Luck of the Draw (Mila/Thasus)

[Mila]

Mila was back in Taras once again. The borders between Sacae and Etruria have steadily been getting harder to cross. And just like before the sage was home on business. The rest of her adoptive family managed to come together to discuss the terms and conditions of her late grandfather’s will. As expected, the property and facilities of the pub would remain under the control of his oldest son Louie. Louie was already running the place anyway! So essentially nothing changes. Great. I was smuggled home for nothing. Might as well make the most of it. The sage thought to herself as her family dispersed from the meeting room.

The “Pot Luck” inn and pub had served as a hub for her family’s mercenary guild for decades. Her guild’s ancestors bought the property roughly a hundred years ago and have continued to expand it ever since. Originally, the pub was just one building, a simple little inn that had a bar on the ground floor and spare rooms uptop. Now it was a small series of small buildings that served different purposes. The main building was an expanded version of the same pub that they started with. In the property behind that was an empty field. Here, mercenaries from all over could practice their craft in safety. A small shed with a scorched wall was located towards the right of the empty lot. North of the field was a building which served as the worker’s quarters. Near the quarters, was a small farm. The farm had a small collection of chickens, roosters, pigs, goats, and horses in order to help sustain themselves.

Towards the left of the field there was a fenced off area that marked the gardens. Here they grew an assortment of herbs for both cooking and medicinal uses. And hardy vegetables such as squash, potatoes, onions, radishes, and carrots. Though, recently the guild acquired new seeds from Vinland which grew tomatoes. Mila enjoyed the fleshy red fruit slices with a pinch of salt.

Today, the usually bustling pub was surprisingly empty. Makes sense. Mercs are scarce due to tensions with Sacae. The sage sighed softly and pulled up a seat by the fire. She kicked off her boots. Then pulled her feet on another nearby chair and started to read over the contents of her Gaea tome.

[Deleted]

After days of caravan hopping Thasus had finally arrived in the town of Taras, a decently sized castle city home to a well known pub. Thasus had only a little money left after the caravan driver agreed to take him, along with some food and water. He needed to find a job to do, anything would do just something so he can afford a few nights at an inn at least. However the more he thought about it who would ever hire someone as young as him to take on a job? At most he would get some kind of job to fetch someone some fire wood... But now was not the time to worry about this, he needed something to drink after his long travel.

He had heard of some kind of pub around here that was bustling with business which means... There are more than likely people there who need someone to help them with some kind of job! Thasus began running down the streets knocking into people along the way until a sign for the pub came into his view, he stopped and began to head into it ready to greet all of the adventures here, maybe even one would take him on as an apprentice!

...

It was dead in here... Not a soul to be seen besides a lone woman reading some kind of tome. He was about to head out and find some other location in search of a job but as soon as he stepped out he was reminded of how thirsty he was... He stepped back into the pub and walked up to the counter taking a seat along the empty table. He got a mug of cold water and began to chug it satisfying his thirst, as he was sitting at the counter and looked over at the women he began to wonder why she was reading a magic tome. Perhaps a mage of sorts? Maybe she could give me a few pointers...

He got up from the chair and began to walk over to the women "Excuse me, you don't happen to be a mage do you?"

[Mila]

Mila sat there for a bit until she pulled one of her hands away from the book and tried to conjure up some stones. Now since she was indoors she didn’t have a readily available source of earth to move around. So she had to focus hard in order for the pebble like clumps of clay to materialize over her palms. Gaea’s magic was difficult to the sage for a variety of reasons. But she needed to practice using the spell in all it’s forms in order to eventually master it. She glanced up from her tome to see a small group of folk enter the tavern. Well at least business is picking up. The folks scattered around their own little corners of the pub. Then she went back to her reading. This time she tried to assemble the little floating pebbled into shapes whilst they were still floating over her hand. She managed to do simple shapes at first. A square, a triangle, a diamond.. but just as she was about to make the pebbles into a five pointed star she was interrupted. And suddenly the little pebbles dispersed into dust and faded away.

She glanced up at the figure who had spoken out to her. A young man with short brown hair. Mila’s first instinct was to get up and ruffle the kid’s head but she didn’t. Mila maintained her composure and spoke casually.

“Yeppers. I’m a mage. Or rather I’m a sage.” She spied a glare coming from one of her uncles at the bar. Why are you glaring? Oh.. I guess I'm supposed to be working. Thanks for the memo. Mila cleared her throat a bit.

“Welcome to the Pot Luck pub young man. How can I help you?”

[Deleted]

Thasus' eyes lit up in excitement to hear that he was in the presence of a sage, other than his parents he has never met another sage. Perhaps he could get this sage to teach him a few things... "Great!" He pulled out his Trinity tome and showed it off to the sage. "I'm a mage to! Would it be possible for you to maybe give a pupil like me some pointers?" He was visibly shaking with excitement and could barely contain the smile on his face. He also assumed with training from someone as powerful as a sage he would be able to get to mage level in no time and take on jobs as a mercenary!

Without even waiting for an answer Thasus had opened up his tome and pulled up a chair next to the sage. "The name's Thasus, nice to meet you." He opened a small brown bag containing some of his belongings, it was ripped and torn with some of his belongings falling out, he reached inside and brought out a small yellow coin purse. He dumped the belongings onto the table with a loud cling He began sorting out several coins into a large pile pushing it towards the sage.

"This is uh... all i've got left... but if I can study under you or uh... maybe get a tutoring session or anything to help me master magic I could really use it, I doubt anyone would be willing to hire a young pupil for some dangerous job..."

[Mila]

Mila couldn’t help but smile at the boy’s excitement. It was rare for her to see such optimism. Mila pulled her feet down from her foot chair and sat properly. Before she had time to greet the young man by name the brown haired lad had spilled all of the contents from his coin purse out onto the table. But Mila wasn’t interested in his money.

“It’s nice to meet you Thasus. My name is Mila. While I’m honored by your gift of coins. I do not need them. You can shove them back into your coin purse. I will however ask for your other bag.” Mila grabbed her own bag she had hanging on the chair and pulled out a needle and thread.

“I’ll patch up the holes. You can tell me a little bit about yourself in the mean time. A little background info will help me plan out what sort of lesson to give you.” She spoke while she was busy threading the thread into the needle slot. It took a few tries but eventually the sage got it. She pulled on one end of the thread until it came up onto the end of itself and tied the ends into a knot.

“I can understand your enthusiasm.. but you do not have to go on dangerous jobs. You can earn gold and experiences by doing.. less dangerous things. You are able to read and write.. That’s a talent most folk don’t have. And you’d be surprised how many folk love to have an instant fire starter.” The sage pinned the needle onto her sleeve for a moment.

“Mastery of Magic does not happen overnight. Heck, even I’m still learning how to do things.” She closed her tome and held it up. She then put it away in her bag so it wouldn’t get lost among Thasus’s other things.

[Deleted]

Thasus had calmed himself down for the moment and looked to the ground in shame, "Well, I hail from Delfia, my parents are sages from the magic academy there. Before I can even remember they shoved magic into my face without ever even asking if it's what I wanted..." He then looked up at Mila in shock. "But I do! I do want to learn magic! But uh.. let's just say the first time I ever attempted magic a uh... house caught on fire, and my parents sent me away in shame... that's kinda how I ended up here." Thasus then handed Mila his bag and sunk back into the chair. "All I want is to become an amazing mage, that'll show them..." He regained his focus and returned his attention to Mila.

"It's a bit difficult for me to control magic at the moment... Thasus said as he reached for his tome and slid it back into a small leather holder attached to his side. Perhaps Mila might actually be the one to help him, or she'll just turn him away after seeing his poor affinity to magic, maybe his parent's were right and he'll never be a strong mage. 'I wonder if it's to late to begin training with a sword...' Thasus was lost in thought again and began to sway away from the attention of the conversation. 'Oh maybe being an archer would be cool, or even a barbarian I heard those were in high demand from nearby mercenaries...'

[Mila]

Mila casually grabbed the bag and began to sew the holes together. She appeared to be focused on the relatively simple task, but she was paying close attention to Thasus’ speech. There was a soft smirk on her face at the mention of a house fire. It seems that new mages accidentally setting large things on fire was a common phenomenon. Mila’s mind went through a bit of an extensive mental checklist of things she had set on fire. The library.. the barn.. Duma..almost.. though that was his fault.. kinda.. But then there was a bit of a frown on her face at the mention of Thasus parents. Mila was fully aware of the strictness of magical academies. And from what it sounded like it seems that Thasus parents were perfectionists.

“Ah. I understand. Delfita isn't exactly an easy place to live in. I'm sorry your parents weren't… So.. uhm.. cooperative of your mistake.”

Mila finished sewing up the holes and handed the bag back to Thasus.

“I imagine that you must have been under intense pressure that day.” She put away the needle.

“So you goofed a bit? That's nothing to be ashamed of. As if, your parents didn't flub up in their early days. I mean how are you expected to learn without making mistakes?” At this point Mila got up out of her chair. Her bare feet felt the wooden floor. Oh yeah. I took them off.

“Alright. I think I've got a plan. But first I gotta see what you can do. Follow me to the training yard.” She grabbed her boots off the floor and hastily put them back on. Then motioned for Thasus to follow her.

[Deleted]

Thasus was still lost in thought not paying Mila much mind until she motioned for him to follow her, he looked up in shock for a second and then grabbed his bag and began to follow her to the unknown destination. As he followed Mia he found it quite strange that she is so willing to help him, living his whole life in an uncaring world this was such a rare experience for him and he didn't quite know what to make of it. "So Mia..." He looked away once again from her. why are you helping me anyway? I'm sure you have a million better things to do than worry about me, or if this is some kind of trap to use me as a ransom to get gold from my parents don't bother I doubt they'll come running any time soon."

He had maybe sounded a bit too dramatic, of course his parents loved him just... they show they're love in an interesting kind of way, he knew that they would gladly welcome their son back just not in his current state... But none the less Mila was, hopefully, going to help him become a better mage; for what reason she is doing this is still unknown to him but perhaps she'll reveal her true colors in time. Or perhaps Thasus' eyes are about to be opened to a world full of not just lies, deceit, murder, and pain. But a world that is willing to help the weak and can care.

[Mila]

Mila grabbed her bag off the chair, then casually led Thasus out towards the training grounds. The training grounds were pretty much just a large open space. The supply shed was off to one end of the grounds. When Thasus spoke about kidnapping and ransom Mila turned around and flicked her finger on Thasus's forehead.

“You need to stop being so negative. And stop being so hung up about the past! You can’t change what’s already happened so all you can do is focus on the future. You want to learn how to be a better mage.. then you need to stop being hung up on every little mistake.” She kept walking until both of them were in the middle of the training grounds.

“No one is born perfect. And if your folks can’t understand that.. well then that’s their problem. No matter what path you choose to take in life.. You are bound to make mistakes. The important part is that you learn from those mistakes and never give up.” She grabbed her Gaea tome.

“I’m helping you because you asked me to. There is no shame in asking for help. Especially since you are.. like.. on your own. I know how hard that is. I hope that isn’t a problem.”

Mila flipped open the page of her tome and set it down on the grass. Slowly, she started to channel the spirits of the earth and bend them to her will. Carefully, she turned her hands upwards so that the palms faced the sky. And a small mound of dirt raised up from the earth, in front of her. She then appeared to push the mound of dirt outwards until it was about three feet away from her. Mila let out a bit of a sigh, she lowered her hands and focused. She had a mental image of what she wanted the clod of earth to do. The hard part was actually getting the earth to move the way she wanted.

She quickly raised her arm up and a human sized pillar emerged from the clod of earth. She carefully put her arm down, then raised her hands up towards her chest and moved them towards her side. The pillar of earth responded by jutting out two smaller pillars of earth. The whole thing looked like a misshapen human sized letter t. Mila carefully shaped the top of the t with a bit more earth. Until, it looked like a t but with a ball for a head. She then willed the soft dirt to harden until it was firm enough to retain it’s shape with out the sage needing to put more magic into it. Once, she was satisfied with the firmness she stopped casting and let out a large sigh. Earth.. magic.. is always so heavy and draining.

“Ok.. that.. did.. not come out anywhere near as human shaped as I wanted. I.. clearly need to work on the finer points of this new tome. But anyway.. we have a test dummy! And he’s renewable so we can both smack him with magic as much as we want.” She smiled softly at her handy work.

“So.. what we are going to do is take a few more paces back.. and I want you to hit our dummy with a spell. You can choose which ever of the three elements out of trinity you feel most comfortable with. I want to see how you cast. And remember I’m not your folks... so no pressure!” Her voice seemed to sound genuinely happy.

[Deleted]

Right... he thought, Mila was right, I need to stop focusing on the past and work towards a better future. As Mila prepared the training dummy Thasus was again captivated by her manipulation of the earth. It wasn't the most profound and perfect use of earth magic but it was still ten times better then what he could do. As Mila told him to prepare to fight the dummy and choose which type of magic to use he nodded his head and took several steps back.

He pulled out his tome and opened up the pages turning to a page focused on the ability of wind, he read over several lines saying how to perform said magic and took his stance. This was it... he could do it, he felt the magic tingling over his hands and to his finger tips, at the last second he flung the pent up magic towards the dummy. The wind came shooting out in the shape of a small blade just as planned however... the blade had completely missed the dummy and went flying towards the open field dissipating after a second or two. Thasus let out a small sigh and then turned towards a chapter on lightning.

He set his tome on the ground and began to prepare for his lightning incantation, again, he felt the magic welling up in his hands and fingers and cast his spell, a small bolt of lightning came racing from the sky striking the dummy leaving a visible charred marking, any other mage would have easily destroyed the rock with lightning but this was still an extremely large improvement!

Thasus had a huge smile on his face and began jumping from the ground tome in hand, "I did it! I hit the dummy! I used magic and nothing caught on fire!" He settled down again and looked at Mila waiting for her response.

[Mila]

Mila watched as Thasus started to cast his magic. And for the most part she didn't see anything wrong with the boy’s form or ability. She noticed that the wind spell missed but that wasn’t an issue for right now. The boy’s thunder spell did hit it's Mark, which was good. But not overly powerful. It was proportionate to the young pupil’s lack of experience. Both power and accuracy can be improved upon in time with practice. There was a smile on her face. Ok. This is a wonderful first step.

“Very good! See you can do it.” Good. Hopefully this gives him a bit more confidence and shakes him out of his slump. The world is too dangerous for you to be distracted by sad emotions. She took a deep breath in then let it out. The sage was a bit winded from making the training dummy.

“Alright then. Now I just need to see how you do with regular fire.” Mila spoke in a calm voice. She wanted to see him cast magic while he was still happy. The sage had a feeling that the reason he failed to impress his family was due to the emotions he felt that specific day. Spells react to the casters in several different ways. Sometimes, when a spellcaster was really emotional be they good or bad emotions it affects the outcome of the spell. For basic spells these outcomes are usually minimal. Mila recalled one incident where she was uncomposed and her basic fire ball turned into a whip of fire before it fizzled out. That.. nearly cost me.. And the rest of the mages a library.

[Deleted]

Thasus was proud that Mila was happy with his spell, this was the first time he felt like a magic user and now, he was one step closer to finally becoming a true mage! That is until.... Mila had wanted him to cast a fire spell. To a normal mage they would be willing to try to and cast their fire spell but Thasus was still filled with fear from his prior experience with fire magic...

He had set down his book on the ground and turned to face Mila with fear in his eyes, No.. I can do it, this will be easy just cast the spell and you'll be fine, nothing around her can burn anyway... He opened to the page on fire spells and began channeling the energy into his palms once again, but fear was still taking hold of him and once he began to cast the spell nothing came out, but the magical energy was still building up. He began to panic and wave his arms around to do anything to get rid of the magic energy; eventually it became to much for his young body to hold and the energy exploded all around him, all that could be seen was pops of fire and smoke around the young pupil.

After a few seconds of the explosion the smoke cleared and Thasus was on the ground charred and barely breathing, he tried standing up but each attempt had him falling to the ground again in pain.

[Mila]

Thasus had turned to look at Mila for a bit. The sage wasn't sure why he did that. But she gave him a soft smile and gingerly waved her hand towards him.

"Go on. Remember this is just practice. You can do this." Hopefully these words of encouragement would give the boy some more confidence in his abilities. But as the pupil started to channel his magic Mila felt something strange. The sage wasn't great at sensing the magical spirits when it applied to others. Sure she had some talent for it. She had enough of it to pass the her academy's classes about it. But it wasn't as refined as it should be. So when she felt this presence coming off from Thasus, she knew something was wrong. But before she could react to the situation the boy was suddenly covered in embers and then a minor explosion happened. Oh crap.

Mila pulled her heal staff out of it's holster and rushed out towards the boy. She knew what had just happened. Aw man. The kid held it in for too long. She got down onto her knees and held the staff over Thasus' body. She closed her eyes for a moment and suddenly the glossy blue bulb at the end of the staff started to glow with a faint white light. This warm white light would heal any wounds the young pupil sustained. She then set the staff aside and helped him sit up.

"Thasus.. hey can you hear me alright? Just.. focus on breathing steady for me alright? Take it easy.. Relax.."

[Deleted]

The world was slowly coming back into view as the first thing he felt was a cool breeze wash over him and the pain soon went away, he awoke slowly seeing Mila above him. "Mil-" COUGH COUGH "Ugh... Mila,thanks for the help. Sorry about that..." He slowly rose to his feet shakily at first but soon found his ground and was stable again. Well that could have gone better... He looked down at his hands and let out a small sigh. "I still have a long way to go before i'm ever gonna be a good mage huh?" He looked over at Mila as he spoke and then turned to grab his tome, now slightly charred and sitting on the ground. He wiped it off and opened up to the chapter on fire.

"This is gonna seem like a really bad idea... but i'm gonna give this one more go." He gave a small assuring smile to Mila and began to channel the magic as usual, as soon as the tingling became too much for him to bare he turned towards the dummy and clapped his hands together as hard as he could, a small ball of fire formed above him and shot towards the dummy hitting it leaving a small charred spot.

Thasus turned towards Mila again, "The reason I messed that up is well... I was afraid; afraid of the magic that cast me away from my home and was scared to even attempt to use it again. But... like you said Mila, I have to let go of the past... including my fears." He made a small endearing smile towards Mila, at that moment though his stomach let out a very audible ~growl~ he blushed slightly and chuckled a bit, "Could we go get something to eat by chance?"

[Mila]

Mila was relieved to see that Thasus was conscious. She slowly helped him up. As he started talking she began examining him. Thasus seemed to be fine just a bit charred.

“The road to mastery isn’t easy.” She got up and dusted herself off. Good.. thank the gods he’s ok. She was a bit shocked to hear that he wanted to give it another go. While she appreciated his enthusiasm, the sage was concerned. Thasus had just gone through a minor explosion.

“You really shouldn’t..” But before she could stop him he was already building up to cast his spell. This time he was successful. She breathed an audible sigh or relief.

“Well.. I’m glad you are alright.” She bit her lip. Mila knew how hard it was to get over past failures. She knew how trauma and fear could affect a person. Her mind briefly flashed a memory of the cave in, a slight shiver went up her spine. The accident in Nabata left her mentally scarred. And as a result she could no longer function in storms and could not stand being in cramped spaces. While these did not impede her magic and casting it did bother her during her travels. She breathed in deeply for a bit and banished the memory. Focus on the here and now.

“Right. Food. Unfortunately, you have to pay for that. Don’t worry the prices are reasonable. Uhm.. I believe today’s specials are vegetable stew.. for our more pious guests. And roast ham with a roll. We can talk… during lunch. I.. think.. I have a means to help you over come your fear. But.. I want you to rest first before we do anything else regarding fire.”