Chapter 5 #2
The train glided up to a slightly jerky stop before settling. The doors opened with a woosh of air, and everyone waited for the passengers to disembark before boarding themselves, Tori among them. He grabbed an overhead handrail and got himself situated for the fifteen-minute ride.
Really, what was he going to do about the dragons? How long would they keep following him (and apparently trying to feed him) before they gave up?
Would Tori have to explain about his crappy magic before they finally left him alone? He didn’t want to sound weak and incapable, but it might come to that.
Shit, he had no good options. Tori tilted his head back and looked toward the ceiling. Was it really so much to ask to have at least one thing going for him? Just one?
Sighing, he let his head fall back down, and that’s when he noticed them.
Two men, both sitting on a bench in the far corner, faintly glowing of magic.
Tori blinked, not expecting to see mages here.
Their magic looked a little different than what he was used to, but he only had his clan to compare them to.
Maybe other mages looked different. How would he know?
Well. Here was a good chance to ask some questions of a native, assuming they were native.
Tori was pathetically low on magical supplies, so much so that even doing a basic ward around his room was beyond him right now.
He could only create or harvest so much on his own.
As tight as money was, he needed just a few things.
No one else was near the men. He should be able to talk with them without raising eyebrows. Tori moved over to them steadily, swaying side to side with the train’s movement. Both of them looked at him with strange expressions, as if they couldn’t believe that he was walking up to them.
Those expressions made him more cautious in turn.
Tori didn’t know if he was committing some faux pas just by walking up.
Or maybe there was some truth to the kidnappings Baldewin had mentioned and they were worried he was a threat.
There was too much about other mages he didn’t know.
But he had to start somewhere, and surely a friendly ‘hi’ wouldn’t get him in too much trouble. So, he’d start there.
“Hei,” he tried with a smile. “I’m Nestori Taavi. Sorry if I’m intruding, I just wanted to ask, do you know where I can buy magical elements? I’m a little low on supplies.”
They looked at each other, still rather confused and brows raised in surprise, but then one of them turned and replied, his Finnish heavily accented, “I know good place. We go there now ourselves. I’m Leon Jaeggi.”
Oh, a Jaeggi mage? Tori wasn’t sure how to feel about the man, what with the history he now knew. Of course, the war had ended more than five centuries ago. Surely it wouldn’t be an issue for him to talk to them. “Nice to meet you. You’re going there? Is your clan here?”
“Nein,” he denied with a shake of the head. “Just a few of us. But we know good shop here. You come with us, ja?”
Hey, if it meant a guide to show him, that was fine. “Okay.”
“You have clan here, too? What clan you from?” his companion asked eagerly.
Probably wasn’t often they saw other mages either, come to think of it. Tori answered, “Taavetti. We changed our name to Taavi after the war, see. But I’m not down here with anyone. They’re all still at home. I’m just here looking for work. Say, do you know of anything?”
“Mage work?” Leon asked with a frown, as if considering it. “Ja, our clan always need more mages. You should come with us.”
Under different circumstances, that would be ideal, but… “No, not mage work. I’m not really that great with magic. I meant work in general.”
“Don’t be so hastig,” Leon said with a wag of the finger. “What we need is very basic. Very, very basic. Even one bad with magic will do, ja?”
“You think? Well, I guess I can see.”
It’d be nice, truthfully, to be able to work at least a little magic.
Tori had been allowed to do only the basic spells, the ones that took common elements, because he’d been so bad with math that no one trusted him to do the major workings.
The rule had always been that if he couldn’t explain exactly what the spell would do, he couldn’t do it.
It had hemmed him in for years, and he’d chaffed under the restrictions.
But the basic spells, he could do those blindfolded. “What precisely are you needing?”
“Oh, we let boss tell you.” Leon gave him a big smile. “Boss can explain all about job.”
“Okay, that’s fair. You’ll introduce me?”
“Ja, ja, we’ll introduce. No problem.”
“Great, thanks.” Finally, a solid job lead. Connections were often the best way to get a job. “You two up here for work or vacation?”
“Work,” the other Jaeggi said with an enigmatic smile. “We look for very...special element. Very, very special.”
“Oh, that’s why you’re going to this particular shop?”
“Hmm, shop may or may not have it,” he agreed, smile widening.
Leon elbowed him and said with a bright smile, “What you looking for?”
“Elements for warding spells, mostly. I’ve got captured sunlight”—he’d been able to harvest that on the bus ride down here—“but I’m missing rainbow mist, stillness of a moonless night, and moonlit water.
The stillness of a moonless night is impossible to collect yourself inside of a busy city like this. ”
Leon gave a sympathetic nod. “Most elements hard to find, ja? But why you need wards?”
“Oh, I’m not in danger. I don’t think, at least. I met two dragons a few days ago—”
They both straightened in alarm. “Dragons here?”
“Yeah, they’re really keen on me going back to their clan with them.
But I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Tori paused and frowned at the scuffed floor of the car for a moment before shrugging.
“Anyway, part of their argument for going with them was that apparently there’s a group going around kidnapping mages. Have you heard about that?”
Tori would dearly love to have that verified one way or another. Right now, he had only Baldewin’s word for it. Getting a second verification on that would be great. Tori would like to know for sure if he needed to really watch his back or not.
Leon gave his companion a bland look. “You hear about it?”
“Nein,” the companion said with a shake of the head. He seemed to find his companion’s question a little funny. “Maybe dragons try to scare him?”
Tori looked between them, finding their reactions a little strange. Like there was some inside joke he was missing. “Well, maybe they were.”
“Good thing you didn’t go with them, ja?” Leon said with a toothy smile. “You came to us instead.”