Chapter 34 | PoV: Aisha & Sanya
The caravan finally left the academy, and they quickly arrived in Glorestra. Thanks to Aisha's extra special temporal prowess, she could sustain even faster time bubbles than other people.
Due to all the time bubble shenanigans, Aisha and the caravan entered Glorestra's sphere of safety a little after noon.
The caravan stopped outside Glorestra's walls. That was weird. Why would they need to stop outside the walls for anything?
Aisha glanced at the fellow mages seated in the wagon with her.
The aeolian mage shrugged.
Aisha stood and hopped out of the wagon. She stepped to the side and walked up the train of wagons, towards the front.
Aisha stopped beside the wayfinder. “Why'd we stop?”
The wayfinder simply nodded his head in front of him. “This one was waving at us like mad.”
Aisha looked forward. An aeolian mage stepped forward, guided by a pair of crutches. In one hand, he also held onto his staff. A large satchel sat at his side.
Aisha gasped.
“You know ‘em?”
Aisha nodded. She rushed forward to meet the mage. They were out of ear reach from the wayfinder.
“Fazl?” She asked.
His face was wracked with something . . . fear? “You need to turn around. Right now.”
“Fazl? . . . Why?”
He swallowed. “I . . . They're going to arrest you at the gates.”
“They know I was gone? . . . Then they have nothing to arrest me for,” Aisha said, confused. “They would know I hadn't killed the temporal mages."
“Right. You know,” Fazl looked off to the side and tapped his one left against the sand. “Did you also know . . . know that . . . Heliux! I can't say . . .”
“Fazl? What? Know what?”
Fazl's expression looked wide and empty. “I-it's Rafiq. He—he was . . . killed . . . this—this morning.”
Aisha blinked. Then she truly processed the words. Her face contorted into pain, grief, and surprise. There was no way. No way at all. None.
Rafiq? Dead? No . . . He had been a great legislator. He had been a great connection for Aisha. He had almost been, like, a friend . . . Rafiq was humble and intelligent. He knew his way through politics better than anyone else. He knew what policy to enact and how to resolve the papers that appeared on his desk in the best way for the people.
Sure, things hadn't been perfect, but he had done so much good, especially when power was so spread out among legislators and the royalty. He knew how to get compromises with other legislators . . .
So, Rafiq, dead? Dead? Gone? That was it? It was over?
No goodbye. Aisha hadn't even been there for it. She had been off exploring the academy.
She had left when things got terrible.
And so, she would be arriving to dead mages and a dead friend.
Was the Prince connected to all of this, too? Aisha knew that he had killed the Second Prince, that was definite—because Mutamid had said that the mage was his attack dog.
Could she trust Mutamid, though?
“W—w—what? Wait . . .”
“I looked into the Prince, after your conversation in the infirmary . . . Ah, now isn't the time.”
“He did this?” Aisha asked. “Did the Prince kill Rafiq?”
Aisha stomped a foot against the sand. She was so going to murder the Prince. The legislature would be fine without him—they didn't need him. He was far from necessary. Who cared about the royal bloodline anyway? It was going to end.
Fazl shrugged. “He certainly has full control now. He can get away with whatever he wants. Right now he's under the guise of trying to keep everything together . . .”
Aisha clenched her fists. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Right . . .” Fazl said. “Thought you’d say that. Care to open my satchel for me?”
Aisha stepped forward. “Why?”
Fazl smiled. “To get you into the city, of course. Well, without needing to beat up some guards and make a scene.”
Fazl was going to help Aisha? He was okay with Aisha murdering the Prince? Had he found out how bad the Prince was, after overhearing Aisha's talk in the infirmary? Did Fazl know more than Aisha, now?
Aisha opened Fazl's satchel. Inside was a bunch of clothes.
Aisha dug them out.
“Let's skirt around to the northern or southern gate. They won't expect us that way.”
“How are we going to get clearance to go through the gate? Do you have writs or missives for us? I can't use my mage identification.”
Fazl blinked. “Right. Uhhhh . . .”
“You're joking?” Aisha sighed, she stuffed the clothes back into Fazl's satchel.
Fazl let out an embarrassed grin.
Aisha shook her head. There was no way he forgot about this . . . How had he brought clothes and thought “let's sneak back into Glorestra” and then not have a way back in? Was he stupid?
Well . . . It didn't matter. Aisha thought she would be able to get inside another way.
“Okay. We're doing this my way,” Aisha said.
The two of them could walk in if the guards simply never saw them. They could sneak in through the gate like it was nothing. All it would take was a little bit of magic . . .
Aisha turned back and stepped a dozen or so paces, closer to the wayfinder. “We're going ahead.”
The wayfinder looked perplexed. A moment later, he simply nodded.
Aisha returned to Fazl, giving him a mischievous grin.
Aisha waved her staff and set a time bubble around the two of them.
“What are we doing?”
Aisha winked. “You'll see. Let's go.”
She began walking towards the gate.
“W—wait,” Fazl said. “How exactly are—”
Aisha waved at him without looking back. She heard him curse. He tried catching up to her as best he could while on crutches.
She walked slower so he could get back by her side, and then continue to keep up.
They walked up to the gate.
The portcullis was down.
Aisha stood there, blinking. Oh. Ah. Um. Right. Yup. That. Of course.
Fazl glanced between Aisha and the gate. He broke down into laughter.
“You . . . You thought we could just . . . Walk in . . .”
Aisha went red with embarrassment. That was . . . a very large oversight on her part. It seemed she and Fazl both were prone to forgetting things in their plans today. How could she be so stupid? . . . Maybe if Fazl and Aisha put their brains together they'd have enough mass to balance on a scale with a nut.
Fazl continued to laugh.
Quick thinking! What could she do now? Um . . . Ah! She knew how she could salvage this.
Aisha rolled her eyes. “Here, let's go off to the side.”
Aisha turned away from the gate and walked beside the wall. She stopped dozens of paces away, out of sight from the guards.
She turned her speed bubble into a slow bubble.
The caravan, barely moving before, now shot towards the gate. The herds of animals wandering around outside the walls turned from frozen to walking and grazing with renewed purpose.
Fazl blinked.
The caravan reached the gate. Aisha dropped her bubbles completely, as quickly as she could react. She did not want to accidentally miss their chance.
Fazl groaned. “This hurts my head.”
The portcullis screeched upwards.
Aisha dropped another speed bubble alongside Fazl and walked forward.
The portcullis screeching became a long, dragged out noise. Eerie and miserable.
“No. Stoppppp,” he complained.
As it entered view, it appeared to not even move at all, frozen about halfway up.
Fazl stopped at the gate, watching as Aisha sauntered in with too much confidence. She had put up the fastest speed bubble she could, and directed the backlash to the guards, effectively creating a slow bubble for free. Perfect balance.
She entered the city beyond the portcullis. She turned around and waved to Fazl.
He sighed and continued forward. “How exactly fast is this bubble?”
Aisha could only smile. She could not keep it up for much longer.
Her smile dropped once she remembered Fazl had spoken, right next to the guards.
Aisha groaned. “Oh! Heliux! I forgot to tell you to be quiet. Great golden shell of the divine!”
“Is it bad?”
“No, they're just going to hear an extremely fleeting squeak each time we speak. More than what I want, though.”
“Sorry.”
“Let's go.”
“They can't see us?”
“They'll see a blur of movement. Hopefully they won't think too much of it. Guards are stupid.”
“Maybe some. That doesn't mean you can extrapolate it to all.”
Aisha just shrugged.
They cleared the gate, entering the street and passing buildings. All the people around them appeared frozen. They still moved, just very, very slowly. Aisha assumed there were less people on the streets than normal. Was she imagining that?
“This is so messed up,” Fazl noticed. “Hey, do you want those clothes now?”
“No. Let them know I'm here. I'm not going to simply hide. I'm going to be out and loud, and if they try me, then they'll get it . . . I'm so large that I'm going to stand out even in mundane clothes.”
“Great,” Fazl said. “So what's your grand plan?”
“Walk into the palace and kill the Prince,” Aisha replied simply.
“Right, just that simple. Just another day,” Fazl muttered. “Just a regicide for lunch.”
Aisha dropped her bubbles and headed in the direction of the palace.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Checkmate again?” Zahira groaned. “Can I win just one?”
Zahira threw her hands up, looking down at the chess board upon Sanya's bed. Sanya had snatched yet another victory, adding up to almost a dozen.
Zahira was sitting at the end of Sanya's bed, cross-legged.
The nurse—Dima—had reluctantly untied Sanya's hands, allowing her to play chess. Having three people in the room to hold down Sanya if she had any violent intent was enough, apparently. Sanya was also sitting on her bed, knees up against her chest. She wore lightweight and thin, light-gray robes, instead of the normal academy robes.
It was kind of cold in those robes, in the infirmary. Being in dark caves away from an unnatural storm of heat and without two suns beating down did not help make it any warmer.
“You're going easy on me,” Sanya shrugged.
“I'm not!”
“Admit it, Sanya, you're just that smart,” Mai said. She sat on a chair, watching Zahira and Sanya play. She only looked up occasionally, mostly just reading one of the books.
Mai's bandaged fingers were hidden underneath her book.
Sanya . . . didn't know how she felt about Mai being in the room.
Sanya still liked her . . . but the two of them being together was over. Yet, seeing Mai reminded Sanya of what she had done just last night . . .
The blood . . . dripping on the floor . . . the . . . everything. Her stomach twisted. She had hurt Mai. How could she have done that? . . . Why was Mai still willing to sit next to Sanya? She couldn't think about it. She couldn't . . .
What had Mai said? Right. Sanya wasn't that smart. Zahira was just miserably bad at chess. Or she was going easy on Sanya. It was that simple.
They all wanted to stroke Sanya's ego or something—as an attempt to make Sanya feel better about herself and not want to do the whole . . . stabby thing. She wasn't going to buy it.
Someone knocked on the infirmary door.
“Come in!” Dima called.
The door swung open, revealing Nur. He held Sanya's staff in one hand and two stock metallic rods in another. Both warped the air around them.
Sanya gasped.
Zahira turned around to look.
That . . . That staff. Sanya had used it to . . . to hit that bully. Everywhere, Sanya had to face things that made her remember her terrible choices and moments. Argh!
“I was wondering if Sanya would be willing to teach Mai and Zahira magic. It would keep them all occupied and help continue their studies,” Nur explained.
“I don't know if we should . . .” Dima said.
“I also encourage Sanya to find new spells.”
“Should we really be doing this? . . . At least not so soon?”
Nur approached and set the staves against the bookshelf. “Well, merely an option.”
He turned and left, closing the door behind him.