The Academy [BOOK ONE COMPLETE]

“What did you do to poor Mr. Clickens!” Grit shouted.

“What?” I said, pointing at its head with my fork. “I made it ears.”

“What are they made of?” Minnelil asked, leaning toward the cat.

Clickens sat on the table between the dinner plates and screamed at them both. The ears slinked back against its head and the fog rolled away from its jaws, like it was baring its teeth.

“I think it’s because it stuffed itself so much,” I said. “It started to seep out a bit after we got out from quarantine.”

“Cool,” Grit said. “I take it back, the ears are fun. Earlier it had a big personality, but now it has character.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I said.

Minnelil took one ear between her fingers and rubbed at it gently. “I wonder if this stuff has any practical properties. It’s some kind of residual Null?”

“That’s what I think,” I said as Clickens purred a metallic groan. It seemed to like being touched by Minnelil. I knew the feeling, but stopped myself from remembering or imagining anything before I got too distracted.

“Maybe it could use it to hide?” Fek said. He sat on the opposite side of the table. The book was balanced open before him and his eyes kept returning to the text as he ladled food into his mouth.

“Firgl is going to be cross if you get gravy on the book. What book even is that?” Grit asked.

“Falar sent it to Lina,” Fek said, eyes not moving from the text.

“It’s the one he promised to send,” I said. “About using Null to hide yourself or something. I didn’t get to read it yet as Fek’s hogging it.”

“I hear that’s actually one of the more useful tomes by Fendribalis,” Minnelil said, scritching Clickens’ ears. “The library has just two of them and they are always reserved.”

“This one is underlined and it has a lot of notes written into the margins,” Fek said. “I think this is Falar’s own.”

“What!” Grit and Minnelil shouted at the same time. Both grabbed at the book, but Fek snatched it away and pulled it to his chest. “I’m reading it first!”

I sighed and poked at the pieces of meat on my platter. They were chewier than usual. Jextor was probably wasting away already. I wondered how soon the Bursar would get her Bone Express running. “Oh, how goes the ritual stuff? Are you done soon?” I asked.

“Soon,” Minnelil said. “Even the Chancellor seems to be taking the preparations seriously. Cause for concern, surely, but if Bronte Jextor himself really puts his mind to something, there are very few things that can face up to him.”

“Whoa,” I said.

“He is a great man,” Minnelil said, shrugging. “In addition to being a big man,” she added with a roll of her eyes.

Fek snorted, nose still buried in the book.

Grit grinned as well. “I’m done with the ritual circle. Falar checked it and said I did adequately!”

“But he said he wouldn’t check it?” I said.

“Yeah. Jextor pointed out the same thing. Falar said it was a pedagogically motivated ruse, and then they had an argument about it. They were still going at it when we left.”

“Anyway,” I said. “They haven’t roped Fek in yet, which I guess we should be grateful about.”

“Hey,” Fek said.

“Oh, they are considering it,” Minnelil said. “The emotional anchor he would provide might be useful, Falar says.”

“Says with a sneer, I bet,” I said.

“Obviously, yes.”

“I’m such a stable person,” Fek said, finally closing the book. “You can depend on me, you three.”

I snorted. “I guess you might be the funny guy after all.”

“Hey,” Fek said, frowning at me.

“It’s nice to see you getting along,” Grit said. “What have you two been up to with the janitor? Maybe Falar actually has a point?”

“He usually does, no matter what you think about him as a person,” Minnelil said.

Clickens mewed, looking up at me from the floor. The ears were pretty fun, even though I had made them too long for its head. The eye sockets weren’t empty anymore, instead filled with smoke and something like purple embers smoldering behind it.

I scratched at the ears. “Ugh, whatever. I just hope it works better than the previous ritual. Maybe this time Jextor will perform that frenzied dance for us.”

Did Ang deal in furniture? Or maybe I could ask Hector if he could make me a wider one? When would be the next time that Minnelil and I could have the dorm to ourselves?

We hadn’t really talked about what had happened the last time. We had both needed it, or at least I had, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.

We had talked too. That was what she had wanted. She could channel the Null now, so maybe she wouldn’t need me anymore.

I sat on my too- or appropriately narrow bed, leaning my chin on my hands. Fek was still reading Falar’s book. An orb of light hovered above his bed, shining enough to let him read.

Grit sat at the table, reading the Basic Reanimation book. She wanted to finish the exam to get the second credit on animating a skeleton. I guess I should do that too. I might need to practice a bit more first, though. I wasn’t sure how well prepared I was for reanimating a skeleton after reanimating just a cat with metal wires.

Clickens screeched at me, like it had heard me thinking.

Minnelil sat at the table, opposite Grit. They had just one candle in the middle of the table, the light dim and flickering, but I guessed they both could see in the dark. She was writing another letter back home. She had finished the last one yesterday, but started a new one immediately. I wondered if she was writing anything about me.

I had changed a lot, hadn’t I?

I picked up Clickens and put it on my lap, fingers idly scratching its ears. Two months ago I would have fled right into the blizzard from her and her large green eyes, her fingers and their touch that was so light that it felt like electricity on my skin. On my bare skin.

“Lina’s looking at you,” Grit whispered.

“I know,” Minnelil said softly, a smile playing on her lips.

Grit leaned closer to her to whisper. “She’s also blushing.”

“So is she,” I said.

We all smiled and laughed at that, Minnelil lifting a hand before her mouth, Grit grinning like a cat. Fek frowned at his book, pulling it closer to his face.

“At some point I want to hear all about it,” Grit said. “But now I have to finish this book. The ritual prep has taken all of my time, but Falar still expects me to keep up with all my studies and the exam is this weekend.”

“We won’t bother you with any lurid details, then,” Minnelil said.

“What?” Grit shouted, eyes going wide.

“Ignore her,” I said. “She’s spending too much time with the Chancellor and she’s not as prim and proper as she pretends anyway.”

“She’s not?” Grit asked, gaze snapping to me and eyes going even wider.

“You’re making it worse,” Fek said, sighing and laying the book on his chest. “I can’t focus here. I’m going to the library.”

“It’s nice seeing you get into a book that intensely,” Minnelil said. “How is it?”

“You’re just trying to change the subject, but it’s really good! Fendribalis rules. And I think the stuff she writes in this one makes sense. I wish I could channel the Null to try it out.”

“I don’t know if I can actually help you out with it, but I can try,” I said. “I should practice myself. I want to be able to do it even when I’m not angry or surprised.”

Fek smiled at me and jumped up from his bed. He waved the book at me. “That would be great! Maybe they’ll let us use one of the workshop rooms if we ask. You helped Minnelil with it, so maybe you can do the same for me.”

She coughed into her fist, eyes glancing at me.

“Maybe not,” I said, watching Minnelil hold back the smile. “Go on, we’ll figure it out later.”

I sat next to Grit and waved to Fek as he stepped out of the door.

Grit pushed the book my way, positioning it between us. “Want to prep together? I’m going over the steps of drawing the rune matrix.”

“Yeah,” I said, pointing at Clickens. “I didn’t need to do some of the runes as the wires held the bones together anyway. Do you know if we need to memorize the runes?”

“You don’t,” Minnelil said from the other side of the table. “They’ll provide them for the exam.”

I had sat next to Grit so I could watch Minnelil. Next time I would sit next to her so I could lean my shoulder on hers, but now I wanted to see how she wrote, mouth moving and brow scrunched in concentration as she turned back to her letter. She smiled when she wrote something, a small joke or some good news, perhaps.

Grit tapped the book with her finger that was whiter than the cream-colored pages. “Did you get it? I want to turn the page.”

“Go ahead,” I said, looking at Minnelil pouting at the finished letter. She folded it in half. I had her letter to me saved in the chest at the foot of my bed. It had a hole through it where the stupid tiger had leaned on me.

Grit kept tapping on the diagram at the end of the page. “But did you get it? The matrix falls apart if the three-point shape isn’t exact and Falar will sneer at you.”

“Falar will sneer at me anyway.”

“Read the book, Lina,” Minnelil said, smiling and standing up from the table. “I’ll go and take these letters to the mailbox.”

I scoffed and watched her walk away. “The three-point shape is a stupid triangle with a blunt top. It’s fine.”

“You sound like Fek,” Grit said.

“You take that back.”

Minnelil chuckled and closed the door.

I sighed and turned my eyes back on the book, but Grit slammed it shut, almost catching my fingers between its pages.

“Whoa!” I shouted, yanking my hand away.

Grit pushed her face close to me, red eyes filling my entire vision. “You and Minnelil. Tell me everything.”