Chapter Text
Ten years down the road, if you asked Lani what the catalyst in Artime’s undoing was, you would be hard pressed to get an answer out of her. She would explain what happened, and then she’d say, “It seemed like a good idea at the time!” because it did. Going on an adventure with Samheed and Meghan did seem like a good idea at the time.
(Of course, Lani didn’t include Alex on that list. He needed to take his duties seriously, which he hadn’t done a good job of so far. And Mr. Today was going to leave for his holiday soon. Alex needed to be more prepared than ever.)
It seemed like an even better idea to bring it up at breakfast before Alex arrived. “Do you guys ever get bored in Artime?”
“Haven’t had time to get bored,” Meghan answered.
“Not particularly,” Samheed said, fork halfway to his mouth. “Why do you ask?”
“Well,” Lani said, hands on her hips. “Wouldn’t it be fun to go on an adventure? Just…get on a boat and go?”
“Sure,” Meghan said. “I could probably use to take my mind off of…everything.”
“Great!” Lani said. “Sam? You in?”
“I guess Meg and Alex could use the break,” Samheed said, shrugging.
“Who said anything about Alex?” Lani said. At her friends’ questioning looks, she amended, “I mean, he’s probably busy anyway. Always is—and he needs to work with Mr. Today.”
“Aw, come on,” Meghan said. “Don’t just kick Alex out.”
“Kick me out of what?” Alex asked as he walked up to the table.
“Lani wants to go on an adventure,” Samheed said. “And she’s not going to invite you.”
“Alex has stuff to do, I’m sure,” said Lani.
Alex checked his pockets for notes from Mr. Today. “Apparently not. I’m in.” He shrugged, looking at Lani as if daring her to tell him to go away.
“Fine,” Lani said. “Be that way. Don’t take your duties seriously—you’ll be the one suffering when something bad happens.”
“Like what?” Samheed asked. “It’s not like Mr. Today is just going to drop dead tomorrow, Lani. Alex has plenty of time to learn…whatever he’s supposed to.”
“Exactly,” Alex said, seeming triumphant that Samheed sided with him. “Either come or don’t come, but we’re going on that adventure.”
A pang ran through him, wondering if leaving Mr. Today was the best course of action. He would have to go to Mr. Today and ask him for the day off. Yes, that made sense. Mr. Today was a reasonable man. If Alex asked for a break, just a little bit of time to go hang out with his friends, Mr. Today would understand. He always did.
Lani glared at Alex and left the dining hall, abandoning her half-eaten breakfast in her anger. Alex didn’t get what she was so worked up about. What difference could one day make in the grand scheme of things? Mr. Today would leave for his holiday as planned, and Alex would…yeah, Alex would take care of things for a few days. That was still scary, but it wasn’t that big of deal. Lani was just blowing things out of proportion. It was like Samheed said: it wasn’t like Mr. Today was just going to drop dead.
…
In the end, Alex couldn’t find Mr. Today. Instead, he gave his message to Florence to pass on, and then joined Samheed and Meghan on the lawn. The trio headed for the lagoon, where the white Claire sat on the sparkling water.
“Are we…entirely sure we should be doing this?” Alex said, wondering if he should really be shirking his training for this. It felt like two sides of him were at war: one part desperately wanted to hang out with his friends, since he hadn’t had a chance to in so long. The other was telling him to go back to the mansion, talk to Mr. Today, listen to whatever he had to say, and stay in Artime.
“Uh, duh,” Samheed said. “We should have thought of this ages ago.”
“Maybe I’ll regret it but…yeah, let’s go,” Meghan said. “I could use a distraction.”
Alex took a deep breath. “It’s settled, then. Let’s go.”
They waded through the water to the boat, and found instructions on the console. Alex remembered riding it with Mr. Today, although the memory was slightly fuzzy considering what happened afterward. He disengaged the anchor spell and said, “Where are we headed?”
“Let’s head out that way,” Samheed said, pointing toward the island Mr. Today said he was from. Warbler, Alex remembered it being called.
It seemed like a good destination. Mr. Today clearly trusted whoever lived there and didn’t think the inhabitants were a threat. Besides, if there was something wrong with the island, then Alex would be able to tell Mr. Today. It was a good enough excuse to justify avoiding Mr. Today, so Alex said the spell and pointed toward Warbler, and the boat was off.
…
Lani wasn’t usually one for brooding, but Alex’s blasé attitude toward his training grinded her gears in a way she couldn’t explain. Maybe it was because she had wanted to be Artime’s next leader so badly, but when Alex was handed the job, he didn’t even accept it. If Lani were in Alex’s shoes, she never would have run off and dodged her responsibilities.
Around lunchtime, she ended up sitting on the staircase, staring off into space. She was starting to regret not going with the others, even if she was mad at Alex. She had been looking forward to such an adventure for so long.
Oh, well. There was always next time. Lani was sure there would be plenty of adventures to go on with her friends.
Mr. Today came hurrying down the steps, but when he saw her, he paused. “Ah, Lani!” he said. “You wouldn’t have seen Alex around anywhere, have you?”
Lani snorted. “He ran off with Samheed and Meghan.” Her brows furrowed. “He said he was going to tell you.”
“Hm,” Mr. Today said. “Do you know where I could find him?”
“Eh, they took the boat somewhere,” Lani said dismissively. “It was my idea, too—but Alex is avoiding his responsibilities, and that just…ugh, it just got to me today. And I bet you’ve got something for him to do, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Mr. Today said, nodding. “I was planning to leave for my holiday today—I thought Alex knew that. Ah, well. There’s always tomorrow, isn’t there? After all, I have my peace meeting to go today as well. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“Ugh, Alex probably knew that,” Lani said. “I’m sorry that Alex being dumb is stopping you from leaving today, Mr. Today.” She elected to omit the part where it was her idea to use the boat; if she hadn’t proposed it today, then Alex would still be in Artime and the boat would be prime for the taking. That did make her feel bad; she was inconveniencing Mr. Today, and she never felt good when something like that happened. “I’m sure they’ll be back soon, though.”
“Hopefully,” Mr. Today agreed. “Well, I must be off. I’ll inform Claire that I’ll be leaving tomorrow, not today. Do let me know if Alex returns in the meantime, Lani.”
“Of course,” Lani said.
Mr. Today turned around and headed back up the stairs, disappearing into the hallway that Lani couldn’t see. Sometimes she still felt gypped by that. Right now, though, all she felt was vindicated. Alex did have something to do today—a very important something. She was right, and Alex was wrong, and it felt even better than it usually did.
She liked Alex. She really did. But sometimes he could really get on her nerves—like right now. He had everything she had wanted, yet he refused to take any of it. Did he not see how annoying that was?
“Ugh,” Lani repeated, shaking her head. She got to her feet and headed outside, where people milled about on the lawn. A nice breeze blew off of the ocean, cooling her off and making the trees sway. She passed a duo of laughing platyprots, greeted Cole Wickett, and eventually sat down on the beach. If she squinted at the right angle, she swore she could see the white boat dancing along the waves in the distance. She clenched her fists and shook her head. She was vindicated. She was vindicated. Not sad or lonely or anything. No, she was glad that Alex was screwing up—yeah, she was glad.
Except she wasn’t, because even if she had been jealous of Alex, she still wanted to see him succeed as head mage.
(That didn’t mean that Lani didn’t still see herself as the better candidate, because she did. But Mr. Today chose Alex, and she trusted his judgement. So she would learn to live with it.)
She busied herself with various tasks as the afternoon wore on. She visited the hospital ward, where she was told that the girl had woken up several hours before. She left quickly, more than a little put out that she hadn’t been there when the girl woke up. This day just kept getting worse, didn’t it? Lani couldn’t wait for Alex, Samheed and Meghan to come back and for this day to end.
Which was why it was concerning when the afternoon turned to evening, and her friends still weren’t back. She even made the trek through the jungle to check if the boat was there. Even though it wasn’t, she went back to the mansion and asked Simber if he had seen any of them.
“Arrre they missing?” was his answer.
Lani nodded. “I guess, yeah. They should be back by now.” She wrapped her arms around her chest and added, “If something happened to them, I swear—”
“It’s alrrright, Lani,” Simber said. “Give them some time. I’m surrre they’ll be back soon.”
“Okay,” Lani said, still sounding unsure.
Simber sighed, his breath strong enough to nearly knock Lani over. “Tell you what: if they’rrre not back in an hourrr, I’ll take you out to look forrr them.”
“Okay,” Lani repeated. “Okay, yeah. I’m just…worried.”
“I’m surrre they’rrre fine,” Simber said. But he didn’t sound quite like it, and Lani knew that if Simber was worried, then she should be freaking out.
But Simber also said they should wait, so Lani waited.
…
The sun was still high in the sky when the three got a good view of Warbler. It really was beautiful, and Alex wished that Lani could have seen it. He was sure she would have loved it.
“Hey, Meg, you alright?” Alex asked, noting that his friend was sitting on one of chairs and staring off into space. Her eyes were glassy as she fidgeted with the hem of her component vest, obviously deep in thought.
“Hm?” Meghan said, startled. “Oh…yeah, no, not really.”
“What’s up?”
“Sean,” Meghan said like that explained it all. When Alex raised his eyebrows, she added, “He’s been going into Quill a lot. I don’t know what he’s doing there…I mean, neither of us have very pleasant memories of it, you know? I don’t know why he would want to go back…”
They both knew that Quill was a touchy subject in Artime, and even more so for Sean and Meghan. For a moment, it hung unsaid in the air, until Alex gained the confidence to offer, “Maybe he’s trying to help your parents accept you.”
But he had his doubts; Sean was being all around weird, from their argument in the theater to whatever he had going on in Quill. It made him wonder if Sean was truly trustworthy. It wouldn’t be the first time someone defected back to Quill.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it, Meg,” Samheed said. He leaned on the console and asked, “So…what are we gonna do when we get there? It’s no fun to just sit here and look at it.”
“We could go ashore,” Meghan said.
“Is that really a good idea?” Alex questioned half-heartedly. It did sound exciting, and Alex was here to relax. That beach looked incredibly inviting. He just wished that he knew what to expect from the island’s inhabitants.
“Mr. Today trusts this island,” Meghan replied. “If he trusts the people here, then why shouldn’t we?”
It seemed like a good enough argument. “Alright,” Alex said. “We should leave our vests on, though. Just in case.”
“Oh, come on, Al!” Samheed complained loudly. “All of the components will just get ruined, and just look at that place—” He pointed at the island. “Does it look threatening to you?”
Alex was silent for a moment, listening. “It’s quiet.”
“Okay? And?” Samheed said.
“It’s…too quiet. Listen.”
“What are we listening for?” Meghan asked, sliding her component vest off of her shoulders.
“Doesn’t it seem weirdly quiet to you guys?” Alex said.
“Um…no, Al, no, it doesn’t,” Samheed said. “Seems like a perfectly normal island to me.”
“Yep,” Meghan agreed. “I mean, if you’re worried that the island is “too quiet” you can stay here. Just know that Sam and I will be making fun of you the entire time we are on the shore.”
Alex groaned, removed his component vest, and followed the two of them into the water.
It was a very nice beach. The sand was soft and warmed by the mid-afternoon sun, and it did feel good to relax. Alex had been going so hard for so long, and a break with his friends was greatly appreciated. It would be nicer if Lani was here, and Alex hoped that this wasn’t going to turn into a thing. He didn’t want to fight with Lani over something trivial like this. It felt like he and Lani were always at odds about something.
“I—” Alex began, meaning to say something about Lani’s absence, when a trio of darts flew from the trees and found homes in the three Artimeans’ skin.
Alex exchanged a look of surprise with Samheed before they dropped like the dead. I told you so was Alex’s last conscious thought.