Adelaide

Chapter XIV

Sapphire Gibson

Contrary to usual, my friends and I gather in the boys' commons. In place of the amethystine tapestries characteristic to the lovely northern tower, all accommodations in the south drape with the strangest color, which appears a muted green one moment and a dull yellow the next, shifting and warping with an almost hideous pulchritude. We always jest about it, wondering what crime boys committed to deserve such an anomaly.

Seated quietly around a square mahogany desk, none of us feel particularly optimistic, each busied with an old book or some idle embroidery. I willingly close the worn text in my hands when Emerald finally breaks the silence, his tone halfhearted.

"Be it hardly my concern, Saph, but I gather that your roommate's only been half-present with us as of late. Has Adelaide been faring well?"

In my peripheral, I glimpse Ruby stifling a teasing remark about his affections. Merely scowling in vague bitterness, I attempt to shield indignation from my voice.

"I sometimes wonder whether Adelaide harbors much need for our acquaintanceship at all anymore. Her forthcoming new boy Julian occupies ample amounts of her time. Although, I hardly believe their relationship to be mutually beneficial."

Contemplation of my unveiled jealousy hovers over us for a moment, before Topaz fixes his rufous eyes across my face. He hasn't connected with me so blatantly since Ruby's overstep, and everyone immediately notices. I swallow my surprise.

"That's fine," he mutters with striking clarity, "All others leave eventually, anyway. We only require one another. You agree, don't you?"

His gaze hovers over me expectantly. He's tall and lean like a creature of the springtime breeze, unbound and profound; this intangibility of his makes it easier for me to dismiss my feelings. Free-spirits like him can't love in a way I understand. Brushing a feathery strand of hair away from my face, I quickly nod in assent.

When he first arrived at the citadel, Oaklen Wright was a lonely boy whom not even his own family could favor, and that story snaked between our peers as fast as the chilling drafts in the forgotten corridors. But Ruby and I befriended him regardless; his history never mattered to either of us. I don't believe Topaz ever felt truly understood, though, until a year later when he met the newcomer Miles Byron IV — the loyal and loving boy with telluric amber eyes and silky sable curls. More than anyone else, Emerald grounded him and provided him a family upon whom he could depend if needed. I only wish that could've been me.

After holding her tongue all afternoon — all week, really — Ruby suddenly jumps up from aside, emotional and ambitious as ever, interrupting my wandering thoughts.

"I'm growing quite tired of all this. Why have we not already left?"

A collective pause spans across our table.

"Left? As in, departed from the citadel?" Emerald deliberates, though nothing can conceal the intrigue shimmering within his clever autumn eyes.

"And who among us possesses a home worthy of return?" Topaz quietly retorts, something vague like shame tinting his characteristic air of liberty.

"No, she suggests not a return — rather, an escape."

"Yes, we could travel somewhere together," I find myself adding, gaining favor for the idea as my imagination takes flight; this could be our most meaningful adventure yet.

Fiery green eyes alight with cunning, Ruby definitively prompts, "And how ought we to run from Soventi?"

In my peripheral, the heavy door to the commons swings open and two individuals slip into the room; I think nothing of their arrival until a familiar voice suddenly interjects, "This is a school, not a prison, you know."