Blood of Dragons - The Apprentice

Author’s Note:

Hey everyone! A huge thank you to anyone who read and rated my last story, it was great motivation for me to keep writing. This one, despite bearing the “Blood of Dragons” title, is not a direct continuation; this is going to be an anthology series, all set in the same world, but with different characters each time. I already have a few others plotted out, I hope they will entertain you as well.

That’s enough out of me, please enjoy!

*******

“So, the red ones are for healing, and the green ones are for...?”

“Stamina,” said Paige, without looking up from her work.

“Ah, so they make fun in the bedroom last longer, got it.”

“Haley!”

The young brunette snickered. “What?”

Paige’s pale skin flushed. “D-don’t talk about that. Please.” She maintained her focus, though her hands shook a little, flustered as she was.

Haley grinned and leaned back against the desk, her chainmail rattling along with the clink of glass beakers. “Why? Am I... distracting you?” She gave Paige a hooded, teasing look.

“Yes, actually,” said Paige, putting down the small vials she was holding and looking up indignantly. “This stuff can be dangerous, if I add the wrong proportions. There’s no room for jokes here!”

Haley looked down at her boots. “Was just trying to lighten the mood...”

Paige sighed, brushing a strand of short blonde hair back into place behind her pointed ear. “I’m sorry, Haley. I appreciate you being here; I’d go insane if you didn’t come to visit. But I really do need to concentrate.”

“It’s alright,” said Haley. She smiled apologetically. “Carry on then.”

“Thank you.” Paige took up the vials again and tilted several drops of liquid from one to another. Haley watched her work, looking at the vials with interest, and at Paige with a completely different kind of interest that went unnoticed by the pretty half-elf, as always.

Haley sighed inwardly, not letting her frustration show on her face for the umpteenth time in the last two years, since she had first seen Paige move into the strange little tower on the edge of Sheseon. She wished she could grab Paige around the waist, pull her down on top of herself and never stop kissing her. It would be easy too; Haley’s toned, well-trained body would have no issue with Paige’s slim, petite frame. She could bury Paige’s face in her bosom, then squeeze that cute, pert little ass while pulling it up towards her mouth and shove her tongue into --

“Haley?”

Haley shook herself. “Huh? What?”

“You were breathing rather heavily, are you feeling alright?” Paige asked.

“Ah, yeah, fine, all good,” said Haley, clearing her throat. “A little warm down here, I guess.”

“I’m almost done, just need to let it simmer for a bit,” said Paige, pouring the mixed contents of her vial into a small cauldron in the fireplace and stirring with a long ladle. Haley let her gaze linger on Paige a moment longer before looking away; not for the first time, she felt disappointed in herself.

She could have confessed her feelings to Paige a thousand times over since they had met, but she couldn’t bring herself to blurt it out. Paige was just too innocent, too naïve to even approach the subject; the mere mention of a closer relationship would be treated as a joke, and the thought of intimate or sensual activities made her blush and clam up. Unfortunately, that was just what made her so attractive to Haley, who currently shared living quarters with a couple dozen other guards; even the other women in the barracks were more likely to talk about their latest bedroom conquests over a tankard of ale.

Paige was different. She was sweet and kind. She was pure. Haley valued her friendship too much to risk scaring her away. So instead, she settled for seeing Paige as often as she could; being close to her would have to be enough, until Haley felt ready. If she ever felt ready.

“So,” said Haley, attempting to dismiss her thoughts, “what is this one supposed to do?”

“It’s a rockhide potion,” explained Paige. “It turns your skin as hard as stone.”

“That’s pretty neat,” said Haley. “How much do you think you could get for it?”

“Optimistically? Two hundred gold pieces, after the finder’s fee from my contact.”

“I wouldn’t mind that,” said Haley. Two hundred gold would take her years to save up from her salary. “You should just set up shop for yourself at this rate, cut out the middleman.”

Paige sighed. “I can’t, Haley. It wouldn’t be right.”

“Yeah...” Haley clenched her fists. “I know I’ve said it before Paige, but it’s really not fair on you here. You could do so much better than that bastard Erasmus as your teacher.”

“It’s not that bad,” said Paige. “It’s only recently that he’s been getting into trouble; I’ll have him out of debt within a month or two.”

“You know, there are girls in the big cities who have that same excuse for a variety of other things,” said Haley darkly.

“This isn’t like that!” said Paige, blushing intensely. “It’s not like he’s hurting me or anything; he just... tends to spend a little too much and --”

“Paige.” Haley stepped forward and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You could up and leave whenever you want. Sell a few potions, grab the gold and split. Forget about him, he’s not worth it.”

Paige drew into herself a little. “...it wouldn’t be right.”

Haley opened her mouth to say something, but Paige turned away, back to the cauldron to scoop out a ladle of the potion into a new vial. “I’ll send off a message to my contact tonight,” she said as she put the stopper in. “Hopefully he’ll be able to get me the money by next week, and then --”

“PAIGE! I’M BACK!” came a shout from upstairs, the voice attempting to sound bombastic, but unable to hide the nasal whine behind it.

“Great,” muttered Haley.

“You’d best be going,” said Paige. “I’ll see you soon, alright?”

“Good luck,” said Haley, giving Paige a hug, holding on for as long as she dared before heading to the far side of the room. She tapped twice on one of the stone bricks in the wall, and the hidden door beside it swung open. It was their little secret, an underground tunnel that led to the outside, one that Erasmus had never discovered in all his years living in the tower.

Haley picked up her lantern from the nearby desk, and gave Paige one last smile before heading down the tunnel, the door swinging closed behind her. As soon as she was out of sight, her smile faded, and she punched the earthy wall.

*******

Paige watched Haley leave, saddened that their time together had to be so brief. Haley was her rock; without her around, Paige’s sanity might not have held out for as long as it had. Living with Erasmus was not always easy, and having someone else to talk to was a godsend, especially since she had so little time to visit town herself these days.

Haley’s words stuck with her though: the idea of leaving was incredibly tempting. Paige knew her way around a cauldron, she would be more than capable of setting up her own apothecary business and become independent. But doing that was risky, and would mean giving up on her lifelong dream, which was the whole reason she was here in the first place. She needed Erasmus if she was going to get anywhere else.

“Paige! Come up here, quickly!”

Speaking of which... Paige sighed and stashed her newly made potion on the shelf with the others, then climbed the ladder up to the ground level of Erasmus’s tower. The cellar level contained the potion laboratory, though Paige had come to think of it as her own; Erasmus had not spent more than more than a few minutes at a time down there in months. He was far too busy, was his excuse, usually because he was off on another “business trip.” Paige was never privy to where he went, but he always came back with some new spell component or magical item.

No doubt he had just returned with another such purchase, thought Paige and her stomach dropped a little. What could he have possibly found now to warrant such excitement, and how much had he promised to the person who had sold it to him?

Paige climbed up through the trapdoor into the main hall of the tower, to the sight of a somewhat portly human man with a scraggly beard in travel-worn robes, happily chuckling to himself and dancing from foot to foot. Paige stood up and straightened her own robes, standing demurely and gathering her patience. “Welcome home, Master Erasmus,” she said. “Was your journey successful?” It was a practiced greeting that she had recited many times.

“Successful? It was more than successful, it was outstanding!” laughed Erasmus, wringing his hands with glee. “I’ve found something that is going to make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!” He shuffled over to his pack and fished around, still giggling. He turned, holding a small glass bottle filled with a thick, deep red liquid. “Do you know what this is, Paige?” he asked, a massive grin across his face.

It was clearly blood of some kind. “I could not fathom, Master,” said Paige. If there was one thing that she knew kept Erasmus in a good mood, it was the belief that he knew better than everyone else around him.

“It’s dragon blood!” said Erasmus, pitching his voice down to sound mysterious. It sounded more like a wheeze.

In spite of herself, Paige’s eyes widened. “Dragon blood, Master? Real dragon blood?”

“Yes!” Erasmus crowed. “I confirmed it myself in every possible way and it is true: we now own an ampoule of dragon blood!” He laughed again and resumed dancing. Paige on the other hand, was worried.

“That could not have come cheap, Master,” she said. How in the world could he have afforded it?

“It certainly did not!” agreed Erasmus. “It’ll require some paying off, but that doesn’t matter! We have dragon blood!”

“May I ask how much we owe, Master? For the records, of course.” One of Paige’s primary duties under Erasmus was keeping his books, and she had to try not to cringe every time she looked at them.

“Oh, only about ten thousand, but no matter, no matter,” Erasmus said with a wave of his hand.

Paige’s stomach dropped, all the way this time. “Ten...thousand... silver, Master?”

“No, gold of course! Dragon blood is incredibly valuable, Paige.”

Paige’s knees almost gave out underneath her. Ten thousand gold pieces. Ten thousand gold that Erasmus did not have. “M-master... that is... a staggering amount.”

“Staggering indeed! But given the sorts of things we can craft with dragon blood, we’ll pay it off in no time, and be exponentially richer besides!” Erasmus reverently put the precious vial down on the table nearby. “We are going to be so very, very rich!”

His words fell on deaf ears, because Paige had heard this story many times before. This was what Erasmus always did, and why his was constantly in debt. He would buy exotic spell components and ingredients, intending to use them to create rare and powerful items that he guaranteed would make him rich. But then the components would sit on the shelf and never be used, because Erasmus could not bear to part with his precious unique purchases; he would turn down every suggested use for them, dismissing them as unworthy ideas for such expensive gems of his collection. The only way Paige had been able to keep Erasmus’s finances afloat had been to skim some of the less unique components and craft whatever she could, selling them to her secret contact and replenish the coffers with what she earned.

But a bottle of dragon blood? Ten thousand gold pieces? There was no way Erasmus would ever dare to use such a component for anything, and her occasional underground potion sales would never be able to pay off that amount. If an angry unpaid client did not come for them, it was only a matter of time before the Empire would no doubt arrest Erasmus for failing to pay his taxes, and as his bookkeeper, Paige would be right there in chains beside him. She stared at the floor, seeing all of her dreams disappear in front of her eyes.

Erasmus did not notice, humming to himself as he unslung his bag, a cloth satchel containing an extra-dimensional space that allowed him to carry most of his bedroom around over his shoulder. He carefully picked up the bottle with both hands, then raised it in front of his face with a simple spell, keeping it suspended in mid-air. “I’m going to put this downstairs on display. Take my bag upstairs and unpack it, will you?” He continued to hum as he descended the ladder, the dragon blood floating down after him. Paige did not move her feet, but her body began to quiver, gritting her teeth hard to stop herself from sobbing while Erasmus could still hear her.

Paige needed Erasmus to have money; it was part of the agreement they had reached when she first came to live here. Paige needed someone who could speak for her and fund her education; by law, no one could join the Pristine Academy in Aelodai without a sponsor. One might earn a sponsor from the Academy itself, but that was only possible by making a substantial donation; most alumni of the Academy came from prestigious families, and Paige did not have that luxury. She was an orphan; she had no inheritance to look forward to, and attempting to practice magic on her own, with no licence or qualification would put her in the sights of Imperial law. It was why she had gone looking for a master to take her on as an apprentice, and hopefully one day sponsor her entry to the Academy. Erasmus was the only one willing to give her chance; all his talk of striking it rich with his collection of spell components had enticed Paige at the time, and she had agreed to stay and assist him until he could afford to sponsor her.

So had her life as Erasmus’s apprentice begun, though “apprentice” was far too strong a word. She was a cleaner, a cook, a bookkeeper, and only occasional student, while Erasmus busied himself with his “business trips” and adding to his ever growing collection. He barely even noticed that Paige was there, unless he needed an audience to his latest money-making item or to feel good about himself. Paige had weathered the ignorant treatment, telling herself that it was all only temporary; as soon as she had her sponsorship, she would be free of Erasmus forever.

Now that dream had all but evaporated in the presence of that little glass bottle of blood. Any chance of her becoming a full-fledged Illuminator of the Pristine Academy vanished into the deep, dark well of Erasmus’s debt.

*******

“I’ll fucking kill him!” snarled Haley.

“Haley, please --”

“I’m serious, Paige! I will march up to that tower and put my spear through his fat, smug face!” She slammed the ground with the butt of her weapon to emphasize her point. Standing in the alleyway behind the Gilded Wolf tavern, the two young women were hidden from the view of the townsfolk. Not that Haley would have cared at this point. Paige had explained everything between her sobs, the sight of her tear-stained face igniting a rage in Haley’s gut. She was visibly shaking in anger by the time Paige finished speaking.

“It wouldn’t do any good,” said Paige miserably. “And even if it would, you’d have no chance against him. All things aside, he’s still a wizard; one word and wave of his staff...”

“Fuck that!” said Haley, kicking at the dirt. “I don’t care if he’s the fucking Lord of the Nine, I’ll stick his head on a pike!”

Paige slid her back down the wall of the tavern until she reached the ground, and she drew her knees in close. “I’ve been such an idiot. I should have gotten out before it was too late. Now he’s going to drag me down with him, and even if I somehow don’t end up in prison, no other wizard will ever want an apprentice with such poor judgement.” She covered her face with her arms. “I messed up! I’ve ruined my whole life!”

“No you haven’t!” said Haley. “This is not your fault, it’s his!”

“But I should have known better!” wailed Paige. “I should have known what he was from the start! This was all a huge mistake! I should never have come here in the first place!”

Haley froze. “What?”

“I’ve wasted two whole years of my life, and for what? Playing servant girl to a broke wizard with nothing to show for it!”

Haley knelt down next to Paige. “You don’t mean that,” she said quietly. “It hasn’t all been bad, has it?”

Paige looked up at her, sniffling. “What do you mean?”

“You became a master potion maker, you taught yourself magic, you...” Haley hesitated. “You found me, didn’t you?”

Paige’s lip quivered, then she threw her arms around Haley, hugging her close as a fresh wave of sobbing burst out of her. Haley dropped her spear and shield, returning the hug and holding tight as the half-elven girl quivered in her embrace. At any other time, Haley would have relished this; having Paige this close, being able to take in her scent, feeling her skin against her face would have been heavenly. But at this moment, Haley simply held still and let Paige cry, until she seemingly had no more tears.

“Thank you, Haley,” she said, sitting back and wiping her eyes. “You really have been the best friend I could ask for through all this.”

A pang of disappointment shot through Haley’s chest, but she managed to smile. “Happy to be here for you,” she said. She put her hand gently on Paige’s shoulder. “And it’s going to be alright. You’re still young, you’re smart; you’ll find a way through this somehow, I know it.”

Paige looked down at herself. “I must look a total mess,” she said. “Sorry you have to see me like this.”

“No matter what, you’re still cute,” Haley blurted before she could stop herself, but Paige just giggled.

“That’s nice of you to say, but I think I’d better clean up.” Paige flicked her fingers, and a small cluster of magical sparks danced across her, clearing away the tear streaks and fixing her tousled hair. As the charm did its work, a look of realisation spread across her face. “Wait, that’s it!” she said.

“What do you mean?” asked Haley.

“I have an idea!” said Paige, jumping to her feet.

“You do?” said Haley, rising up as well. “What is it?”

“I have no idea!” said Paige. “Well, I have some idea, but it’s not a full idea yet! I have to get back to the tower, right away! No time to waste!” She hugged Haley again, only for a second or two, then took off at a full run as she waved back. “I’ll let you know how it goes!”

“Paige, wait!” Haley called, scrabbling to pick up her shield and spear. As she exited the alleyway, a voice called out behind her: “Guard Russum! Why aren’t you on your patrol?!” The unmistakable voice of her captain.

Ah crap, thought Haley, snapping to attention.

*******

Paige rushed up the tower stairs two at a time, running up to the first floor where Erasmus’s library/trophy room was situated. As well as expensive spell components, Erasmus was also in the habit of collecting various books, proudly displayed alongside strange statuettes and arcane devices that he had picked up along the way. He still had not read half of them, making the same excuses as he did for everything else.

Paige, on the other hand, had scanned through all of them; it had been a side effect of Erasmus’s “lessons” in magic, which consisted of him shoving a book in Paige’s direction and letting her figure things out for herself. This had required her to do additional research with the rest of the books, rather than accidentally blow herself up with an errant spell.

In this moment, however, Paige cared less about potential mishaps and more about full-on, proper results. Haley had inadvertently reminded her about the extent of her studies; using magic to fix herself up had developed that thought into an idea, and now as she pulled books from the shelves, that idea was turning into a fully-fledged plan.

What did she go through all that studying for, if she couldn’t use magic to solve her problem?