Year 10, memory.
And so the days went on. Whenever Jenna wasn't studying under Merlin, she was helping at the inn. People came and went, some staying longer than others. Some went to the other districts and never came back. Some traveled to other worlds. But most of the residents of the inn were there for the long-term.
She liked working at the inn. She spent more time sharing stories she heard while she was there than she did telling me how she got off the damn planet.
'..This wouldn't be much of a story if she were still in Travelville. I'd have just left a note saying "Jenna's safe in Travelville. She's staying with a crazy old man but she's fine." —Actually no, I wouldn't have bothered coming here at all. Not sure why I'm bothering now. Hmmm.'
But on the topic of that old man, it took Jenna around a week before she finally managed to cast fire and caught his stupid beard on fire. It unfortunately went out almost immediately but it was a step in the right direction. Sometimes I feel an urge to try it myself.
She wasn't permitted to use magic outside of the training gallery and spent most nights studying magic theory. She was still studying alone at this point, but the insane wizard kept talking about another apprentice that would be joining them soon. Merlin held this apprentice with such high regard that Jenna was torn between the anticipation of becoming a proper mage and the anticipation of beating the shit out of this magic prodigy she's constantly compared to.
But since she was still at the stage where she used an absurd amount of mana per spell with twice the normal cast time, there was no way she'd stand a chance against him. Not to mention her shitty aim and the spells not even being strong to counterbalance.
It would be several months before she was considered skilled enough to begin real combat training. Whenever there was a Hopeless outbreak, she got to be in on the action. Real life or death stuff. If you're a pathetic weakling.
And speaking of pathetic weaklings, this is where she met Jaspar.
Fuck knows why he was wandering around alone without a weapon, but the fact remains that he'd had his ass handed to him by a group of Hopeless and was about to die. Jenna managed to kill them all and saved him.
"You okay?" she asked him while he curled up into a ball. "You can't stay here or else more will show up."
He didn't respond so she added, "I'm bad at fighting so I probably can't save you a second time."
He still didn't move, so she left him behind. But the moment she started walking away, the coward was on her heels, frantically checking the area after each step.
Jenna was hardly capable of taking care of herself, let alone another person on top of that, so she decided to drop Jaspar off at the closest safe place.
That happened to be Merlin's cave.