Chapter 23
1682 Words
23
Chalk shrieked on the blackboard as Hagen drew the fifth image of a dying man. “In case of natural death, souls have a shorter lingering time but they are less destructive if they’re not harvested. Who can tell me why?”
“Psst.” Aellyn tapped me on my shoulder. “Hey.”
“What?” I leaned back, making sure not to take my eyes off the front. Professor Hagen had a strange gift for knowing when someone wasn’t paying attention.
“Nothing. I just haven’t seen you in a long while.”
“I was—” I shut my mouth so Hagen’s wandering eyes didn’t catch me. “Busy.”
“Want to hang out after class?” the Wood Elf asked.
“Sure. Lunch in the dining hall?” I replied, my mind only half there.
She bounced up and down. “Yes!”
“Great.” I touched my forehead again, just to reassure myself the cursed mark was gone. At least, that was a weight off my mind. Now, the stressy part was waiting for the imminent death of someone around me. Who would it be? A professor? A student? One of my friends?
Nobody in this classroom looked sick or tired, but we were the first to know. Death was sneaky and unexpected. It could happen to anyone at any time. And none of them knew.
From the front row, Ryoko shot me a worried look. Without saying anything, she tapped her watch. I wasn’t the only one keeping track of the time then.
Only forty-five minutes until someone kicked the bucket. If only I knew who, but of course, the mark didn’t give out that information. No, instead, I’d have to suffer through the knowledge, the gruesome waiting, and the endless wondering.
At least I wasn’t alone in this miserable position. I could share the agonising wait with Ryoko, which was a bit of a macabre bonding experience, but ehh, I’d take what I could get. It wasn’t like we didn’t deal daily with death… Just not the death of our peers.
Hagen’s voice trumpeted through the room. “And now, we’ll turn to page two hundred and twelve where you can see a woman suffering a slow death. In this case, her soul will slowly untether until she draws her last breath. As teachers, these deaths are great for practice and excursions.”
“Psst.” Aellyn tapped my shoulder again.
“What?”
“I’m excited to have lunch.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Great.”
“I’ll see you then. Friend.”
“Yes, you will.” I gave her half a smile, trying to match her excitement. The Wood Elf was great, but her enthusiasm and happiness level were just constantly above mine. Nothing seemed to get her down. Not the lack of friends, or popularity, or anything really. She was like a constant ray of sunshine, even in the event of rain.
Satisfied that I was definitely meeting her for lunch, she sat back and remained quiet while Hagen finished his lecture. We were nearing the end of his hour, which was reflected in the impatient shuffling and scraping of chairs.
“Eh. Before you all run out of my class for lunch, write down your homework for next week. I want you all to write me a five-hundred word essay on the topic of a ‘foreign death’. Anyone who fails to hand in a paper will be marked down.”
That was grand. He, and a bunch of the teachers had been abscent for almost the entire first semester. No explanation, no subsitute classes, nothing. And even if there were a bit more classes now, it still wasn’t our full curriculum. Teaching was clearly not a priority, but there was always time for homework apparently.
I scribbled a quick reminder in my textbook and slammed it shut. Lunch hour was only a few minutes away and I was impatient to get out of here. Before the cursed timer ran out, I wanted to talk to Ryoko and make sure she was okay. Or that I’d said everything I needed to say.
There was a chance she was the victim of this predicted death and if that was the case… I didn’t want her to die without knowing how much I thought about her. And I didn’t want to regret not telling her.
“You can hand in your papers before—”
I drowned out Hagen’s specifications and shoved all my stuff into my bag. I wasn’t going to wait for him to finish.
“Excuse me, miss Helgudóttir. What do you think you’re doing?” Professor Hagen called out.
“Sorry, Professor. I’m hungry.” I threw my backpack over my shoulder and pushed through the rows of tables to where Ryoko was sitting with her Shinigami friends.
“Hey. I need to talk to you,” I said, earning some strange looks and whispering behind my back.
One of the male Dragons stood up. “I don’t think so.”
The entire group giggled behind their hands, which seemed to inflate the guy’s ego even more. He puffed up his chest, as if he was the best thing since sliced bread.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I retorted, looking him up and down. He was tall, but thin. I could take him.
“You’d do well to sit down and conform,” he sneered.
“Kurai-san.” Ryoko placed a hand on his arm and pulled him back down. “It’s okay.”
I glared at where she was touching him, suddenly taken in the grasp of jealousy. Why was she touching him like that?
She rose from her seat, clutching her books to her chest. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Let’s walk,” I suggested. I knew people were staring, I knew I shouldn’t talk to her in public, but this was too important. This couldn’t wait.
A pink head popped up next to me. “I thought we were having lunch?”
“Yes, I’ll see you there?”
Disappointment showed on Aellyn’s face, but she didn’t complain. Instead, she gave me a forced smile and nodded. “Okay. I’ll save you a seat.”
The rest of the class broke up and each course flocked together in smaller groups. Reapers with Reapers, Shinigami with Shinigami, and Valkyrie with Valkyrie. Except for some exchanged glares, they pretended the others didn’t exist. That was how it was, how it had always been according to Mamma. Nobody mixed, nobody mingled. Except Ryoko and I.
We were a strange sight, a nail sticking out from the rest. As we passed through the hall, students shot us looks and whispered behind our backs. And not even that subtly.
“What did you want to talk about?” Ryoko asked.
“Well, you know about the…” I tapped my wrist. “You know.”
“Yes?”
I took a deep breath. “I know it’s not me. I’m only the messenger. I was just worried whether… You know.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Whether it was…?”
“If it was you,” I hissed, not daring to give power to the words by saying them louder.
Her lips tugged into a smile that lit up her face. “If it is my time, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“No, I know. I just meant…”
The gossiping and gaping was becoming a little annoying. Especially for the intimate things I wanted to tell her.
I grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from the crowded corridor. Everyone was making their way to the dining hall, so most classrooms would be emptying by now.
After a quick check through the window, I pulled her into a deserted room. “This’ll do.”
Ryoko’s eyes twinkled as I locked the door and lowered the blinds. “Oh, my. Ylva, what are you planning?”
“You sound so mischievous. How do you do that?”
She chuckled throatily. “It’s all in the intonation.”
“I can’t do it.”
“Sure you can.” She wiggled her eyebrows, flames dancing in her eyes. “I’m up for an adventure.”
“See! You did it again. You always sound like you’ve got something up your sleeve.”
The Dragon chuckled. “Maybe I do. Wouldn’t you like to know what I got up there?”
My cheeks blushed red. “Now that’s an entirely different tone.”
“Oh yeah?” She pressed herself into me, her arms circling around my waist. “What tone is that?”
“That’s your flirty tone.”
She laughed. “Look at you! Recognising when you’re being flirted with.”
“Hey! I’ve gotten better.” I pushed my bottom lip out. I hadn’t pouted in my life, but she just brought it out in me.
“You’re adorable.” Her eyes sparkled like the most brilliant night sky. “But what did you want to talk about?”
“I— In the case that, you know, umm… The cursed mark was about you. I just wanted to tell you that…” I took a deep breath, mustering up all the bravery I had. When I thought about courage, I imagined battles and wars, blood and bruises. Never could I have predicted that the bravest moment of my life would be right now, admitting something to Ryoko that I wasn’t ready to admit to myself. But I didn’t have time to stall or wait. Not if I wanted to live with regrets for the rest of my life.
“Ylva… What is it?” Her voice sounded so serious, it made it even more nerve wracking.
“I haven’t all figured it out yet and I don’t know where it’s going to go. I can’t make any promises and I can’t say it’ll all be good. But okay, here goes. I... I like you.”
She looked at me, dumbstruck for just a moment. “You mean… Like a friend? Or… More?”
The hope in her voice fueled my wavering courage.
“I like you… as more than a friend.”
Sunshine broke through on her face and her skin heated up even more. Scales rippled down her arms as she threw herself into me. Her lips captured mine in an all-consuming kiss. Electricity sparked and affection weaved through me like tendrils of fate securing my heart. The magic wind hissed through my veins, colliding with the excitement and joy, encouraging the flames of passion emitting from the coals in my stomach.
She took hold of my face and my hands found her waist. Our lips danced together to a melody only we knew, to a song that didn’t exist just a moment ago.
We were so different, but that didn’t stop us. It didn’t matter. There was something between us, something that wasn’t rational or logical. Something that didn’t need reason or rhyme to make sense. It was inexplicable, unexplainable, and yet, clear as day.
She was just a girl and so was I. But together, we were magic.
- Writer
