The Last Red Year

FOUR: Fountain Maintenance Room

 "Do you really think there are tunnels that go everywhere?" Kas asks, stepping out of the residence hall and into the evening air outside. It's somewhat cooler than before--the sun hasn't quite set yet, but it's sunk far past the walls of the citadel. Its light is much dimmer now, the reddish-pink glow of evening punctuated rhythmically by flashes of cyan light from the rain-dome above.

"I fuckin' hope there's tunnels," Sorine says, bouncing on their feet. Mauragan trails behind the two somewhat reluctantly--they haven't quite warmed up to Sorine's brashness yet, and Kas understands. Sorine is a lot. It's only the fact that they and Isri have been teasing each other like that their entire childhoods that keeps Kas from taking their words to heart.

"This place is so big. Do you think there's a map anywhere?" Kas crosses the neatly-cobbled street separating the residence hall and the center of the citadel, marveling at the humming insects, at the birds singing goodbye to the last rays of daylight from their perches in strange tropical trees. They reach out to touch one of them, curious about its evenly-striped green bark and frond-like leaves. "Everything is so green here. We only had pines back in Callocast."

"It's called bamboo," Mauragan says quietly, only the second time they've spoken since Kas and Sorine met them. "It grows in Amphire too."

"Hey, ain't that where Kizlane is from?" Sorine asks. "You from there too?"

Mauragan shrugs noncommittally, running their gloved fingers down the trunk--stem?-- Kas can't tell--of the bamboo tree. They don't say anything else, but hunch their shoulders a little. They seem sad.

"Do you miss home?" Kas asks softly. "It's okay. I do too. It wasn't very nice there but...it's where I grew up."

Mauragan nods ever so slightly, then pulls themself away from the bamboo, having spotted something. Kas follows their gaze--there's a little noticeboard set up in front of one of the entrances to the ornate, four-point star-shaped building in the center of the citadel. Tucked in a brochure holder is a single, lonely-looking map.

Kas runs to grab it, unfolding it and trying to pinpoint their location. They're not very good with directions--Isri's a much better navigator--so they hand it to Mauragan, who seems to know what they're doing. They point a finger at the northwestern side of the citadel-- "We're right here."

"Ooh, are those dotted lines tunnels?" Sorine asks, peering over Mauragan's shoulder, oblivious to them clearly not wanting their personal space invaded. "Sick!"

"Fountain maintenance room?" Kas asks, following the dotted tunnel lines to a circle over the northern point of the star building. "I didn't know there was a fountain here..."

"Do you fucking have eyes?" Sorine grabs the map from Mauragan's hands, running back to the banquet hall and following it north to the fountain Kas missed earlier. "It was right there when we rode in."

"Sorry for being too busy trying not to fall off my horse!" Kas follows them, Mauragan trailing nervously behind the two of them. "I've never seen a real fountain before."

"Well! Now you have!" Sorine says, presenting the fountain at the northern tip of the star building like they constructed it themself. "Isn't it cool?" Kas stares up at the cascades of falling water, marveling at the familiar four-pointed star that graces its top, cast in a shimmering gold plating. That must have been expensive to build.

"I wonder what that star means," Kas says. "I see it everywhere. It's on all the mages' clothes, on all the buildings...it's even on the map." They peer over at the map in Sorine's hands, a little crinkled now from them violently tearing it away from Mauragan. "So that building is the Hall of Mages...and the little sparkles coming off it are their houses. Why would they build a building shaped like a star? Wouldn't the points be too narrow to fit anything in?"