Chapter Text
RIDOC
“Gooood morning, bestie!” I barely manage to pry my teeth apart to pipe out my usual morning greeting.
“Morning, Ridoc,” Sawyer grumbles as he groggily shuts his door behind him before coming to a half-dazed stop. “Where did you get Tyrrish Toffee?”
I glance down in the bag of delicious, teeth-gluing goodness that’s already half-eaten. “Is that what this is?” I shrug. “I assumed one of you guys put it outside my door. It was sitting there when I walked out. Nearly stepped on it.”
Sawyer glances at the empty floor around his door before peering back at the bag in my hand. “Well, I didn’t give it to you, and I didn’t get any, so it probably wasn’t one of us. Who signed the note?”
“There wasn’t one.”
Sawyer sighs as he takes the bag from my hand and turns it around revealing four lines written on the back.
Sugary sweets are just like you.
May your holiday spirit ring anew.
Where there are Solstice colors two,
there you will find your next clue.
“Huh. No name,” I answer with a shrug and turn down the hall.
“What did it say?” Sawyer catches up beside me, still eyeing the toffee suspiciously.
“Something about holiday sweets? I don’t know. Probably just some note from the shop that made them.” I pop another into my mouth, much to the dismay of my already protesting teeth. “Wish I knew where they were from though; they’re delicious.”
Sawyer merely hums in answer as we make our way towards the mess hall. The massive room buzzes with more than its fair share of its usual energy as Solstice approaches. Basgiath War College doesn’t do anything to celebrate the holiday, but the cadets are all overflowing with holiday spirit anyway. Clusters of normally broody riders chat animatedly with genuine, relaxed smiles, and the booming laughter almost makes me forget how much of a drag this place can be.
Sawyer’s still half-asleep as we move through the line, though he occasionally eyes the bag with undisguised amusement. It’s only once we sit down with “real” food that I reluctantly set the sugary sweets aside. By the time I’ve made it through most of my plate and Sawyer’s coffee starts to take effect, the girls take their usual spots across from us.
“Good morning, squad!” Rhi practically sings, a smile beaming across her face. There’s no sign of her usual squad leader stress as she digs into her food with zeal.
Sawyer wastes no time after surveying our squadmates’ trays for any sweet additions. “Did either of you have any candy left outside your door this morning?”
“For the last time, Sawyer, there’s no mystery! Someone probably just dropped it, and I call finders keepers.” I punctuate my smirk with another mouthful of jaw cracking goodness.
Rhi’s bewildered expression jumps back and forth between the two of us. “What are you two talking about?”
“Ridoc’s got a secret admirer,” Sawyer’s quick to respond. I nearly choke on the sticky treat, but before I can react, Sawyer grabs the bag of sweets and throws it across the table where Vi deftly catches the bag with raised brows.
“Hey!” I exclaim, scrambling for it. The irony isn’t lost on me when the shortest girl in the quadrant quickly sweeps it out of my reach.
“Who do you think it is?” Vi’s face breaks out in a smirk even her boyfriend would be proud of as she examines the bag before passing it to Rhiannon.
“There’s no secret admirer. Now give me back my candy!” Gods help me, I sound just like I did when arguing with my dad at five years old, and right this second, I don’t give two dragon sized shits. “I’ll need the sugar to stay awake through formation.”
Rhi chuckles as she too reads the script written on the parcel. “Ridoc, I’d say you’re clueless, but for once that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“Thank… you?”
“You should thank us.” My stomach flips at Rhi’s mischievous smile; it’s definitely not caused by the half eaten bag of candy. “Otherwise, you’d be responsible for really breaking someone’s Solstice spirit! And you wouldn’t want that on your head.”
“There’s no secret admirer!” My voice rises enough to pull the attention of all the nearby tables causing the nearby festive chatter to peter out momentarily.
“What in Amari’s name are you yelling about, Gamlyn?” I just make out the head of pink hair before a hand swats me on the back of the head.
“Ow! What the hell, Imogen?”
“I’m the one asking questions, Gam—” Imogen’s eyes bulge for a heartbeat. Then as quickly as Vi’s lightning, she grabs the bag from Rhi’s hand. She stares at the label and reads the script, momentarily speechless before looking up incredulously at Violet. “Did Riorson seriously make you a scavenger hunt?” She whispers the last two words as though the words alone carry a deadly virus.
Vi laughs hard enough that tears start to stream down her face. “Gods, no. Someone did for Ridoc.”
“For fucks sake! There’s no scavenger hunt, and there’s no secret admirer!” Flaming heat rises on my cheeks, and I’m half-tempted to wield to cool myself off.
“There’s a clue, Dumbass.” Imogen swats the back of my head again, dropping the bag on the table between us. “I’ve seen enough Aretian Confectionery bags to know the script on the back was added after the fact.”
“What?” Any hope of me salvaging the situation enough to somehow play it cool flies out the non-existent window as I dive at the bag. Reading through the script again, the heat on my cheeks consumes my entire face as the words sink in.
“Where there are Solstice colors two, there you will find your next clue.” I can’t believe I didn’t see it for what it was before, but I shouldn’t be surprised. People laugh with me, flirt with me, but no one calls me ‘sweet.’ I look up at Imogen. “What do you think that means?”
She watches me, completely deadpan for one breath. Then two. “It’s cute that you think I give a shit, Gamlyn.” Then she walks away without another word.
My jaw drops as I watch her depart and then sit at a table two sets away with Quinn and Bodhi. They talk for a few seconds before Quinn doubles over laughing, and Bodhi whips his head our way. I immediately avert my eyes as my cheeks start to burn.
I’ve always held a bit of a soft spot for the Section leader. He’s incredibly attractive and intimidatingly capable, just like his overbearing cousin. But unlike Riorson, Durran is still approachable and actually manages to laugh on occasion. What’s not to drool over?
But other than the fact that I’m the quadrant loud mouth, and I’m in his cousin’s girlfriend-basically-wife’s squad, I don’t think he even knows I exist.
Eventually I manage to pull myself together and turn back to the squad with my usual cocky smile. “Do you think it’s her?”
To my complete surprise, Rhiannon seems to genuinely consider the concept. “You know what?” she whispers conspiratorily, leaning forward and leading the rest of us to follow suit. When we’re all huddled less than a foot from one another, she reaches across the remaining distance and smacks me across the side of the head, mimicking Imogen. “She’s right. You’re a dumbass.”
“Dammit!” I sit back, rubbing my hand against my temple. “I was joking, and you know it! I’m pretty sure that whole bunch would come after me if I tried to hook up with a marked one! Look at how she reacted to me merely having candy from their home!” I pick up the bag again and contemplate the words. “Solstice colors? In Basgiath? This person might actually be mental. The only two colors here are black and grey.”
“You’re thinking about it the wrong way around.” Sawyer pulls the bag straight from my hands yet again. His smile is saccharine sweet as he surveys me. “Think back to long, long, long ago to a time when you still had some semblance of innocence.” His lips twitch when I stick my tongue out at him. “What are the traditional Solstice colors, Dumbass?”
“Green. Red. Gold.” My eyes grow wide as saucers. “Is it referring to each of your three dragons?” Then I pause to twist around theatrically and look at my uniform top. “Also, did one of you replace my name tag with ‘Dumbass’ or something?”
“As if one of their elderly dragons would subject themselves to participating in any part of a human mating ritual.” Aotrom hums in my mind.
“You’re right. You’re the only one who loves me enough to help me get laid. Mental high five!”
I can almost feel Aotrom’s groan in my chest. “You are helpless.”
“I…. could actually see Andarna jumping in on that,” Vi laughs, “but you don’t stand a chance with the other two. Not even if it was the secret to defeating the venin.”
I’m just going to skip right over the insinuation that the entire riot would supposedly rather I go sexless than save the hatching grounds. “Good thing I can take care of myself then.” The combined groan of the squad sounds suspiciously like my dragon’s. “What am I supposed to do—walk into the Vale shouting for whichever green and red feel like being festive and pray I don’t get roasted?”
“Sweet Malek, how are you this dense?” Rhi’s head falls into her hands.
“No, Dumbass,” Vi laughs at her use of my new apparent nickname. “You go find the kind that won’t roast your chestnuts.”