To Teach A Tiro (2)

     Kaelan jerked awake and sat up, knocking the book that he had been reading the previous night off his bed on onto the floor. It landed on the wooden floor with a loud thump that brought him further into the waking world. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and his feet touched the cold floor. He sat there for a moment, rubbing the sleep from his bleary eyes. The young man let out a sigh and was about to lay back when something occurred to him. He was meeting with Larael today, wasn’t he? Yup. He was. Well, he still had time to sleep, right? Yeah…

     Wait a second, he paused, what time is it? Oh crap. He was going to be late meeting up with her at this rate.

      He stood and started scrambling to get ready for the day.

     Kaelan was standing in front of her door, his hand poised to rap on the wood. It hadn’t taken long to find the Pryfektus’ room, but he honestly didn’t know how he’d managed to get here a minute or two before eight. The young man paused for a second before he knocked on the door with the back of his knuckles. Opening it, he stepped over the threshold and into her room, glancing around. The smell of fresh food assaulted his nose and he inwardly smiled. He’d not gotten to eat before coming here, and right now, he was grateful for her thoughtfulness.

     “’Morning,” he said as he closed the door the behind himself. Kaelan then ran a hand through his still damp hair and walked up to the table. He could feel the tiredness in his eyes, and he hoped it didn’t really show.

     Next time, he wasn’t going to be staying up that late to read. The time had just slipped by him last night and before he knew it, it was well past the time he normally went to bed. For now, though, he’d have to deal with his poor decision.

     Larael put the book away and examined him. He could feel her eyes sweep over his wet hair and over his face. He could see it in her eyes, she knew, or at least guessed, that he had accidently slept in. Well great…

     The Pryfektus motioned for him to sit and then sat down herself. Kaelan pulled the chair out slightly and sat, eyeing the food. He wanted nothing more than to pick up the fork dive in, but knowing that it wouldn’t look good on his part, he forced himself to refrain from doing so, clasping his hands in his lap. His attention though, thankfully, was diverted from the food when she said, "Good morning, Kaelan. Did you sleep well?" She then picked up a piece of toast and daintily took a bite from it. Yep, she knew.

     Of course, she just had to ask didn’t she? Well, she already knew the answer so there was really no reason to try to avoid it. He was not about to lie and let her call him out on it. Heaven forbid what she would say! He’d get a tongue-lashing, no doubt about it.

     “It could have been better,” Kaelan responded with a faintly sheepish smile, “but I’m sure you already knew that.”

     She smiled at him, taking another bite from her toast. Kaelan, meanwhile, had picked up his own piece and tore off a portion before he popped it in his mouth and began to chew.

     "Up all night sparring? Practicing magic? Or perhaps in conversation with one of the other Tiros?"

     He nearly choked on the piece of toast as he tried to stop himself from laughing. Ha. Good one, Pryfektus. Good one. Probably most Iduneus and Pryfektus would want their pupils staying up all night practicing their weaponry or magic, and if his mentor had been anyone else, they would have been sorely disappointed.

     Kaelan managed to swallow, coughing into his fist. He then leaned back in the chair, his lips twitching as he tried, and ultimately failed, to hide his smile. The Tiro rubbed the back of his neck and let out a bark of laughter. His hand dropped to his lap as he said, “All of it. Just to show how well at everything I would become in one night. Particularly the conversations.” The sarcasm was hard to miss. “I was reading, actually.”

     He tore off another piece of the toast, and began to chew on it, wondering what she’d say in response. She’d probably ask him what book it had been. Other than that, he had no clue.

     "If you ever want to take a look at anything in there you can just tell me."

     Kaelan smiled back. Her offer was generous, not many people he knew would let him borrow their books; he was definitely going to take her up on that. “Thank you. I’ll have to take a look at what you have later.”

     "Though I expect you to return them, naturally. When you finish your breakfast, we'll begin."

     “Of course.” Kaelan would have returned them anyway. He wasn’t a thief, and they weren’t his in the first place. He’d probably return them in the same condition he borrowed them him. The young man was careful with his books, and he would be just as careful with hers.

      He finished off the toast and started on the rest of the food, eating quickly. Once done, he set down the fork and looked up at her. “So what are we doing today?”

     Kaelan glanced over to the board as she pointed at it with her fork. "Enchanting, mostly. We might do some marksmanship or sword forms, but mostly we'll be going over the basics of rune magic." He nodded.

     Well this would be interesting. Kaelan knew next to nothing about enchanting and the like. Marksmanship he could do, and sword forms not quite so well; swordsmanship wasn’t his forte after all. But enchanting? Nope. But it’d probably come in handy in the future, and when it did, he’d be grateful for it.

     "What do you know of enchanting in general?"

     “Not much. I know you can move things and stuff, but,” he shrugged. “Don’t you have to use a rune to use the others?” And that was limit of his knowledge on the matter. Now it was time to learn about it, and he hoped he'd pick up a lot.

     Had she just sneezed? Larael had raised her hand to face. It definitely looked like she had sneezed. He watched her for a moment before she dropped her hand and said, "Yes. You have to use hook runes to bind other runes together, and you can do a lot more than just move things... and stuff."

     All right, so she was making fun of him. Wait a second… she was trying not to smile. And then it hit him, she’d been laughing earlier! That’s what that had been about. Really? Thanks, Larael. Thanks. Sorry I don’t know anything about this.

     An annoyed look crossed his face but then Kaelan offered her a smile. “You know, I should find someone who’ll teach me stuff, and when they ask what happened to my old mentor, I’ll just say that I killed her with my jokes.” He nodded to himself, “Yeah, that sounds good.”

     "My apologies, Kaelan."

     Kaelan had let his face go flat. Sure, she may be sorry, he wasn’t quite certain about that with her smiling at him, but he did not enjoy being laughed at. She had asked a question, and he had replied truthfully. He knew that he lacked knowledge about the subject, and had been rather nondescript, but he wasn’t here to be laughed at by his lack of knowledge, he was here to learn, and she was supposed to be teaching him.

     Obviously, she had picked up on his indiscreet annoyance and stood, pointing to the board. "We can begin, then. This is the most basic rune: The Hook. It captures the energy of binding and tying things together. That is, it connects other runes, and it can connect objects or materials to each other."

     Kaelan lifted his chin as he listened. So it’s not so much as ‘use this to use that’ but rather, it binds them together. It connects runes in order to make them stronger than they would be by themselves. And different objects too.

     “So it’s not just with other runes then?”

     "The drakonborg's hull, for example, is covered with binding runes facing each other -- These strengthen the hull and make sure it can handle anything we, or the behemoths, can throw at it."

     All right, he gave a small nod to himself, that’s easy enough.