The worst part of being on the lightning ball team was the morning practice, which meant Ayan now woke before Miriam. The best part--aside from playing lightning ball--was the team captain, Wince. Wince was a Westwood boy Antony had introduced her to during one of their games, and he had agreed Ayan should try out for the team. She guessed that, like Reed, he was Vitnu because he also wore his long brown hair in a knot on the back of his head, and his clothes were entirely cotton. He had pale skin, like her won, and large ears that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else, but somehow, perfectly framed his triangular face. He was cute enough to have the heart of any girl at Faraday, though he clearly hadn't found a girl he liked as much as he liked lightning ball.Wince also welcomed her and Welway, the only other freshman on the team. After practice ended, they all headed to the cafeteria, and Wince suggested they eat breakfast together. Ayan hung back, and he tossed her that perfect smile of his. "Come on, it'll help us get to know each other better."
Ayan glanced at her usual table. "I... I always eat with my friends." She didn't like the implication that she didn't want to be his friend, but meals had been hard enough on the days that both Mat and Key ate with others. She didn't want to be the next person to break up their group. She hoped it wouldn't make Wince think any less of her.
He smiled again. "Yeah, you're friends with Mat Truuit, right? Say hi to him for me, will you?"
"Sure." Already having a connection to Wince made her feel like she had celebrity status.
Ayan watched the team walk away, half wishing she had said yes. The last person in the group was Benji, the only member of the team from Magnolia House. "Don't worry, we'll keep asking you. Even if you keep saying no."
Ayan found her usual table. Everyone but Tilli had already arrived. Mat had set one book flat on the table and propped the other against it while he ate his sausage. "Still learning about dream nets?" She asked.
It took him a second to look up from the book. "What? Oh, no. This is about the Calistian language."
"Wasn't that invented by some... cult leader in Brek?"
Tilli set her tray on the table. "Actually, she was a magic scholar. That was before her school turned into a cult. She created the language to help channel magical workings, the same way you might use a staff or a wand." She nodded to Mat. "Is that for your channeling objects class?"
"No, just... interested." He glanced at Miriam before returning to the book.
***
It had only been a few days since she had made it on the team, but Ayan found that students she never met now knew her name. As the fifth student congratulated her in her sewing class, Ayan wondered vaguely if this was how Audeni felt walking the streets of Forgecard Falls. It wasn't a bad feeling, exactly, but she wasn't sure she liked it, either. Still, it was nice to be famous for something other than thievery.
When Ayan arrived in her fabric magic class, Neekwi sat next to her. "Hey, Ayan. We're talking about dying processes today, right? Do you think you could help me?"
Ayan remembered how Neekwi had acted when she had seen Tilli's necklace, and smoothly responded, "I don't know, I learned about dyes at the feet of a Xurugwi bone artist."
Neekwi's face fell and she moved to another seat. Audeni would have told Ayan to use more tact, but Ayan didn't want to get used to her status. After dinner, the day took a turn for the worse. She and the others headed back from the dining hall and sat in the common for their usual study session. Key was finishing the embroidery on her trousers, determined to also make a tunic that quarter. Mat and Tilli were engrossed in a conversation about the Calistian language, and Miriam went to the front desk to see if she'd received any letters. When she returned, she sat down on the other side of Ayan and held out an envelope to her. "I didn't get any mail, but you did."
Ayan never expected the king's sister to return. Being rich meant she was also too hopeful. She was used to getting anything she wanted, but she had no control over Faraday. Everyone knew the school only let in the best of the best. They didn't care about bloodline or money, and those who tried to buy their way in were usually guaranteed rejection. You had to prove yourself, and Ayan had only proven herself to be a thief. Yet, Audeni Deneen returned in two weeks.
That day, she wore a dress with gauzy sleeves and a bright blue bodice, but as it continued past her waist, the blue was met by triangular gores of white and orange in different sizes, creating both a unique pattern and skirt that began narrow and swirled at the bottom. On the rare occasion that Audeni chose to wear Florarovan styles, she made sure to flaunt her Antaran colors.
Audeni said nothing as she stepped inside, but she did ram a sheet of paper under Ayan's nose.
"What's this" Ayan said, still looking at the princess, rather than the paper she held.
"Can you read?"
"Of course I can read. What, you think because I'm not drowning in jewelry, I'm illiterate?"
She expected Audeni to slap her, but the princess only shoved the paper at Ayan again. "If you can read, then tell me what it says."
Ayan rolled her eyes. Audni may have dressed in the colors of her people, but that was just lip service if she went around asking random folks to scribe for her. Then she looked at the sheet, and her eyes widened.
Dear Miss Tyeen,
the letter read,
We are pleased to accept you as a freshman in the fall of 1962 to Faraday Academy of Magic. Faraday is a school that seeks out those students who have the greatest potential to become innovators of magic and change our world for the better. Each year, our board reads through hundreds of applications to find who we believe are best suited for our school and its rigorous coursework. Based on your application, we believe that our school will benefit from you as much as you will from it. As we have a limited number of seats, we would like you to return your course registration as soon as possible to reserve yours. We have also included a class listing and student handbook to help you make this decision. We look forward to seeing you in the fall.
Enilie Wayteel
Headmistress, Faraday Academy of Magic
Ayan's jaw dropped.
Audeni put her hands on her hips, a wry smile on her face. "Well not you have a choice, Ayan Tyeen. Are you just a thief, or a liar as well?"
***
As Ayan and Audeni left the prison, Audeni first insisted that they take Ayan to get "proper clothes."
Ayan pulled out of Audeni's grip. "I already have clothes. At my house. I'm not going to buy some... Florarovan garbage because you think my sewing's not good enough. I'd lose my other hand first." She proffered her left fist at Audeni as if the princess carried a knife on her person, just in case she needed to cut off a hand.
Audeni swatted the younger girl. "I know you're going to sew your own clothes. And I'll get you all the fabric you need, but life at my home requires a different wardrobe than usual Antaran fair, and I doubt you have exactly what you need at your house." She scowled at Ayan's feet. "You don't even have shoes."
Ayan glanced at her bare toes. "Why would I need them?"
Audeni sighed. "My point exactly. Come on. I'm sure I've got something you can wear today." She put her arm around Ayan's shoulder and steered her out of the cell.
Audeni was good as her word, and brought Ayan more fabric that she'd ever had at one time. But Ayan insisted on using her own sewing machine. It had lasted her several years, and she wasn't about to part with it because some bit of finery thought she knew more about clothing. Audeni agreed to this, but only after Ayan had settled in to her new home.
Audeni had a room prepared for Ayan. Her additional Faraday papers were sitting in a neat stack on the bedside table. The room also had a sewing space. But Ayan had barely had the time to set down her new fabric when Audeni told her she had lessons. She made Ayan join her for afternoon tea, so she could learn to sit and act and talk "appropriately." She'd also arranged private tutors for Ayan. She was pleased to prove more knowledge in math, reading, and history than any of them suspected, but Audeni responded to this by telling her it meant she would have more time to practice Shugbo, the language in which classes at Faraday were taught. "You will not make a disgrace of Antarand when you travel to Nefrale." She made Ayan endure an entire day with her before giving her leave to return to Altiane and collect her things.
Ayan arrived at her old home, hoping merely to get the sewing machine and some more comfortable clothes. She could still barely believe that she would soon go to Faraday--where she could learn real sewing magic. But in all her excitement, she hadn't thought about Leo.When Ayan knocked, her brother answered the door. "Hi." Ayan wasn't sure how fast the news of her pardon had traveled.
"Ayan!" He looked at her as if she were a ghost. "How did..."
"Audeni Deneen spoke on my behalf." She started to recount her story.
"So you're too good for us now?"
Ayan's face fell. "What do you mean, Leo? You're my brother."
"Yet you're leaving me for her. Or do I have to remind you that a few weeks ago, she was nothing but a mark to you?" He still hadn't moved out of the doorway and his grip on the doorknob tightened. Ayan guessed he feared a possible set-up.
Ayan set her hand on his. "Leo, she saved me. Honest. I didn't give your name to anyone. And I can learn to sew proper."
"You don't need to learn. You can weave threads just by talking to them."
Ayan crossed her arms. "That's baby stuff, and you know it. The real magic is in the pattern of the sewing. I thought you would be happy for me."
Leo took Ayan's arm and spoke in quiet tones. "This is Audeni Deneen we're talking about." He said it in the way Ayan suspected other people used her name. "People like that don't do stuff for people like us unless they want something out of it. Or did you notice that she doesn't want you coming back here?"
"What is that supposed to mean? I'm here, aren't I?"
"And are you staying?"
"You should come with me. I'm sure she would let you. If she found a place for me, she can..."
"Find me a place in her house as a servant? No. I won't be a puppet for the royal family. And you shouldn't want to be either." He jabbed his finger at Ayan's chest.
"Fine," Ayan said, "I'll go without you." She pushed past him toward her room. She threw off the backpack that Audeni had bought her and gathered her favorite clothes into it. Then she rolled up the cords of her sewing machine and addes them to the bag, which she slung over her shoulder. She collected the machine itself in her hand and started back out the door. She paused for a moment, wondering if Altiane was there. She would have liked to say goodbye to her foster mother, but she knew Leo was in no mood to assist.
He still stood at the door, waiting for her. "So losing our parents wasn't good enough for you? You have to break our family even more?"
Leo was barely an inch taller than her, so Ayan stuck her nose right up against his. "Mother and father wouldn't have wanted us to be thieves for the rest of our lives. I have a chance to do something I've always wanted. They would have wanted me to take it, and I'm going to." At the very least, it shut Leo up. Then she fled from the house before he could see her tears.
"Ayan? Ayan?" Miriam waved the letter in front of Ayan's face. "You got a letter from your brother."
"Ayan?" Mat said from the other side of her. "Are you okay?"
Ayan nodded. She reached out for the letter that Miriam held out to her, though she felt like it wasn't real. She hadn't heard from Leo since the argument before she left for school. She had written to him and sent him her address at Faraday, but she never expected to hear back. Apparently, this was a year for the unexpected. Ayan slid her finger under the sealed flap of the envelope and tore it open. The letter inside was written on yellow lined paper, in Leo's familiar hand. Seeing that writing made Ayan's heart ache for home in a way that it had not yet. She tried to still her hand from shaking as she extracted it from the envelope.
She scanned the letter, and it was all she could do not to fall into tears.
"Good news? Bad news?" Tilli asked, and Ayan realized the others were all waiting. But Ayan could not pass on what Leo had written. It was nothing more or less than what he had already told her--that Audeni Deneen was a rich person who only planned to use Ayan as a pet, and that he half expected she had already been dumped in a ditch somewhere. Of course, if she had, the letter continued, it would serve her right.
"It's nothing. But I should write back to him." Ayan stood up and fled the common, wondering how Leo could chase her out a place without even physically being there.
Ayan returned to her room and threw the letter on her desk. She wanted to cry and she wanted to scream, but she knew neither would be useful, and either could mean someone running in to demand what was wrong. This was a family matter, and it should stay in the family.
Ayan picked up her scissors and found two yards of fabric which she had bought the weekend before and laid them out on the floor, commanding the wrinkles to lay still with a single word, strangled with tears. Then she set about cutting the pieces she needed. As she cut, she imagined herself slicing through Leo's letter, his words, his hatred, his expectations. It was time for Leo to have something unexpected.
She had almost finished cutting the pieces when a knock came at the door. She didn't really want company, but she had calmed down enough that she could deal with it. "Come in," she called, without stopping her scissors.She heard the door opened behind her, and then Mat's voice. "Ayan, are you okay?"
"Did you draw the short straw?"
"Did I draw... what?"
"No one came right away, so you must have been debating who should come talk to me."
"No, I came because..." he paused. "What are you making?"
Ayan blinked down at the pieces, looking at them for the first time. Sometimes, she started on projects without really thinking about them, letting the fabric guide her. "It's... a blanket. For my brother." Mat looked like he was considering asking her about the letter, but he said nothing, so she explained. "I'm trying to be... a light... even though..." She couldn't finish. Maybe if he had been Pelan, rather than Thisaazhou, she could have said she was trying to be Hospitable to her enemies, not that Leo was an enemy... it was all too confusing, even for her.
"That's nice of you."
"Thanks." Ayan sat back on her heels and looked up at him. "Why did you come here?"
"Um... do you have any embroidery thread... that I could have?"
"Working on a project of your own?"
"Something like that."
Ayan stood up and opened the drawer in her desk where she kept her sewing supplies. "What color do you need?"
"Um..." There was a short pause, and then Mat said, "green."
Ayan pulled a skein of dark green embroidery thread out of the drawer and brought it to him. "Having a second language moment?" She knew what it felt like to randomly forget even familiar words when she spoke Shugbo.
"Yeah."
"You're probably tired. You should get some sleep."
"Yeah. I probably should. Thanks again."
As Mat closed the door, Ayan looked again at the pieces she had cut. Now she knew what her hands had been doing. This blanket would be based on the quilt she had seen back in Antarand, and perhaps it would help her weave together the different parts of her life. She cleaned up the scraps on the floor and, much calmer now, set about sewing the pieces together.
