“I have to go to class now. If I don’t, they report it to my mother…and well…that doesn’t go well.”
Nothing.
“Okay, I’m going to release the gag now.” She tiptoed toward the girl’s face. The intruder’s plaits pooled around her neck and down her back. Anoor repressed the urge to ask her about the beads and trinkets that hid in them like jewels. They were nothing like the jewelry Anoor wore, which was heavy with opulence. She couldn’t fathom why anyone would choose to wear such filthy junk in their hair. “There’s no point screaming, though, because no one will be able to hear you. No one’s allowed in my chambers, and Gorn will be with me. When I get back we can talk about why you are here.”
Anoor reached over and released the gag. Only the person whose blood had drawn the runes would be able to release them.
The assassin lunged for her seconds after being freed, with gnashing teeth. Anoor ran to the back of the closet, her shoulders pressed against her hanging frocks.
“Did you just try and bite me?” Anoor held a hand to her mouth, but really she should have covered her ears. A scream erupted from the girl, and it rattled Anoor’s brain.
Anoor jumped on the tied-up assassin and pushed the gag back in her mouth.
“Stop it, stop it.”
“Anoor?” Gorn was at her door. “I’ve got your toast.”
“Gughn fughin ghil oo.” Now that the gag was back in place, the assassin’s shouts were muffled.
Anoor added an extra rune to the front of the gag as the woman squirmed beneath her. Once it was done, she slammed the dressing room door.
“Anoor? I’m coming in.” Gorn appeared in the doorway just as the wardrobe clicked in place. “Anoor! You’re not ready at all. You’re going to be late.”
“I only need five minutes.”
Gorn inhaled, surely praying to Anyme for strength.
“Five minutes. Promise!”
“Here, take your toast. Eat and dress.”
“Yes, Gorn.”
The toast could have really done with some eggs.
—
Anoor couldn’t stop thinking about her intruder. Her speed, her grace. The way her body moved through the air like the water in the garden fountains. Between that and the unexplained bit of land on the map, her mind was teeming with possibilities.
“Anoor, please recite the four principal runes.” Nuhan was a surly teacher, even though as a guild member of knowledge he was a dedicated master of bloodwerk. His features were scythe-like, straight and narrow with a sharp nose that he peered down at her over.
“Gi, Ba, Ru, Kha,” she replied curtly. He thought she was stupid, he always had. Her bloodwerk had always been weak, the power in the runes fading quicker than most. He didn’t realize it was because she was using secondhand blood. She had stopped being ashamed of her Duster blood a long time ago. It was easy to when no one knew except her mother and Gorn. However, her inadequate skill in bloodwerk was still a source of embarrassment.
“And their purpose?” Some of the Embers in the room snickered.
“Pull negative, pull positive, push negative, push positive.”
“Explain the positive and negative predisposition.” He was talking to her as if she hadn’t taken this class for three years. Longer than anyone else present, though her Choice Day was soon. She had turned twenty last mooncycle.
“Positive reacts outward, negative inward. So a negative pull drags an object toward the rune, a positive pull drags the rune toward objects it’s directed at. Similarly, a negative push presses objects away from the rune, a positive push presses the rune away from the object.” She recited his own words back to him word for word.
“Come to the front of the class and demonstrate.” Master Nuhan loved picking on her when Gorn fell asleep. Right on cue her bodyguard, servant, and protector began snoring.
She wasn’t the only Ember in the class with a chaperone, but she was the oldest. Most Embers, even the ones as high up the social order as she, had been given protection their whole lives. Ever since the Night of the Stolen. No one talked about it, but everyone knew the story despite the wardens trying to hide it. Little did they know they had a Duster right in the heart of the Keep.
Her hips got stuck in her foldaway desk as she stood, earning a few more smirks from her classmates. Despite being the warden’s daughter, they had still found cause to tease her for her appearance and lack of bloodwerk skills. When she eventually shuffled her way to the front of the class, she was sweaty and distraught.
Master Nuhan handed her four colored bricks.