Silver

FALL TERM - DAY 3 

I'm not here to make friends, but there's a fair chance I made one anyway. And no, it's not Aries. In my magical weapon tutorial class - one of the dozen sample lessons we attend in the first week at the Court, I met Aisling Warren. She's young for a mage, by any standard, only nineteen. New students aren't even allowed to apply until their eighteenth year, and given the number of years it takes some races to reach maturity, even then eighteen is supposedly more of a guideline than it is a rule. I've learned most elves attending are in their mid-fifties, not that they look it. I've yet to really connect more than superficially with any of the elves. At the Midnight Court a lot of the races tend to stick to themselves, despite how racially diverse it's always claimed to be. Elves with elves, dwarves with dwarves, and so on. There's a group of dracari I spotted in flight the other day, but something tells me, I won't exactly mesh with them either, not that I'm particularly miffed about it. 

Caburh has made me a different beast altogether, for better or worse. I made up my mind from my first day here that I'm here to study magic and nothing else matters. It's easier to pretend I'm immune to loneliness than admit that maybe I wasn't exactly totally above all of it. Having friends.  

And then came Aisling. 

I was late to the magical weapons tutorial and took the first open seat - the one next to her. The instructor, Master Orion Lighthammer, carried on with his lesson talking through different alchemical properties of metals and how magic might change their usage, when eventually I noticed just why the seat beside her had been left open. 

The girl sitting there - a waif with a mop of short auburn hair - had a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. Amid the lecture we exchanged one long, pointed look. She wasn't the strangest thing I'd seen, and certainly not the most terrifying. I went back to taking notes on the lecture after that as though it had never happened. I was new enough here, I wasn't exactly sure that it was strange. Better to be polite than abide by social norms. Especially given I was in Mesym now, what did I know of their social norms? 

It wasn't until halfway through the lecture that her lips covered over her needle teeth and the next time she looked my way, she grinned. There was a gap between her two front teeth. The many rows of needle-points were gone. Her smile was utterly human and ordinary. How had she…? The answer had to be magic. It was magic. I'd never seen anything like it. 

"You don't scare easy, do you?" she whispered. 

This isn't what made us friends, but it is the reason I liked her immediately. We could spend all day psychoanalyzing the problems with that, but I think it boils down to how a strange and dangerous piece of me recognized the same kind of strange and dangerous thing in her. Either that or I really can never turn away from a terrifying woman. 

The magical weapons tutorial carried on. This whole week of classes was especially introductory. Lighthammer came in with the assumption that none of us knew the difference between a magical weapon and an ordinary one - which was kind of a relief, because I too hadn't the faintest idea what the difference was. I assumed magic but it wasn't as though every magical weapon looked any different from the outset. Lighthammer explained that magic be brought into the weaponsmithing process at any step in its creation and it would be considered a magical weapon. This meant that if a mage cast the right enchantment on an ordinary table knife, it would be, under Mesym's law, a magical weapon, just as much as a weapon crafted from ore imbuing it with magical properties from the outset. 

"So, tell me," Lighthammer asked the class. "Does anyone know any examples of ores with magical properties?" 

A few voices called out from around the room. Kalispar. Antimony. Temporium. Cobalt.

I joined in. "Silver." 

"Actually, silver isn't one of them," Lighthammer said. "Too soft for most weapons. But I can see why you got confused." 

I instantly regretted speaking up at all. There were too many eyes on me. 

"Silver isn't inherently magical, but as you know I'm sure, it has a particularly profound effect on certain creatures of the night. It can be enchanted, but it doesn't hold onto magic in the same way that other ores do." Lighthammer went on, but I'd already stopped listening. Somehow, yet again, I'd found a way to announce to a room full of strangers that I was from Caburh. 

Eventually, I was able to get over myself and go back to listening to the lesson just as Lighthammer had begun explaining how sentient weapons fit into categorization - the short answer is, with magic much too complicated for students in their first term. It's sufficient to say, whatever it is I missed, there will be a detailed lecture on it later. 

"So can you not touch silver at all, vampire?" Aisling asked me the minute the lesson ended. 

"I'm not a vampire," I said. 

"Oh. Not even half?" she asked. I should have hated her for it. I hated Aries just for implying I might be a vampire. But when Aisling asked, it sounded like curiosity, not judgement. 

I almost laughed. "No, not even half. Vampires are sterile. They can't have children." 

"I didn't know that," she said. "I'm half fae. But I can touch iron. Iron's like silver for fae. I thought it would be cool to meet a vampire. You know, you dress like one, right?" 

What? "No, I don't," I shot back automatically. I was dressed more or less how I always dressed - a white cotton shirt and tan waistcoat. It was warm in Mesym this time of year, so I'd forgone my normal blazer, but still wore a cravat. I dressed in more muted colors than any vampire would wear, but it wasn't as if anyone here knew that. 

"You look like a vampire from a storybook," she teased. 

I rolled my eyes. "I guess it doesn't take a genius to figure out I'm not from Mesym." 

"Obviously you're not from Mesym. Most mages here aren't and still, no one mistakes them for vampires. It's the necktie, I think." 

My cravat? I mean, I was aware no one else seemed to be wearing one, but other kinds of neckties seemed more than common enough. 

"You don't have to take it off. It's kind of neat to look different." And with that as though to prove her point, Aisling blinked and her eyes changed from brown to violet. 

I was still thinking about my cravat. I'd worn one pretty much every day for as long as I can remember. No one left their throats exposed in the Stag's Court. It was seen as something of an invitation. But again, no vampires. Not here. I didn't even realize my hands at my neck were already pulling at the knot. 

"I have horns already. I think I'm well past standing out."

Aisling nodded thoughtfully. "You do… Maybe I'll wear horns tomorrow. We can match. Would you like to join me for lunch in the courtyard?" 

I was a little preoccupied stuffing my cravat into my satchel. The invitation caught me off guard. I didn't know what to say. So, I said, "Sure."

It's hard to say we're friends exactly after one lunch, but I like her. She belongs to a different coven at the Court, and lives in one of the newer student dormitories next to the greenhouses. She has a roommate, Shen Yinou, who seems nice enough, but they don't exactly click. 

Yinou apparently thought Aisling was mocking her when Aisling decided on the first day of classes that she wanted to have dove white wings that sprouted up from her back to look just like Yinou. Yinou had already forgiven her, but Aisling said the awkwardness still lingered on. 

If you couldn't guess, I listened more than I spoke. Aisling didn't seem to mind and filled the silences with pretty much anything that came to mind. I don't know if I've already mentioned that she's beautiful, but in case I haven't, she is. I mention it here if only because it also feels like an afterthought. Her features changed as quickly as her mood. I couldn't tell you if I would have accepted her invitation if I didn't think she was pretty, but I can tell you that by the end of our lunch, I only wondered if this was at all like having a kid sister. 

We wrapped up lunch just before the sun dipped behind the clocktower and cast the courtyard over in shadow. We both had other classes anyway. 

"Same time tomorrow?" she asked. There was just enough of a quiver in her voice that told me she wasn't used to asking for this kind of thing. 

"I'll hold you to it," I said earnestly.

Of course, my next class that day was combat lessons with Blackclaw and of course, Aries de la Fel. I was trying not to let Aries bother me. We hadn't gotten off on the right foot, but well, there was no reason we had to be friends. It'd been one class. I took the initiative of picking a new seat in a different section of the classroom. All he had to do was sit quite literally anywhere else. 

Aries didn't take the hint. Or maybe, he intentionally ignored it. He dropped a heavy tome down on the desk beside me. The sound was loud enough I think he expected me to flinch. I didn't flinch when Lord Hart tore open the throat of a visiting preacher from Erwick. Aisling had been right about one thing, I don't scare easy.

"Look at you now, showing some skin," Aries said. "Is that a hint of collar bone?"

"I'm not wearing a cravat. So what?"

Aries snickered. Any response at all would have been enough to let on how he was getting under my skin. 

I wanted to hit him. 

He sat down in the open chair next to me and flipped open a blank notebook for class. Any optimism I'd had for Blackclaw's combat lessons only moments before was already gone. I just had to grit my teeth and get through it.

Blackclaw's class had started off relatively exciting - it was still the only place I'd yet to practice magic - the thrill was already waning. Half of the class was still learning how to cast a shield spell, Aries included. The other half, the half I was a part of, had figured out how to cast shield two days ago and were still waiting for everyone else to catch up. Today at least, Blackclaw let those of us who could pick through a short list of new spells to attempt on our own. I chose conjured frost from our textbook, and luckily, given I was so new to all this, the textbook came with casting gesture diagrams. 

This spell wasn't as quick to learn as shield. The gesture included an additional sequence. It took several tries going through the motions before I could even begin to feel that this was a spell, and even then, it wasn't much to look at. I could feel the flow of magic through my hands, until one wrong movement killed it. 

I was ignoring Aries, but that didn't mean I wasn't aware of him. He'd attempted shield a few more times. I could see what was off in a few attempts, but helping him could have given him the wrong idea. At some point, he gave up trying and just waited for Blackclaw to finally come around to help him individually. 

I was reshaping my hands over the diagram in my textbook when I suddenly felt a hand at my throat. 

I went completely still. Frozen. 

I don't think I could even breathe. A shiver ran down the back of my neck. I felt overexposed. The hand had only just grazed my bare skin and suddenly I was tugged forward. Not yanked exactly, but slowly drawn. 

I raised my eyes to meet Aries's own. I realized then that he wasn't touching me anymore, but had one hand on the silver chain around my neck. 

"Did you always wear this?" he asked. 

I rolled my eyes. 

"Come on, it's nice. It's actually pretty clever." He rolled the silver chain over his knuckles to examine it in the light. 

"It was my mother's idea," I said. I don't know why I told him that. Maybe if only because it was something of her. She's the clever one, not me. 

"I bet it keeps away the vampires better than an ascot too." Aries's hand fell away, though I could still feel his eyes on me. I almost wondered if he wasn't actively trying to be a jerk. 

"Yeah, you've got no idea," I said. 

He watched me as though he expected me to go on, but why would I? With him of all people? 

"I'd like to get back to my casting now, so I suggest you move unless you want to be hit with ice."