Neumann laughs, his voice trailing off when Maury drops her eyes and bows her head. His eyes grow wider still when the man in question speaks up again.
"I can't take the credit for saving anyone," he says, a laugh evident in his voice. "I admit that I was a little irritated and acted before checking where all the children were. I would not have forgiven myself if one of them were hurt. It was your shields that protected them from me. I would like to talk to you about those-"
"No need!" Maury interrupts, her face flushing when she realizes she just interrupted a DRAGON. "It was just a little spell I picked up in school. I'm glad it worked and the kids are safe, but we should get going."
She stands up too quickly and nearly falls over again, stopping before she can hit the ground by the hooded figure that is suddenly there with one arm wrapped around her.
"You need to sit for a little more," he murmurs, the laugh no longer just hinted at. "That was no spell, and you know it. Very few can directly shape magic in that way, not now or in the past. And never anyone who was not a dragon or a high elf. I am also betting that the wild magic I sensed earlier might have something to do with you. How have I not heard of you?"
"Please," she whispers as he lowers her back to the ground and crouches beside her. "Can you just forget you saw that? I usually have very good control and you won't hear of me again..."
He laughs louder, a booming sound that resonates deep in her chest. "Once rain falls, it can't be taken back up into the clouds," he says once he calms down. "I don't know how you have managed to hide something like this, but the few others like us will have sensed it as well. You will need to come with me for training."
"No," she raises her hands between them, palms out. "I just want to finish some quests and pay off all my fees so I can graduate school and then go work in a little library somewhere!"
"You are in school, and nobody ever noticed the magic gathered around you? What idiot school do you go to? No, it doesn't matter. Now that you have been discovered," he chuckles as though it is a wonder she had ever been able to hide it, "It is my duty to train you. I will pay off your fees and talk to your headmaster, and you will graduate early -"
"No!" She shouts the word and then quickly apologizes. "I want to finish school. I have an experiment running while I am gone, and I -"
"Don't want anyone to know you have this kind of magic," the dragon finishes for her. He sighs, and the smell of campfires washes over her. "You have no choice about this training, little celestim. I am bound to do so now that I have discovered you. But I will make you a deal. You can't quest anymore until you have trained with me. It is too dangerous. I am assuming that is why you are doing so, to pay off your fees. I will pay them, and you will return to your school. You will finish your schooling as you were already doing, for what, one more month? And then you will come to me and we will begin your real training."
"But...I..." Maury looks over at Neumann, the only piece of normal in the clearing. If a human she sucked through a mirror between universes and then turned into a slime could be normal.
"Your slime can come with you as well. I am quite eager to find out how you made it so that a slime could talk..."
Everyone, children, slime, dragon, seems to lean forward, waiting for her response. There really is only one response she can give. She nods, grumbling under her breath as she does so, ignoring the smirk she thinks she can see from the shadows of the hood.
"Fine. But I have to go turn in this quest." She raises her hand to stall any arguments. "If I don't turn it in, I can never ever quest again, and I want to be able to live a normal life after everything with you is done. I am guessing that the last two carrots I was looking for are officially ungatherable since you turned those humans into charcoal."
She pulls out her quest slip, which now has a happy looking face etched next to the Completed tag. "Yep, you destroyed every last bit of the final two, so I can go and turn this in."
"And then you will go immediately back to your school. I will come and gather you upon your graduation."
"Rotten turnips, you will not!" She exclaims, then grimaces a wordless apology. "I'm not having a dragon show up on my last day and whisk me off. We can meet somewhere a week after school is over."
The two negotiate back and forth (let's be honest, as with every conversation Maury ever has, they are bickering) for a few minutes, before settling on a date, time, and location they will meet up. The dragon gives her a small pouch he produces from thin air with gold coins in it for her fees and a small blue crystal on a silver chain to communicate with him. She pretends she doesn't know it is also to keep track of her. It is pretty, no matter the reason. Then he gathers up the children and opens a portal, ushering them through with one final nod and a backward glance.
Alone again, except for the slime staring at her with eyes nearly the size of his entire body, Maury groans and stands up, slinging her pack across her back again. She heads out the way they came in, pausing after a few steps to look back.
"Are you coming, Newfangled?"
"Oh for -" he bounces over to her, landing on the usual shoulder with the propeller on his hat spinning. "You know my name, you said my name. Why are you doing that?"
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"I don't know what you are talking about," she says, hiding the small smile that wants to come out. Maury pauses when they leave the woods, looking around with a sigh. "I don't know how to get back except retracing our steps."
"Can't you do one of those portal things like that dragon guy did? That would be quicker."
"Nope," she responds, heading over the hill and across the field, angling so they will go up the slope that leads to the cliff top instead of walking along the beach. "I didn't take Portal Magic last year. We walk, or I walk and carry your slimy rear end."
They walk a few feet away from the cliff's edge, splitting attention between the fantastic view out over the water and looking around for any danger that might be lurking. When she sees a road that seems to be heading in the right direction, she walks farther inland to get to it. Not stumbling through undergrowth following a carrot thief, they should be able to get back to Southill by lunchtime the next day. Her hand reaches up touch the dowsing bone, but she touches only the pretty blue gemstone. "Wait, where..."
"I took your little bone with me," a voice comes to her, smooth like ice cream as it tickles her brain. " I have never seen runes like it before. I hope you don't mind."
"Are you just going to speak in my head whenever you want? What if I am thinking really gross things like about farting or something, will you just read my thoughts? I don't even know what to call you." She ignores the strange look from Neumann and marches onward.
"You touched the crystal and thought of me. I thought you were calling. And I am Tyrus, although I have not had many who have called me such. Where did you learn these runes?"
"I made them up."
A delighted laugh fills her mind. "You have created never before seen runes and for what? To chase down carrots? And that weapon you used turned the human into a turnip. I know there are no runes that can do that, and I did not hear you speak an incantation."
"Maybe I whispered it," she didn't try to keep the snark from her voice.
"I have very good hearing."
She scowls at the somehow audible smirk. She hates smirks unless she is the one doing them. They are so negative and 'I am better than you'.
"You will explain to me how you made these when you come to me in one month," he continues, luckily not being able to read her thoughts after all.
"Fine, fine, go away now."
The itch at the front of her brain disappears, and she is left alone with her thoughts once more.
"Are you talking to that dragon?" Neumann whispers.
Maury laughs, part exhaustion and part anxiety. "He can't hear you. You don't need to whisper. And apparently, I called him when I touched the necklace and thought about him. I need to make sure I don't do that again. But he's gone now."
"So..." Neumann pauses, incredibly still on her shoulder. "How did you do that, back there when you protected the kids. I thought you weren't very good at magic."
"I'm not," she answers honestly. "Magic takes focus to shape it. I have to keep part of my mind always on controlling the wild magic around me so I don't concentrate so great on spells, and they go kerplooie a lot. I only went to school so I could learn to control and hide it well enough to be able to get a job later on. A librarian can't just explode books every time they sneeze."
"You want to be a librarian? Why not adventure more? I've mostly seen you laying around doing nothing when you aren't working on runes. "
"Because I like books? They don't usually talk back. Except that one, I had to set it on fire to get it to shut up. And adventures are dumb and tiring. I can't study magic at school because I would have to loosen my control and I don't know how to do it halfway. I guess runes and engineering and stuff are easier because I'm not actually doing the magic. I'm glad Pixiesnort told me about Rune Carving. It's a good skill to have, it would seem. But doing too much casting and direct magic means I'm not controlling it all as well, and I don't want to deal with all that."
"Why not? I would think most people would be ecstatic to have so much magic. Doesn't that mean you are super powerful?"
"I don't want to talk about it right now."
They continue on through the afternoon, stopping when the sun begins to set to find a camping spot near the road and start a fire. Once they are settled around the flames, enjoying the last of her meager rations, she continues speaking as though they hadn't stopped.
"If you have a lot of ability, you have to be a hero. Even in school, you see it. The best students, with the strongest control of magic, are sent out to deal with problems or lead groups. And those are just regular people who happen to have a better than average grasp of magical concepts. What if someone who could control it without the need for all the rules and whatever shows up? I would never be able to rest, always out stopping this incursion or helping with that natural disaster or fighting some big bad. I don't want to do any of that, and I don't think it's right that they can make me just because I have a different magic. "
"Hmmm. Then why did you agree to be that dragon's student?"
"He was right," she mumbled, staring into the flames. "I lost control, and anyone with strong magical affinity felt it. So either I accept being his student or someone will come alone and try to use me for my magic or kill me because I'm a threat. I shouldn't have left the school. I just want to sleep."
And so she does, falling asleep shortly after her words are spoken even though Neumann is speaking to her from next to her head. In the morning, she is back to her snappish self, eager to pretend that nothing at all odd has happened, even if it is just for another month.
Old Lady Spencer greets them with an enormous smile when they walk into her garden the next afternoon and hand her the ten carrots they were able to gather. She nods and tells them everything is fine, ushering them inside and feeding them a much heartier lunch than the nothing they had for breakfast that morning. When they leave, Maury's pockets are barely any heavier with the 50 copper they receive for finishing the quest, plus the 50 copper tip because the senior celestim felt bad that they had to go through all that trouble.
"That's it?" Neumann asks as they walk south on the road, heading back to the school. "All that, and you get a couple of copper coins? There should be a bonus for all the trouble we went through! We should go back and bite her until she gives us more."
Maury chuckles, a rare sound and much lighter than others might imagine. It isn't exactly like the singing of birds, but it is pleasant none the less. "She gave what she had and what we agreed on. And at least now I know to read every quest very carefully in the future. If I ever lose my mind and go quest again."
The two unlikely companions, not quite friends yet, chatter as they walk down the wide empty road toward the towering spires in the distance. They still have another month before graduation, but with very few students in the top level of the dormitory, it should be quiet. Maury even finds herself looking forward to Pixiesnort's cheerful greetings each day. She will never admit that to anyone she isn't about to turn into a vegetable, though. There should be lots of sleeping and practicing runes and eating, and of course, there will be the tweaking of the mirror as she promised Neumann she would do. Other than that, though, it should be an easy month.
After graduation, though? Well, that's a whole other story...