Roseamber II
Saipha turned away from her dying mentor in tears. Ayrai turned away solemnly. Her job was done. There was no more she could do for the old Coatl.
Her breath was no more than a whisper, her eyes closed simply from the effort of living in such a state. It was okay, she’d told them. She had only wanted to end her days in the college which she loved. Saipha and Adamantine and Niobium had been her most loyal students, if not her most brilliant. They carried out their daily duties as if no one had left. As if there were still classes to teach and students to learn. It was much too much work for five faes to dust the entire University, so they stuck to the main dorm and ignored the rest rot.
Saipha left the room when her mentor passed, carried away on the winds that brought the first snow of the season. Usually around this time they would celebrate the Night of the Nocturne and the Solstice, but there was no money to buy the ingredients for cake and no one willing to go to town, a half-day’s fly, in such a time.
Their footsteps faded in the snow and in the darkness. They went on with their nightly tasks in grim but resigned habit. Lazulite found himself reaching out to the rest of the dragons, feeling his obligation as a doctor. He let Adamantine cry on his shoulder, and spoke to Saipha for hours on end about her work patching up the comforters that no one was using. Niobium was sampling the last of the summer jam, and Lazulite sat with him in silence for some time.
It took some time for him to realize that Ayrai had been missing. By the time he climbed the stairs to the potions room she’d claimed as her study, it was past midnight. She was scribbling in a book by candlelight, her pen dragging with the weight of all that had happened. Lazulite watched, but her quill never paused; it kept lagging on until he decided to let her be and went to bed.
The voices echoed up from the courtyard. Lazulite had been listening to Adamantine cast at a training dummy for some hours in the morning, the white snow throwing a glow into the room that contradicted last week’s funeral somewhat starkly. But a new voice interrupted her training, leaving her with a confused “ha-?” noise as her casting was halted.
Lazulite settled by the window to observe as a golden drake wandered toward Adamantine. He listened in on their conversation as it reflected up to him like the sunlight from the snow.
“Is this the Aurearte University?” The drake asked.
“Yeah.” Adamantine responded. Her usual formality was accented by confusion and the hint of the sadness underneath.
“It's kind of empty.” The drake said doubtfully, casting a glance at the buildings around them, unkept, overgrown, and empty.
“It is.” Adamantine replied. “No class has been held here in some years, son.”
“Oh.” The drake said. “Why?”
Adamantine was still clearly taken off guard, as it took her a pause to register what the young fae newcomer had said. “Look around you, son. No one wants to teach in a place like this anymore.”
There was silence as he looked around at the disrepair, and Lazulite became aware that Ayrai had stopped grinding feverfew petals to listen in.
“We could clean it up...” The drake said reluctantly after an ages-long second, continuing the conversation as if it had never stopped, as if the whole college had not paused to think about the implications of the conversation.
The what ifs remained, and so did the golden fae, who spent his time perusing the grimy bookshelves of the library. He began to get pointers here and there. Adamantine began to spend a little less time casting at the training dummy she’s dragged out of some classroom somewhere, and more time coaching the new kid on his casting technique. Niobium began to point out some of the best books in the library. Saipha went to the town and brought back a mate who knew a little about elemental magic.
By the time everyone realized what was happening, a pair of Illusion mages had joined them, settling in the west tower. From there, the college began to rise like a sprout beneath the snow.
Lazulite peered into Ayrai's favorite lab, the one she preferred to work silently in, alone but sometimes with his company. With the growth in students and professors and staff, she had hidden herself away, become a figure as elusive as the third-floor balcony of the library that seemed to only be accessible, or even findable, when the moon was waning gibbous.
Someone was speaking in her favorite lab, and Lazulite peered in to give them a warning, his mate the elusive alchemist would run them out for intruding on her space. But when he peered in, Ayrai had set aside her latest work and was peering into the crucible of an aspiring alchemist, calmly guiding her through the steps of a simple health potion.
Lazulite quietly shut the door and flew on his way, with a buoyant observation on his mind. The events at the Roseamber seemed so distant, in those days the pair began to forget to remember.
But that was a mistake.
