Binary

Chapter Eight: Things Left Abandoned

Vera sat on a coffee table draped in a comforter and padded with cushions from a couch. All around her, gathered on blankets and pillows were the exchange students from Cire. They talked over one another as they recounted to Vera how things had been going throughout the week. At the beginning of the semester, Vera always liked to have checked-ins like these to see if there was anything that her first-day orientation had missed. Or to see if there was anything that her students were struggling with during their time in Starlust. Plus, sitting in the center of a room while forty people tell you about their day made her feel a bit like she imagined the Queens in Cire felt.

Normally this would cheer her up, but she felt a bit hollow knowing that soon she would have to walk away from this. Rikon had ordered them all into deep hiding, and she knew that soon she'd have to give the Mage's Academy her resignation and disappear to her own hideout in the country. She wasn't looking forward to the isolation.

There was a sudden lull in most of the conversations coming at her, as someone said, "wait, did you hear that? What did he just say?"

"What did who just say?" asked Vera, identifying the voice as coming from one of the Nashar from the back of the room, nearest the door.

"He's coming this way," said the Nashar.

Half the room had still not stopped talking, and they paid no mind as the door flew open and Orda poked his head in. His eyes were wide, and his face was pale. Then he called out, "She's here!"

The entire room went dead silent for a moment as thirty-nine triangular faces turned to him. he backed up a little, looking throughout the room.

"Who's here," laughed Vera, "You don't mean... Charollette...?"

The man nodded dumbly.

Suddenly the room roared to life, even louder than it had been before as thirty-nine Nashara pelted the man with questions, overlapping one another.

"Twice in the span of one lifetime!?"

"Is it true that she appears here in Human form, or will we still see her as a Nasharian Queen?"

"Are there angels with her?"

"Where did she appear? Where is she now?"

Vera knew she should remind them that he couldn't understand them if they all talked at once, that they had to talk one at a time when they addressed humans, but her mind was racing. Had Charollette come to meet the Light? Was this about the Hatred?

"On the steps of Cathedral Hill," said the man meekly, and disappeared down the corridor to continue spreading the news to the other dorms. The Nashara jumped to their feet and pouring out into the hallway, eager to see the Goddess. Soon Vera's little kingdom was empty, and she was just sitting on some cushions on a table like a fool. She scrambled to get up and hurried out as well.

In a few moments, she was rushing down the dank stairs to her office. She stumbled with the lock on the door because her hands were shaking too much. Surely the Goddess had arrived to tell her and Rikon something, the more she thought about it the more certain she was. She remembered the remark one of her students had made, the Goddess appearing in a given city was a rare enough occurrence, but twice in one lifetime? Surely, she wouldn't do such a thing without a reason.