"So what is it that you need my life stone for?"
Fifteen days into their practice, Max felt like they should be pretty familiar with each other, but actually he knew nothing about Willa except that her name was Willa.
She didn't even live in his cabin -- not that there was much room for her. But it felt like she just came out of nowhere and disappear to that exactly same spot that didn't even exist.
"There is a show in three days in the county that I really want to see, but they require to register with life stones, so." Willa shrugged, lying on a branch of a tree over Max's head.
"Just a show?!" Max exclaimed but he didn't let Willa see his frowning, "Why does that show matter so much to you?"
"You don't have to know." Willa answered half-heartedly.
"Okay, fine. What's the show then?" Max tried to suppress the impatience in his tone, "Can I at least know that?"
"The less you know about me the better." Willa waved her hand, "So I heard that there was once a, well, Magitian-to-be I suppose, born in your village?"
"Yeah." Max answered unwillingly, "John Wells. He was the most powerful enchanters in the whole county for a while. Why?"
"Just asking. He was once my magic teacher." Willa said, "When I was in the school."
"You went to the school as well?!" Max exclaimed, "How long did it take for you to reach level one?"
"Well, long."
"Long?! You seem 16 tops! How old are you really?!"
"Nineteen." Willa said, apparently tired of his line of questions from her shorter and shorter answers.
Max got back on pulling the fire grass but only for so long before he opened his mouth with yet another question: "Well you didn't answer me, why cannot you use your own life stone?"
"I did answer you." Willa said lazily with her eyes closed as if sleeping.
"No, you didn't!" Max looked up with yet another fire grass in his hand, panting--
He just pulled this one out.
"I told you, I have my own reasons." Willa didn't even open her eyes, "Good work, now get another."
"I'd done for the day!" Max grumbled, "I have been pulling out fire grass for my whole life, and I have told you it does nothing! You said you are gonna help me to be an enchanter, and all you do is lying there watching me pulling fire grass!"
"Like your magic teacher in school, I believe." Willa didn't even move at his anger.
"Exactly! And they didn't help me either! That month was a total waste," Max threw the fire grass at her, "And you are even worse! They asked us to pull like 5 a day, and you make me do even more!"
"Every one fire grass is worth a dollar. It's not like I'm keeping them for myself." Willa frowned, "You are earning money AND practicing magic. Isn't that what you want?"
"But look at my hands!" Max yelled, holding his hands out.
There are burnt scars all over his hands, though they disappear quickly enough as well.
"They are not real burnt wounds, just marks of fire magic flowing in and out of your body. It's temporary." Willa sat up finally, not even trying to hide the disappointment in her eyes, "Pulling fire grass is the fastest way to reach level one."
"But isn't any other way?" Max complained, "It's not like I won't put in the effort. I just don't think I can make it in 3 days."
"Why do you have to make it in 3 days?" Willa frowned at Max, "Magic is a delicate matter to handle. You cannot just hope for power in a day and then happy ever after. I told you, enchanters are students for life."
"I know, I know!" Max grumbled, and then said with a cautious tone: "But you are leaving in 3 days. How do I know you are not just tricking my life stone?"
Willa jumped down the tree with danger in her eyes as she said coldly: "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying!" Max finally burst out what he had been keeping in his chest, "I want you to help me reach level one before I lend you my life stone! Otherwise I won't!"
Willa stared at him coldly without even replying.
"Sure you can go ask for a life stone from someone else!" Max yelled, throwing the fire grass onto the ground, "But you can't, can you?! You are a criminal! Like you said, I DO know this line of business!"
"Let's say I help you reach level one within three days, what then?" Willa asked coldly, "You could just blackmail me for more."
"I won't!" Max groaned with his ears red, "I'm just asking you to keep your end of the deal."
"Okay." Willa nodded, "Then get on with the grass then. Like how I taught you."
"What you taught me is painful!" Max yelled at Willa, "In the school we just have to try pull out the grass, but you told me to hold onto it until I cannot bear the burning and then pull it out! Are you just taunting me?!"
"By wasting my days away on a tree? Just so I can watch you suffer?" Willa asked with sarcasm all over her voice, "You think too much of yourself."
"So why then?!"
"Because mortals cannot use magic at will, so you have to get them out forcefully. Fire grass's magic energy can flow through you when you hold onto them, and that's the fastest way to pull the magic out of your body."
"Ohh..." Max said with his head low.
"So can we get back to it now?" Willa turned at the end of her sentence, "I said I'd help you, but only you yourself can deicide who you can be. If you don't help yourself, then no one can."
"You are right." Max mumbled, "I know what I have to do."
"I certainly hope so." Willa said as she turned to leave, "Give me the life stone, I have to register today. I'll be back in two days."
By the time Max looked up, Willa was already gone.
Only if she had turned to look, then she wouldn't have missed the fury in Max's eyes.