Chương 146: Chapter 8: A Silver Crown

The journey was peaceful, the weeks passing among landscapes she now knew. Spring, in its final days, displayed a last and exuberant feast of greens before yielding to the heat of summer. When they finally arrived at the gates of the University of Kaelburg, a wave of bittersweet nostalgia flooded Selena. They dismounted. Selena breathed deeply, inhaling the familiar air of cut grass, ancient stone, and the faint scent of parchment dust that always floated in the place.

She headed, almost by inertia, to the Cloister of the Forest, to her old room, the one she had occupied when not long ago she was just another noble student. The door yielded with the same creak. Inside, everything was the same. Pristine, austere, waiting for her. She sighed, a long and deep sound that seemed to expel months of accumulated tension. It was the sigh of one returning to a port after a prolonged storm. She dropped onto the narrow bed without undressing.

Fatigue, both physical and mental, wrapped around her like a heavy mantle, and she slept. She slept through the remainder of that day and well into the night, a sleep this time profound, black, without intrusive dreams. It was a restorative rest, yearned for, stolen from nightmares and responsibilities. An elusive, fragile, but real normalcy. For a moment, in the familiar silence of the university room, everything was as it should have been from the beginning. Or at least, as it could be now.

The following morning, it was not the spring sun filtering lazily through the window that awoke Selena. It was a presence. Upon opening her eyes, blinking slowly against the diffuse light, she found Maya seated on the wooden stool beside her bed, observing her with a mixture of affection and patient mockery. The healer had her arms crossed and a playful smile on her lips, as if she had been waiting for that precise moment. Selena sat up on her elbows, the heavy sleep still clinging to her limbs. —Maya…

—she murmured, her voice hoarse from rest. She brought her hands to her eyes and rubbed them. Upon removing them from her face, she finally heard her. —Countess. My dear countess —Maya greeted. Her voice was laden with words of playful sarcasm that only a true friend could afford. —I missed you, Selena. Truly. I thought you would at least write, you fool. I even bet with Ren. He said you wouldn't, that you were too busy being important. She sighed, exaggerating a comic dramatism. —I lost a silver crown. One.

Entire. Crown. She paused, leaning forward a bit, her hazel eyes shining with humor. —Do you know how much that is for someone who isn't noble, like a certain novice alchemist you know? It's a lot. A fortune in reagents and sweets. Selena could not help but smile, feeling how the normalcy of friendship began to close the most recent wounds. —Betting is a heresy, Maya —she replied. Selena was playing along with a tone of mock severity.

—Have you secretly joined the Path of the Inner Voice, that heretic cult people talk about? Then, her expression softened little by little, almost in a rehearsed manner. —But you can be grateful that House Solendra is buying lunch today. A mug of cold beer, a decent plate… This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She rose from the bed and, in a spontaneous and warm gesture, embraced her friend.

—And an affection that only exists between great friends, which is worth more than all the silver crowns in the kingdom. Maya returned the embrace tightly, and for an instant, the healer's habitual rigidity vanished. Then, as if remembering the protocol of dressing a countess or simply for fun, she helped Selena choose clothes.

They opted for a light gown of a pale yellow color, with small prints of wildflowers embroidered on the collar and cuffs, cheerful and earthly choice, far from the heavy fabrics of the court. Maya helped her with her hair, gathering it into a simple but elegant braid that let a few strands fall over her shoulders. They crossed the river that divided the university city and headed to a bustling and popular inn on the other side, place frequented by students and artisans, not by nobles.

The smell of beer, greasy food, and wooden tables filled the air, but for Selena it was a thousand times preferable to the oppressive perfume of the palatial halls. They sat at a worn wooden table near an open window. Before them, a steaming plate of roasted yuñas with juicy pieces of baked ornitura, and two mugs of blonde beer. Maya took a long draft of her beer, leaving a line of foam on her upper lip which she wiped with the back of her hand.

—Valerian —she said then, her tone dropping a bit, becoming more serious. Selena tilted her head to one side, then to the other. Seeing that she had her attention, Maya proceeded. —He said the Crown had "called" you. At first, we all thought it was just the rumor that they would change your title to Countess. Of course, the news was confirmed about a month later. She paused, her eyes studying Selena's face. —But something in me… said that wasn't all. I had a hunch.

I thought something had happened to you when you didn't return, when I didn't see a single letter. She took another sip, smaller this time. —And even if you don't say it, I know it did. My halom… it isn't very good, as you know, but one night I dreamed of you. You were in a desert. An enormous, empty desert, and the sun beat down on you like a hammer. You weren't… well. Selena held her gaze, feeling a knot in her throat. The precision of the dream, though vague, was unsettling.

—Interesting —she said at last, her voice measured. Maya rolled her eyes and sighed. —You are getting better at reading your own dreams, Maya. But… I cannot speak of what I did there. I'm sorry. She made a grimace, an expression genuinely apologetic for not being able to share the burden, but also for the need to protect her friend from certain truths. Maya nodded, without appearing offended. She had long accepted the blurry but firm limits around Selena's life. —I understand —she said simply.

Then, regaining her lighter tone, she added: —You know, what I have actually made a lot of progress in, truly, is the path of Natural Sciences and Alchemy. I even learned to prepare basic illuminations. A flash of genuine pride illuminated her face. —You know? If you mix certain resins from a luminescent tree with oils distilled from phosphorescent beetles and a copper salt catalyst… you can make water glow an electric blue for a few minutes. Or green, with different salts. It's incredible!

Selena looked at her, and she had to make a conscious effort to contain a laugh that welled up from a strangely nostalgic and affectionate place. Basic chemistry, she thought, science fair chemistry. But here, where magic is real and science is incipient, it must seem like magic to her. It is impressive in its own context. She forced herself to adopt an expression of sincere wonder. —Incredible —she said, making a gesture of admiration with her hands. Maya only raised her chin slightly and arched an eyebrow.

—Can you imagine? Further down the road, perhaps… a metal that burns upon contact with water? It was an inside joke, a reference to metallic sodium that she knew Maya could not conceive. Maya frowned, her alchemical mind working in earnest. —I don't think… I don't think anything can burn with water —she said, skeptical but thoughtful. She brought a hand to her chin; it was not much, but the seconds in which she thought were awkward. —Water extinguishes fire. It is its nature. Unless…

She made a vague gesture with her hand, the universal sign of writing, and lowered her voice. —You know. We used that to alter its nature. Selena could not contain herself any longer. A clear and sincere laugh escaped her lips, sound that caused a few heads in the inn to turn briefly. She laughed, shaking her head, while Maya looked at her with an expression between confused and slightly offended. —I'm sorry, I'm sorry —Selena managed to say between laughs, wiping away a tear of humor.

Maya only looked at her with bewilderment, and a few others did as well. —It's just that… my joke was so absurd. So impossible, and you took it seriously, looking for a solution. I can't get over it. She kept laughing, a genuine relief that washed away part of the nightmare dust she still carried with her. It was good to be back. It was good to laugh at impossible things with a friend who believed that metals burning with water could only exist with the help of a parchment.

At that moment, in that noisy inn, the world seemed a little less heavy, a little more manageable.