‘What’s in it for me?’
Fella blew away her unruly locks hanging over her eyes, frustrated.
‘I’ll be in your debt. Isn’t that enough?’
Nael, legs crossed, one hand rubbing the side of his nose, grinned sheepishly. ‘I guess it is. But you should be a tad bit more concise. “To do something for you” can be understood very loosely.’
Fella pursed her lips, looking at the two girls sitting on her brother’s sides by the fountain, smirking, legs stretched on the cobblestones. Fella did not care for the least about those cackling idiots. But all the others, those two-dozen pair of eyes staring at her from all around, many of them belonging to boys from Nael’s class … well, those got under her nerves.
‘I need … distraction.’
‘What? I can’t hear you whispering, sis.’
‘Distraction!’ Fella snapped. General mumbling swept across the young students. ‘I need some distraction.’
‘This I like!’ grinned Nael again, clearly putting on a show to his loyal lapdogs. How on Soramarr did he managed to get this popular? Twenty-or-so university students sat around the fountain at the middle of the Coronation Square, around Nael. No one from the city authorities was bothered by the gathering. ‘Come on, Fellaryn, tell me what you have in mind, and we will be much obliged to help you out.’
Quiet snorts and meaningful chuckles ran among the youth.
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‘I’ve been meaning to get inside the basement of the Academy,’ Fella sighed, wringing her hands. ‘It is harder than I thought it’d be.’
‘I spare you, sister, and I won’t ask you the details. But correct me if I’m wrong, there’s always an associate professor standing guard at the stairs. You will need quite the distraction provided you want to have a clear way inside.’
‘Don’t call it a guard,’ Fella protested half-heartedly. Those professors were more like librarians. Or guides. Whatever but guards. Calling them guards would really mean trespassing rules. And I’m up to that, am I not?
‘You need a distraction that will attract most, if not all professors, those not having lectures included.’ Nael nodded to himself seriously. ‘That can be done.’
‘I … don’t want to rush you. But what do you think, when?’
Nael grinned again and his classmates sprang to their feet, eyes glinting with agitation. ‘Today, sister. Now. I hope you are ready to proceed with your dealings.’
Fella nodded seriously, trying to keep a straight face. That went easier than I thought. She was eager to venture inside the basement of the Academy. She touched the kyanite in her neck, but soon jumped when Nael nodded to the others and several of them started running across the square, shouting:
‘Coronation! Coronation at the Academy!’
The group began treading towards the Academy grounds. Fella quickly drew close to Nael, smiling nervously. Now that was distraction at its best, though she did not believe it would work the way Nael intended. People began to appear in doorways and windows, confused, watching the passing group of youngsters in curiosity. Some of the citizens tentatively followed them from a distant. Fella shook her head in disbelief.
Her smile only faded when she heard new and different shouts resounding among the holler of Nael’s classmates, circling around the mass of the group like vultures.
‘Coronation! Dethrone the fool! Dethrone the usurper! Here comes your king! The one true king! Hail! Hail King Morbane!’