Volga the Apprentice: Chapter 3

It was at least a couple hours later but much to his surprise Kyra had returned. She brought with her some medicine, needles, a spool of silk thread, a roll of linen gauze, and a few bottles of some sort of hard alcohol. "I'm not sure if I'm more surprised to see you or to see all the stuff you brought back with you," Volga said.

Kyra shrugged and placed the items on the kitchen table saying, "I told you I would return, I'm almost hurt you didn't believe me."

"Sorry, my more recent run in with people has made me less then fully trusting of others. Anyways I didn't think that two silver coins would get you the medicine, and I can pay you back for whatever you had to spend on it."

"It's no problem, at this hour everything is inexpensive if you know how to get to it," Kyra said with a sly wink.

It took Volga little time to understand her meaning. "You stole this stuff?"

"Well, the shops were all closed, so I had little choice. I left the silver for the medicine but the rest of the stuff was cheap enough it shouldn't be missed. You don't have a problem with that do you?"

Volga looked at the supplies on the table, his shoulder started to burn with pain. "No, I guess not. As long as you paid for the medicine that's the one that really counts."

"Good," Kyra said grabbing one of the bottles of alcohol and handing it to Volga. "Now drink that, I mean a lot of it, you won't want to be sober when we start."

Volga took the bottle and with Kyra's help opened the top then started drinking from it. Whatever it was it tasted foul and burned his throat. "This stuff is gross," Volga said trying to keep it down.

"Cheap liquor gets you drunk fast though which is the point; not for the taste though obviously."

Despite the foul taste, Volga kept drinking until he stopped feeling the pain from his shoulder. When it was gone, they started removing his shirt and the pain flared up again as they did. It wasn't so bad and though he grimaced they continued. When his torso was exposed, Kyra grabbed the small bottle of clear liquid and opened it up.

Before she poured it over the wound, she said, "This stuff will clean out the wound, but it's going to sting and sizzle so brace yourself."

Volga did his best to brace himself as instructed, but as soon as the liquid poured onto his open wound he yelped in pain and nearly jumped out of his chair. Kyra stopped by putting a surprisingly strong hand on his chest and pushing him back down. She held him down still pouring the last of the bottle's contents onto his shoulder. "Calm down it's not that bad, you're acting like a baby, not a man."

Trying to be more masculine Volga managed to hold himself back from any more cries of woe or hopping out of his seat while medicine cleaned out his wound. When it finished sizzling Kyra grabbed the small vial of blue medicine and broke the top, then gently poured the gel-like substance directly into his wound.

This one didn't hurt nearly as bad. But as Kyra grabbed the needle and silk thread and began preparing it for the stitching Volga decided to drink down another bottle. He was definitely drunk by the end of the second bottle and when Kyra began the stitching, it hurt, but he was too intoxicated to pay it much attention.

By the time, Kyra finished stitching Volga's shoulder up he was passed out in the chair. Kyra sighed and rubbed the bracelet on her left wrist. "You better be worth all this trouble pal," she said to herself. She then wrapped up the wound with the linen and tore up as much of the robe that she could, that wasn't dirtied and fashioned it into an arm sling for Volga.

When she was all done, she grabbed the third bottle of 'daer water' and started drinking it herself as she searched out the nearest bed in the house.

The next morning Kyra awoke before Volga and decided to snoop around. To her disappointment, there were no great treasures or anything fancy; least not in the open. She found a mysterious chest in one of the bedrooms but found even with her lock picking skills she couldn't get it open, must have been locked with magic.

She found the library had made up at least a quarter of the house and was lined with bookshelves each completely filled with fat books. On the center table, Kyra found a few books on healing magic. She grinned and wondered if the young magi would not have been able to heal himself using the knowledge from these books. She didn't put it past him, the young man seemed more like a bookworm than anything, which made her wonder what he was doing at that tavern.

"Then again even bookworms get thirsty I suppose," Kyra said to herself. On the floor near the table, Kyra saw a shiny looking paper with a detailed map on it. She picked it up and studied it until turning it over then, seeing the writing, read over its contents until realizing what it was: a map of that Devil Tower.

Thinking it could be worth a good deal of money to the right buyer she rolled it up tight and used some ribbon she found in the bedroom to tie it. Then she tucked it away down her shirt between her breasts and went downstairs to see if Volga was awake yet.

He was, but he was still groggy and had a major headache. She gave him some time to wake up before she decided to see if he was able to help her or not. At the least he managed to make a good breakfast for the two of them. During their breakfast, Volga noticed the white bracelet on Kyra's wrist. Lining the middle of the bracelet was a long streak of black going all the way around.

He managed to summon the courage to ask her about it, "How long have you been wearing that binding bracelet?"

Kyra acting partially confused looked at her wrist then said, "This ugly piece of jewelry? I got it thrown on me after being set up for some crimes I didn't commit. I was just in the wrong crowd I guess, sadly it's been some bad years without my magic."

"It's a black halo one too," Volga said. "Mean's you're locked out for life so long as that thing stays on."

Kyra frowned and played with the bracelet a bit then said, "Well it was this or sit in a cell for sixty years. Some days I want to hack off my hand just to get my magic back, it feels so wrong living without something that's been a part of me my whole life."

"That's a terrible idea!" Volga quickly said. "Even if you remove part of the arm that bracelet is attached to it would immediately teleport onto the next most available spot on your body."

Kyra grimaced. Then she asked, "How do you know so much about this thing anyways? Did you ever have to wear one?"

"No nothing like that, but my master came home with one a couple years back. He kept me up for a week straight teaching me how to remove it. It was a serious pain in my ass but I figured it out... eventually."

"You know how to remove this?!" Kyra asked her eyes gleaming with a long lost hope.

"Yea I can but, I'm not supposed to." Volga said looking away, feeling shamed for giving Kyra that hope.

"Well what about your master? Can he do it then, or give you permission to do so?"

"My master is gone," Volga said in a voice so quiet that Kyra strained to hear it.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Kyra said, genuinely empathetic for him. "It's alright I guess, I got use to life with this thing on, I can continue on with it." She then got up and walked towards the door. "Thanks again for your help, maybe I'll see you around sometime."

Volga stood up to walk her out and say goodbye but as his shoulder flared up in pain for an instant he called out, "Wait. You went through so much trouble helping me out with this cut, as long as you don't tell anyone, and I mean anyone, then I can remove that bracelet."

Kyra jumped with joy and her eyes lit up with glee. She ran over and hugged Volga. It hurt so bad but felt so great at the same time that he didn't protest; despite the agony in his shoulder. When she let him go he told her to take a seat as he grabbed a clean knife off the counter.

He knelt down on one knee and said, "I need to draw some blood from your wrist for this to work, alright?"

Kyra nodded and Volga pulled out her wrists and turned the right one so he could get in clean cut. He made small incision down her wrist; Kyra didn't even flinch. Then he pulled her left wrist under the other and let the blood trickle down onto the bracelet, he started rubbing it around the whole bracelet and began the spell.

He worked in quiet concentration gripping onto the bracelet with great force, channeling his energy around the bracelet. Then he suddenly and quickly pulled the bracelet right off Kyra's wrist. It came off without a hitch and Kyra just stared unbelieving. Volga rose to his feet and said, "This needs to be buried until I can prepare a good fire to destroy it, I will be right back."

Volga left the house shutting the door behind him. With the boy gone Kyra focused on her magic, trying hard to remember that feeling of power pulsing through her whole body. It started with a low tingle in the palm of her hand, but soon grew and spread through her whole body.

She rose from her chair and held her arms out in front of her staring at them. They were partially transparent to her eyes and she could see a little bit through them as if looking through a stained glass window. That's what she saw, but to everyone else they would see nothing of her, she was by all means invisible.

The last thing she had to test now was her full transparency. She rose from her chair and started walking towards the table, concentrating on her powers even harder. As she walked through the table she could feel the very slight vibrations going through her upper thighs: the part of her that was passing through the table.

When she finished walking through the table she dropped her intangibility and jumped with glee and excitement. Even after all these years she could perform her magic perfectly now that the bracelet was off. She would really have to thank Volga now, he really did manage to get the damn thing off her, she knew it was a long shot at best but the kid did it.

As she started to put the dishes in the sink from breakfast, and consider how she would repay him, Kyra felt the smooth paper rub between her breasts; she had completely forgotten about the map. Now she was starting to regret taking the map from Volga, after all he did for her; it was time to leave before her guilt made her do something stupid.

Soon as Volga returned saying the job was done Kyra leaned in close to him and gave him a long intimate kiss on the lips. When she pulled back she winked and said, "Thanks again for all your help, but I have intruded enough on you and must be going; goodbye."

And before Volga could say anything Kyra was out the door and almost prancing away. She pulled the map out from her dress and kept moving thinking to herself, 'that kiss oughta keep him distracted long enough for me to get a good distance before he realizes the map is gone.'

Today must have been a dream, a young woman as beautiful as Kyra kissing him like that; Volga had to pinch himself to make sure he was not dreaming. He did, it hurt, and he wasn't. It was such a wonderful day that nothing could get his mood down, he didn't even feel like drinking.

Things were starting to look bright, until he walked into the library and discovered the tower map was missing. He searched all around the area where he last saw it but when he didn't find it he came to one simple and obvious conclusion: Kyra stole it. He laughed a little, of course she stole it he wasn't lucky enough to meet a beautiful woman like her without something being wrong with her.

Now there was only one thing for him to do: get the map back.

* * *

With her magic back Kyra went on a stealing spree throughout the shopping district in town. She stole a nice maroon leather bag to put the map, and whatever else she decided to steal in. She then got herself a new wardrobe, a tight stretchable shirt which showed off her mid-waist and a skirt that only went down to the bottom of her thighs. It felt great to be out of her silly dress and into more, comfortable and personal clothes.

Then Kyra stole some other stuff she had no real use for such as diamond earrings, or dove leather gloves (which was softer than her own skin). Whatever she wanted was up for grabs, it felt great to be truly alive again. But that town was small game for her, she quickly moved on and headed west to better treasures.

As she made her camp outside the town, before the sunset, a figure suddenly appeared right in front of her. She stumbled back in surprise and fell on her butt. She soon recognized the figure as Volga, he was very agitated. "Give back the map and I won't hurt you," Volga said.

Kyra smiled innocently, "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

Volga launched a ball of fire at Kyra with his good arm. She swiftly rolled to the side to dodge it but could still feel the immense heat from the attack; he really was not messing around. She got to her feet immediately after that holding her hands up, "alright, alright relax." She said.

"It's in my bag, just let me grab it okay?"

Volga said nothing but nodded his head in confirmation. Kyra then slowly walked over to her bag keeping her hands up and her eyes on Volga. She reached down and picked up the bag, still moving slow, and pulled out the rolled up map. "See, still here," she said with a cool smile.

She held it out in front of her and as soon as Volga dropped his guard and took a step to her she used her magic to turn transparent and made a run for it. Seconds letter Volga snapped his fingers and a bright light flashed around them. Kyra ignored it and kept running until an invisible force slammed her hard in the back and violently threw her to the ground.

Kyra moaned in pain and rolled onto her back in time for Volga to slam his foot down on her chest and pin her to the ground. Thinking he had her Volga went to speak and Kyra pulled her legs up wrapped her heels around his thigh and knocked him off his balance. As he fell on his back Kyra kicked her legs into the air and holstered herself back on her feet.

Soon as Volga was getting back to his feet Kyra spun around and slammed her foot into his cheek with a powerful spin kick. Volga hit the ground on his left side and he shrieked in pain. He turned to his stomach and pulled in his leg to rest more on his knee. He spit out the blood that gathered in his mouth from the kick then got back on his feet and reached into his pocket.

Kyra didn't even bother trying to go invisible again as this time after she kicked Volga she just ran in a flat run. She didn't get far when a powerful force suddenly grabbed her and pulled her back. She landed on her back and once more Volga was upon her but this time he quickly slipped something around her wrist and backed up from her.

She immediately realized what he put on her and panicked trying to pull it off; it was futile. "No, no, no No!" she cried out in frustration. While she had her tantrum, Volga went into her bag and retrieved the map.

After checking and seeing the map was real Volga said, "You know the worst part of all this is if you asked me I would have let you accompany me to the tower; more than one person can get their wish granted."

"Alright I'm sorry, I didn't mean to steal it, it was just sitting in the open and I thought I could fetch a nice price for it. Now please just take this damn thing off my wrist again and we can just go our separate ways," Kyra begged.

Volga said nothing to her and simply vanished.

Volga teleported back to his home and went straight to the chest where all the gold his master left him behind was stashed. He had the good sense to enchant the chest with a protection ward and for the time being that would be the safest place for the map. With the map safely locked away Volga went to the library and continued his reading on healing magic. The sooner he could heal up his shoulder the sooner he could move on, he mourned for his master long enough and after all that happened to him the last couple day's he was tired of sitting around.

With the hour running late he didn't get far into his reading until deciding to go to go to sleep. The next morning, after breakfast, he spent his time doing nothing but reading over the books on healing magic. He learned some other useful stuff in the first book but nothing so simple as an instant healing spell. When his stomach started growling he took a break and went downstairs to cook himself lunch.

Much to his surprise, and great annoyance, Kyra was downstairs waiting for him. Seeing her he slowly made his way down the stair steps, preparing for her to attack him. "You know I have ask, how exactly did you find me so quickly?" Kyra asked watching Volga descend the steps in anticipation.

"I put a tracking spell on that map during the very beginning of my unstable drinking faze, in case I ever got drunk, and mad, enough to blow that map to the winds." Volga said still staring her down as he made his way to the bottom of the stairs.

Kyra raised her open hands and stepped back as Volga came forward. "Look I don't want any trouble, I'm sorry I tried stealing your map, and I won't do it again. But truly all I want is to get this fucking bracelet off me; you proved you could do it once already."

"And you proved you can't be trusted, even when you owe someone," Volga countered. "I have no reason to help you, so leave my house now."

"As soon as you remove this bracelet from my wrist."

Volga glared at her and Kyra smiled innocently. He continued on to the kitchen and Kyra cautiously kept her distance. "You know," he said. "I can always teleport leagues away from here, and then you would never be able to catch me; then what would you do?"

Kyra thought about it in silence while Volga pulled out the stuff he would need to make his lunch. She answered his question with, "Then I will burn your house down if you abandon me like that before removing this wristband."

"I could always kill you before I leave," Volga said in a dark tone.

"You're not the type though," Kyra responded immediately.

"Not yet..." Volga muttered under his breath.

After a long awkward silence Kyra asked, "So do we have a deal?"

Volga said nothing, and regardless of what Kyra would say or do he continued to say nothing while he made his lunch and then ate it. Eventually she gave up but promised to return the next day at the same time; while also threatening to burn his house down if he wasn't there when she did return.

With Kyra gone Volga was able to continue his reading in peace but the other book he found still didn't have what he was looking for. By the time he finished though it was late and he was tired, so he put the book back on the shelf and went to bed.

The next morning he found exactly what he was looking for in the third book (of course). And after a series of trials and errors that lasted hours Volga managed to work the healing spell to patch up his wound in minutes. Kyra was in the doorway of the library watching through half of it, laughing at times in silence.

When the wound was completely healed Kyra applauded him sarcastically, "Great job truly," she said. "But you still have to remove those stiches, and now with the wound fully healed doing so is going to be harder and way more painful."

Volga looked at her then back to his shoulder, she was right. "Shit!" he shouted in frustration.

"I can remove those for you, it will be much worse on you if you do it yourself."

"No thanks I need nothing from you." Volga then got up and walked out of the library, Kyra following behind him.

"Maybe not but I need you, please don't make me beg anymore. Just give me a chance to redeem myself right now that's all I'm asking."

Volga stopped and thought quietly to himself then went to his bedroom to find the tweezers. He sat on his bed then looked up at Kyra. She seemed genuine this time... then again how would he know the difference with her. "I'm sorry but I have no way of knowing if I could ever trust someone like you."

Kyra dropped to her knees and grabbed Volga's hands, looking him in the eye and begged, "Volga please, you don't understand what it's like to have something be a part of you your whole life, only to have it taken from you for some stupid mistake you made when you were young." Her eyes started to tear up and Volga sighed.

She let go of his hands and he handed her the tweezers. "Just give me a minute before you begin." He closed his eyes with a look of silent and deep concentration on his face. Seconds later the area of skin on his shoulder with the stitches turned from a pale caucasian color to a light blue.

"Alright that area should be numb enough now, go ahead," Volga said.

Kyra nodded and then slowly and carefully started pulling on the end of the stiches with the tweezers; Volga didn't even wince. Slowly she removed them all the while Volga kept to his thoughts. When she was done he took the tweezers and silk stiches and put them aside then leaned back on his bed.

Then he looked to her and said, "You want me to remove that band? Fine, but I will only give you one chance to get me to trust you before we reach the tower. If you somehow manage to fail that by the time we get there then I will leave that band on and leave you behind. And if I return to find my home in ruins, I will seek you out, I will find you, and I will make you pay; got it?"

Kyra's face lit up and she wrapped her arms around him, "Yes, yes! It's a deal!" She then let him go and left him alone for a time. He spent the rest of the day enchanting the map to make it invisible to anyone but him. Then he pondered his decision to allow Kyra to join him, but it wasn't like he had anyone else he could ask yet; he didn't even know where to start.

Kyra broke through his empty thoughts when she came upstairs to find him and tell him dinner would be done soon. Only after she reminded him that he needed food did he realize he was so hungry.

They had rabbit stew and finished off the rest of Volga's bread for dinner. While they ate Kyra asked, "So how does one so young as yourself know such great spells?"

Volga replied with a question of his own, "How does one as beautiful as yourself become a thief?"

Neither wanted to compromise their story first so they ate in silence for a while after that. But Kyra knew from the little time she spent with him Volga was very likely the type of person to remain silent as the grave when confronted with this sort of problem. Before long she gave up the feud and spoke first, "I was born an orphan and went without a lot of things for years."

Volga kindly stopped eating to look at her as she told her story; though she kept her eyes down at her food. "Sometimes that even meant without food. But when my magic started to expose itself around the same time I hit puberty I was moved to a small orphan home with three other girls around my age with magic too. We lived in a small home, sharing one room between us four and was apprenticed to an elder magi, Ciela.

"She was a kind enough old lady but she could only keep one of us on long term and that went to the girl who showed the most promise in magic. And so when my magic developed the way they were, transparency and such, Ciela decided it was not enough for me to become great so I was kicked to the streets.

"Stealing was just something I did to stay alive back then, but the thrill of it all kept me going for bigger prizes than the day to day meals. I also wanted to live a comfortable life, so I began stealing better prizes like jewelry, or diamonds, I got so good they nicknamed me 'Fox'." Kyra looked up and smiled slyly.

Seeing that Volga didn't recognize the name her eyes went out of focus and back into her story she went. "I soon enough got picked up by a small crime family of others like me. They hired me to steal some weird items or artifacts all around Dorgal, it was pretty hard but the pay was great. And most of the men in that group, they were just hot.

"And the sex with some of them was just unbelievable. Some days that's all I did was fuck late into the evening and then do it again the next night." Kyra went to continue her detailed love life until she saw the surprised expression on Volga's face, and stopped. Then she moved on to the end of her tale, "Anyways one day they gave me this job, something I didn't think was any different than before but this time when I went in to steal my target a force shield sprung up around me and I was trapped. The council caught me, put this band on my wrist and when I returned to my small crime family... they wanted nothing more to do with me, without my magic I was useless to them."

Volga gathered his thoughts then said, "Wow that's quite the tale..."

When he said nothing more Kyra said, "Alright your turn, give me your tale now."

Volga played with his food a little before saying anything, "There is not much to tell really. My parents died in the civil war and a friend of theirs dropped me off at the house of my mom's former master. I have lived here my whole life and my master taught me a wide diversity of spells and gave me total access to his library where I could learn whatever spells I wanted.

"Of course I went for the more destructive or dynamic spells to try and impress some girls. Needless to say that wasn't how to go about it." Volga ended his short tale and continued eating his meal.

Feeling Volga's story was a little short ended Kyra said, "Okay then let me ask something else, that map it means something a lot more to you then just a valuable piece of knowledge doesn't it? Something, sentimental?"

Volga pushed his plate away from him, irritated and his appetite lost. "My master left it behind for me, this house too. But he was more than just my master he was like my father, he raised me as his own, was always kind to me, but stern when he needed to be. So yes thief the map is very precious to me, this house too."

Kyra gently pushed her plate away too, feeling guilty she lost her appetite. She let the silence drag out, Volga could see she had another question she wanted to ask but was now reconsidering it. Agitated he said, "Just ask."

"The wishes from the tower, what are you seeking from them?"

Volga seemed to go back to a normal calm state after the question, he then turned his head slowly and closed his eyes; deep in thought. Eventually he turned back to Kyra and asked, "If you had a chance to bring someone you love back to you, wouldn't you take it?"

Kyra had no immediate answer for that, in fact she had no answer at all. So Volga got out of his chair and said, "We head out tomorrow morning; wash the dishes when you're done here and get some rest.