Damien’s training progressed well with Ciaran, he came to understand what he was meant to do, and Ciaran seemed to find him cute. despite all his worries Damien was a much simpler creature compared to Ciaran and disregarded his worries about the duke for his own good. The child’s heart still threatened to break free from it’s shackles each time it saw the name on that picture in the Andreas manor, but he knew not to question them.

Many other things came up that were far more fitting to ask and after accruing a few over the weeks Ciaran was forced to answer them. Damien even as he sat down intent on finally hearing some answers was awestruck at how Ciaran ad forgotten all the questions let his jaw droop. Ciaran ignored the sight and continued

“So, what was it that you wanted to know?”

“Umm… you told me to stop the bullies from bullying anyone else, how would I do that?”

“Tell them to stop”

“What if they don’t stop?”

“Then beat them up some more”

“What if they still won’t listen, I can’t just kill them?”

“Then make them your underlings”

“Wait a minute, how did you come to that conclusion?”

“Well, a subordinate listens and it will actually be better since you can use them to stop other bullies as well!”

Damien sighed at Ciaran’s mirth and joy that radiated from him then he asked another question

“How should I get them to follow me?”

“Beat them up?”

“Why did that sound like you were asking me?”

“I would find out a way, but I don’t have the time to experiment, and I also don’t want…”

“You don’t want what?”

Ciaran’s face dropped, his eyes sending a chill down Damiens spine while his breath seemed to condense as he continued.

“Do not let my brother see anyone fighting, not near school, not near anywhere. I don’t care whether your worst enemy bumps into you, but in front of my brother you best become anything but enemies.”

Silence filled the air and after a while Damien finally built up the courage to speak again with a gulp. Ciaran’s false smile did not help but he pushed through anyway

“W-what does your brother look like?”

Ciaran’s eyes lit up with a radiance far brighter than the morning sun and he answered with glee

“he’s a year younger than you and slightly shorter, he has the same hair as me, similar eyes, he has a squishy face, he is very smart, he shines like his name, his name is Solas, he likes meat, he is rather thin despite his face…”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

When talking about his brother Ciaran didn’t need to take a breath and Damien regretted asking, but only slightly. Content with a much warmer Ciaran Damien decided to ask another question.

“Anything else I should avoid?”

“Getting caught maybe? Although you are stopping bullies the adults probably wouldn’t think the same… you need to find a way to stop them from telling their parents, if you get caught then you won’t be able to beat them up.”

“Last question, could I get your help when fighting the bullies?”

“As long as I am free and you don’t involve Solas, I don’t see why not. I have a condition; however, I get to name your group.”

“Then what’s the name going to be?”

“… I thought asking if I could help was your last question”

“But you just said that me fighting bullies, which somehow turned into a group would be named by you!”

“That sentence made no sense”

“It made perfect sense”

“No, it didn’t”

“Okay it was a little hairy but at this rate you are just wasting time, why won’t you tell me the name!”

“haven’t thought of one yet”

Damien crossed his arms and huffed at Ciaran

“What?”

“You just told me to create a secret group to beat up people, which Doesn’t seem easy, but you can’t even think of a name?”

“The group doesn’t have to be secret; you just have to secretly beat up people”

“Yeah… but making the entire group a secret probably wouldn’t be that much harder, and… it would be cool.”

At eh word cool, Damien activated Ciaran’s mind and he begun an in-depth conversation about secret organisations, meeting places, handshakes, greetings and all manner of information the child didn’t know it knew.

A few days later, on one of Ciaran’s free days, that were becoming increasingly less free he arrived at Mr burtons forge. The burly man was waiting for him, but despite Ciaran’s expectations the room was cold, and a desk was by the furnace. The fact that the desk was wood put an even bigger damper on Ciaran’s mood as he knew that Mr Burton would not risk a fire with him in the room. Ciaran despite his reluctance took a seat without greeting Mr Burton

The man seemed not to acre about Ciaran’s protest and came over, his voice as jolly as ever.

“boy, you like reading right?”

“yeah”

“well good, the only thing I let give me a sore throat is the coal dust… I should talk to your father about getting some better fuel sources I don’t intend to die young.”

“you aren’t young”

Mr Burton pulled a poutyb face but still gave Ciaran the books, there were three in total each as thick as an apple.

“is this all?”

“my goodness no! that isn’t even a hundredth of what I have stockpiled”

“then what exactly are these?”

“It’s what you have been waiting for, putting Aether into shit, ACK I mean putting aether into stuff, stuff I said stuff. That will get you the second level of apprentice smithing.”

Ciaran happily opened the first book but no matter how many pages he turned he didn’t find any words, there was just pattern after pattern after pattern. The second book was much the same and Ciaran didn’t bother opening the third before asking

“What are these, and what does level even mean?”

“Those are Aetheric pathways, or as people smarter than me call circuits. They are the pattern that Aether flows through to get activated, it affects things like power input output and a whole range of things I will teach you later. As for the level thing, do you know of Sildar the Great?”

“Yeah, he is the Emperor that put in place the standard academic system”

“Well, that same man also reformed professions by standardising qualifications and knowledge, although the second half of that is no longer true the first half is. an apprentice level one in any profession is someone who can do the very basics of the trade and is qualified to do them well. A level two can do advanced parts of the job at a basic level, while a level three apprentice is basically halfway there to becoming a journeyman.”

“What does journeyman mean?”

Instead of answering Mr Burton turned around and placed another book on Ciaran’s desk

“Get memorising or you are going to have to do it at home.”

Despite Ciaran’s hopes the book was just more patterns, and Ciaran wondered how he was going to memorise so many squiggly lines. Seeing his doubt and disappointment Mr Burton remembered something and returned once more with a board and some fine powder

“Write out the patterns with the flour, my apologies I forgot a proper board”