Apprentice to the Mystics
I floated in front of Janus in a shadowy room. A few months had passed since the blue-haired boy had arrived. I had insisted that he wear ornaments on his ears that would pinch them and make them grow long and pointed. At first the child had been completely useless. He just kept repeating that he couldn't do any magic, and he wouldn't try. On the verge of giving up, I took a day off, and then told him to show me what others had tried so far, and what said others could do themselves. He described basic archaic ways of testing for magic, and of bringing it out. He talked about a few different kinds of magic, but few things that were in use these days. I had to laugh at him for his ancient ideas. It was all he knew, though. And with the discovery that there was more to magic than he knew, it was possible to teach him. The boy could master all the natural elements, and had quite a knack for shadow magic as well…
"Yes, yes, lightning's nice," I conceded as his low-level spell crackled against my shield. "So are fire and ice. Show me some dark mist, and we'll call it a day."
Janus frowned in concentration and chanted under his breath. Beginners often needed to do that. A purple mist began to gather.
"That's weak. You'll have to do better than that."
The boy's frown deepened, as did the mist.
"Oh please, my grandma could blow that away."
The mist thickened, roiling with darkness. A shiver of energy shot through it in a straight line that split between us to send two lines out around him. I staggered at the intensity, though I didn't fall. The child staggered too, breathing heavily as the mist quickly faded.
"Hmm… Getting better, I guess," I conceded. "But there's still plenty of room for improvement. You're far too slow." I went to the side of the room and tossed the kid a small loaf of bread, which he tore into ravenously. I grabbed one for myself too, in addition to the glass of water beside it. "Eat that and rest for a minute, then go find Slash for your fighting lesson."
The boy scowled, chewing on a crusty edge of the bread. "…I don't see why I have to have dealings with him. I was brought here for my magic, not my fighting skills…"
"Anyone with only one skill, no matter how good it is, is only fit to be a flunky all their life. And if they ever lose that, even for a day, they're worthless," I said, hopping into the air to sit there. "The key… is to never be worthless. Always have a use."
"So then YOU can do more than one thing?" he smirked mockingly.
"Watch it, human." I smirked back dangerously and teleported myself behind him to whack him in the head. "I can slap with the best of them! …Not to mention my glorious beauty!" I grinned at him with a wink as he glared at me, rubbing his head.
"Don't touch me!" he snapped. "…And quit flirting. It's disgusting behavior.
"Aww, is little princey shy?" I laughed almost fondly. "Don't worry, you're kind of young for that kind of thing."
"How old are YOU, anyway?" the child retorted. "You don't look that much older than me… Just taller."
I shrugged. "I'm twenty. Most Mystics mature faster than humans, and the more highly developed ones like me live longer. Your race is just slow. How old are you, anyway?"
He narrowed his eyes defensively. "…Nine. Almost ten."
"Heh, just a little one, then," I said with a smirk.
The boy glared and took another bite of bread. "…I don't understand why someone else can't teach me to fight…"
I shrugged. "Slash is the best swordsman here. You're lucky he agreed to teach a human like you."
The boy frowned down at the floor, which he scraped with his shoe. "…He's a noseless fool, and I hate him."
"And Ozzie's a fat lumpy fool, and I'm a cross-dressing fool, and everyone else isn't worth listening to," I continued, listing his opinions of us. "You've gotta learn from someone. Your knife skills are laughable, I could get a weapon away from you with my bare hands. And you can't use anything else."
"Hmph… I don't want to learn from him…" the boy insisted sulkily.
"Oh?" I asked, slowly turning upside down in the air and floating closer. "Why not?"
He glared at me. "I hate him. He has no tolerance for any way but his."
"Discipline's a big part of any kind of learning," I said with a shrug. "You could do with a bit more of that."
"But does that mean I HAVE to learn the sword? I don't want to fight with a sword!" he argued.
"I'm not the one to ask about that. But it's his specialty, so it's a good starting point." I stretched a bit. "What would you use?"
He looked down and shrugged. "…I don't know. I haven't tried anything but a knife and sword. Maybe a bow. Or even a scythe."
"If it's that important to you, find one and learn it yourself," I suggested. "Because I can't see Slash wasting his time teaching you another weapon so early. But in the meantime, you'd better keep up with what he's teaching you."
"What, you expect me to just… look around and find a bow lying on the ground?" he asked incredulously.
"I don't know about a bow, but I've seen some of the living skeletons with scythes. Get one from them."
He made a face, finishing off his bread. "I don't want to touch such filthy things…"
"Aww, is little princey afraid?" I mocked. "Still used to having servants to pick up his toys and wipe his ass for him?"
He glared at me angrily. "Stop it! I'm not! Just… shut up! Don't even talk to me! I hate you too, you're as bad as Slash!" He got to his feet and stalked out of the room.
I shrugged and teleported back to my room. He really needed to learn to loosen up. Stupid kid, always leaving himself open to insults, then getting so offended when somebody took the chance. Obviously Slash did it too. I shrugged and stretched out in the air to relax for a while.
"Flea."
I made a conscious effort not to jump or fall. I opened one eye to see Ozzie standing in my doorway.
"Yeah? What do you want?"
"I want a status report on the human kid. How's it doing?"
"Pretty well, actually," I admitted. "It was kind of useless at first, but we tried some different things… It mastered the simple elemental magics in no time, and it's good at shadow spells. We've been working on a good strong dark mist lately. It's getting stronger, but he's still pretty slow with it."
"Hmph, well that's to be expected… Still, impressive… for a human. And it's learning to fight with Slash?"
"Yep, in fact he should be there now. Though it's just as possible that he went off to sulk. He's still getting used to ideas like discipline and obedience."
"Heh, well those are lessons soon learned, unless death is what it wants," Ozzie snickered. "But the magic is going well?"
"Oh yes," I affirmed. "In fact, we might have quite a little magus on our hands, in time…"
