Sylf Tales

Chapter 6. Ian

The room was at the top of the stairs, nothing outlandish but it had two beds, a small hearth, and a window. I sat down on the mattress and tried to let my body relax, which was to no avail. However I could feel my stomach beginning to grumble from having only that bread as my lunch today. I looked around the room and there wasn't a scrap of food, I guess I would just have to wait until morning to find something, there was no way I felt like going back down into the masses tonight. I kicked off my boots and began to take off my pants when there was a knock at the door. I pulled them up quickly and shuffled forward cracking the door ajar, it was Ian.

"Hi, I thought you might like your pack's from the chariot." He held my bag out and the one my mother packed for me in his hands, including Cora's. "Oh, yes." I opened the door more for him taking a step back, he placed the bags on the floor next to the door. "Thank you for bringing those in, I completely forgot to grab them." He stood, smoothing out his academy clothing "It's not a problem. Where is Miss Ray?" He looked around the room and a small frantic look crept in his eye. "She is down with Major Renten. Having some drinks." He let out a sigh of relief as far as I could notice.

"Good, if she is with Renten then there shouldn't be any issues. He has talked only highly of her." Odd, again coming from people we've known for mere hours. We both stood there for a few moments "Are you..." "I should probably..." We both spoke at the same time and let out a soft laugh. "What were you trying to say Miss Black?" He sure is well mannered. "I was wondering if you're hungry? My mother packed some food, and when we walked in I didn't see any dinners laying around." I shouldn't be offering him anything, but I thought more and more about needing friends or allies at the academy, and Ian seems trustworthy.

"I couldn't impose. And I have to report to Major Declain about our travels thus far." He took a step backwards away from the door frame. "Oh, okay. Well if you change your mind. I'm pretty sure there's some sweets in there too." He gave a nod and turned on his heel to head down the stairs. I picked up my food pack looking inside which contained some cured meat, dried bread, and my moms infamous jelly filled lechatelierite sweets. I let out a small sigh at the sight of the sweets. They would have a very long shelf life but the supplies needed to make them were expensive, so we only had them on birthdays. I must have been staring at the sweets a tad too long because Ian was back at the door frame staring at me "When did a little food hurt anyone?" I looked at him and gave a curt smile, it will be nice to have a conversation and maybe learn more.

Ian crossed the room and sat down on the opposite bed that hadn't been ruffled from my sitting on it. I decided to shut the door to muffle out the sounds from the festivities happening below. I walked over to my bed and sat down with my ration pack and pulled out its contents. "Is that Lechatelierite?" I looked up at Ian as I pulled out the sweets "Yeah, my mom makes them for birthdays. Guess she had some ready to go for this journey" I placed a piece of meat and bread on a cloth and handed it over to Ian." We can share a sweet after eating." He took it with a smile "Thank you, I'm surprised you even have those. They weren't super popular where I grew up." I took a small portion of the food and started to eat.

"Really? Everyone loves them in MiraGuard. Where did you grow up?" I moved my legs to sit criss-cross. "A small town that bordered Dimn, not worth mentioning" I raised my brow at him, but didn't push further on it. "Well why did you join the Academy?" he paused from biting into his meat and thought for a moment, I could almost see his gears turning, as if deciding how much information to divulge to a stranger, to someone who might be a nobody. "The summary is that I didn't have many options where I came from. So the Academy was the best choice I could make at the time." He continued to eat "At the time? Are you saying you wouldn't want to be there today?" He coughed a little and finished off his main portion. "I wouldn't say I don't want to be there, things have just changed a bit."