Lies & Labyrinths

It was a small idea at first; those are the best kinds. They grow like a seed. With enough watering and time, they grow into something else entirely, and take on a life of their own rather quickly.

“If only there was a better way to access all of this.” Lilith mused, leaning on the bar of the control panel. As she did, she leaned against the panel, hitting an inconspicuously large red button marked MAINTENANCE set in a rather scary bold font. The large obsidian prism that held the base of the Model Veil began to lift, pulling up to reveal a large machine that Lilith was surprised to be familiar with.

It looked like something she had seen once before on their brief visit to Dorwiny [31][32]. There were gears, gizmos, great big gyrating wheels not too different from the inside of a mill grinding up grains. Strings ran through the brass and iron machine, weaving up towards the top. It looked like a textile machine. That’s what it had reminded Lilith of. One with flappy punch cards that hung from pulleys, feeding into moving parts that looked like cricket’s legs, each working to thread a string through it. As Lilith watched, the machine fed through the punch cards, guiding the patterns that were being wove. All of it was automated; this was how Inam had reassembled the tapestry each time. She simply cast a spell to rewind the machine, and the cards guided where to lay the strings. Lilith decided to not get any closer, imagining that such a foray would potentially end in fatality, instead hitting the red button again, the machine lowering back down into its hidey-hole beneath the room. A spare punch card fluttered off from the stack, landing at Lilith’s foot. She stepped on the corner, picking it up and staring at the various holes marked, and the ones left blank.

And just like that, Lilith’s grand seed of idea was freshly watered.

She thought of that machine and its punch card, and of the catalogue system above it for some, imagining some way to link the two.

She thought on it through the next bell and the walk to the lunch room, and thought on it through lunch, mostly ignoring the frantic scouring of the teachers for Emil, eating in silent contemplation.

Lilith thought about it past the girl whom she was pretty certain she knew the identity of, and on into Evocation after lunch.

“Lilith?”

It was Dwema. Lilith looked up, realizing she had been musing on the punchcard all the way to her desk. “Hmm?”

“You’ve been staring at that bookmark for a while.”

“Oh.” Lilith glanced down at the punchcard. “Just lost in thought. What did you ask?”

“I said, what element do you want to practice today?”

Lilith glanced around, remembering she was in fact, in another class. One that was tangential to what she wanted to learn.

“Uhm…” Lilith opened her Evocation book to the circle, drawing her finger across the page with her eyes closed. She stopped, looking down at where she had placed it, finding it precisely between Law and Chaos. Dwema squinched her nose. “Law. Definitely Law.”

“Not a fan of Chaos?”

“No. Chaos magic is Stygian stuff. Almost as bad as the Taboo rune and things dealing with ____. But Law magic is old and musty stuff. That’s what Arleigh and Klymviner do.”

Lilith’s face contorted into a matching disgust. “Ew.”

“My thoughts. Uhm…” Dwema traced her finger to the table of contents, swiping quickly through the gold trim of the tome to get to the proper page.

“Law. Uhm.” Dwema found herself repeating, stopping on a spell.

“Well, there’s always the Law of Gravity. You can bend that one.”

“I’m willing to try anything at this point.” Lilith admitted, glancing at the sphere as the next pair of kids went in. The class had steadily worked its way over the last day through most of the list.

Dwema turned the book around to show the evocation for gravity. There were symbols that were even more confusing than the stuff Lilith had seen before. There was no sign of X and Y, now F and G and even m1 and m2 had made an appearance. And who in the bloody hell was r? And why were they dividing?

Beneath that were even more squiggles and bits of poetry and feelings associated with the spell [33]. None of it seemed to make the slightest bit of sense.

“I’m going to fail this class.” Lilith said, staring at the book.

“Don’t worry, you’ll just end up retaking it with the others.”

Dwema gestured around the room. Only then did Lilith note the discrepancy. There were definitely older students than them, some already quite used to using the suffix -teen to describe themselves, something that seemed to be completely foreign and far away although it was no more than nine days away now, much like that ever elusive adulthood, which would whisk all of her problems when she was finally a grown-up. [34]

“It’s a tradition to fail at least one subject as a Delta. Some stuff just doesn’t click. Doesn’t make us stupid.”

Lilith felt a knot of guilt for her earlier comment, but said nothing, instead opting to bite the inside of her lip. They both went back to studying, going on to earth evocations for Dwema’s sake so she could get her practice in. Lilith watched the clock, eyes flicking between the students practicing in the Evocation field while the Djinnborn teachers watched. It was coming close to the end of the list. Just a few minutes and they’d have enough time to get out. Her eyes latched on to the second hand as it ticked around, ever so close to getting to the point of wrapping up, mere minutes…

“Alright, I believe that leaves Ms. Jurgenhad and Ms. Lavoi.” Cobalt said.

Seven hells. Lilith cursed to herself. A flash of an idea struck her.

“Lob something soft if you can.” Lilith whispered.

“Sure thing.”

They stepped up to the sphere, Dwema walking confidently inside while Lilith crossed with apprehension. There was a sizzling sort of feeling as she passed through, one that tingled and twinged as it rose all the hairs on her head, one that made the air smell like something… what was the word?

Petrichor. That was the word her old professor had loved to use back in Wheatsburg. The smell of the rain, from every direction at once.

“Are you ready?”

Lilith nodded. She wished she could warn Dwema of her brilliant idea, but there wasn’t time. She’d just have to explain afterward.

“When you two are ready.” Crimson said, floating near Dwema.

“But no pressure. We need to see at least one conjuration from each of you.”

Dwema began to draw a shape in the air, her right eye flickering yellow briefly, pulling back and throwing her arm forward as a rock seemed to conjur an inch from her face and go hurtling past Lilith. It was porous and easily dodgeable, the moment it flew out of the ring the substance dissolving. But it was fast, and when Dwema got started, it seemed she had no desire but to keep going, to keep using her gift. And so the dwarf got caught up in the moment with Lilith ducking and weaving like a game of dodgeball.

Dwema wasn’t stopping. Over and over she threw the rock, Lilith dodging to the best of her ability. Then one hit her stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of her,and sent Lilith doubling over.

Her instincts took over, and Lilith thought of the dagger taking on a shape like a stone. She pulled back, and threw it as hard as she could.

The metal rock struck the soft porous stone, shattering it as it went hurtling straight through the center, smacking Dwema square in the face. The dwarf girl screamed in pain, falling to the ground. Cobalt and Cinder shared a look, then floated to the girl, placing a hand on each of her shoulders. “There there, we’ve all taken a blast to the face once or twice. Good form, both of you.”

Dwema got to her feet, covering her eye as she shook the teacher’s off, storming out.

“Good call, Dwema see the nurse, please!” Cobalt shouted. Everyone stared at Lilith, who felt a pang of guilt welling up.

“I-I didn’t mean to…” she whispered, regretting the action almost instantly.

“It’s okay dear. Passing grades for the both of you.” The bell rang after, something Lilith regretted even more. If she had only held out a bit longer, maybe she wouldn’t have done something to hurt her classmate.

Dwema was not at Conjuration. Lilith had in fact expected this, but it did set the worry within her. A teacher had restored her last wound when they had fought, but a nurse on staff for magical applications? And the fact that the artifact had hurt Dwema, that was the scary thing. She had promised the Vice Headmaster to not use it on another student or show it, and she had broken both those rules. There were consequences on top of consequences now, wounds on top of wounds.

Lilith excused herself to the restroom, walking the hall to find a few adjunct professors pacing and looking between classes. The two barbarian looking chaps were close behind, scowling and striding about. There was safety in the girl’s room at least; she ducked inside, beelining around the corner to find that same odd short girl from before. The girl stopped mid pace near a bench in the women’s room, freezing at the sight of Lilith.

They said nothing, locked in the moment before Lilith could help herself, asking the question she knew the answer to at once.

“Emil, is that you?”

Footnotes:

[31] Not Dorwine. Seriously, it sounded so much better. Why did people have such silly names? Mayor Mayor of Wheatsburg had seen to not having weird names.

[32] Mayor Mayor also came from a long line of mayors, before you ask.

[33] A class textbook on a subject devoted to how an element feels is not a direct science as it were. Many found their way to it on their own way.

[34] It would not.