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Energy coalesced between his hands, light bending around itself endlessly at his will alone. An unspoken --almost unnecessary-- incantation whispered at the back of his mind, but he ignored it for the most part. That was not the point of this particular experiment. No, the point was to shed such antiquated procedures. Once they were dealt with, it would be that much simpler to improve upon the core magic itself. Not an easy feat for most, but mere child's play to someone such as himself.
He smirked triumphantly as the removal of yet another redundant step in the original formula purified the spell's ether signature even further. Perfect. Just as I suspected, this shouldn't take long at all.
"Aha! I found you!"
His head whipped up from its intent study of the spell work, his hands moving nary a bit, at the familiar interruption. "Very astute deduction, Alicia," he said mockingly, though his smirk softened into a much friendlier smile at her presence, belying any sting that might have been perceived by her.
"Ha ha." The young teenage girl stuck her tongue out at him as she squeezed her way through the broken doorway. Her heel caught on a jagged edge of the rotting wood for a moment, but a quick shake and a hop back freed it easily enough. "So this is where you've been hiding," Alicia muttered dryly as she whirled back around, her hands settling upon her hips, and stalked further into the room.
It was much the same as the rest of the ruins dotting the landscape outside of the village: broken stone lay in heaps across the floor, rotting wood peeked out here and there, and there was even the remnants of some ancient tapestry hanging haphazardly from the far wall. All in all, the disrepair wasn't enough to be much of a danger to either of them, though it wouldn't take much at all for any of the younger kids to trip over some disaster or another out here. It was probably a good thing that they were all forbidden from ever venturing so far from home. Not that such censure ever stopped the two of them, of course.
"I'm not hiding, exactly." He frowned in mild irritation as he turned his attention back to the light glimmering between his palms. "I'm merely avoiding certain individuals."
"What for, Lezard?" Alicia huffed as she bent over a bit so that she could look him in the eye. "You know that no one will get onto you about doing magic. Heck, they'd all probably be overjoyed at you doing something else with those books of yours other than just reading them." Scowling lightly at his obvious refusal to meet her gaze, Alicia glanced around, then plopped down on the cracked stone beside him. "They're not exactly thrilled with you taking sword lessons with me and all."
"I am aware of that fact," Lezard muttered unhappily as he pressed his hands together, the light winking out instantly at his command. There was no point in continuing the experiment at this point in time. He could already tell that it was going to be one of those talks. "However, I do not wish for them to become aware of the breadth of my skills with the arcane."
"Well, why not?" Alicia asked, her tone bordering on exasperation as she rocked forward and eyed him suspiciously. "You're really good at it. And I mean really good. You're even better than that old sorcerer who passed through last year. You remember him, don't you? He was scouting out new students for that magic guild across the mountains. I bet you would have been accepted in a heartbeat."
"Oh, no doubt." Lezard nodded in agreement. Really, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to get accepted anywhere. The guilds and academies would have fallen all over themselves to get a gifted individual such as himself enrolled at their institutions. But the very idea made him faintly nauseous. Going --back-- to school would have been the most boring thing ever. "Unfortunately, they would insist that I take classes if they knew of my interest in it."
"What's wrong with that?" Alicia smiled gaily as she nudged him with her shoulder. "At least you'd be good at them. I mean, come on, your sword work is abysmal. It's a wonder that the master even lets you touch a blade much less wield it. I swear, one of these days you're going to cut your foot off and I'm going to laugh myself silly when you do."
Lezard chuckled at her bald statement, but did not refute it. It was the truth, after all. The scholarly pursuits of his early years had left him ill equipped for such strenuous activities. Still, it was quite exhilarating nonetheless. "Ah, but you see, that's the point," he explained, "I don't know a damned thing about it. That's what makes it so challenging."
Alicia frowned and blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"
He smiled tightly in answer and gestured flippantly, flames dancing briefly across his fingertips at the simplest of calls. "It would be a fruitless endeavor to submit myself to magic classes. I already know all there is to know about the arcane."
"Now there's the Lezard I know," Alicia chirped happily as she nudged him again with her shoulder. "Arrogant to a fault. But come on, you can't know everything. It's just not possible."
Curling his fingers up into a loose fist, he frowned sadly and looked away. "No, I really do know everything. It doesn't matter what books they offer me on the subject, I already know every single thing that is written in them." He sighed then, his head drooping as he dropped his fist down into his lap.
"I don't... understand," Alicia murmured hesitantly as she leaned forward and tried to catch a glimpse of his face. "Surely you couldn't have learned everything just yet. We're not that old, you know."
Lezard shook his head and smiled cheerlessly. "I didn't learn a single thing from any of those books, Alicia. No one taught me any of what I know." He paused for a moment and then twisted his head towards her, his gaze meeting her own steadily as he continued, "I don't have to try. I just know all of these things inherently."
Alicia drew back in surprise at his admission. That couldn't be right. No one just knew things... Did they? "You mean, you just think about some incantation or whatever and there it is?"
"It's not even quite as involved as that." Lezard shook his head once more and chuckled hopelessly. "But yes, that is the gist of it."
"Oh, okay," Alicia muttered dumbly as she reached up and scratched at her chin in thought. Well, that was weird, but surely there was some logical explanation for it. People didn't just know things without ever having learned them, right? Oh wait! Maybe that was it. "Hey, I know," she clapped her hands together and beamed at him as she explained her idea, "I bet you were some great all powerful mage in a past life. And I bet all that magic must have been important to you. Maybe you just couldn't let go of any of it when you were reincarnated? That makes sense, doesn't it?"
"Ah! Hmm." Lezard frowned for a moment as he contemplated Alicia's words. He had considered that possibility before, but it had seemed so farfetched to him back then. Who in their right mind would ever remember their past lives anyway? Still, when she put breath to it, the possibility of remembering a past long gone seemed far more likely. Perhaps that was all he had really needed: a second opinion upon the matter. A second trusted opinion. "I suppose. It's as good an explanation as any," he conceded at last.
"There. That wasn't so hard to figure out, now was it?" Alicia crowed and shook her finger at him in mock reproach. "You brood too much. You should just ask me about these things first. I may not know magic, but I do know you."
"I suppose so." Lezard nodded mirthfully in agreement, then abruptly climbed to his feet. He took a moment to brush off all the age worn dust clinging to his trousers before offering her a hand up as well. "Still, if that is indeed true, then I was not merely a great mage."
Alicia looked up at him, an eyebrow arching in bemusement, as she took his hand and allowed him to pull her up. "Oh really now, then what, pray tell, were you?" She asked teasingly as she straightened up, taking a second to stretch her back out. If this was going to start becoming a habit, then she ought to see if she could dig up a spare chair or something of the sort. Sitting hunched over on these stupid stones all the time was going to give him an awful backache.
Lezard smiled softly as she twisted her hand around in his grip, her fingers lacing through his own in a more familiar hold. "Isn't it obvious?" He grinned in superiority at the questioning look she cast his way. "I was the greatest mage who ever lived."
Alicia snorted in amused disbelief. She could always trust him to have the most audacious and elevated opinion of himself ever. Humility, thy name was not Lezard Valeth. "Sure you were, and while we're at it, I was a princess in my past life. And not just any princess, mind you. No, I was the sole heir to some grand, long lost kingdom sought after by the gods."
"You never know."