Eldan startled awake only a couple of hours after falling asleep to find Cale sitting in front of him. He jerked back, sitting up quickly, only to realize his arm was numb from sleeping on the hard floor. It collapsed under his weight and he fell back hard on his side.

“Eldan, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you. I shouldn’t have just come in here like that.” Cale crouched over him, helping him back into a sitting position and brushing the hair from his face while he cradled his arm.

“It’s ok. I was just startled.” Eldan looked down at himself uncomfortably, seeing his dirty, mud and bloodstained pants, wrinkled tunic and bare feet. He twisted to look behind him, but Glade was gone. He sighed, turning back to face Cale with no idea what to say. He couldn’t explain the state he was in, or tell her about Glade, he wasn’t even sure he knew her anymore.

“I’ve been worried about you.” Cale looked sad and drawn, and as Eldan looked more closely he realized she looked somewhat disheveled, too. She wasn’t wearing filthy clothes smeared with fish blood and grease like he was, but her hair was uncombed and she still had untended scrapes on her knuckles, and one on her forehead that she must have gotten during their tunnel ordeal but had gone unnoticed at the time. She remained half-crouched on the floor, looking at him intently.

“I know. I needed some time, I think I still do need time..” Eldan dropped his head into his hands, mashing the heels of his palms against his eyes and forehead. The poor night’s sleep buzzed like cheap metal scraping against his teeth, grating at his thoughts. He felt shaky and insubstantial, incapable of having a difficult conversation.

“That’s fine. I won’t bother you if you don’t want.” Cale chewed her bottom lip. “Would you like to have breakfast, at least? Just the two of us, we don’t have to meet anyone or talk about anything.”

Eldan looked back up to see her expression was painfully hopeful. He realized with a twist of guilt that her first day at the Court must have been a lonely one. They had always talked about attending together, and while he couldn’t wrap his mind around what memories of hers had been ripped out and replaced, from what little he had gathered it seemed their relationship had remained largely intact in her recollections. “Yes, let’s have breakfast, but..” he glanced down at his clothes again, grimacing at the sight and smell, “I will have to clean myself up first.”

Cale brightened immediately, looking enormously relieved, if still somewhat sad and unsettled. “I think you will like the baths here. I can show you the way.”

Eldan gathered a change of clean clothes and followed Cale through the main room and into the hall. The three doors other than his that opened into their shared common room remained closed,and he did not learn which room was hers or who might belong to the remaining two, for which he was grateful, as he had no desire to meet his new suite mates in his current state. They walked past several doors in the hallway that looked like they opened into other suites, and then Cale stopped and pointed to a room at the end of the hall.

“That is the boy’s washroom. They should have big tubs in there and stacks of towels, ours is really nice. I will wait for you in our room.” She smiled uncertainly and turned back to walk down the hall, leaving Eldan to go in alone.

He turned the brass knob in the heavy, polished elm door and stepped into a tiled room with a light fog of steam in the air. Just as Cale had said, large tubs ringed with curtains for privacy sat at intervals on the floor. He must have missed the prime bathing time as most of the tubs were unoccupied, with quiet splashes sounding from only a couple with the curtains closed. He chose a tub at the back of the room, took a towel from a rack on the wall, and stacked his clean and dirty clothes in neatly folded piles on a small bench provided next to the tub before stepping in and closing the curtain. He opened the taps and let the tub fill with the hottest water he could stand, scouring the filth, sweat, blood and tears from his skin. The scalding water and soap stung the scrapes on his knees, palms and cheek, but the pain felt right to him, a shred of his grief made manifest in a tangible, understandable form. Finally he emerged, feeling far less shaky after the long soak.

Cale was sitting in one of the leather chairs in the common room when he returned, resting her back against one armrest while her legs were thrown across the other. She was dressed boyishly, as always, in a soft tunic and hose with a long, lightweight hooded cloak draped over the back of the chair. Her curly hair was cut relatively short, falling just above her shoulders with bangs trimmed at her eyebrows in a hopeless attempt to keep the curls out of her eyes while she performed delicate jewelry training. Eldan wondered what reasoning had been thrust into her memories to account for her short haircut now that her time with her father had been..forgotten? Carved out? Rewound and replaced, spun with an alternate thread? Or had it never happened at all?

She swung her legs to the floor, greeting him with another heavy smile. “It is too late for the hot breakfast in the dining hall, but they leave a few trays of fruit and pastry out between meals. I thought perhaps we could pick something out and explore a bit? Find a quiet spot to eat? I..will leave you alone afterward if that’s what you want.”

Eldan nodded his assent, hurriedly placing his dirty clothes in his room and pulling his muddy boots from under the bed. Cale was sitting by the door, lacing her boots when he re-emerged, and he sat beside her, frowning with displeasure as he stuck his foot into his boot to find it still slightly damp inside, while the stiff suede scratched at his ankle. He sniffed the other boot warily, quickly shoving it on his foot and lacing it tight to enclose the unpleasant, sour odor. He would need to clean the boots soon, especially since he had no idea how he would earn the money to replace them on his own.

Cale led them confidently down the stairs and through the halls of the Court, backtracking only once before they reached the dining hall doors. The massive, arched double doors were closed, but a table sat outside with two platters, one piled high with whole fruit and another with breads, glazed pastries and small tarts. Eldan selected a small, wrinkled fruit he had never seen before, but gave off an enticing, perfumed scent, and a hard roll. The pastries and tarts reminded him too much of Cale’s father, and he did not want to carry something sticky while they looked for a place to eat. The fruit and roll fit easily into his pockets. Cale slipped an apple into a pocket and held what looked like a gooseberry tart in one hand.

“Where should we go?” Eldan asked, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the building. Cale pulled the folded map they had been given from her pocket, fumbling as she tried to open it with one hand. Eldan took it from her and stared, trying to orient himself within the maze of rooms depicted. The layout showed the building having seven floors, five above ground and two below. The top three floors were residence halls, the other four made up of offices, meeting halls, classrooms, workshops and training halls.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Cale pointed at a spot on the first floor, which Eldan now saw was clearly marked as the dining hall. “We are here. Testing for applicants is happening mostly on this floor, so I thought we should explore below? Most of the other circuit students are out in the city so I don’t think anyone will really be down there.”

They traced a route on the map, deciding to go to the bottom floor, and Eldan folded the map and handed it back to Cale, letting her take the lead. The staircase they had chosen was narrow, opening from a nondescript door in a side hall, as they had opted to avoid the main staircase. The polished plank steps were worn smooth, and it was lit with flickering flames from oil lamps set in iron and glass sconces with mirrored backs set into the walls. The atmosphere was claustrophobic after the wide, sunny halls of the upper floors. Eldan felt a mixture of apprehension and excitement as they descended, the high, narrow walls and tight corners muffling their footfalls. He could not resist the temptation to push at the walls in a few places where a stone looked slightly out of place, hoping for a hidden door.

The air rapidly cooled, and Cale had pulled up the hood of her cloak by the time they reached the door at the bottom of the staircase. They emerged into another wide hall, this one warmly lit by braziers set in alcoves. Eldan was shocked by the sheer quantity of fuel and manpower that must be required to keep these massive lower floors illuminated.

The hall was empty, so they sat on the floor next to a brazier to eat their breakfast. Cale devoured her tart while he nibbled at his roll, eating about half and putting the rest into his pocket. He pried at the rind of his wrinkled fruit but could not pierce the thick skin with his fingernails so he finally gave up with a shrug, putting it away to cut open later with his knife.

Cale sighed with contentment after finishing her tart. “Those are so good. I’ve had better, but..”

Eldan stared at his hands as she trailed off, momentarily glazed over in confusion, wondering if she would always have these moments when connections wouldn’t fit. He had seen the scholar who checked them in experience something similar, but Cale’s mind appeared to have been hollowed and reassembled with especially unsteady hands

“Should we explore a bit?” Cale asked, stretching, her confusion apparently shaken off. Eldan hummed in affirmation, standing and offering a hand to pull her to her feet.

They wandered the halls at random, avoiding the occasional one where they could hear voices or the sounds of tools in use, peering into darkened classrooms with rows of desks or workbenches. Finally they reached a door at a dead end, opening it to find an expansive room with mats covering the floor and padded training dummies lined along one wall. Unlike the other rooms they had explored to this point, this one was brightly lit, ready for use. Weapons racks sat around the perimeter, filled with training swords and staves, along with a handful of crossbows and unstrung bows.

A rack mounted to the back wall held a selection of more unusual weapons, secured with iron locks. These included blunted axes, mallets, and a thick stave with a wooden ball hanging from a length of chain. Eldan thought it was no wonder they were locked, as they looked like they could easily be used to kill even in their blunt training forms.

“Let’s find somewhere else? This looks like a room that probably gets a lot of use.” Cale was already turning back to look down the hall as she spoke.

“Can I try out one of the training swords? I will be quick, I just want to make a strike or two.” Eldan was compelled by the opportunity to see what his own blade might feel like in his hand, and he knew Cale was right, they were unlikely to find this room empty again. “Will you watch the door for me? Please?”

“Um.. yes? But do it now, I don’t want to get caught. I’m not sure we are allowed to handle even the practice swords without reason.” Cale looked uncharacteristically nervous.

Eldan darted into the room, searching the racks for a sword of similar length to his own. The shortest one he saw still exceeded its length, but when he picked it up it felt lighter in his hand than his blade had when he held it the night before. He approached the nearest training dummy, settling into the familiar loose stance he used when training with his stave. The stance felt completely wrong for the sword, and he was not sure what to do with his other hand, so he tried shifting into an approximation of what he had seen sword fighters do in demonstration spars at the tournaments, first folding his off hand behind his back while pointing the sword at the dummy, then trying holding the off arm mostly extended, the flat of his palm forward. Nothing felt comfortable, so he gave up and charged forward, sweeping and stabbing the wooden blade in a series of strikes. The blade reverberated uncomfortably in his palm, his grip obviously too tight, but he was exhilarated as he danced around the dummy, dodging imaginary return blows.

“Eldan? I think we need to go.” Cale stood anxiously in the doorway, glancing back over her shoulder into the hall then back into the training room. Eldan nodded and ran to the rack, replacing the blade, then hurried toward Cale. He could hear adult voices echoing in the hallway now, rapidly coming closer. He stepped through the doorway and Cale eased it closed behind him, pointing to the nearest door in the hall. They shot toward it, turning the knob to find another darkened room, and darted inside, closing the door with a soft click just as the voices and heavy footfalls turned into the hall they had exited. They were surrounded in inky darkness, unable to move for fear of running into something in the pitch black room. As the footsteps drew closer Eldan could make out the deep, gruff words of the person speaking.

“…the timing only proves my point. We have utterly lost control of the situation. Imagine how this could have gone, happening on the first day of Court as it did. What if the thirt..”

A silky, tenor voice interrupted, cutting the first off. “This is not an appropriate place to talk openly of details or specifics.” The voice paused before continuing. “I don’t entirely disagree, for the record, but it was largely a minor loss with seemingly little consequence.”

The deep voiced speaker made a scoffing, grunting sound in response and their footsteps stilled, seeming to stop almost directly in front of the door behind which Cale and Eldan stood. Eldan took a step backward, knocking into something hard and large that caught him in the small of the back and slid slightly backward with a scraping screech. His heart leapt into his throat. Why had they hidden instead of simply turning back? As far as he knew they were allowed to explore the Court freely, but hiding in a dark classroom made it immediately obvious they had been doing something outside the rules.

“Hmm. It seems a few classrooms are already seeing some use. Perhaps we should continue at another time? We would hardly wish to disturb our instructors while they prepare.” The oily tenor voice spoke smoothly.

“Hmph.” The deep voice grunted again, and their footsteps began moving back down the length of the hall. Eldan sagged with relief, letting out a slow exhale.

As the footfalls faded he heard Cale stirring, shuffling toward the door. Light flooded in as she pulled it open and he turned to see the desk he had run into sitting askew in the neat row. He tugged it back into position, making another short screeching sound. When they stepped outside the room Cale stopped, scrutinizing the blank walls on either side of the hall.

“Why did they stop here?” She asked, glancing at him briefly and stepping to the side to examine the wall more closely. “They didn’t go far enough past us to be standing outside the training room, and if they had meant to come into the classroom we were in they would have simply entered. So why stop here?”

The adrenaline of the training room and having nearly been caught hiding had drained from Eldan, leaving him exhausted. He felt as though he were underwater, every movement heavy with the weight of resistance. Even the prospect of secret passages felt tiring, all he wanted to do was turn back and return to the quiet of his room. He slumped against the doorframe as he remembered his gritty, muddy bed, blankets strewn on the floor, sword in need of oil and wrapping and clothes and boots in need of cleaning. The heavy mantle of grief began to settle back on his shoulders, his mind swimming in thoughts of chores he had always done at his mother’s behest. He pressed his eyes closed, flailing to keep afloat in as his emotions roiled.

Just then, he heard a click, and cold, damp air flooded into the hall.