by V. St. Clair
“Hi Mara,” he stopped to talk to her out of reflex, and Tricia, perforce, stopped with him.
“Hey Asher…I was going to ask if you wanted to come out with a few friends and I tonight; we’re going out to dinner and to see a play in Longdale…but if you already have plans…?” she looked between him and Tricia, who tensed minutely beside him.
Curse my stupid luck.
Of all the times for Mara to invite him out with her…almost on a date, it had to be the one time that he had just committed himself to plans with another. Why did he always have to get involved with other people’s problems? He could have left Tricia to fend for herself and…
…been a bad friend.
He smiled regretfully and said, “Sorry, I’m already committed tonight. Next time though, for sure.”
“Okay, well…I’ll see you later then.” She glanced at Tricia once more, looking a little let down. “Have fun tonight…”
Asher resumed walking alongside Tricia, though everything inside of him was screaming at him for being a fool, urging him to run back to Maralynn to tell her he’d changed his mind and that he’d love to spend the evening with her.
Tricia must have seen something of this on his face, or else she just knew his feelings for Maralynn, because when they were out of earshot she said, “You can go out with her tonight, if you want,” very softly. She was looking straight ahead rather than at him. “I know you like her, and that you only said you were taking me out because Gregg was making a big scene in front of all those people. It’s okay if you go with her…I don’t mind.”
For a moment Asher seriously considered it. He could thank her for freeing him from his obligation and run back to Maralynn. Tonight could be the night that he finally got to tell her his feelings and have her reciprocate them…she had seemed disappointed that he already had plans with someone else, hadn’t she?
Trish said she wouldn’t mind…
But he knew, even as he thought it, that it was a lie. If he didn’t take her out tonight, people would know, and word would get back to Gregg that it was all a stunt, and she would get hounded worse than ever. Besides, what kind of friend would he be to leave her hanging like that for his own selfish reasons? She had gone out of her way to help him before, and he wouldn’t repay her with this unkindness, no matter what his heart wanted.
“Sorry, Trish, but you aren’t getting away from me that easily.” He smiled roguishly at her, surprising her.
She really expected me to ditch her for Mara…
He was more convinced than ever that he was doing the right thing in sticking with her.
“I…I wasn’t trying to get away from you…” she stammered. “I just thought you’d rather be out with her, and—”
“I’ll go out with her and her friends next time,” he shrugged carelessly. “Tonight we’ve got plans…something involving food, most likely, and dancing. Isn’t there some kind of dance hall in Greenup that always draws a crowd?”
Still looking bowled over by these once-fictitious, now-concrete plans, she said, “Yeah, I think so…they do different themes every night. I’ve never been there though.”
“Great, sounds like the place to be. We can meet in the courtyard before dinner; no sense in us eating school food if we’re headed out; we’ll find something near the dance hall.” He glanced at his chrono and frowned, only just remembering that he had completely missed his window to go find Master Willow before lunch.
“Okay…” Trish said, still sounding a little uncertain. Asher chalked it up to her general sense of feeling overwhelmed by the events of the morning.
“Great, I’ll see you later then.” He waved and prepared to leave her in front of the dining hall, intending to head back through the main foyer to see if there was any chance of the Master of Wands still being in his office.
He hadn’t taken three steps before Tricia said, “Asher?” in a soft voice that was barely more than a whisper.
“Yeah?” he turned back to her.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked quietly. “Standing up for me like that with Gregg, and all the rest of it…”
Asher frowned at her uncertainty, because this wasn’t the Trish he was used to. The girl he knew was strong, confident, and not afraid to chew him out if he teased her or screwed around during the challenge arenas. She had hit him in the head with one of her wands so hard one time that it snapped cleanly in half.
“You’re my friend,” he answered truthfully. “You loan me power in the arenas when I overexert my Source, and I threaten pug-faced jerks who are angry that you won’t date them.” He shrugged.
At last, a smile. It made her look much less vulnerable and fragile, more like herself. Maralynn had always been the fragile sort—or at least she gave the impression of it. Being around her was like holding spun glass; he was always looking for the right thing to say or do, lest she break. Tricia was tougher, and for some reason the thing he admired about Maralynn seemed like a tragedy for the other girl.
Well, at least I’ve got her smiling again. I’ll have her punching and cursing me by the time the night is through.
He grinned cheerily at the thought and waved farewell once more.
Asher eventually found Master Willow and got his question answered, attended his afternoon lessons, and finished up his essay for Wands before it was time to meet with Tricia again. He was feeling quite accomplished as he left the dorm room, crossing paths with his roommate on the main stairwell.
“Headed out?” Aleric hailed him, stopping on the step above him after they passed each other.
“Yeah, don’t wait up,” he joked. “Trish and I are going out for dinner and dancing.”
His friend raised an eyebrow in surprise and said, “Tricia? Are you finally over Maralynn then?”
“No,” Asher pursed his lips. “Trish was getting picked on by some scumbag earlier and I intervened, which led to this impromptu evening out.”
“Ah,” Aleric’s expression cleared in understanding. “I don’t know why you can’t resist playing the hero, though I don’t begrudge you the night out,” he added.
“Because she’s my friend and Gregg is a waste of oxygen?” Asher posited.
Aleric waved a dismissive hand at this and said, “Of course he is, but Tricia is old enough to fend for herself. I would have left it alone unless I was asked to intervene, and even then, I prefer to let people handle their own problems.”
Well, good thing for Trish that I’m not you…
“You’re just jealous,” he replied brightly. “I get to go out with a lovely young lady tonight, and you’ll be cooped up in the library studying ancient tomes on prism-lore.”
Aleric groaned at this accurate assessment of his evening prospects but said, “‘Lovely’ is a bit of an exaggeration, but to each his own, I suppose.”
Annoyed on Tricia’s behalf, Asher retorted, “There’s nothing wrong with Trish. Not everyone has your lofty standards, most of which involve snobbery and conceit.”
“Are you sure you don’t like her?” his friend prodded. “You’re quite defensive of her…”
“Enjoy your reading,” Asher smiled cheerfully and continued down the stairs, silently wishing for all his friend’s books to be illegible and his notes to fall in a fireplace. Occasionally he was reminded of how different their outlook on life truly was, and this was one of those times.
As he approached the main courtyard, he noted that Tricia was already waiting for him. She had also changed into nicer clothing, not so formal as to declare that she took the date seriously, but better than her everyday attire. It made Asher wonder if he should have changed clothing too, though it was too late to do anything about it now.
“Hey Trish, am I late? I ran into Aleric on the way here and got delayed for a few minutes.”
“No, you’re on time,” she answered, shifting her weight from one foot to the other like she felt awkward.
“You look like you’re expecting to be attacked,” he poin
ted out casually, hoping to lighten the mood. “I’m not that terrifying, am I?”
For a moment his plan seemed to have the opposite effect than intended, because she turned red and looked mortified, but she rallied almost immediately and said, “You could try, but be warned that I’m not afraid to fight back.”
“Too true,” he muttered, rubbing his arm where she normally directed her punches when he was too annoying. “Well then, let’s be off. Do you want to translocate us, or should I?”
“You’re better at it than I am,” she admitted. “Sometimes I end up in the wrong place, and I don’t want to get us stuck on a mountain or something.”
He was wearing his circlet—as always—so he lowered the eyepiece in front of his left eye and said, “Grab on, then.” She took hold of his forearm as he tracked the right sequence of alignments, turning towards the light of the sun and wondering briefly how they were going to get back after it was dark out.
Someone will have a good enough light source for me to cast off of. It’s not like we’ll be dancing in a pitch-black room or anything…
The translocation went smoothly, with the result that he felt nothing at all when they moved from one location to the other.
“You’re good at that,” Trish said grudgingly. “I always stumble on the landing. Master Willow says I’m overenthusiastic in my casting.”
“Don’t feel bad, he says I’m overenthusiastic about everything else,” Asher said with a smile, turning around on the street they were now standing on, looking for a place to eat dinner. “See any good places for eating?”
Tricia turned in a slow circle to take in their surroundings as well, looking contemplative.
“I’ve only been here once, so I don’t know the area very well…but there are signs for the dance hall over there,” she pointed, “so I guess we must be close. You’d think there’d be something nearby…”
Asher saw the signs he had missed before, and he nodded and said, “Let’s go and find out.”
They walked companionably down the street, Asher’s prism circlet drawing a few glances from the people they passed. Natural prism-users being a rare thing, he was used to being a bit of a spectacle to strangers, and ignored the attention easily. Tricia’s wands were less visible on her belt, and she drew fewer glances.
“Ah, there’s a stand that looks like it’s selling things on sticks,” Asher pointed as they drew near, his nose picking up on the scent of cooked meat and spices even before he saw it.
“Stuff on sticks…sounds good to me,” Tricia shrugged, and they made their way over to the stand. Asher was unpleasantly aware of how little spending money he had—the downside of being unemployed and not from a wealthy family.
I can ask Dad for more. He makes a living at Mizzenwald, and he never seems to buy anything for himself…
He hated asking his father for money, not that Torin was unlikely to give him any, but because it hurt his pride to have to beg funds off someone else. Still, he kept his casual spending to a minimum, and Torin would at least understand and probably support the reason why he was taking Trish out tonight.
He ordered skewers of meat and vegetables, and some with fruit and cheese that came with a sweet dipping sauce, while Tricia found a bench for them to sit on and eat. Obscurely, he felt like he should be doing better for her than a wooden bench and food on a stick, but she didn’t seem bothered by it as he put the baskets of food between them and dug in.
“So, do you get pestered like that a lot, or was Gregg a special case?” he asked casually, pulling a chunk of lamb off of a skewer with his teeth.
“It doesn’t happen often,” she said. “I usually don’t get asked out, and when I do, if I say no, they tend to take it with better grace than Gregg did.”
“Must be nice,” Asher said wistfully, addressing her first point. “I must get approached by someone at least once a week—more since the challenge arena where we got a perfect score,” he admitted his frustration. “They’re mostly nice girls, sometimes terribly nervous, and I feel horrible for turning them down. Occasionally I say yes, because I’m too cowardly to hurt their feelings, but it always ends up worse in the end.”
Tricia was silent for a moment, then said, “Well, at least you know people are interested in you…”
“But for what reason?” he countered, taking a second skewer. “Most of the people who approach me aren’t close friends of mine, so they don’t know me very well at all—as a casual acquaintance at best and only by reputation at worst. It makes me wonder what they see in me. Do they think I’m attractive? Smart? Witty? Maybe they just like prism-users? Worse, are they using me to get closer to Aleric, the real prize?”
At the last, Tricia shook her head and said, “You’re not just a means to get to someone else, you know. You have your own merits, some of which you just enumerated.”
“I know, but it’s something that has to cross my mind, because occasionally it happens. Some of our mutual friends only exert so much effort with me because they know I’m close to Aleric, so why not potential girlfriends? Heck, Maralynn even prefers Aleric…”
Tricia looked surprised that he would know this, setting down her empty skewer and saying, “I wasn’t sure if you’d noticed that…”
“How could I not?” Asher asked incredulously. “If you’re as aware of someone as I am of her, it would be impossible not to notice that they blush and flirt constantly with your best friend.”
“Does Aleric know?” she asked gently, as though afraid of treading on dangerous ground. In truth, Asher wasn’t sure why he was discussing this with her, since he normally kept his feelings for Maralynn very private, but since she had already guessed how he felt…
“Of course,” he replied. “Thankfully he has no interest in her, nor would he act on it even if he did out of respect for our friendship. Still, it’s frustrating, trying to make her see that there is not a snowball’s chance in the desert of him ever being with her. If nothing else, he comes from one of the most politically important families on the continent. She’s not quite as much of a nobody as me, but her family is lower-tier at best.”
“Most of us hail from lower-tier families,” Tricia pointed out. “Being friends with Aleric, I’m surprised that sort of thing doesn’t matter to you as much as it does to him…”
“Didn’t you hear me?” he asked with a wry smile. “I’m more of a nobody than most people. Allying myself with almost any mage family would be a step up for me, socially.” He shrugged. “It usually doesn’t bother me, since I think the whole bloodlines and lineage thing is pretty useless…merit and talent should count for more than anything.”
“That would be nice,” Tricia poked at a stray lump of cheese with her empty skewer. “Do you think Maralynn likes Aleric because of his family status, or something else?”
Asher frowned thoughtfully.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I know her mother is certainly interested in the status, but it’s not like I’ve asked Mara personally why she insists on being dazzled by him. He’s certainly handsome enough and charming enough on his own to be interesting to the opposite sex, even outside of his family legacy.”
They were silent for a long moment, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Asher said, “I just wish she could see that it will never work with him, and that I’m clearly the better fit. He isn’t right for her at all, but she refuses to see it, and she somehow misses the thing that’s right in front of her.”
Tricia had an arrested look on her face when she said, “It happens more often than you think.”
“I just don’t see how anyone can miss something so glaringly obvious. I’ve been crazy about her for years and she can’t even see it…”
“I know the feeling,” Tricia mumbled, and Asher turned his focus to her.
“Do you?” he asked with interest. “I didn’t even know you liked anyone in particular…not that I would, I guess, since it’s not the sort of things girls run around bragging about.
”
Tricia nodded, looking mildly nervous at the prospect of discussing it. He resolved not to ask her who she liked, since it would only force her to tell him something she didn’t want him to know—or she would have already mentioned it—or awkwardly refuse his request.
“There’s someone I’ve liked for months now…since last year, really…but he doesn’t have any idea.”
Asher frowned on her behalf.
“Are you friends with him?”
“Yes, so it’s not like he doesn’t know I exist…I just don’t think he’s ever thought of me that way before,” she admitted, her cheeks flushing.
“So you know exactly how I feel then,” he commiserated. “It’s awful. Hopefully you have better luck with it than I seem to be. Have you thought about telling him how you feel?”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Probably as often as you think about telling Maralynn.”
Okay, I deserved that.
“I haven’t been able to say anything, because I know he’s not interested in me, so it would just be him saying so out loud,” she went on. “I keep hoping that one day he’ll just wake up and realize, ‘Oh, wait, Trish has been right here all along!’ ”
Asher could easily understand that wild hope. He must have thought the same thing to himself a hundred times by now. He had never realized how much he and Tricia actually had in common until this moment.
“Well, you’ve got a lot going for you, so he’s an idiot if he doesn’t see it for himself,” he told her. “You’re decent at magic, determined, hard-working, easy to talk to…”
“Wow, such middling praise…” she joked. “Careful, you don’t want to bowl me over with flattery…”
“What’s wrong with what I said?” he asked, honestly confused.
“You make me sound like a good plow horse. Determined…hard-working…decent at magic…” she explained with a flat stare. “Usually when someone is trying to compliment a girl they say she’s pretty, or fun, or whatever lie they are trying to sell to get her to go away and stop whining at them.”
