What an odd setting this was. Hmm…

“Ah, well, thank you for having me over Mrs Archibald!” Dawn stood up, clearly nervous at my arrival, “See you tomorrow, professor,” and made for my direction, or rather, the door’s direction. She nodded as she passed by to acknowledge me, but I didn’t like it.

Before she could escape, I grabbed her hand, “Hold on now, why don’t you join us for dinner?”

“I’m sorry, but I shouldn’t intrude longer than I have to.”

“Even though there’s a chair, plate and utensils set for you? I think it’s a bit rude to leave the minute I arrive, isn’t it? Sit down,” I smiled pleasantly, “have some.”

“You. Mary is rubbing off on you,” Donna commented.

Dawn looked frightened, or rather, disturbed that she’d have to go back to the centre of attention. My curiosity was at its peak, but I exercised control.

In the middle of our meal, I set my fork down, picked up my wine glass, albeit grape juice was the contents, and downed it in one go, resting the glass down after a low exhale. I gently, sophisticatedly, wiped my mouth with my handkerchief, “Mother, Dawn. What were you two discussing?”

Mom being mom replied right off the bat, showing no hesitance or nervousness in her tone, “I was asking her to babysit you,” she said, also taking a sip of her juice to mimic me whilst adamantly staring right into my eyes. We didn’t break eye contact at all. The atmosphere was getting heavy. Dawn stopped eating. Dad stopped eating.

“Is that so?” I replied casually, “In what context, might I ask?”

“In the context of the Order’s library.”

“And your reason?”

“To force you to pay attention to your health and not neglect your basic needs; you’ve done this before. Also, to ensure you don’t forsake your agreed upon duties to the Order in favour of your own personal interest.”

The conversation, to anyone eavesdropping, would sound so civil and peaceful. But to the people present, it was like warfare. “I see,” I leaned back into my chair, “I suppose your decision is justified, given my history, however, that very history would only force me to extrapolate that there would be heavy resistance, Mary.” I replied. She absolutely abhorred when I called her by her first name. “Knowing this, you would still subject someone to such responsibility?”

“That has not yet been discussed. Your knack for insubordination must be properly reviewed before I can assign full permission to have you forcefully,” she paused, clenching onto her fork and smiling gently at me, “handled.”

This goddamn woman, just can’t keep her nose out my life! “Very well,” I agreed without rebelling, “dinner was delicious. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get some sleep.”

Early the next morning, I was fuming at August’s house. “Can you believe this hag?! A babysitter?! C’mon, I’m already fifteen! Fifteen, man!”

“Hmm. Hmm. Hmm,” August rubbed his chin, “I totally understand her.”

My jaw dropped. “What kind of friend are you?” I shook my head, sighing.

“Look, man. I’ve seen when a spell tome or something grabs your interest. You forget that you’re a living, breathing human. You kinda need a babysitter. I agree with her. But enough about that,” he grinned, a mischievous one at that, “You asked her out yet?”

“Who?” I questioned, expelling a flame spell to help him start up his forge.

“Who else? The girl, the mage girl who was in the market!”

“Ah, Dawn?”

“So, that’s her name,” he rubbed his palms together and licked his lips, “you better not hesitate, else I’ll take her from ya.”

“Pfft,” I held my laughter back, “as if you can. Shyla will literally skin you alive.”

He guffawed, tying his hair in the back, “Ugh, don’t remind me. I’m fifteen and I feel like I’m married already.”

“So, remember I told you mom had a guest over yesterday?”

“Mhm,” he nodded, pushing his leg down onto the bellow.

“Yeah, well, that was the babysitter.”

“No way, dude! You met her already?! Who is she? It is a she, right?”

I looked up at him and laughed. The burly guy gave me a befuddled look, which only made me laugh more. Suddenly, he stopped, grabbed one of my ankles and swung me around like I was a kid, “Hey, hey what the hell, man?!”

“You, lucky bastard! How’d you do it?” He finally caught me and set me down. I stumbled, having to lean onto a nearby table to quell my dizziness.

“It was all mom, man. But I’m not sure about Dawn, y’know. It feels like, she’s hollow. I can’t describe it.”

“What’s the problem?” he continued working the bellow, “Just get to know her, that’s all.”

That’s what I’m afraid of.

“And that’s why you got no friends.”

Shut up.

It was nearing time for me to clock-in, so I went to the Order. Hmm, library, or class? Class, or library?

“You really should attend your own class.”

Library it is…

I found myself a nice, dark place and was reading away, then heard some footsteps encroaching. I figured it was just another reader, but, man, was I wrong.

“Hi,” Dawn said softly near my ear. I jumped aside, watched her up and down in disbelief. She has clearance? No way, how did she–ugh, mom. Just how many connections does she have?

“Uh, hi?” I replied, nervously.

She bent over to get closer, “What are you doing, teacher?”

“Um, reading?” I knew exactly where she was going with this, but still chose to play it out.

“Why?”

“Because, knowledge?”

“It’ll have to wait. You have a class.” She was weirdly assertive. Do I resist and risk pissing off mom? Or do I just go along with her?

“How long is it?” I asked, and she replied two hours. I sighed wearily and just decided to do it. How did she even find me in that maze anyway? Luckily, Volt had done his homework, and practised summoning his lightning elemental. After about an hour of supervision and help, he was able to successfully summon and maintain his elemental, unlike Dawn and Pyro. For the last thirty minutes, we stopped, because they were exhausted after trying so many summoning spells. The rest of the class was theory, which I won’t bore you with.

For the incoming couple months, I made cycles. Research Division, meditate and practice Division in the spirit world, teach classes, skip classes, cancel classes because I got lazy, get an earful from mom or starve for the day if she really didn’t approve of something I did. Life at the Order wasn’t exactly like I’d imagined, I thought I’d be in the library day-in, day-out, but teaching gave me new perspective on things. It really drove home that Donna helped me a great deal. I learned to summon an elemental in just a couple hours, Dawn took about a month, Pyro took two.

“Hey, teach,” Dawn called me after class one day, “next couple weeks–”

“Eric,” I cut her off, “it’s been over two months already, just call me Eric,” I knocked some papers up, “so, what’s up?”

“Are you good at healing spells?” she asked, helping me pack up.

“Not many. But I know a specialist. Why?”

She recoiled a little, taking a deep breath before saying anything, then informed me that her father would be returning soon. “So,” she paused, “can you, help, him?”

“Sure?” I answered questioningly. “Why are you so nervous?”

“No reason,” she replied quickly and fled. I walked through the grounds of the Order to get home, and a woman encroached. At first, it looked like she would just pass by me, but she stopped me the moment we were side by side.

“Are you Eric Archibald?” the woman asked. If only her hair was about a foot longer and she wore the Order’s white robe, I’d have mistaken her for Dawn.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“So, you’re the one she’s always complaining about?” she tapped my shoulder, “Hang in there!” and walked off. What a strange woman.

For the next two weeks, she visited me almost daily, like an old worried grandmother, giving words of encouragement then suddenly leaving. I had no idea who she was but after the third day I just let it slide.

The day had come, unbeknownst to me, “Eric,” Dawn grabbed my attention, “can you do it this evening?”

Ah, that’s today? I nodded, packed a book and left with her. A fancy carriage took us to the northern district of Aquan, a place where the very, very privileged lived. Their infrastructure and architecture were on another level, like a city in a city. We finally got to one of the many mansions in the district, “We’re here,” she signalled to me.

We entered the mansion, and even something as simple as opening the door was done for us. I understood now that she was a rich girl with a rich family.

She took me to a room, knocked, and entered. Sitting in front of a piano was a woman, and off to the side, lounging on a couch, teacup in hand, was a man, an obese one at that.

“Good evening, father, mother,” she greeted.

Oh, that’s her mother. She introduced us, then made the mistake of saying, “He is a skilled mage who ca–”

“A mage?” her father placed his teacup down onto the platter. “You brought a mage, into my house?” his voice’s oomph increasing with each word, his eyes’ anger could cut like a knife, “And you,” he looked at me with total disgust, “have the gall to step foot into this place?”

“I’m sorry, is the place special?” I asked, sarcastically. Although, I truly didn’t know if there was a significance with the house.

He went full blast, calling me all sorts of names and arguing endlessly. Dawn retracted into herself, slightly stepping behind me. My mind was piecing together what I think happened. He had some bad blood with the mages at the Order, ever since then he kept his hatred intact. I suddenly understood why that strange woman kept visiting me and telling me not to be afraid, and just be forceful. “You have an older sister, right?” I asked the frightened lamb behind me.

She replied positively, in a squeaky voice.

“Your family name is Pendulum, right?”

“Y-yes.”

His wife all this time only looked at him piteously. “Mr Pendulum,” I said loudly, cutting off his ranting, “I hear you have an illness. That is why I am here.” I walked forward to the balding man and summoned Hydra. As usual, she was naked, earning the appalled face of everyone in the room, especially Mrs Pendulum. The wary and distrusting man stood up and began moving away, but Hydra trapped him in a dense water sphere, ensuring there is a line of air in it so he may breathe.

She looked at me, awaiting my command. After I instructed her to scan him for any issues and heal him, he was out of the sphere in just a few seconds.

The egg-like man was soaked, on the ground and breathing heavily. “Did you hold your breath?” I asked, and stooped down beside him tapping him on the shoulder, “You could’ve breathed y’know?”

He slapped my hand away, “Get your filthy hands off me! What have you done to me?!” he screamed out, with a mix of anger and fear.

“Relax, relax. Turns out you had diabetes, Mr Pendulum. You know what that is?”

“How the hell would I know?!”

“Pft,” I held my laugh back, “how could you not know? You’re rich, aren’t you? Go to the doctor more often, man.”

He growled, punched the ground and flared his nose, “I knew, you fool! We all knew! They couldn’t help, only magic could, but we’d rather die than be cured by magic!”

Well, a little late to say that, buddy. “That’s a real dumbass thing to say,” I stood up and took a seat on a nearby single chair, crossing my legs and everything, “you think your family’s gonna smile and say ‘I’m glad he didn’t resort to magic’ when you die? Nah. You think Dawn’s gonna stop practising magic to honour your principles when you die? Nah. I don’t know what caused your hatred of mages so much, but keeping that inside of you is like drinking poison and hoping that your enemies die. Doesn’t work that way, buddy.”

“Out!”

“Hmm?”

“I said get out!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. I knew I pissed him the hell off, but what did it matter? His view of me was prejudiced the minute he knew I was a mage.

“Alrighty, don’t wanna get arrested for trespassing,” I shrugged. “But, hey, think about it this way. Which is stronger, your love for your family, or your hatred for mages? See you around, Mr Pendulum. Mrs Pendulum, forgive my tardiness in mentioning so, but that’s a lovely dress. Farewell.”