Page 51 of Beyond The Maples
He shrugs. "I wanted to come hang, check on Ms. Perfect and see how she is after getting ragged on in class today."
I smile up at him. Leo pretends to be a clown, the one in our group we can rely on for levity, but he's also the most thoughtful and observant. I smile and grab my keys, opening the door for him.
We walk into the dorm, and Farra has her nose in one of the books I've managed to snag from the library. "Stealing" isn't really the word I'd use––it's borrowing without permission. Something my rule following roomie nearly passed out about when I'd come home with them the other day. I had won the argument with logic. We wanted answers, and we weren't going to get them by following the rules.
Farra doesn't look up at either of us, continuing to read.
"Farra, you dazzling dewdrop. We brought you food." I throw down the things I snagged from the cafeteria, and Leo plops onto her bed sloppily. She gives me a look, and I smirk.
"And offer hugs," he says, shoving her shoulder with a foot. She smacks it away.
"Stop, I'm fine. Was it embarrassing to be ripped apart by Captain Dickbag in front of the entire cohort again? Absolutely. Should I know how to do this considering I’m a third-generation soldier? Probably. Do I care? Who's to say!" She rolls over now, covering her face, muffling her groaning.
I kneel at the foot of her bed, grabbing her hands and forcing them off her face.
"Stop it. You can't be perfect at everything. You're already at the limit because you are a beautiful, brilliant goddess and, frankly, it's comforting to know you're not an absolute ace at everything you do. Stop holding yourself to impossible standards. We can work on the reassembly a few days a week after training, and you'll be right there with the other cadets." She sags under my words, like they're a release of her own prison.
"Fine," she grumbles, rolling back over and snagging some of the food that Leo has so kindly helped himself to.
I nod at the books. "Read anything interesting?"
Farra gets an excited look now, her previous self-doubt seeming to disappear.
"Oh! Actually, yeah. This one is garbage." She points to theHistory of Magic, but then nods to an older book I'd found hidden away in the wrong spot. "But that one is fascinating. It talks a lot about stuff I've never even heard about; conduits, creatures from the underworld, different wielders. It references old magic, before the four elements were prominent forms of wielding." Farra's eyes are bright with the prospect of new information.
I have a nagging sense I've heard this before.
"What do you mean? Before wielders? Or before the Gods themselves?"
Farra tugs open the book. "It talks about how there is a main well of magic; a source outside of the four elements, or beyond the four Gods, or underneath it? I don't know, the language is in the common tongue, but it's almost in riddles... if that makes sense."
"Can I see?" I flip through the pages. I see what Farra's saying. The text is not straightforward.
My breath snags at a drawing near the back. The same one I saw in Sib's house last week, only more intricate. The artful compass is similar to the one New Providence still posts on places of worship, but again, there's small differences. Eight spindles pointing outwards, but Aethur is represented differently. Instead of a small speck at the middle, it is entwined with another symbol I don't recognize.
"What do you make of this? I saw it in Sib's house, and I think I've seen it before. What if the well of magic is... I mean, what if there is another god...?" I feel guilty at the thought, especially when I'd so readily dismissed everything my dad had said back then. I shove the book at the other two and they squint, trying to make it out.
"You're right, it is different, odd. It almost looks likemorethan the others because the symbol is similar to the four elements but bolder.. and slightly larger…" She's squinting at the compass like that will give her the answers.
"What possible reason would the Council have to change that? If this is true, that potentially means we've been missing a god to show our penance to." Farra says, sounding exhausted.
My mind turns over information uncomfortably. I feel like I'm missing something, something my dad told me, and it nags at me. I wish Willow were here. The little know-it-all could probably make sense of it. Was my memory getting worse? It couldn't be, I'm eating better. I have more food and routine sleep than I've had my entire life combined. So why do I feel so out of sorts?
"Oh, absolutely disgusting, look at this!" Leo shovesDeadly Creatures of the Kingdom of Arcadyaour way, his favourite so far. On the one side, there's a depiction of a large creature that looks to be a mix between a spider and a scorpion. "Fresh hells. Do you remember these? Sicari. Made of actual nightmares." He feverishly looks through the book of horrors and abruptly throws it when he finds a depiction of a snake with a flat head and clawed hands the size of a transport truck. "None of these things still exist, right?" he asks a little frantically.
Farra shrugs. "We don't actually know what's survived across the continent, do we? We know things like horses and cows and livestock were the first to go. The things that do survive are usually unpleasant, aren't they? There are still some bugs, but I don't think anything cute and fuzzy still exists." She frowns at this, like out of all life's great tragedies, this might be the worst.
"Yeah, the last four things I've seen alive have all been earwigs. Ihateearwigs," Leo replies gloomily.
"Well, that's utterly depressing," I offer at the realization. "Oh right! I forgot to tell you guys what Tarius told me," I say excitedly, shaking off my brain fog and changing the subject. I relay all the information I'd heard earlier today.
Leo looks rightfully shocked, asking a million questions he knows I don't have the answer to. I rub my temples in clear annoyance and glance at Farra who has been uncharacteristically silent.
"What are you thinking?" I ask as she taps her fingers on the book she's holding.
"I'm thinking... I wonder where the crew was last seen. Soldiers die every day, that wouldn't really be anything of note, but for an entire crew to go missing, it’s... unusual."
I wait for her to continue, wondering where her train of thought is going.
