Amber Academy: Seminar
I expected a bigger classroom. I was pretty sure smartboards and tablets were out in a giant stonework castle using torches and fireplaces, but I’d seen weirder. The walls were rough stone, with a chalkboard hung up front behind a battered wooden teacher’s desk. The room was sort of narrow and eight of us sat, in two columns of four. Or rows of four with columns of two, possibly, depending on how you looked at the room.
The desks we were at were small and old fashioned and tended to creak if anyone leaned on them. Or leaned away from them. Looks passed around the room, some shy and some pompous, but no one said much as the eight of us waited. Nine, if you counted the small man guarding the room in a worn royal guard uniform and a helmet pulled low over his face.
I was pretty sure I was the youngest. Two girls sat behind me in the last row and they looked to be twins. Pale, or at least made to look pale by the straight dark hair that hung framing their matching faces. They wore intricately embroidered dresses that looked heavier than armor. They whispered to each other and paused from time to time to shoot glares at anyone who looked at them. I looked away quickly under that piercing gaze. Gazes.
The other person in my row, to my left, was a blonde that looked a year or so older than me, if I had to guess. She work some sort of pants and tunic that looked comfy and ready for a beach day. Her blonde hair was more like honey and tied back with a leather string. Her bare arms each had a complex tattoo circling the bicep that I couldn’t quite make out.
Right before me was a brawny guy with ruddy cheeks who looked like he should have been a football player, wearing what I had learned was called a doublet, a padded tight jacket, and some tight pants that showed massive leg muscles. He went beyond filling out the outfit to being a mountain wrapped in some dark brown fabric. Tucked into his shadow in front of him was a girl who might have been my age except for the expression on her face just told me she’d seen things, and that was with barely a glimpse and mostly the energy radiating off the back of her head. She had short dark hair and I caught a glimpse of heavy black eyeliner. She was the only other one in jeans and a tee shirt, at least, but I was sure hers were a lot cooler than what I had. I tried to smile when our eyes met, scanning around the room, and she did not.
The other two opposite them were two of a kind. They looked to be the oldest, judging by their full beards. They weren’t as big as the guy in front of me, but solidly built with adult muscle that showed through their outfits, also like the one on the guy in front of me but much more colorful with the first one wearing a green doublet with heavy black embroidery and the other one something similar with a navy blue jacket.
“Hey, serf,” the green one suddenly called out to the guard. The girl opposite him shook her dark head and then put it down on the desk.
“No talking,” was the only reply.
“Serf, don’t give your betters orders!” the green one called again.
“Bayle, shut up,” the twins behind me said. Together.
“Or what, little girls? You’ll cry on me?”
There are some sounds I thought I knew from so many fansty novels and movies. A knife coming out of a hard sheath is much quieter than the obvious hiss of drama.
“No weapons,” the guard said.
The twins nodded and each lost their ten inch blade back into their courtly finery. Bayle was about to say something more then the heavy wooden door creaked open and, just for a moment, fear shot across his face. Then he got very red very fast because he knew we had seen the crack.
Two heavily armed guards entered, looking much more serious than the small man watching us, with their uniforms pristine and their armor polished. The woman behind them wore something similar to what the twins behind me were wearing, which told me that it really was courtly finery. Hers was a pale orange with a sea-green highlight on the neck that somehow didn’t make her less regal despite the odd colors that somehow seemed to blend on her. She had fine light hair that was caught up in a circlet of gold on her head. I was struck for a moment that the man at her elbow was wearing a very normal business suit, but then I remembered my dad’s lesson and kneeled on one knee with a bow of my head. Somehow I was the first down, with Bayle and the other guy so slow they’d have been last if the dark-haired girl in jeans and a tee hadn’t stayed in her chair.
“Even if you don’t respect Amber, you kneel to the Queen,” the man in the suit said to her with a glare. With obvious reluctance she kneeled and marginally dipped her head. Definitely not the curtsy of the other young ladies. “Moire…,” he started again and the small woman placed her hand on his arm. A subtle move but he stopped.
“This is going to be odd for everyone, I’m afraid,” she said to no one and everyone. Her head scanned the room, but I didn’t know what she was taking in. Or if it was even just a learned gesture for addressing a room as she’d been blind since birth, per my father. I didn’t have much experience with blind people at all apart from meeting her a couple days ago.
The young man moved the teacher’s chair out of the desk and closer to her and guided her hand to the bank. She thanked him and sat, as he took up a spot behind her and her guards stepped to flank the door. The little guard that had been with us slid further down the wall, away from the larger examples.
“Please take your seats,” she said and I realized we were all still frozen watching them. She paused for scuffs and creaks as we rearranged. “I know all of you by reputation but I’ve only met a few of you in person. I hope I can meet you all in your time here, of course. I’m sure you know me, or at least guessed from Caesar’s reaction, excuse me, Casey,” she corrected and looked right at me. Well, not look, but…I didn’t know how she did it. I nodded and felt the girls behind me and both beareded boys glare at the familiarity. I went as red as Bayle.
“I am Vialle. My husband is Random, King of Amber. I am not, though, from Amber. I am originally from Rebma, the reflection of Amber in the sea. As was Martin’s mother,” she added, with a wave at the man standing behind her.
“In speaking with our King,” she started.
“Long may he reign,” Martin muttered and then went a little red himself when he realized it was out loud. The color faded fast, though. I think the dark haired girl Moire gave a little snort of laughter. Or derision. I couldn’t see her face.
“Yes, truly. My husband and I feel some training and education for our far-flung bloodline might preent future problems. There is a history of…outdated…child rearing practices, perhaps? I’m sure your history classes will touch on that.”
“First parenting I’ve heard of from Amberites,” Moire growled. Martin behind the Queen bristled and but Vialle raised a delicate hand.
“Exactly, Lady Moire. The blood you all share is a complicated legacy. Too often our sons and daughters are lost in Shadow with no tie to us but legends. Or they are raised here, in traditional ways, and stand a strong chance of repeating old errors.”
Martin flushed a little again, just as quickly coming and going. If I hadn’t been staring at the pair of them with so much energy I didn’t blink I don’t know if I would have seen it.
“We are long-lived and time moves differently in the Shadows. Yet the blood of Amber is quite powerful and shows up in unexpected places. You may study next to a seven-times great-nephew or a son of Oberon, may he rest in peace, born a hundred years before you and yet half your age. These are new experiences for us all but we hope it helps us all to live in peace. Thank you,” she ended and stood. Martin pushed the chair aside and took her elbow. Her guards let her pass and then closed ranks, pulling the door as they left.
It was only quiet a moment.
“Moire? That’s a fishy Rebman name,” Bayle laughed.
“Bayle? Isn’t that some merchant’s name from a bottle of cheap wine?” she sniffed back at him.
He jumped up, massive fists clenched. “Do you insult a son of Amber, fish?”
Moire leaned back in her chair. I saw her in full profile as she turned and scanned him up and down like it was the first time she’d looked at him, dismissing him the whole time. Insouciant, my mom had one told me, probably from a word of the day calendar, but this was the perfect picture of it. Then she raised her left hand, closest to me, and gave him the finger. He started forward and then a green ball of light appeared around her hand and a spinning sphere of light raced up and down her arm. A glowing but translucent green sleeve that swirled with something covered her arm a moment later and I didn’t know what it was, but it felt really dangerous.
“Enough,” the moutanin sighed.
“Be quiet, Enda. This is fun,” one of the twins behind me said.
“This is exactly why you are here,” the little guard said, pulling off his helmet and tossing it onto the teacher’s desk as he walked closer.
“Be silent, serf,” Bayle snapped, still glaring at smiling Moire.
The guard unbuckled his armored vest and dropped it on the desk as well. He pulled the chair over from where Martin had left it and sat, watching the standoff.
“I recognized your voice,” Moire sighed, the green racing back into a little sphere she held in her palm and then disappearing with a little pop.
“Then there’s hope for our family ties after all, right?” he grinned with 200% more chaotic energy than her bored indifference could handle. I couldn’t see her eyes roll but I’m pretty sure I felt it even with a mountain between us.
It lciked with me only when the mountain Enda and the twins started moving. I joined them in bowing and everyone but Lady Moire fell into place a moment later, although the blonde next to me looked at me in confusion and she and the two guys before her seemed to be lagging.
The guard pulled a ring off his finger and his face changed. Barely, but enough that I was surprised at the sudden difference. Some wrinkles around the eyes and a thinner face that made the cheeks and chin a bit sharper. I was embarrassed I had missed it. But then that was probably part of the lesson. He shook his head, combing out his straw hair with his fingers.
“Hello class. This is a very special seminar for a particular and very special group of students. The eight of you are the only ones among the students who have walked the Pattern.”
I couldn’t help but look around. I had done it in an emergency and struggled so much I was sure I was going to die right there. I wondered what it had been like for them and how they had come to it. Their eyes all flashed around, probably doing the same thinking.
“I’m sure it will have to be part of the curriculum before they all go and melt themselves to death. But all of you have a history that they don’t. Unless they are hugely capable moles. Nari, take…oh, she’s not here. Moire, remind me to tell Nari to hunt for spies.”
She looked at him blankly a moment, then nodded.
“So some of you walked against orders, right here in the palace, some in the nearest Shadows, and one of you even a broken Pattern that had been repaired, which…I don’t even know…and one even walked the primal Pattern, a topic we’ll cover shortly in this class which will be really trippy, and had scones with my grandfather.”
“Muffins,” I said without thinking, so caught up in his high speed delivery. Every eye burned a hole through me.
“Cranberry orange? Too dry?”
Still kneeling, I bobbed my head.
“He bakes those himself, you know.”
I bobbed my head again.
“Anyway, all of you get up. This is a freewheeling seminar of advanced students privy to the deepest secrets. Let’s rap.”
Awkward stares.
“Okay,” he sighed, “no one says that anymore, apparently, or at least where you come from. Let’s go with that so I don’t feel so old.”
The teacher leaned back and put some very dirty boots on the table as we all climbed back into our seats. “Okay, so as a group, your ages, experience and education are all over the place. But your knowledge of the Pattern and the skills that come from it are very real and it would be very stupid of me to just throw you into a class on the Art without teaching you how to not be a nuclear warhead in a knife fight. Got it?”
We all nodded. Some out of sheer momentum, I think. In my week as a son of Amber, I’d seen it. I’d watched my dad fight things out of Shadow with more than just his sword and we’d traveled by Trump and Pattern.
“Frankly, even a History class would be hard enough given that most of you could find a Pattern Ghost to give you the real history or wander off into Shadow to relive it,” he muttered and I didn’t understand, but then the bright eyes were back on us.
“My hope for this school is some bit of egalitarianism I don’t want to catch on everywhere. If you’re my half-sibling or my brother’s fifteen-times-great-granddaughter, you’re equal in the eyes of the school. We’re all here to learn. So, like I read in a book, we’re going to have Houses at this school, named for my brothers and sisters that started your lines. Although those lines are sometimes more swirls.”
The blonde next to me raised her hand, awkwardly. “Swirls, sir?”
“It’s fortunately not as incestuous as it sounds. Usually. And I deal with those when they come up. But we live a long time. So my brother Corwin’s son is also the great-great-great-great-I-think grandson of my brother Benedict on his mother’s side.”
The mention of brother made the guy behind Bayle start in recognition. Not the blonde, though, who raised her hand again. “And if we don’t know?”
Everyone turned to look at her in surprise. I mean, I’d known my dad about a week, but it there wouldn’t have been Amber or a Pattern without his introduction.
“I appreciate your question, Gina. You seem to have shocked your classmates, but it’s not unknown here If we figure it out, then you can choose how to style yourself. But for the unusual cases that are without pedigree or happen to be my half-siblings, and fortunately that’s a very very small cohort here, you will be the House of the Crown.”
“Smelly orphans,” Bayle muttered and the temperature in the room dropped forty degrees. Except for Moire’s smile, which grew ten times.
“Pardon me, Bayle of House Caine?”
He grinned. “Crown wards. Unclaimed bastards and worthless cast offs. My mother told me there’d be such mutts and unworthy mixed bloods here.”
The teacher nodded. “I see. And your mother?” he asked.
“Lady Vinta Orlaine of Southerly Reaches, teacher. Eight generations a noble family descended from Prince Caine.”
“Ah, yes. Frankly I thought that was a jumped up claim of the family to make their snobby selves look better, but you walked the Pattern so apparently Caine didn’t keep it in his pants. Or someone else got with one of his ladies, but you claim Caine and frankly we have to rely on family stories a lot around here.”
The offense sent Bayle redder than he had before. “Sir, you have…”
“Stuff it, Bayle.”
“You cannot talk to me like that! I am descended from a Prince of Amber.”
“He’s descended from a King of Amber,” Enda hinted at the other large boy.
“Well, so am I then!”
Our teacher looked around at our faces. He seemed to smile more at my horror, the twins incredibly blank faces and almost laughed at the blonde’s confusion.
“Lady Moire, what House are you claiming?”
“Do I have to?”
“It’s the game I’ve set up for us to play,” he said, but he didn’t sound amused at all.
Bayle was on his feet. “Sir, you must answer for your offense!”
“You’ll get your turn.”
Bayle surged and rushed at the desk. Enda almost beat him to the teacher with surprising speed and I was sort of glad that I wasn’t as fast and didn’t have to get my nose broken again.
But the teacher, barely moving from his chair, met the rush with one arm and twisted and Bayle crashed into the wall.
The door opened and a guard looked in, worried, and the teacher just waved him off.
“Moire?”
“Crown.”
He stared at her a moment and I didn’t get it, then he gave a short nod. “Moire, House of the Crown. Enda. Enda, let him up,” he said and the big guy got off the struggling Bayle. He lumbered back to his seat and I wondered how much of his slowness was cover.
“Enda, House Florimel.”
The teacher looked at me and I nodded. “Casey, House Benedict.”
Enda and the twins all looked at me with odd expressions.
“Lucinda and Diedre, House Julian,” the said together.
“Gina, House of the Crown.”
“Patrocles, House Gerard,” the other big guy said.
“And we’ve already covered Bayle.”
“What about you?” Gina asked suddenly.
“A teaching moment,” the teacher said after a moment. He took his feet off the desk and his expression went more serious than I had expected given his previous tone. “Bayle and Gina don’t know who I am and are quite obvious about it. One much nicer than the other. My own son was taken in by a relative of mine, who told him fanciful lies and preyed on his innocence and it nearly destroyed us all. And it nearly cost my son his life. I’m tired of the sons and daughters of Amber being set against each other, which is why we have this school now. Very little around here is as it seems, because there is a huge amount of history and intrigue involved in every step you make or sneeze you stifle. It's that serious. I hope it someday isn’t, but this is a dangerous world without being a danger to each other. Understood?”
Various commitments to the nod.
“So I’m Corwin and Benedict’s brother, which means I was once one of nine princes in Amber. And about thirty out of Amber, if the rumors are true. Who else can solve for Y?”
“You’re smaller than Caine and Gerard,” Enda said with a smile.
“Not as tall as Benedict,” I added, nodding to Enda as he looked at me with a happy look for playing along with his game.
“Nor as tall as Julian,” one of the twins said.
He looked at Gina, continuing the circle. “I don’t even know enough to guess, sir. I’m sorry.”
“Never be sorry. Nod and give a faint smile and say nothing or say something ludicrous with so much confidence that your status as a child of Amber makes them too afraid to call you on it. Try again.”
Gina looked him over, and looked scared a moment, then smiled. “Everyone keeps naming all these Princes but I long to talk of a King,” she sneered in a voice that was pure Mean Girl.
Random, King of Amber, almost tipped out of his chair laughing. “Well done, Gina. Either you hit on the fact that I’m the short, slight brother among redwoods or you sound dismissive of the game others were playing.”
“Well, I still don’t care for your stupid game,” Bayle muttered and Random stopped laughing. “Whatever royal you are or are not.”
“Does he not get it?” Random asked the rest of us.
“Apparently not,” Moire sighed. “Don’t be subtle. Bayle, your teacher is Random, King of Amber. Man in chair is Random. Random is man in chair.”
His expression went pale. No blood must have been near his brain, which was probably far more normal than not. “My King. I am sorry. I am..I am…”
Random nodded. “Teaching moment two. I, and my guest teachers, are not going to hold you to proper courtly etiquette. There’s about three very polite civil academic wars on what that even means, anyway. We expect respect from you and will return it, even if we are not equals in the eyes of the law. Even if some of us are the law. Understand?”
We all nodded or made some agreeing noises. Or gargling scared noises from Bayle.
“Over time you may become more comfortable with life as an Amberite. Even if you don’t live here among us, I want you to think of it as a home always open to you. As the only students that can walk in Shadow, it’s especially important I work with all of you.”
I nodded. I didn’t think I wanted to live here. My mom seemed okay with my going, but I missed her. Pus, I liked electricity and tv too much. But some time with my dad had made me very afraid of what else was out there.
“So we have about ten minutes left before the fancy new bell system I just installed is supposed to ring and we see if my sister Fiona’s spells actually keep time properly. So in order to be your favorite teacher, you’re dismissed early. Go get ready for your next class.”
We stood and bowed and kneeled and couldn’t figure out the proper way to leave. Random just shook his head with a laugh and walked out, freeing us up from our dance.
I didn’t have a book bag to pack up or friends to walk with, so I just froze a moment, looking around.
“Benedict is among the greatest of our warriors,” one of the twins said. She actually had a “d” earring so I was guessing Dierdre. “Julian is also a great warrior.”
“Yes. Seems very protective of this place,” I added.
The two of them looked at me with large eyes. “You have met him?”
“With my dad, when we were coming in through the forest.”
They both nodded. “His patrols are long, but they keep us very safe,” Luncinda said and they walked past, with a nod to Enda on their way by.
“Thanks for continuing my silliness,” he rumbled in a deep voice. “I did not want to race to give an answer, but felt the King should know we knew him.”
“One of the few things I’ve understood around here is giving non-answers to a teacher,” I laughed. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything of Florimel, though.”
He shrugged. “Me either, really. I don’t think anyone in my family has met her in generations, but the family stories hold on and each of us gets the option to walk a Pattern in our home Shadow. Most of us don’t, but every few years one of us tries. I’m the first in about ten tries to make it through.”
I gasped. Seriously. Out loud. “I’m sorry…”
“Thanks, but I didn’t know them. The way politics and stuff works at home, we don’t really know the other distant cousins.”
“Still…”
“Well, you don’t seem from here, so your Shadow much has something of the like or we’d have a swarm of House Benedict, right?”
“Actually, I think my dad…well, that’s his business. I don’t think there are a lot of us though.”
Moire turned to look at us. “There are currently about a hundred students here. There are six Florimel, of which five are natives to this city, and Enda O’Reilly. There is one Benedict, Caesar.”
“Please call me Casey.”
She nodded. “Twenty Caine, seventeen Crown, fifteen Julian, fourteen Gerard, nine Bleys, six Florimel, five Eric, three Brand, two Coral, two Corwin, who are lying and everyone knows it, two Dalt, one Delwin, one Osric and a couple undeclared still.”
“That’s scary.”
“I work in the office to earn my keep,” she explained. “Of course, people may lie or something or change as the King explained or whatever. But that was the early census.”
“So you know about us all,” Perocles asked. In what was most certainly not a friendly tone.
“No, not really. Didn’t care to read more than the list I was filing,” she shrugged. “But anyway, I’m not going to be late for my first real class here.”
“This wasn’t a real class?” Gina asked from her desk.
“I mean, this was a seminar, not a lecture,” Moire explained, in a way that I didn’t believe at all. But then the bell actually rang, earlier than expected, and we moved out into the hallway filling with other kids.
The real class was a real class and it was harder than I expected. Math was never really my thing and this guy, whoever he was, jumped right into something that was half calculus and half magic. At least his soft British accent was cool to listen to, like I was watching something classy on PBS with mom. After Dr. Gupta stopped talking, I just stared blankly at him until I realized he’d asked me something.
“Sorry, sir,” I said, and there was some laughter that he quieted with a quick look around the room. “Could you repeat the question?”
“There wasn’t a question, Caesar. I said that you were in the wrong class. The office just sent me a message.”
“Oh…that’s….good.”
“I’ll see you again for my 10:30 maths class. Don’t worry, this isn’t it. But they moved you to another section now.” He scribbled something on a paper and handed it to me and I wandered out of the room, still somewhat dazed by the numbers he’d thrown at us.
I went to the room number he’d written on the paper and the door was open, so I walked it. It was darker than the room I’d been in, with only a few candles around the edges of the windowless room.
At first I thought the two guys in their were Bayle and his friend Perocles but as I got closer, I saw neither had the familiar faces and both were bigger than the big guys. I expected thick features and heavy brows by their size, but both of them were fine featured and almost pretty despite their size, with shiny dark hair and quick smiles.
“Son of Benedict, yes?” one said in a heavy accent.
“He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t,” the other said, sounding plainly midwestern in response.
“This is Amber. There is always happening things,” the first said with a little pout and a sigh.
The other one nodded. I was starting to see that this one had longer hair and a faint mustache where the other was cleanshaven. Apart from the accent that was all I could tell was different, down to the heavy black wool pants and white tunics. “You have a point.”
“Grem not dumb,” he huffed and switched to a rapid flow of words in some other language.
“Yes, of course, but we have a guest,” the other said. “Good morning, Caesar. I am Aragrem and this is Grem.”
“That’s,” I started, then just nodded. “Good morning,” I nodded to them both.
Aragrem walked toward the room’s desk and picked up a wooden sword that looked something like a ninja sword I once had with a Halloween costume, but a lot longer and with a fancy handle. He tossed it to me and I caught it without dropping it. Mostly.
“You are not trained well,” Grem noted in a command of the obvious.
“Swords aren’t really a thing where I’m from.”
“Swords are a thing everywhere. Guns may not work, and even if they do they get jammed or out of ammunition,” Aragrem noted.
“Even Art needs power and supplies,” Grem nodded.
“Umm…neither really crossed my mind either. I’ve never needed…”
“You weren’t part of Amber before,” Grem said. Or Aragrem. Once I got used to the accent, the voices sort of blended together.
“A sword works everywhere. And even if you wouldn’t want to wear it down your street, your enemies may not care if they look unusual.”
“I’m 14. I don’t have enemies.”
Grem shook his head. “Sure you do. Don’t you have another child in your home place that dislikes you?”
“Well, Adam Powers is sort of a jerk.”
“See? Enemies.”
“I wouldn’t…”
“I would, Lord Caesar,” Aragrem said. “In your Shadow a boy may pick on your for being smaller than him or dressing oddly. Here in Amber, he will try to stab you or pick a fight where you must duel to preserve your honor.”
“That’s…stupid.”
Both nodded. “It is barbarous by your standards, I am sure. But what happens when this Adam Powers knocks your books from your hands here? How you react can mean whether he draws a sword or has his father order you poisoned.”
“Wow.”
“Others will teach you how to act, Lord Caesar. Our job is simpler. We will get you to the place the sword is an option to you.”
“Like…fencing?”
“There will be a fencing class. They will teach you the proper feint and quarte or whatever they call it here,” Aragrem said. “Our job is different.”
“Harder,” Grem muttered. His twin nodded and rolled his eyes.
“Get ready to fight,” Aragrem said. He picked up his own wooden sword. This one was longer and curved a little.
I took position like I’d seen in movies. Aragrem moved before I looked up from deciding how my feet should be and tapped me beside the head.
“Ow!”
“Always watch.”
“You told me to get ready.”
“Ready nothing to do with feet and all to do with head,” Grem nodded. “Give sword.”
I handed it over and the two looked at each other, then crashed together. It took a second to even get used to their speed. Grem poked and dodged while Aragrem made big arcs with his longer blade. The sound of wood clapping together must have been echoing down the hall, until finally they stepped apart.
“Each sword have different types styles,” Grem said. “Others teach that. What did you see?”
“You kept your eyes on each other without really looking at the sword.”
“Enough practice and you’ll know what the shoulders and arms tell you about the sword. You can read if one will lunge or spin based on the set of the body.”
“But I’m not…”
“You’re nothing yet. With all due respect,” Aragrem smiled. “But we can practice until you won’t die. Sufficient?”
“I guess,” I said, and the sound of the bell filled the little room.
“The King’s toy works,” Grem grimaced. “So loud.”
“We will work against tomorrow,” Aragrem said, and I took off for the next class.
Language was next. I knew no one in the room. Most of them looked younger than me. I had a fear this was a remedial class, just like my math one probably would be this afternoon.
A young woman entered as the class was starting to get fidgety and set a heavy book on the front desk. She was blonde and had sort of a 1950s housewife hairdo and dress. She had a really thin nose and a little mouth that made her look somehow a bit off to me, but I couldn’t place it.
“Good morning. I am Miss Catermole. I am neither cat nor mole, so don’t even think of making that joke,” she said with a smile that was decidedly not funny. She took roll among the twenty of us in the room and I didn’t know anyone or have a clue what families they were from.
“There are eighteen different language classes here in the school, just like this one. They are based on your native languages, so they cut across the age range. Understand?”
I think we all nodded together.
“The point of this is not to learn another language or your own language better. The point is to understand what language is and what they all have in common. Anyone know why?”
Two smaller boys in front raised their hands and almost jumped out of their seats. She ignored them and looked over to a sleepy looking girl writing on her desk. “You?”
“Because if we see what lies beneath, we can adapt to pretty much anything.”
“Correct, if overly poetic. And stop drawing before I tell your mother,” she snapped and the girl sat up straight, the pen disappearing into a pocket of her book bag.
“So let’s rewind to the start of noises meaning something and we’ll build from there,” she smiled at us all in the creepy way again.
At least that ended up being more exciting that calculus with Dr. Gupta. I still didn’t understand much, which was exactly how my calc class was going at home. Thinking of home made me sad as I took a seat in the massive dining hall, where waiters ferried covered plates to each of us as soon as we took a seat.
I started to pick up the lid and Moire glared at me, suddenly sitting across the table from me. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I asked, but froze.
“Etiquette says we wait for permission from the King and only eat while he is eating.”
“King Random? I don’t see him,” I said waving at the empty head table at the front of the room.
“Two tables down, to your left. Not so obvious.”
I must have been obvious, because he gave me a happy looking little wave and raised a serious eyebrow at Moire. I looked back to her in time to see a glare disappear.
“It’s a trap,” she sighed, seeing my confusion. “Part of your training should be to recognize all the important people in the room and adjust accordingly.”
“I think he would prefer ‘test’ and not ‘trap’,” Martin said, stopping next to us.
“Just like Martin circling the room is another trap. Along with Princess Llewella standing in the rear and Sir Smythe, while not a royal but an important person of note locally, sitting near the waiter station in one of their uniforms.”
“I didn’t see Smythe,” Martin sighed. “I sense my father really is enjoying this.”
“My father said he does like games and misses the chance to play.”
“No doubt,” Martin said. “Moire, you’re to eat with the other House of the Crown students tonight.”
“Segregation?”
He grumbled and pointed, then walked away.
“What is with you two?”
She shrugged, watching him walk away. “I was one of the first kids here and had to help set this up. We butted heads a lot.”
“Not exactly typical,” I started but she walked off as the twins from House of Julian sat across from me.
“Hello, Caesar called Casey,” Lucinda said. “This is an unorthodox dining situation.”
“A little more formal than I would like.”
“Of course, being from Shadow. What were your banquets like?”
“I’m sure nothing compared to yours. Why don’t you enlighten me?” I said back, scoring myself higher than I probably deserved on diplomacy. But they did like to talk about their country estate and the interested visitors, so I let them fill so much space I didn’t even see who else was around even after Random gave the okay to start eating.