A/N: Special thanks to GrezterGreen, Ketvirtas, ultronquake, SilentMech, refferee, JakJak75, nioniosbbbb, Magestikus, ChaoticLightning, God Of Physics, and Quixotic Enigma for your comments last chapter, and I hope to hear from you all again this chapter as well as from those of you who may not have commented before! Please leave your thoughts below, and I hope you enjoy!
After a breakfast of buttered toast and juice, Kael and Trixie set back to the training ground on Sunstrider Isle. Fortunately for them the wagon was leaving just as they intended to head back, though neither of the two paid much attention to their surroundings as they took the short ride back.
Kael had been wracked with terrible dreams all night, and the time he had been awake he had been trying to ignore how there was a half naked woman beside him. Trixie, on the other hand, had trouble making herself comfortable as she slept because it didn’t feel right. Like everything was wrong and she couldn’t pin down exactly what was causing it.
The innkeeper had given Kael a small red mask to wear over his lower face, saying she had picked it up from a traveling human girl who had stayed in the Inn one night and left the next. While the Blood Elves were no fans of humans, she had a hard time saying no to a teenage girl who seemed to be homeless and in need of shelter. The girl seemed to have forgotten the red cloth, and since it had been years there was much doubt that it would ever be recovered.
Kael wore it over his face like a bandit might, trying to pass himself off as a traveling Rogue instead of just a mage. Mages were more prone to getting mugged by other travelers he had heard some of the others staying at the inn mention, so he tried to look menacing with it.
Trixie did not have the heart to tell him that he just looked silly, and that he was actually kind of cute trying to look mean. Not that she meant anything weird about that though. They were just friends after all…
Trixie shook her head to stop staring at him and his poofy, long eyebrows that partially defied gravity.
With Kael’s face covered halfway, the two managed to not be dismissed when they went looking for the magic trainer again. It appeared the Elves in the area either had short memories or simply were not paying enough attention to care the second time, but in either case Trixie found the woman in question within moments of asking around. She was located in the building right by where Magistrix Erona stood vigilantly, and wore a distinct red and black dress that revealed a vertical strip of her stomach and also of her cleavage in the most bizarre design Trixie had ever seen.
Despite the odd dress choice, Trixie ignored it as she introduced herself to the woman, “Hello, I am Trixie Lulamoon, a new student here, and this here is my partner. I was told you could help me with my magic, since my understanding right now is quite basic.”
Trixie’s words seemed to please the woman, who smiled brightly at the sight of the two robed Elves before her, “I am Julia Sunstriker. It is a pleasure to see two aspiring mages in this age of strife.”
“Are there less mages than before?” Trixie asked in an attempt to learn more about her culture.
“Of course! Before almost every High Elf could be considered a mage in one way or another, but now there are those who shirk their arcane studies to instead focus on wielding a sword or bow exclusively. Once upon a time those were hobbies and things of sport…”
Julia’s voice trailed off and she frowned at the thought of Elves being barbaric Warriors and Hunters. Such things were to be left to either the gifted, such as the deceased Ranger General of their kingdom, or to the dull witted in her opinion.
Snapping out of her thoughts, the teacher tried smiling again even if it appeared fake, “Anyways, I apologize. You came here to learn new magic, have you not?”
Trixie flashed a smile back while bringing a hand to her head nervously, “Yes, I am quite new to this. Any aid you can give would be appreciated.”
“Well, I know spells quite well, but you would have to speak to someone else if you want to gain actual knowledge on how it all works,” the woman turned around and began to scan through a bookshelf for something, “Though I do know that as you begin to grow in power, your connection to the arcane will develop, granting you access to new spells.”
After a brief amount of searching, she found what she was looking for and laughed as she pulled a standard blue book from the shelf with archaic symbols on its cover. This done, she handed the book back to Trixie, “Here you go. In there is a spell most know as Frost Nova. Included in that book are also the Frostbolt spell, Ice Lance, and other such cool spells,” turning around to face her, the teacher flashed Trixie a toothy grin, “That will be one gold piece.”
Trixie was astonished by the request for money. She had expected to get her training for free!
“You’re charging me?”
Julia laughed at the surprised look on Trixie, “What, you don’t expect me to give away a copy of Reicom’s Tome of Ice for free do you?”
Trixie frowned at the woman and placed her hands on her hips, the book still in her right hand, “Aren’t you just supposed to teach me what is in the book, not just sell it to me?”
“All beginners need a spellbook to refer to,” the teacher countered, her voice revealing her amusement at Trixie’s lack of understanding for how this all worked. Her next glance was over to Kael, who had been trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible, “I also have one that focuses on fire magic. Mr. Match’s guide to Fire, Torching, Heat, and Flame!”
She handed a book with a crimson cover and a fire symbol on it to the man, who accepted it despite knowing that it would cost him money he was not sure he had. Speaking up could reveal who he was after all, since he did not know who knew what and there could be grave consequences should his identity be found out.
Thinking she could pawn more books off on the newbies, Julia looked back to grab one last tome to hand to them.
“Lastly, there is a book that…” she paused before actually touching it, and after a moment she decided to not do so at all, “Know what, I think I’ll keep this one to myself. Just in case the rumors are true…”
Not wanting her magical studies to be stunted by a teacher’s insecurity, Trixie balked at the hesitation displayed, “Why can’t we see the last book?”
“Well, Prince Sunstrider was the one who wrote it…” the woman spoke in a whisper, not knowing that she was perhaps speaking to the man in question, “If he really is evil like everyone says, then I might get in trouble if I give it to beginners!”
Not wanting to discuss the topic further and possibly unnerve Kael, Trixie quickly changed the subject to the book already in her possession, “I am a starving student. How can I give you gold?”
“Well, one hundred copper pieces make one silver piece, and one hundred silver is equal to one gold,” came the toothy explanation. Trixie wanted to grumble about how she doubted all teachers were this extorting, but kept it to herself as she considered her total funds.
“With that in mind I am way off…”
Kael prodded Trixie, who looked back to see that he was holding out his hand to give her something in its palm. She rose her brow in confusion before accepting what she assumed to be money, only to find a small object instead in her palm.
A beautiful platinum ring with an orange gem proved to be quite the surprise to Trixie, who gasped slightly at the sight. How had Kael gotten such a beautiful item?
Trixie wanted it for herself, but she wanted magic more, so she held the ring out to the greedy woman.
“What if I sold this? For the books.”
The sight of the ring made the teacher see quite the deal. It was worth just over six gold from its components, but…
She gasped as she recognized the specific qualities of the ring as one she had seen before. A ring that once belonged to a famous woman…
“Oh my. This belonged to…” Julia pushed Trixie’s hand closed around the ring and quickly asserted her newfound lack of greed, “You must be a friend of Lady Windrunner. Please, take the books free of charge.”
Trixie did not know who this “Windrunner” was, but she could appreciate free things.
“Thank you?”
This being done, Julia looked to the man who had pulled the ring out to see if he was anyone important. With his face partially obscured she couldn’t really tell, but got a familiar feeling from what she could see, “Hey, you look kind of familiar. What’s with the face cover?”
Not wanting a person in a position of some power to start wondering about Kael, Trixie grabbed him by one of his torn sleeves and began to drag him away while retreating from the building, “He’s got a bad skin condition, so we should probably get that checked out, thank-you-bye!”
Their escape was easy because of the lack of distance to the exit, and the greedy teacher made no pursuit. Once outside Trixie gave Kael his ring back, which he then played around with in his fingers.
“I guess I will hold onto this.”
Trixie crossed her arms and frowned at Kael. Seeing the ring and hearing of its origins made her suspicious, though she couldn’t pin down her exact feelings why, “Who is Lady Windrunner?”
Honestly not knowing, Kael shrugged. He had just intended to trade the ring for the books. He had woken up with it in his pocket after all, so it wasn’t like he would be losing that much for something far more useful, “An Elf noblewoman perhaps.”
There were no good answers for the next question on Trixie’s mind, which she was well aware of, “And why do you have her ring?”
“I…” hearing the accusation in her voice, Kael feared that perhaps this small thing could make his only friend mistrust him and so he sought a way to mend things, “We’ll have to answer that another day, as I do not know. I doubt I stole it. Maybe I found it?”
There were other ways that Kael could have come across the ring, but Trixie did not want to entertain those thoughts. Her partner was no womanizing thief after all, even if she could admit he could be a ladykiller if he tried, “I do not care for this topic anymore. Let me try out this magic book you so graciously provided me.”
Trixie took a glance at the symbols on the front of the book, realized she could not understand any of them, and them took a look inside. Seeing that this too yielded nothing she could read, Trixie groaned as she realized she just got a book she couldn’t even begin to read. To think that she had nearly bought it!
“I can’t read this,” Trixie quietly pouted, not wanting any of the other Elves in the area to overhear her. She felt embarrassed by her lack of comprehension, while Kael seemed to be amused by her pouting expression.
“Oh right, you don’t seem to understand Thalassian…”
Trixie looked away as she continued to pout, “I don’t even know what Thalassian is.”
There was no getting around it if Trixie wanted to expand her knowledge, she needed to understand what she was reading. Kael sighed as he realized he was going to have to play the role of kindergarten teacher, “This will take awhile…want me to teach you? I remember how to read this, just as I remember a couple spells.”
If it was someone else, Trixie would have been too proud to agree, but this was a polite gentlemen she had grown to trust. While embarrassing, she knew he would not look down on her for being so ignorant.
“Yes, please.,,”
Her reluctant agreement brought a smile to Kael’s face, since her pouting expression could be considered adorable. His partner was quiet the interesting woman, and he foresaw many future moments of such…interest and amusement stemming from her. She had a tendency to act with bravado, only to then fall flat on her face when it came to doing things.
“Well, unlike the language we are speaking now, Thalassian is structured differently…”
It was all Kael could do to keep from imagining Trixie in her undergarments as he explained the basics of their language. He supposed such thoughts would fade with time as they continued to be together and he grew more used to her appearance, but Kael found his face red as he could not stop playing the night’s images through his mind.
It was only a passing fancy. A natural reaction to seeing a beautiful woman in so little. There was nothing more to it…
At least, that’s what he hoped.
“And now you know your A, B, C’s.”
It took a few hours, but Trixie had managed to understand the very basics of Thalassian…or at least enough to read the first entry in her book. Still, Kael’s ending remark to her learning made Trixie glare at him for his playfulness.
“Don’t patronize me.”
“What? You must admit that was a good quip.”
An act of revenge was justified in Trixie’s mind, so she opened her book and began to ready herself for a spell while pretending to continue the lesson, “This first line reads Frie’zudo, correct? Frost Nova you said in the language we are speaking currently?”
Kael nodded, glad that she could pronounce things correctly now, “Correct—”
“Frie’zudo!”
With that, a burst of ice came from Trixie’s body that rapidly slammed into Kael and wrapped around his legs to freeze them and his feet where they were.
Pleased with the result of an annoyed Kael, Trixie smiled to herself as she hugged the book in her arms, “I must admit I am liking this Reicom fellow.”
“Very funny,” sarcastically replied as he created a flame in his hand to melt the ice, only to then realize his lower robes were damp as a result of this. He had to light up another flame to dry them so that he did not have to deal with damp and uncomfortable clothing for the rest of the day, and started to think of how to prank Trixie back.
Given that this pettiness was accomplishing them little in terms of their schoolwork and actually practicing magic, Trixie nodded over to where Erona was standing to bring her companion’s attention there, “We should see how the Magistrix is doing. See if there are any tasks she wishes to see us do now that I have access to a book of spells.”
With some reluctance Kael was brought over to the Magistrix, who had already seen his face and knew his name though had not seemed to consider that perhaps the two things together meant something. Kael was worried that maybe she would realize though in-between giving trainees missions to kill animals, so Trixie had to drag him over, the woman of their duo more confident that things would be fine.
Erona turned from dealing with a perky Priest woman to Trixie, who had announced their presence by clearing her throat, “Oh, you two. Normally I would give students a few more tasks, but I really think it would be best for you two to leave soon. So I’ll just give you one more in order to graduate and leave.”
That felt like a punch to the gut for Trixie, who felt like she was being run out of town, “What is the matter?”
“Your friend looks like a guy that has public opinion split on him. Those in Silvermoon are more supportive of him, while out here…” “Well, people are not fond of the man whose family this area was named after. I don’t want to see people taking their anger out on you two, but I can’t just let you go yet.”
“Fine then. What is our assignment?”
The Magistrix pointed a finger towards the area beyond the fields that the Mana Wyrms had been driven from. In the distance Trixie could see a floating structure that held an architecture similar to the buildings nearby, except for how it was floating in mid air and was mostly open throughout its multiple levels.
“A betrayer of our people resides atop Falthrien Academy to the southwest. Felendren is his name, and he was banished from blood elf lands for failing to heed the warnings of our teachers and elders. He is the worst of our society, as he lives only to feed his insatiable magical addictions. He refused to learn control; he is a shell of his former self - one of the Wretched - and he is a threat to the Sunspire.”
Trixie gulped as she realized all of a sudden what she was about to be told…
“Destroy him and the wraiths he uses as minions.”
Disturbed animals were one thing…a disturbed Elf though?
That was not exactly something she felt she was ready for.