Getting Old Isn't For The Weak (Valan)

 A/N: Valans birthday is today he gets to spend it with his two favorite rather grumpy tea enjoying wizards

“It’s not easy being four thousand years old, you know.” Fyr tells me as he gets up from his reading chair and tries to stretch, with there being an audible crack at one point. “You okay?” I ask as he continues to try and shake out the stiffness. “Just old bones, my joints aren’t what they once were. At some point your body decides to turn itself into a musical instrument at random when trying to move.” he responds casually with a few more popping and cracking noises before having decided he’s stretched sufficiently. The book he had been reading is discarded into a pile with the others on the floor next to the chair and he motions for me to follow him. Getting up from my spot on the carpet of the study I place a marker in my own braille book and follow him. “Where are we going?” I ask running a few steps to catch up as he continues down the hallway. “To have tea.” is the only thing the old wizard responds with as we get to the landing and head down to the first floor. “Don’t we usually have tea earlier in the day?” I begin to form another sentence remarking how at least Neloth and I usually have tea in the early afternoon but after getting a look that could probably kill the average person I hold my tongue.

Once in the little kitchen Fyr puts the kettle on and goes to rummage through one of the cabinets looking for something to eat with the tea as well as checking the selection of tea available. Coming back with the large wooden box full of various kinds of tea leaves and other make-ups of imported teas the two of us look through it, deciding on one that allows for multiple steeps using only a very small amount of the tea itself. “Are you sure you don’t want me or one of the girls to put that back?” I ask and try to help Fyr as he goes to put the heavy box back in the cabinet though he just laughs “I’m old, not useless!” and puts the box back himself. “I wasn’t implying that” I tell him and he just waves a hand at me with a slight smile. “I know, I know, I know. Still, I’m not wrong. I may be old, but I’ve still got a lot more left in me than the average young person nowadays. Who else do you know that could figure out how to clone cells into not one but four fully functional people?” He does have a point, I would trust him in a fight far more than I would trust the average person my age, regardless of military or other training. Four thousand years gives you lots of time to pick up lots of skills. The kettle then makes its shrieking sound now that the water has boiled “Ah! Waters ready.” Fyr gets the water while I finish setting up the tea table. The first steep is discarded and given to the small ceramic animals, in this case a rabbit and a dragon. With the second steep done we can now drink the tea, and have a small snack along with it.

 Upon the first sip Fyr sighs, the warm drink probably helps any achiness that resulted from sitting looking through old spell tomes for hours. “I remember when I got this tea actually.” Fyr tells me in between sips “It was back when I was still at the Arcane University, there was a little market nearby that sold tea and other goods hard to find in The Imperial City.” That would have been hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, as Fyr got kicked out of the University a very, very, very, long time ago. It’s good tea though, I can understand why he bought it.

With tea and a light snack eventually finished, Fyr and I head back up to the second floor, and do a bit more work in the lab along with some help from Alfe. It's amazing that Fyr can get around as well as he does and is still seemingly completely sane…okay maybe not completely sane but I don’t think any member of house Telvanni is entirely sane, myself included. It comes with being a member of the house, you’re either an insane wizard, a mad scientist, or in the case of Fyr and Neloth, both. With the lab cleaned up after inventory is taken and experiments created and left to sit Fyr takes his leave, telling me he’s going to take a nap and I’m free to continue working, hang around the tower, or head back to Sadrith Mora. With the sun beginning to set I decide it’s probably best I head back to Sadrith Mora so I get there before night has completely fallen. Saying goodbye I take my leave and manage to get back to the town without much difficulty. I might as well go check in with Neloth since I have some time before dinner.

Getting to the top of Tel Naga I find Neloth pouring over his current experiment plans and knock on the door lightly to announce my presence. “Oh it’s you. I assume you have the groceries I told you to get?” Groceries? Ah yes, the groceries. Neloth had asked me to get some sload soap along with a few other things and some kind of ointment for his joints. Reaching into my satchel I find what he had asked for. “Here you go.” I hand him the bundle and the vial of ointment both of which he takes and sets aside before going to retrieve some gold to give me. “What’s the ointment for if I might ask? The alchemist looked at me funny until I told it was for you.” Neloth looks up from counting the money “Huh? Oh. It’s for arthritis, my knees aren't what they once were.” Given the fact that Neloth can run almost as fast as me now I wonder what he was like when he was young, he was probably also much less grumpy. Neloth drops a small pouch of gold into my hand “Don’t get old, it’s an awful time, really.” He tells me and unlike Fyr there doesn’t seem to be any sarcasm in it. Noted, I guess I’ll just find a way to stop aging, Fyr discovered cloning, Neloth has made more than one important discovery when it comes to magic staffs, I guess that will be my contribution to House Telvanni, the house full of grumpy old wizards.