Things here have calmed down and fallen into a predictable rhythm. I made another friend, a sculptor of all things. We’re both working busily on our pieces for the expo, because of the College’s desperate need for funds if it’s to continue operating. Thanks be to the One God, Marble is talking to me again…
“Clay isn’t so bad once you get to know him, by the way.”
“Oh? I’ve been here considerably longer than you and I never knew him to be anything but insufferable.”
“I’ll admit he’s a little lacking in social graces. But he means well. He’s just very set in his opinions.”
“You were that desperate for a friend while I was mad at you that you befriended Felspar Clay?”
Vaterin nodded. Not the way I would have put it, but yes. I needed someone to talk to, and he’d confirmed he didn’t blame me for the dragon’s tantrum.
Marble laughed. “Alright. So introduce me.”
“He knows who you are.”
“Vaterin, if we care for each other we’re sharing friends, but I had no idea Felspar had a personable side.”
Vaterin sighed. “Alright, I’ll ‘introduce you.’” When they next crossed paths with Clay, and had the time to talk, Vaterin pulled him aside and said, “Marble wants to be introduced to you, now that we’re friends. Play along?”
“You call everyone by their last names except her. Why is that?” You’re curious about that right now? You can’t just agree to be introduced? Marble was standing patiently off to one side.
“I call her Marble because I love her—” I love her. Well. I think I knew that already, but saying it is a whole other animal. “—while I call everyone else by their last name because I don’t want to be overly familiar.”
“We’re friends, you can call me Felspar,” Clay replied—Clay replied. Clearly I have a habit to break. I can only imagine what I’d do if he had some other familiar name.
“Alright, Felspar, can you play along and let me introduce you?” Clay shrugged, then nodded. Vaterin steered him across to Marble. “Marble, allow me to introduce Clllll—Felspar. Felspar, Marble, my lady fair.”
Clay stuck out a hand. “Pleasure to ‘meet you.’”
Marble shook his hand. “Likewise, I’m sure. Vaterin asserts that you have a personable side and I would very much like to see it.”
“I’d be happy to show it, but like I told Vaterin a month ago, I didn’t realize I was being an—” He paused, visibly thought, and continued, “jerk.”
Marble’s mouth quirked at one corner. “‘An jerk’?”
“Just so. To be fair, you were ‘an jerk’ too.”
“I am the picture of comportment at all times.” Vaterin abruptly found the ceiling to be absolutely fascinating. “When did I give offense?”
“When you said sculpture sold by the pound.”
“That was months ago! Why didn’t—I see what you mean. Well then, I apologize for implying that your art was inferior, as you have explicitly said in turn any number of times.”
“But it—” Vaterin coughed. “Right. Uhm. Vaterin told me that it’s actually a great effort to present perspective or even tricks of perspective on canvas, and so while you’re working in fewer dimensions, you’re attempting to portray three and even four dimensions through stylistic effects.” Clay looked at Vaterin, who nodded approvingly. “I just can’t imagine trying to express calculus concepts in less than three dimensions.”
“‘Calculus concepts’?” Marble asked, and Vaterin could hear the polite edge.
“Yeah. It’s a Paxite thing, they managed to preserve a great number of mathematical concepts through a close relationship with axiom spirits they call djinni.”
“How interesting. Has Vaterin told you—of course you already know from Father Sauer’s sermon—that she’s a spirit mage too.”
“I did put two and two together, yes.”
Vaterin elbowed Clay. “Easy with the ciphering, for me, please. Tell us about some other Paxite thing.”
Clay stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Well, they use a lunar calendar, for one. One thirty-day month for each of twelve alleged elements—”
“There are only four elements, though,” Marble protested.
Clay put up his hands in mock defense—I’m pretty sure he got that gesture from me—and replied, “Preaching to the choir, though I’d love to know how those earth runes on the Chapel of the Power of Ariel were put in place. But they assert that there are twelve theoretical elements, and assign one to each lunar month. They don’t have Ophiuchus as a month, so their calendar lines up with ours every seventy-three years. For most of the year. But their months line up with a month every six years.”
“I did not know that,” Marble replied.
“Still too much math for me,” Vaterin groused.
“Any math is too much for you,” Clay retorted. “I just find it interesting that clearly, there are sorceries beyond our ken, and I wonder if maybe the Paxite calendar doesn’t hold some of those secrets.”
“What are the ‘elements’ they associate with the other lunar months?” Marble asked. I can’t tell if she’s being polite or if this is actually interesting to her.
“That’s one of the difficulties they face. The verbiage has been lost, and so they have mystery words that they can’t translate by knowledge or djinni. Ah, axiom spirit.”
Marble waved a hand. “You explained the noun. Anyway.”
“They’re generally denoted as earth-plus, fire-plus, and so on.”
“But that only accounts for—and don’t fuss, Vaterin,” I do not “fuss”! “For four more elements. They have twelve, like the seasons.”
“I’m working on this whole, ‘not being a jerk’ thing, so I’m checking; am I boring you? If you’d like to go about your meal in peace, I can bug Vaterin about algebra.” Vaterin shuddered.
“It is interesting to me, sorcery holds a very dear place in my heart. My Gramma taught me everything—well, not everything—but much of what I know about it. But if you’re a Paxite, that’s a continent away. Why come here for schooling?”
Clay shook his head. “I’m no Paxite. I just picked this up studying calculus, which didn’t survive in Fief. I actually picked this College as one where I could practice my sculpture expressing functions—” Vaterin sighed. “—in a three-dimensional form, the better to envision them. You might say I’m more of a geometer than an artist. Though I maintain my work does not to be so denigrated as to be sold by the pound.”The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“I apologized for that once, I won’t be apologizing again.”
Clay shrugged with one shoulder. “Fair deal. But anyway, I figure there’s a lot to be learned from the Paxites. If the lunar calendar has twelve, and there are seven Virtues, maybe we don’t need to assign two Virtues to most of the elements. For that matter, perhaps the months themselves aren’t properly overlapping, perhaps each one holds dominion over a single element. It’s a puzzle. Theoretically, if you traced the syzygy of an earth month, season, and lunar month, you could use the celestial influences to cast a single incredible earth spell, perhaps even raising a small island out of the sea!”
“Wow! I wonder what you could do with fire! Imagine, taking a warring nation and blanketing it in peaceable intent and a sense of wellbeing!”
“Oh, so you understand the more advanced fire sorcery? I’m impressed!”
“I’m a practicing sorcerer. Most of what I do with it is light candles, but I know a thing or three.”
Vaterin turned her head sharply. “You can instill emotion in people with fire magic?” Why does that make me deeply uneasy? It just does. Suddenly I’m reminded of those fire-runed headbands my parents wore when they were dealing with others. I always thought it was a fashion thing. But then, they haven’t inducted me into all their trade secrets, because I’m ‘being rebellious’… I completely missed Marble’s reply. “I’m sorry, say again?”
“Hypothetically I could but it was like Felspar was saying, you’d need a major confluence to affect many people even with a group ritual, and I’m not a skilled enough fire sorcerer to do that. I could maybe read somebody’s mood if I tried really hard.”
“Ah. So you knew I was interested before I told you.”
“Vaterin, no. I thought about it, but I didn’t try to read your mood. That would be rude. Also kinda a gross way to find out you were interested.”
“…I trust you.”
“Good. Honestly, between the two of us I have more reason to be wary of sorcerers than you do.”
“They just robbed you blind, they didn’t mess with your mind. Speaking of which, what can you do, Cl—Felspar? With your earth sorcery? You can fuse loose stone. And the chapel reformed earth to support itself after the sinkhole happened.”
“I can heal the body, or read its ailments. Or could. Theoretically. Mostly I use my magic to help me mold clay, and occasionally to save the lives of trysting lesbians.”
“We weren’t trysting, we had perfectly chaste intentions of praying and kissing and leaving it at that! You’d think, after all the trouble I went to to get into a monastic college, that people would think I had good respect for the Sacrament of marriage! The whispering, the giggles, artists should be more serious!”
“Vaterin, you didn’t stop smiling for a week after we kissed. I think you might be being the slightest bit hypocritical calling for serious artists,” Marble scolded gently. And hypocrisy was one of the major pet peeves of the Savior. Sigh. Now I have to apologize to Clay.
“I’m sorry I took your teasing in ill humor, Felspar.”
“To be fair, it’s been a month, I was being ‘an jerk.’” Felspar was grinning. “Have you ever considered taking up earth sorcery, Marble? You might find it grounding.”
Marble sniffed. “Puns are the lowest form of humor. But no, I had not. I am quite comfortable with my temperament.”
“You do get really mad sometimes, Marble.”
“You know, I didn’t, before a certain butchy somebody managed to be at once charming and infuriating. Felspar, what drew you to earth sorcery?”
“Believe it or not, I was interested in medicine. Healing the clay from which we were made. It’s more than just a metaphor for the One God breathing life into the first humans, earth magic can turn dirt into flesh and blood.” Clay quickly amended, “Can’t make life, of course, but I wager I could make a decent steak out of some rocks.”
“Oh Supreme, I haven’t had a steak in ages. Would you, Felspar?” Marble asked wistfully. “We could cook it up in the kitchens during our free time, now that we have that again.” I don’t like her looking at him like tha—she’s a lesbian, she told me that, and he’s in a committed relationship with a man. I suppose he could be bi, but—wait, she’s also in a committed relationship. With me. Why am I worrying, again?
“That’s not really what earth sorcery is for,” Felspar said hesitantly. “I don’t know whether I have the faith that the One God Wills for us to have a steak.”
Marble took Felspar by the hand. Once again, I find that I mind this. She should be grabbing my hand. I don’t care about steaks, I care about Marble. She should feel the same. Then again, I’ve probably had a lot more steaks than she has. “I have just spent a month on punishment detail, we can go ask Mother Honoria if we shouldn’t have steaks all around as a celebration of having free time again!”
“Would steak made from stone even taste good?” Vaterin asked querulously. “You said you could make a decent steak, but I’m skeptical.”
“Honestly it was an off-the-cuff joke. It’s just, with earth magic you can apply dirt to a wound and then use it to seal it shut.”
Marble deflated visibly. “No steaks?”
“Not unless someone convinces Father Sauer to sacrifice an ox before the All Saviors’ Day feast.” Why did you say that if you couldn’t even do it? You upset Marble!
While Vaterin began to seethe, Marble put her hand on hers and inclined her head in a question. Vaterin wondered, can she read my mood? Or is she using good old-fashioned human empathy? Probably that. She said she wouldn’t, not that she couldn’t though. And there’s a difference between reading if someone has a crush on you versus telling if they’re mad. She didn’t say a prayer, but that’s not an obligatory part of sorcery. Or is it? Or can she say—“Orth to Vaterin, what are you frowning so fiercely about?”
Vaterin scratched the back of her head awkwardly. I was frowning. Which means empathy, not her reading my mind. “Just an unfortunate series of trains of thought.”
“Vaterin, what are you working yourself into a tizzy about now?”
“Me? You’re the one with a temper!”
Marble took a deep breath and Vaterin saw she was counting to ten on her right hand. “Vaterin Lime, you are deflecting and you are provoking me. I am showing concern and you’re being contrary, which says to me you’re uneasy, which means you’re still thinking about whether I knew you were interested. Which I did not read off you, that’s not something I could attempt without preparing and summoning my focus, it’s just how you are. I knew when you told me. Conversation where we both avoided the question because we were and are both somewhat shy people and that’s just the way love is—”
“You love me back?”
Clay chose that moment to speak up. “Hey, should I leave you two to this conversation, or would it be better to bring things back to ‘how I became an artist’?”
”Stay,” Marble said, in the same instance Vaterin said, “Go.”
Marble went on. “Yes I love you back, but I do genuinely want to know how Felspar went from surgeon to artist on a remote rock in the middle of the ocean.” But I want to know when you knew! How you knew! I want to hear again that you know! But I’m not going to win that argument. I may as well let Clay talk, the better to get Marble alone later. Vaterin gestured for Clay to continue.
“Well, I was at an earth sorcery enclave, which I think I mentioned is where I met my boyfriend, and there was this geometer—” Vaterin sighed. Father Supreme, give me patience with this man and his ciphering. “—with a Paxite text, and she was actually interested in the faith but the math was just fascinating. There were these painstaking illustrations trying to portray universal constants in just two dimensions—” Marble huffed. “—not that I’m going back to it being inferior, just that it wasn’t really an adequate representation. I tried to model it with earth sorcery and I couldn’t manage the degree of precision I wanted, and from there I started working clay. A few years after that I find out about Brother Pitch being versed in all kinds of art, including sculpting, and I pack my bags and make for the College.” Okay. Question answered. You can go now. I want to give Marble an apology by way of a kiss. But, of course, the conversation was not so obliging. After what she judged a suitable display of patience, Vaterin proceeded to simply tilt Marble’s chin with a finger and plant a gentle kiss on her lips. That time, when Clay asked if he should go, Marble nodded along with Vaterin.