The next morning, Theo left his shack an hour before he normally did to meet Sparrow. As he walked, he tried to simultaneously infuse the second step of either Striding Wind or Endless Song. He was still getting used to moving the mana around his body while it wasn’t stationary, and that made Striding Wind difficult to get down. At the very least, Endless Song was something he could just about manage while walking. It took all his focus, but he was getting there.
Theo carefully walked to the Commerce District, and went to The Glass Stopper again. He’d hoped that it was open at this hour, as he still hadn’t gotten Sparrow’s order. Approaching the building, he saw the runes active, and looking through the glass he found Chris inside, bustling about and getting things ready for the day. Theo wondered how exactly Chris paid for the shop. It wasn’t cheap in the Commerce District, and there didn’t seem to be much foot traffic to this area.
Looking inside, he waved to Chris, who was too busy to notice. Shrugging, he approached the glass and waited for it to slide open. While he waited, Theo looked at the bottles on display in the window, and also at the prices displayed on little tags wrapped around each. His eyes bugged out, and he understood how Chris afforded to run this store with very little patronage. The sale of a single bottle would be enough to feed Theo for a year! He felt like he understood why Chris liked alchemy now.
He whistled softly, as the doors started to open. Chris looked up at the noise, spotted him coming in, and waved in his direction.
“Morning! Come to finish last night’s conversation eh? Couldn’t get enough of me!” Chris laughed, and Theo couldn’t help but join in. He entered the store, casually taking a more careful look at all the price tags and labels on the bottles, and confirmed that most of these bottles cost a similar amount (if not more) to the ones on display out front. He was starting to understand why Chris had such strong magical protection on the store, if there were effectively a thousand piles of gold in the shape of bottles just lying around.
“Morning Chris! It was lovely to chat, and expect me to pop around every now and then, but that’s not the reason I’m here right now…” Theo floundered for a second, as he couldn’t think of the best way to phrase this. Chris quirked an eyebrow as Theo trailed off. Eventually, he decided to just say what he needed as clearly as possible.
“I never did pick up Sparrow’s order.” He finished lamely. Chris’ eyes opened wide, as he flushed red.
“Oh.” Chris stuttered, as he eyes searched the floor, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. Theo’s eyes joined him, and he found that in the midday light, the stained glass shadows were different, but still very pretty to look at.
“I did it again.” Chris forced himself to laugh a little, and Theo tried to join in. It worked, and soon they were both genuinely giggling at the situation. Chris straightened up, and tried to compose himself. For a moment, he wasn’t the chatterbox that Theo had talked to, but instead another merchant who carried themselves with the utmost seriousness.
“Sincerest apologies, dear valued customer. It will not happen again.” Chris even bowed as he spoke, and the illusion was soon shattered by his shaking shoulders, and the smile in his voice that started to creep out near the end. And soon they were giggling again, and then laughing because they were giggling, then outright guffawing and doubling over as some passers-by took notice of the two people inside a store just losing it.
Minutes later, after they’d laughed themselves empty and wiped at their eyes, Theo regarded Chris, a matching smile on both their faces. Chris cleared his throat.
“Seriously though, sorry about that. I get so wrapped up in a good conversation that I forget what I was doing. It happens often enough that I should probably hang a sign up reminding myself to get things sorted first, or one that reminds customers to keep me on track.” Chris mused. Theo found himself feeling nonplussed about the situation.
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“That’s okay. I probably should grab Sparrow’s package and be on my way, as much as I’d like to stay here and chat for a few more hours – I’ve got training at noon.” Theo said. Chris nodded, and headed behind the counter to look in pigeonholes and bustle about. After checking half the pigeonholes, he found what he was looking for.
It was a simple wooden box, wrapped with some twine. With both hands, Chris set it down in front of Theo, before extending his right hand.
“Pleasure doing business with you. Come around for a chat anytime.” Theo grasped his hand and shook it, nodding.
“I’ll take you up on that.” Theo grabbed the box, and was surprised by how heavy it was. He had a feeling that if he was to try lifting this before he had started infusing the second step of Striding Wind, that it would have been a struggle to lift it, let alone carry while walking. Striding Wind focused on strengthening the ability to push and pull, but it helped enough with lifting for this to be possible for Theo.
He started to head out the door, before turning back around to face Chris. He was lit by all the bottles, and it must have made for a pretty decent sight. “If you’re ever in the outskirts, come by The Pub. I’m performing there most nights.” Theo smiled, as Chris nodded and waved, and left The Glass Stopper carefully holding the box.
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Theo made it to the College of Song just as the sun hit the top of the sky, and searched around for Sparrow. Normally, Sparrow came to find him, but he usually arrived earlier than today. He didn’t see them, but that was normally the case.
“What do you have there?” Sparrow whispered over his shoulder, and Theo had to suppress the instinct to jump. This wasn’t the first time they had decided to surprise him, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last either. He took a deep breath and turned around, presenting the box to Sparrow.
“Your order from Chris at The Glass Stopper.” Theo said. Sparrow looked at him, eyes slightly wider than normal, cocking their head. Theo would bet that they felt a little surprised, especially given how it took longer than normal for them to reply (and Sparrow was always quick to counter).
“Lovely. Tell me how it went down.” Sparrow requested. So Theo retold how he had went last night after their training, chatted with Chris, and went back this morning to get it again. Sparrow nodded along.
“Good job. That was faster than I expected.” Sparrow said, and Theo’s face slightly scrunched in confusion. Sparrow laughed, like a fork wrapping against a wine glass.
“You didn’t think I sent you JUST to get a package, did you?” Sparrow asked, as his mouth split into a grin.
“I thought this was just some of the muck work that came with being an apprentice.” Theo hesitantly admitted. It did make sense, in his mind. He’d been getting all this training, and assumed this was part of the price of the relationship. Sparrow laughed again, and this time the wine glass was shattering as a hammer went through it. They laughed until they were taking gasping breaths. Theo blushed.
“Theo, Theo, Theo. I –“ Sparrow broke down again, hand over their face. They sat down as they struggled to take in breaths, like a curtain flapping as it was sucked through an open window.
“You’re adorable.” Sparrow stated, and Theo didn’t know that he could blush harder, but he did. Sparrow schooled their expressions, straightened their back, and tried to look stern.
“Kid, like I said, I took you on because I thought it’d be fun. You’re also talented, and that’s going to be interesting to watch to develop. I do not need someone to do my errands.” Sparrow said. A grin crept back onto their face.
“Would you like to guess why I asked you to pick that up for me?” They asked. He thought about it for a second, but Theo’s mind kept going back to errands. He shook his head.
“What did I say about what makes a bard?” Sparrow prodded. Theo wracked his brain to remember.
“A bard isn’t defined by the magic they can use, but by their charm?” He hedged.
“Good enough.” Sparrow said, then paused. It took a moment for Theo to realise that they were waiting for an answer. After a minute of silence (and Theo’s gaze gradually lowering until he was staring at his feet), Sparrow sighed.
“You can’t get everything right on the first go.” The sting of shame that Theo was starting to feel mellowed out at that comment (and Sparrow’s “what can you do?” attitude) as Sparrow continued. “Chris is an incredibly lovely fellow, very chatty and animated. Yes?” Theo nodded.
“Right. He also gets so wrapped up in conversation that he can forget what he was trying to do. So, this was an exercise in staying focused, being polite, and managing to steer a conversation through to get what you want.” Sparrow said. Things started to fall into place for Theo.
“You could have threatened him and cut him off. You could have not engaged at all and just sat there in silence waiting for him to be done. You could have done your research on what I ordered, undone the runes, and snuck in at night to steal it. You could have chatted and while he was distracted, steal it. You could have simple blown up the store and grabbing the box whenever.” Sparrow said, taking a breath.
“Point is, there were a lot of different ways you could have handled my task, none of which would have maintained or created a connection, most of which would have caused collateral damage. All of which I would have qualified as a failure for this exercise.” Sparrow stood up, and looked Theo straight in the eyes.
“This is what it means to be a bard. To understand how simply talking can get you what you want, even when you get used to doing things in other ways. Was this an easy example? Yes. But in future, I want you to understand, to know, to etch into your heart that the way of the bard is talking. Our strongest weapon is our words.” Even though Sparrow was shorter than Theo, they felt much taller in this moment. He nodded, and swallowed.
“Good! Well, I’m glad you handled this assignment so well. I’m going to give you more, so it’s encouraging to see that you have a knack for this.” Sparrow smiled, like they’d thought of a good joke, before tilting their head slightly.
“Now, are you ready for round three of the obstacle courses?”
Theo groaned.