by Maria Amor
“Thank you,” Guthrie said, smiling at both of them, and Julia sat down opposite the woman, Dylan taking up the seat next to her. Are you here to thank us for helping you get the job, or something else? If it was the first, Julia would have preferred the woman not to bother. If it was something else, she couldn’t help but be intrigued, in spite of the low-level sense of dread that “something else” could include. “I was hoping to find you both ready to head back to the campus tomorrow.”
“Mostly we are,” Julia admitted. “I’ve got my suitcase packed, and I was just about to start on my backpack.” She glanced from Dylan to the older woman in her living room, wondering what the situation was and why it required the new dean to be at her parents’ apartment. Her mother had left them alone, but Julia was sure that she would be back in the room within a few minutes with a tray of something to drink and eat—following in her own mother’s footsteps.
“If you don’t mind us being blunt,” Dylan said, “what’s going on?”
“I don’t mind you two being blunt,” Guthrie said. “In fact, I hope you’ll be fine with me being blunt as well.”
“Definitely would rather you got to the point,” Julia said. “As you pointed out, it’s the night before back-to-school, and we have dinner plans and a long drive tomorrow.” You have a long drive too, Julia thought but didn’t say.
“There’s been some discussion about the arrangement that Ruth Arlen made for the two of you,” Dean Guthrie said. “Being in as many of the same classes as possible, Dylan staying with the air-aligned boys in the dormitory…” she shook her head. “Unfortunately, it’s given rise—we think—to the rumor that the two of you are romantically involved.”
“I think someone probably gave rise to that rumor, but it’s not like we were staying in the same dorm room,” Julia pointed out. “And the reason why we’re so close has been explained again and again.”
“I’m afraid there aren’t many people who believe that the two of you are just companion-and-protege,” Dean Guthrie said. “I’m sure your parents wouldn’t let you spend so much time together if they weren’t perfectly comfortable with it, but we’ve received complaints from parents.”
“So, you’re splitting us up,” Julia said, matter-of-factly.
“Not entirely,” the dean said, a little too quickly. “You will still have the majority of your classes together, but we can’t have Dylan in the air-aligned boys’ dorm anymore.”
“And I’m guessing you’re not going to put Julia in the water-aligned girls’ dorm, either,” Dylan said.
“We can’t,” Guthrie insisted. “The rumors that are out there are that Sandrine is aiding and abetting an underage romance by keeping the two of you so close together. And that’s…” she twisted her lips into a wry little smile. “We can’t let that happen to the school, not after so many scandals last year.”
“Are you saying that because I brought the scandals to light, it’s my fault that I can’t have my protector and companion near me?” Julia folded her arms over her chest. Guthrie was, she remembered, fire-aligned, with a partial family ancestry of air-aligned Guardians. It wasn’t like someone with those characteristics to be so tentative, so worried. “Let me guess: Ruth is pissed.”
“Not the words I would use, but yes,” Guthrie said, showing a flash of the kind of personality that Julia expected. “We have doubled down on security at the school, and if the two of you would go along with us a bit, we could make a compromise.”
“No one’s happy, then,” Dylan observed, and Julia resisted the urge to snicker at his comment.
“Not at the moment, no,” Guthrie admitted. “But over the course of the year, we’re pretty sure the furor will die down, and the two of you can have a normal last year at Sandrine.”
“As long as we go along and get along, you mean,” Julia said.
“Basically,” Guthrie admitted. “We need you two to go along with this.”
“And if we don’t?”
“You’ll still be in separate parts of the dormitories, but you won’t be as free to meet outside of classes,” Guthrie said. Julia raised an eyebrow. “We’re willing to sort of...look the other way, especially as you come into your full abilities, Julia, if the two of you need to meet in the evenings to help with symptom management.” Julia glanced at Dylan.
“You’re saying we can meet in secret if we need to, if we back you,” Dylan said. Guthrie nodded.
“But if we don’t, you’re going to make it impossible,” Julia added. Guthrie nodded again.
“You’re both very astute,” she said with a little smile. “I think you understand the stakes here. I can’t have half the parents’ committee against me, and I also can’t have Ruth Arlen against me.”
“Poor you,” Julia said. “The politics must just be eating you alive.”
“One day soon you’ll see what I’m going through,” Guthrie told her. “That’s not a threat: you are being groomed for politics in our world, and while I’m sure you’re less than thrilled with what’s being required of you right now, you’re going to hate it even more in a few years.”
Guthrie sighed. “In any case, I hope you’ll both consider the position I’m in, and what I can do for the two of you if you’ll cooperate.”
Julia sat back, and her mother came into the room just as she expected, bearing a tray of cheese straws, crackers, charcuterie, and pickles, with a pitcher of iced tea balanced precariously next to the plates. Julia reminded herself that they had a steakhouse dinner to get to in a few hours, and only ate a little bit—enough to reassure Guthrie that she was participating.
She wasn’t sure which was worse: the rumors, or the effect they’d finally had. At least, Julia thought, she would find a way to duck the political future Guthrie had foreseen for her. And at least the rest of the school year couldn’t possibly be nearly as annoying.
CHAPTER FIVE
When Dylan saw the scanty amount of food on Julia’s plate the first morning of classes, he almost told her to go and get more. But the look of distraction on her face told him that she not only wouldn’t really hear him out, but also wouldn’t be up to eating more, even if it would make things easier on her physically. “Weird, isn’t it?” Julia looked up from her plate as if she’d been asleep instead of merely thinking about something else.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Really damn weird.”
He’d moved into the water-aligned boys’ dormitory the day before, unpacking his suitcase into the dresser and closet provided in the room he shared with one other boy; and the whole evening, spent away from Julia, had felt strange. He’d fallen into a fitful sleep late that night, wondering if she was going to have another power surge, wondering what she would do without his help.
The faint glow at Julia’s face, fingers, and neck told him that she was riding high on elemental energy; she probably hadn’t slept any better than he had, and now she was trying to gain enough control to be able to function during the day’s classes.
“It’ll get easier,” he said. “You’re only a couple of months away from having full control.”
“So they say,” Julia countered, her voice bleak. “But I don’t think I’ll just immediately be able to control all the energy.” Dylan considered that and nodded.
“It’ll be a while,” he admitted. “But you’ll have all your abilities.” He still hadn’t told her about Ruth’s lessons—he had had another one, another day during the summer, and Mistral and Ruth were confident that he could manage himself in case Julia came into that particular ability more consciously.
“I’m just tired,” Julia said, picking at the egg white omelette on her plate. “Once things settle in, it’ll be easier.”
“You’re used to using me as a crutch,” Dylan pointed out.
“Not a crutch,” Julia said, her tone defensive. “I’m just…” she took a bite of toast and scooped some of her omelette onto it before eating a little more. “It’s just that I’m used to you being there to help mo
dulate me,” she finished.
“I’ll be there in classes,” Dylan pointed out. “And we’ll be able to meet with each other outside of classes—just not after lockdown.” After eight o’clock, the students—even the seniors—were confined to the dorm sections, and after nine everyone was supposed to remain in their actual dorm rooms. He wouldn’t be able to get to Julia from then until when they could meet again at seven in the morning, outside of the building, on the way to the dining hall; almost twelve hours a day they would be separated.
“I still feel like we should have fought it harder,” Julia said. “Insisted that we be allowed a special privilege to meet up after lockdown with some kind of pass.”
“Let’s let Guthrie get settled in, and then we can start asking for special favors,” Dylan suggested. He’d caught on to the political situation within a few hours of their arrival, at the orientation event that Sandrine held every year. Julia had—over the summer, and as a result of her performance in front of the council—turned into something of a celebrity on campus.
Guthrie needed her to cooperate in order to make a smooth transition for the students, especially that changelings and the other air-aligned creatures who had been so victimized under Dimitrios. Julia had become something of a champion for them—and if Julia seemed to be falling in line under Guthrie, the rest of the air-aligned students would fall in too, or so the dean obviously hoped.
It had been strange for him, going back to the water-aligned dormitories. He shared a room with a nymph named Caen, who had been up even before he was—anxious as Dylan had been—to go down to the baths below the dormitory building where he could spend some time in his element before classes.
It felt natural to be surrounded by people of his own element, but Dylan could sense that more than a few of them still felt betrayed—by his leaving, by the fact that when he’d initially returned, he’d been quartered with the air-aligned students. He would have to work hard to get their trust back, while still being available when Julia needed him.
“I’m going to ask my grandmother for something stronger,” Julia said quietly.
“You’ve already got two really strong potions,” Dylan pointed out. “It’s dangerous to use too many.”
“Well I’ll drop one when I find something better,” Julia insisted. “But I keep feeling like I’m going to have another surge at any minute.” She scrubbed at her shoulders, at her face. “It’s like an itch under my skin.”
“Once you have a more consistent outlet for the energies, you’ll be better,” Dylan told her. It had been true for him; he’d gotten relief from his own power surges in class, when he could use the energy flowing through his body constantly.
“So they say,” Julia said doubtfully. She took a deep breath, and the wind rattled the trees outside of the dining hall, shaking the branches against the windows. A quick glance around the dining hall told Dylan he wasn’t the only one who had noticed. A few people—students and teachers alike—had glanced in her direction. Julia wasn’t the only one in the school who could be the cause of such a phenomenon, but she was the top contender, most of the time.
The majority of air-aligned students at the school didn’t have such a strong manifestation of their talents; they were linguistically gifted, or good with air-aligned creatures, quick-witted, or had low-level compulsion abilities. The fae had their own skills and talents associated with their air alignment, and sylphs and other air-aligned creatures their own as well.
The wind died down and everyone pretended to have their full attention once more on their breakfasts. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to escape being noticed this year,” Dylan told Julia, smiling wryly. “I think you’re just going to have to get used to it.”
He did convince her to grab some fruit to eat between classes before they both left the dining hall; but they had their first class of the day in separate rooms. Being seniors, they had two extra classes in their alignment to take that year, and two fewer “academic” classes on their schedules, since they’d fulfilled the basic requirements. That meant that they were going to be spending two hours less around each other during the day—and Dylan had been nervous about that ever since Guthrie had told them that he couldn’t stay in the air-aligned dormitories anymore.
Dylan broke away from Julia as they reached a fork in the walkway, and started towards his first class of the day; it was with Carswell: Advanced Energy Manipulation for Water-Aligned Guardians. Dylan had had full use of his abilities for three years, and while he tended to think that he had as much control of them as he could want, between Carswell and Julia’s grandmother, he was learning things that he knew his parents would never have considered for him when he was younger.
“Hey Dylan,” Mairi said, pulling him out of his thoughts; Mairi Simonsen was another water-aligned guardian—ultimately with greater power than him, but she’d spent most of her time at Sandrine flirting with boys, instead of studying. “I heard Guthrie broke up you and Julia.”
“She didn’t break us up,” Dylan said. “And really there wasn’t something to break up. We just can’t stay in the same dorm level anymore.”
“I’d heard you two had gotten really close, between everything that happened last year and spending two summers together,” Mairi countered. “Everyone just sort of assumed you were on the path to becoming bonded.”
“We’re not,” Dylan told her. “We’re not even interested in each other that way.”
“What way are you interested in each other?” Mairi raised a slightly red-toned eyebrow at him and Dylan rolled his eyes.
“We’re friends,” he explained. “Ruth wanted me to help her with the transition.”
“You’re sure Ruth didn’t just set you up to eventually be her mate? That seems like something she would do.”
“You’ve never even met her—how would you know?” Dylan couldn’t quite argue that it would be totally unlike the water-aligned Guardian to do something like that; after all, he’d seen how devious the older woman was.
“Her reputation is pretty strong,” Mairi said. “Besides, you’d be pretty much of a catch—keep those strong genes within the water alignment, and you’re powerful enough to complement Julia’s genetics.” Dylan scowled.
“I’ve never even thought about it,” he said, feeling faintly disgusted.
“You should,” Mairi said, almost chirping it cheerily. “You’ve got money, status, and power—and you’re hot. You shouldn’t let yourself go to anyone who’s less-than.” Dylan half-smiled wryly at the girl.
“Let me guess: you have every intention of playing the field until you find someone who’s got all those qualities in spades, and then you’ll settle down?” Mairi shrugged.
“If you’re single, maybe we can see how things go between us,” she suggested. “People say I’m pretty fun to go out with.”
“I’m not really all that interested in going out,” Dylan said. Even if he didn’t have the obligations to Julia that he did, Dylan hadn’t been all that interested in dating around for at least the last two years.
“Well, then, it’s probably for the best that you and Julia aren’t interested in each other—that way, I mean,” Mairi said, giving him a quick smile. “Shame, though.” They reached the classroom and Dylan opened the door for Mairi, trying not to think too much about Julia, on her way to her own class.
Carswell was an older man, with the pale blue eyes that Guardians with a water alignment tended to have; he was at least 80, though he only looked to be in about his sixties, with graying hair and a still-strong body. Dylan had hated the professor in his earlier classes, when the man had pushed him to get what he called “real control” of his emotional-energy states; but the lessons that Carswell had given him over the years had given Dylan a strong base to start from when it came to the advanced things that his other professors—and Ruth—had to teach him.
Dylan slipped into a desk in the far corner of the room, not wanting to draw any more attention to hi
mself than he had to; he knew that until he saw Julia again, he was going to be worried about her—and worried about her adjustment to new classes, to the lack of his presence, to the energy coursing through her body almost constantly.
“Good morning, good morning,” Carswell said, as the last of the students took their seats. “This year is going to be particularly strenuous for all of you—that’s the bad news. The good news is that once you’ve completed this course, you’ll have much stronger abilities to not only control your own emotional reactivity to energetic forces, but also to manipulate others’ emotional reactivity.” Carswell grabbed up a sheaf of papers and divided them amongst the four rows, handing them to the student at the front of each row to pass back amongst the seats.
Dylan watched the older man walking back and forth at the front of the room, hands behind his back. “This class is to teach you the kind of control that you will be expected to show as adult Guardians,” Carswell said. “Many of you have previous experience with mild, minor emotional control spells and abilities,” the professor continued. “Some of you have even performed stronger, more advanced manipulations, going directly to the emotional source: the energy itself.”
Dylan half-listened to the man speak, looking over the syllabus as he took his copy of it. Julia’s class was something to do with her elemental alignment as well, but Dylan couldn’t remember what it was; for himself, the class with Carswell would go over the ground that Ruth had already covered with him, helping to control and manipulate the emotional states of other people.
The School of Sandrine didn’t allow the level of control that Ruth had taught him, but the lessons in front of him would include assisting people in managing grief, using his energy to “wash away” someone’s anger, tolling the depths of another person’s joy, fear, and more.
“One of the strongest facets of water-aligned energy is emotion,” Carswell explained. “Healing and soothing are the only facets that are quite as strong—and even in those cases, individual competences vary greatly. At heart, water-aligned creatures, including us Guardians of the Four Corners, are emotionally reactive and emotional conduits.” Dylan looked around the room; he knew most of the students in the room with him, had worked alongside them for years. “Some of you will do very well in this class—and like always, some of you will not.”
