12-24-2020, 07:30 AM
Intermission: The Torchbearer's Burden
The stories said that Magnolia was a land of angels. After meeting Chaska, Lucas found that very hard to doubt.
The young girl was one of the most pure-hearted people he'd met, and coming from him that was saying a lot. As starry-eyed as he'd been in his youth, and as naïve about the world at large, there was always a bit of prosaic pragmatism in him. The shepherd's son emerging time and again to push back against the knightly fantasy he had grown up with. Chaska had no such devil on her shoulder. The purity of her ideals was born in a walled garden; a life lived in isolation from others- even her peers.
When he chose to guide her it had been out of duty, and out of a sense of kinship in spirit. She had wanted to know, and he had given her the chance to learn. She had wanted a friend, and he had given her someone to lean on. Now things were different.
Her power grew with every lesson and so did her confidence and faith. That fire he had nurtured in her heart was healthy and crackling now. A torch against the dark night brought on by the war. She was everything he wanted in a successor, someone who would surely carry on the legacy that was left to him.
So why was he still uneasy?
This was one of those times he wished he had Sasha to talk to. Her teaching had seemed effortless. Not on his part, of course, he felt he always struggled to make even the smallest progress. On hers. The seasoned knight hadn't been much older than he when she taught him. No more than a few years difference at most. Did she ever worry that her pupils would stray from their virtues? Did she ever wonder if she would live to see them reach their goals?
Maybe she had.
It was not as if doubt could be completely banished. Even Moa, who had all fear burned from her heart by Dyn's black flames, still sometimes had doubts. She was still sometimes troubled. Lucas had no such scourging to steel his soul, but he had means of shoring up his mindset. Meditation could clear away distractions, and Holy Magic could banish fear from his heart, but those were not the same.
Doubt was different. It was not something he could think his way out of. It required action.
He took a deep breath, and stood. The first rays of daylight were cresting the eastern sea. Back inside the Dragon Scale, his apprentice was likely already waking. She would accept his instruction with an eager mind, and he could give her no less than his best.
A smile formed on his face, and he brushed errant locks of golden hair from his eyes.
No matter how much doubt, he now bore a torch that lit the way for someone else. That feeling filled him with pride. And the doubt? Maybe it was good. He couldn't let himself get too cocky. Someone was depending on him.
With that thought pushing him forward, he made for the inn. Another new day, another chance to learn.