours before his lesson began "let's find you some clothes."
He had given up on finding out the secret of the hail storm, though by asking around he found out it was more likely she was born in the middle of one, but there was something wrong with her eyes, that they held some strange power.
She held on to his robe as they walked, the by then clean and not any more mangy kitten following them.
In one of Darromar's clothes shops, Rustyn seemed completely enchanted by the fresh and new, fine clothes she could try on. In the end she settled for a dark purple robe, a red overcoat, white stockings and small black slip-on shoes. She finally looked like a real little wizard.
"Wait here, I'm going to prepare for today's class" Sand said, caressing her hair "I need some solitude."
"Of course, teacher!" she nodded, and sat on a bench in the corridor.
Sand, once inside, began studying the tome he brought for that day, while opening a small scrying spell to make sure Rustyn was all right.
Soon she got some company.
She just passed her hand over her silk skirt, and said softly:
"Well, looks like I'm studying to become a wizard now."
"Then we're colleagues!" she heard a loud, confident voice.
Sand sighed on seeing him in the scrying, though he was somewhat relieved he was the first one Rustyn met from the current class. Despite wearing clothes that would make older and accomplished wizards pale, being an egomaniac and believing that blowing bubbles of varios colours by snapping his fingers was a fantastic display of amazing arcane talents, he was a fairly clever child.
"So, how old are you?" asked the boy, happily sitting beside Rustyn.
"In human years, nine" Rustyn scooted away a little.
"I'm twelve" he said, though Rustyn had not asked "aaand, oh! Your hair is black and you're an elf!"
Rustyn must have really wished she had the evil eye as she shot him a killer look.
"And…?"
"Well, the teacher was looking at you last time… oh wow! Your eyes look so cool!"
"Idiot" muttered Rustyn.
"Look at this!" he laughed as he snapped his fingers and a few milky white bubbles flew towards the ceiling "nice, huh?"
"That's not magic" Rustyn opened the book she took to the lesson.
"Ooh, can I look? Can I?" the boy, undeterred, moved closer and leant over the pages too.
Rustyn rolled her eyes, but found it better to let him do so.
"Mmm, interesting" he said after his light blue eyes ran across the words for about two seconds "and oooh, where were you last week? And…"
"Will you shut up already?" she said quite rudely.
"But I want to get to know my future friends! What's your name?"
"Well, you didn't tell me yours."
"Oh, stupid me!" he stood up and whacked himself so hard on the forehead that his gold circlet fell off "damn!"
Rustyn giggled. He was annoying and boastful, but somewhat funny. She smiled slightly as he put the circlet back on his bright red hair.
"I'm Xavier, nice to meet you!"
"Rustyn" they formally shook hands, then both giggled.
"Weird name!"
"Why, is yours so normal?"
Sand smiled to himself; it looked like she would fit in. When class opened, and Rustyn quietly headed towards the last row, Xavier literally grabbed her hard and pulled her to the front one, and indicated the seat right next to his. Over the weeks to come, the two of them seemed to hit it off well.
Sand would always accompany Rustyn back to the orphanage after class, and promised her to take care of her kitten friend, in the end taking him in after they somehow agreed to name him Jaral. Though a few nurses were worried she might unleash horrible magic powers to wreak havoc, she never did, even seemingly forgetting the whip marks on her back, which still hurt. Every day she would get there with a new tome she had borrowed from the Academy's library, and spent almost the entire night sitting at a rickety table, reading it in the candlelight. And every next day she would surprise Sand by asking questions about the things she had learned, always yearning for more and more.
She was truly a little wonder; his little wonder.
Even her arcane powers had grown considerably, as by then she was able to cast several basic spells. (She seemed to love using Magic Missile to burst Xavier's bubbles, but he didn't seem to mind at all.)
In the end, Sand decided that such a talent could not be wasted. He asked the nurses of the orphanage for two permissions. The first was for Rustyn to maybe stay away longer. The second, he kept for himself for a while.
"But teacher, won't they be angry?" asked Rustyn as one day after class they headed towards his home instead of the orphanage.
"Oh, stop with that. Don't call me teacher any more."
"Why?"
"Call me master… oh, but who am I to tell you this? Rustyn, you're my apprentice now."
Her eyes widened as she dropped the tome she was carrying.
"Rustyn…?" Sand leant down to her as she stood firm and failed to speak.
"Thank you!" she cried as she threw her arms around his shoulders, tears falling from her sunset eyes "I… I… I have never been this happy! I…"
Sand smiled as he caressed her soft hair. He had never became this close to anyone; he would not let anyone in. But Rustyn was different. Though he loved to learn too when young, the way she longed for knowledge was truly incredible.
"Let's go now" he said softly.