6

"Ryska," Faelen called.

Both Ryska and Valere flinched at once, the sound of her name yanked them both out of wherever they'd drifted to.

Valere blinked, and the courtyard rushed back in all at once, the noise returned first, then the light that was ordinary and unremarkable again and only then did he notice, that there was a girl standing beside Ryska.

Ryska, the name knocked on a door Valere had no idea existed in his heart, he tilted his head to look at her.

She blinked, and the courtyard came rushing back, she hadn't realized how far she'd drifted, back to Viana. She brushed off the thought and began walking toward Merrath without saying a word., Valere and Faelen fell in steps beside her.

Rhovyn watched her walk with him, having noticed the gesture toward her arm, the ripped sleeve stiff with dried blood catching what little torchlight reached them.

Go to her, say something. His mind urged it, but his feet refused to obey, rooted where he stood at the edge of the grounds like the distance between them had become something physical, something he no longer knew how to close.

“She was attacked,” he said to himself.

“Whom do you mean?” Erynae followed his gaze until her eyes fell upon Ryska. “The Draconian girl?”

“People are monstrous,” Bram shook his head. “Why would anyone attack a student?”

“She is Draconian,” said Erynae.

“And a student,” Rhovyn replied.

“I am not defending what was done to her," she shrugged. "I merely say that it explains why she was attacked.”

“I believe someone has taken her to healer,” Bram walked towards the gate. "Let us go back to the Inn."

He looked toward Merrath, he hadn't crossed the same steps that another man had crossed without hesitating once, he just stood there watching her walk away with another man.

The Restorative Hall, Merrath

The healer, Shalmali looked up as Valere approached, and something in her chest gave a little stumble at the sight of his face, that face, familiar in a way that still managed to catch her off guard every time. For half a second, she let herself just look, before she caught it and folded the feeling away, composure slide back into place like a mask she'd almost forgotten to wear.

She then looked at the depth of the cut, then at the gold of Ryska's eyes, then the pale gold sheen of her hair, and finally on the faint golden scales tracing up along her forearm past the wound.

Is it what I think it is? Shalmali thought but said nothing out aloud, her hands resumed their work, and she finished binding the wound with last wrap with a neat knot.

"Blade cut, today?" she asked finally.

Ryska nodded. Valere stood at the doorway with his arms folded and said nothing.

"It will close cleanly," said Shalmali, rising. "Come and find me if it swells."

I will have to inform the Vidhya, she thought, she was already turning the report over in her mind, a student was attacked, no bands on any of the four names involved. He would not take that lightly, he never did. Whoever had done this would find the full weight of Aethoria's authority coming down on them before the week was out, and rightly so.

“Thank you.” Ryska stood and turned towards the door. Faelen fell in step beside her.

“She is going to be considerable trouble for everyone, is she not?” Shalmali glanced at Ryska’s back.

Valere looked at Ryska and his mind already circled back to everything that had settled over the world these past two months, the whispers turning to open sneers, the Draconians who used to walk these grounds without a second glance now draws stares thick with suspicion, sometimes worse.

“Undoubtedly,” Valere smiled and followed her.

The university grounds were still half full; students who had passed were cheerful, chatting about university life and the pride their parents would feel, while those who had failed had already slipped away home in silence.

Valere walked quietly beside Ryska for a while. He glanced back once at his guards, then lifted a hand in a short, low gesture. They dropped back into step behind him at a distance, close enough to watch, far enough not to hear.

Valere's gaze dropped to her injured arm, then away, then back again before he could stop it. Who would've attacked her? The question circled without landing anywhere.

A homeland at war, one where the fighting hadn't stayed confined to soldiers and battle lines. He'd heard enough of what had been done there to know that not all of her wounds would be the kind that showed.

She had no escort, no one watching her back, no one who'd have noticed if she hadn't made it this far. Whoever had done this might try again and if they did, they'd find her just as unguarded as before, unless he did something about it.

He wasn't leaving her alone.

"Did you pass?" He asked to change the air.

"Aye," she nodded.

"Which inn?" He finally asked.

"Tev's."

“I am staying at Tev’s.”

She looked at him, his linen shirt, his polished boots and rolled her eyes. “How convenient.”

"I am not contriving excuses to follow you," he lifted his hands in declaration of innocence. "It is the nearest inn to the gate."

“I did not say you were.”

“You looked as though you were considering it.”

“I consider everything.” she said it plainly and continued her pace.

Faelen glanced at him, he glanced at her and then both of them looked back to the road. He held the door for her when they reached it. She passed through without acknowledgment, for acknowledgment was a debt and she was in no position to take on any debt.

“Make space for me in the room beside hers,” Valere said quietly to Teram. “No one is to know of it.”

Teram's gaze flicked to Ryska. "Your Highness," he gave a short nod.

Valere stepped back out to where his guards waited at their distance.

"Send word to Jye, I want to know who did this, and I want them found." said Valere.

The guard gave a short nod and turned back toward the palace.

Valere watched him go, then he glanced up once at Aethoria's spire. No one attacks a student in Aldaene, he thought. Not under Paendrage jurisdiction. He went back inside, crossed the room and sat down across from Ryska.

"I am most eager about tomorrow's assessment," he said.

"Same," Faelen said, "but I am worried." She looked over at Ryska. "Are you not worried?"

"No," Ryska said. "I'll be first in Aelthara."

Valere smiled and dragged a hand through his hair. "I'd like to see it," he said. "Sometimes I think I'm confident like that too and then I trip on my shoelaces, the universe has a real sense of timing about it."

The food arrived just then. Valere stopped talking, took a bite and started talking again as if the pause had never happened at all.

Ryska listened to him talk and talk with great interest, the man had been defying all her expectations of people.

He feels like something I know, she thought, turned the strangeness of it over but what? Not a memory, nothing she could place a name to, no face from before the running had started. Just a familiarity that made no sense sitting next to a stranger she'd met barely an hour ago, a quiet certainty that she’d felt this before somewhere, mixed with a confusion about where?