A wizard's apprentice

To live in the Capital city of the Epidian Empire was not an unusual thing. Many people had been born and raised in the city, be it in the shady alley streets, the gilded towers of the noble district, or any of the walks of life in between. Julian had been fortunate enough to have been raised with a roof over his head, if not one without a few holes, but as he grew older, something changed in his life. A messenger from the Queen visited his house, telling his parents that he apparently possessed some magical spark deep within him, that one of the Royal Sorcerers could help cultivate, in due time. Well, naturally, Julian was excited at the idea of being a cool, powerful wizard, and his parents were happy at the idea of a near-guaranteed future for their son, not to mention the stipend they'd receive from the kingdom while their son was off learning the arcane arts. With all three of them feeling more than happy at the arrangement, Julian was taken across the Capital, where in one of the many Wizard's Towers, he'd be made into a world-class wizard!

"What do you mean, 'new teacher'? Again?!"

Only, things weren't so simple. Julian's inquisitive mind and enthusiasm towards magic meant he never shied away from a tough subject, but it also meant he had a tendency to move forward without thinking things through. Evidently, most other wizarding students were better behaved, because the trouble that Julian regularly put himself in would inevitably prove too taxing on his wizard tutors, and he'd be sent from tower to tower in hopes that someone would be able to deal with him.

His first tutor was Tarina the Trasmutationist, who was lucky enough to have him in his least rambunctious phase, but that came to an end when he'd accidentally transmuted her robes into tissuepaper, trying to conjure up some spare money on a rainy day in the market. Next he spent a few years with Carlsbad the Conjurer, who he shared a tense relationship with; one that ended when Julian went poking at a prized amulet of his. (Evidently, the reason it was so prized was because it allowed Carlsbad to switch his outfit instantly. Julian's inquisitive tampering had left it with the ability to send things to his wardrobe, but robbed it of the ability to send things back to the wizard, as the Conjurer found out while trying to show off at a party.) His last tutor had been a strict woman, called Doreen the Diviner, who was confident that between her scrying spells and harsh rules she would be able to keep Julian from any trouble. If anything, her controlling demeanor turned Julian's clumsy curiosity into a genuine mischievousness, as he turned one of her spells around on her and broadcast a live image of her chambers out onto the tower walls, as she shared a decidedly private encounter with a member of the guard.

Now, he was being pawned off again, this time with a bit more of a smirk on his face and a bit more of a chip on his shoulder. Apparently, his next tutor would be "Saria the Summoner", not that he'd heard anything about her, not even in eavesdropping on his various mentors over the years. This made his head scratch- wizards were a gossipy lot, so he'd have expected her to have come up sometime, even if she was new. Regardless, he arrived at the gates to his new tutor's tower. He was expecting a wizened old wizardess, but Julian couldn't help his eyes going wide as the gates opened and he saw Saria. She wasn't at all what he was expecting; she wasn't even human! She was...