Chapter 28: Apprenticeship and milkshakes 1 (Sophia and Rhea)

(Pov Rhea Martinsen)

Rhea Martinsen studied the young girl sitting across from her in her workshop. Her clawed, chitinous finger tapped against the plates on her other hand's wrist. 

The girl was an interesting case. She was clearly talented; she saw that as soon as she met her at Jasmine's place to see if she was actually worth training. However, she was old for someone just starting on their training. The girl was fifteen, and while that wasn't unheard of back in the old country, it did make things harder. Hell, she's young by American standards. Most apprentices started around twelve. It simply gave the best results. After all, for things as complex as theurgy, personality was by far the hardest part of making someone competent for the job. The skills could be taught individually; the person wielding them had to be chiseled from the rough marble of someone with the right personality. And for that, starting young was always better.

Yet the girl in front of her looked ecstatic. Like a dream had finally come true. The last time they met, a shadow had hung over the girl like a curse. Understandable enough given what had happened. It was a pleasant change. She knew why the girl's skies had cleared. Jasmine had made no secret of Jason being awake and fully aware. She would have to visit at some point.

Sophia had said nothing since she entered ten minutes ago. Which was overall a good sign. The girl had been specifically instructed to sit in the chair and not speak until spoken to. She needed to learn to follow rules, regardless of how arbitrary they seemed. But Rhea could drive home the lesson later.

“It's good to see you again, Ms. Smallers. How are you doing?” She gave the girl a warm, closed-mouth smile.

Sophia shifted in her seat before beaming a smile in return. “It's good to see you too. Master? Mistress?”

“Either works, but you need to get used to etiquette. Proper formal and relational titles included. One mistake at the wrong time can kill you at worst, or give you a serious headache at best. Though if it's not extremely minor, most likely, you spend a few hours or days psychotic.”

She watched the girl pale slightly, though it didn't seem to have that much of an effect on how excited she looked. 

“Of course, Mistress.” She hesitated. “To answer your question, I am doing fine. My brother's  awake, so that's an improvement.”

“That's great to hear.” She gave her a small smile. She would have to weave him new clothes; gods knew it would be better than what he had. And the gesture was important.

She lightly tapped her fingers against her desk. “Now shall we begin?”

Sophia nodded excitedly.

“Great. Follow me then.” She stood up and awkwardly shuffled out of the bed-couch thing she was resting her abdomen on. As close as her anatomy allowed her to sitting down. She led the girl the short distance through the wood-and-brick hallways toward the small library in the shared atelier the witches aligned with the clans used. Most of the space was taken up by the mausoleum, but her new apprentice didn't need to know that, not yet.

“Unfortunately, I don't keep any of the texts suitable for you in my workshop, so it's a bit of a walk.” She shrugged apologetically, hoping her much shorter student wasn't too intimidated by her far larger form. 

“I am just fine walking; I need to get familiar with this place anyway, right?” Said her new apprentice, with just a hint of excitement showing in how fast she said it. Though she kept casting glances at the lower half of Rhea's body, ones that seemed both curious and anxious in equal measure.

“Right, you are. You will be spending a lot of time here. And well, you are an apprentice in part; you are learning by helping me do my work. So you need to know the space we work in.” 

It took them nearly two minutes to reach the heavy wooden doors to the library. The doors were banded with broad, thick iron bands, and runes were etched into their surface and the masonry doorframe. Enchantments lay thick upon the door. Rhea had to suppress a smirk.

She turned to her apprentice and gestured to the door. “Why don't you go in first? I wouldn't want to spoil your first time entering a library of arcane knowledge.”

Sophia raised an eyebrow slightly. “Eh… Sure.” For all that, the girl's response was hesitant; she had a subtle pep in her step. Like a girl barely containing her need to skip on her way to her first day of school.

Her apprentice placed her hand upon the door handle and attempted to pull it down. Nothing happened. Sophia tried again, with the same result. She leaned more and more weight on the door handle, but nothing managed to move it more than a few fractions of an inch. What her apprentice didn't know was that the enchantments that lay upon the door prevented anyone not wearing a specific talisman from opening it.

“It won't budge,” Sophia grunted.

“And why do you think that–” Sophia toppled over as the door was opened from the inside. Landing on the hard stone floor, ass first. “– is…”

The doorway revealed a young-looking woman wearing a decorative corset over a floral-patterned dress, topped by a wide-brimmed hat. Her clogs clacked on the floor as she walked forward. She looked no older than a particularly tall and lanky thirteen-year-old.

“I am sorry, my dear. Are you hurt?” She leaned over and offered her hand to Sophia.

“No, I am fine. Thank you for asking. The door just wouldn't budge.” 

Rhea could barely contain her laughter as it threatened to topple her over. Her laughter died under the withering glare of the childlike woman in front of her. A glare Rhea couldn't quite meet. 

“Honestly, Rhea Martinsen –” Oh shit, she'spissed. “– You can't pull such pranks on the poor dear. What if she got injured?”

It was quite frankly a completely unserious scenario. The girl wouldn't have fallen over and broken her skull. Baseline humans were fragile, but they weren't literal Fabergé eggs. Still, the authority with which the childlike woman in front of her said it made it feel like a fact of the universe. 

“I did not anticipate someone exiting the library while I was having my apprentice experience defensive enchantments firsthand. Most of our work these days is so incredibly repetitive. Though you are right, Klara, I should have been more considerate.” Rhea offered the woman both the appeasement, the half-apology, and to the ancient, at least by her field's standards, theurgist a common grievance. Or rather, a distraction.

“Quite.” The woman looked wistfully at the wall, then turned with a professional smile to the now-standing Sophia. The new apprentice was taller than the much shorter theurgist, but by the way the woman looked at her junior, you wouldn't think it. “So this is the new apprentice then.” She hummed as she looked the girl over, like a farmer considering a new horse. “Well, welcome to the fold, my dear. I am Klara. My workshop is always open if you need a chat, help, or simply want to complain about your new task master.” 

The woman quickly excused herself and walked rapidly down the hall before entering another room.

“Why was that kid wearing a theurgist's hat? And why did she sound sixty?” Sophia asked slowly as they walked into the library.

Rhea sighed. “Sophia, you are entering a field that produces weirdos to a degree usually only seen by religious hermits sequestered on towers in contemplation. Weird is par for the course for all of us in some way, shape, or form.” Rhea hesitated. “Though to answer your question properly. Klara is a bit of a nutcase even by our standards. She maintains that appearance by some weird form of glamor or charm. She's never said exactly how. She sounds sixty because she is. She's married; her husband hates it. As do her kids. But Klara insists on looking like a child, so.” She shrugged lightly.

Rhea gestured broadly into the brightly lit library, and the smell of paper tickled her nose as they entered. The room was smallish, but it had two stories. Wooden paneling covered the walls, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining the room. Catwalks surrounded the shelves on the second level. Spiral staircases allowed access to the second level. At relatively short intervals, the shelves opened up into secluded study alcoves covered in cushioning to dampen sound. Long tables stood in the center, intended for more collaborative research.

“Welcome to the second largest repository of magical knowledge in the Americas. Eclipsed only by the libraries of the high mountain conservatory itself.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially to her apprentice. “And they didn't have to smuggle in all their texts, so it's far less impressive.”

“Whoa!” Sophia walked ahead of her, taking it all in. 

“Hello, Mistress Rhea. Who might our new guest be?” The ethereal voice came from right beside them. Startling her apprentice. Rhea luckily managed to suppress hers. It was important to maintain some air of dignity around the girl, for as long as that was possible.

“What are you?” Sophia said, her voice filled with fascination as she looked over the human-sized doll that had walked over to them. It was a breach of etiquette, if only a minor one. She would have to bring it up later, though it was best to let the girl revel in her fascination, at least for the moment.

“I am Minon,” Minon said matter-of-factly. Though there wasn't often much emotion in the golem's voice.

“Right. Minon, may I introduce Sophia, my new apprentice. Sophia –” She gestured to the porcelain-covered animated wooden doll standing next to them. “– may I introduce Minon; she helps our librarian manage the library. Minon, could you be a dear and fetch her a few notebooks, including a galdr notebook, a fountain-tip pen, and an inkwell?”

“So what's a golem?” Sophia asked as she watched Minon walk away.

“A golem is a puppet of some kind animated by possession. You make a spirit inhabit it so it can operate it. Or at least that's the basics; it's far more complicated than that. It's also well beyond anything you will be attempting to do on your own anytime in the next decade.”

“That's so cool!” the girl almost squealed. “But it sounds complicated. If you get it wrong, you might get some greasy slobbering de–” Rhea's hand moved before her brain could properly react to what was happening and long before her foolish apprentice could finish her sentence.

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(Pov Sophia)

Rhea's chitinous, clawed hands pressed into her jaw and cheeks. The palm was surprisingly soft, if she had been able to focus on that rather than the clawed fingertips pressing into the edges of her face.

“Never. Ever. Say such things,” the much taller woman growled as Sophia's face was gently but irresistibly turned until she was staring at her master's eyes. “You never insult the neighbors. No matter how cruel or malicious. No matter how capricious or mercurial.” The woman's voice was low, but it carried a gravitas and seriousness that made the hairs on her neck stand.

“You now live in the panopticon. The neighbors, that is, spirits of all shapes and sizes, and, more importantly, dispositions, live everywhere. They might not care much for the material world, but they do care about those in it who interact with them. And like neighbors, they talk.” Rhea blinked. “The fundamental nature of our craft is to feed them power while asking for their intervention in the material world. We must interact with all of them. And a neighbor insulted today might retaliate tomorrow when you have fed it power to do so.”

“Do I make myself clear?”

Sophia did her best to nod. Not that it was easy. Rhea was inhumanly strong. For all the woman's soft face, it certainly didn't apply to the rest of her.

She felt her teacher's hand release her face. Her heart was throbbing in her ears.

“I am sorry, Sophia. That might have seemed harsh, but you have no idea how dangerous, to you specifically, what you were just about to do was.” Rhea's voice was rueful. She thankfully waited for Sophia's breath to calm itself somewhat before she clapped her hands lightly. Trying to brighten the mood. “Now do you wanna see what your first project will be?”

A distraction was good. Moving on as quickly as possible was even better. Her new teacher might just be overly cautious, but there was good reason for it. Probably? She certainly didnt want to find out the hard way. 

“Yeah,” She said carefully and quietly.

Rhea gave her a warm, yet still toned-down, smile before she twisted, fishing something out of a pocket fastened to her abdomen. Her hands cupped over each other; she slowly revealed it.

“It's an –” Sophia racked her brain. She had spent months reading up on magic, most of it completely useless. Though she did recognize the item before her after a few seconds. “ – Adderstone?” 

Rhea snapped one finger into a finger gun and pointed it at Sophia. Damn, I didn't think her hands could do that. “Right you are, but take a closer look at the edges.”

Sophia hesitated, the hands in front of her sending a nervous shiver down her spine. She drew a fortifying breath before she leaned in. 

The edges of the rock around the eroded hole in the middle were lined with what she recognized as runes or sigils, as well as the more common runes of Runemaal text between them.

“Is it enchanted?” She looked up at her mistress's face, with a raised eyebrow.

The woman's grin widened. “Got it in one.” Rhea carefully placed the thing back in its pouch. “Adderstones can be enchanted to allow some limited vision into the firmament; that is the flow and structure of magic. It's not good enough for pact negotiation. For that, you need a true sight potion, and you will be able to do that too. It's voluntary, but you would be stupid not to get a familiar. Anyways, an adderstone lets you know the rough shape of what you are dealing with. If it's a demon, tomte, or fey and the like. As with any proper apprenticeship, you will be using the skills of the craft to make the tools of the craft. Of course, it will be maybe six months until you can actually attempt anything, but we will be using the project to help you learn theory and the like while you help me with my own work.” She winked at her. “Sound good?”

Sophia felt her chest warm. She was actually doing it; she was actually an apprentice. For a split second, she thought her mistake would see her tossed out. But no, she would actually be able to learn witchcraft! Have a familiar, magic rituals, and a pact!

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

Sophia couldn't stop the childish grin from splitting her face in half.