Aether’s Apprentices: Chapter 10

“How are you today?” Gregory asked Ling and Clover as they made their way downstairs.

“Much better,” Ling replied.

“I feel awake,” Clover grinned.

“That’s good,” Daciana said, coming down the hall toward the stairs. “You look better today.”

“That didn’t sound nice,” Nessa said.

Daciana lowered her head. “I didn’t mean—”

Clover hugged her, cutting off the wolf eurtik. “It’s fine. Thank you.”

“Two huggers,” Victoria chuckled.

“Clover, you should ask before hugging people,” Yukiko said with humor.

“Oh, right,” Clover said, letting Daciana go. “Sorry. Can—?”

Daciana grabbed Clover, hugging her back. “Yes.”

Jenn snorted a laugh. “Very alike.”

Clover and Daciana hugged in a wobbly circle for a moment, earning smiles from everyone.

“Novices, Apprentices,” Dia said on the stairs above them. “Are we blocking the stairs now?”

“No, Dia,” the chorus came as they all quickly moved downstairs.

Bishop was the only one in the dining room. She looked up when they all came in. “Good morning to you all.”

They echoed back greetings to Bishop as they took their seats. Once they were settled, they greeted Velma who was in the kitchen.

“I’ll have breakfast ready shortly. Do you need your snacks again?” Velma asked.

“We don’t know what today will bring,” Gregory replied. “It might be for the best.”

“I’ll get them set up while you eat.”

“Paul told us to assemble in the main tactics room today,” Yukiko said. “Perhaps we’ll be hearing about the tournament? I doubt it’ll be before the solstice, but we could be getting information on it today.”

“That would be good,” Ling nodded.

“I believe that is correct,” Dia said. “Gin told me that we would have you all here for training today.”

“That’ll be nice,” Clover grinned.

“Agreed,” Bishop said. “We are going to work you hard to make up for the lighter day yesterday.”

“We’ll do our best,” Ling said.

“That is the attitude I want to see,” Bishop replied.

“Breakfast,” Velma said, loading up the cart with food.

As Velma got their food passed out, she gave Yukiko a smile. “Thank you for the gifts. We all appreciated them.”

“Oh good, they arrived. I was starting to wonder if they’d been delayed.”

“We appreciate all you do for us,” Jenn added.

“Thank you,” Velma said, bowing to them. “Enjoy.”

~*~*~

“Yuki, what did you do for them?” Nessa asked as they headed to the archive.

“I had my parents pick up some things for them,” Yukiko replied. “They’ve been very good to us since our first year, even before we joined the clan. They make the blanks for Magi Squares for us now, too, giving us even more time to study in the morning.”

“Can we help next time?” Clover asked.

“Of course,” Yukiko smiled. “Anyone who wants to contribute can.”

“Aether’s Guard, welcome back to the archive,” Rafiq greeted them.

Greeting him back, a few of them asked for new study material. Rafiq promised to have the new books brought to them and wished them a good day. Moving off to the larger table, they settled in to work on Magi Squares.

As they were finishing those, someone started to approach them. The eurtiks at the table all looked up first, their superior hearing giving them advanced warning.

Master Damon came to a stop next to the table. “Pettit, can we talk?” All three Pettits gave him a smile, and he exhaled loudly. “Gregory Pettit.”

“Sir, if you wish to talk, please sit,” Gregory said. “My fellow clan members know about my foresight.”

Damon looked over the table and a small frown marred his expression. “Hmm… I see. Did they only recruit women?”

“As far as we know, they’re the only ones who have asked, sir,” Yukiko replied with a hint of coolness to her tone.

“I see. Very well, but it does touch upon your magic and notes you’ve left for me,” Damon replied as he took a seat.

“That’s fine, sir,” Gregory said.

“Very well.” Damon suddenly had ink, pen, and paper in front of him. “You mentioned seeing multiple branches. Can you expound on that?”

“The future is all branching pathways, sir,” Gregory said. “Every action that could happen is a new path, but they all have different chances of happening.”

Damon began to write quickly.

“The most likely paths are… sharper…? Clearer…? I’m not sure how to explain it, but they’re easier to tell from the less likely paths.”

“Do they have more details, or is there a fog?” Damon asked intently.

“They all have the same detail,” Gregory said slowly. “I can’t think of how to explain it, but when I look, I can see what’s most likely from what is the least.”

Damon frowned as he nodded. “So there’s no indicator that you know of?”

“No, sir. I just know.”

“There was a rumor that a spirit path follower could stop your foresight. Is this true?” Damon was staring at Gregory when he asked the question.

“Not that I know of, sir,” Gregory said. “Though I still have trouble with foresight at times.”

“It’s not stable?” Damon asked sharply.

“I’ve noticed trouble at times,” Gregory hedged. “Occasionally, the sheer number of possibilities can make it harder.”

Going back to his notes, Damon looked thoughtful. “Interesting… How often have you used foresight during tactics class?”

“Not once, sir,” Gregory replied.

Damon’s head snapped up and a single eyebrow rose. “Not once?”

“No, sir. I need to improve, not use a crutch.”

Blinking slowly, Damon’s head inclined slightly. “Smart.”

Chief Archivist Sarinia came to the table. “Master Damon, are you interrupting these students from learning?”

Damon’s face went blank for a second, then he turned to face the black panther eurtik. “Of course I’m not, Sarinia. I am just getting clarification from Pettit about his magic.”

Gregory was surprised by Damon’s soft, respectful tone. “He isn’t. I understand his drive to learn and appreciate it.”

“Very well, Apprentice. Master Damon knows the rules of the archive. If you tell him that he is hindering your learning, he will leave you be inside these walls.”

“Thank you, Chief,” Yukiko said, bowing her head— she’d overheard a few of the archivists use her title before. “I doubt we’ll ever need to tell him, but I’ll remember.”

“Very well,” Sarinia said, bowing her head fractionally to the table. “Good learning.”

When she left, Damon exhaled slowly. “Yes. I appreciate you saying that, Pettit. Your magic is one of the things I truly yearn to know the more about. The need to record it for future generations burns brightly for me.”

“If I might ask,” Gregory started, “what are the other things?”

“Aether and all things connected to him,” Damon said softly. “I used to hope that Lightshield would be proven right. If Aether came back, I could just ask him… I have so many questions.” With a deep, sad, longing-filled sigh, Damon shook his head. “Sadly, that isn’t to be, it seems. Even Elder Lightshield will pass without his family’s long-held belief being seen.”

“There is still time,” Clover said.

Damon gave her a sad smile. “Elder Lightshield has less than a handful of years left. I mourn the day he does pass— he has refused to answer so many of my questions. So much knowledge will be lost with him.”

“We sidetracked you, sir,” Gregory said. “Did you have more questions for me?”

Nodding, Damon gathered himself. “Yes, thank you, Pettit. Now then…”

~*~*~

They were leaving the archive as the fifth bell began to chime.

“Greg, will you tell us more later?” Victoria asked.

Seeing the interest from the others, he gave them a nod. “Not much more I could say, but as long as you all promise to keep it between us, yes.”

All of them were quick to agree, even Jenn and Yukiko. He realized that he’d never explained how his magic worked to them either.

“If we finish the Peaceful Fist before the evening hour,” Gregory added. “In return, you can all tell us about yours. Maybe you don’t think much about it,” he gave Daciana a smirk, making her blush and her tail to wag a little faster, “but it’ll be a way for us to learn.”

“We should,” Yukiko said. “We’ll discuss what we do, how it feels, the things they never explained to us during class.”

“Maybe one of us will have some insights to help the others,” Ling said.

“Yes,” Yukiko said.

“I agree,” Nessa said, “but we need to get to class.”

With their goodbyes said, the two groups broke apart and went their separate ways.

“Greg,” Jenn broke the silence as they walked, “you held back, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” Clover asked.

“Because anything I tell him will be copied down and placed in the archive,” Gregory said. “I won’t tell him everything.”

“Because incomplete information gives you the chance to surprise anyone who thinks they know all you can do,” Ling nodded. “But will you tell us?”

“I’ll tell you more,” Gregory replied. “I trust those in the clan.”

“Even then, there are some secrets that we keep from our families,” Yukiko said, “as we told you the first day you joined the clan. It isn’t because we don’t trust you or them, but because the secret is worth that much.”

“That’s fine,” Clover said. “We’ll be worthy of the secret in time if we do what we need to, right?”

Yukiko and Jenn exchanged a subtle glance, and Yukiko smiled at the excitable woman. “It is possible.”

Gregory’s lips pursed, thinking back to why they’d told Jenn his secret and what Yukiko was agreeing to now. Shaking his head, he sighed to himself. No, she just means that, in time, I’ll have to declare myself as Aether reborn. Not that they’ll be like Jenn… that’s just that desire resonance influencing me.

The tactics building was getting closer and Ling spoke up, “We’ll be doing our best. We would have anyway. For the clan.” The last three words seemed to be rushed, tacked onto what she’d been saying.

“The clan has taken every tournament since last year,” Yukiko said. “Hopefully today, we’ll hear about the one coming up and we can keep our streak intact.”

“We need to make sure everyone understands that Aether’s Guard is strong and climbing back to where it belongs,” Jenn said. “The others will do their best to tear us down during this tournament— we’ll need to keep that in mind as we play. Egil called it a campaign tournament at the start of the year… which makes me think that we’ll be left with what we had when we won the last game. We’ll be finding out shortly, if that is true or not.”

“We will indeed,” Gregory nodded.