That made me pause and think.
My new life and lifestyle had sort of grown up around me over the years. Socializing and/or clashing with kings or mayors had become pretty commonplace, though I had never stopped to consider it. Rather, I had always assumed that it sort of went with the territory when one was a magician. Then again, how many magicians had I met while I was growing up?
Aahz was right. My work with the team had cocooned me away from the rest of society to a point where I took things for granted. The extraordinary had become so ordinary to me, that I had ceased to be aware of, or even consider, how it must seem to the ordinary citizens.
I shook my head abruptly.
“No. There’s more to it than that, Aahz. Those people back there didn’t like me.”
“Uh-huh,” my partner nodded. “So what’s your point?”
“What’s my point?” I echoed a little shrilly. “Maybe you didn’t understand me. I said …”
“. . . They didn’t like you,” Aahz finished. “So what?”
“What do you mean ‘So what’?” I said. “Don’t you want to be liked?”
My old mentor frowned slightly, then gave a shrug.
“I suppose it would be nice,” he said. “But I really don’t give it much thought.”
“But …”
“And neither should you.”
There was a levelness and firmness, almost a warning, in his tone that brought me up short.
Instead of protesting, I struggled for several moments trying to understand what he was trying to tell me, then surrendered with a shake of my head.
“I don’t get it, Aahz. Doesn’t everyone want to be liked?”
“Maybe at some level,” my partner said. “But most people realize it’s a wistful hope at best . . . like it would be nice if it only rained when we want it to. The reality is that it rains when it bloody well feels like it, and that some people aren’t going to like you no matter what you do. The up side is that there are also people who will like you no matter what you do.”