Summer 17, 124
The process of binding to Caelum hadn't been all that bad in hindsight. It was an incredibly terrible process, but just days later Sjal didn't feel bad at all. In fact, she felt like the connection she had with him was fairly strong. She could already breathe fire. Not just that, but there were other changes too… she just wasn't knowledgeable enough to recognize what they were.
Caelum had been of little help. He hadn't even seen Sjal since the process. He felt kind of bad about what the girl had gone through, and he also didn't fully understand their connection. The animist had told him that she could call upon his reserves. Every so often he would feel the pull to use some of his saol. He'd never said no – the amount requested was so trivially low. He always could say no if he wanted to. It felt like a dick move to deny his daughter in her learning stages, however.
They sat in different parts of Paradise. Sjal at the gate and Caelum at the top of the sequoia. Sjal just about had enough with strange visitors and was happy for the return to normalcy. A handful of women came through a portal to enter their town… and then there was the stranger.
Sjal immediately found herself on edge when he showed up. A human but they were obviously magical, with a mark on his cheek which she assumed meant he was a galdr magician.
"What do you want?" she asked pointedly.
"I'm here at the request of the dragon Caelum," he said. "He has requested someone come and initiate some people… to help with defending this place." He looked at the gate without thinking much of it. "I assume you can take me to him?"
Sjal stood, then waved her hand to create a portal of her own. "This way."
They stepped through and right into Caelum's room. He leapt from his bed with a shout. "I told you to stop doing that!" he was clothed and alone, but he still felt angry.
"I'm the one that should be mad," Sjal said back, "you wanted this guy to come initiate people?"
"Ah, that's who you are," Caelum said, letting his guard down a little. "They sent a human, eh?"
"Yes, I'm afraid my aelven master finds this sort of thing a little below their status. They have sent me, and though I am no great magician, I am capable of initiating people into Aqua."
"Aqua? That's not what I asked for," Caelum said with a shake of his head.
"Alas, I am here. If you would like me to return…"
"No, stay. I'm sure some will want to be initiated. Sjal, what do you think?"
Sjal laughed, "another magic? Isn't being bound to you and being able to make portals enough?"
"I'm not going to force you, it was merely an offer," Caelum said with a roll of his eyes.
Sjal rubbed her chin and shrugged. "How about the two of us have a little spar? If you can best me then I might have reason to take on Aqua. It might encourage others to give it a go as well."
"I'm afraid I can do little in the ways of fighting. A young woman like yourself, the daughter of Caelum? If memory serves correctly… I do not think I could win."
Caelum looked at the man. He was a little on the older side. He figured the aelves were trying to send him a message. Maybe they thought lesser of him for not being able to defend this land? They didn't have to send someone so… average. But he shook his head. He didn't want to go thinking lesser of the aelves. He felt he deserved to be ashamed for that catastrophe.
"If you can't fight then this is just a waste of time," Sjal said before stepping through a portal. She had better things to do.
[hard pivot, I know, I'm just trying to make use of these incomplete stories]
She travelled all the way back to her home city, where she knew a fletcher she was trying to learn from. She crept into her seat. She was still working on the fundamentals of fletching. She examined her arrowheads, assessing their designs by looking at them. Naturally, she had been instructed by the woodworker she was working with to use cheap wood for her arrows and stone material as a base for her arrowheads in an effort to save costs. To the ire of her employer's pets, she had disregarded her surroundings ever since she began working for the day.
She could still hear the dogs whine as they begged her to feed and tend to them while she ground the tip of the arrow to make it sharper. Sjal assessed her arrowhead again, making sure it was sharp enough. She could hear the animals, still wailing for attention but she ignored them. She was told not to indulge them or they would never learn to leave her alone.
It wasn't until she began working as a professional that she realized how terrible the life of a beginning artisan would be. It was enough to make her regret agreeing to trying out an apprenticeship. She groaned and got up, finally giving up on ignoring the animals. She fetched some leftovers from her employer's cupboards while attaching the arrowhead to the arrow. She muttered about her work in between, not paying them the attention they deserved.
Sjal stroked the top of one dog while examining an arrow. To make sure everything was there, she checked the part placement. Because it didn't have Sjal's full attention, the dog was not happy. She took out a tool and started making some adjustments.
Despite how the tools made her hands shake with repeated use she kept pounding on the arrowhead until it took on what she perceived to be the "correct' shape. There was nothing audible in the room except the banging. Sjal was so engrossed in her work and improving her skill that she hardly noticed the sound.
She lightly cut her finger as she tested the edge with her finger to see how sharp it was. Sjal reached for her mouth but stopped when she saw it was filthy. After applying a bandage to her injured finger, she resumed her work, experimenting with fresh concepts.
A waterskin was to Sjal's right at the table; she picked it up and sipped it to help cool herself down. She cooled a section by pouring the remaining water down onto the arrowhead. She fixed the remaining portion and shaped it to her vision by swiping her hammer down while it cooled. After letting it cool completely, she started to look for any potential problems.
Her haste ruined the arrowhead, as it so happened. The force she'd used had broken the shaft as well so mostly everything she had worked on thus far had been a waste of time. She used her arm to scoop everything into the garbage bin and sighed. She pulled over a book that went over the basics of fletching that she would need to reference.
Sjal went for a short stroll outside while keeping the book's pages close to her face. Her thoughts were completely absorbed in her book, absorbing every detail and picking up new skills. She bumped into her boss who was returning from a supply run.
"Shouldn't you be working?" he asked her slyly.
"I was, but I messed everything up and got frustrated," Sjal said as she peeked above the pages of the book.
"Come, show me what you did," he said.
They went back inside where Sjal showed how she repeatedly hit the metal, slowly shaping the pliable material into the desired shape. "Avoid letting it become overly cool," suggested Jinsung as he made his way to his own workstation.
"I know I know," Sjal said, clearly irritated.
Sjal shook her head, causing stress to build back up in her neck. She eased up a little and made it easier to work by rolling her shoulder. First, she examined a finished arrow, making sure that her work looked similar. After spending some time measuring length and width with her ruler, she set it aside and buried her face in her hands. She'd done a bad job, and this as going to take all day.
