69 Ash, 123
The Lysanrin youth inhaled slow and deep, pulling the city into himself through his keen nose. He was alive.
Whether gods were watching out for him or not, two mages were. A friend and a mentor, though they were each both, really. Their roles blended and, of late, both diffused further into more than friends only, teachers only, into something at one boarder and more specific.
The Air had been cold for more than a year without yielding to the heat of Glade or Searing but Rivin was used to cold climes and knew how to bundle to keep himself warm even when he spent his nights atop the highest peaked roofs of the city.
Often he ran them alone, on business either his own or Aurin's, but tonight he was meeting the redheaded Magus. He was not the man's priority, and that was right, but they had a bargain between them, one written onto and carved into his flesh. He was to receive lessons in exchange for labor. Many types of lessons, many types of labor, but all of them willing, from his side. The Magus certainly did not seem to chafe at their arrangement and Rivin was careful not to ask for more than was his due. Tonight he had a new request, a slight loosening of the leash which he had readily placed around his own throat.
He had been training his Traversion only under the watchful copper eyes of his master since he had received it, and had not complained. The new magic was very different from that of Summoning and the guidance had kept him from dangerous mistakes and the panic he sometimes found himself falling into.
Now though, now he wanted to go somewhere he should not. Somewhere he was not welcome, at least. He could get there by subterfuge with Aurin's aid, walk in with a new face, a set of forged, or even legitimate papers, but that was not what Rivin wanted.
He wanted to get inside without permission, to be there in the darkness, to seek what he wished to know with no one the wiser. If he was denied he would wait, it was no reason to break his oaths, but he wanted it. So, he waited, patient, still and silent as the statues he crouched among atop the church to a god he hadn't bothered to learn the name of. Aurin would find him, he always would now.
The Lysanrin youth inhaled slow and deep, pulling the city into himself through his keen nose. He was alive.
Whether gods were watching out for him or not, two mages were. A friend and a mentor, though they were each both, really. Their roles blended and, of late, both diffused further into more than friends only, teachers only, into something at one boarder and more specific.
The Air had been cold for more than a year without yielding to the heat of Glade or Searing but Rivin was used to cold climes and knew how to bundle to keep himself warm even when he spent his nights atop the highest peaked roofs of the city.
Often he ran them alone, on business either his own or Aurin's, but tonight he was meeting the redheaded Magus. He was not the man's priority, and that was right, but they had a bargain between them, one written onto and carved into his flesh. He was to receive lessons in exchange for labor. Many types of lessons, many types of labor, but all of them willing, from his side. The Magus certainly did not seem to chafe at their arrangement and Rivin was careful not to ask for more than was his due. Tonight he had a new request, a slight loosening of the leash which he had readily placed around his own throat.
He had been training his Traversion only under the watchful copper eyes of his master since he had received it, and had not complained. The new magic was very different from that of Summoning and the guidance had kept him from dangerous mistakes and the panic he sometimes found himself falling into.
Now though, now he wanted to go somewhere he should not. Somewhere he was not welcome, at least. He could get there by subterfuge with Aurin's aid, walk in with a new face, a set of forged, or even legitimate papers, but that was not what Rivin wanted.
He wanted to get inside without permission, to be there in the darkness, to seek what he wished to know with no one the wiser. If he was denied he would wait, it was no reason to break his oaths, but he wanted it. So, he waited, patient, still and silent as the statues he crouched among atop the church to a god he hadn't bothered to learn the name of. Aurin would find him, he always would now.
