Fall 15, 122
There were crates all around the floor when Makt reported for his first day as a laborer. In his conquest to start his own jewelry business he found out that he was woefully underfunded for such an endeavor. The sting of being told that he was too poor to pursue his dream was a painful one indeed. Nevertheless, he had a solution – he would have to stat using magic to earn some extra money.
He had spent some time getting accustomed to using his zephyr feeling and he felt as though he could put his magic to good use. While he had applied for a simple job, he would be effectively pushing himself around town in order to deliver goods. "My only worry is that I might be vomiting onto all the packages," he would think as he picked up some contents of the first crate.
Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to push himself with wind again. Last time he had done so he had ended up heaving up everything he had eaten and then some. The act of moving with the wind had gotten easier, but the queasiness associated with it had not. Then there was the matter of causing inadvertent damage. At the time, Makt had resolved to be less open with his magic, but he had since realized that doing so was wishing for too much. If he was going to build a reputation as a useful mage then he needed and wanted people to know how powerful he was becoming.
"Are you just going to stand there all day," the boss called, "I appreciate you coming in early, but if you're just going to stand there then why don't you come back later?"Makt gave the man an uneasy look and wanted to burst out into anger. "If only he knew the kinds of jewels I could make. If only I had the status. He wouldn't dare talk to me like some kid."
He could sense the man's emotions and it was as calm as could be. Makt envied him. He was dressed in the finest silks and jewels and had such a comfortable life that he needn't worry about anything. The jealousy started to build up within Makt until he had to quite literally wrench himself away from the situation before his urge to use fathom got too intense. Makt gave the boss a nod then hurried out of the room.
Inside the box was an assortment of smaller packages and letters. They were all addressed to locals which was all Makt was willing to deliver to. He had made it quite clear that he had no intention of traveling outside of town to deliver mail. Makt looked at the first address of a heavy package and read that it was for the library. This was a place he was quite familiar with so he would be able to easily picture its location his mind. He started to form a swirl of wind and lifted himself into the air. He lifted up quickly and Makt felt the onset of the queasiness. It wasn't as bad as last time - he didn't vomit no matter how much he felt like doing so.
Makt looked around and notied that quite a few people were looking at him. He hadn't been there a split second before and it didn't help that Makt had been swept right in the middle of the trail. He was lucky, if anything, that nothing was coming at him at that very moment. He hurried to the side of the walk way and thought about where he should fly to next. He was a bit frightened to push again for fear that he might get run into or crushed by the weight of a cart. "Was my idea completely worthless" he would think to himself as he looked around. "What if I push myself too high?" Never in his life did he even think he would go slamming onto a roof, but there was a first time for everything!
The young man would stare up at a wooden house and take a look at its roof. He didn't know anything about roofs but he assumed they must be somewhat stable if people climbed up there to do repairs. The only cons, in his mind, would be falling off or getting in trouble for accidental property damage. That, and people probably wouldn't want him up there anyways.
Makt started to wonder if he could even reliably push himself up to a roof if he couldn't see the exact location. He tossed out his aether and felt around, but he was unable to direct the ether to a place that he couldn't see. "That's a bummer." Makt groaned and decided he would only aim to push in luls of foot traffic. This would be a little faster than walking and would be a lot less stressful on his muscles which were already starting to whine about carrying the packages.
Makt focused on an empty spot on the walkway, then pushed to it. He didn't give himself a moment to think and quickly ascertained his next destination. His aether was quick swirly around him and pushing Makt through the air. It wasn't long before Makt arrived at the library, sweating like mad. It wasn't so much that he was physically tired, but he was draining aether that he wasn't quite efficient at using yet.
His body felt unnaturally weak and every push had come with more and more fear of messing up. Nevertheless, he had arrived at his destination and he was able to place the package on a counter. The talkative librarian was even more interested in Makt than ever now that he had survived two galdr initiations. She made every effort to make Makt stay, but he was determined to not stay longer than necessary.
Looking at the rest of the packages it was clear to see that the young man was nowhere near done for the day. Even so, he was disciplined enough to know that he had a duty to carry out. He would deliver the remaining packages on foot and do his best to avoid using any more magic for the day. He wasn't sure what his limits were quite yet. He didn't have a headache, which was the most commonplace side effect he had gotten from fathom. That meant that something else was probably happening to him that he had not yet caught onto.
It was midday before Makt finished the bulk of the packages. Whereas most of his coworkers were on their second or third box, Makt was having trouble just finishing one box. Part of it was the exhaustion but most of it was his lack of knowledge of the town's shortcuts. Sure he knew how to get to most places, but only via main paths. "I wonder if some day I will be able to fly directly across town and not have to walk at all. That would be a dream come true."
As the young man sat and rested, he wondered about what was even inside these packages. He assumed the library's package had been a set of books judging by their shape and weight. However the rest of these were quite small. He held one package out in front of him and was surprised when he no longer saw the package at all. He now saw a neatly folded shirt, but how was this possible?
Makt did a double take and saw that in his hurry to practice zephyr, he'd accidentally opened some of the packages. It was an odd realization to say the least. Now he wondered how much he'd dropped as he'd walked around. He would have to hope that he hadn't dropped anything.
For now, he had to hurry up and finish delivering what he could. It only took him a couple more hours because the day started to wind down. When he was finally finished he returned the package holder to where he started and got his butt chewed out by his disappointed boss. If only he hadn't made that stupid promise to himself to not use any more metaphor, he would have twisted that man's emotions as much as he could without any worry about mageburn.
"This is even less than I made when I started out working at the jewelry shop," Makt would realize when he received his day's pay. "Just think about the goal I guess. Every extra bit of money helps out in the long run."
