Ironminder

A Wasp that has Stung

I shoved my hands into my pockets, pulling out my phone. Still August 14th, but when I read that it was 6:53 in the morning, I felt my temper break. 

Viciously I grabbed the nut that sat warm in my pocket. It had been meticulously hollowed out to contain the summons that had been sent to me. I reeled back and threw it down the long central walkway up to the school. I could feel the burn of tears behind my eyes. 

The faint tap, tap tap, of it's landing did nothing to douse the anger. 

All I could do was return to my dorm, haggard, and get myself cleaned off. At the very least a cold shower might help the simmering fury. 

A few of my roommates shot me sly glances when I turned up in the early morning hour looking ragged and tired. They probably thought I'd been up to something. 

I had, but nothing as fun as they'd thought.

I stripped out of my clothes in a haze only to pull on new clean clothes and not the pajamas that I wished I were in.

For a moment I wondered if I should burn the clothes that were caked in soil from the faelands. Something about the idea of our two worlds mixing even more sent a tingle down my spine. Though, the university and my roommates would likely find setting fires bad form. 

I packed the ruined clothes into a bag and resolved myself to take them to some incinerator. As I was stuffing my jeans into the bag, the silvered ring tinkled onto the tile floor of the bathroom, falling from one of my pockets. Gingerly, I grabbed it. The incessant sing of iron was nearly entirely gone, the only remnant a slight humming vibration that seemed more of an echo than anything else. As I held it, even that faded into nothing.

I dropped the ring into a little crystal dish with other mementos that I'd garnered on my travels, ones that I didn't feel like I could simply dispose of. The ring looked too small in the dish next to the wedding band I'd collected 3 years back. I'd never tried either of them on, that felt nearly sacrilegious. 

When I looked at the trinkets I couldn't help but think of the memories they held, which had all but vanished with their owners. Some trinkets I'd been able to return, but these remained, seemingly forgotten by everyone except me. 

My phone chimed loudly while I sat idling on my bed. I listened to it ring for minutes, unable to force myself to do anything as I muddled through my options. I only silenced the alarm when I heard Kelsey smack the shared wall between our rooms. 

The last ounce of good sense I had finally pushed me to shove my school books into my bag. It's the first day. You'll go over the syllabus and get out of class early. Plenty of other college students have survived on a night with no sleep.

I was right at the very least. The first day was spent reviewing the syllabus. It was monotonous and tiresome and did absolutely nothing to keep my attention in the wake of my exhaustion. I could barely fight to keep my eyes open, much less a good first impression. 

Sunlight streamed in from small windows set high into the classroom wall, dappling the desks and the floor of the room. I let the dance along my eyelids while I stole a moment of rest before my teacher called for our attention over the breakdown of grades. 

I was left watching the light play as the leaves of trees outside directed the dance across my palms and the faux wood of the desk. 

The warmth seeped into my skin, chasing away the chill of the AC in the room.  It played across the expanse of my desk. I could see where once upon a time ago, some would have thought that dappling faerie handiwork. It was enchanting. 

I traced the tip of an eraser along the lines of the desk, all the while watching the light slip and weave in front of me. Whether it was my exhaustion or some higher magic, I felt that warmth turn to heat. The day turned fuzzy around the edges as the light turned from something Earthy to other as it scorched along the top of my desk. 

A cloud of acrid smoke rose up from my desk as I jerked back, away from the tracing light. Swirling and fluid the light ripped across the desk like a pinprick, spelling out words, scorching them deep enough that the particleboard beneath the vinyl showed through, stained black by the heat. 

A pest, a problem, a wasp that has stung,

A plight and a worry that needs be undone,This nuisance all caused by a slip of the tongue.
To discover a thief from within us; among.

A troublesome task: therefore a pleasure to find her:
This bright, this helpful, this new Ironminder. 

I scrambled with my notebooks to cover up the evidence of the summons I'd just received, etched into my desk. A few nearby students cast curious glances my way as I rustled with my papers. My heart was beating in my throat. All thoughts of exhaustion were gone now as my adrenaline kicked on. How would I explain this?

Gingerly I lifted the stack of notebooks, but there was nothing under it. 

I picked each bit up, one by one: the agenda, the textbook, finally the spiral-bound notebook until everything was off my desk. All that remained was a letter. 

Swirling gold calligraphy shimmered in the dancing light of the sun, spelling out the very same rhyme that it had felt the need to impress onto the desk itself.

I delicately handled the letter as the envelope seemed to be made of a material so thin it seemed liable to turn to dust beneath my fingertips. I turned it in the now warm light of day, watching the play of it reflect in thin gold lines, meant to imitate the notion of feathers.

Just stuffing the letter into my backpack seemed a disservice. I settled for pressing it between the pages of my agenda, in a similar manner that someone would press a flower. 

The class was endless, and much to my dismay my professor made mention he preferred to "never waste a moment of class time". I was stuck floundering in a class that easily could have ended thirty minutes earlier. It did, however, afford me the time to reflect on this new summons. 

It was unheard of. At most prior, I'd been someone once every other month, sometimes as infrequently as once a year. Two summons within twenty-four hours of each other was unfounded. 

Slowly my train of thought drifted to that first summons, which had fallen --loudly-- onto the desk in front of me in the middle of an algebra lecture. I'd feigned confusion along with the rest of my classmates, but had pocketed the summons quickly. 

Last night's memory came quicker, like a slap I remembered throwing the nut across the drive in a fit of anger. That coiling snake of worry was back in my gut. It was hollowed out. Certainly, it wouldn't cause a problem. But, something inside me told me that all those things from the other side just loved to cause problems. 

I should have disposed of it. I could have kicked myself. I didn't even know where it had landed. What if someone had picked it up?

The worry chewed and chewed until I was nearly certain it would eat me alive. I found my gaze continuously resting on the clock, for a new reason. When Professor Ells finally released us, I sped to the front walk of the school. 

It had landed somewhere hard. 

I searched for nearly an hour and found no nut. 

Instead, I found a small plant, unfurling before my eyes and putting down roots into the Earth. 

Hurriedly, I dropped into a crouch, my books, and bag scattered on the ground around me as I went to work unearthing the plant. As soon as it realized it was being disturbed, the roots began to dig into my palm and fingers. Red bloomed along the small cuts and the roots dug deeper. I grabbed the small ruby bud it was trying to form and yanked it, roots and all from my palm.

This I would certainly burn.