Arcane Dropout 5

by Edmund Hughes

  Kerys set her hands on her hips, a posture that would have been a lot more interesting if not for the billowing steam.

  “That’s only happened a few times,” she said. “More to the point, do you really expect me to believe that as an excuse?”

  Ari sighed. He was good at lying, but not to her.

  “Okay, I was peeping,” he said, smiling a little.

  Kerys made a high pitched, frustrated noise. Ari brought the cart up to the side section of the hot springs, where he could sit down without having her directly in view.

  “Toss me your dress,” he said. “I’ll wash it first.”

  “Oh,” said Kerys. “Thanks.”

  She tossed her dress over. Ari spread it out across the rocks, dabbing a finger against the sticky substance it was covered with. It felt as much like a man’s seed as it looked like it, and he felt a weird flush of arousal as he considered how thoroughly Kerys had been hosed down.

  “Are you nervous at all, about today?” asked Kerys.

  Ari dunked her dress into the warm water, grabbing one of the sponge stones off the cart to scrub at the fabric.

  “A little,” he said. “But I think everyone is. The Choosing is basically a rite of passage for eighteen-year-olds. It’s not just about what happens if you pull a black stone.”

  He heard the sound of splashing water and only barely resisted the temptation to glance over at her.

  “I couldn’t sleep last night,” said Kerys. “I just kept picturing the ceremony in my head and all of the ways it could end up playing out.”

  “Relax, Kerys,” said Ari. “There was only a single girl born this last year, so there’s only going to be one black stone for you to worry about. And I sincerely doubt you’ll even be one of the ten chosen to pull from the urn in the first place.”

  The Hollow Lord was ultimately the one who made the decision about which newly turned eighteen-year-olds would be participating in the Choosing. Ari fully expected Kerys to be given a free pass, given her unique circumstances and that there were 16 other girls of the same age.

  She was the youngest daughter of the Weaver family and the only one of the family’s girls that had survived her childhood. Kerys had suffered from the same weakening sickness that had taken her sisters, but miraculously, she’d lived through it.

  She was still prone to sickness as an adult, and her frail body both bruised and bled easily. Ari couldn’t imagine the Hollow Lord thinking that she’d be a good candidate to potentially send out to the surface, assuming he had any compassion whatsoever.

  “Only a single girl was born,” said Kerys, “but three boys were. And with ten of you having to pull stones…”

  She trailed off, though Ari knew full well where her line of thinking was taking her. The Hollow Lord tended to pick the boys for the Choosing based off their standing and worth to the community.

  Designated troublemakers, more often than not, were the first ones pulling stones in the Choosing each year. The same was true of orphans. The fact that Ari fit neatly into the intersection of both categories made his stomach twist into stubborn knots whenever he let himself consider it.

  “That’s just how the Choosing works,” said Ari. He scrubbed a little harder at her dress. “It’s always been this way, ever since we were kids.”

  “It’s so much scarier now,” whispered Kerys. “To think that anyone of our age could be picked, and we’d lose them forever, over what amounts to a game of chance.”

  Ari nodded slowly. It was the harsh reality created by the limited resources of the Golias Hollow. The legends surrounding the Choosing portrayed it as more of a pilgrimage than a death sentence, which is part of the reason why teenagers had traditionally been the ones sent out, rather than the old and infirm.

  Ari had always thought that it would have made more sense to prioritize sending out the biggest drains on the community’s resources rather than young people in their prime, but the Hollow’s rigid adherence to Dormiar’s revered and dogmatic teachings didn’t leave much room for things like common sense.

  It was possible that the Choosing had once been similar to a pilgrimage, but he’d never seen it in that light during his lifetime. Nobody had ever returned from the surface in all the time that anyone he knew could remember. The records they had of Maiya, the continent that existed outside of their self-contained underground world, spoke of horrible monsters, impossible weather conditions, and a “tainted wind” that no man or woman could survive.

  The most terrifying aspect of the surface, at least to Ari, had always been how taboo it was to talk about it. They didn’t speculate about what might be up there. They didn’t reminisce about loved ones who’d previously pulled the black stone in the Choosing. They spoke of the world outside of Golias Hollow less than they spoke of the prophet Dormiar’s fabled Endfate.

  “I’m the last person to make any sort of argument that the Choosing is somehow righteous, or fair,” said Ari. “But I think it will be okay this time. I have hope.”

  “You do?” asked Kerys.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  It was true enough. He’d been working hard for the past year, even though his job as a disposalist was one of the most maligned in the community. Ari had faith that the Hollow Lord would pass him over in favor of some of the other boys, and he was sure that Kerys wouldn’t be picked.

  “Promise me,” said Kerys.

  “What?”

  “Promise me that if you get picked for the Choosing, you won’t pull a black stone.”

  “Kerys…”

  Ari heard the sound of splashing water.

  “Aristial Stoneblood!” shouted Kerys. “Look me in the eyes and promise me you won’t pull a black stone! Promise me on Dormiar’s hand!”

  Ari rolled his eyes. He turned around and let his gaze find hers, feeling an exaggerated, persistent thumping in his heart. It was usually so easy for him to hide his feelings for her, but he could sense his mask crumbling under the weight of her intense, earnest stare. He didn’t just care for her. He loved her.

  “I promise I won’t pull a black stone,” he said.

  He saw Kerys let out a sigh of relief. Her golden blonde hair hung in soaked, tangled locks, and her entire body glistened with moisture. Including her breasts, which he found near impossible to draw his attention away from.

  “You’re still naked, you know,” said Ari.

  Kerys let out a small gasp, followed by an embarrassed squeal as she pulled her arms into place to cover herself.

  Sword Sirens