Chapter 72 - Apologies.
The door opened and Lucia walked into the infirmary, dressed in a plain loose shirt and straight trousers.
Her silvery skin had almost fully recovered, though several remaining cuts still needed a couple of days to close.
The doctor came over to her, and Lucia looked him over by way of greeting, then turned her head toward the bed where Aren lay unconscious.
"How is he?" she asked.
"He's on the mend. Slower than expected, though," the doctor answered.
"Why?"
He turned and walked to the bed and activated the cristocytes, which brought up an image of murky but reasonably readable quality.
The image showed shimmering waves that thickened at a single node and spread out from it in every direction.
"We gave him a type-four restorative serum, the same as you. In spite of that, his Pandorum is in no hurry to restore the body's auxiliary processes. It is concentrating instead on something closer to a rebuilding... I have never seen anything like it before..."
"Explain it in plain words," Lucia said.
"His Pandorum is adapting. I can't say much yet, but one thing was clear to me straight away. This is his first Overload."
Lucia turned to the doctor immediately, then returned her eyes to Aren's sleeping face.
What... A warrior with skill and strength like that has never once driven his body into Overload? she thought.
"Are you certain?" she asked.
"Do you remember your own first time, when your body reached that state?"
"Well... hardly. It was far too long ago."
"Most Conductors who take their first Overload from excessive use of magic recover over several days, and as a rule they spend them unconscious. Even when they are given restorative serums. That is what we are watching in this young man now. Remind me of his name, if you would..."
"Aren," Lucia answered.
"Mm... So. The body of anyone who has taken his first Overload is in what we call a state of shock. The central nervous system is catastrophically overloaded, and the Pandorum works itself to exhaustion trying to stabilize and restore the body's processes. The serum feeds the Pandorum and makes that easier and faster. Since it is the first occasion, a Conductor's Pandorum spends more time and more strength on it. In time the central nervous system tempers and grows stronger, which shortens the recovery after each further Overload. Though as I have said, all of it wears the Pandorum down, and frequent episodes of this kind lead to very bad consequences. In Aren these processes were running as they usually do as well... at first..."
The doctor looked at the image again.
"But once the most vital life processes had stabilized, his Pandorum switched for some reason to an entirely different task, one that no Pandorum in my experience has ever undertaken."
"Adaptation," Lucia said, and underlined the word the doctor had used earlier.
"Precisely. To me this is a true anomaly."
"So he still hasn't come to only because his Pandorum is now focused on something else?"
"So it appears. Although if his Pandorum were functioning as usual, he would not have woken before tomorrow morning in any case. That is why it is hard for me to say when he will truly come to himself. It all depends on when the adaptation finishes."
"Mm... I see. Thank you," Lucia said, with a short nod, and started for the door; the doctor inclined his head in answer.
In the corridor the cadets and Eveline came up to meet her and watched her with concern.
"Eveline... isn't it?" Lucia asked, checking the name.
"Y-yes, my Archon."
Lucia paused a moment, then gave a slight jerk of her head to one side, an invitation to step aside for a private word.
Eveline exchanged a look with the cadets and then followed Lucia.
"So he really did protect you from cruel bullying?" the Archon asked from beside a white marble railing, where she looked out over the garden that opened in front of her.
"Yes," Eveline answered from her right, her eyes on the same garden.
"How long have you known each other?"
"Well... a few months... practically from his first days at our university."
"And what is he like?"
"In what sense?"
"In the sense of what kind of man he is. The cadets said the two of you are good friends."
Eveline thoughtfully lowered her eyes to the railing, where her hands rested.
"Well... he's kind... curious... relatively calm and... honest. There is none of what you meet in the other students in him. He doesn't think about fame or greatness... he simply wants to learn more about this world and about himself."
"About himself?" Lucia said with a sidelong glance at her, and Eveline broke off as she realized she had said too much.
"Uh... well..."
"So he told you that as well," Lucia said.
"Wh-what?... You knew?"
"...at our first meeting... when Aurelius stepped in, Aren said he was here for the knowledge that should help him learn who he is. In his notification of Aren's enrollment at the university, Aurelius also gave a short account of his situation," Lucia answered.
"I see..." Eveline said with relief.
Lucia turned her head a little toward Eveline, took in the profile of the faintly smiling student, and looked back out at the garden.
"It seems he treasures you," she said.
"Huh?..." Eveline said, looking at the Archon with mild surprise.
"You don't often meet a person holding power of that kind who cares about the weak. And with you... he was even ready to sacrifice his own goal simply to protect you."
At that, Eveline's eyes went lower, to Lucia's elbow, and then a warm smile spread over her face.
"Yeah... that's him..."
Lucia drew a deep breath in and out through her nose.
"Even so... it seems I was hasty in my conclusions."
She turned her whole body toward Eveline, and Eveline looked her in the eyes.
"Tell me... how would you apologize to him, if you had made a mistake and were a stranger to him?" the Archon asked.
Eveline was at a loss for a moment, then gave a slight smile.
"I think... words would be enough for him... Sincere words," she answered.
"Mhm..." Lucia said, and nodded, and went on her way.
"Thank you." she added.
Meanwhile the other students, who had managed to recover fully after the incident with Aren, carried on with their own preparations for the competition.
All of them had split into several groups that trained together and helped one another sharpen their skills.
One such group was Ilau, Gen and four more students — Kerar, Yurana, Liva and Eiver.
After exhausting training runs on their fliers, they moved on to sparring practice with magic rods.
Ilau was fighting against Eiver and struggled to push him past the edge of the ring, though the other put up a hard defense.
The rest watched from the side, Gen among them.
He could not help noticing the change in Ilau's behavior.
Standing with his arms crossed over his chest, he studied Ilau's face closely; over the past month it had grown noticeably colder.
"You've noticed it too?" asked Kerar, who stood beside him.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Yeah," Gen answered.
"We didn't see each other for a single month... but when we all met again... I'll admit... it felt as if a different Ilau was standing in front of me," Kerar said.
Gen said nothing and kept watching his fighting friend, who only a month ago had been an insecure fat boy full of complexes and fears.
Now he had lost a great deal of weight, and there was none of that old uncertainty left in his eyes.
"What do you think happened to him?" Kerar asked.
Gen did not answer at once. First he remembered the hurt and the anger with which Ilau had stood at the university doors, when Eveline laughed with Aren in front of him right after quarreling with him. Ilau had already begun behaving differently then. Falling silent more, and sitting with a thoughtful and sometimes grim look about him.
Then he remembered how Ilau had not so much as raised an eyebrow as Gray tormented Eveline, and after that the shock with which he had looked around at the wounded students when Aren hurled Alvazar into them.
"What happened affected all of us. Ilau is clearly too soft-hearted, which is why it hit him harder than anyone," Gen answered.
"Soft-hearted?... He certainly doesn't look soft-hear—" Kerar began, and cut himself off on the last word when Ilau put Eiver flat on his back and started beating him furiously with the rod and driving the impulses into the ground through him.
Kerar and Gen broke into a run at once and jumped onto the ring, where they grabbed Ilau and hauled him off.
"HEY! STOP! ENOUGH!" Kerar shouted, while Ilau fought in a fury to break free and carry on.
"ILAU CALM DOWN!" Gen shouted at him. He planted himself in front of Ilau and seized his shoulders, while Kerar held his arms from behind.
Ilau raised his eyes to Gen, then dropped them to Eiver on the ground, who was struggling to get up.
"Let go," Ilau said.
"No, not until you calm down," Kerar said.
"I am calm, so LET GO OF ME ALREADY FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"
Gen and Kerar exchanged a look, at a loss for a single moment, and then Gen nodded and the other let his arms drop.
Ilau got up, and Gen put one hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes.
"Hey... what's wrong with you?... You can't do that," he said.
"Can't do what? Give it everything? Then what's the point of these trainings?"
"The point is that we train to sharpen our skills, not to beat each other's faces in," Kerar said.
"It just pissed me off, the way he keeps using the same slip and counter over and over," Ilau said.
"And that's a reason to do that to your own friend?" Kerar asked.
"The fuck do you know about it? Huh? You go all out in a fight yourself all the time, so that every one of us ends up face down in the dirt!"
"He does that because he really is better than us. And we take the experience from it and get better," Gen said.
"Oh my god, AND WHAT AM I NO—"
"Ilau," Kerar interrupted, and took him by both shoulders and squeezed them with noticeable force.
He looked Ilau straight in the eyes, tilting his face closer.
"Listen to me. You're running on emotion right now, and you can't go on like this. I understand, it's a hard period, but that doesn't mean you get to behave this way. Go home and calm down. Spend time with your family, eat and rest. Tomorrow we'll carry on training, all right?"
Ilau did not answer and kept looking back at him without giving way.
"All right?" Kerar repeated, and squeezed his shoulders harder still.
"All right," Ilau said, and jerked himself aside and then jumped down from the ring.
Gen stepped closer to Kerar as the two of them watched Ilau walk away.
Two days passed, and Aren opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
When he turned his head to one side, he understood that he was in a room he did not know, where the only sound was the faint noise of the street coming in through the open window.
He slowly pushed himself up to sit and put a hand to his forehead, where a light heaviness had settled, and turned to the bedside table.
A full bottle stood on it, labeled "Chate Wine".
Wi...ne?... What is that?... thought Aren, and he looked around the room and put his feet down on the floor.
He was wearing a loose white shirt and turquoise trousers of light cloth.
He walked barefoot to the door and came out into a corridor that opened onto an inner garden.
At the railing he stopped and saw Eveline with Artus and Olen in the middle of the garden.
"Like this?" Eveline asked Olen, with a swing of the magic sword in her hand.
"Oh, much better already! Now try to carry that same combination on, but with a step away to the left at the same time," Olen said, while Artus watched from the side and chewed an apple.
Aren smiled at the sight of his friends in good health, then found the stairs down to the garden.
Eveline performed the combination; Olen and Artus exchanged a glance and began to clap.
"Bravo! It seems you're not only capable with books, but with a blade too!" Olen said.
"And in flight on a lightsurf," Artus added.
"Ah, right," Olen said.
Eveline gave a smiling bow, and when she straightened she froze for a moment, then cried out with joy.
"Aren!"
Artus and Olen turned at once, and the apple went still in Artus's mouth.
Eveline ran to Aren as he walked slowly toward them and hugged him hard enough to rock him back.
"Oh, hey, easy," Aren said with a light laugh, and put an arm around her in answer.
In that same second Rexy flew in from above, pressed himself to Aren's cheek and rubbed against it and licked his temple.
The two cadets came closer, looking at Aren with relief.
"How are you, guys?" he asked.
"Us? We're obviously fine. But what about you?" Olen asked.
"Well... my head still aches a bit... and I'm also fucking hun—OUCH," Aren failed to finish when Eveline stepped on his toe.
"What's with you?" Aren asked, and lowered his eyes, while Eveline stayed pressed face-first to his chest.
The two of them exchanged a look in awkward grins and sighed hopelessly.
"She's waiting for an apology from you," Artus said.
"An apology?... But for wha—OUCH"
"Isn't it obvious? You and Lucia tore the whole red canyon apart and turned it into an enormous burnt crater, and nearly died yourselves once you got a taste for it. She was terribly worried about you, and that's why you have to apologize to her," Olen answered.
"But... it isn't as if I started all of it... Lucia wanted me to give it everything and..."
"Better to just apologize. I understand, you've probably got very little experience talking to girls, but in cases like this... especially when she really is worried about you... better to just apologize..." Olen said.
Aren's eyebrows rose slightly, and he lowered his face toward the top of Eveline's head.
"Eveline... forgive m—"
"I forgive you," she interrupted.
Aren lifted his eyes to the cadets, who stood with their eyebrows raised in exactly the same way.
"Well... you're lucky she managed to cry it out on the first day," Olen said.
"HEY," Eveline said, and turned to him.
"What? What's so wrong wi—" Olen began, but Artus stretched out a hand at once and covered his mouth.
"We were worried about you too, Aren. But you don't have to apologize to us. We understand everything," Artus said.
"Hey! I understand everything too, you know! I just... wanted to let off a bit of steam..." Eveline said.
"Bwy stwepping own hwis fwoot?" Olen mumbled through Artus's palm, and Artus pulled his hand back at once when he felt the spit on it, looked at his palm with disgust and wiped it on Olen's shoulder.
"Hey!" Olen shouted, stepping aside.
Aren and Eveline laughed, and then everyone heard Aren's stomach rumbling.
In Midar, at one of the markets, Felicia, daughter of Aurelius, stood at a stall looking over the fruit.
"Half a kilo of goldenberry, if you would," she said, and the stallkeeper, smiling, began to lay the berries into a paper bag.
"You are as lovely as ever, my lady," the elderly stallkeeper said, and Felicia answered with a restrained smile.
"Thank you. And please, simply 'Felicia'," she said.
"Come now, don't be modest. You are the daughter of our great Archon of Light, after all."
"And that doesn't put me above you, milady," Felicia replied.
The stallkeeper exchanged a smiling look with her colleague at the neighboring stall.
"Milady? Oh, I'm nothing but an ordinary resident of this beautiful city."
"As am I," Felicia replied.
An hour later, back at home, she left the produce in the kitchen and went through the hall to the back yard, where her own large garden opened out.
She crossed it all the way to the farthest corner and came out on a small open plot with a target standing at the end of it.
She stepped aside, took up the bow lying on the bench and a single arrow.
Drawing the string back, she concentrated deeply until she could hear her own breathing, and then she shot.
The arrow struck the bullseye, and Felicia held her position with her arms still raised and only lowered the bow several moments later.
"A beautiful shot," a voice came from the side, and Felicia turned to see her mother, Lisenta Bright.
"Hello, mother."
Lisenta came over to her daughter, looked her over, then turned to the target with the arrow in it.
"I think you like this more than music," she said.
"Hard to say... I like both music and shooting."
"You know, I used to like shooting a slingshot," Lisenta said.
"What?... I never thought you did anything like that."
"Oh," Lisenta said, with a wave of her hand and a light laugh.
"I was a spirited thing back then. Shot a slingshot, climbed trees and got into trouble all the time."
Felicia listened to her mother with her lips parted and the bow held down.
"Only after I met your father did all of it start to change. I met him by falling on his head, as it happens, while I was running from angry traders," Lisenta went on.
"I... have no words," Felicia said.
Lisenta laughed again and put a hand to her daughter's back and stroked it gently.
"I'm glad those qualities didn't go to waste and came out in you. It reminds me of the old years and gives me its own... warm nostalgia," she said.
"I hope I won't have to run from traders and fall on anyone's head," Felicia replied, which set Lisenta laughing once more.
"All right, all right, let's have another shot instead. Give your mother something to enjoy."
Felicia smiled, took a new arrow, drew the string and shot again.
The arrow drove straight through the first one and stuck in the very center of the bullseye.
"...all right... you're definitely better now than I ever was..." Lisenta said.
The days went by one after another and turned into weeks.
Aren and the others returned to Midar and carried on with the final stage of their preparation, on equal terms with all the students.
The day of the competition was drawing near, and people were treating it as a holiday and planning their affairs around it, while the engineers and the keepers made the main course ready for the start.
On one of those days Aurora Flare, Gray's mother, was on her way to Varian's study.
She knocked, went in and closed the door behind her, alone with her husband.
"You called for me?" she asked.
"How is Gray?" Varian asked, still writing on a sheet of paper.
"Why don't you find out for yourself?"
"You know perfectly well why I'm asking you."
Aurora said nothing and held her hands in front of her, looking at her husband.
Varian put the pen down, raised his eyes to her and leaned back in the chair.
"The competition is in three days. I know he's busy preparing, but it matters to me... that he doesn't do the things that have been causing problems lately," he said.
"You think HE is the true cause of these problems?" she asked.
Varian looked her straight in the eyes, and she answered him with a coldness of her own.
"He's our son, Aurora, and not an instrument for your intrigues."
"Exactly. He's our son. A son whose future matters to me as much as the future of our whole family. Our line. Everything I do is done for his sake."
"We both know that isn't so," Varian replied.
Aurora's eyes narrowed and her shoulders came forward a little.
"It was you who put Magister Voren up to it, wasn't it?" he asked.
"...Why ask questions you know the answer to?"
"To see whether you'd make excuses or lie."
"You and I have been together for decades. And you know I never make excuses. Unlike you."
"And what is it I make excuses for, in your view?" Varian asked, and leaned forward to set his elbows on the desk.
Aurora walked slowly toward him and braced her palms on the opposite edge of the desk so that her face came right up to his.
"Can we stop asking question after question when we already know all the answers?... You've changed, Varian. I believed to the last that it was only temporary. That you'd grow tired of all this soon and bring back the true heir with a spine in him. But no... time goes on, and you keep sitting in the office... of some Archon of Infrastructure... enduring all this shame and dragging our son and me into it... as if you couldn't care less what we feel."
Varian looked up at her and did not turn his eyes away.
"Have you said everything?" he asked.
Aurora narrowed her eyes slightly and looked straight into his, and she did not move.
Then she raised her hand and laid her palm against his cheek.
"Where is that great man I met once?... The man who fought for his right... for his true role in the Republic..."
Varian was silent a moment, then his face softened a little and he covered her hand with his own.
"My true role... and my right... are here. In this office. And there is nothing shameful in it. There is no disgrace. Only illusions imposed by those who have no chance of standing even where we stand. You and Gray have to understand that... because I love you both. And I have never once been indifferent to what you feel."
Aurora went on looking at him without a change in her face.
"Do you really care about us?" she checked.
"I do."
"And you love us?... You love me?"
"I do."
"Then prove it," she said.
Varian tilted his head slightly to one side, and Aurora climbed onto the desk toward him and settled onto his lap, her thighs to either side of him.
Her arms wound around his neck, and her face came within a centimeter of his own.
"Show me how much you love me... and then I'll believe you... and perhaps I'll understand you," she said in a whisper.
Varian gave no answer and put his arms around her in return, and then they met in a kiss that passed smoothly into foreplay.
For the first time in a long while Varian's study filled with the sounds of passionate sex, and through all of it he did not see Aurora's eyes turned aside, her true intentions hidden from him.