9

Daevosky slowly released Erynae’s wrist, gave her one last look before turning away and then walked from the academy to wait in grounds with his friend Jiyasu, Human man, at his side as the assessment had finally come to an end.

They settled beneath the ancient trees of the garden, where the evening breeze stirred the leaves overhead and softened the noise of the gathering students. Jiyasu spoke of the assessment, and Daevosky listened with attention as he leaned back against the stone until he saw her coming.

She entered the garden with Rhovyn and another man, and after a brief glance across the grounds, she chose a place a little distance from them. Jiyasu kept talking while Daevosky found his own attention drawn to her, he looked once and then again and then he forced his gaze toward Jiyasu, only to find it wandering back moments later.

He told himself he was merely observing her but his gaze betrayed him each time and he found himself imagining reaching over and fixing her loose strands back into place, tucking them behind her ear the way he'd have done without a second thought if there'd been any reason to be that close to her at all.

Erynae felt the weight of eyes upon her, the sensation lingered until she finally lifted her gaze and found Daevosky watching her.

The moment their eyes met, he ducked his head as though the garden floor had suddenly claimed his attention, and Erynae narrowed her eyes at him.

What was he doing? She studied him for another heartbeat, but then something beyond his shoulder caught her attention. Ryska, she saw her coming and saw her settle down on a grass a little distance from her, partly concealed behind the stone where Daevosky sat, she glanced once at Rhovyn who was already watching her and then turned her attention back to Ryska who sat with two unfamiliar faces.

She had already made friends, Erynae had thought it would take longer.

Ryska felt the weight of someone’s gaze upon her, but she did not look up and wondered who watched her until Faelen drew her into conversation, Ryska turned toward her, the thought of the unseen gaze slipped quietly from her mind as she answered and the two of them fell into a conversation about draw weight, the angle of a proper stance, something about correcting for wind that Faelen was arguing with visible conviction.

Valere watched her hands more than he listened to the words, he imagined what it would be to catch one of those hands mid-gesture, to feel the shape of her fingers against his palm, to let his own fingers slide between hers and stay there, he did not do it and sat there wishing he had until the bell in Aethoria's central tower struck the hour.

The conversations died mid-sentence, bodies rose off the grass in clusters, and everyone walked toward the long stone board mounted beside the Grand Court steps. Parchment sheets cracked once in the wind before they were fixed to the board, the names were sorted by academy, but everyone knew the first name under each heading was the one that mattered.

Ryska read her name from afar and let the crowd's noise fall away behind her, there was no need to look twice, she'd known before she looked. She turned from the board and walked toward the Record office; three doors were already propped open for the flood of students who'd be needing the same thing she was.

Inside, a clerk sat behind a long counter stacked with ledgers, she gave her name when it was her turn and waited while the clerk ran a finger down the Aelthara column and added details on small slip of parchment before sliding it across the counter.

Ryska Aen

The Aethoria Cloisters, 23

Street Kyna, opposite Kyna Sanctuary

Aethoria District, Aldaene

Miranda, 2

Ryska read the address, tucked the paper securely into her coat, and stepped out of the office. She searched for Valere one last time, but when she found no sign of him, she turned toward the inn to collect her belongings, but she reached the gate and stopped.

The cloister was only three streets south, she reminded herself. Five minutes, perhaps ten at most, and she would be there. Nothing was going to happen in such a short walk, she drew a quiet breath, squared her shoulders, and stepped beyond the gate.

The street carried the evening bustle of Aldaene, yet something about it felt wrong. She sensed the eyes first, people watched her and it was not the passing glance of strangers, nor the idle curiosity of those with nothing better to do. Their gazes lingered too long, following her as she walked. A man near a shop turned his head after she passed, while two women standing beneath an awning fell silent and watched her with an unsettling intensity.

Ryska slowed, another pair of eyes found her from across the street and then another. She kept walking, though the hairs along the back of her neck had risen. Why were they staring at her like that? She thought as she resisted the urge to look behind herself, and instead fixed her gaze upon the road ahead, telling herself that she was imagining things.

Yet with every step she took, she felt more certain of one thing, she was being watched.

Aethoria Street bustled with students, all of them moved toward their inns to gather their belongings before making their way to the Aethoria Cloisters. The road brimmed with voices, hurried footsteps, and the restless energy of students eager to settle into their new life.

Ryska kept to the flow of them and reached the inn without incident. She climbed to her room, gathered her belongings, secured everything within her coat and travel bag. Once she had checked the room one final time, she stepped toward the door and just as she was about to leave, two passing students caught her attention.

“Four boys,” one of them murmured. “They have been missing since morning.”

“The inns reported it,” the other replied. “They never returned after they left.”

The first student lowered his voice. “All of them?”

“So, they said," other responded. "Their inn asked for them, but no one found them.”

Their footsteps faded down the corridor, and Ryska remained still for a moment.

The inn where the four boys were staying had reported it when they failed to return all night and throughout the following day, all four sets of belongings left untouched. The city guard took note and moved on, for he had other matters to tend to and four young men who had not returned did not yet constitute a crisis.

It was a crisis for Ryska though, rumors had already acquired the shape of prejudice people most wished to believe. Four boys gone missing the very night a Draconian girl arrived. No one said it plainly, for there was no need.

It lived in the spaces between sentences, in the looks that followed Ryska, in the conversations that ceased when she passed and resumed when she had gone far enough.

She heard it all, the wind that changed, whispers that lingered and the words withheld.

She told herself that she was among the three hundred passed candidates of Aethoria Central University, that she had sat the hardest examination of Myris and seen the result posted upon the noticeboard with her name upon it.

She walked through it with a face that gave nothing away, made her way in search of Aethoria cloister and comforted herself that the whispers were noise, and she had survived things far louder than noise.

The cloister lay one street from the Tev's, I can do this, is what she told herself but the tremor in her hand suggested another story.