Chapter 357: School Life X

[*brrrrrrrring!* Exam time! We did leave when the earlier alarm went off, right? RIGHT?]

I spared a thought to curse all the past-me’s who set the snarky alarms as I sprinted across the campus.

Of course I had set alarms to remind myself when I needed to leave for class.

Of course I had carefully timed everything to get the maximum amount of cuddle time before I needed to leave for class.

And of course I went in for one last, long, lingering kiss before heading off to class.

So of course I was late for the anatomy test.

I skidded to a halt outside of the room, smoothed my skirt, and quietly cracked the door open. Raith and his friend were sitting in their seats, their elbows practically touching. The professor gave me an unimpressed look, and held out a blank test for me to take.

I grabbed it, and not quite trusting Raith, wanting some space, and seeing an open table near the back, I went back there, sat down, and started writing.

All my studying was paying off. This was easy.

“You got the cake?” I asked Auri.

“Brrrpt!” She confirmed, flying over her confection. It was huge, and Auri had worked hard on it. I needed to feed a lot of people. She’d even drawn a half-dozen crude flowers in frosting! Something light blue and blooming… I didn’t know my flowers the same way Auri did. I suspected the flowers were more Auri wanting flowers to burn, than anything about Iona.

I didn’t associate the warrior with ‘soft and flowery’.

I eyed the cake, chewing on my lip as I worked through my latest problem.

Was… the cake any good? Auri was getting better with her baking, but accidents still occurred. I couldn’t exactly slice into the cake and check though, it’d ruin the look.

Although, maybe I could slice it all up, and quietly have a slice before presenting it… it would ruin the artwork though…

“Brrrpt.” Auri cheeped reprochfully at me, and a pair of hands, stylized with little wings at the end, zipped off to another part of the kitchen. She grabbed a tray, and flew it back over.

A second, less decorated cake was on the tray. Auri had anticipated my lack of faith in her baking. With a small amount of chagrin, I took a fork, and had a bite.

“Mmm, ok, yes, this is perfect.” I had to talk around a mouthful of delicious cake, but it didn’t make it any less true.

“Brrrpt!” Auri puffed out her chest, proud as a peacock. “Brrpt BRPT!”

“You know for a fact that your baking isn’t always perfect. Remember teaspoons and cups?” I reminded Auri of that particular misadventure.

She just gave me a dirty look, conjured up a pair of hands, picked up the cake, and off we went.

Iona was hosting her birthday party in the cafeteria, just her and her 200 closest friends. I was exaggerating a bit, but there had been significant turnout for her birthday. Iona knew how to throw a party, and it wasn’t like it was just a who’s who list of people she’d hooked up with. No, Iona knew details about every single person there, and it just boggled the mind.

“Ready?” I asked Auri.

“Brrrpt!” She confirmed.

We exited the kitchen together, Auri putting on her best fire show. She hovered over the cake, a burning pillar of multicolored flames erupting from her, nearly reaching the ceiling.

Gasps and noises of appreciation came from not only Iona’s birthday party friends, but most of the other people in the cafeteria. I slowly walked the cake over to the birthday girl, everyone else getting out of the way.

There were benefits to carrying a pillar of fire around.

As I approached the party, we started to sing. The song was new to me, but when in… a magical flying school, do as the magical flying school.

“Oooooooh, it’s someone’s birthday here!

Whose birthday could it be?

……”

Auri turned off the flames as we finished singing, her little chef’s hat somehow perfectly untouched by her inferno.

“Brrrpt!” She puffed herself out, receiving the compliments and adoration of a job well-done. Between the cake and the fireworks, she was briefly the darling of the show.

I slipped into my spot next to Iona. Being the girlfriend had certain advantages.

“Happy birthday.” I murmured to her.

She slipped her hand into mine and squeezed, then stood up.

“Hello everyone! Thank you for coming to my birthday party!”

“Cake!” Someone heckled Iona.

“Sion, you don’t need cake. They’ll have to cart you out in a wheelbarrow if you do!”

There was a collective “oooooooh” at the burn, and Iona proceeded with her speech uninterrupted. The cake got sliced and passed around – I snagged one of the coveted corner pieces, extra frosting – and I gamely stuck through the entire party, keeping a smile on my face.

Iona’s mere presence helped bolster me, but big parties weren’t my jam.

Auri was having the time of her life, bobbing her head with her oversized hat at everyone who came to grab a slice, getting the adoration she so desired and deserved. Some people had brought little trinkets or gifts, depending on what culture they’d come from, but it wasn’t a universal thing.

Names flowed in one ear, and right back out the other. Out of boredom, I checked my own status, blinking at a number.

[Age: 23].

Well then. According to the System, my birthday was around Iona’s, give or take a few days. I didn’t check my status every day, I wasn’t sure when it had last been updated. The timing suggested that I’d been in the fae lands for almost exactly a year, and if I had to bet?

I’d been in exactly a year, give or take a day. That was just the sort of thing the fae would do.

“Hey, wanna hear a cool math fact?” I asked Iona, still half-cuddled up to her.

She groaned at me.

“It’s my birthday, do I have to?” She whined. I got a mischievous grin.

“When you have 23 people in a room, there’s roughly a 50-50 chance that two of them will share a birthday.”

Iona gave me a disbelieving look.

“You’re shitting me.”

I shook my head.

“Nope! Wanna do the ma-”

I got interrupted by Iona kissing me.

“Nope!”

At long, long last, things started to wind down. I claimed my spot on Iona’s lap, straddling her legs and stretching my spine so I could be eye to eye with her.

“Presents!” I told her.

She grinned at me.

“Presents!”

I switched to English, the language great for having private conversations in public.

“Ok! First! This one I can’t quite give to you right this second, but it’s something we’d need to plan and work on for a bit.”

“Oooh, is it a vacation? Somewhere warm and sandy?” Iona asked. “For when we’re done with School?”

Oooof. She just had to mention the end of School. We had no idea what was going to happen once one or both of us graduated, and we mostly steered clear of that conversation.

“Biomancy!” I told her. “I’ve been consulting the most dark of arts, math, and as long as we properly plan and stage the changes, I think I can do a full body set of modifications for you.”

Iona’s grin slowly faded, her serious wyvern rider face making an appearance.

“You’re serious.” She said.

I nodded, afraid I’d said something wrong. Iona had never asked about me doing biomancy on her, and while I didn’t know of any social taboos against it, I was concerned I’d stepped on some sort of landmine.

“By the goddesses Elaine, that’s huge. Just… wow. How can I ever repay you?”

“With kisses!” I flippantly replied. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but Iona clearly had different expectations around biomancy.

She wrapped me in a crushing hug, dipping me into a deep kiss. Whoops and cheers came from her friends who were still around, and I wrapped my hands in her voluminous hair as the kiss went on and on and on.

I tapped Iona when I’d had enough. She undipped us, and I found myself on her lap again.

“That was just the first present! Fenrir?” I looked at the not so little wyvern, who tilted his head at me. His eyes widened as he realized it was time, and he scampered off to retrieve the present I’d prepared.

“Conspiring with my companion are you?” Iona teased me.

“Like you haven’t conspired with Auri ever?”

“It was just the once!”

“At least four times!”

“Those didn’t count!”

Fenrir bounded back with a book. Not a library book, this one I’d had to buy from a student [Scribe] looking to make a few extra coins. It had only cost one obsidian coin!

“Here!” I presented Iona with the book. “I hope you haven’t read it before. It might’ve been required reading for all of you. History of the Valkyrie Order, by Dulinniel.”

Her mouth made a perfectly little O of surprise as Fenrir dutifully dropped the book on her lap.

“I didn’t know this existed! You’re the best!” Iona looked torn between wanting to crack the book open, and hugging me. I made it easy by sliding off to the side so she could enjoy her present.

“And I have a third one.” I did my best to purr into her ear, but who knows how well that was working.

“I’m all ears.” She said.

“There’s this [Tailor] who works absolute miracles with lace. I’m currently wearing something red of hers. Wanna see?” I subtly grinded on Iona’s legs.

Iona bolted upright.

“Thanks everyone! Need to run!” She shouted out, then grabbed me and threw me over one shoulder to hoots and hollers.

I had a stupid grin on my face all the way back to the dorm.

[*brrrrring!* Wake up! Time for class!]

[*brrrrring!* No for real.]

[*brrrrring!* Future me, I swear if you’re not up by now… we made these alarms for a reason!]

[*brrrrring!* We can’t skip another day.]

My back arched one last time, and I reluctantly put my hand on Iona’s head.

“I need to get going.” I told her.

She looked up at me and pouted.

“You sure?” She asked.

I gave a sad nod.

“I already skipped an entire day. I can’t do it a second time.”

Iona gave me a quick squeeze, and we untangled ourselves.

“Hey Elaine?” Iona asked, flopping back on her bed and closing her eyes.

“Yeah?” I paused at the door.

“You’ve made this the best birthday of my life. Thank you.”

I cracked a cheeky grin.

“The best birthday of your life… so far.”

I found I had time for one last quick kiss, although Auri gave me an absolutely disgusted look when I needed my morning flame bath.

Off to class!

Our exams were being handed back in Anatomy. Naturally, I was wedged in between Raith and his friend again, which was no fun.

I got my exam back. Perfect score! Wooo!

I wouldn’t consider myself nosy, but my two unwelcome table mates were right there and annoying me.

Low, low marks on both. Ha!

The professor started droning on, pointedly ignoring the one poor student who still gamely rose his hand to ask questions in this class. The professor was exceptionally thorough, but never stopped to answer questions or clarify.

My opinion was he was some mix of shy, and just wanting to get through the material as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Eccentric, but he was good.

“Today we will begin the next segment of our studies. We’ve covered terrestrial monsters, large and small, and winged creatures. Now we will begin our studies of the creatures of the deep. Broadly speaking, there are three categories. Those that breathe air, those that use gills, and lastly, creatures that neither breathe air nor have gills, and subsist through other means. We begin with air breathing animals, as their anatomy has clear parallels to creatures already covered…”

I was interested in gills, and this was the perfect class to figure out what set I’d like to add to Operation: The Improved Elaine. The location was also up in the air, but drowning was one of my big weaknesses right now. I had no plans on becoming a deep sea diver or anything, but I’d almost drowned too many times.

The end of class had a plot twist. I was spending a moment skimming over my notes, arranging them for easy studying later, when Raith turned to me.

“If you ever stop me from cheating off of you again, I’ll stab you.” He threatened, then walked out.

That was so out of the blue, such a surprise, that I just sat there a moment trying to process how stupid and blatant of a threat that was. Admitting to cheating, openly threatening violence, and doing it in front of the professor!? Had he been repeatedly dropped on his head as a child or something!?

Did he not see the purple robes indicating I had twice as many levels and an extra class on him!?

Either way, I wasn’t going to let that stand. Oooooh no. Nobody threatened me with a stabbing and got away with it. Like, it wouldn’t even do anything! How stupid of a threat could he make!?

I approached the professor after I finished arranging and packing up my notes. I did have my priorities in order, after all.

“Did you hear that?” I asked him.

He studiously ignored me, like he ignored all his students asking questions. I crossed my arms and impatiently tapped my foot while I waited.

Eventually I wore him down. He glanced up from his notes to give me a withering look, and removed an earplug from his ear.

My jaw dropped open.

“What?” He grumped at me.

I soundlessly worked my jaw for a moment, dismissing him from my mind as a potential witness.

“Raith – ogre sitting next to me – both admitted to trying to cheat, and threatening to stab me if I stopped him again.” I reported like I was back from a mission, or scouting for Julius.

The professor grunted at me.

“Attempting to cheat isn’t the same as succeeding at cheating. Plus, all these exams and assignments are for you, not for me. Frankly, I don’t give a damn how well you do or don’t do in this class. The reports are your business. The only thing that matters is the final examination for your track, and that’s impossible to cheat. Anyone cheating in this class is simply artificially inflating a number that’s meant to let them know how well they’re doing. If he wants a good grade, tell him to grab a crayon and write it on his own test paper for heaven’s sake. As for the stabbing? Talk to the guards, don’t talk to me about it. Good day.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Fine. I see how it was. My opinion of him was cratering.

Off to the guards!

“Good evening miss. What can we help you with?” The [Guard] asked me after the usual round of preliminary ‘who are you’ questions.

“Well, someone threatened to stab me, so I’m here to report it.”

“Right then. Name, location, other witnesses and the like, and we’ll get on it. Do you currently feel safe?”

“Yes.”

“Do you feel safe going back to your home?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Now, about those details.”

I started to explain everything that had happened.

“Ooooh, let me just punch him!” Iona cracked her knuckles.

“No punching idiots. It’s not worth thinking about them.”

“You’re not going to let him get away with it!” She protested.

“Of course not! I’m letting the guards give him a hard time. Hopefully they’ll arrest him, then expel him off the island once we get back to the southern continent. I’m not too vindictive, they can give him a parachute. I’m not going to let him cheat off of me, and if he even flinches towards me with a knife…” I mimed blasting him with my wand.

“If you’re sure…”

“BRRRPTTT!”

“The same goes to you! No burning people to death!”

“Brrrpt!”

“He hasn’t deserved it yet!”

“Brrrrrrpt… brrrpt…” Auri muttered darkly to herself. Something about accidents and how flammable the dorms and robes were. One day she’d act on those impulses, and I’d have my hands full.

Iona clapped her hands.

“Okay! Enough of that! Presentosaurus, when’s your birthday? I want to knock your socks off, like you did for me!”

“I don’t actually know. It’s around yours, give or take a few days.”

“Hmmmm. Why don’t we throw a party on the Summer Solstice then? Or is it the Winter Solstice while we’re in the north? Finals will be over, be a great time to celebrate.”

I frowned at that.

“Not the solstice. I… have other plans. What about the day after?”

“Sure! Auri, have you ever wanted to make a three layer cake?” Iona whispered conspiratorially with the little bird.

“Brrrpt!? Brrrpt…” Auri was intrigued, and wanted to know more. I gave Iona a quick peck, and gracefully exited, letting them plan away.

I was in class when the entire building shook. The entire class paused, the professor dispelling the mandala he’d been in the middle of demonstrating.

My first thought was ‘earthquake’, but no. That didn’t work here.

When the building shook a second time, we abandoned our materials, left the room, and most students found a window to press themselves up against, to see what was going on.

My training kicked in, and I took a different tact.

I had no interest in being in a building with questionable structural integrity. If it went down, I’d die. No freedom, no information, and while not relevant here, a ton of civilians packed nearby were all things I wanted to avoid.

I took flight, soaring over the crowds. Frowned upon, technically against the rules, but I’d face the piper later. Apparently, threatening to stab someone over a test that went nowhere was worth a slap on the wrist and a stern talking-to.

Apparently, there was a second witness to the whole altercation who claimed Raith was entirely innocent, and I’d been the one shooting threats at him. The other witness was naturally Raith’s friend, and suddenly it had been two people claiming I was the one making threats versus one.

If Auri ever figured out how to [Burn Lies] or [Burn Liars], I’d let her go nuts. Until then, all I could do was fume impotently at the whole situation.

I missed being a Sentinel. Properly, I missed the privileges and backing of being a Sentinel.

I flew out the door, and as soon as I realized what I was seeing, my blood went cold. I stopped flying entirely, and just hovered there, uncaring that I was blocking the flying exit. My throat went dry, my heart skipped a beat, and I started sweating.

Up in the sky, barely visible past dozens and dozens of layered shields, was not one, but two dragons.

The first dragon was long. Cyan-colored scales, it was wrapped around the entire island multiple times, like an insanely long snake. He had five claws, and flowing whiskers from his nose. I wasn’t sure if I was larger than the individual scales or not.

The second dragon was a bit harder to see. I could only catch glimpses of him between the coils of the first dragon.

That one looked a bit like Lun’Kat, with scales of red. He was flying around the island in long, slow, lazy spirals, roaring at us. He was distinctly smaller than Lun’Kat as well. A young dragon maybe?

I snapped out of my dragon-trance, and moved. Sitting still wouldn’t do anything, but being free-flowing and moving might. I dashed over to the firing range, the best place to find Auri.

The School was in chaos, people moving and yelling everywhere, some professors trying to restore order. I ignored them entirely. I’d never been one to put my fate in someone else’s hands when I could avoid it, and I had too many stories echoing in my head of ‘people who followed bad instructions and died as a result.’

I’d eat any penalty thrown my way, assuming they even bothered to try.

I threw out a pair of [Long-Range Identify’s] to see what I was dealing with.

[Long Zhi, the Cerulean Scholar – 3072]

[Malheur, the Crimson Ravager – 894]

Well, the dragon possessively guarding us like a treasure was a higher level, and-

Wait.

Hang on.

Was that a tiny red hat on his head?

The School had a freaking dragon on staff!?

Or… hang on, no. More likely we were part of the hoard, the world’s greatest collection of knowledge. This standoff was above my level, but I knew we had at least one white-hatted protector of the School.

It wasn’t going to stop me from finding Auri, and the little fireball zipped up from the firing range as I approached.

“Brrrpt BRPT!” Auri fluttered protectively near me, zipping all around me like she wasn’t quite sure which direction would best protect me. “Brrrrpt brpt brrrrpt BRPT brpt!”

Her words brought a tear to my eyes. She was completely willing and ready to throw herself in front of any attack to protect me, since ‘she’d be fine.’

“You won’t need to.” I promised my little pyromaniac.

I took stock of the situation.

People first. I’d located Auri. I didn’t know where Iona was – I knew her schedule, but not where she’d try to find Fenrir. She was also competent and able to take care of herself, and the best thing I could do for meeting up with her was continue to fly high, with my distinct wings.

Where was safe? Nowhere was safe.

Fine, what were the dangers?

The dragons, obviously. I couldn’t do much about them.

Other people.

Defensive measures.

I briefly thought about the prayer my parents had stitched for me, and felt a pang of regret that I was keeping it ‘safe’ in my dorm. If I had to bail, I’d lose it.

My lightning-quick thoughts weren’t nearly as fast as the dragon’s, and they thought and moved faster than I could. With some sudden motions that I could barely follow, the larger dragon blurred in a whipcord of motions, and by the time I could process what I was seeing again, the smaller one was a fleeing blur on the horizon.

I spent a desperate moment trying to study its flight. The chance to upgrade my flight by including a dragon into it? Yes please!

As quickly as it’d started, the crisis was over.

“Elaine!” Iona waved to me as she dashed over, and I dove down to meet her. She couldn’t fly like I could, and while the shields were up now, I didn’t want to get caught when they went down and the wind started howling again.

“Iona!” I found comfort in her arms, hugging her waist. Fenrir curled around my – goddesses, almost my waist, he was getting big – while Auri zipped around, brrrpting that she had driven away the dragon… with a little bit of help.

She wasn’t entirely delusional.

A triumphant roar ruined our reunion, and we looked up at Long Zhi. The dragon circled the island, scales twisting all around us, then he shrunk down to a fraction of the size we’d seen, and flew to one of the smaller islands orbiting the main one. I tried to study his flight as well. He vanished into the island that had a small mountain on it.

His home? The size-shifting made sense why we hadn’t seen him before, and yeah. If a dragon wanted to live nearby, I’d be doing everything I could to give him the premium real estate.

“I feel a bit silly now, but I grabbed this.” Iona pulled the stitched cloth with my parent’s prayer out of her bag.

I teared up as I grabbed it and clutched it.

“I think I love you. Just a little.”

The Summer Solstice. A day that would forever be burnt into my memory. The day where I lost nearly everyone. The reason I didn’t want to have my birthday today.

It was a day of loss, of sadness, of grieving. A day to remember.

A day to wear cold iron, and carefully measure each step before I took it.

A day to visit the Tabernacle. To find a quiet corner to pray in.

Or something. I didn’t know what god would help.

I knelt in a private room, my knees against the cold stone floor. I carefully laid out the prayer my parents had given me.

Tears slowly rolling down my face, I forced myself to recite each name out loud.

The list felt endless.

“Julia. Elainus. Themis. Lyra. Origen. Maximus. Arthur…”