ADAD Chapter 20: Conjuring practice
Noah didn't understand why Mustafa wanted to teach him for free, but he was not complaining. Conjuring things out of thin air was fun. So far, Noah had conjured small things, like flowers.
Yet, today, he was going to try and conjure a bug. That didn't seem like much, to either Noah or Mustafa, but the wizard had told him that one can't go from flowers to something more intricate, like fish.
"Clear your mind," Mustafa said in his Arabian accent.
Noah did his best to meditate, but he found that it was hard for him. There were so many things that he wanted to ask the wizard.
Are you from the Middle East, or one of the many realms that are both inside and outside the Realms of the Forgotten Times?
How many years did it take you to grow this strong?
"Oh, just ask your questions, boy. You are like the bugs you are trying to summon. A nervous wreck," Mustafa said, and Noah looked at him.
"Can you tell me how long you practiced for, until you got to your level?" Noah asked, and the man sighed.
"More than two thousand years. I have spent most of my time here in the Realms of the Forgotten Times. There is something magical about seeing how Earth doesn't change all that much, compared to the other realms," he told him, and Noah smiled.
"So, you are from Earth?" Noah asked, and the man nodded.
"I am from the Middle East, yes," Mustafa said, and then looked at Noah expectantly.
"I have so many questions," Noah began, but the other wizard just scrunched up his nose at the younger man.
"I have questions as well. Does Harvey speak about me?" Mustafa asked, and Noah smiled at him.
"He does. He takes time to show off the gifts that you send him. But doesn't share them. That is ok, though, seeing as Darius has taken to making us all handmade chocolates these days," Noah said, and Mustafa looked at his pyramid.
"I suppose that, if I made him the chocolates myself, he will come and see me?" The man asked himself, and Noah nodded.
"I can practice on my own, sir. You don't have to worry about me. Go and make Harvey some chocolates," Noah urged, and Mustafa teleported inside his kitchen.
He had everything he needed for the chocolate. When he was done filling up the forms, he placed them with a cooling rune, the same one that Harvey had given him, in a cupboard. Now, the only thing he had to do, was wait.
"What use is all this splendor, if I don't have anyone to share it with?" The wizard asked himself, and sighed. "Does he think about me, as many hours as I do of him?"
The wizard walked out of the kitchen, and went to his pool. He loved the water. More than once, he had felt Harvey come out at night to swim. During those times, as much as it hurt the wizard, he teleported out of the water, to give the Fey his space. Mustafa knew that Harvey was still young. Yet, he also knew that they were soulmates.
To live a life without a soulmate is akin to torture. More so, when the life lasts for eternity.
Mustafa got in the water, and began to swim from one end of the pool to the other. He spent the better part of the day that way, and then got out of the water, when he felt that the chocolates had hardened.
After he took a shower and dressed into a red robe, the wizard went to the kitchen, and took the box, but kept the rune on top of it.
Gorgon might have gone from a desert to a mild climate, due to all the rain and the new soil, but that didn't mean that the chocolates were not going to melt, by the time someone came to check up on Mustafa.
He teleported back to the oasis, and noticed that it was night — now. The first thing he saw were the Fey wings, shining in the moonlight. He was just about to teleport, when Harvey resurfaced from the water.
The two stood rooted, and stared at one another. Harvey swam to the other side of the water, and got out. Clad only in swimming shorts, and with no one around him, he felt vulnerable. Of all the times he had picked to come and swim, why had he chosen now?
"Wait, don't go," Mustafa called after him, when he saw that Harvey was about to walk into the dimensional pocket. "I mean you no harm."
"How do I know that?" Harvey asked, turning around.
"I brought you something that I made myself. Before you run away, won't you at least take it?" Mustafa asked, as he edged closer to the Fey.
"I... don't have anything for you this time," Harvey said, as he peered into the darkness, trying to see what the wizard was carrying.
"I can exchange the box for a kiss?" Mustafa suggested with a sly smile. Harvey blushed at that.
"I am leaving," the Fey said, and then Mustafa chuckled.
"Now, now. Don't be like that. If you leave, how are we going to spend the entire night talking?" The wizard asked, and Harvey stopped walking.
"You want to get to know me?" Harvey asked, and the wizard nodded.
"You are my soulmate. I know a thing or two about you by now. Like how you like wearing white clothes because they make your wings stand out. They are such a lovely blue color, those wings of yours. Can you fly, my little Fey?" The wizard asked with wonder in his voice.
"I am not your anything," Harvey said with a scrunched-up nose. "I am not an object that you can buy with promises and gifts."
"I didn't mean for my words to come off like this," Mustafa defended himself. "Have you been in a relationship before, sweetling?"
"Once, it didn't work out," Harvey said bitterly. He had been so certain that the girl had been his soulmate, and then a demon had come along, and proclaimed her his soulmate. It hadn't taken her long to dump Harvey on the side of the road.
"Come and tell me all about it," Mustafa sat on the grass, and patted the spot next to him. "I will listen, and be a shoulder you can lean on."
Harvey hesitated. He had not spoken with anyone about Rose. Not even to Darius. Maybe, if he had introduced the girl to his best friend, he could have told Harvey that he was barking up the wrong tree.
Harvey went to Mustafa, and sat by him. Then, he began to tell his story of heartbreak. All the while, he didn't notice when the wizard began to hand him chocolates, on which he munched absentmindedly as he spilled his heart out.
