It was rare for her to stay in this city (if it could be called that) for long. She stayed long enough to check up on the farmland the people she knew were maintaining. She stayed long enough to remind some of the worst ruffians why they didn't mess with her little corner of land or the people on it. She stayed long enough to catch up with the people she considered her family, and gave those that traveled with her time to do the same. But never longer than necessary. It felt weird to stay in one place for too long, and after about a week of staying in the same place, Faith was starting to feel antsy. It'd been years since she started drifting from place to place, and straying from that lifestyle felt almost wrong at this point.

Today was the last day she intended to spend on the island. Those days were always the busiest given she had to make sure everything her and her crew needed was loaded up onto the ship. Her power could mitigate a lot of problems: food itself was never an issue (though people in her crew liked to bring along some salted meat just for some variety), and there were enough plants that had enough water in them for drinking, but they were still going to be out at sea for quite some time. If anything was forgotten it would inevitably cause problems later. It meant she had to keep a close eye on what was happening and take more of a managerial role than she liked. Her scatter-brained tendencies made it difficult, but she'd done this enough times that she knew how to manage it. The worst part was always that her crew took every opportunity they could to call her captain or boss despite her preference to simply be called by her name. Faith was resigned to it at this point and just gave them an over exaggerated sigh in return.

The sun was high in the sky when they decided to break for lunch. Leaving the ship alone was never a problem because as long as she didn't stay too far from it, she could tell when someone was touching it. People that frequented this area enough knew better than to try to rob her ship while she wasn't looking by now. Anyone that tried would find the Paradise itself fighting them off until Faith could show up in person to support properly. It meant that they could all rest easy and eat without worry. Though Faith had to leave a bit early, half because she wanted to make sure she wasn't forgetting something, and half because her crew just couldn't get enough of teasing her today.

Seeing an outsider making a run at her ship was surprising enough, but seeing him faceplant into it was even stranger. If it weren't for the strange clothes she might have been suspicious, but after being acquainted with the academy, the multiverse, and mages in general, there were more reasonable conclusions to jump to than to assume that he was just a very bad thief. She wasn't quite sure what he was trying to accomplish by running face first into a solid object, but magic seemed like a pretty reasonable, if vague, conclusion to come to. Faith quickened her step and knelt about arm's length from where he was lying on the ground. Close enough that she could extend her hand to help him up, far enough away that she wouldn't be invading his personal space, and low enough to the ground that their height differences would mean less.

"Are you okay?"

Faith decided to leave it at that for the time being to avoid overwhelming someone who just hit their head. It was fortunate that she happened to be in the area when he attempted this, or she might have thought this was some newbie trying to raid her ship while it wasn't being guarded.

Faith cringed internally at his response, but managed to keep a pleasant smile on her face externally. Everything about that response screamed guilty child that got caught doing something they knew they weren't supposed to do. She wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but it was clear he wasn't entirely innocent here. He seemed nervous, probably because he just got caught doing something he didn't think he should be doing, so the direct approach probably wouldn't work well. She shifted her weight so that she was kneeling with one knee on the ground, still offering him a hand to get up if he wanted it.

"Oh, that's good. It looked like you hit your head pretty hard there, so I was worried," she laughed and looked up at her ship. "Yep, that one's mine. I built it myself."

He was definitely a mage, there was no other way to explain the clothes he was wearing, but she still felt the need to try to keep magic magical. Sometimes, even people familiar with magic could still be impressed by it, and he seemed young enough that it might be easier than it otherwise could have been. Faith reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a single seed. A seed small enough and close enough to her skin tone that it would be pretty hard to see. She held out her hand, and with in seconds, a small yellow flower bloomed on it, its roots spreading out over and around her hand. It happened fast enough that if he blinked he might have missed it.

"I suppose it is an unusual ship," she laughed awkwardly. "Were you so dazzled by it that you weren't watching where you were going?"

Well that was the fastest she'd ever gotten someone to admit they were trying to steal her ship.

Fortunately, he failed and, at least based on that explanation, would never be able to succeed, so she supposed she could forgive him for now. Didn't stop her from giving him a bit of an exasperated smile as she helped him back to his feet, before standing up herself. Part of her wanted to stay kneeling, but she got the impression that'd probably be even more awkward than the height difference between them. It was at least a bit easier for her to keep her tone and language looser and more casual with someone this young. Faith got the feeling that talking like she normally did would also just feel awkward.

"Yeah, it's just one tree. One living tree rather than planks or other dead trees," she clarified.

Faith paused for a moment. It was clear he didn't mean anything by using his power here, but what he was saying implied that he had already tried to possess ships and might have even tried to possess some here. That seemed dangerous. He was a mage, so he would probably be fine, but it was still likely to cause a bunch of chaos around town. People blaming each other for missing ships or wondering why their ships were running away from them. Given the nature of this town, it was probably best to avoid raising tensions. She didn't really want to scold him, not yet at least, but she figured she should find a way to test out his powers without disrupting anyone. Her first instinct was to tell him not to try it at all, but that seemed to go against what the academy wanted her to do. If there were world ending threats out there, then she supposed it was worth the effort to make sure everyone's magic was as strong as it could be.

"I know a shipwright in the area if you'd like to get your own ship. It might work out better than running face first into a ship and hoping for the best. Then you'd be able to have it built to your specifications as well."

She was just assuming he knew at least a little about ships. Most people in this world did, so it only seemed natural to her that everyone would. Faith wasn't even thinking about how people from other universes may not be familiar with what's relatively common knowledge here.

Faith looked at him curiously as he mentioned responsibilities. She'd been assuming he was a student all this time given how young he looked. He didn't look any older than she was when she went to Atiashla for the first time and that felt like an eternity ago. Hearing that he was actually staff made her pause for a moment. They were hiring children? Well, she supposed it wasn't quite accurate to saying hiring. It's not like she was getting paid, she just got certain benefits for agreeing to teach at the academy, the portal in her ship being the big one. All bets really were off when it came to magic and mages weren't they?

"Ah, I see! Yes, I'm familiar with the academy. I always wondered how they managed to keep it in one piece given how destructive magic can be and how...violent the students can be," she suppressed a sigh with an awkward chuckle. "You must be quite busy."

She smiled again and bowed slightly, a habit that she was never able to break even nearly ten years after it wasn't necessary anymore. It just came out every time she introduced herself to someone unless she was actively raiding them or in some other precarious situation.

"My name is Faith Lessesti. I teach etiquette at the academy," she quickly realized that may not have been precise enough. "Ear--this universe's etiquette. When I took the job I expected the students to care a bit more about not making a fool of themselves in other universes, but I don't think most of them care," she rubbed the back of her head and straightened up once she realized she was bowing her head again. "Means my classes are small, so I'm not nearly as busy as you are," she laughed. "Are you sure you don't want a ship? Even if you don't have much free time, you're still here trying something with the ships anchored here right? People tend to get a bit...possessive of them, so if there's something you want to try it might prevent some hurt feelings. Besides, the shipwright here owes me a favor, it's no trouble at all."

She waved her hand as if to try to wave off any of his concerns. This really would cause less trouble than effectively stealing some other pirate's ship. He wouldn't find much else here and it was only a matter of time before he ran into someone less kind about it than she was.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," she laughed awkwardly, folding her hands together so she wouldn't rub the back of her head.

Faith really didn't want to fight her students. The academy seemed to want her to and were practically training to do so, but she still didn't want to. As much as she hated having any kind of responsibility like this, it was impossible to deny that she had it. If she knew what she knew now when she first accepted the position, she might not have accepted it at all. There wasn't much she could do about that now though, so she had to make the best of it and that meant trying to set a good example. People shouldn't be so willing to use violence to solve all their problems, so she didn't want to use it to try to solve hers. All this animosity seemed like it'd be bad in the long term. Even if they managed to defeat the threat the academy was so worried about, it seemed like mages themselves would just become a new one if they continued as they were, so she wanted to try to lessen that a bit. It was hard and she didn't think she was doing a good job, but she still felt obligated to try. That said, he didn't need to know about any of this and she was okay with letting him feel like he was being helpful. There was no need to burden some kid with her insecurities and worries.

That said, he really wasn't getting why it was such a problem to experiment on other peoples' ships. She really didn't want to beat him over the head with it because it really was unpleasant, but there were enough problems here already that she couldn't just let him keep doing it. She tried to hide her exasperation behind another awkward smile and laugh.

"Well, I'm not sure if I'd call most of the people here good, but that's half the point. It's already hard enough to keep the peace and people really don't like having their things touched. A few people have already had their ships mysteriously sunk and it's cased quite a few fights. So I think it'd actually be less effort to have a ship built for you in the end."

Faith blinked. It took her a moment to register what he was saying, as though her mind didn't want to accept what it was hearing. Her eyes widened and her face started turning a little pink. That was absolutely not what was happening, nor was it the impression she wanted to give. The idea of land or cities belonging to anyone was already strange to her to begin with, but the idea of it belonging to her was too strange to even think about. She took a step back as he started bowing his head and waved her hands in front of her chest.

"Oh, no it's nothing like that. I just live here and there aren't very many mages and I can't exactly let my family and friends, or well, anyone get hurt and, well, a lot of the um, types that gather here are not exactly on the right side of the law, so that happens...more than I would like, so I just try to keep people happy, or at least try to stop them from getting violent. Someone has to I think."

She started to realize she was rambling when it started getting difficult to breathe because she was talking all in one breath. That just made her face flush more. She came this way to avoid getting treated like this and to get away from comments about her non-existent leadership positions, so why did this seem to keep happening? Faith took a deep breath and tried to regain some of her composure.

"So there's no reason to talk to me like that. I'm no one special," she laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of her neck. "I just figured you'd want to practice your abilities when you had the time. That's what we're supposed to do as academy staff right? Encourage everyone to get better?"

She hoped the unspoken 'stand like a normal person' was understood because watching him bow to her like that was really awkward. It was bad enough when her crew sometimes did it mockingly, but he was a perfect stranger who wasn't joking at all. It was really uncomfortable.