The Endless Solvent

Like most of the buildings in the Heart, the woman’s college was made of smoothed stone. It was an offshoot of the Academy on the other side of the Aortic strait, a specific institute for the unmarried daughters of wealthy noblemen within the Heart, such that they could remain living with their families instead of sailing across to the Academy’s island.

It was a beautiful building, with thick, decorated pillars holding up a stone slab of a roof, the ceiling a painted fresco of a victorious battle of the Gaian emperor. The sight of it always filled Nilda with confidence, along with the fact that stone surrounded them.

The great hall of the college echoed sound and the sound of nearly a hundred people changing classes was nearly deafening. Other noblewomen usually chatted with Taurin along the way to the next class, so Nilda hung back respectfully. The Leton’s guards were also forced to simply wait at the entrance, their backs against the wall facing the crowd of noblewomen, servants and academics.

Nilda was usually fine with just keeping up with her mistress. She found that everyone had a particular way of walking and her time with Taurin meant she could usually recognize it. However that day she suddenly lost the familiar steps in the crowd. Ignoring the dirty looks from other noblewomen, she shouldered her way through to try to find a sign of Taurin.

“Where did Lady Leton go?” she demanded to a noblewoman she knew Taurin was friends with. The woman gaped at her - serving staff never spoke that way to noblewomen, if they ever spoke to them at all. Nilda scowled at her and gripped her arm. “Where?”

“I think I saw her head that way,” the noblewoman spluttered, pointing at a side exit. “What are you doing? Let me go!”

“My lady?” a handmaid hurried forward and wrenched Nilda’s hand away. “How dare you - ”

Nilda ignored both of them and shouldered through more people to head towards the exit, desperately trying to sense Taurin’s footsteps. She looked down the hall, craning to look over a stretch of people and just saw the top of a dark head staggering towards the exit. She rushed forward, pushing past people who just seemed to be lingering. Nilda briefly wondered if she should call for the guards, but they would have to push through throngs of people as well. Useless, all of them.

When she got close enough, she could hear Taurin’s voice.

“I said let me go - ”

The exit led to a very narrow alleyway at the side of the college, completely devoid of people except for a masked man dragging Taurin behind him. Nilda shouted her name, then ran forward, clenching her hands into fists to try to spear the man dragging Taurin with stones, But he staggered and the stone spikes almost hurt Taurin. The man gave a nasty laugh and took a fistful of Taurin’s hair.

“Parts damn it,” Nilda spat, forming sharp stone shives in her hands. She was now able to do it almost instantaneously. She lunged to stab at the assailant, but he pivoted and kicked her out of the way. She managed to finish her swing and cut his leg through the material of the trousers.

A thump sounded and another masked man dropped down from the roof of the college and unsheathed a sword.

Taurin struggled against the man who tried to drag her away and Nilda instinctively moved towards her to help, but froze when the second assailant placed the heavy blade of his sword on her shoulder, sharp edge nicking the skin of her neck.

“Wanna see which is faster?” The man behind her sneered. His breath smelled sour. “My blade or your rocks?”

The cold metal left her neck as he reared it up to slice her head off. Nilda locked eyes with a horrified Taurin who screamed at the swordsman to stop. She wished she could communicate in the split second that it was too late - the swing of the sword would be faster than any trick up her sleeve.

She wished Taurin would at least look away.

But the killing blow never came. The swordsman grunted and there were a few dull thuds until she heard the clatter of the sword strewn on the floor. Again without turning to see what happened, Nilda rushed forward to where Taurin was being held until she was close enough to manipulate the stone near her captor.

One sharp spike was enough to loosen his grip. Taurin tore herself free and ran to Nilda’s side.

“Don’t kill him,” an unfamiliar voice called out behind her. “We need to question - ”

Taurin’s captor had freed himself and tried to run away but Nilda snapped her fingers closed into a fist and twenty three sharp spikes shot out and punctured the man. Taurin gave a gasp and turned sharply away from the sight.

Nilda drew in a breath and turned to see who had tried to stop her. A tall man with longish dark hair tied into a ponytail wearing a plain beige tunic with brown pants. Nilda glanced down at his shoes - it was made of a thick leather not suitable for the warm Heart of Gaia weather and the creases on his pants were still crisp as if he had just bought them yesterday. He held himself like one of Lord Leton’s guardsmen and was certainly built like he could fight, but instead of a sword Nilda saw he had a stick in his hand.

It was rather a smooth and uniform stick, much like what the elderly would use as a cane or walking staff - perfectly straight and adorned with metal at either ends. The assailant that had a sword to Nilda was scrambling away, his weapon lying on the floor.

“You didn’t have to kill him,” Stickman glowered at her. Nilda thought he was rather rough looking, with heavy eyebrows and a nose that looked like it was broken and not reset properly.

“You didn’t have to let that one go,” Nilda gestured to the now empty alleyway in the direction the assailant escaped.

“You distracted me with your senseless murder,” Stickman snapped back.

“Well someone had to do their job properly. What were you going to do with that, prod them to death?” Nilda jutted her chin out at his metal adorned staff.

“It’s plenty to deal with you Westerners,” Stickman muttered. Nilda narrowed her eyes and curled her fingers and the end of the man’s staff which was resting on the cobblestone floor sank into it and held. Sitckman cast her a dark look. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

Nilda snorted. “I’d like to see you try.”

He gripped the staff and yanked it out of its stone hold, spraying pebbles and broken rocks in all directions. Nilda saw the metal tip streak towards her face - it froze a hair's width from her chin while Stickman was stuck staring at a spike of rock that had risen and the point aimed right at his eye.

“Okay, stop flirting, both of you,” Taurin said, rolling her eyes.

“We are not flirting.” Nilda stared at Stickman as the words came out simultaneously from their mouths.

“Cute.” Taurin smirked at her and Nilda gave her a glare. “But we should get back home before my dad thinks assassins have killed us.”

“How do we know this guy isn’t one of them?”

Stickman opened his mouth to protest but Taurin pushed away his staff and tugged on Nilda’s sleeve. “He saved our lives. He saved your life. Perhaps we can give him the benefit of the doubt. Also, can we leave without having to step over a dead body?”

Although she put on a light hearted tone, Nilda could hear the tinge of exhaustion and fear in her mistress’s voice. “Alright,” Nilda brushed aside Stickman without another glance and made her way out of the alley. She rolled her eyes when Taurin hung back to do her noblewomen thing where she had to appear gracious and thankful.

“Thank you,” she said to Stickman. Nilda pointedly did not look back. She crossed her arms and waited impatiently. “Can you tell me your name and who your lord is? I owe you my life.”

There was a stretch of silence. “My name is Rask,” Stickman simply said. He did not offer any more information.

"Well thank you Rask. Perhaps we will meet again soon.”

Nilda sniffed. She hoped not.