The Academy: Back when they wrote upon stones?

“mos nunquam operor quisquam huic universitas vacuus virtus. Is est maioribus species of mens tunc ut veneratio"

Nicodemus smiles to her, noting her fear and extinguishing his flames at once upon the river’s waters. Once upon a time he had been afraid of the powers of his flames, but that was something he learned to control. She would master an element one day, and Nicodemus would praise her for learning it was nothing to fear. But this was now. Now she was asking him, something he did not condemn (she was learning, and how would you learn if you held no questions?). The stallion steps closer, ears alert to better catch her hushed words. She would grow bolder with him, this too he knows. He was not exactly easy to talk to, but he was not cruel when he did speak. “I still do not control it. Fire is unbridled, it only does what I will it to do because I am patient with it.” he nods. “Fire does not like to feel contained, so if I ask it rather than command it, it is more likely to do as I wish.”

He listens to her carefully, his eyes burning yet not with hungriness. Elemmire comes and still his attention does not waiver from his student. He does not know of the bond they hold, that they are blood. But at her words the stallion finds Palestine quivering in shadows. He calls Caoimhe back to him from the winds that she traveled, and the fire-bird came to rest upon his shoulder, her unrequited love for the stallion obvious in the passion that she looks to him. She feels the tension in him, and her eyes seek the cause, they find Elemmire with a fiery glare. Nicodemus hushed the bird’s anger silently, though Elemmire could hear his thoughts to his beloved Caoimhe. He does not like this mare, and Nicodemus was a very good judge of character. It was hard to gain his judgment, but once you had it, it was there for good. So far, she wasn’t doing so well.

He prepares himself to step forward, but the vines now tingle at his legs. Caoimhe makes a deep rumbling noise somewhat equivalent of a canine growl. But no matter there, he lowers his head in concentration, flames sparking from his legs and trickling down like rain to consume the earth that it fed off of. The smell of burning earth was now pungent upon the air, and Nicodemus snorts to the mare in warning. “I don’t think she want’s you around.” he is blunt with his words, stepping to block Palestine from the mare he does not know. Nicodemus the hero, fancy that. “Now if you excuse us, we have a lesson to continue.” He turns to face Palestine, eyes kind, while Caoimhe’s eyes glare at the mare, clicking her golden beak in warning.

LVL I

**NICODEMUS//CAOIMHE**

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Picture Copyright to Blinck at Deviantart