Memory Bonds

There was a bit of a pause between that class and the next. Time to clean the ink off, at least.

Hands clean, she went to the potion classroom.

This time, the teacher was there before her. And he was human. Slightly above average human height, and slightly below elf average in height. He was pale, with brown hair in a jagged cut, and brown eyes. His eyes locked not on her, but Fleck. “Pets aren’t allowed in Potions.”

“Fleck is not a pet,” Harmoni said. There was still some bite to it, but less than what she’d used on Rasha. That had been a mistake. “He’s sapient.”

Fleck nodded along.

“Well, he’s certainly well trained, I’ll give you that. But sentient? This is the potions classroom. We deal with volatile ingredients. It’s dangerous to let animals in here.”

Fleck growled below, and Harmoni scrunched up her face. She wondered if she should keep arguing, or just try to avoid an incident.

“She’s right. He’s sentient.”

Harmoni turned around. Rasha had just entered the classroom.

“I talked to Fleck, he’s sentient,” Rasha repeated. “Besides, don’t one of the teachers have a dragon? Tolith? Surely you know how he works.”

The potions teacher was quiet for a moment. He didn’t exactly seem happy about this. But now Rasha had sided with her, and multiple other students had come in, and he let it go.

“Very well. But if I think there’s going to be a problem, I will say so. If it’s best he leaves, he will do that.”

Oh he made his opinion very clear, but Fleck wasn’t a student. He wasn’t doing anything. He was just here because he enjoyed being with Harmoni, and could give her emotional support.

Still, he nodded his understanding to the teacher.

With that settled, the two headed into the room. Unlike the last classroom, this one had tables, instead of individual desks. The tables looked like they could fit four people, if not comfortably, and had cauldrons at them. There was a rim for fire built below them, but those weren’t lit. And there were no ingredients or tools out, nothing like that.

Harmoni sat at a table that was still empty. It didn’t stay that way.

“Hey.”

Harmoni turned. A gnome was sitting on the other side of the table. Well, right now he was actually standing on the stool, so he could reach across the table, or so he could stand with his hands braced against the surface.

“Uh, hi,” Harmoni said.

“Hey, if Lona offers youapen, you shouldn’t take it. She likesto prankpeople with, uh, prettybad pens.”

Harmoni tried not to give him a withering look. He didn’t say?

“You’re Weslessinal, right?”

“I mean I am,” he quickly agreed. “But that’samouthful. Speciallyif you’re speaking thatslow. Most people callme Wesles.”

Harmoni nodded. “I’m Harmoni. I suppose . . . we’re going to share this table?”

It wasn't like there were enough tables for her to have her own.

Wesles shrugged. “Doubt we’re doing anythinginteresting today though.”

He was right. Once everyone was inside, they mostly went over safety. Protective gear, first aid if anyone did get hurt, the rules of what they would or wouldn’t be doing in here. (They’d get more freedom as classes went on, and the teacher got more confidence in them, apparently.) All of it was that kind of thing.

Then it was over. Harmoni headed for the cafeteria for lunch. History of Magic wasn’t taught today, only Tuesdays and Thursdays. She did have the language class later. Much later.

With nothing else going on, they headed to the stables. There was an elf there. He seemed young, but with elves, it was hard to tell. Especially since his appearance could be an older teenager or younger adult.

The point was, he had worked at stables for the past year. (He seemed mildly surprised when he said it. Evidently, he hadn’t realized how long it had been until he had to tell her.) He explained the expectations. He would also be showing her how to clean and feed the horses.

Harmoni and Fleck did some of it. She didn’t think this would be too hard. There was technically some overlap between this and the spa work. Though, of course, the horses couldn’t tell her what they wanted. And Fleck's increasing size, and more importantly increasing strength, would make the heavy lifting easier.

“They don’t know their own strength compared to yours,” the stable hand pointed out. “Our horses are well trained. It’s not that they’re mean. But they might be dangerous without meaning to. So be careful.”

As opposed to dragons, some of whom were dangerous while meaning it.

Harmoni could manage that. She nodded along and looked at the horses. They looked similar to the ones on Morivon. But that was a different planet. Surely there was a difference?

“Shouldn’t you get going?” the stable hand asked. “Everything’s done in here for now. And you probably have more classes?”

Right. Off to the class on magic language. Which was . . . boring, actually. Of course, it was the first day. The other two classes hadn’t had anything important either. But the teacher just sort of droned on in a voice he might’ve thought was nice. It was not.

He handed out two books they’d use in the class. One was for translations, while the other taught basic spoken spells. The one with basic spells had to stay in the classroom, but they were welcome to take a copy of the translation book, provided they kept it in one piece. They’d have to return it at the end of the school year.

And the school “year” was not the same as one on Morivon, so that would be a while from now.

‘What about Xentron school years?’

‘I . . . don’t think Xentron has schools to have school years, to be honest.’

‘Fair.’

While the class was technically a beginner’s class, and was on the first floor, there were more adults in this one. In fact, Eddie was the only person Harmoni recognized in this class.

Afterwards, Harmoni took her translation book upstairs, and set it under her bed. She sighed, leaning against the back of the bed. It had been an eventful day.

“It’s only 4PM,” Fleck pointed out, out loud. He was tired of being quiet.

Harmoni managed a glare. He sounded far too cheeky. And 4PM here was later than it was on Xentron.

Still, he had a point. If she slept at, say, 10PM, she could still wake up at 7 and get the correct amount of sleep, and get to class on time. Which meant there were still a lot of hours in the day left, and aside from looking at the translation book, she didn’t have anything to do up here.

After about five minutes to catch her breath, she got up, and slid her shoes on. “You want to go to one of those towns now?” she asked.

~~~

There were two towns close to Edinar school. Harmoni had learned that much in her brief stay here. One of them was, well, Edinar. It was to the North, and you could really call it a city, not a town. It was the one that had grown when the school was built. It apparently had a restaurant and light path of some fame.

The other was Ovant. It was smaller. It had been built in the middle of nowhere before the school was there, and it stayed that way. But it was the closer one, so she and Fleck were going there.

They were walking. They could’ve asked about using a horse, or even asked if Asplenium could take them. But Harmoni didn’t want to bother anyone, was afraid to ask more like, so they were walking.

Fleck could smell both towns from the entrance to the school. He let his nose lead the way, taking a worn path in the direction of Ovant. Sometimes, he would jump and glide part of the way. And he was always aware of Harmoni following him, even without turning around.

The town was . . . a little weird to look at. The buildings were clearly man made, most of them looking like log cabins. But the rest of the town didn't seem to have much. . .structure? The roads were dirt, and seemed to be made by people just walking in the same place over and over, which led to small winding paths. Harmoni wasn't sure if there were yards. And if there were, she couldn't tell where they ended and the forest around began. And anything man made, like the buildings, seemed to be built in spaces that already existed, rather than clearing an area for them. The forest's trees were sort of far apart, so it worked out, but it was weird in places. One building curved around a tree where there wasn't space.

Was that bad?

Maybe not bad, but a little. . . disorienting. Considering she wasn't used to it.

There were a few people out. All elves, Fleck could smell it. There weren’t many, and they were all silent. If he couldn’t see feet, he might assume they were hovering just above the ground instead of walking across it. One of them was hovering just above the ground actually. So, that one was showing off his magic a bit.

They matched the forest pretty well, in things like the clothes they wore or hair they had. They weren’t about to do any chameleon levels of blending in, but it didn’t stand out like wearing pink in pine trees would.

A few elves turned to look at them as they passed, but they never said anything. It seemed everyone had somewhere to be. And, if anything, he garnered more attention than Harmoni.

Harmoni wet her lips, swallowed, and looked around. The place seemed nice enough. The people seemed . . . distant, but that didn’t mean anything bad. But everything was kind of indistinct. The buildings gave no indication of what they were from the outside.

‘Do you know where we should go?’ Harmoni asked Fleck.

Fleck sniffed the air again. One of the buildings smelled like paper, ink, and leather. It was probably that one.

‘Probably,’ Harmoni agreed. And they were off again.