“The simplest answer,” she says, “is that I don’t have to worry about breaking things up here. Not only am I alone—I mean, before you got here anyway—”
Another way I am adding to her burdens, though I can’t help but add, “And Zan.”
“Yes, but Zan doesn’tstay. So I don’t have to worry about being in his way, right? At least not all the time.”
“How can you be in someone’s way in your own house?”
Tasa huffs and mutters, “You’d be surprised. What I was getting at is that I can’t nullify anything important up here. No accidentally breaking the means of someone’s livelihood. I’ve had to fix all my appliances for years because the spells would inevitably go out, so up here, since I don’t have to be connected to the spells that keep magical energy flowing, I can just build a house designed forme. I don’t have to tiptoe around my own house worrying about which of my neighbors I’m going to hurt.”
Hurtseems like a strong word, but part of me grasps her meaning anyway.
Not the same, of course—sages don’t literally break things.
But when I walk into a room, conversation stops.
I have to be careful about what I say, what I do, because people are always watching.
If I am not the picture of resolution at all times, their own resolve wanes.
It’s a weight. One it is an honor to carry—can I truly complain that people pay attention when I speak?—but it does mean that I am always judged.
And from what Tasa has said, I suspect no one places any weight onherwords.
Another piece of what she said catches my interest, though, so I move away from the questions that clearly make her more uncomfortable, when that wasn’t actually what I was going for.
Sages aresupposedto cause ripples; it’s a hard habit to break.
“If you can’t be connected to the magical spell network up here, how do you have plumbing?”
Tasa lets out a crack of laughter. “I take it you don’t know anything about plumbing?”
I narrow my eyes. “I take it you do.”
“Yeah,” she laughs again. “You could say that. People don’t need magic to have plumbing, Kovan. I mean, magic can help get it set up, but once the pipes are in, they just need maintenance. Usually spells take care of that too, but since I’ve been nullifying spells my entire life I have also learned... way more than anyone wants to know about plumbing.”
It strikes me, then, thatIwant to know.
Not about plumbing specifically.
I want to know what her life is like.
I want to see her excited to share all her copious knowledge rather than rueful.
I thought I knew where I stood in the world, and I am coming to the realization that I may not even know what the world is.
“So what you’re telling me,” I say, “is that in addition to clearing dangerous magical debris from your village and building an entire house, you have also,within the last month, fixed the failed temple plumbing system on the side of a mountain.”
“You say that like I did that out of the goodness of my heart,” Tasa says. “I very much got a personal benefit from it.”
This, with her, I already understand. “Oh? And did you charge your neighbors to fix their plumbing systems?”
“Of course not. I’m the one who broke them!”
“And if they couldn’t afford a plumber, or asked if you would mind just dropping by to take a look at something, did you also volunteer free labor?”
Tasa’s eyes narrow. “Of course I did. There’s nothing wrong with helping people.”
“There’s something wrong with people taking advantage of you, Tasa.”
