Omen of a Bluebell

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do,” Selenia says, sending a wink my way. “Your dorm room will be prepared by the end of the tour, and a tailor will be with you shortly afterwards. Taruq, take good care of them.”

He gives her a firm nod. "Yes ma'am."

Then she sweeps off, the click-clack of her heels fading as she goes. Just like that, it’s only me, Cari, and Cari’s newly acquired prey: Taruq.

“Right this way, ladies,” he says, guiding us to exit the building.

I’m stunned by the sight once more, but only for a moment. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to floating islands, or the size of the place for that matter.

Cari, of course, looks utterly starstruck. Her attention is no longer focused on breaking the bones in my arm, or even staring at Taruq. Instead, she watches the sky with clear amazement as a particularly large island topped with a looming tower is slowly swallowed by a cloud.

“Have either of you been on the transit platforms?” he asks us suddenly, glancing back.

“No, we haven’t,” I answer for the both of us. “What even is that?”

He grins. “You’ll see.”

I recognize the twinkle in his eyes. It’s the look I get when I think of a fun prank to pull on Cari.

Suddenly I can’t help but be a little excited at the prospect of whatever surprise is in store for us.

He spins back around with perfect poise and starts walking, Cari and I following behind him, with Cari almost on autopilot.

“This is the administrative district,” he says, walking at a casual pace. “Most of the Academy’s staff and faculty live here. The building we just left handles enrollment and class registrations, but the district as a whole is the backbone of Elderwynd.”

He gestures to the row of elegant buildings lining the left side of the street.

“Curriculum planning, lesson scheduling, and all extracurricular programs are coordinated here. If you join a club, a research circle, a dueling team—its paperwork comes through here.”

A turn of his wrist indicates a narrow, tower-like structure to the right.

“That one handles delving operations. Students do a lot of supervised delves for training, so scheduling, safety clearance, and the valuation of any loot you bring back all run through there.”

Cari, who rejoined us at some point, asks, “Isn’t that what the Delver’s Guild is for? Is that who operates that building?”

He looks back at her and nods, as if rewarding her for asking. Her cheeks turn an interesting shade of pink, and I force myself to focus on what he says next instead of teasing my deviously adorable sister.

His tone turns more educational than the almost scripted tour-guide feel it had before.

“Yes and no. It’s an extension of the Delver’s Guild, with one of their certified Guildmasters running the operation overall—but there’s an Academy administrator assisting and ensuring everything is done within Academy regulations.”

He rambles on a bit as Cari engages him, seemingly excited to have a captive audience for once. At last, until we pass a quieter building with heavy stone pillars at the front. It has the look of a foreboding courthouse, standing out amongst its surroundings.

“Ah, sorry, I can go on a bit sometimes," he says, interrupting their conversation. "This is discipline and mediation. If a student files a complaint, or if there’s any… conflict, the staff here take care of it. Punitive measure too, though they tend to be reasonable.”

I look over to watch Cari’s reactions to the place, only to find her staring at Taruq’s butt. I pinch her hand, and her attention snaps back to me with a narrow-eyed glare, already prepared to exact retribution for having the gall to interrupt her ogling.

Then she sees the shit-eating grin on my face and flushes. Her glare shifts from vengeance, to embarrassment, then back to vengeance so fast that I almost believe I imagined it.

Her eyes all but scream “don’t-you-fucking-dare”, and my grin widens.

I bring my face close to her ear and whisper. “Already plan the wedding?”

She swats me on the arm, and it lands loudly. Taruq hears it, turning to give us a curious look, but Cari is faster. Her face is a mask of demure smiles and fluttering lashes, pretending nothing at all happened.

I just chuckle, and he turns back to continue his tour.

Eventually we approach a massive square with dozens of small stone platforms arranged in neat, geometric patterns.

Except none of them are touching the ground.

They hover at different heights, gently bobbing as if riding an invisible tide. Even the staircases leading up to them float, drifting just high enough to be easily accessible without actually touching down.

I blink as one of the platforms gives a soft two-tone chime before it shoots upward. Half a dozen passengers ride it into the sky, completely unbothered as the wind gently tousles their clothes.

It glides slowly at first, then a pale bubble of blue flashes into existence around it. Once it does, the platform rapidly accelerates with smooth grace as it arcs over the roofs of nearby buildings, slipping between two drifting islands, and vanishing behind a cloud bank.

All across the square, magic hums.

Platforms settle without a hint of jostling, runes flashing briefly across their edges as they release and receive their passengers. Students and faculty alike step on and off with the casual ease of people boarding the Tunnel trains, instead of flying slabs of rock.

A few children in school uniforms giggle as the platform they’re riding dips playfully, like it’s teasing them. An older professor gives hers an affectionate pat along the railing, and the runes seem to pulse in response before it takes off.

We both gape openly.

First walking benches, now this?

Taruq watches us with amusement clear in his eyes, his soft smile giving him the look of a man who relishes the joy of others, and I can’t help but to smile back.

Damn good surprise, I’ll give him that.

Cari’s reaction is different. She outright beams at him.

“This is amazing! How do they work? Why are they moving like that? Are they alive, somehow? Wait, is that a kind of living enchantment? Do they have predetermined paths, or do the passengers set them?” she babbles, barraging him with question after question as her curiosity gets the better of her earlier shyness.

I can’t help but look on with a mix of delight and second-hand embarrassment. His eyes widen just a hint before his smile broadens as he starts excitedly explaining.

“They’re heavily enchanted to have a limited kind of awareness. Nothing so impressive as actually living, but they are made to be able to react to route changes and obstacles on the go,” he says, his own interest piquing through.

Oh gods, another Cari. Just what I need.

“They follow mostly predetermined paths, but the smaller ones over there,” he continues, pointing to a small area of the square with even smaller platforms that seem to only fit a few people float lazily, “are for more customized directions. They take Academy credits to use, though, whereas the bigger ones are free. They just take a bit longer to get where you’re going.”

I half listen, half watch as they talk. Taruq, ever the professional, still guides us towards one of the smaller platforms meant for more customized routes. He touches the railing opposite the platforms stairs, where a small flat metal panel rests, and I eye it over Cari’s shoulder curiously.

************************

Transit Platform 1183-Q

Current Destination:

Administrative District - Central Square

Most Frequently Visited Destinations:

Classes - Expand

Dining Halls - Expand

Dormitories - Expand

Other Destinations:

Shopping Districts - Expand

Tunnel Districts - Expand

Health Pavilions - Expand

Practice Fields - Expand

Dueling Arenas - Expand

Archives - Expand

Labs - Expand

Garden Islands - Expand

Destinations Queued:

None.

************************

Curiously, I try to use Relic Whisperer on the panel.

Display Panel 1183-QD

Epic

Enchantments:

Perfect Self Repair

This item cannot be permanently destroyed.

Perfect Tied Connections

This items enchantments can be tied to up to ten other enchanted items, connecting them and allowing the enchantments to communicate as needed.

Current Connections: Limited Awareness Module 1183-QA, Limited Behavior Module 1183-QB, Display Panel 1183-QD, Float Engine 1183-QF, Navigation Registry 1183-QN, Platform 1183-QP, Shielding Engine 1183-QS.

Perfect Visualization

This item can display information gathered by a connected enchantment or user.

This is set to internally display results via customizable Status and is currently linked to the following enchantments: Navigation Registry 1183-QN.

Holy shit…

I quickly analyze the platform we’re standing on as well, and find that it’s also Epic rarity, with Perfect Self Repair, Perfect Tied Connections, and Perfect Weight Reduction—instead of Perfect Display. The fact that every piece of this platform is seemingly Epic rarity is absurd in and of itself.

That each is also Perfect quality is just... crazy.

What master enchanter had the time to make these? And how long did it take?

And this is just one platform.

If the numbering means what I think it does, there may be thousands of these platforms throughout the Academy.

“As you can both see, the panel is how you operate this. Would you like to give it a try?” he asks Cari, who is standing suspiciously close to him as she looks over the panel.

“Yes!” she says excitedly, all smiles and weaponized cuteness. “W-will you show me how?”

The question sounds about as innocent as it could be, but I have to hide my face when I hear it.

Cari, you sly girl. Go get him!

I cheer for her mentally, but do everything in my power to play the part of a background character.

In no time at all, we’re taking off into the sky. There’s only the slightest jolt beneath me, but the instant we are level with the roofs of the surrounding buildings, that same blue bubble I saw earlier appears around the platform.

At the same time, any sensation of movement vanishes. The wind doesn’t tousle my hair, I’m not pushed this way or that by the sudden acceleration of the platform—nothing.

If it weren't for the movement of the clouds around us and the changing perspectives of the islands, I'd think we weren't moving at all.

My attention is drawn elsewhere after we push through a thick bank of clouds. In front of us is a floating island, much like the others… except it, and the towering structure built onto it, are both upside down.

“What the…” I mumble.

“Whoa,” Cari breathes at the same time.

Taruq chuckles. “I see you’ve both noticed our Spacial Studies building. It’s quite the eye catcher when the professors decide to show off a little.”

We fly by the upside-down tower, and as we do, we enter a kind of bubble of influence that flips our orientation around. The platform we’re on automatically rolls itself over, flipping the rest of the world around us on its head.

Cari snatches Taruq’s arm the moment the platform starts tilting, using him for support and very obviously—at least to me—playing the part of a damsel in distress.

But I also see the moment his hand brushes hers, causing her to freezes for half a second.

Then she pretends nothing happened with the grace of a cat falling off a table.

Smooth, Cari. Real smooth.

Of course, we don’t feel a thing as the platform flips itself over. Whatever the shield around us is doing, it makes it so that even influences on space and gravity have no effect on us.

Despite that little fact, Cari never lets Taruq's arm go.

We continue on like this for a while, doing fly-by’s of numerous unique islands and structures, even skimming over the roofs of various ground districts that he believes we should know about.

As much as there is to gawk at, it’s hard for me to absorb the deluge of information he’s pouring on us. Still, he takes his time to diligently explain each and every place. After a bit, I can feel my cycle acting up again, and down another of the vials Nyria brought me.

It’s somehow even less effective than the last, but I don’t stress myself over it. Headmistress Selenia promised to have medicine made just for me before the end of the day, and she’s not given me any reasons to doubt her.

It just takes a little bit more effort to push past the warmth in my chest this time.

As we go, in a moment of rare calm and quiet between explanations and questions, we pass through another cluster of islands, this time entering a cavern carved into the belly of one of the largest floating masses.

Bioluminescent vines cling to the stone walls, glowing in cascading patterns as the platform glides through the tunnel. Beneath us, soft waves of mana pulse in the crystal formations, flowing like rivers along the cavern floor.

Cari breathes out, awestruck again.

Then tries her best to disguise it with a smile up at Taruq.

“So, um… do you do this tour often?” she asks.

He nods, the corner of his mouth lifting. “Quite a bit, recently. But it’s more fun with people who actually enjoy it. I like seeing peoples first time reactions.”

She makes a tiny, strangled noise that she tries to play off as a polite laugh.

I catch her eye and quirk a brow at her.

She silently mouths ‘shut up’ at me.

It takes every ounce of willpower I have to maintain a straight face, but I manage it.

She's been there to support me through my wild estrus bullshit, so the least I can do is not make this harder for her.

We burst out of the tunnel in a wash of bright light, and the platform slows as a new island comes into view. This one is surrounded by a shimmering pale-pink barrier and tall, elegant fencing engraved with countless runes.

“The female dormitory island,” Taruq says before motioning to the barrier. “The dorms all have privacy and security enchantments—stronger than most places on the entire campus, actually.”

The platform glides to a stop at a landing pad just outside the shield’s boundary. The barrier around the platform ripples faintly, then vanishes just before settling down.

Once he escorts us off the platform, somehow escaping Cari's grasp at the same time, he takes a few steps toward the shield before turning back to us and offering a polite bow.

“Welcome home,” he says.

Cari beams at him, her cheeks maintaining that adorable shade of pink.

I swear her tail would be wagging if she had one.

“So… what now?” I interject before the moment drags too long and he notices her staring at him.

“This is as far as I can take you. All you have to do to enter is have your ID’s out when you approach the barrier and it’ll let you through. Before that, though…” he trails off, pulling a small crystalline tablet from an inner pocket. “It looks like you’re both in Dorm One, Room 10A.”

He pauses then for a moment to glance us over, looking shocked. Then he schools his face and continues.

“My sincerest apologies,” he begins, bowing lower than he has all day. “I didn’t know I was in the presence of high nobility. Please, forgive me for any prior impudence, my Ladies.”

Cari, in a rush, tries to push him back upright. “Wait, don’t do that! We’re not nobles. I’m sorry, I mean—it’s complicated.”

He glances up at her, curious. Then his face splits into another smile. “If you say so. Then, is there anything else I can help you with before you go?”

Cari is too busy being flustered by his attention, so I swoop in to save her.

“No, thank you. I think we can manage from here. Thank you so much for the tour, it was lovely.”

Taruq offers one final polite bow before turning back toward the platform. Cari watches him go with the kind of soft, dazed smile usually reserved for pastries fresh out of the oven.

The moment he’s out of earshot, I nudge her with my elbow.

“So,” I murmur, “should I start calling him your new boyfriend, or do you want to wait until after the second date?”

Cari snaps her attention to me so fast her hair whips around. “Emilia,” she hisses, face blazing, “shut up.”

I grin. “One hot nerd and your brain turns to mush. It’s adorable.”

She jabs a finger into my ribs. “Bold of you to talk, Miss I’m-going-to-outrageously-flirt-with-a-Princess.”

I freeze, warmth flooding my core unbidden with the reminder of this hormonal mess I'm dealing with.

Right. Poking Cari is dangerous. I almost forgot.

She smirks, victorious. “That’s what I thought.”

I clear my throat and look anywhere that isn’t her face. “We should… uh... go check out our room.”

Cari pats my shoulder in the most patronizing way possible.

“Sure thing, sweetheart.”

I swear I’m going to trip her later. Gently. Lovingly.