Tower of Memories

Hope was small enough that the door to Dragon Tower barely had to open to let it out into the school. Dropping it off ourselves could be a more efficient use of this small window of time it had to look, but that could risk getting caught.

This was the safest option we had. Even while I was almost certain that it wasn't going to work. Perhaps I should tell them. But what would that accomplish?

Right now, I wanted to deal with the Jarec thing. We had an hour before Hope got back.

"Come on," I said while tapping him on the shoulder. "We need to talk."

He looked a bit confused at first but followed me downstairs.

I patted the table once before opening the tea cabinet. I grabbed the green tea leaves, red rose petals, and dried beets, listening for the rustling of the chair as he sat down.

"So…what's this about?"

"You're…upset with me. About something. Wanted to get it out in the open," I explained as I poured boiling water into the teapot. The wisps of steam weren't nearly enough to obscure my vision or his.

"Upset's one word, I suppose." Oh good, he wasn't going to deny it. That made this easier. The faster we get it out in the open, the sooner we would solve it.

"Whatever it is, you can say it."

He leaned forward bracing his arms on the table and interlocking his fingers. "Right…partial Pixie."

I shrugged at him. No point in denying that, pretending I had nothing in common with Angelina at all.

Jarec took a deep breath before speaking, "Can I ask you something?"

"I can't give you answers if I don't know what you want. Ask anything and everything." The best way to solve whatever this was. At least the best one I could think of.

"How old were you when you first learned to keep secrets?"

Okay. Not the question I was expecting but it was something. "Five, I think? Maybe six." Perhaps he was going somewhere with this. I could follow along.

"I was seven. What's the story with you?"

"When…I failed to show signs of magic Mom got worried. At least…that's what I always believed. Recently I think it was something else. She took me to healers somewhere. I don't remember names or locations. They said…some very not nice things about Dad, and by extension me. It didn't amount to anything and Mom hasn't talked about it since. It was the first time I understood that Mom and Dad were…from different worlds. And there wasn't really an in-between for people like me. I was going to have to learn to be all human or all magical."

"Hearths are influential, by extension we aren't always popular. But because of who we are I have to pretend like I'm not talking to people who despise my family. The Quicksilver side had less of that. But I haven't spoken to them much since Dad died."

That made me stop for a moment. "Oh. I'm…sorry to hear that."

Jarec looked at me perplexed. "You…didn't know?"

"No? You never mentioned it and Vivian only really talk about our mothers when talking about family."

"Oh. Well. Yeah. There was…an accident on a research trip. A cave in. Dad managed to get everyone else out."

"Sounds like he was a very good man."

"He was. He made Mom happy. Got along well with Grandmother." His hands clenched tighter at the mention of Vivian.

I poured two cups of tea as an excuse to give him a moment.

"Has she told you? That when you lead the Hearth Coven you need to have the name. It's not usually a big deal because usually the kids in line are born with it. But…"

Neither of us were Hearths. I understood now why I wasn't…but Jarec… "You're a Quicksilver."

"Because Mom's a Flare. Aplos names aren't ones that kids can inherit. That's the point of them. That you're someone without a legacy. So I have Dad's last name."

"Is that why you don't…want it? To take over the Coven after Vivian?"

"It's a reason."

It was more than what I knew or could have guessed. "I'm not going to promise anything about it."

"We have time to figure out what we're going to do. I think we all need to talk it over with Grandmother."

"That sounds like the bare minimum of what we need to do."

"And if nothing else, you have all of this to give you a crash course in coven leadership."

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Ah. So that was his reason for voting for me all those weeks ago. I figured there was one. Despite everything else, Jarec did seem to think his actions through. Even so, I wasn't sure this would equal the lifetime Jarec had.

"I don't know if leadership is for me."

"Meh. You're doing fine from my perspective. Wish you'd talk to us about whatever's on your mind though," he grumbled that last part as he took a sip of tea. Before making a face and reaching for the little brown cones of sugar. He didn't go full Mom about it, only adding a perfectly reasonable one.

"Ah. Is that what you're upset about?" I should have guessed Jarec was going to notice. I would need to work on that.

"Kind of?" Jarec straightened up in his chair only to shift his posture to be slouching sideways and resting one arm on the table, the other on the back of the chair.

"Just…something Red said that's been bothering me."

"You haven't even told me and it already sounds bad."

I took a deep inhale. How was I supposed to even begin to explain? "I think…Red's not telling me details in an attempt to protect you guys."

Jarec didn't say or do anything at first. Frozen still like a buffering video. I counted five seconds before he finally moved. "Of course she knows who were going after. She's…"

"Me. In the near future. And I think she won't tell me names."

"Because if we know then we'll go after them directly. And she doesn't think we can handle it?"

"That's the impression I've gotten."

"Then it has to be a professor. Another student, even one with their real color, we could take as a group."

"Yeah," I was only mostly sure, but if he was completely confident…that spoke poorly of our odds to change anything.

"And it's someone we know."

Was it? There was a lot of staff we didn't know. But Jarec had a better source of information. "Or at least someone we could find out about easily enough. I mean…I doubt there's staff Vivian doesn't know about."

"Asking would tip her off that we know more than we should. She'd ask details. And lying to her is risky. She'd see through me, but you might have better odds."

"Maybe. Do you think we should risk it?" I was doubtful, but if he thought it was a good idea…

"I'd feel better if we found out where Death's Echo is. Then Grandmother would have something to work with."

"Same here."

"Has Red told you if Hope finds it?"

"No. She was careful with her details. No mention of Hope at all."

"So it could go either way. Either Hope finds it and that's how she knows, or Hope doesn't and there's a disaster."

"Yeah."

"When did she tell you this?"

"Friday."

"That's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was almost expecting you to say it was three weeks ago."

"No. Friday was the first time seeing her since…finding out. I might have yelled at her a bit."

"She's you."

"Well apparently I can be a bit insufferable."

He took a slow sip of tea despite the fact he looked ready to start laughing. Which might have been fair, this entire situation was ridiculous. "Present you is fine. Most of the time."

He wasn't quite in range for me to hit him, so I settled for glaring a bit. I don't think he actually noticed though. The lack of him laughing at me for it was a dead giveaway.

"So you have no clue what she's doing or what her end goal is."

"Not really. But I'm confident in why she's doing it." It was the only thing I had any certainty about.

"Protecting us. Not you, but the rest of us," Jarec commented. "I wish you'd try to look after yourself more."

"I have been. That's what the training with Vivian is for. Right now I can't even really defend myself against a bug, let alone a wraith. And I have no idea how much time I have to improve. So I need to improve as fast as possible."

"Sure. But you could look less like you're about to faint when you get back."

"It's not that bad, is it?"

"Grandmother told me you remind her of Aunt Lucinda in her freshman year."

"Is that bad? I thought she wanted me to be more like Mom anyway." Wait. Unless she meant… "Did she mean after…the Exterreri formed?" I didn't need to bring up Merripen or his mother's injury. No reason to. He'd get what I meant without saying that part out loud.

"She's not as worried, but…"

Oh no. "Do you think she might have called my parents about it?"

"Did they seem extra worried last time you called them?"

I groaned and covered my face with my hands. Ah crap. Of course that's why Dad called me so early in the morning. Fuck. I was going to need a better plan for the next call then.

"That bad?"

"Dad called me this morning."

"And?"

"And he definitely knows something's wrong."

"Think he'll tell your Mom?"

"I would be shocked if he hasn't already."

"Are you that bad at lying to him?"

"He notices everything. Getting away with it is nearly impossible. Lying to Mom is much easier. And if they call each other, which I know they have been, it's gonna be a thing."

"Probably. Or you can just talk to Grandmother about it."

"I'm going to have to, next Saturday for sure. Can't have this whole thing get any more out of hand."

"What do you think you're going to tell her?"

"A slightly edited version of what I told you. Which is true. I'm behind my peers and I want to be able to handle myself magically. In case I get challenged to another duel or something."

"Do you think it's possible?"

"We're Dragons. There's no option that's fully off the table as far as I'm concerned."

"There's also the curse. It might not have made you sick yet, but that could change. It turns your blood green sometimes."

How did he know…Fethris must have told them. "Only in small amounts and around that area."

"Still. That means that's a high concentration of something that's not supposed to be there near some important stuff. The sooner you get rid of it the better."

"Yeah. Even without everything else."

"It's probably why she's going along with it. If she thought you weren't at least justified in how hard you're trying she wouldn't be helping."

He would know. He's known her far longer than I have. "I hope so. I'm glad you agreed to talk with me."

"Agreed." He scoffed, "You didn't exactly ask. But I trust you. Plus I wanted answers too."

"I don't want tension here. That's for the rest of the school. So I wanted to cut if off at the source."

"Yeah. I guess that's fair. If I wanted a fight there's plenty of other options out there. Rupert's been getting on my nerves a bit too."

"Uh oh." I wasn't sure I wanted anything to do with drama between him and his boyfriend. But if he wanted to rant I would listen. I wasn't going to give him advice though. That's what Celica was for.

"It's fine. Just a misunderstanding. We'll get it cleared up before the gala though."

"Good luck?"

"You really have no idea about relationships, do you?"

"Not even a little. I was asked out one time and it got me expelled, then I decided to go to school on another continent. Don't ask me for advice."

Jarec started laughing. Probably harder than was needed. "That sounds…catastrophic."

"It was. Complete disaster for all sides."

He was struggling to breathe. "And I thought Russel's love life was a mess."

"I'm glad someone gets something positive out of that. I guess it's a mercy I'm not going to see anyone involved in that ever again."

Jarec's laugh died down to a giggle. He was terrible for laughing at it, but the sound made me feel better. Like we were going to be okay. Somehow.