“That does sound nice,” Eunny admitted. “A lot better than my aunt’s floor.”
“Think about it, please,” he said, eyes cast downward. “You’re offering to do this because of me?—”
“Eunny! Ollas!”
They turned in unison to see Zhenya hurrying toward them. “Professor Saren—I mean, Professor Rai—wants to meet about the elective. Word just came in from the Restorers’ rep about an amendment.”
“Take a breath, Zhen,” Eunny said as the younger woman came to a stop in front of them and doubled over, hands on her knees. “The Restorers, eh?”
The Restorers of the Alliance was a new organization, formed back at the end of spring, bringing together people from all the Alliance of Empyrean Territories to pool resources in the name of environmental restoration. Though their purview would extend to ecological damage in any region, the bulk of the organization’s focus centered in the kingdom of Rhell. Curing the cursed poison that had been relentlessly making its way toward the kingdom’s magical wellspring had proven impossible so far, but hope remained. Research projects carried out by Eunny’s best friend Anadae Helm and her partner Ezzyn Sor’vahl had made the first breakthrough in halting the blight’s spread. Containment, not a cure, but it was the first real stride made in the six years since the unofficial Eyllic War had been declared over.
Unsurprising, then, that the Restorers would make forays into Sylveren University itself; the school had been instrumental in Anadae and Ezzyn’s success. Ollas knew he was biased, but Sylveren had the best professors this side of the Great Sea. It lured the brightest minds in the world, both nonmagical and arcane-born, to carry out their research. If they were going to make claims about being at the forefront of environmental restoration, there was no better institution for the Restorers to partner with than the school.
So, a last-minute changeup in curriculum? Ollas didn’t know if that boded well or ill.
“He said urgent,” Zhenya said with an emphatic gesture.
Ollas glanced at Eunny, a question in his eyes.
“I’m nosy.” She wrapped the edges of her cloak around her as the wind picked up. “I want to hear what the Restorers have to say.”
Chapter Five
Eunny knew she wasn’t part of the magical community anymore, not really. She lived in Sylvan, but she wouldn’t let herself feel like she belonged. Like it was a place and a life that could still be hers. The Healer Who Hurts didn’t deserve that, regardless of who her auntie was. Eunny had lost the right to feel at home, the will for it. She didn’t want it back…
Most days, she didn’t want that old life back. Didn’t miss it, because she didn’t let herself think about it, about how her current stasis with a crumbly repair shop wasn’t at all what she’d pictured. Yet here she was, following the others back to the Grove, her head still spinning with Ollas’s… offer.
She couldn’t figure him out. He’d been awkward yet earnest at the repair café. Even more so when she’d come to pitch her idea of helping him out during his recovery. But it wasn’t the easy, casual camaraderie she remembered from their childhood, or the fleeting encounters when they’d chanced upon each other around town as adults.
Ollas walked slightly ahead of her, limping along well enough with his cane. He chatted amiably with Zhenya. Something about worms and mash and tea, which Eunny hoped to the gods was a garden thing and not something she’d be asked to weigh in on. Topic aside, it didn’t escape her notice that Ollas had no trouble conversing with Zhenya. Shared a laugh, nodding along when Zhen got going about her latest ink experiment. Conversation between them flowed in a way that had something disturbingly like envy settling in Eunny’s gut. Which was ridiculous; she knew they were friends—they were friends with her!—and had more in common with each other than with Eunny. Sweet, bookish nerds. But Ollas even murmured a few greetings to fellow grovetenders as they made their way to the branch where the faculty offices were housed. There was an easy confidence about him on campus that he didn’t share when it was just them.
Eunny suppressed a sigh. Maybe it’d be better to decline his housing offer with as much grace as she could muster.
Professor Saren Rai was waiting for them in his office. Eunny had met Zhenya’s advisor-slash-mentor-slash-boss several times since her own Initiate years and had heard about him many times over. Of Hanyeok descent like Eunny and Zhenya, his jet-colored hair had the beginnings of gray streaks. He appeared in his late forties—maybe early fifties; hard to tell after a certain point—and stood around six feet, long of frame with a slight hunch to the shoulders and bump of a belly. That, coupled with an underlying paleness to his light brown skin, betrayed the fact that he spent most of his time indoors, though his pallor was counteracted by colorful ink stains on his fingers. Both Zhenya and her mentor sported an aggressive violet today, the hue fading to pink at the edges.
Rai looked up from the papers scattered across his desk. “Ah, Miss Lee, you found them. Ollas,” he said, nodding to greet him, before landing on Eunny. “Hello, Miss Song.”
Eunny blinked with surprise that the head of the botany department knew who she was, but apparently one of her friends had already made her proposed role known.
“The Restorers want to change something about the elective?” Ollas said as they all took seats.
Rai regarded them, expression grave. “The rate of illness stemming from poison exposure in Rhell is increasing. The Restorers ask that, in addition to the current bioremediation work, the elective run trials on an additional healing cultivar to improve its hardiness. Even better if we can somehow combine the two.”
Both Zhenya and Ollas made sounds of dismay.
“It’s contained, isn’t it?” Eunny asked before Rai had finished speaking. “In Rhell. The new ward configuration Dae— I thought the containment measures were working.”
“They are, as far as anyone in the Rhellian government or with the Restorers have said.” Rai made a soothing gesture. “However, no one could’ve anticipated how it would react in containment. No one has died, to be clear.”
As if death was the worst that could happen to a body.
“But?” she pressed.
“More are falling ill.” Rai sighed. “Availability of arable land in the region has been tumultuous for quite some time, so any progress we make toward improved efficiency will be put to use.”
Ollas cleared his throat, continuing in a low tone, “The menders can’t help?”
“Certainly, but serious afflictions? No more than they have since the beginning with this poison. These newer ailments are less entrenched, but it pulls magic and energy away from where it’s needed.” Rai glanced at all three of them, gaze lingering on Eunny. “I trust that you will keep this in confidence?”
