Archaea

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"Oh dear, what a mess," she mumbled to herself. Papers were scattered all over her desk as Archaea scrambled around her small room while Antoinette watched curiously. "Here they are!" she shouted as she pulled out three intricately designed maps. As she excitedly stepped over her clutter to bring them to the queen of the clan, her foot caught on the edge of her desk. She squeaked as she fell nearly in slow motion but an arm went out to catch her. Raziel stared at her with a raised eyebrow as he handed her back the map pages that had escaped her grasp.

"Please be more careful master Archaea," her apprentice said as her face reddened in embarrassment. The flustered young woman scurried over to the Queen and handed them over with a shy smile as Antoinette returned the smile with a soft expression of her own.

"Thank you. I will have our excavators start on these right away," she said with her thick accent as she flipped through the three large blueprint maps. With that she bowed her head to them in a goodbye. Raziel pulled a chair behind his teacher as she collapsed down into the plush cushion.

"Ah thank you," she breathed out in relief. The maps had been redone that very morning as she had spilled coffee on them the night before and needed to start over on the maps that usually took a week long each to create.

"Master Archaea do you think I can take a break now?" Raziel mumbled after a minute of silence. She snapped her head up to look at him realizing how exhausted he was as well. Her heart hurt for him as she knew that her distracted nature was the cause of his distress.

"I'm so sorry, yes of course. I didn't realize...." tears began to come to her eyes as she thought about all of the tiring chores she had been putting on him as she was too busy to notice how much she was forcing upon him. Her hands went to her face as her cheeks dampened with tears. Next to her Raziel stood in shock at the scene of his teacher crying over putting too much work on him. "I just want to be accepted here. It is so difficult...for me to find a place of belonging...since I tend to screw up so much. No one wants to hire a mapmaker that can't even...oh I am such a disgrace," her head dropped down into her hands again as she sniffled between words. When she looked back up Raziel was gone and she let the waterworks flow at her added abandonment.

A few minutes later a hand on her shoulder brought her attention back into the real world. Raziel stared down at her with an unreadable gaze. In his other hand was a tray of tea and sandwiches for them both. Archaea glanced up at her pupil who was attempting to smile though she knew it was difficult for the unemotional man to show empathy. Once the tray was set down he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a seconds before opening them and staring at her with more emotion than she had ever seen in his fiery orbs.

"I admire you so much. As a teacher, a friend, and a talented mapmaker. You are who I aspire to be one day and your flaws make you more unique, not unwanted. Master Archaea I only ask that you please see how wonderful you are rather than let other people affect you so much. Queen Antoinette would never dream of turning you away and if she did, she would be losing the most amazing mapmaker-no individual I ever have had the pleasure of practicing under," he spoke fluidly and a new onslaught of tears blurred her vision. In a quick movement she was on her feet and pulling the poor man into a tight embrace, once that he reluctantly accepted as his face reddened as warmth spread from the middle of his chest.