Strains

“Good aftern- what happened to you?” Caiden asks, and pushes the library door open. He looks me up and down. I can’t imagine the sight he’s taking in.

I take a sopping step backward.

“I just got out of Hercules’ class,” I say, brushing some sand off my shoulder.

Caiden crosses his arms.

“And that brute had you all trudging through the lake?” He moves to let me through the doorway.

I shake my hands. “Not exactly, how about I tell you in the garden. I’d hate to make a mess in the library.”

Instead of telling him right away, I decide to build up momentum by telling him my whole day.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t do much better in Mr. Crowe’s class. I only got to work on one piece for longer than five minutes before he chucked it.”

Caiden parts the long wispy branches of a willow and I follow him through the opening. The branches have blocked out most of the sunlight overhead. It’s dark, a substitute for the robes Caiden has neglected to wear again.

“Sorry, about that, I’ll keep looking.”

“It’s okay, really. I did a lot better in my basketweaving, when I finish my project you can have it as a thank you. I’ll make it big enough to hold all your snacks.”

Caiden beams at me and motions for me to sit down beside him.

“Deal. Now tell me what happened in Hercules’ class. I’m drowning in suspense already.”

I step forward and my foot sloshes in my wet sneaker. The squish echoes in the small area. Caiden and I grimace. Gross. If we were back in the library I would have had a chance to dry off in front of the fire. There’s no way they’ll dry in time for dinner, not in this shade. There’s no helping it.

I take my shoes and socks off and lay them in the sun outside the curtain of willow branches. With that done, I take a seat across from Caiden and tell him about class.

“I was so freaked out, I’ll hear Hercules yelling ‘shit’ in my dreams for the rest of my afterlife,” I burst out laughing at the memory of it. I thought Caiden would think it were funny too, but he looks bothered by it. “Something wrong?”

He shuffles and looks away from me.

“Like facilitator, like student I guess.”

What is that supposed to mean?

He looks back at me. “Matthew used to scheme in the same way to pass classes.”

He sounds like the councilman criticizing my performance. What gives with the people around here?

“What the hell do you mean by ‘scheme’? Hercules only ever said to get to the lake. I thought that was the point.”

Caiden brings his hand up, hesitates for a moment and brings it down on my shoulder.

“Sorry Elizabeth. I forget how new you are. It already feels like you’ve been here forever. There’s an unspoken rule here, and it’s to accept death when faced with it. The lengths you go through to survive his class is dishonorable to some.”

“Like you,” I say. And the councilman. What am I supposed to do? Matthew says I can’t afford to die, and now Caiden says my reputation can’t survive unless I do.

“I’m probably overthinking it,” he looks into my eyes. “You’re much more genuine and innocent than Matthew ever was.”

I feel my cheeks go warm and I look away.

“You said he pulled ‘schemes’ were they really that bad?” I say, trying to drive attention elsewhere.

Caiden groans. “You have no idea. I don’t think there was a single test on campus that he didn’t cheat on.”

I give him a skeptical look. He always resorts to hyperbole when it comes to Matthew.

“I mean it Elizabeth,” he says defensively. “The guy even cheated on the entrance exam.”

Entrance exam? Oh, he must mean the physical I got over at Doc’s.

“How the heck did he manage that?” I say.

“Psychic strains are the only ones Doc isn’t able to diagnose using his physical exam, so he relies on a copious amount of paperwork. Matthew used his psychic abilities to figure out how skew the results in the direction he wanted.”

Matthew’s shrewdness knows no bounds. Now that I think about it. I know almost nothing about the guy besides his name, and I’m not even allowed to call him by it.

“And which house did he choose?”

“The one he thought would be the strongest,” he says.

My jaw drops. “Matthew was a Meat?”

“How else would he and Hercules have been roommates?”

“And they were roommates?”

Caiden looks to me surprised. “He seriously has told you nothing?”

I shake my head. “Sure, he’s told me to read the student handbook like it’s a damn bible about a hundred times. It’s his answer for everything.”

Caiden smirks. “Of course he did, I mean he did write the damn thing.”

The shock that resonates between my ears is enough to make me short circuit. Matthew wrote the handbook? I guess it makes sense that he’d be offended that I use his afterlife’s work as my go to weapon for defeating insects. Why wouldn’t he just tell me?

“It’s odd that he’s chosen to keep that a secret from you. He was always gloating about it and his job.”

My ears perk up. More info.

“And what job is that?”

Caiden covers his face and lets out an exasperated sigh. “He’s the head of discipline at the academy, it’s a position that reports to the directly to the Council.”

My heart stops. “You, you’re joking, right?”

That’s the only explanation. There’s no way, Matthew could-

Caiden interrupts my thoughts. “Why would I joke about that? How else would he get the funds to buy you expensive trinkets like that?” I follow the point of his finger to my wrist.

“Oh crap!” I lunge out of the curtain of willow branches and grab my shoes. Dinner is going to start soon and I still have to scrub off the muck from the lake. At least my shoes are somewhat dry. “Sorry Caiden, I have to go get ready for dinner. See you tomorrow?”

He comes out of the branches and helps me to my feet.

“Sure, oh and Elizabeth?”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe we could talk about something other than Matthew?”

And now I feel guilty on top of the betrayal.

“Yeah, of course,” I say. I’m not sure why he always comes up as a topic of conversation anyway.

He waves me off and I run back to my room.