Out on the fields east of Kazar, two very different figure were walking down a partially overgrown path. Originally it had been abandoned, like everything else in Harrak, but then cleared again for trade and marching armies. Now, with witch gates readily available, it fell into disuse once again.

One figure wore a baggy beige robe and a large backpack with a bedroll underneath, ready for a long track through the wilderness. The other wore a red dress and with a side slit almost to the hip and shoes that looked too fancy to last more than 10 minutes on the uneven road.

"Uhm... I have a question," Alliya said, apparently unable to cope with the extended silence since our departure. I had filled her in that we were to travel to a remote village, do some administrative work and then return. "Is it true that you... burned down a village?"

I sharply turned to her. "Who told you that?"

"Uhm...," she gulped, looking like she was considering turning around and running back to the safety of the city, but ultimately decided against it. "Other students, mostly. And they got it from their parents. I think it originates from Enorian ex-nobility."

Clever girl, throwing some nebulous crowd into the fire. I chuckled.

"It's fine, I don't mind talking about it. It's not a secret either." I gathered my thoughts, trying to find the right words to not scare her off.

"There is a bit of history there. You see, women with a mage path without backing tend to be disappeared. They live in a golden cage, intended to produce more mages for the local authority, willingly or not." I took a moment to let my anger simmer down. It wasn't that difficult since it had been a long time ago and ultimately I was content with how it all turned out.

"When I was enticed and then forced to become a glorified sex slave, I didn't take it well. I complained to everyone I could, but in the end, nobody would go against the local lord's wishes for a trouble-maker like me. Well, there was one place, but at the time I was on bad terms with them, so didn't actually ask for sanctuary before it was too late."

Angering Entikku's clergy is a mistake I still regretted. I wasn't wrong, but I understood, over time, that sometimes, being right is not good enough. Alliya was staring at me with wide eyes. Some mix of shock and pity if I were to guess. Reading emotions wasn't my strong suit.

"Anyway, I won't bore you with the details. The short of it is that the security measures to keep my magic suppressed ultimately failed. Instead of escaping, I bade my time and gathered strength. The man who was planned to be the father of my child was a fairly accomplished mage himself, but in the end it didn't save him. He burned, the room burned, the entire estate was engulfed in an inferno."

I looked up into the clear sky. "In hindsight, I could have spared some of my victims. The maid who came cleaning my chambers after the lord was done was just doing her job. It's not like she could have done anything to help me even if she wanted to. At the time I didn't see it that way. She was helping the one who... took me, and I was not in a merciful mood. And so, she burned, together with whoever else resided there the day I left."

Alliya was quiet for a minute. The mood for a fun adventure trekking through the fields and forest was ruined.

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"So, no, I did not burn down the entire village. Just the big, central manor and possibly some adjacent houses." It was intended as a joke to lighten the mood, but Alliya didn't seem to get it. So I changed the topic.

"What else are they gossiping about?" Alliya looked terrified, though I wasn't sure of what exactly. It didn't seem to be me, not entirely. "I promise I won't get angry about wrong or insulting rumors."

"Well... they said that I'm basically your slave now. That you can order me to do whatever you want and I have to obey. That... you will try to influence my path. I read the divine contract and it says my possessions are yours for the duration of the mentorship. The actual terms of the contract are even worse than the gossip about it."

I tilted my head at her, unsure of what to say. "You're right. That's the essence of the contract. Do you regret signing it?"

"The contract says you decide who gets to... what did you call it? Take me? I'm really not comfortable with that."

I saw the poor girl trembling and it slowly dawned on me what she was thinking. And we were suddenly leaving for the wilderness, too.

"Ah, I see. Don't worry about it. I won't be selling you off or have you 'get taken' or anything like that, nor would Entikku stand for it. The contract is for your protection. When some noble makes you an offer you cannot refuse, you will say that you're already beholden to me and that only I can free you from the contract. I promise to lure them away from any manors before setting them on fire."

Looking at Alliya, it seems like I should just give up on joking. "The same applies to your possessions. You're just an academy student that anyone can strong-arm into giving up everything you own. But you don't own anything. Everything you own is mine, so when they take your stuff they don't steal from you, they steal from me. People not smart enough to avoid stealing from a fire sorceress are already ash."

That, at least, seemed to calm her down somewhat.

"And if you're feeling stuck, you're not. If you decide you want to spend your money on a new dress, go for it. You have my permission to spend the money I took possession of through the contract if you think you don't need my protection. If you have a boyfriend you want to do some... taking with, that's fine too, I don't care about that. This is a contingency for when you end up in a situation like I did, where someone gets violent against you or people you care about.

"And finally, if you think that my orders are unreasonable or you just changed your mind in general about this partnership of ours, either now or later, we can mutually annul the contract."

That seemed to finally put Alliya at ease again and we continue our walk.

"The path influence is a little tricky. I can't mentor you without influencing your path. What path you choose is up to you, of course, but what paths are available to you is influenced by my mentoring." I thought for a bit. "I can't even say I don't want to influence you, because I do. What point would there be in mentoring if the outcome is the same with or without it? But at the same time, I didn't pick a path for you to follow regardless of your wishes.

"Some of the paths offered to you for your third step may be influenced directly by my teachings. For example the [Thaumaturge] class exists, which focuses on direct mana manipulation in order to cast magic, instead of learning specific spells. Despite my love for free-casting I did not choose that class and I don't mean for you to become exactly that either. At least not unless your passion for it exceeds mine.

"I believe at your tier it's best to try out many styles until you find one that you're willing to commit to. Regardless of what you pick, it's almost guaranteed to be something I taught or mentioned at some point, so the rumor mongers will feel validated no matter what, but don't let that influence your choice. Rumors are much easier to deal with than a class you no longer want."

For a moment after I said that I felt watched, so I looked around, trying to find whoever it was, but ultimately I was unable to spot anyone. If I didn't know how intuition skills worked I'd have ignored it, but I knew better than that. It was time to plan my escape, before whoever was tailing us would think to strike.

"Now, I don't intend to spend weeks on this road just to get lost, so we'll have to work on your fire resistance."

"What does my fire resistance have to do with our travel time?"

I grinned and summoned a directed flame away from her but close enough for her to reach her hand into.

"Patience, my ground-locked disciple. All will become clear in due time."