Art of Alchemy

Chapter 12 - Crafting Friendships

Asla's corridors were busy at this time in the Linguistics building on the other side of the Academy. Students moved through the halls with a structured chaos. It was loud, but Vehya was thankful for the distraction. She shoved her way between the meandering students until a low whistle to her side gave her a moments warning to her companions appearance.

"Someone had a bad morning."

"That would about sum it up."

"Who pissed in your porridge?" Ezerre walked beside her, shortening his strides to match hers. He was wearing orange this morning and the colour didn't look completely awful on him.

"I didn't see you at breakfast." She mumbled thankful he had not been there to hear the exchange.

"I had business elsewhere." He did not elaborate further so Vehya dropped it.

"What do you have now?"

"Same as you."

"You know my timetable?" She asked, "That's a bit creepy, Tepper."

"You said you were taking Basic Crafting at breakfast the other day." He shrugged and stepped to the side as a group of students ran past them, their black capes flapping. "My sources tell me we are lucky enough to have Professor Ingrid Sappella, so hopefully it will be better than my last crafting class."

"Your sources?" Vehya laughed, "You make it sound like you're one of the Triumvirate."

Ezerre's smile brightened her morning ever so slightly. "Just you wait Vehya. One day my handsome face will be hanging in the Grand building beside our friend Alex." He gave her a wink and she shook her head but found herself smiling.

"We have to get through the Academy in one piece for that and I haven't gotten off to the best start." Two days in and after everything she'd done to get here... Vehya shook herself. No point stressing over unknowns.

The two of them made their way up one of the Towers to the second floor. It seemed Ezerre knew his way around the school just as well as Vehya. Soon the corridor split into two paths and they saw the large archway leading to the crafting rooms on the northern side of the building.

"Have you spoken to Yalli since Thursday?" Ezerre asked her quietly before they entered the dark classroom. His chestnut eyes were taking in the placement of the stones forming the arch of the door.

"This morning, at breakfast." Vehya had been trying to put that out of her mind but now she thought back on the younger mage's behaviour. She'd seemed even more reserved, unsure. And I left her with two people she didn't know. Vehya frowned. Hopefully Charlie will be more considerate than I was.

Charlie was one of those people that flew under the radar most of the time, but Vehya knew he was smarter than she could ever dream of being. Unimposing and quiet; he had a heart of gold and always took note of the things others missed. He'd be able to make even the shyest person feel heard, if only because he knew what it was like to feel unseen.

Am I a bad friend? Vehya wondered feeling the horrible guilty nag.

"The jury is still deliberating, but considering you guys had breakfast together I'd say you are in the clear." Ezerre walked past her, a calm on his face that looked slightly forced. Vehya realised she'd spoken out loud, Unless Ezerre can read thoughts...?

She dismissed the idea and followed him into their crafting classroom. It was everything a Speaker could hope for; neat rows of tables set up with space for two students, a wall of glass jars filled with everything from bitter barbs to crushed lupus shells. Flooding the room with light were three huge crystal-clear windows. They covered the left side of the space and looked out on to a small garden where a massive old tree stood.