Chapter 2

"You're back." Cullen didn't know why he expressed it so fast when she came in. The way he blurted it so expectantly, he silently chided himself for acting so eager. It was the next day and he was manning his post in the same spot in the same schedule. The mage had stepped into the library once again. She was rubbing her arm as she did and upon hearing him speak, her brunette head spun to catch his greeting.

Boredom had a hold on him. Of course that was it.

"Hi." She spoke this with surprise, as if she didn't expect to see him.

Cullen couldn't fault her since her arrival had been so recent. She would learn soon enough how the monotony of daily studies panned out as the months went by.

Her lopsided smile followed a shoulder lift. "I'm here for another set of books."

"I'm shocked you think of such a thing when you enter a library."

"I am a deviant, aren't I?" She airily chuckled, then aimed herself to one of the shelves at the side. "Is this the section on water arcane techniques?"

He wished the Maker he knew. Cullen could only shrug.

The mage seemed frazzled and she darted from bookcase to bookcase. Cullen heard faint mumbling about alphabetical atrociousness. She disappeared behind a stack, leaving Cullen to observe the others in the room.

And wait. Actually anticipate while standing around for something intriguing to come his way instead of hoping for the utter excitement of someone reading to accidentally drop a tome and -Maker forbid- shake the stony silent air with vibrations.

Cullen made sure he saw her coming towards him this morning as another tower of hardcover novels was clutched to her chest. The pile went up to said area and he could see her face. The small, but obvious bruise on her forehead had turned a nasty purple. Odd how she didn't resort to using magic to whisk it away. A spell to do such a thing couldn't be too complicated.

"Did you get your remaining reads yesterday?" He assumed she did, but it never hurt to verify.

A quirky grin passed her mouth. "Yes. You know, when I came to get them I..." A crease settled between her brows.

When she led her sentence astray, Cullen felt compelled to prompt, perhaps a tad too eagerly, "Yes?"

She grunted and Cullen saw her arms strain with effort. "I should go. I don't want to be chastised by Enchanter Pwiny again. He wants me to get all these teaching aids every class this week. I bring them here when class is done, too. My poor muscles."

If she underwent templar training, she'd understand the true meaning of arm pain. Exercises day in and out filled with sword handling and techniques, not to forget effectively balancing a shield.

But she wasn't a templar. She wielded not a cutting blade, but a wand of less proportionate size. Not that size diminished strength. The deadliness of a raging spell had as much destructive potential as any broadsword, if not more.

He paused. She wasn't a templar, yet she worked herself like one, hefting heavy books when a spell could substitute. Minor magic use wasn't forbidden. Perhaps she hadn't discovered this fact. "A lifting spell is not prohibited." Cullen advised her as any informative templar could.

The mage peered at him with a slightly patronizing expression. One that conveyed she already knew. "Thank you. I do have my reasons for the physical work, though."

"Enchanter Pwiny isn't the sadist type." The observation tumbled out of Cullen's mouth before he knew what exactly he said aloud.

The woman burst out giggling and Cullen immediately felt heat flash up his neck. "No, no, Pwiny is nothing like that. He's not forcing me to do labor work."

Voluntarily taking on weighty loads for what reason? "You're not a masochist, are you?"

"Hardly. I favor the... hedonist ways."

Cullen tried to digest what she meant and whether the impish smile she shot him truly was a flirtation or a figment of his imagination when she made an impatient noise. "The halls are a puzzle. It took me almost ten minutes to return to class yesterday. I really must go." The mage braced her texts against herself and shuffled out the doorway. "It was nice seeing you, Cullen."

Like that, she disappeared.

And like that, her name repeatedly eluded Cullen.

Author's note: One more chapter to go!