Key's final class was channeling objects. Most wizards found their natural gift easy to manipulate through intention, but more difficult workings could be made more manageable by using an object to direct the magic. Matsias arrived just before the class started and slid into the empty desk next to her, flushed but smiling. Something pulled in her stomach. She had seen Mats smile so little in the past year that she had almost forgotten what he looked like happy.
Their teacher, Ms. Adjel, was possibly even shorter than Miriam, with pale skin that shone pink, as if she'd just scrubbed her face, and a greasy mess of brown hair that tried to escape her ponytail. Her Faraday shirt was unbuttoned at the top, and her tie was askew. Key had a feeling her mother would be horrified at the sight. But Ms. Adjel knew her subject well. Key had never heard of so many different types of objects used for channeling magic--from wands and staves to coins and stones. Ms. Adjel even had a story about a wizard who used a pair of shoelaces.
She spoke quickly as she paced in front of the class. "For anyone who intends to learn abilities beyond their natural gifts, using an object to channel magic is a stepping stone, even when practicing a variety of magic very similar to the original."
Key glanced sidelong at Matsias, who hung on to every word, though, she noticed, he squinted slightly, something he did when he couldn't quite hear someone, as if by making his vision clearer, the sound of their voice would also become less fuzzy. She was not surprised he gave Ms. Adjel his undivided attention. Matsias Beleed had lived for this moment since he was nine.
"Key! Key!" Mat ran up to her as soon as she stepped out of the trailer. His mother followed, while his father watched four year old Lamel tottering through the scraggly front yard.Matsias wore a purple scarf around his head that matches his father's. Key knew he had worn it for nearly a year, but it was her first time seeing it. The section that would normally cover his mouth and nose, hung loose and flapped as he ran, revealing that he recently lost both of his front teeth. He almost knocked Key down with his embrace. Then he backed away. "Look!" He twirled around to show off the headscarf. Apparently, the newness hadn't entirely worn off.
"You have your ibi'an. You're a man now." Key used the Epaluno word for the garment. She was grateful she wouldn't have her own coming of age ceremony for several years, as she wasn't sure she was ready to take an oath to her parents' gods.
Matsias paused, mid-twirl. "I still don't feel like a man."
His father walked over and stroked his head. "Nine years old just means you're becoming an adult, remember? Even Tsia Xitano didn't do that in a day." He spoke in fluent Zhohu, as he always did when Key and her family were present. Both of Mat's parents insisted that using Zhohu in the presence of those who did not know the Epaluno tongue was an important part of the rules of hospitality set down by their goddess.
Matsias tilted his head back to look at his father and spoke in the same language. "That's why I don't have to be with the little kids at temple anymore."
"That's right. But don't worry. We'll wait until you're ten before you have to start paying rent."
"Da-ad!"
His mother laughed as she scooped up Lamel. Lysi Beleed was a few shades lighter than her husband and sons, with a wide smile that made her eyes crinkle. "He's teasing, sweetheart."
"Key?" Her father also spoke in Zhohu. "Do you want to show Matsias what you made him?"
"Oh yeah!" Key pulled a piece of quartz out of her pocket. She had spent weeks carving it into the shape of an open rose, with four leaves folding out. She had spent at least as much time figuring out how fill the rose with red and green lightning without damaging it.
Mat gasped as he accepted the rose from her. His father peered over his shoulder. "That's beautiful. You made it?"
Key nodded proudly as her mother explained, "it seems that Key has magic as well as Matsias." They had learned about Mat's gift on their visit the year before.
Matsias whipped around. "Mom, can me and Key play in my room?"
His mother bounced Lamel on her hip as the younger boy grabbed fistfuls of her thick, wiry hair. "Of course."
Matsias flashed his toothless grin at Key again. "Come on! There's something I need to show you!" He pulled her into his house. Key giggled. Though she was several inches taller than her friend, it was difficult to stay in step with Mat when he was excited.
Mat's house was plainer than most. The Ethite laws put so many restrictions on the Pelan that their homes tended to be sparsely furnished. The furniture they did have was mismatched, and the walls were painted whatever leftover colors could be found. But Key liked the colorful interiors. And each house was decorated with things lovingly made by family and friends. Every picture was painted by a close relative, and every bed had a homemade quilt, usually pieced together from scraps of old clothes. To Key, Pelan houses breathed love.
Though Mat's birthday had passed several months earlier, Key recognized a stack of books that had probably been coming-of-age gifts. Matsias carefully placed Key's rose on his bedside table and picked up a book from the top of the new stack. Once Matsias had stopped waving it around, Key was able to read the slightly torn cover. "You're leaning Shugbo? Are you going on vacation?"
"No." Matsias pulled a crumpled flier out of the book and showed it to her. The pictures on it had several big kids wearing black jackets with different colored sleeves. They smiled at the camera and some of them were working magic. "My uncle brought it to me. After he found out I could bend luck. It's a school in Nefrale."
"F... Faraday A... A... Academy of M... Magic." Key carefully read aloud.
Matsias beamed at her. "You've been practicing!" When Key's family visited Illegate, Key attended the temple school with Matsias, where his father taught her to read. Spurred on by Mat's encouragement, Key read more of the flier. "It says you have to apply to go there. And you have to be fourteen."
Matsias stuck out his chin. "I don't care. That gives me five years to learn Shugbo." He looked back at the flower on his desk, and then at Key. "And now that you have magic, you can come with me!"
"I don't know if I'm good enough," she said quietly. She didn't want to tell Matsias how many pieces of quartz she had broken trying to get the lightning right on his rose.
But Matsias hugged her. "Of course you are!" Then, slowly, pronouncing each word syllable by syllable, he said in Shugbo, "We are going to be the best wizards in Nideon."
When class ended, Key helped Matsias gather his things. "So, how was your first day?"
Matsias grinned up at her. "I'm at Faraday!" he said.
"You know, little brother," she said as he put on his backpack, "you've been here for a whole day."
"I know, I just... I didn't think that I'd actually get here." His eyes glazed over after that, like he was watching a move she couldn't see.
"Come on," Key said, "Let's go get dinner. Then you can read to me from the history book and I'll tell you what it says." It was intended mostly as a joke, though Matsias had always been a better reader than her, even if her Shugbo was stronger. But even that didn't get Mat's attention, so Key grabbed his crutch and jogged down the hall with it.
"Hey!" Matsias called after her. "I need that!" He chased her all the way to the cafeteria. Though his prosthetic made his gait awkward, it didn't slow him down, and he almost caught her. But Key had a head start and longer legs. She kept an eye out for him to try his luck on her, but she also knew Mat was unlikely to use magic outside of class, at least until he was confident he wasn't breaking any rules. When she reached the door of the dining hall, she waited for him. A moment later, he reached the door himself and snatched the crutch back, leaning on it as he caught his breath.
Tilli approached them from the direction of Victoria House. "I smell a race."
Matsias walked through the door as Tilli held it for them. "Smell a race?"
She swept a strand of bright red hair from her eyes. "Wind lingers around someone when they've been running. Like... an after-taste. You'll understand by the end of Mrs. Theelnin's class. How was your afternoon?"
"Pretty good." Matsias, Key, and Tilli gathered their trays and found the same table they had eaten their last three meals at. Key noticed he was smiling again. He had already smiled more in one day here than he had in the last six months. "I'm at Faraday."
Tilli snorted. "Please. Like you wouldn't have been accepted. Mrs. Theelnin already loves you." Tilli may not have noticed, but Key could tell from the way Matsias shifted that he didn't agree with her.
"Has anyone seen Ayan?" Miriam appeared at their table, and for once, Key was glad for her apparent talent at being oblivious to everything.
Matsias turned to Key. "Do you know where she went after your sewing class?"
"Physical science?"
Then, as if summoned by their words, Ayan practically danced over to them with her tray. She didn't look like the hardened thief that Tilli had made her out to be the night before, but more like a six-year old pretending to be a princess. "Isn't this place amazing?" She also wasn't paying attention to where she was going and stumbled into a chair, almost spilling her tray, which Miriam helped her steady. "Thanks." She set the tray on the table and dropped into the chair that she had stumbled into. "Every class is amazing. I mean, wasn't that the best sewing class you've ever had?" She asked Key.
"It's the only sewing class I've ever had."
"Me too, actually. But it was better than my dreams! Of course, now I have more homework than I thought imaginable, but..."
"Worth it," Mat finished for her. "I mean, I don't know if I'll be able to finish, but I don't care." He clutched at his leg, massaging the area where the prosthetic wrapped around his stump.
"Well, after dinner we can work on homework together." Key stirred the unusual salad in her bowl, which appeared to consist of grilled sweet potatoes, corn, beans, onions, and some type of pepper. It was nothing like a Thisaazhou meal, though Tilli and Mat were already devouring theirs.
"We should start with algebra. Everyone has it, right?" Miriam told her own salad. After a moment's pause, she took a delicate bite and chewed thoughtfully.
"I think all freshmen have algebra," Ayan nodded to Matsias. "Key said you're good at math, Mat."
Tilli rolled her eyes. "Is there something you're not good at?"
Matsias shook his head. "Math isn't that hard." He turned to Tilli. "Think of it as money. Your family does transactions all the time."
Key elbowed him slightly. "Money? Way to play into the Stingy Thisaazhou stereotype."
"Everyone uses money." Key hadn't meant to make Mat uncomfortable, but for the time since arriving, he slipped into Zhohu. He cleared his throat and repeated in Shugbo. "Everyone uses money. Math is easier when you think about how it applies to your life."
"Like sewing measurements?" Ayan suggested.
"Yeah. Or uh... recipes." Mat tried to recover by drawing on other things Key might know about. "Or archery. You'd be amazed how much math there is in archery."
"Okay, okay." Key elbowed him again. "We'll start with math. But for now, can we just... eat, please? And talk about something other than school?"
"Hear, hear." Tilli said.
It turned out, though, that didn't have much to talk about other than school. Having just met each other, none of them seemed quite sure what to say, and Matsias fell quiet once they fell on the topic of home. But after dinner, they retreated to Victoria House. The common had the look of lobby or a waiting room, but with the lived in atmosphere of her trailer. There were several sitting areas formed by an arrangement of couches, tables, and chairs, none of which seemed either quite old or new. Other students had gathered in pods in different corners of the room, and Key and the others found two couches facing each other. Tilli, who had dropped off her things in her room before dinner ran up to collect them. Mat settled onto the couch and massaged his leg again. "How long do you think we'll be studying for?" He asked Key.
Key shook her head. She was pretty sure that he had more experience with school than she did. But she knew Matsias wasn't used to wearing his prosthetic for so long. Finally, he glanced at Ayan and Miriam, then rolled up his trouser leg, took off the leg, and set it by his foot. Then he sank back into the couch and let out a sigh of relief, eyes half closed, like a contented cat.
Tilli, who had just returned with her books, stood in front of them with her jaw hanging open. She pushed her glasses up her nose and then stammered, "so that's why you use a crutch." Ayan giggled and Tilli pushed her glasses up again, as if the only thing she couldn't understand about the situation was something fuzzy in her vision. "You knew?" she asked Ayan.
"I guessed. Fabric sounds different against a prosthetic."
When Tilli turned to Miriam, she said, "We met on the train."
Matsias opened one eye. "You really didn't figure it out?"
Tilli shook her head. "I mean... It makes sense... I just... No."
Mat chuckled as Tilli took a seat next to Miriam. Then the five of them settled in for a round of homework. As Tilli said, Matsias was good at everything, from math to magic, though he did need some help understanding the words of his textbook. Ayan had clearly requested books in her native Imk. Though Mat had had the opportunity to ask for books in Zhohu, he had refused. But it turned out that Tilli and Miriam also knew both Imk and Zhohu, and were ready to help when Matsias and Ayan got stuck. Key already knew Tilli was multi-lingual, as most sprites were, but she hadn't expected the same from Miriam.
"My uncle deals with a lot of foreign diplomats," she explained, "so he required me to learn at least enough to get by." Miriam also helped them with their history homework, as she was the only one who was actually from the Major Continent.
After about an hour and a half, the girls trickled away to their rooms. Ayan left first, saying she intended to write a letter to her brother. Miriam followed not long after that, and finally, with a great yawn, Tilli.
"You want me to leave the light on for you?" she asked Key as she stood up.
Key shook her head. "I probably won't be much longer."
"Ah. Sibling stuff. Glad my siblings aren't in the same house as me. Then again, you two seem to tolerate each other's presence." She winked at Key and headed to the stairwell.
After Tilli left, Mat leaned his head back on the couch in his cat pose again, and for a short time, they just sat. Then Key, feeling her eyes drooping, asked, "do you want me to help you carry your stuff to your room?"
Matsias kept his eyes closed. "Nah. I think I'm going to stay out here for a little while."
"Well, don't stay up too late basking in the school. Mrs. Theelnin was hard enough before lunch. I can't imagine having her first thing in the morning."
As Key stood, Matsias lifted his head. "It's not that." He spoke quietly, in Zhohu--words only meant for her. Key sat down again. "I don't know if I can keep this up. I mean, Tilli almost had us at breakfast."
"She wouldn't have it if wasn't for Miriam."
"It's not Miriam's fault. She's a truth wizard. Though that does add another layer of difficulty." Mat bit his lip.
"Why do you like Miriam so much?" Key regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, though if Matsias was offended, he didn't show it.
Instead, after some thought, he said, "she treats me the same way she treats everybody."
Key silently thanked Ka'atha, the Goddess of Wrath, that he hadn't asked her why she didn't like Miriam. She hadn't imagined that what she interpreted as rudeness was the same characteristic her brother liked about her. Key returned to the original subject at hand. "Well, there's no laws against Pelan in Nefrale. So maybe you won't have to keep it a secret."
"I will with my roommate."
This was the first time Mat had mentioned his roommate. "You don't get along with him." She tried to be positive. "You know, that could change. It's only been a day."
Matsias shook his head. "He hates Pelan. If he finds out..." Matsias looked up and around the room as if scanning for the other boy. Then he sank back into the couch.
Key decided to speak to Matsias in a language he knew well: Epaluno parables. "Do you remember when Lu'oma was in the land Evapali? The All-Powerful sent him to save the city from the curse, and he thought he wouldn't be able to if someone recognized him as Pelan. But it was when he openly prayed to the goddess that he was able to complete his task."
Matsias turned his head to look at her. "Which he did because someone ran him through with a sword and his blood purified the streets."
Key could feel the anger bubbling up within her, even though part of her knew she was mostly angry at herself, for selecting a bad story. She stood up, trying to escape the conversation, and she may had succeeded, but Matsias muttered, "thanks for the attempt, though."
Then she couldn't keep the anger down. "And yet, he did not despair," she spat at him. They were the last words of many Epaluno parables, a reminder to the faithful that despair was a mortal sin. Key didn't wait for him to answer. She turned on her heel and followed Tilli to their room, leaving Matsias to sulk on the couch.
