Algernon Black

(Chapter 33) Quiet Comforts

Classes for the week had ended without any more incidents to Lucy's physical safety. Her mental health, however, was another thing. It was at its worst on Sunday when she found herself completely alone. The break only gave her more time to wallow in her fears and by the end of the day she was drowning in them. Freya had been gone since the night before. And Lucy assumed her to be with the same boy she enjoyed her night with at the goddess' temple. She tried to find Pecilia but she was away or not answering her door. Lucy hated isolation more than anything, and in this school where she had never been surrounded by more people, she felt more alone than ever. But she eventually thought of a place she might be able to escape that feeling, if he was even there.

"Professor Brickwood?" Lucy knocked on the office door even though it was slightly ajar.

"Come in," Brickwood replied with glasses balanced on the edge of his nose. He looked up from a stack of paper to see Lucy and a huge grin lit up his face.

"Lucy." He said in his always welcoming tone. "How have you been?"

"Good," Lucy lied. "And yourself?"

"I could be better if some of your classmates had half-decent penmanship. I'm getting a headache trying to decipher the chicken scratch of Mr. Debur."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lucy said. She noticed his desk strewn over with paper and suddenly felt guilty for intruding. "You seem busy, I'll go."

"I could never be too busy for you," Brickwood said with such natural charisma Lucy couldn't help but blush when it all fell onto her.

"I was wondering if you had heard from my brother," Lucy said, stepping farther into the room. "I know he often wrote to you."

"It wasn't that often," Brickwood said. "But I haven't received anything new from him." He gestured for her to take a seat by the fire, and she did as he took the one opposite her. "But it's only been a week."

Lucy bit the inside of her cheeks as she looked to the fire and massaged the burns on her hands. She assumed as much but had hoped to hear from Jared, after all the hardships this week brought.

"Are you feeling ok?" Brickwood asked. And though Lucy didn't want to add to any of the professor's concerns she couldn't help the way her face and shoulders dropped.

Brickwood lightly chuckled to see just how transparent Lucy was with her emotions, just as her brother had been. "Of course, you aren't. I'm sure you're feeling the pressures of this school, that sense of competition and hierarchy perpetrated amongst the students. And it doesn't sit well with you because you aren't the type. It makes you feel as if you don't belong, but you shouldn't feel the need to win over those who aren't willing to accept you just as you are."

Lucy looked to him, her wide gray eyes reflecting the candlelight in the room as her voice nearly cracked. "Even if that leaves nobody?" 

"If that happens," Brickwood's voice and smile softened. "You'll still have me. You always have, even when you didn't know it. Like when I personally vouched for your acceptance to Attwood despite what everyone else said."

"You did that?" Lucy asked, her head tilting to the side. "Why?"

Brickwood saw the slightest bit of movement outside of his door. It was like a shadow moving through the darkness, and just as quiet.

"Because I believe in you, Lucy," Brickwood said in the warmest regards. "Even before I met you, I believed that you had all the potential in the world to make a difference, and I'm sure of that now more than ever." The professor finished more so to their unseen lingering guest than to her.

"Thank you." Lucy said as that tenderness in her heart that had taken her to the professor's office finally lessened.

Brickwood smiled as his eyes traced over her. "You shine so much brighter when you have confidence. I would love nothing more than if you showed it more."

"Right," Lucy said smiling back.

Brickwood winked at her before getting back to the papers. Lucy got up as well, not wanting to overstay her welcome. But when she was about to leave, she paused in the door's threshold.

"Professor? Why were some against me coming to this school? Is it really just because they think I was raised poorly?"

"Is that what they say?" Brickwood asked, before chuckling under his breath. "Politically they would say it's because you don't have the credentials. That your lack of education would make you fall behind and drag the reputation of the school down."

"More realistically, they are afraid to see someone born out of their small circle excel because it ruins the idea that they are so special and inherently suited to rule just because of the class they were born into." Brickwood moved some papers to the side and grabbed a fresh pen. "And honestly the way we recruit our students now is a mockery of the ideals of the last good king. Do you know when he created Attwood what his guidelines for admission were?" He asked Lucy to which she shook her head no. "Hard work, open hearts, and the iron will it takes to use both in changing the world for the better." Brickwood looked out his stained-glass window as if looking into the past. "Back then Attwood housed more students than the capital yet did. From all over the world and all wakes of life. It was probably why Emora had spawned such powerful and competent leaders as we did to grow as much as we have as a nation. And now we only allow legacies and the top tiers scions of wealth in." Solace sighed. "No wonder we lack such foundation in our leadership now." But remembering who he was talking to, recalled back his lax tongue. "And now we keep exclusive and are keeping from producing the best of the best. But these people don't want to admit that. And they want proof of their backwards beliefs through your failing. Be sure to prove them wrong."

"I will," Lucy said with the first signs of confidence to her voice in a week.

Brickwood smiled. "Do your best. And I'll be sure to watch over you as you do."

Lucy nodded as she entered the dark corridor but never felt more confident walking the halls as she swore to improve herself until she proved everyone wrong.

"Instead of stalking outside my door, why not come in?" Brickwood asked seemingly to nothing.

Algernon came in as quietly as he had been listening on from outside but stayed silent still with his hands deep in the black coat of his jacket.

"Is there something that brought you here?" Brickwood asked, taking off his glasses to twirl them between his thumb and finger.

"Why are you concerned with her?" Algernon asked.

Brickwood raised an eyebrow and leveled gaze. "Why are you?"

"I'm not," Algernon immediately replied. Too fast for Brickwood to believe him.

"That's a relief." Solace said, putting back on his glasses. "I feel quite personally invested in Miss Lahue and I'd hate for the problems that would arise if you held the same interest."

Algernon tried to analyze if his cousin was being honest. He felt he was, but that didn't always mean there wasn't more he wasn't saying.

"Besides you shouldn't be concerned with her relationships with me anyways," Brickwood said, picking back up his papers after constant interruptions. "It's not her involvement with me that would put her in harm's way." Brickwood met again Algernon's black eyes. His eyes were not only dark they drained color. It was an eerie thing to see. It always had been. Even when Brickwood met his younger cousin for the first time as a baby he thought there was something wrong with him. Those black eyes were just an indicator of something much more wrong resting deeper inside.

Algernon's shoulder squared as his hair started to curl with his emotions tangling. He turned to leave and rummaged in the deep pockets of his coat to find the jar of ointment he'd made for Lucy. On the way back to his dorm he dropped it into the canal.