Title: Lessons Learned
Series: Final Fantasy XI
Characters: Darian Cerris, Ithan-Yuran
Rated: G
Words: 1,443 (end)
Summary: Darian confronts his old teacher with his past… and gets unexpected results.
Ithan-Yuran immediately jumped to his feet, but his reaction wasn’t what Darian had expected. The elderly tarutaru went to each of the windows in the house, drawing the curtains closed with a quick tug, and after he made sure the door was locked, he ran back to Darian. To his surprise, Ithan-Yuran jumped into his lap and grabbed the collar of his tunic, shaking him as he glared at him angrily.
“What were you thinking, you magnificentaru idiot?!”
Darian took a deep breath, trying to find the words he wanted to say… but every time he opened his mouth to say something, he felt as if something was catching in his throat, and all he would be able to do was to exhale uselessly.
Ithan-Yuran had been smiling tolerantly at first, but after the fourth time, his smile turned into a concerned frown. From the plush armchair he was sitting in, he leaned towards his former student and rested his elbows on his knees.
“Darian, are you alrightaru…?”
Darian sighed and closed his eyes. The fact was that no, he wasn’t okay, mostly because he didn’t know how to broach a rather difficult subject with him.
“It’s that… I…” He paused and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Master… I know you said that you didn’t want me to go through the maws again… but I did.”
Ithan-Yuran blinked at the admission, and he shook his head with a small smile. “It’s alrightaru, Darian. I didn’t expectaru you to listen to me… and certainly not Southpaw, either.” He then straightened up and looked straight at the hume sitting before him, much like a teacher would a student. “But why are you confessing that to me now?”
Darian looked down for a moment before looking straight at the tarutaru. “… you were in the war, right?”
Ithan-Yuran blinked again, a little surprised at his question. “Well, yes, but I…”
“And you were a Scholar, right?”
Ithan-Yuran did a double-take at that, and he laughed, waving dismissively at Darian. “Of course notaru, Darian… I was just a simple professor teaching basicaru magery to the new re-…”
Darian shook his head and opened his hand. His Grimoire materialized above his hand, pages flapping wildly, before he abruptly dispelled it with a wave of his hand.
Ithan-Yuran immediately jumped to his feet, but his reaction wasn’t what Darian had expected. The elderly tarutaru went to each of the windows in the house, drawing the curtains closed with a quick tug, and after he made sure the door was locked, he ran back to Darian. To his surprise, Ithan-Yuran jumped into his lap and grabbed the collar of his tunic, shaking him as he glared at him angrily.
“What were you thinking, you magnificentaru idiot?!”
Darian stared at Ithan-Yuran in shock, and the look on his former student’s face snapped him out of the sudden raging panic he felt. He slowly loosened his grip on his tunic and slid out of his lap, and he clambered back into his chair with a embarrassed flush.
“I’m sorry…”
Darian tentatively relaxed, and he adjusted the collar on his tunic and cleared his throat. “It’s… it’s okay, Master. I understand.”
Ithan-Yuran didn’t say anything for a while, and the only sound breaking the silence was the steady ticking from the clock mounted on a nearby wall.
“How… how did you findaru out?” Ithan-Yuran looked at Darian worriedly, as if he was afraid to hear the answer.
“I found a list of all the Scholars from each campus, in the past… you became one three years before the war broke out, and you were stationed at Fort Karugo-Narugo.”
Ithan-Yuran shook his head and smiled with a resigned sigh. “That’s goodaru research, Darian… but…”
“I also read up on the…” Darian paused, trying to find words… “…’purging’ that Jeuno did of the Scholars after the war.”
Darian frowned and looked at Ithan-Yuran worriedly. “How did you escape?”
Ithan-Yuran stayed quiet for a moment, then spoke in hushed tones, his voice barely over a whisper. “I’ve never toldaru anyone this, Darian…”
Darian shook his head as he interrupted his master. “I understand… you don’t have to…”
Ithan-Yuran sighed. “You know by now that Fort Karugo-Narugo was destroyed by the Yagudo. Those of us who were leftaru barely escaped with our lives.” He unconsciously started fiddling with a button on his robe as he continued his explanation. “Some of us weren’t so lucky when the Beastmen tried to pick us off as we ran. A blast from one of their Goddess-forsaken turrets managed to catch me as I was escaping.”
Darian winced, knowing full well what those looked like.
“Well, I woke up in a field hospital…” Ithan-Yuran continued, “… and before I even openedaru my eyes, I overheard some Jeuno soldiers talking to one of the casters in my unit. That’s when I found out about the entire witch hunt.”
He frowned and shook his head. “It’s not my proudest momentaru… In fact, I feel rather ashamed to be telling you this. But when they confronted-wonted me on my scholarly abilities, I did the first thing that came to mind…”
“And that was…?” Darian leaned forward, trying not to look too curious at how his Master escaped Jeuno’s wrath.
“I pretendarued I had amnesia.”
Darian widened his eyes and gaped at the admission. “Wait, what?”
Ithan-Yuran sighed and nodded as he resumed fidgeting with the button. “It took a little doing, but I pretendarued that I simply couldn’t remember-wember how to bringaru up the Grimoire.” He threw his hands in the air in a helpless shrug. “Oh, they tried to pressure me, of course, and they kept trying to pokaru holes in my story-wory… but I somehow managed to convince them that while I remembered that I was a Scholar, I didn’t know how to be… ah, ‘scholarly’.”
Ithan-Yuran turned the button between his fingers, unaware that it had come loose off his robe, and looked at Darian worriedly. “They sent me back to Windurst after they decided I was harmless and addled. But I was feeling rather put out afterwards… one becomes rather reliant-wiant on the Grimoire, wouldn’t you say?” He noted Darian’s nod with a small smile. “Power might not have corruptarued me, but I did like having it around.”
Ithan-Yuran rested his elbows on his knees again and smiled a little at Darian. “And that’s when you decided-wided to sneakaru into my house for some food.”
Darian just blinked in confusion as all the pieces started falling into place. “… really?”
“Really-weally.” Ithan-Yuran nodded. “You gave me something to work towards… especially when you started realizing your potentiaru. It let me learn that I could use magic withoutaru the Grimoire.”
Darian smiled… “Well, I’m glad…”
Ithan-Yuran looked at Darian sternly, then, and shook his finger at him. “But don’t you dare bring the Grimoire out in the open again! They mightaru have stopped hunting us down, but if Jeuno realizes that so many people are going back to the pastaru to become Scholars, they mightaru start again…”
Darian cocked his head, looking at Ithan-Yuran curiously. “Is that why you didn’t want me to go to the pasta…” Darian caught himself before he slipped into taruspeak, having gotten wrapped up in Ithan-Yuran’s speech patterns. “I mean, to the past?”
“Well, there was that… but also…” Ithan-Yuran paused…
“Master?”
“It was entirely for selfish-welfish reasons.” Ithan-Yuran shook his head. “I worried that if you ever metaru my younger self… or even your parents… that history would be changed. And if history changed, then I mightaru not have been able to take you in.”
“Oh…” Darian got up from his chair and went over to his teacher, dropping to his knees so he could embrace him on even ground. “I don’t think anyone could change that, Master… besides, it’dve happened already, what with all those adventurers running around in the past…”
“I suppose you’re right…” Ithan-Yuran returned the hug, and he leaned back in his chair. “Still, I wantaru you to be careful. No need to take unnecessary risks.”
Darian nodded and returned to his seat, briefly hesitating before speaking again. “Just one last thing, Master… … can you show me your Grimoire?”
Ithan-Yuran opened his mouth, fully intending to refuse his student’s request… but something in Darian’s expression made him change his mind. “Alright… but justaru this once.”
Ithan-Yuran held out his hands, palm upwards, and fanned his fingers… and after a little hesitation, his Grimoire appeared. Darian was relieved to feel absolutely no malice as the pages turned, each imbued with the familiar, comforting aspect of Ithan-Yuran’s magery, and he nodded as the book closed and vanished.
“Thank you…” Darian smiled. “It’s beautiful.”
“I think so too…” Ithan-Yuran smiled. “So… where did you graduate from?”
Darian blinked at the question. “Um… Eldieme.”
“Eldieme?” Ithan-Yuran blinked incredulously. “Eldieme? Why, let me tell you how we did things in Windurst…”
The button that Ithan-Yuran was fingering fell to the floor and rolled to a stop under his chair, forgotten, as the two Scholars engaged in animated conversation that went on into the night…
I love this one. =D