The Endless Solvent

Most of the Academy’s buildings gathered in the south side of the large island. This included the Market Square, several residential buildings and dorm rooms, the assembly hall attached to administrative offices and numerous other shops and stalls that ambled down to the pier. Cobblestone and dirt paths led out from the condensed living area to spider out into the forest nestled in the center of the island. The Academy’s signature willow trees lined the major pathways but many other trees and flora spotted the forest.

Towards the north side of the island, the ground becomes uneven and hilly to the point where it is nearly a vertical climb up the ‘stairs’ placed there. At the top of the hill was the lighthouse.

Like most of the buildings in the Heart and the Academy, it was made of stone. It spiraled up six, seven stories tall and had narrow windows punctuating the sides in a pattern. The light at the top was, or course, maintained by illumination runes - ironically not by Camaz nor Aris even though they lived there. Some poor sod from the runeology department had to make the trek up to the lighthouse every few days to keep the light enchantment going.

The base of the lighthouse had several squat structures built around it, several strategically built into the bedrock hill down the sides. The pathway led to a door of the largest of these structures, which in turn led people to the core of the lighthouse. The rooms created by these structures were a library, a kitchen, a bathroom, a few store rooms, a ridiculously large pantry room where Camaz keeps liquors, cheese and cured meats, and finally an office. Camaz had a bedroom that was accessible through a door from the core of the lighthouse, a wood lined room dug out from rock underground.

For weeks when Aris first arrived at the Academy, she had to sleep on the floor of a store room, curled up inside an empty wooden box like a stray dog. Aris shook her head as she passed said store room. Back then, it felt humiliating until she found out she could sneak into the pantry room at night and eat the cheese and meat as revenge.

Narrow stairs ran as a helix up to the top around the interior space of the lighthouse. One had to be careful since there were no railings all the way to the top. Camaz had set up a desk and kept his ever growing collection of books and reference material in shelves around the bottom. The round bottom floor of the lighthouse was essentially a study room or extension of his office. He had told Aris and any runeology students destined to maintain the light that “if you’re going to fall on my stuff, at least try not to break the table. Do you know how hard it is to get a table that heavy up here?”

Halfway up the stairs at about three or four stories up from the ground floor, Aris stepped sideways across the wall by using a familiar ridge of stone brick, then stepped through the wall. It was an illusion she’d placed there to make it look like undisturbed stone, when in fact there was nothing there. It brought her into a very cramped niche where she had to squeeze through a gap on her left and climb up a ledge in order to make it to her ‘room’.

It was a space between the walls, a narrow window on one side showing the interior of the lighthouse, another narrow window showing the outside pointed west where less wind would force its way through. Even so, Aris had to board up the window during storms. Crammed in a corner was a foldable cot she had taken from some field researchers. Two wooden crates served as storage, shelves, and makeshift tables. With those few things, she barely had enough room to move around.

She had found her ‘room’ within a month of living with Camaz. She discovered the lighthouse interior was actually in shambles and there were a handful of nooks and crannies with illusions cast over them, undoubtedly so Camaz didn’t have to do anything to fix it. When she threatened to eat all his expensive hams, he finally helped her bring the crates into the nook but she still slept on the floor for the longest time. At least she found some privacy. The light from the top of the lighthouse streamed down the core of it and through her interior window - she frequently used that light to read or study on her crates at night.

As she entered her room, she heard a rustle of activity and she peeked through the interior window down to the ground floor.

“I have no idea what Professor Yepla intends to do about the Gate crises,” Camaz said. He appeared, long brown robes flowing, his shiny brown hair flecked with gray tied back stylishly. A short, squat man followed him wearing similar robes - it was Professor Gardlo, a runeology professor.

“Yepla wants us to have experience in the matter,” Gardlo said. “Especially his students. It is imperative for us to understand how they work before research goes into how to stop them from happening in the first place.”

“About ten years ago, none of you wanted anything to do with Gates,” Camaz snorted. He walked over to a small side table where a glass carafe held a ruby colored wine. He poured himself a goblet of it. “Now you’re acting like you know what’s best? Research was being done on how to stop it a decade ago and it fell on deaf ears, only now when fame and fortune is to be had - ”

“Is this really the time to squabble over who did what research first?” Gardlo asked hotly. “Ten years ago it wasn’t a crisis. I’m sorry none of us have divination abilities like your brethren.”

“Our contact in the far East had called it a crisis ten years ago because it was one over there. But of course none of us cared since it was a Caelisian problem, not ours,” Camaz said lightly. Aris leaned her head back against the wall as she heard the name of her kingdom. Camaz was talking about her mother; that was his contact in the far East. “How convenient we’d forgotten that a Gate opened right at the Heart, right at our doorsteps, but since it never happened again we turned a blind eye to it.”

“If you’re going to speak of ‘what could have been’, I’m sure the Head Administrators would love to reminisce,” Gardlo said. “That does not change the fact that something should be done today.”

“And I agree,” Camaz said. “However I cannot approve of simply throwing students at Gates and hoping something will come out of it. If Yepla regards his students as fodder in the name of research, there’s nothing I can do to stop him. He certainly has the numbers to think that way.”

Aris resisted the urge to laugh out loud. No one but Camaz knew of her hiding spot and she didn’t want to make a sound to give it away. Sound traveled well up the structure and she frequently eavesdropped on conversations this way.

“Until there is something specific that our department can do, I will not be a part of this ‘task force’ Yepla is pushing for. Parts know I can’t spare the people,” Camaz said.

“Not even your successor?” Gardlo’s voice was flat, as if reluctant to even mention it.

Aris could hear the smile in Camaz’s voice: “she’s not my successor.”

“Could have fooled me,” Gardlo said. “Almost the same abilities, interests aligned - your personalities could pass as father and daughter. “

“Interests aligned? I actually have no inkling of what Aris’s interests are, to be honest. Even so, I suspect staying here in this dusty old lighthouse is at the very bottom of that list. And it’s only natural my charming personality rubbed off on an impressionable and intelligent child.”

Aris rolled her eyes. Leave it to Camaz to only praise her when it also stroked his own ego. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a dark flutter - she turned her head to see a Shade settled right at the edge of her interior window.

Not everyone could see Shades, but usually those with inherent Solvent abilities were able to at least sense them. Even to those able to see them, they were almost shadow-like in appearance and incorporeal such that you couldn’t touch or grab them. They usually looked like a handkerchief draped over a small fist and floated a finger’s width from any surface, but they would often morph into various shapes. Sometimes they were more flat, like a spread out handkerchief, other times they were more a blob shape.

The one on her window ledge seemed to settle there, seemingly watching the two men below even if it had no eyes, no head. Aris suspected it was one of the ones who fluttered around Camaz. It was probably sitting at the window to tell him she was there. She glared at it but it didn’t acknowledge it - Shades very rarely reacted to emotions, at least not those portrayed in the physical world.

“It will be a good use of her time and energy,” Gardlo continued. “Parts know she needs something to do. Having someone who can shroud themselves would be an asset to a scouting party - ”

“A Gate is commonly detectable through the Solvent without any skill or instrument,” Camaz interjected. “Why would I send in Aris just to be part of a purposeless scouting party to her death?”

“You think you hide your favoritism, but often you don’t even try,” Gardlo said. “How about you just admit she is your daughter and be done with it?”

Aris felt a bitter smile on her lips. If only Professor Gardlo knew the truth. Camaz did play favorites with her but not for the reasons people thought he did. He never quashed the rumor that they were actually blood related in order to obscure the truth of where she actually came from.

A princess of a forgotten kingdom. A kingdom long abandoned by the empire. Aris never understood why he tried, nobody would believe him anyway if he told the truth. Perhaps doling out misinformation was reflexive for him. Camaz also thought it was funny that people believe he had a love child that looked nothing like him.

“If you wanted to try your hand with spycraft you need only ask,” Camaz said sarcastically. “If I may advise - point blank questions rarely work without the proper set up.”

“I have no interest in your personal life,” Gardlo scoffed. It was a lie. Almost every professor and staff on the island were notoriously nosy. It came with island life. “I simply want to convince you to join our cause. Very well, if your precious student won’t be wasted on a very well meaning cause, we will go forward without you.”

Camaz must have escorted Gardlo out as their continued conversation grew muffled. The shade at the interior window bobbed and drifted back and forth over the short width of the window as if suddenly restless.

“Go, tell on me,” Aris whispered. “It’s your task, isn’t it?”

It drifted out into the open space of the lighthouse core and disappeared. She sighed and fixed her gaze to a dark corner of her ‘room’ and could make out several shadowy lumps. More Shade, but these were less defined, less independent of the one that follows Camaz around for some reason. They become more visible with her mentor’s presence, or when Aris acknowledges them.

“Are any of you ever going to help me?” she asked. They bobbed together in a shadowy mass, hiding in the dark shadows. Ignored as usual. She sat back down with her back to the crate and cracked open a book to wait for her mentor’s return. She had learned being ignored wasn’t always a bad thing.