I nodded. I fully understood that. “You said poor people. Were your parents rich, then?”
“I suppose you could say that. They did live in one of the wealthier districts in Astros, and they could afford to go out and help people in the villages for no profit. They were both from noble families.”
My experiences with nobles were not exactly positive. I’d see them when I would visit the town near my foster-father’s farm, and the interactions were mostly relegated to paying taxes, offering our choicest cuts of meats, or accepting their scorn with a cool smile. In all honesty, I couldn’t stand the local nobles, but Amelia seemed very different.
“I always thought of the noble families as greedy plunderers,” I said. “I never thought any of them would go out to help people.”
“Some of them are like that, but not all of them. Both my parents and Jacob and Fiona were always generous to people they could help. Jacob and Fiona continued to look after me for several years as well. I don’t know what would have happened to me if they hadn’t.”
“So, you went to the library soon after your parents died?” I asked.
“Ten years after. Fiona knew some of the Librarians in Astros. She got me a position as an apprentice in the Great Library a few years ago. I was 15 when I entered, having spent some years learning in school before then. I’ve been studying there for five years since then.”
“Sounds like you’ve spent a lot of time reading books.” I understood her desire to read. All the knowledge I’d gathered was either from experience or learning from people who were more highly skilled than me. The idea of increasing my learning and understanding of the world on my own, through the reading of books, was an attractive but unattainable dream.
“Well, yes,” Amelia said, “but there’s more to it than that. School isn’t just reading books. There are teachers there whose minds contain more knowledge than a hundred books.”
“I’ve had teachers like that,” I said. “My foster-father, Gregory, for one. A fellow named Jacques. And Katlyn.”
“Oh, really? What did they teach you?”
“Gregory taught me how to work the farm. Keeping animals, tending to our meager crops, repairing things. A little hunting and swordplay, too. Jacques showed me how not to stand out in Aranor. He isn’t exactly a lawful man, and I learned a bit about such things from him. He liked to call himself the Rogue of Aranor.”
“And Katlyn?”
“Uh, well, she helped me learn how to be a good lovemaker.”
Amelia giggled. “Is that right? It sounds like you’ve had very good teachers then.”
“And what did your teachers teach you?”
“Nothing quite as practical or hands-on as your teachers.” Amelia smiled at me. “They were teaching me many things which I hoped to memorize for the scholar’s examination. I would have liked to have become a Librarian, but those positions are filled only be Mages. Instead, I desired to become a scholar. Once I become a fully qualified scholar, I can work in the library and continue to preserve the collection of books there, or I could go out and research magic, monsters and other things like that in far regions of the Kingdom.”
“Looks like you’ve started that a bit early.”
Amelia chuckled. “Yes, it is quite early. All the other able-bodied scholars were already engaged elsewhere. They had no one else to send.”
“They must have a lot of confidence in you,” I said.
Amelia smiled and nodded. “I’ve always been a voracious learner. I read anything I could get my hands on in the library, including many books I shouldn’t have.”
The way Amelia spoke about books and learning was almost like Jacques spoke about picking pockets or brawling in back alleys. She certainly had a passion for it.
“I never learned to read,” I said.
Amelia turned to look at me, her eyes wide. “But reading is such a wonderful skill. You can learn so much about our world and discover wholly different worlds in your imagination...” She broke off. “Oh right. I suppose you couldn’t learn to read. You haven’t told me anything about where you came from. How did you end up here?”
“There isn’t an awful lot to tell,” I said. “I was owned as a slave by my foster-father, Gregory.”
Amelia flushed as I said this. “How awful! When you mentioned him earlier, I assumed he was a kind man. But it seems I misjudged him.”
I raised my hand. “No, you didn’t. He was a kind man. Like a father to me. He protected me from the other villagers. My parents died when I was too young to remember them. My Gregory always said that the other villagers would sell me if they knew I had Elemental Sensitivity. Looks like they were right, ’cause they sold me after he died, and here I am.”
“I see,” Amelia said. “Your story sounds even more sad than mine.”
I smiled. “It’s a bit hard to compare tragic stories sometimes. At least you learned a lot of useful skills in your upbringing.”
“Seems to me like you learned a lot too,” Amelia said. “I’ve never heard of a Mage being able to take down several monsters and slavers on their first day of training.”
“Just did what I had to do, I guess.”
“And it was amazing. Who knows what you might be able to do to fight for justice in this world if you keep training?”
I looked up at Amelia’s face. “Thanks. It was all worth the effort today to be able to share this evening with you.”
Amelia smiled at me. “Thinking about your worldly experiences, I very much envy you, you know.”
“I’m grateful for what my foster-father and my friends taught me,” I said. “I would love to have learned to read though.”
Amelia started at that. “Would you like me to teach you?”
My mouth moved but no words came out. Why would this beautiful noblewoman want to teach me how to read? What did she have to gain
