by nobody103
"I'll go check," Zorian said, rising from his seat. Chances were that it was someone looking for one of them, and knowing his luck that meant they were looking for him.
He opened the door, only to find Kiana standing behind them.
"Um, hi?" Zorian said uncertainly.
"Hi," Kiana said, sticking her head inside the classroom quickly in order to see if they were alone. She did a double-take when she saw Tinami and gave him an incredulous look.
"It's private," Zorian said crankily, preempting any sort of question. He stepped out of the classroom and closed the door behind him so they could have some semblance of privacy while they talked.
"I didn't say anything," she said, raising her hands in front of her defensively. "I just came to tell you that Raynie has finally decided to meet with you again. It's at ten in the morning tomorrow, at this address." She pushed a folded piece of paper into his hands. "I shouldn't have to tell you this, but don't spread this around, okay?"
"Like I'd feed the rumor mill like that," Zorian scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Will you be there too, standing guard again?"
"No, but the owner of that restaurant is a friend of Raynie so don't get any funny ideas," she said. "Oh, that reminds me – Raynie wants you to know that this is definitely not a date. Even though it's a private meeting in a restaurant between two teenagers…"
She smiled mischievously at him.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be on your friend's side?" he complained.
"I was just joking," she sighed. "Gods, you're just as humorless as she is. Heavens help us if you two really do end up getting together in the end… see you around, Zorian."
And then she just turned and left without even waiting for his response. She… wasn't really how he'd imagined her to be. Shaking his head, he stuffed the paper with the address in his pocket and went back to the classroom.
"Sorry for the interruption," he told Tinami. "It was a small personal matter I had to- why are you looking at me like that?"
"No way," she mumbled. "I heard you were going after Raynie, but to think you got her to agree to it… how ever did you do that? I thought that was impossible!"
"I don't have a date with Raynie, Tinami," Zorian calmly assured her. "You are jumping to conclusions."
"Unless… of course!" she exclaimed. "Of course a mind reader could figure out her weak spot!"
"Hey!" he protested. "Now that's just insulting. I would never violate the privacy of her thoughts like that!"
"Why not?" Tinami asked curiously. "I would, in your place."
"Are… are you sure you want to admit so readily to something like that?" Zorian asked incredulously.
"Please. I don't believe for one second you are being perfectly moral and responsible with your mind magic," Tinami accused. "You're far too good at it to have developed your powers the legal way."
"This topic is over as far as I'm concerned," Zorian stated. "Why don't we go back to practicing mind magic? You know, the thing we're supposed to be doing?"
"I have to ask though, what is it that you people see in that girl?" Tinami asked, completely ignoring him. "What does she have that I don't? Is it the red hair? It's the red hair, isn't it?"
Zorian let his face fall into his hands. And it had been shaping up to be such a nice day, too.
Chapter 42
Sum of Its Parts
Not far from the restaurant where he was supposed to meet Raynie, Zorian sat on a bench and waited. There was no sign of her yet, but that was in no way unusual – he had misjudged the amount of time it would take him to find the place, and was thus a little early. He didn't let it bother him, choosing instead to pass the time by experimenting with his mind sense on the passing crowds, tapping into the eyes of pigeons flying overhead and practicing his shaping skills on the handful of pebbles he had taken to carrying around on his person at all times.
Honestly, shaping exercises were kind of relaxing when he didn't have Xvim breathing down his neck and being a jerk. He should try finding one that was actually challenging – really challenging, but not Xvim's patented you-haven't-really-mastered-this bullshit – and setting aside some time to… hm?
He drew the pebbles currently floating in front of him back to his palm and pocketed them, before leaning over a nearby ornamental bush where his mind senses had detected an extremely faint mental signature. Despite knowing exactly where to look, it took him two whole seconds to spot the mantis camouflaged against the leaves. He stared at the bug for a while, before an idea occurred to him…
He pointed his palm towards the insect and concentrated, trying to telekinetically draw it towards him without crushing it like a… well, bug. Something that was greatly complicated by the mantis holding on for dear life to the twig it was standing on. He had hoped to surprise it with this sudden maneuver, but its reactions were surprisingly fast for something that had been moving so slowly and ponderously just a second ago. Nonetheless, Zorian wasn't so easily deterred. Five minutes later, he had finally managed to detach the mantis from the twig without hurting it and was levitating it in front of him. The mantis twisted and flailed around in the air, clearly unhappy with its predicament, but Zorian had established too firm a hold on it for his telekinetic control to lapse just from that.
At least until the mantis decided it was finished with this annoyance, then suddenly unfurled its wings and flew off. Oh, right – mantises can fly if they need to… He totally forgot about that. Shrugging, he focused on his mind sense for a moment, checking if Raynie had arrived yet.
She had. She was still hidden by the nearby building from where he was standing, but her mental signature was unmistakable. He set off in the direction of the restaurant, and was soon back at the entrance, trying not to stare at the street corner he knew she was going to emerge from. When she did finally round the corner, however, she stopped in her tracks and just sort of stared at him in apprehension instead of coming over to meet him. Honestly, what was up with that? He already agreed with her that it wasn't a date, so what was she apprehensive about? He 'accidentally' turned in her direction, pretended he'd just noticed her and gave her a little wave.
She stopped stalling and came over to greet him properly.
"Sorry if I'm cutting it a little close," she said. "With most people I know, it's a miracle if they're only ten minutes late, so I've learned not to be too early to this sort of stuff. You didn't wait long, did you?"
"It was a bit of a wait," admitted Zorian. "But to be fair, I was rather early. Don't worry about it, I found things to amuse myself with."
"Oh?" she asked. "And what would that be, if you're willing to share?"
"Nothing too interesting. I was just doing some shaping exercises," said Zorian, retrieving the pebbles from his pocket and making them float in a rotating ring above his palm. "Silly, I know, but it passes the time."
Raynie stared at the rotating ring of pebbles for a second before shaking her head, mumbling something unintelligible and motioning for him to follow her into the restaurant. He returned the pebbles into his pocket and hurried after her.
The moment he stepped inside the dining hall of the restaurant, he understood the reason behind the restaurant's somewhat unusual name – 'Fearsome Catfish' indeed. Hanging from the ceiling of the dining room was a preserved body of massive catfish, big enough to swallow a grown man whole. An… interesting choice of ornamentation for a restaurant. Raynie seemed both amused and pleased that the taxidermically preserved trophy gave him pause for a moment, although he only knew that because of his empathy – she neither reacted nor said anything to him as she lead him to a nearby table where they took their seats.
He half-expected Raynie to order a plate full of meat, what with her being a wolf shifter and all… but she actually ordered a grilled trout and a plate of vegetables. Huh. He supposed he shouldn't be so quick to assume… though speaking of assuming things, was he expected to pay for them both? His cynical side was saying yes, since her choice of meal was on the pr
icier side of things… but then again she was the daughter of a tribal chief. Maybe she had plenty of money and this was perfectly normal for her. Maybe she'd be offended that he's trying to pay for her share of the food and think he's trying to court her after all…
"It will take some time for the chefs to prepare the food," Raynie said. "Why don't you tell me about these cat shifters of yours while we wait?"
Zorian scanned the other tables in the dining hall for any eavesdroppers. They were by no means the only people in the restaurant, and Zorian kind of thought this was way too public of a location to be having this sort of conversation… but it was mostly Raynie's secrets that were at stake here, so if she felt this was fine, then it was. None of the other diners were paying any attention to them, so at least there was that.
He told her as much as he could without bringing up the invasion or information about Rea's background that he obviously shouldn't know about. Even so, he sincerely hoped that Raynie wouldn't want to speak with Rea after their talk, because he would almost certainly find himself in a bit of a hairy situation if that were to happen – he could scarcely explain how he came by some of his information without admitting he had spied upon the Sashal family in some fashion.
"I don't think they intend to harm you in any way," Raynie said once he was done. "They wouldn't be willing to leave you alone with their daughter like that if they did, nor would they let her get attached to your little sister if they meant to make you into a target. Most cat shifters are dishonorable, but they don't target their own neighbors, friends, contacts and the like. They never make trouble in their own territory."
Well. Zorian had already known that the various shifter groups are by no means united, but it seemed they weren't even on particularly good terms either. Or at least Raynie's group didn't seem to like cat shifters much.
"I'm guessing the cat and wolf shifters don't get along, then?" surmised Zorian.
"We hardly ever interact with each other. Our relations are not bad because they're mostly non-existent," said Raynie. "I personally think they give the rest of the shifters a bad name, and I know I'm not the only one in my tribe with that opinion. You should watch yourself around your new friends. I know I just said earlier that they are not plotting against you, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous. Cat shifters are rarely just cat shifters – they are the shifter group that has embraced Ikosian magical traditions the most. They especially like to dabble in illusionism, mind magic, scrying and… other shady disciplines. I wouldn't put it past them to spy on you in some fashion."
"I'll keep that in mind," Zorian nodded. "I'm curious, though – is that a general thing? Do different shifter groups usually avoid each other?"
"No, not at all," Raynie said, shaking her head. "We try to maintain contact with other shifter groups, it's just that cat shifters are… well, it's a long story, and I can smell our meals coming. We'll talk more after we've eaten."
She was right – the food was indeed brought over to their table not long after that. And Raynie was either very hungry or an extremely fast eater, because she scarfed down her meal in half an hour flat and then kept giving Zorian impatient looks while he ate his own food at a much more sedate pace. Rude. He refused to hurry up just because of her.
"Alright," said Zorian eventually, setting his plate aside to signal that he was done eating. "We were talking about shifter relations."
"Yeah," Raynie agreed. "Well, the first thing you need to keep in mind is that the current image of shifters as some sort of weird mages living on the fringes of normal society is something very… modern. Before the flood of Ikosian refugees came to the continent and conquered everything, shifters didn't live on the fringes of anything – partly because the rest of natives hated us and would have never allowed us to live near them, but also because we didn't have to. We had our own tribes and territories to live in."
"The other natives hated you so much?" Zorian asked.
"Oh yes," Raynie confirmed. "Even today, the scattered remains of the original tribes that lived in the region – the people you collectively call Khusky – can't stand the sight of us. Thankfully for us, they have managed to thoroughly marginalize themselves over the years and no longer have any say in how shifters are treated. That's the good thing that came with the Ikosian conquest - the Ikosians didn't find shifters nearly as threatening or inhuman as the Altazian natives did. As far as they were concerned, we were just your typical group of overspecialized native mages that they hoped to absorb into their society."
"But?" Zorian prompted.
"But their attempts to absorb us never quite succeeded properly," Raynie shrugged. "We speak Ikosian and follow the laws of the land, but most shifter groups have stubbornly clung onto every shred of autonomy and independence that we could. Wolf shifters were the most vocal and successful in that regard."
"Ah, I see," said Zorian, understanding. "And since the cat shifters decided to discard their autonomy in favor of assimilating more closely into the rest of the population, you don't get along with each other."
"Yes," she sighed. "We're not enemies, but they have completely rejected our politics and went their own separate ways. Both sides agree that they've got nothing to say to each other and avoid contact."
Zorian hummed noncommittally. Somehow he doubted that the wolf shifters really didn't consider cat shifters enemies. He'd buy the idea that the cat shifters really were apathetic over the issue, but the wolf shifters must be pretty bitter over the other side breaking ranks like that. They were just powerless to do anything about it.
"So how successful are cat shifters, then?" Zorian asked curiously.
"Very successful," Raynie admitted. "Eldemar's government loves to point them out to shifter tribes worried about what would happen to them if they gave up on their traditional rights. It's why they are so reluctant to seriously crack down on them, despite their shady behavior. If the biggest success story of the shifter integration program comes under fire, it would likely cause all those other shifter tribes considering going down that path to back off and dig in harder."
Right, totally not enemies.
"So if cat shifters were so very successful, doesn't it make sense to copy them to some degree?" Zorian asked. "I mean, I can understand not wanting to be criminals, but what stops you getting yourself some classical mages among your ranks? I'd be willing to bet their decision to acquire Ikosian-style spellcasting had a lot to do with their success."
"What do you think I'm here for?" Raynie asked him with a smile.
"Ah, well…" Zorian fumbled. "While you're clearly training to be a classical mage, you are a rare exception from what I'm hearing, not the rule. Why is your tribe only sending someone to learn this now? Why not earlier?"
"There is a reason why the shifter group most successful in adopting Ikosian-style magic is also the group that cares the least for our traditional rights," she said. "While the idea sounds simple in principle, in practice it amounts to opening a backdoor for the central government to influence the tribe. Members trained as mages have a tendency to make power-plays and bring the mage guild, and through them the central government into internal tribal disputes when they don't get their way."
"Ah," nodded Zorian in understanding. "And the central government is all about abolishing autonomous groups like yours when given a chance."
"Yes," she agreed. "Plus, the tribal elders are very traditional and often react badly if the new mage shows too many outside influences upon return. Many times the mage simply walked out of the tribe in disgust after a few years of clashing with them."
"So what changed to make you come here?" asked Zorian. A flash of indecipherable, but decidedly negative emotion welled up in the girl in front of him. "Or is that too personal a question?"
"It's… not really, no," she said, scowling for a moment before schooling her features. She was annoyed at something, but she didn't seem to blame him for it. "I guess there are two main reasons. Ever since the splintering of
the Old Alliance, the centralization policies that characterized its twilight years have been somewhat discredited, lessening the pressure on shifter tribes to assimilate. This makes outsider-trained members less threatening to many in the tribe. On top of that, the recent colonization drive to the Sarokian Highlands has had many shifter tribes wary, since their lands are directly in the path of settlers. If a group of mages decides to settle inside of our borders, it is not at all certain we could get them to leave without asking the central government for help."
"Help for which they would demand concessions," Zorian guessed.
"Well, they are actually obliged to help us in that regard for free," Raynie said. "It's their duty. But every time we fail to resolve problems ourselves, we weaken our authority and credibility. If we do it too much, our supposed autonomy will end up being only on paper. So it would be best if we had some of our own mages to handle things. Anyway, those two come together into a situation where the tribal leadership felt we had to acquire some mages of our own, and could afford the risk that comes with such attempts."
Zorian nodded and spoke no more of the topic, even though he could tell there was more to it. It wasn't as though Raynie had lied to him – he detected no intent to deceive from his empathy – but there was clearly some factor she didn't want to discuss there. Something personal, he guessed. Something that made her angry and bitter at her tribe, which she otherwise spoke about with pride and reverence.
He had a feeling that her coming to Cyoria was something of an exile.
He asked her to give him a rundown of other shifter groups and she jumped at the chance to change the topic to something else.
Shifter politics were surprisingly complex. Aside from cat shifters, the raven and owl shifters had also fully abandoned their tribal roots in favor of assimilation into regular society – they were not quite as successful as cat shifters, but both were doing decently for themselves. The viper shifters had also tried to pursue that path, but theirs was not a successful story – they failed to integrate and were nearly wiped out when they launched a short-lived rebellion during the Splinter Wars. The wolf, deer and boar shifters provided the core of the autonomist faction, which sought to preserve their traditional tribal structure and their special privileges. The bear and fox shifters were aligned with the autonomists, but have been slowly wavering in their support over the years and had powerful assimilationist factions working inside of them.