Steel [The Arcana; Apprentice]
Jan. 3rd, 2021 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schizoauthoress_libraryTitle: Steel
Author: D.L.SchizoAuthoress
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Asra route (Wheel of Fortune, Rise and Fall)
Warnings: first attempt at writing "The Arcana" fiction
Prompt/Fill: “These shoes? They are steel toed, why?”
Word Count: 335
Summary: The Apprentice is, as usual, feeling a bit lost. They'll make their own way, though.
Steel
Part of me wants to run.
I see the hope that they all regard me with, the magician’s apprentice, and I could almost choke on the fear. I will let them all down. I don’t know anything about this plague, and I don’t know how to help them.
Part of me wants to scream.
There’s violence simmering under my skin. I have been patient. Haven’t I been patient? And I have been oh so careful, at the behest of my Master –
Except he doesn’t want to be called Master. Except he thinks that’s “beneath” me, even though making do with the barest crumbs of the truth about my own life is not beneath me, apparently.
No, I... I care for Asra, and I know he’s only worried about me. But he doesn’t really trust me, and that hurts.
I feel like a horse with blinders on. Forced onto a path and assured that it’s the only way forward, when other senses are giving me the feeling that there’s more to this situation than I know.
I count out the coins and lay them flat, in a gentle arc like a spread of cards. The merchant nods at me and sweeps the coins toward himself before sliding the wrapped cloth bundle of my purchase toward me.
I unwrap it then and there, ignoring the merchant’s worried glance to either side of his stall. I hitch up one side of my tunic and fasten the thin leather belt aound my thigh. No one looks my way, even as I draw the thin dagger and let it flash in the fading sunlight. There is nothing to see, my magic insists, turning their eyes from me. Just the shadow of an awning, just the settling of the dust – a trick of the light and nothing more.
I have to adjust the way the holster sits, a few times, before it’s actually comfortable.
Let the monsters come. This time... oh, this time, I shall not be caught unawares.
*-*-*-*-*
Author: D.L.SchizoAuthoress
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Asra route (Wheel of Fortune, Rise and Fall)
Warnings: first attempt at writing "The Arcana" fiction
Prompt/Fill: “These shoes? They are steel toed, why?”
Word Count: 335
Summary: The Apprentice is, as usual, feeling a bit lost. They'll make their own way, though.
Steel
Part of me wants to run.
I see the hope that they all regard me with, the magician’s apprentice, and I could almost choke on the fear. I will let them all down. I don’t know anything about this plague, and I don’t know how to help them.
Part of me wants to scream.
There’s violence simmering under my skin. I have been patient. Haven’t I been patient? And I have been oh so careful, at the behest of my Master –
Except he doesn’t want to be called Master. Except he thinks that’s “beneath” me, even though making do with the barest crumbs of the truth about my own life is not beneath me, apparently.
No, I... I care for Asra, and I know he’s only worried about me. But he doesn’t really trust me, and that hurts.
I feel like a horse with blinders on. Forced onto a path and assured that it’s the only way forward, when other senses are giving me the feeling that there’s more to this situation than I know.
I count out the coins and lay them flat, in a gentle arc like a spread of cards. The merchant nods at me and sweeps the coins toward himself before sliding the wrapped cloth bundle of my purchase toward me.
I unwrap it then and there, ignoring the merchant’s worried glance to either side of his stall. I hitch up one side of my tunic and fasten the thin leather belt aound my thigh. No one looks my way, even as I draw the thin dagger and let it flash in the fading sunlight. There is nothing to see, my magic insists, turning their eyes from me. Just the shadow of an awning, just the settling of the dust – a trick of the light and nothing more.
I have to adjust the way the holster sits, a few times, before it’s actually comfortable.
Let the monsters come. This time... oh, this time, I shall not be caught unawares.
*-*-*-*-*
