“Headmistress.” He gave a small, brief nod before grabbing a towel off the shelves that lined the walls to his left. The material was rough as he ran it over the skin of his face and chest. Quickly, he pulled on an undershirt before turning back to them, “To what do I owe the pleasure during your busiest day of the week?”
His palm throbbed beneath the wrap. He could feel it pulling at him, wearing at his power. It was an effort not to shift it behind his back. Tender worry licked up his spine. Would she be able to sense the magic? Was she aware of what happened in the courtyard? What his brother was becoming?
But she only smiled as she brushed the thick bundle of braids off her shoulder. Icarus studied the deep silverish scars that decorated her arms. He knew they spread along her body, and that they’d been inflicted during the Trinity War, out on that bloody field. Each one was a reminder, a terrible one, of the atrocities that had occurred.
“I was spending a bit of time with my niece, Lily. I’m sure you’ve come across her in class and the opening trials.” Sidonia stepped lightly to the side, urging the young witch to move forward and join them. She stared up at him, eyes the color of chiseled amethyst, and blinked, slow and unimpressed.
“We’ve met, Auntie. Calami’s onlymaleprofessor.” The wordmaletwisted off her tongue like it was something rotten coating her mouth. Her expression was ripe with open dislike.
“Lilith!” The headmistress scolded, though he didn’t miss the smile in her eyes as she turned to her niece. “That is no way to speak to your professor. You will address every teacher here with all the grace and respect that you would if you were addressing me, personally. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Auntie.”
Sidonia gave a stern nod followed by a sigh heavy with exasperation. "My dear niece has an interest in fencing. She’s quite talented, in fact. One of the best at Dragunreach. I wanted to show her the training wing so that she might come here in the early mornings or evenings to practice. See there, Lily, at the far wall. There’s an array of weapons, hand-picked for Calami by our own renowned sword master. Why don’t you go have a look?”
The dismissal was clear enough and Lilith took the hint quickly, nodding before she crossed the vast stone floor to inspect them. Sidonia’s face changed slightly, as though an inch of tension was released from her jaw. She turned to face Icarus who eyed her with careful apprehension.
"Poor girl. South Silden is a mess right now. So much prejudice and hate between our countries. She might never be able to go home."
Icarus nodded in agreement, staring after her. Watching how she blended meticulously with the shadows in the room. Her country was war-torn and under occupation by the Lyrian crown. He knew it couldn't be easy, leaving family behind to join the very country that caused such turmoil for them all.
Sidonia looked at him, “It seems the statue of Saint Sorath has gone missing in the night, replaced by a scorched silver circle that won’t vanish, even under the groundskeeper’s most powerful scrubbing spells. Any idea where she went?”
His limbs grew stiff. Of course, those infernal streaks marred Calami’s courtyard with a vengeance. It was one thing to dissipate the bits of stone rubble that had been blasted apart. But whatever magic that exploded from the older Marudas sister had left a permanent scar on the land that would not be wiped away so readily.
“A prank, I suspect. Could be the Mistral Hall boys have found a weak spot in the boundary again. I’ll go out and reinforce the magic tonight. The full moon should add strength to the spell, hopefully, keep them out for good until the winter solstice celebration.” He knew at least one, in particular, would be kept away until then.
The headmistress nodded though, as if the mention of them had tinged her thoughts bitter, her face grew grim. “You missed the meeting in the dining hall this morning.”
“You changed the time,” he countered, tossing the soiled towel in the air as he sensed a vestus whooshing by. The material vanished as soon as it left his hand.
A hint of annoyance flickered over Sidonia's shadowy features. "Too many students were talking about it, wondering why we were meeting each night. Asking questions they aren't ready for the answers to. You should have been notified. We won’t announce the solstice ball until later in the month and word cannot get out about what we are doing here, Icarus. There's too much at stake. So many young lives. The fate of Calami as we know it. Olympia grows weak, but she won't admit it to anyone but me, and mind you this stays strictly between us. Tensions are brewing. Whispers on the wind. Rumor that someone is again searching for the Three. If the Imperial Witch should fall so suddenly on top of everything else, well, I believe it would set a whole chain of unfortunate events into motion."
Calder flashed through his head, that crazed look on his face. He trusted the headmistress. He'd been close to Sidonia since boyhood. After all, she was the one he'd gone to the night his family fell to pieces and everything changed. While he would always consider her headmistress first, the wordfriendwas a close contender. But he still wasn't sure if she was right in preparing the staff for a potential fight when the other wizard and witching schools gathered for the celebration. It had cast some of the younger staff members into a frenzy.
"You really think we should prepare for an attack? Have the wizards been at it again?"
"Just a few. Radicals. Some of the older students from Mistral Hall have joined their cause. Cyrus swears he's working to keep them under control, but I don't believe it. They seem to think Olympia is whispering in the ear of the king. That witches are poisoning their way to power… as if the position is anything but a burden on us," her laugh was bitter in the air between them, "With rumors of the Three now… things could quickly get out of control at the Solstice gathering. Tensions brew so fiercely when witches and wizards come together during times like these… if only they could all be like you and me."
"If only," he agreed in his quiet contemplative way.
"Auntie," Lilith's voice cut the air between them. "I'll be late for my next class if I don't go now."
Icarus stole a glance at his pocket watch sitting beside his fresh change of clothes. She was right. Time had gotten away from him as well; he was due to lecture in less than thirty minutes.
"Off with you then. The both of you," she chided lightly.
Lilith turned, hurrying off to ready herself for third period. Icarus went more slowly, casting a look over his shoulder at the headmistress who stood staring at the gleaming wall of swords.
By the time Icarus had finished both his lectures for the day, he was bone tired and ready to hide away in his room with the pile of books that waited for him there. More research to be done, scouring for clues to what Calder believed was hidden somewhere in these very walls. If the omnis stone was indeed still in Calami Tower, then there had to be a trail—hints as to where it was.
Briefly, he thought of the letter he’d sent his uncle that morning. A plea, almost painful to write, asking that he keep a closer eye on his youngest nephew. If what Sidonia said was true, Cal was following more closely in their father’s footsteps than ever. He knew just how dark the end of that path was.
With a heavy sigh, he climbed step after step but pulled up short as a sharp scent of withered roses and decay filled his nose, sickly sweet and provoking. He was passing by the eighth floor, the only level of Calami that remained inexplicably stagnant among the constant shifting and changing.
Could it be?
He hadn't searched for the room for over three years now, having given up after long hours wasted each night, in dim torchlight with the rest of the school well asleep as he tried every spell he'd ever come across to locate the hidden entrance. New and old incantations alike failed him every time, the conservatory was either lost or legend.
