“What day is it now?”
“Right now? Let’s see, it’s past twenty-two o’clock, so for the next few hours it’s the twentieth of the same month. You have nine days to decide is you’re going to accept this amount, and then you get to decide what you want to do with your life and how to support yourself..”
“I definitely want to go to college. I meant to do so when I was on Earth, and it looks like I have a perfect chance to do so here. Close to four years, though? How long would I need?”
“It generally takes four to five years for a first degree. With this many burras, you could cover most of that comfortably. Well, as comfortably as sharing a room with someone you don’t yet know might be. What?”
Zoey contemplated a moment and made no attempt to hide it. “Does it have to be a dorm room?”
“Not if you can find a better arrangement that’s near to the campus. I love you, Zoey, but commuting from here every day to get to or from class is going to cost you in both time and money very quickly. That’s assuming Elysium University accepts you into their program, of course, but this is something for you to think about.”
Zoey considered her options for a moment, and the solution was as quick as it was simple.
* * *
Das’ithrios lived in a condominium with two bedrooms. The flooring in the living room and kitchen was tiled with a black marble pattern. The doors and cabinets were made with polished red oak. Posters of action heroes from both movies and video games adorned one wall that was otherwise cream-colored.
Damn, he thought, observing his own condo now that his old roommate was already close to finished moving out, I guess I will need to replace the few throw rugs he owned.
He stepped into the kitchen to enjoy a late breakfast. The calendar on the wall, which currently depicted a band of ursine-owl bards performing around a bonfire, reminded Dasos that today was the twenty-first of the month.
“I should put an ad up today for a new roommate,” he said to himself.
“Did you say something?” asked his roommate from another room.
“Nothing to worry about, Auin. I’m thinking to myself out loud again.”
Heil’auin entered the living room with a box in his hands. He said, “Packing up is taking less time than I figured. I may also be taking off sooner rather than later.”
“Are you sure you don’t want my help carrying anything?”
“No, thank you. A couple buddies of mine helped with the larger items while you were at work last night. I think you’ve met them before, including my cousin.”
“I might have. This is the cousin in the Allied Peacekeepers, right?”
“That’s the one. He graduated and joined them at the end of your first revolution at the university. Anyways, I’ll be back up soon. I have one more box after this one, and then I can send my things off to Cape Youtsen.”
Dasos opened the door for Heil’auin and nodded to him as the man headed outside. He could catch the man’s footsteps moving further away until they stopped, and another came close.
“Y-you’re her!” Heil’auin said in a loud voice that Dasos heard when the door was nearly closed.
“Hello,” said a girl whose voice Dasos knew well from recent weeks. What was Zoey doing here unannounced?
“I heard you were dead.”
“Wrong sister. You must be his roommate. Is he in right now? Sorry, I don’t have a phone, and this was sort of meant to be a surprise visit.”
“He is, but he’s indecent right now.”
“Oh yeah?”
Dasos stopped chewing on his breakfast and looked down at himself. Sure enough, he was barely wearing any pants and had no shirt on. He was willing to bet that his finger-length hair was a mess too.
He took his plate with him into his room where he changed that real fast. Zoey called out to him from the condo entrance as Dasos gave his shirt its last tug, and he straightened out the bunched pant leg on one side of his pajama pants before stepping back out into the living room, feeling as though he was forgetting something.
“Good morning, Zoi’ne,” Dasos said. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
She said, “No, and I suppose calling ahead might have been a good idea. Mom laughed when I said I wanted to come here without saying anything to you first.”
“She would. Anyways, welcome to my place. Come on in, have a seat; I was eating breakfast when you got here.”
Then it hit him. His egged toast and bacon remained on the foot end of his bed, rather than in his hands. Dasos walked to his room and said, “Excuse me a moment. So what brings you this way?”
“Well,” said Zoey, “I wanted to ask you something, assuming that the university accepts my enrollment, and also that you don’t already have a new roommate picked out. What would you say to the idea of me moving in with you, and how much would it cost me per month?”
“That’s quite the question. Going to the university here isn’t cheap, you know.”
“I think I can manage.”
“How much do you have? I mean, no offense, but you’re kind of new to this world, and we don’t really accept Earth currency, as interesting as that might be.”
“The Bank of Union Elysium provided me with an account that I mean to accept today after I’ve finished visiting you here.”
“Accept? What do you mean?”
[ 31]
“Zoey, what?” Tong-Chang said.
Zoey was passing the plaza with the campus bookstore when she spotted Tong-Chang, and then immediately sprinted towards her to give her girlfriend a hug.
“I got accepted,” Zoey said. “My mom got a message on her cell-comm while I was talking to Dasos about possibly moving in with him. The university asked if we wanted the acceptance letter to be sent to her digitally or to me physically.”
“That’s great news,” Tong-Chang said. “How are you going to pay for it? The governments of Elysium cover the majority of the tuition costs for its citizens, but the other half is still expensive.”
“Do you know that thing where we receive a few burras after birth? Well, they adjusted a few things for my case, and now I have more than enough to cover three years’ worth of expenses, maybe more. There was so much that I could go somewhere even more expensive and rent out a dorm for a two year period. Crazy, right?”
Tong-Chang, whose hands were up to her mouth, nodded. “You are so lucky. I’m happy for you. I wish I had that of my own right now.”
“Thank you. I’m on my way to meet with the dean, Mister Paen, I think it was. What about you? What brings you here?”
“Shopping for books for next semester. It’s early, I know, but I figured I would at least check the editions and serial numbers on the books so I can see if digital copies can be found elsewhere for cheaper.”
“Does the bookstore sell only physical copies of the books, or does it also do digital ones?”
“It offers both. When you figure out your schedule and all else for your first semester, I’ll gladly show you all of the tricks that Aerak taught the three of us.”
“Three?”
“Oh, right, I’m sorry. I meant Dasos, Il’lyse, and me. That seems to have got you down. I really shouldn’t have brought her name up.”
“No, it’s fine.” Zoey was sure that her lie was obvious. Was it right for her to hold back from Tong-Chang?
“You’re going to have so many people compare you to her while you come here, too. She isn’t even . . . you know.”
“About that. I need to talk to you sometime about what happened last night; when we both have time alone, I mean.”
“Was it something I did?” Concern grew on Tong-Chang’s face.
“No, you were gorgeous and wonderful, and I wish I could have tried the dance floor with you. We’ll talk when we can be somewhere more intimate than out in the open like this.”
“O-OK, lover. I’m trusting you that it isn’t anything too terrible.”
“I’m hoping you will b
e able to tell me, but it’s kind of a secret. You’re my girlfriend, though, so I feel like you’re the first person who needs to know.”
“Oh, secrets. Please be careful of those around me. Your mom is one of three people I ever met who could pry the truth out of me with a glance; and you saw how spilling one secret caused me to spill a ton of them.”
“Fair point. Still, we’ll talk later. I have to get going to my appointment with the dean.”
* * *
“Hello, sir, you must be the dean,” Zoey said. “I’m sorry if I came at a bad time?” She glanced at another young Aelf in the room.
“Not at all,” the Ginserei dean said, shaking her hand. “It’s a pleasure, Zoi’ne. Yes, you do look like your sister, don’t you?”
“I get that a lot.”
“Certainly, I can imagine. You are your own person here, so you needn’t worry too much about such comparisons. Ah, this is Aur’gott, a resident assistant here on campus. He’ll be taking you on a tour of the grounds to show you around, since no one remembered to show you around the last time you were here.”
“That’s fine. How do you do?”
Aur’gott said, “I’m good. I’ll be right outside when you’re ready to begin.” He walked out of the office, cheerful.
Zoey, too, put on a cheerful face, though she was unsure who was hiding more at the moment. “So what now?”
Dean Paen said, “How well do you know the Fjorfolias?”
“I imagine nowhere as much as I should, honestly. Why do you ask?”
“They appear to have some interest in you, as well as a couple other new students. I must admit that my trust in them is rather limited, but they have good eyes for talent or potential. Judging by your assessment test results I can see that as well.”
“Thank you, Mister Paen.”
“Now then,” he grabbed a few papers from his desk, “I have here a few possible courses for you to consider as you register for your classes. If you have any further questions regarding what something is, or how a course might best work for you, then we have counselors better suited for that. However, given your interest in History and Archaeology, I am hoping that either of these will suffice as a roadmap to your graduation.”
“This sounds highly structured.” She accepted the papers and looked over them briefly.
“Perhaps, but they also offer a level of flexibility. We recommend a period to relax your brain every semester, and to exercise the body. You’re welcome to dig right into a full-time commitment on your studies if you think you can handle it. The idea is to grow and learn, not to die on the inside.”
“Understandable. I had a friend in college on Earth who told me he felt worked to the bone, and he was taking it easy on his first semester.”
The dean tilted his head. “Interesting. Did you not go to this college yourself?”
“I was in public schooling when the Marslou found me. It was difficult, though, because of my ears. I didn’t want to raise any suspicion with these things on a planet surrounded by so many humans who know nothing of Aelfs.”
She didn’t like lying like this, but at least she was able to say she was from Earth. That small comfort made it easier to tell people that, yes, she was an Aelf all along and hiding as much as she could get away with.
“Right,” said Dean Paen, “I suppose that makes a little sense. Now then, about your living arrangements – will you need to take up residence here on campus? Or will you need to buy into a meal plan while you are here?”
“No, thank you,” Zoey said.
Dasos had said yes to her moving in. The amount he asked for, monthly, didn’t sound too bad either when she tried to convert her old Earth money into burras in her head. She recognized, however, that getting a job for a handful of hours per week would still help. As for food, well, she could afford that. Getting a job might help with treating herself to things as well, such as possibly taking Tong-Chang out to lunch or dinner.
The dean was marking something down on his digital pad. He asked, “Do you have one of these yet, by the way?”
“I do not,” said Zoey. “I don’t even know where to look.”
“We offer rentals in the student store. You can also buy simpler ones for cheap in many stores around the city. Your brother can probably show you where to go. If you choose to rent one, then it will be added to your tuition for that semester, and you’ll be able to use it for up to seven months from the day you check it out, or thirteen for two semesters, and so on.”
“Cool, I will keep that in mind.”
“If you were renting a dorm room for six months then that would also have been added, but we’re not going to worry about that or meal plans. Now then, as for the next question . . .”
* * *
Following a few more questions, Zoey went to an office have her picture taken and a student identification issued. She was expecting to hear that the process would take seven to ten days for the card to be mailed to her, but Zoey was told to come pick it up after an hour.
Aur’gott led her around the strikingly beautiful campus where she saw the separate divisions and buildings in which various classes were taught by subject. The library stood like a castle with a single story above ground, but the rest of the building went down into subterranean levels. Two walkways led to opposite dormitories, and the walkways rejoined halfway at a gymnasium, the top floor of which looked like an elaborate tree house. All around, it seemed as though a team of artists had designed the entire place and barely agreed to a unified vision or theme for it.
“Are you allergic to felines?” Aur’gott said.
“Felines?” said Zoey. “Oh, no, I’m not allergic to cats. Why do you ask?”
“What’s a—? Never mind. Anyway, we have quite of few of them that wander around here. They often scrounge for food, and will approach a student if they seem friendly towards animals, and then run off as soon as they’re fed.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Before I show you inside one of our dormitories, do you have any questions?”
* * *
Zoey turned from her bed when she heard the knock at her door. There was Tong-Chang, waving at her.
“Hey, Tonny,” said Zoey.
Tong-Chang said, “Hello, Zoey. You said you wanted to talk in private?”
“I did. Come in.”
When Tong-Chang walked over and sat on the guest bed, Zoey checked outside and closed the door. Everything that she needed to say suddenly gained more weight than a boulder. How was Tonny going to take any of this?
“You’re scaring me a little,” Tong-Chang said.
“Sorry,” said Zoey, “this isn’t easy for me. None of it is. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t tell anyone about half of it, but the other half may or may not depend on coming out with it. Neither side is easy.”
“That makes so much sense.” Her tone of voice danced across sarcasm without much effort. “What does this have to do with mentions of Il’lyse, or anyone comparing you to her?”
“Promise me you won’t go crazy when you hear this.”
“Zoey, please. What is it?”
“Tong-Chang.”
“Fine. I promise that I can keep my composure through whatever it is you need to tell me, and I will keep it secret as long as you need me to.”
“She’s alive.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t know how, but it’s Il’lyse. She is Soror Valide. We fought one another twice. Every time we come close to one another my Aelfen sensitivity to time magnifies. She thinks that her family is the Hulda’fi, and I don’t know how to help Il’lyse the way she is now.”
“You are a terrible comedian, love.”
“I wish it were a joke of bad taste.” Zoey lifted her shirt to show the bruise left over from the recent fight. “This came from Soror kicking me in the stomach. She did it after I hugged her and told Il’lyse to be safe, before she went to steal that stiern-boat.”
“That stiern-boat
was shot down as it was exiting Elysium IX’s atmosphere. If what you say is true, then she’s gone for real now.”
“She wasn’t onboard when that happened. I don’t know, maybe she rigged the craft to fly up without her? Could she do that?”
Elysium Shining Page 24