Sleeping Wildflowers

3. Peaks

University of Aharocald, Éarelé, Coéndoré. 1176.

The reigning expert on cantisang, Rynga of Neve, worked at the University of Aharocald. Once Asellan was able to be out of bed for more than half the day and speak consistently, he had to go down to Aharocald once a week to meet with her. Asellan didn't know why she couldn't go down to Emnnhat to see him if she wanted to so much. It felt unfair.

The ride there was the worst part of it. Although they went around the major mountain range, there were plenty of hills and valleys in Éarelé, and they had to go up and down several to get to Aharocald. The quickest way was to use the railway cart, but it was too loud. The first time, as soon as the cart had started moving, Asellan had felt a horrible chill, and at once he'd begun to feel every bone in his body and all his veins pulsing with the blood rushing through them and his ears had hurt and his eyes had hurt and everything had felt as if it were going to fall apart. He'd spent the rest of the ride curled up at his mother's side with his head under her jacket and his jacket and Ispan's jacket and Rahan's jacket and the blanket folded up enough that it was as thick as a pillow. Rynga herself had suggested an alternative route, because she said the ride shook up Asellan too much for her to properly examine him, and she doubted blocking his ears would help because he would still be able to feel how loud it was with the shakiness of the ride.

So, they went another way. According to Rynga, the best way would actually be for Asellan to walk all the way to Aharocald, but that would probably take ten days. Asellan supposed he could just...not go back home to Emnnhat, but it wasn't up to him. They wanted him in Emnnhat because Seyth wouldn't go down to Aharocald, and they wanted him in Aharocald because Rynga wouldn't go up to Emnnhat.

They had to walk most of the way; that couldn't be avoided. But on the smoother streets in the wide country between the two buildings, Asellan found it in him to stomach the worst of the movement and take a cart. Asellan wore earplugs and sat on Ispan's lap so Ispan could hold him and keep him from the worst of the rocking. Asellan usually got a dose of miur, too, though of course it didn't really help at all. At least by then he was mostly used to the taste, and could almost understand why people liked to drink it for pleasure.

The last hour or so of the journey was all walking, and they had to alternate between Asellan actually using his legs and Ispan carrying him, or Rahan (or someone else if he was unavailable that day).

When they finally made it to Aharocald, there was an elevator that took them up to the third floor where Rynga's office was. Sometimes Asellan could stand the feeling of falling while rising, but most of the time someone had to hold him then too.

Rynga's office was well-decorated to match her personality, in that it was not decorated at all. She enjoyed decorating herself the same, though her office was spacious and she was very compact. Not that she didn't wear clothes, or wore them sparsely. Well, no one could say for certain. She just dressed herself in the plain black robe of the university and never let anyone so much a peek as to what she wore beneath. Sometimes she placed a little black hat that didn't fit atop her cascade of long black hair. She straightened her hair the Sainish way; Asellan knew because he'd seen his mother do it and it left the same slight kinks.

Her office had a small couch, which Asellan got to sit on, and everyone else had to sit on the hard wooden chairs on the other side of the room. Rynga got to sit behind her desk, but most of the time she wasn't there. Most of the time she was over next to Asellan examining him as if he were a museum exhibit. She liked to poke him. Prod him. "It's an absolute shame that there are no images of what it looked like," she liked to complain.

"Of what?" Asellan asked the first time.

"Your cant," she said. "Your incompetent doctor doesn't even remember."