Cyrus and Ari were stiller than winter, before Cyrus burst into action along with all the guards. The three guards nearest the petrified Colette readied their short spears and pointed them at the mage, Cyrus drew a short and curved blade that burst into flames as he spoke a Krazhnori word, and the other guards all took various stances of readiness. The wizard chuckled, then waved a hand over the head of the seated lady Laine, a small smile working its way onto his face. After waving his hand over Miss Colette, she vanished. This caused even Ari to leap to his feet, and he drew his small belt-knife while he trembled in fear. Cyrus broke the silence.
“Bring back lady Colette Laine at once, and if she is unharmed I promise to not immolate your torso after separating it from your extremities.” Ari had only heard men talk like this in the distant past, back when he was still living with the irregulars on the sand of his ancestral home. Cyrus’ grip loosened slightly on his sword, and he visibly replaced his earlier rage with a cold calmness. He slowly made to circle the wizard, as the aforementioned mage clapped in excitement before speaking.
“How lovely! It has been years since I’ve had a proper scrap. Let us all see if I have lost my touch in my old age.” He materialized a long staff made of gnarled wood with a large blue crystal embedded in it, and reflected the spears that struck for him with it in a controlled twirl of its haft. Cyrus took a half step forward and swung his sword, launching a small arc of flames in a crescent shape, but the wizard’s staff was back between the two of them. The staff struck the ground, and a small shockwave spread from his person, knocking down everyone and dispelling the flame. By the time Ari was back to his feet, he could tell things were going poorly.
Many of the guards were already unconscious or partially covered in a crystalline substance, and desperately trying to free themselves. Cyrus was being toyed with. The wizard and Cyrus stood floating over the garden, Cyrus held aloft by flaming wings that burst from his boots. The wizard would take a step or leap, and a crystalline platform would appear under his feet keeping him in the air. Cyrus would attack with his sword or flames, and the wizard would easily dispel the fire or easily deflect and occasionally counter the slashes and stabs of the curved blade. Cyrus had a swollen eye and busted lips that had to have appeared in the few moments that Ari lay on the ground, because the young man only saw the mage going for body blows.
Cyrus snarled and started twirling his blade in an elaborate pattern as a large flaming bird began to materialize behind him, but the wizard laughed aloud before speaking. “You think I’m going to give you however much time you need to perform a combat ritual? In the middle of a fight?” As he spoke he would barely adjust his position to perfectly dodge incoming bolts from the crossbows of the guards that were still able to engage the foe. As sweat poured down Cyrus face, he seemed to near the end of the dance he was performing and the large fire bird looked more real. Just when it seemed like Cyrus was about to summon the strange elemental, the elf threw his staff directly at Cyrus' head. He was too focused to dodge the strike and it knocked him unconscious and he fell to the ground in a flaming heap, further ruining the garden.
The mage hopped through the air before he stood just over Ari, and was about to touch him with the staff that he had summoned back to his person, when the backdoor slung open and an angry looking Colette stood fuming. “Uncle Vandron you have absolutely RUINED my garden!” The old man transitioned from looking like a determined battlefield demigod, to sheepish and embarrassed as he reached up and scratched his head. Ari looked dumbstruck as well as the rest of the guards, but some noticed that none of Miss Colette's guards got involved with the battle. Miss Colette walked forward with a pointed finger and started tearing into the elf, and Ari took that moment to go check on Cyrus who was just coming back to consciousness.
As Cyrus was helped to his feet, he also noticed the elf chuckling while Miss Colette yelled at him more and more. Eventually her red and angry face softened, her barbs became more playful than pointed. The two embraced in a close hug, and then the mage pulled a scroll from nowhere. The scroll materialized in his hands as he made a reaching motion then ignited into blue embers as a wave of energy pulsed through the garden, returning the surroundings to how they were before their impromptu scuffle. The plants that were damaged by fire, however, did not return to their former state. None of the combatants were healed either. The guards and Cyrus slowly gathered themselves to hesitantly approach, when Miss Colette noticed the state many of them were in.
“Uncle Vandron, did you have to be so… violent with them?” The man in question looked around before seeming to notice the state many of them were in for the first time. He winced especially hard upon looking at the battered and bleeding Cyrus.
“I suppose an ‘oopsie daisy’ won’t suffice in this situation, will it? That statement got a glare from just about everyone, aside from Cyrus who tried to suppress a smile. Cyrus started to laugh afterwards, and the terrifying elf-wizard joined him- leaving everyone else to stand in shocked awe or anger. The two eventually got control of themselves, and a cleaning effort was made to correct the issues to the garden and home that the magical scroll couldn’t mend. As this was going on, Ari noticed the sheep returning and made his way towards the pastures. Miss Colette hurried to join him, and when she reached his side she asked him a question in a voice just above a whisper.
“Ari, are you okay? I know I should have said something when you said it was an elf. Vandron was supposed to arrive earlier to celebrate my birthday since I hadn’t seen him in a long time. We haven’t spoken since the year Quincy passed and I brought you here, but a few months ago I received a letter from him.” She slowed down her words, as they had begun to increase in both volume and speed as she frantically explained. The lady took a steadying breath before continuing. “Vandron means well. I am not sure why he arrived in such a state, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out he was trying to test your character. He was very curious about you in the letter and was eager to meet you from how he talked about you. He can be..” she paused for a moment “eccentric. He is as old as the first kingdom of Henos, so nearly seven hundred years. And. He can- Well he can get carried away at times.”
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By the time she was done explaining and asking over Ari, they had reached the pasture where sheep had all patiently lined up to be let back in. “Strange how they do that” Colette muttered under her breath, before Ari opened the gate and petted each one as they crossed its threshold. For a few moments, Ari didn’t say anything, he just looked down at the sheep as they walked by him. Miss Colette was starting to lean from side to side, squeezing her hands in anxiety, before Ari noticed she was waiting on him and started to speak his thoughts.
“I am just glad you're okay. You mean a lot to me.” He looked over to her, and she seemed relieved, before he flushed and looked back to the sheep. “You are the only family I have besides the sheep.” He paused for a moment looking for an opportunity to make the situation a bit less tense to calm both of their frayed nerves. “And the sheep aren’t great conversation partners, if I’m being honest.” When he looked back at Miss Colette she was wearing a warm smile, and stepped forward to give him a hug before nodding at him and turning away to get back to the cleaning effort. He watched her go pensively, then sighed heavily and tried to get focused back on the sheep. His thoughts were a mess andt the forefront of them was his embarrassment.
He froze up and didn’t do anything but shake in fear. He envied Cyrus for how he acted valiantly in the defense of Miss Colette. He thought he should have done that. Done anything but tremble and gape. Ari slowly became more angry with himself when he heard the elf speak to him.
“Don’t be disappointed in yourself, when you have performed the best. You did not go willingly to the slaughter, you may admire their bravery but I can only shake my head at their stupidity. Pointless death disgusts me, and believe me, if this was serious then that's all their actions would have amounted to. Pointless death. Slaughter. If it was for anything other than the defense of Little Colette then I would have dressed them down after their beating. Maybe I would have killed them myself if they claimed something as weak as ‘honor’ or ‘valor’ as reasons they fought. At least they all were bright enough to resolve themselves to the fact they would have died by my hand if the fighting wasn’t a fiction”
Realizing he was rambling a bit, Sir Vandron sighed before materializing a strange chair with a curved bottom. The elf finally looked his years as he sat on it lazily and it began to rock him back and forth like a baby’s crib. When the sheep were all finally in the pasture, the older man summoned a normal chair for Ari to sit in. Once he got comfortable, or something that came close to it, Sir Vandron began to speak up again.
“I want to say that the situation out on the hills was a performance, one to test your character and mettle. But it was not. I was looking for my old apprentice, and was ambushed by powerful demonically corrupted beasts. The only anchor for my teleport spell I had handy that wasn’t too valuable to lose, was some dried grass from these hills that Little Colette sent me some years back.” He looked over to the young man and caught his eyes, they both looked at each other intensely for a moment before Ari looked away and stared back at the manor house. He couldn’t make out much of what was said but he could see Cyrus being fussed over by Miss Colette. “I won’t be able to help you learn magic. What Cyrus brought you is older than the arcane schools wizards are taught.”
Ari was caught off-guard by the statement and said his first thoughts accidentally, “Older than your magic? But aren’t you really old already!?” Ari slammed his mouth close after realizing what he said, but the elf just laughed and slapped his knee while he continued to rock in his strange chair. He nodded a few times before answering Ari with a smile.
“Yes I am old. I practice the magecraft of wizardry. It involves learning arcane schools and then specializing in one or two of them to become a true wizard and not an apprentice. We practice magic by memorizing something called a spell formula or ritual. These require certain phrases, hand motions or movements, and occasionally certain materials. We use the ambient magic in our environment to shape into the spell effect we want. A wizard is only limited by how much he can prepare ahead and how many spells and tiers of spells he can memorize or cast from his spellbook.” He then looked down and pointed to Ari.
“You, and similarly Cyrus, will be practicing a form of druidism. What Cyrus uses is a more modern variant, it is called elementalism. He specializes in fire as a primal element, and can call elements of fire to him or use them in battle. It is similar to druids who follow the path of the wildfire, but unlike a true druid Cyrus doesn’t have access to nature as a medium to cast spells or pull magic from. Just the aspects of it that align with fire. He is the druid equivalent of a spellsword, which is just as rare as druids are but magically less potent. What you have the aptitude for, from my understanding, is to embark upon the path of a true druid. To do so however, would require not just whatever bits of lore Cyrus and that foolish boy Quin have gathered but also training from a true master of nature. A real druid, or preferably, an archdruid.”
The man checked to make sure that Ari was able to follow the conversation, and when the young man nodded he continued explaining. “The issue is that what few druid circles remain are far from civilization. They live in the wild places, where cities and towns have never been built and where roads have never been laid. You'll never find one within the borders of Henos, nor in most other countries that have this nations level of control over their territory. The Druidic Knights, which is the proper name for what Cyrus is, are more common in civilization because they are able to form a connection and learn their art more safely and around others. They have a lower barrier to entry, but their path to progress is more difficult than a druid because if their martial skill or elemental control ever surpass the other too greatly the practitioner can be killed by the backlash when using the forms.” He paused, seemingly to consider his topic before he continued. “That may be why he had so little endurance when he began to pull heavily on his element, he clearly has great control of his fire but his blade skills have seemed to fall behind his theoretical understanding and connection with fire.”
“Can you not teach me magic?” Ari asked, already aware that the answer was going to be no.
“Yes I can.” Ari began to smile, but the man shook his head. “But I will not because it wouldn’t be the druidic path and also because you already have a strong connection with nature. In some ways, what we as wizards do to practice magic can be seen as a perversion of nature by druids. You most likely wouldn’t be able to advance along the path to wizardry far, and if you did it would forever prevent you from reclaiming the magic of your heritage.”
“I see.” Ari considered that for a moment before continuing. “Are you able to help me at all?”
“Good question, this I can and will be able to do. Mostly I will be taking you to distant places so you can practice without the risk of destroying the nearby environment or accidentally causing a beast tide. Druidism is not safe to practice for beginners, as you are channeling nature which is far more vast and dangerous than what the mortal body is able to wield with a safe level of control. Without extreme knowledge, practice, and skill that is.” They both sat in silence for a while, before Miss Colette called them both back over ton help instead of ‘lazing about.’