21st Day of Summer in the 514th Year After the Valterrain
“What are you doing wandering about up here?” The words cut through the musky old hallway behind him. Pandaemus winced, for he knew to whom that voice belonged. Cid. The wizard gadgeteer of Lab 15, and the man in whose hands Pan’s future dwelt. He turned around to face the old pulser, searching his mind for an excuse.
The truth was that he had been thinking of placing an order for some special parts in the Synchrograph Office for a… extracurricular experiment, but had been denied because he was merely an apprentice.
Cid’s apprentice.
The thought process brought him back to reality, a reality with a flustered old man walking towards him with the kind of purposeful stride that could only mean his bad day was about to get a little worse. The old pulser should just drink the ichor and become undead. Pan didn’t know why he clung to that old saggy mortal prison of his… Oh wait, of course he did. Cid was alive and could feel and breath and eat and sleep. Pandaemus’ frown deepened.
“I was putting an order in for suppl-“ Pan began, straightening and clasping his hands behind his back. In his experience Cid was much more amiable if one showed blatant signs of deference. Maybe the wizard was just looking to speak to him, and didn’t have anything specific he was angry about.
“I came to your desk two hours ago and you were not there, then when I just came back again you were still gone!” Cid exclaimed when he finally closed the distance between them. It was phrased as a complaint, but it took Pandaemus a moment to realize what it was. Pulsers and their lack of appreciation for patience. The apprentice gave himself a mental rebuff, this was his superior. Cid could quite literally end Pan if he wanted to, pulser or no. Pan had to respect the man, he did not want to die. Well, he didn’t want to become more dead than his present state of near dead.
“Forgive me Cid, but I was trying to put through some of those…orders that were given to me.” Pan said shiftily. Hopefully the wizard simply accepted this as truth. Pan felt that ever since his venture to Cavern eleven a few days before Cid had shown more of an interest in him specifically. Sure enough Cid proved his intuition correct when he next spoke.
“I have a special job for you that has been sitting, collecting dust while you have been off wandering around up here.” The wizard gestured to the area they were in, part of the Citadel that was above ground. Pandaemus had a sneaking feeling that Cid saw anything above ground as ‘not the real work area’.
“Forgive me, let’s return and you can direct me to my work.” The Nuit bowed slightly with her words, once again hoping to avoid Cid’s wrath. All in all, the apprentices in Lab 15 were not as harassed as those of other areas of the Citadel. Pandaemus wanted to keep it that way, at least for himself.
Cid nodded in agreement and lead the way back down into the deepest depths of the Citadel, his eyes bright with an eagerness but hidden under the folds of skin that came with age in a face like his. The wizard’s bushy beard sawed in front of him as he walked.
.
