When Verdania came back she found that the two boys had bonded quite well.
'Wind users. There is a reason we all call you guys airheads you know.' She thought and giggled to herself.
The two didn't even register her presents non because she was trying to hide, but because they were too preoccupied with bickering about the nature of the Academy and its students. Ciaran ran with the thought that the students were all morons who had no thoughts of their own. Eleftherios on the other hand argued that all children were born unique and that uniformity comes from the grinder the humans called institutions.
She decided to give them a few minutes to settle their little debate. An hour and a half later, she had had enough.
"You two can talk to the end of the world and back, can't you?" She said, her right eye twitching.
For all her power and infinite wisdom, she had a lot of problems talking to people. Interrupting a conversation between two chatterboxes, was a task with extreme difficulty. And those two were the worst kind, bullheaded windies. Once the two of them went at it, they could go at it for months. Worse still, if they got stuck mid-thought, and just aimlessly stared at the other for a dozen or so minutes.
'I did not think Ciaran would already have adopted that kind of attitude. Naïve, these airheads are born to get on my nerves.'
"Sis the kid is a menace. I take it all back; let's just send him back to his closet of a room. The language he used! There is no way he is a good kid. He has been tainted by the fish-smelling humans."
Ciaran looked at him betrayed. Then he made puppy eyes at Verdania.
"Sis this is slander. I have said nothing of the sort. I have been nothing but civil, this brute on the other hand insisted on licking your boots even when you were not here. He called me a monkey, a number of times. It's because my mother is from the Desert, isn't it? Racist.
"Your mother is a fish you-"
And just like that, Verdania had picked a side. Eleftherios looked really guilty at the boy, but then Ciaran turn his back to the Archmage and grind at him.
"So you Are a racist. And you called the people who smell like fish as 'bad' people. Criminal, scoundrel, bully, you just want to kick a man when he is down."
"Now listen here brat. I ain't kicking a man down, because you are nothing but an overgrown toddler. Sis, believe me, he baited me into saying that. He is such a manipulator, I vote you beat him up and call it Water training."
Ciaran was about to retort, but then she cut in and broke them apart.
"Granted. Tomorrow we begin. We will find your connection to water, one drop of blood at a time."
Both of the boys looked shocked. She was going to beat the boy. Before they could ask, she brought out a water screen. On it, Ciaran was talking about how, he would blackmail the Maze, by lying to her.
"It's too early for you to be interested in my 'Big rack' kid." She said with a mirthless smile.
And at that moment they knew, he fucked up. That, and the fact she didn't need to be physically present to know what had happened during the day. She expected the begging for mercy from Ciaran, but the fact Eleftherios was right there on the ground next to him surprised her.
She obviously didn't want to go over the whole day with these two. Not because it would take more than five minutes, but because there was no medicine strong enough to rid her of the migraine that would follow.
"Stop whining, punishment is due, but it will be fair."
And the begging intensified. At that moment she didn't know if she was more curious or worried about where their conversations went. She of course had faith in Eleftherios, but if he got too enthusiastic he could have said too much. Ciaran had shown that he could get under his skin.
'A rare talent for a Wind user. He will become a Calamity one day, if not by power, then by the sheer capacity to annoy his enemies.'
"OK fine, we will take it easy. No more dirty talk aimed at me tho. By all means, cuss each other out, I really don't care, but leave my womanly pride out of it."
After a few promises and twice as many oaths, she let it go. Then she decided to move on to the important bits.
"I met with your parents today."
As soon as he heard that, the smile on Ciaran's face froze. He didn't know what to feel towards his family. On one hand, they had lied to him, and by the way, his two new friends talked, they had screwed him, hard. On the other, he knew nothing but love from all the members of his family. He could not see them at the moment, but he still got worried about what Verdania did to them.
"We made a pack. We take care of you in your time in the Academy. I told them they could only see you with my permission, and I stand by that. You first need to heal, and then you need to shake their influence on you."
"Don't look at me like that Ciaran. I saw that trick with the ice mirrors? I build a profile of your whole life like that, and I can safely say they not only thought you how to manipulate others but also manipulated you in the process. Tell me, how many times have you acted how you thought your father or grandfather wanted you to? How many times you did do things against your better judgment because you knew they would not?"
"Every kid wants to please his family, but in your case, it could be deadly. You need to understand this Ciaran, being yourself is not just an empty thing we tell our young. It's the most important requirement for them to grow. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I must because I want you to grow up unhindered by their ignorance."
He didn't say anything. He just barely got to her and buried his face in her leg. He was good at making people forget his age. And even better at making them regret it after.
The boy was crying, his mind slipping from his grasp. He wanted to thank her. For his emotions were clouding his judgment at the moment, but he still recognized the most important reason she bared their access to him was that if he saw them right now, it would break him.
He could not even speak out the words 'Thank you' he just hugged her, sobbed, and shook.
Eleftherios saw that and his heart broke. He knew the boy was damaged, but he was made to forget.
'The banter, the joking it was all staged, wasn't it? God damn sis was right, I really am an idiot.'
When he first saw the boy wake up he had conditioned himself to be soft, to tiptoe around it all. His plan crashed and burned, the kid was too good a fit for him. Not only did they get along, but Ciaran knew how to play him, and Eleftherios didn't know how to see through it.
He might be trained in magic, but by nature, he was a Warrior. He thought with his heart, and scheming was below him. This was not a problem in fights, as at his level, most things tended to either die fast or if they were his equal, the fight was nothing short of a natural disaster. There was just no room for these mind games. Dryads in general loved playing pranks, but scheming was not in their nature.
With the boy it was different. Ciaran never lied to him, he knew that. He was always genuine, but there in laid the trick. Everyone could lie, but it took real skill to use the complete truth to fool someone. The kid was conditioned to do so on instinct.
His personality, his love for learning new things, and his wonder for all things magical were all real. They were a key part of the boy, and by showing them in such a raw state Eleftherios thought that the boy was opening up to him.
'And he was… He is. But even that was part of your mask wasn't it kid? I wonder, when did I stop walking on eggshells today, when did you break me in? I am supposed to be your mentor, but you led me by the nose.' He frowned, angry at himself.
'I am supposed to be your support, your rock, but I failed you today.'
In shame, he watched as his sister once again had to put the boy to a dreamless sleep. If not for her, he might have actually forgotten the boy was so vulnerable. On that night he vowed to do better by his disciple, to learn to read him and to be the one person who would never deceive him. For the boy truly needed at least one such person in his life.