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Idia wasn’t sure which he disliked more, being around people or being outside in broad daylight.
Why is the sun so bright?
Even underneath the tree he’d been hiding for most of the class, Idia felt blinded. His room’s neon blue lighting and color corrected computer screen were much easier on his eyes than the harsh natural sunlight. In fact, his room was much more preferable over the outdoors. There was a PC. And headphones. And snacks. And no people.
The sound of someone crashing a broom into a tree made him jump before he realized the perpetrator (victim?) was still a good distance away from him.
He was only here because Ashton Vargas - vain sports teacher extraordinaire - had forced him to attend the second year’s extra flying class. Though for what purpose Idia could only guess. After Ashton had taken attendance - mortifyingly drawing attention to Idia’s presence and setting off whispered exchanges, open gawking and some finger pointing - he hadn’t looked twice at the youth. Utterly irresponsible, if anyone asked him.
So, the very second Ashton had turned his back on Idia, the flaming blue haired youth had let Ortho take his place in flying practice. While Ortho diverted everyone's attention, Idia had snuck off to a pinetree at the southern side of the sports field. It was far enough from class to be alone, but close enough to feign he had just gotten separated from the group. The perfect hiding spot.
It was under this tree where he had been mostly undisturbed for the past hour.
But what if someone came to check on him? Pester him? Start a conversation? Demand he take part in class?
The anxiety was killing him.
He’d do anything to get out of class.
Well, except interacting with people, if he could help it. That would just make things worse, anyway. Anything he did or said would feed the rumor mill. He feared it so much that Ortho had agreed to relay all conversations during class, only to prove people weren’t talking about Idia behind his back.
"Ah, but I’m more of a swimmer,” Jade’s voice came from the tablet.
“Of course you are, you’re a moray eel...” Idia commented dryly to no one in particular.
“You’re right!”
Idia stiffened. Had someone heard him? Was there a two way connection he had overlooked in the settings? Had Ortho relayed his words?
Ashton’s voice continued to boom from the tablet. “You’ll need to work all your muscle groups! We only train a select few when flying or running, but swimming will train other important groups, making for a proper full-body workout. Remember, all muscles are equally important!” Idia could practically hear the teacher flex his body and felt himself relax enough to roll his eyes. Ashton was simply being Ashton. Nothing to worry about. “So! Next week’s class will be in the water! Mandatory swimming class for everyone!”
Swimming meant swimming trunks. He’d need to attend class, be amongst all those people, without even the protection of his baggy, tech enforced clothes.
Just imagining it he felt exposed.
The jolt that went through him felt much worse than before. His stomach was churning. His throat felt blocked and a pressure on his chest made it so hard for him to remember just how to breathe .
So this is what anxiety twofold feels like… Idia mused after his lightheadedness dissipated enough for him to form coherent thoughts again.
With his mind slowly rebooting, he went over all the things he’d need to prepare for. The acquisition of full body swimming gear. The magic he’d need to use on his hair. And skin. And everything else while he was at it.
The effort of it all...
Maybe he could feign sickness.
Not too much of a lie - he was quite sick of the sun already. And people. And Ashton.
“Build muscle and become as wonderful as I. Everyone loves me.”
Especially Ashton.
“And to make things fun, let’s do a race. Fastest student gets bonus points for class and exemption for other swimming classes!”
Now that’s just mean. Adding a gaming element appealed to Idia’s inner gamer. Plus, the prize was extremely tempting. Being the best and getting an exemption? That was an interesting, high reward, challenge and Idia wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. He only backed down from hassles and people (which usually were synonymous). And before anyone dared to argue; dealing with people wasn’t a challenge, it was simply impossible.
Which left him with a dilemma. How to win without being amongst people? And without having to swim. Preferably without even having to be outside, if possible.
Deep in thought, he didn’t hear the sound of mechanical joints moving until the source literally ran into him.
“Ortho,” he managed to wheeze out as a small humanoid shape launched itself into his chest.
“Brother! So that’s where you’ve been.” Ortho detangled himself from Idia. Meanwhile, Idia barely registered the questioning look he received from the younger Shroud, being way too busy trying to get air into his lungs. Must have hit my diaphragm, he rationalized, sending magic to the affected area to relax the muscles there and following it up with a quick diagnostic spell. Nothing seemed to be damaged, so he allowed his mind to ease the tension in his muscles and relax as his body rediscovered the wonderful thing called oxygen.
Apparently today was not his best day when it came to the supposedly simple act of breathing.
It only took a few moments for Idia to regain his senses, sigh, and address the ball of metal and energy. “Do I need to recalibrate your body?”
Ortho smiled. “No, that’s fine. I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Please do.”
“Anyway!” Ortho was excitedly jumping around the darkly clad youth. “Come join us! Everyone is talking about the swimming contest! It’s so exciting. Oh, I wish I could participate.” He suddenly stopped bouncing, visibly sobering as a thought had seemed to struck him. Looking up through flaming bangs he nearly whispered, “But I can’t, can I?”
Idia cocked his head to the side, observing his little brother from head to toe. From the metal sun visors over short flaming blue hair, the black respirator like mask over the bottom part of his face, to the black and white exoskeleton with a blue flame protruding from the left breast, to the custom made running legs.
A set of scenarios and possibility calculations went through his head before he opened his mouth.
“I’m… not sure. I can upgrade the suit to be waterproof, maybe create some extra visors and thrusters. But if your flames either get doused, or in any other way lose access to oxygen...” Idia trailed off. “There are so many elements to take into account. I’ll need to tweak the boosters, protect the flames, while still allowing you to move. And if I fail… The risk...” All scenarios he could come up with had a high risk of oxygen issues.
The mere thought of severely damaging or even losing Ortho left him lightheaded.
Ortho knew what was happening when Idia started taking rapid, shallow breaths. “Brother, look at me.” He stepped in front of his brother to look him in the eye, and was greeted with wide glazed orbs. Empty. Lonely. Haunted.
He’d seen this look from time to time - it was the look of someone stuck in their mind, trapped by fear or memory.
Floating up so he was at his brother’s eye-level, Ortho gently coaxed, “I’m here. It's fine. Look at me,” repeating the phrase a few times until Idia’s golden gaze finally locked with Ortho’s. "It's okay." Idia's hands came up to Ortho's shoulders, gently touching the metal. Feeling the material. Checking it's reality. "I'm here." Idia's gaze moved to the flame in Ortho's chest, before seeking out his brother's golden orbs again. "It'll be fine."
The stillness to Idia slowly lifted, but it was only when Ortho was sure his brother was really seeing him again did he continue with the topic at hand. “So it’s not impossible. Just a little oxygen risk. Who cares. Nothing you cannot overcome.” Never one to focus on the negative side of things, Ortho looked up at his brother with wide hopeful, trusting eyes.
In turn, Idia broke eye contact and wrapped his right arm around himself. “You’ll need a lot of oxygen and a lot of protection.” His voice was tiny but the tone had been factual.
Was he starting to open up to the idea?
Ortho let his processor overclock, hiding his eyes from his brother as he did so. Idia always said there were too many risks with overclocking. But when extra computing power was needed it was simply too tempting. Always use whatever means possible. Images and ideas rapidly went through his mind. “What about a fish body with a gill structure for oxygen out of the water? Or maybe oxygen tanks?”
“You’re nothing like the eels. Those flames need a lot more than what gills can take from water,” came the murmured response. “At the same time, tanks are too bulky and heavy...”
Ortho shook his head. This wouldn’t get either of them anywhere. He’d need to do something radical to shake his brother into the proper thinking patterns. Identifying problems was important, but now that they’d been identified, possibilities were needed. What could turn him around?
He remembered how Idia had finally agreed to create his running legs, even when Idia wholly felt that flying was the only cool way of transportation. An incentive had been needed. He hoped his brother did not see the calculating gleam in his eye. “Maybe we can ask the twins for help? Or even Azul-”
“No! We’re not going anywhere near those… those...” Idia’s eyes had gone wide, seeking out the eyes of the smaller Shroud. “Ortho, please promise you won’t ask any of them for help?”
“Only if you’ll try to think on this challenge?” It wasn’t an accident Ortho used the word ‘challenge.’ He knew his brother through and through.
Idia frowned. “But...”
He had an opening, now he only needed to give a little push. “It doesn’t have to be today! And it’s fine if we won’t be able to find anything in time. Just promise you’ll try?” Ortho looked up at his brother through his darkened visors.
“Hmm...”
A loud voice from across the field broke into the moment and brought the attention of the brothers back to where the rest of the class was still in progress.
“That’s it for today! Tomorrow I'll post the details for the swimming contest. Class dismissed!”
Idia curled his lip as he watched Ashton making various flexing poses, showing off his muscles as the students hurried away. To Idia the man seemed way too engrossed in admiring his own body to really care if the students paid attention or not.
The field quickly emptied, leaving Idia with a still very desperate looking Ortho and a very tough call to make.
Looking anywhere but at the pleading eyes of the younger Shroud, he spotted the eels flying together with a student he’d seen from time to time but couldn’t recall the name off. The only reason he even remembered the student was because they were always present at the extra flying classes, even when they were not even close to failing the class. Since a few classes ago, they’d even been helping the eels fly. They had really stood out because of it. It was such a strange concept - putting in that extra effort when they could be doing literally anything else.
He guessed people were just weird like that.
“Please, brother?” Ortho’s voice broke into his thoughts.
He sighed. “This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”
Ortho nodded so enthusiastically, Idia worried he would need to find a way to fasten the other’s head more securely to the body.
He sighed again, hanging his head. All energy seemed to have drained out of him, as he finally said the words Ortho had been waiting for. “I’ll… think about it.”
The next day a note had appeared on the announcement board. If Ortho hadn’t pointed out the A3 size poster to Idia as they passed it after class, the Shroud heir would have thought it to be another one of Ashton’s fanclub meeting posters.
Below a picture of Ashton himself, posing in very tiny and tight fitting swimming gear in front of the lake, the ‘details’ of the contest were written in far smaller print than would be acceptable for any form of announcement.
Swimming Competition
All second year and supplementary class students
are to train for the first unofficial
Grand Ashton Swimming Trial of Nightraven.
All students are to swim across the great lake.
First to reach the other side is exempt from further obligatory swimming classes
(but are still allowed to participate).
At the bottom it was signed “Ashton Vargas” with today’s date, as well as the date, time and location of the ‘competition’.
Idia shook his head. Ignoring the vanity of the poster, this announcement had so ridiculous and incomplete, it wasn’t even funny.
Meanwhile, Ortho was nearly beaming. “These rules are so simple, even you can win!”
Thanks. Idia rolled his eyes, before puffing out his chest. A crazed look came over his face. “I can see it before me! I come forth, riding a proud hippocampus, speeding by those eels and becoming master of the lake! All shall bow down! None would dare force the master of the lake to attend mundane classes! Muahaha!”
A passing Scarabia second year gave him a sideway glance, a raised eyebrow and - for good measure - a five meter radius.
Dropping the theatrics, Idia huddled in on himself. That didn’t quite go as intended.
“I don’t know about the hippocampus,” Ortho said as he put his hand to his chin in contemplation, “but what about me? I could carry you. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Yeah and last time went ab-so-lutely smashing. They had tried letting an upgraded Ortho carry him for the short sprint. Ashton had called it a “blasphemy towards muscles” and forced him to “apologize to all muscle groups”. More importantly, it had earned him a lot of after class supplementary lessons AND morning training. A shudder ran down his spine. “We’ve tried that. It didn’t go well.”
“That was then, this is now. We’ll think of something. I’ve taken a picture of the poster and recorded the instructions from yesterday. We can use this as proof.”
“Honestly, I wished you wouldn’t dirty your storage with those kinds of images,” Idia said, gesturing in the general direction of the poster. Having looked at it once was one time too many in his book, let alone store a copy of it somewhere. Never having to look at the offending image again would still be too soon. “I’m not entirely sure if this is appropriate for a school campus. Let’s go.” He turned away and set out to the hall of mirrors.
Ortho followed with a shrug and a muttered, “I’ve seen worse.”
“What?” Idia nearly tripped over his own feet as he stumbled, before turning to face his brother. Ortho shrugged and cocked his head to the side, redirecting Idia’s gaze to what lay beyond Ortho’s shoulder - giving him another eyeful of the accursed poster. “Argh!” His outburst earned him another stare from a student (in)conveniently passing by. Mortified, he quickly checked if there was any place for him to hide. Maybe he could dig a hole and jump in. No one would notice, right?
A soft pulling on his sleeve shook him out of his thoughts.
“Let’s go to the dorm to work on my new body.” Big golden eyes looked up at him. “Do you think I could get one of those cool fishtails? They can go soooo fast!”
Knowing he wasn’t going to get anywhere, Idia simply sighed and dropped the issue. “I… Maybe. Do you want speed or agility?”
“Why not both?” The lithe metal body started floating further down the hall, turning back only when it noticed Idia wasn’t following. “Are you coming?”
Idia shook his head again before setting out after Ortho. Best not to dwell on these things too long. Besides, he had a decent challenge awaiting him. His mind went to the already half-solved puzzle that was Ortho’s waterbody. If he wanted speed and agility, then a tail combined with back thrusters could work. Using the molecules in water may solve the problem of both oxygen and fuel.
With a mind full of ideas, Idia followed Ortho to the hall of mirrors, through the flaming mirror into the Ignihyde realm.
The rest of the week had gone by swimmingly. Well, except for all the times there had been classes or any form of off-line social interaction, which was annoyingly often. But apart from those, and apart from one incident with Ortho, all had gone exceedingly well. There had been an online event where his guild had ranked third strongest of the server, his gacha game had given him the character he had wanted for weeks, he'd tinkered with a few devices, bought a full body black and blue swimsuit online that fit and covered (hid) him perfectly, prepared the water resisting magic he'd need for himself, and - after working out three blueprints - had built a fully tested and properly functioning body for Ortho that allowed for use both on land and in water.
It had been quite the project. Creating the materials, experimenting with molecular structures of metal and water alike, and strengthening the results with magical bonds and forcefields.
The resulting body was something entirely different than he had previously created, both in design as well as magical and technical advancement. Ortho’s head had been protected in a see through aquadynamic dome which cleanly integrated with the rest of his body. The body was made of waterproof black and white metal with blue accents, with the exception of the left breast where Ortho’s blue heart flame was visible from behind an integrated window. At the hips he had installed thrusters to help with speed. Devices above the thrusters would take oxygen and hydrogen from air or water and balance out the necessary amounts in the body for the flames, energy and propulsions. Finally, the legs. They were the part Idia had had mixed feelings about. They were quite a technical treat, as they could transform between land-legs and water-tail. But because of that they didn’t look…. Cool. They looked a little bulky and couldn’t be used for flying or floating in the air. He had accepted them for now, vowing he’d create a better design at a later date.
The next step had been testing functionality and safety. He had tested the body over thirteen times, using various types of substitute flames, before allowing Ortho a testrun in a summoned rainstorm. When the rain did little damage, he intensified the torrent until Director Crowley himself came down to put a stop to the experiment. Idia had made the mistake of staying too close to the castle and some of the Gargoyles had come to life to complain about the sudden excessive amount of water.
His initial thought had been disgust at the weak willed creatures that were complaining about some spats of liquid. Their entire purpose was to divert heavy water from the castle, but when push came to shove they couldn’t do what they were made for. At the same time - well, after he had stopped the torrent and hidden away from the eyes of anyone who had come to watch his slightly ostentatious testing methods - he had thought it was proof the test had been a success. It was safe to commence the next stage - to test the suit in the lake.
He had quite some mixed feelings about that memory.
Ortho had excitedly hurried down to the lake, initially trying to take the shortcut over the sports field. Just in time had they remembered the extra class that was scheduled for today after lunch and, not wanting to run into Ashton when he was obviously bailing on class, Idia had steered a very reluctant Ortho into taking the long way down. A detour of ten minutes. When they were nearly at the water, Idia’s attention had been drawn to the obnoxiously loud sounds from the sports field. He had only taken a second to observe the flying (and plummeting) students, grateful he wasn't part of the chaos.
Ortho hadn’t given him any time to thank his lucky flames for avoiding the Ashton fly trap, however. Idia had turned back to face the lake at the exact moment the younger Shroud jumped in the water head first, effectively scaring Idia half to death. While it was Ortho in the lake, it had felt as if Idia had been drenched in cold water. He astutely remembered the feeling of dread wash over him.
A jump like that could have doused Ortho’s flame immediately.
What if Ortho never came back up?
He remembered cursing his body for freezing up, his mind whirling so much faster than his physical body could follow up on. When he had finally reached the water and was about to jump in - ignoring all precautions for his own wellbeing - Ortho had broken through the surface, whooping in glee and cheering how wonderful the water was. Water had splashed off the fully transformed body, which now closely resembled a combination of a torpedo and a metallic shark tailed merman. The fires on head and chest were still burning their bright blue flames as strong as ever behind the waterproof shields.
Idia’s knees had given out, the Shroud heir falling to the ground in a heap at the water’s edge. The two or three seconds he had waited for his brother to rise to the surface had really felt like an eternity. An eternity of anxiety. All released in one go.
He might have laughed.
He might have cried.
He might have yelled at Ortho to NEVER scare him like that again.
He would deny it all if anyone ever asked.
What was certain was that it had taken a good few minutes before he was calm enough to admire Ortho’s form moving gracefully through the water. It took fifteen minutes in total before he was able to stand again. It took yet another ten before he could test if Ortho could carry him on his back.
When Ortho had managed to carry him to the center of the lake, his focus had been broken by one of the eels (probably Floyd) crashing into the trees between the sports field and the lake. He had nearly slid off of Ortho, but managed to hold on just in time. After that, he had set his entire mind on the task at hand. The eel was the last distraction that he would pay heed to for the rest of the day.
He saw the joy on Ortho's face as the boy gradually got in tune with his body and build up speed over the span of the next few hours.
It was only when Ortho had commented how beautiful the setting sun looked, had he allowed his mind to really process what his eyes were seeing. Ortho had been speeding through the waters, the water drops reflecting the orange and red hues of the evening sky perfectly.
Idia had to agree, it had been breathtaking.
Also breathtaking had been the pain in his muscles the next day. He had needed to cast a few spells to enable him to get through the day without wincing.
Yet, remembering his little brother’s joy made it all worth it.
Sort of.
Now, a week after the initial contest announcement, Idia was very close to hiding in his room. The cursor of his mouse rested over the send-button of a filled in sick leave form. He had long ago let go of the mouse, fearing he might actually click the send button by accident with how much his hands were shaking. But he had promised Ortho to attend. He had broken a promise in the past and the sadness that had radiated from Ortho had been soul crushing. The thought of breaking his promise again was nearly as painful as the thought of attending class.
He jumped up from his bed when someone tentatively knocked on his door. “Brother! Are you ready?”
“O… Ortho?” Could he do it? Could he keep his promise and face all those people? Speak up against Ashton? In front of everyone? Knowing the man would only refuse them?
“Brother? Are you alright?”
No.
Idia let himself fall on the bed again, head in his hands. Even to himself he sounded out of breath when he finally answered. “He’s... going to disqualify us, Ortho. We’ll get after class training. Again. And everyone will laugh. The cursed Shroud heir. So incompetent.” Behind his closed eyelids he could see all those students looking at him, whispering about him, pointing at him when they thought he wasn’t looking.
The door to his room opened and in came Ortho, already in his new body. “Don’t worry. Things will be fine!”
When he looked up into his brother’s eyes, he saw a certain gleam in them. One that Idia recognized. These weren’t empty words just to cheer on Idia; Ortho truly believed that things would be fine.
He took a deep steadying breath, ignoring the spike of adrenaline that went through him when Ortho went over to his PC and closed the unsent form.
He’d do it for Ortho. He’d be the good elder brother.
Whatever happened, he just hoped he could make Ortho smile today.
He had known Ashton’s reaction to the plan even before he stood next to Ortho in his full-body swimsuit, but it still hurt to hear the words out loud.
“We’ve been over this, Shroud! Muscles are at the center of power and beauty of life! By using your tricks, you’re just cheating on your muscles. Cheating on life and beauty itself!”
Idia sighed, shaking his head. His mind went into defensive mode, trying to take on a different character. One more confident. Smarter. Truer to himself. “Here we go again. Do those words even make sense to you? Illogical mutterings of a...”
“Mister Ashton Vargas,” Ortho interrupted his brother before things could go downhill, “by doing this, my brother is still using very important muscles.”
“Not the ones he should be using! Shrouds! You are dis-”
“Sir!” A voice interrupted the argument. From the group of students a figure stepped forward. Idia recognized them as the student who was helping the eels fly, but still couldn’t remember their name. “With all due respect. You’re telling fish to fly and allow them the use of tools, correct?” The student held up their broom, no one questioning why they had it with them here. When Ashton slowly nodded, they continued. “Now you’re telling fire to swim. Wouldn’t the fire be allowed tools for that too?”
“But swimming only requires a body. He has that. He should be able to swim.”
“With risk of extinguishing his flame.” The tone was final, spoken with 100% certainty.
Idia had no idea where this student was getting the confidence from. It was one big bluff and both of them knew that. There would be hell to pay - probably in the form of morning and after class training for them both - if Ashton called their bluff. Which made this entire situation even weirder. Why were they standing up for him?
“Could you let him try? I’ve never seen him train as hard as he did for this competition. All his muscles must have hurt after. He might even start liking it.”
What? Do you think I’m some sort of masochist? If so, you’re in the wrong game. Idia expected Ashton to call him out - that there was no way the Shroud heir would ever willingly perform any form of sports.
But, when no words resounded over the field, Idia’s attention was drawn back to the muscle maniac.
His eyebrows rose in surprise at what he saw. He hadn’t expected Ashton to be standing with his hand rubbing his chin, visibly contemplating the suggestion. Soft mutterings drifted his way. “Well, if the result is unsatisfactory, I can always disqualify them.”
Ashton went quiet. The students were quiet (surprisingly). The clearing was quiet. The seconds ticked by.
Idia started counting his heartbeats, which seemed to steadily grow louder in his ears. 25… 26… 2-
At count 27 Ashton nodded and shouted, “Get ready to get into the water! That includes you, Shrouds! Show me that muscle power!”
Both flame haired youths stood to attention, as if zapped by magic.
“Yes Mister Ashton Vargas!”
“Ye- Yes, sir.”
The contes- competition had been tense. The second the eels had hit the water, they had reverted to their true forms which were literally built for water. And they were fast. The only reason why the Shrouds had been first to get across and out of the lake was because Floyd had been very adamant about both traveling over the bottom of the lake and dragging Jade with him. Even with the detour, the brothers had emerged nearly immediately after Idia had managed to shakily set a foot on land.
The timing had been a little too convenient.
But neither eel had asked for a favor in return, so Idia let it slide. Maybe Ortho had really beaten them. Even if that possibility was so low it was statistically insignificant.
Better not dwell on that.
About half a minute later, the other students started getting out of the water.
When it was time to declare the winner, Ashton started by admitting he had never seen Idia use so many muscles during one of his classes. He reinforced that, due to the great effort Idia had shown, he wouldn’t be disqualified. This time. But it hadn’t been an entirely fair victory either.
Ortho giggled quietly as Ashton let his gaze fall on the number two and three and visibly hung his head. It seemed he had realised the flaw in his great competition.
In the end Ashton had allowed both Shrouds and both eels to skip out of future swimming classes. Moreover, they were forbidden from participating in future swimming contests, mostly because the odds had been too highly stacked against the other students. He said something about lowering morale and how that was bad for muscle tissue.
Idia hadn’t really cared about the details after that.
By the looks of things, Ortho had been of the same mind. The younger Shroud was dancing around Idia, broadly smiling and chanting lines of “we did it” and “it was so much fun.”
The sound of footsteps could be heard and the sight of Floyd and Jade approaching immediately had Idia shrink back into himself. Ortho, however, openly welcomed the eels.
“That was so much fun, guys!”
“That tail movement was very natural. You’re always welcome to come join us in our realm,” Jade said politely.
“Yeah! Being a fish suits you!” Floyd said with a grin. “You were practically built for it!”
Idia lifted an eyebrow. Did the eel really say what he thought he did?
“It’s all thanks to my brother. He built this body.” Ortho twirled around, beaming brightly. It was the same praise as always, but it still sent a hint of pride through Idia’s heart. This was what a big brother should do. Empowering his little brother.
“He did a great job,” a new voice came from behind the eels. Looking over Jade’s shoulder, Idia’s eyes met with the student who had stood up for them. “That was quite some swimming, Ortho.” They turned to Idia. “You did a good job staying on. If you ever want to join us for flying class, let me know, ‘kay?”
He slowly nodded. The praise was a little too much. Part of Idia was shying away in nervousness, while another part was shying away in distrust. What are you trying to get at?
Luckily Ortho was always more talkative. “We will, thanks! Oh and thanks for your help.” Ortho opened a small compartment in his body and handed over a little palm computer. “You said you could use this?”
“Yeah! Thanks a bunch.” The other happily took the offered item.
Idia recognized the device as the altimeter with body tracking functions Ortho had requested him to make a few days ago. While he had been surprised - Ortho would not have a need for it because all all his bodies were created with a wide range of monitoring devices - he had built it anyway. It was such a simple thing, he could have done it while gaming.
Now things actually made a lot more sense.
Idia felt himself relax. If this had been a favor, Ortho had repaid it. This made any further praise not with the intention of immediate gain. While they may ask for things at a later date, this exchange had been fairly equal.
Ashton clapped in his hands, shaking Idia out of his thoughts. “Rest of class is self practice. Enjoy the rest of the hour!”
Cheers sounded from left, right and center.
“Floyd Leech, Jade Leech, shall we go swim some more?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea, wouldn’t you say, Floyd?”
“Last in the water is a fried fish stick!” The next second, Floyd was gone.
“Will you join us, brother?” Ortho looked up at Idia with those big eyes that were very hard to deny. Jade was kindly waiting for the two Shrouds to sort things out, while the other student was kindly looking anywhere but at them. Idia was struck by the thought that maybe they weren’t that bad. They at least didn’t crowd him - unlike some other students.
A quick flash of the Scarabia dorm’s leader came to mind.
“Brother?”
“Go have fun, Ortho,” he responded, smiling. The younger Shroud cocked his head in thought, before smiling kindly, if not a little demurely.
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” he said, before turning and running away to the water. It didn’t go unnoticed Jade made sure he entered the water at exactly the same second as Ortho did.
Hmm, hadn’t thought that of him.
“You’re okay with this?”
The question took him by surprise. Apparently the other student hadn’t left yet.
“Today is your victory. Might as well ride this wave, no?” The tone was merely curious without any judgement or attempt at coercion. Somehow, Idia felt no pressure.
Maybe he could make this work?
He let his eyes travel over his classmates, laughing together, slapping each other on the backs. Some were pushing guys into the water, others were racing their friends to the other side of the lake by land. Loud laughter filled the air.
He felt his lips curl.
Maybe someday.
He turned around, heading for the dorm.
But not today.