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Teslaron decided he wasn't ready to 'devote' his time to anything that didn't fully interest him. Between his children, cooking, house tending, and thieving, he had enough hobbies that he didn't need to throw anything without any entertainment value into the mix. Maybe if glass-crafting had worked itself into his current skill set, he could've gotten into it. But it didn't. It didn't, and the benefit of doing something nice for his lover didn't outweigh the sheer annoyance of failing repeatedly at a task he thought would be quick and easy. Particularly when there wasn't any evidence that glasses would do anything for Dris or Lila's eyesight. They certainly didn't seem to do anything for him.
He didn't return to Iagan again for months.
At first, it was out of simple refusal. The Yaeli man had told him not to come back until he could muster up some dedication, and some petulant part of Tes insisted that that would never happen, so he oughtn't bother the merchant again. He didn't appreciate failure, lack of progress, or small stashes of his coin going into a project that bared no fruits. He had other things to tend to.
So it was easy to lapse from outright avoiding Iagan to forgetting about him almost entirely, except for the instances when Teslaron was actually in the same market square as the Yaeli merchant. They never spoke to each other, of course, as they had no reason to, but Tes made passing note of the man's stall and wares every time his eyes landed on it.
He'd gone from selling glass blobs and simple tools to colored shapes and strange patterns. It still wasn't what Tes wanted from the stall of course. Iagan wasn't selling glasses, but it stood to reason that a one-armed man would have an easier time creating colorful trinkets than he would trying to form something so precise as a 'cure' for blindness. Teslaron told himself he wasn't interested in any of that nonsense anymore. He was busy
with other things.
But he still couldn't help but think it would be nice to have that success just once.
After months of ignoring the Yaeli man, Teslaron found himself slinking back toward the glass stall as casually as he could muster. He observed a glass half-moon and hummed quietly, while Iagan watched him expectantly, like he wanted something from Tes. The Water boy hoped it was just money. He lazily shaped a finger up over the curve of the moon and said as disinterestedly as he could manage, "I could perhaps give you an hour of my time, every other day. I've got three baby girls and a woman who needs my love, and not much time to spare for something that might not work out. If that is suitable, I would like to continue to learn from you."
Iagan didn't seem put out by this. "No one said it had to be a quick or all-consuming process. You're only just learning. It will take time. But you best not yell at me no more, or we'll have a problem."
Since they were in some form of agreement, Tes reclaimed his post perched in front of the older Yaeli man and allowed Iagan to instruct him once more. Unfortunately, he'd neglacted a skill he'd hardly had for months, and the learning process felt like it needed to be entirely restarted. Iagan seemed to think Tes was decent at the general shape and form of his creations,
but the function was still lacking much. They had a long ways to go, yet.
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