Private Tales The Monster and The Burning Heart

[Zael Castomir]

Zael cocked a thumb at Ollie. "Summed it up." He smiled to Elf, cordial as could be. "Heard you're the lot from Elbion. That tr—?"

"Wait! Is that! What the—AH! Astra tickle my feet, it is you! Zael!"

Zael looked past the Elf to further in the room, toward the sound of the voice. Pretty familiar. Female voice. He didn't need to look for long because she got up from the bed, where she had been laying with her arms crossed behind her head and one leg perched on a bent knee before, and came striding up to the door, almost butting the Elf out of the way. A small girl (the Innkeep probably wouldn't have mentioned her lackluster bosom) with a impish, always-up-to-no-good face.

"Yuna," Zael said. He grinned and she grinned and they both knew their little secret. Secret. Hell, that wasn't the right word, was it? Half of Elbion got a good, if fleeting, look at them.

"Hey, Firebutt. What are you doing here? Where's Delaney?"

"Couldn't make it."

Yuna looked Olvir up and down. "Who's your friiiiend~?"

Zael gave Ollie a sidelong, pinched lips holding in a laugh look. You wanna do the honors, his expression said.

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

A brief look of surprise flickered over Ollie's face as it seemed Zael actually knew one of these students. His eyes immediately swept towards 'Yuna', who apparently took equal interest.

"Hi there." He said, keeping the smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

The other two students seemed utterly confused about what was going on, looking at the two Anirians with no small amount of suspicion. For now he ignored them, deciding that it was probably best to focus on Zael's friend.

Even if the greeting she gave him was a bit...much. "I'm Olvir."

He introduced himself before turning to Zael.

"Make friends everywhere you go, huh?" Ollie asked with a smile,

 

[Zael Castomir]

"Specialty of mine," Zael said in reply to Ollie. "Unique among Dreadlords. Big secret. Don't tell anybody."

Meanwhile, Yuna was trying out the shape of Olvir's name on her tongue. "Ollllviiirrr. Hm. Hadn't heard that one before. You wanna go streaking?"

The Elf and the other student (Herrim, Zael guessed) each made a face, ones that weren't so much ones of confusion this time around.

"Kress, Yuna, what'd I just say about big secrets?" His smirk spoke volumes to the contrary though.

She giggled, then just immediately switched subjects. "Alright, mister big bad wolf, I'm guessing you're not here for our pantry."

"Nope. Got our eyes on somethin meaner." And something hotter, namely the Burning Heart, but they didn't need to know that right now.

"Is that right?" she said to Olvir. And, impulsively, she also said to Olvir, "Can I touch your man bun?"

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Utter bewilderement flickered over his features, wondering if somehow Zael had managed to spread the story of what had happened on their journey here to far flung friends.

Or perhaps the Dreadlord was just simply fond of running around nude. "Uhh...no..."

Ollie said carefully, flickering a smile that he hoped was placating enough. The two Anirians stepped into the student's room, invited in as Zael bantered with his friend. Ollie, for his part, listened to the back and forth cocking his head ever so slightly as Yuna once again proved her eccentricity.

"Err..." He glanced at Zael. "I guess?"

His face clearly said that he would rather she not.

 

[Zael Castomir]

Zael sauntered inside the room with Ollie, noticing the sheer amount of gear the Elbion students had brought with them. Alright, maybe gear wasn't the most precise word, because all of it was suited to a studious laboratory setting: arcane tools, vials, tomes, plenty of parchment and ink, pouches of various alchemical reagents. Now that they were inside the room proper, it smelled to Zael like some kind of incense shop, probably from all of those reagents.

Yuna took the opportunity the second (or maybe a hair before the second) Ollie gave permission, hopping up and bopping his bun and tittering on the way back down.

"Who's in charge among you three?"

"I am," said the Elf.

"You Herrim?"

The Elf pointed, still a little annoyed, over to the other human, a young man with a wild mop of messy black hair and a misshapen mustache that didn't look very good at all on him. "No, that's Herrim."

"Summoning guy. Got it. And you? What's your name, hotshot?"

Flummoxed, the Elf nevertheless answered, "Gierliadel. Gier, since humans prefer their names short." He gave a quick shake of his head and wheeled on Yuna and almost demanded to know, "From where do you even know these people, Yuna?"

"Weeellll~, I only just met Olvir same as you right now. But Zael and I," she blushed, made a bashful little circle with the tip of her toe on the floor, "we're married."

While the flummoxing of Gier peaked, and even Herrim looked baffled, Yuna giggled in her high-pitched squeaky way and Zael said, "I didn't drink that much after the Ball."

Gier shook his head again, as if it were a common gesture of his in the attempt to rattle confusion physically from his mind, and then slid his gaze over to Ollie and asked, "Why are you here? Is there something you want? What did you mean by saying, 'you're our new best friends?'"

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Ollie blinked at the exchange between Zael and Yuna. His bewilderement matching that of Gier and Herrim's as the girl claimed she and the Dreadlord were married. A slight flicker of relief crossing through Ollie as Zael revealed she was joking.

Hopefully.

He didn't even want to think of what kind of nightmare Zael would have to endure if it were true. A Dreadlord Initiate marrying a student of Elbion? That would cause quite the ruckus.

Ollie wondered if his friend was even aware of that.

When the conversation turned to him Olvir only smiled. He looked at Zael briefly, and then seemed to mould into a picture of pure confidence. With a swagger he moved over to the nearby table, leaning against it and looking at the Elf. "I meant that we can help one another."

He explained.

"You, and everyone else in this town want into Rostok. Preferably while coming back alive." Including themselves of course. "I think out of everyone here, our interests and yours align the best."

Mostly because students from Elbion didn't consist of scum mercenaries, Ogres from half the world away, or outright criminals.

 

[Zael Castomir]

Zael picked right up where Olvir left off. "We complement each other. You three want a crack at the Stalker of Minds, right? For your scholarly purposes?"

"And the Burning Heart," Gier noted.

Zael, purposefully, didn't focus on that. "You ain't gonna be doin much from here. Sorry Herrim, hate to break the bad news to you. Nah, what you need is to get in there. Into Rostok. And, like Ollie said, gettin back out alive."

Gier and Herrim exchanged considering looks. Yuna bubbled up with more cheer, her broad smile suggesting she was quite happy to have Olvir and Zael's company.

"You're suggesting an alliance?" Herrim said, putting the idea out in the open.

"Yeah." Zael stepped forward toward the three students, thumbs hitched into his belt. "Look, I don't wanna sell you three short, but be honest: how much combat have each of you seen? All put together, even?"

Yuna, in her own silly way, summed it up by blowing a raspberry at him and saying, "Meanie."

Gier, tentatively, said, "Very well..." And then focusing a little more on Olvir, he added, "What is in this alliance for you?"

Zael looked back over his shoulder to Ollie. A cordial smile, almost entirely put on, because underpinning that outward smile was an inward deceptiveness. Through his eyes he was almost throwing the words at Ollie: don't mention the Burning Heart, don't mention the Burning Heart.

Gier didn't need to know that's what they were truly after. Didn't need to know until the artifact was safely in Zael's hands or Ollie's own. Finders keepers.

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

"My family has concerns in area." The words flowed from his tongue with all the ease in the world.

In the last year Ollie had done more business for his family than his own father. He was used to half truths and promises that would come up empty. Seeing where Zael was going wasn't hard, and the look in his eyes was only more of a clue.

"House Weiroon doesn't take it's investments lightly." He continued truthfully.

Ollie could see the gears beginning to churn in the students head. It was clear that they were trying to suss him out, peering at the young Noble as though they might be able to discern any lies. "Ensuring that everything goes well here is another of my fathers schemes to increase the prestige of our House."

None of what he had said was a lie, but it wasn't exactly the truth either.

House Weiroon did have Concerns in the area, it just wasn't what most people would expect from a House of trade and mercantilism. Yet the way he had spoken implied it was, and from the faces of the Elbion students he could tell all of them had drawn that conclusion.

Or something close to it.

"Personally, I think we would have been better off pulling out of the whole thing and reinvesting in Cortos but..." He trailed off with a sigh, then shrugged his shoulders.

 

[Zael Castomir]

Gier nodded slowly, glancing to Herrim and Yuna. Yuna knew that they were Anirian, and now the other two did as well. Gier, so far as Zael could tell, wasn't too perturbed. Ya know. Being an elf and all.

"Alright," Gier said with equal slowness. "I assume you're planning on going tomorrow? Like everyone else?"

"Big day, huh," Zael said.

"You bet." Yuna rocked back and forth on her feet, hands clasped behind her back. "I personally think monster hunting is stupid, because monsters are gross, but if this helps my grades?" She made a positive hand gesture and punctuated it with a click of her tongue.

"Although...if my theory is correct, we will all be primed for disappointment," Gier said.

"What theory?"

With a sharp look to Herrim, Gier elaborated, "It's so simple that I feel I can hardly take much credit for it, but, my thinking goes: how does the Stalker of Minds know when hunters are coming? Well, what if it plucks this information from the dreams it invades? Grishino is often the stop for many hunters, as you need a ferry across the Sayve to reach Rostok from this side of the Reach."

Zael stroked his chin. "And its smart enough to know which hunters to avoid. How do you figure it makes that distinction?"

Gier shrugged. "That's where my theorizing falls short."

Zael looked over to Ollie. "So...we're gonna need to lure it out then?" He smiled. "String up some kind of delicious bait it can't resist."

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Ollie listened to the back and forth for a few seconds, mulling over the theory Gier put forth.

It made sense. Why wouldn't you look into the dreams of your enemies? Though, it of course lead to the further question Zael touched upon. If this thing was intelligent enough to do that, what else could it manage to do. "Well."

He said, slowly beginning to stride around the room. One hand scratching against his cheek.

"Technically." Ollie began. "If the theory is correct, we just need to dream about some bait."

If that was how the creature was deciding where and when to go, then it would make sense to use that very skill against it. He glanced around the room at the varying mages, curiosity and ignorance both trimming his next few words. "Is that...something you can do?"

Ollie asked slowly.

 

[Zael Castomir]

"Well," Herrim began, "magic dealing with dreams isn't exactly any of our specialties, per se, but may—"

The last thing Zael wanted was to weather a barrage of College student theorizing. Not when he didn't have to. Because as it turned out, he had a little bit of an idea himself, thanks to the prompt from Ollie.

"You guys have been here a while. Where's the nearest apothecary?"

"Angrim's Apothecary!" Yuna piped up. "It's just down the street and on the left. Or maybe I'm lying. I dunno. You'll have to take me with you to find out!"

Zael snickered. Yup, that made sense. Yuna loved to be showered in attention, especially from, ahem, folks of his and Ollie's persuasion, you could say. Hell, if this kept up they were gonna inflict little Yuna here with a crippling preference for Anirian men.

Zael told Gier and Herrim to put their heads together and see if they came up with anything in the interim. Then he looked to Ollie, waved to Yuna to come along (practically prancing along behind them, was she), and started out from the room and down the hall.

"So, we got this one Initiate—well, had this one Initiate, who the fuck knows what happened—named Chasmine. Guess what her specialty was."

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Olvir listened to the back and forth discussion, deciding not to question anything as Zael made it known he had an idea of his own.

Over the last few days the young Noble had come to trust his companion. If the future fire-king of Vel Anir had a notion, then Ollie was inclined to follow along with it. Though the thought of bringing Yuna along made him cringe internally.

He was pretty sure that Elspeth would have burned the girl to cinders with just a look by now.

"Dreams!"​

Yuna guessed with a pipe of laughter from behind the two Anirians. Ollie wheeling back for a moment to glance at her before adding his own answer. "Controlling unknown monsters?"

That was a bit on the nose, but it would have been helpful by now.

Olvir wasn't sure if he would ever get used to the flippant and casual nature in which Dreadlords talked about loss. He had noticed it in all those close to him. Alistair, Zael, even Houri. The loss of Chasmine didn't seem something to be bothered about, not even an occasion to be marked.

The fact of that stabbed at Ollie's heart, and in his head he said a quiet prayer of luck for the unknown girl.

 

[Zael Castomir]

"Not bein around whenever she was actually needed," Zael answered.

He let it sink in for a few steps down the hallway.

Then burst out laughing. "I'm kiddin. Her power had somethin to do with ghosts, but her specialty was munchin on all the choice plantlife of our lovely Arethil which blows out your fuckin mind."

He started down the stairs.

"See, I bring it up because there was this one mixture that I, in one of my more adventurous moods, decided to try. And what it did was what we need."

He smiled broadly as they reached the bottom of the stairs and the Drunken Stag's common room again.

"Lucid dreamin."

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Ollie made a slightly awkward face as Zael made his joke, the words hitting that same stinging spot in his heart. He could never have imagined joking about someone who was gone. Dead or otherwise. Someone whom he had grown up with.

The noble cast no judgment on his new friend for it, but he could help but feel a flicker of pity. An odd sense of loss that Zael had to joke about such things.

"Ah." Ollie said in understanding, glancing at Yuna for a brief moment before adding. "I've never much..."

He cleared his throat. "I've been drunk obviously but beyond that..."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders as they began to move through the commons. The din of the crowd drowned out their conversation for a few moments, though Ollie began to start once again as they stepped out into the street.

"But, if it gets us what we need..." He would try something new.

 

[Zael Castomir]

"I'm not thrilled about it either," Zael said, holding open the door behind him for Yuna. "Drinkin's fine, but all that stuff Chas gets into? She can keep it. Just so happens it's exactly what we need. Funny how things work out sometimes."

"Yeah, and while we're at Angrim's, I can get exactly what I need: a love potion!" Yuna tittered again.

"No such thing," Zael said, not even knowing if that was precisely true or not. "Probably against the Laws of Magic or somethin. Didn't you study that?"

Yuna hesitated. "N-No it's not!"

"You try to make one?"

Another telling pause. "N-No. And you're just saying that because you don't want to join my harem!"

"Your wha—?"

"Olvir would join my harem, right?" Yuna declared, reaching up and smacking him on the back. Zael snickered, and figured that if they weren't out walking in the middle of the street, or if Yuna was a little tipsy, she probably would have went lower.

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

A love potion? Was that even something that could be done? Terror almost immediately spiked through the young nobles heart, a thousand worries and concerns darting his thoughts before Zael quickly dispelled the notion. Visible relief washed over Olvir, only to be immediately dashed as Yuna continued to speak.

His features colored bright red, and he quickly shook his head. "Umm, no....sorry, Yuna."

His hands waved her off and he quickly took a looong step away from the girl.

"I am engaged." Perhaps that would head off any more of this...talk. "Quite happily"

The noble offered a quick smile.

He and Elspeth were technically still betrothed, even with The Patriarch of House Sirl disapproving of his lack of achievements. As of yet he still had time to prove himself, something perhaps this fools errand would actually help with.

 

[Zael Castomir]

"Engaged, but not married." Yuna licked her lips. "Which means I still have time for a steal, hehehehe!"

"You ain't stealin nothin if you don't lead us to Angrim's," Zael said, cutting off her giggling.

"Of course! How else am I going to brew a love potion?"

"Good luck," Zael interjected.

Undeterred, Yuna pointed. "Right over there. See? Just like I said. Down the street and on the left. Aren't I trustworthy? You can always count on me!"

"Can we? Great. Can I borrow some silvers?"

Yuna's face froze, her excitement captured like the imprint of a fossil in some rock as she was baffled beneath it.

"I'm kiddin. You'll probably be borrowin silvers from us for your love potion fund."

Zael pushed open the door to Angrim's Apothecary, and like the name suggested the proprietor was a dwarf. He had a cloth rag wrapped around his head, an apron on, and presently was sat on a stool in front of a cauldron of boiling water near the back of the store's main room. As he was dumping bowls of crushed herbs into the cauldron, he looked over and raised his hand in greeting.

More than the dwarf, what struck Zael was the smell upon entering the shop. Alchemist's shops, damn, they always had this smattering of smells and all of them were pungent. Olfactory overload each and every time.

"Now I kinda wish Chas was here with us," Zael remarked to Ollie. She'd fly like a trueshot arrow right to where they needed to go, grabbing it right from the stocked shelves as if it were the only selection available.

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

"Ha...ha..." The laugh sounded as forced as it actually was, but the noble made his best attempt not to offend Yuna. They still needed her after all, but the idea of...love potions still made him distinctly uncomfortable.

Ollie followed along rather uneasily, after the last quip, moving behind Zael and stepping into the shop.

A myriad of smells almost immediately assaulted his nose, it's bridge crinkling as he frowned. "Well, at least we know we're in the right place."

He remarked, watching as Yuna traipsed further into the shop and began to peruse the shelves. Greeting the shopkeeper with a wave and a quick word.

"Where uhh..." Ollie said as he tugged his friend back for a moment, glancing at Zael and letting his voice drop to a whisper. "Where did you meet this girl again?"

The obvious answer was of course, Elbion, but that wasn't really what Olvir was asking. "She seems a little..."

 

[Zael Castomir]

"Voracious?" Zael finished, matching Ollie's tone while Yuna yapped Angrim's ear off further in the store. "Because that's absolutely right."

Now, Zael hadn't had the occasion to see the inside of her room at the College (he would have taken it though if the opportunity presented itself, he was a daredevil after all), but he could imagine that there was probably something ridiculous in it like a wall full of artists' drawings and paintings of boys she had her eye on. And, well, it was an overworked eye to say the least.

"And I met her while streakin in Elbion."

Goddamn was it hard to just keep a straight face at that, but it was way more hilarious to do that and let the answer sink in all on its own.

Zael stepped forward and looked over the shelves, trying to jog his memory on just what it was that Chas had spiked the—

"Tea," Zael said aloud, then looked over to Ollie, "you know how to make some good tea?"

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Ollie gave Zael a look that was in no small part filled with concern.

"You really like running naked in public, don't you?" He asked, his voice something of a mixture between wonder and utter bewilderment. Fingers coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he lamented the colorful characters who had filled his life.

And found himself at the end, none the more sorry for it.

"No." He admitted. "I mean I know how to make tea."

Ollie said with a shrug. "But good tea is a bit of an art. I'm afraid I had..."

He gave Zael an awkward look. "People for that."

It was hard to remember here out in the middle of nowhere, but the dichotomy between them was still vast. Zael had grown up in the Academy, languishing under the tirade of brutal Proctors and fighting to survive a life set against him. Ollie? He'd been mistreated, had nothing resembling a loving family save for his sister, but he was still a noble.

He'd still had servants, lived in a manor, and never wanted for much save the scraps of affection a normal child would have had.

"But we'll manage." Ollie said, stepping forward towards the counter. "Can't be that hard."

Probably.

 

[Zael Castomir]

Zael was the undisputed king of being shirtless (pants sometimes included). Once he graduated, somebody in the so-called "Gilded Class" behind him would have to take up that crown. But that was a worry for other Initiates elsewhere.

But onto the tea.

"That's alright, I've knocked back tankards of swill before," Zael replied as he walked alongside Ollie up toward the counter, lips pressed into a thin line of suppressed mirth. Then he lovingly elbowed Ollie in the side.

Meanwhile, Yuna had been going on to Angrim about a list of ingredients completely unrelated to the matter at hand, because when she noticed Zael and Olvir had come close she said, "Oh, yeah, what do you have to help with dreaming?"

Angrim barked out a laugh. "You and everybody else in town wants something like that, but I'll tell you what I told them: it only makes it worse."

"I was hopin you'd say that," Zael said.

Angrim narrowed her brow quizzically.

"We're not lookin for any old concoction for dreamin. We need somethin to help us do somethin called 'lucid dreamin.' You ever heard of that?"

"Aye, I know what that is. And you all would be damned fools for trying that here in Grishino, but your coin'll spend just like anybody else's I suppose."

"Friend of mine had this herb or mixture that went into tea. Tasted sweet mostly, but with a sour aftertaste. I think it began with an 'A'..."

"Ahvelian berry," Angrim said, and Zael snapped his fingers in recognition. "The crushed seeds need to be heated in boiling water for a good five minutes, then cooled quickly. And your friend was right, it's mostly served in tea. My stock hasn't been touched since the Stalker appeared in Rostok. Here, give me a second, it's in the back."

As Angrim slipped off of his stool and shuffled over toward his storeroom, Zael looked to Ollie and said a bit cheekily, "Well. What kind of dreams do you reckon the Stalker likes to eat?"

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Ollie watched Yuna out of the corner of his eyes, reminding himself not to eat or drink anything Yuna offered him for...well probably forever just to be safe. He had absolutely no intention of ending up in anyone's Harem.

"We know that it uses dreams as a way of scouting out hunters." He reminded Zael, though that didn't really answer the Dreadlord's question.

A frown touched his face for a brief moment as he considered. Dreaming was not something he'd ever much thought about aside from the norm. Concern over a nightmare here, wonderings of his own mind there, beyond that they had simply been...well, a part of a nights rest. No more than that.

He turned towards the shopkeep. "Is there anything in...particular people complain about lacking in their dreams?"

Ollie asked.

"Eh? Well...most people just complain about havin' nightmares now."​

The young noble considered for a moment, fingers tapping on his chin.

"Perhaps the stalker eats dreams that are happy. Joyful." He pointed out. "Most of these hunters probably dream of success, glory. Ways of how they could win."

It would make sense if that was how the Stalker learned of how it would actually be hunted. "So, maybe we just have to dream...happily."

He said with a shrug.

 

[Zael Castomir]

"That's the most wholesome thing I ever fuckin heard," Zael said. It was something of a joke, yeah, but...not really. Many a truth was hidden in jest, the saying went, and there was some truth to that he said and how he felt alright.

Fuck, man, you could even say he was a little moved by that. Really struck him right in the heart of how he tried to conduct himself, turning the negative on its head and into the positive. And it was just so different to everything he was used to in the Academy and the missions he had been sent on. Yeah, sure, the goal was to attract the attention of a monster so it'd stop by and say hello once they were in Rostok, but the means of doing that were unprecedented.

Then Yuna had to ruin it by hauling off and slapping Zael hard on the back.

"Leave it to me! I'll make sure you're extra happy. I make a great pillow, and—"

"No, Yuna."

"Teeheehee! Just being shy because your friend is here, huh?"

As Zael was getting out the coins to pay for the Ahvelian berries, he said casually, "Look, Yuna, one day I'll fuck your brains out—"

Angrim nearly choked in his surprise.

"—but I won't tell you what day that'll be. Keep you guessin."

Yuna was stunned silent, her face frozen with a dropped jaw, big smile from her previous giggling, and eyebrows reaching to the roof of her forehead.

Zael collected the bag of Ahvelian berries, tipped a little two finger salute to Angrim, and then turned and made for the door. Ah, Yuna'll catch up when she gets done processing that.

"So," he said to Ollie, "I guess we got to start thinkin happy thoughts."

Olvir

 

[Olvir]

Ollie couldn't help the snort that sprang from him as Zael spoke. Had he been taking a sip of something he would have spat it out all over the place. A hand immediately covered his face and he tried to hide the smile on his features.

Something like this would have made Nobles in the Golden Rose utterly Aghast. Zael likely would have been shunned from society, and if Ollie ever said anything of the sort to Elspeth? Well the world would practically come down.

But he couldn't help keep the slight laughter in his throat down.

Since meeting her he had not once thought that Yuna could be silenced, but one comment from Zael and she was apparently as dumbstruck as could be.

He took a long breath, trying not to chortle as he rubbed his face and looked up at Zael. He quickly fell into step with with the other boy, his head shaking for a moment as he slipped an arm around the Initiate. "Okay, listen."

Ollie said, his voice still filled with amusement.

"I think I'm going to teach you a little bit about being a Lord. If you ever want to join our illustrious ranks." He continued, still more than a little amused. "I think we'll start with decorum."

 

[Zael Castomir]

"Hey man, I'm all ears," Zael said, grinning eagerly. And, yeah, somewhere behind them Yuna had managed to get a hold of herself and come out of Angrim's shop and catch up. Zael didn't know what kind of look she had on her face since she was behind them, but it probably wasn't as priceless as it was back in the shop.

"I think anybody can learn how to do just about anythin, if you give em enough time. And me? I think I can be illustrious."

A laugh then, wheezing, all the air sucked in and caught in the back of his throat before it came out in staggered ha's.

"You know, there's this noble girl at the Academy: Kristen Pirian. I tried on her accent and her way of talkin for a week!" He felt the need to explain: "It was a bet."

He left out the part where he had lost said bet. How the hell was he supposed to know it was pronounced Everlee instead of Everlay? His first encounter with Everleigh's name was in written form (hey, at least the Academy taught him how to read!) and, well, he just assumed everybody else was wrong. He was the only Initiate in the Academy from the little backwater of Tarrow, though, and it was just how he spoke.

To his current point though, yeah, people could learn. Learn all sorts of new ways and things.

"But yeah, felt real illustrious. I got some decorum in me you can tease out."

Olvir Everleigh Ebersol