milliways_bar | (no subject)

Her eyebrows rise in surprise. And... um... wariness.

"Sorcerer?"

".... Yes?" She isn't going to laugh again, is she?

The girl is definitely not laughing. She'd never met a sorcerer's apprentice, before, much less an apprentice sorcerer.

But... he doesn't seem like he's going to curse her or anything? Maybe it's safe?

"I'm Rae," she says, experimentally.

"I'm Balthazar." This... really isn't how he's ever done an introduction, ever. "... I've never met anyone named Rae before."

"And I've never met anyone named Balthazar before."

Kid, your name is weird. Also, too many syllables.

"Some of the kids at my school are apprentices, too." Sometimes they show off what they're learning, at recess.

"... School?" Balthazar starts there in his quest to understand phrases he doesn't know.

"Yeah?" she says, confused by the question. School is... school. Monday through Friday, eight to three. "It's where we have classes? Lessons?"

"Our tutor taught us, when I lived in my father's manor. He taught us Latin and history and philosophy."

And mostly despaired of ever keeping a tight rein on the youngest of his Earl's sons.

"Latin? Wow." They don't start offering foreign language classes until high school, in New Arcadia.

"I've got... English - though I wish they'd spend less time on grammar and more time on actually reading stuff - and Social Studies, Life Science, Math, P.E., and Art or Music depending on the day."

He mouths the words 'life science' in complete bafflement. He wouldn't know life science if it smacked him in the face.

He might be able to protect himself, but he wouldn't know what it was.

He looks confused for some reason. Rae doesn't know what about, so she's left unsure what to say. Um...

"So what's it like, being an apprentice sorcerer?" Rae asks, fiddling with her pencil. Her bet is on 'scary,' but she's fully open to being wrong.

"Well, there's another boy, he's Horvath, and he's my best friend. And we're learning how to channel energy, and he's having us read the Encantus." He babbles, mostly from relief to be back on more familiar conversational footing.

"Encantus?" Her turn to wonder about an unfamiliar word.

"It is a big book all about magic and sorcerers." He explains helpfully. "It is almost bigger than me."

"Wow!" she says, impressed. "I've not... not really seen much written down about magic-handling. My..."

She's not even sure she should talk about it. Rae has pretty much pushed that part of her life to the back of her head in the last six months since she'd last seen or heard from her grandmother. Since... since the last postcard from her dad.

"My grandmother, uh, taught me some. But there wasn't anything written down. It was just... she told me what we were going to try and do, and guided me, and I kind of figured out the rules as we went."

"...Do you want to see mine?" Balthazar is, at heart, a good lad. And he was taught all about sharing way back in the nursery.

Besides, what would it hurt? Merlin never said no one else could look.

Mostly because Merlin didn't think his apprentices would find anyone to befriend in an otherwise abandoned castle keep.

Fucking Milliways, eh Merlin?

"Sure!" smiles the girl, curious.

He turns to head for the door, then turns back, frowning.

"But you can't go like that."

Rae had been following him - she was pretty sure her homework will be safe enough left on the table - but stops, confused. "Go like what?"

In a t-shirt and jeans of unnatural colors? With sparkly sneakers?

"You are dressed like a fairy, or a court jester." He poitns out, eyeing her... attire. Mostly he's not entirely sure what to do with a female in leggings, but the colors seem more polite to mention.

"...What do you mean, like a fairy?" she says, weirded out. From what she's read, Rae's pretty sure that fairies don't wear anything.

Though she has no clue about court jesters. She has a vague idea there's many-pointed hats with bells on them involved somewhere.

"It's... very bright." He points out. "Where are your dresses?"

"I don't own any dresses," she says.

They're really annoying and impractical when you want to go play outside. Rae has always been a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers kind of girl. Practical, if also very colorful.

He boggles.

A lot.

His brother's new wife has two carts full of dresses. He thought that was how girls were supposed to be.

"Um."

"What?" she asks, a hint of challenge in her voice.