The Academy

The training room was filled with the familiar clash of sword against sword. It was the time of year when the tests began and the students were ranked. Elaine and Andrew had been first and second in their age range for years, but as they grew older, they climbed higher in the ranks. Now, they were the top students and everyone knew it.

Elaine gave her dueling partner, Leana, the smallest hint of a smirk. The ginger seemed to lose her footing. Leana was always easily swayed by her emotions, something Elaine didn’t struggle with. The ginger’s feelings made her likable to her fellow students, but weak in a duel. With a swift movement of her sword, Elaine sent Leana’s weapon clanging to the ground a foot away, then held the blade to the pale girl’s neck.

“Get your feelings in check, Leana, I can read your frustration like an open book,” Elaine said smoothly and coolly, as if it was a fact so obvious it was dull. Lowering her blade, the knight stepped off the dueling mat. With a slight hop, she landed on the tile floor, much like a cat; she never stumbled. Sword sheathed, Elaine started to undo her armor, Leana following suit but two paces behind.

Andrew had finished before Elaine had; he preferred to train in the earlier sessions, and the girl often trained in the afternoon. Placing the armor back into her compartment, Elaine set her sword beneath it. Everything within her storage cupboard was neat, her armor clean, and her sword pristine. Elaine had very few possessions in the world, and what she did have, she took care of. Andrew's own armor looked tarnished in the compartment beside hers, and his sword was missing entirely.

Walking towards the exit of the training room, the brunette pushed past the ginger, receiving another glare. Without looking back, Elaine called to the other girl, “What did I tell you about those feelings?”

The sound of loud footsteps echoed down the corridor, causing Elaine to pause just outside the training room. It was a sound that sent a shiver down her spine and brought echoes of distant memories to the surface. Smoke seemed to linger in her lungs, as if trapped there from the fire of her past. The figures came into view, and the child inside of her expected them to be bathed in blood red armor. Elaine waited for them to take hold of her, to break her into pieces like a porcelain doll- just like they had shattered Melanie.

“Miss Elaine.” The familiar voice of the headmistress carried down the hall. The men's armor seemed to melt from the crimson memory to the pristine ivory of the palace. It wasn’t the men who had brought blood and fire to her world; it was the spotless royal guard. It was the very guard she would one day be a part of, that was, if they didn’t catch her with the book.

The thought resounded like an alarm bell in her mind.

“We were just coming to see you.” The dark-eyed woman grinned, the mahogany of her skin seemed to shine in the light that pooled into the corridor, as she motioned towards Elaine. “This is the young lady I was telling you about,” Headmistress Temple’s eyes bright, “One of our most promising students.”

One of the knights bowed his head in her direction, and Elaine repaid the favor with a slight curtsy. It felt odd to do, but it was simple etiquette, and messing up such a simple practice would have been a red flag that she was nervous. The knight who had bowed spoke, low and curt, “I am Tristan, the master of the guard.”

He didn’t seem much older than she was, maybe in his twenties, but his eyes looked aged in battle. “We have heard a lot about you. I look forward to seeing your skills for myself. However, that is not what brought us here,” Tristan's colored gaze bore into her. “The Magicae Book has gone missing, and whoever took it was trained with skills taught here at the academy. We have reason to believe it is here. The librarian has said that the thieves were young, from what she could tell.”

“I thought she knew it all. I’m surprised she didn’t hand you the names.”

“Magic has limits,” The words seemed meant for her, and Elaine tried to keep her heart from beating out of her chest. She was better than this. There was a hint of a smile on his mouth, “Or so we were told.”

“I haven’t seen it around here or heard of any students holding it. However, I will be sure to keep an eye out for it.”

“Thank you, Miss Elaine, that book in the wrong hands can be very dangerous,” His voice became quiet as he spoke down to her, “As you well know.”

Gray eyes flashed up to the knight’s gaze, because she was both shocked and tempted to rip out his neck. He knew far too much, or maybe he was simply implying that he did. Either way, the exchange ended before she could think much more about it; Temple was already leading them onwards. “Thank you, Elaine, I trust you to keep this quiet, of course.” Temple began to speak smoothly, as if she were made of honey.

Tristan brushed past Elaine as he followed the headmistress down the corridor, and his men followed suit. The head knight didn’t look back. Through the air, she caught hold of the distant words of Temple, “We can begin by checking the boys' rooms.”

Elaine walked slowly to the corridor until she knew she was out of their sight, and then she started running. Bounding up the spiral staircase, every possible punishment for stealing the book ran through her mind. Maybe they would burn the magic right out of her, or maybe they’d torture Andrew until he talked. The reality hit Elaine so hard that she stilled at the top of the stairwell of the North corridor, clutching the handrail in the painful realization that if the royal guards found the book, she would certainly be dead. When Andrew would find out and try to stop it, he’d end up dead too. In that moment, standing on the dusty stairwell of the old school, Elaine realized her dream of becoming a Knight of Artharia was dead.

        Swallowing the knot in her throat, she pulled herself together and stepped out of the stairwell into the hall. To Elle, crying was done only in the worst of moments, when the fight was gone, and a person found themselves in the shadows of their own destruction, all alone. It was no surprise that she couldn’t stand Leana; Elaine didn’t know how to sort out feelings, let alone be consumed by them.

        The young knight ran down the corridor towards her room, and with the key in her pocket, she opened it in a clumsy hurry. The boys' dorms were at the other end of the school, and it would take them at least an hour, if not more, to search them all. However, they had plenty of men, and that was a guesstimate. Elaine needed not only time to pack but to make her exit without being noticed.

        Taking handfuls of clothes, she packed the old leather satchel she had arrived with and hadn’t used since. Everything Elaine knew was in that small room; it had been the only home she had known for years, and every passing moment became her last within it. Reaching into the confines of her drawer, she pulled out The Magicae Book, tucking it safely into her satchel. Grabbing her precious dagger, she tucked it into her tunic. The only other item she spared was a bracelet, made of a plain silver band with no charm or jewel, just the smooth, familiar letters of her name.

       

Her mother had said,

The door flung open, shattering Elaine from her momentary memory and causing her to reach into her pocket for the dagger. It was far too soon; she should still have time, but if it was her life or the book, she would fight with everything she had to keep the Magicae- even if it cost her the very air in her lungs. Hands lifted from the shadows in surrender, the voice hushed and quick, “Whoa, don’t kill me- it’s me, Andrew.”

Elaine lowered the dagger, “I thought you were.. Someone else.” The girl reached for her cloak, tying it around her shoulders.

“The royal guard?” Andrew said, eyeing Elaine as she readied herself to run. “You honestly don’t believe I’d let you leave without me, did you?”

Elaine met his words with silence, because she had. Finally, she spoke up, “I’m not having you die for me, or for the book. I will take it and figure out what to do from there. You can become a Knight of Artharia, the guard, just like you dreamed.” Elaine lifted the satchel up and over her shoulder, securing it and avoiding his gaze.

“I’m not going to join the people trying to kill my best friend.”

“I’m not your best friend.”

“Yes, you are.”

“They just want the book; killing me is just a side effect of getting it back.”

“I’m the one who stole it in the first place. I see this thing through. Plus,” Andrew paused as Elaine finally looked up at him, motioning to his bag, he chimed, “I’m already packed.”

“Alright, fine.” Looking at her timepiece around her neck, she breathed, “We have to go now. We have to grab our swords on the way out.”

Andrew moved his own cloak, exposing the swords attached to his waist. Detaching Elaine’s sword from the belt, he handed it to her. “One step ahead of you.”

Elaine took hold of her sword. If they weren’t in danger, she might have even given him one of her rare smiles. “Maybe I’ll thank you later.”

Stepping back towards the doorway, she followed Andrew as he stepped back into the dimly lit corridor. Then, they started running. Bounding down the corridor, they made their way down the spiral stairs until the twists and turns took them into the heart of the school. Andrew and Elaine sprinted towards the kitchen, hearts racing but steps quiet, and they snuck past the working cooks, grabbing what they could as they inched towards the back door. Pushing the wooden door open, they crept into the dusk air. It wasn’t until the wooden door was shut did a single cook glanced up from their work.

The night air was cool against Elaine’s skin, the promise of the dry, icy winter, lingering in the dusk. It was a salve against her burning skin as they ran, side by side, cooling the muscles that were ablaze beneath her exterior. Andrew’s hand sought hers through the shadows as they bounded down the cobblestones, past the willow tree, and back into the silent streets of Norta. The forest path was just outside the city wall. Once they made it to the road, they would be, ironically, out of the woods.

Elaine held onto Andrew's hand as if he were her anchor; he held her to the path and pushed her to keep going. Even as the shouts once more echoed behind them, she kept running. “I think they noticed...” Elaine breathed.

“What makes you say...” Andrew breathed back, cut off by the alarm bells- it was a call to close the city gates. “Oh.. that.”

Andrew’s strides were longer than Elaine’s, and even though she was fast, he seemed to pull her slightly, helping her through the night. The alarm bells rang, chiming over and over again; they were so loud that Elaine’s heart screamed in time with their song, pounding against her chest. The gate ahead lowered, and guards rushed to try and stop the pair as they inched closer to the falling wooden wall. Every step brought them closer to their freedom, but the echo of the gate falling closer to the ground was becoming increasingly clear. They were so close now that Elaine could taste it, the bittersweetness of freedom. The gate was too low to run beneath; if the pair tried to, they’d end up skewered.

“Slide!” Elaine called through the screaming bells, crashing to the dirt, she held her breath. Andrew followed her lead; their momentum sending them painfully, but swiftly, beneath the closing gate. The wood spikes crashed into the earth behind them, so close to Elaine that the air stirred beside her ashen face.

Trapped on the other side of the gate, a horse whinnied in protest, a loud shout carrying through the bells, “ELAINE!”

Silver eyes glanced through the wooden patchwork, set on the man who rode towards the now enclosed wall. Tristan held his sword in front of him, dark hair flying as the wind filled the chaos. He was too far away to stop them now; the gate was shut. Still, Elaine paused in the dust caught by the man’s shout.

Elaine’s mother had said. Now, the ebony-haired knight was caught by the way it had left the guards' tongues.

“Elaine, we have to go.” It was Andrew, shaking her from her trance. His firm hand once again catching hers, the boy helped her to her feet. They were covered in dirt, but it didn’t matter; their feet pounded the dusty path until the trees ahead towered above them, and the shadows of night seemed to grow. In the canopy of leaves, the bells began to fade, until the only sound breaking the silence was their steps and breaths, dancing in time. Even as the silence consumed them, Elaine could hear the distant echo of her name, and on its wings she caught the faintest memory of music.