The Chronicles of Krarshe: The Hearts of Men, Volume 1

Krarshe yawned as he sat in his usual spot by the window again, looking out over the school courtyard. He spent the whole day yesterday resting to heal, to catch up on sleep from the night before, and to nurse the headache he had awoken with. He wished he could have taken another day to recover, but he figured Bri would have his head if he did. He already knew he was in for a scolding when he told her about the fight.

While getting into a fight in a bar, with a foe many times bigger and stronger than himself, was bad enough, he would struggle to explain why he had spent a whole night drinking. Heavily. To the point where he couldn’t even remember how he had gotten to his bed. Truth be told, most of the night was a blur, with only a few memories flickering to the forefront of his mind when he thought about it. The only thing he could remember clearly was how close he felt to the staff of The Easy Lute. It felt like he had a second home, his first since setting out alone a few years ago. Regardless, telling Bri any of this part of the tale was out of the question. She wouldn’t sympathize with him if he said that he’d skipped another day because he had slept until midday, awoke with a pounding headache, and his ribs hurt too much to move.

Krarshe shifted positions as he stared out at the courtyard and felt the sting of his injury next to his eye. Ugh, how am I supposed to leisurely stare out the window, ignoring half of what Owyn says, if I can’t lean on my right cheek? Krarshe thought, delicately rubbing his sore cheekbone. He was healing quicker than expected, but he was still tender all over.

“There you are!” Bri yelled from the door to the classroom. Storming up to him, she continued, “After we talked, I THOUGHT you’d be back in class. Where were- Charmer scarring, what happened to your eye?!”

“I’ll explain in a moment,” Krarshe said flatly.

“What?”

“Karshe!” Tibault shouted as he entered the classroom. “Where have you- What in the world happened to your eye?!”

I knew that was coming... “Sorry I wasn’t here a couple days ago, Bri, Tibault. I... uhh... got into a bar fight.”

“Oh by the grace of...” Bri said, rubbing her brow.

“How’d you do that?!” Tibault asked.

“It’s a long story. We can discuss at lunch.” Krarshe sighed, looking at his two friends. “Sorry for being such an idiot, but I’m back,” he said with a smile.

“Good to have you back, Krarshe.”

“Hey! When did you learn to say his name? HOW did you learn to say it? I still can’t get the sound right.”

“More practice than I’d like to admit...”

“I appreciate the effort,” Krarshe said with a laugh.

Owyn entered the room, more cheerfully than Krarshe had ever seen him. Upon noticing Krarshe sitting in his usual spot, any joy he had vanished, his smile melting away to a sneer. “Just when I thought I was rid of you...” he muttered, dropping all pretense of courtesy. What little there was to begin with.

“Happy to see you too, Professor.” Krarshe smirked.

Owyn rolled his eyes and proceeded to his desk. After going through the formality of greeting the class, he pulled out a shard of chalk and began the day’s lesson.

Krarshe sat behind the store counter, thrumming his fingers on its old wooden surface. While he was glad to see his friends again, this part of his day remained boring beyond reason.

Based on what Bri and Tibault were saying, he hadn’t actually missed much. The lectures covered a few other basic spells, many of which Krarshe had already cast during his experiments with Professor Landry. Without Krarshe’s disruptions, the afternoon sessions returned to what they were apparently supposed to be: the students casting the same spell over and over for hours, trying to perfect the recitation and build their mana pool. It became apparent that, despite having missed so many classes, he was significantly ahead of the rest of the class, simply from the experiments he had undergone.

Krarshe sighed. What did I spend all this money for? To be studied, sit in a store alone, and spend my class time relearning the same spells I cast nearly a cycle ago? He thought for a moment. I guess I get to make jokes about Owyn with my friends too... Potentially worth the money. He chuckled to himself. The laughter made his still-sore ribs hurt a bit.

The store’s door swung open and Krarshe caught a flutter of gold. He felt a rush of futile hope overcome him. She couldn’t be here again, could she? I just saw her a couple days ago. He leaned a bit to get a better look down the aisle, bearing the pain in his ribs, and felt his heart leap into his throat. Lycia was there, looking over the contents of the shelf. As she tucked her single braid behind her ear, she glanced toward the counter, only to look away quickly when her eyes met Krarshe’s.

Krarshe swallowed hard and got up from the counter. He wasn’t expecting her to visit again so soon, but he wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass. Taking the next aisle, he came up behind her and cleared his throat. “Anything I can help you with?” His heart was pounding, but he stood his ground, maintaining his merchant’s smile.

Lycia wasn’t startled nearly as much as she was the other day, but she clearly didn’t expect him to come up behind her. “Oh! U-umm... N-no, I’m just browsing,” she said in her usual timid tone. Her green eyes met Krarshe’s again. “What happened to your eye?”

“My eye? Oh. Oh! Right, my eye... I... Umm...” Krarshe didn’t want to admit he was beaten half to death by a bunch of drunk adventurers, but didn’t want to look like an idiot, claiming to have walked into something. Nothing wrong with just omitting a bit, right? “I got into... a fight.”

“A fight?”

“With an adventurer.”

Lycia raised an eyebrow. The gesture set Krarshe’s heart aflutter.

“Y-yeah,” he croaked before coughing again. “Yeah. He was pretty big. But I like to think I walked away the victor.”

Lycia giggled, again setting his heart off. “Do you now?”

“Do you think I’d lose?” He tapped his fist against his chest boldly. “Ouch!”

Lycia giggled again, trying to cover her mouth. “If you say so.”

His bravado was clearly transparent, so he decided to change subjects. “How goes your training?”

“Oh... It’s... It’s going smoothly. How is... umm... yours?” Lycia paused for a moment. “You ARE a student here... right? You seem to be in the store quite often. I feel like you were here in the store the last time I... umm... came here, too.”

“Every day, actually. Well, aside from the last couple of days because, well...” Krarshe gestured to his eye.

“Is that... normal?”

“I think so. Wouldn’t you take some time to recover from an injury?”

“Not that,” she said with a smile. “Running the store.”

“Ah. No, not really. I’m- Well, I’m an anomaly in that regard, I suppose.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“It’s actually not that bad. You could say I’m ahead of the class. All of the spells they’re casting now are ones I cast almost a cycle ago.”

“Wait, you’re already casting spells? That’s pretty incredible. I’m still learning mana control.” Lycia’s usual timidness seemed to vanish in an instant.

“Mana control?”

“You know. Projecting your mana, controlling the amount released, having it take different forms. The bas...ics...” Lycia trailed off as she noticed the blank look on Krarshe’s face. “Did... you not do that first?”

Krarshe shook his head slowly before answering, “N-no. This is the first I’m hearing of it, actually. We learned how to release our mana, and then went to spells immediately.”

“Is this what Mom meant...?” Lycia muttered to herself.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh! No, nothing. Forget you heard me say anything,” she said, waving her hands frantically.

“Hey! What are you doing talking to a customer?” the supervising student demanded, coming out from behind the counter, startling both Krarshe and Lycia.

“You’re not supposed to talk to customers...?” Lycia whispered to Krarshe.

“Umm... I’m not going to answer that...”

“What are you even doing in this store then?”

Krarshe shrugged. “Staying out of trouble?”

“Get back behind the counter! Leave customers to me.” The student eyed Lycia. “Is there anything I can help you with?” he asked with sickeningly fake cordiality.

“Oh, no, no. Everything’s been taken care of.” Lycia turned and made two steps toward the door before stopping. “Umm... U-until we... meet again, Karshe...” she said, timid once more, before continuing to leave.

Krarshe waved an unseen goodbye and just stood there, watching as she left. Meet again? Wait, why did she even come here? He thought for a moment. Was it... to see me?

“Tch!” The other student clicked his tongue and returned to the back of the store, leaving Krarshe standing in the aisle alone.

Krarshe could feel a smile spreading across his face, his heart racing even faster than when Lycia was present. Meet again... The words echoed in his mind as he continued to think about her parting words. As he dwelled on what she said, his smile began to fade. Mana control? Is that something we should have learned? What did her mother say to her?

Krarshe turned and slowly walked back to the counter, mulling over their discussion. He couldn’t tell what it was, but something felt amiss. Next time she came, he knew he’d have to press her on it. He wanted to know. He must know.