A Talk; Master to Apprentice

Kraven left Nygozy's tent, allowing Kai to deal with what had happened in peace.

With long powerful strides he walked to Tatsoo's tend and threw aside the flap as he entered.

Tatsoo was there brushing the Elf's hair out of his face, gentle caressing his forehead with her hand.

Kraven again tapped Shades head with his finger, waking the Apprentice from his sleep.

He greeted the woman of the wilds with a kind smile, "Please leave us Tatsoo, there is something that I must discuss with my Apprentice. After we are done you can care for him further, he may need it more than ever."

As Tatsoo left the tent, Kraven erected a barrier so that none may enter or leave without his permission.

Shade opened his eyes and stretched feeling his muscles pull and tighten before going back to normal, He turned his head looking up at Kraven and sat up grinning. "Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to wake someone? I was having a great dream you weren't there." Shade leaned against the folds of the tent feeling the magical barrier and sighed. "Go ahead and give your lecture I know it's coming so tell me what i did wrong and I will argue if it was truly wrong or not.".

Shade looked up at Kraven and kicked aside some covers so he could sit down on the free pillow. "It's not the most comfortable place but it never is on the road unless your lucky enough to find a Inn or in my case a soft lay of grass under the stars. So i expect you came to apologize for that sneak attack you pulled on me."

Tatsoo didn't know why she actually listened to that man and walked out but she had. Once she was a few feet away she turned and bumped into the field around the tent and yelled, "Hey! Dat na fair you ..." She couldn't think of a good bad name in the language so snarled, "Bolesta va garduza mef. Hmph."

She was now feeling rather cranky and took up a seat on a hillock, looking down at the tent and into the opening. Her arms were over her chest and she looked ready to snap.

Kraven arched his eyebrow when Shade mentioned an apology, "You jest I am sure. If I am in the wrong I will admit it, however this time I was not."

"You were in places that you should not have been, this is why I did what I did."

Kraven started to pace back and forth in front of the flame haired mage, "I know that you want freedom to do as you choose. However, that is not the way things are. Everyone has their place in this world and those who refuse to acknowledge that are not going to like he outcome."

Shade looked up at Kraven and crossed his arms. "And what is the outcome Kraven? Either I shut up sit back and do as I am told or what you will kill me because I choose not to follow what you believe to be the right line? That makes you no different than Humans or Templar's. The only thing you got to offer me as punishment is death and you can only kill me once. I choose to be your apprentice because of the Path I chose to take not you or anyone else had a say in what path i take. If you refuse me I will go find someway to fulfill my goals but I will not be silenced because others hate to hear what I say. I will give you the respect I believe you deserve not the respect you think you deserve. You are my elder, my better and my Master that is a lot of respect but never try and silence what I think and I will respect you even more. I will rely on you as a Apprentice does but you must also understand I am young in time I will grow and mature and see the world with wisdom and patience. But I'm not there yet. So if you think I deserve to be punished than you and I are disagreeing on that subject. Now if you think i was wrong barging in on the ritual and imposing myself in the Commanders Tent than yes you would be right. I had no right nor the experience or respect to watch the ritual just mere curiosity so I left but I was not forbidden from Seeing to Nygozy who I consider a friend."

Shade looked at Kraven and waited.

"To even be my apprentice then yes, what I say has to be viewed as law. If you have a problem with what I say then you keep it to yourself and do what you are told to do anyways."

"No one ever said about killing you, Shade. That is something that you have done quite a bit of in the past because people's views on things were different. Where the people you killed right in what they did? No, but that did not give you the right to kill them. No one has made you judge jury and executioner, no one has given you the right to kill as you see fit."

"Do you really think the elves are prepared to accept you? No, they only fear you because your actions have caused even more harm to come to them. You can not be everywhere to protect them, nor should you be expected too. If you would have let well enough alone, or used a more diplomatic solution, you would have not only avoided blood shed, but you would not have given the Templars more of an excuse to hunt you down. And since they are actively searching for you, they will torture and kill those who they think are hiding you."

Kraven could only laugh as Shade mentioned the only punishment available, "You are quite mistaken. There are far worst things than death that I can do to you."

He leaned in close to the suborn elven apprentice, "You see, when I ascended, the Elvhen gods of old gave me the rest of their power as they left this plane forever."

He leaned back and smiled at the young elf, "I am the god of the new Elvhen age. I am bound and connected to each Elvhen being. Be they half or less, as long as they have elvhen blood flowing in their veins I am connected."

His expression became very serious as he glared down at Shade, "This means that I have the ability to severe your connection to the fade, removing your ability to work magic. How is that for a punishment, my young apprentice?"

Shade looked at Kraven and smiled. "If you did that Kraven you better kill me because I will hunt you down god or not and find a way to kill you if I have to sell parts of my soul to every demon, Blood mage, and Arch demon who arises I will kill you. Your words are the same as mine no one appointed you Judge, Jury, And executioner. There may have been a thousand different ways to avoid what I did and I have killed, Murdered, Maimed, And destroyed for what I believe in. Was it right or wrong I can not say others grew afraid they acted the elves can defend themselves and those who can't well they can always run. We were proud and powerful once Kraven. I do not seek slavery and destruction of man I have no reason too but I will see our people free. If you really are a god of the People Kraven than stop hiding behind politics and free our race."

Shade stood up looking Kraven directly in the eyes. "If silence to your word is what you wish fine you will receive just that Master. But I am not your puppet nor your toy I am your Apprentice. Your first thing was to threaten me with the loss of what I am, That isn't a good start to anything Kraven."

"Sorry for the interruption, but I couldn't help but hear your apprentice say some idiotic stuff. You know the tranquil? Yeah, basically that's what Kraven just threatened you with. You would no longer have emotions such as hate, which means you would have no compulsion to do any of that stuff after it has happened." Wolfram informed. "That also means no love as well, so unless you want Tatsoo to be in a relationship with an emotionless husk, you shouldn't risk that. Now, I'll be going now." Wolfram commented as he walked off, almost wanting to hear how he'd react, but knowing that Shade is as tempermental as Kraven used to be means he would be on the wrong side again.

"Try to hunt me down?" Kraven's laugh echoed through out the camp site.

"When a mage is disconnected from the fade, they become tranquil. You will not care one way or the other if it were to come down to that. Of course even if it did, it would not be permanent. As I would restore it when I thought you learned your lesson, making sure you remembered what it felt like to be trapped inside your own body not being able to cry out."

It was if his words were echoed from outside the tent as Wolfram walked by. Kraven chuckled as the human magi walked off.

"Who made me judge, jury and executioner? Shade, they did. They gave me their mantle to take up and direct the Elvhen people. You are Elvhen young one, that means you fall under my jurisdiction, whether you like it our not."

Kraven shook his head and sighed, "You have done nothing but defy me at every turn. And as such, my teachings will have to wait. There is an Elvhen master magi on his way here, he will instruct you. And as he does so, his word is my word. When I think you are ready, then and only then will your learn what I have to teach you."

"Show humility Shade, that is your first step."

Shade growled staring at Kraven. "So forgotten gods gave you permission yet I who have really suffered by there hands have no right to deal retribution? No Kraven I have earned my right to kill them as much as any Elf. Tell me Kraven have you ever felt the whip across your back, or watched Templar's use your sister than cut her throat? If you haven't than you have no right to deny my what i see as Justice. This High mage will have my respect as much as you would if you would stop acting like your the gift to our race. If you want to prove that you are above us and we are under your reign then free the people."

Shade walked to the barrier and looked back at Kraven. "Kraven I am sorry if I'm not your ideal apprentice the kind you expected who would hang on your every word and see you as the ultimate form of our kind. I am a Elf and proud I will learn from you, I will respect you but I can't change who I am. You chose me I accepted therefore we both signed up for this.".

Kraven smiled coolly at the young elven mage before him, "I have lived through over twleve hundred years of Elvhen repression. And that was just after my rebirth, that does not count the years that I lived before that, fighting the Tevinter Empire as they road over our lands claiming it for their own. So do not try to have a pissing game with me on who has seen the most strife."

Kraven shook his head and looked at Shade in shock, "If you knew anything about the Elvhen culture as it stands today, you would know that the Old Elvhen gods were far from forgotten. Our people still pray to their likeness all the time and choose to set up their camps in their locations with every chance they get."

Kraven clasped his hands behind his back and continued to look at his student,
"Unlike you I do not seek retribution for what has happened to our race. Nothing that is done now will change what has happened in the past, not even the gods themselves can change that. The only thing one can do is change how things are now, making it a better place for all of our people."

"Regardless of how much pain and suffering you may have dealt with in your very short life, it still does not excuse your actions. What you call Justice is nothing but murder and it saddens me greatly that you do not see that. And even more so that you think all Elvhen people should go around killing all who have done them wrong."

"Because of this, you are a danger to all of those around you. You are a danger to Tatsoo. You will be hard pressed to stop a demon when it enters your soul and takes your body from you. And when that happens the first person that that demon will feed upon is your beloved Tatsoo. And you will have to watch from the inside as you see your own hands rend her flesh from her body."

His eye brows raise high above his eyes, "I did not choose this path for myself, it was chosen for me. I was the strongest of what was left of the Immortal Elves of Thedas and the last one to be left alive. We were hunted down in such great numbers that few of us survived to see the first blight. It was me and a few others who defended our own people as waves of darkspawn ravaged the lands. It was at this time that I was pulled from the brink of death as a demon tried to take my soul. It was because of my faith in the gods that I was able to control it and absorb its powers for my own. This is when I took the first steps into my rebirth."


The Elvhen god chuckled at Shades statement, "Under my reign? Do I look like a king? Am I a dictator who demands everything from his people and gives nothing in return? No I am not. I have been given the duty of directing our people so that they can save themselves. Things are already in motion for this to happen. The clans who have accepted this and chosen to follow me have sent their best and brightest to Fereldan so that they will be close by if I need them."

"I did not choose you Shade, I asked you if you would like to train with me. I was given a list of name who would make ideal candidates for the training that I have planned. You were but the first that I came across."

"You have a real opportunity to open up your true potential. You have the opportunity to learn real Elvhen magic, yet you choose to use the magic of humans, people who you claimed repressed you and treated you like a slave. That sounds quite hypocritical to me. "

"What about Tatsoo? She is more human that she is Elvhen. The Elvhen side of her has been drastically diluted to the point where it would be hard to even tell she had any Elvhen in her blood."

Kraven watched Shade walk to the edge of the barrier narrowing his eyes, "By turning your back to me, you have shown great disrespect to myself, but more importantly you have shown great disrespect to the Elvhen culture. Not only that, but you have yet to be dismissed. I am the master, you are the apprentice, you may go when I say you may go, now take a seat. Or stand, I do not care."

Shade spun around his hands bursting into flames as his voice grew deeper and charged with fury. "Never speak about Tatsoo that way again Kraven or so help me if it tears the fade open I will kill you." He took a deep breath glaring at his Master before taking a seat his eyes burning. "I will follow you as a Apprentice should but you ever make a remark about Tatsoo being less I will end this Apprenticeship and you will become my enemy. You saw much in your time I respect that and yes I am young by our standards so what. Am I too lie down and take whippings like a dog at the feet of humans? No i will fight anyone who tries to enslave me or collar me or put me down because they are afraid of me.".

Shade closed his eyes leaning against the tent sides as he fought to control the anger inside him. "Your right Kraven I am very susceptible to a Demon and it is something I worry about every day for I am filled with hate, anger, and fury that many prey upon. I can be a great apprentice to you Kraven but I need patience from you because I am young. Work with me and help me to focus my anger and hatred into my apprenticeship and I will become what you want me to be."

"You do realize that your magic will do nothing to me. Your spells would be as effective as swinging a sword through the air hoping that it will damage it."

"I did not make a negative remark against her. It was you who took it as negative when I said she had very little Elvhen blood in her. I did not say there was anything wrong with that. All I said was that you hate humans so much, yet you choose one as your mate."

Kraven continued to look at Shade calmly as fury raged inside the young mage, "Just remember, if we ever become enemies you will outcast yourself from the rest of your race. You will have no place in this world. And eventually all of the murders you have committed will come back on you and there will be no one there to protect you."

"You are young by anyone's standards. The elvhen race is no longer long lived, they only live as long as humans do now. So even by current standards you are quite young and quite inexperienced."

Kraven smiled at Shade, "There!! Now you are getting it!! Patience!! I have all the patience in the world, it is you who needs to have patience with all of those around him. You can not save the elvhen race in a day, week, or even months. There are still years ahead of us before that will happen. And it will take longer still if you decide to go off on another killing rampage."

"You must be willing to start anew. You must will willing to put aside your feelings of rage and fury towards those who have done us wrong. And you MUST show humility. To be a great mage is not how powerful your spells are, it is knowing when and how to use your spells to be most effective. This you will learn from the Elvhen teaching who is coming here. But, just so you know, he is not just coming to teach you, he is coming to instruct all the young mages that are here. They must have a good teacher for the coming war, they must be prepared."

"He will not show you any more leniency than I would show you. In fact, he will expect more from you than he will the others."

"You are going to need to set an example, you will be representing me. How you act or react to any given situation will reflect directly on me. If you fail at this simplest of things, the you will not officially become my apprentice. You are on trial Shade, your every move is going to be watched. If you do not pass my tests, then I will move on to the next on my list."

Shade looked at Kraven letting the words sink in. "Tatsoo is not human to my eyes she is a Goddess of Gold beyond my touch and I'm just lucky she bothers to look at me. Have you ever been in love Kraven I bet you have it happens at times when we least expect it. I came off a killing spree when I met her and like a Thunderbolt I felt alive in her presence. Love does not care about races, Look at Nygozy and the elf I never got his name. They were all kissy face when I met Nygozy."

Shade looked up at Kraven and laughed. "For one with infinite patience Kraven you sure do get angry quickly. But your right I need to be better than anyone else and don't even think about looking at that List Kraven because you won't need it. He can test me, push me, send me into oblivion and I will become stronger for it. Do not worry about me failing I have too much at stake here. So when does this Mage arrive?"

"Love? Before I was reborn, before the first blight, before the Tevinter Imerpium, yes there was a time when I felt love. But with the old Elvhen and their long life, we tend to think of love in a different manner. It would not be logical to stay with someone forever. Eventually we both move on.


"I may have been quick to anger before I ascended, but with ascension comes enlightenment. Most of that anger stemmed from the gods that I spoke with. Old gods seem to be quick to anger. Hope I don't get like that in my old age." He said winking at Shade.

"Even if you are a success as my apprentice and we do the proper ritual to bind it, the others will still be contacted. It is hard to bring the elvhen race back to what it once was with only one apprentice. There are a few more that I will have to hunt down when the time is right. They will be taught and trained by the Elvhen Elder before I train them in other things beyond him"

"Now that we are seem to be on the same page, I would suggest to go have some fun before things get more serious."

With a wave of his hand the barrier surrounding the tent faded out, allowing people to come and go as they please once again.

The barrier went down and Tatsoo was immediately on her feet and stalking into the tent. She stopped in front of the Elvhen and glared up at him just before she went to slap him.

"How dare ye!" She snapped, snarling like a wild animal, her teeth showing as she glared up at him, "Ye never, eva do anythin like dat again! If ye wish me begone den ye be respectful enough ta ask me ta do so but ta take control a me? Dat be not good an it make it so ye have no fegresinye obre canovre (honour of the tribe). Ah na be a toy ta toss about or dangle an ye best learn dat or da commanda may take out yer shins as ah believe she would na like dat either!"

Shade looked back at Kraven and smiled. "It's not so bad in this world Master just a bunch of hot blooded young people who think they know it all. Everyone is like that when there young and these days we don't even mature before were heading to the flame. I am actually glad others will be joining us it will be hard with just me and that would be way too much pressure. Spend my days in a hole as a hermit."

Shade stopped at the exit and looked back at his Master. "I will be the best of them just watch when the time comes you won't even recognize the little upstart who so openly defied you. One day I will be someone to be proud of it's a shame my parents didn't get to see it...Or my sister." He turned walking out of the tent.

Shade laughed grabbing Tatsoo before she could smack Kraven. "Woah there my love he is sorry but we needed to talk in private. Forgive him please I beg you oh great huntress, Forgive him for me." Shade was laughing as he talked holding his golden bird around the waist.

"Calm yourself Golden Child, it was only necessary because there was no time to argue or discuss things."

"I do apologize for what I did, it was wrong of me and I will not do it again my child. you have my word." he said as he bowed to her gracefully

Tatsoo stopped snarling but still gave Kraven a stare as Shade held her then breathed out her nose, calming even though she still did not believe there was no time to be respectful. She put her forehead against Shade's cheek and took some deep breaths then looked back up.

"Ye're off de hook dis time. Ah accept de apology." She said already calmed down. Her eyes had become more golden in her anger but now they were back to their normal honey hue, "Let us be off den."

Shade chuckled pointing Tatsoo towards the entrance and guided her out his hands on her waist. He looked back at Kraven and mouthed at him. "Gonna get me killed" He smiled and turned back to Tatsoo kissing her neck playfully. "Ok my Golden dove just relax and calm down, You are very beautiful when your angry."