Kenneth didn’t want to go back to the magi collegium, but he
needed to give Thorn time.
The air outside the inventor’s college was warm and full of
the gritty, smoky scents of the nearby slums. He had learned a lot about the
twisting roads that led between the buildings, and knew enough to not lost or
stumble into an area where a rich-looking mage on a fancy horse would get his
pocket picked.
But there was no area in the slums where a mage like him
would actually belong, save for by Thorn’s side.
Kenneth tried not to worry. He loved Thorn. Thorn loved him.
If Saul was right, it would work out.
He clucked his tongue as he led Jade from the stables,
pleased at her glossy coat and finely kept mane. Clearly the students who
worked the stables to earn their keep at the inventor’s college took their work
seriously. The stables themselves were cleaner than the ones at the collegium,
Kenneth had to admit.
Jade swished her tail, and when they set off she pulled at
the reins in the direction of the collegium, eager to run in the rolling hills
that surrounded it. Kenneth clucked his tongue, pulling her back toward the
slums. He supposed she felt out of place too.
Kenneth rode Jade away from the inventor’s college, his mind
full of hope for his time with Thorn and with curiosity. He had learned a lot
from Thorn, had heard the stories about talentless, but knew so little. He rode
further, away from the places he knew, disregarding every bit of advice his
father had given him when he had first begun to attend the collegium with the
knowledge of the slums that lay beyond its grounds.
Wagons pulled by bony horses strolled past on the potted
road, and smoke belched from a contraption that was attached to a house. More
smoke poured from chimneys, from homes too poor to afford the engineer made
heaters for hot water or for furnaces. Few people walked by, the homes boarded
up or surrounded by shoddily constructed wooden fences. Noise, voices and
arguments, streamed from the larger buildings, where cracked windows offered
glimpses into families that were packed into tiny rooms.
Despite it all, a cheery tune played on a violin wound down
the street, one Kenneth didn’t recognize, and the sun illuminated the city.
Someone had painted on a wall, a drawing of a tree and some sort of flying
contraption, or perhaps just a poorly drawn bird.
Kenneth’s father’s voice echoed in his mind. How could the talentless be happy living
like this?
But no matter. They had their own lives, and could be happy
despite what had happened during the war. The music continued, the violin
joined by a flute and a drum, and Kenneth found the source in a small inn
called J’s. J for Jaquin, certainly.
He didn’t go inside. It wasn’t his place to be.
Thorn could be happy without him, Kenneth knew. He didn’t
want to believe it, of course. But the talentless didn’t need mages, and Thorn
didn’t need Kenneth. In fact, Kenneth needed Thorn more than Thorn could ever
need Kenneth.
He twisted the reins in his hand, the sun suddenly too
bright and too hot. He had been foolish. He was convinced he had everything to
offer Thorn, that his power and influence and money was enough, that his
willingness to learn about talentless was enough.
But he had to offer Thorn more than just that. It was
Thorn’s choice, of course. But fires, Kenneth cared about him. He loved him,
and he had to show Thorn that. Kenneth wasn’t going to just give up without a
fight.
Putting his back to the music, Kenneth headed back toward
the inventor’s college.
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