«I’m Kirielle Kazinski,» his sister promptly introduced herself, «and that’s my brother Zorian. Are you a student like Zorian? Can you do magic?»
«Err, well… yes,» Byrn said, torn between desire to ask about the surname and a desire to be polite and answer Kirielle’s question. Politeness won in the end. «I’m only a first year, though, so it’s not like I have anything to brag with.»
Sadly for Byrn, he would have to wait for a while before he could ask about the surname — Kirielle was on a roll, and promptly assaulted the poor kid with every question imaginable. Zorian soon found out that Byrn was an only child of two first generation mages from Korsa, and that his family had pretty high expectations of him. Byrn was as excited to be away from his overbearing parents as he was about learning magic. That, at least, was something Zorian could empathize with.
«3 older brothers, huh?» Byrn laughed. «Poor you. Though… I kind of wish I had a few older brothers myself. My parents could have someone else to focus on every once in a while.»
«I know what you mean,» Kirielle said. «Ever since Zorian started going to the academy, mother has no one but me to pay attention to. It sucks.»
Zorian flinched in sympathy. He hadn’t thought of that, but it shed a great deal of light on Kirielle’s behavior for the past two years. Without Zorian there to act like a figurative lightning rod for mother’s criticism, Kirielle’s time at home probably took a sharp turn for the worse in his absence. A part of him was pleased that the little imp was forced to experience some of what he went through in his daily interactions with their family, but he mostly thought she didn’t deserve something like that.
«So, I’ve been meaning to ask,» said Byrn. «Your last name is pretty distinctive. Not that many Kazinskis walking around. Are you related to Daimen Kazinski by any chance?»
«He’s our brother,» Kirielle said.
«Really?» asked Byrn excitedly. «You know, I haven’t heard anything about him in a while. What is he up to currently?»
«He’s in Koth,» Kirielle said. «I think he found something in the jungle but… I don’t know. I don’t really talk to him all that often. He’s always traveling. You’re more likely to find out about him in the newspapers than by talking to me. Zorian knows him better than I do.»
Zorian shot Kirielle a quick glare for putting him on the spot like that, and on the topic of Daimen no less! The little imp just stuck her tongue at him. Hmph.
«Daimen and I don’t get along,» Zorian said bluntly. «There is not much I can tell you about him that Kiri hasn’t already.»
«Oh,» Byrn said, obviously disappointed. He let out a slightly strained laugh, trying to dispel the somewhat awkward atmosphere that descended on the compartment. «And here I thought I would get some inside stories about one of my heroes. Though I suppose in a way I did, didn’t I? It’s a bit sad that he doesn’t have time for his family.»
«Hmm,» hummed Zorian noncommittally.
The rest of the journey was uneventful, except that Byrn decided to tag along with them for a while after they disembarked. Both Byrn and Kirielle were awed (and more than a little intimidated) by the sheer size and activity of Cyoria’s train station, and Zorian decided to be nice and give them a brief tour around the place. The tour turned out to be not as brief as he had intended, however, because Kirielle insisted on browsing the stores. He tried to tell her that every shop in and around the train station sold massively overpriced merchandise (because they could, thanks to their favorable location) and that he wouldn’t be buying her anything, but that didn’t deter her in the slightest. She was ‘just looking’. Byrn, for some unfathomable reason, sided with Kiri. He liked browsing stores too, apparently. Madness.
Since they had wasted so much time, however, the rain had already started falling by the time they were ready to depart. Byrn had no umbrella, of course, and even if he had, the amount of luggage he carried would make a trek through the rain a problematic endeavor. Zorian reluctantly offered to help — the boy looked so miserable at this sudden turn of events that Zorian didn’t have the heart to just walk away.
Besides, Kirielle wouldn’t let him do that, and he didn’t want to make a scene by dragging her away so they could be on their way.
«I really appreciate this, you know?» Byrn said, curiously brushing his fingers against the dome of the rain barrier spell surrounding them. «I don’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for you. It doesn’t seem like the rain is going to stop any time soon.»
«For the last time, it’s alright,» Zorian sighed. «Really, I live to help.»
Byrn ‘covertly’ mouthed ‘thank you’ to Kirielle, who was unabashedly playing with the rain barrier by sticking her arms and legs outside the protective dome and then drawing them back in, causing her to give him a thumbs up. Apparently the boy knew whom to thank for his good fortune. Hmph. If he ran out of mana halfway to their new home after getting Byrn to the academy, it would be on her head. Rain barrier was quite draining, and he had to enlarge it so it would cover all three of them plus the floating disk that carried their combined luggage.
«This spell is awesome,» Kirielle declared. «How hard is it? Do you think you could teach me how to cast this one? I won’t tell anyone!»
«Oh please,» Zorian snorted. «You can’t even feel your mana, much less shape it. It’s not a question of legality, it’s a question of skill. It would take months if you’re some kind of genius, a year or two otherwise. Just wait until you enroll into a magic school yourself, okay?»
Kirielle immediately deflated.
In the end they managed to deposit Byrn to the safety of the academy’s own rain wards without issues before going their own way. In fact, they nearly made it to their destination before Zorian ran out of mana, causing the rain barrier to wink out of existence.
Emphasis on ‘nearly’. He hoped Ilsa’s friend wasn’t sensitive about people bringing water into the house.
«You should have waited! Honestly, what possessed you to walk around in this horrid weather? Kids these days think they’re invincible…»
Zorian rolled his eyes at his host’s scolding, not hiding his reaction in the slightest since she was busy rummaging through a set of drawers and wasn’t really facing him. The rain would have continued throughout the entire night — though he couldn’t exactly tell her how he knew that — so waiting it out hadn’t been an option. Besides, they would have made it just fine if Kirielle hadn’t been so stubborn about getting Byrn to the academy grounds first. And also, it’s not like their brief run through the rain was all that traumatic. So really, why was she getting so worked up about it?
His thoughts were interrupted by a towel hitting him in the face.
«There. You can use that to dry your hair,» she said. «I’ll go see if your sister needs any help. You just hope she doesn’t get sick from this or you’ll be hearing from me about this, you hear?»
«She’s not a sugar cube,» Zorian mumbled. «She’s not going to fall apart just because she got a little wet.»
Either that was spoken too softly for her to hear or she decided to ignore him, but either way she just walked past him and left the room. Unconcerned, Zorian sat down on a nearby chair, studying the place they were in.
Their landlord, one Imaya Kuroshka, was a lively middle-aged woman that quickly ushered them in when she found them, soaking-wet, on her doorstep. She hadn’t even asked for their identities before she had done that — it took an introduction by Zorian until she realized they actually had a reason beyond getting out of the rain when they knocked on her door. Zorian was tempted to deliver his own scolding to the woman about naiveté and letting strangers into the house, but unlike some people, he chose not to be difficult. She seemed nice enough, all things considered. At the very least she didn’t appear to be one of those landlords that tried to bleed their tenants of everything they could part with, though it was hard to be sure this soon.