Aspiring Alchemist Vehya has twice failed her entrance exam into The Academy for Sorcery, Linguistics and Alchemy. Given one final opportunity to prove her skills as a mage, Vehya falls in with an odd group of students and must conquer feelings of d...
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"Remember how you asked me if you were a bad friend?"
Vehya looked at Ezerre sitting beside the tall window of their Crafting classroom. They were inscribing circles into sheets of tin with the aim of making it flatten out and become smooth. It seemed like a rather pathetic thing to be doing after everything she knew. Vehya had expected Ezerre to have completed the task immediately, but he'd barely scratched any runes into the metal.
"Yeah?" That felt like a long time ago.
"I have a confession." He turned to look at her, today he just wore a black shirt and slacks. "I know about your parents. Well... I know they trained with General Palfer and that they must have died in service." When Vehya said nothing, he continued. "I manipulated Charlie into all but confirming it for me..."
Vehya felt a stab in her gut at that.
"I wasn't trying to go behind your back about it, Vehya, I promise." Ezerre looked rattled, and she remembered the agitated young man he was the day they met. "I was trying to find out something else."
The stabbing pain twisted and when she spoke, a flicker of anger lit her from within. "You were trying to manipulate Charlie into talking."
The rest of the class continued on with their work. They didn't pick up on the tense air between Vehya and Ezerre. Ingrid Sappella's yellow gaze landed on them and Ezerre leaned forward across their shared table.
"If it makes you feel any better," Ezerre mumbled. There was something in his voice that Vehya couldn't define. "Palfer didn't spill anything much of note. I already figured there was something going on between you and the Kid's family."
"Don't call him that." Ezerre actually blushed and dipped his head, mumbling a feeble apology. Vehya remembered being weary of this well-off man when they'd first started. But they were friends now, right?
"I'm going to speak with Charlie, eventually." Ezerre looked out one of the windows and Vehya followed his gaze until she saw a large oak tree. "I just wanted to tell you first. Because..." He looked back at Vehya unsure, "The professors seem to be taking the conflict in the northeast seriously. I need to know who I'm standing with."
Vehya could appreciate that, she was still pissed he'd tried to out-manoeuvre Charlie for information, but she also knew that didn't give Char much credit. He can hold his own. She was thankful Ezerre was at least being honest. I'm sick of lies and cover-ups. Perhaps it was her conversation with Scarfengr that got her talking, but once she started it felt like she could breathe again.
If he wants to know the real me then fine.
"Our parents came here together; it's where they met." Vehya told him trying to imagine her parents starting at Asla. They'd never told her how they met, and she suspected now that it must have been in one of the Sorcery classes. A small part of her wanted to imagine her parents looking for attack-defense pairs and stumbling into each other; naive and excited to be with other mages. The more rational part of her kept talking; sounds of scrapped metal keeping their conversation private.
