The Sharpest Sword
"Oh, by the way, I still have a lot of errands to run, so I'll be back later tonight~! You two have some things to talk about, right? I'll leave you alone for a while then." The door clicked shut as Rena hurried away, leaving Elsword and Aisha staring at one another, exasperated. Forcing herself to calm down, though only just barely, Aisha sighed.
"What happened to you? It looks like you got mauled by a bear."
"I'm fine." Elsword glanced aside, still scowling. "It's just from training."
For a moment, Aisha was stunned. In that single moment, she understood the weight of the scrapes and scars covering Elsword's arms and legs. In the next, her eyes darkened and her voice became stern. "That's from training? Elsword, are you stupid! Why would you train until you got that beat up! You look worse than when we fought Wally's nasod!"
Elsword glared at her fiercely and fumed. "What did you expect! If training doesn't hurt, you don't get stronger. It's not like I can read a stupid book and suddenly be able to bust up a nasod."
"None of that matters if you kill yourself in the middle of the woods fighting trees! What are you going to do if both your legs are broken when we can finally go after Wally!"
Electric tension shot through the air as their eyes filled with fire, both standing firm and fixed in place as a single thought filled their minds.
Why doesn't she understand what I'm doing!
Why doesn't he understand what I'm saying!
"Fine, It doesn't matter." Elsword grabbed his new armor from Rena's bedside and stormed out of the room. "Couldn't learn anything useful from a snooty runt anyway." The sound of the slamming door rattled the walls and filled the room, leaving Aisha in a strange, uncomfortable silence. As the light of the late afternoon sun danced across her back, her eyes sank and her shoulders dropped.
"Stupid..." She plodded over to the edge of her bed and fell backward onto a pile of pillows, staring at the ceiling with her arms splayed across the bed.
Outside, Elsword stomped all the way downstairs, pausing as he rounded the corner into the lively dining hall. Standing alone as a dozen conversations wrapped around his ears, his scowl softened and he grumbled into dense noise all around him. He turned from the stairs and marched on past happy couples and cheering friends, wrenching open the outer door and fighting a blast of chill wind as he stepped outside. He wandered aimlessly through the streets of Elder, wincing whenever the cold crept beneath his collar and chilled his aching legs. After a half hour of frustration and pacing, Elsword stopped at a busy intersection and set his mind to finding a place to try on his new gear and rest for a while, preferably one without an overbearing mage. After just three steps into the next street, a gentle sigh rolled through the air.
"I guess it didn't go well, did it?" Rena leaned against a warm bakery window nearby, looking at Elsword with a soft smile in her eyes. While the crowd of shoppers and merchants shifted and flowed around him, Elsword tilted his head down and scoffed. Seeing the frustration heaped on his shoulders, Rena pushed off of the window behind her and made her way through the shifting swarm of busy feet. "Come with me for a bit, okay?"
Elsword grumbled but soon found himself following Rena into the bakery and back to a small corner table. The air inside was warm with the heat of ovens and the smell of sweet spices, reminding Elsword that he hadn't eaten anything but hard bread since breakfast. Soon, a pitcher of water and a plate of mincemeat pies found its way to his side and he furiously devoured the lot while Rena giggled to herself. With his belly full and the bakers racing to replenish their supply of mincemeat, Elsword's grumbling diminished and he looked up at Rena, silently confirming that he was finally ready to talk.
"Okay, tell me what happened this time." Rena folded her arms together in front of her and rested them on the table.
Clearly annoyed by even the memory of Aisha's lectures, Elsword glowered, Indignation dripping from his every word. "I came in to talk to her just like you said, and before I could say anything she started yelling at me for getting hurt while I was training."
"Ah, that's what she said?" Rena closed her eyes for a moment and thought. "What happened after that?"
"She just kept yelling at me about training and getting hurt and didn't even listen to me." Elsword picked up his glass and downed a pint of water in a vain attempt to cool his head. Once he was finished, Rena smiled gently and looked straight into his eyes.
"Do you know why she got mad at you though?"
"What? I don't know..." Elsword glanced through the nearest window, avoiding Rena's gaze. "She just starts shouting at me all the time for no reason."
Rena shook her head. "No, that's not it. It's true that she doesn't understand your training and what it takes, but she's not mad because she thinks you're stupid."
The very thought that Aisha considered him someone of at least average intelligence seemed like the most fantastical, unrealistic idea Elsword had ever heard. He immediately turned and glared at Rena skeptically. "...What?"
"Think about it this way..." Rena suppressed a light giggle as she addressed the very serious, very doubtful Elsword. "If you think she's always getting mad at you because she just thinks you're stupid, then why would she spend so much of her time and energy shouting at you? If she really didn't care, she just wouldn't bother and would try to ignore you, wouldn't she? But instead, she instantly starts yelling and shouting at you every time you get hurt or when she thinks something bad might happen to you. She seems like she's angry, but really she's just worried and doesn't understand what you're thinking."
"That's not-" Elsword started to object but suddenly went quiet. The memories of his every argument with Aisha flashed through his mind and, for a moment, his eyes went wide with shock before he returned to scowling. "...she really pisses me off. If she's worried, why does she have to keep yelling at me?" He mumbled to himself, crossing his arms and staring outside while Rena smiled at him.
"Well, you're both young, and on top of that, people deal with the things they think and feel in a lot of different ways. More than that..." She leaned forward a bit, trying to restore eye contact. "You're both really strong-willed and neither one of you is really wrong, so it's obvious that you'll keep fighting if you don't understand one another."
On the other side of the table, Elsword fought to maintain his agitation and was losing every second. He was still annoyed by the sheer number of times Aisha had labeled him an idiot and for a while, he really just wanted to smack her on the back of the head as hard as he could, but with a body covered in cuts and a face weary of frustration he was beginning to see the value in a truce. None of that meant that he was prepared to apologize though.
"She's still the one who's wrong."
"No..." Rena reached out and poked his forehead, nearly setting him off balance and toppling to the ground. "You're both wrong, but you're also both right. That's just how arguments go when you get to be adults, and if neither one of you is willing to apologize or understand the other, it'll never get resolved or the resolution will be really uneven and you'll still be mad. Listen... I can't make either of you get along, and if she won't stop fighting with you even if you try to understand, there's nothing you can do, right? But you need to try..." She leaned back into her chair and looked at him earnestly, "And you might think about a safer way of training too. The big tree trunks might be helpful, but in this case, if you're coming home with a concussion after just half a day's practice, Aisha's right to call it dangerous."
His every avenue of escape and aggression blocked, Elsword sat defeated, his mouth wrinkling up as he nodded. "Yeah... okay, I'll talk to her again."
"Great!" Rena bounced up in her chair, beaming brightly. "Oh, and by the way..." Her smile shifted into a smirk as she leaned across the table and held out her hand, whispering into Elsword's ear, "What did you think of her new clothes? Pretty cute, right?"
Blushing lightly, Elsword backed away from the table. "That runt? No way."
Struggling to control her sudden fit of giggles, Rena rose from her seat and sighed happily. "Well, good luck! And remember not to do anything that'll make it harder for either of you, okay?" She hopped off, handing a handful of copper coins to the baker for Elsword's mincemeat pies before humming her way outside. Annoyed, Elsword stood to chase after her only but quickly felt as though he was walking through a shallow swamp.
"Ugh... I ate... way too much..." He walked out of the warm bakery, drowsy from his feast until the harsh winter wind stung his face and ears. Meandering through the city streets and almost losing himself a few times, he made his way back to the inn and up to the second story with little trouble. In the last fifteen feet, however, his nerves started acting up and anxiety set in. Uneasy and scarcely prepared, he reached forward and twisted the old, worn wooden knob and drew open the door to their room. The instant he entered, Aisha bolted to her feet and turned to face him.
"Elsword!"
He paused, bracing himself for another tirade. When he saw her face, however, he relaxed his guard. Rather than anger, he was met with remorse, albeit awkward and unsteady. Aisha didn't look furious so much as she did anxious, echoing Elsword's expression as he bolstered his nerves and shut the door behind him.
"Hey..." He nodded slowly and set down his gear and unbuckled his sword, laying them alongside his bed. Cautiously, Aisha took a step toward him.
"Are you- Are you okay? Like, your wounds and the bump on your head and stuff..." Her eyes drifted to the floor in an attempt to avoid his gaze that proved altogether unnecessary since Elsword was still glancing at the nearest wall.
"Yeah, I'm okay..." His mouth wrinkled up uncomfortably. "Let's just talk about something else." Gritting his teeth, he formed the words of an apology in his head but couldn't bring himself to speak them aloud. It didn't help that they were both avoiding a direct discussion of their previous argument either. Puffing up her cheeks and clenching her fists, Aisha breathed in deeply and stared straight at Elsword.
"I-" She hesitated. "I'm sorry, alright!"
Elsword nearly fell backward. He looked as though he'd just seen the ghost of a giant bear, and that ghost-bear had just awkwardly shouted an apology at him. He was so unprepared that he had absolutely no idea how to respond and stood with his mouth agape, staring at Aisha in disbelief. His silence lasted so long that Aisha began to blush and panic.
"S-Say something!"
Elsword steadied his feet and started to calm his nerves. "I'm trying! It's not that easy, okay!" His eyes fixed on hers, Elsword started to stammer out a response. "I- Y-yes."
Aisha blinked. "Yes?"
"Me too, alright?" Elsword grimaced and his eyes returned to the wall as he crossed his arms. "I got too careless and trained too hard and that's why I got hurt..."
"No, that's not it." Aisha shook her head. "I wasn't... I didn't mean it like that. I just thought you were going to end up dead on the ground with nobody around to help if you kept going like that..."
They both spent an awkward moment considering one another's words and searching for some way to relieve the uneasy atmosphere. Eventually, Elsword kicked at the floor and looked up.
"It's fine... I was gonna try something different anyway."
Aisha turned to face him, confused. "What do you mean?"
"I'm doing fine with sword stuff right now..." Elsword clenched his jaw, trying to rid himself of the electric tension in his chest before finally closing his eyes and standing firm. "I wanna learn magic."
The floors below them creaked quietly and the window rattled as a gust of frigid winter blew past. Although Aisha stared in silence, her brain was a flurry of activity and it was her turn to stand dumbstruck and in disbelief.
"Are you serious?" She let more skepticism leak out into her voice than she had intended and Elsword glowered at her.
"What?"
"No, I was just surprised..." Aisha shook her head out and blinked a few times, wondering if she had dozed off and was now trapped in an extremely vivid dream. His agitation fading, Elsword relaxed a bit and prepared himself to ask the next obvious question.
"So...how do you do it?"
"Do what?" Although it took Aisha a moment to realize what he was talking about and why he had phrased his question so vaguely, Elsword just kept staring uncomfortably at her until she finally got it. "What! You want me to teach you?" She looked around frantically as though she might find some other well practice mage in the room to suggest in her place but the only one she found was on the other side of a mirror. Elsword's unease was growing as Aisha stalled for time and he scowled.
"Fine, if you don't want to do it, I'll figure out something else."
"No! I can do it!" Aisha glared at him adamantly though with no more confidence than she had the moment before. Straining her memory, she tried to recall the very first things she ever learned as a child. Gradually, her early lessons came back to her as she turned over the basics of spell casting in her mind. "Okay, stand over here." She pointed to a bare spot in the center of the room, far away from the door and any furniture or fixtures. Cautiously, Elsword headed over and braced himself, looking as though he expected to be hit with a boulder or fireball at any moment. Moving in front of him, Aisha breathed in and held out her left hand. As she raised it to her eye level, a small flame sprouted above her palm and gave off a warm glow.
"If you can figure out how to hold fire, everything else will be easy."
Elsword glared at her. "Yeah, cause holding fire is easy. Normal people do that all the time."
Aisha sighed. "Close your eyes and try to imagine a tiny flame in the palm of your hand. Magic is all about getting your will to act on the forces of nature. It's like asking the fire to be there in your hand, not yelling at it to do what you want."
Reluctantly, Elsword closed his eyes and held out his hand, trying his best to picture a sweltering flame swirling between his fingers. After a few seconds, he felt a faint heat stirring over his palm and he peeked out to see if he had a fire yet. Instead he saw Aisha flipping through the pages of a dusty tome.
"How long is this gonna take?" Elsword grumbled as he held his empty hand out in front of his face.
"I don't know, but probably a while." Aisha sat down at her desk slipped a few dried reeds between the pages of a slim grimoire. "After you spend a while focusing, you'll get frustrated and you have to keep going, and then you'll get discouraged, and then you'll just feel like it'll never happen, and once you get past that your mind should be clear enough to hold fire."
More tan a little irritated, Elsword glared, his eye twitching and his palm still empty. After nearly an hour he had definitely gone through the frustration phase but still wasn't feeling particularly discouraged. Rather than giving up on fire, he was about to give up on consciousness and take a nap when a small flicker flashed through the room. He opened his eyes, expecting a tiny flame and instead finding, the same as ever, an empty palm. From the corner of the room, however, Aisha was staring intently at his hand.
"You did it!" She pushed her chair aside and rushed over.
"Wait, I did?" By now, Elsword would have been glad to finally have fire, but he was very nearly convinced that it was all a cruel trick and Aisha was just making him sit there staring at his hand as a joke. As he turned his hand over, searching for any sign of fire, a faint wisp of smoke drifted past his nose.
"I did it." Completely ignoring the scale of his accomplishment, Elsword grinned proudly and puffed his chest out. "See, this magic stuff is easy. I can do it, no problem."
Aisha nodded, somewhat disappointed in Elsword's immediate pride over such a tiny spark. "Now do it again."
Breathing deeply, he stared at his palm and concentrated. After three minutes, he started to glare menacingly at his hand as though threatening the fire would make it appear.
"Here, you're too worked up to make it on your own, just concentrate on holding it and stay calm and steady, okay?" Aisha produced a small swirl of fire in her hand and clenched her fist tightly around it. As Elsword slowed his breathing, she moved her hand over and tapped her knuckles against his. When she did, a spark leapt into Elsword's palm leaving a tiny flame hissing and crackling in his hand. Despite his best attempt to look cool and confident, Elsword was the picture of a kid who had just managed to amaze himself. Excited and undaunted, he laughed and jumped to his feet.
"Haha, yeah!" As he stood, he began to extend his fingers and give the flame more room to breath. The instant he did, the kindling spark flashed and engulfed his entire hand. Horrified, Aisha immediately clasped his hand with both of her own, extinguishing the flame and leaving them both distressed and disturbed. Aisha held his hand as they both stared and breathed heavily, the sudden alarm sending them both into a sea of adrenaline. Still astonished, Aisha stepped back and turned to Elsword, her voice stern and yet shaking.
"Magic is not easy."
Gulping, Elsword nodded slowly as he lowered his doused but slightly seared hand.
"Don't get too confident about it, or, well, or that'll happen again. Still..." Aisha returned to her desk and retrieved a slender book with dozens of reeds littered throughout its breadth. "You did pretty well, I guess." She handed the book over and Elsword accepted it with his uninjured hand. He approached it with the same level of confusion with which he would have approached a box full of bow ties and perfume.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
Aisha placed her hands on her hips and stared straight at him. "It's your homework."
"Eh! I have to read all this?"
"Do you want to learn anything at all?" She grinned slyly. "I told you, magic isn't easy. It's not like you can just go into the woods and whack a few trees and suddenly you'll know all about it."
"Geh..." Elsword felt the bite and sting of those words and he grimaced at the tome on his lap. For a second, he felt like hurling the book at Aisha's head, but when he thought of that he remembered how well that sort of thing had worked for him in the past and, more importantly, that Rena would probably be back any minute. With only his determined obstinance outweighing his aggravation, Elsword spent the evening studying the pages of 'A book of beginner's magic for children' while Aisha poured over her thick, leather bound grimoire. The air outside their window was as frigid as ever and anyone passing by might say that the atmosphere of their room was just as cold. With Aisha sitting in the corner and Elsword facing the opposite wall, it certainly looked as though they were still bitterly at odds with one another, but inside that room, it was unmistakably warmer than it had ever been before.