15.

Vivian Topaz stood ridged as she waited in a row facing Tiara and half a dozen other strangers. An hour earlier, she had been suddenly pulled aside by the mustached man, Darius. He told her the time had come to receive tutors. She immediately wanted to tell Lynn first but Darius had grabbed her by the arm and all but dragged her out to the gazebo despite her protests. Tiara spoke giving, what from Vivian paid attention to, a long elegant speech about how fortunate they were to be permitted into the upper floors of the library and how that gift should never be taken advantage of in a way which could cause trouble for those allowing them access.

After an eternity, she released a breath as she spotted Lynn limping over to them in a reckless pace for the cripple. She returned her eyes to Tiara, who seemed to be glaring daggers at Lynn, a unique look usually reserved for Vivian. She couldn’t hold back a smile. At least she wasn’t alone in Tiara’s ire.

Lynn stopped at the end of the line next to her. He appeared exhausted.

Vivian opened her mouth slightly with the intent to whisper her relief to him but as she did Tiara began speaking. “I see Lord Jet has decided to join us after all. Curious, I never took him for the type for tardiness. I’m disappointed.” Tiara’s eyes didn’t leave Lynn as she continued rambling about how honored and privileged they all were to be here. Finally, she began pairing individuals up.

“Vivian and Owen,” she called out, not even bothering to look up from her parchment.

A muscular man stepped forward from behind Tiara and gestured with his head for her to follow him. She did so and picked up a musk of body odor as she trailed behind him. Owen wore the same clothing as the others but he seemed grittier and she noted patches of dirt on the knees along with stains in the armpits. Glancing behind her, Vivian saw Lynn walking away with an elegant man. Lynn’s tutor seemed immaculate in contrast with the opposite of Owen. But, similarities also presented themselves in the two individuals. Something about their facial features.

“Why are you looking back there?” Owen’s gruff tone caught Vivian’s attention.

“Oh, I was just looking at my friend, Lynn.”

Owen grunted and began to walk away. “I don’t have anything to teach you. You can go join him now.”

“Wait! You’re leaving? Aren’t you my tutor?”

“Yes. You know more about being a Mystic than I ever will. Not only am I not interested in helping you, I also can’t.” Owen didn’t look back as he continued on his way.

Vivian hesitated before deciding to follow. She didn’t want to be alone and so she traced his steps as he went down the side of the mountain on what seemed like a goat trail. As trail weaved around and Vivian thanked the Silts that she decided to wear more practical footwear that morning. The boots she wore were the epitome of unfashionable as they camouflage with the mud underfoot. When she picked her outfit for the day, hadn’t known she would be called into a meeting with everyone, she had intended to just take her meals and stay in Nyx’ quarters for the day. The Silts knew it was more than dark enough to wear whatever she wanted in there. The boots had embarrassed her in the meeting but they were by far her most comfortable footwear, the leather soles weathered in after years of wear matching the arch of her feet perfectly. A memento from another life.

The bottom of the mountain sprawled out into streets and alleyways of a forgotten city. Owen must have known she was right behind him but he never bothered to turn around and look at her as she stalked after him unstealthily. He led her to a dusty amphitheater which must have stood there for hundreds of years.

Owen went down to the pit and opened a large wooden chest from which he removed pieces of a life size wooden dummy which he proceeded to set up. Once assembled, he removed a wooden staff from the chest and began to whack the dummy. It took Vivian a bit of time before she realized he followed a strict pattern of methodical strikes with the wooden staff but once she noticed she couldn’t un-see it. After a while, he stopped, looked up at her sitting in the otherwise empty rows, frowned, and approached.

“Why are you still here? I told you to leave.” He stank and large damp spots on his cloth shirt now emerged under his arms and his collar.

“I don’t know where else to go. And I like watching. It’s relaxing. Is that okay?”

“Do as you please. It’s your time tossing away.” Owen trudged back to his place and resumed striking the dummy. He changed his stance and began an entirely different, more defensive, pattern that took Vivian a while to understand. But, just as she figured it out, he changed it into a combination of the two fighting styles. The staff in Owen’s hands began to blur as she lost focus.

She was awoken hours later by Owen’s less than gentle nudge. The sun long descended in the horizon, she saw him illuminated in the dim moonlight. He had removed his shirt revealing his incredibly hairy bare chest which glistened with sweat. Not an appealing body, it even be mistaken for being chubby if not for the underlining of muscle which gave power to his build.

“Oh,” she said. “I fell asleep. Sorry.”

“You should have gone back to your chambers and slept there. Likely more restful. Do you know the way back?”

“Um…I guess now that you point it out, I don’t.”

“You’re too trusting. I might have easily abandoned you in the dark.”

“Thank you.” Vivian rose to her feet too quickly and felt woozy as the world swirled around her. Owen grabbed her shoulder to steady her.

“Thank you,” she repeated.

They started back the way they had come from in silence. She felt too drowsy to speak and she suspected the same from Owen. Finally, the silence was broken by a familiar voice coming from an alley.

“Vivian Topaz,” Rin called out to her, stepping out of the dark alley. His gray skin and white hair seemed to glow in the moonlight. “Fancy meeting you here. And alongside Owen the Ox no less. How’s life Owen? It’s been a while.”

“Fine.” Owen turned away from him.

“What’re you two doing down here?”

“Owen was assigned my tutor so I came down to watch him practice fighting,” Vivian answered.

“Really? Are you going to teach Vivian how to fight? She’d be a squire to a squire. Owen the Ox and Vivian the Vicious. Hmm…maybe that’s not right. Vivian the Vindictive? Vivian the Versatile? Vivian the Victorious? I don’t know, definitely something with alliteration.”

Owen pulled his shirt back on. “She’s not interested in fighting. She fell asleep watching. Same as all women. She has her Mystics to keep her safe.”

“Ah, Owen, give her more of a chance. Placing others into boxes of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ only hinders your sight of the world. Vivian might surprise you,” Rin said. “Or maybe not. Sometimes people are exactly as you expect they’d be. You never know.”

“Do you want to fight?” Owen asked Vivian with a dull look in his eyes.

Vivian considered the question. She felt the immediate temptation to blurt ‘yes’ just surprise Owen. And his routine did look fascinating in some ways, she had watched boys fight with sticks back in her village but never any performances like Owen’s. But…she didn’t want to bother him either. He seemed to have a routine and she didn’t want to interrupt his schedule.

“I don’t think so. It…it wouldn’t be ladylike would it?”

Owen snorted. “Just like I thought. Needlework better suits your pretty hands better.”

Vivian turned her face away to hide her embarrassed flushed face. Her gut turned. Why couldn’t he just like her? Had she unknowingly done something rude or insulting? At first he seemed to have just a pent up hatred for the universe but he didn’t lash out at Rin. Only her.

They continued up to the castle and Rin began humming an unfamiliar tune. Growing up, she had made a hobby of memorizing every song she heard down in the common room of her mother’s brothel. But, as much as she scoured her library of memories filled songs she had spent years building up, the song completely eluded her. She internalized it, memorizing the tune.

Finally, Vivian turned to ask him the name of the song. But, the moment she did so, she realized both he and the tune disappeared. Once again, she walked the abandoned city alone with Owen.