Spite

Master Anok is waiting for him outside the infirmary when Amais steps out after his conversation with Boaz.

“You spoke for quite a long time with the stranger, what about?”

“Personal business.” Amais replies with a bow of respect to the older master. Anok sneers, a lesser man would have flinched but Amais was too used to the man’s dislike of him. The sneer doesn't faze him like it once would have.

“Does this personal business have a topic?”

“You are free to ask Boaz yourself, he’s quite talkative.” Amais says with a barely concealed smirk. “A former paladin of Edain even.”

Anok glares at the tone, unamused by Amais’ joy. The younger cleric had found something out and refused to share. It irritates him. He lifts a finger towards Amais’ face in warning.

“You will do well to remember whom you owe for your mastery when Gaius deserted you.” Anok says.

“Uncalled for and unprovoked.” Amais replies, losing the good humor he had only moments earlier. “You never let me forget it to the point where I would rather have just not become a master at all.”

“Blasphemy!” Anok hisses under his breath. “It is the greatest-”

“Burden one can receive once granted by you.” Amais says with a tired sigh. “Why do we do this every time? I am running out of responses and I’ve spoken my truth. I am a master now too, I choose to call you master Anok only out of respect.”

Anok curls his hand into a fist ready to land a strike on the younger master cleric. Amais folds his arms, waiting for it to come.

“You will end up just like Gaius, a deserter with no faith!”

“Better him than you.” Amais responds with coldness in his eyes. “I’ve told you not to speak poorly of him within my presence.”

Anok spits, the glop flies out of his mouth ending up a sticky wad on the temple floor. The older man storms away, Amais wonders if he’d taken it too far. He shakes his head. No, Anok from the moment he had met him, hated Gaius.

Amais never knew why and Gaius made no big deal of it but the moment his master went missing Anok reveled in it, making sure everyone knew what he thought of the other man’s disappearance. It was disgusting.

For the longest time, all Amais wanted to do was prove him wrong and now thanks to the mysterious stranger from the tower, he would have a chance to. Amais leans against the stony temple wall with a lightness in his chest.

“I thought I was going mad for the longest time but I was right.” He inhales, a grin breaks out across his face. “I was right, I was right.” He stands straight, heading to his room to think further about his decision to challenge the tower.

What would he take? How would he find it? Thoughts race through Amais’ mind as he climbs the spiral staircase to the upper levels of the tower past the library and back to his room. The sun is already setting by the time he looks out the windows.

He begins to feel the weight of his lack of sleep from the previous night, in his excitement he had neglected himself. Pushing open the door he just about remembered to lock it before collapsing on his bed for the night.

He groans as his body sinks into the mattress of his bed, for a well deserved rest.

Tomorrow he would think about how he’d find the tower, knowing he could ask Boaz where he last saw it.

Did the tower remain stationary? Did it come when called? Was it summonable? As heavy as his eyelids become, Amais continues to think about the heavy subject matter of the tower of wynd.

A tendril of doubt creeps into his mind as he recalls the tale Boaz told about the wolf demon that bit off his arm.

Amais wasn’t a fighter and though he could handle himself would it be enough to battle the demons at the tower? Could he stand to fight something as deadly as the wolf?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I mustn’t think about that now, my only goal is to see Master Gaius again, and I will.” he says to himself stubbornly. Sleep eventually comes and all his thoughts fade to blackness.

Amais wakes to the sound of a cock crowing and a round of banging outside his door. He jumps, nearly falling off the bed in a bid to get to the door. He pulls it open, nearly ripping the wood off its hinges.

“Is somebody dying?!” comes the universal question of a healer.

Standing before him is his junior acolyte, her robes are disheveled as if she’d run a marathon trying to get to him. Her usually pale face burns red and she can barely speak, nearly falling over herself panting from her trip up the long, winding spiral staircase.

“Talien, Talien what is it?” Amais asks, resting a hand on her shoulder.

“Master Anok!.” she says, in a whisper, looking up at him with troubled eyes. Taking a deep breath she blurts it out all at once.

“Master Anok says he went to the grand master about you, he says you’re determined to follow former master Gaius’ path!”

Talien collapses on his bed, while Amais’ eyes widen from the shock of the news. Master Anok had done what?

“Talien, where did you hear this?” Amais asks. Talien sits up, blushing not knowing how to tell her teacher she was spying on someone else when she’d overheard Anok’s furious words.

“Out in the gardens with Master Astra.” she replies, brushing her dark unruly hair out of her face. “He wasn’t exactly subtle in his hatred. Everyone knows he regrets helping you reach mastery.”

“I still wonder why he did it.” Amais says under his breath, he rests his hands on his waist wondering if the older master would actually do as he planned and take the situation to the grand master.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you because of that stupid old man!” Talien says. Amais turns suddenly to admonish her until he sees the look upon her face was one of pure anger.

“He carries on however he likes, insulting everyone and everything and it isn’t fair.”

Amais comes to sit beside her, placing a gentle hand in her curly dark hair. There’s nothing he could say to comfort her. He remembers when he was her age, asking Gaius the same thing about master Anok.

“Master Gaius?” A younger Amais calls from his seat where he sits brewing a salve at the workshop table. His master hmms, making a noise to show he was paying attention.

“It’s just…well master Anok says a lot of horrible things about you. How is he allowed to get away with slandering your good name?”

Gaius looks up at Amais and gives a kind smile to the young acolyte. He ruffles Amais’ dark hair fondly.

“Can I let you in on a little secret.” Gaius asks. Amais nods eagerly, awaiting the information his master wanted to share with him.

“Master Anok is a sad little man who’s been given a bit of power as a master cleric. And much like money, power simply enhances what was already present. He was the same as an acolyte, a bully and now having reached mastery he’s only gotten worse.” Gaius says, Amais gasps, hearing that the man was the exact same way in his youth wasn’t a surprise but hearing his master speak ill of someone else was certainly new.

Gaius was always someone who had a kind word to say about everyone, even the most unruly of acolytes.

“You see master Anok doesn’t have any strong reasons for his beliefs in the holy one and that frustrates him. All his accusations of blasphemy are merely projections. And he knows that I know.”

“Is that why he hates you, hates us?” Amais asks. Gaius shakes his head.

“Truthfully I don’t know why Anok is the way that he is, but he’s useful to the temple and that’s frankly the only reason any of us tolerate him.” Gaius says with a wink. “Maybe when you reach mastery you can give him a piece of that gifted mind of yours.”

Amais smiles, going back to working on his salve. He hoped times like this never ended.

“Some people age with grace, others do not. We do not begrudge broken glass its flaws, even useless things cut once in a while.” Amais tells Talien. The girl laughs at the jab.

“Anok is angry. I spoke my mind yesterday, I regret greatly that he helped me achieve mastery, rather I would have waited for Master Astra or Master Elliot.” Amais says. “He did not like that, he spat at me.”

Talien shoots up from the bed.

“He did what? That sack of sh-”

“Talien!” Amais calls patiently, cutting off the word before it could leave her lips. Tailen quiets, raising a fist to the air and slowly opening her hand in a ritual to let go of her anger.

Just as Amais had taught her.

Amais smiles at her in the same manner Gaius would have once smiled at him.

“Don’t you have further classes with Master Astra?”

“I do.” Talien says. “I should get back to the gardens.”

“Tell Master Astra I would like to see her too, during the evening maybe.” Amais says. Talien nods, leaving out the door.

If he needed to see the grand master about Anok he would. There was finally a chance to go and save Gaius, Amais didn't intend to let it slip away.

Whether or not he would be labeled a deserter just like his own master was. Next would be a meeting with the grand master.

Amais intended to plead his case wisely.