Chapter 226: Chapter 208 – Inborn Talent

"Life is not fair. Whether one has the ability to become a mage or not depends on their natural talents and inherent capacity for mana. Just talent is of little meaning when you don't have enough mana to work with, and mana without talent is equally pointless.

 

Maybe one in five people were born with both the talent and the capacity to be a mage, yet out of these, less than half actually managed to become one. Some failed out of a lack of ambition or desire, while others lived their whole lives unknowing of their talents. Yet others had their lives cut short for some reason or another.

 

To find a child prodigy blessed with both talent and capacity at an early age and tutor them to greatness, had long been the dream of many older mages." - Arstied Bainbrook, Scholar of Magical Knowledge.

"So you're master's senior?" asked one of the twins as they crowded Kino with curiosity. Cal could not tell which twin it was, as they wore identical clothes and the boy's voice had yet to drop at that age.

 

"As artist or mage?" asked the other twin with equal enthusiasm. This time Cal identified that this one was the girl. Mostly because the twins had shimmered again and this time took the form of nearly identical looking half-elven children. The illusion looked so perfect that Cal had to blink and rub her eyes for a moment.

 

"I had them do that to train," said Evrett from his seat across the table. The man had seated himself after he successfully sicced the children at Kino so they'd bug her instead of him, and had a quiet conversation with Cal while they were distracted so. "Their talent and fine control of mana are just amazing, especially for their age, and their capacity will only grow with time. By the time they are adults I am confident that those two would be the greatest mist mages the world had ever seen."

 

"A rare find, indeed," admitted Cal as she sipped her tea. By now the melodic sound of a lute being strummed had filled the room and helped hide their conversation away from prying eyes, as Kino played her lute to satisfy the twins' curiosity. "What made you decide to… retire if I may ask?"

 

To an outside onlooker, they would have just thought Cal was asking Evrett why he retired from his previous "post" as a scholar to become a tutor for these children, but they both know she was asking about something entirely different.

 

"It just isn't something… for everyone, I'd say. I know many would have killed to be in my position, and yet, I who had it, just wasn't cut out for it in the end," replied the man with a hint of melancholy in his eyes. "The same applies to my friends… and family. I have been on my own for a while now, and much of my reason is the same as old Radoth."

 

"It was fun at first, interesting beyond anything else I can name, but as the years passed, that interest waned," added the man as he poured more tea into his cup. "Most of my friends and family lost interest much sooner than me, and of late it was just tiresome to continue on. The only reason I stuck around a bit more is to prepare these two first."

 

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"I can understand the sentiment," Cal said as she looked towards the twin children by Kino, who had taken the guise of young merfolk this time. "I had recently taken students of my own, so that feeling of passing down the knowledge is one I can understand well."

 

"You are also of a longer lived race. The amount of time I had spent in my position so far, would amount to less than the number of years you could live naturally. Even the years you have lived now is more than what one of our kind could reasonably expect to experience," said Evrett with a sigh as he leaned further back into his seat. "Maybe ones like you would suit the job better, I don't know. Those kids, I think, will cherish the job. Their kind is among the longer lived amongst therians, and their natural personality… I can see how being eternal tricksters would tickle their fancy."

 

"I guess it would really depend on the individual. I've been leaning to take the offer myself… but also taking my time to decide at the moment," replied Cal while she sipped her own cup of tea. "Anything you can share with me as a senior?"

 

Off to the side, Kino had just finished strumming her lute, as the twins asked to see her "do some magic" for them. The half-therian woman smiled at the children and took a ripe apple from the table, and told them that she's not someone who can teach them, but she wouldn't mind showing them a bit.

 

With those words, Kino tossed the apple lightly into the air. As it fell towards the table, the apple was suddenly coated in a sphere of jet-black void, and when it vanished, what they saw was the same apple, without its peel, stem, or core.

 

The fruit fell lightly on the table, and the impact caused it to fall apart. Arrayed almost like a flower were sixteen equally sized wedges of the fruit, as the slices fell towards the outside. Kino picked up a slice daintily and nibbled on it, amused at the awed look of the children before her.

 

"The first few decades were the most pleasant back then, when my family and friends were still with me," admitted Evrett to Cal after some thought. "So if I have advice to offer, I would say to choose those who looked like they could handle the long years, out of all those you care for. Having company for such a long haul, truly does make for a world of difference, as it is the solitude that I found hardest to bear."

 

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