Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable in this story. They are owned by Kore Yamazaki. I just play with her characters.
Author's Notes: This one's a short chapter, but an important one. Please be patient with me. :) Thank you for continuing to read this story!
Chapter 6: The Start of Something Beautiful
They kept meeting each other in the hill at the gardens after the night she embraced him for the first time. And though Chise had already caught up with her studies in her Sorcery subjects, she still consulted Professor Ainsworth regarding ideas that confused her from time to time. And every time he explained something to her, she was astounded by the depth of his knowledge. It didn't just cover Magical Theory, Instruments and Artifice, and History of Magic and Sorcery. She found that he was also learned in Ancient Runes, Astronomy, and Magical Creatures. One night, she finally plucked the courage to ask him how he had achieved that level of understanding of Sorcery, and he simply answered that he had had enough time to read and study about them.
When they were not discussing concepts of Sorcery she did not understand, they talked about anything and everything whenever they were together at the hill. Professor Ainsworth was kind enough to answer all her mundane questions. She merely wanted to know more about him. She found out that he didn't like waking up early, that he liked drinking English breakfast tea in the morning, that he had been teaching for ten years now, that he had no particular interest in music or movies, and that he liked reading novels and treatises about science and philosophy. Of course, their conversation wasn't merely one-sided. She too shared things to him about herself when he asked about them: her favorite food, music, movies, books, and hobbies. When the subject of how she came to England came up though, she found that she could no longer hide what she officially was in the eyes of the College. She was a Sleigh Beggy specimen acquired from an auction.
"Bought? From an auction?" Professor Ainsworth's human eyes widened at her revelation. Chise could only nod in affirmation. She didn't add anymore that she was purchased at a ridiculous amount of three and a half million pounds. "And here I thought they discovered you in an orphanage. I never thought they would resolve to something like that."
"It's not as if it turned out bad though. I could've ended up in a worse situation. For what it's worth, I'm enjoying my time here, and they haven't conducted any major experiments on me yet." She remarked with a rueful smile. It was after all her own choice to sell herself at the auction. The fact that she was purchased by the College seemed enough of a blessing to her. Professor Ainsworth though only looked at her as if her optimism regarding the College was a fallacy.
"Still, to be… bound by the College. That's not a pretty thing." He muttered, low and softly, almost to himself, that if Chise was not intently listening to him speak, she wouldn't have been able to catch it.
The next evening, Chise treaded the path in the hedge maze to the hill at the gardens again. But as she turned to the exit and looked up, she saw a somehow different silhouette. Instead of a human, there, under the glow of the moonlight and the garden lights, she saw a shadow with a wolf-skull head and two horns. She immediately ran towards it knowing full well what it meant. She stopped before Professor Ainsworth, panting and catching her breath. Then she looked at him and smiled, and it was like a ray of early morning sunshine on his plum-colored skin, something he rarely experienced.
"Good evening." Chise greeted first, as she always did in their daily nighttime rendezvous.
"Good evening." He replied somewhat sheepishly, avoiding eye contact and still conscious of the fact that he revealed his real face to her without her asking to this night. Yet he did not detect any revulsion in her eyes, and so his shoulders straightened up a bit as he stood. "You shouldn't run so fast here at nighttime. Something might trip you, and you might hurt yourself."
"I know. I'm sorry, I'm just thrilled to see you." She explained, and she swore his glowing red eyes sparkled a little at her words. She promised to herself to say kind words to him again and again, only to have it repeatedly happen.
"Thank you." He shyly answered in response to her. He knew that if he was in his human glamour he would've blushed. Not many, after all, said that they were happy to see him or talk to him outside of professional obligations. It was always her; she was always an exception.
They settled into their nightly routine after a minute of silence. Chise sat comfortably on the grass before them, while Professor Ainsworth remained standing beside her. They began talking about how their day went and what they did. She asked about some questions on her mind regarding the Magecraft lesson they just had, and they started discussing it back and forth, she telling him about the ideas she couldn't voice out in class and he kindly explaining his answers. It seemed so strange, this familiarity they had with each other, as if they'd known each other for a longer time. When they had finally nothing to say to each other, they just enjoyed the other's company in comfortable silence, looking up at the starry sky and the luminous moon.
"I don't know why, but when I'm with you, I feel free. To be myself." Chise remarked after a few minutes of silence, finally telling Professor Ainsworth her thoughts about their peculiar association with each other. She didn't know what to call it after all. But she found that she didn't mind if it didn't have a label.
"I feel the same." He replied with certainty as he looked at her, his red eyes shining oddly with determination.
"What do you mean?"
At last he sat on the grass beside her. Chise regarded him curiously. He never sat on the ground on the hill, not even during their tutorial lessons for her remedials. Come to think of it, she never even saw him sit down in a chair in their Magecraft classes. Then she saw something peeking out of the bottom hems of his trousers as he sat. They were thick, black metals that wrapped around both of his ankles. Professor Ainsworth noticed her looking at them, and he bunched up his trouser's leg openings even more to reveal them completely to her eyes.
"I'm bound here just as you are." He confessed, his voice small and weak.
"Those are…" Chise had already guessed, but she wanted to hear the truth from him.
"My magical bindings. Though I must admit they are much stronger and restrictive than yours. It allows me enough magic to be able to teach Magecraft, but no more than that."
"Why…?" Chise wondered out loud. Now that she had taken a closer look at them, his magical bindings were indeed thicker than hers and with runes engraved in them.
"I made a mistake long ago. But though I was meant to be locked up in magical chains in the dungeons of Farplace, the Tribunal of Magi decided that I would be more of use to be at the College's beck and call." He explained, his crimson eyes becoming distant as he remembered how his sentence was handed to him.
"How long has it been?"
"Around seventy-five years."
Chise gasped at his answer. He was already bound to the College way even before she was born. She felt a certain sadness creeping up on her for him. "Will they ever release you?"
"Not until a hundred more."
If she had felt sadness earlier for him at his confession of his lack of freedom, she now felt even sadder. She knew that Mages live long lives, centuries even more, and the fact that he would still be bound to the College long after she was dead and gone caused her sorrow. Then remembering what happened that fated night when he almost ate her, she finally came to a realization. "Did what happen that night… when I saw you hurt… did that have anything to do with what the College makes you do by being bound to them?"
"Yes." Elias admitted, though a little reluctantly. He didn't want to scare her, but he thought telling the truth to her was far better. "I do their dirty deeds every now and then. That night I came back after having fought a Chimera that haunted a village's churchyard. Renfred, he… released my bindings up until a level where I could transform into my Naga form. But it had been a long time since I did and I couldn't control it that well. So…" He trailed off, and Chise nodded her head to show that she understood what he was trying to say. Then he continued, "Then there are times that I hunt magical creatures to harvest them as Sorcery materials. It really depends on their whim."
"And you can't refuse them? Even when you end up getting hurt?"
"That is the price I have to pay."
Chise bristled in anger. It all seemed so unfair, their making him do things without a care for his life. "But it is still not right! When you said all happened from a mistake. What could warrant such a severe punishment?"
"I ate… a human." Professor Ainsworth shifted his gaze to the night sky to avoid looking at those green eyes he had been used to seeing lately. He didn't want to know what would be reflected in them as a result of the confession of his crime. After a minute of silence between them though, he spoke again, addressing the Sleigh Beggy in a hushed tone, "Are you afraid now?"
"No."
"…No?" He couldn't hide his shock at her resolute answer.
Never hesitating one bit and looking straight into his forlorn crimson eyes, Chise stated her reasons. "Why would I be? You've never hurt me. Even on that night. You protected me, and you stayed your hand. Then you helped me in my studies… even when I never asked you to. What happened before, you might call it a mistake, but I believe you would not have willingly done it. So you must have your reasons."
Professor Ainsworth's skeletal jaws became slightly agape in his astonishment. Always, always, the Sleigh Beggy surprised him with the amount of faith she had in him. He didn't know when it would stop happening, but he still felt incredibly fortunate that it didn't despite his confession. "You are the first… to say those kind words."
Chise didn't know what to answer to that. She mulled over his words, and then she concluded that he must be always treated unfairly because of his unconventional situation in the College. "Is that why they avoid you? At first I thought it was because you are different from them, but then again so are they in comparison to humans. Even the Muryans."
"Ah, so you noticed. I've been here long. Many here know my past, so they fear me." He answered knowingly and nonchalantly, as if he was just commenting about the weather. Then he looked at her curiously, "But you…"
"I will never fear you. I will never fear a dear friend." Chise said with as much sincerity as she could offer. Yes, earlier she was wondering what sort of relationship they had. Now though, she was certain. He was a friend to her, and that would never change.
"Friend?"
Chise fought hard not to cry at how foreign the word came out of his mouth. Didn't he want to be friends? She realized now how weird it would be with him being a professor and she a student, but still… "We are friends, right? Though I confess I don't have that many and that much experience in having one."
"I must say that I have never had a friend too. What do friends do, Ms. Hatori?" Professor Ainsworth asked, tilting his head to the side, as if he was really puzzled by the simple word. There was something both childlike and innocent to his question.
"I… be there for each other? Help each other out? You helped me get through my remedials out of the goodness of your heart. I may not know what I can help you with in return, but you can tell me anytime." Chise answered and described what friendship was to her to the best that she could. Now, she finally understood why the word sounded so foreign to him earlier. He simply never had any friend in the College.
Professor Ainsworth's crimson eyes sparkled again at Chise's words. He liked the sound of it, and something in him wanted to give friendship with her a try. The only thing though was that he didn't know how it worked. What if he disappointed her? "Is there a ritual for friendship? Do we have to make an Unbreakable Pact for it?"
Chise laughed a little, becoming aware of how inexperienced they both were at this. "No, silly. It's unconditional. At least that's how I understand it. You are my friend, and that's it. No if's, no but's, nothing in between. And when you need help, I'll come running to you."
"Thank you. Then I guess… you are my friend too, Ms. Hatori." Professor Ainsworth said, hiding from his voice how delighted he was at such a simple thing. He finally had a friend in the College, after seventy-five long years. He then looked at the stars and the moon, jaws agape and musing on how blessed he was at the moment.
"So let's make it official then!" Chise exclaimed and stood up. She then extended her right hand to Professor Ainsworth for a handshake. A glove-covered one connected with hers. "Call me Chise from now on." She beamed at him.
"Chise." He said her name, finding that it tasted sweet on his tongue.
"And you may call me Elias." He added, never letting go of her hand yet.
"Elias." Chise said his name and then she instantly pulled him up to stand for an embrace. She quickly wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in the front of his black embroidered robe. Then she inhaled and took a breath of his scent. He always smelled like rain and forest air, something she found soothing and comforting. "Thank you for being my friend, Elias."
Elias too returned her embrace after a few seconds of being in it. Having experienced it for the second time, he realized that he no longer found it discomforting. In fact, he felt oddly warm and wanted more and more of it. There was also something in the way she spoke his first name, something that somehow awakened his long-forgotten, dormant self.
"Say it again." He pleaded as he held her tighter, wanting to hear his first name again so much as if he was a man in a desert thirsty for a drop of water.
"Hm?"
"My name, Chise. Please say my name again."
Chise moved back a little from their embrace, and this time she held his wolf-skull of a face with her two hands. Then she looked straight into his crimson eyes and grinned at him, "Thank you for being my friend, Elias."
Chise watched his glowing red orbs disappear for a few seconds and return. Elias savored the sound of his name on her lips and finally knew what that indescribable feeling he felt earlier was. In that moment, he was Elias again and not Ainsworth the criminal Mage who ate a human.
He was Elias again.
xxxx
Additional Notes: Though shorter than usual, this chapter is special to me. When I created the plot for this story, the dialogue here was the first thing that came to my mind. I just sort of made my way backwards and forwards from there. It is such a satisfying feeling to finally post this and reach this far, as this was just an idea that popped in my head and grew to something more.
How do you like this story so far? Please drop a review to share your thoughts. Thank you too to the people who followed and faved this story. All of you encourage me to do my best in writing.
BlueNachturne: Thank you for saying you enjoyed reading Chapter 5. And it is my pleasure to share this story with you. Just knowing that someone is reading gives me fulfillment already. :)