Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 12 Too Much Of A Handful

Lady Azura was heading over to the tavern to deliver some guns she had been asked to repair. On her way she was stopped by Officer Siphon. "Lady Azura, I must speak to you about your apprentice." He said crossly. Azura put the crate she was carrying down as she guessed by the hint of anger in his voice that this was going to be a long conversation. "What has she done wrong to have upset you?" She asked gently, not wanting to further irritate him. "Upset me. Upset me." He huffed. "She could have got herself killed flying right where we were practicing our archery!" He screeched. "I am sure she did not mean to do it on purpose. If she had known you were training in that area I am sure that she would have avoided flying there." She explained in an attempt to reassure him.

Officer Siphon on the other hand had no intention of calming down. "She was told to get out of the way several times and she chose not to listen to our warnings." He informed her. Azura sighed. She was going to have to talk to Lyria again as Commander Hilda had suggested. After the last discussion they had had, she did not want to speak to her for a while but it looked like she did not have much of a choice. "I will mention this when I go to speak with her later." She told Officer Siphon. "Good but honestly in my opinion you are too soft with her. If you cannot deal with her then I would suggest you resign from being her mentor." He said clearly. Azura almost doubted herself for a minute after he had gone but she told herself that she could sort things out with Lyria.

Stella came up to Lady Azura after she had given the repaired weapons back to their rightful owners. "Hello Azura. Do you mind if I have a chat with you?" She asked sweetly. "Ok but it can't be for long as I have something important that I need to do after this." Azura replied thinking about the conversation she would have with Lyria. "Don't worry it won't be long." Stella assured her as the pair sat down opposite each other. "I just wanted to tell you that Lyria threatened to burn one of my magic books because she said that I was a liability to the Frostbourne." She said rather upset. "I am sure there must have been a misunderstanding as Lyria would never do something like that." Azura explained, feeling fairly confident that Lyria would not go this far despite her recent bad behavior.

Stella was not all pleased with Azura's response. "She actually tried to burn it! You let her get away with too much!" Shouted Stella. 'Oh.' Azura thought mentally slapping herself. However Azura did not get a chance because when Stella saw that Azura had remained quiet after she had said this, she mistook it for uncaring and inconsiderate of her feelings. In her anger she stood up and slammed her hands down on the table. "I thought you actually care about other peoples' feelings but I guess that only applies when it doesn't involve Lyria. You would let her get away with murder!" Cried Stella as she stormed out of the tavern. Azura did not know how to process this. Perhaps she was too soft on Lyria so now she was going to have to give her a firm talking to, especially if Lyria's actions were going to start affecting her friendships.

When Lady Azura finally found Fractureverse Lyria, she rushed up to her and grabbed her arm to prevent her from running off. "Lyria I have to talk to you and it's not just about how you have been avoiding me, making it almost impossible for us to work together." Azura explained. Fractureverse Lyria tried to pry her arm free from Azura's grasp. "Yeah I know that I am letting the Frostbourne down slightly by doing this but it's not like you've particularly wanted to work with me either so let's just call it even." Fractureverse Lyria replied. "Don't blame me. You nearly killed yourself by crossing into the archers' range of fire, you've been drunk twice, not to mention the fact that you have been terribly rude to Commander Hilda and by threatening to burn Stella's book you have made Stella and I fall out." Azura ranted trying not to let Fractureverse Lyria go. "Your personal friendship issues are your problem but I never imagined that you would actually befriend someone or that it would be Stella of all people considering what you say about her."  Said Fractureverse Lyria.

Azura was in shock when she heard that. She decided to put a stop to who she thought was her apprentice's awful attitude. "I'm going to talk to Lord Patrick about another demotion." She said in an attempt to put her foot down. "Yeah yours." Laughed Fractureverse Lyria and with that she was finally able to free herself from Azura and fly off and Azura's jaw dropped when she did this. Azura watched her disappear and felt like she was a rubbish mentor and she had poorly addressed the issue of the girl's outrageous behavior. 'Maybe I shouldn't be Lyria's mentor anymore if I can't take responsibility for her actions by properly resolving them.' She thought and decided to go to Lord Patrick's office to speak with him.

When Azura stood outside the great wooden door of Lord Patrick's office, she held her hand up to knock but paused in hesitation. She wondered if she was doing the right thing. Having calculated that what she was about to do would be of greater benefit to everyone, she tapped on the door. "Come in." Came the reply from Lord Patrick. Lady Azura rather timidly opened the door and took a deep breath before she entered the room. "Good afternoon Sire." She said, greeting the grandmaster. "Ah Azura, what can I possibly do for you today?" He asked kindly. She looked down at the floor trying to gather up her courage so that she would not come across as nervous as she did not want him to think that she had any doubts in her decision. "Please sit down and make yourself comfortable. You know that your formalities put me on edge when I..." Patrick started to say, seeing that Lady Azura was still standing in front of the doorway. "I wish to resign as Lyria's mentor." Azura said abruptly.

Lord Patrick was surprised. He was not at all expecting her to say that, especially given that she was not the kind of person to quit on things. "Are you quite sure?" He asked her as she sat down on the opposite side of the desk. "I am quite sure." She replied calmly as she hid her uncertainty. "And why is this?" Patrick puzzled. "I feel that after recents events, that Lyria would be better off with a more assertive role model." Explained  Azura. "Won't that affect how you work together?" He questioned to make sure he fully understood what Lady Azura was suggesting. "I do not believe that it will affect our ability to work together and if I was not worrying about tutoring her then I would have more time." She said.

"How would this free up your time? Lyria learns a lot from you by just working with you and you have taught her more things than what anyone else can do. You are brilliant in explaining things in a clear manner and can remain calm in challenging situations. This is what makes you a natural teacher and this is why Lyria needs you more than ever." Lord Patrick pointed out. 'Lyria is only being difficult because I have not given her enough attention.' Azura sighed quietly and realised that he was right. "Thank you for talking it through with me. I can now see that my initial decision was wrong and that Lyria needs me to guide me in the right direction." She said. "I am glad that you have chosen against resigning because I am desperately sort of a captain still." Patrick said jokingly. This made Azura smile and she got up to leave. "I shall see if I can get our captain back." She laughed, standing by the door. "Thank you, Sire." She thanked him and said goodbye before she left.