Constellations Glossary
Boludo: Argentinian Spanish for Idiot
Bengalia: Feminine, Romany for Idiot
Vlamenos: Greek for Idiot
Bundun: Mandarin for Idiot
Maudit san-dessein: Quebecois for [Expletive] Idiot
Pendeho: Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole language spoken in the Philippines, for Idiot
Inyanga's Star Act IV scene i
At the end of crepesculum, a queue of Secondae formed around the link portal into al-Maysan.
It felt strange to everyone to be entering the hall at night. The dark of vespera felt different from the dark of early morning. The quiet felt different, forced. Now the students hushed. Whispering spread as they lined up to pass through the link. Now no one felt sleepy but amped up, alert, curious, frightened. Now the high energy of their social hour was tamped down by caution.
The energy passed between every student, forming a bubble of solidarity.
"Are we in trouble?" one girl whispered, and like a connected hive mind-melded, a hundred minds wondered, "Are we in trouble?"
"Did something bad happen?" whispered another, and a hundred minds asked, "Did something happen?"
"Are we safe?" echoed from mouths and through minds.
"Why just Secondae?" everyone asked.
"Did we do something?"
"Is it an emergency?"
The passage of ideas swirling from mouth to mind swept them together like debris in a whirlwind until they were surrounded by their united concern. That protective bubble around them. And the queue through the link became a march. Defiant. All Secondae marched, then swam into the zero gravity library, as if chained in a procession from mind to mind, and within the protective bubble.
Propelling themselves with steering and propulsion spells out into the air above the towers of bookshelves — and below millions more books that clung to the inner curves of the entire sphere — they did not form a circle around their maestras like last time. Instead, the students massed together, entering far enough in for everyone to get through the link, then forming row after row into an echelon formation, like soldiers.
Some indescribable instinct brought hands to gnomons, though none were drawn.
Fear of the unknown, for most. For Inyanga, Storm, and Amafu, fingers brushed their gnomons out of hope for a last second message from the stars.
Out front of the echelon, Maestra Alondra faced them and hovered, flanked by backup of her own — a dozen librarians in maroon uniforms. Not all had undergone an eternal youth spell to turn back the effects of aging, and their appearances ranged across various stages of maturity. Various stages of graying, winkles, and aging skin that allowed them to show the experience and authority that they had earned on their visages. There were also several more maestras in attendance, hovering around Alondra, who also appeared not to be the sort to waste solidae on a frivolity like a youthful face, instead taking pride in the age they had acquired, marking them as having been alive and elder at the inception of immortality over a millennium and a half ago.
The cohort of Secondae, of course, would never age a day, and hadn't since they were sixteen or so. No one would ever see them as wise or experienced, even if they lived to be a thousand.
A spell made Alondra's voice louder. "We have called this emergency assembly due to a fault in the blanket taboo spell cast on this class last semester." Her announcement provoked quiet surprise, as if a group inhale and held breath deepened the silence. Her voice held no disciplinary chill, but a pathetic warmth, and her slightly matured face expressed a complex expression of placidity and lamentation, as if to say that there was nothing she could do.
Three girls' hands grasped fingers all the way around the glass hilts of their gnomons and three minds silently begged the stars to send them some kind of protection spell. Couldn't the stars tell them how to keep the spell from sealing Inyanga's lips?
Apparently not, because they didn't whisper a thing.
The next words Alondra spoke shocked them to the core. "The fault has been remedied. The taboo spell was cast on each of you through the link portal that summoned you here. None of you will be able to speak about the taboo any more."
So it was done, then.
"As an extra measure, to prevent unlicensed magical students from writing the taboo down, you will each sign a magically binding promise not to communicate any information pertaining to the unlimited supply of magic through speech or writing."
Around the mass of students, glances exchanged. And hands pulled gnomons from the students' various improvised sheaths, sleeves, and fitted pockets. Though most were pointed down unthreateningly, it didn't look as if they were drawn for the purpose of signing contracts either.
"A promise will be required by every second semester student at magicians college going forward. Please come up and sign. Single file."
Holding an airweave page out to them, she gestured with her free hand to the girl in the front of the echelon to approach.
Moments passed and the girl didn't move, but looked back over her shoulder at her fellow Secondae. Voices broke out. Murmurs in dissent and debate.
One said, "Can't we have a discussion about this?"
And another, louder, "Do we get a say?"
And a third, "I don't know how many spells tampering with my brain I'm willing to undergo in exchange for an education."
A magically amplified voice broke through and deafened them all to silence as Alondra cracked, "Anyone who fails to sign the contract will be expelled."
Not a beat passed before a voice called out, "You can't expel all of us."
Another put in, "So we don't get any say then?"
And another, "If they expelled me my parens would take down this school."
Chittering debate broke out like the chirp of a crew of birds, just like in their tutorial sessions — though a certain harmony overpowered any discord. Floundering, Alondra's mouth flapped wordlessly.
"You are all such a bunch of pendehos." The ever confident voice of Storm Gloriam, the girl who always had an answer for everything, punched out a response so loud everyone else shut up. "Boludus, ignoramuses, and bengalia. What a brainless bunch."
She swam out of the echelon and hovered before them to continue her argument.
"You are all so dumb. Yes, they can expel all of us. No, we don't get to call the shots as the most inexperienced maudit sans-dessein in the room, not to mention in the entire population of magicians, and no, you parens will not care, you stupid bundun, because if aeh really is powerful enough to take down magicians college, then aeh went to this school and gave aer consent to undergo the taboo, and signed away consent for you to as well. Seriously, every one of you is a dumb vlamenos."
When she swam forward to sign, Inyanga and Amafu were swimming with her, one flanking on each side.
Inyanga was saying, "That is a bit harsh, Secondae Storm, but your points stand," and Amafu said, "I wish it would occur to you that an argument ad hominem fails to persuade the people you're calling idiots, but if Maestra Alondra contends there is nothing to be done, I submit that we should all sign. Getting kicked out would not help anything."
Amafu got there first and signed, followed by Storm. With an almost imperceptible hesitation while she checked Alondra's face for a nod, which was given, Inyanga signed the contract. It was not Alondra's wand that was wielded to make the contract magically binding, but that of one of the librarians.
As if the maestras were no longer trusted.
Though saddened, Alondra's facial expression still conveyed fighting words.
Trust me. You can trust me. It's not over.
Or perhaps it wasn't her face that spoke the words. Three girls felt as if they could faintly hear them in their minds. As if through a mental teleportation of thought.
Thank you for reading scene i of the final act of Inyanga's Star! Stay tuned for the end of the story, and if you are enjoying this act, please leave a star for me! This book updates on Fridays.
Please feel free to leave feedback, in particular on Storm's use of idiot in six different languages; When I revise I want to have a lot more of Storm's character and include her polylingual swearing! Haha.