Into the Ether - Complete

The Winter of Our Discontent: Part 12

Morning Comrade,

Actually, maybe it's not morning where you are? Not that you'll read this anyway. It's Wednesday 6 pm, and I'm waiting for Celeste to arrive. We're headed to my Qualifier today. I found I'm going to see Guardian Schoenberg at the Badica's house outside Billings. It's a five-hour drive there, so we're leaving early and should be there about midnight. I'm to spend the day doing my Qualifier and then Celeste and I have been invited to spend the night at the Badica's and head back Thursday.

I'm nervous about the Qualifier but also about staying over at the Badica's. I'm hoping there's like a separate Guardian area or something and they won't even know we're there because it doesn't seem likely for a royal Moroi family to invite a Guardian and a Novice to stay?

I'll be missing a few days classes, but it's probably just as well. I haven't been sleeping well at night, so I've been sleepy during the day. Yesterday I fell asleep in Stan's class. He went off his head and bitched me out so I told him to fuck himself and he kicked me out of class. He did me a favor because I went back to my room and slept for two hours and felt heaps better.

Nothing else is happening here. Celeste and I train and I go to class. It seems like I hardly see Lissa these days. She's spending a lot of time with Christian. Hopefully, I'll see a bit more of her after classes finish for the year on Friday.

I dreamed of you last night. We were in a flat somewhere. Our flat where we lived together. In my dream, we woke up and you made me breakfast and then we made love. It felt so real that I really thought I'd open my eyes and be beside you, but of course, I wasn't.

Where are you, Comrade? Are you still safe? I wonder about the others you're with. Do you talk with them, or are you keeping to yourself? Do you know anyone there? I hate to think of you being all alone, but then you can be surrounded by people you've known all your life and still be horribly lonely. Trust me, I know.

I'll email you again after my Qualifier. Hopefully, I'll pass so I can do my field experience in the New Year. Who knows – you might be back by then! With you gone it feels like a part of me is missing. Keep safe and know that you are so very very loved.

Always your,
Roza

I'd just pressed send when I heard a beep from downstairs. I looked out the window and saw Celeste waving an arm out the window of an Academy SUV. Shouldering my duffel bag, I bounded down the stairs and into the warmth of the car.

"Hey – you ready for this?" she asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I groaned.

"You alright? You look tired."

"Yeah. Just having trouble sleeping. Too much on my mind, I guess. And when I do fall asleep I've been having really wicked dreams..."

"Wicked good dreams?" Celeste said giving me a naughty look.

"Yeah well one of them was," I said with a guilty smile. It had been awesome! It had been Dimitri and me in bed and boy did I wake up smiling...

"Most of them I can't remember properly other than they're very bright. It's just annoying because I'm tired but can't get to sleep and when I do I have these full on dreams and then the next day I'm exhausted and falling asleep at the drop of a hat. I think it's from changing human to Moroi times. My body clock is still all stuffed up."

Celeste nodded. "You get used to it after a while, not that I've had to change times for a while. If it's just one day, I usually stay awake and work through."