Chapter 39: A Familiar Silence.

Ren crept down the hallway like she was sneaking past a hydra. Frankly, as far as she was concerned, that was not too far off. She pressed her back against the wall and held a finger to her lips. Edda stood three paces behind her, with her arms folded. Few could ever tell what Edda was thinking. Ren was one of the few. Right now, Edda was annoyed.

“Why are we sneaking?” Edda asked, not whispering.

“Shh!” Ren hissed looking around. There was no-one else in the hallway. She crept forward another step, her boots barely making a sound. The door to their room was right there, and it was closed. She turned to Edda and leaned in.

“Yesterday,” Ren whispered, her voice coming out at roughly the volume most people used for regular conversation, “I opened that door. The latch was back but…anyway that’s not important. I opened the door and…and…and they were-” She pressed her hands together, interlocked her fingers, and made a gesture that left nothing to interpretation.

Edda’s eyes widened. She looked at the door. Back at Ren. “Really?”

“I didn’t see them do that but…but they were sleeping together! They were all snuggled so….” Ren nodded. Gravely.

They both stared at the door. The silence stretched. The door remained closed. A wisp of flame crawled up Ren’s forearm and died at the elbow. Ren swallowed as she inched forward. She raised her fist. She knocked, so lightly it barely made a sound.

Ren squeezed her eyes shut. “Hey I’m coming in! Don’t say I didn’t warn y-“

The door swung open on its own. The room was empty. The bed was untouched. Ren threw her hands in the air. “Are you kidding me?! I was being so careful and they aren’t even- where the hell did they go?”

“Maybe the resonance chamber?” Edda offered. “What if….they stayed overnight? Master Aldric did say he gave them access.”

Ren was already shaking her head. “Nobody stays in a resonance chamber overnight. That’s insane. You’d have to be as crazy as a half-” She paused. They looked at each other.

Ren sighed through her teeth and they started walking.

It was early, and the Academy was just waking up. Students drifted past them in their grey uniforms, almost all of them half-asleep. The early light through the high windows was thin and cold. Ren walked with her hands shoved in her pockets and her jaw set, which was how she walked most places.

“How’s the core? Does it still….?” Ren asked without looking over.

“It’s settling.” Edda flexed her hand, studying it. “It still feels strange. Still sore. Mana never felt like this.”

Ren nodded. “That part goes away. It takes a couple weeks, maybe, until you just stop noticing.” She glanced inside her own core, at the churning flames at the center of her, always begging to be let out. Who so often let themselves out. Ren supposed she was one of the ones who’d never stop noticing.

There was silence for a time as they walked. “Corin? How’s…how’s he doing?” Ren asked.

“He’s holed up in his room.” Edda’s voice was quiet. “He hasn’t come out. I tried to bring him but….”

Neither of them said anything after that.

They passed a group of students near the east stairwell. There were four of them, human, and all with Lines on their arms in different colors. Their conversation dropped as Ren and Edda approached. It picked back up after they passed, quieter but not quiet enough.

“…more of them every year…”

“…the hell are we all even in the same wing? Makes me feel sick…”

Ren heard the whispers. She always heard them. Everyone with their blood did. A year ago, she’d have turned. Now she kept her hands in her pockets and kept walking.

“…and that blue haired freak. At least she looks good walking away-”

Ren stopped. Her Sigil flared. Heat rolled off her skin in a visible shimmer, enough that the air around her started to hiss. She turned.

The humans had noticed and two of them stepped back. One had the decency to look afraid. The fourth just stared, chin raised, daring her. A Line, daring someone with a Sigil. If Ren had been human, they wouldn’t dare. She was going to remind them why-

Edda’s hand found her shoulder. It was firm. “It’s fine. Let’s just go.”

Ren stewed in place, then she whirled, and they kept walking. A demonblood hitting a human would lead to complications, no matter how justified it was. Ren had been dragged to the Archon’s office enough times that she knew his face better than any of her instructors’.

Ren’s teeth ground together. The Sigil dimmed and the whispers behind them didn’t even bother getting quieter.

The resonance chamber doors were heavy enough that Ren had to both use Essence and lean her weight into them. They groaned open. The chamber beyond was dim. Dimmer than she’d ever seen it. The crystal walls that usually held light in shifting patterns were nearly dark, and the air was thin -drained of mana until it barely felt like a resonance chamber at all.

She saw two figures near the far wall. Ash was asleep, propped against the crystal with her head tilted to one side. Someone had arranged her carefully. Her breathing was slow and even from what Ren could tell.

The half-demon was face-down on the stone. There was blood on the floor. Blood that had dried to a dark brown around the half-demon’s face. From her nose, her mouth, maybe her ears. It had pooled and settled on the stone in a shape that said she’d been lying there for hours. She wasn’t moving. Ren’s stomach dropped.

“Oh shit-” Ren crossed the chamber in four running strides, dropped to her knees, grabbed the half-demon by the shoulders and shook. “Hey! Hey, wake up! What the hell happened!”

Edda was already moving to Ash. Ren shook harder. There was a horrible second where the body under her hands stayed limp, and every bad scenario she’d ever imagined played out at once.

Then Lysanthia groaned. Her eyes opened. They were red, unfocused, and immediately furious. How the hell were they so angry so quickly? Lysanthia looked at Ren’s hands on her shoulders. Then up at Ren’s face.

“Why,” the half-demon said, “are your hands on me? Do you perchance wish to lose them?”

Ren sat back on her heels and let out a breath that took half her soul with it. “Yeah. She’s fine. Scared the shit out of me but she’s perfectly fine if she can still talk like that.”

Ren glanced towards Edda, who it seemed had woken Ash with a gentle hand. The blonde woman blinked, and immediately looked across the room. Not at Edda, standing in front of her. Not at Ren, in the direction of her gaze. At Lysanthia. There was a brief pause.

“Did you?” Ash asked.

The half-demon wiped dried blood from her chin with the back of her hand. She nodded. Something passed between them, and Ren didn’t have the faintest idea what. It felt like a conversation had happened right in front of her and she’d completely missed it.

Yep. Those two were definitely together together. The thought arrived, and images followed, and some of those images would have sent her directly to the lowest reaches of hell.

“So,” Ren said quickly, clapping her hands on her very warm cheeks. “You-You’ve both really made your Essence Cores or what? Can’t believe you actually slept here though….” She looked around. “I guess that wouldn’t be too hard anymore.”

They both nodded. Ren stared at them. It was so stupid she immediately wanted to call them both liars. Even if the entire point of finding them had been to take them to the measuring hall just in case. Oh well, she would choose to believe them. One always trusted their brothers and sisters…a little.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Great then. Absolutely wonderful even.” Ren said, clapping her hands. “Breakfast first. Then the measuring chamber. We have time.” Ren stood. “Just uh…try not to bleed on the porridge.”

The measuring hall was not what Ren had expected. This was strange, since Ren had been here plenty of times. Every other time she’d been here, the place was always at least half-empty. Today it was not empty at all. Today, it was hard to even find room to stand.

There were tiered stone seating that lined three of the walls, and those seats were full. Ren saw other students and faculty, even some she recognized. She spotted at least four Crests in the crowd, and those bastards didn’t do anything but train. Ilyasviel wasn’t here, thank the Divine. A small mercy.

“What the hell,” Ren muttered at the entrance. “Are they giving away Essence Stones or what?”

“I told you already, I thought you were listening.” Edda sighed. “ It’s because of Earl Wulfram’s daughter, Alisa,” Edda said. “She’s getting measured today too. I guess that must have gotten around. Didn’t think there’d be this much of a crowd over it though. I don’t think it’s because of your new friends.”

“They’re not my friends!” Ren protested.