Chapter 24 – Lunch and A Story

Mirian presented her clay cube to the class for the third time. By now, she’d condensed her speech considerably, and had a good answer to all of Professor Torres’s questions. She also wasn’t particularly worried about what her peers would think of her because they’d all be dead within the month. It was a morbid thought, but also, she still wasn’t sure what she could do to change that.

After the bored silence of the class and the “Good, you pass,” from Torres, Mirian moved closer to her professor so she could talk to her while the next student was setting up her project. “Professor, I know the clay cube is not my best work. However, I ran out of money, and only just got the letter of credit from my parents to get more. May I be excused to go make a serious project? I’m planning on taking your 426 class next quarter, and I’d like to start on that.”

Torres frowned. “I’d like you to see the critique of your peers’ projects. Let’s talk after class.”

Mirian relented and sat back down. What she really wanted was Torres to comment on her spellrod design. That would have happened eventually during the mid-quarter presentations that had been scheduled, but then Akana Praediar had decided everyone in Torrviol must die, ruining her homework assignment.

She had to find humor in it, Mirian realized, or the horror would overwhelm her.

So she completely ignored the presentation and started on her spellrod design. The class was nearly two hours, so it gave her plenty of time to recreate what she remembered from scratch. She’d spent whole days slaving away at the design, so it was burned into her mind. A few of the mana-flow transformations she’d forgotten, but she could do the math in her head so she just calculated the numbers right there, labeling the diagram. As always, she put her artistic flair on the design. When it came to the combat-mode, she hesitated. Before, she’d only had two spells, the force shield and the blades, but she needed more than that. Also, she now knew the spies had wands of lightning, so she needed a grounding spell. She frowned. Her rod was based around glyphs that produced and manipulated kinetic and arcane energy. If she wanted a bunch of spells using electromagnetism, she would need to change the design from the ground up. She ended up just copying the exact design she’d used last month (Gods, was it ever not going to be the month of Solem again?) and started sketching out concepts for a different rod on the next page.

By then, presentations were over. She patiently waited for two students to finish their conversation with Torres about their ‘protective talisman’ that couldn’t protect against an angry toddler and had more silver filigree than a jeweler’s shop.

“Ah, Mirian, right?”

She launched right into her planned speech: “Yes, professor. As I was saying, I’d heard from another student you were planning on having students do a spellrod project in Artifice Design 426, and was wondering if I could get early permission to use the Academy facilities. I was also looking to get feedback on my design.”

Professor Torres’s composure was always calm, but her eyes had narrowed slightly. “Interesting. May I see your design?”

Mirian showed her. Torres asked her several questions about the methodology, where she’d gotten the ideas from, and about the mechanics of the rotating cylinders.

“Are you combat certified?” she asked.

Mirian sighed. “No.”

“Then you know what I’m about to say,” she said, and pointed at the top portion of the scepter. Mirian hadn’t explained that part, but anyone who knew glyphs could easily figure out what that part did.

“Yeah,” Mirian said. “I can, uh, change that part. Well, I could also try to get combat certified in the next few weeks.”

“Either would suffice,” Torres said. “My next question is why you think I’m teaching Artifice Design 426 next quarter.”

Mirian frowned. “I, uh… heard…?”

“From who?”

“Another student. I don’t remember his name.”

“How convenient,” Torres said, and Mirian realized she’d screwed up somehow. “Professor Song Jei is scheduled to teach that class.”

“Professor Jei!” Mirian said, brightening. Then, “Wait. She is?” It was still the first day. There was no way stopping the spy had changed who was teaching the courses that fast. Unless… unless Professor Jei had always been originally intended to teach the course, but something happened that meant Torres took over the class prior to registration. What happened to Professor Jei, anyways? Mirian had assumed the Academy just let her focus everything on the big secret project she wouldn’t talk about. She thought back to the evacuation of Torrviol. Had Professor Jei been a part of the professor’s company that had protected the column? She didn’t recall seeing her.

“She is,” Torres confirmed. “I have another question. Where did you get the idea to create a spellrod?”

“I heard… uh… it was going to be one of the projects next quarter.”

“From a nameless student, perhaps? One with no identifiable features at all?”

Now Mirian knew she was caught. “Exactly,” she said, and decided to take a different approach. “Does anyone know about the 500 year-old Persaman spellrod you have?”

“Yes,” Torres said. “And none of them are within a hundred miles. Would you walk with me? I usually take my lunch at the King of the Grill diner. It’s just a block down. It looks out on the fish market and Torrviol Lake.”

Mirian belatedly realized she was being invited to lunch, sort of. “Uh, yeah. Sure.” As they walked out the classroom, Mirian said, “You’re taking this weird stuff I’m dishing out pretty well, it seems.”

“My mentor once said to me, ‘if something is strange, investigate.’”

“And who was that?”

“Professor Viridian,” she said.

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“He’s a good teacher,” Mirian said. “So, first, a demonstration. I’ve seen the spellrod you have. I can describe what it looks like and what it does, and I can diagram the glyphs as a functionality tree, like you taught me.” And she did. She’d seen it over the course of several classes in the two cycles before this one, and had studied it carefully both times. She glanced at Professor Torres as they walked, and to her credit, her face betrayed no emotion at all. Apparently, the total lack of emotions and tone shifts wasn’t just something she put on to teach, it was just how she operated.

Mirian kept talking as they walked from the Artificer’s Tower to the nearby King of the Grill. It was a little establishment that clearly had once been a house, but had since been transformed into a cozy restaurant. The exterior was nicely decorated with tasteful scrollwork along the wooden facade, while the inside had colorful cloth drapes that brought a sense of warmth to the place. The smell of the place wafted from several stove pipes protruding from the roof. Just approaching it, she could nearly taste the mouth-watering aroma of roasting meats and vegetables. Torres led them straight through the place and onto the back porch, where several tables were already set with gold-rimmed ceramic plates. Fresh, cold air from the lake wafted past them, but little magical heaters warmed the table. There was only one chair ready, but a waiter quickly brought a second without comment, all while Mirian talked.

When she was done, she asked, “So, what explanations do you have for my knowledge?”