Chương 17: Damien

The lower door in the amphitheater opened and a young man strode in wearing a purple silk robe over a deep red velvet shirt, with loose silk trousers. Mark knew nothing about what counted as ordinary attire in this world, but to him it appeared as if the outfit was chosen specifically to announce the status of the person wearing it. The young man seemed to hold his head with a bit of a sense of entitlement.

When Mark's tongue flicked, the scents of floral and mineral chemicals flooded in from the student's direction. It was some type of cologne that likely cost more than Wes paid for his housing. Behind the young man came a giant rock-like creature that made Mark's instincts scream danger. It was a golem. The golem stood seven feet tall, its body made from stone and clay that was molded into a humanoid shape. His owner evidently felt the golem needed to look fancy as the golem's entire body was plated with gold.

As the golem crossed the threshold, one stone shoulder scraped against the doorframe. Wood splintered with several shards dropping to the floor. The golem, however, continued forward without any apparent awareness of what it had done. Mark's whole body trembled as he recognized this thing could crush him just like how a human foot would crush an ant, and may not even realize it did so.

"It's ok. It won't hurt you." Wes placed his hand on Mark's shoulder. Surprisingly the hand on the shoulder did help sooth Mark's fear. Next to Mark, Skarl's voice was soft.

"Golems are scary-scary. Very big-big, very strong-strong. Skarl afraid too-too." Mark watched the new student and his golem so closely that he did not notice Finneas leave their group until the second-year student was already in the front row, raising a hand in greeting to the new student. Ember was still nuzzling against Finneas's neck as he sat beside Edwin, roughly a quarter of the way around the circular chamber from Mark's group. Edwin, Whisper's master then cheerily spoke to the new student.

"Damien! Good morning! We saved you a seat near the front!"

"Oh, how thoughtful," Damien said.

"But honestly I prefer the upper rows. It has a better vantage point." Both second-years sat back down with their shoulders slumped. Whisper, who had been sitting on Edwin's shoulder started chortling at this sight.

"The wealthy kid won't sit with peers he feels are beneath him! How predictable!"

"Whisper, please," Edwin whispered with mortification.

"Not now." On the other side of the classroom, the elf woman with the owl and the dwarf student with the war badger caught each other's eyes. Mark saw them both rolling their eyes at each other; the dwarf somehow incorporated his entire beard into the gesture. So this was Damien the student who Wes was afraid that Mark might reveal his intelligence score to.

Mark remembered how Wes had instructed Mark to avoid talking to him or his familiar, and he also remembered how Wes was fairly certain Damien would create a familiar who could not speak. The golem didn't seem able to recognize he had hit the doorframe so that seemed to track. Damien walked over towards Mark's group as he ignored the second years. He passed the group without slowing until he was two rows above them and then turned around.

Mark had the sense this was intentional so Damien could look down at the group while speaking. Even Torvax the dragonkin had to look up at Damien while he spoke.

"Durum you're here early, for once, and Fairchild, predictably prompt. Good to see my fellow third years." He glanced at Mark before looking back at Wes with a very large smirk on his face.

"So Durum! Your Venwick familiar, you were so proud of telling everyone about, turned out to be a kobold. How practical. I heard you were struggling in your ritual classes to make ritual arrays perfectly align. Not a great combination if ritual work is what you intend to specialize in. So I can see the appeal, a kobold could help you draw chalk lines. I guess that is provided he doesn't confuse the chalk for food."

"Makriss would never confuse chalk for food, Damien. You are being ridiculous," Wes said, his spine straightening slightly.

"He has exceptional cognitive abilities. The Venwick ritual worked exactly as designed."

"Oh, a kobold with intelligence. I guess he probably does have a great score relative to you, Durum." Damien said with a smile.

"Only you would try to act like you're satisfied with a construct kobold. You may as well elevate a pet rat since kobolds are just larger vermin." Mark's tail thrashed behind him involuntarily. Oh he was getting angry. Glancing at Skarl he was racing even worse to these comments and had started baring his teeth at Damien, albeit not making any noise yet.

"Joking aside, Durum, I'm fascinated by your choice to prioritize intelligence over more useful familiar attributes." He gestured toward the golem.

"Practical combat capabilities, for instance. You need strength and constitution in a familiar. As my father always says the most important ability for a familiar is to absorb damage meant for its master without developing inconvenient opinions." His gaze dropped to Mark's tail, which was still lashing.

"I see yours has already developed opinions. That does seem to be the flaw in making a familiar clever enough to be dissatisfied with its purpose before it is loyal." The golem stood perfectly still behind him. It was massive and looked extremely strong and durable but it exuded no personality. It truly looked like it was as brainless as the rock and clay that made it up.

"At least my familiar can think," Wes said. There was an edge to his voice that suggested he'd been polishing that response in his mind for a while, waiting for exactly this opportunity.

"Ah, but that is rather the point, isn't it?" Damien said, gesturing at his golem with visible satisfaction.

"My father always says familiars should be tools, not companions. Tools do not question the hand using them or develop goals that are separate from yours.

"A familiar who is smart is destined to cause problems for their master, Durum, everyone knows that. Heck your boss is the perfect example of that. Would be a shame if your new smart familiar got some ideas from your boss if those rumors are true." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Mark opened his mouth to say something he would likely regret later, but Wes's hand tightened on his shoulder before any words could come out.

Wes really doesn't want me to say anything to this jerk. Next to Mark, Skarl started making a low, hissing growl. Several students turned with varying degrees of interest and concern. The raven's head rotated to watch this development. Mark's rage had been building as well and when he heard Skarl growl, Mark's jaw opened enough to show the edges of his teeth, and a similar sounding growl came from his own throat.

Wes's hand squeezed tighter, and almost instantly Mark was able to stop the growling but his teeth were still bared. Skarl however was continuing to growl and if anything was getting louder with every insult Damien threw at Mark or Wes. Torvax had crossed his arms and glared at Damien with clearly no intention of even attempting to stop Skarl from continuing to growl. Damien's eyes flicked to where Torvax and Skarl stood as if noticing them for the first time.

"A dragonkin with a wild kobold bond. With a large emphasis on the wild this kobold looks feral with all his scars. My, how diverse our school is becoming." Mark wanted to give this Damien a true piece of his mind, but everytime he wanted to he kept being reminded how he promised Wes that he wouldn't talk to Damien or his golem. It was as if… Wait… Wes did tell me once that familiar owners could influence what familiars did, and he claimed he never would intentionally do that. Is that what is happening?

He just advised me not to. It wasn't a direct command so I should be able to say what I want, right?

"Speaking of which," Damien said, turning his attention back to Wes, "my father's shop offers several familiar enhancement packages that may be relevant. Such as to help with obedience reinforcement. We offer very reasonable rates, especially for Academy students whose familiars are having difficulty adjusting to polite society, which both of these kobolds seem to be given how they keep growling and baring their teeth.

"It is all Registry-approved, of course. The Registry is quite accommodating when the modification is clearly beneficial to both wizard and familiar."

"I will manage." Wes said.

"I don't think Torvax is interested in your obedience reinforcement items either."

"I would never think of modifying Skarl in any way. The fact that he is showing as much restraint as he is in my opinion is incredible.

"While this chattering is all well and good, I need to get back to why I wanted to come over here in the first place. Damien then glanced at Tessa.

"Fairchild, you're still focusing on healing magic, correct?"

"Yes," Tessa said cautiously, clearly unsure where this was going.

"I'm planning to go adventuring after third year to level up properly. It should be much faster than studying for years in the library." He gestured casually.

"I'll need a competent healer for my party, and since you have the top ranks in all the healing classes, I thought you would be perfect, Fairchild. Are you interested in joining for some quick and easy leveling?"

"Thank you for the offer, but no," Tessa said.

"I'm planning to stay at the Academy for the next few years and improve my healing abilites. After that I would much rather serve the city than attach myself to one adventuring party." Mark noticed that Damien's eye twitched. Clearly he wasn't used to being turned down.

"Pity." Damien then turned his attention to Wes.

"What about you, Durum? Planning to join the adventuring circuit? Get a little experience before failure makes the decision for you."

"No," Wes said.

"I want to stay to continue my research, and I won't be forced to join the adventuring circuit."

"Hmm. Well, even if you changed your mind, I'm afraid you'd be..." Damien paused, as if searching for the right word, though his smile suggested he'd had it prepared all along and was just enjoying the theatrical delay.

"How shall I put this delicately? Pretty useless to an adventuring team." His smile sharpened.

"Unless you improve dramatically, of course. And seeing what you got for a familiar it would be even more useless." Damien's then stared at Mark.

"A small, fragile construct with high Intelligence may be fascinating in a classroom, but what would it do in a dungeon? Kobold's can't do structured magic, and everyone knows intelligence without magic is pointless for a familiar." Damien chuckled, apparently pleased by the image.

"Though I suppose he could write a very eloquent epitaph for the party afterward. If you like Kobold Common." The psychiatrist part of Mark's mind had been paying close attention to Damien's behavior through this entire proceedings. While he knew he technically couldn't diagnose him since he wasn't Mark's patient he could tell from the interactions he had seen that Damien was a rich kid full of entitlement with low empathy and who exhibited a need for dominance behavior which he tried to disguise as etiquette.

He showed many signs of narcissistic behavior, and was clearly an insecure bully who should not be given the attention he craves. However Mark also wanted to speak his mind and he wanted proof that he could speak his mind and wasn't having his actions controlled by a promise he made earlier. So Mark tried to force himself to speak to Damien, and succeeded.

"I actually can speak quite eloquently in Common if I do say so myself. The fact that you can not imagine intelligence being important for a familiar, Damien, shows your own lack of intelligence."

"Oh, you were right, Durum! He is smart. Eloquently, such an eloquent word. Anyway, I better go and get in my seat. Class will be starting in not that much time." Damien turned and started climbing further up the the stairs. His golem followed in heavy steps. Once they reached the top row Damien stopped at the exact place Torvax and Skarl had occupied before descending to meet Mark and Wes. Damien sat there alone beside his golden construct.

It truly was the perfect spot to watch everyone else in the circular amphitheater.

"He is insufferable," Torvax said with some anger. When he looked back at Wes, though, it was far more neutral, as if Damien's behavior had shifted his perspective.

"He said you worked at Morty's shop, yes? I think I recall seeing you there."

"Yes, I've been working there part time since I started at the Academy."

"Morty was a familiar once," Torvax said.

"I know."

"And you chose to work for him?"

"Of course. He is the most knowledgeable apothecary master in the city. He knows more about potions than I ever will." After a moment, Torvax said, "I was unfriendly earlier. That was not entirely fair. I came here expecting contempt, which does not excuse assuming it from every human I meet, but it does explain why the assumption is easy." He gestured around the chamber with one clawed hand.

"Dragonkin are treated as dangerous and kobolds are treated as animals until proven useful. The insult changes shape, but the assumption underneath it is the same.

"My family has been cheated by merchants and smiled at by wizards who believed politeness is proof that we're equal." His vertical pupils settled briefly on Wes and Tessa as he talked.

"Dragonkin magic is called instinctive when human magic of the same caliber would be called elegant. I have dreamed of studying magic since I was old enough to understand what spellwork was. That is why I am here, and yet before I even reached this classroom, I was insulted three times. Would you believe I asked an elf student for directions to this class and he asked me if I needed help finding a master to bind with before class."

Wes had taken back out his stone in his hand and had started rubbing it in his hand, while Tessa just looked at Torvax with empathy. Torvax looked at both Mark and Skarl as he continued to talk.

"But as negative as dragonkin can be viewed, kobolds have it worse. Dragonkin are feared as a people but kobolds are dismissed before the question of personhood is even allowed to begin." Torvax's gaze moved from Skarl to Mark.

"I have been worrying about coming here for over six months. This morning's insults made me think the next seven years would be exactly as miserable as I feared, but the way you and your little one handled Damien made me think that just maybe it won't be a rough seven years if there are some wizards who attend who are like you, Wes."