Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

«And I still can’t imagine why,» Zorian said, not taking his eyes off the tiny blue mushrooms he was currently grinding into more powder. «I stock your lab with ingredients, and you let me be your assistant while you do your work. You get to save a little money on reagents and I get some practical alchemical experience. What on earth is predatorial about that? Here.»

He thrust the powdered mushrooms to the white-haired boy, who sighed in defeat and went back to work. Zorian took the time to look around the workshop without being too blatant about it.

Kael’s workshop was pretty amazing considering it was really just a basement that Imaya donated to the boy so he could convert it to his purposes. Setting it up was the first thing Kael did after moving into the place, with Imaya being surprisingly unconcerned about a mere academy student working with dangerous magical concoctions right under her home. ‘Ilsa assured me Kael knows what he’s doing,’ she said. Well, he probably did, but still. As for equipment, it was loaned to Kael by the academy authorities. According to Kael, it was rather outdated, but the morlock couldn’t afford to be picky and was lucky to get anything at all.

«I just don’t think the price of restocking my workshop is worth whatever experience you’re going to get,» Kael said, pouring boiling water into the powder-filled container and adding some weird little black balls that Zorian didn’t recognize. «In fact, considering how good you are at this I should probably be paying you for the help.»

«Don’t worry about it,» Zorian repeated, hoping this time it would stick. He couldn’t exactly tell the boy that his savings account would spontaneously refill when the loop restarted, so it was hard to explain why money wasn’t too important for him.

Overall, his interaction with Kael was a lot friendlier this time around. Grudgingly, he had to admit Kirielle had a lot to do with it — she hit it off with Kana pretty quickly, despite the other girl being practically a baby, which seemed to put Kael at ease with both of them. After that, the two of them discovered they got along pretty well and Zorian decided to help the morlock with his alchemy and learn something at the same time. Which led to their current situation.

«This whole situation is terribly strange,» Kael said after a minute of silence. «Not in a bad way, though. Kana is the happiest I have seen her in a while. I really am grateful to your sister for everything she has done for her, by the way.»

«To be honest, I’m not sure how long it’s going to last,» Zorian admitted. «For now she finds Kana cute, and probably finds it pleasing to have someone pay attention to her with such rapt attention. She tends to get bored really quickly, though. And in any case, she’s only in Cyoria temporarily while my family is off visiting my brother in Koth.»

«Well that’s too bad,» Kael sighed. Then he smirked at Zorian. «Though I supposed you’ll be relieved when she finally leaves.»

«Well, who knows,» Zorian said. «We’ll see how things go. She’s not so bad right now, so maybe she won’t be a total pest like she usually is. I’m hoping some of your daughter’s attitude will rub off on her in time.»

«Oh, that would be such a pity,» Kael said. «It would be a shame for such a lively girl to lose her spark of life. I myself wish Kana had some of that boundless enthusiasm.»

«Shall we trade, then?» offered Zorian.

«No,» Kael snorted. «Fetch me the water celery and be quiet for a while. I need to concentrate on this part.»

And so Zorian stood in silence and watched Kael work, and thought about what the rest of the month would bring.

Chapter 015 Busy Friday

Zorian felt the mana-charged marble approaching him, but didn’t move. He couldn’t tell whether it was aimed to the left or to the right, but he knew it wasn’t aimed at his forehead. He could always tell when it was. Always. He wasn’t sure how he could tell that with absolute certainty when he could not actually pinpoint where the marble was going, but he was grateful for it. He just wished he could replicate that success to the exercise in general.

The marble whizzed past him and he struggled to identify on which side it passed him by.

«Left,» he tried.

«Wrong,» Xvim said in a disinterested tone. «Again.»

Another marble was thrown towards him. This one wasn’t aimed at his forehead either. Not that surprising, really — Xvim stopped doing that when he realized Zorian could identify those with perfect accuracy. It wouldn’t do to give Zorian free points, after all.

«Right,» he said.

«Wrong,» Xvim immediately responded. «Again.»