“ONLY
A MAN, ONLY A SLAVE!” Drav held on the final note for several
seconds as Zelzad provided backing vocals and guitar work and Ya’el
drummed furiously. His growls were so deep that if Arenya hadn’t
written the lyrics, she’d find them almost indecipherable.
All at once, the instruments went silent.
Cartalis, meanwhile, sat in front of a large collection of
specialized light focuses, with small wires running along them to the
stage. Some of the focuses connected to large, flame-shaped crystals,
others to smaller balls enclosed in metal and glass. Both, however,
served the same purpose: To provide appropriate lighting. She tapped
several in sequence, causing the lights to focus on Ya’el as she
tore off her baggy white overshirt to reveal the blood-red top she
wore beneath. The lights synchronized perfectly with the color
change, as Cartalis dimmed a white crystal to favor a red one in time
with Ya’el’s actions.
Arenya watched all this from just offstage. She was torn between
rolling her eyes at Ya’el managing to incorporate
her apparently favorite on-stage activity into the proceedings after
all, and nervousness at the possibility of something going wrong.
Still, her role in the proceedings was done. Planning and writing
had fallen to her, but now that the first show of the sequence was
really happening, her only remaining task was to watch and see how
things turned out.
She took a deep breath and looked out over the audience. It both
was and wasn’t what she expected. The bulk of the attendees were
students she’d never seen before, who she suspected didn’t show
up to classes much. Despite that, the crowd was remarkably diverse.
Instead of being almost entirely part demons like she’d thought,
she saw many full-humans and even one or two students who seemed to
have drake blood. A couple older people were there, too - seemingly a
few teachers had shown up, which Arenya would never have guessed. It
wasn’t a huge crowd, perhaps a hundred or so people, but they did
impressively run the gamut. Exactly how they’d advertised it,
Arenya wasn’t sure, but it seemed word had gotten out pretty well.
The song shifted into a slower ballad section as it moved to
discuss the final dragon sage, who Hardal left alive but blinded to
serve him, and the conversation they had where Hardal disguised
himself. Arenya could not help but smile at this part - this snippet
of lyrics was Arenya’s favorite part, since it could be interpreted
in so many different ways.
The show was going to be a shorter one - they’d decided near the
end to split it into smaller shows performed every couple weeks in
order to get more time to work on the final touches as well as draw
out the story a bit more. As such, they only had a handful of songs
to perform here, and not too much in the way of complex choreography.
One deep breath later, Arenya closed her eyes. Somehow -
- things were managing to turn out.
“And that’s about
how it went.”
Kazurist nodded. “So the concert was a success. Tell me, does
Ya’el know of the significance of wearing the color red?”
Arenya groaned. In retrospect, she couldn’t really be surprised
that Professor Kazurist’s offer to have tea in his office was
really just a pretense to ask her about the concert, but the idea
somehow hadn’t occurred to her beforehand. “Yeah. I told her that
she should stick with blue or green, but it turned out that
mentioning red is a sexually provocative color for Followers made her
insist on it even harder. I don’t think most of the people watching
would have known, though my parents certainly would be upset.
Overall, though, I think it went great.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Professor Seltorax certainly thought so.”
Arenya’s mouth worked like a fish for a moment. “Was… Is she
the one who called Zander a bitch during the trial?”
“Yes.” Kazurist flashed a grin for the briefest instant. It
couldn’t be more obvious to Arenya that he was trying hard not to
laugh.“She’s been worried about you. She was glad to hear you
were doing well after the council trial, but felt you were spending
an unhealthy amount of time working on your task for Benya and that I
should step in.”
Kazurist closed his eyes for a moment. “Doris is a strange
woman. The rumor goes that she failed most of her classes her first
year due to refusing to do any home assignments, then won her grades
back with a brilliant presentation and experiment that proved she
knew the material better than some professors. She cleaned up her act
after that, but never stopped being feisty and hot-headed.”
“Is it true?” Arenya asked while looking away.
“She hasn’t commented one way or the other. I imagine it’s
exaggerated, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a hint of
truth to it. Certainly she doesn’t enjoy playing by the rules, and
she can be hard to work with sometimes, but she has a phenomenal
mind.”
Arenya started to laugh.
“What is it?” asked Kazurist.
“It’s just…” Arenya controlled herself long enough to stop
giggling. “It’s just that you make her sound a bit like
Cartalis.”
Kazurist put his hand on his chin and stroked his beard. “That
is an interesting observation. I’m not certain I agree with it
totally, but I can see why you might think that. In any case, her
insistence on going to this show was unexpected and expected at
once.”
“So does that mean you approve of the band now?”
Kazurist’s mirth vanished. “I didn’t say that.”
Arenya fought off the urge to sigh heavily.
“I can’t express my complete approval. I don’t think the
behavior there is truly becoming of a Follower. But… I can
appreciate that you’ve found a pursuit that speaks to you, and that
you are trying to retain your values in the process.”
“That’s… that’s the best I’m going to get from you,
isn’t it?”
“Probably.” Kazurist sipped at his tea. “I hope that -”
A furious knocking at the office’s window interrupted them.
Arenya turned to see a wide-eyed, panicked Drav and a furious-looking
Cartalis.
Arenya and Kazurist exchanged a confused glance. Arenya stood and
opened the door.
“We have a situation.”
“Is this about the show?”
Drav shook his head. “Worse. Much worse. It can’t wait. I’m
getting everyone together. I need you right now, Arenya. Zander needs
to be here too.”
What could possibly require Drav to drag Zander into things? It
couldn’t be related to the band. Zander had nothing to do with the
show.
“Sorry to cut this short, Professor,” said Arenya, “but this
sounds super important. I’ll see you around.”
“You’ll see me now, in fact.” Kazurist stood. “I insist on
being invited to this meeting.”
“What? You can’t -” Drav’s fists clenched. Then he sighed.
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best. You know him better than the
rest of us, after all.”
Him? Benya. This must have something to do with the sword.
Had he done something? If it could freak Drav out this much, it
couldn’t be good.
It took Arenya a moment to find her voice. “Is the farm okay?
Was the school payment invalid?”
“Those both seem to be true, at least.” Cartalis’ voice was
hard as iron and sharp as a blade. “He did not lie in anything he
said or promised. I can give the bastard that much.”
“Wh-what’s going on?” Arenya’s legs felt weak. “Tell me,
please.”
“When everyone’s together. I don’t wanna have to explain
this twice.” He gestured as he turned. “Come on. Ya’el and
Zelzad are around here somewhere, and Zander’s in the grad labs. No
time to waste.”
As he strode away, Cartalis in his wake, Arenya turned to Kazurist
once more. “Do you have any idea what happened?”
Kazurist sucked a mouthful of air between his teeth. “I have my
suspicions, but not with certainty. I do not wish to speculate. Let
us gather all those whom Drav wishes to gather, and allow him to
explain himself. It will obviate the need for me to guess.”
Kazurist’s switch to such a formal tone hammered home just how
serious things had become. With a deep breath and a moment to gather
herself, Arenya hurried after Drav, Kazurist but a step behind her.
