Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 10, Part B

"He brought them with him from Provincia Sicarii," the Princeps Lifeholder's young cousin whispered.

Her friend, a rather chatty boy from the Princeps Mindholder's Vis Maiorum curia, said, "I heard they're Lightless."

"So?" another boy challenged, his louder voice earning a glare from Aix's own alumna, Dium, who was trying to read, "I'm Lightless."

"You're Promethidae," the Empowered lifeholder from the Princeps Forgeholder's Epulae Factorum curia pointed out. "They're a Pyrrhaeus."

"Not just a Pyrrhaeus. A Pullatus." Aix sighed internally as the Empowered lifeholder, a nonbinary child from the Rex's own Curia Regis, sniffed in disdain. He had found in his years of teaching that Empowered youngsters tended to be greater snobs about race and class than their Trueborn peers, perhaps needing to feel superior to someone to cope with the shame some felt over being born without prometus.

"Now that's a filthy lie," Cithara, another of Aix's own alumnas, stopped reading to snap. He frowned at her and gave the girl a pointed look that usually persuaded her to return to her studies, and sure enough, she blushed and added, "You just don't like borderlanders," before dropping her head back down to her book.

"You're right, I don't," the Curia Regis child hissed. "You should go back to your little provincia. And take your aedificans with you."

Aix just arched a brow at that but continued reading his book of night-side chant-poetry. He'd deal with the class if they didn't settle down soon, but sometimes youngsters learned more during conversations with their peers, even rowdy conversations, than from books.

"I want Aedilis Nubila back," the Princeps Lifeholder's granddaughter from the royal Societas Amaranti curia muttered. Only thirteen and unusually gifted, the girl was already a conservatory student. "Why did Princeps Daedalus have to send her away?"

"The exchange," her older brother said, eager to lord a little knowledge over his genius sister. Aix had not been teaching at the Seminarium Luminosum long--just these two weeks since Domi had become Princeps--but he already knew that the older boy was bright but no match for his younger sister's intelligence. Still, the fifteen-year-old plowed on eagerly, ignoring the rolled eyes that suggested his sister knew exactly what he had to say. "Provincia Sicarii sent Penna Igneae a bunch of their worldholders and others for the Blightlands response."

"I want to go to the Blightlands," his sister said with a wistful sigh. Aix winced; it was unlikely that any of these sheltered children would ever go on such adventures. Save the ones he'd brought with him from Provincia Sicarii, most were too close to the royal thrones of their kinsmen and kinswomen to ever be allowed near danger.

"No, you don't," her brother scoffed.

"Yes, I do!"

"I hear a great deal of talking and not much reading happening, young people," Aix finally interrupted before the two siblings could start arguing. Fifteen pairs of eyes swung to the front of the classroom to meet his own. "Clearly a change of scenery is needed to improve your attentiveness to your studies." He rose to his feet, clapping twice. "Up, up! Come along."

"Where are we going?" one girl asked among the scrape of chairs being pushed back and the rustle of tunicas and paenulas as the students found their feet.

Aix led them to the door. "You are curious about your new classmate. And I am curious about why they are not seated with you in my class. Let's go find them together, shall we?"

He led the class down the pristine white marble hallway, through the Seminarium Luminosum's arched golden portico exit, and along the column-flanked hexagonal peristyle framing the courtyard. Each of the other five walls of the peristyle connected to the portico entrance of one of the five royal palaces.

The pair of Penna Igneae Electi guarding the entrance to the onyx palace frowned as Aix presented his class. The middle-aged starholder held up a hand as his companion reviewed the youngsters' credentials in the Compendium. "As you are aware, Aedilis, the Princeps Worldholder is undertaking the Rite of Solitude and must not be disturbed. The royal wing is off-limits to all guests."

"We are not visiting the royal wing today, Promerenti," Aix said. "Merely the servant wing."

Indrawn breaths from some of his students hissed behind him at that. The Electi just shrugged, already beginning to grow accustomed to Aix's ways. "Very well. Good day, Aedilis."

"Good day to you as well, Promerenti." He held his arm out as the starholders stood aside. "In you go, young people. Have you ever visited a servant wing?" They shook their heads, some in clear dismay, and he smiled. "Excellent, this will be edifying."

He led them through the narrowing hallways, first past the spacious suites of high-ranking staff where he--and now Domi's Legati foster mother--lived and then to the smaller but still well-appointed chambers of attendants, visiting artists, scholars, and the like.

"Here we are," he said and nodded expectantly at the Rex's great-grandson.

Grimacing, the young starholder knocked.

Silence echoed back.

Aix cleared his throat. "Alumna? You did not come to class, so class has come to you."

Nothing, save the rustling of his other students' tunicas and paenulas behind him as the youngsters shifted awkwardly.

Aix frowned, listening with care. He doubted his new alumna had left their room; with Domi tucked away in Solitude and much of the palace off-limits, there were few places the Pyrrhaeus was likely to go. But he heard no answering voice within, no pages turning in one of the many books the Pullati child had stolen from him, and no clatter of equipment for one of the youth's experiments.

Every teacher knew to be wary of a young pupil's sudden silence. Whether a fit of adolescent pique or some foolish mischief, it usually spelled trouble.

Sighing and hoping he would not have cause to ground his new alumna before they had truly had the chance to get to know him yet, he opened the door and let himself inside.

At first, the sight that greeted his eyes drew another sigh from him, this time of exasperation. Aix was not one to pass up the opportunity to sleep in himself and thus started his classes later in the day to offer the same luxury to his pupils. But still.

"It is nearly noon, Alumna," he chided the adolescent-sized lump huddled beneath the blankets as the other students snickered. "Time to rise and greet the day."

When he drew the coverlets aside, however, his exasperation sharpened to worry. This was not just a young person oversleeping. The redhead did not stir when he exposed them to the light and air, save an increase in their shivering. His hand on their cheek confirmed the fever burning within them. Their eyes fluttered but did not open.

"Are they alright?" Favilla asked, nibbling her lip.

"They will be," Aix reassured her. He glanced back at the class half huddled in the room. Some of the students looked concerned, some alarmed. A couple had already retreated halfway out the door, covering their mouths and noses with their tunica sleeves with looks of disgust. "Lifeholders, stay here and observe. The rest of you--" He propped the too-hot child up on their pillows to help them breathe better and summoned promenia. "--class is dismissed for today."