The Awakening of Ren Crown (51 page)

They had lost their son and that was something they shared together, without me. But regardless, we still had each other. It was something special. I realized in that moment just how special. I felt the urge to run up to my room and send a note to my parents telling them how much I loved them.

But Olivia felt...completely alone. Brittle and angry under that cold façade.

“What amount should I place on you?” Delia said, obviously still talking about the bets of a dorm full of people who, even though unaware, were making someone feel even lonelier.

The thread of my roommate, and whatever I had done to gather it, withered and released. Leaving me with only the memory of the feeling. Of the realization, for that moment, of the ache hidden by someone so seemingly cold.

“Eat shit,” I told Delia, and shoved my empty ice cream bowl into her hands, not bothering to catch her reaction, as I hurried to follow the path of my roommate.

I wouldn't let that loneliness continue. Determination gripped me. The desire to be occasional allies was gone. I would be Olivia's friend, and she would be mine.

~*~

I found Olivia bent over her giant tome when I entered the room. Even over that large book her back was ramrod straight.

“You didn't get dessert,” I said as I closed the door.

“I was not hungry anymore,” she said in her precise, clipped voice.

“I'm never hungry when I eat dessert,” I joked. “I brought some cookies to share.” I set a few down on her desk, wrapped in a napkin.

She didn't say anything for a moment. “Thank you.”

“You left abruptly.”

“I saw no need to engage in further conversation.” She opened another book.

“You didn't wait for me.”

“Why should I have? You were speaking with someone with whom I had no wish to engage.”

Delia had said they'd attended primary together. “You two have history?”

“No.”

I wasn't sure I believed that statement, though it was delivered without ire, but my magical mojo wasn't helping me out this time, so I could only rely on what made sense.

“She said unkind things. I hope you don't think I believed them.”

“Why not? The things she said were true.”

“Ok. So what happened to your other roommates?” Better to just get it out in the open.

“Why? Worried that you might catch the disease?” She started darkly underlining something in her book with magic.

But now that I was listening for it, I could catch the subtle darkness in her voice. The complexity of tone that indicated high confidence battling a thread of insecurity.

I needed to stop thinking thoughts to myself though and voice them out loud with this girl. I was not very good at expressing myself, but determination was going to
make
me good. “No, I think it is better that we get everything out in the open.” There. That was a good start.

“So you can feed the rumor mill?”

Ren Crown = -1. Olivia Price = 0.

“No, because I want to be your friend.”

Olivia gave a short laugh. “Why? You don't know anything about me.”

I thought about saying “I sucked out your essence, so I know you a little bit,” but then thought maybe I should keep
some
things close to my chest—like the things that could cause someone highly skilled in magic to freak out and obliterate me.

“That is part of wanting to be friends. We talk and get to know each other. You know, make friends with each other.”

Wow, lame.

“That sounds stupid.”

I had to hold onto the memory of her loneliness for a moment. “Yes. That is the first thing you will learn about me. I can be quite infantile at times.”

Olivia looked less dark at that. I readdressed the mental tally. Ren Crown = 0. Olivia Price = 0. SAT practice = +1.

“It is a fault you can correct with practice,” Olivia said. “I have a primer on proper manners.”

Loneliness, loneliness, remember the loneliness. “That sounds great.”

I congratulated myself on changing her expression. Only I wasn't sure that suspicion was better than disdain at the moment.

“Sooooo,” I said, searching for something to bridge the gap. Or at least to lay down a first plank. Previous roommates were obviously off limits. So I dredged up what I knew of her, which was minute. “I'd actually love to know about the magical legal system. Is there a good book? Or...would you like to help me?”

“You don't want to do the work yourself.”

I am working to be friends with
you
right now...

“I don't mind hard work. Though I would rather everything be easy—who wouldn't? But it would be nice to have someone to question and talk to. Discussion, you know? Discussing ideas? Books can't do that.” I stared at her giant book and thought of the reading rooms. “Or, can they? I can't believe they let me in to this school. I am so screwed.”

She examined me for a long time. “You do study a decent amount.”

Decent? I was studying all the time. What was her measurement here?

“Fine. Ask,” she said.

“Er...ok.” The pressure... “What kind of legal recourse do mages have when people insult them?”

Telling a delinquent gossipmonger, who was probably ready to tell everyone that I was feral, to eat shit had probably not been so smart.

“Are you serious? You want to know how to sue someone who insults you?”

Actually I wanted to know if I was going to be sued, but like usual my thoughts ran faster and tumbled, fractured, from my mouth. “Sue? So that type of thing is like the normal, er, ordinary world?”

She squinted, then turned and sifted through books on her desk. “Feral mages are never given enough information. Which is only a good idea if the system is going to actually use them for their power.”

“Er, feral?”

She gave me an unimpressed look.

My shoulders dropped. “Am I wearing a sign?”

She shrugged. “People are generally unobservant and stupid, but there has been talk about feral students and rare mage types on campus, so people are looking. And frankly, it wasn't difficult to figure out in your case.” Her eyes pointedly took in my desk and me.

“Great.”

“Here. This is a book for ordinary-born mages. To help them catch up.” She pinned me with a dark stare. “Fold a corner or scuff an edge and die.”

I carefully took the book. “Thank you,” I said softly. “I really appreciate this.”

“It used to be that you'd find a lot of the Old Magic users related distantly, but once the Magic designations opened up, things freed immensely. Now, it is a growing group. Which is good, no matter what the Provenanciers state, or else we would likely be finished off by magical narwhals at some point. Simple logic, there. For the last ten years there has been a system in place so one can be considered Old Magic.”

“Really?” I leaned forward.

I never knew when something I overheard or participated in would lead me to a jump in logic toward resurrecting Christian. The magical world was too new. I knew
so
little. And I had realized that while what I could learn in books would help me immensely, without the right injection of magic, nothing worked the same.

Being pubescently-challenged sucked. If I had become a mage earlier, I could have saved Christian.

“Yes, but you have to go through a number of tests, then be on probation for fifteen years before you are even considered for a status change. Unless you marry an Old Magic user, of course.”

The way she said that indicated its likelihood. Though Will's cousin had married a feral.

I shook my head. I wasn't going to marry some Old Magic user just to become one. I would be happy just to be normal, and I could earn that with a few years under my belt.

“And there are a couple of other tricks too.” She gave a tight smile. “But most people don't look closely enough or study the right books in order to discover the loopholes.”

I looked at all of her books and thought of the never-ending reading she had done since I had arrived. “Have you ever tried cases here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Student cases.”

“Students try their own cases.”

“But they don't have to. Provost Johnson said that a student could seek legal representation. What if students sought you?”

“You are suggesting I deal with student riffraff?”

I shrugged. “I think the riffraff would hire you in an instant.” I would. I could see that I needed to appeal to her own motivation though. “It would give you practical experience. You could actually list on your resume that you tried”—I waved a hand—“two dozen cases, or whatever.”

Her eyes immediately narrowed, but the look was inward, considering. She turned abruptly and began rummaging through her neat stacks and compartments.

She pulled out several pamphlets. “Yes. Work experience is valuable. And I could practice crushing the authority figures in my way.”

“Er, yes, exactly.”

~*~

I kept drawing Olivia further into my sordid little world. She consulted on five cases in three days and defended three more. At first, club members had been very uncertain about her qualifications and intent, but so far she had won every single case, and more members were discussing the merits of representation.

Olivia seemed very pleased. I had seen her note on a paper, that once she was in power, corralling the malcontents into rebellious activities that she herself spawned “merited serious consideration.” And then she had muttered something about how if she kept them occupied in side projects that “seemed” to be rebellious, but actually benefited her, that she could control everything.

Olivia’s thinking was sometimes a little warped and scary. Always nose deep in a book and plotting out a way to trap everyone inside the pages.

“You know, you should take those to the reading rooms.” I pointed at the books spread in front of her. “They have equipment to scan a book onto a card. It takes about fifteen seconds to convert a book.”

She probably knew that, but I had noticed that a lot of people didn't use the library for anything other than as a meeting place. They relied on the knowledge they had already obtained. I, on the other hand, had started with nothing and yearned to know everything. I hadn't grown up with fairy tales that converted into actual knowledge or watched my parents manipulate their environments magically. Magic was taken for granted by many magical users.

She looked at me, and I couldn't read her expression.

“You probably know that already,” I said. “I just think the rooms are great.”

She looked like she was weighing a deep decision, and also weighing me. “I've only tried them once,” she finally admitted, reluctantly.

“Really? They are great. I had a heck of a time with them at first, though.”

“I had to be pulled out.” Her admission was accompanied by a “tell and die” glare. But I was too ecstatic that she had shared something with me.

“Me too! I would probably still be in there if Alexander Dare hadn't pulled me out.”

“You were pulled out of a reading room by Axer Dare?”

“Yes. Peters, the Justice Squad guy who has come by here a few times to sanction me, was pretty displeased about the whole thing. Nettled him something fierce.”

“I don't know whether to observe you more closely or run from you.” She made a note on a paper. I think I had just been upgraded from minion to berserker.

“Why don’t you come with me to the library?” I offered. “I'll show you how to use the rooms. I've been practicing. I may pick up a part time job there.”

One thing that had become obvious was that Olivia didn't ask for help on anything, ever. If she had been pulled out the first time, I was unsurprised she hadn't returned to the rooms.

Since she didn't have anyone else that could be remotely called a friend, Olivia relied on her own knowledge and that of her books to color her world. I was trying to make her comfortable enough with me to ask me questions, but in the meantime, I tried to anticipate any question she might have and provide it in conversation.

“You have been busy since you arrived,” she said, eyes sharp. “You rarely sleep.”

I was hoping she hadn't noticed. “Well, I'm dreadfully behind in this whole magic thing.”

She ran one finger along the spine of her book, then she carefully put the book in her bag along with the other two and rose to her feet.

“Ok, let's go.”

I blinked, but rallied and grabbed my bag too. When Olivia decided on something, she wanted to do it
now
. But it was all worth it, when I saw a true smile on her face after she exited a reading room on her own for the first time.

It was also a bonus that she had opened a text in the room that had “Properties of Blob Matter—How to determine and prosecute its use” as its chapter heading.

I happily made a five-foot blob-man that night who promptly tried to eat me.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Ambrosia for Me, Ambrosia on You

Delia Peoples cornered me in the cafeteria—at the stinking ice cream machines again
.
She smirked at me from underneath her black bangs.

“Hi,” I said, waiting for her to tell me that I was on some feral hit list or something.