Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

«I am!» she protested. «It’s just…»

«Yes?» he prompted.

«I don’t have anyone to go to the dance with,» she said. «The boy I was hoping to go with already has someone by now.»

If her unnamed boy was Fortov (probably, considering her obvious crush on him), then yes, he most certainly did. In fact, he probably had one weeks in advance, so there was never much chance of her going with him in the first place, but he didn’t feel the need to crush her dreams like that.

«Then you’ll just have to do the same thing I will and go to the dance all by yourself, won’t you?» concluded Zorian.

She suddenly stopped and gave him an appraising glance.

«You don’t have anyone to go with, either?» she asked.

Zorian closed his eyes and swore in his head. He really walked into this one, didn’t he?

Zorian was nervous. Ever since his very first restart, he had been studiously avoiding the city on the day of the festival, not willing to get caught up in the invasion again. Being present within city limits could easily result in his grisly death, after all, and back then he wasn’t sure whether his current restart would be his last. That wasn’t an option anymore, unless he wanted to clue in Zach that there was something wrong with him (he didn’t).

Bottom line was, he was stuck attending the dance, with the unexpected addition of Ibery as his date for the evening. He wasn’t exactly happy with that, actually. He didn’t really have much of a plan for the evening, except to wait and see what would happen, but Ibery’s presence at his side would no doubt limit him. Not to mention that he still remembered his disastrous evening with Akoja, and had very little desire to live through a repeat performance, consequences-erasing time loop or not.

Speaking of his evening with Akoja, Zorian had to admit one thing about Ibery: she was a lot more reasonable and considerate than Akoja was. She didn’t drag him out of his room 2 hours before the event, or make him wait smack in the middle of the huge throng of people gathered at the entrance, or drag him off to chat with a bunch of people who only cared about him being Daimen’s and Fortov’s brother… She was also more interested in scanning the crowd for any trace of Fortov than paying attention to him, but that was okay — he was under no illusion that she had asked him out because she was actually interested in him. After a while he decided to have mercy on her and informed her that Fortov was already inside, preparing for tonight’s performance along with the other members of the academy music club.

Naturally, Zach’s entrance was in the boy’s usual flamboyant style. He had caught everyone’s attention when he had shown up with not one, but two dates for the evening (Zorian didn’t recognize either girl), and then further wooed people by demonstrating some very impressive — and attention-grabbing — dancing. Apparently Zach had learned more than magic during these restarts. Zorian clapped with the others when Zach finally finished showing off, and considered the merits of sinking some time into a non-magical skill. Not dancing, though. Or any other ‘high society’ skill, for that matter — honing those beyond the elementary level he had already grasped would require him to construct a mask so thorough he wasn’t sure he’d be able to take it off afterwards. The benefits weren’t worth selling his soul over, even metaphorically.

«This is a lot fancier than I thought it would be,» Ibery noted, fingering the lacy tablecloth in front of her.

«It’s obviously more than just a school dance,» agreed Zorian. «I’m guessing the Academy was organizing some kind of event for foreign dignitaries this year and then decided to simply merge it with the school dance for whatever reason.»

«I guess,» Ibery said. «They did invest a lot into making everything look good this year, and I doubt they did it for our sake.» Ibery looked at the far end of the table, where Zach was entertaining a small crowd around him, his two escorts nowhere to be seen. After a few seconds of this observation she turned to Zorian and stared at him strangely.

«What?» Zorian said, a little unnerved by her stare.

«I’ve been meaning to ask you…» she began hesitantly. «What is it between you and Zach? I mean, I know you’re friends with him, but how did that come about? You seem very different from one another.»

«It’s a recent thing,» said Zorian. «And it was mostly Zach’s doing, to be honest. All I did was escort him home after he got sick in class one day, and he decided we were best friends after that. I sort of went along with the flow.»

«So you don’t know about… um…»