"I'm not going to be teaching you how to duck, dive, roll, dodge, run, or any of the other physical bits of getting into battles." Ewan lectured the two of them after they'd managed to calm Sindri down. "Mostly because I don't have the correct facilities available for teaching you those kinds of things right now, but also because I can't be bothered to. I'm your magic teacher, so I'll teach you fighting magic. If you want to learn physical fighting find someone else for that."

  Sindri listened and watched with fascination as he did his best to absorb everything that was happening, completely delighted to learn things that would advance him toward his new dream. There was a job that he and Dryth could do together where they got paid to go adventuring!? He still didn't really understand why getting paid was important, but Dryth said it was, so it was because Dryth was his friend and his partner and together they'd-

  Sighing, Dryth did his best to tune out the stream of consciousness wafting off of Sindri into his head so he could focus. He wasn't a fan of how Sindri was treating this like it like becoming adventurers, or bounty hunters to use the proper local terminology, was going to be a guarantee, but he wasn't willing to shut down his partner's enthusiasm either. But being an adventurer did not sound like the safe, stable job he wanted in some far away city where no one would be predisposed against him and he could make new relationships. It sounded like chaos and fighting and other things he wasn't interested and overall very unstable.

  Ewan's not unexpected tangential rant about why teachers shouldn't try to approach subjects outside their expertise and why he wasn't a dedicated combat teacher gave Dryth time to think. He wanted to be able to work, make money, and afford things and he didn't want to freeload off of Ewan. Becoming a bounty hunter slash adventurer didn't sound like something he wanted to do, it sounded scary, but he also didn't have a good other way to make money, even if all he was using that money for was to pay for the costs of his and Sindri's food. Joining the military was right out, even without Ewan's reasons he hadn't mentioned about how he personally thought it was a bad idea, Dryth didn't want to be a soldier. Becoming a Contractor-merchant would be more his speed if it weren't for the apparent threat on himself that would come with that, but it didn't seem like it would work out with his limitations. That left becoming a bounty hunter.

  The end of Ewan's rant was coming up based on his tone and the words that were filtering through Dryth's internal debate, so he resolved himself to wrap this up quickly. He looked over at Sindri, who was still listening to Ewan but with significantly less excitement than before. Dryth could be brave for his friend, right? He was sitting there soaking in his fear, because at the end of the day that's all it was holding him back, his fear, but he didn't have to do that. In fact, he shouldn't be doing that, it was probably bad for him. He hadn't had a close friend like Sindri in so long and that was worth overcoming his fears. At the very least he could go and try it, or check it out when Ewan scheduled that tour he'd talked about trying to get. If it was something he really couldn't do, they could try something else, but Dryth promised himself that he wasn't going to give up without even trying.

  Sindri snapped his head around to stare at Dryth. "What was that?"

  "Huh?" Dryth looked around for whatever Sindri had seen. "What?"

  "You got all... weird for a second there. You were feeling worried and scared and then you got a little more confident, but it was like..." He pushed closer to Dryth, looking at him intently. "It was like something was prodding at your emotions and peeling away some of the fear, but the something was also you? I've never felt anything like that."

  "I... I don't know?" Dryth sent back silently. "I'm, well I'm scared. I don't want t fight monsters or criminals, and being a bounty hunter sounds dangerous, but I want to be brave, you know? I can't just..." He waved his hand around aimlessly. "I can't just do nothing and be nobody, and that's not adding you in to the picture either. You want to go on adventures, and I want you to be happy and have fun. We're partners, it's not fair if we only do the things I want to do." He took a long deep breath. "And Ewan is right about the dangers of the world and why being able to fight is important. So I decided to be brave and at least try it. Maybe that's what that feels like?"

  "Maybe..." Sindri said with a little suspicion in his mental voice. "That still felt... odd, though. I'm going to keep an eye out for anything like that happening again."

  "Good idea. If it keeps happening and you still think it's weird we should definitely tell Ewan."

  "Are you two okay?" Ewan asked from right next to them, startling them both. "Sindri looked startled and you've been just staring at each other since then. Everything alright?"

  "We're alright," Dryth answered after getting his heart to settle back down. "I zoned out of your rant and was thinking about everything you said about being an adventurer and well..." It took Dryth some time to come up with the right words that he wanted to use and to convey how he'd felt, the psychic connection with Sindri basically eliminated misunderstandings or bad word choices, but he told Ewan everything about being scared, wanting a stable life and not an unstable one, and his decision to face his fears instead of letting them eat him up.

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  Ewan stared at him for a long time. "That is surprisingly mature of you." He eventually said. "Most new adults your age would not be handling this anywhere near as well."

  "... Thanks?"

  "I did mean that as a compliment, so you're welcome. Maturity is a good thing, it's the process of becoming able to deal with the world squarely as it is, not as you want it to be. Some people never master the skill. Nevertheless..." He trailed off, looking uncomfortable. "...I'm not the most emotionally stable person, for a number of reasons including my age, my outlook on life, and more that I won't get into to. But, I..." He sighed. "I don't know how to say this properly, so I'll just say it how I can. Dryth, it sounds like your family wasn't good to you the way all families should be to their children and siblings, and that's... bad. Not good." He grimaced. "A likely source of trauma? I told you I'm bad at this. Gah! If you want to talk to me about anything, anything at all even the emotional stuff, I am here for you and won't judge and will do my best to help you!" He managed to say at high speed like he was forcing it out of his mouth.

  "Thank you, teacher." Dryth told him, smiling up at the taller man.

  "Ugh!" Ewan shuddered. "Heartfelt emotions, bleh!" He stopped himself from shuddering and made a serious face again. "Seriously, I'll do my best, and if I can't help, I'll find someone who can, okay?"

  "Why don't you teach a lot more than just people who are 'problem cases' the Association basically throws away? You're really good at it, even if you're crazy."

  "Because I'm a lazy sod who can't deal with unintelligent children or fools who think they're always correct, both of which prop up too much in large classes." He put a hand on Dryth's shoulder. "Seriously though, I keeping with my own promises to myself to be a good teacher, do you understand what I'm saying?"

  Dryth nodded. "I do. It... It was bad. It sucked a lot of the time, especially we all learned I had a blue bordered Soul Card. I still don't get why that's a thing, by the way, like I get that people don't like mages that much, but not really why. Anyway, my parents didn't do anything terrible to me and all my siblings really did was tease me or ostracize me depending on which ones we're talking about, so it wasn't that terrible, but I really did like that I got to go away and be at boarding school. I... Maybe later? Maybe? Let's talk about combat magic!"

  Ewan bowed his head. "Oh thank goodness. I'm always here for you, but I'm terrible with my own emotions as my many paramours would all gang up to assure you, dealing with other people's emotions is..." He shuddered again. "Combat magic!" He turned and walked over to the firing lanes.

  "You know you can talk to me about it too, right?" Sindri asked gently.

  "Of course I do. It'll be easier to talk to you about it than Ewan, honestly."

  "Having the emotional bond we do really helps parse all the feelings and doesn't make you feel like the other person might be judging you or thinking unkind things about you."

  "Exactly! You get it. Well, of course you do that's literally what you just said. But yeah, thanks."

  "Don't worry about it. We'll talk about my personal issues at some point too." Sindri yawned, revealing his deep gullet for a moment. "Mine aren't parent or family based but I've still got some."

  Dryth walked over with Sindri hanging on to where Ewan was not waiting.

  "Combat magic is a wide and varied topic, or subject, or field, or however you wish to call it, and the way in which people and monsters fight with magic depends on a number of factors. Contractors as a whole though, have significantly more variety in options than most other Classes of mage. Evokers often have twists that center them on one kind of spell or one element or another that they're stronger with, Alchemists are centered around alchemy, obviously, Transmutors fight with spells that cause change, Diviners see things coming, so on and so forth. Classes bring power, but they also bring limits, excepting Contractors and a handful of others. Now, why do Contractors get more variety than most others?"

  "Because what cards we get are based on who we contract with."

  "Exactly! Contract with someone who has fire magic, you get fire magic. Same with every other possibility out there. Your only hard limits are both parties agreeing to the contract and then getting the card you want." He pulled into his pocket and pulled out two cards. "These are for each of you. Generally my teaching style is that you should get your own cards through your own hard work and that just supplying you with them is a waste, but you have to start somewhere and since between the two of you you have two cards that won't do anything in a fight, I'll be starting off your collections. Go ahead and take these."

  Dryth grabbed both cards and held them at an angle so that both he and Sindri could see them.

  "They're two of the same card, so don't worry about which one goes to which of you. Since Sindri is naturally predisposed to light magic, and from my limited understanding of coatl and similar beings that means any cards he manifests or that he creates from shards will be light magic because of that, I decided to start you off with a light magic card."

  "Is that true?" Dryth asked his partner. "You didn't mention that."

  "Sorry." Sindri apologized, only looking up from the cards for a brief second. "That's just how it works for us, I didn't know enough about humans to know it didn't work that way for you."

  "Yes, yes, we all make mistakes, apologies all around, we're talking about combat magic here, thank you, we're done with emotions for now." Ewan grouched. "My current plan for the two of you is for a little more than half our lessons to be combat focused to prepare you for the future, which is a little more set thanks to Dryth's courage." He gave Dryth a firm nod. "We'll be shrinking the number of 'get Sindri prepared for human society' lessons and basics of magical theory lessons, although we'll still have them from time to time because they're important. Additionally, once we've reached the right point, we'll set aside time for practicing pure casting, which includes working on any kind of magic that you'd like to try and manifest a card for, and to try and make useful cards out of shards."

  "Where are we going to get shards?"

  "From you two, of course. With both ends of a contract using the same card repeatedly we'll generate multiple copies in no time!" He reached out and tapped the card's backs. "Now, you two hop into your soul spaces, add these to your decks, and we'll get to it."