Chapter Twenty: Sated | Part 1
Thirtyx dropped his pen and flexed his fingers, warding off his fifth wrist cramp of the evening.
Rhea looked up from her dinner as he massaged his right hand with his left. “You know, I usually prefer hard magic over esoteric voodoo, but I’ve heard the Trolls have a decent cream for joint pain, if you want me to ask around. What number are you on now?”
“Twenty-seven.” He’d hoped saying the number would remind him how much he’d accomplished, but instead, it taunted him with how much further he had to go. “I’m picking up the pace again now that my stupid interdimensional cultures project is over.”
Benn frowned. “Hey, I had a lot of fun with that project. I got to read up on feral portals. I’d heard of them, but I never knew much about them until now. They’re fascinating!”
“Thirtyx doesn’t have room in his head for details about feral portals,” Rhea tutted. “He has twenty more apprenticeship applications to fill out.”
Thirtyx proceeded to pop his knuckles, one finger at a time. “Plus, it paid off for you. I’m impressed my brochure got five whole votes. No matter how nice I made it, no one was ever going to pick a world I liked for the senior trip.”
“I voted for your brochure.” Rhea batted her eyelashes. “I didn’t have the patience to read Benn’s literal essay on feral portals to decide whether I wanted to go through one. But apparently, the whole senior class agreed that a travel brochure should look like a textbook.”
Benn snorted. “Or they ignored the academic part that was clearly there for my grade, and they thought the mountains of Vursanne sounded nice. I am a halfway decent writer, you know.”
“And he’s always prattling on about my ego,” Rhea sighed. “But haven’t we been to Vursanne? Why can’t we go somewhere new?”
“We were 10 and practically attached to Obelie’s hip, and how much do you remember really? Besides, I couldn’t care less about Vursanne. I only did my project on it because of the feral portal thing and because I remembered enough to save time on research while I’m busy trying to…”
Thirtyx raised an eyebrow at Benn’s unexpected trail off. “Trying to what? Invent more wild spells to help find Grimmary’s attackers?”
Rhea stabbed at her vegetables with a fork. “Yes. Even if Grimm told us not to.”
While his friends didn’t typically lie to him without a good reason, their shift in energy tasted… important. Bitter, with a hint of ill-concealed desperation. Thirtyx cleared his throat. “Yeah, so that clearly isn’t it.”
Benn let his fork clatter onto his plate and sat back in his chair, arms crossed. “Maybe we should listen to everyone telling us not to hang out with Veriths.”
“It’s the anti-discrimination laws.” Rhea’s halfhearted smile did little to ease Thirtyx’s anxiety. “Ix’s new policy blindsided us, so we’re trying to be proactive in the other states by dividing and conquering. Grimm is focusing on Corcoroll, Benn has Drachs, and I have Eressee.”
Benn pinched the bridge of his nose. “And it’s not an easy fight. All three councils want to follow suit, and we’re leveraging every possible ally we can find to hold them off. Sorry. We really didn’t want to burden you with this.”
Thirtyx stared at his in-progress application and tried not to look like he was hanging his head. The law already allowed employers to consider species in hiring decisions, but legalizing other forms of discrimination would pull at a very loose thread. Positions in Ix had fallen to the bottom of Thirtyx’s pile, including ones with mentors Mrs. Wiggins had marked as potentially favorable.
Even if Thirtyx found a great boss in Ix, what would it matter if he couldn’t buy groceries or mail a letter?
A cluster of excited squeals drew the trio’s attention. Amidst flailing limbs and frenzied applause, two Selkies boosted a third onto one of the large tables. A blonde head rose above the commotion. Nephrie.
“Dear Miss Nephrie Acaris, the Terre Mackawn Artists’ Collective is pleased to inform you that you have been accepted for an apprenticeship position in artistic design, with an effective start date of Nirys 9, in the city of Terre Mackawn, Eressee.“
Benn and Rhea clapped politely while Thirtyx gave his apprenticeship application another hollow stare. Rhea placed a hand on Thirtyx’s arm. “We’re doing our best, okay. Just keep applying. Something will work out.”
And if it didn’t?
Calley Jones 