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Working under the candlelight is harder than Eloise could have imagined. She must have nicked herself with the carving knife she was using five times by now.
“Well, it’s done now, isn’t it Artemis?” She says with a small smile, holding up the brush for the dragon to inspect. She sniffs the wooden handle, then the bristles. After a small squeak that El hopes is approval, she curls up in her bed.
“I suppose it is a bit late, isn’t it?” She looks around her room, still barren of all decoration and most basic supplies. The ball she also managed to make for her dragon sits a few feet away, ready to be used properly tomorrow. “There’s just so much to do…”
Any thoughts of tiredness are chased away when El thinks about her fellow students. Actually, ‘fellow’ isn’t a fair word to them, considering the different worlds they are in. Scott has stacks upon stacks of diamonds, charcoal, and other riches, while El is still missing a full set of armor. Melinks’ dorm had looked amazing when she saw it earlier today, and she still doesn’t have a clue about whatever this corruption nonsense everyone else is worrying over. Getting everything she can possibly do within her dorm room done is just a logical way to pass the night, right?
Artemis growls when El approaches her barrels rather than the bed. “I’ll just sort some of my things, then I’ll go to sleep I promise.” The dragon snorts, but doesn’t protest further as El begins to separate her woods and saplings (gifts from those lucky enough to not be stuck in a basement) from her meager supply of other items. It isn’t like she had been sleeping much since rejoining the school anyways. The idea of being alone in the dark doing nothing again makes her skin itch.
El doesn’t know how much later it is when she hears a knock at the door. It’s soft and timid, with long pauses between each tap. If she were asleep she probably wouldn’t have heard it. Artemis weaves between her feet as she walks to answer the door, suddenly wide awake.
“Um… Hello…” El only vaguely recognizes the person in front of her. Her hair is an unnatural but beautiful pink color, with flowers adorning her braid and outfit. Most eye-catching are her wings, their translucence allowing even the dim light to pass through them and make them shine.
“Amber,” she supplies with a smile. “Sorry I didn’t come by earlier, but I wanted to get some stuff together to give you!” She holds up a bundle, also dyed pink.
“Thank you,” El blinks a few times. She steps to the side, allowing her to enter. “I don’t mean to be rude, but why?”
“Because you probably need help? You said you didn’t even have time to go to the resource world before you got trapped, right?” Amber tilts her head, brows furrowing slightly. El can’t help but track her eyes, the way they flit around the barren room in a way that must be judgemental as she enters.
“Not quite what I meant. You’ve kind of shown up in the middle of the night, to give that,” El gestures to the bundle. “To someone you do not know.” Are the people at this academy crazy? People don’t just do stuff like that! Is this a trap? An insidious offer to force El to owe her a debt? Probably not. Maybe she doesn’t do as well with sleep deprivation as she claimed to Artemis.
“Ohh, you want to know why I’m helping you!” Amber seems to light up briefly, before understanding shifts to pity. It makes El’s insides twist, with the same feeling that drove her to try and get all her materials herself instead of taking from her fellow Vulpis. The bundle is still in Amber’s hands.
“Feels like a pretty normal thing to ask, doesn’t it? I don’t even remember meeting you on the first day.” Not that El remembers much of anyone from back then. The days alone wandering empty halls made what was only just over a month fill years worth of memories in her mind, drowning out her brief time at the academy.
For the first time, Amber’s smile falters. “You wouldn’t have met me on the day after the trials. I… I didn’t really make it through the first time.”
“You mean you joined in the second round? Like that Prince?” That wouldn’t explain the distress on her face, so El almost isn’t surprised when she shakes her head. Almost, because how else could she be here? Amber steps a little further into the room, freeing them both from hovering by the doorway.
“I died during the trials on the first day. Everyone brought me back about a month later.”
“What?”
“I’ve never actually had to tell anyone that before,” Amber says far too casually. “Everyone else at least knew I’d been revived, even if they had questions.” She muses to herself as El struggles to get over her bafflement.
“So is everyone else who died going to come back now or is it just you?” The more she learns about this academy the more she realizes she did not sign up for this. “ They didn’t tell me the dragon school had a bunch of necromancy and corrupted rituals before I came here!” The wooden floors, which she hasn’t gotten around to replacing yet, squeal under her feet as she paces. Amber stays silent until El gets sick of the sound of her own feet and stops on a dime, turning to face her.
“Well, the ritual that brought me back wasn’t corrupted,” Amber’s tone is a little offended. “And all of the darkness spreading isn’t my fault.” She lifts her chin, drawing the bundle closer to her chest. Oops.
“I guess it’s not… I didn’t… Sorry.” El’s eyes find the floor, where Artemis is glaring at her very unimpressedly. “Can I ask what magic you have?” If she hadn’t experienced hours of staring at walls in dim, damp halls, El would say the pause that follows is the longest she’s ever experienced. Amber must read the trepidation on her face, because she takes pity and moves on from her blunder.
“Fairy magic.” She says shortly, her wings fluttering behind her in a way that must be subconscious. El can’t draw her eyes from the kaleidoscope of colors refracting through them from the movement. “My dragon’s name is Orchid, but she’s sleeping in my dorm right now.” Because that’s what most people are doing right now. Sleeping.
“That’s cool, makes sense I suppose.” El fidgets with her hands and tries not to cringe internally. Is there a way she can get her to leave without making this even worse? “I’d love to meet your dragon sometime, if you’d like.” She yawns, more from discomfort than exhaustion.
“Is there any reason you’re up this late?” El’s startled into meeting her eyes. Does she sound concerned? “I was expecting to just drop this off in your mailbox with a note.”
“Before you knocked I was sorting my things, just trying to get stuff done.” She gestures to the couple of chests and barrels lined up against the wall. There are still neat piles in front of each. She continues on quickly, “I have universe magic, by the way. I’ve been told there’s a separate space mage but I feel like it’s the same thing. And that’s Artemis.” The dragon lightly headbutts Amber’s leg with a squeak.
“Do you not have a book about your predecessor yet? That’d be proof you have separate magic from Zam.” Successfully distracted, she leans down to scratch behind Artemis’ horns, cooing softly.
“Predecessor?” El’s chest twists once more, writhing in the face of yet another thing she’s out of the loop on. “You mean we weren’t the first dragon riders they just recruited?”
“Yes, or, maybe. We think only the royal family had dragons, but there are books about mages with our same magic types fighting against the corruption.” She tilts her head, seemingly considering her for a moment. El bites her lip. “I could get mine to show you, and a bunch of other books about rituals and Ashfall. We can copy them to give you your own library, if you aren’t tired anyways.”
She smiles again, and El quickly realizes that if the fairy wants something in return for this, frankly undeserved, kindness she doesn’t care. She’s a little afraid to ask what Ashfall is, and the idea of other mages with their same magic (who notably aren’t around anymore) is enough potential information to disregard mistrust or pride.
“That’d be nice, thank you. For that as well, I don’t think I ever said that.” She gestures to the bundle, still in Amber’s arms. “About how long until you’re back?”
With a promise to be no more than twenty minutes, Amber is gone, leaving El with a bright pink bundle and a lot of questions. She looks at the obnoxiously colored leather. Then at all her stuff sprawled across the floor, which she now has twenty (nineteen) minutes to put away.
It wouldn’t surprise her if her groan broke through the veil to wake Jojo up.
The bundle holds several clusters of amethyst, a good amount of diamonds, some deep purple gems, and a bit of food. The note attached is short and sweet.
Hi Eloise!!
I hope settling in is going well. Others have helped you hatch your dragon right?
We met briefly on the day you were rescued, I’m Amber :) I know what it’s like to be catching up with everyone else, so I brought you a few useful things (the amethyst is used in most magical rituals by the way). If you ever need help with anything let me know!!!
El’s an asshole. The realization that Amber must’ve gone through the same thing she is of course only comes after she has fully fumbled their conversation. She stares at the writing, the knot in her chest lessening. The note goes in her pocket while she puts her things away, until she can find a safer place to keep it.
By the time Amber returns, El’s room is back in order, even if her chests aren’t quite as neat as she’d hoped. She is also newly determined to not fully mess this up.
“Thanks again for all this, I have some notes written by somebody, but they don’t make a lot of sense.” El wrinkles her nose at the notes in question; she’d grabbed them and her hatching rituals so all her literary belongings were in one place. “They’re kind of horrible, I don’t want to know who wrote them.”
Amber’s jaw slackens a little at the words, before she clears her throat. “Yeah. Yeah they aren’t the best. I’m glad somebody tried to keep track of the lecture though.” El doesn’t even try to decipher whatever emotion colors her words.
“Before we start, I found these while putting my things away.” El holds out a small collection of tulips, all either a pale pink or snowy white. “I figured you were a fan of flowers, so I want you to have these as thanks.”
“Thank you so much! You didn’t have to pay me back or anything though.” Amber smiles brightly as she holds them. For the first time, El smiles back.
“I know,” she says simply, leading Amber to sit by her bed. They sit side by side on the floor, each leaning back onto the bedframe. “Would you mind showing me the spell for copying books? Transcribing? Or something?” Amber laughs, bright and airy.
“Yes, I will. It’s called Scribe’s Echo by the way…”
So they set about copying Amber’s library. El does all the ritual books, because there’s no use in reading them unless she intends to do the spell they hold. Amber copies any book about the history of the Realm, the Academy, dragons, or anything else important, explaining them each as she goes. She does most of the talking, letting El chime in with the occasional question or sarcastic comment. Artemis purrs softly from her lap.
Eventually during one of the books, something about trees, Amber’s words lose distinction, just turning into soft sounds. El eyes are pulled closed and her head drops back against her comforter. For the first time since escaping solitude, she falls asleep feeling at rest, and a little less alone.