«Bad experiences,» he simply said, not wanting to discuss that topic any further.
«Ah,» Haslush said, content with his answer. «That’s okay, you can order some fruit juice or something. Hell, I can even show you a spell I use when I’m on duty but don’t want to offend people by refusing an offered drink.»
Now that sounded useful! Zorian looked at Haslush and the man correctly interpreted that as permission to go on.
«It’s a neat little alteration spell that converts alcohol into sugar,» Haslush said, raising his right hand to show a plain metal ring on his middle finger. «I have it imprinted into this ring so I don’t have to visibly cast it — visibly casting a spell on your drink is often resented even more than outright refusing it, believe it or not. The moment I touch the glass the deed is done.»
«Convenient,» Zorian said appreciatively. That spell would have saved him so much trouble over the years. «But I thought organic matter cannot be restructured through alteration spells?»
«Usually not, but that’s because most of them are impossibly complex and poorly understood, not because organic compounds are somehow impossible to replicate,» Haslush said, studying various tavern signs as they walked. Apparently he wasn’t merely looking for the closest one. «Both ethanol and glucose are fairly simple molecules, and quite well understood, so there is no difficulty in converting one into the other.» He suddenly stopped in front of a nearby sign, studying it for a moment before turning to face Zorian again. «I think this is a nice place. What do you think?»
Zorian’s experiences with taverns were very limited and generally unpleasant, so he simply gestured Haslush to go in before following after him.
It wasn’t as bad as Zorian had feared: the insides of the tavern were dark and the air was a bit stale, but the tables were clean and the noise was manageable. Haslush picked an out of the way table in the corner and cast a long, complicated spell on it after they both ordered a drink. Probably a privacy ward of some kind.
Zorian expected the man to start interrogating him the moment the spell snapped into place, but it didn’t play out like that. If Haslush was interrogating him, he was doing it too subtly for Zorian to notice. Hell, the man didn’t even ask him about Daimen, which was always nice. Gradually, Zorian began to relax and started asking questions of his own. Questions like ‘how come a detective has time and inclination to tutor a third year student in divination magic’?
«Hah,» snorted Haslush. «A good question. Usually something like this would be the last thing on my mind, but yesterday my commander dumped a really silly case on my lap. Apparently there is a rumor circulating around the city about mentalist spiders lurking in the sewers, and I’m supposed to check it out.» He rolled his eyes with a sigh. «Mentalist spiders, honestly…» he mumbled.
Zorian struggled not to let his surprise show and somehow succeeded — largely because Haslush was paying more attention to his drink than to him at the moment. He started a rumor without even realizing it? He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised, since he had told Taiven about the spiders right in front of Imaya and his sister — between Taiven and those two, they probably blathered about it to a dozen people at least.
«Anyway, after work I went to meet with my good friend Ilsa so we could complain about our problems to each other over a drink or two, when she told me she was having problems finding a divination tutor for you. And at that point I realized I have a perfect solution for my problem. I could pawn off the case to some other poor schmuck, help a friend in need, and settle a long-standing argument between me and my commander in one fell swoop. See, a couple of years ago the bureaucrats in Eldemar decided to launch an initiative for getting more mages interested in a career in law enforcement. Only, instead of doing something concrete to attract new talent they asked mages already working inside the police force to go introduce the profession to mages in training on their own initiative.»
«Ah,» said Zorian. «So you’re supposed to do things like this anyway?»
«Yeah, but I’ve been kind of slacking off in that regard, so my commander is constantly nagging me about missing my quota. Can you blame me though? We get paid extra for doing it, but it’s a pittance considering the hassle.»
«You know better than I do,» Zorian shrugged. «How does, err, ‘introducing me to the profession’ get you off the spider case, though?»
«I don’t have time to do both,» Haslush said. He frowned for a second and then shook his head, as if to clear it. «Yup. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.»
The discussion petered out after that, and Haslush promised to meet him again at Monday. Zorian was lost in thought as he went back to Imaya’s house, wondering whether anything would come out of the whole spider investigation. Probably not, considering how seriously it was taken by Haslush, but still. He’d have to prod the man for additional details after a week or so.
Zorian tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Imaya to open the door. He had the key to the front door, but that was no help — Imaya had an annoying habit of leaving the key in the lock, and today was no exception. He couldn’t enter without her help.
She probably liked it that way.
The sound of unlocking brought his attention back to the door itself, which flung open to reveal a concerned-looking Imaya staring at him.
«Umm… did something happen?» he asked. Did Kirielle do something stupid while he was gone?
«I should be the one asking that,» she said. «Where were you? You were supposed to be back hours ago.»
«Uh…» Zorian floundered. «What’s the problem? It’s not like I’m coming in the middle of the night or anything…»
The annoyed look she was giving him told him he shouldn’t have said that. Not that he understood why — its not like there was a rule saying he had to rush back home after class, after all. Back in Cirin, his parents never cared what he did in his free time, so long as he didn’t neglect his duties or embarrass them in the process. It was an alien feeling to have someone concerned for him just because he didn’t come home on time.
«Look, I’m sorry but I had to meet with my divination instructor after class and the meeting sort of dragged on,» he said. «Really Miss Kuroshka, you’re going to lose your nerves if you freak out every time I’m late from classes. It’s not the first time I’ve been held up after class, and its certainly not going to be the last.»
She sighed and shooed him inside, apparently somewhat mollified by his speech.
«In the future, try to notify me when you’re going to be late,» Imaya said. «Surely there is some piece of magic that can transfer messages within city limits, yes?»
That was a good idea, Zorian had to admit. «I’ll see what I can find,» he promised.
«Good,» Imaya said. «Your sister has been asking for you for a while now, you know?»
Zorian groaned. «She hasn’t been a bother, hasn’t she?»
«No, she’s a little angel,» Imaya said, waving his concerns away. Zorian silently rolled his eyes at the idea of Kirielle being an angel. If Kirielle was so nice then why did Imaya want him to come home so badly? «She spent most of the day drawing, playing with the magic cube you gave her, and talking with Kana. Or should that be talking at Kana? I swear, that child is far too quiet. I have to talk to Kael about it one of these days. It’s not normal for a child to be so withdrawn…»
Zorian quietly nodded, pleased that the cube he made was such a success. It was nothing special, just a simple stone cube with a bunch of light-emitting sigils arranged into a childish puzzle. He found a design in one of the books Nora recommended to him back when she had been tutoring him in spell formulas and decided making one would be doubly usefuclass="underline" it would give him some practical experience using spell formula and give Kirielle something to pass the time with.