Chapter 9 - Octavius Clemmington.
A few weeks had gone by since I had arrived at the castle, I couldn't completely lower my guards yet but I had gotten a little close with everyone at the castle. I especially felt the closest to Miss Delphine who always cared for me and attended to my every need. I sat at the study that was apparently personally designed for me in the west wing of the castle, in fact the entire west wing was mine! My head spun when Miss Delphine told me of this. I already found it hard to get used to my huge, luxurious room!
I waited patiently with Miss Delphine to meet my new tutor. I was nervous but excited at the same time. I always wanted to go to school like all the other kids when I lived at the inn but back then even the thought of it was impossible. It had been over an hour and the tutor never showed up. I felt disappointed as I was looking forward to learning how to read and write, Miss Delphine noticed my solemn expression and left to find out what might be keeping him. I became bored as I waited and decided to pick up the quill and started to scribble on the piece of parchment. Suddenly I heard a small tapping against the window and jumped out of my chair. I was about to call out to the knights outside when I noticed a pretty glow from the window I mustered up the courage and went over to the window, I peered outside and noticed a tiny purple creature knocking at the window she had wings and pointy ears, she wore a cute flowy dress that looked like colored glass and left a trail of sparkles as she flew, I opened the window and she flew in. "W-what are y-you?" I asked very curious. "Why, I'm a pixie ofcourse!" I was stunned as she spoke back to me. "Y-you t-talk!"
She flew close to me, peering into my face. "You don't get around much do you, ofcourse I talk." I was very anxious and excited all at the same time as I watched her fly around. "W-What's your name?" She observed my books on my desk as she answered me. "Blessing, how about you?" I answered "I-Iridesa." She flew back over to me as she heard my name. "So you're the one!" I was confused. "One W-what!?" She smiled as she flew over to the window and called out, "I finally found the place!"
I went and peered over with her feeling curious. Just then someone in a cloak comes flying in and I fall back on my rump, "Wa-wahhhh!" Hearing me scream the two knights stationed outside run in. "My lady, are you okay!?" They come in and one of them picks me up and moves back as the other one stands before eyeing the suspicious figure with his sword drawn. The figure in the cloak, lifts his hood and speaks calmly, not scared in the slightest. "Now, now gentlemen there's no need to get into a frenzy." He lifts his hood and removes it. The young man under the cloak has purple hair and gold eyes and looks so pretty one may mistake him to be a woman if it wasn't for his masculine build and voice. I noticed a dangling emerald earring on his left ear and a strange looking pocket watch around his neck. "Exactly who are you! Identify yourself!" The knight pointed his sword at him and the man sighed. Just then the little pixie I saw earlier flutters next to him. "Oh great, thanks to your horrible sense of direction we are now in this predicament!" She says to the mysterious person who just waves his hands unbothered. "It's no big deal, I believe we've seen worse days." The knights grew more impatient at the man's carefree attitude. "Oh, my what is going on!? Where's Lady Iridesa?!" Miss Delphine comes in startled by the intruder, seeing her I run over to her and hug her hiding and she holds me. "Will you identify yourself sir, or will I have to force it out of you." The knight spoke growing impatient. The Intruder sighed and put his hand in his cloak. The knights grew cautious but lowered their guards when they saw him hold a scroll, he held it out to them. "This is my official document, my name is Octavius Clemmington. I am the tutor hired to teach, Lady Iridesa, I presume." He looks towards me as he says this and I hide behind Miss Delphine again.
The knight reads the scroll and lowers his sword, the other knight follows. "Excuse our behavior, but we would prefer if you didn't enter through windows and scare Lady Iridessa, sir." Master Octavius looks at him and responds casually "I had no choice, this castle is so big, I'm bound to get lost." Everyone just seemed dumbfounded at his explanation. The Pixie sighed, "Oh, please you could get lost just by standing in one place!" The man flinched, finally seeming to be fazed by something and I couldn't help but giggle.
The knights walked back out and bowed to me before they left. Miss Delphine, assured that I was okay and left as well as to allow my lessons to proceed without any disturbances. I felt a little nervous as Master Octavius stared at me in silence. The Pixie named blessing was the first to break the silence. "Will you say something, you're making the poor kid nervous!" Master Octavius shooed Blessing away and walked over to me "You're quite short." I was taken aback by his words. "P-Pardon." He put a hand to his chin, "If I was a Fae you would've simply fainted at the size difference." I looked at him confused. "W-what's a Fae?" His eyes widened at my words. "Don't you know?" I shook my head. He walked over to the desk. "It seems we have a lot to learn, how exciting. I think that's where it will begin, the wondrous journey of knowledge.There are many vast creatures out in our big world but we'll begin with the two most dominant groups" He happily began writing on the black bored. "The history of human and Fae." He repeated the words as he wrote them then underlined. "Come on, kid take a seat." Blessing fluttered over and led me to my chair. Master Octavius waved his hands and a book came flying over and opened on my desk. I felt my heart pound excitedly, I heard of magic and mages but had never once seen one.
"Now let's begin with the basics." I listened intently as he spoke. "Can you read the two groups I wrote on the board?" I answered, worried how he would react to my answer. "N-No sir, I'm a-afraid I c-can't read or wri-write…" I looked at him expecting him to be annoyed but he just shrugged. "No worries, I'll use drawings instead. After all a picture is worth 1000 words you know, or so I am told." He clicks his fingers and the chalk magically begins drawing on the board. I watch in excitement. "We can move on to reading and writing after we learn a little bit more about the inhabitants of our vast world." The chalk draws a simple drawing of a man and then next to it a similar drawing but much larger in size. "There are two types of groups in this world. First is your average human such as me and you." He points to the smaller drawing using a pointer. "The others are The Fae's." I listened, never having heard about such a thing before. Master Octavios picked up a large book and opened it before me. There was a large picture of a man that looked even bigger than father. He wore strange clothes I never saw before and had a huge tattoo across his forearm. "This is an image of a former Fae king in history. One of the primary aspects of Fae's is that they are much stronger, larger and more powerful than us humans, which is why they are often the subject of envy in the eyes of other humans."
I studied the picture paying attention to all the little details. "Another is that they all use the same surnames, which is the name of their land, Cassiopiea as a respect and loyalty to their land." I looked up at Master Octavius curious to know more. "W-what a-about the c-confusion it ma-may cause?" He smiled, seeming delighted that I asked him something. "Let me explain my dear, student. The Fae's don't use their names as Identities exactly, instead they use their individual tattoos that they are born with." He points to the tattooed forearm of the man in the picture as he said this. "I-I see." Blessing fluttered over the book and chimed in. "They can also use magic unlike humans where only a select few with magic affinity can." I smiled at the pixie, "I was about to say so before you interrupted me, blessing." Master Octavius raised a brow as he spoke. "We humans in that sense are divided into 3 subgroups. We have the first your average magicless human. The second group are your mages." I listened intently, wondering what the third group was. "Ma-mages like y-you, right?" I asked him and he smiled as though expecting those words. "Not quite, Little Iridesa." (little Iridesa?)
"I belong to a very small but very powerful group, the Archmages." I was intrigued at his words, I remembered hearing of something like this before but I thought it was a fairytale. "Archmages, are the highest ranking magic positions and those who are able to create a pact with their chosen familiars are given this title." He pointed at Blessing as he said this. I smiled excitedly, "I-I have never met a r-real A-arch-mage before!" He looked at me confused. "What about your uncle? He's the 3rd strongest Archmage. He had created his pact with the phoenix, Talia as his familiar." I was stunned at his words! I had no idea Uncle Andrews was that powerful!