Days pass and flow by like leaves during Autumn. Both you and Veigar having fallen into routine at this point, collecting ingredients, making potions and in your case; tending to the garden. It had been relatively quiet between the two of you, any interactions with each other being brief and to the point with neither of you making eye contact. In spite of any awkwardness between you and her, you continued your job of tending the garden.
You take a couple of herbs out of the garden and place them in your pouch before replanting a couple seeds. A bead of sweat rolls down your forehead due to the moderate heat, only being exacerbated by the amount of work you were doing. It had been only an hour or two since midday and the sun had cast a golden, orange gleam over your surroundings; a beautiful sight of the vast green forest that would normally have you smiling and yet today it didn't. This time the only feeling that washed over you was one of melancholy, perhaps a bittersweet feeling at best.
You sighed aloud, you thought that maybe drowning yourself in work would've made this feeling disappear by now. It's just that at least in your mind, you couldn't be honest with how you felt about how she treated you. You had made so much progress with her that it would be stupid to immediately halt that just to make things all about yourself, but maybe at the same time you might have alienated her in the process with all this soul searching. It's...complicated for sure, in any other situation you might be able to be upfront about it but you know that she's not the best at handling these sort of things, you chuckle to yourself. 'Maybe we're not so different after all.'
Regardless of those thoughts, today would be the end to the calm, quiet and dull peace that had become the norm. You take one last glance at the front yard before disappearing inside to give the ingredients to Veigar. Aside from the usual, she looks a tad unsteady in her movements. They're slightly shaky if anything along with her fur being slightly ruffled and her robes having been hastily put on from what you can tell.
"Minion." She greets in her usual manner, you respond with a smile but it's obvious to her that you're faking it. It's even more disturbing to note that despite her messy appearance, she's still able to tell when you're hiding how you feel. 'Am I really that bad at hiding how I feel? Well, at the very least I'm glad that I never pursued a career in theater if that's the case.' Your thoughts in career choice come as quickly as they go, also being brushed aside by the glare that Veigar is giving you.
It's not the regular sort of glare that she normally gives when she's mildly annoyed by your antics but more of a 'I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed after having a bucket of ice water thrown on my crotch' sort of glare. Whatever angry thoughts running through her mind, she expresses them by slamming her giant metallic gauntlet on the table, making the entire shed rumble slightly and anything attached to the ceiling dangle harshly almost threatening to fall down. The act startling you and making you jump slightly, your head making an impact with the ceiling.
She opens her mouth slowly and with a deep breath begins to talk. "Minion, you are going to stop whatever this is that you are doing and tell me what all of this foolishness is about." She states without yelling or getting irritated like her usual self, her tone being stern and if you didn't know any better it would be the closest she could get to sounding like she was concerned for you.
You turn your head away from her with the intent of trying to avoid the topic completely but her steely eyed glare prevents anything of the sort. She's never been this forceful before, her determination is so intense that it makes any feelings of wanting to reject what she wants wither away. "Hey, don't worry. I'm alright" Your response comes out sounding pitifully weak and it seems to only worsen her already bad mood.
Her narrowing gaze makes you crumble, you simply can't keep this facade up anymore. "Dammit, okay fine. I've just been thinking about some stuff and I'm not used to talking about it alright?" You huff out in exasperation.
Her gaze softens slightly, your frustration about struggling with how you feel seems to placate her. You take a deep breath and lean against the wall behind you before continuing "I've never had many friends y'know? It's honestly just been a bit jarring these past couple of weeks with how much has happened, it's a lot to take in. But can you just lay back with the minion shtick? Or at the very least, can you stop treating me like a peon?" She shuffles around as you say this, a conflicted yet understanding look plastered over her face. She slowly walks over to you and gestures for you to kneel down which you oblige.
A moment of silence lingers between you two with her gently placing her hand on your cheek, what follows next completely catches you off guard. She slaps you hard, leaving a harsh red mark on your cheek. "Ouch!" You scream out in pain and place your palm over the spot she hit.
Her next words are quick, not wasting a single breath. "Don't ever do this again." She then walks over to the door before pausing. "And I'll consider it." She opens the door and walks outside, leaving you completely flabbergasted. It wasn't the sort of reaction that you expected, but you reconciled with the fact that it was likely going to be the best you could get out of her. You pick yourself up while dusting yourself off and follow her out the front.
A flock of crows fly by as you walk past the front garden, dispersing into different directions. From what you can see in front of you, Veigar is contemplating something intensely, she turns upon hearing you shut the door to her shack while continuously tapping her chin.
"Minion." You groan to yourself as she refers to you like this.
'She'll never ditch that nickname will she?' You rub the bridge of your nose before responding in a tone akin to that of an irritated teenager. "Yes, Veigar?"
"Your promise, the one where you said that you'd give me access to spells of indescribable power! I've played your games for long enough and I want these spells now!" She howls in delight at the prospect of these potentially dangerous spells but little does she know that you had been lying. You're now regretting your past promise even more, the stress from having to keep it only making the pounding of your head worsen.
You rub both of your temples while straining your brain to come up with any ideas, avoiding the topic was obviously not an option as you had previously seen and you didn't have any powerful spells on hand. Then suddenly it hit you, the talk you had a while back about the team; specifically Lulu. Veigar displayed some form of jealousy or irritation at her use of magic. Maybe you didn't need to teach her a powerful destruction spell, maybe you had just the right thing for her.
"Well it's good that you ask Veigar, I've got the perfect spell for you." She stops cackling after hearing this while furrowing her eyebrows. Without saying another word, you pick a random direction and push through different trees and bushes; tiny footsteps following you each step of the way.
Past all the shrubbery you find a nice open field, perfect for the training you have in mind. The only thing missing would be a training dummy so you take the time to search around in hopes of finding a substitute amongst the few fallen trees nearby, you find different pieces of wood scattered around that differ in size from small twigs to trees the size of small buildings and even a couple that house some of the forests wildlife. You feel at peace here, the serenity of the lively forest making you smile.
While searching you find a lone stump on a small hill, it being surrounded by different fauna native to the forest such as mushrooms and various other plants. It looks comfortable as far as you can tell so you take a seat. 'Veigar can wait a while.' You think to yourself. You're sure she won't be all too happy with you keeping her waiting but you needed a small break, after all you had neglected to take one during the past couple of days, only falling asleep when you passed out from exhaustion.
The blistering hot weather had cooled down now that it was later into the day, a small breeze accompanied it and with that your mood slightly improved. You take this time to cool down and mull over some things in your head, introspecting as you had done in the past few weeks about Veigar. You had never really trained someone before, much less someone much more capable than you in terms of magic so this experience seemed completely daunting to you.
It sounds deceitful, sure but you hoped that she might get caught up in trying to cast more defensive spells since that had been her polar opposite. If that was the case then maybe it would be enough to distract her from the idea of a grander spell that didn't exist, or at the very least it would be enough to grant you some more time to think of one. You don't get much time to think about it though as you're thrust out of your thoughts by an all too familiar voice. You tiredly chuckle to yourself before grabbing a couple of arm sized branches and walk back to the field.
Once you make your way past the clearing you find her in the middle of said field, looking mighty impatient if her frantic body language was any indicator. While she begins to mouth off at you upon first sight, you decide to focus on setting up the wooden test dummy a couple of meters away from her.
A couple of scratches and mishaps later you're able to prop it up completely, smirking at your creation. You turn your heel to face Veigar before speaking. "Okay, first lesson. While I'm sure you're powerful enough to master it in one try, the spell has multiple steps and I think it'll do you good to learn them one by one." She perks up in excitement as you're explaining but her impatience has yet to fade.
"Yes, yes, that's very interesting, minion but can we get to the important part?" She scoffs as she says this.
"Barrier. You're going to learn how to cast a barrier spell." As you finish what you're saying, all excitement in her face fades into irritation.
"A barrier spell!? That's the powerful spell you have in mind? That is child's play in comparison to the dark power that I command at my fingertips!" She cackles while casting a black flame in her hand as an attempt to show this off, the flame burning any nearby falling leaves into nothing.
"Alright, if you think it's that easy then I'd like to see you do it." You cross your arms while sporting a casual manner, almost mocking her in return for her ego trip.
"W-what?" She stutters. "Of course such a thing is easy, I'll show you right now!" She begins to cast off a couple wards that expand into a magic rune circle in front of her. The spell begins to pulse loudly before dissipating into nothing. Her face shows nothing but disbelief at this, trying to comprehend what just happened.
"How's that for a wake up call?" Your smug demeanor leaks at every pore as you say this. She stumbles with her words, struggling to force out some sort of retort but nothing of the sort comes out. "When was the last time you cast a barrier spell anyway? Hell, when was the last time you used anything other than dark magic?" The question catches her off guard even more, compounding on her confused state.
"I can handle myself just fine you fool. It's just a stupid barrier spell." She growls out through gritted pointy teeth while digging her feet into the ground. She lets out an exasperated groan before taking a deep breath.
Once settled her face turns to a more neutral state yet the irritation is still present in her actions. It's more difficult to cast defensive or healing spells when fueled by anger, that's common knowledge. This fact alone is probably what made her casting of the spell fail completely and utterly. She tries to replicate the spell a few more times with each attempt getting worse alongside her growing frustration, the arcane shield becoming wilder and less stable each time to the point of becoming volatile.
After 10 minutes of this worsening, you decide to step in before she risks harming either of you. "Hey relax, getting angry is going to make it a lot more difficult for the barrier to stabilize. It's not one of those summoner spell scrolls you get in the rift, you have to try and calm yourself to cast it." You say this in a calm tone in an attempt to get her to relax and it seems to set her at ease slightly.
She tries it again with your advice in mind and does a bit better this time, at the very least the shield isn't threatening to blow the two of you to pieces. Although you're satisfied that she improved slightly, the same cannot be said for her. The gritting of her pointed teeth and strained arms showed her pitiful attempts to contain any frustration she had and eventually her hands fell by the wayside, completely exhausted from her forceful attempts.
She starts to breathe heavily, her body covered from head to toe in sweat. You had expected her to struggle somewhat but even trying to cast such a basic spell sapped this much strength and willpower out of her? You start bouncing ideas around in your head for possible ways to accommodate her needs before settling on an idea, she might not like it but it's probably the most helpful thing you can do.
"Here lemme help you with that." You approach her slowly as you say this and kneel behind her, gently grasping her arms. This being the closest you've ever gotten to each other, she jerks away as if not being used to the close contact but you press on regardless. Your palms meet and you guide her hands in making the correct magical rune in the air, channeling your magic through her hands to help with making the spell stable.
The hairs of her matted fur stand up completely as she shivers, pointed ears twitching and little gasps can be heard from her as she squirms in your grasp. You feel a chill run down your spine as the arcane energy runs through you both, you've never shared your power with anyone else before; at least not like this. There was a certain intimacy in it that slowly became more intense, you start to see and feel sparks all around you and through your body as the barrier slowly completes itself.
Neither of you say anything but the intertwining energies add to the serenity present in the moment, any tenseness that was present in her body had disappeared with her leaning into you as you both finished the spell. The shield is whole and you let out an exhilarated yell. "Yes! See? You did it Veigar!" You exclaim excitedly. You'd practically be jumping up and down if you weren't holding her close to you right now.
She had relaxed so much during the casting of the spell that her eyes had become half-lidded and her body becoming partly limp like clay in your arms. "I-I did? I mean of course I did! The great Veigar cannot be stopped by some simple barrier." She immediately snaps back into her regular personality upon realizing what you had said and leaps out of your arms, dusting herself off and coughing to break the mood while taking a few steps back.
She seems intent on acting like the moments prior never happened but pauses while tapping her fingers on her staff nervously. "Do not mention this to anyone. I can't have my reputation of being the ultimate being of EVILLLL ruined by talk of someone helping me with such a trivial spell." She attempts to put on her regular theatrics but you're able to see past it all, a faded blush is present on her cheeks. You have to admit It's cute seeing such an evil mastermind be so bashful and yet you're still amazed by her capabilities.
You kneel down to her level while placing a hand on her shoulder. "Veigar, that was amazing! Really, I'm proud of you." You're smiling like an idiot at this point but you couldn't really care, this was a happy moment and you weren't going to let anything ruin that.
"S-shut up minion! Stop with this sappy sentimentalism." Her face now being completely filled with color, you can practically see the steam coming out of her ears from how embarrassed she is.
A hearty laugh erupts from your chest, it feels good to finally have a proper reason to smile again.
AN: I just wanted to apologize about the inconsistent uploads, my creativity comes and goes and there's bouts of being completely creatively bankrupt. It's also getting more difficult now because not only is my motivation a bit fleeting due to how much I procrastinate but also since I'm really looking for more feedback. Don't get me wrong I really, REALLY appreciate the follows and favorites but I'd like to know if I'm doing anything right or wrong or even just have some viewers engage with my ideas. Seriously ask me any question about the fic if you're curious. My will to continue the fic is going to become smaller as it goes on because now we're reaching about the early to middle point of the story and I thought I'd have more material by now. I also mainly thrive on the discussion of ideas and if I'm unable to interact with people about it then it just feels like I'm screaming into the void y'know? Anyway, I'm trying to be more consistent about uploads from now on, I think 1 chapter per week as a bare minimum sounds like a good balance for me personally and if I get any sudden ideas for a chapter then you might see an extra one or two per week. Alright sorry for the rambling/venting, Thanks for reading and as always, Peace.