EIGHTY-TWO: Guess

EIGHTY-TWO: Guess

It took them an hour to get to campus.

On the way there, Alden managed to shove his uncertainty about the meeting on the train down and bury it. He had a busy morning to focus on. He alternated between texting Aunt Connie and chatting with Natalie about their different educational tracks. Their core academic curriculum would be similar, and they might even meet each other in some classes. But while he was enduring super P.E. and lectures on Avowed-caused catastrophes, she would be taking molecular gastronomy and learning how to source rare cheeses.

Its enough to make a guy question his life choices, Alden thought when they finally parted ways at the bus stop close to the high school section of the Celena North campus.

He headed toward the place where most of his regular classes would be held. A lot of the buildings that werent named for alumni were named for virtues. The Forthright Building was a glass and steel oval chunk. Half of the ground floor was dedicated to a theater that doubled as a lecture hall, and the other half was the student coffee shop. The upper levels were all classrooms. An outdoor gallery for student wrightwork and artwork made a large social space on the rooftop.

Alden entered through the doors of the coffee place, checking his schedule more out of sudden first-day jitters than because hed actually forgotten the room number for his class.

8:00 AM - 9:15 AM Preparatory Sciences - Forthright 1001

9:30 AM - 10:45 AM Engaging with the Unexpected I - Wong 6012

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM Artonan Conversation IV - Forthright 1810

1:30 - 2:45 Intro to Other Worlds - Forthright 1207

3:00 - 4:45 - First Year Study Hall E - Forthright 1901

5:00 - 7:00 - MPE Pre-course - MagiPhys Gym

This would be his schedule until his first full quarter started in January. TheMagiPhys Ed sessions for Aldens acceptance group would begin next Monday. They took place three evenings a week. Everything else was daily. The monitored study hall was skippable if you werent in danger of failing a class. Since it was eating two hours right out of the middle of the day, Alden was highly motivated not to be put in a situation where hed have to sit through it.

All right, he thought, heading into the theater to find a seat for the science class. Im finally a high school student once more. Lets do this.



*********

Preparatory Sciences was a combined sciences overview, with a rotating set of teachers. Finlay and Maricel both showed up right as it was starting and grabbed seats in the row behind Alden. Maricel was definitely not a morning person. She kept yawning so much that she was sparking a chain reaction of drowsiness in almost everyone nearby. Finlay, on the other hand, was drinking an iced coffee and a hot tea, and talking so excitedly about the start of classes and the fact that they were all going to be heroes together that Alden was pretty sure they could have used him to power the building if they plugged him in.

He took notes on his laptop and tried to stay focused. The instructor for this week was downright soporific. It was going to be a rough way to start the mornings.

The next class was more interesting, though. Engaging with the Unexpected was only for the hero program students, and there were just thirty of them. It was small enough that Aldens appearance in it was noteworthy. He waited until right before class started to enter so that he wouldnt be the guy who stole someones very favorite desk.

When he walked in, eyes fixed on him.

Are we getting a new person? a girl asked.

Unless hes lost.

Fresh first year meat!

Ignore Ray. Hes the biggest idiot in the whole school.

Dont listen to her; shes just mad I hit five before she did.

A5 cant even scratch an S1 in a totally balanced fight, so I dont know why youre bragging, you troll.

Says who?!

System theory.

Alden wasnt paying much attention to the argument. Instead, he was staring at a familiar face. Andrzejthe B-rank Polish boy who had given him the Chainer class in exchange for Cudgel Meisterwas sitting in the back corner with a weapon that looked like a swollen baseball bat propped against his desk.

His face was totally blank as he stared at Alden.

Alden lifted his hand in a wave, but before the other boy could respond, their teacher jogged into the room.

Sorry Im late, everybody! he said, yanking his long dark hair back with an elastic band as he skidded to a stop in front of the board. I was arguing with someone about wolves.

Aww. Did Big Snake get caught smuggling in the puppies? a girl asked, her mouth turning down in a pout. He was going to let our class play with them if we beat up the Uni freshmen!

As motivating as that sounds, Penelope, we cant have enhanced apex predators running around Apex. Even if they do start out small. And fuzzy. And so cute you just want to He suddenly realized Alden was in the room. Oh how exciting! You came today. I wasnt expecting you until next week. Let that be a lesson to me. Hello! Im Instructor Marion!

He leaned over the podium and stuck out his hand for Alden to shake.

Everyone this is Alden. Hes joining our class mid-stream with my permission. We seem to be short a desk. Someone go steal him one from next door, and

Me! shouted a girl, leaping to her feet.

Maria, by steal I meant borrow with permission! Instructor Marion said hastily.

One of Marias hands was flat on her desk. Her eyes were closed. She pointed over her shoulder toward the back wall of the classroom with her other hand.

Similar Summoning 2! Her hand flashed a series of signs. Her mouth moved in a chant that was only a few syllables long.

There was a crashing sound, and people in the neighboring classroom started laughing and shouting.

Duck, Ray, another girl who was typing away on her cell phone said idly.

Huh?Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

With a crack, a school desk appeared in the air over Ray. He yelped and covered his head with his arms, but the desk just hovered there. A boy wearing the black school uniform jacket that was optional except on certain occasions had stood up and was pointing at it.

Thanks, man, said Ray. Sorry I said Object Shaping was dumb in gym last week.

Dont tempt me to drop it on you.

The desk floated toward Alden. Your seat, sir, the Shaper said grandly.

Umthank you all. He felt a little lost, but he was definitely impressed by the amount of magic that had just gone down in less than a minute.

They made a space for him on the front row. Alden glanced back at Andrzej curiously. The Cudgel Meister gave him a half-hearted smile.

Is he just freaked out to see me or what?

Maybe he was afraid Alden would tell everyone hed passed along Chainer? Hed been really worried about people resenting him for it. Hed implied his superhero uncle was anti-Velra, and Alden was assuming it was an extreme level of anti, since Andrzej had given up such a lucrative opportunity.

Alden hadnt had time to waste on deeply studying the family since he arrived. He had glanced through some local news headlines to see if he was mentioned in connection with them, though. Thank goodness he wasnt.

Tragically Missing Avowed Teen was a weird but minor story here, and it wasnt at all related to the much juicier news that Aulia Velra had blasted her whole family with hardcore magic, resulting in unknown amounts of havoc and potential damages to the rest of the island. Alden was thinking that the blowback from the chain was mostly people discovering it had been cast in the first place and the political fallout from that.

Aulia had lost the Unified Rares and Uniques seat on the Anesidoran council. It was a position shed held for decades, representing all of the ultra rares and uniques, whose population was too small to justify having their own individual class councilpersons. Beyond that, many Velras had had old scandals come to lighta mistress, a drug problem, suspicions of genetic engineering that wasnt legal even on Anesidora.

And to top it off, there were a lot of lawsuits being filed against them.

Some people whod had upsetting and bizarre things happen to them were trying to blame it on the uberluck wordchains butterfly effect. It wasnt going to result in much since, Maybe the Velras made my upstairs toilet fall through the ceiling; I really feel like they might have, wasnt a strong legal argument. But it had to be a headache for them.

Still, while public opinion had turned against the family, it didnt seem as though the average Anesidoran spent a ton of time worrying about them. They were more fascinating than the other important families on the island, for sure, because of the secretiveness about their class and the maniacal lengths they went to in their efforts to keep an iron grip on it. However, Alden still had the same impression hed had when he first read about them all those months ago. The people who really cared were the other Avowed who were trying to establish their own political positions and class dynasties.

Billionaires whining about more successful billionaires. The only reason I have to think about them at all is that one of them believes Im cosmically significant to her.

Maybe Andrzejs uncle was just politically inclined, too.

Alden put it out of his mind for now and turned his attention to class. Instructor Marion introduced himself and the course for Aldens benefit. He was a Sway in his late twenties whod graduated from the university program just a few years ago. He wanted a heroing job, but since he hadnt landed one yet he was getting an advanced degree and focusing on mental coaching.

Engaging with the Unexpected was a class on how to approach unexpected situations from the correct mindset.

Every week, they would be presented with a different real-life situation encountered by a working Avowed, and they would have discussions about it. The method Instructor Marion was teaching was supposed to be a multi-pronged approach to calming yourself down, thinking clearly, and checking your own assumptions.

The situation the other students had been given to think about over the weekend was one in which the hero, an audial Brute who had been listening in on an apartment tower in an attempt to locate a suspected terrorist, had overheard a clear case of domestic violence.

The first question they were supposed to ask themselves was, Is the thing Ive encountered actually a problem, or is it something else?

Everyone in class said that the domestic violence incident was a legitimate problem in need of a solution. After that, however, they broke down arguing in a way that made Alden think lengthy disagreements were a frequent occurrence.

Question Two is, Is this my problem to handle? the Shaper whod floated the desk to Alden said. And the answer is no. The hero is looking for a terrorist whos suspected of planting a bomb somewhere in the city. Anything less important than that gets sidelined.

The bomb isnt going to go off for hours! a Wright argued. The guy is beating his wife right now. Itll take like three minutes to go punch his lights out.

Youre assuming its a man beating a woman, said a girl. We werent actually told that.

Why does it matter?

Well, if its an adult hurting children, its extremely urgent, isnt it? If its, like, a tiny little old lady hitting a bodybuilder its still bad, but hes probably not going to be injured if we leave him to handle it on his own.

What? So we only care about helping people if theyre on the verge of death?

Dont put words in my mouth. But if youre on your way to stop a terrorist from blowing up a hospital, and you take a break to save one single person, youre fucking bad at math.

Respectful language or you lose your right to join the discussion! said Instructor Marion.

> someone suggested.

You always want to use wordchains.

>

We do have recommended wordchains in this course for a reason.

Welcome, fellow Northie.

>

What track are you? Mikkel asked.

> said the Hungarian girl.

Not Arts. Im in the hero program.

Nice. Come to me in a few years when you want costuming. I graduate from high in two quarters, and Im already accepted into the fashion department for uni.

hope you graduate. Do you even remember your lines for our next class?>>

Lines. So theyre probably doing skits or something for another class.

That would explain the number of people in the room wearing odd accessories and makeup. It was at least half of the other students. The artists were obviously heavily represented here. Alden figured it made sense. Arts and sciences were larger programs than the hero track to begin with, and it was more normal for hero students to take human languages since Earth-based bilingualism was required for their university graduation.

The teacher, an orator Brute named Instructor Rao, breezed into the room five minutes latewhich would have convinced Kibby the world was endingand class finally started. The first half involved everyone standing individually to recite memorized poems.

They werent bad, but most of them werent great either.

I dont believe youve gone yet? the instructor said in Artonan, pointing at Alden.

He blinked up at her. I was admitted to the school on Saturday, he responded in his best Thegundese accent. This is my first time in this class.

So you havent memorized any poems?

I didnt know we needed to. And if he had, memorizing one in a single day was kind of a big ask. Iguess I can try to translate one from English?

She waved at him in a way that looked semi-encouraging, so he stood up and excavated the only poem he could remember from ninth grade from the depths of his skull.

I guess I will be saying the Artonan version of The Road not Taken by Robert Frost. Two roads parted in a yellow forest

He managed it.

Rhyming poetry sounded terrible in another language, and he had to keep pausing to remember the lines before he could translate them, but he got through it. And when he was done, people clapped.

Man, that was phenomenal!

Why the hell do you know how to say undergrowth in Artonan?

Luck. Hed used the words for weeds, since Kibby had liked to insult Thunder Lettuce with it.

Thats not even the most impressive thing. How did you know what word to use to get the System to translate it as hence?

I was leaning formal. Since it was a poem, said Alden, trying not to feel absurdly proud that hed finally found humans who appreciated his language learning efforts. Im glad the System translated it right.

He tried to decide if hence was good enough for orbital stonechild to be forgiven.

Instructor Rao was harder to read than his classmates. She said, Well done. But it was the same thing she had said to every other person regardless of whether theyd done well or not.

After recitation, they had conversation in pairs. Everyone already had a favorite partner, so Alden ended up looking around for anyone else whod been left out. The only person remaining was a boy in a white Venetian mask with a long beak.

Alden would have bet hed be the one, based mostly on the fact that hed been in isolation already. Nobody had put their cushion next to his. Since he was sitting in the center of the room, it was very noticeable.

He was also betting he knew who this person was. The boy had recited his poem with precision but in a listless voice, and almost his entire face was covered. So there wasnt a lot of information to go on. But his height was a giveaway; he was shorter than the shortest girl in the room by a couple of inches.

And Alden had just been talking to Andrzej about his family.

I guess hes not coming to me, he thought, watching the other boy sit there.

He sighed, picked up his cushion, and headed over. I think were learning partners today, he said, sticking with Artonan since the teacher had told them to. Youre Lute, arent you?

The beaked mask turned to him. No, he said flatly.

Yikes.

Sorry! Alden said. I thought you looked a little like someone I met once. Im Alden.

I guess I should have figured it out when he didnt feel even a little bit uneven?

Lute and Aimi Velra both had been the last time hed met them. Hed actually been running into more people who were clearly wordchain users here on campus, but the feeling didnt bother him much now that he had confirmation from Gorgon that his gremlin wasnt even supposed to be worried about that kind of debt.

He would still have expected a Velra to trigger it pretty hard, though.

My name is Clarence.

Hi, Clarence. She said were supposed to be talking about the weather, so Ill start. Its nice that the sun is out. Im looking forward to eating second meal outdoors.

Alden waited.

The other boy heaved a dramatic sigh. Fine, he said in English. I guess you arent a tool sent by the Grandwitch. Unless her tools have gotten really good at faking gullibility.

He pulled his mask off. Yes. Im Lute. Hello.

Alden was so taken aback it was a second before he could respond. Why would your grandmother send me to talk to you? he demanded. And why on the Mother would you lie about your own name?

And how is it gullible to believe someone about their own name?!

Lutes pale blond hair was sticking up where the elastic from the mask had tugged at it. He finger combed it while he scowled at Alden. The power of the scowl was enhanced by a black eyepatch over his right eye that had rivers of dried costume blood crusting and flaking below it on his cheek.

Aulia is delusional and thinks I only hate her temporarily. Instead of eternally. So I was just checking.

Artonan, Mr. Velra! Instructor Rao called from the front of the room.

My preferred name is Lute! Lute spat in English.

Then he muttered, Teachers always use other peoples preferred names. Funny how they cant remember mine.

All right. Well. This has been weird already.

We should probably talk about the weather, Alden said in Artonan.

I like sunshine, Lute said dryly in the same language. I like crushable clouds. I like thunderstorms.

Alden blinked at him. Thatthat was the wrong word for fluffyunless you do things with clouds Im not familiar with.

Lute sighed and dug at the strap on his eyepatch. The word is fluffy?

Yes. That thing looks like its cutting into your face, Alden added. Dont you want to take it off, too?

Huh?

Whats wrong?

You talk too fast, said Lute. And I have translation being off for educational time. What are you saying?

Oh. This is an early intermediate class.

He had assumed the Velras would all speak fluent Artonan. It seemed like an obvious thing for them to learn to prep for Chainer before they were old enough to be selected. But even though Lutes pronunciation was flawless as far as Alden could tell, he seemed to have a limited vocabulary.

The covering over your eye looks uncomfortable, Alden said, trying to enunciate each word carefully.

Its a new one. Lute was prying at the eyepatch again. I think I have bought the wrong smallness for my face.

It looks like its chopping your face in half. Just take it off.

Lute glared at him.

Why? You got a thing for gawking at prosthetics? he asked in English.

Aldens blood froze. He switched to English, too, without even thinking about it. Its not part of your costume?

Why the hell would it be part of? Lute snapped his mouth shut and touched his finger to his bloody cheek. Oh. Thats right. I forgot I was fooling around with the stage blood this morning.

Oh shit, said Alden, mortified.

Artonan, Alden! the teacher called.

Oh shit, Alden said in Artonan. Im sorry.

Lute cackled. Yeah. Bad person. Making jokes of the one eye boy!

I am very sorry.

Lute beamed at him. Guess how it happened. More fun than weather

No, its fine. I

Guess.