The Clues You Left

Chapter Eight - Elowen

Elowen sat on her bed, her head spinning. Was it something she ate yesterday? Or was it first class jitters? Her uniform was on and there was five minutes until Esther would walk in to make sure everyone was ready for today. Elowen had spent the rest of yesterday memorizing the classrooms and building layouts, so she knew she wouldn't get lost but her stomach still twisted and churned. It felt like her mother was trying to make butter out of her dinner from yesterday. Elowen took a deep breath when she felt one of her roommates gazes come to rest on her. She needed to get herself together, only three more minutes.

Struggling to her feet, Elowen stood ready. Taking breaths and tapping her thigh to soothe herself. Elowen looked at the other girls in the room, noticing that some of them looked paler than they did yesterday. It had to be first day jitters, it wouldn't make any sense if they got sick from the food. They fed the same food to the rich kids after all, and you couldn't have their parents raising hell. Elowen attempted to swallow the lump that had made its home in the back of her throat. Keeping her eyes on the door, determined not to be surprised by Esther swinging the door open.

She glanced up at the clock as it struck the time and the door slammed open with Esther standing there. She understood why Nuri had written plenty about Esther in her notes, she even looked mean. Elowen doesn't remember a lot about her grandmother, may the gods rest her soul, but she looked nice. Like the granny that made cookies, and she did. It was one of the recipes her mother uses to this day. But Esther looked like her personality, cold, harsh and mean. Her father would have called her a she-devil, her mother too. Esther's cold gaze swept around the room with a smile painted on her face before it quickly fell once she realized that they were all ready on time. Definitely a she-devil, Elowen thought.

Breakfast would be served after their first class of the day, which for Elowen was historic tatications and their tactics. Elowen walked into the classroom and was greeted by Delphi, happily waving her over to the seat next to her. Feeling the heat creep up her neck due to the amount of eyes that landed on her in an instant, she quickly made her way over. "Don't do that." Elowen quickly scolded in a hushed voice.

Delphi looked at her, puzzled at how Elowen reacted. "Why?" She asked, which got an eye roll from Elowen before she gazed into Delphi's green eyes.

"Why? Because it drew attention to me and most importantly, you. Rich kids like you shouldn't be associating with the lower class, it's a rule. The only people who need to know I'm helping you are you and I." Elowen's harsh words became softer towards the end, as she felt herself being swallowed up by Delphi's green gaze. Looking away, Elowen pulled out her notebook and pencil, signaling for Delphi to do the same as the teacher walked into the classroom as the bell rang.

The teacher was another older woman, although she resembled a closer resemblance to her grandmother. Plump with laugh lines and crow's feet from true smiles. "I'm Mrs Windor, I'll be your teacher for this subject throughout your time at Dorian. And yes, you will be in my class for all four years, isn't that lovely?" She asked, her voice was high pitched and cheery. Enough to lull anyone into a false sense of security, almost. Nuri's notes echoed in Elowens mind, the one to not trust teachers was the loudest. She understood it now, some of these teachers were disarmingly nice. Perhaps Nuri had a bad experience with one of hers, Elowen would have to continue to read her entries to find out.

Unlike how the first day was for the public schools Elowen attended, there were no ice breakers, no fun activities to do to let everyone know you. It was straight to business and Elowen was excited, practically buzzing with excitement. History had been one of her favorite subjects before and she hoped the trend would continue. Although it was a bit dry as Windor read out of her textbook, Elowen happily took notes about it. It became clear, much to Elowen amusement, that they wouldn't only be talking about the successful tactics but the failed ones. In fact, the first one was about Liam the Failure. A bit harsh, Elowen thought. But it became clear why he was named as such, his failure to use proper tactics in the Battle of Verindo led to 23 thousand deaths.

After talking about the battle, Windor asked what he could have done differently to succeed at the battle. After hearing the specifics of the battle, Elowen raised her hand. Windor smiled and motioned for her to come up before pointing at a replica of the battle map and plans. Elowen stared at it for a minute or two before moving the way the troops were lined. Making them fit an encircling movement. "He had 50 thousand soldiers, while the opposing side had only 43 thousand. While not a huge difference, if he had tried this instead of making his soldier run head on into the battle." Elowen reasoned while moving the figures around.

Elowen stepped back to let Windor look at it, her hands shaking. Windor looked up with a smile, "This would work, a simple tactic but one that Liam failed to use." Windor dismissed Elowen back to her seat, where Elowen felt herself relax.

"That was amazing." Delphi whispered and Elowen nodded before regaining her composure. The day carried on, until Delphi and Elowen sat in the library, going over their notes. Delphi wanted to know why they had to do this everyday instead once a week and Elowen looked at her with a raised brow.

"Go over all this material in one evening, Delphi, are you crazy? No, its best to go over it once the day is over to understand the material." Elowen said before turning her page of notes to highlight another passage she had written. "You wanted me to teach you, so I'm going to. This is what I do, every day."

"Even the weekends?" Delphi asked, incredulous. Elowen smiled, looking up at Delphi before nodding. "Even the weekends," Delphi whispered as she realized what exactly she got herself into with asking Elowen to teach her.