TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY-ONE: Snow XIII

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“You are wasting our youth, Stu-art’h. And I say to you that you should feel shame for that…and make it up to us by being excited with us and by us for a while.”

The speaker’s bare feet were swinging over the edge of a balcony that wrapped around one of the canopy houses overlooking the LeafSong campus. His hair, tucked into a cap that was tinting it, would shift colors throughout the night.

Most of his school uniform lay in a heap on the red wood of the balcony floor. Another boy, still in uniform, knelt on a cushion behind him, painting silver edges on the blue stripes that marked the dark skin of his back.

“If you did want to come with us, I could do your back, too, Stu.”

“Thank you for the offer, Bayab,” said Stu, from the hammock where he lounged. He didn’t look away from the tablet he was reading. “I’m still not attending this sort of party.”

Bayab-oth and Eeaner-ket both knew why.

Stu had explained the rules he’d set for himself after the mishnen debacle far more times than the once that should have been sufficient. But people persisted in encouraging him to stop depriving himself of sex and other experiences that were likely to lead to similarly altered mood. The gatherings at Minya’s house rarely offered much else.

Stu had been tricked into going twice before with promises that they would all be casting rare spells together, which did happen when other students were hosting events, but at Minya’s there were never enough people in a fit state to cast anything interesting.

“Minya has gathered everything for a smoke of flight ritual,” said Bayab, turning a brown eye toward Stu. “It’s one from Yethan, I think?”

“Call me if the ritual actually begins. Last time, the ingredients all ended up in potions and pockets.”

“Wasting our youth,” Eeaner said again.

“Surely if I’m wasting youth, it’s only my own.”

A green bug landed on the edge of Stu’s tablet. Their house was enchanted to prevent the wildlife from coming in, but creatures could make it through if they happened to be buzzing around one of the residents when they entered. Stu leaned over and brushed the visitor off onto one of the plants that grew in their balcony garden. They were all easy to care for, and this bug wouldn’t harm them. More senior students were required to keep more temperamental plants alive.

“Ro-den will be back from Earth eventually,” said Eeaner, “and our work will double because of it. We all have to live in pleasure while we still can.”

“Maybe he’ll stay on Earth,” Bayab said hopefully.

“Maybe he’ll die there,” said Eeaner, touching the tattoo on his stomach that had been there ever since they’d gone with Jel-nor and the others to summon the mishnen. Everyone else’s parents had allowed them to remove theirs after the contracts with Ro-den were ended, but Eeaner’s mother thought keeping visible evidence of the bad decisions they’d made that day was a lesson for him. If he got the tattoo removed, she’d stop paying for nonessentials, and he was someone who enjoyed more nonessentials in a day than most people could find time for in a week.

There was a new necklace made of solar jewels collecting light on the balcony table, and he’d been interviewing an engraver earlier because he wanted a dissection blade he hardly ever used to be decorated.

“Do you think he’s trying to do something nice for the human who almost died, and that’s why he’s taking so long?” Bayab suggested. “If the human spoke in his favor, would they restore his title of distinguishment?”

“Of course not,” said Eeaner. “Perhaps if Ro-den came close to losing his own life in pursuit of something worthy. You need to learn a little about how these things work if you want to be more than a lowly graduate of a good school one day, Bayab. Worli Ro-den has so much wind against him he can barely keep his skin on. He’ll have to come up with something shockingly brilliant just to take the next step forward, but even geniuses can’t have endless breakthroughs.”

Eeaner looked over his shoulder to Stu. “I bet that Ryeh-b’t knows how not to waste his youth. After he survived something like that, don’t you think his friends must still be holding parties in his honor every day?”

Stu didn’t know how to respond to them bringing up Alden like this.

It’s a natural progression of their thoughts. The mishnen, Ro-den, and my refusal to go with them to parties like Minya’s are all related to each other and to him.

But Stu was currently looking over his notes on skills and thinking about Alden, too. In such a different way than his housemates.

“Did your family gift him with something in addition to the commendation from the Quaternary? Is that something you usually do?” Eeaner asked.

“It would be shameful if any Avowed commended by one of our knights had an unmet need,” said Stu.

Eeaner frowned. “So you only look for unmet needs instead of giving extravagances?”

“What reason do you have for being disappointed in that?” Stu asked.

The matter of rewarding Alden had been changed by Stu’s relationship with him anyway. And if Eeaner knew more, he would surely think that the meeting of Alden’s needs had already entailed extravagances beyond whatever he was imagining them giving. Aunt Alis had spent some of the Mother’s favor on him, and while obtaining Yenu-pezth’s healing had cost Stu nothing but a request, there was almost no one else who could request her service and be as sure of receiving a yes as he had been.

There was also what Stu was reading on his tablet right now.

Guardian of Gates was a skill currently being used by two knights who’d had it modified in slightly different ways prior to binding it. Alden was going to love learning about it. The inspiration for it was an older skill called Faithful Guardian that Stu would study next. Tracing a skill’s historical roots wasn’t necessary, but it was one of his preferred ways of encountering ideas that were new to him.

“I wanted to give the human something the next time I saw him,” said Eeaner, “but it’ll be strange for me to do anything if your family hasn’t given him a gift.”

Stu let the tablet fall onto his chest. “When do you expect to see Alden again?”

“Whenever LeafSong summons him again, of course.”

Bayab had just painted the last silver line on Eeaner’s back, and he was putting the cosmetic brush back in its cleaning case. “That’s right. They’ll want to summon him for something, won’t they?”

“It’s difficult to place an Avowed like that,” Eeaner said. “Obviously he won’t work anywhere near Ro-den, but if they don’t get him back here in some way, it will reflect poorly on the school.”

“He can work as a server at parties like last time!”

“He might do work for someone higher up than Ro-den. The librarians could use his skill, and the school could make news of him being trusted to move one of the Great Rarities.”

“What makes you both think he wants to come back here after everything that happened to him?” Stu demanded.

“If he never comes back, it’ll seem that he blames LeafSong for something,” Eeaner said, standing and stepping over to the table to check his necklace. “Do you think he might use a refusal? Why? I suppose they won’t risk that. Maybe they’ll just have him come for something fun. As a guest.”

“He’s…” My friend. Someone who wouldn’t want to be used for the school’s sake like that. “He’s someone who has his own school to go to. And if he wants to avoid LeafSong, he shouldn’t need to use a refusal for it.”

Alden might actually like moving a Great Rarity for one of the libraries or the museum. Stu had to be careful not to refuse on his behalf out of a sudden alarm at the thought of him being here, subjected to people much more offensive than Stu’s housemates.

What if he’s summoned while I’m away?

“If he came to a party here on campus, as an honored guest of the school, you’d have no choice but to attend!” Eeaner laughed. “Maybe that’s how we’ll get you to grow your hair back out.”

Alden could call on anyone in my family for help if these people treated him with disrespect, but would he?

Stu had gotten to his feet, but there was no place to go that would fix the disquiet these two had caused. He looked down at the box he’d been carrying around all day. He’d given it a very weak enchantment for silence. He wished he could put a stronger one on Eeaner and Bayab as they chattered about how delightful Alden had been at that party Stu hadn’t attended during entrance exams.

“He took everyone’s gum, but he never showed up at the real party afterward. I think someone should have explained it to him.”

“Did you ever see what he wore? Stu?”

“That! Yes, that! Did someone already show it to you, Stu? Maybe it’s still here somewhere.”

“We’d have to add his commendation to it if he wore it again, wouldn’t we? With all the transmogrifier’s embroidery.”

“Stu?”

“He’s a serious person,” Stu snapped at them both as Bayab sent him a video of Alden garbed as an accomplished wizard with several of the same marks that Calassa was entitled to wear for her mastery. He also had wings. And fangs. And he was using his skill to amuse inebriated people with special effect drinks. “He earned my aunt’s commendation for saving a child’s life, nearly at the cost of his own. It doesn’t belong on a costume, and he doesn’t want to do tricks with his skill for you all.”

Bayab winced. “I wasn’t disparaging Hn’tyon Alis-art’h. I promise I wasn’t.”

Eeaner looked intrigued. “You’ve spoken to him since he returned. Enough to know such things.”

Stu had avoided talking about the friendship he and Alden were weaving with these two and the rest of the students here. Keeping precious truths to himself was the only way he knew of to ensure that the thoughtless gossip in this place wouldn’t keep him at war with his temper.

Bayab was so worried he’d offended Alis that he provided a good answer to Eeaner’s question before Stu had to. “Of course Stu must have spoken to the human. Avowed Alden. Since his family is seeing to the Avowed’s needs, I’m sure they’ve been thorough and proper in every way.”

Eeaner huffed and turned his attention to Bayab. “Why are you like this? The art’h family will not take some antiquated form of revenge on us if we annoy Stu. He’s very easily annoyed. They must know that.”

“My ancestors were brutal in their vengeance,” Stu said. “Are you sure you should risk it?”

Eeaner brushed his hands together and bowed mockingly.

He is trying to be friendly. Stu had lived with him for long enough to recognize it. He’d even invited it with his own sarcasm just now. But the thought of Alden coming back here to LeafSong and maybe bowing to Eeaner unmockingly was such a weight on his heart that he almost wanted to kick his housemate in the face.

He bent to pick up his box instead and reached into the hammock for the tablet.

“You’re leaving?” Eeaner asked, rising. “Because…?”

“I am busy.”

“At least tell me how my back looks.”

“Better when you’re upright.”

Eeaner followed him inside with Bayab trailing after him, and for absolutely no reason, they stood there watching Stu put on shoes while they enthused about the smoke of flight ritual they’d never get around to tonight and the stripe paint.

“I hate Worli Ro-den,” Eeaner said suddenly. The words burst out of him in a way that tickled Stu’s memory of another person saying the same thing.

He looked around to see Eeaner with the large necklace decorating his chest, giving off heat and light. Eeaner’s hand was covering the tattoo on his stomach again. “Let’s paint over this, too.”

“To hide it?” asked Bayab.

“No. What would that say about me? Let’s paint it silver. Make much of it to make less of it.”

Stu left them before he could snap again.

Eeaner was supposed to be embarrassed by what they’d done, not the aesthetics of the tattoo.

Stu’s own embarrassment was how much he sometimes wanted these two to be different people than they were. Eeaner, especially, would say things that showed he shared a few important beliefs with Stu…and then he’d act as though those beliefs were meaningless.

It was confusing. It was rarely hurtful anymore. Stu still wished.

I am made of wishes for things I can’t make come to pass.

He walked the familiar route of bridges through the canopy and dropped down through a lightfall circle to the ground. The path to reach the summoning pool wasn’t the most pleasant on campus, but Stu didn’t mind swatting at a few biting longbugs. And there weren’t too many carnivorous plants around here.

He went all the way to the pool’s edge today since nobody was using it and crouched there to open the silenced box. The klerms were already cacophonous out here. The shrill cries of the twenty-eight he’d rescued today would blend in.

The vitality steam from the pellet he’d put in the box seemed to have helped these. They were hopping to freedom with more energy than the ones he’d brought out here yesterday.

Two he’d hoped would make astonishing recoveries hadn’t, and he placed them at the base of a sapling trying to become something more.

“You have been a part of the life here. Be part of the life here forever.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He closed his box and looked toward the pool.

Am I confident enough yet?

It was a question he asked himself frequently since the call with his father.

Eventually, he rose. He thought he’d be back here tomorrow with another box full of LeafSong’s most prevalent nuisance.

“When I don’t come,” he said to a klerm watching him from a deep purple leaf. “When it’s a school day, but I don’t come. Then you’ll know I’ve found my confidence and done it.”

 

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Alden arrived very late to the snowball fight.

It was almost halfway through, and the gym was so loud with the sound of students cheering, stomping, and laughing their heads off that he could feel the noise in his body. Like it was washing through him, uncramping what the day had tightened, and propelling his legs as he headed for one of the higher bleachers.

With most of the school gone for the holidays, it was no surprise that they were only half full, but the enthusiasm of the crowd made this feel as alive as a packed house. The event was called Superhero Snowball Fight, but Alden hadn’t realized the faculty and guests would be wearing their superhero outfits over their gym suits. They looked cool.