An old wooden desk full of and littered with aging equipment. Bookshelves full of books she'd read a thousand times over. An old collection of glintstone bathing the small chamber in its dark blue hue and staving off darkness.
Once upon a time her little get away would've represented a sanctuary. A place to retreat to if more trouble than she could handle found her. A place of safety that could be used to weather any matter of storm, so insignificant and out of the way that few would find it.
If she could make use of anything it housed perhaps that's what it would've been.
As things stood, the small hideaway was nothing more than another prison. One that helped stave off madness and pain but a prison nonetheless.
And no matter how much time she spent racking her brain, there was nothing she could do about it.
Time blended together, no real way to track its passage within the chamber. Sometimes she counted the seconds. Sometimes she tried to recall specific paragraphs in their entirety from the countless books she'd stocked. Most of her time passed in an aimless blur, such distractions having lost their novelty long ago.
That blur was broken from time to time by presences drawing near but that tended to pass quickly, her sanctuary discounted as nothing more than a ruin by those on the surface. One not worth bothering with by even plunders due to that lumbering Miranda Sprout she'd grown long ago, both as an extra measure and experiment.
Then one descended.
She was far from what one would call social, the time she spent in Raya Lucaria's halls entertaining the admiration of fellow students a chore she'd rather not give any thought. But the idea that there was another on the other side of that rusted door she knew every detail of inspired hope. They were no sorcerer, their presence gave away as much, but a meeting with anyone would be leagues better than this monotonous existence.
That hope was not misplaced, dust falling from the entranceway and the unmoving steel that separated her from the rest of the world beginning to rise.
Sellen straightened up and composed herself, desperate anticipation reigned in. She was no child nor some eager puppy and wouldn't reduce herself to acting like one, isolated or not.
The door rose completely, revealing not a person but a pair?
The first was an attractive young man. Short black hair and dark eyes lacking any glow to denote him as a member of the Golden Order complimented by the stubble of growing facial hair along his chin and mouth. His fur cloak and patchwork pants left his torso on full display, muscle developing along his slim frame, a scar marking his right side, and bandages around his shoulder.
A warrior of some measure, a sword and crossbow on his person.
The presence she'd been feeling belonged to the woman behind him. Form mostly concealed by a thin black cloak, the orange flames of the torch she held flickered about, revealing the single golden tinged eye she held open beneath the hood of her cloak.
A tarnished and his maiden?
"Mmmm, a curious sight you two make." Sellen said as they focused on her, crossing her arms and one hand rising to rest just beneath her mask. "Even more curious that you would wind up here."
"I am Sellen, a sorcerer quite plainly. Why are you here?" Rash of her perhaps but she didn't want to waste any time on unnecessary pleasantries or misunderstandings. Whether or not they knew who she was would determine the entire course of this possibly short conversation.
"Came hoping to find someone like you actually." The man said, stepping forward. He was quite tall too, standing at least a head taller than her. "I want to learn about sorcery."
"Oh? Have a yearning for sorceries, do you?" Sellen questioned gauging the two further.
Raya Lucaria was home to many who claimed to study sorcery. More than a few of those students were simply people with the right connections, their lacking talent hardly worth enough to earn them a spot in its halls. She had her problems with how the Academy liked to do things, the acceptance of such students chief among them, but the chance to gain access to the wealth of knowledge contained within the academy was an honor that shouldn't be wasted on those without the skill to bring anything to the table.
Sellen's brow slowly furrowed as she examined the black haired man.
Among all those people she had never encountered one so…lacking? No, that wasn't the right word. All, from the best of sorcerers to those with no talent for the art, produced some measure of energy. While it was no exact science, there was typically a strong correlation between the amount of energy produced and that person's potential for sorcery.
The more one had, the more likely they'd turn out to be a great sorcerer.
He produced no such energy. Nothing. Not a single inkling of it. The woman behind him, her chaotic but budding energy suggesting a minor potential for sorcery, completely overshadowed him. If she hadn't been accompanying him, his arrival here would've gone completely unnoticed until he opened the door.
"Perhaps your maiden may have the potential to learn such things, but you, I'm afraid, don't have any talent for it." Sellen said. "I'm not sure any amount of study or practice would enable you to cast even basic sorceries."
"That's fine." He said without missing a beat. "I'm just curious about it. Whether or not I can use any of it doesn't matter to me."
How odd. Typically, she'd consider such words to be lies meant to help a bluntstone, a term popular back in the academy to refer to practitioners of sorcery with little potential, cope with the reality of their situation. But the way this man stood, tall and confident, his wandering eyes curiously scanning the chamber, made her genuinely believe the claim.
Perhaps he was a warrior who simply wanted to better understand a power he would encounter on his journey for the Elden Ring and throne? As much as tarnished were hunted by others, they often came to blows with each other and quite a number of them were capable of using sorcery. It would only be wise to understand the skills of one's enemies.
"So, willing to share what you know or should I head elsewhere?"
"Hmmm, well, I suppose I don't mind a little experiment in nature versus nurture. With a bit of luck, I may turn out to be wrong about you." Sellen said.
As if she'd just let someone so unique wander off. It was a universal truth that all produced the energy required to perform sorcery. A law of the world that before today she herself had considered infallible like all others. The close minded fools that made up the majority of Raya Lucaria would've written him off completely, but she was quite curious what someone like him could accomplish with a little direction. No reason to confine someone already breaking what was thought to be truth to any other rules that sorcerers were bound to.
That and letting the pair leave would've been a dreadfully dull way to end things. Beggars couldn't be choosers and she was in no position to decide what staved off the mind numbing isolation she'd been suffering in this place.
That said, this was also an opportunity. One she couldn't waste by leaving room for any…misunderstandings.
"But one must choose one's masters wisely." She began, special attention paid to their expressions. "I was exiled from the Academy of Raya Lucaria as a reviled, apostate witch." The man didn't bat an eye while the woman, between most of her face being hidden by a hood and what little on display remaining frozen in apathy, wasn't easy to read. No reaction was probably the best reaction she could hope for honestly. "Do you still wish to learn from me?"
"If you're willing to share what you know none of that matters to me." The man said with a shrug.
Practical. Or open minded. And perhaps a touch reckless in a way.
"Well, you are a piece of work." Sellen said, unable to help the mirthful laugh that accompanied her words. After all this time perhaps someone like him crossing her path was a sign of her luck taking a turn. "Very well. You are now my protégé in glintstone sorcery. But I refuse to coddle. Or cast kind words. Never. Anticipate grievances, young apprentice."
Her gaze shifted from them to the wall of books running along the wall.
Now where should she begin the teachings of one so unique?
XOXO
Beyond the world sorcery, her realm of expertise, she was in no position to pass judgments upon her new apprentice and his maiden. But what one should do and reality weren't always in sync.
As much as people liked to label themselves as paragons of morality or those above the norm, all made assumptions and judgments about others based off the information available to them. Sellen was no exception.
Onyx, the fitting name her apprentice had shared, was a primitive warrior of some kind. She didn't exactly have the experience to determine the extent of his martial skills though that scar at his side and the bandages around his arm were signs of survived battles. That and he had a maiden at his side. She was deathly quiet and far from the innocent pious nature Sellen expected from them, but if he had a Finger Maiden helping to cultivate his strength, his skills would only improve with time.
And right now, that warrior sat cross-legged beside a gathering of glintstone within the chamber, their light used to illuminate the thick book she'd ordered him to read through. That quiet maiden of his, seated at his side and peering into the book as well, had given up her silence, quietly guiding him through the pages.
His lack of knowledge concerning written language had been more than a little disappointing, but no single word appeared to trip him up. And she was sure it had to be a trick of her own expectations from any she called student, but he almost seemed to be grasping the writing in no time at all.
But no person could learn written script so quickly. Then again, no person should be walking around with that distinct lack of energy. Who was she to say what was and wasn't possible.
Either way, he proved surprisingly studious, no complaints made as time dragged on. She'd expected a warrior to do nothing but complain about being made to sit in one place for hours on end, using their brain rather than their body.
There she goes again.
Sellen chuckled lowly to herself, turning back to her books and plotting out the rest of what he would need to read before proper instruction could begin.
It would take some time to fully rid herself of any assumptions about him.
XOXO
The crackle of a burning fire. The thrum of boiling liquid. The steam from a freshly cooked meal.
She, like many sorcerers of Raya Lucaria, didn't do much cooking, long research excursions from the Academy being the one exception. Said cooking never went beyond the bare basics, the food passable fuel to keep them focused on whatever they were after at the time.
Even so, she found her interest constantly drawn beyond the door of her chamber, where Onyx and his maiden had set up a camp. A fire and pot set up at the stairway leading out, separate fur bedding set up in a corner, and plenty of ingredients used to prepare a soup.
All equipment retrieved from the saddlebags of horned horse that appeared from thin air.
Another peculiarity of her new apprentice.
"Need something, apprentice?" Sellen questioned, surprised to find her apprentice in question leaving behind the small camp to join her back in her chamber, a wooden bowl of steaming soup in hand.
"Well, I wanted to offer you a bowl." He said, raising the bowl towards her. "Though…" He added, lowering it as his relaxed gaze scanned her. "…I'm not sure you can actually eat anything like that."
Sellen's brow jumped up. "Oh? And what do you mean by that?"
"The you I'm looking at is some kind of projection, isn't it?"
"And what, pray tell, has led to you to that conclusion?"
He shrugged. "I've got good senses."
Another surprise from him. She didn't expect a warrior, especially one who lacked the energy required to perform sorcery themselves to pick up any evidence of it. Or maybe he was playing coy, having taken note of the fact she made no effort to sit, ordered him to grab books himself, and kept solely to herself, all physical contact avoided.
"Is that so, apprentice?" Sellen questioned with a chuckle. "I thank you for the offer, but it is as you say. I can't not enjoy a meal as I am now."
He hummed, nodding to her before taking off back to the fire.
Yes, she rather liked him. They may have agreed to be master and apprentice, but that relationship did not make them beholden to one another. They were still testing the waters, feeling one another out with respect for the boundaries of that relationship.
Perhaps there was more than to him than she could ever predict. Perhaps he might be the key to securing her freedom.
For now, however, Onyx was simply her peculiar apprentice.