Chapter 31. Minnelil Hisses
More days passed. The exam came closer. Falar sent a note that said I’d need to return Coratorus’ crazy book after the exam was done, so I focused on reading. Minnelil outright refused to teach me any more channeling before the exam was done. Obviously wanted to read as much over my shoulder as possible.
Word about the book had spread. Frederik came over to petition for the student council to read over my shoulder as well.
“I’ll return it tomorrow. You can get it after that.”
“But we can’t! It’s always reserved,” he said, sighing. “But I get it. I said to them you probably wanted to finish reading it in peace, but Lombar—“
I slammed the door in his face before I did something worse. It cut off the feeling of pressure flowing in from the outside and I shivered. I should ask Falar about the ward after I’d had my exam. Was it breaking? Or was I just getting used to it? I didn’t know which option worried me more.
To his credit, Frederik didn’t even try knocking again. “See you later, Lina!” he hollered through the door.
I rolled my eyes and went to turn the page for Minnelil. She was shifting from foot to foot next to the table, hand trembling as it approached the book, struggling not to touch it.
Two hours later, I slammed the book shut. The protective magics screeched, and I winced at the backlash.
“Feeling ready?” Minnelil asked.
I shrugged. “No idea. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of questions they’ve managed to think up for this one.”
“Indeed. I’m feeling rather confident, to be honest. Marcus’ explanation made things clearer. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“Only fair,” I said, standing up. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
Minnelil chuckled, making claws of her hands and pawing at the air. “Hiss,” she said.
“Cats don’t hiss,” I groaned. She had completely missed, or chosen to ignore, that I had been serious. She had let me read her notes and talked out the concepts with me, sometimes late into the night when everyone else was asleep. But it was fine because she got to read the book.
She stood up straight, running a hand through her hair. “It was a pretty stilted joke to begin with,” she said, looking me in the eye. “There’s no need to count favors, Lina.”
I nodded, clenching my fists tight. “I know,” I said, looking away. “Let’s go do that exam.” I didn’t wait for her to respond, and opened the door.
A skeleton stood behind it. It marched in without a word and took the book from the table. The skeleton wrapped both arms around the book, pressing it against its ribs. It even peered out of the door before stepping outside and walking away.
“Was that their idea of a security measure?” I asked. “This place is beyond dumb.”
“And yet, here we are. Let’s go do that exam,” Minnelil said.
I didn’t have it under control any better this time. It was infuriating. I had run into a raging blizzard without a second thought, crossed the whole school while the wards were coming undone and bone and snow and ice in equal measure were flying in the air, and now I had nearly tipped my inkwell from how much my hands shook. Blots of ink stained the desk.
The skeleton standing next to my desk looked down at me and I could swear it rolled its eyes. It had no eyes! I was preparing to snatch the paper from its hands the moment Ferne gave the signal to begin.
She looked almost asleep, drooped over her desk at the front of the room. “Good luck everyone. Do your best.” She twitched, lifting her head and squinting into the middle distance. “Oh, right. And prove to me you’re more than vacuous sacks of meat, no better than the steaks we serve you. You may start.”
Maybe I’d tell Falar how limp her insult delivery had been this time. It might spread his disappointment around and I would get off with less?
The skeleton started unfolding the paper slowly. I tensed, waiting for a perfect moment when it held on only with a couple of fingers.
I struck. The skeleton tried to slap my hand away, but I was too quick, grabbing the paper and yanking it out of its hand. The bones clacked as the skeleton hit its own hand. A corner of the paper ripped off as it was still pinched between its fingers.
“Nice!” someone whispered from behind me. He leaned toward me, eyes darting around. “Never saw anyone actually pull that off. I have to tell Frederik!”
“Please don’t,” I muttered.
“Shush,” Ferne said. “You have one hour. Make good use of it.”
The skeleton clattered something next to me, but I ignored it while skimming the test. The first couple questions related to what the practical stuff in the book had been about, safe ways to pull on the Null and how to figure out the limits of a person and increase them slowly, stuff like that. I started to write an answer to the first one, but stopped myself to glance at the rest.
The questions became steadily more unhinged as the test went on. The third question was whether anything mattered and if I was sure about it. The final question was only a small two-headed arrow pointing up and down and a question mark.
I sighed. The worst part was that I already had a feeling I’d know how to answer it. Damn that floating skull. No wonder people were anxious to read the book. I had experienced something, understood something, even if I couldn’t really say what.
Maybe I’d find out. I sighed again and picked up my quill.
Ferne looked at my paper. I was the last person leaving. I had been sure that the answer to one of the questions was to draw a small black circle and stare at it for ten minutes. It had cut into my time pretty badly. Once I stopped staring at the circle, half a dozen skeletons were standing all around me. They all nodded and walked away.
“Any idea what the skeletons were doing?” I asked Ferne.
She shook her head. “None. And I’ll leave grading this to Falar. This is all too metaphysical for me.”
It wasn’t metaphysical, whatever that was. It made sense. Visceral, true in a bone-deep way. Was that a good sign?
I bit my lip. I was getting paranoid, worrying about threats I didn’t see or that lurked in my head, but that was the way to stay alive. No one had told us the Kertharians were coming. Then everyone burned and died.
I hurried out of the Exam Hall past Ferne, pushing my back against the outside wall, breathing deeply. They had tried to comfort me by saying that there was nothing anyone could have done. No one could have known the Kertharians were coming. That there hadn’t been guards posted for decades. No scouts watching the border.
Never again. Being paranoid was a small price for staying alive.
At least I could trust Falar being an asshole. I chuckled at the thought and started climbing the stairs toward his office. After four steps, the smile died on my face. Why was he so interested in me, actually? I had been so overwhelmed I had stopped watching for angles, for the backstab.
I banged on the door with my fist. “Falar!”
“It’s open,” he called from inside. “I’m beyond overjoyed that you decided to knock, this time.”
I stomped to his desk and plopped down on the chair. “I have some questions.”
“As a teacher, I would be disappointed if you hadn’t,” he said, lowering himself carefully into the chair on the other side of the desk. He looked thin below his robe, hands wiry and cheeks sunken. His eyes scanned me from head to toe. “Ah, I’ve almost missed being snarled at by you.”
I leaned my elbows hard on my knees, fists clenched in front of me. I really had been snarling, hadn’t I? I should keep up the momentum, keep pressing while I had the initiative.
Why? Because that’s what I did. Before they could do it to me?
Falar waited, clasping his hands on the table. He tilted his head to the side, squinting at me.
“I’m… sorry,” I said. It took some effort, but I fought through the word. “I want to ask you about the ward.”
“I can see from all the grimacing and glaring what you are actually asking. Unfortunately, the change in your mood is because your brain is getting used to your current situation,” he said, resting his chin on his thumbs. He kept his thumbs in place, wiggling the fingers of one hand and drawing faint blue lines into the air next to his face. “My ward is too strong for any influence to trickle… hmm.”
“What?” I asked as his pinprick-eyes focused on me, brows knitting together.
He leaned back in his chair. “Perhaps being close to the energies released earlier frayed it? Perhaps, perhaps. No matter, I will strengthen the ward.”
I kicked, rattling the chair as I scrambled away. “Stop, wait!”
“What? Oh, don’t worry. The pain was your own doing. That won’t repeat itself, unless you do something inadvisable again.”
That had been part of it, but I was also worried what it would do to me. Would I turn into a happy idiot again? Smiling and not keeping alert. I sat back down slowly, holding my palm up to Falar as I thought. All the things I hadn’t been watching for came back to me. Helping out when the wards were failing, not looking more into what the hell Frederik was up to. But what was real, and what was the Null affecting me, making me twitchy and wretched?
“Explain it to me,” Falar said. “I’m the expert here. If your reasoning isn’t sound, the ward should stay as powerful as it can be.”
I glared at him for a moment, but reeled in the resentment. Last time I had almost killed myself and could have killed other people too. That I happened to attack Falar had been almost a lucky coincidence. What would have happened if I had run into Lombarte and his goons instead?
“You’re right,” I said, and continued quickly before he had the chance to start gloating. “But there’s something that’s bothering me.”
“Hmm?”
“The wards weren’t supposed to break yet, right? Not the ones this place has and neither this one. Do you know why it’s happening?” I asked.
He lifted an ankle onto his knee and steepled his fingers before his face. “You’re correct. Are you suggesting these things are connected?” he said, tapping his fingertips against each other.
“I’m not sure, but there’s something in the wind. Should it feel similar to this place?”
“The wind is the wind. It blows down from the mountain. What do you mean?”
“This place presses on my brain in the same way the slab did. And now the wind does as well. It smells the same. Could it erode the wards?”
Falar’s mouth tightened as he thought, fingers stopping their tapping. He blinked and pressed a finger against his lips, still not saying anything.
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“You could be, in principle. If we assume…” He sighed. “Damn it. It does make sense. I should have realized and checked for outside influence. Interesting. Not to mention worrying.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, rolling my eyes.
He scoffed, but nodded at me. It was almost like a bow. For real? “This means we won’t be reinforcing your ward just yet,” he said. His face started to pull into a grimace that I realized too late was a grin. “You’ll get to be useful instead.”
Exciting times! The final chapter and epilogue went up on Patreon this morning. Book One is out.To celebrate that, I created a discount code for you.
If you don’t want to wait to see how the first book ends, or you want the smutty bonus content, get 40% off first month with code: BOOK1
This is also my last week on Rising Stars. It’s been a wild ride and I’m so glad so many of you are along for it.
I have material planned for five books. About a year and a half of story if everything goes to plan. Thank you for reading. I hope you stick around for what’s next 🙏