Guild Mage: Apprentice-Chapter 83. Coral Bay

Liv came back to herself kneeling on a wide circle of white stone, her fingers just brushing the surface of an unfamiliar sigil. Arriving on a waystone never became less bizarre a sensation, even if she knew what to expect by now. She was back in the world, but it didn’t feel quite the same - or rather, she didn’t. There remained the vague, unreasoning urge to chase after the echoes of other voices, other fingers, somewhere in the places between one stone and another.

Her moment of stillness was interrupted by a wave breaking over the waystone, sending a thin film of water swirling around her boots and soaking her skirts. Liv scrambled to her feet before another wave could come, and spun around to get her bearings.

The coach she’d brought was waiting for her in the center of the waystone, door open, and Steria was still attached to the back by a lead. The wrapped bulk of the stone-bat casque she’d brought back from Bald Peak had weathered the ride from Whitehill just fine: it hadn’t even slid out of place, and remained tied securely to the top of the carriage. Everything was as Liv had left it when she activated the waystone - it was only the world around that had altered.

Rather than the cool mountain air of late harvest season, and the bite of coming snow, Coral Bay was bathed in warmth. Liv had heard her father’s family refer to anything past the mountains as ‘the southlands’ - and even people who lived in Whitehill spoke that way, sometimes. She hadn’t really understood when she was visiting Freeport, but here it felt like summer in the mountains. Even the ocean water was warmer than a mountain lake.

The waystone was set into the sand of a long, white beach, and Liv guessed that whether it would be above or beneath the water would depend on the shifting tides. The bay here was nothing like the dark waters of Freeport: instead, the water went from nearly clear as glass in the shallows, to a vibrant color somewhere between blue and green. On the horizon, she could see a ring of breakers, marking the coral reef that sheltered the bay from the open ocean.

“Clear the way!” Someone shouted from behind her, and Liv looked down to see that the waystone had begun to glow with the red light that warned anyone standing on it of danger. Liv lifted her soaked skirts, waved to the driver, and scrambled out of the water onto the beach. There was a wooden walkway there, raised from the sand, which led directly from the road to the waystone.

Now that she wasn’t looking out at the ocean, Liv could see blocks upon blocks of houses, warehouses, inns, and shops. To the south, there was a forest of ship-masts, presumably the fishing fleet; and to the north, she could see a series of large stone buildings atop a bluff that overlooked the bay.

The driver took the carriage over the wooden bridge to the road, and Liv followed, wringing out her wet skirts as she went. At the road, a carriage was just pulling away, loaded down with trunks and travelling bags. Gulls circled overhead on the warm breeze, and a boy with slouched shoulders was brushing sand from his travelling luggage.

Liv kept one eye on her carriage, but the driver seemed to have the process of maneuvering it onto the road well in hand. Liv was surprised to see that the street was paved with white shells, rather than cobblestones, when she reached it.

“Are you alright, there?” Liv asked, pausing on her way past.

The boy who glanced up at her looked to be about the same age as Liv, but his skin was as dark as the Elden merchant, Airis Ka Reimis, and his hair was black. His clothes were peculiar, as well: a long coat of silk brocade, tight around the torso but flaring at the legs, and patterned with checks and waves in a variety of warm yellows, oranges and reds. There was a sash about his waist, and some sort of wrapping on his head, sitting above his brows and not concealing the entirety of his dark hair.

“Well enough,” the boy answered, and even his accent was strange to Liv’s ear. “I’m simply waiting for the next carriage to come from the college.”

Liv grinned. “You’re here to study, as well?”

The boy nodded. “Yes, though I was not fortunate enough to bring my own driver.”

“You know,” Liv said, looking over to her carriage, “there’s only three of us riding inside. If you don’t mind cramming your things wherever we can fit them, we could give you a ride up.” Another carriage was already rumbling up the wood bridge to the road, having come off the waystone, but the driver showed no signs of stopping.

“I would be incredibly grateful,” the young man in the odd clothing said. “Please, allow me to introduce myself, before I accept your kindness. My name is Arjun Iyuz.”

“Liv Brodbeck.” She offered her hand before she could think better of which names she’d given: the college was in Lucania, and it didn’t feel like the Elden form would fit. Arjun hesitated, so Liv decided to help him out. “You accept my hand in yours, and sort of bow over it. You lower your head like you’re going to kiss my knuckles, but you don’t actually do that unless we’re courting or you want to be courting.”

“Thank you, again,” Arjun said, and did as she’d explained. “I can see already that I’m going to have a lot to learn here.”

“You’re from Lendh ka Dakruim, aren’t you?” Liv asked. “Let’s see where we can fit your things.”

“Was it the clothing, the accent, or the complete lack of awareness on how to comport myself here?” the boy asked her.

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“Don’t forget the name,” Liv said. “That isn’t even vaguely a Lucanian name. Help us get these things loaded, please,” she told the driver. “We’ll be taking Master Arjun with us up to the college.”

“As you say, m’lady,” the man said, and scrambled down to begin dealing with Arjun’s things.

“It was still a good guess,” the boy said, setting to the task with a willing back. “I could have been Eldish, for instance.”

“No you aren’t,” Liv said, and laughed. “Only someone who’d never met one of the Vakansa would say that.” She raised a hand and tapped her ear, right at the tip. “I’m half Elden, myself.”

“Oh!” Arjun paused in lifting one of his trunks. “My apologies, then, Mistress Brodbeck. I had no intention of offending.”

“I don’t think my father’s people get all the way to Lendh ka Dakruim very often,” Liv said. “I’m not offended. Come along inside, and let me introduce you.” She opened the carriage door and took a seat next to Thora, leaving the seat next to Wren open.

“This is Arjun Iyuz, from Lendh ka Dakruim,” Liv said, as he climbed into the carriage. “We’re going to take him with us up to the college so he doesn’t have to wait. Arjun, this is Thora, my maid, and Wren -” she paused, not quite certain what to say.

“Her bodyguard,” Wren supplied, looking the boy over with narrowed eyes.

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“Then I shall be certain to keep my hands where you can see them,” Arjun said. Wren grunted, pulled the carriage door closed, and said nothing more. A moment later, having loaded the carriage as best he could, the driver clambered back up into his seat, and they were off. Liv wanted to look out at the town as they rolled through the streets, but she also didn’t want to be rude. With one lingering glance at the houses, which seemed to be walled with some kind of plaster, Liv turned back into the carriage.

“Do many people from Lendh ka Dakruim come here to study?” Liv asked. “I’m embarrassed that I don’t know.”

Arjun shook his head. “No,” he answered. “I would be rather the exception to the rule, I think. The way Lucania handles magic is very much at odds with how our jati work.”

“What made you decide to come, then?” Liv pressed. She felt the angle of the carriage change as it began to roll uphill, and she guessed they must be approaching the bluff where the college was located.

“I’m not certain everyone who lives here understands just how exceptional the concept of the college is,” Arjun explained, choosing his words carefully. “I cannot think of any other organization in the world dedicated to not only sharing knowledge of Vædic Grammar, but also actively trying to rediscover what has been lost - nevermind developing new ideas.”

Liv smiled. “There’s nothing like that in your home?”

Arjun shook his head. “No. My family are - I believe you would call us chirurgeons. We use spells that have been passed down from generation to generation, but there is a great deal of resistance to trying new ways of doing things. I have the misfortune to be arrogant enough to think I can do things better than my grandparents. So, I have come here, to learn. I notice, by the way, that your hands are bandaged.”

Liv had to actively resist hiding her hands under her skirts. She’d thought about leaving the bandages off today, for her arrival. Circulating mana nightly had nearly entirely healed the places where Mistress Trafford had cut away skin that had been corrupted by mana sickness, but the scars were still bright and new, and even tender in some places. The bandages did a good job of keeping them clean and covered in ointment.

“I had a bit of mana-poisoning recently,” Liv said vaguely.

“Perhaps you would allow me to examine them, later,” Arjun offered. “I can’t promise to do anything, of course, but I would like to attempt to repay your kindness.”

“Of course,” Liv said.

“We’ve arrived,” Wren broke in, pointing out the window.

The College of Vædic Grammar consisted of four large buildings and a fifth that was quite a bit smaller, arranged around a central courtyard. They were all built from white limestone - though four looked to be of much more recent construction than the fifth, which was weathered from age. There was an old stone wall around the courtyard, though it did not look to have been maintained for some time, and no guards patrolled the parapets.

The courtyard already held three carriages in various stages of being unloaded when their own driver pulled the team of horses to a stop. There were people everywhere, and no sooner had Liv opened the door to the carriage and stepped out than a young man with reddish-brown hair and a harried face hurried up to her.

“Name,” he said, holding an open book in his left hand and a polished stick of wood engraved with sigils of gold and silver in the right.

“Liv Brodbeck, from Whitehill,” she said. “And this is Master Arjun Iyuz, from Lendh ka Dakruim. Thora and Wren, there, are my servants.” And how odd it felt for Liv to say that.

“Arjun, you’re in the East Hall,” the young man said, after running his finger down a written list. “Third floor, good luck getting all your things up there. Second door on the left once you get off the stairs. Brodbeck-” he flipped his page, read for a moment, frowned, and then flipped again.

“High Hall,” he said, finally. “Over there.” He pointed at the most ornate of the buildings, trimmed in fine wood and with large paned windows to let in the light. “Second floor.”

“Which door?” Liv asked. She had noticed that Arjun received an extra level of instruction that she hadn’t.

“Right side,” the man said. “There’s only one. You’ve got till next bell for your man to get the carriage unloaded and out of here.”

“And my horse?” Liv raised her hand to indicate Steria.

“There’s a stable just outside the wall,” he said.

“Thank you.” Liv smiled. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Master-?”

“Maynard,” the russet-haired man said. “And that’s journeyman, by the way, not master. Only master mages get that around here, try to keep that in mind.” With that, he turned on his heel, and vanished back into the general hubbub.

“I’ll start getting these up, m’lady,” Thora said, and hitched one of Liv’s bags over her shoulder. The carriage driver, in the meanwhile, had descended from his perch and begun to unload the various trunks and bags. The wrapped casque atop the carriage, however, began to draw a crowd.

“What is that?” a young woman with black hair and an unfortunate nose asked, pointing up at the enormous package.

“That’s a stone-bat casque,” Liv said. “The largest I’ve ever seen. I took it out of the eruption at Bald Peak after-”

“What are you planning to do with it?” a rail-thin older man asked, sweeping through the crowd toward her.

“I hadn’t quite figured that part out, yet,” Liv admitted. “The eruption only finished three days ago, and I didn’t want to leave it in Whitehill.”

“I’d like to examine it, if you don’t mind,” the man said, then offered Liv his hand. “Master Norris, Professor of Enchanting.”

Liv slipped her hand into his, and the older mage made a cursory bow over her knuckles - little more than a dip of his head. “Liv Brodbeck,” she said. “You actually sound like exactly the person I want to speak to. I can’t imagine storing it in my rooms -”

Norris waved his hand through the air dismissively. “I’ll have it brought around to the back. We have plenty of space in the workshops. You’re Jurian’s apprentice? He told us you’d be coming this year.”

“Master Jurian, yes,” Liv confirmed, and couldn’t help but touch her thumb to the guild ring, where it decorated one finger of her right hand. She hadn’t seen the man in six years, since the conclave at Freeport, but she suspected that he was the sort of person who picked right back up where he’d left off with someone, regardless of the amount of intervening time. “Do you know if he’s about?”

“He’ll be hiding in his office,” Norris said. “You won’t catch him dead in all this mess. Turstin! Genne! Get over here and unload this thing. Carefully, now - if you break it, I’ll have you both repairing enchantments on the pipes for the next season.”

“I don’t think you could break it if you tried,” Liv pointed out. A well-muscled young man and a woman with shoulders nearly as wide climbed up on the carriage and began the process of untying the casque.

“Don’t challenge them,” Professor Norris said. “The only thing my students are better at doing than building things, is breaking them. You come and see me after your entrance exams, Miss Brodbeck.”

“I will,” Liv promised. With Thora already off into the High hall with an armload of things, the driver and Arjun stacking bags and trunks, and the enchanting students taking down the casque, there seemed to be very little for her to do. Professor Norris was more concerned with supervising the transportation of his new treasure than with her, and Wren seemed to have decided she could best do her job by glaring at everyone who rushed by.

Just as Liv had bent over and was about to grab one of her own bags from the pile and go looking for her rooms, she heard someone call her name from across the courtyard. The voice was almost familiar, but -

Liv straightened and turned to see who it was, only to find herself swept up in a man’s arms and spun around, her shoes leaving the courtyard entirely. Before she could say anything, a dark haired young man in a black and gold coat pressed his lips to hers in a very public kiss.

For a moment, Liv was simply too shocked to do anything at all. Her mind couldn’t catch up to what was happening, but something about the man’s appearance tickled at the back of her mind. Black and gold, dark hair -

She should slap him, push him aside, Liv knew, but there was something solid and wonderful about the strength of his arms, the way she was crushed into his chest. Something familiar and new, all at once. She was certain, all of a sudden, that she knew who this was, and for just a moment, Liv allowed herself to kiss him back. Her belly felt fluttery and warm, and she was certain that both her cheeks and the tips of her ears were flushing bright pink.

“Cade?” she gasped, the moment he released her. But the young man - boy, really - she’d known at Freeport had been slight and smooth-faced, nothing at all like this broad-shouldered man who towered above her, who had casually lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing more than a pillow.

“Liv,” Cade Talbot said, grinning. He took her hands in his own, and she was suddenly embarrassed for the bandages, though he hadn’t remarked on them. “It’s good to see you again. Gods, it's been so long. You’re more beautiful than ever. I wasn’t sure whether you’d be coming today, or-”

“Get your hands off her,” Wren said, pressing the blade of a knife to Cade’s throat. “Or I’ll slit your neck right now.”