As Matsias walked back to his room from the bathroom, he heard familiar voices in the common. He peeked his head out and saw Ayan and Key sitting together on the couch."
Speaking of..." Ayan looked up as he approached.
"I heard voices," he told hem as he balanced on his crutch.
"We were just... getting to know each other better," Key said.
Ayan's stomach growled. She looked between the siblings. "Do you guys want to get breakfast?"
Mat looked down at his pajamas. "I should change first."
"That's okay." Ayan waved a sparkly stone at him. He couldn't see it clearly, but it looked like one of Key's creations. "I need to put this away first."
Key wrung her hands. "Actually, I promised my friend from my electricity class that I would meet her this morning."
There was a silence between them. Matsias felt something sink in his stomach, but he knew he couldn't keep Key away from her friends. "Okay," he said. He looked at Ayan. "I'll meet you here in five minutes?"Ayan nodded, and Matsias went back to his room. When he got there, Reed was awake.
"Hey!" Reed said as he pulled on his Westwood jacket, "I thought you left already."
Mat shook his head. "Talking to Ayan and Key in the common. We... are going to eat breakfast." He knew he should ask Reed if he wanted to come, could hear his father's voice teaching him about Hospitality when they were setting up for the temple meal, but Matsias couldn't get his tongue to move. He didn't want to get his tongue to move. Reed seemed to be the only person he couldn't say those words to.
Fortunately, Reed didn't seem to think twice about this. "Well, I'm meeting my brother later," he said, "he's going to help me with my history homework, and then we're going to play Feast. You want to join us? I mean, you've got the same class."
Matsias shook his head. He hadn't heard of Feast before, but learning a new game with Reed didn't sound like a good end to his week. "I finished my homework last night," he lied, "Tilli helped me."
"Tilli... Oh, Tilitsitane. Yeah, I think my brother's friends with her sister. They came in the same year and all." He grabbed a deck of cards off his night table and put them in his jacket pocket. "Well, if you change your mind, stop by Westwood House."
"Sure," Matsias said, and waited as Reed stepped out of the room. He changed quickly, cupping the top of his prosthetic over his leg and fastening it into place with the straps. Getting pants onto the fake leg had been a nightmare of its own when he had first gotten it, but he had done it so many times that it barely took him more time than getting dressed might have before the fire. He combed and braided his hair with an even more practiced hand, grabbed his crutch, and returned to the common.
Ayan waited for him in the common with Miriam, who was dressed in black sweatpants and a brightly colored sweater. Her hair hung down her back instead of in the elaborate hairstyle she usually put it in. Together, they walked to the cafeteria.
After they had collected their trays and sat at their usual table, Matsias noticed Key sitting with her friends, two students from Hawthorne House. He had seen them before. One was the blonde girl he knew had electrocasting with Key. The other, like Key, seemed to float between the realms of boy and girl, having short cropped hair and switching between skirts with brightly colored leggings and jeans with elaborate embroidery. These were people Key needed to be friends with. They would understand her in a way Matsias had never been able to. And Key certainly wasn't going to meet anyone else like them among the Thisaazhou, who so often chided her for being too masculine. But seeing them made Mat worry she would find her place at Faraday long before he would.
"So what did I interrupt you from?" Ayan asked Miriam and Matsias turned back to his table.
"I usually exercise in the morning," Miriam grumbled, "apparently I didn't get up early enough."
"Maybe you're still recovering from having traveled so far," Matsias suggested. Nightmares aside, the distance he and Key had journeyed had definitely taken a toll on his sleep schedule.
"It's no matter. I'll practice this afternoon."
"I've never seen you with your hair down before. Do you put it up after your routine?" Mat nodded to Miriam's long black hair.
"I usually braid it first, but I was just getting up when Ayan walked in, so I didn't bother." She tossed a strand over her shoulder with the kind of expression usually reserved for younger siblings.
Matsias fingered the purple ribbon at the end of his own braid. "Do you want me to braid it for you?"
Miriam looked at first like she might refuse, but then agreed.
It had been a long time since Matsias had braided someone else's hair. Key's, of course, was too short, but he had sometimes helped the younger kids in the community get ready for temple, and he had looked forward to teaching Lamel to braid. As he took Miriam's hair in his hands, he wondered where his brother was. Had the other kids made it to Mevi without getting caught? And where had they gone from there?
When Mat finished, Miriam put her hand back to feel the braid. "Thanks."
Matsias pulled his chair back up to the table. "It's not problem. I used to..." he paused. "I used to do it for a friend of mine." He was grateful the girls didn't ask him for more information.
Instead, Ayan and Miriam talked about class and reflected on what they might have been doing at home if they were not at Faraday. Matsias tried to block this part of the conversation out because it also got him thinking of Lamel. After they had finished eating and put their tray away, Ayan said, "Hey, do you guys want to go to the lightning ball pitch?"
"Huh?" This had thrown Matsias off.
"It's a beautiful day," she said, "and we've still got another day before we have class again. I don't want to go inside. Can we play lightning ball?"
"Um..." Matsias had played lightning ball some when he lived in Ethion. The sport was popular enough that even Pelan could get a ball, but he had never been particularly good it, and he hadn't even tried to play since he lost his leg. Key had no interest whatsoever.
"Don't tell me you don't think I can do it," Ayan said, "of all people..."
"It's not that," Mat said, "I don't think I can do it."
"Oh." Ayan looked at the table, as if impersonating Miriam.
"Well, if you really want to, I can try." Even as he said it, he wondered how easily Ayan and Miriam could help him up if he fell. Being able to land on one foot had been useful in lightning ball, and Matsias only had one foot to land on.
Miriam looked from Ayan to Mat. "Oh, alright," she relented, "but only for a little while. And I'm leaving if Jo is there."
Matsias thought of Antony's girlfriend, but didn't know why Miriam wouldn't want to be around her. Ayan said, "fair enough, though this early on a Sunday morning, we'll probably have the pitch to ourselves.
Ayan's hope was dashed when they arrived. A group of students, mostly in Providence purple, were already playing. Ayan swore when she saw them. Her shoulders slumped as she turned back to the dorms. "Fine. Let's go back."
Miriam stood on her tiptoes. "I don't see Jo. Maybe they'll let us join at the end of their game." Matsias secretly hoped they wouldn't.
But at that moment, one of the players caught sight of them and waved. Ayan gave a half-hearted wave back, and the boy jogged over. Matsias realized it was Antony. "Hey! Want to join? We can add another player." He tossed the ball into the air and Matsias tried not to flinch, half-expecting the older boy to hit it straight at him.
Mat jabbed a finger at Ayan. "I'll sit out, but she would love to join you."
For a moment, Matsias thought there would be an argument, but then Antony said, "okay, come on." He beckoned toward the circle, and the others changed the layout of to accommodate the new player. If they thought anything of Ayan joining the game, no one seemed to make a comment. Antony threw the ball into the air and the game began.
As it turned out, Ayan was surprisingly good at lightning ball. She only scored two points during the game, and Matsias got the impression that her low score was due to her determination. She didn't let anything stop her, diving into the fray to beat the ball back if it so much as looked as if it might cross into her section of the circle. She was particularly good at blocking with her elbows. Matsias and Miriam cheered for her. When the game ended, Antony caught the ball and shook hands with all the players, including Ayan. As they walked back toward Mat and Miriam, her face flushed with excitement. "You sure you don't want to play?" she asked.
Miriam stood and stretched. "Actually, I still need to do my morning exercises... before the morning is over." She looked slightly cranky, but Matsias wasn't bothered by it. Of all the people he knew, he felt Miriam was the least likely to have come if she hadn't wanted to.
Antony looked at Matsias as be tossed the ball in the air. He was always sure to catch it at the rounded end, but Matsias flinched each time it landed anyway. "I should work on my homework," Matsias said, "I'm taking channeling objects, and I can't make heads or tails of staves versus wands.
"You need help?" Antony asked.
"I don't want to pull you away from your game."
After a glance to Ayan and the other players, Antony relented. "Fine, but I'm checking up on you later to make sure you're not wasting your entire weekend." He gave Matisas his usual half-smirk.
Matsias laughed. "All right."
Antony's smile broadened as he turned to Ayan. "You're really good. You should think about trying out for the school team."
Ayan beamed. "Really?"
"Yeah, sure. The other teams won't see what's coming. Try outs should be in a couple of weeks. They'll have signs up in the common, but I'll let you know too."
"Thanks." Ayan tugged her left braid.
"Want to go again?" He held the ball toward her.
"I do, but I promised we wouldn't stay very long." Ayan gestured to Mat and Miriam. "And I have a piece of embroidery I want to finish."
Antony shook his head. "Even for Faraday students, you guys are a little dedicated for freshmen."
"That will probably change," Ayan said, "when we understand things here."
"Once I don't have Mrs. Theelnin's class," Matsias muttered.
Antony laughed and punched Matsias on the arm. "I don't think you have anything to worry about with that one. You're the star of the class." He said it the same way Tilli did when she compared their performance in windcasting.
Matsias shook his head. "I'm not going to depend on that."
"All right." Antony sighed as if they had ruined his whole day. "I guess I'll catch you later."
"Catch us?" Matsias asked.
"We'll see you soon," Miriam said, and pulled Matsias back to Victoria House.
Matsias hadn't been lying to Antony. He did have an assignment he was struggling with. He sat down in the common to work on it at one of the tables, half hoping he might run into someone else taking the class. But Miriam and Ayan both had other things to do. Tilli stopped by at some point, but she didn't understand the assignment either.
"Even if I did," she said, "I know better than to do homework on the weekend." Matsias didn't bother mentioning that homework, or for that matter, procrastination, was a new concept to him. At the temple school, they had managed with whatever resources they could find, and it was difficult to send students home with required reading. Nevertheless, Matsias had always been a studious child. Key and her parents brought him books every year, and he managed to build up a small library which he read over and over again. He wasn't ready to fall behind on his classwork just because another student told him it was customary.
Tilli went to her room and left a few minutes later with a wooden tube and a matching box. Other students came and went. Mat secretly hoped for Key to show, thought he didn't expect it. After several hours, Antony turned back up, as promised, to check in on him.
"How's the homework going?" he asked.
Matsias shook his head. "Better, but I think I just read the last page twice."
"Have you eaten recently?" Matsias didn't answer, but apparently he didn't need to. Antony closed Mat's book and took it. "We're going to dinner." Matsias wanted to protest and look for Ayan and Miriam, but Antony held his book hostage. He led Mat to the cafeteria, where they ate with Jo and Wince, which turned out to be helpful, as Wince had taken channeling objects the year before. He started explaining the homework until Antony cut them off, insisting Mat needed to learn how to socialize. Mat secretly believed Key would agree, but he didn't say it out loud.
"Mat." Antony cut his fish with his fork. "You'd never been to a movie before. Have you been to a restaurant?"
"A couple of times," Matsias said slowly as Jo and Wince tried to stifle their laughter.
Antony clapped him on the back. "We need to fix this too. We should go to Eclipse tomorrow."
"I don't know if that's what I would call a restaurant," Wince said.
"Depends on where you sit. Besides, we've got to work up to these things, right?" He grinned at Mat, as if he should be in on the joke, but not knowing what Eclipse was, Matsias couldn't understand the punchline. But he did know it was the kind of place he wouldn't have been able to go in Ethion, so he agreed.
The next morning, Antony knocked on his door around eight o'clock. Matsias answered quickly, worried the knocking might wake Reed, who had gotten in late the night before. Matsias had hoped Reed would stay asleep because he worried Antony might invite him too, even if Matsias had told the older boy that he and roommate didn't get on well.
Eclipse turned out to be a mostly outdoor restaurant on a large brick patio. A matching brick archway marked the entrance, with a sign that had two overlapping circles, one white and one black.
"The thing about this place is that it's actually several different restaurants." He pointed to different doors that led inside buildings on either side of the patio. "That's traditional Nefralean food, pizza, upscale restaurant..."
"It all depends on where you sit," Matsias recalled Antony saying the night before. He surveyed the patio. All the tables were wrought iron, with no clear markers where one section ended and another began. He wondered how customers and staff told the different areas apart. "Where are we sitting?" Matsias hoped his companions wouldn't make him choose.
"Coffee shop." Antony slid into one of the tables nearby.
"It's our usual place," Jo told Matsias as she took a seat next to Antony.
"Your usual place? How often do you come here?"
"Every couple of weeks. Sometimes more, depending on how we feel." Wince flopped into a chair like he might be sitting on a couch in the common.
"So tell me Mat," Antony said, as a waitress came out of the nearby door and brought them menus. "Have you ever had coffee?"
Matsias had, in fact, had coffee once before, but today he opted for tea, which as more familiar, as it was altogether more common on the southern continent, though they did not have anise tea popular in Ethion. He also had a slice of chocolate cake decorated in purple icing with white and black stars scattered across it. Everything was going well until a familiar face walked through the archway.
"Oh no," Jo groaned as she saw the small, dark haired figure, "brace yourselves."
As Mat watched, Miriam crossed the patio. She had almost reached the table before she noticed them. Then she turned, her black braid whipping out behind her, and walked toward them as if preparing for battle. "Hello, Jo," she said curtly.
Jo took a sip of her coffee and looked at Miriam over the rim of her cup. "Hello, Miriam."
"What brings you here this..." Miriam looked up at the sky. "Morning?"
"Same as you," Jo responded with a half-smile, "thought we would have an outing away from school. How has your first week gone?"
"Excellent." Matsias noticed Miriam looked Jo directly in the eye, which she never did in class or at lunch.
Jo took another sip of coffee. "Talk to father recently?"
Miriam crossed her arms over her chest. "Wrote him a letter this morning, actually. You?"
Jo frowned slightly, but returned her face to stillness. "Haven't had the time." She sneered at Miriam. "Too busy making friends. But you wouldn't understand that, would you? You only know how to make enemies.
"Miriam glanced at Mat. "Well, hopefully you don't fall into the same problems you did in Alaj." Then she turned on her heel and started to leave.
"Cousin," Jo called after her. Miriam turned and Jo waved a fork at her. "Aren't you going to eat?"
"Suddenly I find I'm not hungry." Miriam turned and walked out of the archway.
Mat stared after her. "Was that... necessary?"
"Oh, I forgot, you're friends with her." Jo said "friends" the way someone might spit sour milk.
"Is there... something wrong with that?" Matsias fiddled with his fork, trying to imagine what would happen if he was forced to pick between Miriam and Jo. He liked going out with Antony and his friends, but no one was honest with him the way Miriam was.
Wince firmly cut into the conversation. "Jo and Miriam are cousins. They don't get along, which wouldn't be a problem if they learned to leave each other alone." He emphasized each of the last four words.
Jo rolled her eyes. "That wouldn't be a problem if..."But Wince refused to listen. He held up a hand to Jo, and when she cut off, he turned to Mat. "I saw you brought your channeling objects book with you. Do you want to have another look at that assignment?"
