Chapter 16: Cafeteria Gossip

Jeff and Andrew were impressed. Andrew just because of the guts Eli displayed, while Jeff showed a deeper appreciation for Eli's insight. His father was a high ranking fire mage, not a scion but still very powerful, yet his biggest rival time and time again was the 'snake' Alton. As a powerless peasant he was completely fathers inferior in looks, magic, prestige, and every other metric that could be put to paper. Yet in the political arena he would often match father blow for blow in maneuvers and backroom deals. The fact that magic was not the solution to all problems was something very few people understood. But this lesson seemed to be lost on the other rooms inhabitants.

The twins waited for a few moments after Eli's warning before fobbing off some excuse to the rest of the group and promptly left the room with Joey following them shortly thereafter. Ren pulled on his brothers shirt to start looking over a book shelf, initiating a routine that they had developed over the years when they needed to talk but were being carefully monitored by their guardians who would report everything they said back to their mother. A careful ballet of book moving and deep inspections of the various passages therein would cover their lips at key moments as well as help muffle the sound of their voices.

"What?" Len asked as he went over the passage of rock and mineral types.

"We need to rethink our plans" Ren said as he put up a cook book.

"Willingly dropping a connection to a scion? Do you think mother would skin us herself or would she be too impatient and just bribe one of the staff to do the deed?" Len retorted, hardly believing they were having this conversation.

"Not drop the connection totally, just have a little bit of distance in our affairs. At least, for the near future. Eli's right about Ryan." Ren said with urgency in his voice.

"A few ominous words and you want to shift all of our plans? All of mother's plans?" Len growled, shoving a book into it's hole with more force than was strictly needed.

Ren pulled out a catalog of the local frog types and studied one of it's random diagrams by shoving his face into the volume. "If we came across a dragon's heart, you think he would share it with us? Who knows what ludicrous amounts of magical resources he'll need in the future. Any time we come across any thing good he will demand it and if we don't give it up, he will look at it like a betrayal. We didn't dedicate all those hours training in the early morning.... put up with all of that bullshit from mom for her or anyone else. We did it for our magic. Whatever power we gain in politics or connections from Ryan will come at the expense of our magical growth".

Len gave the back of the book he was pulling out a long moment of concentration.

After a sigh Len conceded, "your right".

"Lets just keep out mouths shut about what Eli said and try to straddle the fence if those two come to blows in the future, no need to stir up trouble" Ren said, with his brother shortly nodding in agreement.

After leaving the bookshelf, they made their way to the local cafeteria. Taking directions from a member of the staff, they made their way to the wide, double wooden doors. When they got inside they saw many rows of long tables with chairs, similar to the medieval hardwood in the library. However, this place had more of the white and blue tiling in the style of the dorms for its floor and walls. The hot bar had platters of meats and sandwiches, accompanied by big bowls of soups for the staff and students.

What drew Ren's and Len's eyes in the mass of black attired servers was the small group with Joey. He was looking quite pleased with himself and was animatedly telling a story to someone. As they got closer they realized it was Ryan's group with two of the original girls missing who had been replaced with three more girls and two other guys, one of whom was Joey.

With a sense of foreboding the twins came up to the group. Their unspoken agreement was that Len would lead as he had the ability to bullshit his way through things with more ease then his brother. They were now close enough to catch tidbits of the conversation.

" ...That was what really got to me, how he could say that you would take everything from your followers is beyond me. To say something so judgmental with out even getting to know you. It's a disgrace" Joey said with righteous indignation.

"Well, is this true?" Ryan said looking to the twins.

The whole group then turned towards them. A bit of sweat ran down Lens neck as he reached his decision. A hard decision, made even harder by the fact he would have to make it for both of them.

"Yeah, he said you would always keep us down bellow your level." Len said, trying to say as little as possible considering he didn't know exactly what Joey said.

After a pregnant pause Ryan gave an understanding nod.

"I have to be blunt, that is very unlikely. Extraordinary talent and resources are required for the growth to a scion level mage, to make so much noise over something so unlikely is a waste of time." Ryan said, with nods of understanding from the surrounding group.

The twins also gave nods, but they didn't say what it was that they understood. That wasn't a denial of the charge, but to bluntly deny the accusation in the same obvious terms used by Eli would mean he would have to feign generosity at the start. Ryan didn't even intend to do that much.

The twins then headed off to the bar and got some food.

"So, what now?" Len asked as he picked up a sandwich.

"We're in the spotlight now, gods help us. Maybe this whole thing with Eli will blow over but Ryan will probably wonder why we didn't rush to tell him, so if it does drag on, our standing will probably go down as well. It looks like we will have to work even harder to maintain good relations now and if we show any hesitance with Eli he will drop us like a rock. If it does come to blows I don't want some weird fellow like Eli gunning for us, not to mention who ever might be backing him" Ren said in resignation. Filling his plate with various vegetables and meats he stewed in his thoughts. When you were a mage you didn't just fight some one. You had to fight them and the whole apparatus supporting them which was especially dangerous when you didn't know was backing your opponent.

"That scrawny shit, if he had kept it in his pants we wouldn't be in this mess" Len thought, vowing to find some way to get back at Joey for forcing them into this situation. Ren simply huffed in agreement

But what Ren and Len didn't know is that the only other person who agreed with their assessment of the situation was the person they were trying to maneuver around.

"Dammit, I just wanted to come in and get a good steak after those rounds with the cuties earlier but now I have this mess to deal with thanks to this twerp. Who knows what's going on with that weird silver haired fellow. If I can't resolve this now I will have to get dad involved to deal with any backers he may have." Ryan almost gagged at the thought.

"Even if his backers are people of no consequence he is still magically talented. There is no telling what foreign crap he could pull out of his sleeve if he needs too. I just wanted to fuck and eat during my semesters here, not be constantly looking over my shoulder for magic bolts aimed at my back" Ryan made sure not to let his frustration show.

After all, as a mighty scion with the spirit of a lion, everyone knew he would hunt Eli to the ends of the world until honor was satisfied. Anything less would besmirch the legacy of scions everywhere. This was the burden of greatness laid upon his shoulders that lesser people like them could only observe.

The twins then made it to the table and Ryan motioned for them to sit next to him, which surprised them.

"So what was his tone when he said this?" Ryan asked them.

"Huh? Umm it was more like a warning, you know. Just watch your back kind of thing" Ren responded quickly.

'A silver lining at least, there might be some way to salvage this' Ryan gave an understanding nod and went to get his steak. On his way back to the table, the perp in question walked through the door. As Eli was walking towards the bar, Ryan mournfully put his steak and mug down and met him halfway.

"I have heard some talk, is there something you would like to say to my face?" Ryan said in a neutral tone, trying to maintain a respectful distance while leaning forward in an intimidating pose.

"The twins told me you were annoyed with me for not being sufficiently reverent towards you. I countered that they would be left bereft at your side and a mage demanding so much respect was ludicrous" Eli replied maintaining a calm tone.

Sensing a chance to de-escalate this situation, Ryan seized it with both hands.

"Ah did he say I was a regular mage or a scion?" He said back towards the table.

"He outright-" Joey tried to say but was immediately cut off by the twins.

" -Said that you were only a regular caster mage when he gave us the warning" Len said nearly shouting it out, trying to cut off Joey from fucking things up anymore than he already had.

"Ah, you see I am a scion" Ryan said, puffing out his chest.

"Oh, well scions do require a lot of resources and are a strong breed of people." Eli replied respectfully, giving a slight nod.

"Now that that's cleared up, I bid you good day" Ryan replied with a slight bow.

Ei had an approving look on his face as he bowed back and left to get his dinner.

Ryan sat back in his chair and started to dig into his steak.

Joey just looked around in confusion. "How did that clear up anything?"

Ren leaned into Joey with a blank stare but when the expression was put up against Joey's face close enough that their noses touched it gave off a new sense of imminent murder. "It was a miscommunication, that was all".

And that was what it was going to be seen as by the other people of the academy. The people who could only get second hand knowledge of the incident would take away that there was some miscommunication about something and that Ryan and Eli both agreed that scions were awesome. That much the twins and Ryan would make sure of when they spread the rumors of this event around, which would be made considerably easier by the fact that Ryan's group was the only one in earshot when this all went down. The others at the table didn't seem quick enough, or inclined, to catch exactly what happened and likewise went along with the story.

Joey was fuming. 'This bastard comes out of nowhere and is already involved with a scion? Eli and Ryan may even grow closer because of this. Great, good for Eli. But it has come at my expense.'

The fact that this whole incident was his own doing didn't even phase his indignation at Eli's snub against him in the slightest.

____________________________________________

There was one other group who observed this encounter though. Veronica and her two friends looked on the exchange in mild interest. But what the two boys at the cafeterias entrance didn't know didn't know was that Eska, the black haired bookworm with pale skin, had put up a wind spell that allowed them to listen to sounds far away through a wind tunnel. A mid grade spell that she excellently pulled off which had an almost invisible tunnel of wind snake around the tables until it got under the table near where Ryan was confronting the new guy.

After hearing the exchange, Mia tutted disappointingly.

"Not a inch of spine between those two, what happened to his lion spirit?" Mia ,the choppy haired red head said. She had brown eyes and her look was a scruffy woman who got a light caramel tan which only accentuated her more feminine charms.

"Oh please, Ryan had two wenches during his study session. I heard the staff going over plans involving their future pregnancies if it takes. Eli is still a mage, so he is probably still getting some from the peasant women. Why would they risk getting into trouble and possibly suffer injury over some dust up over nothing?" Eska shot back.

"Because they are men. They ought to be willing to fight at the drop of a hat, for any reason" Veronica said.

Eska looked askance at her blond friend. She was at the height of power at this school, aside from the headmaster himself, and yet was quite childish is some ways. Unlike Eska who grew up with several brothers, Veronica was raised almost exclusively by and around women. Her father was some scion who never bothered getting involved in her life so her mother and grandmother were her main pillars.

This had left her beloved friend with some strange notions of what men were and how they were supposed to act. On more than one occasion she had tried to get Veronica to stretch her social wings some with the opposite sex, but she would always use her infertility as an excuse to avoid the subject.

It didn't help that they were always surrounded by suck-ups and people just trying to use her as a stepping stone. Her status of scion had shielded her from many obvious dangers over the years but made the hidden ones far more potent. Eska could only sigh at this remark and went back to her meal.