Lies & Labyrinths

Lilith headed out to face the crowd of students flowing to the same location, careful enough to not notice the bottle of brandy that Inam fetched out from under her desk with the last class done for the day.

She couldn’t find Emil in the Mess Hall, having to trudge through the line, smack-dab in the middle of a group of Deltas and a pair of Alpha girls. She had never had to wait in line for food, let alone wait in line with a group of rather slow people hating another group for being better. Yet there she stood with her back against the wall, thankfully invisible for once.

The Deltas attempted to throw stones and twigs at the Alpha students with their various magical focuses, while two Alpha students deflected with one hand and held their books aloft with the other. A small sphere sparked up every so often, the barrier wide enough to envelope the pair.

“God, even picking on you isn’t fun! Stupid smart kids!” They huffed.

One of the Alphas broke into laughter.

“Stupid smart kid? That’s how you’re gonna degrade us?” One of them looked up, smiling a lazy smile with her brown eyes. She closed her book then flicked her hand, clutching a red jeweled necklace. It glowed a bright ruby red, blasting a bolt of energy that shoved the Delta students back. Lilith threw a hand out, wincing as she expected to be an innocent bystander swept up, closing her eyes and bracing. But the blast never came, warping around her.

Lilith blinked, hearing the sound of the Deltas landing in a pile behind her, then looked back to the Alpha girl.

“Thanks for not throwing me.”

“Thanks for not throwing things at me.” She said in return, then went back to reading.

It was something, an in-road she supposed. It made Lilith content, knowing that maybe school wouldn’t be so bad. And now with the kids thrown out of line, the three had the opportunity to move up. They were finally within the room (more a hall within a hall, really) where the smells of actual food came through. Lilith had been imagining what the lunch lady would look like, picturing someone not exactly unlike the baker at Wheatsburg.

She was not expecting a suit of armor, or rather, the amalgamation of a couple suits of armor, with four arms that were prepping, cooking, and serving trays of food all while wearing a rather sporting chef’s hat and apron which read “Osculum Archimagirus” [22]

“Ah, Miss Lilith Lavoi!” The machine said.

“You recognize me?”

“Of course! You were just through here! No second helpings though, my dear.”

Well, that had answered the question whether or not Emil was using the mask. Lilith left the lunch line into the Great Hall, looking about the tables and feeling a wave of discomfort rush over her. She looked about, trying to find Chris Rockchisel or whatever the bloody hell his name was and his bullies. She found them, staring at her.

Well, not her. Emil-her. The group (six by her current count) were surrounding Emil as he sat disguised as Lilith, eating his meal. No, her meal. She was confused, but hungry enough to be sure that Emil owed Lilith at least part of a school lunch. That’d be shelved for now, as Christopher had advanced from the name calling, to nudging at Emil’s shoulder, smirk on his face while the adults were unsurprisingly nowhere to step in, and that would lead to something worse at this rate. Bullies tended to snap back after being knocked down a few pegs, and he most certainly was still sore from his embarrassment at the girl’s restroom not even three classes earlier.

“You ignoring me girl?” Stonehammer said, nudging now upgrading to prodding, skipping pushing altogether.

“No, I’m right here.” Lilith said behind Chris. The group spun, finding themselves staring at Lilith. They looked back at Emil-Lilith, then a triple take back to Lilith, slack jawed.

“I-”

“It’s called an illusion spell, you really are dense, Chris. I made Emil look like me while I went to get something from the cafeteria. Watch. Emil! Duck your head under the table, I’ll end the illusion spell.”

Emil seemed mortified, relieved, and somewhat sad as they did as instructed. There was a pause, and a shuffle as Emil pulled the mask out of view of everyone else. Out Emil crawled, mask nowhere to be seen, but the bag between legs now partially opened.

“Chris!” a voice said behind Lilith. She looked over her shoulder. The two Alphas from before were standing, rather annoyed, in the middle of the row between the tables.

“What?”

“Move!” The taller of the two girls said, glaring behind her red puffy cheeks and auburn bangs with eyes that sent shivers down one’s spine.

Chris muttered something, the group dispersing to make room for the passing duo.

“Nice spell.” the shorter of the two said to Lilith.

“Thanks.” She said, proud of the lie. It was a relatively good one. She stepped back before the tall one glared her direction, then snuck a seat next to Emil when they had passed.

“Thanks for the assist.” Emil said.

“No problem!” Lilith responded, leaning over and eating off of Emil’s plate. “You might need to hold on to the mask for the day, though.”

“I think I can handle it.”

“I hope so. Try not to go as me though, yeah?”

“Yeah, you seem to make friends in all the wrong ways. Dwema hip checked me into a locker between classes.”

“Oh good, we’re even for stealing my lunch, then.” Lilith said, taking another bite of the plate in front of Emil. She talked while she chewed, no familiarity with table manners in her corner of Dorwine. “I’ve got some classes ahead of me. Have you taken Evocation and Conjuration?”

“Yeah, they’re pretty similar concepts actually. Evocation is more about the ten elements. [23] Conjuration is about the more intangible things, or specific objects. Calling for a bound weapon or healing someone by drawing in restorative energy. Does that make any sense?”

“Maybe?”

“Hmm. Okay. Evocation is about how to summon the element of fire. Conjuration is about summoning a Fire Elemental.”

“I’m gonna be real with you, my powers are kind of limited to the ghost hand kind.” Lilith waved her hand in the air for good measure to get the point across.

“Well, in that case, take good notes.”

They talked at length while snacking off of the same tray, talking of errant things as newfound friends are wont to do. Eventually though, the bell rang and it was time to head on, as much as she hated it. And so off she went, waving goodbye to Emil as they went to find somewhere safe to change before Stonehammer and his goons came looking once more.

Lilith was finding it easier to navigate the area directly around the Great Hall. She found the class for the twins in half the time of previous classes. In fact, she had even made it in before the bell, which was quite an accomplishment for someone perpetually tardy. Lilith made a mental note of the doors, one red and one blue, both directly next to each other. It’d make finding the class all the easier, they were the only doors in all of the school that seemed to match their professor, and they were the only double doors for a class.

The room was split in two, a swirl of sapphire and ruby stone patterns at matching spots in the center of the floor and ceiling. On closer inspection, the ruby ceiling and sapphire floor had small grates, though for what purpose, Lilith had no clue. The desks were arranged in a circle, and an opaque bubble floated in the center of the room, held aloft by two brass diamonds at the north and south ends of the sphere. Other students were already comfortably in their seat, a mixture of faces she didn’t quite recall yet, and some of the students that had been in other classes with her. It was also the first time Lilith found herself in the same class as Dwema, who glared daggers as she entered into the class in a corner of a room with a table, a few chairs, and books.

“Welcome Lilith!” The red haired orange-red genii said, swirling around the bubble at the center of the room.

“So glad to have you here!” The blue haired periwinkle genni said, floating at a matching pace moving in the opposite direction.

“I’m Cobalt!” the blue gennisaid.

“And I’m Crimson!” The red genni followed after.

Lilith did a curtsy to them both, who each spun around in a full circle in the air in response. It seemed a lot more fun than grabbing the hem of your skirt.

“Unfortunately, we are mid lesson-plan for the upcoming Weaving” both said in complete unison, “But you can grab a seat with Dwema in the back, the fundamental textbooks are all over there.”

Lilith could feel the low vibrations of Dwema’s scowl rippling across the room like heatwaves. She turned, finding that glare burning directly at her. A fly fluttered lazily between the pair, then fell dead to the floor with an audible -ts- and a small plume of smoke rising for emphasis. Lilith strolled across the room, keeping a nonchalant pace and maintaining a look of boredom on her face, all while yesterday’s assailant glared her down.

“How’s the hip?”

“Huh?” Lilith asked, forgetting about Emil’s mentioning of being pushed into the locker for a moment before continuing to play dumb. “I’m sorry, did something happen?”

“Whatever. You’re a Delta Dummy too now so it doesn’t matter.” Dwema grumbled, scooting over.

Lilith took the seat next to the dwarf girl, noting her features for the first time without having to be on red alert for a bruising. She was stout, with only the bare minimum of the uniform still ascribed to her, with ceremonial silver beads braiding her hair back, and dwarven tailored underclothes with buttons that didn’t match the rest of the outfit and shoes that seemed more practical than proper. Her bag was large, various hooks and loops for what seemed were once pickaxes and shovels, now converted to carry school books and potion ingredients. A silver hammer lay on the inside of her bag, and as Lilith’s eyes glanced at it, she moved her hand to cover the lid of the bag and fasten the button closed.

Lilith quickly looked away, acting as if she hadn’t been snooping. Instead she glanced at the textbook, catching a large diagram of a symbol that looked like, well, a triangle with some weird lines on it.Lilith found the more she looked at the symbol, the more her head hurt.

“That should be everyone!” Cinder said from their position around the globe, the last of the students having taken their seats and begun to chatter amongst themselves.

Cobalt stretched out a hand, a long bead of ice launching out and catching the side of the door, then shoved to swing it close. The ice shattered, falling onto the floor where it was collected by the blue sapphire drains.

“Now, everyone, we’ll be breaking into partners today to continue practicing. Five minutes at a time, let your peer get some practice time in! We want you to get very comfortable with our evocations. Remember, practice makes perfect!”

Lilith looked to Dwema, who leaned in, whispering “They throw you in whether you can do spells or not.”

“That’s terrible.” Lilith whispered back.

The professors stepped aside, letting pairs line up to take their turns entering the bubble. They swam, for lack of better terms, to different corners of the bubble, then turned to face each other. One began to make hand motions, a trail of glowing light echoing from the movements. The triangle from Lilith’s book was drawn in the air, then the squiggle lines. The figure drew his fist back, then punched through it, and out the other side of the glyph exploded a bright red fireball toward the other student.

The receiving end of the fireball threw up a different symbol, an upside down triangle with a line through the base. A pile of rocks appeared, blocking the shot with an explosion of rubble that flew in every direction inside the bubble.

“Good! Again!” Shouted Cobalt over the noise.

“So everyone’s gotta do that?” Lilith asked, eyeing the evoker’s arena. “What about Delta students and newcomers?”

“Survival of the fittest.” Dwema said, sighing as she looked at the book in front of her again. “They say the material elements are easier to master.”

“The what?”

Dwema sighed. “Wow you really are a Delta dummy. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Metal.” Dwema flipped back to the front of the book, where a large wheel was drawn with ten runes around it. The top of the wheel was ivory off-white, the bottom a smokey off-black. She touched the five bottom elements with a stick that had a small nub of graphite in it. [24] “The immaterial ones are the harder concept ones. Time, Law, Chaos, Spirit, and Taboo.”

“Taboo?”

“It’s the lost element. Nobody can use it anymore. The name itself was erased from the world. We know how it sounded though, if you say the words, it makes a sort of hollow noise in the air. Watch: ___.”

Lilith blinked. “How did you do that?”

“You mean say ____?”

“Yeah, that."

Dwema grinned. “Practice. But it’s kinda useless, can’t do anything with it. Best to stick with the easier concepts.”

“I doubt I could do any of them…” Lilith admitted.

“Actually, wanna know a secret?”

“Yeah?”

“Everyone has a latent affinity for one of the Runes. You just gotta figure out yours. Mine’s earth. All Jurgenhad dwarves hail from the Earth Rune.”

“How do we find out which is mine?”

“Well if you have a full affinity, it’ll sort of speak to you.”

They tried that for a bit, flipping through the pages. Nothing really seemed to stick out besides them looking like odd squiggles and triangles.

“Anything?” Dwema asked. Lilith shrugged.

“I dunno what to tell you. Maybe you don’t have an affinity. Better to just practice fire.”

“Why fire?”

“It’s the first element in the Material group, needs the least amount of concentration to create, and consumes the least amount of aether for lower level spells.”

They settled on that for some time, flipping the page to the fire rune, staring intently at the drawing.

It still just looked like a triangle pointing downward.

Lilith spent the rest of the class doing that, in fact, while making very little progress. This seemed to calm Dwema, of all things. Lilith thought she understood; she too had been the new girl not too long ago, and faced insurmountable odds. Maybe the two of them would stand a chance in the Weaving after all.

Lilith was almost sad when the bell rang and class was over.

“Do you have Conjuration next?” Dwema asked.

“Yeah.” Lilith felt a strange twist in her stomach. Dare she say it, she was relieved and excited. She’d know somebody for a change, going into the class. Maybe the day wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Footnotes:

[22] Translation: Kiss the cook

[23] Some people have crazy notions of tables of a plethora of elements that get updated periodically but hovers at an enormous number of one-hundred-eighteen. There were in fact, only ten: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Metal, Time, Law, Chaos, Spirit, and ____, the Taboo rune.

[24] The Inkless Quill, known as Stone-In-Wood-Word-Maker was eventually changed to be eponymously named after its creator, Pencil Penwick after a failed marketing campaign found the name longer than the object it was being printed upon.