Nagan | Broken Time Series: Book One

Chapter 15

In the end, Nagan was still originally there to complete his punishment. He was to organize each book by topic for at least an hour after his classes are done for the day, and Master Dagmire would not teach him anything until he was finished. It annoyed Nagan to some degree at first, but it was a fair punishment nonetheless. Well, perhaps it was slightly more lenient compared to what Carthadeus had to do.

Nagan was at the time sitting on the floor surrounded by the books he pulled from a few bottom shelves, trying to make sense of them and slowly sorting them into piles. Master Dagmire had made it clear that he had no preferences for how Nagan organize them, so he decided to start by unshelving all the books, group them by topic, and then reshelve the topics alphabetically. He had just put a book into the history pile when in marched Sir Luxivo with a limping Carthadeus trailing behind. Nagan immediately knew it was an act since he had done nothing to his legs.

To Master Dagmire's credit, he looked genuinely interested in Carthadeus' exaggerated story before calmly explaining that he, too, will be punished due to him striking back and adding magic to the mix. This did not sit well with Carthadeus, and he made sure it was clear.

Nagan was delighted when he witnessed Master Dagmire switch to his more intimidating personality and pointing out that Carthadeus was currently putting all of his weight on his "injured" leg, and after that, warning him to never lie to him or face greater consequences. From then on, Carthadeus was silent. He was then instructed to help clean the dragon stables for 3 weeks.

Needless to say, Nagan never dared to complain about his own punishment.

In the weeks that followed, there were a few adjustments made to Nagan's schedule before he could get settled. First, his magic potential and control were deemed acceptable by Professor Grishi to move up into the next level, which Nagan declined not wanting to get ahead of his peers. Instead, he used the new free spot as extra time to continue organizing Master Dagmire's office. Second, Nagan had to be moved out of his history class to another because Carthadeus was in the same class. Third, because of the change, that meant his plant identification had to be switched to his original history period. Lucky for him, however, Az was in both of those classes, so now they shared a similar schedule.

Or maybe it was unlucky.

Because of this switch, it made it that much easier for Az to start noticing Nagan had a few...difficulties when it came to reading assignments.

They were both in their room seated at their desks when Az noticed Nagan was doing absolutely nothing but staring off into space. Curious, he noted the contents upon his desk: a notebook opened to a page with a few doodles and symbols, Rakshu most likely, the carrier's onyx Nagan got to keep even after leaving the class, a strange red potted plant he had to observe for a project, and his satchel which was still filled with all his school books.

"...I hate to nag, but are you gonna start reading the chapter Professor Babora assigned?"

Az's question was met with silence, and the only indication Nagan heard him was a slight shift of his feet. It was a few seconds before he finally hummed and shrugged. "No."

"Why not? You know he's gonna quiz us over it first thing tomorrow as usual."

Another shrug. "It's not like the quizzes are that important. He'll lecture about it afterward anyway, and by then I'll know everything I need to know for the test."

"Ok...and what about for Ethical Applications of Magic? Those quizzes are just as important as the tests."

"I guess."

Az didn't like the sound of such a dismissive answer. "You know, I don't think I've seen you read any of your books yet. Only your own notes. Which are...in Rakshu, right?"

Nagan glanced back at him with a raised brow. "Yes? Is that a problem?"

Now it was Az's turn to shrug. "No. In fact, that actually makes sense since you're probably more comfortable reading your own language--"

Az suddenly grew silent, and Nagan turned to look at him weirdly and in slight concern. He was about to ask what was wrong when Az blurted out, "You can't read Tarkovish."

His declaration jolted Nagan so hard he had to grab the desk to prevent falling out of his chair. "What?! I can read--I mean, I can sort of--" No more words came and Nagan was left gaping like a fish out of water.

"I mean, that's nothing to be ashamed about!" Az explained hurriedly, "It's actually pretty normal considering that Rakshu and Tarkovish are so different."

With a sigh of defeat, Nagan slumped back into the chair. Az frowned. "Why didn't you say something earlier? You could've explained it to the teachers and they probably would've helped you by either giving you a translated copy of the textbooks or assigned someone to teach you how to read Tarkovish."

Nagan groaned and covered his face with his hands knowing that his cheeks were already growing red. "That's exactly why I didn't tell anyone. It's not like I can't read it at all, it just takes a while to figure it out. I would've gotten better eventually. Besides, it's embarrassing to admit something like that."

Az nearly rolled his eyes in exasperation. "But you shouldn't let something like that get in the way of your grades. I thought you wanted to put the Elvar name back at the top. Here, since we pretty much have the same classes, why don't I start reading aloud so you can follow along? That way you can hear the word and identify it to the letters."

"I don't need to be read to."

"Don't be stubborn. Now open your history book to page 76 and I'll start reading. Just tell me if I'm going too fast."

It took a bit more banter, prodding, and a small scuffle before Az finally got Nagan to open his history book.

•_________________•

Well lookidere. I meant to only write the first few paragraphs before going to bed since the last chapter was a bit short, but instead I belt out another chapter in 2 hours lol

You're welcome heh