Chapter 39: A Familiar Silence.
Ren crept down the hallway like she was sneaking past a hydra. Frankly, as far as she was concerned, that was not too far off. She pressed her back against the wall and held a finger to her lips. Edda stood three paces behind her, with her arms folded. Few could ever tell what Edda was thinking. Ren was one of the few. Right now, Edda was annoyed.
"Why are we sneaking?" Edda asked, not whispering.
"Shh!" Ren hissed looking around. There was no-one else in the hallway. She crept forward another step, her boots barely making a sound. The door to their room was right there, and it was closed. She turned to Edda and leaned in.
"Yesterday," Ren whispered, her voice coming out at roughly the volume most people used for regular conversation, "I opened that door. The latch was back but…anyway that's not important. I opened the door and…and…and they were-" She pressed her hands together, interlocked her fingers, and made a gesture that left nothing to interpretation.
Edda's eyes widened. She looked at the door. Back at Ren. "Really?"
“I didn’t see them do that but…but they were sleeping together! They were all snuggled so….” Ren nodded. Gravely.
They both stared at the door. The silence stretched. The door remained closed. A wisp of flame crawled up Ren's forearm and died at the elbow. Ren swallowed as she inched forward. She raised her fist. She knocked, so lightly it barely made a sound.
Ren squeezed her eyes shut. "Hey I'm coming in! Don't say I didn't warn y-"
The door swung open on its own. The room was empty. The bed was untouched. Ren threw her hands in the air. "Are you kidding me?! I was being so careful and they aren't even- where the hell did they go?"
"Maybe the resonance chamber?" Edda offered. “What if....they stayed overnight? Master Aldric did say he gave them access.”
Ren was already shaking her head. "Nobody stays in a resonance chamber overnight. That's insane. You’d have to be as crazy as a half-" She paused. They looked at each other.
Ren sighed through her teeth and they started walking.
It was early, and the Academy was just waking up. Students drifted past them in their grey uniforms, almost all of them half-asleep. The early light through the high windows was thin and cold. Ren walked with her hands shoved in her pockets and her jaw set, which was how she walked most places.
"How's the core? Does it still….?" Ren asked without looking over.
"It’s settling." Edda flexed her hand, studying it. "It still feels strange. Still sore. Mana never felt like this.”
Ren nodded. "That part goes away. It takes a couple weeks, maybe, until you just stop noticing." She glanced inside her own core, at the churning flames at the center of her, always begging to be let out. Who so often let themselves out. Ren supposed she was one of the ones who’d never stop noticing.
There was silence for a time as they walked. "Corin? How’s…how’s he doing?" Ren asked.
"He’s holed up in his room." Edda's voice was quiet. "He hasn't come out. I tried to bring him but…."
Neither of them said anything after that.
They passed a group of students near the east stairwell. There were four of them, human, and all with Lines on their arms in different colors. Their conversation dropped as Ren and Edda approached. It picked back up after they passed, quieter but not quiet enough.
"…more of them every year…"
"…the hell are we all even in the same wing? Makes me feel sick…"
Ren heard the whispers. She always heard them. Everyone with their blood did. A year ago, she'd have turned. Now she kept her hands in her pockets and kept walking.
“...and that blue haired freak. At least she looks good walking away-”
Ren stopped. Her Sigil flared. Heat rolled off her skin in a visible shimmer, enough that the air around her started to hiss. She turned.
The humans had noticed and two of them stepped back. One had the decency to look afraid. The fourth just stared, chin raised, daring her. A Line, daring someone with a Sigil. If Ren had been human, they wouldn't dare. She was going to remind them why-
Edda's hand found her shoulder. It was firm. “It’s fine. Let’s just go.”
Ren stewed in place, then she whirled, and they kept walking. A demonblood hitting a human would lead to complications, no matter how justified it was. Ren had been dragged to the Archon's office enough times that she knew his face better than any of her instructors’.
Ren's teeth ground together. The Sigil dimmed and the whispers behind them didn't even bother getting quieter.
The resonance chamber doors were heavy enough that Ren had to both use Essence and lean her weight into them. They groaned open. The chamber beyond was dim. Dimmer than she'd ever seen it. The crystal walls that usually held light in shifting patterns were nearly dark, and the air was thin -drained of mana until it barely felt like a resonance chamber at all.
She saw two figures near the far wall. Ash was asleep, propped against the crystal with her head tilted to one side. Someone had arranged her carefully. Her breathing was slow and even from what Ren could tell.
The half-demon was face-down on the stone. There was blood on the floor. Blood that had dried to a dark brown around the half-demon's face. From her nose, her mouth, maybe her ears. It had pooled and settled on the stone in a shape that said she'd been lying there for hours. She wasn't moving. Ren's stomach dropped.
"Oh shit-" Ren crossed the chamber in four running strides, dropped to her knees, grabbed the half-demon by the shoulders and shook. "Hey! Hey, wake up! What the hell happened!"
Edda was already moving to Ash. Ren shook harder. There was a horrible second where the body under her hands stayed limp, and every bad scenario she'd ever imagined played out at once.
Then Lysanthia groaned. Her eyes opened. They were red, unfocused, and immediately furious. How the hell were they so angry so quickly? Lysanthia looked at Ren's hands on her shoulders. Then up at Ren's face.
"Why," the half-demon said, "are your hands on me? Do you perchance wish to lose them?"
Ren sat back on her heels and let out a breath that took half her soul with it. "Yeah. She's fine. Scared the shit out of me but she’s perfectly fine if she can still talk like that."
Ren glanced towards Edda, who it seemed had woken Ash with a gentle hand. The blonde woman blinked, and immediately looked across the room. Not at Edda, standing in front of her. Not at Ren, in the direction of her gaze. At Lysanthia. There was a brief pause.
"Did you?" Ash asked.
The half-demon wiped dried blood from her chin with the back of her hand. She nodded. Something passed between them, and Ren didn’t have the faintest idea what. It felt like a conversation had happened right in front of her and she’d completely missed it.
Yep. Those two were definitely together together. The thought arrived, and images followed, and some of those images would have sent her directly to the lowest reaches of hell.
"So," Ren said quickly, clapping her hands on her very warm cheeks. "You-You've both really made your Essence Cores or what? Can’t believe you actually slept here though…." She looked around. “I guess that wouldn’t be too hard anymore.”
They both nodded. Ren stared at them. It was so stupid she immediately wanted to call them both liars. Even if the entire point of finding them had been to take them to the measuring hall just in case. Oh well, she would choose to believe them. One always trusted their brothers and sisters…a little.
"Great then. Absolutely wonderful even.” Ren said, clapping her hands. “Breakfast first. Then the measuring chamber. We have time." Ren stood. "Just uh…try not to bleed on the porridge."
The measuring hall was not what Ren had expected. This was strange, since Ren had been here plenty of times. Every other time she’d been here, the place was always at least half-empty. Today it was not empty at all. Today, it was hard to even find room to stand.
There were tiered stone seating that lined three of the walls, and those seats were full. Ren saw other students and faculty, even some she recognized. She spotted at least four Crests in the crowd, and those bastards didn’t do anything but train. Ilyasviel wasn’t here, thank the Divine. A small mercy.
"What the hell," Ren muttered at the entrance. “Are they giving away Essence Stones or what?"
"I told you already, I thought you were listening.” Edda sighed. “ It’s because of Earl Wulfram’s daughter, Alisa," Edda said. "She’s getting measured today too. I guess that must have gotten around. Didn’t think there’d be this much of a crowd over it though. I don’t think it’s because of your new friends."
"They're not my friends!" Ren protested.
"We spent all morning looking for them." Edda pointed.
"Because I was ordered to!"
Blessedly, it didn’t seem like either Lysanthia or Ash had heard Edda. Or perhaps they hadn’t cared? They stood a few paces away from everyone else, or perhaps everyone had stepped away from them.
Ren’s gaze went away from them, to the far end of the room. There, as it always did, stood the Arbiter.
Ren had seen it many times, and she always found herself looking at it for a second or two too long. She suspected that would never change. The crystal pillar rose from the stone floor, white and taller than any person in the hall. In its dormant state, it held a dim light that pulsed like breathing.
When someone placed their hand on the Arbiter and poured in Essence, the crystal reacted to their touch. It filled from the base upward. The concept was simple. The height of the fill showed raw capacity -how much Essence the core could hold. The clarity of the light showed efficiency -how much of the core had actually been reshaped during carving. The Inkers had finer ways of measuring the crystal, ones that tracked down to percentages. Ren didn't know them and didn't care. This thing was simple, and she liked simple.
A tall and brilliantly filled crystal was the dream. Something that everyone could just dream of. A short and murky one was most people’s reality.
The Archon was present. How the hell had she not noticed him before? He stood at the rear of the hall with his hands clasped, his dark robes blending into the shadow of the upper tier. Now that really was odd. Ren had seen so many of these, and she was sure she’d never seen the Archon attend one himself. Ren shook her head, turned back to the Arbiter.
Instructor Voss stood beside the Arbiter with a flat tablet. The man was thin enough that a stiff wind might have done him in. Ren had never liked the man, and he had never liked her, or any other demonblood, or any other elf, or human or….Okay, maybe he just didn’t like anyone. The man called out loudly, and the whispered conversations stopped.
“Everyone with an Essence Core to be assessed, come stand in front of the crystal. I will not ask again.”
Ren looked to Edda. She was already walking forward. Ren grabbed her arm, making her stop. “Good luck.” She said.
Edda looked at her and nodded, and then she was stepping forward. Ash and Lysanthia had already moved forward. The Inker waited, until there were a dozen people standing in a row a few feet away from the Arbiter. He waited a second more, and then he nodded. Ren walked over and took one of the very few empty seats. Then, the testing began.
The first students went up. They were, as expected, really nothing special. Most times, the Arbiter filled to the lower quarter. The white light it gave off was never particularly bright. One boy managed a reasonably bright fill that reached a third of the Crystal. It was a decent enough showing, Ren supposed.
"Edda Eryn"
Ren straightened in her seat. Edda stepped away from the line and walked to the Arbiter. She placed her hand on the crystal. The people around her began to whisper and snicker.
“...that demonblood huh? I don’t know why they even...”
“...seriously blue hair? I mean they don’t even try...”
Ren pointedly blocked them out. Her fists were clenched. Show them. Edda’s expression didn't change at all. Ren's did, though she tried to hide it.
The crystal filled. It filled little more than a third, which was a good result. That wasn’t what made the crowd gasp. It was the light. The light was pure, clear as water in sunlight. The crowd murmured. The Inker stared at his crystal then back at his tablet then back at the crystal.
“The efficiency is…notable.” The Inker said finally.
Ren bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. That's my girl. Edda returned to the line, with the same bored face she always had. Ren was maybe the only person alive who could see the grin. It was barely there. It was enough.
"Alisa Wulfram."
The earl's daughter stepped forward. Ren didn’t need to have her called out to recognize her. There was just something about the way a noble brat walked that stood out even from these humans. Something about the way they always managed to walk while looking down on the world. This girl had golden hair, done in careful locks. Her Academy grey fit like it had been tailored, which it probably had. She was pretty. The murmurs from every boy in the hall said she might have been more than pretty. Whatever.
Ren hadn't seen her at the resonance chamber yesterday. It wasn't a surprise. When you were rich enough, you had your own. Most of the noble brats came to the Academy Essence Core in hand. Some of them even had Lines. Just thinking about it pissed her off.
Alisa Wulfram approached the Arbiter and placed her hand on the crystal.
The light climbed past the lower third. It filled past the halfway mark. Past where Ren's own reading had reached two years ago, and that memory burned bright enough that she had to swallow against it. The light was clean and strong. The crystal filled high and stayed there.
There was silence for two seconds, before it broke into applause. “The capacity and the efficiency are both….” The Inker called out, shook his head. “Remarkable.”
Ren could even see faculty leaning forward. Ren wanted to dismiss it. She wanted to dismiss it as money or Essence Crystals or Beast Cores or better resonance chambers and a dozen other things. All advantages she'd never had. She wanted to, and she mostly could, except for the honest part of her that had watched enough noble brats touch that crystal and amount to nothing. It still pissed her off.
Lena was just going to love this Alisa. God damnit.
"Ash? Next."
Ren leaned forward. She didn't mean to. It just happened. Ash walked to the Arbiter with an easy stride and placed her hand on the crystal. The seated crowd hadn’t stopped talking since Alisa. It seemed they weren’t about to stop for this ‘Ash’. Ren suspected most just didn’t know she was one of the Consecrated students yet.
The Crystal hummed. The lower third filled. There was always a process. It started from the bottom, and slowly crept up. It did not creep up. The lower third filled, all at once. Then it kept going. Past the halfway mark. Past where the earl’s daughter had reached. Past the upper third. It hit the top of the pillar, and the entire thing blazed. The crystal hummed a low sound that Ren had never heard it make. The light was blindingly clear.
The Archon took one step forward. He was staring at the Arbiter with wide eyes and an expression that might have been wonder if it had belonged to anyone else.
Silence held for one perfect second. Ren did not know when it had gone so silent. Then the hall erupted into applause. Louder than for the noble girl. Students were standing. Even some of the faculty were clapping. Master Voss's composure had cracked clean open. His tablet hung at his side, forgotten.
Ash pulled her hand away and walked back to her spot as if she'd done nothing more remarkable than open a door. Ren's mouth was open. She closed it. She turned to look at Lysanthia. The half-demon was smiling. It was the first time Ren had seen that face do anything but frown.
Okay, that freaking settles it! Ren thought. They are together together. Fuck why didn’t I knock AHHH!
Then Voss called the last name, and the smile vanished. "Lysanthia."
The hall had gone quiet. The applause for Ash had faded. Nobody whispered. They stared at the half-demon, and the staring was enough. Ren herself still couldn’t believe there was another one at the academy. Thank the Divine Ilyasviel wasn’t here.
Ren held her breath and she didn't know why. Something on Lysanthia's face shifted as she looked out at the crowd. It was brief. Then she stepped forward, and placed her hand on the crystal.
The Arbiter screamed. That was the only word Ren had for it. A sound erupted from deep inside the stone -sharp, and wrong. For Ash the crystal had shot up as it filled. It didn’t shoot up here. It didn’t fill. One moment the crystal was breathing. The next, there was simply white.
Ren threw her arm over her eyes. The light found her through her anyway, through her fingers, through the gaps between. The crystal was still screaming. Everyone around her was flinching and pulling back. Ren barely opened her eyes enough to see.
The crystal cracked. A thin line raced from the crown downward. Then another. Then a dozen, spidering across the surface in a web that spread faster than Ren could follow. Light poured through the cracks spilling onto the floor flooding the tiered seating until there were no shadows left in the hall. The Arbiter shattered.
The pillar came apart in a small explosion of crystal. The fragments hung in the air for one impossible moment. Then they fell. The sound they made against the stone floor was almost delicate. Almost beautiful. Where the Arbiter had stood, there was nothing.
Nobody moved. The hall was frozen. Every face Ren could see wore the same expression. Fear. Everyone who had stood in front of the Arbiter had fallen to the ground. Even the Earl’s daughter. Even the Inker. Everyone but Ash. There was no applause.
Ash had stepped forward, her body between Lysanthia and the rest of the room. A reflex Ren could not understand. It really did seem like Ash was trying to protect Lysanthia from them. Why would anyone shield the person who had just done that? At some point, Ren realized that she had not taken a breath in some time.
She looked at Lysanthia. The half-demon stood at the center of the room, her hand still extended where the crystal had been. Shards glittered around her bare feet. The two Lines on her arms pulsed, red and green. For a moment, Ren thought she saw Black and White instead. Just for a moment.
Ren had struggled to find a word for what Ash was. The word for Lysanthia came unbidden: Divine.
Ren waited for the smile. The imperious tilt of the chin. The gloating. After a display like that, anyone would gloat. Ren certainly would have. It was not there.
Lysanthia lowered her hand. She stared at the empty space. Her face was perfectly blank. The half-demon paused and looked back at the room. Her gaze trailed over everyone, lingered a second longer on Ren, then moved past. If forced to guess, Ren might have called it sadness.
Which made no sense at all.