"Dear child, the God of Light bids thee to come here for a moment." Neo's cheerful voice floated through the training grounds and sent chills down the spines of everyone nearby. The Sun Knight tended to ignore everything that wasn't sword-fighting, and today was horse-riding practice, so hearing Sir Neo's voice was a nasty surprise.
Elmairy took one for the team, stepping back from the pony he'd been brushing. "Do you need something, Sir Neo?" The pony whinnied softly, closing the gap between them and pressing its head against the Leaf Knight-in-training's arm lovingly. Elmairy shushed it quietly, and fed it a carrot out of his pocket.
"Alas, dear child, 'tis not thee that Sun is seeking at the moment; in accordance to the will of the God of Light, Sun has come to retrieve Sun's own student," Sir Neo smiled, "posthaste."
The student in question leapt away from his own horse like he'd been struck by lightning.
"Ah, Teacher! The God of Light bids the welcome, and wishes that thou will be blessed with, uh, good fortune." Grisia ran his hands through his hair, checking for hay; his hair always got messed up on horse-riding days, no matter how careful he was.
"That's very nice, dear child, now come here." Sir Neo smiled again, and everyone flinched at the sight. The Sun Knight was always smiling, of course, but sometimes his smiles felt more like a wolf baring its teeth.
It wasn't until the two blondes left that a sigh of relief swept through the courtyard. Maybe they should be a little worried about Grisia (who had been in the infirmary more times than the rest of them combined) but when it came to the Sun Knight, it was better to mind your own business!
". . . Teacher? What's wrong?" Grisia asked nervously. His teacher hadn't said anything the whole way back to his room, only nodding and smiling to anyone who passed by. He didn't even flirt with the clerics on the way! "Did I do something wrong? It's because that horse is out to get me, honest! I really did try to stay on this time, but it went the wrong way and I ended up falling." He couldn't understand it; that silly old horse behaved perfectly well whenever one of the others rode it, but it evidently had some kind of grudge against him.
Neo only shook his head in despair, putting his hands on his student's shoulders and guiding him over to the mirror on the vanity. The table of the vanity was covered in piles of love letters and glass bottles filled with mysterious substances, but at least the mirror was clean. "Tell me, child, what do you see?"
"I see . . . us?" Grisia gave them a once-over. Behind him was his teacher, as tall and broad-shouldered as ever, and his own reflection was just as small and messy as he thought it would be. He reached up to pull a stray piece of hay out of his hair. "It's gone now, teacher. Sorry."
"No, it's not." Neo sighed heavily. "Grisia," he said, changing the subject, "do you remember me telling you that the Sun Knight needed a perfect appearance at all times?"
"Yes! The Sun Knight has beautiful blue eyes, flowing blond hair, skin as pale as snow, polished boots, sparkly teeth and absolutely never gets blueberry stains on his robes." The last part was the hardest part.
"I'm glad you remember so well; now, Grisia, would you say you're as pale as snow?"
Grisia looked at his reflection seriously. He'd been out in the sun for hours, trying to ride that dumb horse, and he'd gotten freckles everywhere and a serious tan to show for it. They would fade fast- like always- but he wasn't nearly as pale as his teacher was.
". . . No, teacher."
"Exactly." Neo patted Grisia on the head lightly, and pointed to a small vial in the mess of bottles. "That's yours now, Grisia. Lavender essence. It's to make the solution smell nice, because without it the stuff smells mostly like puke."
Grisia wrinkled his nose as he reached for the bottle, and turned it over in hands before a thought occurred to him. "Is that why you always smell like roses?"
"Yes . . . though God of Light knows I don't tan nearly as fast as you do . . . or as dark." Neo frowned down at the Grisia's sun-kissed skin. "You should be careful how long you spend in the sun, Grisia, or you'll run out of money trying to make enough solution."
"Ah! Yes, teacher!" I don't want to die a miserable death! From now on, I'll be extra careful about going outside!
"I-it hurts, teacher." Grisia tried his best not to whine. He was eleven now, almost a grown-up, and teacher always got mad when he whined. He pressed his hands against his eyes, willing himself not to cry. The Sun Knight was only allowed to get emotional when one of his brothers dies! Pain was nothing to the Sun Knight!
"I know, child, I know!" Neo paced frantically for a moment, clenching his fists. How could he have been so stupid!? Even his own feather-brained teacher had remembered to warn him against the dangers of letting the skin-lightening solution dry on his skin. By the time he'd remembered and scrambled back to his chambers, Grisia had already tried to peel the dry solution off by himself, only to stop short from the pain of also peeling off the top layer of his skin. Neo cursed himself; because of his foolish actions, Grisia was stuck paying the price . . . there was only one thing he could do.
"Grisia," he knelt before his student, very deliberately not looking him in the eye. "I'm very sorry for what I'm about to do."
"Teacher, what-" Grisia cut himself off with a blood-curdling scream, pain and surprise startling him into releasing a sudden burst of magic that made Neo's ears pop. A wind kicked up, knocking over bottles and blowing their hair around wildly, and in the distance he could hear doors slamming open and footsteps rushing in their direction. Neo looked down at the crumbling chunk of dry solution in his hand; now that the worst was over, Grisia could probably yank the rest off himself. His student had curled into a ball on Neo's bed, looking for all the world a tiny, purple cat- if tiny purple cats could scream like banshees.
Well, Neo considered, I did just rip the skin off the most sensitive part of his body. It would be weird if he wasn't screaming.
"Neo, what was that? Are you alright?" Lanbi was banging on his door, but abruptly retreated when Fahr called out to back off, and Neo had two seconds to throw a blanket over his shuddering student before his door was kicked in with a loud bang.
"Neo! We heard a scream! What's wrong?" Wen poked his head through the opening, several curious children leaning around his legs. Neo spared a moment to be impressed by Grisia's lung power; for Wen to have heard him all the way out in the training grounds, he must've screamed loud enough to wake the dead. It's a figure of speech, of course; Grisia may have magic but he's no necromancer!
"I'm fine, dear brothers." He brushed off Lanbi and Fahr's fussing, and casually stepped to hide Grisia from view. "The God of Light has merely guided me to enlighten my child and allow him to better take on the challenges of being commander of the Church of the God of Light."
Almost instantly, the expressions on the faces of the other Knight-Captains went from worried to pitying, turning sad gazes to the whimpering child on the bed. Hey! I'm not that bad, am I?
"Oh, well. That's good, I guess." Fahr chewed on the pipe hanging out of his mouth, visibly restraining himself from fussing over Grisia, too. "We'll leave you to it then, Neo; just remember to keep it down this time!" He clapped his hands and began waving the others out of the room. "It's alright, everyone, false alarm! Nothin' to see here!"
Neo followed them as they left, frowning as he saw dozens of unknown clerics and soldiers sighing in relief. He needed to invest in a soundproofing charm if so many people could hear what went on in his room. That was a worry for another day, however, so he smiled reassuringly at the crowd and closed the door again, locking it this time.
Neo looked back at Grisia, who had gone completely still and utterly silent on the bed. The only sign the kid was even alive was the slight rise and fall of his breathing. "Child?" He reached out to pat the lump under the blanket. "Grisia, you OK under there?"
"T-teacher, does this happen every time?"
Neo winced. "No, it shouldn't. There's a certain way to put it on and take it off, but I forgot to tell you." Neo let out a breath he hadn't quite realized he'd been holding. Strongest Sun Knight in history or not, it was time to own up and face the music. "I'm sorry, Grisia."
"What?" His student threw the blanket off and looked at him incredulously. "But- the Sun Knight never apologizes!"
Neo winced again, grimacing. Wouldn't Chasel have something to say about that. "Well, the Sun Knight doesn't usually need to apologize because he always does the right thing," he hedged. "But it's important to know when to properly apologize to someone."
Grisia was quiet for a moment. "Like when?"
Uuuuugh, God of Light give me guidance. "Like . . . let's say you did something totally awful like, uh, kidnap one of your brothers-" That stinks! "-and use him as bait for a . . . dragon." That's worse! He's not gonna believe this! "Then you should definitely apologize."
"But I would never do that!" Grisia was sitting up and scratching at the dried solution absently, distracted from the pain. He bought it! Mission success! Neo grinned and flicked Grisia's forehead playfully.
"Then you'll never have to apologize! Problem solved!"
This mentoring thing is easier than I thought it would be!
x
Given how strange some of the things Neo taught Grisia are, I'm convinced he's every bit as gullible as he is intelligent, especially if he trusts you.