by Megan Derr
Asa let himself into the apartment, frowning a little because Sariah had left the door unlocked. He made a note to remind her to lock the door when he was out—just because they lived on the top floor didn't mean it was safe to take chances.
Their little apartment was made up of three small rooms, roughly sectioned by thin, wobbly walls. Asa had a tiny bedroom to himself, and Sariah and Eli shared the larger room. The main room contained both the 'kitchen' and the 'sitting room areas, with a small partition of painted wooden panels screening off the bathtub. They had running water, a miracle considering how little effort the landlords put into the place.
Sariah was sitting curled up in the rickety rocking chair by the window, a knitted afghan draped over her shoulders. A cup of tea sat on the windowsill beside her, and her house slippers were sitting on the floor in front of the chair.
"You're home early," Sariah said, turning from the window to frown at him critically. "Did the shop not have any work for you?"
"Haven't been yet," Asa admitted, studying her worriedly. Her face was colorless, but other than that, Asa could pick out no signs that she was ill.
"Asa," Sariah said, her annoyance obvious in her voice. "You can't just skive off. That work is important. Especially—" She paused, glancing out the window again before turning to frown at him worriedly. "Bethor let me go."
"What?" Asa asked, setting his bag down with a heavy thump. "You told him, didn't you?" I told you—"
"Yes, yes, I know," Sariah said impatiently, pushing a loose curl of hair behind her hair with a rough, jerky motion. "It was stupid, but I thought—his mother died last year, so I thought he'd be more sympathetic."
"You're going to get better," Asa said fiercely, skirting the rickety kitchen table and crossing the room to her window. "I'm going to figure something out."
"You be the optimist, Ace," Sariah said tiredly, reaching out to clasp his hand. "I'll be the pessimist."
"You'll be fine," Asa said stubbornly, ignoring the lump in his throat. Sariah couldn't die. She just… couldn't. He clasped her hand tightly, hating how fragile her fingers felt as he flooded her with what little healing energy he could give her.
"Asa!" Sariah snapped, yanking her hand away sharply. "Stop that! You need that energy for other things."
"I'm careful, I can spare it," Asa said stubbornly. "Can you still sew or do your hands shake too much? I can ask around for freelance jobs for you to work."
Sariah held out her hands, grimacing at the way they shook with tiny tremors.
"As long as it's not embroidery, I should be able to manage," Sariah said after a moment. She curled her hands into fists and hid them under her afghan, sighing softly.
"All right," Asa said quietly. He could stop by their downstairs neighbor on his way out—Lakia could and would help him get word out that Sariah was open for any sewing jobs people might have. "Was there anything you need before I go? I was thinking of dropping by the library tonight, but I can come home if you need help watching Eli."
"I'll be fine. She can do her schoolwork," Sariah said, waving a fistful of afghan at him. "Get. And don't try pulling this crap again tomorrow."
"I don't teach tomorrow," Asa said dismissively, giving Sariah a brief smile. "Take care of yourself, Sariah. Eat something."
"I will if you do," Sariah retorted sharply, scowling at him. "Get."
"Going," Asa said, waving as he reached the door. Sariah was already ignoring him, staring out the window again at the courtyard below.
*
*
*
Part Two
"Good afternoon, professor."
"Good afternoon," Asa said absently, marking his place in the health-magic book he was reading. It was mostly useless stuff, but Asa had come across a few gems that would help make Sariah's symptoms less intense.
"Any trouble with the assigned reading?" Asa asked, unsurprised when Cos shook his head. "Sit up front would you? There's only the three of you today."
Cos nodded, taking a seat at the closest desk. Asa turned back to his book, flipping past the spell he'd been reading and onto the next. A cure for facial warts—not useful at all. Glancing up as he flipped the page to the next spell, Asa blinked, startled to find Cos studying him curiously.
He looked on the verge of a question, but if there one thing he knew about Cos—from his own observations as well as Bralin's comments—it was that Cos was very self-contained and shy.
"How are you enjoying the class so far?" Asa asked, glancing down at his book to mark the page he was on before focusing on Cos again.
"It's—" Cos began, then hesitated, shrugging. "It's okay."
"It's boring stuff," Asa said, smiling a little. "It's the required muck, but hopefully I don't make it worse. Do you plan to do more schooling after this?"
"I don't know," Cos said, shrugging a little. "I never—I don't know what I want to do."
"This course is good for that," Asa said, curious about the half-finished sentence, but not willing to press. "It gives you a pretty wide overview of what occupations magic works best at. With your power mix and the amount you can store, you'd be good for pretty much anything you set your mind to."
"Bralin said that," Cos said, as though confessing something he'd done wrong. "He wanted me to learn—to take this course, I think, a few years ago."
Asa hesitated—Bralin had known Cos was an uneducated mage for a few years before Cos came in for the required course? That was technically illegal, since Bralin was a member of the King's curse breaker corps.
"Don't—" Asa began, frowning a little. He cut himself short when another student walked in, not willing to say anything in front of a third party. The woman took a seat just to the right of Cos, setting down her satchel with a dull thump.
"Good afternoon," Lianne said with a bright smile, crossing her arms beneath her bosom to emphasize it. Asa barely refrained from rolling his eyes—no respectable woman over fifty should be behaving that shamelessly.
"Hello, Lianne. Did you have any trouble with the reading?" Asa asked resignedly, unsurprised when she nodded. She gave him a bright smile, pulling out her book and leaning over the desk to further deepen his view of her bosom.
"Cos, do you mind staying after class for a few moments? I'd like to hear some more about your goals," Asa said, deciding he should at least warn Cos—he couldn't imagine Cos was saying such things maliciously. It was more likely he was unaware that Bralin should have immediately reported him.
"I—okay," Cos said, his eyes widening worriedly. Asa smiled at him as reassuringly as he stood to approach Lianne's desk. It didn’t didn't really seem to work, but Asa hopefully could reassure him better after class.
The session went much more smoothly with only three students—three relatively quick students, once Lianne forgot to ask questions after his every sentence. Lianne tried to linger after class as Cos waited, fidgeting nervously, and the third student fled, eager to return to whatever life he had outside of class.
"Lianne, really," Asa said, cutting off her latest question. "I know you're smart. It's one of the first things I noticed about you. Give it another read, and if you still don't understand it, drop by class a bit early on Monday and I'll answer your questions then."
Lianne pouted, fluffing her already-fluffy gray curls, but thankfully capitulated. "All right, professor. I'll see you Monday, then."
"Good bye, Lianne," Asa said, barely keeping the relief from his voice as she finally headed towards the door. Cos wasn't looking up, rearranging his small stack of papers and books. Asa waited until Lianne was gone and the sound of her heeled boots had disappeared before speaking up.
"I didn't mean to put you on edge," Asa said apologetically. He sighed, running his hands through his curls distractedly. "Um, it's not anything bad, just—I wanted to warn you. Bralin—if he knew you were a wizard when he first met you, he should've reported you then. That he didn't is illegal and could get him kicked out of the curse breaker corps."
>
"Really? Um—but, why didn't he?" Cos asked, sounding rather distraught. Obviously he hadn't known about it, then, though that in itself was odd—where had Cos come from that he didn't know the law about magic? It was fairly well disseminated, and it was talked about a lot.
Probably just somewhere really remote, Asa decided. Cos had obviously known about his magic before he'd joined the class, and there was no way anyone in the capital didn't know about the law.
"I don't have any idea," Asa said, smiling a bit. He walked over to Cos's desk, laying a comforting hand on Cos's shoulder. Cos tensed a bit under the touch, but he didn't move away. "Maybe ask him? And don't worry, I have no intention of letting anyone know."
"Thank you," Cos said, giving him a weak smile. "For telling me, and not telling anyone."
"No reason to make his life miserable for no reason," Asa said, letting his hand drop. He tucked his hands into his pockets, shrugging. "Besides, I'm sure he had a good reason for keeping it quiet."
"He… yes," Cos said, flushing a little. He didn't elaborate, but Asa didn't really expect him to. Cos had no reason to confide anything in him; they'd known each other for less than a week.
"So, did everything make sense today?" Asa asked, changing the subject to something more neutral.
"I think so?" Cos said, not sounding at all sure about that.
"All right, so what didn't you understand?" Asa asked. He couldn't help but smile when Cos looked away guiltily, obviously caught in the half-truth.
"Um, most of it," Cos admitted, flushing. "Just—it doesn't seem right. It's…wrong."
"Wrong how?" Asa asked curiously, belatedly remembering that Cos was a latent. That would affect how he did the magic Asa had been showing the class.
"Just—it's harder that way," Cos said, then shook his head. "I'll—don't worry about it, I can figure it out."
"No, wait, you're a latent, right?" Asa said, regarding Cos thoughtfully.
Cos nodded, looking startled. "You can tell that?"
"Not by sight. Bralin told me," Asa said, smiling as Cos flushed again. "But it means that you're technically harder to teach because you have to do things your own way, not the proscribed way."
"Sorry," Cos muttered, looking rather upset at that news.
"No, it's not—" Asa sighed, wrinkling his nose. "I said that wrong. There are two ways to teach a latent. I can force you to do everything the proscribed way—and most professors do that even over the protest from their students that it isn't right. The second method is to work with a latent to figure out what is right. That's what I'd prefer to do with you, unless you'd rather learn the proscribed methods."
"Can I do both?" Cos asked shyly. "I mean, it would be…interesting to see the differences."
"Sure," Asa agreed immediately despite the time it would consume. But he rarely got to work with latents, and he needed something to keep his mind off of Sariah. "If—it'll probably take extra lessons though, since I can't cram it into the Friday lessons. Will that be a problem?"
"No," Cos said, shaking his head. "I don't—whenever it's good for you?"
"Mornings?" Asa suggested, ignoring the niggling feeling of guilt over losing hours he should be spending helping Sariah. "Class days? We can meet at the library."
"Okay," Cos agreed easily, toying with his pencil. "I can—eight?"
"Sounds good," Asa said with a smile. That was a touch earlier than he usually got up, but that would get him to the library earlier in the day and give him more time to research what he could on healing magic. "Let's meet Monday at eight and we'll try to adapt this lesson to work for you."
"Okay," Cos said, smiling hesitantly back at him. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Asa said, stepping back to his desk. "I'll see you then. Have a good weekend."
"You, too," Cos replied, sounding somewhat confused, but he offered Asa another smile as he collected his things and left. Asa waited until he was gone to return to his desk, and then he flipped open the spell book he'd been reading before class and settled in to do some reading before he headed to his afternoon job.
*~*~*
"I'm so sorry," Cos blurted out, nearly tripping as he reached the table Asa had situated himself at. It was set up in the back corner of the library, far from the strict librarian who worked the front desk and tried to keep everything silent for the studying students. "I woke up early enough, but Bralin wouldn't stop talking and-and I—"
"Cos," Asa interrupted, smiling wryly. "I only beat you by about fifteen seconds. Have a seat."
"Right," Cos said, flushing and awkwardly stepping back from the table to pull out a chair. He sat down less than gracefully, straightening the notebook and the class book he set on the table in front of him.
"So, first, have a cup of tea," Asa said, gesturing to the empty cup in front of Cos's seat. "Then we'll start on last week's lessons."
"Okay," Cos said, visibly taking a deep breath before relaxing a bit. He poured a half-cup of tea, tugging it close as Asa opened his book to the first practice exercise outlined in the book.
"Do you like teaching?" Cos asked suddenly. He fidgeted with the handle of his cup, glancing at Asa shyly.
"I love it," Asa said, smiling. "Why? Thinking of becoming a teacher?"
"I couldn't," Cos said, immediately denying it. "It's just—why—this is your free time."
"Why spend it doing more work?" Asa hazarded, guessing at what Cos was trying to ask. Cos nodded, and Asa smothered a snicker when he noticed that the tips of Cos's ears turned pink when he flushed. "Well, one part is that I like to teach."
"One part?" Cos prompted, obviously curious.
"The other—well, I'm not a full professor," Asa said, ignoring the wistful note to his voice. "But if I ever get the chance to be, I want to focus on learning everything I can about latent magic. It's amazing, how differently magic works for latents, especially since they have the same power as normal wizards. Most latents end up conforming to the standard method of magic, so it's never really been explored."
"Oh," Cos said. He frowned a little, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "So, you want to study me?"
"Not really?" Asa said, shrugging. "I'm mostly just curious how the normal spells will work when they feel 'right' to you. I don't—it's highly unlikely I'll ever get the chance to be a real professor."
"But why not?" Cos asked, confused. He picked up his tea cup, then set it back down, untouched. "You want to."
Asa laughed, smiling ruefully. "If it were that easy, I'd already be a professor. No, I can't really afford the necessary schooling, so I'll stay an assistant professor. That's enough for me."
"Oh," Cos flushed, looking away for a second. "That was rude. I shouldn't have asked that."
"You were just curious," Asa said, a little thrown. Cos had obviously not meant any harm, and Asa hadn't thought he'd sounded offended with his reply. "Don't worry about it. Let's start? We can begin with the basic spell we went over on Wednesday."
Cos nodded, glancing up shyly. Asa gave him a reassuring smile and he seemed to relax some, at least. Dismissing Cos's strange reaction, Asa focused instead on coaxing Cos through the best way for him to conjure a pencil.
*~*~*
"I think we got off to a bad start."
Asa glanced up, startled at the interruption. Dropping a bookmark into his book automatically, he blinked up at Bralin until his brain caught up to the words Bralin had spoken.
"I'd like to fix that?" Bralin continued, giving him a wide, easy smile. "Cos has a lot of good things to say about you, and I really am sorry I managed to stick my foot so far in my mouth when I first talked to you about him."
"Oh, um," Asa said, still half-absorbed in his book. There was a spell that looked promising, but he had to do more research about it. "Don't worry about it?"
"You're a million miles away," Bralin said, cheerfully enough that Asa didn't really feel guilty about it.
"Sorry. I am listening," Asa said, smiling sheepishly. He lifted a
corner of the book in front of him. "I can get pretty distracted by what I'm reading."
Bralin leaned over the back of Asa's chair to get a better look at the book, unintentionally putting himself thoroughly into Asa's personal space. "Ancient Ways and Means of Healing?"
"It's interesting," Asa said, refusing to explain his real interest. Bralin didn't want to hear about Asa's sister dying, the way she could barely move from her bed to the rocking chair by the window, or how she could only eat scraps and bits of food without losing the contents of her stomach.
"To each his own," Bralin said philosophically. He set the book back down carefully, gesturing to the empty seat next to Asa. "Can I sit?"
"Oh, sure," Asa said, sitting up straight and nearly knocking over his cup of tea as he tried to straighten the mess he'd spread across the tabletop.
"So you want to start over?" Asa asked, trying to distract Bralin from his books, his mess, and how awful he probably looked after a week of class, taking extra commissions at the shop, and trying to research some way to save Sariah.
"Or just pick up on a nicer note," Bralin said, smiling ruefully. "Like I said, Cos thinks highly of you, and I was…really rude."
"Cos is a good student," Asa said automatically, wondering what Cos was to Bralin. But Cos had his soldier—Roark, if Asa remembered correctly—so why did he need Bralin too? And why was Asa even thinking such absurd things when he needed to be focusing on Sariah?
"He's a good person," Bralin said, emphasizing how bland Asa's comment had been. "He's actually enjoying what he's learning; I know he's had trouble with some of the basics before."
"Did you try to teach him?" Asa asked curiously. That would make sense with some of the things Cos said and some of the things he tried to do with his magic.
"I did," Bralin said, shaking his head ruefully. "I—well, you know he didn't get reported right away. There were some personal circumstances and it was better he stayed where he was for a bit. But I didn't want to leave him defenseless, so…" Bralin shrugged. "Still, he didn't take to it nearly as well as he is now. What's your secret?"
