RYN'S POV
Lunch at Aetherion Academy was just another thing that irritated me on principle.
Not because the food was bad.
To be honest, it was really good.
Annoyingly so.
Actually, the food was excellent...
Steamed bread that stayed hot because of some subtle, but not hidden, heating rune stitched onto the serving trays. Meat stews that tasted like actual meat instead of the Basin's usual "we found some meat, put it in a pit, and prayed that it was edible." It had fruit that didn't bruise. Heck, it even had tea that smelled EXPENSIVE.
Even though the food was so good, everything surrounding it... not so much.
Polished walls. Floating lantern-things that basically looked like a carbon copy of what you would see in the night sky. The neat rows of tables were arranged by some invisible, yet obvious social law that divided students before they even sat down.
Groups of nobles clustered near the windows as if the ends of the arching sunlight belonged to them. Commoners stick to the edges by habit, instinct, or years of being told not to take up too much space.
Some groups were mixed nobles and commoners, rare, but there were some. Although I think that's mainly because the nobles didn't know they were talking to commoners, otherwise, why would they?
The Academy didn't need to say who mattered.
The rooms did it for them.
I sat with one boot hooked on the bench rug, hunching over a bowl of meat stew with the air of someone ready to fight anyone who would threaten my precious meal time.
Across from me was Randel, who was watching with the kind of expression that looked like he was trying not to laugh... I don't know exactly what would make him laugh, though.
"Um. Ryn?" Randel asked.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"I couldn't help but notice that you were glaring at the walls as if they were insulting you."
"They were."
"Oh, in that case, could I ask which one, specifically?"
"The expensive one."
"Ah! I see that pretty much narrows it down to... well, all of them."
I let out a small laugh and tore off a chunk of bread.
A few days had passed since the first lecture. I wouldn't say it feels normal now, being here at Aetherion, but it's been enough time that I could say that the shock factor began to settle into something more complicated. Maybe more like a routine. Or at least the beginning of one.
Morning classes. Assigned reading. Rumours are spreading faster than faculty announcements. First-years learning each other's names, strengths, weaknesses, and how much of their self-worth they were willing to tie to the Circuit board.
I still hated most of it, honestly.
But lunch with Randel wasn't so bad.
Not that I'll ever tell him that...
Randel had turned out… to be easy to hang out with, kinda. Not in the effortless, sharp-edged way that Kael was, where silence itself could somehow become a shared language between us. Randel was easier in a quieter sense. Gentle. A little awkward. Still carrying too much caution on his shoulders, but warming to conversation now that every sentence didn't have to be a survival test.
And I respected that.
Again, not that I'd ever tell Randel or anything...
Randel dipped his spoon into the stew and hesitated before initiating his question.
"So," he said, "as much as I appreciate you eating with me…"
I lifted a brow. "Oh no, this doesn't sound good."
"It's nothing bad, honestly."
"Ok... but so far you're making it sound bad," I replied teasingly
Randel ignored that.
"I'm just curious as to why you aren't with Kael?"
I shrugged and shoved more bread coated with stew into my mouth before answering.
"He's in our dorm room."
"During lunch?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
I swallowed. "I don't know, he said something along the lines of: studying something, don't wait up on me, yada yada yada ."
Randel frowned slightly. "He said it like that?"
I poked at the stew with his spoon.
"That's the million-loen question. I seriously couldn't tell ya."
Randel waited.
"It's hard to say how he said it."
I sighed.
"Look, Kael's always been weird," he said. "That part isn't new."
Randel smiled faintly. "You say that with so much affection..."
"It is affectionate. I'm an affectionate person."
Randel looked at me with the expression of 'really dude, you ain't fooling anyone'.
"... Shut up," I muttered. Leaning back slightly and looking up at the hall's high window, I continued. "I don't know, man. It's different this time."
"Different how?"
I took a second before answering, not because I didn't know what to say, but because I had been trying hard not to think about it too much.
Ever since Kael came back from the library... he's been acting different, like he'd been dragged through a dream and still hasn't woken up from it.
The worst part is, Kael more or less acted normally—well, most of the time. Kael is a weird individual after all. He was still sharp, still dry, still making those irritatingly calm remarks in class, as if he was born with nerves of steel.
But I noticed.
There were cracks in his composure.
I could see Kael's mind drift off more often than normal, his eyes fixed on nothing. He'd gone quiet at different moments, not absent or distracted, but burdened like he was carrying a thought too heavy to put down and too dangerous to say out loud.
I knew what burden looked like, and it rarely announces itself clearly.
"He's..." I started speaking, then frowned and began again. "It's like there's something on him."
Randel blinked, slightly confused. "On him?
"Not literally."
"Yeah. I assumed."
I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. He's here, but a part of him isn't. It's like he's thinking about something too big for the room."
Randel stirred his tea slowly.
"That doesn't sound too good."
"No. It doesn't."
"Has he said anything?"
I hesitated.
"No."
Randel looked at me intensely over the edges of his cup.
"And I'm guessing, it bothers you."
I pointed my spoon at him. "You're getting too good at this."
"Good at what?"
"Being annoyingly correct."
Randel gave a small and almost shy smile.
"I don't know, I guess when you spend a lot of time watching people before deciding if they're safe or not," he said. "You tend to notice things."
That sentence landed harder on me than I would've liked it to.
Because he said it so simply, there wasn't any self-pity. No fishing for sympathy. Just truth.
And there were too many truths like that among commoners at the Academy.
The kind that made noble lectures about "merit" sound ridiculous.
I leaned back and huffed through his nose.
"Well," he said, "I notice Kael. Unfortunately."
Randel smiled again, softer this time.
"I think he notices you, too."
I made a face. "That sounds like the beginning of a terribly written romance novel."
"I didn't mean it that way."
"I know. I'm just messing with you."
Randel shook his head, amused, then grew quiet again.
"If you're worried," he said after a moment, "you should go talk to him."
I scoffed instinctively.
"Right. Because Kael is famously easy to talk to."
"Maybe not easy." Randel took another spoonful of stew. "But he listens."
'That's true.'
'Damn it.'
Randel set his spoon down and met my eyes directly.
"He waited for you in the Basin."
My fingers stilled around the bread.
Randel continued carefully.
"And you waited for him outside the maze."
The hall seemed a little quieter for a second, though it probably wasn't.
I looked down at his bowl.
"That's different."
"Why?"
"Because…" I stopped.
Because it just was.
Because Kael is… Kael.
Because the whole point of our friendship was that some things no longer needed explanation.
Randel didn't press.
After a moment, I let out a breath and shoved the bowl away from myself.
"Ok, fine."
Randel blinked. "Fine?"
"I'll go talk to him, share my thoughts or whatever."
A bright little grin touched Randel's face. "Good."
"Don't look so pleased, Randel."
"I'm not."
"Your words say one thing, but your face says another."
"I'm just relieved."
"Ok, well... try not to make it so obvious."
Randel laughed quietly and stood, picking up his tray.
I looked up at him.
"Where are you going?"
"Ah, just going to go do some practical training."
"Straight after eating lunch?"
Randel lifted one shoulder. "Some of us don't plan on staying in Circuit C forever."
I stared at him, gobsmacked.
"That felt targeted."
"It was," Randel said jokingly.
"WOW. Betrayal? In broad daylight?"
Randel was still smiling as he backed away from the table.
"You should go to your dorm before you change your mind about talking to Kael."
"Why are you starting to sound like my conscience?" I groaned.
"Someone has to."
Randel then turned and disappeared into the flood of students.
I sat there for another few seconds, staring at the half-eaten lunch and the polished floor around me.
"Great," I muttered to nobody in particular and grabbed the rest of my bread before standing up. "Now I gotta deal with this Kael situation."