The next day found the pair walking with Eyvor towards where they were to start their apprenticeships.

“Thanks for taking us, Eyvor. Even though it’s so early.” Sophia commented shyly, hiding his eyes behind his long blonde hair.

“No problem kiddos. It’s a bit out of the way but, as you know, I leave early most mornings for school anyways.” The buxom brown-haired woman replied.

“What are you learning about right now?” Ursula asked.

“Right now, we’re primarily focused on dungeons now that we’re fifteen and able to go into them,” Eyvor answered.

“Why do the gods prevent kids from going into dungeons?” the blonde boy asked.

“I’ve been told it’s because it typically takes about two years to adapt and use the changes from the second maturation. I also think it’s because kids just aren’t mentally ready for it. Like how the gods curse anyone for assaulting children under fifteen.” The late teen responded.

The duo eyes widened slightly in shock.

“What happens to those that do?” The auburn-haired girl asked curiously.

“Hmm, there’s a bit of a poem to it,” she said and then continued in a darker tone, “A drink will not satisfy, food turned bone dry, then ally decry.” She shrugged, “Basically, the gods stop any food that you eat from providing sustenance, so you slowly wither away. If someone helped you do it then they also get cursed. If it’s consensual then nothing really happens.”

“Anyways, we’re here so I wish you both a great day’s work,” she gave them a casual wave goodbye and then left them standing next to Tartok’s shop slightly dazed.

“She’s weird,” they both murmured to themselves.

Sophia took a moment to compose himself and said solemnly. “Well, this is goodbye for now, I guess. I’ve just realised that we’ve never really spent more than an hour apart the entire time we’ve been here.”

Ursula quickly engulfed the boy in a hug her eyes slightly misted over. And then she said, with a light tremble in her voice, “Y-yup, I’ll see you in a couple of hours. We’ll wait outside until the other is done okay?”

The blonde gave a hesitant nod and without giving Ursula a chance to look at his face, walked into the shop.

His partner gave him a longing look and then walked towards the smithy.  

 

<-{|}->

 

Entering into the store Sophia immediately relaxed as the smell of lavender washed over him, he saw Tartok, wearing a simple blue robe, fiddling with something at the service counter of the store

“Hello, how can I h– Ah Sophia it’s good to see you. Come in.” Tartok said with a cheerful smile.

He gave the boy a quick hug and then led him towards the back of the store. Through the door in the back there was an expansive hallway with several more doors leading off of it. As they started walking the child spoke up.

“Is your shop expanded on the inside, uh, sir?” Sophia hesitantly asked.

“Please call me Tartok, Sophia,” he said soothingly.

Sophia gave him a hesitant smile.

“There we go. Yes the shop does have expansion runes to allow me to have a bit more room Now did you manage to do the reading I asked you to do?” the bat-like man asked.

Sophia nodded, “I did but I am curious on how the method of applying the enchantment has changed over the last few years.”

He gave the child a wide smile, “Ah yes, it is a very interesting topic. For you see, instead of inscribing the runes a genius enchanter, whose name has been lost to time, came up with the idea of carving the magical effect into the objects being. In doing so it strengthens the item by bolstering its existence whilst also making the enchantment permanent on the item. Unless it is destroyed beyond repair of course.”

The blonde enthusiastically followed up, “So what kind of effects can you enchant onto an item?”

Tartok took another couple of steps and stood by a door, “Sophia – the sky’s the limit.” And with a dramatic flourish opened the door.

Sophia’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped. He could see objects flying though the air, chasing after one another, pieces of metal teleporting across the room, armour being hammered by large weights yet remaining strong and various containers of metals and parts were strewn about the wooden floor of the laboratory.

Tartok spoke up from behind him, “Welcome to the world of enchanting.”

The boy whispered to himself, “Fuck yeah.”

”Right. Time to get into your protective clothes. I made this just last night with my latest protection enchantments, it’ll even grow with you. Perfect for a young girl of your age.” He said proudly.

Sophia turned around to see him holding a dress, for his size, that was slightly glowing with restrained magical power.

Sophia slightly grimaced which caused Tartok’s face to fall.

“You don’t like it?” the bat-like man asked morosely.

“N-No it’s great,” Sophia unconfidently assured, “It’s just a little too – uhh – pink for me.”

“I can change the colour if you’d like. It might turn back in a while due to the enchantments being locked in place to make them more stable.” He explained.

Sophia have him a slightly insincere smile and said, “Sure that would be great.”

With a quick wave of his hand the pink slowly shifted into a light blue colour.

“Now that we have this we can go to your lab for the foreseeable future.”

He shepherded the green-eyed boy out of the room and led him to another room off from the hallway.

The room, Sophia noted, was made of the same wood as the rest of the building and was furnished plainly with a small bookcase stuffed with large tomes and small desk with a few writing utensils.

“Where I just showed you was my lab so if you have any questions, I’ll either be there or at the front desk. Please keep to your own room as much as possible to not disturb my other apprentices.” The short man instructed sternly.

His face quickly morphed back to its usual wide smile, and he said, “Unfortunately, most of the first few months are memorization,” he gestured to the bookcase, “When you finish reading these books let me know and I will test you and, if you do well, you will be able to begin enchanting.”

A small jingle sounded outside in the hallway.

“I’m sorry to leave you here but I really have to get back to work. Good luck.” The small man said quickly, and he rushed out the door.

Sophia stood there in a daze for a few moments before he started muttering sarcastically, “Okay just leave a seven-year-old unattended after telling them to read a boatload of books. It’s not like I could blow up the whole building while trying something.”

Sophia grabbed the first book in the shelf and took a quick look at the chair which looked to be well used and rickety. He concentrated for almost half a minute before a small beanbag appeared in front of him. With a terse sigh he sat down, settled himself in, and started to read. After a few seconds he unconsciously used his free hand to look for an arm that he typically found around his waist, but it was not there to be found.

 

<-{|}->

 

After Ursula left Sophia outside of Tartok’s shop she quickly made her way towards Axia’s smithy and soon found herself outside the building.

She opened the door to the workshop and once again a wave of heat slammed into her as she took in Axia in all her naked glory swinging down on a piece of metal before her.

The girl closed the door and walked up to the edge of the flames and simply stated, “I am here.”

The hammering stopped and the large woman glanced over at her.

“Read the books on the bookshelf. Learn the metals and alloys. Stay in this room. Feel the flame and heat and learn from it.” She intoned and then went back to working the metal.

The brown-eyed girl looked for the bookcase in a stupor. Spotting a cabinet, slightly taller than she was, Ursula ambled over and opened it to find several rows of bookshelves stuffed to the brim with large, heavy books. Small pieces of paper were stuck to most pages and upon close inspection they were found to be meticulously taken notes from personal research on the topics.

She hesitantly grabbed one labelled, ‘Metals Mettle’ and conjured a bean bag of her own and sat down. She instinctively held her arms out and waited for a few seconds for a weight to settle on her lap, but it did not arrive.

With the loud clanging of a hammer hitting an anvil in the background it only took an hour for Ursula to give up reading and simply play with her magic calling small objects into being and creating a few fireballs floating around her head. After a light huff and a glare from Axia she quickly resumed reading.

The cycle of reading followed by skiving off and then being chastised repeated until later afternoon before Ursula slammed the book back into place on the shelf and left to Tartok’s store. She didn’t have to wait long before Sophia came out of the door.

In an exaggerated manner Ursula cried out, “Sophia!”

The green-eyed youth copied the cry, “Ursula!”

The pair swiftly hugged each other as hard as they could, Ursula whispering, “I could hardly concentrate without you there.”

“Me too,” was the whimpered reply. His eyes misted over, and Sophia looked searchingly up into his partners face, “Can we not do this?”

“I want to agree so badly Soph but this is how we’re gonna make money in the future. We’ve got nothing else,” the girl said anxiously.  

The boy sombrely nodded, “You’re right.”

The pair enjoyed the hug for a few more moments before Sophia piped up.

“But holy shit was it was boring. I just spent the whole day reading,” groaned the blonde.

“Ugh, don’t remind me I was doing the exact same thing. Is this seriously how they usually teach kids?” Ursula whined.

The duo chatted about their days as they slowly strolled home, hand in hand.

 

<-{|}->

 

A few weeks later the two children were walking alongside their pseudo older sister towards the industrial district.

“So, how’s things going for the both of you?” Eyvor asked.

“We’re both just reading books,” Ursula groused, “It’s feels like it’s gonna be ages before either of us get anywhere near to actually doing anything.”

“And Tartok has enchanted my bookshelf to replace any read books with new ones. I’ve also been told by one of the other apprentices that once you can start actually enchanting, he just gets you to do some menial work leaving almost no time for actual research.” He groaned.

Eyvor smiled sympathetically, “It’s pretty typical actually. Usually, the masters give you the work to establish yourself among your fellow apprentices. Do well and you can, within a couple of months, move onto other more fun things. Do poorly…” her face turned into a light grimace.

“I guess my situation is a bit better in that Axia only takes premium orders,” Ursula commented.

Eyvor took them both to the side of the road and crouched down to their level, “Either way the both of you should feel proud of what you’ve accomplished. Getting an apprenticeship and keeping it when you’re this young is amazing.”

The pair stood a little taller as their sister engulfed them both in a warm hug, “Thank you Eyvor.” They said in unison.

They walked in silent contemplation until Eyvor separated from the group to head off to school. The children gave each other a lingering hug before they split off as well.

Sophia continued to read for most of the day but in mid-afternoon a message appeared on his wall directing him to Tartok’s room.

With a wide smile he jumped up out of his bean bag and sprinted off, almost forgetting to leave the book on the table.

Entering into his mentors room, the boy spied Tartok sitting behind his desk waving him over. As he walked closer the usual smell of lavender was tainted slightly with the now familiar smell of sex.

“Go­-od afternoon Soph-ia. I’ve ju-st called you in here to talk about how you’ve been going. Pl-ease have a seat.” Tartok stuttered out, his face flushed and forehead sweaty.

“Are you alright sir? You seem a little off,” he asked with false sincerity.

“I-I’m just fine. I was just moving something he-avy and have a few jitters.” The bat-like man said with a wan smile.

Sophia spotted his body slightly moving back in a rhythmic manner, his fingers were lightly scratching the wood and yet no sound reached Sophia’s sharp ears.

 “Well, I’ve only read through the bookcase once, but they keep getting replaced with new books.

The man smiled and then leaned forward with a light gasp, “It is o-ne of my better enchantments. But you should have a go-od idea to start enchanting something simple now-oh!”

He shuddered for over ten seconds in place with his hands holding something below the desk before he slumped, and a lazy smile grew on his face.

“Sorry, what were we talking about?” he asked languidly.

“Enchanting an object?” was the curt reply.

“Ah right. Just use your mana and visualisation to create a magical manifestation of the object’s existence, using the essence of the object, in the form of something you can carve into. For example, I manifest the object as a block basalt and use a chisel to carve into it.” Tartok said nonchalantly.

Sophia’s eyes glazed over.

Tartok gave a quick sigh and then said, “Like this.”

He grabbed a simple iron dagger with a leather handle from one of his draws and waved his hand over it. The spell started at the tip of the dagger as all the colour and essence was sucked from that point leaving only ethereal shadow of what was once there. The spell moved along the dagger continuing to draw out its essence until finally the dagger was fully transparent.

The collected essence was then forced into the shape of a small slab of stone. He conjured a chisel and hammered a few words into the block. He gave it a once over and then released the spell causing the block of basalt to shoot back into the dagger refilling it with colour as its essence returned.

“See? Easy.” He stated.

“…Right. Okay – I’ll do that then. Anything else?” Replied the bewildered boy.

“I’ll put a few baskets of dull iron daggers in your room to practice. I suppose you’ll need a dummy to test them on, so I’ll put one of those in there as well.” He said casually.

“Where do you get all the iron daggers from?” Sophia asked, his voice laced with confusion.

Tartok shrugged, “I’m not sure why the blacksmiths seem to make so many, though there is a rumour that a man became a master smith by merely making hundreds upon thousands of iron daggers. I am not sure that is true, however.”

The blonde boy opened his mouth to ask another question, but Tartok cut him off.

“Anyways, I’m a busy man so off you go.” The large eared man said brusquely.

With a small scowl on his face Sophia walked out of the room. Entering into his own he left the door cracked open so he could see the entrance to Tartok’s room. And soon enough a beautiful girl with a slender body and golden blonde hair walked out of the room.  The beautiful teen paused for a few moments and frowned as she looked sharply at her surroundings causing Sophia to slink back into his room, the teen, satisfied in not seeing anything, headed off back to her room.

The boy gently closed the door and stood there for a couple of seconds.

“Fuck this.” He whispered and opened the door to his room and left the building.

The blonde quickly made his way towards Axia’s smithy and decided to wait outside for his partner to be finished.

When Ursula, her face flushed from the heat, finally walked out the door she was bewildered to see Sophia running towards her. The two met each other with a hug, Sophia’s momentum nearly bowling them both over.

“What’s wrong Soph?” The girl asked concernedly.

“Tartok sucks! There’s almost no structure to what I’m learning. He was even getting a blowjob or something like that under the table when was meeting with me.” Sophia fumed.

“Oh Soph, you know that those kinds of situations are normal for this world,” Ursula said consolingly.

The boy gave off a terse sigh, “I know – but it’s the principal of it. Calling me into his room to ask about my progress, teaching me something I mostly didn’t get and then forcing me to leave before I could ask any important questions.”

“You know what Eyvor and Rosalind said. We’re basically taught this stuff and then we repay them with free labour,” said the brown eyed girl.

“So we’re basically unpaid child interns.” Sophia spat out before sighing once more, “At least I’ll be starting to enchant stuff tomorrow.”

“That soon?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do anything though. The books keep saying that you need to develop your intent while carving to give the enchantment it’s strength, which can take years, also the process is apparently pretty mana intensive.” The boy explained. “Do you need to do something similar with blacksmithing?”

“Yup, I use my intent to strengthen the item both physically and metaphysically so it can provide more room for the enchantments. The material provides a base level and then the blacksmiths basically act as a multiplier. The better you are the better the multiplier,” she said.

Sophia nodded excitedly, “We’ll work so well together! The best friends in the world making the best equipment!”

He gave Ursula a warm smile and then started walking back towards the orphanage, “Come on let’s go home.”

The auburn-haired girl stood there for a few moments as she stared wistfully at Sophia as she whispered mournfully, “Right… friends,” and walked after him.