Chapter 11: We’re Learning

No sanctuary could be found in their creator, no answer found in prayer or books of lore. The Twins would sing because none could stop them, and all feared what waited at the end of their Lament.

By the end of the week, Briddy began to settle in, picking up the pace of the Palanquin’s stacked schedule, learning a path between classes and her dorms, and suffering from the heat in the day even as she froze during the brutal desert nights. The temperature wasn’t the only discomfort she faced, the disapproving stares of her teachers whenever they called her name, the whispered stories of her sibling’s escapade, the smirk that Niles and his friends wore whenever she failed– all were hundreds of magnitudes worse than the desert climate. Normal classes she could muddle through, but any that had required her to use Vex ended poorly for all involved.

She did find succor in the company of her Cell, that is, whenever Niles wasn’t around, hovering and ragging on them over every little detail like he was now.

“Bridget, if you’re going to stretch, you should be doing lunges, not just sitting down and pointing your toes.”

Straightening from the leg she had been bent over, Briddy rolled her shoulders and gave a half-hearted shrug. Beside her, Gail was stretching an arm behind her head in an attempt to look like she was getting ready, and Tuck was laid out on a bench, fanning himself with the cudgel he used as a weapon. The small room, a prep area that opened up into the large floor of the Somnasium, smelled of sweat and old blood, a pervasive scent that seemed to be intense even after throwing open a door.

“I’m serious, you’re going to cramp up the second you take a step out there, and if this was a real excursion, you’d be dragging us down.” His voice needled at her, and Bridget had to take a deep breath to keep from snapping.

“It’s not that complicated, Niles. Hit the sack. Hit the sack good.” She shifted, stretching out over the other leg.

“If you hit the sack good enough, it glows green,” Tuck added, lazily waving his weapon around, the bronze handle glinting.

“If we hit it all at once, that is.” Gail finished, swapping arms in her stretch.

Niles began to swell up, taking a deep breath to launch into one of his shouting lectures where he enjoyed heaping the brunt of criticism on Briddy, but someone else exploded before he could open his mouth.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ACID SEEMED LIKE THE BEST OPTION?” The bellow carried from across the Somnasium, which was currently configured to be an open-air arena with a packed dirt floor, not unlike the space they practiced weapon proficiency in, but larger. In the middle, a sizeable, blackened pit was sunken into the floor, bubbling with an unknown blue liquid that was letting off a steady stream of grey gas.

The voice belonged to their current Cell Drills teacher, a stocky woman with long brown hair braided back over the crown of her head. Her broad face was currently a magnificent shade of puce, hands waving in angry swoops as she indicated the disaster zone in the middle of the gym. “I said hit it, not decimate the damned thing! You could’ve hurt yourselves! As it is, I’ll have to reconfigure the room and I hate this accursed thing!”

Standing in front of her was Warrin’s Cell, their faces a mixture of attempted innocence and regret to varying degrees of success. The two currently being berated were Warrin, who had produced a small bomb from somewhere during the exercise, and his mop-headed friend with the bright blue eyes.

“Miltark! What in the Sculptor’s loving hand was in that? Is that gas even safe?”

Looking over at the results of a bottled mixture he had thrown, Briddy saw the boy raise his hand, wiggling it in a ‘so-so’ gesture as he responded to the teacher with an unrepentant grin. Throwing up her arms, the woman stalked away from the Cell, making for a panel in the wall near the main preparation room, the largest of the enclosures that circled the central floor of the Somnasium. Smacking her hand into the bottom –the grate covering the controls sliding back– their teacher began pressing buttons, muttering darkly as around her, everything shifted.

The solid dirt underfoot stretched, making the pit seem to lean at an angle to anyone watching, while the open sky overhead did the same, looking distorted as the clouds marring the blue lengthened. As they became streaks of white, extending across the ceiling, the entire facsimile suddenly snapped inwards with a pop, leaving only a room full of coiling, puffy mist. Gone was the dummy and the singed ground, gone was the sunny sky, all replaced with circulating, fluffy grey fog, sweeping about in wide, obscuring curls.

With a sigh, their teacher punched a few more buttons, sending the gas into a swirling frenzy, striking and coalescing in large columns that swept across the room, revealing strokes of the previous environment like the flick of an enormous paintbrush. After the last of the clouds had cleared, the dirt-packed arena sat in front of them once again, lit by an artificial sky overhead. Sitting in the center was an oblong dummy much like the ones used in Relic Mastery, though Briddy tried to push any thoughts of that disastrous class out of her mind. She had other things to focus on right now, and one of them was silently fuming to her side.

“Sanlaurant! Get your group ready, you’re about to be up.” The brown-haired teacher barked, turning around and roughly leaning back against the wall as though it had personally done her harm.

Letting air out through his lips in an aggravated hiss, Niles stepped towards the missing wall that led out into the somnasium, a cloud of particles swirling and coalescing at his fingertips to form his long, pointed lance. Nearby, Gail flicked her wrists several times as her lips formed an inaudible name.

Moments later, layers of a dark green light began to shoot up her forearms, lying on top of each other like long, pointed sheets of chitin that hardened into a pair of gauntlets at least quadruple the size of her actual fists. Details were scratched into the fists: round, spiked wheels that gave an impression of crude cogs and gears, all intersecting in some unknown carved machine.

Swallowing the lump in her throat that always rose at watching her peers summon, Briddy quietly called to her relic, trying to delicately work her way through the cracks in the wall that always seemed to separate her from a response. Reaching her usual level of success, she looked over to wear Tuck had sat up, an excited grin blooming across his face. Meeting her eyes, he twisted the handle on his club, a pair of points appearing near the top like cautious creatures poking their nose out of a burrow after a long rain. Just as quickly, he snapped the handle back, and they disappeared as he stood, giving a few practice swings at the area around him.

“You ready?” He asked Briddy, gesturing with his chin at her empty hands.

“Yes, don’t forget your training sword,” Niles said, venom dripping from the last two words.

Ignoring him, Bridget picked up the long, bulky wooden weapon that had become her weekly companion, pushing away the ache that rippled across the tops of her arms. Moving upright, she turned to Gail, who was experimentally punching a fist into her open hand, the layers of her gauntlets standing up like the hackles of a cat and slamming down right before the impact.

“You know, they’re magnificent,” Briddy said, trying to pare the envy from her voice.

Gail glanced over, raising an eyebrow as a smirk slowly spread across her lips.

“Your gauntlets, I mean.” She stumbled over the words, realizing that her previous remark could’ve meant something different.

“Eh. They get the job done.” The tall girl replied, flexing a hand open in front of herself as though the check the fingernails under the armor.

“Quiet.” Niles's voice snapped out, back still turned to the rest of them. “Now this is a do or die scenario, team, and we need to hold to our positions to achieve it.”

Briddy barely managed to not roll her eyes at his melodramatics, but Gail let loose a throaty laugh, shaking her head.

“It’s a stationary sack.” She chortled.

“You wouldn’t be laughing if this was a real exercise, and we were about to face a monstrosity.” The lancer snapped, his stringy hair clinging to his forehead even as he whipped it around. “This is serious.”

Gail stopped laughing almost immediately, eyes growing hard. “And what,” her tone was velvety soft “Would you know of facing a monstrosity?”

“I’ve memorized all of the two hundred and twenty species, I’ll have you know, and unless you’re magically bringing a new one into existence-”

“There hasn’t been a new kind in over three centuries.” Briddy scoffed. “And that’s still just a s-”

Talking over her, Niles began lecturing each of the members about what each of their roles were to be, putting himself in the forward charge with Gail, and assigning Tuck to back them up ‘in case they needed support.’ Briddy caught Gail’s eye, giving her a small frown, but her friend just shook her head, the two heavy braids smacking against each other.

“-and Bridget can bring up the rear and watch our backs.”

Swiveling her attention back towards Niles, Briddy tilted her head.

“Bring up the rear against what? It’s a stationary sack, we hit it, and it glows green.”

“Don’t complain, I’m leading this Cell and it’s not up to you to question me.” Niles took a step forward, waving his spear to catch the teacher’s attention. “We’re ready, Miss Ferish!”

Leaning up against the wall, the broad woman gave them a weary thumbs up before waving them into the main floor of the Somnasium.

“Right, then!” Tuck bounced on the balls of his feet.

Niles took a step out, digging his feet into the dirt beneath and taking a deep breath to continue bossing them around. Before his instructions could leave his mouth, a blur of grey and green streaked past, as Tuck broke into a dead sprint, a wordless cry of war ringing across the room.

“Tuck! Damn it!” Niles dashed after his cousin, leaving Briddy and Gail to glance over at each other with amused expressions.

“You know, I really enjoy that guy,” Gail remarked with a crooked grin. Bridget responded with a silent shake of her head, failing to hide the smile that split the mask of annoyance earlier cast over her face. Tuck had that earnest, good-natured energy that you couldn’t stay mad at unless you were Niles, but when it came to combat there was no leashing his zeal.

Together, they ran after their Cellmates, a hail of punches, stabs, and slices raining down on the unsuspecting dummy that was perched in the middle of the room. After a few attempts of violence with only minimal injuries from Niles shouldering Briddy to the ground, the burlap cloth glowed green, and the teacher called a halt so that the next group could go.

“You’re mad,” Briddy said, half breathless as she grinned over at Tuck while walking back towards the warm-up room for their cell.

“Sorry.” He shot a sheepish smile at the group, rubbing the back of his sandy head.

She shrugged, glancing over at Gail, who was brushing dust off of her arms. “I wouldn’t be. It was great.”

Looking over, Gail nodded and gave a thumbs-up, and Tuck’s grin slowly grew, a twinkle appearing in his eyes.

“Great??” Niles’ voice was a near screech as they got back in, and he immediately rounded on the group. “You call that great?”

Briddy could feel herself tensing up, and rolled her shoulders to try and relax as Niles continued his tirade.

“That was an embarrassment. It took us nearly triple the time it should have! If one of you, just one of you had listened and followed the plan, we would’ve got it first try!”

“We still succeeded.” Gail cut in with a frown.

“If you can call it that! We won’t get three tries when we’re out there for real, and if Tuck’s charging off like a moron to do Sculptor-knows-what because he can’t be bothered to wait, we’ll be down a member from the start!” Spittle flew as Niles turned, directing his anger at Gail. “And you were all over me! If we had paced things out, I could’ve hit a lot faster! When you’re underfoot like that, you diminish the whole point of having a martial weapon with a middling range!”

Bridget sucked her lips in, trying to hold back a comment. They had succeeded, hadn’t they? So why did he always fly off the handle like this the second they didn’t follow his orders? If his approach was flawed, that wasn’t their fault and the fact was, this wasn’t real. It was supposed to be an exercise. They were still learning, so why was Niles against anyone else but him having fun while doing so?

She saw Gail’s eyebrows shoot up, and heard Tuck let out a small whistle before she realized that she had said the last part out loud, as the lancer rounded on her, his face hard.

“That’s mighty fine talk from someone who spent most of their time on the ground because they can’t even run in a straight line.” Lips curled in a sneer, Niles took a step towards her.

Holding herself stiff, Briddy raised her chin. “You slammed-”

“Yes, blame it on someone else, it can’t possibly be because you weren’t paying attention and tripped over your own feet like an oaf.”

“That’s not what I-”

He pushed further taking a step forward despite the look she was giving him.

“If you’re going to be a humiliation, I suggest you do it on your own time and quit dragging the rest of us into it.”

“Niles-” Gail began, a note of warning in her voice, but Bridget took a step forward, still holding his gaze.

“I’m wondering, Niles.” Her voice wavered slightly, anger making it wobble, but the words tumbling out all the same. “Do you treat everyone in your life like this, or are we just lucky?”

He opened his mouth to snap a reply, but she raised her volume, speaking over him this time. “Maybe you should try smiling more, it would make you easier to approach.”

Bridget could tell by the way his jaw clenched that he recognized those words, and she felt a current of satisfaction shoot through her from root to stem. His hands clenched in fists, Niles stormed off, making his way across the Somnasium to where Warrin’s Cell stood– ignoring the warning shouts of the team that was about to go. His golden-haired friend and the fluffy-headed girl made up the other two members of the group, and quickly Niles’ hands began flying, gesturing back to the people he had left behind.

Letting out a sigh, Briddy turned her back on the whining lancer, looking at the other two people still there, watching her with interested expressions.

“I still think we did well. Have fun while we can and all that.” Her voice had sunken back to quiet, the hot air of Niles’ rage sucking all the heat from the room and weaving a weary mood over what was left.

Gail inclined her head in agreement, and Tuck, after several concerned glances over at where his cousin stood still complaining, gave a quick smile and a nod.

“It was fun.” He agreed.

Absently fingering the clip that held her hair back, Briddy followed him as they stowed the practice weapons into a locker at the back of the room, a space that was bare except for the containers and a couple of benches. Gail simply shook her arms a few times, the bulky plates covering her forearms collapsing back over each other in a series of clicks until the final one folded back into nothingness, and was gone.

Bridget couldn’t help but glance back over her shoulder, where Niles was venting to his friends about what she had said, and a current of guilt snaked its way through her. Had she gone too far? She didn’t enjoy being cruel, she knew it was far too easy for her tongue to take on her mother’s edge, spitting the same criticism that Briddy hated to hear. Yet, as she turned back to look at the floor, she couldn’t quite rid herself of the warm glow of satisfaction, to make him feel the same way that he treated them on a daily basis.

“I would’ve said worse.”

She looked up to see Gail watching her, arms crossed and her head tilted to the side.

Rolling her shoulders, Briddy gave her a small smile. “I shouldn’t have snapped. I’m sorry about that.”

“I wouldn’t be.”

“He just gets overheated sometimes,” Tuck remarked, laying back down on the bench. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

Both of the girls goggled at him, marveling at the way he so casually brushed off the verbal abuse that had been slung their way.

“I believe you, but that doesn’t make it acceptable behavior,” Briddy said, voice soft.

“Yeah.” Tuck said, the word half of a sigh.

She waited to see if he would add anything else, but the tan boy stayed silent, looking up at the grey-beige tiles that covered the ceiling.

They let the blanket of silence cover them until Teacher Ferrish called a final halt, dismissing the Cells for the day and beating most of the students to the door. Niles swept out with Warrin’s group, not looking back over his shoulder as he and his blonde friend continued to whisper, their heads leaning in towards one another. One member of the group did look over at them as they passed, the boy with the mop of curls and bright eyes waved to Gail, seeming unbothered by the lancer’s tirade.

“You know each other?” Briddy asked as the trio exited the large dome.

“We went to the same feeder academy before coming here. There’s not a lot of schools near the Western Pit, so…” Gail trailed off with a shrug. “Asher’s great though.”

Bridget stopped in her tracks, squinting ahead at shadowed shapes clouding the horizon, where the outlines of buildings usually clearly stood. “Why is it so dark?” She asked.

Gail and Tuck stopped too, looking around for a moment before the tall girl pointed to something overhead, the chiseled muscles in her arms standing out with the motion.

Following her arm, Briddy looked overhead, where a swirling, pulsing dark mass was soundlessly beating against an invisible barrier, curving downwards around the white flat stones that separated the dunes from the campus grounds.

“Sandstorm,” Tuck murmured, watching twisting waves of air and grit break upon the unseen shield, sliding around like a massive, coiling creature before breaking away.

Finding herself transfixed by the swirling storm over their heads, Briddy reached up a hand as well, opening the fingers that had been clenched tight and splaying them apart. Through the gaps in the digits, the darkness stood, assaulting a wall that it couldn’t hope to creep through.

She knew what that felt like.

“It’s like a reversed snowglobe,” Briddy murmured, letting her hand fall finally.

“A pretty sentiment, but it’s weird that your mind went there.” Gail’s tone held a note of teasing. “Most of us would just think, ‘ah, a ward’, and move on.”

Looking over at her, Bridget scrunched up her nose, resisting the urge to make a face “You’re weird.”

“Hey-” Gail clasped a hand to her chest in mock hurt.

“No, I’m Tuck.”

There was a moment of silence as they both registered what the boy had said, a goofy grin spreading his face from cheek to cheek.

Briddy snorted in amusement, and then Gail chortled, and laughter bubbled out across the trio, pushing away the stress and hurt of the class in favor of light-hearted fun.

“That was terrible, Tuck.”

“Yup.”

“Really bad.” Briddy agreed, though she beamed as she said it.

“Uh-huh!” Never dimming, his smile pushed the weary mood away with a twist of his lips, spreading infectiously to those around him.

The storm battering around them might have once provided the perfect backdrop for what was a disastrous end to their classes that day, but as the three headed back towards their dorms, they created their own climate with laughter and brevity. Niles might have left, but Gail and Tuck had stayed with Briddy, ready to give her a chance even if she wasn’t perfect.