❀
The healer’s gaze drifted over the students’ hunched shoulders, the sparkling water of the fountain. She touched her brow, still anointed with the mark of a Moxous Healer, and then shook her head. “How can I miss something when my heart is so full?” she asked, knowing it sounded silly and frivolous and meaning every word of it. Alphonse squeezed Delyth’s hand again in a secret embrace, trying to convey how much she didn’t regret her life with Delyth. Didn’t miss the hustle and bustle of Moxous.
She had chosen the right path.
Delyth’s voice was warm. “I feel the same, annwyl.” She leaned down to press a kiss onto the top of Alphonse’s head. “Should we look for Etienne at the school? Or would it be better to try his lodgings? I suppose we could always look around some first.”
“The school is the surest way to find Etienne. If he’s not in his classroom or private study, then he’ll be in the catacombs. And if by some miracle he’s none of those places, his students will surely know where he might be found. Any ambitious student is attentive to their master’s schedules. I knew everything about my healer master’s life… Even her favorite teas and where she would sneak a nap. I wanted so badly for her to believe I was a good student.” Alphonse flushed at the memory. “Did you follow your Swordbearer around too?”
“No,” she said, laughing. “Though, to be fair, most everyone at the temple kept the same schedule.” Delyth’s gaze skipped over the too-curious glances of passing students, but she examined the halls and open rooms with interest. “I think if I were a teacher, I’d not like students constantly underfoot.”
“You do have to like children and the commotion. I personally find it a bit overwhelming. Even as a student, I spent much of my time alone or just with Etienne in the libraries.” Alphonse motioned for Delyth to pause, seeing a name painted in beautiful scrawling font across a door.
Master Etienne Etoile: Cosmic Laws, Runes, and Rituals.
Pride swelled beneath her breast, and Alphonse couldn’t help but run a trembling finger over the glossy letters. How far he had come. All that he had achieved. She could hear his familiar, lilting voice beyond and beamed over her shoulder at Delyth. He was here! Teaching! All she wanted to do was open the door and join the class, scrolls and ink in hand. Ready to learn from her friend.
༄
Delyth leaned close to the door to better hear the clipped cadence of the sorcerer. His was a familiar voice still, for all that they had not spoken in well over a year.
“These two exceptions to the fourth principle of the visual field actually make two-dimensional illusions just as difficult to produce correctly as their more quote-on-quote advanced relations. However, they still do have one major benefit over three-dimensional and auditory illusions. Any ideas as to what that may be?”
There was a muffled response from a young voice, and then Etienne continued.
“Pre-cisely…” He sounded thoroughly pleased. “Despite the equal amount of difficulty in the preparations of two- and three- dimensional illusions, two-dimensional illusions require much less energy to maintain. Now, as we move forward in the practical study of illusion rituals, there is one thing you must keep in mind…”
He paused as though to give the class time to wonder. “Tell me, what is the most fundamental portion of a human being?”
Delyth heard the class’s answer this time, as it was voiced confidently by several of the students: “The mind.”
“Yes,” Etienne continued briskly. “The mind. The consciousness. The seat of our true selves. It decides how we feel. How we act. And it does all of this based on the information it perceives from our senses… Make no mistake, class. Illusion magic is magic that interferes with the minds of its targets and should not be practiced lightly…”
There was a moment of total silence within, and Delyth could just imagine the pale-eyed scholar peering down sternly at his class.
“I expect your papers on illusion and the human mind in my office no later than tomorrow evening. Now, class dismissed.”
Delyth stepped out of the way of the door two heartbeats before it was thrust open, the young girl bent on charging through it skidding to a halt at the sight of the warrior. She stood still a second, brown eyes wide, and then flew on when Delyth didn’t make any sudden moves.
“I guess our timing was pretty good, despite the wait at the gate,” she told Alphonse, smiling as more students rushed out behind the first.
As the torrent finally abated, Alphonse slipped through the door. “Master Etoile, I disagree with what you were saying. About the mind being the most fundamental portion of a human?” Alphonse said. “Surely the soul matters more than the mind?”
Delyth followed the healer inside, coming to stand behind her just as Etienne looked up, excitement brightening his features. “Alphonse!” he said and stood up so quickly that several papers went flying. He came around the front of the desk and swept the small woman into a hug. “Some masters would argue that the soul is a part of the consciousness, created by the mind… but that’s not important now! How are you? How was the trip?”
When he finished smothering Alphonse long enough for her to reply, Etienne turned to Delyth, meeting her eyes, and the warrior gripped his shoulder. They had nothing in common besides Alphonse, but Delyth treasured the mutual respect between them, born as it was out of shared trials. “Hello, Etienne.”
“You point those masters my way. I’ll set them right. The mind and the soul— They are two different things.” Alphonse brushed her hands down the front of her dress and glanced over her shoulder at Delyth. It was strange to have them all in the same room together again. It hadn’t been this way in so
