ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT: Vantage Points

168

******

 

Haoyu sat backwards in the desk chair, his arms propped on the backrest while he watched Alden take a turtleneck from his closet and fold it. “How do you avoid getting lost?”

Lexi, leaning against the door frame, groaned. “He tells us he’s going to sleep over at Matadero, and your first question is how he finds the place?”

I need my uniform, too.

Alden reached for the hanger. “The wizard who’s been healing me is at Matadero. It’s more convenient for him if I’m there.”

Esh-erdi had said it was fine to blame his housing arrangements on Porti-loth.

“I don’t think I’ll be staying there much longer.” They’d said a few days, and it had already been a few. “And I’m not going to get lost because the System is willing to give me directions if I ask for them.”

“Nice,” said Haoyu. “Next time one of my parents goes there, I’m going to tell them they’re no big deal. Even sixteen-year-olds can hang out at the cube if they want. What’s it like?”

Alden stuffed a pair of sweatpants into his bag. “It’s pretty normal inside. The parts I’ve seen, anyway. I’m just staying in a room. There’s a cafeteria.”

Haoyu smiled. “I shouldn’t have asked. Mom and Dad can’t tell me much more than that either.”

“You’re getting away with so much peculiarity right now just because everything else is insane, too,” Lexi said. “Everyone’s either got their own drama to deal with, or they’re distracted by the fact that a girl in our class warned SkySea about the Submerger boat.”

“Yeah. I need to watch all the news,” said Alden. “I missed hearing about Maricel.”

“How?” Haoyu asked. “It’s been everywhere.”

“I was visiting…that person Lexi wants me to call my elderly aunt.”

After a long pause, the two of them spoke at the same time.

“At Matadero?” asked Haoyu.

“Of course you were.”

“On Artona I,” said Alden. “My elderly aunt was worried about me after what happened and invited me over. It was actually a really good reset.”

Haoyu laughed at the look on Lexi’s face.

“Anyway, that’s where I’ve been and where I’m going. Enough about me. How’s your family, Lexi? Did you get a chance to salvage stuff from your apartment? Is your boat still on the roof?”

 

******

 

Halfway between Anesidora and Matadero, ten meters above the crests of the waves, Alden sat in the center of a green flying platform, watching the horizon. The sun was setting. He didn’t want to fly in the dark, so he would have to move on soon. But for now, for these few minutes, there was something about this spot that had made him pause his flight toward the cube.

He thought about how he could point the finger with the driving ring on it in one direction and be back on campus with Haoyu and with Lexi.

Or I can point it west, and be surrounded by wizards.

A foregone conclusion this evening, since he’d already promised Porti-loth he’d come back and submit to a final mud potion treatment. But there was still something about this moment and this place.

Tomorrow was Thanksgiving. It was one of the more lightly celebrated holidays on the island, even when everyone wasn’t recovering from a disaster. But Alden had gotten an invitation for a feast at the girls’ apartment, so he was looking forward to it.

He was wondering if it would be appropriate for him to bring food. Connie was cooking something for Brodie’s family. Brodie’s family didn’t have an S-rank cooking Rabbit, though. He’d figure it out tomorrow morning.

Then Friday was duels again. Then he had a weekend with no firm plans.

December. Christmas. New Year.

He thought he would see Stuart a few times between now and the end of the year. He would be scheduling Alden’s first meeting with the mind healer. As soon as possible, he’d said, and that probably meant very soon, considering who he was.

The talks with Stuart and with her were good.

He felt like he’d regained some of the stability he’d lost on Friday night. Like he’d been given a little patch of solid ground to stand on. And if I can have more of that, if a mind healer can help, that will make the next step possible, won’t it?

A way out of the quicksand.

It can be a start.

“Hey, System,” he said. “Call Boe.”

Boe answered in just a few seconds. He was standing with his back to the bathroom mirror, and in the reflection, Alden could see a layer of white foam oozing down the shower wall.

“What’s up?” Boe asked.

“Me. Currently flying over open ocean on the magic nonagon I sent you pictures of. Happy Almost Turkey Day.”

“You too. What was with your last few text messages, though? Did you forget how to write short ones?”

Yeah. I thought he would wonder about that.

“I was away from Earth a little while,” Alden said in the most casual tone he could manage. “I wanted to keep in touch, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay the messaging fee for anything less than novel-length.”

Boe actually took a step forward. “Why were you off-planet? You can’t be summoned yet, right? Was it something to do with—?”

“I’m fine. It was a social trip to Artona I, not a summoning or anything bad. I went to visit the friend who helps me keep in touch with Kibby.”

“Stuart.”

“You remember.”

Boe’s brows pinched together. “The name of your wizard phone buddy? Yes. Did you think I was going to let that one slip my mind? You just…go to his house now?”

“He invited me,” said Alden. “He was worried after everything that happened. It was honestly great to get away from Anesidora for a while and reset. Distance can give you perspective.”

Boe took a second to answer. “Well, you can’t get much more distance than that.”

“You’re out of school until Monday, right?” Alden asked. “How’s your return to life going? And what are you going to do for Thanksgiving? Other than clean the shower.”

“There was enough mildew on the grout that I was worried about it evolving into an intelligent life form.” Boe pushed up his glasses. The frames Dragon Rabbit had chosen looked good. “Jeremy invited me over for lunch tomorrow, but it’s a family time. I’ll probably just—”

“You should go. His parents do postcard-perfect holidays. I bet the turkey has those little paper chef hats on its leg bones and everything.”

“I don’t think—”

“You do think. You’re overthinking. A wise man once said, ‘Don’t overthink. Overdo.’ There will be tons of people at Jeremy’s. One more won’t be an imposition for his family.”

“What wise man said that?”

Alden ignored the question. “If I call you tomorrow and you aren’t enjoying a food coma, I’ll feel sorry for you.”

“I’ll consider it.”

“At least go tell Jeremy Happy Thanksgiving and take a to-go plate.”

“Maybe.”

Alden nodded. “I really just called to say hi. And show off my ride. And tell you I’m in the process of making plans for the next few months, and those plans include zero sticking my neck out—unless demons start falling from the sky on campus or something—so you have plenty of time to catch up. You’re welcome.”

Boe pointed a squirt bottle at him. “You should be banned from mentioning hypothetical disaster scenarios.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m positive you just doomed an entire campus by saying that.”

Alden gasped in mock outrage.

“What do your plans include, if sticking your neck out didn’t make the list?”

“I am…going to sort myself out up here.” He tapped his own temple. “And I’m going to try to calm down and make the right choices.”

“About what?”

“Everything that comes at me really,” said Alden. “The future. Being an Avowed. My class schedule for next semester. Whether or not to offer up a dish for a friendly Thanksgiving supper.”

“All equally important.” Boe tilted his head. “Hey…was the flood situation worse than you let on?”

Alden considered putting off explaining again, but only for a moment. “It was. I was with someone who got hurt badly, and I thought I could get us both somewhere safe. But it just became more and more impossible with every step I took.”

Boe didn’t say anything.

“It wasn’t like before,” said Alden. “Adrenaline was a much larger factor in my decision making. And I had time to get to know the person a little before the situation spiraled out of control. She helped me out, too. The parts that look too risky or insane now…I wasn’t in a state of mind where I could calmly judge them, then.”

He waited, holding his breath.

“Just one?” Boe finally asked.

“What?”

“Just one more for the list?” His tone was neutral.

“Yes. Only one.”

“That makes ten,” said Boe. “Double digits are more satisfying anyway.”

Alden felt himself relax. “You’re not counting Gudrun the Great Dane or Tiny Snake?”

“Animals go on a separate list.”

“Good to keep it organized.”

“I do my best.”

 

******

 

“Wow…thank you?” Alden was staring at thick brown sludge inside a thermos while Porti-loth guided his bare foot into a tub of healing mud. “This looks exactly like the potion we’re using for my body.”

They were in his hospital room, and he was sitting by the table that had held Tiny Snake’s container. According to his messages, Esh-erdi had decided to invite the reptile to live in his room until Alden returned. So that it wouldn’t be lonely.

“It is the same potion,” said Porti-loth.

“I’ll be drinking dirt?”

“Do you need me to explain to you again why a patient should eat the natural foods of his world when his healer tells him to?”

“No, no. I’ll swallow this. Somehow.”

He took a cautious sip. Tastes like I’m drinking someone’s leftover spa treatment.

He wondered how the whole birth dirt potion experience worked, and why it was different from his previous healings. Esh-erdi complained about Porti-loth being too traditional, but Alden doubted the complaints were sincere. After all, if the knight had wanted a different healer around, surely he would have just requested one.

“An Avowed healed me when I was with the Quaternary,” he said. Porti-loth hadn’t started chanting yet, so he figured it was all right to ask a question. “And Rynez-yt in Chicago, Illinois healed me when I was younger. There seem to be a lot of ways to do it.”

“Yes.” Porti-loth let go of Alden’s foot and stood, tucking his lenses into the pocket of his coat with a muddy hand. He drew himself up to his full, and very short, height. “My way is better.”

Alden would have bet argold on him saying that. He watched the wizard rub some extra potion on his own forearms. That was the last step before he would start hooting like an owl.

“Why is it better? If it’s all right to ask.”

“I make your body forget it was hurt. No reversion. Strong starting place for next time you need healing. If someone casts a spell of old wounds on you, none of the ones I treat reappear.”

He cleared his throat and lifted his arms.

There’s a spell of old wounds? thought Alden. Let’s not ever get hit with that one.

He patiently endured the chanting and the sludge. When Porti-loth had finished and departed, he sat digesting his potion and tried not to worry about the fact that his stomach was radiating heat.

I could learn a healing spell, couldn’t I? Eventually.

There wasn’t one in his book. Maybe after he’d gotten through it.

He wanted to pull his auriad out and practice right now. Visiting Stuart and watching him cast spells had made him even hungrier for it than usual. But he had about a dozen tasks on his to-do list for tonight, and it was already getting late.

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One thing at a time. What’s most important?

It had to be the upcoming meeting with the mind healer. Stuart had asked him what he wanted from such sessions, and Alden had explained a few goals he was certain of—preventing the kind of panic attack he’d had on the bus, nightmare reduction, getting distance from the bad shit.

He was glad he’d started the conversation right after waking up from the meeting with her. The honesty that felt so natural when he was talking to her had transferred over, and by the time he started feeling embarrassed to be getting into his mental state in detail, Stuart had already mentioned enough personal mind healer experiences of his own that it was like they were discussing an unfortunate shared hobby.

The person he hoped to introduce Alden to was, predictably, such a renowned figure that even wizards had trouble getting in to see her.

Alden still couldn’t quite believe he’d asked for the help. He was glad that he’d told Stuart he wanted it, because now, if he tried to change his mind, he’d have to apologize for inconveniencing the art’h family and the healer who was clearing her schedule for him.

Yay for committing to things that are good for you in ways that are difficult to escape from after the fact.

Since he knew it was coming up sooner rather than later, he needed to take care of the thing he kept failing at: when he went to one of the Triplanets again, he would be blending in with clean, appropriate clothing, and he would have more than one outfit to change into.

The Rabbit man is always prepared.