#i needed to resolve that fdsjhfb sorry there's no familiar characters

[potassium-pilot]

FFXIVWrite 2023, Prompt 11: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

(A/N: This is a follow-up to some of the events of Day 9, which you can read here.)

Moons fly by so quickly. So quickly, that they didn't seem to notice the enduring tension in the Sito household. Ever since the duel (or perhaps more accurately, the squashing of Dia under Oliver's heel), Dia and Oliver had an uneasy silence ongoing between the two of them. He gave her the first scar she ever earned in combat, Oliver woefully ignorant of how many more were to come in the future. Twice had he walked back his promise of bringing Dia to the Arcanists Guild. For it, Dia kept her guard up near him.

While the Arcanists Guild had no problems with accepting new members, for one as young as she, Dia would need the consent of her parents. Hector and Oliver had no birth certificate nor proof that she was adopted legally and not just plucked straight out of a woman's hands. They also had no way to cover themselves if the Guild was able to discern that Hector was indeed an ex-con. Thus, the couple agreed that the safest option to deliver Dia to the Arcanists Guild was to have Oliver take her and claim her as a student of his tutelage, which was not an outright lie.

This in mind, Dia seemed unwilling to press the subject further and Hector noticed as much since her fifteenth nameday was on the horizon and she said not a word to either of them about any guilds. About two weeks before her nameday, Dia was in her room, painted pink with plenty of artwork adorning the walls, manipulating brooms to sweep, levitating dishes up and down, and commanding books to fly around the space in a circle. While she was not a combatant, she was still an adept mage, and had masterful control over manipulating her surroundings to suit her needs, with or without foci. One thing she was practicing to get right was the ability to make a small room larger on the inside, just as Oliver had done to transform a small wooden shack into a two bedroom brick cottage. She practiced spatial manipulation in a used tent that Oliver used to live in for research purposes and planned on making a hallway in the broom closet.

While she was practicing, Hector knocked on the door, to which Dia responded, "Yeah?" The Highlander walked in and found his Elezen daughter wiggling her fingers and floating all sorts of objects around the place. "Ye make yer room bigger, sugar?"

"I think I've graduated from the tent."

"Ah, seven 'ells, yer gettin' too damn good wit' that. Ye could turn yer ol' men into pigs probably."

Dia flashed an eager look, which he responded to by quickly holding up his hands and clarifying, "That ain't an invitation!" Dia gave a mischievous chuckle. Hector ruffled her hair, which distracted her enough that everything that flew about her room dropped suddenly. "Oop. Sorry, love."

"It's all right. I was trying to see how many I could do before I lost cohesion. I'll work on it later."

Hector walked in and sat on her bed with her. "Well, I'm came in 'ere to ask ye...I feel like there's a nameday comin' up, don't ye?"

"Oh", Dia responded nonchalantly. "Yeah, I guess it's my fifteenth, huh?"

"What the hells was tha'?!" Hector barked before repeating in a mocking tone, "Oh, I guess it's me fifteenth, huh?"

"Come on!" Dia laughed.

"'Member when we used to plan them big blowouts?"

"As if there was ever more people than you, Oliver, and Buscarron."

"Still!"

Dia laughed at the thought. Hector sighed. "Besides, ain't ye ready to go to the Arcanists Guild?"

For the first time in a while, Dia felt the scar Oliver gave her tingle. It had taken a while the whole of the family to recover from what Oliver did to her. Oliver spent most of the time tending to the wounds and serving nearly anything she could ask for once Hector stopped guarding her room against him so intently. Still, the moons of practicing her combat magic were growing more and more futile as she couldn't even wound a deer, never mind defeat Oliver in combat. She simply couldn't tell what came next, and she knew better than to ask Oliver. Trying to read through his grimoire when he wasn't looking, however, proved fruitless as she couldn't understand most of it. It deviated from standard arcane practices enough that she wasn't able to decode the glyphs enough.

Thus did she answer, "...n...no."

"No? Dia, ye've been dreamin' o' goin' to the Guild since ye was eleven summers old."

"And now I'm not."

"More like ye don't wanna ask again." Hector shook his head. "An' I don't blame ye fer a second." He started rubbing her back. "I'm sorry, darlin'. 'Ad I known 'e'd've done tha' to ye, I'd've taken ye to the Guild meself. Or...well, I'd've wished fer it earlier anyway. Ye know..."

"I do. Don't worry about it. Once I'm eighteen, I'm out the door and heading to Limsa on my own."

"Ah, so we've only a few more summers wit' ye, eh?"

"Yeah. It's why I'm okay with just letting it go for now. I'm not a good combat mage and unless something wants to come along and drop a bunch of combat skills on my head, I don't stand a chance against Oliver."

Hector pulled her into him. "Ye could be if ye were given a proper chance."

Dia's placed her head on her father's shoulders. "Tell ye what, Dia. I can't take ye to the Guild and leave ye there- never mind the legal shite, yer father'll throw a fit. What I can do...if I put on a damn good disguise and we take the longer route by boat...is just show it to ye. We can make it a visit."

That much intrigued Dia greatly. "Wouldn't Oliver notice we were gone?"

"The next day, maybe. Tonight, he took tha' tent o' yers an' he's campin fer data."

"Really?"

"Aye, he's swearin' up an' down tha' there's gonna be some sorta activity tonight tha' 'e's absolutely gotta be there fer."

"...so if we leave now, we could get there without his notice."

"Gotta prep me disguise, so we'll be leavin' afore duskfall, huh?"

"Sounds good!"

This was the brightest smile Dia wore in a long time. The image settled in his mind, Hector stood up and began preparations.

--------

The moon had begun its ascent over the South Shroud. Hector kept his axe on his back while Dia, being one who lacked in combat magic, kept herself unarmed. Hector was confident that he could keep Dia protected should the worst come to pass.

And so it did. In a second, bandits in red bandanas circled the two of them. Hector took hold of his axe and stood poised to defend her. As more swarmed in, however, the situation seemed more and more grim.

"Give us the girl and we'll let you go", said one of the bandits.

"Ye'll 'ave to kill me first."

"Da, no!"

"You heard him, lads! Kill him!"

Before some of them could move, they were immediately blasted off of their feet by a mysterious source. More were made frozen solid until three were left standing. When Hector and Dia turned their heads, they recognized exactly who came to the rescue.

"I could kiss ye righ' now, Ollie!"

"That would be the first time you've touched me in moons. Would you care to tell me why you and Dia are out here alone at night?"

"Not while we've got company, huh?"

"Go, get the mage!" yelled the bandit. Two of them ran to go after Oliver, but Hector was quicker with a jump in front of his partner. He ran towards the bandits, dragging his axe against the ground to develop a more forceful blow and yelled, "Ye want the mage, ye get through me!"

As Hector fought off the other two, Dia didn't realize just how frozen she had become. The bandit leader took advantage of this and made his way to her when she noticed his coming at a split second and dodged before he could grab her. She dashed for Oliver, but he grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her up. "You'll fetch a good price, I think", the bandit threatened. "Lambs of Dalamud pay well for sacrifices."

"Dia!" Oliver shrieked.

Hector brought his focus to Dia, and soon wore a confused face. He expected to see her utterly terrified.

Instead, she was casting charms on his pants. Suddenly, the bandit was doing a Limsan step dance while holding onto her collar. "Dancey Pants!" she dubbed her charm. "He can't go anywhere if his clothes won't let him."

That was enough to distract the bandits, who left themselves open for a devastating blow by Hector's axe. After they fell over, the two walked up to the bandit, Hector holding his axe blade to the leader's neck. "Drop the girl, twinkletoes", Hector ordered.

"You're not dancing your way out of here", Oliver joked.

"Make it stop!" the leader screamed.

"Let 'er go, an' she might cut ye some slack."

He dropped her like a sack before she ran to Oliver's side. "Much better. Dia, show 'im curtains."

"Huh?"

"Get 'is sorry arse outta 'ere."

"Oh." She commanded the Dancey Pants carry him about 200 fulms away from where they stood while the three of them ran off to return to the cottage.

--------

Dia returned with some ice for Hector while Oliver remained to heal his remaining wounds. Once she put the bag on his knee, Oliver asked, "Dia, could you help me heal these wounds please?"

"But...I don't know any healing magic."

Oliver smiled. "Then it's high time that I taught you some, hm? Let me show you one commonly used by arcanists. It's called Physick. While you can get better results with a decent knowledge of anatomy and physiology, rudimentary knowledge will suffice for the wounds that your father earned tonight." Dia found his grimoire on his book holster and read through it to find Physick. "This version isn't a standard arcane glyph."

"It's not, no. It's specialized as part of the DuPointe tradition of arithmantic arcanima. I'll show you what it means." As he explained the glyph, Dia also watched what he was doing as he was healing Hector. A few wounds, she was picking up what he was doing, went to Hector's other side and started healing from there. She carefully kept her focus on the wound, slowly bringing the larger gaps together that the magic could be used to heal it.

"I did it! I closed one!"

"That's my girl! Keep going!"

Soon enough, most of Hectors wounds were well healed, and the remainder could be dealt with using a hearty meal and a good night's sleep. Oliver inspected the side she healed and made minor corrections. Otherwise, he was rather proud of how quickly she picked that up.

"Now I do hope you realize how reckless that was of you, Hector. Had I not shown up, Dia may well have become a sacrifice for the Lambs of Dalamud, those sickened souls."

"I know", Hector acknowledged with shame in his voice. "'Ad to rely on my daughter makin' a man's garments run 'aywire to get us outta there. I'm sorry, Dia, fer ever puttin' ye in tha' sitiation in the first place."

"I'm not mad at you, Da."

"Aye, maybe not, but I'm mad at meself."

"It did show me something important, however", Oliver pointed out before he looked to Dia with a smile. "An arcanist relies on strategy and quick thinking in order to combat any threat properly. While your strategy could use work, you've clearly a good grasp on how to think on the fly. When you turn fifteen in a fortnight, I'll take you to the Arcanists Guild. I've let my foolish doubts grip me for too long. You'll make a fine arcanist, my dear."

Hector wore a great big grin on his face. Both expected Dia to wear one as well, but her face said otherwise.

"No", Dia answered firmly, "I'm not going."

"Dia, c'mon!"

"I mean it. This isn't me trying to avoid anything." Dia brought a knowing eye to Oliver. "You know more than you've let on this entire time, Oliver. I've heard bits and pieces about this DuPointe tradition throughout my life, but you've never taught me what it was. Well, I just saw you take out half a dozen men using it, and that tells me that there's a lot more to this tradition than I thought. I want to learn it and I won't take no for an answer."

"So, ye ain't leavin' at eighteen summers, then?" Hector asked.

"You were going to leave when you turned eighteen?" Oliver asked.

"I was, but if I need to stay here longer to learn the DuPointe tradition, then I'm going to do that."

Hector smirked. "Sounds like ye gotta teach 'er, Ollie. Last thing ye need is yer pants dancin' 'round the 'ouse."

Oliver smiled. "I think I can work with those terms. Very well. I'll teach you what I know of the DuPointe tradition of arithmancy. I suspect you'll master it closer to your thirties, but if you are firm in your convictions, it will be time well spent. Had I taught you earlier, perhaps this would be a different story, but I'm happy to work with you for a good long time."

Dia nodded. "Then let's get started."

"Tomorrow. We have plenty of time, sweet Dia."