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Teslaron had never attended school. As a slave, he hadn't really been in much of a position to advocate for the opportunity to leave the house for a handful of hours each day, and he couldn't imagine it being well-received if he'd tried, anyway. Smart slaves were dangerous slaves. His masters wouldn't allow it whether he wanted it or not. Besides, as a child (after hearing what happened at school and how the day generally progressed from Laric and Oridan), he'd decided he wasn't interested in devoting much of his time to history lessons, maths, or the proper way to write letters. Anything he'd needed to know, he'd learned by managing life as it came.
Being with the Yaeli merchant felt suspiciously similar to what Teslaron imagined school would've been like.
He'd come to learn that the man's name was Iagan, and he had even less patience for Tes' failures than the Water man had himself. "You're not doin' it right," Iagan grunted as he watched Teslaron blindly hammer a large chunk of glass from the glob he'd been handed. "This is an art form, and all you're doing is trying to break the glass rather than mold it."
Well, it would've been like school, except that Teslaron hoped whoever had given Laric and Oridan their lessons was at least intelligent. This man was plain stupid. Teslaron sucked in a breath. He folded one hand over the fragmented shards he'd created then scooped them off the wooden surface of Iagan's workbench and into his other hand. "This," he hissed, shoving the handful of glass beneath his mentor's nose. "Is a solid. It isn't clay, gel, mud, or dough. Those things can be molded. Solids can't be molded. But they can be broken. And that's what I'm doing."
"Then you're doing it wrong."
With an irate huff, Teslaron flung his handful somewhere off to the side, where barefoot passerby could stumble upon it a feel a sliver of the annoyance that he felt now. "If I'm doing it wrong, It's because you didn't teach me right," he retorted.
Iagan shrugged. "I teach you just fine. You choose not to listen to my advice." When Tes scoffed and turned away, Iagan leaned forward on his stool, and cast the Water man a beckoning finger. "Look, c'mere. You're too impatient, and no craft turns out well when you rush it. You crack off big chunks of the material without really looking to see what's inside."
Teslaron glowered down at the crumbles and shards of today's latest attempt and frowned. "I don't want to make a hobby of this. It's not something I enjoy, and I don't appreciate dedicating my time to it. Yes, I'm impatient. I want it done so that it can be done, and I can move on." He just wanted Dris'rynne and Malila to be able to see, and glasses were so small and unobtrusive-looking. It couldn't possibly be this hard!
"Well, that's not gonna work out for you." Iagan stood and dusted his boot over the shards, covering them in a thin layer of desert sand and hopefully protecting any unsuspecting victims. "Next time you come around, you ought to be prepared to devote more of your time to this, otherwise, don't bother showing up."
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