The other girl shifted so that the sun was behind her head, saving Alphonse from squinting. Alphonse nodded with a grateful smile. “I have.”
“Your veil is gone.”
“It is.”
“Does that mean you don’t think you’re too good for the rest of us now?”
Alphonse sat up straight, her eyes widening. She hadn’t ever thought she was too good for them at all! She simply had kept to herself because she didn’t share the same interests. She didn’t want to go to cafes or gossip. She hadn’t many flirts or paramours, and she never needed help with school work, not when she had Etienne to answer her questions.
But... she could see how her distance could have been seen as snobbery.
She looked at Risette, hands propped on her narrow hips, dark brown hair, straight and loose, hanging over her shoulders. “I would like to get to know you better… I’m sorry I didn’t try harder before.” Alphonse said carefully. Denying her previous actions as callous or unintentional would likely only paint her a liar.
Risette chewed on her plump lower lip and then nodded.
“Some of us are going down toEloise’s for supper. Would you like to come?”
Alphonse never went into the city for fun. Only for healing or study. Etienne hadn’t seen the point in leaving the campus, and she hadn’t seen the point in leaving without him. After a moment, she nodded. “Alright.”
It would be nice to have friends.
⥣ ⥣ ⥣
As it turned out, Risette and her group of friends were a rowdy bunch. They cajoled and debated and bickered. But no matter how heated their voices became, or how strenuously they proclaimed their point the only valid one, they never seemed to grow angry with one another.
The dinner at Eloise’s was the first of many Alphonse was invited to, and she found herself somehow accepted into the friend group without question. Risette flagged her down in the dining hall the next day after Eloise’s, and from then on, itseemed assumed that Alphonse would eat, study, and spend her free time with them.
As exhausting as the group could be, she found the companionship not entirely disagreeable. After moons with no company, it was refreshing to hear other voices and opinions—especially as no one seemed prone to drinking blood or slaughtering those who contradicted them.
Alphonse bent over a detailed drawing of the bones in the humanhand, adding labels in her precise script when Risette flopped down beside her at the library table. Risette often would seek Alphonse out when all the others were busy. She was clever and often did not find it necessary to study as much as her friends needed to, which regularly left the brunette at loose ends.
Alphonse was already smiling to herself when Risette sighed dramatically. “Yes?”
“No one will go down to the pond with me,” she whispered, still respectful of the library rules.
Alphonse’s amber eyes cut over to Risette, who was staring at her expectantly. Because Alphonse had passed almost all her classes and was only finishing up the final technical courses, she had fewer obligations. She could be known, on occasion, to be convinced to go with Risette—a friend to the roaming, restless soul.
The healer scratched ‘trapezoid’ onto her drawing without comment.
“They’re all studying for Master Yuan’s test tomorrow…”
A test Alphonse didn’t have to take because she’d passed the class before Enyo.“It's an important subject.”
“Yes. It is…”
Alphonse blew on the ink so that it would dry. “I suppose I could go with you to the pond.”
The delight on Risette’s face was unmistakable. Alphonse shook her head as she rolled up her drawing, stowing it carefully in her bag.
As soon as they left the library, Risette was striding off, her long legs eating up the ground. Frequently Alphonse wondered why the masters had put Risette in the healing school. She, of course, was talented, but she seemed much more like a wanderer or warrior at heart. Not that Moxous had classes for fighting mages.Certainly, some were taught the magics for war, but that was more fire and explosive spells. Not hand to hand combat. Not like Delyth…
Her heart quickened at the memory of the winged warrior, and Alphonse hastily set those thoughts aside. Delyth could take care of herself, even if Enyo was her master now. Alphonse didn’t have to worry.
“I’ve been wondering—” Risette started from her spot ahead of Alphonse, finally slowing down enough that they could walk side by side. “Why did you leave? Why did you come back? I mean, I know you weren’t fully finished with Moxous, but you had your tattoo. You were a healer by all standards,” She gestured to Alphonse’s brow where the ink glowed faintly against her skin.
Alphonse just shook her head. How was she supposed to explain Enyo? Thlonandras? Delyth?
“It can’t be that bad!” Risette urged her, smiling encouragingly. “Did you have that boy’s baby or something?”
Alphonse stopped. “What? What boy?”
“You know. The strange pale one you were always hanging around with. The apprentice candidate. Eti something.”
Her? And Etienne?! Having a baby?! Alphonse laughed. “Why on earth would you say that? No! Etienne is like a brother.”
“Well, he left school around the same time, and people just… assumed.” Risette looked a bit abashed, as though she had believed the gossip as well.
“No. No, nothing like that.” Nothing so ordinary. Alphonse watched as Risette’s gaze drifted over her exposed hair. Alphonse blushed. “I don’t feel that way about Etienne.” Or anyone besides Delyth, for that matter. “I—I just…” How could she explain why her veil was gone? The changes she had experienced? The deeply personal, terrifying, and life-changing ordeal she went through?
“Alright.” Risette resumed walking, seeing the conflict on Alphonse’s face. “I guess you won’t tell me why you left, but then why did you come back? Surely that’s something you can tell me?”
Alphonse started walking once more and tried to find a way to express what it meant to come back
