The Ether-Knight's Lessons

2

.^^ Idun ^^

— Idun —

"What? Did I ask something you didn't understand?" I snapped my fingers under Glass's nose.

He jerked upright. "Oh! Uh, no, not really... Uhm... classes are like lectures, but you actually learn something. You sit with a group of people at the same level of mastery as you, and learn from someone who has more knowledge, until you have everything they can teach you."

I nodded slowly. "Ahh. I see. Well, so long as I'm not bored, I don't see why I wouldn't show up."

We started back towards the gates, and I looked at Syral, trying to get a read on them. "So, your name is Syral? Where's that from? I'm Idunacantus, or Idun."

They blinked slowly, and I noticed something odd about their eyes, which were slim, like a cats, though they leveled out into circular irises as soon as I made the connection.

"My name is Syral Desi, Yes. I am from the Alflands, in the Far North. My people are the Newid, the Changed. We are primarily shapeshifters, if you were wondering why we have no gender terms in our language. And you? You are from Berlin?" They asked politely, and suddenly stood a little shorter, and a little plumper.

"Berlin, Yes... I've lived there for most of my life, though I was born in Paris, a few years before the Roman Expansion." I nodded, and wrapped the blanket I'd used as wings around me as we walked.

Glass whistled softly. "A True Gaul, huh? You get more interesting by the moment... and your name, it means 'Eden's Spells'?"

"Close, 'Idun's Enchantment'. Eden was very different from Idun. Norse Goddess Of Fertility and Immortality vs Christian Garden." I explained.

"Right, right. Cool name. Mine just means 'Blue' in Welsh. Not a very interesting story at all, I'm afraid." He sighed dramatically.

"And you? Your name have any special meaning?" I looked at Syral.

"None. Names amongst the Newid are purely for the sake of convenience. We do not apply many definitions to ourselves, and our names are randomized letters, nothing more." Syral said simply, and opened the gate with a wave of his hand.

"Huh... interesting concept." I nodded, and walked next to them down the Main Road, the Entrance into the other streets, which held the many markets, red district, and what looked like an entire market designed and executed for animals, as no humans walked amongst the crowds of exotic animals.

"That's where all the Familiars live, until they have a Partner." Glass said simply, gazing longingly at the alley, which I now noticed was blocked off from all entry by a clear barrier of some sort.

"What, do only graduates get one?" I asked him quietly.

Syral answered anyway. "No, one has to prove oneself worthy, to even attempt to contract with a Familiar. Glass has tried, multiple times, but has never been deemed worthy by the Familiars."

Glass sighed. "Yeah, well... to be fair, only about a quarter of the students have one, until senior year, where everyone has to have one to graduate. I've been a Senior for nine years, because of it."

I nodded slowly. "So there's prerequisites to every stage of training? And you just stay here, until you fill them all?"

He shrugged. "Or they fail you, and send you to Alfland to freeze your balls off for the rest of your life. I passed all the curriculum, which is why I'm allowed to stay. I'm a 'professor's assistant', officially."