It had been a while since he'd ridden and the journey would take a week and a half to complete, but something inside of him made him sure that Valkyrie would give him a smooth ride as he took his time to adjust to a saddle that was not his own. Once they passed by Voniya on her way into the stables, Lian could help opening his mouth again.
"How long do you believe it will take for me to learn to control my magic?" He wasn't exactly sure why he asked. He had needed a goal, an end game, a set length of time, but he wasn't sure Voniya could give him that. Lian paused at the door of the stables just the same.
Voniya turned to him, her hand held against her own mare's nose. With a critical eye she scanned his form and Lian suddenly felt exposed to her. This woman with a strong voice that was made of mist and vapors.
"An Apprentice studies with one of the Masters for three years before they are allowed outside of the Academy grounds. Every Master is given no more than three Apprentices. You are only fifteen and your magic rages inside you at the whim of your every emotion. You have no hope of learning anything useful in only a year." And with that, she turned back to attend to her horse.
Lian felt like he had been slapped, but most of all he felt rage in his gut trying to build itself up. She did not know him enough to talk of him like that, to dismiss him without-
"Lian." The warning was clear as Fen pressed his side against Lian's thigh.
Closing his eyes, Lian thought about his mother.
He didn't know exactly how, but the day she had stopped him from raging after the fight against Nova and Riker's boys, she had sped up her own death. He felt the knowledge in his bones, even if he didn't understand it.
Lian thought about the devastation he had left of the forest and his own home. He thought of the storm he had summoned to quell the fires and the lighting that had begged desperately to strike him.
He would not allow himself to lose control to that extent again. This was the reason he was going to the Mage's Academy and not just running for the Warrior's Guild.
Lian would learn control. Nothing this woman had to say would change that.
Without another word he turned around and walked away from Voniya's pale form.
Lian didn't speak as he watched the four Mages saddle their horses.
Lybell spent the whole time shooting glances at Lian, he didn't even notice when his horse bucked as his rough hands pulled too tight on one of the straps.
Lian's already low opinion of the man worsened at the way the Mage treated his horse.
Swinging himself up onto Valkyrie's back didn't take much, he was small but strong and his sure movements made the act look graceful. Lian felt slightly smug as he met Lybell's eyes.
He hadn't noticed Ashling's gaze until he looked away in search of Fenrir. When he noticed he stopped and looked at her pointedly, waiting for her to say whatever it was she needed to say. Ashling didn't though. She pressed her lips together and looked away, swinging up onto her own horse's back.
What do you think it'll be like? He couldn't help the question, so he didn't bother stopping it.
"An adventure." Fen replied with a bit of glee. The wolf circled Valkyrie's legs and growled softly at his own excitement. The beast looked like a puppy wanting to play and Lian remembered that Fen wasn't fully grown either. Like Lian, Fen was two years away from his physical and maybe emotional maturity. As traveled as Fenrir was, he'd done a lot of that traveling alone. Having Lian by his side was obviously allowing Fenrir a sort of glee he'd never had before.
This thought brought up Lian's own fifteen years. He'd never been outside of Kilden's boarders. He was born and raised in the village and he'd never really made friends. All of his life had been spent with a weapon in his hands. Swords, staffs, a bow and arrows, his own fists, he even considered the books his mother had hoarded around their small house weapons. She had been a Master Mage, Lian now knew. Her books had taught him a lot about magic and tactics. He wished he'd still had the book now, but they had burned with his mother and their house.
His father, between duties, would teach him everything he knew. Often times his Guard Brothers would come to visit and would pass on their skills to young Lian, teaching him to hunt and fish. A Warrior by the name of Niel had even taught him how to whistle, while another had thought him all of Verran's best known melodies.
He would miss this place, but not for the people in it.
His home town had never been warm to him, Lian had never quite fit in their simple world.
Yet he had made memories here that he would never take for granted.
Even with the pain this place now held, it would always hold his greatest moments. But he doubted he'd ever want to actually return to this place.
"She is never gone you know?"
Lian looked towards the wolf, his new companion. "Who's never gone?"
"You're mother. I can hear her in the wind, in the call of the ravens. She is watching, waiting to see what you become." Fen sat on his hind legs and stared up at Lian with icy blue eyes. Lian could see the glow in them, like pale fire flickering and swaying in a natural dance.
He didn't know how to even begin to answer that, so he didn't. Instead he looked around himself.
He raked his gaze over all four Mages not lingering on any of them as the last one finally readied their packs and mounted, and then he looked towards the open road they would take towards Zaza, a town to the southeast of Kilden. A trade town where they could gather provisions for the days of travel they had ahead.
Lian felt some of Fen's earlier excitement buzzing in his veins as he watched the open road.
"It'll be ten day's easy ride to the Academy of Magic in Hyden." Voniya's voice spoke to the entire party, but her eyes were on Lian and he could feel them almost burning him. He did not glance back at her. "We shall stay at an Inn in Zaza on the first night, but we will have to camp at the edge of Black Lake Forest. From there we head to Ontra and then to Corrin."
Lian didn't care where they stayed or what they did. He hardly needed escorts at all. He'd poured over maps of Verran for hours on end on some of his sleepless nights. He knew his home Kingdom as well as his mother probably had. But the escorts were not there to guide him, just to make sure that he did, in fact, go.
"Lian wait!"
A new voice caused the whole party to turn their gazes towards the village.
His teacher came running down the path, a pack slung carelessly over one of her shoulders as she struggled to catch them before they left.
When she'd reached them, she slowed, walking the rest of the way until she came to Lian's side.
"I didn't want you to leave empty handed." She panted out, her usually perfect blond hair falling in strands from her bun.
"What do you mean?" He asked her curiously. The weight of the pack he'd grabbed from under his bed still at his back.
That's when she shoved the pack on her shoulder into his hands. The material was a soft leather, a luxury in this part of the kingdom. He didn't even want to open the pack and see what it held. He pushed it back towards her.
"I can't take this!" Lian insisted with wide eyes. "I have all I need."
He'd never looked more like the child he was than right then.
His teacher laughed at him before shaking her head quickly.
"I admired your mother a lot." She began. "She taught me a lot before I was comfortable enough to start teaching at the school house. To allow her son to leave the place of his birth with nothing but weapons would be a dishonor to my teacher, and to myself as your teacher."
Lian wasn't sure what to tell her. He had more than enough in his own pack, but to deny her and reject her offering would be rude.
Yet this woman had never cared beyond his education before, so what was all this about honor now of all times?
"I still do not understand." He admitted, but he did not attempt to push the pack back into her arms again.
"I do not have any weapons to give you, but I do have this." His teacher reached back into the waistband of her skirt at the small of her back. When Lian saw the dagger she brandished, he inhaled sharply. He knew the seal on the blade much too well.
"An Honor Dagger." Lian breathed, voice reverent and awed.
His teacher smiled. "I see you know what this is." She expertly tossed the knife up where it twirled once before she caught it by the blade, holding it out to him handle first. "An Honor Dagger is always passed down the line to that Warrior's heir. Due to the way your father died... the guild buried him with his dagger, putting a long lived line to rest. So I would like you to have this one."
Lian's hand wrapped around the handle slowly, testing the grip and the weight as his teacher relinquished it.
"Your family were Warriors?" He asked in surprise. He'd never really paid much attention to his teacher beyond the lessons she'd taught. She was a very private person. "But why give this gift to me?"
"I did not have any kids, and I am much too far in my life to try. I enjoy teaching them, but I do not possess any heirs. This Dagger would have been buried with me. There is no honor in keeping a tool one does not intend to use." She answered with a small wink. "You will carry my family's line when you carry that dagger."
Lian blushed, fumbling a little because, honestly, he didn't know her family line. He wasn't even sure he knew his teacher's name, but how could he ask her for the information now?
He started when his teacher started to laugh. Before he could sputter and ask her about it, she began to answer his unasked questions.
"I had wondered if you knew that there was a person behind all those lectures. You were always so studious, so knowledgeable. I'm not surprised you do not know my name, as it wasn't in any of my lessons." She mocked him kindly as she shook her head. Lian noticed for the first time that her eyes were green. Not emerald green like Ashling and Keera's, but a soft color, like the grass under a noon day sun. "My name is Violet Newmoon. Like your family, mine has had many generations in the Warrior's Guard, the last of which was my elder brother who died in the battle of Krane. We are better known as the 'Newmoon Wolves'. I think it a fitting title, don't you."
Violet gave a pointed look at Fen who sat staring at her from his spot just in front of Valkyrie who was swaying her head from side to side so that she could see the whole territory. War horse indeed.
"I guess so." He replied with a small smile of his own.
Violet's eyes dulled and her smile dropped a bit.
"That's the very first time I've seen you smile." She said softly.
Again Lian was left baffled on how to respond, but he didn't have to.
Violet Newmoon, his teacher of almost 10 years took a step back from his horse and himself, before turning her back to him and started to walk back to the village's school house.
"Are you just gonna sit there staring at her?" Fen asked critically.
Lian shook himself out of his shock and shouted after her.
"Thank you, Last Newmoon Wolf!" He'd carry her mantel with the pride he'd once had in his own. Until he could reclaim his own name, he'd carry her's.
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