The Rival and the Apprentice

I have many skills.  I have had many professions.  While I toil for the kingdom I am also a student of the world.  A naturalist by heart I seek the understand the mysteries of this realm.  I am in no small part an alchemist.  I am of those that would seek to unlock power through the natural processes of this plane of existence.  I am not alone in this pursuit.

The Rival
There is a woman whose position rivals my own at the academy.  Her skills are beyond mine but her  inexperience keeps us as equals.  Her ambition is raw, unyielding, a thing to be rightly feared, however her clumsy attempts to rise through the ranks have revealed her nature amongst our masters.  Where once they had mistook her intellectual challenges for reasoned debate they now know it to be born of simple ego.  This is one who will not be reasoned with, who will not be challenged, who will rise above them and should the moment come, crush them into the dust of oblivion.  We had been traveling companions once, our days filled with discovery and new challenges, laughter and stories, on a common path to the future.  Now our days are spent on subterfuges, tiny intrigues designed only to provide pain, to show that we can still hurt the other.  In this we are not equals.  While her skills in the art are impressive, it is my years of experience, my lifetime of enduring horrors that she could not even begin to fathom, my ability to rise from even the most untenable of positions that will carry the day.  She has chosen her enemies very poorly.

The Apprentice
I can not even remember the exact moment I knew that this was my path.  The simple curiosity tugging at my every thought, never letting go.   The longing to know every tiny fact about my chosen alchemical field, the transmutation of insects.  The weakened grub to the durable beetle.  The slowly moving maggot to the swift fly.  The homely caterpillar to the stately butterfly.  My protege does not share my interest but does share my passion for questioning this universe.  Integral to the workings of my attempts at decrypting these mysteries I have come to rely on her greatly, nearly as much as she relies on my reasoned advice as I walk her through the path she has chosen.  Boundless enthusiasm, unwavering loyalty, and an ability to smile in the face of adversity have endeared her to me in that our interactions have become something akin to friendship, if I am still capable of such an act.  Her nervous nature and our frequent odd conversations have pushed us to the fringe of our colleagues but it is a price worth paying.  She is a staunch ally.