Sasha L. Miller
Maybe this was the former apprentice's home town? That would explain why he was sticking around  despite being run off from Macati's. Guylian sighed, wishing again that he could just learn everything on  his own. Surely that was easier than dealing with anyone, even if it might leave gaps in his knowledge. Like  the spell circles.

Macati paused as they reached a crossroads and Guylian caught up to him before he realized Macati had  stopped. Macati gave him a slightly sad smile before taking a few of the purchases he'd made from
Guylian's arms.

"How did you learn Civomic?" Macati asked, gesturing for Guylian to start walking again.

Guylian shrugged, wondering if Macati would press the issue. Justain hadn't; he'd just heaved a giant sigh  and moved on to his next question.

"I'd like to get some baseline of what I'm going to need to teach you," Macati continued when Guylian  didn't speak up. "Have you been studying it very long?"

"My aunt taught me," Guylian finally admitted, his voice quiet though he'd meant to say it louder. "When I  was little."

"Your aunt was a mage?" Macati asked, glancing at him curiously.

Guylian shook his head, wondering how much he'd get away with before Macati figured out who he was  talking about. "She just loved the language." And refused to speak in anything else; Guylian had spoken
Civomic before he'd spoken English.

He wished he could use Civomic again without the fear of accidentally setting off a magical reaction.

"Not Diana Fyrate?" Macati asked, looking curious. Guylian shrugged, blushing because of course Macati  would know—his aunt had been famous for her eccentric love of a living language. Especially considering  that she hadn't a bit of magic in her.

Macati whistled low, shaking his head. "No wonder you know it so well. You learned from the foremost  expert. I wouldn't be surprised if you're better at creating and correcting spells than I am."

Guylian's cheeks got even hotter and he shrugged again, not really knowing how to reply to that. Even if  he knew Civomic better than Macati, he wasn't better at magic. And he most certainly wasn't better at  interacting with people.

"So I probably won't need to spend much time teaching you Civomic, then," Macati interpreted. "That  means we can get right into the spell work. Did you do much magic before you were apprenticed to
Justain?"

Guylian shook his head, wondering how to tell Macati he hadn't done much magic with Justain either.
Justain had tried to re-teach him the basics of Civomic and gotten frustrated with him, despite Guylian  doing everything perfectly. Or perhaps because Guylian had managed it perfectly.

"Okay, well, we'll just start fresh then," Macati decided. "Whatever Justain's taught you, forget it. I'm sure  he went backwards from any prescribed method of teaching anyway."

22

Living Words
"Okay," Guylian accepted, a little of the tension leaking from his shoulders as they reached the short row  of houses that included Macati's. None of his neighbors were out, thankfully—no doubt Macati would  have dragged him off to meet more new people.

"We'll start with spell circles, I think," Macati said, leading the way to the front door. He knocked out the  unlocking pattern quickly, cradling his packages with one arm. "Unless you don't know all the spell bases?"

"I do," Guylian murmured, a little startled when his pixie dove at him when he walked in the door. It made  an awkward landing on his shoulder, nearly tumbling off before righting itself. Then it wrapped an arm  around a loose lock of his hair, tugging sharply before settling.

"Excellent," Macati declared, smiling at him brightly. "Why don't you head upstairs. I'll put these things  away and join you in a minute."

Guylian nodded, handing over his packages awkwardly. Blushing when his hand accidentally brushed
Macati's arm, he made as quick an escape as he could upstairs. Slumping into one of the chairs that were  set up around the table-cum-bed, Guylian tried to relax and not think of the hundred and one reasons that  this apprenticeship was going to go as badly as the last had.
23

 
Chapter Three

Macati looked up as the tiny wall clock chimed seven o'clock. His lips quirked into a smile—Guylian hadn't  even noticed the chime, and his tea cup was still mostly full from the last time Macati had refilled them  both around two.

A wrinkle of concentration creased Guylian's forehead as he meticulously drew out a complicated spell  circle on the parchment in front of him. He was labeling each section with careful, neat handwriting, and
Macati couldn't help the rush of fondness that flooded through him. It had been ages since he'd had  anyone up here, and longer still since he'd had a student as focused as Guylian.

Guylian's dark, wavy hair had come loose again, the fault of the pixie that had adopted him and kept  stealing his hair ribbons. His was intent on the paper in front of him, worrying his bottom lip thoughtfully  as he added the fire symbols to the circle.

It really was unfair, Macati thought wryly. He finally had a smart, capable, talented, and hard-working  apprentice, and he was going to botch the entire thing by inappropriately lusting after said apprentice.

It was doubly hard to keep his hands to himself when Guylian was so obviously in need of at least a hug,  and probably much more. He was skittish and shy and utterly lacking in confidence and if Macati ever  found out who was responsible… well, he'd probably indulge in at least one act that would get his mage's  license revoked.

It had been three weeks since Justain had disappeared back into his secluded forest. Three weeks, and
Guylian was as reticent as ever. He barely spoke and the only thing that got him talking was magic. Even  there he always deferred to Macati's opinions over his own. It was frustrating, but Macati hadn't figured  out how to get him to… to see that Macati wasn't all-knowing and all-powerful.

"Come on, let's break for dinner before we forget again," Macati announced cheerfully as soon as he saw
Guylian's pencil leave paper. He didn't want to ruin Guylian's work, and he knew from experience how  easy it was to startle Guylian when he was truly concentrating on his work.

Guylian flushed adorably, setting down his pencil and rubbing at his eyes. He hadn't been sleeping enough,
Macati knew, but he wasn't going to tell Guylian off for staying up to all hours of the morning reading  whichever spellbook caught his fancy from cover to cover. He also wasn't going to let Guylian sleep it  off—he'd set their working hours; Guylian got to read and sleep around that time.
24

Living Words

"Can I see?" Macati asked, shifting his chair closer to Guylian's part of the long work table.

"It's not done," Guylian said reluctantly, which likely he meant he'd changed something in the design and  he was afraid Macati would get upset.

"That's all right," Macati coaxed, smiling winsomely. "I'm curious to see what you made of Kylier's fifth air  set."

"Oh." Guylian hesitated a moment more before sliding the paper towards Macati.

Macati let his attention be diverted, studying the paper so he wouldn't study the way Guylian's hair  tumbled about his face. As he'd thought—Guylian had indeed made enhancements to Kylier's fifth air set,  with minor changes to the corresponding plant and water sets to offset the changes.

"Excellent," Macati declared, earning a fresh blush as he handed the paper back to Guylian. "You corrected  the energy transfer problem and enhanced the integration between air, water, and plant with the same  solution and without losing any functionality. What made you think of that?"

"The baker's spell," Guylian said absently, studying his drawing critically. "It combined air and fire sort of  like this."

"Much, much more simply," Macati said with a smile, marveling again at Guylian's ability to observe simple  magic and take to a much higher, more complicated level. "Good work, apprentice-mine."

Guylian jerked his head up at the epithet, but he didn't protest it, just turned a faint red. Macati smothered  a smile—Guylian did that every time he called him that, and he'd been dropping it into their conversations  intermittently for the last few weeks.

"Do you fancy full-out effort for dinner or shall we make do with yesterday's leftovers?" Macati asked,  standing up and stretching the kinks out of his shoulders. Perhaps he'd give up on working for the evening  and take a long bath after dinner. That sounded pleasant.

"Um," Guylian said, looking up from where he was studying his diagram once more. "Whichever?"

Macati laughed, certain that translated into whichever took the least amount of time.

"How about I go make something and you stay here and work?" Macati suggested. "I think I need to walk  away from this spell for a while before I try to work out the power fluctuations."

"Oh, but," Guylian protested, standing up quickly and nearly knocking over his chair. "I should help."

"You can prepare dinner tomorrow," Macati said, holding up a hand to forestall Guylian's further protest.
"Finish the diagram and you can work on Kysera after dinner."

The pixie perked up from where it had been half-drowsing on Guylian's shoulder and tugged at the collar  of Guylian's shirt. Guylian smiled faintly, reaching up and scooping Kysera into his hand.

The other pixies had disintegrated a week or so after Macati had created them, but something about
Guylian's holding spell had kept Kysera whole. Macati had given the pixie to Guylian to do with what he  would. Guylian had so far restored the frayed leg, though the skin color was a slightly different color, and  given Kysera a set of tiny, perfect teeth.
25

Sasha L. Miller

"I'll come get you when dinner is ready," Macati said, pausing a moment to straighten up the books and  papers he'd been working with. Heading downstairs, he smiled when he heard Guylian murmuring quietly  to Kysera.

Making his way into the kitchen, Macati surveyed the room absently before deciding to cook the fresh  chicken he'd gotten from one of the farmers for repairing the fence around his fields.

Add in roasted potatoes, a side of greens, and some of Werin's bread, and that would make a decent meal.
He could also open one of the new white wines he and Guylian had earned by creating a chill room at the  vineyard for some of the more sensitive wines.

He could probably start sending Guylian out to do some of the odd jobs on his own. Perhaps interacting  with other people without Macati as a buffer would open him up more, or at least give him a bit more  confidence about his spell-casting.

Macati ducked into the pantry, grabbing three large potatoes and debating over wine for a moment before  picking out one of the smaller, more expensive bottles. Tonight seemed like a good night for a bit of  indulgence. Maybe he'd even break into the chocolate cake Werin's wife had baked them.

Humming quietly under his breath, Macati poured himself a glass of wine and started preparing dinner.

Guylian was excellent at magic, and he soaked up everything Macati taught him like a sponge.
Unfortunately, his skills in the kitchen were abysmal—no matter how simple the meal, Guylian usually  managed to muck things up somehow.

Which must have driven Justain insane; he frequently had complained about cooking during their  apprenticeship together, though at least he was less prone to burning things than Guylian was. Macati had  resorted to trying to keep Guylian doing the meals on days they were eating leftovers, or he cooked with
Guylian to make sure nothing went wrong.

Macati fired up the oven with a quick fire spell, wondering if Guylian would do better if cooking were  more like spell-casting. Perhaps he could devise a way to get the two concepts together; then he wouldn't  have to worry about his house burning down every time it was Guylian's turn to cook.

Macati fetched the fresh chicken from his cold box and arranged it in a shallow metal cooking pan. Picking  a knife out of a drawer, he started cubing the potatoes and adding them to the pan around the chicken.

Another thing he needed to work out was how to get Guylian to stop thinking he was the end-all, be-all of  magical knowledge and expertise. Flattering, yes, but not very productive. He needed to make a mistake,  one that Guylian couldn't help but see was his fault.

Ducking back into the pantry, Macati snagged an onion and a few carrots before returning to the kitchen.
A dangling spell might work. He'd have to plan that carefully and make sure the spell that followed it  wouldn't react poorly. Though now that he thought of it, he did have a short book somewhere on practical  jokes that could be performed with dangling spells. None of those would be harmful.

That would make good bath-time reading, Macati decided, slicing carrots quickly and adding them to the  pan. The onion followed, and Macati added a bit of spice before popping the pan into the oven.

Scooping up his glass of wine, Macati leaned against the counter and took a sip, smiling at the light, crisp  flavor. The vineyard job was high on the list of his favorite jobs right now.
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