The Alchemist's Daughter

Chapter 5: Correspondence

"Here," Aden slapped an envelope against Briar's chest as soon as she'd come in the door of their shared room. She snatched it up awkwardly, giving him a questioning look.

"It's for Briar, surely you can see that she gets it, even in quarantine," Aden explained as he went back to his desk and sat down with his back to the room. "Surely you're also writing her letters."

"A-ah, of course," She cleared her throat, heading for her own desks and putting her books down. They were in the few hours between end of classes and dinner that were meant to be used for studying. And the homework was already piling up.

It took all her willpower to focus on the equations and figures in her textbooks and not steal away to her room to tear the letter open immediately. What could Aden need to say to her so dearly it could not wait a month? Or was he simply being kind to a sick girl...

There was a bell connected to the kitchens in the common room that rang to announce mealtimes, and it clanged loud enough to be heard in the boys' rooms. Briar reluctantly left the letter between the pages of her homework and went to go down to eat.

Aden fiddled around at his desk until she'd left. Clearly he was avoiding 'Heath's company. What a tangled situation this was...

When Briar got out of her door, a scuffle further down caught her attention. Two boys, one blond and one raven haired, had each other by the shirt collars, seemingly about to come to blows. Other boys circled around them hooting and laughing.

Briar scrambled over, finally getting a better look at the two and realizing it was the boy from the library, Milo, and her eternal adversary Fletcher Stone.

"Make way! Make way!" The feminine voice cut through the boyish revelry like a knife. Mrs Clark came barreling down the hallway towards the disturbance like a steam train, making Briar press flat to the wall.

"What is the meaning of this?" She demanded, her cheery face red with fury. "Unhand each other at once!"

The two boys reluctantly released each other's lapels, but continued to glare daggers at the other.

"Ask Mr Stone," Milo huffed. "He accosted me."

"Because you were sneaking around, prying into my personal correspondence!" Fletcher retorted, his hands balled into fists as he loomed over the black haired boy.

"Enough!" Mrs Clark boomed. "Both of you!"

She charged forward and caught both of them by their ears with practiced ease, dragging them off down the hallway as the assembled crowd tried to hide snickers and a few whistled.

"None of that, or you're all coming to the headmaster. Do I make myself clear?!" Mrs Clark shot back at them, cutting the legs out of their schadenfreude. They all repentantly stared at the ground, or the wall, or anywhere but her angry face as she marched the two boys off.

Dinner was tense, cut with a few nervous laughs and jokes, as the first years waited to see what Milo and Fletcher's fate would be. They returned after dinner, just before lights out. Everyone noticed and whispered about how their gait was awkward.

"They really got paddled," Aden was at her side unexpectedly as the two returning boys hobbled back to their room, looking as dour and moody as to be expected. "They didn't even get into a real fight... This school is as strict as I'd heard."

Briar could only nod, pursing her lips.

Poor Milo. Fletcher started some nonsense over nothing, and he got punished too...

Briar jumped up, heading straight to her room. She had some cast off ingredients left over from her homework transmutations. Whipping up an analgesic was as easy as breathing. It was the most common elixir her father's practice had needed by far.