A bird chirped outside of Mel’s window. She snuck out of her bed and slipped her clothes on. It was dark outside and Mel accidentally banged her knee into her desk. Gabriella stirred in her bed and threw one eye open. She seemed to sense Mel’s presence by the door and lifted her head.
“What are you doing?” Gabriella whispered.
“Sorry,” Mel said. “Go back to sleep. I’m just heading to the main building to study before class.”
“Why?” Gabriella asked.
“I just have to,” Mel said. “I haven’t been brought up to magic like the rest of you, and I’m afraid I’ll fail if I don’t.”
Gabriella put her head back on the pillow, as if satisfied by this explanation.
“See you at breakfast,” she murmured.
Mel closed the door behind her and left Gabriella alone in their room. She snuck down the corridor, past doors leading to sleeping students, and out to the Falden grounds. She held her cloak tight around her body and her backpack was slung over one shoulder.
Mel let out a yawn as she walked past the statue of Falden, the founder of the school, and then headed to the main building. Inside, the air was warmer, but not like in the dormitories. Here it was still a chill between the floors and Mel thought it was because the place was simply too large to heat properly.
She walked up two staircases and snuck into an empty hall with a big fireplace at the end of the room. Bookcases lined the walls, and some were even placed in the middle of the room. Tall wooden structures holding what Mel needed most right now, knowledge.
She walked around the room for what felt like an eternity, glancing at spines and reading labels, wondering what book would be best to start with. Eventually, she realized she was just wasting time, trying to figure out the most efficient way to learn.
Mel picked a couple of books from the shelves and spread them out on a table nearby. She thought it would be better to just start somewhere. She walked up to the fireplace and brought up her tinderbox. She lit the dry kindling, already prepared in the hearth, and a flicker of flames shot up from the wood.
With her books, Mel sat down at the table again and snuggled into her cloak. She opened up the first one and started flipping through the pages, scanning them for any information on magic.
#
After hours of reading and researching, Mel felt like she hadn’t gotten much closer to understanding magic. These books were either too complicated, too foreign for her to understand, or not about magic at all. She had missed breakfast and her class was about to begin a floor up. Mel gathered up the books and placed them back on the shelves.
She took with her one book under her arm called: A mage smith’s memoir.
Mostly because she hadn’t had time to crack this book open yet and because she thought it would be interesting to read up on a former mage smith. Maybe it would give her clarity of who she would become, at least.
When Mel entered the classroom, most of the students were already seated. They talked with their new desk-pals, seeming to grow friendships between people from Aldrion and nobles from Stonehearth. Mel watched Gabriella and Dean laughing together and she felt a sting of jealousy at this.
Gabriella was her only friend and now some dude called Dean might steal her away from Mel. Mel knew this was an unreasonable thought, but it still hurt. She observed Austin as she continued toward her desk. He wasn’t looking at her. He sat with his back turned toward Mel’s desk and he was looking outside the window.
Mel slipped past behind his back without a reaction from Austin. Then she took her seat and when she placed her backpack on the floor next to her, Mel looked up at Austin. Her smile vanished from her face when she found him staring into the classroom, half his back turned against her. He had switched his position simply to not see her.
Anger coursed through Mel’s veins, and she wanted to yell at him. Tell him he was acting beyond rude. Always watching her one second with daggers in his eyes and then the next, acting like she didn’t even exist. What was this kind of game?
“Hello,” a high-pitched voice said from the entrance.
Mel lifted her gaze and saw a young-ish woman step into the classroom. She had a long navy blue cloak wrapped around her body and fancy-looking slippers covered her feet. Her hair was black and her eyes dark brown. There was a warmth to her, and she gave them all a wide smile.
“I’m Professor Monroe,” she said. “I will be teaching you history here at Falden. I’m the school's one and only history professor.”
The class sat quiet staring at her, and Mel thought maybe the others were as shocked as Mel was about this being their history professor. Mel had always assumed someone more looking like Professor Dereey would hold these lessons. Someone dusty and old with thinning hair and, yeah, a man.
Professor Monroe wrote her name on the blackboard in purple chalk that she had brought herself. She underlined it with a forest green and when she turned back to the class, her eyes were glittering. Mel glanced over at Austin, wondering what he thought about the new professor. He had a scowl on his face, like usual, and Mel thought maybe he had no other feelings than self importance.
“In today's class, I want us to brush over the general history of Aldrion. The dragon's last sighting and the magic we have today,” Professor Monroe said. “It’s, after all, the most important piece of history for you. During the semester, we will go more in depth into some people, like Falden himself and, of course, the royal family.”
Professor Monroe picked up a pink piece of chalk and wrote three words on the blackboard.
The dragon stones
She turned back to the class and Mel jotted down these words in her notebook, determined to not miss anything about this lesson.
“Can anyone tell me how the dragon stones were created?” Professor Monroe asked.
The classroom was silent, and Mel looked up from her notebook with a frown on her forehead. Then she saw Dean raise his hand in the back, next to Gabriella. Professor Monroe pointed to him to speak.
“I’m Dean,” he said. “The dragons gave us the stones after the battle of Cairn.”
Professor Monroe gave him a warm smile.
“Yes, they did. But how did they create them?” she asked.
Dean shook his head, and the classroom fell quiet again. Mel raised her hand this time.
“Yes,” Professor Monroe said, and pointed to Mel.
“Melissa,” she said. “The last dragons breathed their fire into the stones, filling them up with their magic and creating four stones, one for each element. They told us to use these stones to protect ourselves from the beasts until they would come back and help us win the war once and for all.”
Mel felt the entire class’s eyes burn her skin, and she saw Professor Monroe’s eyes grow confused, then interested.
“You must be Melissa Temper,” Professor Monroe finally said. “I heard we would have a student from the dragon cult join us this semester and I must say, I am so happy to meet you. I have never met anyone from Windbrook, and it would be my honor to talk to you outside of class some day. Maybe you can tell me some stories of your people.”
Mel swallowed the lump in her throat. From her side, she heard a gasp, and she turned to meet Austin’s eyes. His hand had flown up to cover his mouth and his eyes were wide. Mel felt the classroom spin around her and she wished she could take it all back. Take back her answer, Professor Monroe’s outing of her origins and her request to speak with Mel alone.
Like Mel was some relic or excavation she wanted to examine outside of classroom hours. Mel didn’t want to be that. She just wanted to be like everyone else. Go unnoticed and not be the center of attention.
The only people in the classroom who didn’t seem shocked by this revelation were the nobles. But they didn’t do anything to avert the attention from Melissa either. They mostly just stared, bored, at the blackboard, wondering when class would resume.
“Sure,” Melissa said in a hesitant tone.
Professor Monroe leaned back toward her desk and took a position of half-sitting, just like Professor Dereey usually did. She watched the class for a few seconds before the lesson seemed to resume.
“So, we know the dragons gave us their fire after the battle of Cairn,” she said. “But how was Aldrion created? You might wonder. Well, it all happened after that. The people in the valley found ways to drag the magic out from the dragon stones and make weapons to wield against the beasts. They managed to push them further back through the mountain pass and the Last Stance became the last outpost. This was where they eventually created the dragon forge and built the wall, so that no beasts could enter the valley. The Last Stance was a military base for many years until stability had resumed in the valley. Then and only then did they change the name to Aldrion, and it became the city it is today.”
Professor Monroe licked her lips and rolled small flakes of chalk between her fingers, coloring them pink, purple, and green.
“This semester we will study the battle of Cairn in more detail and the war leading up to that final battle,” she said. “We will study the world before the beasts and what happened in the wasteland. As well as the royal line, the importance of the dragon cult in our history and the different beliefs throughout the kingdom.”
Professor Monroe pointed to a girl who had raised her hand.
“Meredith,” she said. “Why are we going to study the dragon cult and different beliefs? Isn’t it already known that what the dragon cult believes is crazy and that the right belief is the king’s?”
Mel felt her ears heat from this question. Without Marcus here, she felt like they were attacking her and her beliefs. Even though she had never truly believed in the dragons and had run away from the cult. She felt as if they were personally going after her.
“That is true,” Professor Monroe said. “The king has issued what the official belief of the kingdom is. But that doesn’t mean that he condemns everyone else who doesn’t subscribe to this belief. The king and the royal family are allied with the dragon cult and also recognize that there are other ways even further from the official belief than the cults. I think it’s important to study those beliefs, as they, in part, tell us something about our history. Religion and history are so closely tied that they can seldom be divided. We need to learn one to understand the other.”
#
Mel placed her book of the mage smith’s memoirs on her desk and rearranged her backpack to fit everything inside. The class was over and everyone was filing out of the classroom. She felt Austin’s presence next to her like an extension of herself and she knew he was watching, but she didn’t understand why. Before he had seemed so unperturbed by her.
“I love that book,” Austin said.
Mel looked up from her backpack and met his gaze. He was talking to her.
“Okay,” she said, then looked away from him again.
He held out his hand into her vision and Mel had to look up again, meeting his gaze.
“I’m Austin Taveck,” he said.
“I know who you are,” Melissa said.
“Yes, but we haven’t officially met,” he said.
“No, because you have had no interest in meeting me,” Mel said.
Austin slid down his hand to his side, and a thin smile extended over his lips.
“I want to meet you now,” he said. “Sorry, I ignored you before.”
“Why do you want to meet me now?” Mel asked.
“Because I realized you were from the dragon cult,” he said.
“Oh,” Mel said and raised one eyebrow at him. “So now that the Professor has outed my origin, you want to meet the crazy girl from the cult? Is that right?”
“No…” he said. “I didn’t mean because you’re from the cult… rather because you’re not from Stonehearth.”
“What’s wrong with being from Stonehearth?” Mel asked. “I thought you hated everyone from the valley.”
Austin winced at this remark and took a step back from Mel.
“Look, I know we might have gotten off on the wrong foot,” he said. “But I really have nothing against you now that I know you’re not a noble. Okay? I just hate the nobles coming here and stealing the limited places in this school. Stealing the education from the good people of Aldrion, who would use this knowledge for fighting the beasts. Not making fancy party tricks or lighting fires at festivals.”
“Oh, really?” Mel said. “So you’re telling me that no one from Aldrion would ever light fires for festivals?”
Austin crossed his arms over his chest.
“No, they wouldn't. That’s beneath us. We need magic to fight the beasts, not play around. If you’re Aldrion born, you’d have more sense than that.”
“Oh,” Mel said. “So I guess the fire summoner who comes to my town each year during the spring equinox to light the ceremonial bonfire isn’t from Aldrion then. I guess he just lied to all of us about growing up here and moving to the valley later in life.”
“What?” Austin said. “No, I mean, of course, people are allowed to retire. I just think you should have to use your powers to fight the beasts for at least a couple of years first. The people of the valley are only safe because we protect them with our lives, and the nobles don’t seem to get that.”
Mel shook her head at Austin and got ready to finish him with a few quick words. But before she could begin her next sentence, her stomach gave away a loud growl and Austin seemed to have heard it too. He looked down at her stomach and uncrossed his arms from his chest.
He looked up and met Mel’s gaze. Her eyes felt beady and wide, and she didn’t know what to say. She just stood there quietly while her stomach did all the talking.
Austin gave her a small smile.
“Have you eaten today?” he asked.
Mel stuffed her book and notepad into her backpack and hiked it up over her shoulder.
“No,” she said. “I was just about to go get something to eat before you started harassing me.”
“Oh,” Austin said, and gave Mel a low chuckle.
He seemed to think it was amusing she called him introducing himself for harassment and he didn’t seem offended at all by their aggressive conversation.
“Let’s get something to eat then, before we continue this most intriguing discussion,” he said.
“You’re just mocking me again,” Mel said.
“No, I’m not,” he said, with a smile curling up his lips. “I promise I’ll behave until you have some food in your stomach.”
Mel looked at his face and didn’t see a shred of truth in there. He was absolutely going to mock her with or without food in her. But Mel didn’t feel like staying here and arguing. She walked after him out of the classroom and then they walked side by side to the service house and the dining hall. They were quiet the entire time, and Mel felt herself hating him a little less.
A bird chirped outside of Mel’s window. She snuck out of her bed and slipped her clothes on. It was dark outside and Mel accidentally banged her knee into her desk. Gabriella stirred in her bed and threw one eye open. She seemed to sense Mel’s presence by the door and lifted her head.
“What are you doing?” Gabriella whispered.
“Sorry,” Mel said. “Go back to sleep. I’m just heading to the main building to study before class.”
“Why?” Gabriella asked.
“I just have to,” Mel said. “I haven’t been brought up to magic like the rest of you, and I’m afraid I’ll fail if I don’t.”
Gabriella put her head back on the pillow, as if satisfied by this explanation.
“See you at breakfast,” she murmured.
Mel closed the door behind her and left Gabriella alone in their room. She snuck down the corridor, past doors leading to sleeping students, and out to the Falden grounds. She held her cloak tight around her body and her backpack was slung over one shoulder.
Mel let out a yawn as she walked past the statue of Falden, the founder of the school, and then headed to the main building. Inside, the air was warmer, but not like in the dormitories. Here it was still a chill between the floors and Mel thought it was because the place was simply too large to heat properly.
She walked up two staircases and snuck into an empty hall with a big fireplace at the end of the room. Bookcases lined the walls, and some were even placed in the middle of the room. Tall wooden structures holding what Mel needed most right now, knowledge.
She walked around the room for what felt like an eternity, glancing at spines and reading labels, wondering what book would be best to start with. Eventually, she realized she was just wasting time, trying to figure out the most efficient way to learn.
Mel picked a couple of books from the shelves and spread them out on a table nearby. She thought it would be better to just start somewhere. She walked up to the fireplace and brought up her tinderbox. She lit the dry kindling, already prepared in the hearth, and a flicker of flames shot up from the wood.
With her books, Mel sat down at the table again and snuggled into her cloak. She opened up the first one and started flipping through the pages, scanning them for any information on magic.
#
After hours of reading and researching, Mel felt like she hadn’t gotten much closer to understanding magic. These books were either too complicated, too foreign for her to understand, or not about magic at all. She had missed breakfast and her class was about to begin a floor up. Mel gathered up the books and placed them back on the shelves.
She took with her one book under her arm called: A mage smith’s memoir.
Mostly because she hadn’t had time to crack this book open yet and because she thought it would be interesting to read up on a former mage smith. Maybe it would give her clarity of who she would become, at least.
When Mel entered the classroom, most of the students were already seated. They talked with their new desk-pals, seeming to grow friendships between people from Aldrion and nobles from Stonehearth. Mel watched Gabriella and Dean laughing together and she felt a sting of jealousy at this.
Gabriella was her only friend and now some dude called Dean might steal her away from Mel. Mel knew this was an unreasonable thought, but it still hurt. She observed Austin as she continued toward her desk. He wasn’t looking at her. He sat with his back turned toward Mel’s desk and he was looking outside the window.
Mel slipped past behind his back without a reaction from Austin. Then she took her seat and when she placed her backpack on the floor next to her, Mel looked up at Austin. Her smile vanished from her face when she found him staring into the classroom, half his back turned against her. He had switched his position simply to not see her.
Anger coursed through Mel’s veins, and she wanted to yell at him. Tell him he was acting beyond rude. Always watching her one second with daggers in his eyes and then the next, acting like she didn’t even exist. What was this kind of game?
“Hello,” a high-pitched voice said from the entrance.
Mel lifted her gaze and saw a young-ish woman step into the classroom. She had a long navy blue cloak wrapped around her body and fancy-looking slippers covered her feet. Her hair was black and her eyes dark brown. There was a warmth to her, and she gave them all a wide smile.
“I’m Professor Monroe,” she said. “I will be teaching you history here at Falden. I’m the school's one and only history professor.”
The class sat quiet staring at her, and Mel thought maybe the others were as shocked as Mel was about this being their history professor. Mel had always assumed someone more looking like Professor Dereey would hold these lessons. Someone dusty and old with thinning hair and, yeah, a man.
Professor Monroe wrote her name on the blackboard in purple chalk that she had brought herself. She underlined it with a forest green and when she turned back to the class, her eyes were glittering. Mel glanced over at Austin, wondering what he thought about the new professor. He had a scowl on his face, like usual, and Mel thought maybe he had no other feelings than self importance.
“In today's class, I want us to brush over the general history of Aldrion. The dragon's last sighting and the magic we have today,” Professor Monroe said. “It’s, after all, the most important piece of history for you. During the semester, we will go more in depth into some people, like Falden himself and, of course, the royal family.”
Professor Monroe picked up a pink piece of chalk and wrote three words on the blackboard.
The dragon stones
She turned back to the class and Mel jotted down these words in her notebook, determined to not miss anything about this lesson.
“Can anyone tell me how the dragon stones were created?” Professor Monroe asked.
The classroom was silent, and Mel looked up from her notebook with a frown on her forehead. Then she saw Dean raise his hand in the back, next to Gabriella. Professor Monroe pointed to him to speak.
“I’m Dean,” he said. “The dragons gave us the stones after the battle of Cairn.”
Professor Monroe gave him a warm smile.
“Yes, they did. But how did they create them?” she asked.
Dean shook his head, and the classroom fell quiet again. Mel raised her hand this time.
“Yes,” Professor Monroe said, and pointed to Mel.
“Melissa,” she said. “The last dragons breathed their fire into the stones, filling them up with their magic and creating four stones, one for each element. They told us to use these stones to protect ourselves from the beasts until they would come back and help us win the war once and for all.”
Mel felt the entire class’s eyes burn her skin, and she saw Professor Monroe’s eyes grow confused, then interested.
“You must be Melissa Temper,” Professor Monroe finally said. “I heard we would have a student from the dragon cult join us this semester and I must say, I am so happy to meet you. I have never met anyone from Windbrook, and it would be my honor to talk to you outside of class some day. Maybe you can tell me some stories of your people.”
Mel swallowed the lump in her throat. From her side, she heard a gasp, and she turned to meet Austin’s eyes. His hand had flown up to cover his mouth and his eyes were wide. Mel felt the classroom spin around her and she wished she could take it all back. Take back her answer, Professor Monroe’s outing of her origins and her request to speak with Mel alone.
Like Mel was some relic or excavation she wanted to examine outside of classroom hours. Mel didn’t want to be that. She just wanted to be like everyone else. Go unnoticed and not be the center of attention.
The only people in the classroom who didn’t seem shocked by this revelation were the nobles. But they didn’t do anything to avert the attention from Melissa either. They mostly just stared, bored, at the blackboard, wondering when class would resume.
“Sure,” Melissa said in a hesitant tone.
Professor Monroe leaned back toward her desk and took a position of half-sitting, just like Professor Dereey usually did. She watched the class for a few seconds before the lesson seemed to resume.
“So, we know the dragons gave us their fire after the battle of Cairn,” she said. “But how was Aldrion created? You might wonder. Well, it all happened after that. The people in the valley found ways to drag the magic out from the dragon stones and make weapons to wield against the beasts. They managed to push them further back through the mountain pass and the Last Stance became the last outpost. This was where they eventually created the dragon forge and built the wall, so that no beasts could enter the valley. The Last Stance was a military base for many years until stability had resumed in the valley. Then and only then did they change the name to Aldrion, and it became the city it is today.”
Professor Monroe licked her lips and rolled small flakes of chalk between her fingers, coloring them pink, purple, and green.
“This semester we will study the battle of Cairn in more detail and the war leading up to that final battle,” she said. “We will study the world before the beasts and what happened in the wasteland. As well as the royal line, the importance of the dragon cult in our history and the different beliefs throughout the kingdom.”
Professor Monroe pointed to a girl who had raised her hand.
“Meredith,” she said. “Why are we going to study the dragon cult and different beliefs? Isn’t it already known that what the dragon cult believes is crazy and that the right belief is the king’s?”
Mel felt her ears heat from this question. Without Marcus here, she felt like they were attacking her and her beliefs. Even though she had never truly believed in the dragons and had run away from the cult. She felt as if they were personally going after her.
“That is true,” Professor Monroe said. “The king has issued what the official belief of the kingdom is. But that doesn’t mean that he condemns everyone else who doesn’t subscribe to this belief. The king and the royal family are allied with the dragon cult and also recognize that there are other ways even further from the official belief than the cults. I think it’s important to study those beliefs, as they, in part, tell us something about our history. Religion and history are so closely tied that they can seldom be divided. We need to learn one to understand the other.”
#
Mel placed her book of the mage smith’s memoirs on her desk and rearranged her backpack to fit everything inside. The class was over and everyone was filing out of the classroom. She felt Austin’s presence next to her like an extension of herself and she knew he was watching, but she didn’t understand why. Before he had seemed so unperturbed by her.
“I love that book,” Austin said.
Mel looked up from her backpack and met his gaze. He was talking to her.
“Okay,” she said, then looked away from him again.
He held out his hand into her vision and Mel had to look up again, meeting his gaze.
“I’m Austin Taveck,” he said.
“I know who you are,” Melissa said.
“Yes, but we haven’t officially met,” he said.
“No, because you have had no interest in meeting me,” Mel said.
Austin slid down his hand to his side, and a thin smile extended over his lips.
“I want to meet you now,” he said. “Sorry, I ignored you before.”
“Why do you want to meet me now?” Mel asked.
“Because I realized you were from the dragon cult,” he said.
“Oh,” Mel said and raised one eyebrow at him. “So now that the Professor has outed my origin, you want to meet the crazy girl from the cult? Is that right?”
“No…” he said. “I didn’t mean because you’re from the cult… rather because you’re not from Stonehearth.”
“What’s wrong with being from Stonehearth?” Mel asked. “I thought you hated everyone from the valley.”
Austin winced at this remark and took a step back from Mel.
“Look, I know we might have gotten off on the wrong foot,” he said. “But I really have nothing against you now that I know you’re not a noble. Okay? I just hate the nobles coming here and stealing the limited places in this school. Stealing the education from the good people of Aldrion, who would use this knowledge for fighting the beasts. Not making fancy party tricks or lighting fires at festivals.”
“Oh, really?” Mel said. “So you’re telling me that no one from Aldrion would ever light fires for festivals?”
Austin crossed his arms over his chest.
“No, they wouldn't. That’s beneath us. We need magic to fight the beasts, not play around. If you’re Aldrion born, you’d have more sense than that.”
“Oh,” Mel said. “So I guess the fire summoner who comes to my town each year during the spring equinox to light the ceremonial bonfire isn’t from Aldrion then. I guess he just lied to all of us about growing up here and moving to the valley later in life.”
“What?” Austin said. “No, I mean, of course, people are allowed to retire. I just think you should have to use your powers to fight the beasts for at least a couple of years first. The people of the valley are only safe because we protect them with our lives, and the nobles don’t seem to get that.”
Mel shook her head at Austin and got ready to finish him with a few quick words. But before she could begin her next sentence, her stomach gave away a loud growl and Austin seemed to have heard it too. He looked down at her stomach and uncrossed his arms from his chest.
He looked up and met Mel’s gaze. Her eyes felt beady and wide, and she didn’t know what to say. She just stood there quietly while her stomach did all the talking.
Austin gave her a small smile.
“Have you eaten today?” he asked.
Mel stuffed her book and notepad into her backpack and hiked it up over her shoulder.
“No,” she said. “I was just about to go get something to eat before you started harassing me.”
“Oh,” Austin said, and gave Mel a low chuckle.
He seemed to think it was amusing she called him introducing himself for harassment and he didn’t seem offended at all by their aggressive conversation.
“Let’s get something to eat then, before we continue this most intriguing discussion,” he said.
“You’re just mocking me again,” Mel said.
“No, I’m not,” he said, with a smile curling up his lips. “I promise I’ll behave until you have some food in your stomach.”
Mel looked at his face and didn’t see a shred of truth in there. He was absolutely going to mock her with or without food in her. But Mel didn’t feel like staying here and arguing. She walked after him out of the classroom and then they walked side by side to the service house and the dining hall. They were quiet the entire time, and Mel felt herself hating him a little less.
