by N. M. Howell
“No one is unstoppable,” she said. “But you can fortify your mind and your abilities by knowing about the options available to you, which is one of the things we’ll do in this class. Plant magic might seem lame or uninteresting, maybe not even worth learning, but consider this: when the Chancellor wanted to kill those eight hundred diplomats at the Winter Festival last year he did it by using a crossbred plant species. I know because I helped breed them.”
The students finally settled down and their faces become completely sober. Andie didn’t want to scare them, but to impress upon them the gravity of what they could learn there and of the world they lived in.
“Ms. Rogers,” another student began. “Are we learning how to fight so that we can take on the enemies threatening Arvall?”
Andie looked at the boy, who couldn’t be more than sixteen and who was so fragile-looking she feared a strong wind could blow him over. He looked anxious, unsure. They all did. Andie realized that by taking away their excitement, their joy to be learning from her, she’d exposed their fear. It was the same fear the whole city was trying to mask. But she knew she couldn’t tell them the truth. They’d decided in the meeting that they would keep everything secret. She must lie.
“Don’t worry. No one’s coming to the city. You’re perfectly safe.”
She turned their attention back to horological magic and introduced them to the topics and books they would be studying. She gave them a tour of Victory. She found herself ashamed to be so good at misleading them, at giving them hope that will more than likely prove false. Yet it also felt good to see them smile and hear them laughing and looking forward. The class soon ended and Andie took a moment to celebrate her first teaching experience. Then the next class came. She had to begin lying all over again.
Soon the day was done. Andie grabbed a few things from her office and boarded SKY 6 to the city. Once the train reached the bottom, she boarded another train to cross the city, then another to Michaelson. Once there, she paid a visit to her old home. She didn’t have the heart to sell it or have it taken down. Instead, she paid to have it cleaned regularly, though she knew she would probably never live there again. The house was all she had left of her parents, though. Her mother who was murdered for being different and her father who died because Andie was too angry to take care of him properly. She shed a few tears and then boarded the Sud to Taline.
By the time she reached the city, night had fallen. She caught a cab in front of the station. Her cell rang.
“Hi,” Raesh’s voice echoed through the receiver. “I didn’t see you leave today.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to get over to Taline before it got late. I wanted to make visiting hours.”
“It’s okay. I was just there a couple days ago.”
“It’s not fair.”
There was a moment of silence while the weight of the situation hung.
“I love that you’re still going,” Raesh said. “I know it’s hard and I know how much you want a miracle. I want one, too.”
“Let’s talk about something else. How was your first day?”
“Great,” he said. “I think the students really responded to the lesson. I wasn’t sure about giving them an assignment on the first day, but they seemed really into the idea of research. I can’t believe I taught four classes today. You?”
“Well, us mere nomags can only handle two classes a day, but it was pretty amazing. I never thought I could warm to teaching so easily. I feel honored to be responsible for someone else’s knowledge.”
“I’m sure you’re going to have a great year. You’re kind of like royalty there. Everyone wants to know you. Professors, students. I heard some janitors mooning over you...”
“Ha. Ha. I didn’t ask to be famous.”
“True, but you do it well. I snuck in your class to see you this afternoon.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought you were amazing and that you looked more beautiful than anyone or anything I’ve ever seen.”
“As far as compliments go, that’s definitely a top contender.”
“I mean it. I’m so happy you stopped hiding the color of your hair and eyes. And not just that, but your energy. Your drive. Everything about you. You’re perfect, Andie.”
“If I say it back now it’s just going to sound stupid,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it. I already know I’m perfect.”
She laughed as the cab pulled up at The Letter, the largest hospital in western Noelle. When Andie was a child it was destroyed in a terrorist attack, but had since been rebuilt and made bigger and stronger than ever. It was rebuilt out of the most advanced loveglass, and was virtually impossible to infiltrate or attack. Andie felt a weight coming over her heart as she looked up at the massive structure.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m here.”
“Alright. Call me when you’re done.”
“Okay. I’ll probably just stay at a hotel tonight. It’s too late to take a train back and I probably won’t feel like making the trip anyway.”
“No problem. I’ll just see you tomorrow afternoon. Talk to you soon.”
Andie hung up and exited the car. It was a slow walk because she was thinking of all the things that place represented. She had to go through a few security checkpoints, but it was really a quick process, especially since everyone in western Noelle knew who she was. She caught the elevator to the seventy-seventh floor and walked to the end of the hall. When she entered the room, it was as if the breath had left her body. It happened to her every time.
Carmen lay in bed, unresponsive, as she had been since the explosion in the Hot Salts. The doctors said her coma was unlike anything they’d ever seen. They’d tried so many treatments and methods that Andie had lost count. The problem was due in large part to the fact that no one was quite sure what spells the Chancellor was sending through Marvo’s body. The spellwork was foreign to them, and, with both the Chancellor and Marvo dead, there was no way to test. Carmen had been lying in that bed in Taline for months. The doctors said that if she didn’t wake up on her own, she’d never wake up at all.
Andie walked around the bed to the side facing the window. She sat down on the bed next to her friend and put another chocolate bar in the top drawer of the bedside table. She brought Carmen’s favorite candy every time she came to visit. All three drawers were almost full. She saw the new flowers that Raesh brought the last time he was there. Overwhelmed by thought of how much Raesh himself must be handling the loss of his family, her stomach clenched in tight knots.
Andie took Carmen’s hand and kissed her cheek, trying to remember what the old days were like before the University ruined everything.
“Oh, Ms. Rogers, it’s you.” The calm voice of a nurse spoke through the doorway as she carried in a small tray of medical supplies.
“Hi, Alecia. Long day?”
“They’re all long. You? You look pretty chipper tonight.”
“First day teaching and it went surprisingly well. Has she had many visitors today?”
“Not today. Most days she usually does. Dragonborn, council fighters, old friends from Arvall. Actually, there was someone here earlier. They didn’t stay long. Kind of creeped me out to be honest.”
“Why? Did they do anything?”
“Not particularly. They were just... odd. They were dressed in all black and stood in the far corner without saying a word. They didn’t stay long and didn’t say anything, but they seemed, I don’t know, dangerous. More like they were spying on her than checking on her.”
“I’ll keep an eye out. Send word to me if you see them again.”
“I sure will, sweetheart. You have a good night. And don’t worry about visiting hours, stay as long as you like.”
Alecia left and Andie bagan to wonder about who could be spying on Carmen and why. It was one more thing she never thought of. Carmen was a huge part of the resistance, and she fought fiercely alongside Andie and the others. If anyone wanted revenge, they c
ould simply come to The Letter and kill Carmen while she lay there defenseless. Or worse yet, they could take her and hold her for ransom, allowing them to get almost anything from Andie and her friends. She made a mental note to increase the security on Carmen’s hallway.
“Hi, gorgeous,” she said, stroking Carmen’s hair. “I know, I was just here the other day, but I missed you. I was kind of hoping you’d take pity on me and wake up. I’m sure you’ve got a whole host of insults and blunt talk you’ve been storing up while you rest. I don’t think I can take it all at once, but if you spread it out evenly over, say, a week, I’m sure I can handle it. What do you say? You up for a reunion?
“I get it. No hard feelings. You’re just not ready yet. I mean, honestly, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get back here either, not with all these... never mind. That can wait. I don’t know if Raesh told you this, but... we’re together. Together together. I know what you’re thinking: why did it take so long? I just wanted you to be the first to know it and to know that I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. I know there’s so much going on in the world, so many things to watch out for, but he makes me so ridiculously happy. And I trust him completely. Which is why you need to wake up so you can berate me for still not having told him I love him when I’ve known it for so long now.
“Where are you now? Somewhere peaceful, I hope. You deserve it. It’s hard to imagine where we came from and who we use to be. Almost as hard as it is to imagine where we’re headed. I don’t think you realize how much we need you. Not just your skill and your power, but your light. Your determination. Your mostly inappropriate jokes. I never realize how much I need you until I’m here. But hey, no pressure. You come back whenever you’re ready.”
She held Carmen’s hand. Minutes passed, then hours. Nurses and doctors came and went, having brief and hushed conversations with Andie and giving her updates on Carmen’s condition, if they could even really be called updates. The moon came up in the night sky and Andie tried to watch the stars, but the lights of the city were too bright. Instead of getting a room in the city, Andie stayed in the room with Carmen.
Chapter Six
The next morning, she kissed Carmen’s cheek and said goodbye. She made it back to the University just in time to receive her first class of the day. Tuesdays and Thursdays she taught Plant-Based Poisons to the 3rd and 4th Cycles. The students seemed to like the material and her teaching, and the day went by without a hitch. She had two more classes, and, aside from the students’ inability to get past her celebrity, she’d consider her day a success.
After class, she walked to the second east wing of the University and waited for Raesh to finish his class. He came out looking pleased.
“Good day?” she asked, kissing his cheek.
“Yeah. Do your students stare at you like you’re royalty?”
“Oh, so you have that, too…”
Together they walked to the main hub and caught SKY 1 up through the mountain to the faculty living spaces. The train went much slower than SKY 6, but Andie enjoyed this ride more. Everything on the train was free, and rather than going straight up through the rock of the mountain—which would have risked the structural integrity of the entire summit—SKY 1 went a few hundred feet straight up and then exited to the side of Brie, where it ascended to the top by traveling around and around the summit at a steady incline. They’d caught it at just the right time because the sun was just going down over Arvall. Raesh held Andie’s hand as they watch.
“Quite a view,” he said.
“If you’re into gorgeous sunsets and vivid, sprawling colors.”
“I already know the answer, but—”
“No change. She’s still in a coma and they still have no idea what to do for her. But she looks good, if that means anything.”
“It means enough.”
“I can’t believe you tricked me into moving in with you,” Andie said, grinning.
“Tricked? You and I remember things very differently. But if you truly feel that strongly about it, there’s plenty of other spaces available on the mountaintop. Feel free to move along.”
“I never said I had an issue with being tricked. Unless you think we’re moving too fast?”
“We should’ve been together the day we met. Let’s be honest: the lives we lead aren’t the safest. When I think of all the time we’ve wasted and the people we’ve lost, the things we’ve seen and the enemies that are still coming... no, I don’t think we’re moving too fast. I don’t think we’re moving fast enough.”
He kissed her cheek and Andie didn’t say it, but she agreed with him completely. In a world where so much was out of her control, Raesh was at least something that she wanted that she could have. No matter what threats showed themselves in the future, nothing could change the way she and Raesh felt about each other. The train continued its journey around the mountain until it finally reached the summit. Andie and Raesh descended and made their way back into the mountain through the tunnel.
The professors’ living spaces were, in a word, sumptuous. No expense had been spared in the construction, decoration, or furnishing. They had the best of everything, despite Andie’s instruction to allocate resources elsewhere during construction. The University may have been completely heinous, but they took care of their instructors, and now all of that luxury belonged to the new professors. Any dragonborn-hating propaganda had been ejected, but there was still enough luxury to go around. Everything was made from gold, silver, and even jewels. The rugs and paintings and fixtures had been brought from the farthest and most decadent corners of Noelle. Even the floors were made of platinum loveglass, a material so expensive and so rare that most people never came within a hundred kilometers of it in their lives. The opulence truly couldn’t be overstated.
“I still can’t believe we live here,” Raesh said. “I know we got rid of all the propaganda and anything that even remotely resembled sympathy or acceptance of the University’s actions, but, I don’t know, sometimes I just feel like…”
“Like we should burn the whole place down and dump the ashes in the Spider Sea? Yeah. That idea was discussed. In depth. But ultimately this is just stuff. Really, really nice stuff that has nothing to do with hatred or evil. Actually, we checked the records and most of this stuff was actually sent as gifts. Regardless, I see no reason to be mad at diamonds. They didn’t do anything to me.”
“Fair.”
“Now let’s talk about the meeting with Lymir and Oren.”
“Oren’s getting ready to fly back to the Hot Salts and get the dragonborn army ready. He’s concerned the location of the dragonborn might not be secure. To be honest, I agree with him. I think it’s safest to assume that nothing is safe anymore.”
“Tell me about it. Alecia was telling me last night that some stranger was spying on Carmen. Don’t worry, I had them increase the security detail and keep a closer eye on the camera, but I’m beginning to realize that we have too many people who are important to us spread over too great a distance.”
“Agreed. Oren and Saeryn decided it might be best to move all the dragonborn to Brie until further notice. It should work out fine, since half of the dragonborn are already here or in Arvall anyway. They would’ve consulted you, but—”
“They knew I’d agree anyway.”
“Right. Lymir’s working on a new training program for the professors. He’d like to train a few students, too. Anyone who shows promise and proves themselves to be discreet. We’ve reached out to some militia in western Noelle, but we haven’t heard back yet. Taline has promised us whatever we need, including soldiers. I think we’ve got as much of a handle on this thing as possible right now. Have you been in contact with Marcus Iceubes?”
“Yeah, I spoke with him between classes today. He’s still pouring over the journals I found. I was worried there might not be as much in them as I thought, but, apparently, he can’t research fast enough. He’s pulling out hundreds of secrets every week. I know there’s got to be som
ething in there that can help us in this war. He’s going to give his classes over to a colleague so he can spend more time with the pages. He seems hopeful. And Saeryn and I are still studying grimoires, at least those we can read. We need a translator, but it has to be someone we trust. I know we hoped things might be worked out diplomatically, but I think it’s safe to say that’s never going to happen.”
“We never have time to celebrate one victory before it’s right back to battle.”
“Yeah. Life sucks like that.”
In their apartment, they dropped their things by the door and made their way to the couch. Raesh laid down and then Andie fell in his arms, her face against his chest.
“Well,” she said. “Let’s get ready to win a war.”
The days passed slowly. Andie, Raesh, Lymir, and the other professors began training at night on the summit. Many of them were smart, driven, and fully aware of the danger they faced, but few of them had ever been in a fight. Raesh called all the fighters that once fought alongside his father to help train the professors and select students.
Before the fighters returned to Arvall, they had been on assignment in and around the String Fields. Their mission was to gather intelligence on any threats in the region, but the Beautiful Dead and anyone else who’d been hiding near the border had evaded capture. The fighters had not learned much other than that the Beautiful Dead had taken every man, woman, and child from several small towns nearby and taken their resources. News of the deed spread quickly, and the city, the entire region, began to get suspicious. The fighters did succeed in wiping out several small factions on their way to join the army in the Church of Stone and Sea. They’d brought back one from each faction and the professors had learned a great deal about the army’s capabilities and attack methods. Andie had been right. The army was already on its way and would reach Arvall in less than a month. The fighters also caught the trail of the battalion, but it was deemed too risky to follow. No one really knew what the battalion was up to or what it was capable of.
