The Endless Solvent

Aris lounged in her favorite spot up on a specific tree by the south-east cliff of the Academy’s island. If she remembered correctly, it was her thirty-first ‘favorite spot’ to hide in through her years on that island. It changes when others discover it or if the spot no longer suits her purpose.

For example, three ‘favorite spots’ ago, her favorite spot was on a discreet roof at the edge of Market Square - the densest collection of buildings on the island where merchants and students mingled and bartered. That was subsequently ruined when she found a couple had started using that spot for their necking sessions.

Five ‘favorite spots’ ago was a small cave off the edge of the southern cliff, but she quickly discovered that not only did she have a poor view of the Heart of Gaia, she had to contend with cold sprays of sea water at that miserable spot. No thank you.

Her current favorite spot was between two sturdy branches of a willow tree where her back was supported by the thick trunk. It wasn’t a perfect line of view to the Heart, but along with the sky glasses she stole from an astronomy professor, she could see most of the coastline on a clear day. It also wasn’t the most discreet location since it was just a few paces from the pathway that paralleled the cliff side, but in the event someone did wander too close, she merely shrouded herself. People who attended the Academy rarely climbed trees at all, most of them close to twenty summers in age or much older. As far as Aris knew, she was the only one who climbed trees on this island.

She remembered hating it. Her brother - or Ralos, she corrected herself - used to be much better at it. His hands and feet instinctively knew where best to hold on the trunk and he climbed as easily as he walked. Aris was slow and clumsy at almost anything physical - weak and inferior to her brother when it comes to moving and fighting. She hated feeling inferior so she decided when she was younger that she didn’t like climbing trees.

Mama always told her not to be like that. Aris settled down more comfortably in the branches, sky glasses pressed to her face to scan the Heart’s coastline. A few bare chested men moved cargo from ships anchored at the harbor. Fishmongers and other merchants stood at their stalls a ways off, selling their wares. She spotted a few finely dressed women with intricate braided hair walking with their entourage of guards. Further westward, hidden by buildings so that she could only see the stone roof, was the women’s college she knew Mama went to.

It’s been nearly a decade. She can barely recall what her Mama looked like. The memories of Taurin Leton were scant and specific, like the way her perfume smelled and the sound of hair brushing. Every morning, Mama’s handmaid Nilda would brush her hair and Aris would try to be there to play with Mama’s jewelry or to beg for Nilda to do her hair next.

“Your hair isn’t the one that needs brushing,” Nilda would mutter jokingly. While Mama was perfumed, Nilda smelled like clean laundry and plain soap. Aris couldn’t recall what Nilda looked like either. A part of her wondered if she visited the women’s college over the Aortic strait would let her remember mama and Nilda’s faces. She had no doubt she belonged there, regardless of what Camaz says about the Academy’s offshoot.

A few medium sized boats sailed across the Strait - they all flew the Academy’s flag. Aris turned her sky glasses towards them and was able to inspect the people on board. The middle of summer had just passed and the Academy was slowly accepting their new students for the next semester - the boats transported new attendees. She scanned the deck of the closest boat and snorted lightly to herself - another male.

Women were allowed in the Academy. A handful of professors were women and Aris knew a few female students. However the majority of females on the island held more clerical positions and the student body was primarily made of males - women receiving a higher education usually attended the women’s college at the Heart.

The new attendee on the boat looked overdressed for the occasion of seafaring. He had on chain mail armor colored red and gray, complimenting his jet black hair cropped short and styled back. Aris studied the people around him and concluded he must be Sekrelli - another hypocritical group of people. He couldn’t be more than two or three years older than herself.

The boat disappeared around a bend and she wouldn’t be able to watch them without leaving her spot. She took a breath and lowered the sky glasses, trying to keep the nausea down from squinting too hard through them. The glasses allowed one to see a great distance and meant to be used for stargazing or weather watching - things relatively stationary. Following a fast moving ship with them made her motion sick. It didn’t matter who that young man was, he was probably another stuck up noble with too much money and noble blood to be interesting. Camaz would be disappointed at how she jumped to that conclusion but she would bet anything that was all there was to it. Most people attending the Academy were just that.

If only she could go to the Heart… then she could really people-watch the way Camaz wanted her to. What use was it spying on stuck up rich boys?

She leaned back in her spot, the nausea ebbing away with the salty breeze. Most stuck up rich boys ended up in the Manus department - Aris was never too clear what people there learned. Probably how to run up walls or stack boulders to show off how strong and manly they were. She’s read the ‘formal descriptions’ of each department of the Academy, the Manus department boasted how they taught combat and tactics useful for battle, along with body control for a disciplined and assertive leadership.

Hilarious to think any chump with money could be trained for ‘leadership’. Also hilarious that they mentioned ‘body control’ when manus abilities were clearly a result of Solvent manipulation - some people could only move faster and live more because they use the Solvent. Of course, the Academy wouldn’t want to antagonize their wealthy patrons who don’t believe in that stuff like the Sekrelli and the Kuvan. The Manus department gets paid good money to keep these people in denial while they happily use their abilities without calling it what it is.

At least the Runeology and Environs departments didn’t lie to themselves about it. Not that they were free from snobby sons of noblemen either. Runeology attracted academics and those were a different kind of snobby; they believed themselves to be smarter than the rest. Aris personally found that to be more tolerable - those who think they’re stronger and faster are more eager to prove it. For academics, it’s not that impressive to brag about how you know more runes than the next Gaian when there are tomes upon books to show you which runes to use. Furthermore, most powerful enchantments are forbidden to begin with so one could only brag so much before they get in trouble.

Then there’s the Environs department: best described as ‘elitist’ in a different way than those in Manus. These are people able to manipulate the Solvent and change aspects of their environment through inherent ability without the use of runes. It’s not much different from those with manus abilities, only the things they can affect are outside their body. The type and extent of Solvent manipulation is also very specific for each person - it makes the department the most fragmented, making its lessons esoteric and varied. Many have argued over whether or not the department should exist in the first place since it frequently latches on to the other two. Furthermore, anyone with Inner Eye abilities such as herself often were subjected to that department as well and treated like a test subject.

Aris knows she is only able to be on Academy island because of Camaz. Perhaps she should be grateful that the stars aligned. She pressed her mouth into a grim line and firmly corrected herself again: she should be grateful that the Parts permitted it to happen.

The boat carrying the new attendees would have reached the island by now. She considered going to Market Square and perhaps the pier to watch their new arrivals, but doing so would just annoy her. She shouldn’t be skulking in the shadows of the island to do Camaz’s spying for him, she should be getting the education her mother had back at the Heart. Camaz never let her and will never allow her, citing his need for an assistant with her specific abilities but Aris recognizes his bullshit. She had to be on the island to hide from whatever it was that killed her parents and Nilda.

It was why Ralos wasn’t there with her either. It was why she could no longer use Caelisian sayings or talk about her home, no matter how homesick she got or how badly she wanted to remember her mother and Nilda. She was trapped on the island by machinations beyond her understanding and she hated it. The world couldn’t know that she was the Caelisian princess she was a decade ago.

But that was what she was. She could feel it in her solute every time she shrouded herself or used an enchantment. She could feel it every time she looked at the Heart over the Aortic Strait. Long ago, in the darkness of a cold, damp cave she swore to Nilda that she would return to Caelis and deliver retribution to those who took everything from her and her brother. That one promise she made as a child made the island feel too small, too confining, too stuffy.

It made the island her prison. One day she’ll burst free from it and be who she was meant to be. Everything taken from her, she’ll take back. She had to.

Close your eyes, little moon.

The rage bubbled over to the surface as it always does. Aris pressed the sky glasses to her eyes again and looked at the Heart through them, scanning the coastline and the roof of the college one last time. No, she wasn’t going to close her eyes. She was going to keep them wide open and never look away.