Slave, nice. The Astorios weren’t exactly known for their tact, but bored or not, Aaron had to wonder what Max had said or done to earn such a spiel from a vampire that had nothing to do with him. The mention of Salem, however, earned somewhat of an exasperated sigh, Aaron briefly rubbing his temple as he walked.
“Yeah, it’s a bit of a long story but apparently he’s pretty intent on getting his head chopped off before the week is out.” Max’s next comment was no more fun a topic, though Aaron had to smirk at the wording. Teacher’s pet… a little morbid, but he supposed it wasn’t terribly far from the truth. Of course, his smirk didn’t linger long; it was clear enough that Max wasn’t impressed with what he saw. Aaron supposed it made sense, Max’s demeanour practically screamed “human upbringing.”
“Count Sinnenodel is my…” He trailed off for a second, hesitant to finish that sentence and goad Max into some other snide comment. He cleared his throat.
“...I’m Count Sinnenodel’s mage.” He looked over to Max, eager to change the subject.
“Anyway, where is your partner? I can’t imagine he’d be thrilled about that little exchange back there. It might be wise to lie a little lower, you could end up getting the both of you in trouble.”Max gave the subtlest beginnings of a smirk at Aaron dancing around the word ‘master’. He was just kissing the floor a few minutes ago, did he really have any pride left to defend? Retriever being Cinnamon’s mage was an interesting twist. But why was Varis teaching a class if he was a freshman? Or could first year mages be assigned to upperclassman vampires? No, that wouldn’t make sense, given that the vampire would leave the school before the mage did.
“Dunno, haven’t seen him since yesterday. Maybe he has treaty law in a different hall,” Max responded nonchalantly. He honestly hadn’t given Morrigan much thought at all. Maybe he was just unconsciously blocking the fact out of his head that he was now legally at the beck and call of some newly-turned wimp.
“And I didn’t even do anything. Astorio came over there of his own accord and started getting in my face while I was talking to your girlfriend.” It was mostly true, it’s not like Max was being particularly antagonistic back there, especially compared to Flower Boy.
Hmm, another one gone since yesterday? Aaron would be lying if he said he was terribly interested in the doings of some random Embraced, but at the very least it got them off the topic of Varis. It might have been strange for both Lucan and… Morgan? Morrigan! To have disappeared on the same night if Aaron didn't know the reason for Luc’s disappearance. Unless the Royal Guard employed a meek new Embraced fresh out of the turning process without his knowledge, Aaron was sure it was a coincidence.
Dismissing it as just that, he was more concerned with talk of that Astorio count, shaking his head at Max.
“No, I mean your response. I'd be more confused than surprised that an Astorio decided to mess with you, but it's usually best to just smile and nod until they get bored with you. Standing your ground like that is only going to make it worse, especially in your position.”Max snorted dismissively,
“I just asked if he was trying to kiss me. He was about an inch from my face, and I know how eccentric these noble types can get. It was a valid question.” He feigned his best face of innocent curiosity, as if his response hadn’t been a deliberate jab. The act held for a moment or two, then Max dropped it in favor of his usual apathetic stare.
“But I don’t really care about him anymore. Talk to me about magic, since I just can’t help myself but get into trouble, apparently.” Max muttered, flexing his fingers in front of him for effect. Not that he expected anything to happen, let alone without a catalyst, but he still wished he could feel
something when he tried to do magic.
“I need to generate a pool of energy to work with, everything else is secondary at this point, especially asinine partner exercises.”Aaron might have laughed at the kiss comment had Max had that little exchange with
anyone else, but as it was, the thought of back-talking a noble like that just sent a shiver up his spine. The subject change to magic was a welcome one, though; tonight had already been stressful enough without dwelling on all
that.“Well if you're talking about your magical stamina, that just takes practice, like physical stamina. That will come with time.” He shrugged.
“It sounds more like you need to clear whatever is blocking you and get the magic flowing to begin with.” He spun his ring for a moment, thinking.
“When I started, my magic was like a really sensitive light switch,” he explained,
“It was either full power or totally off, and nothing in between. So my problem was figuring out how to moderate the flow, like a dimmer switch.” He gestured to Max.
“Yours sounds kind of like a faucet with a rusted tap. It needs a good yank to get it unstuck and something to keep it moving before you can do anything with it.”“And how do I do that?” Max grumbled with a hint of growing annoyance. He could define his problem just fine, but that didn’t give him any clues on how he was supposed to fix it. The lack of tangible information on the subject was infuriating and honestly baffling, even considering how great a feat characterizing the metaphysical must be.
“I’ve already tried brute-forcing it, it didn’t budge. Unless I can coax my magic out with treats like a dog, I’m out of ideas save for blind trial and error.” Honestly, he just needed enough magic in the crystal to characterize his affinity. He assumed similar affinities acted in similar ways, so that would at least give him an idea of
what to reference for further development. Although he didn’t suppose a light mage would give him any tips on that. He doubted he’d be lucky enough to get an affinity like that anyway. Plus, it was way too passive for his taste in every circumstance aside from melting leeches.
“So, does your magic work the same way other light mages’ magic does? Or am I going to be playing a guessing game for my entire career?” Wouldn’t hurt to confirm his theories; the TA was right about one thing, adhering too strictly to false information would set him back further than just blindly experimenting would.
“Probably more of those asinine partner exercises,” Aaron quirked an eyebrow at Max, and couldn't help but crack a smile at his impatience. He'd been practicing magic for what, a night so far? If he expected to develop his skills instantly, he was going to be in for a rude awakening. But Aaron supposed he could sympathize to a point. He'd been so excited to start practicing after his awakening that he'd nearly injured himself more than once trying techniques that were way beyond his skill level. Somehow, though, it didn't sound like excitement was the source of Max's hurry.
He'd take pity on the guy, though.
“And I really don't know, I've never met any other light mages,” he admitted,
“but magic is a very personal thing. It develops just like your personality does, accumulating over a lifetime of experiences and emotions. You'll probably find yours is a lot like you. Maybe that's why it's so stubborn.” Aaron chuckled at the comment, but it was a legitimate piece of advice.
“Seriously though, emotional issues can often manifest as problems with your magic. Maybe your impatience is actually the thing holding you back,” he suggested, more sincerely this time.
“You might be putting too much pressure on yourself. It could help to relax your expectations a bit and let your magic work at its own pace. I mean, if someone kept nagging at you to do something you didn't want to, how likely would you be to cooperate?” Damn it, the Retriever was… actually making sense. Frustrating sense, but sense. Take it slow. Max could do that. Probably. Wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter if he wanted to actually get somewhere. Slow progress was better than no progress, even if it was infuriating.
“Alright, I guess you have a point,” he grumbled out defeatedly,
“but what else do I try? Do I lazily sit there with my hand on the crystal for hours until something happens? And don’t say partner exercises because I’m not even competent enough at this point to participate in those.” Max really wasn’t used to tackling something without being gung-ho about it, especially if there wasn’t even gradual progress to justify the glacial pacing. Either he did it or he didn’t, and there wasn’t much use worrying about what he decided he didn’t want to do. Ultimately, though, he knew that waiting for something to happen was basically what he was stuck with, at least until his magic decided to cooperate. That still didn’t stop him from fumbling around for an alternative, though.
Aaron grinned, not really having expected Max to agree. Maybe he’d been a little harsh on him. After all, being
too eager was better than being apathetic, even if it posed some of the same problems. He just wished he could be of more help; a teacher he was not, and magic was such a personal thing that it was difficult to apply his experience to someone else. Although, now that he really thought about it, the underlying concepts were similar, just manifesting in different ways. Hopefully that would be enough to at least push Max in the right direction.
Max’s next question kept Aaron quiet for a moment, trying to remember exactly how he’d worked around his own challenges early on. Really, talking Max through all this basic magical theory was getting his own mind working, forcing him to consider problems he’d never faced. It was a fun exercise.
“...Well, like I said before class, you could try to motivate it,” he finally mused,
“like… have you ever had a moment where your magic did something of its own accord?” He looked up at the sky, noting that the clouds had begun to clear.
“For example, after my Awakening, bright lights and lighting changes never bothered me. My eyes adjusted right away when the lights turned off, and I could look right at the sun without squinting. Or, when my mother was first learning, she accidentally set my aunt’s hair on fire in a fit of frustration.” He chuckled at the memory; Clara
still made fun of his mother for that.
He looked over to Max curiously.
“Have you ever had anything like that happen? Even something small? Because whatever you were feeling or doing in that moment would have motivated your magic, and it might be something you can tap into again to convince it to cooperate.” Max considered it for a moment. Nothing particularly extraordinary had happened to him in relation to his magic; even yesterday could’ve easily been a fluke. Still, it was something to work with. What was he doing before that? Oh, right, everyone on campus decided to pester him one after the other for some reason. His face soured outwardly, though he didn’t seem to be directly focusing on Aaron.
“Yesterday, about half the student body decided they wanted to bug me on my way back to my dorm for some reason, and some idiot trampled me on the sidewalk,” He started, eyes narrowing in distaste,
“I ended up roped into some petty feud he was having with his vampire; long story short, I got mad that I couldn’t just, y’know, blow him up or something and I felt this… jolt up my arm.”It sounded pretty pathetic when he put it that way. Whatever, no Noila dog’s opinion of him mattered anyway. Though spelling it out did get him thinking. While his magic may not respond to him getting mad at it, it seemed to respond to perceived external threats. At least, he was assuming - one incident didn’t make a trend.
Aaron nodded as he listened, somewhat amused both by Max’s expressions and by finding out that his gruff exterior apparently wasn’t just skin deep. The reaction he described was weak, but then again, Aaron’s had been too; it had taken him a while to realize that the changes in his vision were a result of magic and not just weird coincidence. An emotional trigger, though, now
that was interesting.
“And you know it’s not a basic affinity,” he repeated from earlier, thinking out loud. It was usually basic affinities, like his mother’s, that reacted to emotional triggers, complex affinities usually being more connected to more complex brain processes as far as he could remember. Of course, it was possible to trigger one’s magic in a plethora of ways, as far as he knew, and the issue of magic being such a personal thing made guesswork difficult. It did get him thinking though, and he had at least part of an idea.
“It’s possible you and your magic could be more in tune than you think,” Aaron suggested.
“Sounds to me like it reacted to your frustration, like how two people who don’t otherwise get along can find common ground when they have a common enemy.” He shrugged, resting a hand on his pommel.
“I don’t know how wise it is to go around looking for trouble to try and recreate that, but maybe you could try to stimulate it by doing something that energizes you in a more positive way. Can you think of anything that might do that?”“I don’t know what it reacts to. I’ve gotten mad plenty of times since then, and it didn’t do anything.” Max grumbled in annoyance. There was nuance to this, somewhere, but whatever it was, he was missing it. And what did the Retriever mean by ‘positive way’? What did he have to be positive about? He was surrounded by annoying leeches and their bootlickers who won’t leave him alone for some reason.
“I’ll figure something out, I guess. Do you think they have books on this stuff?” He assumed the answer was ‘no’, but it couldn’t hurt to ask. He hoped grasping the basics was the hardest part, otherwise he’d spend his entire school career resisting the temptation to rip his own hair out.
Aaron nodded as the pair approached the dining hall, pausing in front of the door.
“I would imagine,” he replied nonchalantly,
“Surely someone has researched this kind of thing. Try the Academy library after class, I hear Her Highness has amassed a pretty impressive collection.”He was going to add some comment about how it was only night one and how Max should try to have patience, but as he reached for the dining hall door he felt something collide with the back of his head. Aaron turned around abruptly, half-expecting to find Ralph laughing and readying another projectile, but was met instead by Lilie and Salem, the latter of whom made his presence known with a comically late, “Duck!”
At the sight of the two, Aaron’s expression fell from irritation to something more polite, the mage sighing as he bent to pick up the projectile; another one of Salem’s notes, apparently. Tucking it into his pocket, he offered the pair a smile, willing his initial aggression to subside. Goodness, he was more tense than he realized. Maybe that little scuffle back in Treaty Law had shaken him a little more than he’d thought.
“Good aim,” he joked, waving the two over.
“Come on, why don’t you sit with us?”Aaron led the group to an unoccupied table near the middle of the dining hall, glancing around at the paper butterflies fluttering about before fishing Salem’s note out of his pocket and opening it. He read over the contents of the note twice, a smirk forming despite the gravity of the situation Salem was joking about. Instead of writing his reply, however, he re-folded the note and looked to Max, who had seated himself two seats away and looked generally as if he wanted nothing to do with any of them. Thinking it would be better not to poke at him, Aaron instead turned to Salem and Lilie, offering a friendly grin.
“Salem, Lilie, this is Max,” he introduced them, gesturing to the brooding mage across the table before looking to Salem specifically.
“We’re out of class now, how about we try talking again?” he gently suggested,
“I mean, it might be a little hard to eat and write notes at the same time, and we wouldn’t want to be rude.”
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