The next day started out much like the previous one. The clothes that I had worn the previous day were taken away to be washed and another set provided. This set was still loose and soft, but this time the pants were a light khaki and the shirt was white. I wondered for a moment how easily they might stain during our training sessions, but wasn’t going to complain about what was provided. Alissa and Quince had prepared a simple fruit salad for breakfast, with cottage cheese and more bread. Lexie scrunched her face up at the cottage cheese and picked at the fruit a bit, but did eat several slices of bread that she generously slathered with butter. Since I liked cottage cheese quite a bit, that suited me fine because it meant more for me.
Quince was beginning to clean our rooms and the dining area as Chase arrived to collect us. We met with everyone but Master Zern in the same courtyard as the day before. Once again, they performed the compass spell that allowed us to briefly see the other Grace. She was in the same position in the circle as before, this time sitting and eating a bowl of soup. She was such a small figure that it was hard to make out specific details about her.
After that, Greyjon put Zolambi in charge of leading Lexie and me through a series of motions and some sparring with the staffs, while he pulled Peyton aside to continue sparring with the wooden swords. It was warm this day too, and I was still concerned about getting the crisp white shirt dirty, so I pulled it off partially into the morning’s practice. Lexie whistled after I deposited it on the stone bench. “You’re actually pretty fit for an accountant,” she said.
“You’re way too young for me to be comfortable with you saying that,” I responded, feeling my face turn red. I wondered if I should have just left the shirt on, but didn’t want to appear too self conscience by retrieving it immediately. “But yes, I try to go to the gym regularly.” In truth I hadn’t been going much the past year, which was part of the reason the morning exercise had been kicking my ass. But she didn’t need to know that.
She studied me for a moment, a look of mock sympathy on her face. “So how long ago did you get dumped?”
I heard Peyton laugh briefly and shot her a look. She was very purposefully pretending to not pay attention to us as Greyjon led her through a series of parries, though they were both smiling at the conversation. “I didn’t start going to the gym because I was dumped,” I lied. “I started because I have a family history of diabetes and heart attacks. My dad was diagnosed when he was my age, and his dad died of a heart attack a little older than I am now.”
“Wow. You’re heart attack age? Isn’t that like… 50?” Lexie gaped at me openly.
“My granddad died when he was 40. I’m 36,” I said, feeling a little annoyed at the conversation.
“Oh. You would have looked great for 50.” I was under the distinct impression she was implying I did not look great for 36. “And for the record, it’s not like I’m a little kid. I’m 14.”
“That’s totally still kid-territory. Besides, you look 12.” She rolled her eyes at me, and I stooped to her level by sticking my tongue out at her.
Once we were done with the staffs, we moved on to using the bows. When it was time for lunch, we were led back to the tower to eat, as Chase planned to have us practicing magic indoors this time. Chase had Lexie working on hovering small items to teach her to properly gauge how much power was needed for the task while Peyton and I were set to meditating and learning some basic Primordial words from Zolambi.
The first item Lexie attempted to lift was a very thick, very heavy tome, but she put too much power into the spell and the book went slamming into the ceiling before falling very close to where I was sitting. “Should we be doing our lessons somewhere safer?” I asked Zolambi, and the sheepish look on Lexie’s face shifted to a scowl.
It wasn’t long before our days faded into that similar routine, though near the end of the first week they also gave us riding lessons in the afternoon. Once again, Peyton had prior experience – her family had owned horses when she was a child, and she had to ride horses for a few of the roles she’d had in the past, so there was very little actual training that she needed. She bonded with her horse nearly instantly, and would sometimes stay late at the stables to brush him out. He was a handsome deep tan in color with a dark nose and socks, and a black mane and tail. His name was Vayl.
I didn’t have much experience with horses, but I had always thought of them as beautiful creatures. I tried to apply what I had read about them in books to some degree, though I was uncertain how helpful any of it was. I was under the impression they specifically chose very calm animals for us anyway – my own horse was a mare that was brown and white in spots and so docile that it was hard not to be instantly fond of her and her patience for me. Lexie, on the other hand, was terrified of horses. “They bite, you know,” she said, and kept an obsessive watch on where her very placid brown mare was keeping its head. It was funny watching her jump every time the horse turned to her.
“At least we’re not riding giant spiders,” I joked.
“No one’s ever been able to tame one of those,” Zolambi said very solemnly. I couldn’t tell if he was adding on to my joke or telling the truth, and I felt a shiver run up my spine as I wondered if there were real giant spiders in this world.
We were also allowed to roam freely and without oversight when we weren’t receiving lessons, on the condition that we never leave the University grounds. I spent the evenings of my first week going on long strolls across the campus grounds after dinner, sometimes being joined by Lexie, or both Lexie and Peyton, but never Peyton alone. In a way I was grateful for that, because I never knew exactly what to say around Peyton. Lexie was easy to get along with, having a good sense of humor and being a naturally chatty person, which suited my usual silence. Sometimes I just walked through the gardens, and it relaxed me to see familiar sights from our own world – flowers and plants that I recognized, even if I couldn’t name them. Trees with familiarly shaped leaves. Finches and cardinals, and even a hummingbird once. We may have been in a completely foreign place, but nothing in it was completely alien to us.
I visited each of the guard towers in turn to look out past the University grounds. The University sat on a hill outside of the city, so you could stare off into the surrounding country side that stretched off into vast grasslands. But looking down into Rygalium was also interesting in its own way. You could just barely make out the people entering or leaving the city, and the traffic on the road that looped around the University and out further east. Another road bypassed the city heading west. I stared at it often, wondering if it was the road we’d be taking whenever we finally left.
I also spent time walking through each of the buildings after classes were done for the day. Sometimes a few evening classes would be in session, and I was careful to avoid interrupting. But most evenings the halls had the eerie ambience any vacated public place had when it was empty, and I always enjoyed that feeling. Even when they were around, the students seemed to avoid me. Occasionally if someone caught me alone somewhere without any witnesses, I’d get a series of questions about what my world was like and how I was adjusting to theirs. They were always very brief conversations, full of worried glances to see if we’d be spotted. It gave me the impression that the students had been warned against talking to us, and might face some sort of repercussion when caught. It bothered me that a lot of them seemed… overly sympathetic? It was hard to put a finger on exactly, but it felt almost like pity.
Sometimes for lunch we returned to the tower, other times we joined the staff in the dining hall located in the building adjoined to the tower. There were some outdoor picnics very similar to our first day as well. Only once we ate in the student dining hall – at first it got really quiet when we entered and filled our plates, and then after we sat at our table, it was suddenly very loud as the students’ curiosity swelled at our presence. But similar to my outside walks, none of the students approached.
It didn’t take long before Lexie was conjuring her own water and baths, and could summon a gust of wind and direct it into a daredevil swirling around us in the courtyard. She could start a campfire, and quell it. She still had trouble balancing items once she had them floating in midair, but she was no longer at risk of slinging them like projectiles.
It was harder for Peyton and me. They tried teaching us some degree of Primordial, but that didn’t work for us as easily as it had for Lexie. Still, through careful practice and meditation, Peyton was able to feel magic by the end of the second week, and was quickly starting to learn all the basics that Lexie had already learned. It didn’t take long for them both to outpace me.
We had moved on to using moving targets with the bows as well, and though I wasn’t bad with the stationary target, I could barely hit the moving target. I was getting better with the staff, but I couldn’t use a sword, and I couldn’t cast any spells. All I could do was ride a very gentle horse and think about whether there really were giant spiders in this world or not. There probably was. It seemed in every fantasy setting, there was always giant spiders.
Once Peyton had accessed her casting abilities, Raella came to visit us one evening in the tower and asked that we sit with her. We saw her every morning for the compass spell, but she usually departed to take care of other details immediately after, so this was the first conversation we’d had with her since the first few days we’d arrived. From what I understood, she was sending communications out to the city-states nearest the borders of the human lands to try to gather information on where it might be best to sneak into the foreign territory. After the Fracture, the human kingdoms had become very protective against Imperial incursion, so the borders were well guarded. But since every city was its own independent government, it was sometimes hard to get information from them without providing information in turn.
We were seated in the dining room this time, shortly after having finished dinner. Alissa and Quince were clearing everything away when Raella arrived and asked to speak to us. Quince had gone to get Lexie, who had finished early and already returned to her room. Raella sat calmly at the table, her hands steepled in front of her as she waited patiently for a curious Lexie to arrive and slide into a chair.
“Now that two of you are able to cast, I wanted to discuss something that comes up in the texts about the Graces. Something that usually happens once they begin to use magic.” I frowned at the table, feeling too embarrassed to look up at anyone as she said that. I doubted that anyone really cared about my insecurities, but I couldn’t not feel them, and it annoyed me. “For some it happens immediately. There are a few that it never happens to at all. But at some point, it is very likely you will begin to hear voices.”
She paused and looked at each of us in turn, as though waiting to see if any of us would speak up and admit we had already been hearing these voices. I glanced over at Peyton and Lexie – Peyton’s face was a calm mask, revealing nothing. Lexie frowned. “So we’re going to go crazy?” she asked, the faintest hint of fear in her voice.
“No. The voices are very real.” Lexie grimaced, and I could tell that she didn’t like that answer any more than the thought of going crazy. “As you pull on your divine abilities, the individual that we have summoned you here to seal will became aware of your presence in this world. As we said before, the seal weakens over time, and being near divine himself, he is able to sense the Graces. He will attempt to reach out to each of you, to convince you to let him free. It is said in the texts that he will use different voices, make any claim, promise anything you want to convince you to help him. But you must not listen to him. He is desperate, and he is a liar.” She spoke the last sentence with a finality that said that there was no questioning the fact.
“If we do start to hear this voice, do we tell you about it?” Lexie asked.
“Yes. As immediately as you can.” Raella again looked at each of us in turn, her golden eyes seeming to almost glow against the darkness of her skin. “If for no other reason than posterity. Being the expert on Divinities and the seal, it is important that I record everything about our current quest, so anything you can tell me about your experience here will be appreciated and important to future generations of scholars.” She stood, her fingers sliding along the tabletop. “I am not… easy to approach. I understand that. But I hope you also understand the importance of keeping me informed on everything, and that you cooperate to the best of your ability.”
Peyton gave a brief, formal nod. “Of course,” she said, her tone warm although her features betrayed nothing of what she really thought. Raella’s lips thinned for a moment as she studied Peyton, but she nodded and left with little fanfare.
Lexie bounced to her feet and was out of the room almost as soon as Raella was gone. I studied Peyton for a moment, who was staring at the exit, her expression still unreadable. I wondered what she was thinking about. I wondered if maybe she had already heard voices. I wanted to ask, but also didn’t want to pry. With a sigh, I slapped the table and stood, and made my way down the hall to my room. I glanced up as I stepped into my door, and could see that Peyton still sat quietly at the table, apparently lost in thought.
mehryment 