ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR: Poor Mice

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR: Poor Mice

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124 *****

I dont understand. Jeffy was standing at the back of the study room, watching Reinhard pronounce a string of Artonan words for the tenth time. The wordchain was supposed to increase energy, and the archer said he wanted it for tomorrow. Lute listened to him from his perch on the edge of the conference table.

You dont go to class sometimes? Jeffy asked Lute. And the teachers dont mind?

Theyll mind if you dont go to class, Lexi told him. Get over here and discuss the water obstacle with Njeri. Its important.

Being an Aqua Brute is so cool, said Astrid. Shed been trying to hype Jeffy up about swimming ever since arriving from her special Morph training to join their team planning session. She had given herself an aquiline nose and added long asymmetrical bangs to her hair. Her tongue was pierced again, and she assured them she was now confident in her ability to make her legs four and a half centimeters longer without any loss of their leg functionalities! for her running and hurdling convenience.

She did seem taller when she walked in, Alden thought, scraping the last of the tabbouleh out of a takeout container from Cafeteria North. He was sitting between Astrid and Lucille, watching footage of Team Vandy/Marsha.

Over the course of the evening, everyone had fallen into the habit of calling the other teams by the names of their most intimidating members. Naturally, that meant the S-ranks. Alden had been annoyed by it to start with, and now it sounded almost natural.

The rank fixation is pernicious.

He thought it was also keeping some of his teammates from giving the other players due respect.

Does anyone know if Reinhard can actually shoot Mehdi? I know we said it would be an option, but just because hes an A-rank it doesnt mean

Of course I can!

> Lute commanded in Artonan, pelting Reinhard in the forehead with one of the paper clips hed been bending into interesting shapes for the past hour. Hed taken a fistful from the supply room on the way into the library, and thanks to his fast hands, hed gone through dozens of them already.

Reinhard rubbed his head, glared, then went back to practicing.

Rein can probably hit him, said Astrid. Mehdis got his threat detection skill, but its radius is a little less than three meters right now.

Thats relevant if Reinhards shooting him from behind, Alden said, but were not going to get off many surprise attacks. The bell rings when one of us crosses the finish line. They all know somethings coming. Mehdi might be looking right at him when he draws the bow.

Alden still didnt have a good sense of how fast everyone and everything moved in the gym. Yesterday, when Reinhard had fired on Febrithe S-rank Agi Brute from the team they were now calling Febri/Shrikehed missed.

Febri had the same Instant Corners skill as Instructor Klein, and even though it was at the first level, hed managed to use it to change the position of his body in a blink so that Reinhards shot had swept past his back instead of hitting him dead center in the chest.

Apparently, Alden wasnt the only one remembering that moment, because Haoyu piped up from the corner where he, Everly, and Maricel were watching video of an Adjuster who had the same super-slick ice trap spell that Everly could use. If we face Team Febri/Shrike again, he said, I think their Adjuster, Olive, would be a better choice of target than either of the S-ranks.

Lexi pointed at Reinhard. He means you were an idiot for targeting the one member of that team you definitely couldnt hit last time.

On the screen, Alden watched Winston Heelfeather emerge from the pipe and hit the speed zone Max had laid down between it and the fire obstacle. There was another speed zone inside the box with the flaming walls itself and yet another with the weights, alongside the zone that Alden thought of as the invisible swimming pool.

They used him so fucking badly. Irritation crept into his voice as Max arrived back at the fire himself only to have to cast the speed spell again.

Who? Njeri asked. Winston?

No. Max.

He didnt sleep in his room last night, Jeffy said. I called to ask where he was, and he was on the train to his moms place. He stayed there.

Several people looked interested at the news.

Njeri walked over to stare at the screen. I dont really see how they misused him, Alden. The speed increases are helping them all get through that section of the course with a lot less movement restriction penalties from the burns, and thefloat zone?is making it so that some of them can move the weights when they wouldnt usually be able to.

Those are fine areas to put his zones down. Practically the whole course is a good place for one of them, Alden said. But almost every member of their team who comes to one is using it, regardless of what the state of the rest of the group is. Maxs zones are cool, but they have capacity limitations. Someone with high stats blasting through them or someone standing inside of one using spells makes the effect end faster.

The fire obstacle was a big slowdown if your team didnt have a hard counter to it. And the Vandy/Marsha team didnt have many.

You think Winston shouldve dodged the zone and left it for someone behind him? Njeri asked.

Lucille can get through the fire with no help and a ten percent movement restriction. Winston should be able to do at least that well.

In Aldens opinion, there was no good reason for a Speed Brute to have his pace tripled when there were a bunch of slower people on his team and he couldnt move through upcoming obstacles without them.

He just doesnt want to be slowed down for the rest of the course, Astrid said.

Hes trying to get exciting shots for his fans, too. One of Everlys silver buns was gradually coming loose as the night wore on, the pencil holding it in place sagging toward her ear. When he posted his gym clips this morning, that moment when he ran through the flames was his opener. He mentioned that hed benefited from a spell effect in the text description, but nobody reads those.

Is he allowed to post the official school gym footage? Alden asked. I thought there was a rule against putting it online?

You can if youre the only person visible. She lifted her eyebrows. Ive been meaning to ask youwhen are you going to update your account? I tried to connect with everybody in the class, but you havent posted anything since October of last year.

Hes got thirty thousand comments on that post, Njeri said. Hes never going to be able to read them all.

Lute spun around on the table. I read a lot of them. They mostly say, He died. Or Hes not dead! Or, more recently, He came back for the radishes.

Good to have a summary I guess.

Everly side-eyed Lute. Shed been doing that a lot, but she hadnt said anything negative.

Why are you all studying a picture I took of a bunch of pigeons over a year ago? Alden asked.

They exchanged looks.

I wasnt going to say anything, said Reinhard, dropping his hands from their casting position. Because I dont know you. But if I were you Id post something soon. Take advantage of all the interest youve gotten recently. Leverage it. You should try to do something cool during the run tomorrow and put it up. And talk about the video with that girl who wasuh

He frowned at Lute.

How dare you think unkind thoughts about my cousin, said Lute, curving a paper clip into a spiral.

Alden could do a How I Became an Avowed post! Everly said. Those are always soooo much better for globies than for us. Its exciting because being chosen is a surprise for all of you! Maricels started posting, but she hasnt done one of those either.

She nudged Maricel with her shoulder.

Vandy has suggested it a few times, Maricel said in a neutral voice.

When Alden didnt answer right away, Haoyu cleared his throat. Guys, he might not want to curate a media presence as a first year.

I dont.

My profiles are all private, Haoyu added. Some of you are really rushing superhero persona creation.

I dont do social media, said Lexi.

Never wouldve guessed, Reinhard muttered.

Can we get task-focused? Alden asked, gesturing toward the video. Ive never wanted to be an internet-famous person. I only posted the pigeons because they were walking along the sidewalk in a perfectly straight line. Now, about Winston

No wonder hes got a problem with you, Reinhard said. He wants to be an internet-famous person so bad. And youre getting there without trying.

Fine. Lets not be task-focused.

It was eleven oclock at night, and theyd all been at this off and on throughout the day. Expecting everyone to stay on topic one hundred percent of the time was probably too much.

We were discussing famousness in the locker room before the gokoratch video! Astrid announced. Winston got really mad at the party when people started giving Finlay advice about this kind of thing.

Alden sighed. Is he seriously mad that Finlay is more popular than him online? Thats it? Thats his whole issue?

I think so, said Astrid.

Getting more popular, Njeri corrected. Winstons actually still slightly ahead on the follower count. But thats just because he started months ago. Finlays going to pass him and then keep passing himin multiple ways, which probably makes it worse.

I do feel a tad sorry for him, said Everly. I think his family put a lot of money into advertising him before he even left home. There was some kind of a tour of the US? He was doing interviews and making so many videos. Hes more friendly on camera than in person, and it must have been a lot of work. Its probably part of what made him appealing to the admissions committee.

Wow. It really is some kind of celebrity wannabe drama.

Apparently Winston was going for that sports drink branding deal hed mentioned the first time Alden and Maricel had met him.

Can we talk about Marsha? he suggested hopefully before they could get farther away from business. He paused the video on a curvy girl with blue eyes and shoulder-length dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Shed spoken to him exactly once, during the class meet-and-greet on acceptance day. Shed been fairly condescending about B-ranks, and theyd basically never had reason to speak to each other since then.

On the screen, Marsha was carrying a polearm with a haft that looked like it was made of engraved bone. She could change the shape of the blade. It currently resembled a glaive, and she was bringing it down in a sweeping motion toward Finlay, whod shoved Jupiter out of the way of the strike.

Finlay wouldve managed to dodge it if Marsha was wielding a normal weapon, but the polearm could deliver a near-instant magical follow-up slice equal to the force of the original swing. Two deadly strokes for the price of one. Marsha could choose to some degree what direction that invisible slash of force traveled in, so if she missed someone with a swipe of the physical blade, the magical strike coming in from a surprise angle might get them.

Which was exactly what happened to Finlay.

Marshas got a unique personality, Everly said in a diplomatic tone.

Marshas got a lot of pent-up feelings, said Njeri. Or something.

Marsha just sliced that fast guy in half, and she looked happy about it. Avoid her.

They all turned to Lute.

What? Im not allowed to comment? Im the team trainer.

Alden grinned at him. She probably looked happy because that was the only time anybody in our class has ever beaten Finlay. What I was going to say was that it seems like Marsha might be able to run the whole course by herself. Is that right? The way she uses the magic strikes to toss some of the weights is really cumbersome and slow, but other than that

The girls exchanged looks.

I think it depends on if its her first run or her second, Maricel said.

Lucille was nodding.

She doesnt like to hold back, Maricel explained. Our advisors for The Superlatives club even mentioned it. Shell use her talents for everything even if she doesnt need to. So by the end of class, if shes the last one left on her team, she might not have enough magic to run the whole course.

Marsha has run herself dry attacking Instructor Klein twice already. Vandy tried to give her advice about it the second time Njeri shook her head. That didnt go well.

Alden looked back at the video of the S-rank. After dispatching Finlay and returning to her teams half of the course, she chanted a spell over the weapon and flung it at the magic wall like a spear. It embedded itself deeply near the top.

Rather than taking a weapon recall talent like many Meisters did, Marsha had done the opposite and taken an ability that pulled her body toward the polearm. Alden couldnt imagine what it looked like if she used it to move along the ground, but ground-to-air looked uncomfortable. Like she was being yanked forcefully upward by unseen puppet strings.

It works great though.

Her hands clamped onto the haft, and she swung herself up onto the top of the wall, pulling her weapon free as she went.

I want to do that, Jeffy said longingly.

Astrid spun her chair around to face him. Sure! But just imagine how much more awesome it would be to do something like that underwater.

******

They worked until midnight and mightve kept going if not for Lexi threatening to read them research on how lack of sleep made you too klutzy to run obstacle courses.

Does that specific research really exist? Haoyu yawned as they passed below a lamppost on their way back across campus toward Garden Hall. Alden and his roommates were lagging a couple of minutes behind the rest of the group, since Lute had wanted to explore the librarys free office supply offerings some more. Some scientist made a bunch of people go without sleep, and then ran them through an obstacle course?

It was a maze. And it was mice. But it still applies.

Poor mice.

Are you guys going to win? Lute asked. Ill be depressed if you lose now that Ive contributed.

Three wordchains, said Lexi.

Inside the room, the loudest sound was Srens heavy breathing.

Rebecca, who had remained standing over by the window, suddenly said, Sren, if you teleport to the hospital, Ill go meet you there. I dont think I can sleep tonight anyway.

Thats a good idea! Febri sounded relieved. You wont be alone for long. You go ahead. Some of us will head over right away.

No, Sren said. No, IllIll wait. If Sanjays friend can helpthen tomorrow

As if he had something to prove, he lowered his good arm from his face and used it to push himself slowly up into a seated position, his face contorting as he did so.

He took several more deep breaths. Ill be all right. Im a part of the team. Im a part of this program, too. I deserve to be here, too. I wont be slow on the wall again. Ill climb as fast as everyone else. As long as nobody tells the instructors, I can run, and

Alden made a decision. Sounds like a plan.

Febri and Ignacio stared at him. Rebecca made a sound of protest. Kon raised an eyebrow

Maybe with a little help from the Healer Sanjay knows, and if you skip your early classes tomorrow and get some sleep, youll be better in time for gym, said Alden. Its worth a try. You should probably let me pick you up, though. So that you dont make anything worse before the Healer gets here.

Sren blinked at him.

You dont want to move around with an injury, right? Itll just make it harder for the Healer to fix you.

Just until the Healer comes? Sren asked, staring into his eyes with his own puffy ones.

He really looked awful. His hair was half wet and dripping down the side of his neck, where the skin was bright red. Hed been burned there too, just not bad enough to instantly blister.

Alden nodded. Put the arm thats not hurt around my neck. Ill pick you up. He smiled. Youll get to join the very exclusive time traveller club with Instructor Plim.

Sren nodded slowly.

A minute later, Alden stood up with one frozen Shaper in his arms.

So, he said, repositioning his hands now that he wasnt scared to hurt his classmate by touching the burns, Im going to ET out of here with him. I hope. Otherwise, Im just going to have to sit around holding him until a faculty member gets here and forces him to ET.

That seemed more convenient for Alden, since it wouldnt mean a late-night trip across the island, but crueler to Sren than a swift arrival at the hospital and a dose of painkillers. The third option was hauling a burned, preserved body around by car service or public transportation, and that didnt seem like the most desirable idea.

> Ignacio asked.

Good, said Rebecca in a relieved voice. Ill go tell the team Im going there!

Hell be mad at you, said Febri.

Maybe, said Alden. But I think he knows on some level that he's hurt way too bad to go to class tomorrow. He just needed someone to take the choice off his plate.

So that he wouldnt feel like hed given up.

Can you teleport him with your skill even though he just directly rejected a teleport to that location? Kon asked. Thats surprising for some reason.

Never tried. Were about to find out. System, I need an emergency teleport to the healing hospital.

The response was immediate.

[Usage of Anesidoras teleport allotment has been authorized. Please cancel your request if your need is not urgent. ]

[Teleporting in 8 s]

It says to cancel my request if my need isnt urgent.

Dont worry about that, said Kon. This is urgent enough. They just dont want people using ET for scrapes and bruises.

My uncle got in so much trouble for abusing the ET allotment when he was our age, said Febri. He was a daredevil and he relied on it to get him out of whatever disaster was about to happen. Now hes on the restricted

Alden had a brief sensation that he could only describe as a kind of existential blink. Like hed been cut off from the physical world for the briefest of moments, so that he was aware of himself and the person he protected and nothing more, and then he was suddenly standing somewhere else.

Weird. Its like a mini version of the longer teleports now. But no nausea.

He always used to get that with local teleports. This was his first one since coming back home.

Looking around, he found himself in a larger than standard teleport bay. It was about a third the size of his bedroom, and there was a screen on the wall in front of him. A dark-skinned woman in jade green scrubs was examining him through it.

Whats the nature of your emergency?

He burned himself, said Alden.

Is heunconscious?

Oh! This probably did look confusing. And if she had the same kind of vitals monitors on this teleportation bay that they had at the TC, it might have looked like Alden was holding nothing. Or a dead person. Its my skill. Hes sheltered by a layer of magic that protects him and keeps him in exactly the same state he was in when I picked him up. Hes not aware of anything. Basically, hes on hold.

She blinked at him. Thats a good skill.

They liked it in the last emergency department I visited, too.

The woman quickly went through a series of questions that Alden was positive nobody would have asked at a medical facility anywhere else. Sren being an A-rank triggered an additional few questions about his state of mind when Alden had picked him up, making Alden wonder if there was some kind of high-rank subduer on staff who protected people from violent patients.

A couple of minutes after he arrived, the door in the wall to his left slid open and a man and a woman in the same jade green scrubs appeared with a gurney and a supply caddy. They looked Sren over curiously, then looked at Alden just as curiously, then finally they let him set the Light Shaper down.

Sren blinked around in confusion for just a second.

Were at the healing hospital in F, said Alden, shoving his hands into his pockets. Im sorry.

They asked the injured boy some of the same questions theyd asked Alden, got permission to give him medicine, and started pressing injectors to his arms right there in the bay. His face relaxed a lot.

You lied to me, Sren said. He didnt sound surprised.

Im sorry, Alden said again. Despite the necessity of it, he did feel guilty.

Everyone thinks Im useless. This makes me look even worse.

You can't just tough out a major injury. Get better and use your ultra-rare subclass to defeat them all. Its the only way.

******

Alden left the hospital more than an hour later. He was tired, and he couldnt help feeling like this was a sour note for an otherwise productive day to end on. He fell asleep in the private car on the way back to campus and dragged himself through the door of the apartment at nearly three AM. The others were all asleep.

He showered, then headed to his room. My plans for the night have all fallen apart.

Hed wanted to cast the clumsy half of the self-awareness wordchain by himself for the first time, so that he could use the other half tomorrow for gym. It just felt better to do it that way, even if Hazel Velra wasnt a threat at the moment. Now he didnt have enough hours to let the chain run its course before science class.

Its fine. Doing it like that would be nice, but its not necessary.

He was about to climb up into his bed when a System notice appeared. He opened it, and then read it through more than once to be sure he understood what it was.

The message had come from the Artonan embassy. Unlike the consulate in Chicago, there was an actual ambassadorial presence here on Anesidora. One of the current ambassadors assistants wanted to know how he would like his mail to be delivered.

My mail?

The assistant had given him far too many options, including recommendations for his or her favorite walking routes to various destinations where the mail could be presented to Alden. That takes thorough to a brand new level.

The mail itself was left conspicuously undescribed, considering the fact that a map to a specific tea shop had been provided in case he needed a warm human beverage with his mail.

Maybe it was something else from LeafSong. Another package of turtlenecks and joggers. Though theyd used a human courier service for that.

Is it rude to ask for them just to teleport it to me?

The option was there, so surely it wasnt. He tried to turn on his brain and draft a nice reply. Kibby should have given me lessons on letter writing instead of table manners.

Klee-pak had written a letter to a relative once and had included a strand of hair. Fortunately that wasnt possible through the System, so Alden didnt have to ask himself if it was necessary.

He sent the message, then waited.

A couple of minutes later, a package arrived. A largish sack made of what looked like heavy brown silk appeared on the rug right beside him. The corners of the fabric were tied at the top in a knot looped through with a single strand of matching ribbon. Very curious, Alden bent down and pried at the knot. Eventually he realized that wasnt the way to go, and he pulled on the end of the ribbon experimentally.

It slid free easily, and the knotted silk came undone with it.

Alden realized what the gift was as soon as he saw the corner of it peeking out from under the cloth. Deep brown leather, the logogram for the word that meant earnestly seeking stitched into the top in gold thread that glimmered with just a little bit of magic in addition to the metallic sheen. He knelt there staring at the corner for a while, blindsided by emotions he couldnt quite place.

Stu-arth sent me a learning cushion.

His hand went to the auriad around his neck.

That was thoughtful of him.

On one hand, it was just a really nice pillow. On the other

Learning cushions like this one were for wizards. It was why Kibby had treasured the two from Joe so much even though there were other cushions at the lab. Most humans didnt realize there were different types unless they were Artonan geeks; Earth associated the leather cushions with Artonans in general, producing knock-offs accordingly. But the learning cushion a non-wizard used in a classroom would be made of other materials.

Leather had significance because it had come from life.

Im reading too much into it. He knew what kind of cushions we played around with here on Earth because he saw them. He probably assumed it was natural to give me the wizard one because it was what I preferred, and there are no official cushion material rules for Avowed.

Knowing all of that didnt dim his feelings much.

He unwrapped the cushion slowly. And he discovered that it was fucking gorgeous.

A cushion could be gorgeous, it turned out. It had more embroidery than Kibbys had. Six lines of gold and silver logograms made a band around the edges. It was heavy, and it was ever so slightly larger and thicker than standard if Alden wasnt mistaken.

Its more me-sized. Stuart rocks.

Completely perfect. That was what it was.

He was delighted to find it even had the discreet narrow side pocket where a student could keep a spare promise stickor store their unbonded auriad until they decided to give it to the human as a reward for coming back alive with the car.

If I cant find a promise stick on Earth, Ill make one.

He almost didnt want to set the cushion down on the floor, even though that was what it was intended for, but he finally did. Then he reached down to pick up the note that had been placed below it in the cloth wrap.

Stuart had written it, so he was sure it would be a meticulously well-crafted letter. Probably with a lesson on proper cushion use included.

When he unfolded it, he found that it was just as well-crafted as hed expected, though not in the way hed expected it to be.

Stuart had written the note in excellent English. It was brief, and his handwriting was neat but quite round, as if he wanted the letters to be more circular than they were supposed to be:

Dear Alden,

This was made by the Craftswoman Enyl-tirg, who also made my cushion. Please protect it from your schoolmates.

May you gain knowledge all the days of your life, and may your days be many.

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