Falar closed the door. His face was stiff, jaw tense. “One day, I’ll show that music box.”
I chuckled. “It really whipped you.”
“Quiet, stray. You got lucky as well. She has killed people before for annoying her.” He pulled himself straight, smoothing out his robe. “And the Bursar prefers to be called she. Remember what I just said? Better respect her choice to avoid getting flayed.”
I shrugged. “What even is… she?”
Falar waved me to follow, starting to climb the wooden stairs going up the black stone wall. “Something old and intricate. The principal brought her from the south centuries ago.” He stopped to rub his chin, pouting his lips. “A war machine of some sort, obviously. The Academy gave her a new purpose. We will do so for you, as well.”
“I don’t want a purpose,” I muttered. The stairs were slick with ice and there was no railing. Walking the Highway on the roofs of Tenorsbridge had felt safer. There was nothing to grab onto, only a sheer black stone wall to the left, a drop to the ground below on the right.
“Pff,” Falar said. “You’re a defeatist and a whiner. You’ll grow out of it.”
My hand almost grabbed his robe before I stopped it, before I yanked him off the stairs. “At least I’m not an asshole like you.”
Falar kept climbing. The stairs turned into a concrete walkway, maybe four steps wide. Still no railing. Doors stood at equal distances from each other along the wall.
Lecture hall, Dining Hall, Beach, I read as we kept passing the doors. “Beach?” I blurted out.
“Some people enjoy going there,” Falar said, walking to another door that read Tombmold. “Your dormitory is here. The other students will show you the ropes.”
“Sounds great,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the sign on the door.
“Tomorrow, the real work begins. Your ludicrous idea to work for the Bursar robs you of time that you could have spent on learning.” He tightened his ponytail and sighed. “But what is done, is done. Sleep now. Don’t try to leave. It is not safe outside the walls.”
“I couldn’t leave if I wanted,” I said, pointing at my neck. “Remember?”
“Of course. An ingenious design, even if I say so myself. Tethered to the most powerful source of darkness in your vicinity, so currently the school itself. It will hold for now, but I’ll have to monitor it carefully.”
I rubbed at my neck. The collar felt like a bad memory, unreal and terrible at the same time.
“Now, I have matters to attend. Get settled, student.” He turned to go, but turned back once more. “From now on, you will address me as lecturer, and I will address you only if necessary. Despite myself, I have some hope for you. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I’ll address you with a boot to the ass,” I muttered as he climbed the stairs. I spat over the edge of the walkway. The spit didn’t fall down, but a gust of wind flicked it high into the air and threw it back as a sliver of ice. It snapped into the wall next to where I was standing.
Huh, okay.
Hadn’t seen that on roofs of Tenorsbridge. Their bright colors and the way the sun warmed the tiles. Not this frozen armpit of the world, wind howling so loud it made my teeth ache, while the dark stone radiated stifling warmth.
I grabbed the handle of the door. If the other students turned out to be angry copper war machines, I’d turn around and jump right off the walkway, let the wind throw me against the wall too.
“Eh?” a boy about my age said. “Who are you?” He was lying down on a bed, leg lifted to rest on his knee. He was wearing the same simple black robe as Falar and Jextor, but there was a badge sewn to the chest of it.
“Hi,” I said.
Four beds, a big table in the middle of the room. Someone sat reading a book at the table, cowl pulled over their head. It was warm, like the Bursar’s vault had been. A floating magical orb lit up the place, one like I had seen Falar use back in Tenorsbridge. One of the four beds was unslept, with an empty chest yawning open next to it, so I walked over and sat down on it.
A Jonungaard girl stood up from her bed, putting hands on her hips. Her skin and hair were completely white, contrasting to the black robe, which made it look like she was cold for some reason. Like all Jonungaard, she had eyes that were much larger than the rest of her face and no facial hair at all. The lack of eyebrows made her face look naked, even with her thick white hair. “A new student? We’ve been missing one for the whole semester.”
The person reading at the table pushed back the cowl and shook loose a mass of brown hair. Pointy ears peeked out from under it. An elf. Hadn’t ever met one before. Wild. “You’re coming in late,” she said, voice steady.
“Hi,” I said again. “I got kidnapped and dragged here. Sorry for being late, I guess.”
“You did?” the boy shouted, scrambling to get up from his bed. “How are you just walking around, then?”
“You have to be a student, right?” the Jonungaard said. “It’s just a joke?”
“Fek, Grit, let the girl tell the story herself, if she so chooses,” the elf girl said.
The corner of my eye twitched. Another person calling me a girl. She looked younger than me, but I had no idea what it meant for an elf. “The name’s Lina. Not girl.”
“Welcome, Lina,” the elf said. “My name is Minnelil. Let me introduce Grit.” She nodded first at the Jonungaard girl who raised her hands in greeting, showing me the backs of her hands as was the Jonungaard custom. “And the excitable boy is called Fek.”
The boy, Fek, grinned, all of his teeth showing. “How come I ended up being the only guy in the dorm? You’re going to ally against me, aren’t you?”
“Anyone would ally against you,” Grit said. “You need to learn to stop talking.”
I tested the bed, pushing on it with my hand. It was better than any bed I had slept in years, except the one in the Wily Wizard. Firm, with thick duvet and a pillow. Someone had piled books on it, but otherwise the bed was untouched.
“I can grab those,” Fek said, following my gaze and leaping forward.
I flinched away, jerking up and away from his lunge.
“Will your things be arriving later?” Minnelil asked as Fek piled the books into his arms.
One of the books fell, and he tried to catch it with his foot, managing only to kick it under the bed. He leaned down and the pile of books started to topple. I could have stopped it from falling over, but held back, not wanting to get dragged into the chaos myself. The books rained down around him. “Sorry, sorry,” he said. “We didn’t know anyone was coming, and there’s not that much storage space here.”
“There’s quite enough, but you just pile your stuff on any flat surface and never clean it up,” Grit said.
Minnelil sighed. “Please. Lina, don’t mind us. Settle down. If you need help getting your things, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“I already said I got dragged here,” I said. “I don’t have things.” I didn’t mention I’d never had things to begin with. They probably could figure it out just by looking at the scraps I was wearing. The clothes had holes in them, obviously ill-suited for the surroundings, even if the rooms were warm.
“That wasn’t a joke?” Fek asked from somewhere under the bed. Just his legs were poking out.
A knock came from the door before I could answer. The door opened almost immediately after, and a skeleton walked in. It had to be one of the skeletons that had pulled the carriage. The height matched and it had the same stupid grin. I guess most skeletons did, to be fair. In its hands, it carried a large crate. Its feet clattered on the wooden floor as it walked to the table.
Minnelil scooted out of the way, as the skeleton marched directly at the table. “Oh, the label says it’s for you,” she said, raising an eyebrow at the crate.
The skeleton thumped it on the table and turned around, clattering out again.
“What did she get?” Fek asked as he stood up, the escaped book in hand. The rest of the books had been spread around onto the bed, some falling open. He walked to the crate to peer into it.
Minnelil intercepted his face, pressing a palm against his forehead and pushing his head away. “It’s for her so it’s not our business to go diving in.”
“It’s not for me,” I said. “How could it be?”
“Look, all the robes look brand new,” Grit said, lifting out a black bundle from the crate. “Books, and a quill set, a whole set of notebooks, and everything.”
Minnelil glanced behind her, frowning at Grit. When she did, Fek slipped under her hand to go peek into the crate as well. “Oh, just the new student supply box? Boring. I got one as well.”
“And you should have been more grateful for it,” Minnelil said, a tension to her voice for some reason.
“We had to get all of our own stuff, yeah,” Grit said.
“How can I help being so gifted?” Fek said, grinning and scratching at his short brown hair.
“Wait. Shut up,” I said, standing up.“It has to be some mistake. Maybe it brought it to a wrong room.”
“Nah, that’s dumb. It has your name, and who else would need a new student supply box in the middle of the semester?” Fek said. He grabbed the crate even while Minnelil tried to stop him and pulled it into his arms. “Whoa, it’s actually heavy,” he said, teetering and taking a couple of faltering steps. “It’s slipping!”
Oh, come on! I lunged ahead, grabbing on to the crate. If it somehow turned out to be for me, I didn’t want everything smashed right away. I prepared for the weight, flexing my legs and arms.
“Oh, nice, carefully now,” Fek said. “Um, why aren’t we moving?”
I frowned, testing the weight of the crate. Rather heavy, but not particularly so? “I got it,” I said flatly, lifting it off his hands.
“You sure?” Fek asked, but stepped back nevertheless.
I didn’t answer, but lowered the crate next to the chest at the end of my bed. The crate was full of clothes and books and other stuff. There were multiple pots of ink, and one had already rolled out from the small wooden box it had been in.
“There’s a bathroom next door, if you want to change,” Minnelil said. “The crate should hold everything you’ll need for now, but let me know if there’s anything missing.”
How would I even know if anything was missing? I pulled out a robe and peered at it. It was black and heavy, smooth like velvet on the inside as I pinched it between my fingers and rubbed. I chuckled, shaking my head. “Looks dumb,” I said. The robe would keep me warm, last longer than any of my clothes had. The cloth was stiff, carrying creases where it had been folded. There was no badge on my robe, though.
“You get used to the look,” Grit said, lifting her arm to look at her white hand peeking out from the wide black sleeve. She pulled down on her lower eyelids with her fingers, widening her massive eyes even further, irises stark red. “The color brings out my eyes.”
Fek chuckled, making another attempt at gathering the books.
“Stop, I’ll get the rest,” I said, throwing the robe on the bed. I grabbed the books before he could try to pile all of them onto his hands again. I didn’t want him to keep crawling under my bed like a discount boogeyman. Maybe he would start reading one and stop talking.
Fek dropped the books he was carrying onto his bed and hopped to recline in the middle of them. “Thanks! Just put them anywhere.”
I placed the books at the foot of the bed. When I turned around, Minnelil stood next to the table, pointing at a chair next to her. “Come, you must have questions. I know some of us do as well, but maybe it’s best if you start. What do you want to know?”
“I’ll go change,” I said. I grabbed the robe from the crate and rushed to the door. Maybe they meant well, but I hadn’t prepared for being around people. I closed the door behind me, leaning my back on it. My heart pounded in my chest, my fingers clenched the cloth. How was I supposed to stay with all of them bustling about, getting in my face, mixing with my business? I threw the robe on my old clothes, wrenching it down.
I considered going back in, but I was dead tired, and they would just start talking immediately when I went in. Tell me to ask questions, whisper at each other when I wanted to fall asleep, not being able to for fearing what they would do once I did. I had slept with much less than the robe, and the walls radiated warmth.
I walked off, going along the walkways, choosing stairs at random. They went up and down, more and more doors went past. Laboratories, Lecture Halls, Kitchen, Boiler Room. The last one felt like there was something dangerous waiting for me inside. I walked past hurriedly, lengthening my stride.
Skeletons clitter-clattered around stairs. I saw some other dead people, with flesh still on them, from far away, but I kept a wide berth to them. They looked like they smelled bad. Reminded me of Jordan, if I was being honest.
I walked away from all of them, finding a place that seemed more secluded than the rest, pushed up near the ceiling. There were no doors, just a wooden platform that was wider than any of the walkways. Maybe Falar used it to lord over the students, gaze down on everyone else. I chuckled at the idea and pressed my back against the warm black stone. I closed my eyes, listening to the howling wind.
The day had been long. I’d get my bearings, go to the Bursar in the morning. Hell take Falar and his snide remarks. I’d take my chances with the copper ant.
Note from kzzh: Thanks for starting the story! <3 That’s it for this week.
Release schedule is Mon+Tue+Thu. To celebrate the launch, I kicked up handful of discount codes for Patreon: 4DBDE
Five available, 50% off first month. First come, first served. Valid until April 15th. Always 20 advance chapters there.