“Really? I don’t know what you mean.” I tried not to make eye contact but of course he figured it out.
“Oh, yes. This is what Cadence was wearing the day you met her.”
“Is it?”
“Seth, don’t hide it. It is. The colors only changed.”
“And I added the little jacket.”
“You miss her that much already?”
I snatched the sketches away and started to refold them. I didn’t want to talk about her. “No! I mean, maybe. She’s the first girl I’ve ever talked to. There was a reason you wanted us to meet.”
“You think so?”
“She’s mother’s successor. You want us to be together.”
“That’s going to be all up to you, Seth. I’d never force someone on you.”
“You don’t have to because I like her. I’ll make sure we’re together.”
He paused there for a moment, examining my face and started to smile. “Very well. I’m going to shower but I’ll leave it open for you so you may get your samples.”
“Okay.”
He left the room without going on about it and I continued with my dinner.
I rushed through it since I wasn’t distracted by talk. I was anxious to try more combinations, hoping to somehow find one that would work. It would be well needed for Dirk and more importantly, it may push the uniform change at the Royal Academy by promoting safety.
It was quiet when I walked in. My father must have still been in the bathhouse so I went right over to the closet and looked through my mother’s clothes with a small knife in my hand to cut threads.
She had so many different things with different fabric and I couldn’t believe I haven’t noticed before. I never saw her to be the type to really care what people thought of her appearance but I knew she could get away with wearing anything and still look good. Her collection merely proved it.
I held a good amount of threads in my left hand, trying not to let them tangle together and heard my father behind me.
“Got right to it, I see.”
“I never knew she had so much stuff.”
He smiled and sat himself on the bench inside near me. “Not many would think your mother is one to excessively indulge but the royal life does tend to change those not born into it.”
“What was she like? You know, before you.”
“Well, obviously, I didn’t know her before me but when we first started out, she was slightly different. Strong, confident, overly proud when she was wrong.”
“She’s still like that.”
He laughed. “I suppose but she’s much less stubborn about those traits these days. She doesn’t openly show them to others as much and just between us, she’s become much more of a lady than she’ll ever admit. When I met her, she wasn’t one at all and my father always used that as her fault.”
“But you still got her anyway. You live such a great life. You’ve done so many amazing things.”
“Don’t worry. You’re still young and you’ll get the chance to do your own amazing things.”
I smiled and we walked out. I had enough to test some more.
“I guess I’ll have to start out small with this.”
“It’s a good start. You succeed and people will start to follow you. It’s their trust you’ll gain and that will be only the beginning.”
He was right.
“Hey, Rift. How long have you been in here?”
He was lying by the bed and lifted his head to look at me.
My father laughed. “All evening. He says he doesn’t like it when you’re busy.”
“When will I start to hear him?”
“I’m not sure. That’s a better question for your uncle to answer. He’s better at it than me.”
“When will I see him next?”
“Sometime. We’ll see. He’d want you to focus on school first so maybe not till summer.”
Summer. Now I was thinking about Cadence again. That didn’t really help.
“Well, thanks for letting me get these. I’m going.”
“Okay and please remember to get some sleep tonight.”
I nodded and left back to my room with Rift following me this time.
The sun rose the following morning and I chose to take a break from my attempts at creating a fire proof fabric for Dirk and instead, helped him train.
We took it to the arena as the day before and I drilled him aggressively, hoping to gain some accomplishments so we may soon return back to the academy.
“Again!” I called from the stands above. “And this time put a little more anger into it! I want to see fire explode! Try to singe his eye brows off!”
“Thanks, Seth.” Bryce muttered. “A little more encouragement, please.”
“Can’t we take a break?” Dirk asked. “We’ve been doing this all morning.”
“No!” I snatched, trying to keep myself sounding angry so Dirk would be mad at me for it. “Unless you never want to see Janie again! Because that’s what will happen if you don’t get this right! Again!”
Dirk took a breath of anger and my tone paid off. He lit up on fire and maneuvered around the obstacles in the arena to find Bryce. He was getting better at controlling it. Whenever he threw a punch, just a bit of fire would come off his fist and light up whatever he touched. It was amazing just to watch. He was even getting used to it better than he thought.
I waited until we would have missed lunch before I let him take a break.
“Okay! Let’s take five and get something to eat.”
The fire was immediately out when he let out a long sigh of exhaustion. “Thank you!”
Bryce had one of his own but collapsed to the ground. “Yes. Thank you.”
I let them have a minute and headed myself inside.
“You boys finished?”
Darius was on his way somewhere when I made it back in.
“For now. He’s improving greatly.”
“And his new clothes?”
“Still working on it.” I admitted. “They’re taking a rest so I can work on a few more ideas. I hope it’s soon.”
“As do we all. Carry on.”
He walked away but I wasn’t sure how soon it would really be. I wasn’t technically any closer to having a stable fiber that wouldn’t catch fire.
“You can’t expect raw material to do what you want it to. It has to be dipped first.”
I heard the voice and wondered if someone was talking to me. I looked around and saw two maids in a nearby room. They were doing something with drapes. It looked like dipping them in something that smelt like starch, maybe to make it stiffer.
The bells rang in my head.
Dipping the fibers!
What if I didn’t create a new fabric but dipped the old ones to coat it with something to protect it from the fire? It was perfect but what to use?
I went into the servant’s storage closet and looked through all of the available supplies, gathering some that I’d experiment with using some chemicals I already had from other tests.
That’s how I spent the rest of my day. I didn’t even bother with eating. Dirk and Bryce must have been happy, at least. It was a much longer break than five minutes. They didn’t even bother me, probably in case I forgot and made them work again. Those were my theories but I wouldn’t be insulted that they were true. I wanted to be alone; I needed to be.
After hours of testing I came up with a mixture using this borax powder that’s apparently used around here for cleaning and mixing salt and sulfuric acid to boiling water. I tried it completely on one of Dirk’s shirts rather than just the fibers and was amazed that fire almost repelled away. I was beyond thrilled and had to show them right now.
I dried the rest of the shirt completely and took it with me downstairs. It looked like everyone was just finishing with dinner.
“Hey!” I said excitedly.
“Finally, decide to join us?” My father asked.
I was sorry that I ignored him bu
t I just had to tell someone. “Darius, I figured it out!”
“Did you?” He sounded happy for me.
“Yeah. Dirk, put on this shirt.”
I tossed it to him but he didn’t look very enthused. “Right now?”
“Yes, right now!”
He sighed but stood up to my request. “Now what?”
“Get mad. Like fire mad.”
“Whoa.” My father said. “Be easy about it in here.”
“Just think of something that makes you slightly mad like me disrupting your precious meal.”
Dirk huffed and concentrated until fire ignited on his shoulders. I could see the difference but waited for him to notice.
“I’m still wearing it.”
“Yes you are! Isn’t it great? I don’t know how long it will actually hold but so far, it’s enough to put it out before you’re walking around in just your skin.”
“Congratulations.” Father said. “Your continuous work has proven worth it.”
“Can you make me clothes like that?” Bryce asked. “He’s already gotten to me a few times.”
“I don’t have to make you clothes. That’s one of his own shirts. I just used a chemical mixture to coat it in. I can do it to anything.”
“That’s better news.” Darius said.
“Then please do it to all of my stuff.” Bryce begged.
I laughed. “Dirk’s first but I can.”
“So, what’s next for you now that you got that out of the way?” My father asked.
“Well, I put together the new uniforms and figure out how to introduce them but first we need to get in an actual training session because all this inventing stuff doesn’t keep me very active. Just my brain and that isn’t enough.”
“Let’s wait until tomorrow, at least.” Dirk said.
“But tomorrow’s the tour.” Bryce replied.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Tour?” Troy asked.
“Here for the first years.” I said.
“Oh, we even forgot about that and I’m the guide.”
“I didn’t know you did that?” Bryce said.
“Could you see it be anyone else? No one knows it better than us but Zayden has other priorities and Darius, well—let’s just say he’d put himself to sleep.”
Darius actually nodded to agree. “Yeah. We leave the viciously boring stuff for Troy. He’s more attentive.”
“Are you going to make us go?” Dirk groaned. “I’m not the ‘learn when you don’t really have to’ type.”
“That depends.” Darius said.
“On what?”
“On what other productive thing you have going on at the time of their arrival.”
Dirk still didn’t seem pleased that he had to be doing something at all. I thought he would have gotten enough of that today but I guess not.
Chapter 21
Dirk
I was very much not looking forward to having to go on the tour today so I was up early, begging Seth to start some actual training, not necessarily me learning to control this fire but something they could do too.
He went with it, not much reading into my scheme and hopefully my father won’t either. He always encouraged training so maybe he’ll consider it being productive.
We got started right after breakfast and it became more aggressive than usual. We usually stick to staying outside in weather like this but we involuntarily managed to take it inside. The sounds of our metal training rods echoed louder inside and I wasn’t aware of exactly where I was. My focus was more pinned on Seth in front of me who never took a break in his effort to win.
Bryce followed, keeping up somewhat at a jogging pace and instructing our conflict to continue through the halls.
“And this is—excuse me for a moment. Bryce?”
“Hey, father.”
I took my attention off Seth for a split second and saw Troy standing in front of a group of first years who were looking both shocked and worried. Of course it was a mistake. Seth knocked me down and stomped his foot onto my chest so I couldn’t get up right away.
“You looked away.”
“Get off.” I shoved his foot away and he helped me up.
“Shouldn’t you boys be outside?” Troy asked.
“Sorry.” Seth said. “My fault. I escaladed it.”
“All is well. Why don’t you take a break and join us?”
This was the part I was dreading.
“We could.” Seth said. “But first we’d have to put away our gear, get cleaned up and get ready for the day all over again. By then it might be lunch.”
I liked it. It sounded like he didn’t want to be dragged along like everyone else either but Troy saw through it.
“Or—” I was expecting to be forced into it but he decided to give in instead. “You get on it now and can join us for that lunch.”
“Done.” I said, quickly so other terms couldn’t be put in its place.
“Then we’ll be on our way. This way everyone.”
He passed us and the crowd nervously followed.
“Janie.” I saw her among the group but she wasn’t what I would classify as her usual happy self. She seemed distant and didn’t make eye contact with me for very long.
“Hey.” Even her voice sounded nervous.
“What was that?” Bryce whispered while they were being led away.
“I think she’s scared of me.”
“Well, you did explode in a fiery rage and almost kill her brother.” Seth said.
“But I didn’t mean to.”
“They all seemed a little scared.”
“Maybe we should have gone.” I hated saying it but it was true.
“You know we’re not ready. I wasn’t lying about that.”
I turned from the sight of them and began to walk the other way. I didn’t like being cast out like that. I didn’t mean to expose us so ferociously. Kent was being completely rude. Like I didn’t already know how I looked. It was worse when someone thought it had to be pointed out.
“Dirk!” Seth yanked on my arm and I looked over. “Calm your thoughts. Your hair is on fire.”
I shrugged him away and padded down my hair so the flames would go out. “I can’t help it.”
“We’ll fix this.”
I had to trust that he was right. I couldn’t live the rest of my life like this. If I did, I might as well move back home where no one would ever see me. I hated that idea. I liked it here. We had to make this work and it would start at lunch.
The dining hall was set up for the first years on the tour and was done properly, not like how the academy does it. It was a great experience for them. They enjoyed being pampered for a day but it still seemed they weren’t trying to take notice of us. It was almost like we weren’t sitting there at all.
Kids were laughing and having a good time but we were never included and it’s not anything like how I imagined things to go. I didn’t know what we were even doing here at all. I’ve never felt so ashamed of what I’ve done. Going from kids always surrounding us and always wanting to get a word in to them completely ignoring our presence was a hard fall.
It was only worse because I was trying to control my temper for it. I didn’t want to explode again, knowing that wouldn’t help the situation at all. Seth kept looking over at me every few minutes like he was checking up on me but I started to notice that he didn’t much like this silence we were getting either. I didn’t know if he planned to do something about it or not. Would it just scare them more if he showed off a little, even if it was little like levitating someone’s plate just so we could have a laugh from their reaction?
I laughed a little from just picturing it actually happening and my forced breath took out the lit candle in front of me. Without even measuring my thoughts, I reached to it and tapped my thumb and forefinger on the wick to reignite it. The room dawned silent and my eyes lifted from my plate. Everyone at the long table was looking at me or trying to and Seth and Bryce had the most wo
rried of eyes.
I wasn’t sure if I should say something or what I would say at all.
“Nice day?”
That’s all I got out and it sounded ridiculously stupid. I never felt like such an idiot.
“All right, folks. Let us thank our hosts for allowing us to have this visit. It’s time to be getting back.”
They certainly didn’t need to hear it a second time. Everyone rushed right out of their chairs with high desire to flee our presence.
“That went well.” I muttered.
“It’s okay.” Seth said. “We still have time.”
We left the dining hall too, hoping to get in another sighting of them but they were already gone. There wasn’t much else to do now so we decided to go into the conference room and sit with our father’s for a bit.
“How did it go?” Zayden asked.
“They hate us.” Bryce muttered.
“Hate is a very strong word.”
“They despise our very existence.” I said. “Is that better?”
My father laughed. “No they don’t. They just need more time to get used to it.”
“How much time?”
“That’s uncertain. They weren’t brought up to believe in such things.”
“When can we go back?” Seth asked. “He has things under a much better control.”
“Well, today was a good test to see if the students are ready to have you back.” Zayden said. “And the results show it’s not yet. Perhaps you should wait a week before you test the waters again.”
“A week?” Bryce groaned. “But what are we going to do for a week? Be stuck here?”
“It’s probably best.” Troy said.
He sighed, not liking it at all. I didn’t like it either but I wanted to get passed this. If we had to wait here for a week with a chance they might become more relaxed around us, we had to do it.
“Fine.” Seth said, rising to his feet as a sign that we might as well too. “Dirk, we can get started on all your clothes.”
“What do you mean, we?”
“Why should I have to do it all? It’s your problem.”
“But it was your idea.”
“You’ll have to get used to it sometime. I said it wasn’t a permanent fix. It’ll have to be done every few months just because it will fade some when laundered so many times.”
Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10) Page 10