CHAPTER 40: SCUTTLE AND FLOUNCE

There she stood, ripping up a mountain by its very roots.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Bridget frowned, tightening her hold on her books. “Someone had to have told you beforehand.”

“I’m telling you, I skipped breakfast that day to work on some side projects, so I swear I hadn’t heard anything about you seeing Terna.” Asher juggled his bag to place a hand over his heart.

He and Bridget, alongside Gail and Tuck had just escaped the Palisade after what was becoming a pattern of particularly strained meals. Where greencoats sat at meals had started to become the stuff of social rumor and political faction, based entirely upon which side of ‘the story’ one accepted as truth. Niles made no secret of his, but Bridget and Gail had been more than vocal as well, which led to mixed reactions, divided classrooms, and horrendous times at the cantina.

Bridget just wanted to avoid the cantina at this point; over a week had passed since everything with Niles and she was sick of dealing with it. She had better things to focus on at this point, like getting answers to the question of who summoned Asher to her rescue the morning of detention.

“So how…?” Briddy shook her head.

“Dunno. One moment I’m sitting there, dutifully preparing some quick-grow mold–”

“Some what??”

“Not the point.” Asher twinkled a grin at her. “The next, I hear this tapping at my window, I look up to this flash, and there’s Gail, storming across campus–”

Gail poked him in the back of the head. “I was not storming.”

“Gah! Fine, there’s Gail, blazing her way across campus–”

“I’ll show you blazing when I set fire to your–”

“So there’s Gail,” Asher had to fight to raise his voice, now dodging Gail’s swipes. “Flouncing across–”

Gail hooked a foot around his ankle and yanked, catching his midsection around her forearm before roughly messing Asher’s loose mop of curls.

“I.Do.Not.Flounce.” She snarled through gritted teeth, as Asher cackled and tried to wriggle free.

Briddy watched their exchange, waiting for it to end so she could ask her next question. Ordinarily, it should’ve elicited amusement, even an urge to join in the Gail-baiting, but all she wanted was for them to quiet so she could get back on task. Maybe the Muckeels had taken more than her magic during her time with them.

“A flash?” She pressed, as Asher wiggled free. “Tapping?” She turned her head towards Gail.

“Don’t look at me. No one asked him to come.” Gail harrumphed, straightening her bag.

“So that wasn’t–”

“Nope. I was heading straight to Administration to give Terna a bucket of cold, river’s truth when he comes scuttling out of the Courage dorms like a nightmare on two legs–”

Asher chuckled. “I do scuttle, don’t I?”

Gail scoffed and muttered something under her breath about where he could scuttle off to.

As they neared the building that held Doctor Gektu’s vent-filled classroom, Briddy looked between them. “So if neither of you knows who did the tapping, what about the flash? Did you see it Gail?”

Gail shrugged and shook her head.

“It was quick,” Asher said. “Sort of silvery? Dunno. Unless it was just a weird bird I saw or something.”

Bridget frowned, his words sparking several thoughts. She had seen something silver too, in the darkness….

Vex? A new knot formed in her stomach when reaching out to the Relic.

Bridget.

That glimmer…

Is not of my doing. You would have felt it, otherwise.

She supposed that was true. The wind that had come out of the sword had felt connected to them, like the warmth of breath exhaled into cold winter air.

But you saw it then?

I do not have eyes.

Bridget groaned, long and loud.

“What?” Asher looked at her with concern written across his face.

“Nothing…”

I know you don’t. But you just acknowledged it. Bridget fought to keep her annoyance down.

I sensed a brief pulse of magic originating from somewhere near you.

There you go. You didn’t have to get pedantic.

You spoke in fallacy. The relic replied.

It was a figure of speech!

An inaccurate one, as I do not currently possess eyes.

Bridget jolted to a stop so suddenly that both Gail and Asher slammed into her.

“Oy!”

“Briddy-”

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘CURRENTLY’!?

“What is wrong with you?” Asher slung an arm around her shoulder. “I enjoy a good run in as much as the next person but you’ve been off in your head for a bit now.”

“Don’t you have a class to get to?” Gail cut in, picking up his arm by the sleeve as though it were a piece of damp laundry. “We need to make Relic Lore.”

Looking in between his arm and Gail, Asher cocked a smirk. “Damn Gail, I didn’t realize you cared so much about class.”

“For all we know, the invisible one’s out here watching you make us late,” Gail primly responded, dropping the limb off to the side.

Asher leaned in with a malicious grin. “Is that what’s got you so pressed?”

Gail’s eyes narrowed to slits as she opened her mouth–

“Have either of you ever heard of relics having eyes?”

They both turned, brows creasing as they looked at Bridget with identical confused expressions.

“Come again?” Asher said.

“Eyes.” Briddy tapped the spot between his. “Are there any historical accounts of relics having them?”

He shook his head back at her, unsure, until a voice that had been silent spoke for the first time since asking for seconds at lunch.

“I think there are some stories from when Piet the Breaker was around. Mom used to tell us at bedtime.”

Bridget turned to look at Tuck, who had been walking with them, painfully quiet. It was a relief to hear him pipe up of his own accord, but as she opened her mouth to ask more, he offered a sad half-smile and immediately split off toward his next class.

Watching him go, she wondered if she should say something.

Asher shook his head as if reading her thoughts. “Give it time,” he murmured and then waved farewell.

Briddy puffed out her cheeks, and let the air slowly release as she trudged into Relic Lore with Gail. Whispers stirred up like a hive of disturbed Ashbees the second they set foot in the room, and it wasn’t hard to trace its source to a desk occupied two tiers down the pit-like classroom. Niles’ glasses glinted in the low light as he stopped talking to turn and whisper something in Kurtis’s ear; the golden-headed boy smirked in response. Plenty of students still milled about, but those two had already claimed their spot and looked to be in the middle of yet another dramatic retelling.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sparing them both one long, hard glance, Bridget slid into the farthest desk she could possibly get at the back of the room, which was still not far enough.

“Just came out of nowhere, really, screeching about how I hit ‘her’. Absolutely barking.”

Sculptor, just hearing his voice was like a combination of hearing nails scrape into a pane of glass and being stuck in the Muckeel pit again. It sent her muscles snapping taut, raised little hairs along the back of her neck, and ground her back teeth together in a vice’s clamp.

Gail slammed her stuff down on the desk with excessive force, sending pretty much everyone in the classroom jumping a few feet into the air. Looking over at Niles, she offered him a full-toothed smile that looked anything but pleasant.

“Good afternoon to you too, Gail,” Niles said sweetly, as though nothing were wrong.

Snorting, Gail threw herself down on the bench beside Briddy, and Niles went back to his tale.

“Miserable little…”

“Just ignore him,” Bridget muttered, flexing fingers she had unconsciously furled into fists. “He’ll get sick of it eventually.”

Gail’s mouth flattened in displeasure. “I’m just saying. I can only sit through this so many times and do rot-all.”

“What do you want me to do? It’s not like I can punch him again.”

“Well…” Gail drew out the word thoughtfully.

Briddy was midway through scolding her, a smile teasing back onto her face when she heard: “--nearly died when she started hacking into me with that thing!”

Before she could think, Bridget had bolted partway out of her seat and leaned forward on the desk to look down at Niles. “Maybe you should learn to block!”

Their classmates that had been walking around and listening in shuffled back, as though to give them room.

Niles’s eyes widened slightly, as though amused. “I thought we had been over this-”

“Yes, yes. I understand that you tell whatever story you want Niles,” Bridget cut him off loudly. “I dunno, I suppose I just thought that in this version you’d have given yourself the ability to deflect more than just blame.”

Gail choked on a snort, looking over her shoulder at the door as she chuckled. What surprised Briddy was that she wasn’t the only one. Warrin outright guffawed, accompanied by Parvati’s tinkling giggle hidden behind silver fingertips, and soon laughter spilled out of other students. Looking around, an odd feeling flopped in Bridget’s stomach. They weren’t laughing at her.

“Settle into your seats, please.” Doctor Gektu’s voice faded from soft to loud, as though very suddenly close to her ear.

Briddy didn’t move, looking down at where Niles sat. He glared up at her now, all hints of amusement gone. She should’ve felt triumph, or vindication, but instead, she just felt tired. Her fatigue grew as his glare deepened, fueled deeper by each student that sat at a desk near her. More than there had been yesterday.

Holding Niles's gaze until he looked away, Briddy slowly sat down and sighed. “It’s like he’s not happy unless no one comes near me at all.” She muttered, raising a chin in greeting as Warrin slid in at the end of their desk.

“So much for the ignoring approach.” Gail smiled.

Bridget nearly retorted when she caught the glimmer of pride in her friend’s eyes and settled for a wordless harrumph as she pulled out the materials for notes.

Doctor Gektu’s lesson that day explored the unspeakable nature of Relic’s names and their slow process of revealing them. Bridget did her best to ignore the dirty looks coming from down and to her right as she took note of the fact that those married through the Entwining ceremony could, in some rare cases, share the information with each other.

“The only common factor identified was intense personal chemistry and trust. As you progress and begin to earn more of your relic’s trust, I encourage you to truly cultivate the relationship between you. You will see that in time, you will learn more than just its name. The artifact will begin to open up to you, show more power, personality, and perhaps even change form. You can even look forward to begin having conversations after your second piece, though I’ve had plenty of students say theirs doesn’t speak in full sentences till the third–”

Scriiiiiitch.

The tip of Briddy’s pen tore into the paper beneath, puckering it underneath a long black line.

She looked at Gail, who was drowsing next to her, head resting in one hand.

Bridget poked her in the ribs.

Eyes flying open, her friend looked over. “What did he ask me?” She whispered, wildly looking around.

“Nothing. Don’t you talk to your relic?”

“Huh?” Gail looked at her like she was stupid for a moment. “Yeah?”

Confused, Bridget leaned back over, looking down at her ruined notes. What was Gektu going on about then?

She thrust a hand into the air.

“Yes, Bridget?” Doctor Gektu’s voice paused its lecture. She could feel the heads of her classmates already turning to look at her, but Briddy was used to the weight of their eyes now. Answers were worth more than anonymity.

“I’m afraid I don’t fully understand, sir.” She said, glancing over at Gail. “You said something about fully formed sentences at the second or third piece of the name but–we talk to our relics in conversations like that already. So isn’t that redundant?”

Bridget immediately became keenly aware that she had said something wrong.

Gail sucked in her breath, and her peers goggled like Briddy was a monstrosity on display at the Teradish menagerie.

Niles rolled his eyes. “Of course.” He said under his breath and at the top of his voice at the same time.

“I didn’t mean…talk like that…” Gail muttered next to her, looking uncomfortable. “Mostly it just calls me ‘lazy girl’ and says ‘no sleep’...”

“In most cases, the bond between relic and heir only lets through so much until it is strengthened and tempered.” Doctor Gektu said, gently picking the lecture back up as though it were a child with a skinned knee. “But in rare cases, due to extraordinary circumstances, it is possible for the pair to have greater levels of communication at far earlier stages in the development. If this is something you experience, then you are truly lucky, Bridget, because you are already seeing a part of yourself that takes others years to grow into.”

Keeping her head down to avoid seeing anyone’s reaction, Bridget offered a brief smile of thanks and a nod. Terna had said that her bond with Vex was abnormal, impacted by the wall they had between them.

The wall your father put there. A little voice whispered at the back of her mind.

Out of nowhere, a crushing wave of nausea roared over Bridget’s stomach, and she had to fight back the urge to spew bile. Her pen clattered to the desk.

It could’ve been Vex. She told herself. I don’t know.

Is it easier to tell yourself that than to look within and find the answer? Vex asked.

You could always tell me.

I cannot.

Bridget tried to put it out of her mind, but the thoughts popped up the more she pushed them down, boiling stubbornly like a pot of water whose surface she had covered with cloth. By the time classes were over, all she wanted was the peace of her bed, and the pile of books that awaited her within its curtains. Gail and Asher had other plans, and after catching her trying to dodge dinner, mudhounded her until she got in line with them to pile a plate with food.

Even after slapping some stew and a piece of crusty bread onto her dish, Bridget was unsurprised to find she didn’t feel much better. The noise of the Palasaide cantina, the bright lights of its low-hanging globular lamps, a dirty look from Kurtis as he shoved past her; it all blended into a murky swirl of stimulation that pounded at her senses ceaselessly. Slipping through the sea of Shrouds, blissfully returned now that the Guildhunt was over, Bridget pushed towards the rectangular tables in the middle of the room, looking for a few empty spots.

She was in the middle of looking back over her shoulder to ask her jailors if they saw anything when she realized they had become separated. Craning her neck, her head pounded as she searched the cantina for her friends. She hadn’t even wanted to come in the first place, and now they had gotten lost–

The plate threatened to fall from her hands, nearly depositing soup on a blue uniformed upperclassman seated nearby. At the end of the double-sided buffet tables, where the stacks of cutlery gleamed beside creamy napkins and freshly baked rolls, Gail and Asher were talking to Niles and Gemma.

Bridget was at the perfect angle to see past the backs of her friend’s heads, over their shoulders, and straight into Niles’ obsequious little face, split into a pleased smile as he laughed and joked. Gemma fawned over something on Asher’s sleeve, running her hand up his arm. She waited for him to push it off, for them to leave or for Gail to dump her food on Niles’ head or something. Pain twisted throughout the whole of her when they didn’t.

“Briddy?” Someone was saying her name, but her eyes were locked on Gemma’s fingers, getting all the way up to Asher’s shoulder as Niles told another slimy joke–

“Briddy!” Warrin whirled her around to face him with a grin. “You gonna stand there forever? Come sit with us!”

Looking at him, her eyes wide, Bridget tried to form several words, her lips shaking. Instead, she wordlessly shoved her plate into his hands and ran out of the Palisaide. The angry tears didn’t wait for privacy, beading down her face as she surged towards the trees that surrounded the greencoat’s dorm houses.

How could they? Talking to Niles like everything was normal like that? Interacting with him was unavoidable, they all went to the same school, she understood that, but to stand there joking and laughing as though nothing was wrong? They had made her come in the first place! She irritably smacked a fallen branch out her path, the roof of Honor house coming into view up ahead. Were the roles reversed, and he had treated one of them in such a way, cast a spell at them, blamed them for protecting her, she would never act like that. Sculptor, how could they, with what he had done to Tuck?

Do you prefer war to peace? Vex inquired.

I prefer to treat people for who they are, not coddled in some lie. She retorted. Her whole body felt hot.

It must be easy for Asher and Gail, to act like everything was the same with Niles when he didn’t treat them like a pariah, lavishing affection on her friends while rubbing her nose in the dirt and trying to get everyone else to as well. Briddy sucked on her teeth in realization.

That would be such a petty plan.

And yet…Vex murmured.

Niles had never shown himself to be above pettiness.

A loud crack startled Bridget from her fuming, and she whirled around. The branch she had flung aside earlier was crushed, broken into clean, tiny pieces, but there was no one behind her.

“Hello?” She called, searching the night-stained woods with a furrowed brow.

No reply came. Bridget scoffed, turning on her heel and continuing on her way back to the dorms, entirely missing the dark form that skittered along in the shadows of the trees behind her.