THE APPLE OF SNAKES

xxv. wine initiation

Nerluce slammed a stack of papers onto Taayir's desk.

She looked up from what she had been doing and narrowed her eyes at Nerluce. "What's this?" she asked, picking up the papers as if they were a snake. Nerluce shuddered as Taayir flipped through them and cocked a brow. "Why are you throwing the exams for your other classes onto my desk? I can't do anything about them."

"I did well," Nerluce said. "I had to retake two of them because the damn teacher thought I had cheated but look. I passed. Every single one of my exams I passed meaning every one of my classes I've passed."

"Yes, well done," Taayir said. "They cut everyone who didn't make it."

"I know," Nerluce said. He'd seen a couple of boys and one of the girls packing their belongings and leaving this morning. "You wanted me to study because you knew I would fail and be kicked out, didn't you."

Taayir nodded. "Yes."

"That's favoritism," Nerluce accused.

"So what?" Taayir said, standing up from her desk and offering Nerluce his papers back. "You're my favorite. And it wasn't as though I directly told you. I just made a suggestion that you should work on your academic studies in preparation for the upcoming exams."

Nerluce huffed. "Well thank you."

"I hope I didn't wound your pride too much," Taayir said, letting her lips curl up into a smirk.

"No," Nerluce said. He didn't have any pride left for her to wound. "I just... I just don't get it." He flailed his arms, desperately searching for the words he needed to make his point. "Why did you pick me? Like, there are so many more capable students. And there were probably more students who were worse off than I was. So... it just doesn't make sense."

Taayir hummed and nodded. "No it doesn't," she said. "Well, kid, if I'm being honest with you, I didn't pick you." She rolled her eyes. "You picked me. Other kids have come for extra lessons, too. Every once and a while. I tried to help them but usually, they only show up until they've mastered whatever trick they wanted to learn." Another eye roll. "You... seem to just genuinely want to improve your magick and who am I to deny any kid that."

"Oh," Nerluce said. "That feels a bit anticlimatic. I was hoping you saw something in me. Something that made me special."

"Nope," Taayir said. "But Nerluce?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm proud of you." She offered him a smile, warm and full of... affection? Was that affection? It had been so long since anyone had treated Nerluce with anything even close to affection he thought he'd forgotten it entirely. "Now tonight, I want you to go have fun with your friends and celebrate."

"Y-yes, Taayir," Nerluce said, quickly turning to leave.

"Just don't make too much trouble for us when you come back," Taayir called after him. "We turn a blind eye to it but just this one day a year, got it?"

Nerluce nodded, though he had no idea what she was talking about.

However, the moment he returned to the dorms, he found out. All of the upper years - or what remained of the upper years - were sitting together in the common area. All of the first years had been kicked out and the doors were manned by two of the third years who would make sure that no one was eavesdropping.

Nerluce looked around, frantically, before Lyana waved him over to one of the couches. She shifted over, nearly sitting on top of Eko who was nearly sitting on top of Jurine who was trying her hardest not to touch Corbett. The couch wasn't big enough for four people, much less five, but Nerluce plopped down anyway.