The Iron Rose: Volume 1

“What are we doing?” Britta squealed.

Gudomlay had taken Britta by the arm and was dragging her back out the dorm. They’d put on some sweaters since it was colder, but Britta didn’t know why they were going outside again. Gudomlay tucked her nose into the neck of hers and grinned, enjoying its soft warmth. She wanted to see it. She wanted to see Tapp and Albert exchange their gifts. She wanted to make certain that it happened.

“We’re going to spy on Tapp,” she announced in a low voice.

“We are?” Britta gasped, blinking dumbly as the idea ran through her mind. She laughed then. “All right!” She hurried with Gudomlay, ducking behind trees and sneaking about so to not be noticed. In their haste, they got there even before Tapp and found Albert sitting on the bench by the fountain.

They both paused, admiring him. He was so handsome sitting there under the pink and purple sky. Framed by the green trees and their dark prickly bark, he might have been a prince. After picking a spot to watch, the two settled and waited. As they did, they listened to the fountain’s trickling. With the mood of the holiday, it was as if it were a music for the secret lovers about to meet. But thinking that made Gudomlay smirk. It was just too cheesy.

“Albert really is handsome,” Britta sighed, now gazing at him. He looked a little more put together today than usual. His hair, longer than his chin, was half tied back with the gold clasp he sometimes wore. A blue jewel hung from a chain on his ear. And instead of the school uniform, he was wearing a royal blue coat with a touch of green in its color. Under it, he donned a white shirt and dark pants. He’d never looked so good.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have given him up to Tapp,” Gudomlay teased, and Britta chuckled gleefully in reply. They shut up though when they saw Tapp come through to the place he was sitting. She looked surprised to find him there and was blushing to see him out of uniform.

“A-Albert?” She said, her disbelief making her call out to him without thinking.

He looked up at her when he heard and smiled softly. “Good,” he said, looking nervous even with that charming look on his face. “Gudomlay kept her promise.”

“Her promise?” Tapp asked, watching as he came to her. He offered her his hand, which she stared at dumbly for a moment before accepting. She smiled though at how soft and warm it was. And then he led her to the bench he’d been sitting on and went quiet. She swallowed, glancing at him every few seconds. “Did you...want to see me?” She asked, her knees pressing together.

He nodded, but he was staring at the fountain. Something about it was like peering into a dream she didn’t know if she was invited into. So, she went quiet and waited.

“It’s too bad,” he started after a moment, making her glance at him again. He looked at her and winced. “Could you take off your coat?” He asked.

She blinked, but with a nod removed it and set it aside. Without it, she shivered, and noticing, Albert took off his and put it on her shoulders. She glanced up at him and wondered at his relieved smile.

“There. Now we’re not a stripe and a star. Just two people sitting at a fountain.” He turned back to it and watched its cycle of rising, falling, and then coming up again. In the fading light, it glittered like the jewel in his ear.

Tapp, now understanding, took his arm and rest her head against his shoulder.

“If it were just about keeping each other alive then the school is doing it wrong. I’ve never wanted to protect anyone more than I want to protect you,” he started. Listening, she moved one of her hands down to lace with his and squeezed it. “But that’s not the point, is it.” His own came up to rest against the one she had linked around his arm. “It’s about keeping the star alive. If a stripe is trained to protect a star at all cost, then he will. But without a good respect and appreciation for one another…” His voice trailed off for a moment, his brow knitting together as he pondered the idea.

“The star,” he went on, his voice hesitant, “who has only been taught to stay alive, will never risk her life for a stripe,” he muttered. Tapp’s fingers dug into his arm, and she kept her face hidden as she clenched her teeth. “It’s not so stars and stripes hatred for one another will keep their cool during battle. It’s that a stripe will risk all he has for the sake of his duty, and a star will let him. That’s why things are the way they are. That’s why I’m not supposed to love you...”

Tapp, now crying, sobbed once before reaching up and taking him by either side of the face. He stared at her, his eyes wide in the moment it took for her to bring his face to hers. Before he knew it, her lips were against his and his whole body burst with warmth. Slowly, his face relaxed from surprise. It fell into an expression of pain and longing, and he pulled her into his chest and kissed her back.

Tapp moved away then and looked up at him, brushing a strand of hair from his face and sniffing. “It doesn’t matter who they pair me with now,” she whispered. “I’d risk my life to save a stripe because of my feelings for you.”

Albert lowered his brow. Gazing at her sadly, he took her hand and kissed it. “Then I wish we had never met,” he whispered, his head falling.

She wrapped her arms around it and pulled him down to rest against her chest. His came around her, and for a while, they were just two people sitting at the fountains. But even through her tears, Tapp’s lips slipped in to a smile.

––

Gudomlay came down to Kunagi’s dungeon, her gaze fallen as she went down the steps. What she’d seen. It had surprised her. And what she had heard made her sad.

“What’s with you?”

She stopped forcing her feet out in front of her and looked up when she heard Bard’s voice. And then she quickly glanced away. “Where’s Kunagi?” She asked, her voice low and lacking its usual confidence.

Bard, taken aback, pointed to the doors of the kitchen. She went that way and disappeared behind them, their hinges whining. Bard, curious, came up to them and listened.

“Kunagi,” she called, watching as he stood over the oven. She wondered at him being at it. He rarely used the thing, and the room was warm because of it having been on. He glanced back at her, and seeing her sullen face, came to her.

“You look miserable,” he said in a low husky voice. He instinctively took her into his arms and held her tight. She used to not let him. When Gudomlay first came, she didn’t like being touched. Now, he knew she secretly and most desperately wanted someone to hold her when she felt the way she looked.

She clutched her arms around him and found herself on the verge of crying. “I think I did something bad,” she told him, burying her face in his comfortable chest.

He ran a hand over her hair and then led her to his chair. He sat her in it and leaned back against the counter to gaze down at her. Crossing his arms and ankles, he tilted his head. “I doubt very much that is true,” he said. She peeked up at him and he sighed. “Tell me.”

She glanced away from him and then her fingers curled together. “I encouraged Albert and Tapp’s feelings for each other,” she whispered, rubbing her arm now. Kunagi’s silence made her head fall, for she knew how he felt about relationships between the two. “I was so confident that if the two classes could get along, things would be better. But seeing them together and how sad they are to be in the position they are. I should have never pushed it. I should have never--” she buried her face in her hands and whimpered. “Is it true? That the school creates the rift between the two so the stars have no desire to...to help their stripe should they ever get in trouble?” She asked, now looking up at him.

Kunagi frowned at her, but then, with his eyes shut, nodded. “There are some policies that exist in our world that should not be. But there is a person who desires absolute control and has conditioned society to think a certain way. The relationship between stars and stripes is one of them.” He came around the island of the kitchen then and started mixing in a bowl he’d left there.

Gudomlaylistened to the whisk he turned scrape against the metal bowl and frowned at the ground. She hated herself a little for making her friends suffer. She should have known better. She should have thought things through and considered what hadn’t crossed her mind. She just...wanted everyone to be kind to each other.

“He values the noble and rich and cares very little for the poor and common,” he went on. “It was his intent that there be people--stars--who would follow him blindly. People born to power and would do little to risk losing it. They would always be more likely to be loyal to him than those who have lived a life of suffering.

“That is why there are stripes. Stripes are used and keep getting used until they have lived their life. But there are some who rebel and so are thrown away. But there are plenty of others that they can be replaced with.” He shook his head. “It’s not like that with the loyal followers. He can’t risk them wanting to intervene in a situation to save a stripe. So, stripes are conditioned to protect stars. And stars are conditioned to value their own lives. They are made to believe it better for a stripe to die so that they...” He growled in his throat. “They, a star with much knowledge and wisdom, can go on to carry out the mission they’ve been given.

“It’s not the star’s fault.” He sighed, his glasses slumping on his nose. “They truly believe that they must live for the greater good. That they have no feelings for those that protect them saves them. But it is not how things should be.” He smiled and went to her, putting his hand on her head. “I am proud, M’lay, that you love everyone and that you want others to feel that way also. To know what it is like to have so many different valued friends in your life. But I fear that you may have hurt them as you believe. Unless...” He paused then, thinking a moment as his fingers ran down her hair again.

“What?” She asked, gazing at him with hopeful eyes.

He smiled and pat her head. “We may be able to do something that will make this a good thing. But I’ll have to look into that another time. Are you hungry?” He asked.

“Oh.” Gudomlay made a face and watched as he took what he’d been mixing in a bowl to the cake he’d been standing over. She came and watched as he plopped a bunch of icing on it and started to spread it over the round fluffy chocolate dessert. “What is that for?” She asked, wondering at his baking something that wasn’t disgusting.

“It’s for you, M’lay,” he said in a sweet gentle voice. “For the girl who I find myself living in the same situation with as your star and stripe friend.” He cut a piece and set it on a plate for her. “Only.” He held it out to her. “I hope that when the end comes, you can forgive me. I don’t think I will ever come to forgive myself,” he said sadly.

Gudomlay frowned worriedly and flung her arms around him. “It’s all right, Kunagi. I know that what it is you’ve been secretly fighting for is for the greater good. Not like this academy. So, don’t be sad when you must betray me. I’m willing to follow your lead however you see fit.” She smiled even through her fear and pressed her face into his chest. “I love you. You’re my best friend, and nothing will ever make me think you’re wrong.”

Kunagi, in total despair, balanced the cake in one hand and hugged her back. And then, strangely, the cake fell from his hands and the plate it sat on crashed with a loud shatter to the ground.