Seeing is Believing (18 page)

"Ah," Nesfir replied intelligently. "So there are magician schools, too?"

"Yes," Asahi answered slowly, giving Nesfir a curious look. "And for the other types of magic too."

"Of course," Nesfir agreed, returning to his chopping.

Asahi was quiet a moment before continuing, and Nesfir focused on chopping and not on thinking.

"The schools are mostly sponsored by the government," Asahi said, fiddling with one of the cuffs of his worn shirt. "You go to school, learn your magic, and then you're employed by the government for a set number of years, depending on how much you could contribute to the fees for your education. My parents paid my fees. All of them, so I didn't have to go into the combat fields or worse."

"Combat fields?" Nesfir asked, curious and unable to stop himself from asking questions even if he was half-afraid he'd make Asahi clam up because of them.

"The great entertainment of Osamu," Asahi said derisively. "They pit witches against each other and make them fight until one of them yields, passes out, or dies."

"What?" Nesfir nearly sliced through his finger in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes," Asahi grumbled, sinking lower in his chair. He didn't meet Nesfir's gaze, staring at the far wall instead. "Except the magicians, since their magic is healing. They only have to heal the combat field wounds. Just as bad, I think."

"And no one protests?" Nesfir asked incredulously, shaking his head. And he'd thought the witches here had it bad.

"No. They get lots of schooling and practice, and there's always a chance you'll get to do something more glamorous. Serving the royal family is always a favorite for conjurers and sorcerers." Asahi shrugged, glancing back at Nesfir and smiling wryly again. "Besides, most witches
want
to know as much as possible about how to use their powers."

Nesfir fell silent, digesting this. He could understand that, but the idea of being forced to fight after? That was a strong deterrent.

"What if you don't go to school?" Nesfir asked, cautiously resuming his chopping. "Or if you try to skip out of the required combat after?"

"If you don't go, you're considered unrefined scum. You still have the mark, but it's only when you graduate that you get the color to your mark and any awards or respects you've won displayed. If you haven't gotten the color, then you're either a novice, a drop-out, or haven't learned, and no one respects those stages," Asahi answered, and the chair creaked again as he stood up and crossed the room to where Nesfir was working.

"There is no getting out of it, either," Asahi continued, and Nesfir met his eyes, knife stilling again. "If you try to get out of it, you're caught and punished by 'serving' longer. Besides, it's a mark of respect and achievement when you have been to the combat fields and survived. A few of the witches in Osamu do nothing with their lives but spend years in the combat fields. They like it."

"It doesn't sound like much fun to me," Nesfir observed. "So you didn't have to do that?"

"No." Asahi leaned over the counter, frowning as he snagged a piece of the carrot Nesfir was chopping. "My parents paid for school for me. They decided they wanted me to do something else. They're silk merchants, which is how they could afford it. But then they—well, my mother, because my father takes care of the financials and permits for it while my mother worries about procurement and transport. But she wanted me to start
making
silk for them, so they didn't have to transport it as far."

"And you didn't want to?" Nesfir interpreted, pulling out a few plates and stacking the salads on them.

"Not really. I would've done it anyway, but they were going to sell them as though they were the real thing. Making something with magic takes away some of the value," Asahi explained. "They'd have to sell for cheaper, even though the silk is essentially the same."

"Very honorable of you," Nesfir said solemnly, earning a brief roll of the eyes as he broke off two chunks of bread for them. "So they kicked you out and you came here?"

"Essentially," Asahi grumbled, watching Nesfir drizzle oil over the greens curiously. Nesfir just smiled and nudged a plate towards Asahi across the counter.

"Nothing special, but I can try better for dinner if you stay that late," Nesfir told him with another, wider smile.

"It's fine," Asahi replied absently, immediately picking up the chunk of bread. Nesfir turned, grabbing a pair of forks.

"Stay here a moment," Nesfir directed, heading to the corner where the trapdoor to the root cellar was. It didn't take him long to climb down and locate a fresh jug of cider. Asahi would appreciate that, especially if all he'd been drinking was tea, even if it was delicious tea.

Asahi was picking at his salad when Nesfir returned, looking pensive and a little worried. Nesfir let it be for the moment—certainly Asahi shouldn't have anything to worry about, but that never actually worked in practice.

"So, I'm not a great chef," Nesfir began, setting down the jug of cider and moving to fetch a few cups from his cabinets. "But I'm a little better than you, I think."

Asahi scowled, but said nothing.

"So if you ever find yourself lacking a meal, you're welcome to come here and I'll make sure you are fed," Nesfir concluded, passing Asahi a cup of cider. Asahi took it suspiciously, setting it down next to his plate.

"Why?"

"Why not?" Nesfir bantered back with a smile, unsurprised when that earned him another scowl.

"What do you get out of it?" Asahi demanded, ignoring his food, probably because now he thought there was a catch.

"I get you not starving to death?" Nesfir offered, picking up his plate and cup and maneuvering around the counter to the dining table. Asahi followed him after a moment, sitting next to him instead of opposite.

"And what else?" Asahi asked, but he picked up his bread again and tore off a chunk.

"Nothing," Nesfir replied firmly. "I won't say no if you want to do something in return, but it's not a requirement. We do our best to make sure everyone is healthy and happy around here, Asahi. Even the stubborn ones."

"So I'm a stubborn one?" Asahi asked, his eyes narrowing. Nesfir laughed, picking up his cup and taking a sip of the cider to hide his smile. Not that he thought it worked, but it was something.

"Yes?" Nesfir offered after a moment, grinning when that only made Asahi glare harder at him. "Look how much effort it took me to get you to even come into town."

Asahi scoffed but didn't further the debate. Nesfir grinned, taking it as a victory as he started eating. If Asahi stayed for dinner he'd fish the leftover stew out of the root cellar. It was his best imitation of his mother's recipe, and while it wasn't as good as hers had been, it was certainly good enough.

"When are you doing this well thing?" Asahi asked disinterestedly after a moment, steadily working through his salad. He was eating quickly, but restrained enough to be polite.

Nesfir shrugged, wishing he'd put a bit more food on Asahi's plate. He could probably use it."I'll have to talk to Kajin—that's Tehli's husband—but just show up the day after tomorrow, an hour or two past dawn?" Nesfir suggested.

"Alright," Asahi agreed before falling silent again. Nesfir focused on his meal, making plans to get together a bit of food for Asahi to take back with him. He didn't want the conjurer to not eat until Nesfir saw him again.

"Do you regret coming here?" Nesfir asked after a few minutes. It probably wasn't the smartest of questions, but he wasn't the smartest of people. Besides, he wanted to know whether Asahi was actually looking to settle or was just biding his time until making an attempt to return to Osamu.

"I'm not exactly enjoying it," Asahi replied sharply, poking listlessly at the remnants of his salad. "But I wasn't exactly enjoying my life at home either."

Nesfir smiled sadly, reaching out and setting a comforting hand on Asahi's shoulder. "Things will get better," he promised. Asahi gave him a startled look, his cheeks gaining a bit of color. Nesfir gave him an encouraging smile, earning another eye roll and a hint of a return smile. And really, that was more than enough to make him keep trying, as if he weren't already committed to making Asahi happy.

*~*~*

Asahi smothered a yawn, watching the three digging men—well, two men and one boy, because Ellac didn't seem to be old enough to warrant the title of 'man' yet, even if he was bigger than Asahi by a handspan in width and more than a head in height. They were bantering as though digging a well was some great social gathering.

Asahi was bored. There was nothing for him to do until they dug down far enough to the point they'd need to reinforce the walls to prevent a cave-in, so he was stuck here, watching them work because he probably couldn't remove three shovelfuls of dirt before being worn out. The three of them had already gotten it down to their shoulder height, and now two of them were taking turns shoveling because there just wasn't enough room for three of them.

Ellac got longer breaks, Asahi had noticed. Nesfir worked diligently, but Kajin threw more dirt. Asahi was trying to not watch them though, because after about an hour of digging and chatter, they'd all removed their shirts. While it wasn't very distracting in the case of Ellac, who was young but impressively muscular, or Kajin because he had
the
hairiest chest Asahi had ever seen, it was rather distracting to watch Nesfir.

It should be illegal to look that good without a shirt on. Nesfir obviously spent too much time outside, because his skin was a warm brown that Asahi hadn't really noticed before today. Perhaps it just wasn't as obvious unless Nesfir was shirtless and glistening with sweat in the midday sun.

And wasn't that just the most stupid thing he could do, too? A little aesthetic admiration of Nesfir was one thing. Letting that admiration go a few steps further was another. It was entirely a bad idea to be having lustful thoughts about Shakartha's mayor, when he finally thought he might actually be accepted here.

Certainly Nesfir was doing his best to make that clear. The man was strange. Persistent and obnoxious, but with a romantic, happy streak that Asahi envied. Asahi was torn between wanting to smack him for it and wanting to kiss him for it. It was really easy to see why the villagers had made him mayor—they'd have to kill him for his goodwill otherwise.

"Asahi." Nesfir's voice drew his attention, and Asahi frowned at him.

"What?" He asked, sitting up from his slouched position when he realized none of them were in the hole.

"Break time. We're going for food," Nesfir explained with a smile as he approached, and he
still
hadn't put on a shirt. Obviously he wanted to torment Asahi as much as possible.

"Oh," Asahi replied intelligently, brushing his hands off and making a face because leaning on his hands had caused the grass to leave red imprints on his hands. Nesfir held out a hand and Asahi accepted it, letting Nesfir pull him to his feet.

Nesfir let go slowly, and Asahi nearly smiled at that, before reminding himself what a bad idea even liking Nesfir was. Glancing past Nesfir, Asahi was unsurprised to see Kajin and Ellac heading towards the house already. They were probably hungry, Asahi decided, because they hadn't seemed all that frightened by the big bad witch.

"You okay?" Nesfir asked, and he was standing a little too close. Asahi nodded, yawning widely and taking a discrete step away. The more space between them, the less likely he was to do something stupid.

"This was boring," he accused, earning a laugh. Asahi rolled his eyes at himself. Really, Nesfir laughed at nearly everything, so it wasn't a great feat that Asahi's words had made him laugh. He laughed at a lot of what Asahi said, after all.

"There will be more to do after lunch. We're nearly at the point where we can use you shoring us up," Nesfir assured him.

"Good," Asahi declared, and it was only by chance he glanced past Nesfir, into the woods. And really, if he hadn't been trained with the combat field in mind, as all witches were, he probably wouldn't have reacted as quickly to the man with the bow and arrow.

Nesfir gave him a quizzical look, having noticed him tense, but a sharp
twang
echoed across the bare landscape as the man released his bowstring.

"Get down," Asahi hissed, trying to knock Nesfir out of the way even as the more practical part of his brain simultaneously tried to tell him that
he
was probably the target. He tried to come up with a good defensive spell to keep the arrow from reaching them.

Nesfir cursed, stumbling back a step but turning so at least he could
see
the danger now. His stumbling brought Asahi a few steps in the wrong direction because he had grabbed Asahi's arm in surprise when Asahi had shoved him to get him to move. Asahi flinched, managing a surprised gasp as the arrow lodged itself in his shoulder.

Nesfir swore again, and pain shot through Asahi as he touched the arrow.

"Stop!" Asahi hissed, then clenched his eyes shut and started spouting the first offensive spell that came to mind. Nesfir tried to tug him down or away or in some direction, but Asahi dug his fingernails into Nesfir's arm, trying to stop him from moving because it was
hard
to cast and not breathe or jostle the arrow, which simply made the pain worse and more distracting.