Chapter 26 | Ravinica

Chapter 26

Ravinica

I KEPT REPLAYING GRIM'S parting words that night—while eating in the mess hall with Randi; chatting distractedly with Dagny at Nottdeen Quarter; even before I fell into a deep, bone-weary sleep from my long day.

"You'll be fighting me."

Dagny was saying something about how we'd need to go into Isleton over the weekend to get my new clothes, since the first week of classes was turning out to be so busy.

I nodded along. I felt like a zombie.

"You'll be fighting me."

I hated the combat trial meant I would have to fight the only man I truly felt I understood here.

At least I knew it wouldn't be to the death. Right?

I tossed and turned in my bed, yet even Grim's ominous words weren't enough to keep my droopy eyes from closing.

I awoke feeling refreshed, and realized I'd gone to sleep relatively early. I had the first few hours of morning to myself, which was a nice break from the swiftness of the academy's pace. Vikingrune had been beating me over the head ever since I got here. Or at least its students had.

Dagny had a stack of notebooks on her front desk in the lobby of Nottdeen. They were colorful, with cute covers. Her special pile of notebooks.

Knowing I was heading to Dorymir Hall for History & Tomes first, I wanted to be prepared, since I hadn't gone shopping yet.

I asked Dagny, "Can I use one of your notebooks? I'll pay you back."

She frowned at me like I'd suggested a grave injustice. With a solemn headshake, she put a hand on the pile. "We do not write in the special notebooks, Rav."

I tilted my head. "Huh? There's like twelve of them there."

"Each with its own history and significance."

"Why do you have them if you don't write in them?"

"They are trophies to be admired."

I chuckled. She didn't laugh. Then I scratched my cheek and winced. "Oh. You're not joking."

She stood from her chair. "You will understand once you embrace the scholar inside you. Here."

I smiled wryly. Dagny was certainly a peculiar one.

She bent down and picked up a plain yellow pad from behind the desk, then slid it over to me. "This should work."

I shrugged and accepted the hard-earned gift. Snagging a pen from the pen-mug on the table, I said, "Are the pens special, too?"

Her frown deepened. "Juvenile."

I winked, she smirked, and I said my thanks and set off. I didn't run into any trouble on my way to my first class. I had a bounce to my step, eager to get the learning started. To "embrace the scholar inside me," as Dagny put it. I'd eaten in the mess hall early, practically before anyone had woken up, so I was ready to go. I'd had my fill of coffee and I was buzzing.

Students were trickling in, dragging their feet.

I noticed one initiate was already seated at the front, same position as yesterday: Magnus Feldraug.

Hurrying down the stairs to the first level closest to the stage, I plopped down next to him. Then I peeled the first page of the yellow pad back and set it on my lap.

Magnus lounged in his seat, head tilted on the top of the seatback as he stared up at the high-vaulted ceiling and looked utterly bored. "Morning, silvermoon."

I smiled over at him, though he didn't look at me. It gave me a chance to admire his pale, gaunt face, and memorize all the dips severe cuts of his jawline. "You know, everyone seems to want to give me a nickname here, but I think I like that one the most."

"I'm glad to hear it." Magnus glanced over at me with a thin brow meticulously perched. "You seem chipper today. How's your calf?"

I looked down at the scrap of cloth wrapped around my wound, and shrugged. "Forgot about it, honestly. I think it's healed."

"And your side? Your face? Your arm?"

I leveled my gaze at him. I get it. I'm getting my ass kicked over here on a regular basis. I thought of the corniest joke possible and said, "You should see the other guy."

He snorted, giving me a hint of a smile. It was the most I was going to get out of him. "True. Astrid only got out of the infirmary late last night."

"How do you know?"

"I keep tabs on people I don't like."

"Have any tabs on me?"

"Blank slate. Nice try."

I tapped my pen against the pad on my lap. Our eyes locked for a bit too long. His gray eyes were fascinating, almost light blue in texture.

I glanced away first—at his customary trench coat, then the tattoos peeking out of the cuff along his wrist. "You still haven't shown me your tattoos."

"You've never asked."

"Well? Can I see them?"

"Not here." With a wink, he turned away from me to face the stage as Hersir Thorvi stepped onto the platform.

Thorvi's huge glasses were extra reflective of the overhead lights today. It cast a glare toward me.

Out the corner of my mouth, just before the professor started speaking, I said, "You and Arne talked yesterday about doing something this weekend. I want in."

Magnus seemed surprised. I could sense him staring at me as he said, "You don't even know what we're doing."

"Exactly. That's why I want in."

"Daredevil, are you?"

I shrugged nonchalantly.

"You'll have to talk to Arne," Magnus whispered.

"Why? Does he lead you around like—"

"Excuse me, Initiate Linmyrr, am I boring you?" Hersir Thorvi asked from the stage.

I blushed like a tomato. I hadn't realized she'd started lecturing. "Erm, no, ma'am. Sorry."

The professor went back to her spiel, pacing to the other side of the stage. She moved to the chalkboard behind her to write on it.

"No, you infuriating girl," Magnus said, returning to our conversation like he hadn't been interrupted. "Because I won't . . . be there."

"Where?"

"Nice try."

"Initiate Feldraug," Hersir Thorvi called out over her shoulder, her chalk pausing on the board. Damn that woman has some good hearing. "I don't care if you're undead or unfed, you're being uncouth. Do I need to separate you two like children?"

Students behind us snickered.

Unlike me, Magnus didn't blush. I wasn't sure if he was capable of it. "No, ma'am. Apologies."

Thorvi turned back to the board.

Magnus glared at me. "Talk to Arne."

With that, I picked up my pen and pad and started to write as the Hersir finished her schematics on the chalkboard. She stepped away from the board and gestured at the two names: The King Who Saw , and The Deceiver in Gold.

"As I told you, we would be revisiting these two men. They are integral to Vikingrune Academy's history," Hersir Thorvi said. She pointed with her chalk at The King Who Saw . "King Dannon, leader of an abundant human kingdom." She pointed at The Deceiver in Gold. "Lord Talasin, a royal Ljosalfar elf who inhabited a kingdom in the world of Alfheim."

Ljosalfar. Light elf. I wrote the names and words down. I knew the nine realms from my own studies, and knew that Alfheim, home of the elves, was supposedly close in distance to Asgard and Vanaheim, the lands of the gods. Their vicinity to the gods was to show how they were a favored race among the pantheon of our people.

Jotting down my notes, listening intently, I quickly forgot about my not-so-clandestine conversation with Magnus. I became engrossed in Hersir Thorvi's tale, believing that learning all I could here would somehow aid me in what I wanted to truly know.

"These two were once allies and, more importantly, friends. Stalwart defenders of one another and their lands. This, of course, would not last." Thorvi cleared her throat. "Smashing their names together was the uncreative attempt we made at naming their war: the Taldan War, as our interruptive friend Magnus here so expertly told us yesterday."

I chuckled, but it was partly because of Thorvi's delivery more than her making fun of Magnus. Nonetheless, I caught him glaring at me again, and ignored him with a small smirk on my lips.

The Hersir continued. "It was during one of their wars together that King Dannon and Lord Talasin discovered the Runesphere. This, of course, is the legendary magical artifact believed to be where our runeshaping powers stem from."

I blinked, writing furiously. Glancing over my shoulder and to my right, it seemed I was the only one taking such tidy notes.

Though Thorvi had said "of course," this was news to me. I'd never heard of the Runesphere in my life, even from my studies at Selby Village. Just shows how inadequate and incomplete our records are in that tiny carved-out section of the world.

I wanted to know more about the Runesphere, but Thorvi was already moving on. She said, "We will have plenty of time this semester to dive deeper into the mechanics and focal points of the Taldan War. For now, we're giving it a macro look. Because there is a point to this story."

She continued pacing, continued talking with her hands stuffed behind her black robe. Her frizzy hair bounced as she moved.

"King Dannon and Lord Talasin were allied because of Dannon's marriage to Talasin's elven sister, Lady Amisara. Their friendship and kingdoms were strong. Midgard and Alfheim prospered together.

"However, the Runesphere became a point of contention. The elves, being the magical folk they were, studied the artifact and realized its true power before the humans did. As such, Lord Talasin wanted to keep the sphere in Alfheim. The elves, being the greedy people they are, wanted to hide and cloak the Runesphere from Dannon and the humans, who had just as strong of a claim to the Runesphere as the Ljosalfar."

Hersir Thorvi stopped pacing and faced the students, dipping her head to stare over the rims of her huge glasses. She had a severe expression on her wrinkled face. "King Dannon was given the moniker ‘The King Who Saw' because he had a vision. His prophecy showed the elves bringing great destruction to Dannon's kingdom, enslaving his people. A heart-wrenching betrayal by his friend and confidant, Lord Talasin."

She lifted her chin defiantly, shuffling away down the stage. "So, Dannon did what any caring leader would do and took the fight to the elves before they could bring it to us. The alliance was shattered, the Runesphere was lost to Alfheim, and the elves became our enemies. Ljosalfar and Dokkalfar elves alike—we can trust none of them after they showed their greed and true colors. They shut us out of their world."

She finished her spiel without ceremony, and faced the class once again.

I furrowed my brow and raised my hand. When she called on me, I said, "How can we know King's Dannon prophecy was true if he, uh, jumped the gun and preemptively attacked them?"

Some students hissed behind me, not enjoying my rhetoric.

"Preemptive strikes are crucial in war," Thorvi said. "While we cannot know for certain, Initiate Linmyrr, other visions from the King Who Saw were recorded in painstaking detail during his lifetime. Visions that came true. So we can deduce the facts."

I still wasn't convinced. "But if we don't know for sure , then couldn't the Taldan War have been caused by a huge . . . misunderstanding?"

Her hands came out from behind her back, forming a steeple in front of her. She showed no fury or disdain at my prying questions, yet her stare unnerved me all the same. "I appreciate your desire for the truth. Digging deep, even on the most basic truths of our shared history. That will suit you well moving forward, Ravinica."

I smiled demurely. "Thank y—"

"However," she said, raising a finger to cut me off. "One young woman's rebellious spirit does not displace, disprove, or negate the hundreds of years of learned history of our people, scrawled by dozens of acolytes and scholars in that time. You are not the first to ask such questions, and I don't blame you for them."

My brow furrowed, deep lines forming in my forehead. "My . . . rebellious spirit, ma'am? It was just a question. Like you said, I'm only digging for the—"

"It's in your nature, dear girl."

My head reeled. This professor had known me less than forty-eight hours, and she could predict my "nature"? I shook my head adamantly. "No disrespect, Hersir Thorvi, but I'm not following. How do you figure?"

She splayed her hands out in front of her like it was the simplest thing, a look of pity on her face. "Well, because of your blood, of course. You're half-elven yourself, no? It would only serve that the elf inside you motivates you to push back against our history—to whittle the truth down in order to satisfy your cursed bloodline's perverse understanding of the world."

I was too shocked to speak. The whole class fell silent as my mouth dropped, though I heard a few quiet murmurs and chuckles coming from initiates behind me in the rows.

I blinked wildly, and Thorvi simply gave me a kind smile. "You will see the records for yourself, in time, Initiate Linmyrr."

She turned around to continue pacing, to answer another student's question.

My shoulders slumped. Everything faded around me—her voice, the shuffling of her feet, the sounds of the dozens of students in the grand hall.

I realized I wasn't going to get a fair shake here, no matter what I did. My cursed bloodline has followed me here . I wasn't going to change anyone's mind, because the hatred for elves—and the half-elves people called bog-bloods as a slur—was so ingrained in Vikingrune culture.

The pep and bounce I'd had earlier crashed and burned at my feet. I hung my head, relegating myself to my fate—not even being able to ask a fucking question without having my motives, my logic, and my damned mind questioned.

My dazed sorrow turned into heated anger. I gritted my teeth together, spiraling in the flames—

And something cool and startling landed on my hand in my lap, resting on my knuckles. It doused the fire inside me as quickly as it had started. It was an odd sensation.

I glanced down and saw swirling blue tattoos stamped on elegant, spindly fingers. Slowly, my gaze shifted left, to where Magnus sat and had reached over to . . . console me?

"Don't worry, silvermoon, you're not the only one whose blood has damned them." His voice was low, promising, yet still lacking any emotion behind it. His gray eyes said nothing to me when I looked into the vacant expression there, yet his gesture said everything.

I wasn't sure what he meant about his blood damning him, other than that he was allegedly undead, and maybe, therefore, bloodless.

A small, sad smile cracked my lips. "Thank you, Magnus."

He nodded once and pulled his hand back. "Don't forget to talk to Arne."

My brow arched. He said no more. I tried to turn away to listen to Hersir Thorvi's lecture. I was confused why he would mention Arne again, at a time like this . . .

Unless it has something to do with what we're talking about—my bloodline, Vikingrune history, something like that.

Magnus was a bit of a riddle. I knew he wouldn't answer more of my questions. Not now.

I didn't need him to.

A second later, Thorvi's last words replayed in my mind: "You will see the records for yourself, in time, Initiate Linmyrr."

I sat up straighter. My eyes grew a bit wider.

The records room in Mimir Tomes. X marks the spot.

Like I'd imagined earlier, it was a clue to aid me, reigniting the passion of my pursuit for the people who wronged my family name and made people like Hersir Thorvi doubt everything about me.