#The Scepter of Arawn | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

arawnprydain-blog · 6 years

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First Lessons & Introductions || Dead Wizard Walking

In which Arawn and Mateo come to an understanding.

@mateodeavalor

Timestamp: May 22nd, 2018. Dusk.

TW: none actually. (believe me i’m as surprised as you are as far as arawn is concerned.) unless verbal manipulation makes you uncomfortable!

MATEO

When Arawn had walked away that day Mateo had been so ecstatic with what had just happened he didn’t even notice that he had no idea how to go about the task set before him.

Meet me the day after tomorrow at sun down at my house. Finding it will be your first lesson. Good luck.

He had just continued on his way, thinking about how great an opportunity this was! How he was going to be able to practice with someone who knew what they were doing, and how he was going to finally be able to become a great sorcerer like his grandfather. There was a little moment where he had mourned the fact that Alacazar wasn’t here to see it happen, that he wasn’t there at all. But it would be okay because Mateo was going to everything he could to ensure that the work Alacazar had already put into Mateo’s training was going to end with him becoming a sorcerer. No longer a 22 year old apprentice! A full on sorcerer! Who could join his friends in the fight to take back their home, and help Elena figure out the Scepter of Light.

And he was going to make Alacazar proud.

The first step to that was finding his master. Mateo had spent the whole day before flipping through his books, trying to find something that would help him get to his master’s house without becoming a stalker. That’s what magic was for!

Well. Not to stalk people. God, no that was-. Nevermind, you get the point. He was a sorcerer’s apprentice, and he was almost positive that his master had meant for him to find him via magic. Duh.

Also lucky that he had been given pretty much two days to figure it out because man, did he need it. The tracking spell he’d found in one of his grandfather’s books had been a little difficult to get done for him. Starting with the ingredients. He had pretty much had everything he needed in the enchanted bag, he was just missing one thing, a memory of the person he was looking for.

Lucky for Mateo he had one of those himself. Not the trouble was getting it. It took hours and a lot of frustration, but eventually he managed to get his Tamborita at the right angle, the words correct, and tapped his palm to the drum wand. The memory fought against him for a moment but eventually conceded to his hand. Mateo laughed in triumph for a moment before composing himself enough to get started on the spell.

Again, it took him a few hours, having to move back and forth from the spell to the instructions, taking each step slowly to make sure he got it right. The first three times he said the incantation nothing happened and he couldn’t understand why. Outside the sun was its descent and he was running out of time. On the fifth time, because the fourth he had sneezed during it, he finally got it to work.

Alacazar’s spell had said to use it on something easy to follow that was not alive so Mateo had just used a rock he had picked up by the town’s lake. When the spell finally pulled itself together instead of splitting apart the rock jumped to life, bouncing around the room. At first he laughed, but then the thing started to knock on the window of his room and he had to quickly grab for it, saying that this was not his window to break, so they’d just have to use the front door.

The rock bounced down the sidewalk of the town, passing through people’s legs and feet easily.

Mateo on the other hand was pushing through those same people, stumbling, tripping, and yelling at the rock to wait up! Thankfully people would only watch him for a second before shrugging and moving on. Just another day in Swynlake, right?

The sun was almost gone as Mateo came sprinting down the residential street, his bag having gotten caught on a stray bush branch while the rock kept jumping along. He had to stop to bend over and put his hands on his knees, sucking in air, as he tried to figure out where the rock had gotten off to. Distantly he heard a knocking sound and turned his head to look at the house he was standing in front of. He could see his rock knocking against the door, trying to make its way inside.

ARAWN

In all honesty he did not care whether or not the street urchin would be able to find him. If he did, very well, he would have the challenge of converting this seemingly goodie-goodie into someone he could bend and break to help him on his quest. If he did not that that would prove to Arawn that he was not worth the trouble anyhow. He would be a boy trying to fill big shoes with no power worth looking after.

The day after he had met with Mateo he had made his way home earlier than wanted in order to wait for the boy. He had a cup of tea while he watched the time. The sun would be setting soon and Arawn smirked to himself.

Very well, he thought standing from his seat. Arawn was about to make his way back into his kitchen when he heard the knock on his door. It sounded small and insignificant, not nearly as large or impacting of that of a human’s hand. He thought it to be an idiotic bird who could not tell the difference between a window and the world.

Then it came again.

And again.

And then in rapid succession.

It was annoying and Arawn stalked over to his door to tear it open.

MATEO

He didn’t know whether the rock wanted to use the house as a shortcut or if this was where his master was. Either way, he was going to have to go get the thing. He started up the walk, slow at first. When the rock started knocking insistently, and rather rudely in Mateo’s opinion, he jogged. The enchanted bag across his bag bouncing as he did so.

“Hey!” Mateo whisper-yelled, at the thing. It stopped for a second as it noticed him again, wiggling at him, and then going back to pinging itself against the door. “Stop that!”

Mateo reached down but the rock evaded him, continuing on its quest to annoy whoever was inside the house. Be it stranger or the man he was looking for, Mateo knew they were going to be annoyed and he did not need that to be his second impression! Especially not when they were about to have a training session after this, it would be all awkward and weird if it started with his master thinking about how annoying Mateo was.

The rock didn’t seem to want to listen to him, it just wanted inside.

At one point Mateo ended up moving in the wrong way and wound up diving for the rock, landing on his stomach against the hard surface of the front porch. His hands actually ended up wrapping around the rock, its warmed surface from the summer air and sun warmed cement banging against his skin as it attempted to escape from his grip.

“Gotchya,” he said aloud right before the door next to him opened. Mateo winced as he looked up the length of the person to find his master standing there. He quickly scrambled, jumping to his feet and smiling nervously down at him.

“Hi!” he greeted, waving his hands in the shape of a cage to Arawn.

ARAWN

His eyes were at level when he opened the door, ready to yell at whoever or whatever the hell was making such a fuss. When nothing was there he blinked in surprise.

No, wait, there wasn’t nothing there. Magic was nearby, one familiar to him. Where, though, was still yet to be found.

He looked down in time to watch Mateo raise his eyes up so that they met one another’s gaze.

Oh goody, he’d found him.

Arawn watched as Mateo made his way to his feet with difficulty, holding something with magic attached to it in his hands. He took the moment to glance at the sky, noting the darkening colors. The sun was just setting.

The boy sure knew how to cut it close.

He returned his eyes to Mateo at his greeting and nodded to him, forcing a smile to his face that was only slightly pained. This was either the biggest mistake of his entire life or one the the best ideas he had ever had. He didn’t know if the enthusiasm and excitement coming from Mateo at a nauseating degree was manageable just yet.

“I’m glad to see you’ve found me. Please, come in,” he said, stepping aside with the door as he gestured for the boy to enter. “And then we can discuss what you have in your hands.”

Inside this house was not much different from that of which he had lived in Wales. It was small, clean, and dark, just as he liked it to be. The furniture was a little more lavish than probably most people in this town went for but they were not living here. He was. There was plenty of empty wall space but things such as mirrors, clocks, and paintings hung on occasion. The lighting was more yellow in hue, and the dark burgundy rugs that sat on top of the dark stained wood floorings pulled in the light to keep it dimmed.

MATEO

Mateo grinned proudly at Arawn as he said he was glad to see Mateo because Mateo was over the moon to have found him. He had his own house! How great was that! The apartments were great and all, reallyreally great, but they did have their downfalls. A house, though! That meant they could do stuff without being interrupted. Not that Mateo didn’t welcome his friends knocking on his door if they wanted him, it would just be kinda nice to not be on edge thinking someone might hear him say something wrong besides his master. Or listen in, or distract him.

He took the invitation with a curt nod and walked inside, his grin diminishing as his jaw went slack and he looked around in awe. It was a little...well dark if Mateo were being honest, which he usually was. The house he’d grown up in had had a lot of windows to give them natural lighting. The colors his mother had painted were bright, and everything about it had made Mateo feel at home. Arawn’s house seemed….

Cozy!

“Oh, this?” he asked, wiggling his still enclosed hands. “It’s how I found you! My grandfather had this spell that lets you find people as long as you have a memory of them and something to take you there. I uh,” Mateo huffed nervously, “I guess I wasn’t really thinking so I used a rock instead of like a bike or something. But it worked! See-!

Without thinking Mateo opened his hands and out jumped the rock from his hold.

ARAWN

The door shut behind the boy and Arawn folded his hands behind him, watching Mateo look at his house. He seemed impressed, though he had no reason to. Unless he lived on the streets and hadn’t seen the inside of a house. Which was probably not the case since he had clothes that were of remedial standard and looked well put together. To a degree. There was the slouchy, unconfident way he held his shoulders and the naivety that clung to him like static.

He eyed Mateo’s hands, having already guessed that he did not have the experience to have been able to find him via feeling alone and would have to use the help of a spell or potion or tracking him down by knocking on all the doors in town or roaming about until the day light withdrew.

His eyebrows drew upwards as he looked at Mateo in disapprovement, but...how interesting was it that the boy had mentioned his grandfather’s writings. A sorcerer’s journal or grimoire was one of the greatest and honorable heirlooms, in Arawn’s opinion. They were also vital to history and power and...if this Mateo was from another continent with differing histories then maybe there was something in those books that would help Arawn in his ventures.

One step at a time, though. He could read them eventually.

The rock, apparently, was not the only thing that had magic on Mateo’s person. Besides the raw magic lighting up the boy himself there was the bag wrapped around him. Enchanted no doubt.

He watched on at Mateo opened his palms and the rock lunged for him. Arawn didn’t flinch violently, simply raised his hand to catch the rock mere centimeters from making contact with his face. He hummed, turning his hand over and opening the fist he had enclosed around the rock to stare down at it. He waved his other hand over it before it could make another attempt to jump at his face, and the rock fell still in his hand. Arawn held his hand out to Mateo.

“Very well done,” he lied, “a relentless little thing you had here.”

MATEO

Mateo gasped, his arm shooting out to try and grab the rock back up before it could do anything stupid. It was already too far out of his reach with his less than subpar reflexes. He could only watch in horror as the rock would probably his his master in the face and take Mateo’s hopes and dreams long with it.

Arawn caught it. Right out of the air. Like it was nothing!

Mateo couldn’t help but let out a laugh of disbelief and wonder because, wow! Just! Wow! He didn’t think that had been magic, but it had impressed him all the same. He fixed his footing, having stepped forwards in an attempt to get the rock back, taking him closer to his master. Mateo watched on in more awe than he’d had for the house as Arawn took the spell from the rock. His eyes were wide, aas was his smile, as he held out his hands for his master to give him back the rock.

“Thank you,” he said, ducking at the praise. He rolled the rock around in his hands, smoothing a thumb over it because, yeah, he was a little proud. Mateo had gotten a spell right! He turned his smile up to Arawn, “That means a lot coming from you.”

ARAWN

The rock dropped from his hands down into Mateo’s. He watched as the boy preened from the simple words he had said. He wasn’t here to teach him how to take a compliment, he was here to teach him magic. And whatever he could to ensure his trust was given willingly.

Trust was a very tricky thing. Hard to gather as it was so fragile. One false move and it was ruined. Crinkled trust was usable but that untainted, untouched, untampered with trust was more powerful.

Arawn smiled at Mateo, knowing he would take for sincerity, and stepped forwards to grip one of his forearms reassuringly.

“I believe you don’t give yourself any credit, Mateo. With time you’ll learn that you are more than capable of spells and the like much more complicated than this. ” Arawn patted his arm twice before brushing past him. “Follow me, we can work in this room just here.”

He walked over to a door that did not looked like it belonged to the house because, well, it didn’t. He had put it there himself, along with the room it opened up to. It held the same feeling that the rest of the house did, but outside the sun was still shining. To his dismay. There were shelves of ingredients on the walls, and where there wasn’t a long workbench ran the width of the walls with books, journals, and loose-leaf papers piled here and there. The middle of the room was wide open, nothing but burned markings from long lost memories scorched into the surfaces.

MATEO

Mateo’s eyebrows rose, his face opening up in wonder as he looked at Arawn telling him that he was going to learn and thrive. He felt something wedge into his throat and had to swallow it down before he made a fool of himself. There was no need to get choked up over this! It was a good thing, him being here. Arawn had seemed a little of putting upon first meeting but he was really making up for it now. Just goes to show that Mateo was right about people, you couldn’t just write them off after one meeting. There was no telling how their day had been going or if they were going through a rough time. People were good, and he believed the best in them.

Probably why when he felt a cold prickling running up his sleeve when Arawn touched his arm he wrote it off as the air conditioning instead of the red flag it should have been.

He followed after him, thinking that the room was just going to be an extra bedroom or an office or, he didn’t know actually, just a four walled room of the house’s originating structure. It never even struck him that he would be walking into a room that wasn’t even in Swynlake. And when he did, when his brain put together that the room was too big for the layout of the house he’d just been standing in and the sunlight coming in through the windows that looked stronger than that of the setting sun that he had just been witnessed to, Mateo let out a loud disbelieving laugh.

He had missed this. Magic in seemingly every nook and cranny of the world.

“Wow!” he said, stepping in to turn round and round. “This is amazing! Did you do this all by yourself? Where are we? Is the sun real or is it just artificial light so you always have a day time? This is amazing!”

ARAWN

He watched the boy follow and then move past him into the room, shutting the door as Mateo let out a joyful noise that made him sigh through his nose. The things he did for an means to an end. It would all be worth it. Soon enough this annoying demeanor and child like attitude towards magic would be replaced with a more refined person. Mateo would no longer twirl around like a child, he would stand there at attention like the man he was supposed to be.

“No, this room has been in my family for generations,” he said, “it was my mother’s before me. It’s a fairly easy spell to attach it to any residency. Office buildings and restaurants are harder to get it to consistently open, but luckily that isn’t a problem.”

Arawn gestured for Mateo to follow him as he walked to the middle of the room and sat down on the floor. He crossed his legs over one another, and motioned for Mateo to sit across from him.

MATEO

His eyes were trying to take it all in on one glance over while his brain tried to reassure him that if he did well then he would get to be spending many days, in this place if he wanted! Or, rather, if Arawn allowed it. It had that residual magical feeling. Again, a little colder than his grandfather’s room and workshop had felt, but there was still something familiar about it. It just felt so good to know that he was in the right place, in the right presence. Finally, he was on his way to filling in the robes of the Royal Court Sorcerer of Avalor.

Mateo nodded at the anecdote, looking over the room again with new eyes. There must have been years and years of history and stories this room could tell. He almost missed the wordless command, catching it at the last second in order to stumble to catch up. After Arawn sat Mateo plopped down across from him, clutching the fabric of his pants on his thighs.

Despite the questions wanting to poor out, because he just had so many! What were they doing? How was Arawn? Was Mateo dressed correctly? Was there even a dress code for this kind thing? Was he going to learn how to-?, Mateo kept his mouth shut and blinked at his master, waiting for his instruction with excitement.

ARAWN

He had never taken it upon himself to teach another. It was not because he didn’t think himself capable, because he was, more so than most of the atrocious masters out there, it was because he did not have the time. Time was precious and ongoing. Arawn wasn’t going to waste it on that of another. It was only now that he saw a purpose behind it all.

Sitting across from the live wire of a child, because he was still a child in many ways. His awe, the way his eyes lit up when he saw something new, and the way he walked was almost as if he was a newborn foal. Truly, Arawn wondered how he was still alive. Miracles and dumb luck most likely.

“Now,” he started, looking at the apprentice through narrowed eyes, “we do not know one another and it is not as if you’re here to learn maths. So, in order to ensure that this is going to work, Mateo, I’m going to ask something of you. You can choose not to answer, but that will end our lessons here.”

MATEO

The smile plastered on his face dimmed a little at the thought that things would end before they even began because of a question. That was so much pressure. He was already so close, his foot already across the threshold. It was like being given a glass of water after spending a week in the desert and then being told that he couldn’t drink it. Maybe this was a lesson, too? Alacazar had done this often when he had been alive, making Mateo do seemingly useless tasks only to turn around and show him why it was necessary. Mateo would often get paranoid because of this, wondering if the request to go get them cookies from the kitchen was a test. Until Alacazar would notice the look on Mateo’s face and reassure him that it wasn’t, he just wanted one fresh from the oven before Rafa had the chance to notice they were gone.

Mateo sat up a little straighter, having been bending his back because even sitting down he was taller than Arawn which made him feel awkward or like he was undermining him in some way, and lifted his chin a tad.

“What is it?” he asked. There were only a number of things that he could think of that he couldn’t be able to answer. Those being; anything to do with the princesses that might bring them harm and anything that would put his friends or family in danger. Mateo would hold tight to that, but if Arawn was after those things, if he came right off the bat swinging with those questions then he probably wasn’t interested in teaching Mateo at all and this was all a waste of time anyways.

ARAWN

Mateo looked like a child squaring up to take a punch. He had to keep himself from laughing.

“Very well,” he nodded, “the only thing I ask of you throughout these lessons is to not keep any secrets from me, or yourself. The only way you are going to be able to achieve the things you want, and the things I want for you, is going to be if you are honest.

“I use to be like you when I was younger. Unsure, behind the curve,” he could taste the bitter tone in his voice as he thought about those times, as he thought about his own master and the people around him who had done nothing but shut him out as he tried to reach out. It made his skin crawl, having to reveal such truths to this insect, but the empathetic path seemed to be the one that would lead Mateo to taking comfort with him.

“It was only when I came to turns with my true self that I was able to surpass all of that. In order to succeed you must only think in terms of who you are and who you wish to become. If you are not doing it for yourself then there is no point.”He cleared his throat, wanting to stop there, but knowing the next part needed to be said in order to win this boy over, “No one’s standards will ever be as high as your own. Doing things for others, that will come later. But for now you must solely think on your own magic.

In order to do this, you must come to terms with everything that is keeping you from using your magic to its full potential. This means lies, secrets, uncertainty, all those anxieties I can see flitting about. In order to teach you, you are going to need to be able to show these to me, too, as you face them. Do you understand?”

MATEO

He didn’t know why, but hearing those things made tears sting his eyes. Which was stupid and embarrassing and made Mateo want to crawl into a hole and never come out. But he had already done that once this year. It had been awful and he wouldn’t have recommended it again. Unless he was starting to cry in front of his new master, who he was only meeting for the second time in three days.

It was just...well his mother and sister had always told him how proud they were of him, and he could see it. Bright and shiny and wonderful, but he was also their blood. Of course they were proud of him, he was proud of them, too. And his friends were all so nice to him when he fucked up or when he didn’t fuck up. Always trying to pick him up and dust off the dirt from his clothes. Sometimes he wondered if they were all really telling the truth or if they had all been exposed to one another for so long, being around him as a terrible sorcerer who they couldn’t rely on, and they had somehow adapted to being disappointed with him. They forgave him for how he couldn’t do anything because they just knew it before they even asked. Like they expected the failure before it even happened in order to not be let down.

So to hear from a stranger the truth, the real truth, the one that he wished someone would just come out and say already, was heart wrenching. It told him that his thinkings had been real because Arawn had no reason to lie. He was wanting what was best for Mateo, and that was the truth. That Mateo was a bad sorcerer because he let himself be. There was no other reason. He’d been given the basic tools and principles, he could perform spells correctly under immense amounts of pressure but never when he wanted, and he worked hard for it. He knew it, too.

It was why that whole dream, spell, town hallucination, thing last December had gotten to him. He had been powerful, his powers of that world had been fully formed and he could remember how easy it had been to use them. Here Mateo struggled to see ingredients, he struggled to muster up enough magic to be able to cast a simple spell. There had been this freedom that was unlike anything he had ever felt in the real world, and it scared him to think that it was his own fault for not being able to do anything he was supposed to at this age.

He was holding himself back because he was too scared. And Arawn could see it. Mateo cleared his throat and nodded, sniffing a little as he hadn’t let the tears fall from his eyes and, well, they had to go somewhere.

“Okay,” he answered softly, nodding again. “I will.”

ARAWN

The rise of emotion from Mateo was not surprising, he had been expecting it. This was becoming a joke. A few pretty words sprinkled with a sympathetic or caring tone and the boy had turned to putty.

He thanked every doubt, every terrible event, every failed attempt at magic from this idiot’s hand for this moment. If he had any doubt about the dedication this child was going to be putting forth in these lessons before then this moment had seen them out.

All he had to do was sing praises and tell Mateo that he was proud of him whenever he did anything correctly. Such simplicities would please him enough to come back time and time again.

Eventually his usefulness would come into play. Until then he would work on cutting down that easily excitable personality he was hoisting around. Tear down this framework of a young boy who looked at the world with optimism and wonder. Had Mateo not had it in the first place then maybe he would have been able to see Arawn’s truth, the world’s truth.

Oh well. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and all that.

“Good,” he said, leaning back with a smile. “And I shall do the same for you. No secrets. Everything you see is everything I am. Anything you ask I shall answer to the best of my knowledge. Now, a few ground rules.

“Firstly we will meet every other day, and when we are not meeting I will be giving you work to do, so it won’t be as if you’re resting. I am not here to waste your time, so do what I ask of you and we won’t have any problems. Do not contact me unless absolutely necessary. I have shown you my home, but I do not expect anyone but you to be knocking on my front door.” The last thing he needed was whoever hung around or were friends with this moron to be crawling around here.

“Do we understand one another?”

MATEO

All of those were perfectly fair things to ask of him. Honestly he was happy with the one day in one day off set up, he had been expecting the five to two day ratio like everything else but this was probably a better system. Arawn knew best, after all!

He nodded along, smiling all the way through it. They wouldn’t be very hard to follow either as he hadn’t planned on telling any of his friends where Arawn lived. They wouldn’t really care, would they? Except maybe Gabriel. But Mateo didn’t want Gabe to scare his master off either. And he wasn’t going to tell Arawn who he was or that he was connected to Elena in anyways. Unless he asked him. Which he wouldn’t! Because it wasn’t that obvious. There were other places he could be from! Sorcerers came from all over the world, and he could be from any number of those places. Not telling Arawn and straight up lying were two totally, completely, different things anyways. So as long as Arawn didn’t ask he would be fine. And if he did maybe he would understand that Mateo wouldn’t be able to say anything.

If he didn’t then the choice there would be easy. Devastating, but easy.

“We do,” Mateo said with one final nod that was really more of a bow of his head. He was practically bouncing where he sat now, feeling the introduction portion of this coming to an end. Mateo grinned at his master before turning to the room once more. “So, where do we start?”

#first lessons & introductions #mateodeavalor #dead wizard walking #para

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