The Endless Solvent

When Camaz returned, there was the clattering sound of tableware with him. Aris casually continued reading her book on runeology, ignoring him.

“Any new students of note?” he called up to her. “You were watching the strait again.”

The smell of food wafted up to her window and Aris couldn’t help but look. Camaz smirked up at her and held up a loaf of bread. He had two bowls of thick stew steaming on the table. Her stomach growled at the sight - she hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. She sighed a little in defeat and slipped out of her hidden room to join him on the ground floor. “It’s always the same people,” she shrugged. “Boys. Nobles. Boring.”

“They’re all older than you. They’re young men,” Camaz said, cutting the bread. There were several bakers in Market Square and Camaz frequented the one closest to the tower. They were never short on bread, cheese or meat in their corner of the island - they could probably open their own store and sell all the stored food for a week. Despite frequently splurging on good, expensive food, Camaz was tall and lean in figure.

“They’re all here to meet other nobles and make political ties with their family,” Aris took a center slice of bread and peeled off the crust before eating the soft middle. “Why you think any of them are interesting is beyond me.”

“Under different circumstances, you would be here doing the same thing,” Camaz smiled, sitting down to eat. “To find a ‘boy’ to strengthen political ties with your family. You’re not any different.”

“But I am different,” Aris said.

“You could still find allies,” Camaz shrugged. “Anyone can play politics.”

Even an ex-princess, she knew he wanted to add. But they never spoke aloud of her past. The Academy’s spymaster was much too professional for that, even though she knew his Shades would tell him immediately if there was someone snooping on their conversation. “If you really wanted me to play politics, you would let me go to the women’s college,” Aris said, dipping her bread in the stew.

“We’ve already discussed this. The answer is still no.”

“I’m meant to believe that with my abilities and a false identity I can’t safely study at the Heart?” Aris asked incredulously. “And I know you have people at the college, how hard would it be to protect me?”

“The Heart has its own set of politics and ten times larger population than this island. Of course I can’t protect you as well,” Camaz said. “Why would you want to study there anyway? Its existence is a token gesture of equality for women, what they study there doesn’t scratch the surface of what we study here. If you wanted learn about literature or Gaian art history, there are plenty of books for you to read - ”

“It’s things a noblewoman should be studying for,” Aris muttered sullenly, picking at her stew with her spoon. The food didn’t seem as appealing anymore, suddenly. “What if I were to return and not know the things I’m supposed to know?”

Camaz’s shrewd brown eyes studied her for several long seconds. “Aris, you’re never going to go back. At least, not in the way you were before.”

You’ll never be the Lunaris of Caelis, is what he meant. She clenched her hands into fists to try to stop the shaking. “You don’t know that,” she whispered.

“If you or your brother try to go back, you’ll both be killed.”

“You don’t know that!”

Camaz narrowed his eyes on her. “There is very little that I don’t know. And yes, I cannot divine the future and yes, there is a slim possibility that what you have in mind will come to pass. There is a slim possibility for anything to happen, so it’s not saying much.”

“You always act like some mastermind but actually it just kills you to admit you don’t know some things,” Aris spat. “Did your pet Shades tell you that it’s ever going to happen? Did your spies in the Emperor’s court tell you? No, nobody knows and you’re just acting like you do!”

“Do you think I’ve been sitting idly by for the past decade? We receive report after report on the wasteland that was your home, of Gate after Gate that opens in that area. I am being honest and realistic in saying that you won’t return there in glory. “

“Yeah because honesty is your strong suit.” Aris rolled her eyes. “It’s not your home or your past that’s crumbled to dust so of course you don’t care. I have to care. I have to prepare - ”

“Prepare for what, pray tell?” Camaz snapped. “You have shown zero initiative to attend runeology lessons, you shirk nearly every single one of my lessons. You have shown nothing but disdain towards anything to improve your physical abilities. If you return to the East as you are, what exactly are you going to do about the troubles that plague the area? Nothing!”

“I - ”

“You will return to a land filled with Gates and monsters with no solution at hand. The people there have either died or fled. So tell me what exactly you are trying to prepare for?”

Mouth pressed into a line, Aris shoved herself out of the chair and left the lighthouse, slamming the door behind her. She had long forgotten how to cry so only pure, dry rage filled her.

She hated him. She hated his patronizing voice, his know-it-all expressions, his stupid face. Most of all, she hated this island. Why did Rask leave her here?

When the captain brought her to the Academy long ago, Camaz said that he would only take her in. So Rask had to take her brother away and now she didn’t know if they were still alive. For a while, she felt special being chosen to stay, but now Aris knew it was stupid of her to think that.

She managed to make her way down the shambling steps from the lighthouse despite the dim evening light. Academy staff were busy lighting the stone lanterns along the main path, the lighting growing brighter and warmer as she approached Market Square. It was at the light of one of the lanterns Aris noticed a Shade had followed her. She stopped to inspect it and it wobbled in and out of sight under her gaze.

Did it follow her because she was angry? Aris shrouded herself, reaching into the Solvent and willing her body to be less noticeable - anyone trying to look at her would have their attention diverted. It was different from Camaz’s Inner Eye ability to force someone to unknow something. She never understood why people thought their abilities were similar at all.

Shrouding herself only marginally improved seeing Shades. It bobbed in the lantern light as a vaguely rounded shape, like shadowy liquid suspended in the air. Sighing, she continued to Market Square, keeping an eye on the Shade who followed her several paces behind. She remained shrouded as she didn’t want people gawking at her anyway.

On a clear summer night, the Market Square bustled with activity under warm yellow lantern glow. It seemed the most like its own little city during these times with students and staff dining in restaurants and taverns, market stalls still open with its owners selling their wares. As classes usually take place during the day, merchants hawk their wares in the evening.

Although shrouded, Aris was careful to avoid large crowds. She wasn’t actually invisible - Inner Eye abilities primarily targeted the mind and its perception of the world. She was able to convince people looking in her direction that she wasn’t really there as a kind of illusion, but if someone were to run into her the illusion would break. She had spent a long time trying to find a way to be truly invisible, like a Shade, but that would mean learning an ability beyond Inner Eye capabilities.

If only she could befriend one to observe it. She eyed the Shade still bobbing after her. Unlike people, it seemed to know she was there despite being shrouded.

At the very center of Market Square, a few food vendors set up carts for hungry students milling around. One of them had piles of steamed meat buns, another sold roasted meats and vegetables on skewers. Another popular vendor quickly sold sweet pastries and candied fruit. Aris side-stepped a handful of drunk students tiredly eating steamed buns while sitting on the sidewalk, trying to sober up.

“Your buns are the best, Steamer,” one of them slurred out to the bun vendor. Apparently the students had nicknamed him Steamer long ago, due to his work steaming food. His stall constantly pumped out plumes of vapor from the rune-heated water baths.

“Can you be drunk somewhere else?” Steamer snapped over a fresh batch of buns. “I’ll whoop your buns if you vomit near my stall.”

“I love you too, Steamer,” another drunk student called out and the group of them laughed.

The commotion let Aris steal one of the meat buns and she quickly left through a side alley before Steamer noticed one of them had gone missing. They came and went so quickly, she doubted he would notice.

Long ago, Nilda told her she used to live in the streets. Aris was too young and too naive to understand what a ‘street urchin’ was, but now she’s seen some of them run around the Heart through her sky glasses. She used to try to imagine what it would be like stealing food for survival. Aris thought about Nilda every time she swiped something. She smiled bitterly to herself - stealing a bun from Steamer was nothing like that. Nilda would probably laugh at her for drawing a parallel.

She ate it quickly while deciding where she wanted to go. Halfway through eating, she spotted a gleam of armor through a crowd of students and upon closer inspection, she found the dark haired boy she saw on the boat earlier that day.

Young man, she corrected herself sarcastically as Camaz would have. He still had on that uncomfortable looking gray and red chain armor which made him look sorely out of place among the throngs of people in simple tunics. The new student from Sekrelli. From the way he clutched his sword strapped to his hip, he was probably another Manus student.

Amused, Aris watched him awkwardly wander the streets in his armor while eying the food stalls there. Most vendors used runes to keep their food hot, or perhaps even to enhance the taste. She spotted him twist his face in a pained expression, then walk briskly into a building. He had two guards follow him to the door of the building but they stayed outside to stand guard. This ‘young man’ was rich enough to have guards attend the Academy with him.

Aris quietly scouted out the building of the new attendee. It was a residential and he had a neighbor, but he also enjoyed a two storied house. As far as Academy residences go, it was probably one of the nicest ones, discounting the large accommodations for professors on the west side of the island. A tall tree with dense foliage reached beyond the roof of his house and stood close enough so that the leaves canopied the balcony on the second floor.

It was on a whim. Aris returned to Steamer’s stall; the bun vendor was still agitatedly trying to shoo away drunken students so she was able to steal more buns - two, this time. She wrapped them carefully in a clean handkerchief and tied it so she could easily carry it looped around her wrist. Then she sneaked around the building of the new Sekrelli student and scaled the tree as quietly as she could.