Chương 8: Chapter 9: Progress

It's been more than a week now, and I'm unsure how Lennick still has hair. All I want to do is rip mine out. Given the number of scrying sessions I've had to help tackle and the three alchemy classes they insist I teach, I'm at my wit's end. These Two-Blade Novices are worse than any insult I could come up with, including that one.

"Feverfew, wood betony, and kava kava. Not java," I repeat for probably the twentieth time this morning.

"If you don't want to be relegated to becoming keepers of the Enclave, you need to concentrate, Han." I wonder if the expression on my face even remotely resembles the inner scream I'm letting loose in my mind. Aarron shouldn't have requested that I teach. This is not something I have patience for. My plants, at least, don't talk back. People, especially these students, are not like plants. Han, with his bright red hair and freckles to match, grins up at me like the younger brother I never wanted.

I swear my group of recruits were far more serious when we were sixteen. It seems like a lifetime ago now. There's a knock at the door frame, and I look over to see Xan standing there, an impish grin on their face, and I remember that not all of us were always serious. Even when almost impaled by a chimera. Xan has not changed. They motion at me with a come-hither finger for which I offer them one of my very best glares.

"What?" I ask crossing my arms once I get to the door. But I can hear snickering behind me, and my last nerve frays before I round on my students.

"You six are treading a very thin line. We don't need to have a Two-Blade Novice class every season. I can fail you all and you'll be relegated to being keepers of the Enclave with no hope of ever actually graduating. Concentrate. And if that damn salve isn't what it needs to be by the time I get back, I'll let Lareny deal with you." A sudden hush falls over all of them. Personally, I'd never had a problem with Lareny. She is a hard taskmaster when you're fooling around and trying to stay a kid.

I wonder, if these kids knew how I truly operate, if perhaps they'd give me more respect. Perhaps it's just that I'm a recent graduate and thus, they don't feel I can teach them much.

"Anyway." I turn my attention back to Xan.

"What gives me the displeasure of you interrupting my class?"

"Come on," they say, their own grin widening.

"You know you're grateful I stopped by. I'm not sure why the Prefect has you teaching." I scowl and tug on my right braid.

"Thanks." Xan runs their hand through their hair, a flash of contrition blinking through their gaze.

"Right. So. The Prefect has an assignment for us."

"Both of us?" I raise an eyebrow.

"You're still recovering."

"Hey, it's been nine days."

"Not that you're counting," I quip back.

"That wound is healed but still fragile; if you get caught and have to run for it, it could tear open again. I'm not saving you a second time." We both know that's an empty threat. More to the point is that I don't know how I would save them again. Total fluke last time. Despite multiple attempts to replicate what I did, I've failed.

"Look, I'm not the boss of things. I'm just delivering the message. Lennick caught me before he went into a meeting with the Prefect." Xan glances in at the class again, who are now frantically working to make the salve they should have been taking seriously the entire lesson. Guess I should be thankful they finally listened.

"Class is done shortly. I'll meet you there."

"I'll wait." Xan has that smirk on their face. The one with a hint of smugness.

"I know." I walk back into the class taking deep breaths so I don't kill my students out of frustration. Their salves are…passable.

"Not bad. Should have been a lot better with this being our second class together. But I won't have you removed from the progression track yet." All six of them heave a sigh of relief. No one tithes to Nightshade lightly. Those who don't make it are kept around the Enclaves because they can't be let back out into the normal world. They know too many of the order's secrets by simply being in one of our Enclaves. So they become, as it were, custodial staff or… Well, that rarely happens.

It's not an empty threat, and not a situation I take lightly. Killing isn't for everyone. Frankly, sometimes, I wonder if it's for me. Though I generally check the file and the history of our targets. Petty killings aren't my thing, and so far, I've not been required to perform anything that riles up a guilt complex too much. But I know I won't always be so lucky. It's part of the reason I kill from a distance. Keeping myself separated from my target is important.

There are many in the order who like to watch the life fade away from their contracts… I can feel Xan watching me as I teach the rest of the class, as I instruct them how to wash out the mortars, and how to seal up the salves so that they'll be able to get as much life out of them as possible. Xan isn't wearing one of their usual grins, nor are they laughing and smiling. There's an undercurrent of melancholy in the shine of their eyes right now.

Maybe it's because they don't think I'm paying attention, though they should know me better than that. Maybe it's because they were sent to watch me. Maybe it's because when they said they'd wait, I didn't think they meant at the door. I clear my throat.

"Class dismissed. But don't slack. My promise stands. If you keep messing around in my lab time, you will fail. And you cannot fail this class and graduate to apprentice, let alone become an Initiate." All of them turn to me with rapt attention. They can't possibly know just how integral alchemy will become. Not everyone has me in their yeargroup like Xan did. Not everyone will have someone they can turn to for help with poisons and understanding plants. Perhaps that's why they have me teaching this class.

Another thing I can blame on Xalin. I've never once asked Xan just what their parents did and where else they might have ended up. Bryony seems like a good fit. The den of thieves. Xan has this mischievous streak that always felt better suited to pranks and thieving than to killing. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Bryony is anathema to me. It's the one place I know sent my father a visitor the night before he and my mother were killed.

Squaring my shoulders, I suck in a sharp breath. For that reason and that reason alone, I will watch what I say when we're called before the Prefect. And I will go along with whatever he has planned. Time is what I need. On the Adept track now, I will gain access to information and histories that I haven't had access to before. All of it is for my end goal. I can do this. Looking up, I raise an eyebrow at Xan, walking toward them.

"Are you ready, then? Aarron doesn't like to be kept waiting." Xan only misses a couple of steps before catching up with me.

"Nice one."

"Nice what?"

"You almost caught me off guard," they say, nudging me softly.

"Might want to refrain from that; if I nudge you, I'll open the wounds again."

"Hey, they're not that fragile. Or I'm not, anyway."

"But you're still healing. Be wiser than usual, and don't provoke me." I'm snapping at them, and it's not their fault. It's Aarron again. I can't imagine what contract he couldn't have just sent myself and Minx on. Or anyone else with me, or just me alone. Xan isn't ready. For some reason I feel bad for snapping. So belatedly I add, "Please?" Xan grins and answers with a nod. I do not enjoy this odd feeling of protectiveness. By the time we reach the Prefect's office, my mood has darkened considerably.

A portion of me knows it's irrational to be this angry about making Xan do their job. I'm also attached to the fact that I kept them alive and would like to not have to do so again. Sevrin and Lennick are leaving as we arrive. The former nods at me in acknowledgement before slinking down the corridor. My mentor takes one look at me, grabs me by the shoulder, and pulls me to the side.

"You can't go in there with your face like a thundercloud. What happened?" I shrug, and calmness settles over me. My usual composure returns. I glance at my fingers and wonder if I inhaled some of the herbs I've been preparing for classes the last two days. It would explain my mood, and yet I've never been affected in this way before. I'm not careless around my plants.

"I simply don't believe that Xan should be sent on any mission for at least another week." There. I said it, and the weight off my chest is palpable.

"Xan has healed more than they should have. More than anyone else would have in three weeks. Xalin is fine to go on this trip, which is one of the reasons why I just spoke to Aarron. You know our Prefect isn't about to send you into danger. Not when we were recently attacked and lost some of our members." Lennick is watching me intently and I can't help but wither under his gaze, even if that inquisitive part of me is wondering what the other reasons are that he was in the office. He's not right, though.

Aarron knew about the chimera, which was directly after said attack. There's something I'm missing. The pieces don't fit. Aarron is, as usual, at his desk poring over parchment reports. The smattering of silver in his hair catches the light as it falls over his forehead, concealing his eyes from view, and obscuring his mood. He motions at the chairs and mutters to us, "Sit. I'll be a moment." I hate sitting in his office, but this time I don't have the blood and mud excuse I did last time.

Looking around, the walls are just as uninteresting as I remember, mimicking the office in the old Enclave. Xan bounces their leg up and down in a sign of nervousness. Something about the way the stone here glistens in the light makes me like it even better than the Enclave I grew up in.

"Now," Aarron says, pushing away several briefings and bringing his head up to look us each in the eyes in turn, "Sevrin has returned with some news and a special assignment we need your specific mixture of talents for." Both Xan and I remain silent, waiting, knowing better than to interrupt. Sometimes we receive communications in ways other than scrying. For a missive like this, it must be something important.

There's a silence that hangs over us for several long moments, so much that I can feel myself begin to perspire. Then Aarron lets out a soft chuckle.

"Your restraint is admirable, Taria. I see your patience has indeed been improved by having to teach." Ah, that's one puzzle piece I was missing. Teaching me patience by making me teach? Not the way I'd have gone about it, but I can't deny its effectiveness. For now.

"It's running out. Trust me," I murmur, not trusting myself to raise the volume of my voice. It's not an aim in my life to be of entertainment value to my superior.

"You need to travel to Mirrati. I cannot spare Lennick, and you need to retrieve a specific plant that only grows there. Whatever happens, guard that plant with your life. Both of you." Aarron's tone is more serious than I've heard, even when he's chastising someone.

"What type of plant is it?" I ask, curious now what could be so important.

"It's rare, and I'll let Lennick fill you in on more of the details. He is confident you possess the knowledge to harvest and preserve the plant, and you stand the best chance of bringing it back to our Enclave intact. We are hoping it will take seed here."

"Mirrati is rainforest territory. It will take days to get there, and the same to get back. I can't guarantee that traveling that sort of distance will allow me to keep the plant in the state required…" Aarron interrupts me by holding up a hand to stop the veritable waterfall of words.

"Lennick assures me that he can get the earth mostly ready, and build a specifically designed habitat for the plant that should allow it to grow here. Our current Enclave and its direct proximity to the waterfalls will help provide the humidity the plant needs." There were only a handful of plants this could be. I wasn't entirely happy about going to retrieve any of them.

"You realize this is an experiment and could backfire horribly on us?" I cross my arms.

"Yes. Worst-case scenario, we continue to wait for Mirrati to distill the flowers and its roots before picking up the finished product instead of having our own resources." Aarron pulls out two envelopes and hands one to each of us.

"The thing is, Taria, I do not wish to have you banished to Mirrati where you won't be on hand to help Lennick with his research. This is the only often-used plant that we haven't been able to grow outside of its original habitat yet." I take my envelope and pause, not having been aware that my own banishment was on the line in the first place.

"Of course we'll do it." It's not like we have a choice is what I think but do not add to the rest of my answer. See? I'm learning.

"Why does Xan need to come with me?" is a question I must ask, though. Xalin shoots me a raised eyebrow. I promptly ignore them.

"Because it's a long journey. I expect you to be mostly paying attention to the plant on the return trip. It's better to have someone with you who can pay attention to you." Makes sense in a way, but I narrow my eyes, not sure how I know there's more.

"And?" Aarron waves the question away.

"Since when would you not simply read your missives, young Five-Blade Initiate?" I blink, not having realized I ranked up twice. Xalin's eyes are trying to bore a hole through me. Clenching my teeth, I force a smile.

"How remiss of me." I push out my chair at the same time I stand up. Aarron relents, ever so slightly.

"There's a nice little side mission there, more along the lines of what you're used to. Think of it as a bonus." The sly grin on his face makes me want to punch him just a little bit. Just a little tap.

"If that's all?" I ask, clearly dismissing the Prefect. He doesn't miss a beat, as usual.

"That is all. Don't hesitate to shower Lennick or Sevrin with questions." Xan sighs as they pull the door closed behind them, and I can see how pale they are under all the pretense.

"You never speak in there."

"Not never." Xan spares me a glance before ripping into the envelope.

"Just not usually."

"How come I can never get you to shut up when you're around me, then?" Because that's the heart of it. Xan talks nineteen to the dozen around anyone else. Just not around Aarron. It actually appears as if Xan is contemplating the answer.

"The Prefect isn't a big fan of mine. Frankly, I think one of the only reasons I was allowed to graduate when I did was my friendship with you." I want to say that we're not friends. It's on the tip of my tongue. But I realize, perhaps for the first time, that saying so would truly be an outright lie.

"Riding my coattails, then." Xan's face crinkles with a smile and they grin, that smugness back in place.

"I knew we were friends." But as they unfold and read their orders, their face pales even more. Almost at the alchemy lab again, I undo my own and read it over. I wasn't expecting the source of the contract, but then I'm used to getting most of mine through scrying. We don't get sealed orders for most of those.

"Should have known the whole 'go get a plant and bring it back safe' was all just smoke and mirrors."

"Yeah. It's more 'retrieve this plant and by the way, while you're there, could you just kill someone, make it look as gruesome as possible, and destroy everything they own to send a message?'" Xan shakes their head. I shrug.

"Look at the bright side."

"There's a bright side?" I nod.

"We get to have some real fun with poisons I rarely use."

"Anyone ever told you you're twisted?"

"All the time." To be honest, it's my favorite trait.