Chapter Five: Competency | Part 5
They settled on an auction—one they could employ quickly to make up for lost time. Rhea scheduled a meeting for later that week so they could brainstorm and start gathering items, and she promised to book the event hall for the week after. Despite her earlier moments of dishevelment and humiliation, she seemed fairly pleased with herself when they left the classroom.
Just outside, Seerla chatted with her friends, looking pleased with herself as well. It evoked mingled feelings of pride and terror in Thirtyx. “Seerla is going to be crushed if this doesn’t work,” he told Rhea on their way back to the dorm. “She was so nervous about bringing it up, and she has so many Selkie friends that she can practically claim it as a third species.”
Rhea snorted. “Oh, don’t worry about that. Grimm will bail us out with a massive anonymous donation if we need it. He owes me for not telling me about this. I looked like an idiot back there—a Selkie-hating idiot.”
“Rhea, I don’t think a person in this school thinks you don’t care about Selkies. Didn’t you spend most of last term trying to pass harsher restrictions on pollution into rivers that feed Selkie basking grounds?”
“I didn’t get all the restrictions I wanted,” Rhea pouted. “Grimm dialed them back at the last minute, and he owes me for that, too. We have a meeting later, and I’ll be giving him a piece of my mind.”
“A meeting?”
Rhea pursed her lips and gave Thirtyx a pointed, somewhat guilty look.
“Ah, okay. I get the picture. Tell him I said hi,” he added with mock cheerfulness.
Rhea chuckled. “He actually does ask about you, you know. He cares more than you think.”
“Is the King of Lamiakk caring about my daily life supposed to make me feel less anxious?”
“As long as you’re not planning a coup, it should. He’s a good ally to have in your corner.”
“I’m not planning a coup,” Thirtyx answered, pushing all prior coup entanglements to the back of his mind.
“Well, I’d certainly hope not. That would be an awkward turn to our friendship.” Rhea flashed him a coy smile as she paused beside the door to the third floor landing. “Anyway, see you at breakfast. I’ll be really late to dinner because of my little meeting.” She waved as she slipped through the stairwell door.
“Yeah. Right… See you at breakfast.”
When Thirtyx reached his own door, he was puzzled to find it stuck. After two attempts with the handle, he shoved his whole body against it, and it opened with an audible pop.
His attempts to find the source of the impediment were interrupted by the fact that Benn’s entire body was glowing gold.
As the visceral revulsion of Pfah magic tore down his spine, Thirtyx gasped and slammed the door. Was it the irrational terror or his own skills of deduction telling him something was terribly wrong? Benn didn’t typically meditate in the middle of the day, and when he did, only his eyes glowed gold.But no. Benn’s posture was relaxed, and his lips were curved in a slight smile. His breathing was steady. Thirtyx heaved a massive sigh of relief. Three weeks, and he still wasn’t used to this. Could anyone really get used to this?
Calley Jones 