Knock On Wood (Leigo)

[Aehra]

31st of Summer, 512 AV It was dark, although the sun had just barely ducked under the far-off horizon, and the Bonesnapper whipped mercilessly at her as she made her way past the water. Aehra headed down the near-empty street, mumbling the instructions over and over and over again. "Second inn on th'left... There!" She grinned triumphantly as the inn in question was spotted and tucked her cloak closer to her body as the wind snapped hungrily at her arms. She ducked into the building quickly, more than grateful for the warmth of the low fire burning in its hearth. An older woman hummed some nonsensical tune at the counter, gray hair hanging in a loose bun at the nape of her neck. When she looked up, Aehra was surprised to see few lines on her face and sharp green eyes. The woman grinned at Aehra, who blushed furiously when dimples appeared in her cheeks. "Hello, girlie. You 'ere lookin' for a room? Got one just opened up, right down that hall." Still smiling, she nodded towards what appeared to be the only hall on the ground floor. "Um--" Momentarily distracted by the bizarrely pretty woman's looks, Aehra stammered before she got her bearings. "Um-- I-- yes, well, I was lookin' for someone, yeah?" The woman quirked one eyebrow, and Aehra fought the urge to bury her face in her hands at her own awkward speech. "I mean to say, yes, I am lookin' for someone. Name's Leigo Aba--" She wrinkled her nose. "Abasomething. Leigo's right, though, def'nitely. Said he stayed here. 'Bout this tall--" (here, she gestured approximately a foot above her own head) "--blonde, lanky, ehm, name's Leigo. But I a'ready said that, yeah? He here, then?" Coming to the realization that she was rapidly delving into a rant, Aehra forced her mouth shut. The woman's smile dimmed, if only a little, and Aehra was sad to see the dimples fade. She nodded, though, and that was something. "Just there, then. Second door on the right. Should be there." Aehra thanked her and quickly made her exit before she could embarrass herself any further. The hallway was dark, barely lit by a single brave candle trying and failing to light the entire expanse. It flickered constantly, casting ominous shadows across the wooden panels. Aehra approached the door, only hesitating a moment before rapping her fist against it. "Sparks, you in there?" The candle flickered again, and Aehra pulled her cloak more tightly against herself once more. "This is the right room ent it?"

[Leigo]

It was long since Leigo last inspected his already ragged clothes for additional tears. Currently he was making himself busy by folding the shirt through his fingers in order to check for holes. Soon he would hear Aehra’s voice. It didn’t nudge the boy much – someone like her was expected to get herself in trouble sooner or later. So sooner it was. Without raising his head from the shirt, Leigo did his best to try and observe the tattered cloth in his poorly lit room. “You can let yourself in!” Sparks again, was she ever going to lighten up on that part? Should she choose to enter, the girl would find the room a complete mess. Leigo’s stuff thrown all over the floor and corners filled with useless garbage. There were really only two things that stuck out. First – the passage of clean wooden floorboards leading narrowly to the entrance. Second, Aehra would find Leigo sitting on the floor. A strange gem sat proudly on a pillow in the middle of the bed. Should she try, she would immediately recognize Onuo for what he was. Well, she would at least doubt it, surely. “So what do you need my help with?” would be the words that welcomed her in. He might’ve been happy to see her again, showing it though was another matter entirely.

[Aehra]

Aehra pushed the door open as soon as he called her in, and had only gotten halfway through the doorway when he asked his question. She scrunched up her nose and put on a frowned, searching for some semblance of offense at his question. Marvelously, she found none. "Hey!" She protested half-heartedly. She would have time later to examine her strange lack of anger at the boy. For now, she had questions. "What, I can't jus' happen to pop in on my ol' pal Sparks? What if I jus' wanted to bring you some flowers an' check on your ribs, yeah?" She squinted into the dim room, only now noticing the impressive buildup of dust on everything. She moved her toe through the dust beside the only clean path in the room, scribbling her name in the floor. Satisfied with her almost-legible signature, she moved towards the boy and sat down cross-legged in front of Leigo, unclasping her cloak as she did so. She bundled it up and stuffed the cloak in her lap, holding her pin loosely in her hand on top of the cloth. "As it just so happens, I was comin' here to ask you some questions. So, you're a wizard, yeah? Or whatever it is they call you lot. But you got the magic goin' for ya. That was magic, yeah?" She hummed noncommittally, then noticed the state of Leigo's close. "Shyke, Sparks, you change your fits at all since what happened?"

[Leigo]

The girl’s sudden friendliness annoyed him. Certainly he wasn’t as unpleasant around her as he was with many others, but still he remained sure that she was scared of him. When did that change? “I see no flowers” after giving her an awkward moment to take in his words, he’d continue “My ribs have never been better” he wanted to make her gone right then and there for trying to be funny. In another set of circumstances, he might’ve took it well, but not in his room. His privacy was sacred to him and he didn’t want it disturbed without significant reason. All her other words could be summed into a simple reply. “Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?” in a flat tone, Leigo didn’t bother explaining anything further. If she wanted something specific, she would have to ask for it.

[Aehra]

Aehra frowned a bit at his tone. She had hoped that having his ring stolen had put him in a sour mood during their last encounter, and he did seem in a bit of a better attitude now, but it seemed that she had vastly overestimated the effect that the context of their first meeting had on Leigo's countenance. She decided to brush his shortness aside for the moment and barreled on. "Short answer: I dunno. I mean--" She twisted her lips and glanced around the room while she searched for the words she needed. "M'dad, he always said things like magic were good, because m'mother had it, or-- or used it, yeah? An' I always figured it was somethin' tha' was good, because she was good, yeah?" She trailed off as it occurred to her just what her confusion focused on. The boy sitting in front of her now had killed a man, left his body in the streets, and seemed hardly affected by it at all. Aehra's first thought was that no one-- not even this boy who seemed so distant-- could do a thing like that. Of course, that left that magic, however magic worked, had twisted him into a person that could murder without a second thought. That line of thought, though... it was headed nowhere good, fast, and she desperately wanted to believe that it wasn't true. This magic, it felt as though it was the only thing that she could have to connect Aehra with her estranged mother. If magic did that, if it warped a person's very being into something wholly darker, Aehra didn't want to think about what that could mean about herself. Which left the matter of Leigo's own morality at question. "What was so important 'bout that ring, Sparks? You killed a man for it, so it mus' be somethin' special, yeah?" She marveled faintly at her own demeanor, as she realized that, had she still been standing outside the infirmary with him, she never would have asked him these things; she supposed that the imminent threat of being burnt to a crisp might have had something to do with it. Still, she kept in mind how dangerous the boy could be, and she added, "Mus' be mighty important to you."

[Leigo]

She seemed surprised by his reaction. This amused the boy to an extent. Was she really expected them to be best friends by this point? Shaking off the thought, he did like the fact she seemed more daring than before. Her questions were much more specific at this point and he would indulge. She wouldn’t like it in the least, but he would indulge – maybe that would make her go away and possibly grow up. “Magic is a tool. Not just any tool, but one mirroring yourself.” He stopped trying to find the words. “It’s just as wicked as you are, or in your case” he paused to look her in the eye “just as naïve” sighing to vent himself some of the pent up tension, Leigo was content with the answer he provided. He might’ve made an additional comment about her mother but he quickly caught onto the past tense and kept his mouth shut. Her mother was… well whatever she was, she seemed to share one thing with his own – they were both gone now. Leigo knew all too well how make do without a mother, so he shut up. There was no point in hurting her feelings. “The ring belonged to my father.” It was sufficient to him. That one sentence hardly entailed any of his feelings towards the subject, but he found it fitting. Avoiding any more discussion on the matter, he switched the topic. “Of no lesser importance than that pin is to you, I suppose? Why is that?” maybe he didn’t really care, but it was a nice distraction.

[Aehra]

Aehra hummed quietly at his answer, as it was, surprisingly, better than either of the alternatives that she had thought of. His last, light jab didn't even register until he'd stayed quiet for a moment. "Ent a petchin' child, Sparks." She muttered. His next question caught her a little off guard, and she wasn't even certain what he was talking about until she followed his eyes to the pin in her lap. "M'dad, he gave it to me. Said it was lucky." She laughed quietly and rolled her eyes. "S'load o' shyke, mind you, but he always smiled more whenever I had it on me. Jus' never stopped, I s'pose, even after I couldn'a see him smilin'." It wasn't until after she'd spoken that she fully took in his confession about his own ring. Aehra hoped, vaguely, that his father had merely given it to the boy as a present; somehow, she doubted it. He'd murdered a man for the ring, and no matter how cold he may have seemed, she was certain that he wouldn't have done so if the ring had merely been a present. She had more questions, more issues pressing on the tip of her tongue, but she was wary of steering the conversation in a different direction. The boy was tired, true, but he'd already told her more about himself than he seemed willing to on their first meeting, and she wanted to milk the moment for all it was worth. She stayed silent, rubbing her thumb across her pin to strengthen her resolve to hold back her questions.

[Leigo]

Without significant facial reaction to the girl’s words, he took them in, one at a time. “You are a child” he repeated her negligence of the fact “You should be. Everyone should get that chance…” he wasn’t really pitying her, but he understood, more than he would let her grasp anyway. How could she understand, he lived without his parents for seven years now, and for all he could tell that’s how younger than him she was. He took in the part about her father no longer being able to smile as tragic note to her past, but he wouldn’t move in that direction further. Instead he’d get back to the initial conversation, the one that hardly had anything to do with lost parents and sad memories and sappy moments of bonding. He was an Abranox damn it! Not Abanox, not just Leigo…. And certainly not weak; she wouldn’t see him like that, no one would! “Why did you come, really?” much friendlier than before, the blond now felt a clear connection to the girl.

[Aehra]

Aehra scrunched up her nose childishly, well aware that she was only reinforcing his notions. She would have thought that saving his hide (in a manner of speaking) would have swayed him, but she supposed that this was one area that would simply take time to work with. She took a deep breath and pressed her questions into one solid block, hoping to avoid being interrupted. "Where'd you learn that? The magic, I mean. You went to the University, yeah? Tha's where I thought folks went to learn 'bout magic. But it burned your fingers right up, didn't it? I thought I remembered somethin' o' that sort. Is it hard to control then, or is that jus' with fire? Is it only fire? You can help people with it, yeah? I mean, I know that you might not... but, I mean, you could. If you wanted to. That is. How old are you, anyways?" The last was added as she realized that she may have had to spend quite a fair amount of years studying magic before she could help anyone. The thought was a little off-putting, but then she'd never expected it to be an instantaneous project. She took a deep breath to steady herself. She hadn't even realized she had those questions, and yet there they were, hanging in the air after they'd tumbled off of her tongue. Mostly, she'd been fascinated by the first magic user she'd ever met, and couldn't simply leave their first meeting as their last. The thought was nearly unbearable. The questions were sincere, though, and she was glad for them, as she suspected that a request to simply sit in his room and talk would not have been greeted as warmly as she would have liked.

[Leigo]

There she was again, acting like a child. Would she ever learn? Raising his eyebrows at the many questions Aehra had, his smile widened somewhat. So that was it. She wanted him to teach her magic. Laughing just as she finished, he didn’t mean to insult but it might’ve turned like that just as well. He didn’t care enough to amend it. Like all things in life, his help too would need to be asked of him directly if he was to consider it. If she wanted him to teach her magic, he might just do it. One thing was for sure – before this meeting he was certain to refuse something like this. Now however she was much alike to him than he found comfortable. In ways almost like a sibling he never had. “There was a man once… he taught me magic – for a price” leaving the thought half-assed, the boy went to the next question. “I doubt anyone at the University would teach you actual magic. There are certainly theorists and actual magic users, but only study you’d be allowed to have is highly hypothetical” he had Anaya there, but she wasn’t him. And Anaya barely took to showing him a thing or two, let alone give ground to complete strangers. “I got careless and it burned my hand, yes.” he sighed “I held the res too close and ignited it too early… and then I held it for too long as well.” Providing no explanation as to what res was, Leigo continued. Blinking heavily, he took time to consider her next question. “It’s not for everyone, certainly. And everyone has their fair share of control issues at first as well. That’s it though, it’s like a spoiled brat – a few slaps in the right direction and it becomes your best asset” perhaps not the best analogy, but it was the one he had at the moment. “It’s not only fire, but all the elements. And that’s only reimancy…” again if she wanted to know more on particular things, she would have to ask such. “You could help, yes. A thief could help a beggar, doesn’t mean he would. It’s all highly individual when it comes to such practices.” He would help too, probably, but she didn’t have to know that. As for her last question, he replied plainly, seeing no need to refuse the question. “I’ll be twenty-six this winter.” Maybe he should’ve asked for her age as well, but he didn’t care for such things just yet. She was a child to him, who cared just how much younger she was. You didn’t have to tell her anything! A weak protest from the creature that took hold on his bed didn’t stop the boy. She’s trustworthy. Leigo would take no further discussion. You mean she’s much like you? I’ve heard both your family bits… Stop talking, please… Alright, alright – just being observant here! You’re a real piece of work! You’re the one to talk… Realizing he never gave any hint of finality to his words, he spoke again after a prolonged silence. “Why the sudden interest in all those things?” he probably already knew the answer, but perhaps he was wrong.