The Sceptre of Samnos

The University Part 4

     Thomas decided to change the subject. Talking about himself always made him terribly self conscious. "I don't believe I've never spoken to you before. We've been in the same school together for five years, in the same year, and yet we've never shared a class. Never even met in here before." He turned to the nome. "Nor you."

     "Just chance I suppose," replied Geremy. "Pure pot luck that made sure we were always in different places."

     "But for five years? It doesn't seem possible."

     "Well, we have the chance to get to know each other now," said Lirenna, smiling pleasantly.

     "Just as we're all about to leave and return to our own homes!" protested Thomas, feeling badly cheated by fate. He wasn't going to spoil the moment by complaining, though. If all they had was a few days to get to know each other, then they had to make the most of the time they had. "You know, there’s something I’ve always wanted to know, ever since I first came here. There are huge empires of the Shae Folk down south and they educate their own people. Shayen wizards teach young shae wizards, have done for thousands of years ever since...” He realised he was approaching a tender subject and reined himself in hurriedly. “I mean, you have your own schools of magic, so how come there are so many shae students here? I mean, there aren’t that many, not many at all in fact, but why are there any at all? Why would a shae family send their child to a human school of magic?”

     “Ahem,” said Geremy with an amused smile.

     “You know what I mean,” said Tom apologetically. “There aren’t any great nome nations, just a few small communities scattered here and there. There aren’t enough nomes to make a nome school of magic possible. You’ve got no choice but to come here. The Shae Folk are different. I know the Shae Folk teach their own, and yet there are shae folk here, for which I’m very glad by the way...” Lirenna smiled shyly, looking down at the floor, and Tom cursed himself inwardly. Now she thinks I’m coming on to her! She’ll make some excuse and leave...

     “You’ve never had an actual conversation with a shae before, have you?” she said though, grinning.

     Tom grinned in return, sagging with relief. “I’m sorry, I know there are rules of conversation among your people, that you’re very formal and polite. Please forgive me, I don’t know the rules...”

     "Actually, I'm only demi shae, you'll have noticed my hair." She touched it self consciously, combing a few of the almost invisibly fine strands between her fingers. Thomas gave a slight nod to conceal his ignorance. Every other shae he'd ever seen had had light hair, various shades of blonde from light golden honey to a pure silvery white, but he hadn't thought anything of it. "Well, three quarters. My grandmother was human."

     "That's unusual, isn't it? I mean, usually it's a human man who falls in love with a shae woman, or at least that's what I heard."

     "By all accounts, my grandmother was an exceptionally beautiful woman, and my grandfather was still quite young, at least by Shayen standards.” She smiled. “Young and impressionable. She stole his heart, and by the time his parents found out she was pregnant with my mother. They had no choice but to accept her and her child into their community. I never knew her, she died before I was born, and the other members of my family rarely speak of her, as if she were some kind of dreadful family secret. Everything I know about her comes from my mother.”

     “Do they hold your grandmother against you?” asked Tom, suddenly concerned. “They can't blame you for having a human grandmother, surely.”

     Lirenna had been shaking her head while he was speaking, but the Shayen rules of etiquette forbade her from speaking until he had finished. “I've had nothing but love and support from my family. They would never ostracize one of their own. The very word ostracize is unknown among the shae folk. I didn't know the word until I learned it from humans, here. Even Manda, that was her name, was treated well by them, as if she were one of their own, my mother says. It's only now, now that she's gone, that my family is revealing what they really thought of her.”