Exile (14 page)

Corin
bit his lip, dashing up the stairs. Adelle was
dead.
Adelle was dead and he’d helped cause her death, he realized, staring at the book in his hands. It was just a
book
, and while he now knew it was from the Forbidden Archive he just didn’t understand how it could happen. Even Master Selena hadn’t stared at it for too long, though.

His mood had been completely dampened by Adelle’s death, and now he had to explain the events to Kateline, not even given a small amount of time for mourning? He sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair.

“In a rush?” Aless asked, suddenly cutting off Corin’s path.

Corin flinched. “If Master Selena catches us talking—”

“No one’s seen her in two days, besides.” Aless leaned over, giving Corin a quick peck on the lips, causing giggles from a nearby group of female students. “I just wanted to do that.”

“I—”

“See you tomorrow, okay?” he finished, leaning back. “I need to find Piers, anyways. He’s had more than enough time to rest and I’m bored.”

Corin turned to the pocket of girls, giving them an annoyed look and rushing off to the library.

C
ORIN
desperately tried to weave his way through bustling scribes, bumping into several in his way. He hadn’t visited the library in the daytime before, at least not anytime recently, and he was beginning to remember why.

He grabbed a man’s arm. “Excuse me, do you know where I can find Master Petra?” Corin asked, almost being knocked over as a scribe pushed right by him.

The scribe scoffed. “We all need to see Master Petra. What gives you the right to skip past the line?”

Corin stared. He had never seen this many scribes in one place before, especially in such a tight area.

“No, that isn’t what I said to do at all. Did you really ruin an old text?”

That voice! Corin looked up, seeing a head of curly hair bobbing in the crowd. The scribes always wore hooded robes. It had to be her, he decided, pushing through the crowd.

“I don’t care. You are not to touch a single document until further notice, we can’t afford to—nevermind, you’re dismissed. Corin, is that you?” she called out, stepping forward and grabbing his arm, pulling him closer to her.

“It’s busy in here, isn’t it?” he asked.

“It’s like this every day. Did you manage to translate the text?”she asked, shooing someone away.

“I did, but Adelle took a look at it too. She died from it.”

“Petra have mercy on her soul,” Kateline muttered, placing a hand on Corin’s shoulder. “We won’t get any privacy here. There’s a private room in the back I use sometimes, we can talk more there,” she whispered, grabbing his arm and tugging him into a small room, quickly slamming the door shut. “So you could read it?”

“Yes,but I don’t think it was useful at all. It was just an old Centrallian folktale,” Corin explained.

“Which one?” she asked. “Believe me, Corin, this will be helpful, even if you don’t believe so. Though why an old folktale would be a forbidden text is confusing, to say the least.”

“The Trial of Love,” Corin translated.

Kateline raised her eyebrows. “I’ve spent nearly every minute of my life in this library. I’ve never heard of any tales by that name.”

“Are you sure?” Corin asked. “It was common in my village.”

“The tribes of Central are rather isolated at best,” Kateline explained. “It’s possible it’s local lore. How it ended up in the Forbidden Archive and not translated into Common or Ancient is beyond me. What’s it about?”

“There were pages torn out of the book, but it’s a basic tale. A beautiful woman from Central falls in love with a spirit named Llubla, the spirit of love. The other spirits get jealous of their love, having sought out human lovers in the past that ended badly. They corner the two and turn the other spirit mortal before killing them. It caused the war between the spirits so many years ago, according to the legend.”

“Interesting…. I’ll be sure to record it, though. Now, you said this text killed Adelle?” she asked. “She was a Scribe of Zephyr, wasn’t she?”

Corin looked at the ground. “Student of Zephyr, but I’m pretty sure she was close to becoming a scribe. I didn’t think it would be dangerous! I didn’t feel anything when I tried to read it….”

“I am interested in how she died from it,” Kateline replied. “I would not have passed the text to you if I’d known it might have that effect. I showed it to many Centrallians before you. None of them could read it, mind you, but no one complained of any pain.”

“Adelle couldn’t read it,” Corin retorted, “and Master Selena closed it almost as soon as she opened it.”

“Selena can’t read anything, let alone Centrallian,” Kateline replied, “and Adelle was Centrallian, I assume? Perhaps it wasn’t her dialect. Other students from Central didn’t seem to understand it, either.”

“No, that couldn’t have been it,” Corin replied. “I’ve known Adelle since birth. She and I were from the same village.”

“You’re saying the text wasn’t in Centrallian?” Kateline asked. “What language was it?”

“I don’t know, but I read Aless’s restraints earlier today. They had some lines from the book. I thought it was Centrall—”

“Wait, pardon?” Kateline asked.

“It had references to ‘The Trial of Love’ covering—”

“No, you can read the restraints?”she interrupted, rushing forward and pulling her sleeve to the side, revealing an ebony ring. “Read this.”

“Uh…. It doesn’t really have an equivalent in Common, but it’s talking about a girl named Farah.”

“I-I… I can’t believe it,” she muttered. “This is really useful, Corin. Starting tomorrow, you are reporting to me. I have some things I want my scribes to look into, but this is amazing, you have no idea how much help you’ve been!” she gushed, kissing his cheek with a huge smile plastered on her face.

“Do you need me to do anything now?” he asked. “Master Selena told me I didn’t have to train today.”

“Ah, she came out of Piers’s room, finally?” she asked, laughing a bit. “I swear those two are so transparent, but, ah, whatever makes them happy. I have to consult with the other scribes first, and do a significant amount of research. I won’t be getting any sleep tonight, but for now you should get some rest. It’ll probably be the last chance you get in a while.”

With the entire day playing out the way it had, Corin just wanted to go to sleep. It didn’t matter that it was only the middle of the day. He believed what Kateline said—he probably wouldn’t sleep after tonight for a long, long time.

A
LESS
smiled, eagerly rushing to his friend’s room. Piers wouldn’t believe the good news, he thought.

Of course, he would leave out some details. There were certain… embarrassments he would rather not alert Piers to, especially since it had happened with Corin once before. He felt the flush caused by the memory while climbing down the stairs to the barracks, where he almost instantly collided with Selena.

Ever since he had arrived, Selena had been a pain in his ass at the best of times. No matter what he said, no matter what he did, the girl hated him. Sure, he had gone behind her back to try and take her apprentice, but she didn’t know that! Besides she’d hated him
before
that, so he figured it had to be fair on some level.

She glared at him with thinly veiled contempt.“Master Serac,” she greeted him, pursing her lips.

“Master Zephyr,” he replied offhandedly. “You know what, let’s just cut the formalities, Selena. You know who I am, I know who you are—”

“It’s really rude,” she scolded, looking to the side.

“You don’t make anyone else do it,” Aless interrupted. “You single me out. Why?”

“I let my friends call me Selena.”

“That isn’t true,” Aless countered. “I’ve heard students referring to you as Master Selena, and yet I can only call you Master Zephyr?”

“People I like can call me Selena,” she retorted.

Aless rolled his eyes. “And Serac be damned, you don’t like me.”

“Exactly,”Selena replied, trying to step past him. “Now, if you’ll let me—”

Aless slammed his fist against the wall, blocking Selena from passing. “No, I won’t. I want to know
why.
I’ve done
nothing
to you and you’ve shown me nothing but contempt since I got here!”

Selena glared a hole through Aless, almost managing to make the man flinch. “You’ve done more than enough to earn this!”

“And of course you’ll tell me
none
of this!” Aless retorted. “What’s the point in housing a spirit if I don’t even get a say in the important decisions? I know you’re all hiding something, and you know you’ll have to tell me—”

“You don’t deserve to be a guardian!” Selena yelled, making a few students in the nearby halls duck into their barracks, frightened by the confrontation. “Your status as a guardian has done nothing but ruin everything!”

“I was chosen to take this position by my master!”

“You were chosen because there was no one else!” Selena screamed, pausing and taking a deep breath. “You don’t have enough mana to house any spirit, especially not one as strong as Serac. Your master was sick, he had to choose someone. You know who has to make up for your awfulness? The ones who can actually do our jobs!”

Aless stood there with his mouth agape, hardly able to process Selena’s words.

“Now, if you’ll let me go, I have some
actual
work to do.” Selena snapped, pushing Aless’s arm away and leaving the Water Guardian speechless.

A
FTER
his friend’s two-day long absence, Aless could admit he was thrilled to have an afternoon to simply talk to Piers.

Aless thought back to Selena. After his two-day absence,hewanted a damn good explanation about Selena’s behavior. His best friend seemed protective of Selena, and she
had
been the one staying with him, from what Aless understood, but Selena was frigid, and as far as Aless could tell, she seemed not hugely fond of Piers, or anyone except Corin, if he were to think about it. He would’ve appreciated some confirmation or outright denial from Piers on the subject, at least.

Ever since he had returned, Selena had been nothing but an annoyance to the Water Guardian. He had tried to tolerate her for a good amount of time, and even made an effort to be nice to her, but Aless had reached his limit. During every mealtime she would leave, ignore him, or snap at almost every contribution he decided to make. The incident in the hallway had been the last straw for the Water Guardian.

“I just don’t understand why she hates me so much! Can you even believe what she said? That I was ‘not qualified for my position’!” Aless ranted, slamming his fist into a training pew. “Her sheer audacity! I’ve done nothing to her!”

Piers flinched, leaning against the pew and feeling it move back with every swing. “You have to think about this from her position.”

Aless landed a particularly hard hit against the pew. “Oh, and of course
you
will always come to her aid!” he complained. “You’re my closest friend, why do you always take her side? I’d like to think that after what we’ve been through, you’d be willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“She’s been holding a spirit since she was ten years old. You remember how stressful it was to hold Serac when you were young, don’t you?” Piers argued.

“That excuse ran out of merit long ago,” Aless declared, “and because you’re still my friend, I’d appreciate a little bit of sympathy sometimes.”Watching Selena emerge from the monastery, approaching Aless and Piers, he muttered, “Speaking of the demon herself….”

Piers turned to face Selena and giving a small wave as she approached. “Lena.”

Selena looked between the two, giving Aless a particularly nasty glare before turning to fully face Piers. “Kateline wants to speak to you tonight, Piers. If anyone asks, I’ll be in the Wind Temple all night.”

“Noted,” Piers replied, giving her a thumb up. “We’ll miss you this evening.”

Selena walked away, not bothering to acknowledge Aless.

Aless rolled his eyes. “See?” he asked. “She only looked at me for the purpose of glaring. That is not fair.”

Piers turned around, sighing. “I know it may be hard to believe but she really does have a reason for being the way she is.”

“A soul darker than Alvah himself?” Aless suggested.

“A stressed-out little girl,” Piers corrected.

“We’re all stressed. It’s the nature of being a guardian. If she wasn’t ready for it, she shouldn’t have accepted Zephyr,”he retorted.

Piers lowered his voice. “Look,” he muttered, glancing around him, “I’m not supposed to say anything about this… but, I don’t want you to continue hating Selena for no reason….”

“Just say what you need to say. I’m tired of being kept out of things that directly impact me,” he answered.

“You know those moments when Serac is deciding that he’s gonna go off and be annoying you in your head? Like, trying to tell you to attack things, or to kill things?” Piers asked.

“Of course I do,” Aless said.

“And you know how stressful those moments are? Like something’s trying to burst through your skull?”

Aless rolled his eyes. “Yes.”

“For Lena, it’s always like that,” Piers stated.

“You can’t be serious,” he stated. “She has far more mana than the rest of us, how can Zephyr be constantly bothering her? He’s the weakest spirit!”

“Technically, I’ve already said too much….” he trailed off, pausing again. “I need to go off and meet with Kateline, but just
think
about it. Also, if you haven’t noticed, Lena has a nice neck, try looking at it next time you see her.”

Aless stared at his friend, giving the pew an especially hard kick and finally shattering the wood.

Chapter 16