One Day More - a Sartorias-deles fanfic

Chapter 38

Due to poor weather, it had taken Alaraec longer than he would have liked to make it to Setazhia. He felt ragged, like his limbs all weighed ten times their weight. His clothes were disheveled and stained from sweat...and other substances he'd rather not identify. He brought extra garments, but it hardly mattered on the ship, because grime covered everything anyway. When the ship arrived, Raec could not depart it fast enough. He had a few things he had to do before seeking out Iris—bathing, to only name one. Maybe multiple baths; Raec may never rid himself of the stench.

After cleaning himself up and eating something that did not feature mystery meat as an ingredient, he met with representatives from Setazhia's government as Vidanric had requested and arranged. Nothing overly formal, yet the discussions still took hours. His search for Iris would have to wait...again. Which maybe was not a bad thing, as it gave him another night to clean himself up. Maybe that was shallow, but when he found Iris, he wanted to look respectable. She probably had enough on her plate already, and he did not want to add worry for him to her heavy burdens.

One more night's sleep, and he finally started looking. She had to be at the school somewhere. Raec tried the eating area first. For two reasons: one, his stomach was growling. Two, because food often involved socializing...and the sharing of gossip. He hated gossip in Remalna, but maybe it would work in his favor in Setazhia.  He sat at the end of a long table with a plate before him, nibbling at what was on it as he struggled to pick out words in Venn.  Enda had always been better with languages than he was. And not only that, Remalna had translators for a reason. This would be harder than he anticipated.

Or so he thought, until he heard the Common Tongue from a table behind him. Excusing himself with a nod, Raec picked up his plate, turned around, and sat down. He offered what he hoped was a friendly smile. The men raised a few eyebrows, analyzing the newcomer. Raec straightened his spine. He was used to people staring at him, but this felt different. In Remalna, everyone—besides Iris, apparently—knew who he was. Here, the eyes were studying him as if deciding whether to accept him or not. Typically, he could not keep people away from him; he'd rarely been in a situation where he might be shunned instead.

"You're new here," a black-haired man said. He was skinny and appeared to be around Raec's age.

"Visiting," Raec said. "I forgot most people here don't speak the Common Tongue. I must say, hearing it from you all was...quite refreshing."

"A Remalnan accent," the blond man said. He tilted his head sideways. "You're far from home."

"Very," Raec scoffed. "Every so often, I like to travel, but I'll be honest and say Setazhia wasn't on my list."

The black-haired man's shoulders dropped, and an easy smile split his features. "It's not on many people's, unless you're students like we are. The name's Cal."

"Raec," the prince responded in kind with a nod.

"Eyre," the blond man said. "And I wouldn't eat the eggs if I were you. Someone in the kitchen was heavy with the salt." He pushed his own plate away and sighed. "I should probably get to work anyway. I need to keep up my research for my project."

Cal raised a brow. "I thought you were finished with it?"

Eyre snorted. "I thought the same, but Ayer decimated half of it. It's back to the library for me."

"Oh, don't act like it's such a heavy burden to visit the library." Cal nudged him with an elbow.

Eyre shrugged. "You're right; it's not so bad anymore. Now that Librarian Caldron has his assistant, no need to pester him or the Keeper anymore."

"That's your rationalization."

"The librarian has an assistant?" Raec butted into the conversation.

Cal confirmed with a nod. "She's been here for a few months. Quiet most of the time. Doesn't say much, but she's always happy to help. Infinitely more pleasant than the Keeper. Speaks the Common Tongue, too, though she seems just as comfortable with Venn at this point. We all like her."