Chapter 35: The Academy.
The door kicked open again. The latch I had mended the night before held for precisely two heartbeats longer than it should have, and then a flame-covered boot struck the wood and the frame cracked anew. Ash and I had stirred at the first thud. Our eyes opened by the second. We stared at each other by the third -the one that forced the door open
"-seriously, what did you DO to this latch, it's even harder than last-"
I was not yet fully awake. My eyes opened and closed slowly. I had always woken quickly, and yet this slumber had been deep. The room was grey with early light. The egg sat warm against my side, nestled between the pillow and my arm. Ash's arm was across my chest. One of my arms was currently pinned under her side. We both stared at each other for a moment, then turned to look at the door.
Somehow, I had expected this. Perhaps that was why I was slow to react. Ren stood in the doorway. Her red hair was wild, her eyes were wide, and her mouth had frozen in the exact shape of some word I could only guess at. She was staring at us.
The color that rose in Ren's face should not have been possible without some application of her mark. It started at her neck and climbed past her jaw, past her cheeks, all the way to the tips of her ears, until her entire face matched her hair. Her mark flared, and I saw wisps of fire leaking from her ears. She pointed. Her finger shook. "I- you two- I had no idea you were- oh God. Oh Divine forgive me."
I frowned as I cleared my throat. "What? It seems destroying doorframes is an odd hobby of yours after all."
"Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry." She was already turning, spinning on her heel so fast she nearly tripped over the ruined door frame. She faced the corridor with her back to us, both hands pressed against either side of the doorway. "I didn't know! Nobody told me! I just- I’m s-supposed to lead you to the chamber in a few hours! I just wanted to make sure you were awake at least! Tour! Uniforms! Breakfast! I'll be outside!"
She spoke fast, until all of the words fought over each other. I could only understand perhaps one in three. She was gone before the last word had finished. Her footsteps echoed down the corridor at a pace that suggested her mark also granted [Flight].
I sat up slowly. The egg pulsed once against my side. Ash's arm slid from my chest as I moved. Mine pulled out from under her. I stared at the doorframe. The wood I had mended with Bloom was cracked open again, in almost the same place. A faint wisp of smoke curled from the latch. "She broke it again," I said, using my right arm to wipe at my eyes.
Ash had risen onto one elbow. Her face was doing something I could not quite read. There was color in her cheeks and she was not meeting my eyes. "She did," Ash agreed carefully.
"What was that about?" I asked. "I do not think she is intelligent, but she was capable of coherent speech last night."
Ash's colour deepened. She sat up fully, ran a hand through her hair, and looked at the far wall with what I could only call intense focus. “Perhaps…she simply had some strange ideas. That’s all."
"That is not an answer."
"It's the answer you're getting."
I studied her for a moment. My own words on her lips did not sound ill placed. The colour in her face was quite pronounced. Perhaps the room was warm again, though the broken door should have let in a draft. I would let this go, for now. Either way, it seemed that we needed to get ready. To change into the strange clothes all of these people wore, as that Inker had insisted. The pair of grey uniforms lay folded on the large table between my bed and where Ash’s bed had been.
I rose, walked over and inspected the garments. It looked plain and was coarse to the touch, with no sleeves at all. The trousers were a darker grey. One was clearly cut for me, while the other was cut for Ash. I handed Ash the smaller one. She had the nerve to look surprised.
I turned away from Ash and pulled Martha's dress over my head. The morning air bit at my skin. I worked the grey tunic past my left horn -it always caught on the left, for some reason- and then the right. When I turned back, Ash was half changed.
The dress she’d worn was gone. Scars ran across her back and shoulders, more than I had noticed before. White ones and old ones. The muscles beneath them were lean and defined, though the frame they sat upon was not just a warrior's. There was breadth across the shoulders that I had known, but the way it gave way to the line of her back, to the deep curve at her waist-
My gaze lingered for one second. Perhaps two. Ash pulled the grey tunic over her head and turned, adjusting the collar. The tunic sat differently on her than the dress had. Without sleeves, I could see where the scars ended and the muscle began and where the muscle gave way to everything else. She caught me looking. Neither of us spoke at first.
"It suits you," Ash finally said.
I glanced down at my bare arms. Red and green Lines where black and white should be. "It is not the worst thing I have worn," I said, and turned away. It really was warm despite the draft.
After a moment, I reached for the satchel, and then the egg. It sat where I had placed it, cradled in the pillow. It pulsed once beneath my fingers. I placed it in the satchel with care, adjusting the cloth around it. "We will not be long out," I said. "Perhaps you will like to see this Academy yourself." I slung the satchel over my shoulder and moved toward the door. Ash followed behind, yawning. I looked back once, at the room that was now, apparently, ours.
Ren was waiting in the corridor, leaning against the opposite wall. She had composed herself since her retreat, though the red in her cheeks had not entirely faded. She straightened when she saw us and immediately began walking, not checking whether we followed. "Mess hall's this way. You guys better keep up or I’m just going to leave you behind." She had a bowl of…something in one hand already. Perhaps that was what her earlier flight had been for. She did not look at either of us directly.
"You both better listen up, cos I’m only gonna say this once! The mess opens at sixth bell but the good bread is always gone by the quarter mark because Tomias and his cronies get there early like the fiends they are. The food is bleh, but there’s a trick to it. The trick is the porridge. Nobody touches it because everyone thinks it's bland, but Marissa puts honey in if you ask nicely, which I always do because I have excellent manners."
She had not taken a single breath. Ash and I glanced at each other as we walked behind her. "Also, don't sit at the third or the first table. You better not forget this one. Lena's group claims at least one and they will make your life tough. Don't sit at the fifth either, though there aren’t that many Crests. The second and fourth are fine since you’re both Lines." She paused, squinted back at us. Her gaze almost met mine before it darted away again. "You're not writing any of this down."
"I will remember," I said.
"You can't possibly remember all of that!" She said, still walking.
"I have memorized far more in my time, more than you will ever have the chance to learn. I can manage this."
Ren stared back at me, opened her mouth, closed it. She turned to Ash. "Is she always like this?"
"Yes," Ash said, and I caught the trace of warmth in her voice.
Ren led us down two flights of stairs and through a corridor wide enough for four abreast. Our destination must have been nearing, given Ren’s faster steps and the growing sound. The mess hall was a long chamber lined with heavy wooden tables, many of them packed with students. Steam rose from a long line at the far end, where a broad woman ladled something into bowls.
Several gazes fixed on us from the moment we entered. Focused on me, specifically. I had been watched before -I had been watched for centuries- though the nature of the watching had certainly changed.
“Half-demon,” I heard, from somewhere to the left.
“Look at those horns.” I heard from further away
“…another one? As if she already…” The rest was swallowed by the noise.
A boy at the second table from the left stared openly, his spoon frozen halfway to his mouth. A girl with branching violet markings on her forearm nudged the girl beside her and nodded in my direction. The girl looked, then looked away too quickly.
Ash stepped in front of me, though she had been trailing one step behind this entire time. Ren led the way inside, and we followed. Their childish gazes were beneath my notice. Ren led us to the line. It took no time at all to understand how this strange custom worked. We had to wait our turn. It seemed the strong was not simply served first.
Ren talked to the woman pouring the strange liquid. It was called porridge, or so Ash had said. We sat at one of the tables. The porridge was warm. There was, as Ren had promised, something very sweet and thick at the bottom. This was honey.
I ate one bowl slowly. I finished it. It was oddly thick on my tongue but not unpleasant, though the stew had been better. I stared at the empty bowl. I glanced at the line that had not thinned at all. Would I need to waste my time for another? I would not. There was a scraping sound. A half filled bowl appeared in front of me. I glanced at it, then glanced at Ash then stared at Ash's now-empty place on the table, where her own bowl had been.
"You'll want it more than I," Ash said simply. "I don’t feel like it."
It tasted like a lie. This was a tribute, then. One any retainer would give to their Lady. I would claim it, as was my right. I took the bowl. I ate it. It tasted better than the first. Ren watched this exchange with narrowed eyes but said nothing.
After that, we began the ‘tour’, such that Ren called it. The red-haired girl walked at speed, narrating everything. Neither Ash nor I had asked for this. I had explicitly commanded her not to. She had not listened.
She showed us corridors that all looked the same to my eyes, though each apparently had its own significance. The main hall. The eastern wing, where the advanced students trained. The western wing, where Initiates like us were supposed to be housed, if not for our ‘special status’. She made that last point rather clear. The central yard, where some lectures were held in the open air. Other classrooms, many of which had been full as we passed by. The heads inside always turned to us as we passed.
As we moved through these corridors, the looks continued as did the whispers. An inker, a thin man in threaded robes, pulled a stack of papers closer to his chest as I passed. An inker woman steered a younger student to the far side of the hall, one hand on the boy's shoulder, her eyes never leaving my horns.
The reaction from the demonbloods was little different from the humans or the rare elves. Their eyes would widen when they saw me, widen again and fix on my horns. Most of them would take the nearest turn that put them into a different hallway than the one I walked. I had not expected them to recognize their Queen -such that I was- but I had not expected them to shy at the sight of me. Ash had drawn closer to me as we walked. I had not requested this.
We passed through a wider corridor near the eastern wing. Most of the students here bore Lines, though I saw the occasional Sigil. Near a tall window, I saw someone who made me pause.
He was a half-demon, with large curved horns that swept back from dark temples. His skin was a deep grey…and he had two heads, each a mirror of the other. Both of those heads were presently in an argument with the other, in a language I did not know. Both sets of eyes widened when they saw me, and then we moved past them.
Ren kept up walking, though she did mention the half-demon’s name when I asked. It was Malachor.
Eventually, Ren led us to a place she called the ‘Beast Hall’. It was vast, bigger than the mess hall had been. The chamber stretched far enough that the far wall was dim.
The space was largely full of reinforced pens that lined both sides, and inside them, creatures stirred and paced. I saw wolves with green pelts, strange birds that left trails of light behind them, reptilian things I had no name for. A spider as tall as a horse crouched in one corner, its many eyes tracking us as we passed. Even Ash’s gaze had lingered on most of these creatures. She did not recognize them any more than I.
My hand lingered on the satchel hung at my shoulder. It pulsed against the cloth. Was it truly beating faster, or was that just my imagination?
Ren was explaining beast bonding. This was one of the many explanations she had volunteered today that we had not asked for. "-can't just grab any creature you want. It has to match your mark, your temperament, your whole...vibe, I guess. Some people spend years looking. I still can't find a damn Flame Elemental, and you'd think a fire Sigil would make that simple, but nooooo."
This was one of her few explanations I was actually paying attention to. There was [Beast Taming] in my time too, and it had worked rather simply. There, it was simple. One had the Skill. One beat the creature into subservience, and then one could bind it to one self.
I spotted the woman in charge before Ren could introduce her. She stood near a larger pen, watching a black snake the width of a tree trunk that had coiled in on itself. Even coiled, it nearly filled the pen. The woman beside it paid it no mind. She was broad-shouldered, her hair greying, and she bore only a single purple Line. She was the first Inker I had seen with a mark that modest.
"Master Hesta," Ren said, trailing behind me. "She runs the Beast Ha- hey, wait, where are you going?"
I was already walking toward her. "I wish to see your finest accommodations," I said, arms folded. I glanced seen all of these pens, and found them wanting.
The woman looked at me. She regarded me the way one might regard a stone that had suddenly spoken. Her gaze, surprisingly, never went to my horns at all. "Accommodations? Lass, this is a place to keep beasts."
"For a beast of exceptional lineage. I require something appropriate."
Hesta's gaze moved to the satchel at my side, then back to my face. She could not have seen inside. Her expression did not change. "These are pens," she said. "They're all just pens. Some of ‘em have a bit more to them, but they’re all the same."
"Surely there are quarters befitting something of extraordinary value.” I insisted, looking around. “A creature that will one day soon surpass anything currently housed within these walls."
The woman looked at me for a long moment. "We have pens," she said again. "Large ones, small ones, and medium ones. They all have straw."
If the woman was merely lying to me, I could not tell. Whatever hatched from this egg would not live in this. I would find something better. I did not yet know what, but the decision was absolute. I turned and walked away without another word. Ren was staring at me. Ash had her face buried in her hands. Her shoulders shook. It almost made me want to swat her. Gently.
Ren caught up with me outside. "What the hell was that about?"
"Nothing that concerns you."
Ren might have said something further. If she did, I did not hear her, for I was already walking away. I adjusted the satchel on my shoulder, and we moved on.
Lunch came with a bell that was, as the Inker had promised, hard to miss. It rang through the corridors with enough force that I expected it to rattle all of the windows. Ren led us back to the mess hall.. The gazes were no less sharp the second time around. How annoying. Did they stare at every half-demon so? Ash had stepped in front of me again, her hand reaching for her hilt.
I adjusted the satchel beside me as we sat. There was one gaze that was difficult to ignore. Ren was watching. She had been watching all morning. I knew this because this girl had no ability to watch anything subtly. "Alright," Ren said, setting her spoon down. "I've been sitting on this all damn morning. What the hell is in the bag?"
A Demon Queen does not lie. I looked at her. "The future greatest steed in the world."
Ren stared. She waited for more. The rest did not come. "That's... what does that even mean?"
I returned to my food. Ren looked at Ash for help. Ash shrugged. "She means it."
Ren opened her mouth. She looked at the satchel, then back at me, then at her food. She picked up her spoon and ate with an expression that suggested she was in great pain. Pain from what, even I did not know. A few minutes passed. The porridge was the same as breakfast. I found I did not mind.
Then Ren's voice came again, quieter this time, and aimed to Ash's right, away from me. Did she think I would not hear? "So..." She glanced between us. "Are you two, like..." She made a gesture with her hand that conveyed nothing. "Together together?"
Ren's cheeks coloured slightly. "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" She said loudly. Very loudly. If the hall was not a mess of noise, then her voice alone might have filled it.
I looked to Ash. Her face had changed. Colour rose from her collar, and her lips parted. She opened her mouth-
"Yes," I said. Ash's mouth closed. "Ash is one of my most prized retainers," I continued. The statement was true. "Naturally we are together, and will continue to be."
Ren blinked. Her brow furrowed. "Retainer? What the hell does that-"
"It means she serves at my side. It is a position of considerable importance."
Ren's gaze swung to Ash. The Hero had gone very still. Her cheeks were flushed, deeply so, and she was staring at a fixed point on the table with more intensity than it warranted.
Ren slowly turned back to her food. "Half-demons," she muttered. "Absolutely impossible to understand."
The afternoon continued. Ren dragged us through the remaining halls of the Academy with the same energy she brought to everything else, which was to say, far too much. The training yard was a wide, open space lined with stone pillars. Students practiced marks against stone targets that cracked and reformed as fast as they could be broken. Ren spent five minutes explaining how she had once melted three in a single session. This was, apparently, supposed to be very impressive.
The atelier came next, where students shaped weapons with their marks alone. How this worked…even Ren did not seem to understand well enough to explain.
There was a yard meant specifically for cultivation. It was a quiet space where students sat in rows with their eyes closed, their marks glowing faintly. A man in dark robes walked between them. The air here was thick.
Ash talked with Ren through most of the tour. The Hero asked questions and made observations. She complimented the architecture of a particular archway. She asked about the founding of the Academy. I did not listen to most of it, though it seemed to settle in my memory anyway.
"This is the last stop," Ren finally said, as we descended a staircase. The stone changed as we went deeper. It grew darker and smoother, and the air grew heavier with each step. By the bottom, I could feel it pressing against my skin. We reached a set of doors. They were heavier than anything I had seen in the Academy. The air around them was thick enough to taste.
"This is the Level One resonance chamber," Ren said. "This is where people form their Essence Cores. I was supposed to bring you both here. Took a little longer than I’d have liked but…whatever. Now we’re here," She paused. "It's hard to get used to. The mana in there is... thick. Really thick. Most people can barely stand their first time inside. Don't be embarrassed if you need to sit down right away. Everyone does."
She pushed the doors open. The room beyond was nothing like the rest of the Academy. The walls were made of dark crystal and they held light in shifting patterns that moved when I did not. Inside, were roughly a dozen students. Most were on their knees. The few who were on their feet moved like people walking against a current that only they could feel. A girl near the wall had her eyes screwed shut, hands pressed flat against the floor, breathing in controlled gasps.
At the center of the room, arms wide stood Aldric. "-and there I was, surrounded on all sides. There were ten Sigils, at least. Maybe even more. The leader, a brute of a woman, easily twice my size but I knew I had to protect the two Consec-"
I stepped through the threshold. The dense mana hit me. It pressed against my skin, filled my lungs. It felt good. I tried drawing in the faintest trace of Mana into the Requiem, and it came fast. The Requiem hummed on my right. The Cradle hummed on my left. Yes, this was a place of power. And this was…level one, was it? I walked, upright and steady. Ash walked beside me, and did not falter either.
Aldric's mouth was still open. “-and then I had to carve out a-” He looked at us. We looked at him. His mouth slowly closed. In the silence, I almost thought I heard him groan.