Sain was immediately met by a cloud of dust that puffed up from the carpeted floor as the door swept out over it and he raised a hand to his nose to stop a sneeze. Casting his gaze about, Sain found as expected, his master huddled in the corner of the small room, his nose buried in a stack of papers on his desk and quietly muttering to himself. Sain dropped his hand from his nose as the dust settled once more and cleared his throat noisily, waiting patiently for acknowledgement of his presence.
One of his first ever lessons from Clyde Sedious had been in patience and at the time Clyde had been keen to share his knowledge with Sain until he realized the boy did not even know how to read and write. That had quickly changed as had the nature of Sain's other lessons. Sain's reason for apprenticing to the crazy old man before him had merely been the best option at the time. His poor single parent father had only been able to send Sain's older brother Niall to a military academy in the imperial capital city of Gestonia for an education, and was unable to afford to send Sain to a mage tower for magical tuition. As Clyde was an independent researcher and magi, he had been happy to take on Sain. The youth had learnt little more than the bare basics of magic from Clyde over the past year, but just knowing how to read and write in Rindai was a blessing and Sain was not one to decline such advantages.
The old man seemed to sense he was not alone anymore and looked up, squinting through the spectacles he wore on his old weathered face. He turned and after a moment saw Sain patiently standing a few meters away. As recognition dawned on the old man, he spluttered and flapped his hands in panic before turning back to his desk and hastily put some of his papers into a drawer before he locked it.
"Oh hello, Sain, I didn't see you there, oh dear what time is it, have you been here a while?" stammered Clyde in a rush, no doubt he was trying to make conversation to hide whatever illegal research that Sain had once again interrupted. The professor had been known to do things for many underground organization’s and that was why he had been unable to gain a position in many of the universities and mage towers, as well as the fact that he was considered by many to be slightly insane due to his past research into higher planes of existence.
"No sir, I only just arrived, I was running a little late" Sain replied, rolling his eyes as the old man fumbled around.
"Hmm, that's good, very good" replied Clyde as he turned back to his desk, not really paying attention to what Sain was actually saying.
Sain just looked over the man, wondering about him as usual. He still didn’t know how old the old bastard was. He was a short man, bent by age and always seemed to walk with a stoop. He had long thin hair, tied back and gathered in a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was thin and his hands resembled claws more than anything else. His face was a mass of wrinkles, and his eyes were mere slits, only dual flashes of a brilliant green could be seen, revealing that he actually had eyes. And then there was his perpetual expression, one that was continually changing between irritation and confusion, depending on what time of day it was. Sain puffed out some air then and stood straight, his shoulders squared as he dredged up some courage to speak, to ask a request of Clyde.
"Excuse me sir. I was sort of wondering if you would perhaps, maybe be able to teach me some more about magic maybe. Because you haven't had me doing much lately really and I’ve finished all the tasks that you gave me in the factory as well sir" he stammered out in a nervous rush of words, expecting to be shot down as usual. Clyde only really taught him anything about magic when it was time for some sort of crazy half assed experiment and really seemed to resent that too, as if it was all Sain's fault.
Clyde turned completely to face Sain, bent almost double, his hands snaking around to clasp behind the small of his back. His gaze wandered up and down Sain’s figure, seemingly inspecting him. After a moment he frowned and spoke.
"Ah yes, as Dowell told me yesterday, you did a good job with the crystal binding. He was quite happy with you actually. He has a new batch that arrived early this morning. If you would like to help him with that later today, he would be quite appreciative" came Clyde’s response as he turned away once more and shuffled over to a cupboard on the far wall.
Slumping his shoulders, Sain released a disappointed sigh and cast his gaze at the floor muttering under his breath before looking up.
"Yes sir, I suppose I can do that, it’s no trouble at all".
Clyde nodded as he plucked a book from the shelf and turned it, blowing a line of dust from the books spine. He either completely missed or ignored the disappointment in Sain's voice, and instead lifted the book to wave it over his shoulder.
"Do you know this book boy" Clyde asked of Sain, waving it somewhat at the youth from over his shoulder. Sain frowned and stepped forward, his hand reaching out to grab it. He looked it over, and swept a hand over the dusty cover so he could see the letters that made up the books name. He stared at it a few moments and frowned further as he tried to decipher the strange font of the letters.
"Uh, 'The History of Power'. It is a history of energy sources. I think" Sain stated flipping the book over and tried to read the blurb for more information, but the lettering seemed to be faded.
"Yes boy. That is correct. It covers all the significant breakthroughs in power generation in the last one hundred years. Read chapters fifteen through eighteen. I'll be asking you questions tomorrow about them" Clyde stated as he started shuffling papers around his desk once more. Sain groaned inwardly. He hated homework.
Clyde seemed to pick up on it and sighed dramatically before lifting a hand and making a shooing gesture with it in a form of dismissal. Sain snorted, familiar with the gesture and started towards the door with the intention to leave, but stopped as Clyde spoke out with his back turned.
"And be here bright and early tomorrow morning my boy, I’ll be needing your help for some magical experiments. That book is relevant to what we will be doing and I will be very annoyed if you haven’t read what I told you. Now, go help Dowell" Clyde stated before focusing his full attention back onto his desk, finally dismissing Sain completely.
Sain let out a sort of strangled grunt right as he exited the room and made his way downstairs to the lower level of the building amid mixed feelings of guilt and excitement. Guilt at the realization that Clyde wasn't as senile as Sain had thought, and excitement at the prospect of a future experiment. As a weapons researcher, Clyde's experiments usually meant blowing something up and even if they nearly always resulted in failure it would still be an entertaining day.
He reached the bottom floor and immediately headed outside into the complex as he swung his back pack off of his shoulders and stuffed his homework book into one of the pouches. Swinging the bag back onto his shoulders, Sain made his way to the administration office a short walk away and stepped inside. Sain approached the front desk and asked the clerk where Dowell was. The clerk looked at Sain with what was evident shock, not having expected to have seen the youth most likely. She unsteadily pointed the youth in the right direction before getting distracted by someone calling out from another room behind her.
Sain didn’t wait to confirm with the office lady if that location was correct, and instead left the office, making his way towards the warehouse in the eastern area of the factory. Within minutes he heard the familiar shouts of the workers trying to hear each other over the noise made by the crystal saws. Turning the corner Sain saw the workers cutting the newest batch of crystal into manageable lumps.
Hearing a shout to his right, Sain saw Dowell directing some workers that were moving the cut crystals away on trolleys. As Sain approached the scene he yelled a greeting to the older man who whipped his head around in Sain's direction, and with his usual dour look blanketing his face, Dowell strode to meet Sain whilst mopping his brow with a stained rag.
"What can I do for you son, Clyde want something as usual does he?" asked the sweaty Dowell, his gaze not even wavering over Sain’s tired looking state. If the man noticed, he sure as hell didn’t show
it. Instead, he was straight to business as usual.
"No sir, he's busy and has no time for me at the moment, he said you may have some work for me though" Sain stated as he looked around at the workers. All of them were busy with work, not slacking in the least. Most of these men were paid fairly well, yet they had to earn every piece of cash with hard labor.
"I certainly have some crystals needing bonding if you'd be happy to help. Tires the others too quickly see and we've had more work than usual lately" Dowell said as he smiled the look more grisly than pleasing due to the amount of soot embedded in the lines of his face.
"I would greatly appreciate it if you could go to furnace three and do the large crystals there. My boys can handle the small stuff pretty well, and when you're done speak to the office clerk. Linda has some money for you. I know I’m not supposed to pay you, but you have been helping me out a lot recently and I owe you a bit for that" Dowel said rather gruffly and awkwardly. The man was large and in his late forties, and always seemed to have great trouble expressing his gratitude. He just stared at Sain, waiting for some sort of response. His gaze was almost creepy to the youth.
Sain nodded and stepped back, flashing a small toothy smile at Dowel before lifting a hand to run it through his hair and down the back of his neck.
"Thanks a lot Dowell. That’s great of you, I will get right on those crystals" answered Sain as he stepped away even further. Being Clyde's apprentice meant that Sain was not a worker at the factory even if Clyde was the owner of the business. Clyde had no interest in it however and left it up to Dowell to manage. All he cared about was that he had funding for his research and a place to conduct his studies and experiments in.
Sain turned away, a hand being lifted to wave at Dowel as he practically sprinted off, feeling like the man was still watching him. He turned once and actually looked back, noticing that Dowel still was watching even though Sain was one hundred or so meters away. He shuddered and turned a corner, making his way down to the end of the complex and then to the building nestled in the southwest corner of the boundary wall.
Arriving at the furnace three building, Sain wasted no time going inside, offering greetings to the few workers that were milling about its entrance and packing finished crystals into a truck. Sain moved into the building proper and went to the change rooms where he found a fire suit, meant to protect him from the heat of the furnace. He found an empty locker and threw his bag into that before stripping off his outer clothes, leaving him in a dirty singlet and pair of black briefs. Unrolling the fire suit, he looked it over. It was old and tattered. It was essentially an orange set of overalls and was thick and heavy. He didn’t know what it was made of, and only really cared if it did the job. Sain looked over it for holes and finding none, pulled the thing over himself, his boots fitting through the legs with ease.
The suit was far too big on him and quite loose. But seeing as most fourteen year olds didn’t work in this sort of environment, it was expected most suits would not fit him. Sighing, Sain made his way out of the locker room and nodded to some workers coming from the opposite direction. They smiled right back, no doubt recognizing him even as the remained quiet. Sain could see the exhaustion etched in their features. It wasn’t long before Sain stepped into the main furnace where he saw three other workers already at work. They were struggling with the bonding of an eight foot tall crystal, one that would be used to power one of the cities grids for a week or two. Being as large as it was, meant that it would take far longer to fill with energy, requiring more effort on the workers part, and they seemed to be tiring fast.
Sain watched them for a short moment as two stood a few meters from the crystal and the furnace it was sitting in. They were both chanting methodically whilst the third worker was driving a large bellows into the furnace with his legs. As Sain watched, one of Clyde’s earliest lessons sprang forth from his memory. He had been told that every human being was born capable of using magic, just on different scales. The vast majority of humans however could only store and call on a small amount of magic within their bodies, which would replenish over time aided by a healthy diet much like physical energy.
The spell required for the bonding did not use much magical energy but as the average person did not have a large repository within themselves, they could only cast the spell a limited number of times let alone maintain it for an extended period of time. Sain had been born with a repository of magic many times larger than the average person and that was why he had been accepted as Clyde's apprentice. If his repository had been even an average size he would not even have been considered as a pupil. Having such a large repository meant that he could easily handle magical jobs that the average human being could not.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Sain approached the visibly struggling workers and spoke out, his voice loud as he launched into his chanting.
"Fire into thee. Fire stay in thee. Fire into energy I demand of thee" Sain intoned, his spell taking charge of the binding and freeing the workers from their ordeal, they nodded their thanks as they recognized Sain and stepped away to rest, their shoulders drooping tiredly. Once the opening chant was finished, Sain locked his attention onto the crystal in the furnace, so that his mind did not stray from his intent. Sain simply started to whisper the spell quietly to himself, concentrating as he stood a safe distance away from the furnace, not even realizing when the man driving the bellows swapped out with another worker.
Chapter 3
* * *
Sain trudged along the road towards his home utterly spent. After he had finished the first crystal he had managed to do another three similar sized ones which had taken over an hour each. Covered in soot he had gone to the office clerk and asked in a croaky voice for his promised money. He had been handed an envelope with two hundred dinars in it. The money was a rather generous amount for a fourteen year old that wasn't even on the books and Sain wasn't going to complain. It was a welcome bonus to the money Clyde gave him every week as an apprentice.
Sain got to the end of the block and turned right into the small yard on the corner that served as the entrance to the four story building full of units that he and his father lived in. He staggered up the stairs to the third story and made his way to a door in the middle. He fumbled around for his keys, hands patting at all his pockets until he found them in the back of his jeans. Sticking the right one in the door, he turned the handle and pushed the door open. Stepping inside expecting to see his father watching T.V. in the living room, but instead was just about knocked off of his feet as a shape slammed into him and picked him up off the ground. He let out a shocked sort of gurgling protest as he was spun around a full three sixty before being unceremoniously dumped on the sofa against the left wall. Looking up rather dazed, he saw the same cheeky grin he had grown to love in his childhood, the face of his elder brother Niall. Five years his senior, at the age of nineteen, Niall was a tall young man beginning to fill out into his frame. He had the same brown eyes and a darker hair color than Sain's blond hair.
Sain stared at Niall incredulously for a few moments, and unable to stand the mocking face of his brother any longer Sain grabbed a pillow off of the sofa and hurled it at Niall, who artfully dodged it before launching forward and grabbing Sain, forcing him into a wrestling match. Exhausted and smaller as he was, Sain was soon overpowered by his sibling who then sat astride Sain's waist barely out of breath, who just lay there, quite uncomfortable with his back pack squished under him.
With the same cheeky grin plastered across his face, Niall spoke first.
"Is this how you greet your brother after you haven't seen him for months?"
"Well, I would have liked to have hit you with a few more pillows you big oaf, but I’ll let you claim this victory for now" panted Sain from his position as the victim. Standing up Niall helped Sain to his feet before giving him a hug and rubbing his soot covered hair.
"You're dirty little brother, go wash before dinner, da's cooking it now" Niall stated,
a smirk tugging at is lips.
With a grunt Sain shoved off his brother, eliciting an amused laugh before he headed to his room. He grabbed a few clothes from the top of one of his many piles and deposited his bag before heading off for a shower. Not fifteen minutes later he was seated at the dinner table with Niall and his father Regas.
Regas had once been an ace pilot of the Gestonian Empire and served in military conflicts around the world, but after the death of his wife ten years ago, he had retired to raise his sons. As an uneducated commoner, Regas had not been able to advance in rank and had sold his house to afford Niall a good education. With little money left, he had been forced to move into the slums with Sain three years ago and after he had lost his last job he had resorted to alcohol. That had nearly ruined their livelihood as he accumulated a debt to the resident mafia, the beneficiary of the blue fang and many other smaller gangs. After a run in with his debtors Regas had sworn off alcohol altogether and had been steadily paying back his debt for the last six months, any money Sain had earned going towards it.
Looking at his father now, Sain could clearly see how the years had affected his once vital father. His brown hair was heavily streaked with gray, he had sunken cheeks and blotchy skin from abuse of alcohol. He walked with a stoop, and was often ill from over work as a laborer.
Sain sat there, the left side of his head still sporting an angry bruise and now out for all to see since he had washed off the layer of soot. It was an awkward silence and he could sense both Niall and their father watching him as he spooned some of dinner's soup into his bowl. Breaking a chunk of bread from the loaf in the table’s center, he looked at them and initiated a conversation.
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