Hungry hands reached for baskets of breadrolls, still warm from the oven, for bacon sizzling in a pan, for scrambled eggs and jugs of cold milk. Carryl and Meredith had secured for themselves a place at the breakfast table for all those things that made leaving a cozy bed in the morning worthwhile.
Although there was some noise and chatter at the table, most ate in relative silence and with manners. Not so Meredith, who shoved food into her mouth while still chewing other, only to then choke and wash it all down with a glass of milk. It was all a terrible noise and Carryl pitied the girl. She herself knew which people at the table were of noble birth and which were commoners and even among the latter, Meredith’s manners were lacking. Usually, commoners that could afford a test of the gift and then a place at the University of Halonnes were rich enough to also afford an advanced education for their child. How Meredith made it among them was beyond her.
After breakfast, students of higher semesters led them up the hill towards the campus gates. Carryl could see the pillars and arch of white limestone and shining brass that guarded the entrance as statues. On the left stood one of a young man with a mischievous smile holding a staff and an astrolabe clothed in a traveller’s garb; he was curiosity, a scion of wind. To the right stood a statue of an old woman holding quill and book casting her judgement down on those passing through the gate, cloaked in a long robe with hood; she was wisdom, a scion of stone. At the arch’s apex emerged a child from a golden sphere with flames sprouting from its eyes. That was enlightenment, a scion of the sun. They formed the three guardians of knowledge and teaching.
Underneath the statues stood guards of the campus, watching on in habit and disinterest as another class of wide-eyed student entered the campus for the first time. The student of higher semesters led the freshmen on, to a large green space flanked by colonnades on three sides where onlookers stood. People in fine garbs, the robes of professors and military uniforms. N the lawn itself stood a wooden stage on which stood a round man of advanced age in the robes of a professor and with a wooden staff encircled by half a dozen metal bands and bearing a crystal tip. Other older students ordered the freshmen into neat rows before the stage, moving them around according to height and making sure nobody got left behind. In front of the large gate of one of the flanking buildings stood other students of higher semesters like guards, elbows locked together, to deny anyone entry into the large building.
The freshmen were brought to stand all according to order, then the professor on the stage stomped his staff. The sound seemed amplified beyond natural occurrence and the crowd fell silent. Then he spoke up.
“Fresh students! I welcome you to the Exalted University of the City of Halonnes. My name is Professor Tominet and I will oversee your introduction in the first semester so that you may learn according to the charge you bear. Please greet with utmost veneration the Dean of Education, his Spectability Frances Straton!" He raised his arms, then pointed to a thin old man climbing the stairs to the stage, then stepping to its very front. He had a perfectly bald and shiny head and a long, braided goatee that reached to his chest, bore a staff with more metal bands than Carryl had ever seen and cast a gaze that spoke of experience yet interest in the fresh arrivals. When he spoke, his voice seemed to boom from the tip of his staff.
“Exaltation!”
He let the word hang in the air for a moment.
“That is that with which we crown this institution. Many of you hail from houses of nobility who have pledged their power handed down from the divine, their authority over magic and their dominion over arms and invested them into this very institution or another member academy of the League. But we also have those among us today who came from common birth.”
The Dean looked into the crowd and seemed to fixate on a few specific faces, as if he knew exactly whom he was talking about.
“And these we welcome into our midst, knowing that it is noble ideals that can be imbued into the spirit of all mankind. For when we cast our children as a common lot, we know they will be kept safe and educated by the best we have. Thus, the best is guaranteed to flow forth into each cup equally. The balance of our continent is ensured by strong hands clasped in agreement, not around swords.”
He came yet another step closer to the edge of the stage and leaned forward, as if the few inches more would indeed help them with understanding his already loud voice.
"Here you can mingle freely and form the bonds of peace that will keep our lands together and strong. From here you will fly forth into the world and bring new wonders to us all, guided by the tenets of virtue that were handed down from the divine beside the power, so that they may imbue everyone equally.”
He stepped back and raised his arms and yelled “With the words of our university, I release you into your future: SCIENCIA MUNITA!”
A cheer and applause went up from the crowd and the students in front of the great door opened their ranks and the door, revealing inside a festive hall with servants holding trays of morsels and drinks. The fresh students streamed inside and among began a festivity. Carryl now realized that it was the Gymnasium and from there, she could get to the room she had been looking forward to.
She saw Meredith storming ahead and squeezing through the crowd. She herself was beset upon by various students of higher semesters trying to recruit her into various clubs. Acrobats balancing on floating orbs, evocators calling forth colourful illusions of dragons and heroes battling, musicians playing instruments and many more, but she managed to dodge them all, until a broad-shouldered, tan young man stepped in front of her.
“Oh hello there, fellow Charge of the Exalted. Do you wish to become an Erutor?” He held a pamphlet out to her.
Confused by the sudden obstruction of her path, Carryl took a step backwards into confusion. “What? Who are you?”
He moved the pamphlet closer to her face, still. “We are the Erutoris society, we train to become rescuers and put our magic to good use. Putting out fires, holding off floods, saving sinking ships, these things and many-“
“I know what an Erutor is.” She snatched the pamphlet from his hand just to have it out of her face and stuffed it into the pocket of her robe.
“Oh great.” The young man flashed his white teeth at her in a movement well-rehearsed. “Can we count on you? We will meet for the first time this semester at your first free day, three days from today.”
“Yes, sure.” Carryl mumbled and moved past him towards the stairs that led up to the gallery overseeing the hall. Even here, the guests stood and chatted while servants moved trays and bottles around. She found a specific painting on the wall and next to it a hallway leading away from the hall. She went down that way and through a bridge to another building less crowded. She knew she would find that room she knew she had a birthright to when painting after painting covered the wall of the hallway, all of people of the past, some sharing quite a few of her traits. She found the door within the frame adorned with Puffin, Hawk and Doe. She reached for the handle, inhaled and entered.
The founder’s Lounge was a room with a few armchairs, two sofas, small bytables and filled with the scent of past pipes smoked not too long ago, but right now, there was nobody in here. The walls almost all bore bookshelves that reached to the ceiling, a ladder stood by the side of the door and right there, on the wall opposite of the door, greeting Carryl the moment she entered, was the visage of her father, set into eternity in its youth by painter’s hand.
A man with blue eyes set deep beneath fiery brows, a hairstyle complementing his block-shaped skull, less grey, a beard shorter and the scar running straight from his left temple to his lips still fresh, but his gaze had barely changed at all. Next to his hung the portrait of the Lady Mother of House Dwyllaigh, soft, beautiful, friendly, smiling, nothing like Carryl remembered her. The portraits of the Lords Fathers and Ladies Mothers of the other two founding Houses also hung on this wall. She observed them, too. The Lord Father of House Laugnant was a man she had seen before, on the crown jubilee of her father. Tall and round were the words best describing this man. He had a bald head with only a thin ring of hair remaining on the sides, but he wore it well. The Lady Mother of that house had quite a few traits of Carryl’s own mother. They certainly shared the same red-brown hair that had tinted Carryl’s sister Linny’s curls into a fiery blonde. Her eyes were similar to those of Carryl’s mother, the same brows, too. The Lady Mother and Lord Father of House Ibralliton were immortalized drawing attention to the sharp features they had. Thin, black brows that sat above grim eyes and distrustful lips ready to curl into a snarl at a moment’s notice and even the Lady Mother’s smile harboured glee rather than amicability.
Carryl had observed these men and women for a while before she turned to one of the book shelves and picked a back to pull out. From the binding she knew it was a rather new book and when she opened it up, her suspicions were proven true: letters in printed block were what greeted her, not the elegant handwriting of ages past. It felt like a bridge to another time had been burnt before she got there. Of course, she knew that the original manuscript was most likely kept in the Vault off the coast, but also, that it was thereby far off from her eyes ever seeing it.
She took the book to one of the armchairs nonetheless and began to read. It was the journal of a lady of House Dwyllaigh, possibly one of Carryl’s own ancestors! It spoke of little consequential things. Two centuries ago, this woman had written down the working methods of construction workers and architects expanding the foundation on which the city stood.
Halonnes was founded on a limestone outcrop at the shore, rising above the wetlands of the delta of the river Daune before they were tamed and drained. Initially, much of the outcrop was cut into blocks to build the city on the new level ground, but as time passed, stones were hauled from further up the river. With space running thin, the foundation was expanded by artificial segments being added on, the natural caves in the limestone being repurposed for sanitation and emergency shelters.
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Carryl had not gotten far into the book when she heard footsteps just outside the door and then shortly after, the door opened. In came a man with short blonde hair, a clean-shaven face and blue eyes beneath fiery brows. He bore the robes of a commanding officer of the League but had not his staff with him.
“I knew I’d find you here!” He chuckled when he saw Carryl in the armchair. “I should have come here directly rather than look for you at the festivities.”
Carryl slapped her book shut. “Oh yes? Do you know where you could have found me yesterday? At the harbour! Where you left me! Like a piece of unwanted luggage!”
Roy took a few steps towards her with flying robes and tussled her head for a greeting, spilling her finely curated curls left and right. “Oh; I swear I will make it up to you. You know you are my favourite among all my beautiful sisters!”
“STOP THAT!” Carryl slapped his hand away, then got to tucking every single strand of hair back underneath the cap. “I do not care for any repayment, I care for you doing your duty for once. The Lady Mother has been doing nothing but badmouth you and Father talks like you have joined the bandits in the woods! Now leave, I want to connect to my ancestors.” She opened her book back up to make a point.
“Carryl, you can connect with your ancestors at any other time. I would even say that now is the best time of al times to connect with your fellow students. In a few days, people will be friends and comrades and you will still be a stranger left out.” He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. “I do not want you to end up alone. I do not want the Lady Mother or the Blood Keeper to end up assigning you out of the blue.”
Carryl threw her most sarcastic smile over to Roy. “I will consider your counsel, my wise social advisor.” Then she turned her nose back to the pages, staring at the letters without reading a single one.
Roy sighed and walked back to the door. As he was about to close it, he turned around another time, but Carryl did not return his look. “Carryl?”
“What is it, Roy?”
“Even the heroes in your books had friends to help them, you know?”
“I know!”
He closed the door behind him and Carryl listened to the footsteps shrink into the distance.
She did not get much further in the book, barely an interest remaining in the descriptions by a woman of the works of men. Maybe watching the others get inebriated could be some form of fun. She put the book back on the shelf and left the lounge. The portraits of the members of the three founding houses that graduated from this institution waited for her in the hallway outside and as she walked past them, she saw many men posing with various landscapes, objects, animals or buildings, while the women all assumed the same position, sitting sideways on a chair, smiling softly, as if to welcome or entrance men, sometimes with a butterfly on their hand or a small dog on their lap. Carryl already knew she would not be immortalized in this fashion. She would not smile to show her softness, to plead to men to protect her, but to show them what she truly is. She cocked that smile, put her fists on her hips and grinned back at the portraits, only checking whether someone else was in the hallway to see her afterwards. She was alone, but she still felt like a fool for a moment. She went back to the festive hall.
As she approached the Gymnasium, Carryl saw leaning on the railing of the gallery above the hall another student. From behind she could see the brass-coloured fur so short and dense it could be mistaken for skin and from the head sprung a dark-red mane that ran down the neck and underneath a sky-blue scarf wrapped around her neck. She immediately saw that the student was a crolachan.
The sutdent seemed to observe the revellers below with a dejection Carryl could well understand. She saw that the student was a girl and for a girl of her kind she was unusually tall, a mere half head shorter than Carryl. As Carryl walked past her, she kept observing her until the crolachan noticed her looking. She seemed to observe Carryl with suspicion and being used to seeing crolachans at the piers of Cyrrgwarth’s harbours, she greeted her in the native tongue of the Gimean islands.
“Beir Bua!”
But the crolachan did not understand. She threw Carryl merely a confused glance and turned her attention back to the crowd below. Carryl felt like an utter fool yet again. The girl was most likely not from the Gimean islands, Carryl should have thought about that. She went down the stairs and made her way through the crowd, again fighting off recruiters and socialites, until she heard her name.
“CARRY- CAROLINIA, HERE, HOOHOOOO!” It was Meredith’s voice in a melody and volume that sounded like the prelude to a tavern song.
Carryl had turned her head and seen her roommate and knew she had been seen. Basic etiquette required to at least acknowledge her. She found Meredith standing with another girl of pale skin and dark hair.
“Oh hello, cully.” Meredith greeted her as she arrived. “May I introduce you to Teresa of House Bardonnais.” She made a sweeping gesture towards the girl, then to Carryl. “And this is Carolinia of House Dwyllaigh.”
Teresa made a curtsey as it was expected of a lady and Carryl returned it. “Please to make your acquaintance, Mademoiselle Carolinia. Say, my study of relations is somewhat old, is House Dwyllaigh not the house of the current King of Cyrrgwarth?”
Carryl nodded. “Yes, King Maoldonaich III is of House Dwyllaigh.”
Teresa smiled pleased. “And in what exact relation do you stand to the King?”
Meredith gasped “Oooooh that’s a good question, didn’t think of it myself!”
Carryl sighed. “King Maoldonaich III is my father and Lord Father of House Dwyllaigh.”
The smile on Teresa’s grew wider and Meredith renewed her gasp. “OOOOOOH DEAR I DIDN’T KNOW.” Meredith made an attempt at a curtsey to show her reverence. “I was not aware I was in the presence of a princess of our great kingdom!”
Carryl had to roll her eyes. She raised her hand to Meredith. “Please, no nobility among fellow Charges of the Exalted.” She wanted to get the reverence and wonderment behind her.
Teresa meanwhile chuckled, as if she had expected it all. “Well then, Princess Dwyllaigh, you must attend my get-together of noble ladies of our class. Anyone of importance must attend, I say. We shall meet and discuss matters of importance.”
A reluctant push came up withing Carryl, as if the hand of the Lady Mother was truly on her shoulder, urging her on to tie these bonds of diplomacy now that they are finally gathered here.
Carryl had to raise an eyebrow. “Get-together?”
“Oh fellow Lady, please. We are the new generation here. The mothers of kings, keepers of castles. Can you not feel the destiny in the air?” She made a sweeping motion towards the gymnasium’s hall. “Can you not feel the prestige? We ought to connect and work together. The men might go off to war and fight for a future world, but we are the ones to birth that future. We should get to know each other and make sure we are well prepared for the onslaught of boys to throw themselves at our feet.”
On the inside, Carryl wanted to expel her stomach, but on the outside, she kept her composure and out on a smile as she had learned. “That sounds like a good idea, when will that be?”
“On our first free day. Every fourth day shall be without classes for us. We might have to invest that into studying or placements with practical training of our gifts later in the semester, but for now, these days belong to us, so we should invest them in our future, do you not agree? Since I am of the nobility of Étuse, I will show you around the city and we will get to see all the places of history, prestige and importance.”
Meredith moved closer between the two. “Oh, do you think there’s a space in your party for me?”
Teresa seemed surprised, shocked almost that Meredith had spoken up. “I... no, I do not think it would be fitting to place someone not of noble birth there. I admire your enthusiasm, but we wish to keep the issue size to be easily overseen.”
Meredith seemed not put off or insulted by the rebuttal. “Oh, then where can I go to get to know other people of high standing? Do you maybe know if one of the commoner girls is organizing something like that?”
Teresa distorted her face to discomfort. “No, I do not know whether there are any get-togethers for commoners.”
Meredith turned to Carryl. “Maybe you know something about that? Or maybe not, you haven’t been here the lo- “Meredith’s Hand pointing finger shot towards Carryl’s robes.” EY! What’s that?!” Meredith’s sudden exclamation and pointing made Carryl jump, then she followed her pointing finger.
Meredith was pointing at the pamphlet with the word Erutoris barely visible peeking out of her robe’s pockets. “That is a pamphlet of the Erutoris society, they tried recruiting me earl-“
“Gimme that!” Meredith snatched the piece of paper from Carryl’s pocket. “Erutoris, for real! Where did you get that?”
Carryl was still dumbfounded but the commoner’s face spoke of immediate urgency, so she replied. “I think somewhere over there.” She pointed where the young man had blocked her way.
Meredith stormed off, squeezing between people wherever they stood in her way. “See ya later!”
Teresa raised a brow in sarcastic curiosity. “She sure is a lively one. What is your connection to her again?”
With another eyerolling, Carryl replied. “We were merely placed together in the same room of the dormitory.”
“And she has not recognized you? Do the Kings of Cyrrgwarth not present their scions to the people they intent to rule?”
“We are a large house and I do not remember the last time I was present at a parade. It is not as if I have a good chance to be claimant princeps.”
“Oh, Cyrrgwarth is an elective monarchy, I forgot. It must be tough having your rule challenged each time by another house.”
The talks of politics and powerhad always bored Carryl, but she kept her smile and did her best to keep talking while not giving the fellow noble too much insight into the workings of Cyrrgwarth diplomacy. “The only other claimant house remaining in Cyrrgwarth is Treiddearn, not much competition, they are still reeling from the last blow we dealt them. And besides, the ministers of the elector houses do much of the ruling.” Carryl almost felt the hand of the Lady Mother on her shoulder as she played through the verbiages and replies like the lines of a play, each role appointed correctly and with intention by birth and fate. A group of young men passed by, puffing smoke from their pipes as they talked of things and the whiff of tobacco gave Carryl an idea. She began coughing, as convincing as she could, and took a few steps backwards towards the hall “I am terribly sorry, Lady Bardonnais, but I wish to breathe some fresh air, so I must excuse myself. I look forward to seeing your plans come to fruition.”
Teresa seemed rebuked but answered her line immediately. “Well then, good wishes to you, Lady Dwyllaigh, we shall enjoy the fruits together.”
Carryl was out the door of the gymnasium and breathed in the fresh air. Outside too, people had gathered in groups, standing and talking. A few of them wore the robes of alumni of the university, similar to the students’ robes, but with a silver trim to them, on some robes tarnished to black. Some of them did indeed look as if they got attention by their wearers only once or twice a year, a special occasion and nothing more. Some people wore the clothes of wealthy commoners, but by far the most were robes of mages in the colours of various houses of nobility. Clugarhe, Laugnant, Zehellez and even Hitollarn, a true carnival of power had gathered. Carryl walked past all of them, aside the gymnasium and further on away from the campus green towards the clocktower. She wanted to see more of the walls her bloodline built. She wanted to inspect what those who had come before her had paid for and that she would be expected to pay to uphold.