Tower of Memories

Celica's handwriting was somehow even neater than I was expecting. I had anticipated something like the flowery cursive I had seen bits of from girls at my previous school. Celica's was straight and clear, almost a typeface font with how perfectly neat it looked.

For a place that didn't have printers or electricity it was a little bit terrifying. I hoped no one ever wanted that from me. My print was barely legible and there was only so much I was going to do about it.

But it was good for me. It meant I could easily read what my friends wanted.

Someone was very particular about shoes. It had to be Celica. She wanted high heels allowed but not mandatory. I couldn't see her in them, flats were more her thing. I hadn't even seen her in short wedges. Maybe it had something to do with her height? She was the tallest girl in school. Most of the students were shorter, her brothers and a handful of older boys were the exceptions.

Probably should just avoid asking her about it then.

Someone wanted there to be rock music at the dance. That had to be Russel. I was inclined to agree but I doubted enough people had heard of it for that to be feasible. If I could try for it, I would though.

I remembered my Metallica record. The one Red had hinted at before it arrived. I had been so surprised when she mentioned it. And yet, it was so obvious in hindsight.

Only those with experience in the human world would have even heard of them.

Another request that stood out to me was a request for chrysanthemum flowers. That could have been anyone or a group suggestion.

No particular theme was requested. Which sucked for me. But maybe the others had ideas and we could just vote on it then move to the next parts.

Assuming the gala was actually what we were going to be talking about today. There was always a risk I was wrong. Though we would talk about it eventually, I was sure.

All I could do was take a breath to steady my feet and walk into the room. After folding up the request paper and putting it in my left pocket, of course. It was hard enough to be taken even a little bit seriously without notes from my friends.

Horus was frowning and Set wasn't here yet.

I didn't dare ask. Whatever resemblance of peace I had with Horus I didn't want to disrupt by risking sticking my nose into something that didn't concern me.

Instead I sat down in what was usually my seat outside of rare occasions. It was the one closest to the door and conveniently farthest from where Anubis and Horus liked to sit together.

Anubis was here. And she didn't seem any different today.

It…was easier to keep calm than I'd expected. The last time I was in this room, I still believed Red was a student I hadn't met yet. No idea that her awful fate was mine. This had seemed trivial before, but now with a blade above my head so little seemed to matter. Practically a waste of time.

Maybe it would be nice. A distraction for a few moments.

Assuming Anubis could behave and I didn't say anything too stupid.

For the best results I should probably just not say anything. I didn't need more stress. My mind was already too full as it was.

And I already had someone trying to kill me, thanks.

Thoth was messing with cards, either some kind of game or an attempt to learn something.

Maybe I should ask Angelina if her visions have changed? Or became clearer?

The rest of the room was chatting away in a very dull roar.

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Set wasn't usually late. Not that he was. The meeting wasn't for another three minutes. But compared to his usual earliness it was starting to stress me out a bit. It was foolish, probably.

But Red seemed to know who the Wraith was. Did I know them? Or were they like the sixth Dragon student, someone I hadn't met yet?

"Good morning, everyone! Sorry if I kept you all waiting," Set greeted as he finally entered the room.

We weren't waiting but it was good to see him. Realistically I knew that he was most likely fine, but how many horror stories started with someone not being somewhere on time?

"Good morning," I greeted back.

"You're fine, Set," Horus greeted and dismissed at the same time. "We have a few things to go over today. So I hope you're all ready."

I liked to think I was. Ready for far more than this meeting, at any rate.

I took a deep breath and straightened further in my chair. He could say almost anything. Were we caught? Was there an update? Vivian would have told me if she learned something, right?

"It's that time of year again. We'll need to start the planning for the end of year gala. As usual this will take place the weekend before the week of the Founder's Trials. Who wants to start the discussion?"

Awesome. It was the thing I was prepared for and not like, a cat skinned and hanging from a tree or something.

I was far from sure what I wanted from this dance. Beyond not having to go. Jarec's words about it repeated in my head. What would we have to be for me to want to go? What would make me more comfortable?

"Spring colors?" Maat suggested.

Pastels. No thanks.

What was my ideal dance? What kind of party made me happy?

"What about a festival for the competitors?" Ra threw out his idea.

Hard pass on that. Worst case I would like have to speak to people about competing and that was so low on my to-do list meeting the Wraith face-to-face had competition. Anything but speeches to strangers.

Keeping my friends spirits up was one thing, but older students I didn't know? Absolutely not.

"What about sunset?" Osiris asked.

Not terrible, but I felt like we needed something a bit more than that.

"What about a masquerade?" I pondered softly. Partially to myself but the words were out there now.

Bastet gasped and there was a single moment of terror that filled me with terror. How much of an idiot did I just make of myself? Bastet focused on Horus "Can we do that?"

It took me a moment to realize, that was excitement in his voice.

"How do you think we would get masks for everyone?" Horus proposed. An attempt to poke holes in something I hadn't thought through.

I swallowed as I tried to gather my thoughts. "What if we organized our Towers for it? Like as part of the decorating process? Get volunteers and craft them?" I offered.

"It'd be easier to keep them school appropriate that way. And a good project for students leading up to everything," Set commented.

Thoth, who was still focusing on his cards, looked up at Set. "Could be fun," he said.

Anubis looked like she smelled something foul, but didn't say anything.

"Anyone else have thoughts?" Horus asked the room.

I didn't know what would be worse, having to defend my idea against someone or watching it happen in real time. I was not ready for this.

Anubis was glaring at me. It was strange, even as she looked ready to try something, anything, I didn't suspect that she was involved in Death's Echo. As strong as her dislike was, was it strong enough to kill not just me but some unfortunate soul for a weapon? Was she that callous?

She reminded me of George Archer even more. He had never been a real threat. Just an annoying bug who was convinced they were a wasp when they were just a moth.

Not capable of murder.

Not capable of doing anything. Just stewing in whatever sparked her dislike of me. A few more months and we'd be free of each other.

Life was too short to try please people who would never respect me anyway.

"We'll vote on it. All in favor for Masquerade?" Horus called.

Ugh. I hated this. Why did I speak? You'd think I would learn that not speaking was the solution to all my problems.

Well…most of them.

Then again I didn't know what I did to mark me for a murder attempt so maybe I did say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Certainly plausible, right?

A show of hands. Maat, Bastet, Set, Thoth. And myself.

That was five, a majority. Barely, but still.

We were doing a masquerade! And apparently making our own masks. If Celica didn't volunteer willingly, I was going to make her. I was not equipped for other people's masks. Then again, convincing her shouldn't be too hard. No way she wanted anyone else making hers.

Not everyone was pleased, but from there we could refine and adjust the details. There was still time to figure out exactly what kind of masquerade we wanted to hold. A thousand little things we needed to figure out.

We were going to spend the next few weeks talking in circles about all of it.

And that was okay. I was looking forward to it, in a strange kind of way.

(*********)

Jarec was downstairs and picking out ingredients for tea when I got back from the meeting. Russel still wasn't back yet. His date with Asher Silver was taking all day, apparently.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"It went okay. We picked a theme. We're having a masquerade ball. Details still in the works."

Jarec gave me a strange look for a moment. "Whose idea was that?"

Did it matter? I had no idea why he was asking, but there wasn't a reason to not tell him. "Mine," I confirmed. I hoped he could tell how confused I was.

He hummed once. "Was it? That's interesting."

"What? What don't I know?"

"Do you remember what I said?"

"Think about the kind of gala I wanted to go to?"

"You're almost there. What is it with you and masks?"

"Can't you guess?" I challenged.

Jarec smirked, either because he liked the challenge or because he already knew the answer.

I smiled back.

For that one singular moment, everything was okay.