I nod, my gut twisting into knots. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”
It seems the Second High Priestess isn’t the only evasive one around here.
Our second orientation class takes place in a long, cold room connected to one end of our residence by a wide hallway.
Tall tables and stools occupy the Learning Annex, spaced in tidy rows and holding two students per table. Even with the roughly thirty of us present, there are still many more stools and desks than bodies to fill them.
Sadrie and Cordelia share a table while I sit alone.
Ghisele sits by herself too, occupying the table to my right. A botanical illustration sits in front of her, along with a tin of pigment sticks. She’s working on a cluster of winter gentians, their brilliant blue petals and oval leaves exquisitely rendered.
She doesn’t wear quite as much jewelry as the priestesses, but her wrist bears an identical silver cuff bracelet to Elodie’s. I also notice an amethyst and silver necklace with coordinating earrings.
Rosalie slouches in the back row. I stare when I first see her, unable to figure out how there’s not a mark on her. I know it’s been a few days, but there should besomesort of welt or bruise from Kerrigan’s slap. A thin, silver collar necklace rests above her clavicles; I’m certain she wasn’t wearing it two days ago.
Meanwhile, Cara sits in the front row, also blemish-free. There’s nothing to indicate what sort of injury transferred so much blood to Rosalie’s face, or why the latter said she wouldn’t “do it again.”
Lady Maida calls class into session from behind a lectern. Like Ghisele and Elodie, she wears a heavy amount of jewelry. Pointer in hand, rings flashing, she utilizes a color-coded map hanging in front of the blackboard while Elodie stands to the side.
The priestesses pass the pointer back and forth, discussing the first fortified settlements that sprang up along the Kinvarrea River in the age before the realm was founded.
The lesson turns to violent clashes that erupted between founding clans roughly a thousand years ago. Those isolated skirmishes evolved into two centuries of full-blown war.
“During the longest days of the war, the losses were profound,” says Elodie, her gaze skimming pointedly past me. “The turning point came when plague broke out. Food ran scarce, and the local fauna was hunted to near-extinction. There were tens of thousands of deaths.”
“That’s when truces were struck between the warring clans and the first peace treaties were drafted,” supplies Maida. “There would be many before the war ended, culminating eight hundred years ago in the Indigo & Veridian Accords.”
A short break is called. When we return, the map is rolled up, and the chalk comes out.
“All right. Indigo & Veridian Accords.” Maida picks up the lecture seamlessly. “What did they establish?”
Puzzled glances and hushed chatter make their way around the room.
“That’s your hint to get out your workbooks,” mutters Ghisele. Given her absence at yesterday’s lecture and the priestess’s indifference to her preoccupation, I’m guessing she’s not a new initiate. She’s clearly not a priestess, either.
“Go ahead and open your blue workbook,” says Elodie. She pauses, leaning against a wall in the back corner with her arms crossed.
We retrieve the color-coded readers that were assigned to us when class began.
Cara volunteers to read aloud from the first page: “Indigo & Veridian Accords. This document founded the four city-states and the nine Incorporated Territories of the United Kinvarrea Realm. It put the High Clans and their patriarchs into seats of power.”
Meanwhile, Maida’s been writing two lists on the blackboard in elegant script. When she’s finished, she uses her pointer on the lists while Cara continues down the page.
The High Clans: (and their seats)
- Clan Jedrek (Aronya Dar)
- Clan Madoc (Cantana)
- Clan Owin (Nehel)
- Clan Leofel (Black City)
- Clan Keithan (Incorporated Territories)
City-States of the United Realm:
-Aronya Dar- The first city-state. The Walled City - city within a city.
