With the battle over and treatment of the wounded going faster now that we didn't have any new ones from the soldiers. Granny Viola decided that we would be leaving the other priests and priestess to handle the rest. "Ok brat, since your going to be my apprentice, we're gonna have some choice words with this brother of yours."
"What happened to calling me boy?" I blurted out. And a smack upside the back of head that happened so fast I couldn't see anything is what I got.
"My point exactly now. Brat, let's lay some ground rules for my apprenticeship.
Rule#1: No Necomancy ever, we have enough of them in the world and no need to offend the divines or a few Dedra alike.
Rule#2: Never deal with Deadric princes if you can help it. Sometimes they will find you entertaining, it's fine as long as you don't fully commit to any specific deal that lets them claim you. Had my fair share working with Meridia in my younger days.
Rule#3: Always clean up after yourself, if you summon some kind of cosmic incident or some shit, you'd better be sure to beat back whatever the hell came out of it.
Rule#4: I will not have an apprentice who can't fight. Don't care if you are the research type when you are learning but you will know how to defend yourself. Got all that brat?"
An idle salute left me as I walked beside her and said, "yes" then a small warning sign popped into my head. Before I could even react a stick hit the top of my head. "It's yes master or an equivalent brat." An involuntary "Oww" later and we were by the gates as everyone not injured was being led into the city. I saw Shirou at the gate speaking to the soldiers and guards as well.
"What's your brother's name brat?" Quickly answering to avoid another hit, "Shirou, master" "SHIROU! Get over here we're heading into the city and your following behind young man!" He turned to us quick with a question on his face. Speaking through the contract I said, ("she claimed me as a student, and your reckless use of mana of an 8 year old made her angry. Also she's an arc mage") his doumfounded face was a bit cathartic after the discomfort I felt earlier.
Now walking beside us as we moved through the city granny Viola spoke, " can't say I have room at home for you boys but there's plenty of space now that the city is in rubbles, we'll find you a place to settle in the meantime while I set up the church for my departure. Can't really teach if I'm still the head priestess after all. Now to find where my wayward grandson is in this as well so I can beat the ever loving shit out of him would be nice as well. Better therapy never existed, I swear." Shirou's eyes were damn near question marks at this point.
"Do you think there's a blacksmith's shop unoccupied we could use? My brother could use it to help us make some money and it be a place to live, master."
"Don't think I didn't hear that bit of hesitation at the end there, and there's one nearby the church. It's a bit run down as the old owner was a drunkard who lost it to the Thieves guild a while back. Shouldn't take much to get it off them. Bastards still owe me a lot for not hanging them off the walls of the city for their stunt a couple years ago. You can settle there while I take care of it." Sounds peachy, not about to ask what happened though. An angry arc-mage is a scary concepts.
"Thank you lady Viola, for your assistance." Shirou's quick reponse left me high and dry for what was to come. "That's how you talk brat, have some manners when speaking like your brother." I opened my mouth, raised a finger, and pointed but before I could speak. "Don't give me a reason to use my stick brat." And so I put down the finger, but I couldn't stop the words from my mouth, "rude, granny Viola."
And so we continued our walk, with me holding my head. I also noticed how my new hat was nowhere to be found. I know it wasn't lost because I could still feel it with me but it was weird having just realized it.
"Take a turn here and we should see it up ahead. Being a blacksmith is smart since everyone is gonna need materials for building. You could use the scraps of other places to get you started. The place I was thinking about is 3 stories with a back yard area where the forge is. A shame really, If it was a nord who built it the forge would be out front showing all to see their works. The first floor if I remember was a shop front. The second a living area with a kitchen and the third was 2 or 3 bedrooms. Decent sized place all things considered just needs a god bit of work since it hasn't been lived in for a year or two."
"Sounds good to us, how long do you think it will take to deal with the church?" Shirou asked.
"Three days should be enough to get through the bulk of it all. At that point I'm gonna need a proper explanation to the two of you. Most wouldn't see anything wrong with you, not mentioning that so called contract magic where you young man were using your younger brother's magicka. Still pissed you were so irresponsible to not think of that when you were fighting. But I digress, I'll give you these few days to settle and clean that place up. If my grandson showed up you could have the deed to that place by tomorrow. Now here we are."
The place itself wasn't very wide, sandwiched between two other buildings on a wide street it was still pretty big considering it was made of stone. Walking up she waved a hand and an amber color lit from it. A click and a push later we were inside. The wood in some places was cracked. The counter for the shop area seemed worn and dusty.
"Alright I'll be back in three days, you boys take care. If you need food, go to the inn a few doors down. The guards owe your brother a good bit so the ones hanging out there should be helpful enough. It's mostly Nords on this side of the city, and we care for our own." Waving good bye she strutted out leaving us behind.
"Well that fucking happened." I blurted. "Yeah, what actually happened because I'm still confused on that. I leave you with an old lady and now your an apprentice to an arc-mage of all things. Not to mention the luck of a place like this being available at all. Then there's still a lot of things I don't know about this world, and you know what!" I was watching him pretty sure a nervous breakdown was imminent now.
A large slapping sound where Shirou slapped both of his hands on his face and said, "fuck it. Don't care. It's far better than whatever hell Alaya was gonna send me next. Let's clean this place up." And taking that as my cue to stay away from that and not taking immediate revenge for the whole Magicka mishap earlier we started cleaning up.
"There's some old brooms around I'll take the top floor since we'll need a place to sleep. You take the middle floor and we'll both do the ground floor if we have time. As far as sleeping, we'll see if that in has rooms for us or at least blankets." Sighing he said in response "sounds good"