“Katherine, I was under the impression you were going to choose...”

“Professor Helen?”

Katherine answered coolly, slipping a thick card with the name ‘Katherine Heriz’ into Professor Aionia’s office box.

For the entire weekend after Professor Aionia’s class, Isaac’s mind was fraught with a tempest of dilemmas. He was so sure that he was going to pick Professor Irina as his Tanaar, since his Maht was Air, and especially because he wanted to learn about caring for the world with empathy instead of violence – qualities befit of a good doctor. But Professor Aionia’s tales of light stirred in him a new and far grander perspective of what it was to help the world, and he could not help but marvel and respect those who came before him: all the doctors, the experimental alchemists, the masters of atomworks and medicine, and he wanted to learn from someone who could tell those stories very deeply.

Another corner of his mind was fraught with a different, more nagging concern: if he picked Professor Irina, but his friends didn’t, then they’d have classes separately, and would not be able to see each other as often and as closely. They were his only friends, and he didn’t want to lose them, just as Elwin did. But Isaac saw in Elwin’s eyes that he was sure to pick Professor Aionia, and that mattered very much to him. Mirai had already quietly broken the news that she picked Professor Aionia. Katherine, he thought, was sure to choose Professor Helen; and in a corner of his mind he wanted everyone to be together, and went to sleep each night wishing for it.

And so the wish came true.

“There, it’s done.” Katherine dusted off her hands as if nothing big had happened. “Come, let’s get our luncheon.”

“Wait, Katherine. I need to know.”

“Hmm?” She lightly cocked her head.

“I mean, I’m happy since we can be... um... all of us can be together, but you mentioned you would’ve liked to have Professor Helen as your Tanaar before.”

“That’s before we had Professor Aionia’s class. Well, in fact, I am fond of both. But I want to carry on my father’s industrial legacy as the leader of the Heriz family.”

Isaac pondered for a while, but couldn’t arrive at an intuitive connection.

“How’s that connected?”

“Much of industry nowadays is built off the back of experimental philosophy, silly!”

She punched Isaac on the shoulder.

“Running an industrial empire isn’t about bossing people around and reveling in your power, though I’d not complain about doing that. But if that’s all you do, your empire crumbles to dust in less than a generation.” She gestured her hand as if to mimic a crumbling sandcastle.

“Rather, the foundation of good business is about understanding what things must be done, and how it can be done.”

“Sounds like something a senator would say,” Isaac quipped, half-expecting her to punch him again. But instead, her expression turned into that of enthused recognition.

“Exactly, except we in industry actually get things done.”

“Really?” Isaac’s question was genuine; he didn’t know much about the world outside the hospitals and run-down streets. Katherine understood that, so she wasn’t all too bothered.

“My family manufactures and builds things. Big things. I need to learn all about the industrial philosophies behind the scenes and what makes everything possible. Metallurgy. Experimental Alchemy. Construction. Engineering. Manufacturing. How to steer the ship named Heriz so it’ll be the first anywhere.”

“So you picked Professor Aionia for the knowledge she can teach us?”

“What else?”

Isaac was a little flabbergasted. For him it was more an ideal of the person than only the things they taught.

“I mean... it’s nothing. For me, if I don’t like someone, no matter the wealth of knowledge they can teach me... I wouldn’t choose them lightly.”

“Well, do you like Professor Aionia?”

“Yeah.”

“So there’s no problem then!”

And with that, Isaac confidently chose Professor Aionia as his Tanaar.

* * *

The four kismets, like their name, moved, learned, and dined together. It was very serendipitous that all of them chose Professor Aionia as their Tanaar, despite their differences in Maht; out of all, Elwin was also surprised that Katherine chose Professor Aionia instead of Helen. He still didn’t know much about Mirai and why she chose Professor Aionia instead of William, because she’d yet to open up about her history to them; nevertheless, the other three didn’t mind at all.

For a brief time, Elwin felt he was in paradise; he’d yet to suffer from the prejudices of others like the world back home. In this sense, home was something he really didn’t wish to remember anymore.

But a road to any destination isn’t without bumps, and on a cloudy and overcast day of Mitrayasna 2nd, obstacles began appearing in earnest, moved by forces he did not recognize.

“Mmm! This is also very good,” muttered Isaac, shoveling into his mouth a new dessert to come out of the kitchen in the Grand Dining Hall.

“NO! Don’t just hork it down! It’s meant to be enjoyed like this – ugh, look, listen,” Katherine muttered, grabbing Isaac’s hand still holding the spoon, and personally guiding it to take an exquisitely small piece of the mirror-glazed cake.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“There, now, with great care –” she let go of Isaac’s hand and spoon, but immediately held it again since Isaac was rushing to dart the cake into his lips. “Wait – try to close your eyes and imagine the colors of the flavors, alright. Consider that the table you’re sitting on has produced presidents and consuls. Doctor or not, there’s going to be venues you’ll go to where people will judge you by your manners. Take your time.”

Elwin and Mirai glanced amusedly at each other. Elwin enjoyed a small cake-slice of layered crêpe, and Mirai a sponge cake with some sweet tea. All was the usual until a loud, boisterous laughter of several boys interrupted the peaceable murmurs of the afternoon tea of the weekend.

Elwin quickly turned around to see the source of the noise – two long tables away, there gathered a group of about half a dozen boys, all peering into – something? He squinted his eye and found a trace of an ash-white hair; it was Lucian at the center. He sighed and turned back to his dessert, not intending to give Lucian or his friends any attention. He was in Professor Thales’s Tanaar group, after all. To commiserate with a Director of the Ministry of Order was evidence of Lucian’s absence of morals, Elwin thought.

But then, Lucian began to recite with some considerable volume of whatever he held in his hands; the lines sounded fit for a poem, and rather interested, Elwin leaned his ear closely.

“Argent, I once was -

Yet in the City of Peace

Traitor I’ve become.”

And at the reciting of those three lines, Mirai’s fork fell out of her hands.

Lucian continued to read from whatever he held, in the same poetic fashion.

“Am I not worthy -

Of the blessing of the Sun

Its Paradise Lost?”

Lucian and his friends burst into a bout of laughter.

“It’s so nauseatingly high-brow!”

“The FOUNDERS forbid, I feel embarrassed for even reading it. I wonder who wrote this poem-book.”

“Read the other stanza, Lucian.”

“Aw, come on. Don’t make me do this.”

“You’re the best at delivering the oomph. Just one more – just one more!” they pleaded.

“Fine,” he said, continuing.

“In shadows I walked

Through the skies I fell, if not

For a boy in blue.”

“Oooh, a boy in blue? Perhaps... it’s a girl who wrote it? Interesting,” said one of the boys, turning the pages to and fro, flipping it. “Lucian, can you read the other ones?”

“If you want me to read it, then let’s make a deal. You’ll each get me a piece of the finest confection from Alice’s Café in Aienwater, since our dining hall doesn’t have them. What do you say?”

“Deal.”

Lucian sighed and turned to another page, reading stanza after stanza, contents of which sounded strangely incriminating.

Elwin noticed Mirai surreptitiously searching the pockets of her uniform for what must have been there – expected to be there – but was absent. She lowered her head, and grasped the folds of her uniform tight with her hands; standing up, she walked away.

“Let me get some more tea,” she said, disappearing to the kitchen counter.

“But your tea is –” Elwin stopped, because Mirai’s tea was still half-full.

And that’s when Elwin made the intuitive connection. The poem-book that Lucian was reading must’ve been none other than Mirai’s – she probably misplaced it someplace, somewhere today without knowing, and it fell into the hands of Lucian’s half a dozen. Without thinking much more than that, Elwin stood up.

“Where you going?” Isaac asked.

“They have something that belongs to Mirai.”

“What?” Katherine was so busy imparting the fine art of table etiquette to Isaac, and Isaac was engrossed in it for fear of disappointing Katherine, that they hadn’t noticed the lines being read after the initial bout of laughter from faraway. They both looked at Elwin quizzically and drew their attention, about to follow him.

He raced across the seats and came to Lucian’s table of mates.

“It looks like you have something from my friend. Give it back.”

“Oh,” muttered Lucian, expecting him there. “For those of you that don’t know,” he said, looking around, “Elwin Eramir in the flesh.”

Lucian’s mates exchanged knowing glances at each other. Most of them remembered what Lucian had said about Elwin at the Ceremony of Initiation two weeks ago.

“Cut your banter and whatever you want to say of me, I don’t really care. Just give the poem-book back, will you?” demanded Elwin, raising his voice.

“And whose is it, that makes you dart over here and demand of me as if I committed a crime? This certainly isn’t yours by any means. You performed rather poorly in literature class,” Lucian scoffed.

His half a dozen friends, including Cassius next to him, snickered. Claudia wasn’t present; Lucian had asked her for a favor that morning, so that she would be elsewhere on the campus, for concern that she would find his conduct distasteful, especially since he knew the poem-book belonged to a girl. But with the boys, he could fire away as long as he kept within the limits of social decorum.

“Very funny. I’m not telling you lot whose it is,” answered Elwin, calmly.

“Not telling me such a simple thing? Allow me to deduce whose it may be then.”

“Look, does the so simple a request to return the poem-book fail to penetrate your thick skull? I thought you were smarter than that, Lucian. You always followed the teachers around back at school like a dog,” Elwin shot back, quite satisfied. But from here on, it was no longer about Mirai or his friends, but rather his personal beef.

Lucian continued as if he’d not heard Elwin at all. “Alright, so the stanzas sound as if they were written by a girl. Everyone agree?”

Cassius and Rayo, along with others, all nodded their heads.

“And of course, I apologize, Elwin, but given your reputation, not to mention your father’s deeds, not everyone here is able to trust you at first approach. The only ones who made it a point to stand by you at the entrance ceremony are those three that go everywhere with you. Am I correct?”

Elwin felt his vein begin to roil with bubbles of anger.

“Let me recall. Katherine Heriz – the burgundy-haired heiress of the Heriz family who treats the rest of the Academy as if they were animals unworthy of respect, the green-haired boy named Isaac that eats like a barbarian, quite a surprise for how innocent he looks, and of course, the quiet girl with hair of coffee and gold that looks to be from Heian. Is my assessment correct?”

“Better than you lot,” shot back Elwin.

“What’d you just say? After what your father did to my family, you have the audacity to call yourself better than –” grumbled Rayo, leaning in to threaten Elwin. Lucian held him back with a single hand, shaking his head. “Not now, Rayo. Let’s hear what Elwin has to say.”

“I have nothing to say to you, other than warn your friends that they’re being fooled,” seethed Elwin.

“Fooling? In what way am I fooling them? Have I made them a promise that I can’t keep, or spoke a sliver of lie? The only reason you’d say that is because you are green with envy. I’m sorry for my choice in great friends, but I chose them because they showed just as much dedication to the Arts as I did, and have calluses on their hands. Unlike you.”

“Unlike me?”

“Yes. You are terrified of having to demonstrate control over your Maht, aren’t you? I’ve noticed you and your friends picked Professor Aionia as your Tanaar instead of one of the Four Masters. Was that because you were afraid? Afraid that the Four Masters would be too demanding?”

“Don’t test my patience, Lucian.”

“Alright, I won’t. Returning to the topic,” Lucian continued as coldly and calmly as ever, “I don’t feel that this poem book was written by Miss Heriz. She’s the fiery type, after all, and not someone with necessarily consular sensibilities, remembering how she held my lapel, and was going to resort to violence back then in front of everyone. She must be used to the maxim that violence solves everything.”

“Huh, you’d be wrong about that.”

“So I’m guessing – with certainty,” Lucian continued, “that this must have been written by the quiet girl from Heian who follows you around all the time.”

Mirai tiptoed out of the kitchen counter, waiting to see if the ordeal was over and the boys had lost interest – instead, the sight she came to was much worse than before. Instead of finding Elwin on the table with Isaac and Katherine, he was there with Lucian and his half a dozen; moreover, they were now arguing in raised voices. Mirai’s heart twisted into a knot; this was the last thing she wanted.