Austin and Mel walked side by side from his moms’ house close to the wall to the Falden grounds. They passed Austin’s eerie looking mansion on the hillside and headed inside the gates to the school.
They hadn’t said much during the morning. Austin had seemed anxious and wanted to leave way earlier than they had to. Mel thought it was because he wanted to avoid having an awkward conversation with his moms around the breakfast table.
Austin turned to her and stopped in front of the main building.
“I’ll just go and study for a couple of hours before class. See you later.”
He headed for the doors before Mel had even had the time to respond. She caught up with him and pulled at his shirt sleeve, forcing him to turn back.
“Could I show you something before class?” Mel asked.
“Show me what?”
“It’s in my dorm,” Mel said. “But you have to promise you will keep it a secret.”
Austin’s eyes roamed her face, and his jaw looked clenched.
“Okay,” he said.
Mel pulled him along by his sleeve to the dormitory. They walked inside the building and a stillness filled the place. It was still early in the morning and most of the students inside the rooms were sleeping.
Mel opened the door to her room, and Austin followed her inside. He closed the door after them and Mel saw Gabriella propping herself up on an elbow in her bed. She looked at them with a sleepy expression that soon turned into a frown.
“Where have you been?” Gabs asked.
Mel swallowed. “I just met up with Austin. I need to show you two something.”
“I know you didn’t sleep here last night, Mel,” Gabs said. “You were sleeping with Austin, weren’t you?”
Mel felt Austin’s body tense next to her, and she gave him a quick glance. His entire face had grown red as a tomato, and he was staring down at the floor. Mel cleared her throat and wished he could look a little less suspicious.
“No,” she said. “It’s really nothing like that.”
Mel sank her eyes into Gabs, willing her to stop speaking about this.
Gabs gave her a dubious smile, but started getting dressed and seemed to drop the subject.
“Okay, so what I’m about to show you needs to stay in this room,” Mel said. “I’m going to tell you things that are illegal and I need you to promise me you will keep my secrets.”
Mel saw Austin and Gabs share a look and she took a deep breath. She wanted to trust these two, her friends here at Falden. But it was hard. It felt like a bird was whispering in her ear all the time to not trust anyone. To carry this burden on her own shoulders and find out the truth alone.
But she had already tried that, she had tried doing it Marcus’ way, and it only led to more questions. Mel needed some answers about how magic worked and about Aldrion. Also about the wastes and the void. She needed to know if there was anything she could do to save Aldrion from the attacks and turn a tide in the war.
Gabs nodded eventually at Mel.
“Yeah, I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” Austin said.
“I will,” Mel said. “And thank you both.”
She turned her back to them and she could feel the tension rising in the room. It felt like these walls were too narrow to hold three people and all of their expectations and fears. The air got harder to breathe as Mel pulled out the bottom drawer of her dresser and took out the dagger. She turned back to them so they could see her and both Gabs’ and Austin’s eyes were drawn to the item.
Mel unwrapped the cloth and unsheathed the dagger. She held the metal object in her hands with reverence and took a step forward to Austin. He backed up all the way to the door. His eyes were wide and his mouth formed a silent oh.
Gabs were seated on the side of her bed, and her jaw had fallen open. Mel had almost assumed Gabs already knew about her magical item, but now that she saw her expression, she was sure no one had expected this.
“You could get arrested for that,” Austin said. “They could kick you out of Falden, out of Aldrion. Why do you have that thing?”
Mel’s hands shook under the dagger’s weight and she felt lightheaded. He had said it out loud. The things she had only dared to think. She took a step forward, but this time to Gabriella. She placed the dagger in her hands and Gabs looked stunned she’d even accepted the weapon.
“My father gave it to me before I left Windbrook,” Mel said. “He told me to use it to protect myself.”
“It’s what you used in the mountain pass to make that bandit burn,” Gabs said. “It’s a fire imbue. I thought… I just assumed it was a trick of the eye. That I had seen wrong. The snow started falling so fast after that. I just told myself it was impossible anyone could be so stupid to bring a magical item to Aldrion without permission. Oh, God.”
Gabs’ head fell toward the knife in her hands, and she seemed to clutch it harder. It had been stupid of Mel. She hadn’t known the rules back then or how tense things would be in Falden. But this still wasn’t the worst part.
“The dagger isn’t a fire imbue,” Mel said. “It’s hard to explain, so I guess I will show you instead.”
She walked toward her desk and opened the black case on top. Inside there were the seven tuning forks she had borrowed from Austin. She took up the ones she had marked as earth and fire. She walked back to Gabs’ bed and sat down on the floor.
Mel looked up at Austin with pleading eyes.
“Can you sit down next to me?” she asked.
Austin said nothing, but did as she said. His face was still an ocean of worry, and Mel could see he was having a hard time processing all this information.
“Please, keep your eyes on the dagger and just listen to the notes.”
Mel hit the fire tuning fork against the leg of Gabs' bed and it rang out through the room. Austin’s eyes immediately flickered from the dagger and then to Mel. Mel caught his gaze for a second and Austin seemed to realize he wasn’t looking at the dagger anymore.
His eyes turned back and when they were both focused on the dagger again, she hit the earth tuning fork against the leg of Gabs’ bed.
Nothing happened. The dagger was still silvery, and no magic seemed to emerge from the item.
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“So, it’s not a magical item?” Austin said.
“Wait,” Mel said.
She took in a deep breath and released it through clenched teeth. A part of her wished the dagger wouldn’t flicker when she hit both of the tuning forks against the leg of the bed. It would have been so much easier.
But when the tuning forks crashed into the wood and emitted their pure notes at the same time, the dagger flickered orange and the pattern inside showed itself for a fraction of a second before it disappeared.
Mel heard a small gasp escape Austin’s lips, but Gabs said nothing. Her face just drained from blood and her lips became pale. It looked like she would break apart into a million pieces for a second, but then her eyes turned hard and focused on Mel.
“What is this?” Gabs asked.
“I’m not sure,” Mel said. “But I think this dagger might be a double imbue with both fire and earth inside. I’m not really a hundred percent sure, but what I am sure about is that the dagger doesn’t respond to any of Austin’s tuning forks with a glow. I have tried all seven of them and you are free to do so, of course, too, if you don’t believe me. I know it’s hard to believe.”
“Where did you get this?” Austin asked. “You said your father gave it to you, but where did he get it?”
Mel swallowed. Both Austin and Gabs seemed angry at her now, and Mel felt her hands sweating.
“My father said he got it from my great grandfather. It was passed down for generations and my great grandfather was from here. Or I think he was actually from the wastes. His name was Rowad Hellius.”
Austin took his eyes off the dagger and stared at Mel instead. They were both staring at her now and Mel wished they would go back to examining the object in the room instead of her.
“He was from Bahlan,” Austin said, dragging a hand over his face. “Rowad Hellius was from the once great city of Bahlan. They're just ruins now, outside of the walls. One of the most intact ruins, in fact, and pretty close to Aldrion, all things considered. I can’t believe he is your great grandfather. I mean, it does explain you getting into Falden. You’re a legacy, after all. But he was such a great mage smith. One of the best, they say.”
Gabs’ eyes turned back to the dagger, and she rolled it around in her hands, careful of the blade.
“It’s not iron,” Gabs said. “Not silver either. It’s too strong. It looks a lot like silver, but it’s something else. Do you know what metal this is?”
Mel shook her head. “I thought perhaps it was titanium. I haven’t seen it, but heard it is strong as a mountain and shiny as the purest of silver.”
Gabs nodded. “Yes, but it can’t contain fire and earth. Its imbue is wind.”
“Maybe it can?” Mel said. “I don’t know much about the materials. I’m sorry. I know I should be good at this, after all, I have been working as a blacksmith all my life. But I only ever worked with iron and copper. Not this kind of fancy metal that you have here and never with magical imbues.”
“Maybe it’s a new kind of metal,” Austin said, dragging a hand over his chin. “One that can contain two elements. Maybe Rowad Hellius figured it out, how to make double imbues.”
Austin took the dagger from Gabs’ hands and studied the hilt. There was no marking on either the blade or the hilt. Mel had noticed that before as well. Rowad Hellius’ initials were nowhere to be found, and neither was the symbol of the dragon forge.
“If he made this one, he would have marked it with where he made it and his initials,” Austin said. “I don’t think this dagger was made here in Aldrion. At least not legally. Could it have been made in Bahlan?”
“But they didn’t have dragon stones, right?” Mel asked. “Didn’t Professor Monroe say that the dragon stones were given to us after the city of Bahlan and most of the wastes were already taken over by the void?”
“Yeah,” Austin said. “It was. That’s what’s so confusing. Or maybe it isn’t, maybe Rowad Hellius just wasn’t as honest and upstanding as the stories make him out to have been. The same could be said for Terri Taveck. Or anyone in the Taveck line, I guess. History rarely reflects the men behind it with any real accuracy.”
Mel nodded thoughtfully at this. Maybe that was true. Maybe Alexander Etrope too could have told a story that wasn’t true about himself.
“Also,” Mel said. “I used the dagger to cheat on the elemental test. It was stupid, I know. But I accidentally found the pure note to the dagger among the twelve tuning forks. It’s a note that I don’t have here, but when I rang it out in the examination room, the dagger definitely glowed. It was breathtaking.”
Gabs had been quiet for a while, but now she seemed to have been awakened from her thoughts about the metal. She stood up from the bed and left the dagger lying on her cover. She paced the room, walking from Mel’s desk to where they were sitting and back again.
“I don’t know what to do with this information,” she said. “It feels dangerous to keep the dagger here, just waiting for someone to discover it. It feels too dangerous to investigate its origin and visit the ruins of Bahlan, and it’s really dangerous to hand it over to the governor. He will exile us all for being accomplices in hiding this.”
Austin stood up from the floor and took a step toward Gabs. “The right thing to do would be to investigate if this new metal, this double imbue, can be recreated and if we can use it against the void. We could turn the tide of the war with this information. We could send out armies into the wastes and kill the heart of evil once and for all. We could bring back peace to the lands. The governor will not exile us if we hand him a useful weapon we understand. We should go to the ruins of Bahlan as soon as possible.”
Gabs’ face hardened, and she stared at Austin with an incredulous expression.
“No, we’re doing no such thing. What is the point of going out into the wastes and die with the dagger? That is useless to everyone. Either we decide to turn over the dagger now to the governor and let him decide what’s best for the kingdom, with the king's permission, of course. Or we should just hide it and never speak about it again. To save ourselves from punishment.”
Austin gave out a loud snort. “Oh wow, you speak like a true blue blood, don’t you? Hide and avoid problems. Pretend like people aren’t dying here in Aldrion while you attend your fancy dinners in Stonehearth. Using training and magic that should have been given to the brave people fighting the beasts instead of wasted on stupid nobles performing party tricks.”
“You’re such an asshole, Austin,” Gabs said. “You have no idea what it is like to be born a noble. You have no idea how few choices I have in my life. And you know what? You are just as privileged. Don’t think that Mel hasn’t told me about the mansion you live in with gold and diamond chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. How many starving people could one of those feed, huh? We’re the same, and you’re just too full of yourself to acknowledge that.”
Mel jumped up from her seat on the floor and stepped between Austin and Gabs, holding out her hands to both of her sides.
“Hey, stop it,” she said. “I didn’t tell you two about this so you could fight. I told you because I need your help. I need to figure out what to do with this dagger and this information. I need to figure out what the next best step to take is. Please.”
Gabs’ gaze turned to Mel. She looked tired and like she had had enough.
“Honestly, I don’t understand why you told me at all. I wish you hadn’t. Now, you have dragged both me and Austin into this and made us accomplices to your illegal activity.”
“I’m glad you told me,” Austin said, turning his gaze to Mel as well. “You can trust me. I’m not going to tell anyone. But I do think you should consider the impact this could have on the war. I’m going to support you in whatever decision you chose and I’m sorry if it didn’t sound like that a minute ago. But I’m here for you.”
Mel gave Austin a smile and felt grateful for him telling his opinion without strong-arming her into following it. He was hotheaded, for sure, but at least he realized it and pulled back when she told him to stop. It felt nice to be heard for once.
A long sigh escaped Gabs’ lips. “Well, I think you should turn in the dagger to the governor and keep me and Austin out of this. It’s you who have to face the consequences of your actions. But yeah, I will be here for you too, Mel. Even though I don’t exactly condone your behavior at this moment. And I won’t tell anyone about this, okay?”
Gabs collected her notebook and a pen and put them in her bag. She still had a tired expression on her face, but she seemed to have made her decision.
“Thank you,” Mel said. “I didn’t expect you to love that I roped you into this and I get that it’s selfish of me to ask you to keep this secret. So, it’s okay. I will think about it and then decide what to do and leave you out of it.”
“Good,” Gabs said.
She swung her bag over her shoulder and headed out of the dorm. She looked back and gave Mel a small smile before she left them alone in the room.
Austin dragged a hand over the back of his neck.
“That got intense. What a morning, right?”
Mel chuckled, feeling the tension finally leaving her.
Her shoulders slumped to the floor, and she felt exhaustion take over. It felt like she had just run a marathon, not stood in a room speaking to her two friends. Marcus hadn’t been right. She could trust them. But maybe he hadn’t been totally wrong either. This hadn’t exactly been easy, not fair to anyone.
Mel wrapped up her dagger and hid it in the bottom drawer of her dresser. Austin watched her for a moment, and then she grabbed her backpack. They walked side by side out of the dormitory and the morning air was fresh outside. Birds were chirping along in the trees and the wind felt cold against her skin. She hadn’t exactly gotten anywhere by telling Austin or Gabs about her dagger. But at least she had gotten some other perspectives on the matter than just her own and Marcus’.
Now, Mel just needed to decide what to do with these perspectives. Choose one option and stick to it.