Suggested Listening

Elruin retreated to her dorm, climbed into bed, and hugged Mister Squishybones. She came close to death today, and from now on she would need to be extra careful not to upset anyone. The wrong question might reveal Old Scratch, or her new dolly, and then guards would kill her. More than just her, since Cali was involved as well.

If she got in trouble again, for anything, Lady Juna might not save her.

After a therapeutic cuddle-session with her new toy, she felt better. It was too late to do much tonight, thanks to helping Cali, meeting Scratch, and learning a hard lesson about how people don't like seeing lots of blood. Her nerves, however, would not allow her to sleep so she went to her desk and began to write.

The desk lamp was a minor magic device that sapped small amounts of the user's magic in order to power itself. According to the instructors, it was meant to train them by maintaining a small, steady, and constant stream of energy. Elruin didn't feel it was difficult at all, and she learned more about balance from carrying buckets of water at the farm.

She took out her basic calligraphy book and set to work writing letters to apologize to people. Using the ink instead of pencils, since she wanted it to look professional, she went through the process of writing an apology letter to the guards, and a thank-you letter to Lady Juna. A yawn signaled that she'd have to finish Cali's letter later, and then go through the process of figuring out which guard she was supposed to deliver the apology to.

In the morning, she went straight to find Lemia, to share the treasures of yesterday with the one person in the school willing to spend more time around her than required of them. She was in her usual corner of the alchemy section, toying with the ambient energies of the other students and their experiments, stitching together new magic from the tattered remnants of others.

"Ell!" She said in a voice half between a whisper and a shout. "Are you okay? I heard you were arrested!"

"I was." Elruin didn't notice that some of the other students were listening in. "It was a misunderstanding. But that doesn't matter, I have to show you something neat in my room." She couldn't think of anywhere else in the school to display her new spell.

Lemia looked around, but decided there wasn't much point in avoiding going with Elruin. If she had a reputation to worry about, it was tarnished enough by her own peculiarities that it was more useful to side with the child necromancer everything knew would have dragonslayer potential one day. Besides, she wanted to hear the rest of this story about her arrest. "Give me a moment."

Soon, the two of them were back in Elruin's room, where Lemia felt comfortable with asking questions. "What was the misunderstanding that got you arrested?"

Elruin decided there was no secret. "I took a magic robe, but it was evidence in a crime. I didn't know."

Not knowing wouldn't have saved most people from criminal punishment, this Lemia knew. If Elruin hadn't been connected with some of the nobility, she would have faced an ugly reality. "Where did you get it from?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"Very well," Lemia dropped the conversation, since pressing the girl could cost months of slowly built trust. "So what did you want to show me?"

Elruin held out her new sarite shards. Five crystals, each no larger than a human finger bone. "I don't know what they do yet. Can you help?"

Five of them at one time screamed to Lemia that they must have come from the same place as the robe. "Where did you find these?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

Thought as much. Lemia held the crystals. She sorted them from worst to best, then held up the remarkably bad one. "I think someone drained it, almost destroyed it. No need to breathe, short range flight. Now all it can do is help you hold your breath. Best used with a mortar and pestle."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Elruin did not like the idea of destroying a treasure, even one that was more valuable as raw materials for a potion. "Can you fix it?"

Lemia chuckled. "If I had that sort of power, I wouldn't be here. I'd be the Queen's Alchemist. Or maybe I'd be the queen."

"Oh." Elruin didn't hide her disappointment well. "I understand."

Lemia went to the mind shard next. "Oh, I don't suppose I can have this one? You can't use it anyway."

"What's it do?" Elruin asked. She knew neither she nor Cali could use mind magic. One because it was creation, the other because it was air, but she was still curious its properties.

"Minor boosts to alertness and memory," she said. "The real power is that it grants mental recovery, about half as fast as you get from sleep. Not bad for a combat mage, amazing for a college student who fears she's going to die of exhaustion during her applied alchemy exam."

Elruin wanted to help Lemia with her studies, but also didn't want to give up her treasures. She also didn't want to upset Lemia, her only friend other than Cali. "You can borrow it, if you like."

Lemia set the crystal aside. "Ell, did you get these from outside the wall?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

Which Lemia took to mean yes. "Can you say if you'll be able to go out to find more?"

"I don't think they'll let me go outside, anymore," Elruin said. She wasn't fond of the idea of going out in the first place, with all the monsters and Ghosts of Sorvel in the forest doing bad things like killing Cali's friends. She also wanted to go out, to make the bad people stop being bad. They'd be so much nicer as dollies.

"Oh, getting outside is easy," Lemia said.

"Really?" Elruin asked. "What about the wall?"

"Built to keep people out, same with the sarite shielding." Lemia had put some thought into the subject. "They can't make the barrier too hard, or it'll block out air and burn up its energy in minutes, so weak magic can sneak through where raw power would fail. There are even spots you can go to have luncheons while looking out at the landscape. It's easy to sneak out."

"How do you get back inside?"

"I haven't puzzled that part out. Any suggestions? You know the gate and guards better than I do."

"I don't know, Lady Calenda was always with me. They treat her special, because she's a scout."

"Well, if you think of a way, please tell me," Lemia said. "I want to see what it's like out there, with all the creatures and adventure. But only if I can come back inside, with my warm bed and fresh food. Sleeping on the ground sounds awful."

"I can... show you?" Elruin offered.

"How?" Lemia leaned forward.

"I found a spell that lets people synchronize," she said. "It's really neat, and lets you show memories."

"And you can do this? With anyone? No special requirements or side effects?"

"I think only Revealed mages can do it, and they have to both use their Revelation together. Other than that, the magic relies on fundamental principles to do most of the work. We can do it right now, if you want." Elruin caught on to Lemia's hesitation after a moment. "You don't want to?"

"It's just, I never thought I could synchronize with anyone due to my nature." Lemia looked away, a light pink creeping to her cheeks. "And everything I've read on the subject makes it sound... intimate..."

"Is this one of those city people things, like sharing a bed?" Elruin still didn't understand why Lemia thought it was weird that she shared a bed with some of her sisters. They seemed to believe only small children and married people slept together. Which wasn't half as bad as when she said she bathed with them, too.

"I guess it is," Lemia admitted. "It's just weird, that's all. But, well, I'd hate myself if I turned down a chance to learn magic I've never heard of before. How did you learn about it? Let me guess, you're not allowed to say."

Elruin considered lying, but the spell she was about to cast didn't do well with lies. "No, I can't."

"I'll start, and when you're ready you can alter the music, change it to your liking."

Suggested Listening

Elruin began her song, a soft and gentle affair, similar but different than with Scratch. She sang of things that better fit what she knew of Lemia, focusing on experiences and her time outside the walls, the sinister affair of nightfall, of cold ground, and of the mockery of the morks.

Lemia caught on quick, and began to adjust notes with gestures, grabbing them from the air and moving them to a new place as if designing sheet music. Her mathematical Revelation was an unusual one, but it was simple to pair math with music. She drew calculations of frustration, confusion, as siblings surpassed her due to her lack of potential.

Elruin joined in singing about the betrayal her family inflicted on her, though she took care to hide the nature of why they exiled her to die.

Lemia wrote of anger, of a desire for revenge which she had never acted upon but sat deep within her.

Elruin touched on the cruelty of the Ghosts of Sorvel, acknowledged her own desire to seek revenge, but she focused on the morks who offered her the opportunity for revenge, which she rejected. She sang of saving them from Cali, who wanted them arrested and sold into slavery.

Lemia backed away from the anger, crafted a formula of success by being stronger, smarter, and better than those who've wronged them.

The crafted song tapered off, and now it was Lemia who had tears in her eyes. "I don't want to sneak into the wilderness anymore."

Elruin went to the bed and picked up Mister Squishybones, which she handed to Lemia. "Here you go."

Lemia smiled, laughed, then hugged the stuffed animal.