Book of Kings

Chapter 21

I spotted a poster, there was supposed to be a play somewhere nearby at noon when most people had a break for lunch.

I could go there.
I was never at a theater, and it could be a nice experience.

There wasn't an entrance fee and the theater was located in what was basically a walled-off alleyway and not that many people showed up, looks like it wasn't that widely advertised. Or it could have been a small play that some of the locales wanted to do. I sat down on one of the benches and after some more people showed up and a short wait it finally began.

The first of a cast of men stepped onto the stage and began to paint the scene with their narration.
There were two families that have been bound for generations and the daughters of each of the heads of the houses lived as close as if they were sisters then the play really began.

For an hour and a half, I watched the 'sisters' grow up and apart. It began with a lot of pettiness when the two of them loved the same boy and grew into full-on hate when one of the members of the family accidentally killed a member of the other one. In a bizarre accident with a lot of bad luck, there had been a law that anyone who brought a weapon to a festival must be put to death but the one who was killed arrived mid-feast with a sword still attached to his side to warn the families of an attack. He was then promptly shot with an arrow to the chest by a drunken member of the other family with a bow, which has been there for an archery tournament.
I would have appreciated the story a lot more if there hadn't been so much narration.

The best part of the play, in my opinion, was that there were three different pairs of twins who played the sisters when they were children, teenagers, and adults.
What would have been the chances of that?
Of course, the adults had been the best actors of the three, though one of them was noticeably less stiff than the other.

Right after the scene where the families had their biggest falling out and declared in the absolute clearest of terms full-on war the play stopped. All of the actors and other helpers of the production came to the stage and gave a big bow.
Of course, the other attendance and I gave applause.
'Twas common courtesy even if I thought it could have been better at certain parts.
We were informed that the second part of the play will be performed this night, I think I won't be there. I'm not sure if the theater was right for me.
Something slightly more proactive would have been perfect.

I wandered around again.
With all the work I had to do I never had any hobbies, if someone would have talked with me about anything would it have been revealed that I was a boring person?

-

I strummed the strings of the new lute.
It had a long neck and was thinner than most others.
I was sure that I wanted to learn to play an instrument as something to do but the only reason I took this one because it was the first I could get my hands on. A disgruntled man, who I thought was a bard, sold it off by the street for almost nothing.
Even if I wasn't sure if I really wanted to learn how to play this one I had already gotten a liking to it.

It was a day after I had been to the Magister's house, where I had to fill out a lot of paperwork for the application to the school.
It was unusual to get one so close to the start of the year but there was no rule against it and with Eeming's recommendation, the whole process went smoothly.
While doing the paperwork Eeming even made himself my guardian without asking me, I didn't appreciate that. I'm sure he meant well, but my parents' death still weighs heavily on my heart and Eeming didn't seem to care or notice at all.
I wasn't mad that he was my guardian now. I didn't have anyone who would look after me until I reached adulthood, but he should have asked first, did he not stop and think, "how would he feel if I did it?"
His thinking must be much different to mine, he must have thought "of course! This is clearly the thing to do!"

I was surprised that the process of something so serious could have been done so quickly.
"Did he lie to me?" I thought.
He had no reason to, but it was him so I couldn't have been sure. I was very sure that he had a certain aspect of madness to him, something that made him unreasonable in certain situations and often inconsequential circumstances. And I believe that I wasn't the only one who noticed, often a quick glance to Vaunn would be enough to know. Maybe every other aspect had outweighed the fact that he was like that?
He did somehow reach the position of Grand Magister. Or was he much different in situations that had needed him to be serious?

Waking up, washing up, eating, reading all the books I could get my hands on, starting with the one I found under the stove and playing with the limited magic I had known about, which was mostly just producing fire and levitating rocks and water, was about all I did the next few days but I limited the magical practices to a minimum. I didn't want to have another kind of disaster on the floor again.

I also knew I could heal small wounds, but I was too cowardly to cut myself, I just couldn't bring myself to. Which sane man would cut himself willingly, even if it was just a small one?
Then I remembered, Eeming did once in his study once, but calling him sane was a stretch.

A weird thing that happened while playing with magic was that I just couldn't lift the dagger again. I did it once at the smiths but not here, no matter how hard I focused on its metal it wouldn't move even the slightest.
Maybe magic changes with the state of your emotions?

I tried visiting Eeming at his house too but Vaunn had informed me that he wasn't available, he did tell him that he often wouldn't be here. I'm sure that he was a busy man, so I just talked with Vaunn a bit. I hoped that as a butler he could spare some time to talk and to my luck he could.

Politely he gestured me to talk first and so I did, "Mister Vaunn, what do you do in your free time?"
"Well, I read. I think everyone should. I, mhhh...," he thought hard, "what do I do in my free time?" I saw that he was embarrassed because he didn't have a good answer, I knew how he felt, "I also play some instruments."
"Some? As in you can play multiple?"
"Oh, just the most popular ones and none of them at a level a true master could."
"Can you play the harp?"
"Yes."
"Flute?"
"Yes."
"Shawm?"
"Certainly, but it sounds awful"
"Drums?"
"Absolutely."
For me the fact that he could play any of them was very already impressive but all of the ones I listed.

"How about the lute?" I hoped that under everything he could play that this was one of them.
"Of course, actually it is the first instrument I learned to play."
"Do you think you are good enough to teach it?"
"Maybe, I think I could. I would need some time to prepare. But why are you asking? Have you suddenly acquired a lute?"
"Actually yes. I just bought it. I didn't know what to do until the school year starts so I thought getting a hobby would be nice."

"As an alternative to just playing an instrument in your free time, you could visit the guild's library. There are tons of books about everything you could imagine."
"Like, I can just walk in there and take a book to read?" I was skeptical.
"You are a member, are you not?"
I paused for a second, "...I guess I am."

"If you could excuse me, duty calls. If you want, you could get some sweets or tea from the kitchen," he said bowing slightly, "and tomorrow around noon you can get your first lesson if you are serious about it."
"Of course I am. Thank you."

Vaunn was really mindful about everything and comparing him to Eeming, he was extremely within his senses.
He might have been the sanest man I have ever met.