Skwyr Court

The printing press, while a revolution in the way information was circulated, is not a complicated invention. Animation is the most simple form of magic, and, like the printing press, most inventions are created through some means of it. In the case of the press, a stencil is created, then ink is pressed into the paper.

Roshil growled at the book, then tossed it aside. She looked up at the shelves around her. Every book had either been copied with a printing press or handwritten. The idea of storing a book in some other form of magic crossed her mind, but that was the entire problem she was trying to solve.

What makes you think you can do it if no one else can, you little monster?

The spot on her back burned. She kept flinching, wanting to scratch it again.

“Roshil?”

She nearly jumped when she saw Aonva standing over her.

“You… um… I heard something,” Aonva said, sitting down next to her. “Is… is everything alright?”

I can’t do this. I’m trying to figure out a problem, and I can’t solve it.

“It’s nothing.”

Like me.

“Are you sure? I’m not trying to pry, honest, but I’ve never seen you throw books before.”

Roshil opened and closed her mouth a few times. After last time, Aonva was certain to panic if Roshil told her. But Roshil wanted to tell her. Maybe Aonva could help. Roshil knew she could do it alone, but it’d be faster with Aonva’s help.

She opened her mouth again, but couldn’t find the words. What if Aonva panicked? What if she ran away?

I don’t need anyone.

I don’t need her to know. I want her to know.

“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to read books faster using magic.” Roshil spat out the words before she could change her mind again.

Roshil waited for the panic stricken lecture from Aonva. Something about not learning from her past mistakes, or about how dangerous magic was. Thinking about it more, a lecture about not learning from past mistakes sounded more like Master Ekla, and one on the dangers of magic sounded more like Master Grund.

“Hm,” Aonva said. “That’d be interesting. We’ve figured out how to send messages to one another, so it’d be possible to convert the text of a book to something we could take in our heads. Sort of like a long messenger spell.”

Roshil remembered how Aonva’s bracelet had worked and shook her head. “No, that’d be bad. It… um… a constant messenger spell is what… that bracelet… did.”

Aonva frowned at her. Roshil could tell she was thinking about something, but that something usually came out of her mouth as fast as possible.

“That’s what that did?” she said at last.

“Um… yeah. I… It’s stupid now that I think about it, but… I wanted you never to forget about me, so… so I enchanted the bracelet to send a messenger spell with my name to you every few minutes.”

“Oh.” Aonva’s mind churned away again. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“No!” Roshil shouted, then lowered her voice. “Of course not. I just… No, I wasn’t mad. Why would I be mad?”

“You gave me a bracelet that made my head hurt. I thought you must’ve been furious, because it took so long for me to feel the effects. And…”

Roshil waited for her to answer. And what? What was Aonva going to say?

“And what?”

“And… well I’d been studying dragons to try to learn more about your curse because I wanted to try to fix it, which is stupid now that I say it out loud, because of course I can’t fix it, but I wanted to try, because no one had ever cared about what I said before I met you, and you listened to me that night when we researched dragons, but then I stopped researching them because Kurgm was always so happy when I talked about the Temple of the Rising Sun, so I thought you must’ve been mad at me for stopping my research and focusing on that, but now Kurgm hardly talks to me anymore, and it feels like I’m losing everyone, so please don’t be mad! I didn’t want to tell you any of that because I thought it’d upset you to talk about dragons, and I was so scared when you were taken to the hospital last year, and then the other time a few months ago, and I didn’t want to tell you anything in case it happened again!”

Roshil tried to take in everything Aonva had said. It was always hard to keep up with Aonva, since she talked so fast, but Roshil was sure she caught the word “dragon” in there somewhere. Aonva had been researching the curse to help her. More importantly, Aonva wasn’t mad at her about the bracelet. And there was something about Kurgm in there too.

“I wasn’t mad at you,” Roshil said. “I didn’t know about your research. Although… did you find anything? Like… other symptoms?”

“Not a lot apart from what we already knew. The symptoms vary, sometimes the eyes or hair, like you, but then other times it’ll be strange marks on their faces. It’s almost always the face, though. No one knows much, but you already knew that. I think Our Lady Arch Mage is doing her own research, too. She mentions it sometimes when we talk. She’s really nice.” Aonva’s smile faded. “Why? There’s nothing wrong with asking. I mean…” She glanced at the shelves as though they’d tell her what to say. “It’s fine, you don’t have to—”

“There’s something new,” Roshil said. “I don’t think it’s normal.”

“What is it? I don’t see anything different about you. Are you sure it’s still there? Well, of course you’re sure, why wouldn’t you be? But it’s probably nothing to worry about.”

Aonva gave her an unconvincing smile in a miserable attempt to cheer her up.

“You’re not very good at this,” Roshil said.

Aonva slumped and gave up on the smile, something for which her face was grateful.

“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to worry. Even though I’m worried because I don’t want anything to happen to you. But I’m sure it will be okay. Have you talked to Our Lord High Artisan? I’m sure Our Lady Arch Mage would know what to do.”

Roshil had already dismissed the idea of showing it to Master Grund. No matter what their relationship, she would never feel comfortable removing her tunic around him. She didn’t know Lady Emgard that well, certainly not as well as Aonva did. There must’ve been someone with whom she’d feel less uncomfortable telling.

“I think I’ll talk to Master Ekla about it,” Roshil said. “She had the whole ‘your body’s changing’ talk with me, so it’ll be… less awkward.”

“Oh.” Aonva’s tone and face screamed “kicked puppy”. “Yeah. Of course.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I… It’s nothing you—”

“Aonva, what’s wrong?” Roshil didn’t think pushing too hard was the right way to go with Aonva, but she also suspected it involved Kurgm and wanted to know what Kurgm had done so she could be angry at him for a reason.

“It’s… Kurgm stopped spending time with me, and he was always busy, but it wasn’t like before when he could spend time with me, and now he’s spending a lot of time with Apprentice Demndun, and I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Tears cascaded down Aonva’s face. Anything else she said was lost to her sobs.

Roshil threw her arms around her friend.

“Please don’t!” Aonva shouted. “I get claustrophobic when people hug me.”

Roshil pulled away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay! You didn’t know. That’s probably why Kurgm didn’t like me. I thought he did, but he probably saw what a mess I am, and my mother’s right about me. No one would want to spend their life with me.”

“I would.” Roshil quickly realized how that had sounded. “That’s not what I meant! I’m not saying… I mean… I meant I like you the way you are.”

“Thank you,” Aonva said. “I… I like you the way you are too.”

#VolumeThree #SolvingAProblem