56th Day of Spring, 516AV - The Traveler's Complex
"Surprised you're finding the time to meet up like this."
"This is important."
"Is it?"
"If y'don't think so, I'll take me coin back..."
Ah, that cut the questions short from Trevin, as both men knew it would. The carter-turned-mage turned over the coins in his hand and then pocketed them, most decisively.
"I'm of the mind it's important."
"Aye, though ya would be."
A rumble passed between the two men, pleasant enough and to the minor surprise of Trevin. Yes, he had become almost... no, comfortable was too generous a term... but he felt he understood Venger. The man wanted to learn, and he'd latched onto a reliable teacher. Their lessons were infrequent thanks to the sellsword's new position, but whenever he found a spare night, invariably he'd be knocking on the carter's door, coin in hand.
With that gorgeous creature unattended in his chamber, no less, Trevin thought with more than a touch of envy. He'd seen Coryn plenty on their journey. Even if she wasn't an Ethaefal, she was a beauty, and this scarred dog in front of him had her every night. Must really value his schooling...
"Ready to begin?"
"Aye," the carter said as he locked the door. "Gonna open a window."
"Gods, feel fuckin' free..."
Konrad felt the blast of fuggy air as soon as the glass-and-wooden barrier was opened. Not a patch on the heat of the day, but still enough to make him wince just barely. He'd seen his share of brutal Summers in Sunberth, and thought he knew what real, naked heat was. Then he arrived in Kenash, and in the space of less than twenty days, the air seemed to thicken like the dregs of a boiling cauldron.
"Barely step outside during the day," he said with a shake of his head. "How does this place survive, with the weather like this all the bloody time?"
"Because there's money to be made," Trevin answered, handing him a sloshing cup and toasting. "Of course."
Aye, true enough.
He drained the cup and it wasn't near cold enough for his liking. He felt the lukewarm liquid drain out of him as sweat almost as soon as it had passed his throat, but forced another cup down anyway. Dehydration, they called it. He'd always thought it was just "dying of thirst", but the apothecaries... they always had their own language for the simple things.
The Sunberthian snorted softly as he felt the merest lick of a breeze through the window. Gods, even that was scorching. Fitting, though, that tonight as Kenash sweltered and waited with languid impatience for some respite, he was learning how to heat things up even more.
"Been practicing?"
"Little bits, here and there."
He sat in his usual seat and almost as soon as his arse had settled, he held out his hand in the pseudo-claw Trevin had advised him to use... and breathed out slowly.
He still had to look at it. Focus on the scar and then breathe. That was the key, he was finding. It centered him. Made sense, on some instinctive level. He remembered Trevin's words nights before - how breathing out was drawing the gas into a ball, breathing in was pulling it back - and found it worked for him.
Trevin nodded with a teacher's approval as the familiar green-black gas snaked from Konrad's fingered and congealed into a ball between them like water running into a pot, forming a tiny planet of rotating res above his palm.
And... back in...
The white shirt made splotchy with sweat expanded with his chest as Konrad's body obeyed his mind, and his res obeyed his will. The ball fell apart like it had been tapped with a hammer, only the pieces fell softly into his palm... and then sunk into them like wreckage beneath the waves. When the final scrap was gone Konrad closed his hand, then turned it over... opened it back up for Trevin to inspect.
Which he did, in comical detail.
"Hmm... looks good." Konrad smirked but Trevin did not. He'd been paid for a service, after all. This was business. "Any pain? From last time?"
"No, y'got me stoppin' in time. Some aches the next mornin', but nuffin' that lasted past lunch."
"Good. You're making progress."
Konrad shrugged and nodded. Always paid to keep people at ease when they were useful to you, he'd found. Of course, fear was his oldest, most reliable method for that, but he'd seen what Trevin was capable of. The humble carter? Pah. An act. A cover. He'd seen the man hurl light and breath flame. Better to compliment, to flatter, as much as it galled him.
A fresh thought crossed his mind; added a touch of warmth and sincerity to the words that followed. He was glad Trevin could not pluck thoughts from the air, as well.
"Good teacher, I guess."
"Was that a compliment from your lips, Venger?"
"Mighta' been."
A snort. Maybe the old boy saw right through him. Maybe not. Either way, two weeks from then, it wouldn't matter. Konrad rolled his head from side to side, neck cracking as he did, weariness of the day shuffled off as he stretched his arms... and raised an eyebrow.
"Next?"
"Same as before, lad," Trevin said, smile widening. "Only this time, yer playing catch, too."
Training Fee-5gm
