In healing magic class, Teacher Yi quizzes us on identifying plants and their seeds. A girl moans, “This is so boring and useless.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re bad at it,” another girl jabs at the pots of seedlings and jars of seed on her desk. We’re supposed to match them together. “Yours are completely wrong.”
“Quiet,” Teacher Yi says. “This is an important task. If you misidentify your materials, you could end up hurting your patient.”
Concluding the quiz, Teacher Yi has us sprout the seeds. For each seed that sprouts to match the seedling in front of it, we get a point. I earn 4/5, my highest score in this class so far. The other quizzes all rely on magic and the other girls are all older, but for this one, I just need good eyes.
The bell rings. “Don’t go yet,” Teacher Yi says. “A student has asked me to give an announcement.”
Standing up is a second-year Belhaean girl with black hair in a blue kebaya—a semitransparent blouse with floral stitching and a wrapping underneath—and a purple sarong.
“My name is Lahela Navong. The head potion brewer and I at Mugweed and More are looking for another girl to help us out. You’ll mostly be working weekends for ten coins a day.”
Teacher Yi adds, “Though Lahela is an alchemy student, students from different branches of Elda magic have much to learn from each other.”
I raise an unsteady hand. These days I’m starting to dread having nothing to do on weekends but practice spells by myself in the courtyard while avoiding my mean roommates.
Since I’m the only girl interested in the job, Lahela must pick me.
The bell tolling eight o’clock on Kirday, I find myself waiting in front of the gates to Eulalia’s Square, a district to the north. I haven’t been to this part of the city before. Many of the buildings surrounding the main street are historic guild houses and buildings belonging to the city or other high-profile places.
It’s strange to not be surrounded by people. Most people are still sleeping at eight on Kirday. Even I’m usually still asleep these days. My roommates like to stay up being noisy until midnight or even one, so I’ve become accustomed to sleeping after they’ve gone to bed at that time. I rub my eyes, feeling a bit drowsy. Just because I have a morning shift today didn’t mean my roommates cared to suppress the volume last night.
Lahela still isn’t here… Did I remember our meeting location wrong? She did say wait at the gates, right? Am I supposed to go through them? Or did she tell me to go to the apothecary itself? Where is it? I begin perspiring. It’s my first day, and I might already be messing up!
Finally, Lahela appears at the gates. Greeting her hastily with a bow, I almost apologize, but I stop myself. I didn’t do anything wrong, and apologizing will only look odd. As she greets me, I feel her eyes piercing my dull hair and muddy shoes, but she says nothing except, “Let’s go.”
I follow her through the gates of Eulalia’s Square. Though seemingly cut from the same stone as the rest of the city, the gate emanates a strange aura. I press my hand against a griffin carved in the stone, feeling a sort of magic ebbing within.
Emerging on the other side of the gates, I feel transported to another world yet again. The townhouses of Old Town are replaced by distinct buildings composed of rammed earth, stone, and wood. High gables roofs painted in an array of dashing colors signify certain houses as belonging to different guilds. Flowering bushes and trees grow in various nooks around the district.
Lahela is silent as we walk. Though I feel still feel nervous when talking to people I don’t know, I decide I must try. My sister will be proud of me once she sees me talking as freely as her, and I would kind of like to have people to talk to as well. Honestly, it’s been a little lonely as I haven’t really talked to anyone since coming here. I ask Lahela, “D-do you have a guild?”
Lahela sighs. “Sinister Heart. It’s a long story. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’ve heard of that! Lisong is your guildmate, right? She’s my beast mastery teaching assistant.”
Lahela makes a face, and I wonder if they dislike each other or if I somehow offended her.
We arrive at a three-story building, and we enter the apothecary on the ground floor, a sign labeled Mugweed and More hangs on the door. The shop holds seven rows of shelves filled with potions, creams, and teas, as well as ingredients like various herbs and other plant material, shed scales, claw clippings, clumps of fur, crushed shells, and bottled water from different springs across the region.
Leading me through the shop, Lahela begins detailing the shelving system, which is generally intuitive. Everyday items in front, less commonly bought items further away. Bulky goods are placed on the floor. Delicate or pricey items are stored in glass cabinets near the counter.
We pass through a curtained doorway to a staff room fitted with a dining table and several shelves where Lahela shows me a list of current inventory as well as various logs. We spend the morning shelving a recent shipment of dried mushrooms, then in the afternoon, we deliver a few packages together. Then I spend the last hour of my shift sweeping the floor while Lahela practices sprouting motis grass and commanding them to pierce a cube of melon.
She groans. “It’s difficult to command these, isn’t it? Honestly I find our class kind of complex. I might just not be cut out for Elda healing magic in the first place. I’m exploring branches since I’m not sure which I’d rather choose, but I think I’ll go with alchemy after all—it’s my morning class. Alchemy is more about precision rather than talent, which I seem to be lacking…”
“You seem talented to me. Well, everyone does since I’m not good at magic either…” Then I realize that might not be the most moralizing thing to say. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.” I try to be as encouraging as possible. “You manage this shop—it’s a lot of responsibility, isn’t it?”
Lahela shrugs. “The shopkeeper is my aunt, actually. Haven’t seen her for years, but I bumped into her here and she just gave me the job.”
“That’s lucky,” I say.
“It’s not!”
I immediately mutter an apology and face the floor. Did I offend her? But I thought lucky should be a compliment.
Lahela says, “Look, it’s just that my entire life people called me lucky for coming from a rich family. I’m tired of it! I wish I could get a job myself so I could say I didn’t get help from anyone… but this job pays too well. It’s close to the guild house too. One day though, I’ll save up enough money to open up my own shop. Then I don’t think anyone can say I’m benefiting off my family.”
“Um, I’m sorry…” Though inside I sort of feel if all the money she’s made is from working for her family, isn’t that still a benefit?
“No, it’s fine. You didn’t mean anything by it.” Lahela rapidly replaces her scowl with a smile. “So, what made you decide on healing magic?”
“Um, I guess I want to help people.” I look down at my arms. The bandages are all gone now—they’ve been gone for months—but I can still picture the see-though material covering my skin. Even though I was practically ripped apart, there aren’t any scars. That’s how good Elda healing is, especially when performed by an actual eldaran. “Has anyone considered learning magic then returning home to help their people? If I could return to my village, I could grow crops for the farmers, then children wouldn’t need to endure hunger like I did.”
Lahela shrugs. “I’m not interested in using magic to help strangers who did no good by me. But I guess someone has. But the teachers get mad if you talk about wanting to go home.”
“Why?”
Lahela shrugs again. “I heard some of the officials think if people could return home, they might reveal the secret of magic. Once people caught wind of the serum, they might send soldiers after it.”
It seems like Lahela is reluctant to talk further, because she shifts the topic to school and complains about having to write an essay due Erinday.
When it comes close to closing time, I pack up and begin heading out, but Lahela remains at the table to study for her supplementary botany class.
“You aren’t returning to your guild?” I say.
Lahela replies softly, “No one’s waiting for me there.”
“Why stay in your guild if you dislike it?” I ask.
Lahela looks up from her schoolbook, hesitantly explaining, “In this district, it’s customary to treat your guild as your family, so quitting a guild is frowned upon. And my guild’s reputation is… complicated. I doubt I’d be able to join another guild right now, and renting an apartment is too expensive…”
Peering at her face, I sense a sort of sadness. I debate asking her about it, but I’ve already almost offended her so many times. So I drop my bag and sit in the chair across from hers, pulling out my schoolbook. “No one’s waiting for me at the dormitory either,” I tell her.
Lahela smiles softly. “I’ll brew us some tea.”
With Lahela’s help, I finish my reading homework quickly. Then I practice magic too. She helps me a little potted plant she keeps in the back room. Connecting with a flower, I clumsily command a petal to furl and unfurl, but the shift is so sluggish it doesn’t look like magic at all. Even compared to my classmates, I’m a bit behind. I’m not doing well in my reading class either. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. “I guess we both need to practice,” I say.
“Have you considered joining the herbology club?” Lahela asks. “A lot of girls are Elda mages. And while the club doesn’t demand you to be one, it’s a neat way to get closer to plants.”
“I thought about it…” With a red face, I admit I turned away that first day after I got anxious about meeting so many people.
“Next Mariday I’ll be there. I’ll show you around,” Lahela offers.
“Really? Thanks!” I say.
At the start of Magic Education on Panday, I get my first essay back. A giant red 13/40 is circled on top. More red ink marks up the page, pointing out my hundreds of content, grammar, and spelling mistakes. As I try to read the teacher’s comments—sounding out the letters—the page is snatched out of my hand by someone behind me.
“A 13/40?” Riyani mocks. “You didn’t even punctuate most of your sentences!” She hands my essay to Edda and the rest of her friends, and they erupt in a fit of giggles.
Blushing red, I turn around, pretending I don’t hear them. When class finally ends, Riyani and her friends pass by me and scatter the torn pages of my essay onto my desk. Picking them up and stuffing them into my bag, I dump them into the bin in the hallway. The garbage is the right place for that essay.
In the dining hall, I grab spring rolls and head to my usual spot outside to read while eating when I spot Lahela crossing to the stairs. Should I say hi to her? What if I’m bothering her? We get along fine while working and in class, but maybe she doesn’t want to see me outside of that. But she’s alone.
She steps into the glass stairwell, and my feet move without my meaning to. Suddenly I’m stepping in line with her. “Um, hi,” I say.
“Oh, hello Elodi,” Lahela says. “How’s your morning been?”
“Um…” I recall that embarrassing paper. “Alright… I guess. Are you heading to the guild dining rooms?” I wonder if that’s where Lisong eats. I never see her.
“No, Sinister Hearts isn’t high-ranked enough to access guild dining. I’m just heading to meet my friends.”
“Oh.” My steps falter. She has people to eat with already. She probably doesn’t want me to encroach upon them…
But then Lahela says, “Are you coming?”
Nervously I continue following her until I reach a table. I slide into the chair beside Lahela, sitting across from two girls from Belhae.
“This is my classmate, Elodi,” Lahela says.
“H-hello, pleased to meet you.” I bow my head.
Suddenly they giggle. Did I do something strange?
“I’m Iolana Kouanchao,” a girl says. She nods to her friend, who sits sipping soup from her spoon, careful not to spill on her blue cotton shirt. “This is Bui Hau. The three of us met on the ship from Belhae.”
“T-that’s nice.”
“So did you get your teacher to change your grade?” Lahela asks Iolana.
“No, and she threatened to lower it even more!” Iolana says. It becomes clear they’re carrying on a conversation they had before.
Lahela and her friends begin talking about an anthology of nature poetry Bui Hau had been assigned for her supplementary reading class. After reading the first couple pages, the others liked it so much they decided to buy it too. Getting out her copy, Lahela lends it to me, but within a second of setting my eyes on the lines I realize it’s not something I could hope to comprehend. I only recognize about half the vocabulary, and they’re all arranged in funny orders. I can’t tell what’s happening in any of the lines. Is deciphering this thing what people do for training once they’re experts in reading? I keep quiet while the girls discuss the meaning, as if there’s anything to be understood in poetry.
More girls come over and sit with us. As they do, I realize I’m the only Elthayan girl here. They’re all from Belhae, and some of them squint their eyes at me like they aren’t sure if I’m supposed to be here or not, though none are rude enough to ask.
I expect them to start talking about something more normal, like school, but they split into miniature discussion groups, their voices overlapping each other. While Lahela and her friends go on about poetry, another pair of girls discuss buying tickets for this opera, and yet another trio debate whether their history teacher is hiding something about a war that happened in Erinire since the novel one of them is reading laid out events in an entirely different manner.
Knowing I’d only look stupid if I tried to butt in, and not being particularly interested in any of these topics in the first place, I just focus on devouring my lunch.
Lunch finishes, and the other girls rush off. I stay behind with Lahela as she savors her food. Eventually we walk together to Selathas Hall, where we’ll be attending our homeroom magic classes. Will she chastise me for being so quiet among her friends? But instead, she says, “Sorry, I should’ve done more to explain the poems to you. But honestly, I didn’t understand some of them fully either. It’s really Bui Hau’s thing.”
I’m so shocked at her words that I can only nod. This is so strange. Someone apologized to me, and she seems to mean it? She cares about me not being able to talk as much, but she isn’t blaming me or thinking I’m odd?
“So, I’ll see you at class. And don’t forget our shift this Kirday. Maybe after, we can do something, like enjoy some fancy tea.”
My mouth almost drops open. Lahela wants to hang out? I just nod and slip into my classroom. Why is she inviting me out tomorrow? Why did she invite me to the dinner today? Wait, this is what friends do, isn’t it? Is Lahela befriending me? Why me? It fills me with some sort of warmth.