FF Chapter 19

Chapter 19

      The next day something special happened; Alex wore short sleeves. There was no point in hiding since everyone knew about his arms now, but he felt very strange nonetheless. He was constantly rubbing his bare arms or tugging at his pitiful sleeves. Still, he wanted to try it for at least a day, just to see if he could get used to it.

      Future readied the horseless carriage, and Alex got to appreciate the view of the city rushing by as his Uncle weaved through narrow streets and charged down open laneways.

      Alex arrived at Yanus before Eira or Frey, so with a goodbye to Future, he crossed the bridge alone; and alone was right. It seemed that news of his destiny had spread faster than any plague. All eyes were on him, yet no one dared approach. Between the spectacle of two Hands arguing yesterday, and the display of power from his family, everyone feared this future king.

      The silence was broken when a girl called out “Alex!” He turned around to see Eira and Frey walking towards him. The reunion was short lived though, as the two had to go off to class.

      Alex was then informed that Ms. Jensing was in a meeting, so he was left to roam. He decided to visit Jack, and show the other boy his card trick. He patted the deck in his pocket and imagined the surprised look Jack would have when Alex showed him how his cards could do math.

      He walked south, passing gardens and weary students on his way, when he spotted a familiar hat tending to a flower patch. “Ana!” He called out to the Caniko.

      The young girl jumped slightly, before looking up from her gardening and spotting Alex. She took off her thick working gloves and came over. “Hi.” She squeaked, painfully aware of just how many eyes were fixed on them. “Oh!  I mean, ‘Hello your highness’.” She curtsied slightly, but Alex stuck his tongue out, annoyed.

      “Stop that, it sounds weird.” He waved the gesture aside.

      “Do-do you prefer ‘prince’?” She fumbled the words, scared she’d upset him.

      “No! I’m Alex and you’re Ana. Okay?”

      She looked up and saw a wide smile plastered on his face. The girl blushed slightly, and smiled warmly. “Okay.”

      “Good. So, how’s the gardening going?”

      As the two talked about the massive gardens that dotted Yanus Academy, the other students were stunned. Anastazia of Kevetch, the meekest and weakest of them, was talking to the future king of The Capital, and beast marked apprentice of legends, like it was nothing. If she could do it, why couldn’t they?

      While the two green thumbs discussed flowers, another young student walked up. He was a young man with reptilian eyes and a well-made brown vest. “Good day. I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I am Drong Blenk of The Scaled Isles.”

      Alex smiled; a new friend? “Oh, hello. Nice to meet you.”

      Ana introduced herself, but seemed to be ignored as Drong continued. “Yes, an honour to meet you. I was wondering about the rumor going around…the one claiming you’re going to replace Gaius as king.”

      Alex shrugged. “Meh, being a king doesn’t seem that fun. My Uncle really wants me to do it, but…I’m not so sure.”

      Before Drong could respond, another student came forward. He introduced himself as Kindol of Pyros, but he was quickly interrupted by a Mariel of Taryous. Before Alex knew what was happening, every noble in the area, embolden by Alex’s demeanor, tried to take the opportunity to introduce themselves to ‘Future’s king’.

      Poor Ana quickly vanished among the sea of bodies, as waves of names and introductions drowned Alex. It seemed like half the school had suddenly introduced themselves to him, but his mind could only handle a few names at a time. His head spun from one face to another, as they all tried to get his attention. Through a whirl of words, Alex’s instincts took over, and he ran.

      Without their fear holding them back, the crowd chased Alex all the way to the southern crater that housed the sparring arena. Jack sighed as he saw the mob approach.

      “What is it this time?” He grumbled as the first few panted their way up to the gate. They weren’t the usual types he saw. They were all nobles, sure they were taking the warden exams, but they weren’t the type to go looking for a fight.

      A few panted from the chase, but one spoke up. “We’re looking for Alex.”

      Jack jerked a thumb down another path. “He went that way.”

      “Thanks…um.” The noble searched for a name, but found nothing.

      Jack sighed, before picking a card from the deck in his back pocket and showing it to them. It was the jack of spades. “Jack. Name’s Jack.”

      “Thanks Jack.” The crowd dispersed down the new path in search of their prey.

      He leaned against a wall as the last of the kids disappeared. “They’re gone now.”

      Alex poked his head out from behind a weapons rack, before nervously creeping out the door. “Thanks for hiding me Jack.”

      “Nothing personal, they were annoying me too.”

      “Well, thanks either way. It’s nice that so many people want to be my friends, but I didn’t know what to do.” He spotted the card in other boy’s hand and lit up. “Hey, I know a card trick too.”

      Jack tilted his head in suspicious disbelief. “Really?”

      “Yep!” Alex took his deck out of his pocket and shuffled the cards. “Ok cards, what’s two plus two?” He drew the top card. It was a seven.

      Jack was unimpressed.

      Alex chuckled nervously before trying again “…What’s three plus three?” He pulled a card; it was a ten. “I don’t understand, what’s wrong?” He pleaded with the deck.

      Jack shrugged. “Nothing personal, but you might want to practice a bit more. I see what you’re trying to do, and it would be impressive, but it needs some work…speaking of which, did you meet with Ms. Jensing for your assignment?”

      “No, she’s in a meeting.” Alex mumbled absentmindedly, still staring at his cards.

      “Hm…well what stuff do you know?” Jack asked, hoping he wouldn’t be stuck with Alex sitting around and swinging his legs in the arena all day.

      “I can fight and stock shelves.” Alex shrugged. “I grew up in a library.”

      “Then I’ll take you to the school library.”

      “Is it okay for you to go?” Alex asked, looking at the empty arena and stocked equipment.

      “Yeah, I’ll just lock up. It’s a bit early in the year for serious fights. You and Malent were a rare one. Most are just feuds like Eira and Gordian; someone’s different and another person wants to hit them for it.”

      “Why would they hit someone just for being a bit different?” Alex puzzled.

      Jack frowned and sighed. “It’s more complicated than that. Everyone’s different; it’s just how different you are. In my experience, the nail that stands out gets hammered down. Speaking of which, you’ll probably meet Indol in the library.”

      “Oh.” Alex remembered what Winchester had told him about the bullied Octasect.  He was about to meet another of Fates’ children. “I can’t wait.” He smiled.

 

      The school library was massive, just as impressive as Fates’. Alex felt a bit jealous for his home, until he reminded himself that Yanus was another name for Teacher, Hand of Knowledge. The dome roofed building was four stories tall and made of solid stone. Stained-glass murals used light to paint stories on the floor, as many seats gave students ample room to research. One such seat was taken up by Indol Pertrwood.

      She had messy hair, like a birds’ nest, with long bangs. Her eyes managed to peer past the auburn veil that covered her forehead, and she spotted Alex and Jack approaching her. She was the only one in the library right now, as the other students were in class. This was the only time she could read peacefully. Her eyes returned to her book.

      Jack stood beside her and leaned on the desk. “Hey Indol, this is Alex. He’s one of the new workers.”

      Indol didn’t look up from her book, and uttered an almost silent grunt to let Jack know she heard him.

      “I’m gonna leave him here, you mind keeping tabs on him? You know, make sure he doesn’t burn anything.”

      Indol grumbled some more, only this time it was deeper, more argumentative.

      Jack smirked. “I knew you’d understand. See you later Alex.” With that he walked away, leaving the two prodigy students alone.

      An awkward silence hung over them, as Indol continued to read, and ignore Alex. Bored, and curious, Alex tilted his head to look at what book was so interesting that she was ignoring everything else.

      “Oh, you’re reading ‘The Flora of the Western Wildlands Volume II’.”

       “Yeah…I read every other book here.” She mumbled.

       “Well I don’t think you should read that one, it’s very inaccurate.”

       “…really?” Indol was unconvinced.

       “Yes, for example, the craldas croactus actually grows best in deep soil and humid conditions, while that book suggests top soil and dry conditions.”

      She turned to the relevant page, and was surprised to see the book suggest top soil and dry conditions. Impressed, she turned to look at Alex. “So you’ve read this before?”

       Alex scratched the back of his head and smiled. Indol had nice hazel eyes.  “Yeah, I grew up in a library with my Uncle Bor, who can grow any plant.”

      “How did a librarian get into Yanus?”

      Alex raised his arm, and went to pull back a sleeve that wasn’t there.

      Indol flinched and looked away. “Oh yeah, your beast mark. I remember seeing it during your duel with Malent…um, thanks, for that…by the way.” She nervously mumbled. After having been bullied by marked students for so long, just seeing a mark made her uneasy, no matter how nice the wielder appeared. “When did you get it?”

      “When I was eight.”

      Her eyes widened, not with fear, but with surprise. “When you were eight? The youngest mark is recorded to be ten, and even then, it’s extremely rare. Almost every kid with a mark is here at Yanus, but they don’t number more than twenty, and most of them only have one mark.”

      “Yeah, and they don’t seem very nice either.” Alex pouted.

      Her face was unreadable. “No, they aren’t.”

      “You know a lot about beast marks.”

      Her uninterested expression seemed to defrost slightly. “Yeah, I studied them when I first got here. I wanted to make a container that could hold the energy…but it didn’t work.”

      “What happened?”

      Indol cleared her throat nervously and hid her face further behind her book. “You know the crater that the arena is in?”

      “Yeah.”

      “That wasn’t there when I first arrived.”

      “…awesome.” He whispered with wonder, eyes as wide as his smile.

      She rubbed her neck nervously. “Thankfully no one was hurt. I realized what was happening and everyone evacuated, but even so, my failure left permanents scars; both on the island, and the memory of everyone who saw it.”

      “What happened?” Alex asked, curious and concerned. Was this what led Fate to ignore her?

      Indol sighed. “I got cocky. I wanted to show everyone I was as good as they thought, so I tried to hold a large amount of power, and build a massive container. My calculations seemed right, but something went wrong, and the bigger container just led to a bigger failure. My first try literally bombed.”

      “First try? You never got a second chance?”

      “Nope. The few people with beast marks hate me, and none of the teachers want to be held responsible if something happens. I can do calculations until I run out of paper, but without actual energy to test with I can’t continue.”

      Alex immediately held up his arm. “I’ll help.”

      Her eyes lit up in a way Alex didn’t think possible. A smile splashed across her face and her dull hair seemed to come alive. “REALLY? You’d do that for me?”

      Alex took a step back from the suddenly enthusiastic scientist, and nervously said “Yeah, why not?”

      She almost ripped off his arm as she flew out of the library. Indol walked as she lived; her head leading her body.

 

      Indol’s room was on the northeast coast with a nice view of the sea, whenever she bothered to open the curtains, or rather, whenever she bothered to flip the switch that caused a machine to open the curtains for her. Her ceiling was a mess of metal pulleys and gears, and the wall by her door had a rack of levers. Some dusted, one operated a simple fan, while others lit or extinguished candles.

      Indol ushered him inside as she explained. “They gave me a room to myself in exchange for doing some engineering work around the island and fixing anything that breaks. Most people have to have a roommate, even the nobles, but I get this whole place to myself; just me and my machines. Jack is the same way, without the machines though.” She checked on a few metal parts before looking around and panicking.

      Alex stood safely by the door as she rushed around cleaning. She rustled papers and prototype designs that hadn’t been touched in weeks, chasing dust bunnies all around her room. “Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting company. Let me just clean up these books; don't read the titles! I promise they're not as bad as they sound.”

      “No problem.” He smiled, but he couldn’t help himself. He slid over to the small bookshelf and looked through her personal library. He picked up ‘Dragon in my Purse’ and for a second he thought he saw a playing card being used as a book mark. Before he could snoop further he was dragged away and placed in a chair. Across from him Indol sat on her desk with papers, ready to take notes.

      “Okay, before we begin I want to set some things straight. I’m going to ask you a few questions and I need you to be completely honest with me. Okay?”

      Alex suddenly grew very nervous, but squeaked out an “okay.”

      “Now, how many marks do you have?”

      “Three.”

      She scribbled a note studiously. “Have you noticed any special powers or effects from your marks?”

      “Well…people seem to act really strange when they see them.”

      Indol made a note. “Really? How so?”

      “They get really nervous, or really polite, some even start calling me ‘lord’. It’s weird.”

      Indol started to write, before laughing. “That’s not just you; everyone who has a beast mark gets that reaction from normal people.”

      “Why?”

      Indol turned around and leaned over the table, hurriedly putting the final touches on a prototype she’d abandoned long ago. “Well, most people with marks act like Malent, abusing their power, so people instantly assume you’ll act the same why and try to be nice before you hurt them.”

      “But I won’t hurt them.” Alex replied to her back.

      Indol shrugged. “They don’t know that. Regardless, it seems you’ll do fine for one of my old designs. I just added some-” She stopped mid thought. She’d turned around to find Alex knelt down in front of her bookshelves.

      They locked eyes for a moment. Then Indol broke the silence.

       “What are you doing?”

      Alex’s eyes nervously darted from the bookshelf to her and back again. “…alphabetizing.”

       “Why?”

       “…habit?” He shrugged. 

       “You weren’t joking. You really did grow up in a library.” A small laugh of astonishment crawled out of her lungs.

       “Why would I joke about that?”

      She didn’t have an answer; she hated that, so she switched topics. “…anyway, hold this.” She handed him a metal cylinder about the size of his head. It had a clear panel, and inside were three metal coils. “I learned from last time. Now we’re using a small container and a little bit of energy.” She looked at him expectantly.

      “…What?” Alex asked.

      “That’s where you come in. Put a bit of energy in the container; just a little bit.”

     “Oh, okay.” Alex held back as much as he could, and pushed out a small drop of energy.

      Through a clear panel in the container they watched the red lines bounce around like bottled lightning. It latched on to one of the metal coils and jumped to another. Alex had no idea what that meant, but Indol seemed giddy with excitement. Then it started to shake.

      It was just a little vibration at first, as the red bolt trapped inside jumped around, desperate to escape, but Indol didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the container out of Alex’s hands and slammed it down into a metal bin before shutting the lid, latching it closed, and sitting on top of it.

*Boom*

      Alex saw clouds of smoke pass by the window. Indol, wilted, dragged her feet and closed the blinds before quietly explaining. “There’s a small hatch in the side of that container that funnels the explosion out to sea.”

      “I-Indol?” Alex asked, concerned. The despondent scientist just shuffled over to a table and picked up a bowl and spoon. “What is that?” He pointed to the grey sludge in the bowl.

      “Comfort pudding.” Indol mumbled through mouthfuls. “Want some?”

      “Um, sure.” Alex had a spoonful, and had to fight the urge to spit it out. It was grey, lumpy, and tasted like the books he would sometimes carry in his mouth while climbing.

      “Horrible, isn’t it. It’s like eating my failure.” She groaned, taking another mouthful. The mush had all the nutrients you’d need, but no flavor you’d want.

      “Has Jack ever tried this stuff?” Alex asked, grinding his tongue against his teeth in a hopeless attempt to get the taste out of his mouth.

      “No, he doesn’t come in here.”

      “Really? I thought you were friends?”

      Indol smiled sadly. “Jack doesn’t really have ‘friends’, just people that he doesn’t mind being around. Still, he’s nice to have around. He doesn’t judge.” Indol stared at the grey porridge. In her mind, she saw the looks of disappointment, the judging eyes that had haunted her since the accident; Jack never wore those eyes.

      “Yeah, Jack does seem rather…detached.” Alex tried to find the right word.

      “I suppose I should be thankful though. He’s the only one who doesn’t mind being around a failure. I mean, nothing good can come from a rotten tree.” She flopped face down on her bed and waved Alex away. “You can go now, sorry for wasting your time. I’ll let you know if I ever feel like failing again.”

      Alex walked over to her desk and picked up a small prototype. “You know, you can’t get apples from an orange tree, and you’d be stupid for trying. I think these explosives are cool. No one else can make them. They’re special; they’re yours.” He looked over at Indol, but she hadn’t budged; still face down on her bed, silently sulking. Alex sighed, and said “See you later” before seeing himself out. Hopefully Ms. Jensing would be done her meeting by now.

 

      After he left, Indol lifted her head slightly, and shimmied around on her bed until she was staring at the ceiling.

      …you know… if I added a central coil and shortened the container it’d be a much more controlled explosion…

      She sat up, and grabbed a notebook, her mind suddenly flooded with ideas.