Aelia stood next to Coric on the western wall, leaning over the brick parapet to watch the army march. Coric had slipped a city guard a coin or two to allow them up here; the guard had growled but agreed to look the other way for an hour.

Aelia thought she could still make out the Stone God in the distance, the golden glint of a hundred paladins behind him. Then, there were the knights, archers, a few dozen mages (three professors from the Academy and many seniors that Coric knew personally), plus four-thousand or so swordsmen (and swordswomen). Not to mention medics, cooks, and all the rest of the non-military persons that were needed.

Most facinating of all to Aelia however (save for the God himself) were the machines that marched with them, powered by steam and smog and magic. They had looked to her like massive metal scorpions as they'd skittered past the wall: six silver legs pummeling into the earth, pumping out tiny black puff clouds with each step. Each had two further arms thrusting in and out of their fronts, and each of those ended in many metal spikes.

Aelia wondered if Coric was glad he wasn't yet a senior. There would have been a good chance he'd have been recruited and marching to war with the army, if he had been.

"There's not been a force like it assembled since the war with the Necromancer," Coric said. "And even then, the Stone God never marched." Coric laughed, cold and sharp. "Just imagine being the enemy watchman and seeing that storm approaching! I think you'd drop your sword and run, if you had any sense."

Probably, Aelia thought. There was surely little in the world that could stand against such military might. But if that was the case, why was there an uneasy feeling in her gut that told her to wave goodbye to those leaving as if they'd never come home again? Perhaps it was what Henry had said: why would they start a war if they couldn't win?

Barracks and training grounds throughout Rhodes had been emptied, but the army wasn't marching straight to battle. It would assemble in a border-village further west, where other soldiers from villages around the kingdom would join them. The army would swell by maybe another third, Coric had thought.

"I fainted, yesterday," Aelia said rather suddenly, turning to the the mage-to-be. She hadn't told anyone besides Henry, and for some reason the dream had been weighing as heavily on her as a real secret. And as much as she'd wanted to be truthful with Samuel, he'd had enough concerns of his own to harbour. She'd even written her mother a letter last night, looking for catharsis. But that had just ended in another well of lies: I'm doing great! Academy is fun. Lots of friends. God sure is a swell guy. Learning fast. Love you and sis!

Coric turned to her, face creased in concern. "Fainted? Are you okay now? What brought it on?"

She liked the urgency of his questions. "It was just after the Stone God made His pronouncment. The world became hot and blurred and I fell and... the world went away. Henry was with me and he took me to his cart and, yes, I'm okay now."

"Good. I'm glad he took care of you." If Coric was at all jealous, he didn't show it.

"What do you know of visions?"

Coric's frown deepened. "Visions? As in what? A prophecy?"

"No. Not as in I saw something that's yet to come. Although, maybe I did -- I don't know."

"What do you mean, then?"

It was just a dream and Aelia knew it. Yet holding onto it all by herself was as suffocating as being back in the water. "I was... drowning. I was trapped inside a jar or a flask -- glass walls were all around me." Just the thought made her stomach roil. "And the jar was filled to the brim with fluid that wasn't water. I was naked, and I was breathing but I also wasn't -- couldn't be, not when I was beneath liquid." She said the last part to herself, more than to Coric.

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

He considered, then spoke carefully as if trying to avoid a word that might cause her offence. "This was while you were unconcious? I don't know if... It doesn't sound exactly like a vision to me, so much as it does a... What I mean is..."

It was just a dream -- that was what Coric wanted to say but he was too polite to upset her. Gods, she must have sounded stupid. Well, she'd come this far: "Someone was outside of the jar," she continued. "He called me by a differenet name. Told me that I needed to remember who I worked for. And all the while I was drowning, but not."

Coris was silent for a time, as he considered. "Aelia, you said you were hot before you fainted. Perhaps your body was going through a trauma and your mind was tring to match it. A type of fever dream. Besides, drowning is a rather common dream to experience, I believe. It might mean nothing at all."

She nodded, although she disagreed that she'd been drowning. She'd been breathing. "I suppose it doesn't really matter, anyway. I just really wanted to tell someone. I can't get it out of my head and thought maybe talking would exorcise it."

Coric shot her a smile. "When we see my tutor, which at the rate you're progressing will be the middle of next week, we can ask her about it. She knows much more about... well, about everything than I do."

Sometimes, Aelia thought, Coric's modesty could be infuriating. He was top of his class and far more intelligent than Aelia was, and yet he seemed to hate showing his knowledge. As if it was offensive to be smart. "Why are you even helping me, Coric?"

"I told you."

"Because you think I have potential."

"Yes. Exactly. You'll be a great asset to the Academy, someday. You're far more powerful than I was before I arrived and began my own training."

"But what does that matter to you? You're not a teacher. Why do you care if I get accepted or not?"

"Maybe I just like red hair and green eyes."

"Funny."

"Well, I do, as it happens. And I also do believe you have incredible potential." He sighed. "But... Okay. Fine. That day when you tried to apply. You were kind of funny to watch, so determined but so incredibly underprepared. You'd done no research at all on the Academy as an institution, but waltzed up all the same and demanded entry. Your confidence made me laugh."

"Gee, thanks. So it was my misguided confidence, or in other words my stupidity, that won you over?"

"Let's stick with misguided confidence. Then, after, you looked so dejected when I found you outside of the academy. It was clear how much it meant to you. And, well, the truth is you reminded me of a girl I didn't help when I should have done."

Ah, finally, a crack letting a ray of truth run through. "What girl?"

"A girl from my first year at the adademy. Unlike you she had gotten a referral -- although Gods know how -- and she got accepted thanks to it. But she struggled from day one with the coursework, with learning new spells... And so she asked me for help, as she thought it all came so easy to me." He paused. "Which it did. She told me she wanted it to come easily to her. Needed it to."

"And you didn't help her?"

"No," said Coric, face gray. "I didn't. I grew up competitive you see, Aelia. Three brothers will do that to you. The Academy was like anything else: a game to be won. Not a chance to improve myself, like it was for her. Like I think it is for you. And as it was a game, every other student could only be opposition playing against me."

So he was trying to make up for being selfish. "How old were you?"

"Fourteen. And so was Gilly."

"Gilly was the girl you didn't help?"

He nodded.

Aelia thought she could see the pain in his brown eyes. They'd darkened almost to black. Pain, or perhaps anger. "You were young. I think most of us were selfish when we were young. But we all grow and change."

He didn't reply.

"What happened to Gilly?"

"She flunked, of course," he said, sighing. "Would have had to repeat the year. But instead she left the Academy. And..." He looked at Aelia. "I'd really rather not talk about it any longer."

She nodded, understanding Coric a little better, she thought. Aelia was his penance. His way of putting right a mistake he'd felt he'd made. Aelia wasn't sure how she felt about being someone's penance. Certainly a little annoyed Coric wasn't helping her because he thought her talented. Or at least, that not being the only reason.

Then again, what did the reason matter? All that mattered -- that had ever mattered to her -- was that she got into the Academy.

She looked back up across the parapet. "Thank you for telling me." The army was gone now. Just a trail of distant dust. Motes dancing under the morning sun.

"Come on," said Coric. "Let's get started wth today's training before that guard demands double pay."

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