Chương 22: Chapter 21

Cal stepped into the square, shooting off a text while walking toward the statue that held his interest so strongly the first time he saw it. It still intrigued him, yet he kept his eyes off it and instead directed them at the base where the group was waiting for them. There appeared to be an animated conversation going on, and he slowed slightly. Ryan spotted him, saying something to the others, and walked up to meet him. Seeing them out of their uniforms was a different experience.

Casual clothes or not, they looked to have walked out of a magazine cover. Cal suddenly felt his suffering while getting fitted last weekend was a little justified; it made him look less out of place than he felt.

"Callum, about time you showed up. I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it." Ryan waved good-naturedly.

"It was a near miss. Alice almost said no," Cal replied with slight exasperation. She had not been enthused about him visiting the city without her. Strictly speaking, he didn't need her permission. However, living with another person was complicated and involved a series of compromises. Sending a text every hour wasn't anything backbreaking, even if it struck him as controlling.

"She's just getting used to being an older sibling. I remember I used to sleep against Ian's, my little brother's, crib. It drove the maids mad." Anne giggled while reminiscing.

"I can't imagine what she's going through; at least Ian took a while to learn how to walk." Cal kept his thoughts to himself.

"Hmm." Jessica's eyes roved over him, or more accurately, his outfit.

"Who dressed you?"

"I don't remember the name of the place." From what he saw, there wasn't a sign.

"Her name was Miss Plusier."

"Plusier… I've not heard of her before." She stalked around him, walking in a full circle.

"I'll have to check up on that; she does good work."

"That name sounds vaguely familiar," Ryan said distractedly.

"What do you know about fashion?" Jessica whirled on him.

"I picked out your entire wardrobe."

"Guilty as charged, anyways, we should get a move on." Ryan laughed, taking the ribbing in stride.

"The showing is soon." Ryan had invited him to see a movie in town with the group. They had an extra ticket on account of Gregor dropping out at the last minute. Cal didn't have any plans for the day and so went along with it.

"So it is," Jessica held out her arm.

"Shall we?" Ryan grinned, locking their arms together and setting off in a different direction than the last time Cal had been here. He and Anne waited a moment before following the couple.

"What's their deal?" Cal motioned the pair several paces ahead of them.

"They act like an old married couple."

"They will be. Ancestors willing." Cal almost missed a step to Anne's amusement.

"Their betrothal has been set in stone for a while. Ryan's family even held him back a year so they'd be in the same grade. With them both now at majority, the ceremony itself could happen as soon as the first break. Father is still in discussions to see if he'll find a match for me, unlikely as it may be." She ended with a chuckle.

"Might be the commoner in me." Cal cautiously approached the subject.

"You don't seem that concerned about being married off to a stranger."

"You misunderstand, older families tend to benefit heavily from these arrangements. Newer houses, such as my own, angle for them as well, but with most of the emphasis placed on heirs. Spares aren't what you'd consider hot commodities," she said in a self-deprecating manner.

"Ergo, no one would make him such an attractive offer that he would send me away without my assent." That felt dark, despite the speakers' nonchalant attitude towards it. Cal searched for another topic.

"Sorry about Gregor not being able to show up."

"There's nothing to do about it." Anne's voice grew tired.

"He refused the initial invitation; Ryan was holding out hope he'd change his mind. You'd think he'd know better by now." Why did this conversation remind him of the game Minesweeper?

"Do you know what we're watching?" Cal steered away from what was clearly a sore spot.

"Ryan was sparse on the details."

"I don't." She leaned in a little, a glint in her eyes.

"Between you and me, I'm not a huge fan of these things. The drama of real life is what speaks to me." Cal recalled what she was busy with the day he ate with Petro.

"I guess that's why you're in the newspaper club."

"Exactly." She tapped the pin on her collar with a finger.

"So if you ever come across anything juicy, drop me a line and we'll see if it's worth any ink." He could think of several. Most recently, 'local student nearly impales classmate while teacher sleeps'.

"Sure. I'll warn you, I doubt anything I come across would be exciting." In an ideal world, that would be the case.

"Don't say that. You never know; you could end up in the right place at the right time." Cal found himself chronically facing the opposite.

"Just keep it in mind; we're not exactly hurting for material right now. All the clubs are desperate for exposure, so they're throwing favors and trades that would make a Shirai citizen blush." Even Cal understood that reference. Shirai was one of the Free Cities. It was neither the largest nor the strongest, but it was without a doubt the richest. It was said that when their citizens traveled, rather than rent rooms, they bought entire hotels. An exaggeration certainly, even so, where there's smoke, there's fire.

"They're bribing you guys for puff pieces? That seems intense for a club."

"I would not—can't call it bribing." Anne corrected.

"They're just exchanges, frequently to our benefit by mere happenstance." The innocent tone was not very convincing.

"It is the Quinquennial Purge after all; everyone wants a leg up." He hadn't the faintest idea what that meant, and it must have shown.

"They talked about it during the assembly the other day. Don't you remember?"

"Ah, right." He nodded with perhaps too much enthusiasm.

"Totally do. It just slipped my mind; it's been a long week." She looked at him skeptically from the corner of her eye.

"Right. Well, my sister told me stories. You'll get a better idea this coming week on how insufficient the word 'intense' is to describe it."

"Yep, got it. I must not have put too much thought into it when they talked about it, as I'm not looking to join any of them."

"Ha." She covered her mouth as she gave a short laugh.

"You wouldn't be the first to say that and end up in one anyway." Cal raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"You make it sound like they're forcing people into these." He phrased the statement as a question.

"I'm not allowed to print everything." She hummed with a mischievous smile, hands held behind her back.

"I'll let you figure out the rest." Ominous. It brought him back to the critique session he had with Olivia.

"Any clubs I should watch out for? Ones with bad reputations or rumors swirling about?" An innocuous request, or so he meant for it to appear like one.

"And if I do?" She said leadingly.

"You're not going to tell me?" Cal was confused; she'd been fairly open until then. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Anne shook her head, her short brown hair swinging back and forth.

"This is the part where you offer me something in exchange."

"I don't have anything?" He could probably get some cash from Alice. But that seemed equivalent to asking for an allowance, and so was promptly ruled out.

"Yes, you do. Whether it's monetary, specific information, a future favor, or something entirely else, there's always a bargain to be struck."

"I guess I can owe you a favor?" It was harmless enough and there were decent odds Callum Ardere wouldn't be around anymore when she came to collect.

"You don't 'guess'. You can or you can't." She chided like a lecturer.

"Furthermore, don't agree to a favor in such a casual manner. We've not known each other long enough to have that type of rapport. Should I have demanded something outrageous, you'd be forced to either surrender it or your honor." She moved a little closer and lowered her voice.

"I'm not one to say honor is worth no price but trading it for idle school gossip is... well, I believe I made my point." Cal looked around at the nicely polished marble storefronts. They'd passed many during their walk. Next, he observed the well-kept pedestrians, muddling through their lives as best they could. He wondered how the girl next to him would react if she saw these buildings collapse into burning rubble. If she saw the mangled corpses decorate the streets.

"Thanks," he broke off the morbid thoughts.

"You're being nice, right? Trying to show me the ropes?"

"That's a foreign expression." Her nose wrinkled before smoothing out again.

"However, with the context, I understand. Yes, I led you into that trap of mine for good reason. You're not the first I've had this conversation with, although Gregor was more adept at it." Cal was about to ask what she meant by that. He held his tongue, thinking better of it.

"At the risk of sounding like an idiot, does this mean you'll tell me about the clubs or not?" Her eyes lit up, and she slightly leaned in while they walked.

"Well, you didn't hear it from me." Cal did his best to sink into his seat, trying to disappear. It wasn't that the movie turned out to be a romance. Or that multiple couples around him were getting unreasonably close. In fact, he'd prefer they be occupied with each other than the screen. No, it was one of the characters that led him to this state. The villain in particular. It started with denial. Then anger.

"WHY! Why you say! Hahahaha, as if I need a reason! Now die!" On the screen, a figure in an abysmal facsimile of a Federation uniform shouted deliriously while attempting to set off an explosion on a train full of refugees, many of them children. He'd passed those previous emotional states and had arrived at embarrassment. This was. This… He couldn't believe anyone would watch this drivel.

From his peripherals, he spotted those not focused on their partners watching the screen intently as the hero and heroine confessed their love to one another before bravely facing off against the Federation stooge. It wasn't that the Federation was the antagonist. That was par for the course with this audience. It was the cartoonish portrayal that made him cringe into his seat. He was thankful it was played in the dark, reducing the chance others could witness his reaction.

The effects were nice; magic must have made that part easy. That was where the good ended, as the script was one of the cheesiest he'd ever witnessed and the acting was horrible. It didn't even reach the level of being so bad it's good; it was just bad. The hero dove into the path of a thrown knife to protect the heroine, and the audience gasped. The heroine then finished off the villain, who, with his dying breath, declared the bomb he'd attached to the locomotive impossible to defuse.

The leads shared a look before the heroine went to decouple the train links while the hero limped to the controls, increasing the speed of the train. They reunited, sharing a final kiss as the explosion engulfed them. A scene in the end showed the now grown-up children paying respects to a monument honoring their sacrifice. All Cal could think about was how they could have jumped. The heroic duo, that is. The dude was stabbed, and sure, that sucked, but it hadn't even been in a vital area.

Surviving a little tumble would have been no problem. Going further, the entire final confrontation could have been avoided if they disconnected the cars in the beginning. Then the villain would have pulled a Wile E. Coyote and only blown himself up. It was dumb, and judging by the tears around him, they were lapping it up. He shook off his second-hand embarrassment. The lights flickered on, and he saw Ryan hugging a crying Jessica. Cal diverted his eyes and looked at the person sitting on his right.

Thankfully, Anne seemed to be doing her best to stifle a yawn. At least someone here had taste. They filed out, and the girls went to the washroom to deal with Jessica's running makeup.

"Damn, that was my bad." Ryan scratched his head with an awkward expression on his face.

"Didn't know it would be so heavy at the end." They had different definitions when it came to heavy.

"You showed me a theatre on campus," Cal stated, ignoring Ryan's discomfort.

"Why'd we have to come out here?" Ryan shook his head.

"That place is run by the film club. Those guys wouldn't know a good movie if their lives depended on it." If they prevented this from screening, they were A-okay in Cal's book.

"Boys," Jessica approached; she had a smile on her face despite her eyes still being slightly red.

"You weren't conversing about us behind our backs, were you?"

"Nope, Callum was just asking about the theatre on campus."

"Ah yes, shame about their selection. Was this your first experience watching a movie?" Jessica asked with a tilt of her head.

"Yep." Cal lied easily.

"It used to be that we'd need a well-trained light mage to get anything close to it." Anne commented, "Amazing how quickly times change." Amazing how quick they were to copy things. He didn't know much about the industry back in the Federation but he did know it was a thing for a few years now.

"I know," the volume of Ryan's voice startled some around them.

"It's too early to head back; there's an ice cream shop I saw on the way here. Let's go check it out." He didn't bother waiting for a response and dragged an oddly silent Jessica along. Anne saw his confusion.

"That's Ryan being Ryan. Sometimes he gets weird ideas in his head and has to see them through."

"Fair enough." He wasn't one to say no to ice cream after all. They walked along together until they caught up to others who had not waited and entered the establishment ahead. Cal held the door open for Anne and followed behind her. He stopped at the welcome mat once he remembered he didn't have any cash. Ryan had offered the ticket free of charge because it would go to waste otherwise, and the theatre had a no food or drink policy, so it hadn't been an issue. This was beginning to be a trend.

Maybe he should stop by the bar and shakedown Olivia for some spending money. There had to be some sort of slush fund he could tap into. Really, it was irresponsible for them to send him without any. Spy work wasn't free. Unfortunately, with the lack of anything new to report and the presence of his phone potentially tracking him, there were no plans to visit her today. He joined them in line, not wanting to make a scene.

"I think I'll go with the coffee flavor." Anne contemplated her choice and turned to him.

"What are you getting?"

"I'm not hungry, so I'll pass on it." She looked at him strangely, and he did his best to look nonplussed. He was saved by the line moving and Anne being next. He stepped to the side where Jessica and Ryan were already waiting for their orders. Once they received them, they located a table and sat. They were joined by Anne, who carried her coffee flavor and an additional bowl with plain vanilla.

"I wanted a scoop of each, and this was the best solution," she said as a way of explanation. Swapping one scoop of each between the bowls and sliding one over to him.

"I can't eat them both."

"Huh, If you ask them—" Jessica had a plastic smile on her face as Ryan winced and abandoned his statement.

"Never mind."

"Thanks, I'm fin-" Cal's shin was impacted. His shell absorbed it and Ryan showed a pained expression again.

"On second thought, I guess don't mind if I do." He finished; he wasn't quite that tone-deaf.

"This is sooo good." Jessica gushed over her mint ice cream.

"How can anyone make something so delicious?"

"It's actually a lot harder than you'd think." Especially if you happened to be in the Waste. The making itself wasn't too difficult; sourcing the ingredients was the real pain point. The sugar and salt were easy enough to keep stocked in the cabin. The dairy products were the problem. Some time ago, he'd been lucky enough to run into a magical beast that roughly could pass for a cow. Albeit, a very roided out one. Milking it was a challenge, to say the least.

Without any framework of knowledge, his attempts to tame it failed. Or at least he crossed off 'carefully beating it into submission' as a valid technique. After getting what milk he could from its unconscious form, he had to process it into heavy cream and whole milk. That part took more than a couple of tries to get right. Only then did he finally have the bare minimum to make the cold treat.

He felt a little vindicated that the end product was far better than what he was eating now, no doubt due to the ingredients. Hopefully, the cow was still alive. He'd not managed to track it down on his last visit. It would be a pity if his efforts in clearing out the surrounding area and leaving corpses with cores were wasted. Cal's offhand comment had earned him some interested looks. He omitted the milking part and gave a brief description of the rest of the process.

"I thought your affinity was fire," Jessica said between spoonfuls.

"But you just described using ice magic?" Shit. He'd slipped up there with his explanation. He didn't have to fabricate an excuse as Ryan jumped in.

"Say no more. I understand." He slapped his hand on Cal's shoulder.

"You'll have to show me how to do that later."

"Sure thing," Cal agreed, even if he felt something was being lost in translation. The girls shared a look and rolled their eyes in sync.

"I'm curious," Anne broached.

"How is Magical Engineering with Professor Wyatt going?" Cal didn't hide his grimace. The following class held only the most incremental improvement over the first. With the professor lifelessly lecturing for some scant minutes until collapsing on the desk. Mia hadn't even bothered to look up, reading as if nothing had happened. Needless to say, he dismissed himself early again.

"Anne's sister was dead on then?" Cal nodded grimly at Ryan.

"Don't say we didn't warn you then. On the bright side, that's only one out of four classes." Cal shrugged in response, continuing to eat his ice cream. He'd not told them about his schedule change, and given the nature of that class, he wasn't planning to. He wasn't naive enough to believe the news would never get out, but the longer it took, the easier his life would be. In the meantime, sneaking in and out of the training grounds was the order of the day.

"Oh," Anne dabbed her mouth with a napkin after finishing her dessert.

"There's a cooking club. Since you like making ice cream, that may be a good option."

"There is?" Ryan said, earning a slap to the hand that tried to steal Jessica's last spoonful.

"They must be small; they probably won't survive the Purge. Noble types aren't big on tasks reserved for the 'help'.

"It is small; I only recently learned of them," Anne confirmed. She saw Cal's unconvinced look.

"I wouldn't count them out; I can't break confidentiality, but they're a good option. Besides, picking a club early will save you from the others."

"Let him make his own choices." Jessica's tone was as sweet as the dessert he'd finished.

"If he wants to disregard your counsel a second time, he can face the consequences."

"At the risk of tempting fate, I feel you guys are blowing it out of proportion." The dead stares he received were not reassuring.