Title: Something to Think About
Series: Final Fantasy XI
Characters: Darian, Anrym
Rated: G
Words: 1,410 (end)
Summary: Darian receives a visit from Anrym, who asks him to teach her the intricacies of White Magery.
Notes:Prompt from Myrna, from, um, quite a while ago. I hope I got Anrym right, as I don’t write for other people’s characters as a rule.
Darian blinked at the tall Elvaan woman fidgetting before him; it was very rare for him to see Anrym without Myrna by her side, and it was certainly enough to make him pause his sugar flower-making and look at her worriedly.
“Is Myrna alright?” was the first thing he blurted out, however, before he winced at his choice of words. Anrym was her own being, and he silently cursed himself for not asking how SHE was, first.
“Oh, yes, she is fine, just that…” Anrym wrung her hands nervously as she searched for words. “I… uh…”
“You might want to sit down, first…” Darian couldn’t help but smile as he gestured to one of the chairs at the kitchen table, and he went over to the sink to find a tea towel that he could rest the large piping bag full of icing that he was using to make dozens upon dozens of roses.
“Well…” Anrym began as she accepted Darian’s offer and took a seat, her fingers still criss-crossing in nervousness. “The reason that I am here is because… er… well, you are a White Mage…”
“Un-hunh…”
“A very talented White Mage…”
“Yes…?” Darian looked at Anrym suspiciously and wiped off a blob of icing from the tip of the piping bag with his finger; he looked only a tiny bit guilty as he stuck the tip of his finger in his mouth to have a taste.
“A-and I was wondering if you would be able to teach me some of the more intricate elements of White Magery…” Anrym blinked as she caught herself in the midst of her nervous twitching, and she quickly sat on her hands to stop herself.
“Mm?!” Darian popped his finger out of his mouth and wiped it on his apron. “Me? But… there has to be more qualified people than me… what about Myrna?”
“Her idea of intricate white magery is seeing how nicely she can make things explode with Holy…”
“Master Ithan-Yuran?”
“I… do not know him very well… so I…”
“I know, but… me?”
“You ARE a Scholar…” Anrym eyed the pink and yellow icing flowers that were drying in front of her, and she reddened as her stomach made a slight noise of interest.
“Right, and all that gives me is a license to be boring…”
“And Myrna did praise your abilities quite highly…”
“She said that?” Darian sighed at Anrym’s nod, and he took the piping bag again to start on another rose. “I don’t know what I could teach you, though… we both know the same spells… heck, we both have the same equipment, for the most part… just that we both seem to use White Magic very, very differently.” He looked at Anrym. “Well, here’s a question for you — what do you want to use White Magic for?”
“Well, I…” She paused at the simple-sounding question. “I want to use it to help people…”
“Okay… and how do you want to use white magic to do that?” He smiled a little at Anrym’s slightly confused look and continued. “Well, we all have different ways of handling things. Say, for example, that you’re fighting something with Myrna. Myrna’s good and all, but she’s getting overwhelmed by what she’s fighting. What do you do?”
“Well…” She paused and looked down, looking like she was carefully considering her answer. “If it looked like it would help, I would cast a Divine Magic spell to help wound it…” She looked up at Darian worriedly, as if she was afraid that her answer was the wrong one. However, Darian just smiled as he continued piping icing on the small metal nail, turning it carefully as a rose formed through each petal he created.
“See, and I would just heal her until she managed to take the monster out.” He smiled and interrupted Anrym before she could say anything, which she seemed about to do. “Your answer wasn’t wrong… neither was mine. You can apply White Magic in so many different ways, and if we were forced to do everything the same way all the time, no one would take up the trade.”
“Oh…” Darian let Anrym think about what he just said as he lifted the flower off the nail with a sharp knife and put it down with the others; he then went to the far counter and came back with something large and boxy that was covered in a large tea towel.
“And because of that, I’m not sure if there’s anything I can teach you,” he continued as he uncovered a large bowl that was on the table and took out a gigantic ball of what looked to be solid icing. After covering his hands and his rolling pin with a fine, white powder, he began rolling out the ball until it became a thin, white sheet. “White Magic is as intricate as you want it to be. You know your spells, you use them well, and you know the basic functions of the Grimoire…” He looked at her sheepishly as he removed the tea towel off the box-like item which turned out to be two slabs of cake. “Actually, there’s really nothing I can teach you,” he said sheepishly as he took out a large knife and started carving the two cakes.
Darian noticed that Anrym wasn’t saying anything; out of the corner of his eye, he saw that she didn’t seem particularily upset, so he continued his work on the cake, letting her reflect on what he’d just told her. After he began covering the cakes in the bright white fondant, however, he saw that she was actually watching him work.
“Sorry, I’m being rude…” Darian sighed as he tucked the corners of the icing under the cake. “I really am listening to you, though…”
“O-oh, I know…” Anrym reddened in embarrassment as she tore her eyes away from the cake. “But… er… what are you making?”
“It’s a wedding cake.” Darian smiled as he took another piping bag and started making light, intricate designs on the fondant. “The guild gets requests from all over Windurst, and from them, they assign suitable tasks to its members. I happened to be in town, so I took this one… Making cakes is fun,” he added with a grin.
Anrym seemed to redden more as she continued to watch Darian; it took him another half hour to finish the designs and to pipe pearl-like dots of icing between the bottom slab and the top. Eventually, he started gluing the flowers he’d made earlier to the cake in a small cascade down one side of the cake, drawing in chocolate icing what seemed to be tree branches between the flowers. Once he was done, the cake looked like it was straight from the cherry trees of the Doll Festival, and he stood back to look at his handywork before beginning to clean up.
“You are very talented…” Anrym murmured as she stared in amazement at the cake. “The couple that will be receiving this cake is very fortunate.”
“Well, uh, thanks.” Darian looked embarrassed for a moment before he continued to clean up, and he looked at an ilm-long rectangular slab of cake that was left over that was about the size of a loaf of bread. He wrapped it up with the rest of the rolled-out fondant, and after taking some thick colouring and tinting it pastel blue, he rolled out a delicate ribbon and wrapped the cake like a present.
“Here you go,” he said as he handed Anrym the gift-like cake. “You can share this with Myrna when you next see her.”
“Oh, thank you…” she said with a wide-eyed stare as she took the cake. “Well, uh… I should be going, then. Thank you for your assistance, Darian…” she stood up and bowed to him, which only made him shake his head.
“Don’t do that,” he said with a nervous laugh. “Besides, I didn’t do anything.”
“No, you have…” Anrym smiled at Darian. “You have given me something to think about.” With that, she bowed slightly again, muttering a quick apology as she caught herself doing so, and she practically ran out of the small house that he and Karmilla shared.
“Hmm.” Darian stared thoughtfully at the door after it closed. “I wonder what that was all about…” The empty house gave no answers, and he shrugged as he began cleaning up the mess he’d made.
Eeeee!