Chapter 58 - "Other".
The streets of Midar stretched away in white stone and gold beneath the noon sun, light from the heliograph mirrors on the spires lying in bands across the pavement, and between the tall turquoise-glass facades Aren and Eveline had walked in silence ever since leaving the library gates.
Aren glanced at her without turning his face and saw that Eveline was walking with her lips pressed thin and her fists closed, her stride quicker than usual.
"What did that guy want from you?" Aren asked.
Eveline kept looking straight ahead, in no hurry to answer.
"The same thing little kids want when they feel hurt and left out. Attention."
Aren turned his face slightly toward her, knitting his brows.
"I don't really follow you..."
Eveline breathed out through her nose and stopped at a crossing, where a massive magical creature was passing, hauling a carriage behind it — grey-skinned, with thick pillar-like legs, a long trunk, small eyes, and little pointed ears.
Eveline lowered her head slightly while the creature went by, and Aren kept his eyes on her.
"Look around you. What kind of people do you see?" Eveline asked.
Aren looked around and saw Heliosians with silver skin and snow-white hair, and among them a scattering of beige-skinned people with that same white hair.
"They all have white hair... some have silver skin... and some have ordinary skin."
"Right. And do you know what makes them different, besides the skin?"
"No."
"After this break we've got a lecture on the basics of the Pandorum. You'll find out there."
When the way cleared, Eveline walked on, while Aren stood still for a moment, following her with his eyes, then set off after her.
Students spread out across the amphitheater and took their usual places, the white rows filling from the top down in uneven patches as the hum of voices thickened beneath the vault.
Aren was climbing the steps when he saw Eveline, who had moved several seats in from the edge of her row, and the empty seat beside her, which she was indicating with her palm and a faint smile.
He sank into it, and the two of them turned to the lecturer, who was getting ready to begin.
"Today we return once more to the fundamentals of Bioconductivity, and we'll take up the subject of the Pandorum within the Republic, and its influence on the physiology of our people," said the lecturer, letting her gaze rest on Aren and Eveline sitting together, then turning to the board and writing out the word "Pandorum."
"So then, who will give me a definition of the Pandorum?"
Every student's hand went up at once, while Eveline let out a small sigh and traded a look with Aren, who had not raised his.
The lecturer turned and ran her eyes along the rows.
"Amara."
"The Pandorum is a specialized organ capable of absorbing the energy of the Unified Field and transforming it, producing on that basis physical, chemical, and metaphysical phenomena that in unscientific terms are called magic," answered a student named Amara, who had stood before speaking.
"Correct. Albo, tell me what the Spark is and how we came to discover it."
The boy she had named stood up from the middle of the third row, tugging down the hem of his uniform.
"The Spark is what we receive from both parents and what the Pandorum itself develops from in the womb. It was discovered by the First Archon: emerging from Lacus Lucis reborn, he attained complete awareness of his own body and was the first to describe the organ that gives us our connection to the Field, together with the Spark it grows from. Ever since, Conductors of the third level and above have confirmed his description by reading another person's Pandorum directly through touch, so that after thirteen centuries of observation we know its structure more precisely than any other people of Prime knows its own."
The lecturer nodded and circled the word on the board in chalk.
"Correct. And remember why that matters. Other peoples only infer their Pandorum from its manifestations, whereas we see ours."
The lecturer drew two human figures on the board with a third figure, a child, between them, then marked a Spark on each parent and ran connecting lines from them down to the child.
"So then, who will tell me, in the case where two Conductors decide to conceive a child, what two main outcomes can occur?... Uria, answer."
"In eighty percent of cases the child is born a Conductor, and in twenty percent of cases a Null," answered Uria.
"What is the reason a Null is born? Are the child's parents not both Conductors?" the lecturer asked, gesturing at the drawn figures of the parents.
"At conception the Sparks of both parents can come into conflict, which prevents the Pandorum from developing any further. As a result, the child is born with an underdeveloped Pandorum, or with none at all."
"Correct. Extra point for the detail about the underdeveloped Pandorum," the lecturer answered, adding a clash of Sparks between the parents.
"But it's important to note that when a conflict arises between the Sparks of both parents, three outcomes are possible. Who will name each of them?"
Only a few students raised their hands.
"Ian."
"Uria has essentially named two of them already... In the first and most likely case, the child is born without a Pandorum. In the second case, fairly improbable, the child is born with a Pandorum, but a very weak and underdeveloped one..." answered Ian, after which every student, Ian included, turned to look at Eveline sitting in front of them, her hand tightening around her pen.
"...and in the third... nearly impossible case... resonance is possible... in which the child is born with an amplified Pandorum," Ian added.
"Correct. In the event of a conflict, which occurs in twenty percent of cases, the outcome breaks down into three sub-cases. In 99.9 percent of Spark conflicts, the child is born without a Pandorum. In 0.09 percent of cases, the child is born with an underdeveloped and weak Pandorum, and in the rarest cases, 'nearly impossible' as Ian put it, the child is born with an amplified Pandorum. Amplified many times over, at that."
The lecturer drew three more figures, the first with no Pandorum inside it, the second with a small one, and the third with a large one.
"Beyond the capacity for magic and its strength, it's also important to note the physical traits, specifically the visible ones, that a Spark conflict produces. The first is skin color. An ordinary Heliosian has a silver tone with a slight pearlescent sheen, whereas children born without a Pandorum have a beige tone to their skin. There are also cases, however, where children born with an underdeveloped Pandorum have beige skin as well," the lecturer continued, her attention settling on Eveline as she finished.
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Aren shifted his eyes from the lecturer to Eveline, who had lowered her face toward the desk and pressed her lips together, so that strands of her hair fell forward and hid part of her profile. His own lips parted slightly, and he turned back to the lecturer, who was already turning toward the board to continue, when out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Aren on his feet with his hand raised.
Every student turned toward him, while the lecturer narrowed her eyes slightly and Eveline went still, unable to look away from him.
"Do you have a question?" she asked.
"But what about the Archon?... He has beige skin too!"
The hall fell briefly silent, and the lecturer turned back to the board.
"Correct, and that's a good observation. The Archon of Light, Aurelius Bright, is an extremely rare and singular phenomenon," she answered, continuing to write on the board, while Eveline tugged Aren's sleeve, asking him to sit.
"As a rule, only direct descendants of the First Archon, Urian Lumière, became Archons of Light, because ever since his rebirth every descendant of House Lumière was a fourth-level Conductor. Over the last four generations, however, House Lumière produced only third-level Conductors. And the sudden birth of Aurelius overturned the scientific world of Helios, because he is that very impossible outcome, which occurred during the conflict of both his parents' Sparks. He was born with beige skin, with golden hair rather than white, and with a Pandorum at a level Helios had not seen in four generations," the lecturer finished, turning to Aren as she came to the end of it, while he sat frozen, his expression unchanged, unable to take his eyes off the drawings on the board.
Eveline had been watching him from the side all the while, and then dropped her eyes to the desk, at first without turning her head, and only afterward slowly bowing it.
The white university corridor ran from the lecture hall doors in one wide, bright gallery, and Aren and Eveline walked along it once the lecture ended.
"So you were born with a weakened Pandorum... because of a Spark conflict, which also affected the color of your skin..." said Aren, looking ahead.
Eveline smirked faintly and lowered her eyes.
"I like how gently you called it a 'weakened' Pandorum, when the professors are fonder of the word 'underdeveloped'...Yes, you've got it exactly right. I can barely use light magic... only start up devices that run on light energy and put a little charge into photocytes... and that's it."
"Still, that's already something, isn't it?"
"To you, probably yes... except to people here... and to me too... you could hardly call it a 'capacity for magic'... I really am hard to tell apart from an ordinary Null."
"Evie!" a voice called from up ahead.
Aren and Eveline raised their eyes and saw Ilau running up to her.
"Evie! I've been looking for you all day!" said Ilau, then shifted his gaze to Aren and edged closer to Eveline.
"What is it, Ilau?" she asked, while Ilau's eyes moved between her and Aren.
"We need to talk, let's you and I go—" he began, taking Eveline's hand and pulling her after him.
Eveline snatched her hand back and stepped away from him.
"Talk about what?"
Ilau froze for a moment, his brows lifting, and glanced at Aren again, who stood silently behind Eveline and watched calmly.
"Evie... this is important... give me a few minutes..." Ilau said quietly, leaning in a little.
Eveline let a moment pass, looking at him, then turned to Aren with a sigh.
"Sorry... can you wait for me with Rexy? I'll be right back."
"All right," Aren answered, following Eveline with his eyes as she went off after Ilau into another wing of the university.
"I'm sorry, what?!" Eveline burst out, hands on her hips, her head craned slightly forward.
"L-listen, Evie! You know yourself how everyone here treats... others... You hanging around with him — it isn't going to end well!"
Eveline sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and shifting her weight onto one leg.
"And what do you suggest? Hm?... Cut him off? Steer clear of him and shun him like everyone else? Just because he isn't from our republic?"
Ilau said nothing, the corners of his mouth slowly lifting into a nervous smirk.
"You have got to be kidding me..." said Eveline, raising her brows.
"Neir and the others agreed to invite you!" Ilau blurted.
Eveline went still, standing there with her mouth slightly open.
"I... talked to them... explained everything to them and... they agreed to invite you to our group training session today..." he went on.
Eveline let out a laugh with a jerk of her shoulders, turning her face aside for a moment.
"Are you serious? Your new friends agreed to take me into their little student circle?...Really?"
"Well... actually so far they only agreed to the one—" Ilau began, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away.
"It doesn't matter, Ilau," Eveline cut in, and he looked straight into her eyes, which had gone serious.
"Did you really think that after you told me how you begged your new friends for a spot for me... I'd drop Aren on the spot and go running happily over to you?..."
"N-no, Evie... I—"
"THAT'S ENOUGH, ILAU." she growled, leaning closer, and Ilau went rigid at once.
"I already told you I don't need your help. I'm sick of your pity and your pretend support, all of it just because you had no friends and I was the only one here who didn't mind having at least one!...Oh, right... you already have new friends now... which is why you started drifting further away... and spending more of your time with them... because who's going to spend time with an outcast when you can live a proper student life, right?... And now that for the first time I've got someone who honestly understands what it's like to be 'other,' suddenly you start playing the noble friend who wants to 'keep his friend from becoming even more of an outcast'!... But open your eyes, Ilau! I'm already an outcast! There's no more or less of it here! I'm a damn Conductor with the abilities of a Null!"
"Evie, please calm d—"
"Tell me, Ilau. Why?... Why are you doing all of this?... Just go and live your proper student life with your new friends... why waste your time on me?... Or are you afraid you won't fit all the way into your new circle, and you need a plan B so you don't end up alone?... An outcast like me?"
Ilau's eyes widened as he found no words to answer, and he looked away.
Eveline went still, her lips staying slightly parted, and then she smiled and dropped her eyes to the floor.
"I see."
"Evie, lis—"
"You know, Ilau... you're right... I know perfectly well myself how they treat 'others' here... because I'm 'OTHER' myself." she answered, turning her back on him and walking away.
Eveline came out onto the university's main square with her fists clenched and drew a deep breath with her eyes shut, then let it out slowly and opened them.
Sweeping her gaze across the square, she found Aren in the far corner by a golden tree and started toward him. As she got closer she saw him standing beneath the canopy with a turquoise fruit he had picked from the branches, while Rexy watched him with curiosity from where he perched on Aren's head.
"Hm... what do you think... is it any good?... " Aren asked, lifting the fruit up to the crown of his head and letting Rexy sniff it, and Rexy only let out a short high squeak and tilted his head to one side, while Aren brought the fruit to his mouth.
Eveline watched from the side in silence with a smile, her weight shifted onto one leg and a hand laid on her jutting hip, one eyebrow raised.
Aren bit down and chewed slowly, froze, and immediately began spitting the whole mouthful out, which sent Rexy shooting into the air, where he caught sight of Eveline.
"UGH! THAT'S FOUL!"
Eveline burst out laughing, and Aren turned to her, still smacking his lips at the bitterness, his face screwed up.
"You should see yourself right now... You just went and tried goldwood fruit... that's priceless," said Eveline, covering her mouth, while Rexy's face twisted into a grin.
Aren caught the look on Rexy's little face and both his brows shot up.
"You... YOU KNEW," Aren protested, while Eveline traded a look with Rexy and the two of them barely held in their laughter.
A few minutes later they reached the university gates, where Eveline took a device out of her bag.
"What's that?" Aren asked.
"It's a surfboard. Watch."
Eveline touched the central photocyte and threw the device to the ground, where it unfolded into a levitating board of light, and Aren jerked back.
"WOW! Holy crap!"
Eveline laughed quietly and nudged the surfboard toward Aren.
"Want to try? Just stand on it."
Aren took a step, set his right foot on the board first, then brought the left across and stood on both.
"Amazing..." he said, raising his eyes to Eveline afterward.
"So what do I do n—" Aren began, but the moment he leaned forward a little the surfboard tore off, sending him crashing into the bushes with a yell.
Eveline burst out laughing again, while Aren stuck his head out of the bushes with twigs sticking out of his hair and a stone face aimed at the girl laughing at him.
Meanwhile Ilau stood at the university entrance watching Eveline laugh by the gates, and he clenched his fists and went back inside.
At that same hour, the sand desert rolled toward the foot of the Divine Ridge in one unbroken motion, the wind tearing the crests off the dunes and driving them low over the ground in murky streaks, so that the boundary between sand and rock was lost in the brown air, and the sun hung above the storm as a dim, smeared spot.
Three Erz walked through the storm in single file, holding the cloth wound across their faces, which left only their eyes uncovered. Their faded grey cloaks lashed at their legs, and sand settled into the folds, marking out each figure with an even rust-colored coating.
The second in line turned to the last and shouted a few words at him, but the roar of the storm and the cloth over their mouths swallowed them, and the man only spread his hands and shook his head.
The first looked back at them over his shoulder, repeated himself twice, and got the same answer.
Then the first one stopped where he stood, because a silhouette was coming toward them through the murky wall of sand, and he called out to the others, throwing up a hand in its direction.
The two of them traded a glance, again without catching a word, and when they turned their eyes back to him, their companion's body burst apart in a single instant, flesh flying in every direction.
A dark mass came down from above onto the spot where he had been standing, covering the two who remained with its enormous shadow.
In the next moment, out of the depths of the storm, came the brief sound of screams cut short and a low, inhuman roar.