Elydes Chapter 391 - Friendships

Chapter 391 - Friendships

The elevator opened to a third wave of students. In the back corner, Kai pointed his arms to prevent Valela from being flattened as a trio of second-year girls shuffled back. The wide platform allowed more than a dozen people. Bodies hid the newcors, but not the loud sobbing and sniffing as two of them tried to console their friend. Emotional displays made the space feel tighter and the ride longer.

Why did they put the House of Mirrors branch on the seventh floor?

“…disappeared without a word.”

“I don’t understand,” the girl sniffed. “He was doing so well.”

“It’s not surprising he dropped out,” the last one had a cold tone. “They let you think once you pass the first year, you’ve made it, but it only gets harder. Not everyone can take it. Hmm, it must be the sa for senior years.”

“I don’t want to hear that!”

“It must be said. Raelion doesn’t produce many graduates.”

The voices rged with the hum of the runic arrays beneath their feet as the doors glided close and the platform ascended. Kai tried to fill the conversation as Valela stared off, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

“So that was my fifth bout. With Forlow. They kept for Ambrose too.” He’d noted how Professor Valdibal called him out to spar more, though he didn’t mind the extra training. “Not sure what’s up with the guy. The bout was much the sa. I acted up a few spells and let them tunnel vision on .” He stole glances at her.

Valela didn't seem to notice, her gaze lost in the grain of the wooden panels.

Since he apologized, they’ve been friendly. For a few self-deluded hours that day, he’d even believed their relationship would return to what it was before, but it couldn’t. Silences weren’t quite as comfortable. When they crossed gazes, they darted away from each other as if scalded.

He’d only replayed that conversation four tis today. Progress. Why hadn’t he phrased things better? Between Raelion’s curriculum and his own situation, he wasn't ready to date anyone for now. She’d even agreed it was better this way for the both of them.

She said she was fine, uhm…

Dragged into old mullings, he lost track of what he was even saying.

I’m not rambling, am I? She asked about the class… damn, I’m definitely rambling!

Kai scratched his neck. “Enough about my spars. How did your… last class go?” He’d already asked her about her day.

A completely different question.

Valela blinked and glanced at him with a polite smile, finally tucking the hair behind her ear. “No, please, continue. I enjoyed hearing about Magic Combat. It’s one of my weaker courses. I thought that skills and experience mattered the most, but it sounds like tricking your opponent is more important. You let people build a misconception that you always attack imdiately, because you’re a free caster, then used that against Kastor Forlow, delaying and gaining an advantage. Similarly with Ambrose Willow, you led him to focus and waste his spells, then struck where it mattered." She giggled, almost gleeful. “You’re quite sly.”

“That’s pure slander.” Kai gave an affronted gasp and turned to hide a pleased smirk. “I'm an honest and upstanding student. How is it my fault if they fail to assess the fight correctly?”

“Yes, you definitely didn’t guide them to it.”

“Exactly! At most, a nudge. For educational purposes. Don’t mages love to say information is power? Hiding your intentions and guessing your foe’s is essential to any fight.” He nodded along to the wisdom of his words.

Thinking back to his bouts, he indeed used a lot of misdirection against his opponents. Unless he overwheld them first. It wasn’t a conscious sche, just the most efficient way to achieve victory. Probably the advantage of experience. Even the high rankers were predictable. They practically begged to be deceived.

“Tricking your foe is the easiest way to win against soone stronger and faster,” Kai searched her face. “What about you? Are you truly alright? You feel a bit off today.”

Her gaze turned distant. “I’m alright. It’s just… one of my courses. We only started this week because of so organizational issues. It left with a lot to think about.”

“The one that started late was…” His face scrunched up. “Novice Rituals?” Kai recalled without pulling up her mnemonic chain. He was pretty sure that wasn’t the reason for her mood, at least not entirely. “Bad professor?”

“No, not exactly. Professor Pevelli is very talented. And competent. It’s just… I got this familiar inkling. Maybe I’ve seen him before, or heard his na sowhere years ago. But I can’t quite rember.” Her brows knitted, cheeks puffed, as if she could will the missing information out.

Kai sighed empathetically. “That must be hard… To share the failings of common mortal minds, and not rember. Awful.”

“Idiot.” She raised her eyes to the intricate talwork of the elevator’s ceiling. “I don’t rember everything."

“Professor Hulmus’ test scores beg to disagree. Best results in the whole course, was it?”

She looked away with a blush. “I got lucky with the questions. Not like you’re so bad yourself. My skill is simply higher. With how you’ve been leveling Mnemonic mory, you’ll reach soon.”

“If soon ans several years, yes. Though by then you’ll have ascended to a higher state.”

“Now you’re just trying to flatter .”

“I’m the mouth of truth…” He snorted indignantly, then smirked. “Is it working?”

Despite her huffs and attempts to bat his shoulder, his bad jokes dispelled her odd mood. The elevator opened to a sparser atrium, strings of light laced Realion hills and towers outside the wide windows. Unlike the rest, the seventh floor held more services and fewer shops.

“Co.” Valela confidently took the left hallway. “We’ll make it just in ti.”

He followed behind her. “Who do you need to speak with?"

“So people back ho. My father and the governor’s representatives." She huffed, never slowing her strides. “The archipelago didn’t stop moving when I enrolled at Raelion. I need to keep up with the changes in Higharbor. Keep tabs on my contacts. Discuss potential opportunities, alliances and matrimonial unions.”

Kai nearly tripped. “Wait, you an… like an arranged marriage? Isn’t that…”

Way too soon.

He hurried to catch up. Valela had celebrated her sixteenth birthday a couple months before he ca to Realion, making her a year and a half older than him.

It feels like I should say sothing. I should say sothing.

“Is that sothing you want?”

She shrugged a shoulder with more nonchalance than he felt he could match. “It’s sothing I’ve always had to consider. Marriage is the most reliable way to secure an alliance.”

Kai opened his mouth soundlessly. What right did he have to tell her what to do? To wait and hang her future on a re possibility he himself couldn’t commit to? He knew of her goal, reclaiming the archipelago for its people. Speaking wouldn’t be fair, so he could only follow in a mute daze.

Is this why she said it was better if we remained friends?

The House of Mirrors opened in a room with a glittering chandelier, steel-blue walls and windows bordered in black. At the front desk, a receptionist took their nas with rehearsed pleasantries

Valela smoothly handled the small talk and threw back a smile, while the woman dealt with the formalities to set up their connections. “I’m not marrying anyti soon, but I can’t ignore the arrangents either. Most Houses tie proposals in the crib. I’ll need the support of soone with moderate power and connections to achieve my goals. Even reaching Green won’t be enough on its own unless I build a solid network.”

“Well, who said anything about stopping at Green?”

Valela laughed. “Yes, let’s just reach Blue. Maybe I should aim at the rian senate instead.” She playfully poked his stiff face. “I’ll see you later, Mat. Please, say hi to Reishi from too.”

Before his brain could stitch together a coherent sentence, a polished onyx door swung open. She disappeared into a corridor lit by a winding line of blue crystals.

“Mister Veernon, if you please. Your connection is ready.” An older clerk in a steel blue uniform gave him a knowing look.

Kai chanically nodded, crossing the door into the branching corridor. Heavily enchanted doors lined both walls. They stopped behind the first corner. Several locks clinking open with a ripple of mana.

“I assu you know how it works.” The man politely motioned.

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“I do.”

"Excellent, then. Everything has already been prepared to your specifications. The House of Mirrors is proud to offer our services.”

“Thank you.”

Kai entered the square room. Layers of wards snapped shut behind him. Suffused crystal lights, walls of plain plaster, and a single wooden chair positioned before an oblong mirror that hovered over the wall. The House’s nasake remained a srizing sight. It looked like a depthless mana pool and bore no sign of engraving despite the obvious enchantnts.

Still trying to figure out his own thoughts, he approached it to delicately tap the cold rcurial surface.

They must be already clocking their fees.

Aside from a brief correspondence on his investnt, they hadn’t been able to talk since he enrolled at Raelion. Between Reishi’s travels to expand his network of contacts and goods, and his own frenetic schedule, there had been no ti.

No, that’s not true. I could have found an hour to catch up with him.

It would have been difficult to organize, but he could have found a way, if he wanted. He just never prioritized people.

The old wood creaked as he sank into the hard chair, the only furnishingprovided unless he paid for the list of extras. The shadowed mirror. Specks of color swirled from the center and began clearing the fog at the edges.

As if he’d opened a window, a room identical to his own appeared—mostly identical, in that both possessed four walls and no window.

Reishi lounged on a plush armchair, donning an embroidered deep green and gold silk robe. One arm rested on the velvet cushions, the other held a steaming cup, raised for an unhurried sip. Beside him, a finely carved ebony table bore a silver tray of sweets and a porcelain teapot, their glossy surfaces catching the warm lamplight.

Rather than bare plaster, the room sported a wallpaper patterned with foaming waves and moonlit skies. He sat with one leg crossed below him. His loafers lay abandoned on a carpet that seed woven from fuzzy sheep and glittering seaglass.

“Oh, Kai! You’re here!” His pale blue eyes widened. He hurriedly set down the cap and leaned toward the mirror. A pearly smile with sharper points than a human’s split his face. “It’s so nice to see you! I’m glad you made it.”

“Of course… I’m glad to see you too.” Kai muttered, too busy gaping at the lavish decor. His mind raced to run the math with the House of Mirrors’ crazy prices and shuddered. “Seems like you’re doing well for yourself.”

“Oh, this?” Reishi looked down at himself and around the room. The embroidery on his long silk sleeves glittered as he gave a half-shrug. “It’s alright. I landed last night in the Aurelia, so I haven’t had ti to arrange better furnishings, and had to cobble together what I could.”

“Yeah…” Kai scanned him up and down, judgingly. “Barely adequate.”

Reishi laughed, his orange and green crest swaying. “I missed that face.” He covered his mouth with a webbed hand and munched on a moonberry tart. “Sorry, I wish I could offer you my refreshnt. But alas, I must enjoy them alone. You understand, I have an image to maintain. No one trusts a rchant who wears rags or lives in squalor. No, you’d just think they’re bad at their job, would you not?

“Hmm, fair point,” Kai muttered, watching the rman rrily dunk a sugar biscuit in his tea. To think he’d skipped his snack break not to miss his appointnt. “It must be such a heavy burden.”

Reishi snorted a chuckle and almost choked. Coughing, he beat his chest, never losing his smile. “I won’t deny my work has its perks on occasion. Personally, I believe finding ways to enjoy your duties is fundantal for a prosperous career. And you could easily afford this much yourself. What’s the point of becoming filthy rich if you never enjoy it?”

"To hoard shiny chromiums and blissfully swim through your sar pile?” Kai asked with as flat a tone as he could muster.

Reishi guffawed and clumsily set down the cup before he spilled more tea on his robes. The porcelain clattered loudly on the tray. “Please… enough…” He produced a turquoise handkerchief and dabbed at his stained sleeve. “Are you trying to ruin ? You’d get along well with the old fish. Are you sure you don’t want to join my trading company?”

“I’d rather be the guy who owns the company.” Kai eased into the creaky chair, stretching out his legs and feeling like a pauper. The backrest was so damn hard. How had he worried about clothes and not thought to at least bring a pillow? “Well, I’m already a major investor in a pretty successful one.”

Still salvaging his robe, Reishi pointed at him with mirth. “See! If you weren’t so squishy and pink, I’d say you have the blood of a rman rchant. Pity, I can’t give you my company, even if we are friends. I still own the major share.”

“For now,” Kai smirked, wishing he had a cup to sip too.

The rman dramatically gasped. “So, this is how you repay ? I was far too generous with our contract.”

“Guess you should’ve read the fine print.” Kai folded his arms over his grumbling stomach with a vindicated cackle. “Alas, you were too late to realize. The copy of the contract is safe with .”

Hmm, should really read it soday.

Their gazes t with palpable intensity, then they burst out laughing.

“Gods… You are trying to kill .” Reishi slumped into his plum armchair, staring up, slightly heaving. “When you enrolled at Raelion among all those uppity little monsters, I admit I worried you’d beco even more brooding and stiff. Glad I was wrong.”

“Uhm… thank you? Though I don’t brood.”

“Exactly what I said.”

Kai pursed his lips, but didn’t argue. “So how’re you doing?”

“I’d say fine.” Reishi brushed up his silk robe, sitting a little straighter and reaching for his teacup. “During the last months, I’ve shaken an upsetting amount of sweaty hands, set up contacts with suppliers and surveyed the local demands and distribution routes. I knew the mainland market would be different. You must avoid pricking the fins of leviathans. Security and risk aren’t the sa either. The last year hasn’t been good for bandits and strange beast attacks. I was lucky I wasn't heavily invested yet. It took so adjusting to being one of the smallest fish again.”

His drumming nails made a clear tap-tap on the porcelain. “Still, where there is risk, there’s also plenty of opportunity. And the smallest fish can easily swim in the cracks for treasure. I haven’t seen profits as large as I would have liked, but now that I’ve established myself, they should only grow.”

“That’s good.” Kai nodded along. “Though I ant how you are doing?”

“Oh.” Reishi blinked, halting his drumming, staring at him.

Huh? Is that such a surprising question?

The rman quickly recovered, grabbing another tartlet from the tray. “I’m doing well.” His munching failed to hide a pointy smile. “The adjustnt period was hard, but now it’s mostly exciting. You can’t believe the variety of goods. Or the number of niche markets! You can find a buyer for anything. I do miss sailing the sea, but I’m starting to appreciate rivers. Much better than a dusty caravan.” His delicate scales scrunched with a shudder.

“The cities are better. Don’t misunderstand, I love our charmingly quaint archipelago, but so things you can only get in a proper tropolis. I hadn't realized how much I missed them. The bustle of innovation and activity. Establishnts with centuries of expertise. Skilled professionals in every craft. Being a whistle away from every service and item at any hour.” He sighed dreamily. “It’s a cri that you’ve never eaten at a proper restaurant. I must show you next ti we happen in Varsea. There was this spot…”

As if breaking a dam, Reishi retraced all the cities he’d traveled, the sights he’d witnessed, and the countless deals he struck.

Kai caught himself reaching into his ring for a notebook and quill. Opting instead to ask specific questions, he attempted to connect Reishi’s routes with the geography he’d learned. How did he ever think he had a good grasp on the rian lands? Each city sounded like a world apart, and outside those, his textbook failed to ntion dozens of population centers, each one larger than Higharbor.

“So that’s how I got three barrels of stormflower oil for one copper.” Through the mirror, Reishi tilted the teapot in his cup, seeming surprised when he found it empty. “I didn't an to talk so much. I hope I didn’t bore you.”

“Not at all,” Kai said. A cheery ding warned him that Mnemonic Mastery had leveled. “You almost tempted to beco a rchant.”

“I did?” Reishi cocked his head, looking quite pleased with himself.

“Yeah, almost. You’re a good storyteller.”

I’ve so many fallback careers if I fail as a mage.

Reishi pinched the last crumbs in the silver tray. “Well, we should talk about the contract after your generous contribution. As ntioned, adjusting to the new market took a bit of fiddling. I held back investing most of your money before I had a firm grasp. Then there were a few setbacks. One of my ships got raided. So the returns are lower than I’d hoped. ”

Kai bit his cheek and nodded along. From what he knew about investnts, certain earnings didn’t exist. Except here, instead of bad managent and fraudulent CEOs, a grumpy kraken might drag a vessel to the abyssal depths, or bands of bandits could raid a convoy.

It’s okay. I’ll be fine. It doesn’t sound like he lost too much. It’s barely been six months, and most of them he spent establishing connections and routes.

Reishi stopped fidgeting with his sleeve, placing his hands in his lap. “Without the deals still pending, your current share is a few hundred sars. It’s not much, I know. But I’m fairly certain you’ll see far higher returns going forward.”

“Uh,” Kai cleared his throat. “Define a few hundred.”

“About six hundred and forty-six sars.”

“Gold sars?”

“Well…” Reishi gave an awkward cough-laugh. “Definitely not chromiums.”

“That’s fine. More than fine! And you’re saying I’m just going to make more?” Kai could feel his grin strain, testing the flexibility of his face.

I’m even more disgustingly wealthy!

A heartbeat later, Reishi relaxed too. “Guess, I should have told you earlier. Are you sure you have no rman ancestor in your family line?”

“No, why?”

“Hmm, no reason.” Reishi shook his head with a chuckle. “But please, enough about . How was enrolling mid-year in the most competitive Academy in the Republic? Smooth sailing?”

“It was— it is a lot. Demanding. But I’m handling it.”

“I’m sure you are. How are you holding on?”

Kai weighed denying everything or blurting a quick answer; ultimately, he went for a more extensive and honest review: offer the facts and let Reishi draw his own conclusion. The highlights of his academic career only took a handful of minutes.

“It was hard to catch up with the scions who were grood since birth, but I’m adapting. I don’t regret joining the Winter Intake.”

“I'm very glad to hear that. I never doubted you could do it, only that you’d run yourself dry.” Reishi poured himself a cup of indigo tea from a fresh teapot. “What about your classmates? I’ve dealt with enough patricians in the last month for a lifeti. Knowing you, it mustn’t have been easy. Did anyone give you a hard ti?”

“Not really,” Kai frowned. “It’s been fine. Most of them are annoying but harmless. I’m not getting bullied around, if that was your concern.” He’d gladly face every rumor, persistent stalkers, and haughty sparring partners if he could just solve the situation with Valela.

“Well, I never worried about you getting bullied,” Reishi chuckled. “Is sothing else on your mind? I’m no Mind mage, but half of trading is people’s relationships. So I’ve picked up a couple things.”

“Thank you. But it’s really nothing. I’m just figuring out how to clear so things. With Valela."

“Oh… I see.” Reishi turned to intently sip his tea.

“What’s that look supposed to an?”

“Mhmm… Nothing. Made any new friends?

Kai narrowed his eyes. “I did, yes. A few. Mostly Val’s friends and my new roommates. I should’ve ntioned them, Rob and Alden Blackwood.”

There was a loud sputter as the porcelain cup also spilled everywhere. “You are roommates with a Blackwood?