Completed A Frenemy can be the best teacher(Mitt)

[Taln]

"Control and ownership. Topic done." Taln answered instantaneously, his molten fiery eyes flaring up as swiftly as his reply. "Think on it. Hard. My answer was brief but complete. You have enough brains to be a blacksmith so apply them now." Idly, he traced an infinity symbol into the sand, a small flicker of flames raising beneath his finger in a soothing orange color. He hoped that he'd explained himself fully enough without actually having to say anything else aloud. The kid would put it together on his own. Or at least Taln hoped so. wc 95 lol total wc 3,627

[Mittle]

What kind of answer was that? On the verge of becoming indignant, a brief ugly memory of when he was sixteen came to mind. Oh no. That means the whip marks could only be one thing. The one obvious first thing that should have come to his mind before adventures and excitement. Mitt's face turned dark red with shame and his ears burned brightly. The young man hung his head down in deep embarrassment. He'd seen a slaver in Sunberth all those years ago. He was well aware too, of The Muted Maiden and rumors of its ugly insides were spoken of in the lowest of hushed whispers.

Mitt's mind recoiled in dawning horror at recalling how he'd stared for half a bell and hammering away for days at Taln to actually talk about it. He couldn't claim he didn't know or never heard of slaves. But even thinking about it felt so slimy and it wasn't something you could clean out from the inside of your head. Damn and the guy wore it like a badge of honor. Words hadn't yet been invented to make up for his ignorant insistence. Fuck.

A long silence stretched out between them and the young smith had to clear his throat uncomfortably a few times before he could get himself to voice anything.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking before speaking." Dark blue eyes finally lifted up to Taln's direction and he saw the guy playing with flames! Seriously what the hells! Actually Mitt thought he was lucky that the guy didn't fry him for being such an ass...yet.

"So uh... is that.." he pointed to the trail of flames, "Magic and stuff?"

The coppery hair flew in a mess around the guy's face as he couldn't make up his mind whether to answer a yes or no to the question.

"So kinda sorta but not really? How do you... like make fire and stuff?" he asked, trying to firmly steer the topic to something he knew Taln was more comfortable with. He personally wasn't very enthusiastic about it but after being such a dick, he at least was gonna encourage something the guy could be happy to talk about.

The redhead finally looked up at Mitt, this time with no frown or anger. An extra light seemed to spark in his molten eyes and he answered easily,

"I don't make fire. It's just there. I simply draw on it when I want to. And sometimes even when I don't mean to. It doesn't originate from me."

"Well you can't just pull that shit outta thin air!" Mitt retorted.

"Actually, that's a vague part of it in a way."

"No way." Mitt said to get him to talk more, both glad to be learning and finally getting a positive and enthusiastic response from the crazy redhead.






WC 472 Total WC 3,728

[Taln]

"Yes way." Taln responded, still not quite ready to smile. He could see Mitt was at least trying not to be rude for once. That would be a nice habit for the kid to pick up. "Are you religious?" "Yep. I'm an Izurdin guy." he stated proudly. "That's good." The lean redhead answered. "Then you should understand that a large part of what's going on with 'all those magicky stuffs as you call it,' is really a gift of Ivak. As are my 'freak' eyes and gnosis marks." he finished pointedly, changing the fiery moving pattern to resemble the gnosis marks on his spine. "It's a blessing and an honor to be marked as a Priest of Ivak." Taln commented with fierce conviction, sitting up straighter his shoulders broad and strong. His yellow molten eyes flared brightly as he literally warmed up to the topic and he gestured with fiery hands as he spoke. "I owe my life, my very existence, my everything to Him. HIs gift, among others, allows me to draw from the fire within and the fire without. It's in the djed that ties everything together." Mitt looked uncertain at this line of monologue, but his conflicted features expressed it well. "I'll try to explain it better for you. Now you like blacksmithing and without fire, that's not much of an option right?" The young man nodded, obviously liking this type of analogy. "So it takes fuel to make the fire. But it also takes air and just the right kindling and weather. And it needs to be fed and maintained to reach the right temperature." Taln paused and stared at Mitt for a moment, "Don't say duh." Mitt grinned at being so readable and laughed. "So if I take a chunk of rock from the earth, ore, that's a whole bunch of different types of djed joined together to make all those things that you do once you light that forge and temper it. Now if you have the coal which is made of djed, added to kindling, air, flint and stone, those are all those kinds of djed--magic too." The smith nodded, subconsciously leaning forward while listening. Taln drew a forge in the sand and set a tiny flame within the picture. "So when you asked if I make fire, I don't make it so much as take from the djed around me. Living things like you and me are made of a good strong magic that we dip into. I sometimes add to the fire within by using the djed around me. Ivak's blessing helps me to channel that easier." He drew trees and and a badly made Ixam and put tiny flickers of flame along each of them, tying them to the forge. "Djed, magic, energy ties it all together so that nothing truly dies, it just changes form. The coals and fire might die down to embers and ashes in the forge, but you used their energy to create a tool that makes a house or keeps a chair stable enough to sit on. Then that energy is passed on to whoever uses that item. It all ties together. You can only hate magic if you hate yourself." It felt strange to talk so long to someone, about anything that much and Taln just looked at Mitt's face, as if urging him to understand. WC 562 total wc 4,189