Olly Briggs
“The sheer humiliation of these antics cannot be abided by,” Abigail said firmly. She was sitting in Franklin’s chair and wore a look of cold fury that shook Olly to his core. He had seen her angry before but never directed at him. He decided he hated it. Franklin stood behind her looking surprisingly unsettled. Though their usual interactions were fraught and typically included an exchange of barbs even Franklin looked like he didn’t dare talk back to her in this moment.
Olly, Sarah, Steven and Brandon sat before her looking mollified. Well, three of them did at least. Brandon looked uninterested in a way that suggested that he didn’t believe he was the intended recipient of the message.
“I will not tolerate my Guild members undermining each other AND my orders. Especially in public in front of other non-major Guilds. We were there to assist the Meteorologists and instead we mucked about and fought each other openly. The optics of this incident are horrendous!” she looked disgusted at the prospect.
For a while, no one spoke. Then Brandon chimed in. “Grandmaster, I believe I speak for us both when I say that the behaviour witnessed today was inappropriate-”
“Oh do be quiet, Brandon, you don’t speak for me,” she snapped, “You’re just as complicit. You don’t get to unilaterally make decisions regarding the activities of Guild students. Particularly while I am present. If anyone ever approaches you expressing any concern you should come to me directly!”
His mouth opened but he shut it firmly and quickly as if reconsidering his retort. Still, he looked stormy and Olly suspected his would-be response was begrudgingly bitten back.
She returned her focus to the general group. “All of you need to carefully consider what it means to be a part of this Guild. Discretion and acuity are key. We do not act out of turn or behave rashly. Safety is paramount, yes, but we must act with level heads. Keeping up good appearances on behalf of this Guild, the other three major Guilds, and the Academy is critical, especially now. You saw the protests; they’re growing louder by the day. Mismanagement of a simple exercise and displays of inner-Guild conflict are a surefire way to gain media attention.”
This time nobody, not even Brandon, spoke. He seemed to have remembered the humility to look chastised. Olly understood; he had to try very hard to avoid looking away in shame.
“You may not understand it yet but a large part of my job is to maintain an image. Threats to that image are extremely serious,” she leaned back and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Optically we have a problem so where do we go from here?”
Again, nobody spoke. Franklin cleared his throat carefully and she looked up as if just realizing he was still there.
“Franklin?” she asked, sounding despondent.
“If I may suggest perhaps there should be some sort of punishment?”
“Like what?” she sighed.
“Either the removal of privileges or some remediation work.”
Olly had to fight to control his expression. He knew he was the intended recipient of that message.
She steepled her fingers as she considered these options before finally shaking her head.
“I’ll mull it over. The consequences need to be appropriate for the situation and the hierarchy,” she swept her gaze over the four of them once more, “You’re dismissed for now. I’ll be in touch later.”
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The walk back to the dorms with Sarah was largely spent in silence. They followed the ornate and slightly meandering hallways back to the atrium. Olly stole a glance at the ever present floating map of Flexibilis.
“That’s some bullshit,” she broke the silence as they crossed the threshold of the atrium. They began to follow the hallway back to the Conductor dorms.
He exhaled heavily. “I suppose.”
He didn’t feel aggrieved; he felt embarrassed. He had spoken back to the Grandmaster in front of her subordinates and peers; in hindsight he saw a hundred better ways he could have dealt with the situation.
“We weren’t wrong,” she insisted.
“We weren’t right either,” he responded.
She stopped in her tracks. “Oh for the… Olly! Listen, you need to think about this a little harder. For everything they said about safety all it comes down to is appearances for them. All of these people were in positions of power when that first tunnel collapsed. I expect better of them than whatever that was."
A fire was blazing in her eyes. He was sympathetic to her but wasn’t convinced. He looked around; the hallways were empty but he was paranoid of having this conversation in the open.
"Can we please get back to the dorm?"
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She sighed and resumed her walk back.
Lowering her voice she resumed her rant. "All I'm saying is that we potentially saved lives today and they’re mad we didn’t run it by them the correct way. How could we possibly trust them to do what's right? What does this say about past incidents? And, more troubling, what happens if something goes wrong again?”
"Steven listened to us,” Olly pointed out.
"This one moment doesn't erase the past. He never faced justice for his role in the first tragedy. He is being sheltered by this organization in spite of his past fatal mistakes," she insisted.
"I don't know how we would know that. And you know what, this is a bit besides the point. There's clearly going to be consequences for what happened today and I think that says they're taking it seriously."
Sarah looked scandalized. She shook her head and picked up her pace. "Consequences for us perhaps, but not real ones for the people that actually deserve them."
“Sarah…” he said gently and began to walk briskly to keep up with her, “I get that it’s more personal for you and I’m on your side. Your actions lead to a solution that probably saved us all from something much worse and you should be very proud of that... But I also don’t want the Grandmaster to think that she can’t trust me.”
“You don’t get it. What happened today was a very near miss. I know through my sister what happened and I saw how it affected her. Meanwhile they act like it never happened and care more about 'optics' than safety. She’s changed and will never be the same. People never returned home. Something like that can't be allowed to happen again," she insisted forcefully.
“I get it. But Steven came prepared with the solution in case something went wrong. That's progress, isn't it? You don’t think he wouldn’t be changed by what happened that day too?”
She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. They had made it to the steps leading up to their respective rooms; the common area was mercifully empty.
“Innocent people died from his inaction,” she said coolly, "I'd hope, out of everyone, he would be forever changed. That's the bare minimum I'd expect for him."
“And there's no merit in what he’s doing with his research to prevent this tragedy from happening again? Don’t you think it’s a bit, I don’t know, close minded to assume the only form of justice is a public admission of guilt?”
Her scowl deepened. “Why are you defending him? I'm here to fix a broken system. You know what this means to me.”
“And you know what being here at all means to me!” he felt his voice rising in spite of himself, “I didn't always know it but I didn't have a lot of alternatives for what my life could have been. People have sacrificed a lot to get me here. I can't let them down.”
They stood off against each other but lapsed into silence.
She was the first to break eye contact. “See you in class tomorrow,” she said emotionlessly and turned and walked to her room. She closed the door behind her gently and yet to Olly she might as well as slammed it.
He stared at the closed door for longer than he cared to admit before entering his own room and closing the door with a measured silence. He didn't want her to know that he had still been out there alone.
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Alone and afraid, I stood sentry amongst the trees. A ferocious wind whipped through the forest, creating an otherworldly sound. The gusts were unrelenting and threatening; a far cry from the usual weather. Gentle breezes on the beach with the warmth of the sky washing over my face, or stronger gusts over grassy knolls entertaining kite fliers—those were the normal atmospheric conditions I had come to appreciate.
But this?
This was angry.
It was angry in the way branches snapped and fell to the ground. It was angry in the way it blew in dark clouds that obscured all light in the sky.
The sick greenish color of the sky told me that I had to run for cover though there was little shelter to be found. The winds continued their screams, forcing the trees to bend and buckle until all but the tallest and strongest were forced to kiss the ground.
I could only look elsewhere; leaving the tree line was my only option.
As I clambered up a hill, I suddenly saw a clearing in the distance. I was struck with déjà vu as a shimmering tunnel loomed in the middle of the clearing. This was familiar; I had seen this tunnel before. It was once again open and, despite its dark entrance, it seemed oddly inviting amidst the raging tempest around me.
“Olly…” it beckoned to me as I got closer.
Something moved in the dark beyond its entrance. I paused in doubt. Something had grabbed me last time; I remembered this too.
“Who are you?” I asked.
There was no response.
The wind was unrelenting, and I looked around for any other sort of refuge. Finding none, I turned back to the inky blackness in the tunnel.
A loud
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Olly woke up abruptly as he had done so many times of late. The last thing he saw before he jolted awake was a tree branch falling towards him. However, this time he remembered what preceded it.
His clock told him that it was just after four in the morning; a full two hours before his alarm was set to go off. It was early enough to go back to sleep but after an unfruitful fifteen minutes of tossing and turning he found that his mind was too unsettled.
He reached over to turn on his light and let it illuminate the small dorm room. Slowly his heart rate returned to normal. He was safe here; he wasn’t in a dark and dangerous forest with a mysterious tunnel. He was just safe in his new home.
Olly got up out of bed, sat at his desk and pulled out a journal. He was once told that writing things down was the best way to remember fine details and the vivid picture of his dream was slowly starting to fade. Without hesitation he scribbled out all the details of what he saw and how it made him feel.
Only ten minutes had passed by the time Olly had finished writing. Unfortunately, he was too wired to go back to sleep. Breakfast wouldn’t start being served for over another hour yet so that left him with little to do in the meantime. He side-eyed his bed and wondered if he could return to it and allow himself the luxury of feeling sorry for himself.
But dammit he was tired of wallowing.
He made up his mind and with a sudden determination decided to get ready for the day early.
Olly grabbed his book bag with the intention of going to the library to study. As he exited his room he paused outside Sarah’s door once more and debated waking her up. Their fight from the previous night made him think better of it. Asking her for help might help with reparations but he didn’t want their reconciliation to stem from his own neediness so he continued onwards by himself.