The Academy [BOOK ONE COMPLETE]

“Many wish to kill those bastards, especially if you’re talking about Kattam, the head of the Lombarte family,” Shalameth said, smiling. Her teeth were remarkably small and sharp, like a shark might have. “Trying would be politically inadvisable, however.”

“I’ll make do with a few sons,” I said, glancing at the door.

Shalameth tapped the chair next to her. “Sit down, girlie. This is not a problem that can be solved by physical, or even magical, force. We don’t oversee too much how you students solve problems between yourselves, but outside our black walls, things are more complicated. You know this.”

I unclenched my fists and breathed out. My chest was tight, like it couldn’t expand to let in the air. I grabbed Clickens from my pillow. It was tense, every bone holding their shape tightly and not giving in at all as I squeezed the cat in my hands. I stumbled to sit down opposite the ancient teacher. Her robe looked more like something a fine lady might wear to a funeral: lace and frills, all black. “Okay,” I whispered.

“Good. That’s not the only problem. The sponsorship that was granted to you complicates things. Kattam has made substantial donations to the school, with the explicit goal of ‘enabling promising students to study magic’. The donation is now used to pressure the school.”

“I’ve seen a glimpse of how much money this place has,” I said, relaxing. The sums had been astronomical. I didn’t know how rich the Lombartes were, but they couldn’t be rich enough that pulling away their donation would even leave a dent. I rubbed at my nose, thinking. “Is the problem that the Bursar will kill me if I made you lose the donation?”

“No. Even if that is a relevant concern, now that you mentioned it,” she said. “But it would be a serious blow for the image of the school. Kattam would take the excuse to stop sponsoring us and try to make himself a hero for it. The Girnham family would follow suit. They would play it as proving their loyalty to Velonea by being vigilant against the Kertharian threat. The Academy is powerful and in many ways necessary, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore what is going on in the rest of the world.”

“I bet Falar does,” I muttered.

Shalameth flashed me a smile, the unnerving teeth peeking out from between thin lips. Fek, Grit, and Minnelil were keeping perfectly still. Fek had started to bounce his leg, but Grit put a hand on it instantly.

“That is precisely why the esteemed lecturer is very rarely let loose in the outside world,” she said. “The school will not risk being entangled in Tenorsbridge politics. I wish we could ignore this completely, but that is not the case. But I see the way you scowl, so let me tell you we won’t hang you out to dry either, little miss.”

“Sure,” I said. Coming from anyone else, I would have bristled at the way she kept calling me things, but she had to be the oldest person I had ever seen. Her promises didn’t really interest me. I was planning what I would do once I got kicked out. I knew a couple of runes and channeling. Someone had said that would be enough to make ends meet out in the world.

“We received the message from Tenorsbridge earlier today with a group of skeletons, so we have time to prepare and plan for our reply.”

I had seen a skeleton with a leather satchel. It must have been carrying mail for the school. Made sense. “So, what next?”

“We will discuss the matter among the administration. Falar will be excluded from the discussion because his opinions on public matters are less than worthless. I suggest you avoid him as well, as he’s only going to give you bad advice on this particular matter and I fear you might want to take it.”

I shrugged.

“Instead, try to think if you can prove your lineage in some way,” she said, patting my knee with a wrinkled hand. “Don’t be awfully concerned. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

I scoffed. “How has that ever mattered in the least?”

The corners of her mouth flicked up. “It matters to us. Falar brought you here and your studies have progressed in a remarkable manner. We would prefer to keep you here and will work to make sure we can.”

I nodded.

The crone rose, standing surprisingly straight. “I will take my leave. It is late and I don’t want to keep you. Good night, students.”

“Good night, Lady Shalameth,” Minnelil said, bowing.

Grit pushed Fek’s into a sitting bow, pressing on the back of his head with her palm.

“Okay,” I said, giving all of them a look.

Shalameth smiled at me and tottered out. The way she grasped the door and wrenched it open didn’t suit the old, frail lady act. She squinted at me with a thoughtful look in her eyes, then shut the door.

“So, she was someone important as well?” I asked.

“Yes, but never mind that!” Grit said. “Lombarte’s coming after you. That bastard!”

“Makes sense,” Fek said. “After the last couple of days, everyone knows bullying you from a punching distance is a bad idea.”

I grinned. I had been flying off the handle a bit. The question was, why had I been getting away with it? “Why didn’t they just… throw a fireball at me or something?” I asked. “Not that I’d prefer that, but how come people are having fights instead of…” I stopped myself, as I realized I knew the reason. “I’m the only one bringing a knife into a fist fight, is that it?”

Minnelil nodded. “More like a battle axe, but the comparison fits. The school isn’t too worried if a skeleton bites a student or someone falls off a platform, but magic can cause much more damage. It would be bad for the image of the school if students needed to be shipped back home in a bucket or if the magic caused damage to the school building itself.”

I grimaced. Damn it. It made sense. I had always been really careful back in Tenorsbridge, even though I had carried a knife just in case. Jextor had warned me about using Null too much.

Nothing mattered when I did. I needed to stop starting fights, or I would end up finishing one soon enough. Or made someone respond with something I had no way to defend myself against.

I hope Lombarte hadn’t already.

“Okay, I get it, I get it. I’ll be more careful. When even Jextor warned me about it, I guess I should pay attention, right?”

“Dang, that does sound serious,” Fek said. “Anyway, all good? The teachers have your back so things should be fine?”

I snorted, leaning my elbow on my knee and my chin on my fist. “Yeah, no.”

“I have to agree,” Minnelil said. “Few people really like Lombarte, but he is an important man.”

“The father, you mean?” I said.

“Of course. Outside of the school, no one means Kartham when they say Lombarte. The father sits on the council of Tenorsbridge.”

“Is it as useless as the one over here?” I said, smirking at the thought.

“Oh, much more useless,” Grit said. “At least we don’t have the Janitors over here.”

“It is a rather ceremonial body at the moment, true,” Minnelil said, then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “The point is that this could very well mean you being expelled or at the very least the scholarship being cancelled. Do you have money to pay for the tuition and the room and board?”

“Seeing what the Bursar makes the merchants pay, I might have money to stay for one night,” I said.

“Did you two really have to piss off Lombarte that much?” Grit asked.

“Do you think he’ll come after me too?” Fek asked, perking up.

“He’s not coming after you,” Minnelil said to Fek, sighing. “Not even after Lina. You heard lady Shalameth. It’s politics. A part of the games they play, for not having anything real to do. Life in Tenorsbridge is boring for people who used to be important.”

“I should have just kept my head down,” I said. “Damn it, I used to be good at it.”

Minnelil rose and rested a hand on top of my head. She worked her fingers into my hair and pulled my temple up to her stomach. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.”

“Aww,” Fek said, standing up.

I wrapped my arm around Minnelil’s torso and squeezed. Where were all her ribs? I slid my arm down and hmm’d appreciatively at how I couldn’t get my arm around her hips even though her waist was so tiny. I squeezed her thigh and she dug her fingers into my hair.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Fek asked and stopped. He had been walking forward with his arms reached out. “I thought we were going for a group hug.”

I sighed happily as Minnelil’s thumbs pressed on the nook behind my ears. “Clickens, kill him,” I murmured.

---

Grit had got her arms scraped when grappling with Clickens. She looked at her palm with a frown. “The claws really scratched it. That’s sort of worrying. What the hell do you feed that thing?”

“Okay, but seriously now, what can we do?” Fek asked.

“I can’t expect anyone else to do anything about anything, so I guess I’ll do what she suggested and think back on things,“ I said. “The village was just a village. We didn’t even know there was a border nearby, but you’d think that getting attacked would prove the point?”

“Everybody has already started to pretend the whole thing didn’t happen,” Grit said, stopping inspecting her palm. “It might be hard to find hard evidence of anything.”

“Ugh, it’s so dumb,” Fek said. “Who even cares about where a person was born?”

“Lombarte seems to think many do,” Minnelil said. “He might unfortunately be right. Any landmarks you remember from around your village? How long did it take to reach Tenorsbridge?”

“I don’t know,” I said. I looked down and clenched my fists. It wasn’t completely true. None from our village really travelled to Tenorsbridge, before I did. Our village had been one of the few caught in the Kertharian attacks during the war. The third night of the war, when the auroras had already scorched the sky but before the word had spread about what it meant.

“I’m sorry,” Minnelil said, bending her knees to look at me in the eyes.

“I’ll go for a walk,” I said, standing up. The howling of the wind sounded a bit like screams. The white light of the orb flickered, like the flame of a candle, or a house on fire.

Minnelil said something, but I ignored it. I could hardly hear it from the shouting and the explosions. I opened the door, and the smell of burning flesh and mold crashed over me from the outside.