Chapter 3: I'm Such a Screwup

Jacinth didn't expect to smell loam and pond scum in a library. Shelves packed to bursting towered towards the sky. There was no ceiling, no lights, and the titles of the books kept changing when Jacinth stopped looking at them. The moment her eyes slid from the end of one letter to the next, they had all slithered out of control.

It sounded like rain. Jacinth turned between several stacks, following that. Her bare feet were cold against the wet library floor. Soon, she found water pouring across the floors in shallow waves. All of it was old, brown, dark, and cloudy. And it was from further up ahead.

After a few more turns, Jacinth came into an open area in the library. There were aquariums all set up on industrial shelves—easily several dozen. Half of the tanks were over-flowing with water gushing out from rubber tubes. All the tubing lead back to one sink in the middle of the room, and Lilith.

Lilith kept scurrying between the sink and the wall of tanks, peering at several bottles of liquid in her hands.

"Oh no. They keep switching. Why can't I just get this right? Why do I keep messing this up?" Lilith nibbled at her fingernails. She rushed back to the sink, looking for what Jacinth assumed was the correct bottle.

It took several trips just like that before Lilith even noticed Jacinth. Even then, Lilith barely looked up. Lilith's dark eyes were frantic, focused on the tanks.

"I'm such a screw-up, Jacinth. I don't even remember agreeing to take care of all of these guys, and I don't know how I forgot to change their water. I don't even know how long they've been here. I don't even know how they're alive. These poor guys need their water at super strict requirements and I'm just making a mess of it," Lilith's voice broke towards the end.

"I think I'm losing time somehow. I can't remember how I got here from school, and I think I might be sick. I'm sorry I'm such a mess, Jacinth."

Jacinth wasn't quite sure what she was even looking at. The creatures in the tanks looked like fat lizards with weird frilly bits off of their heads, and fins. She couldn't remember Lilith being much into animals, either. Did she have a pet?

Really, it was more than a little rude to spy on Lilith through her dreams. And it seemed like Lilith was close to realizing she was dreaming. Not many people who didn't go through Astromancy training could realize when they were losing time in-dream.

Maybe it was a bad idea to try to get some truth out of Lilith's dream body. It was entirely possible that she'd realize Jacinth was actually there, that Jacinth had trespassed, had doubted her, and had been a bad friend.

But.

But.

"I guess normally I don't care. But, these little guys were counting on me."

Jacinth nodded, like she understood. Pets weren't allowed in her house.

"What are they?" Jacinth asked.

"They're axolotls. I guess they're having trouble in the mundane world, too. They're endangered. That's partially due to illegal harvesting within the Magimundi. But, they also have certain needs. I've been thinking about getting one, but I guess I somehow agreed to take care of all of these. What was I thinking?" Lilith let her words trail off.

"I'm sure it will turn out somehow," Jacinth said.

The scent of loam grew. And then Jacinth noticed the water had come up to her ankles. Water poured out from the bookshelves and the sky in great waves. All of the bookshelves and towers of parchment sunk into a great stone floor. Water rose.

Jacinth found herself on top of a ladder, still barefoot, while what used to be the library folded up on itself. Then it sank, water and all, into that stone floor. She couldn't help but feel like, in a split second, she had been lifted onto that place. It was like when Jacinth's older cousins used to lift her up. Before that, too, was disallowed.

Again and again, this repeated itself. Jacinth would find Lilith within the dream, and then Lilith would subconsciously retreat. The dream world began to blur, like parts of drew in and out of focus. Lilith's body tried to wake itself up. So, Jacinth would pause, sinking into the background long enough for Lilith's body to stop struggling against the dream. And then, it would repeat.

For the third or fourth time, Jacinth paused in the dreamscape to stare at the shifting floor where Lilith had been. Still barefoot and clad in her nightgown, Jacinth paused and collected her thoughts. Lilith was running. Lilith was hiding. But, Jacinth wasn't entirely sure from what. All that she knew was that it was enough to make Lilith's body fight sleep and dreams. But, Lilith hadn't said anything out of the ordinary to Jacinth. It was like how things were during waking hours.

Jacinth tucked a lock of dark hair behind her ear. Then she turned around, and walked back towards the edge of the dream. She returned to her own dreams, with none of the answers that she had gone looking for.

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Magical Ethics was the largest class, in all three years. Students on the paths of Astromancy, Artificery, and Marshal were all crammed together first thing in the morning. All the other first year students were crammed into a later session.

A gangly young man slid into a seat next to Lilith and Jacinth. He seemed to be mostly made of leg and unruly black hair in messy curls. Jacinth pulled back, sinking as far into her seat as possible. The Magical Ethics classroom sported about two dozen long wooden tables, with either two or three seats at each. The professor's podium and a chalkboard took up the front of the classroom, along with several shelves stuffed full of curiosities that promised of lectures on research being revoked by various ethics committees.

"Morning, Creed," Lilith said.

"You know this guy?" Jacinth tried to whisper.

She knew of Jasper Creed, since they had gone to the same Primaschola. But, the mundane born student had enough of a reputation that Jacinth avoided him—without need of parental input.

"Sure do. He dated my sister for about two months this summer. My mother loves him," Lilith replied.

Jacinth mouthed the words, 'he dated Quorinth,' to herself twice, as if that would help her understand. But, no luck. She paused, opened her mouth, and then closed it once more. No. No matter how she tried to turn that one over in her mind, it just didn't fit.

"Morning, Lilith," Jasper said, putting a travel coffee cup on the table in front of him.

"What's the ratio on whipped cream to coffee there?" Lilith asked.

"The norm,"

"Like fifty-fifty?" Lilith replied.

"Hell yeah," Jasper replied, taking a long pull from the mug.

Jacinth's eyes felt like they might bug out of her head. Lilith knew how Jasper took his coffee?

Jasper was the type who showed up to Primaschola on the first day with a leather jacket too big for him. It was confiscated more times than Jacinth could remember, which only seemed to increase its value to Jasper. She remembered that he finally had to get rid of it in their last year, when he'd grown too large to fit into it and ripped the seams at the shoulders. He didn't seem like the type to drink anything other than black coffee. He didn't seem like the type who would drink anything but liquidized rocks and punk rock music, if he could get it. So Jacinth couldn't exactly imagine Jasper within five feet of Lilith's older sister, especially not in a context with hand holding or gentle smiles.

"And now you join the illustrious ranks of the Spurned by Quorinth Radcliffe-Forsythe club." Lilith said.

"Nice. When do all of us losers meet?"

"No clue. But word has it that my uncle, Professor Radcliffe, is the faculty advisor. So ask him," Lilith said.

Jacinth tried to run that new tidbit of information through her head as well. That was an easier thing to accept by far. Quorinth was perfect, in every way, as far as an Unsoiled Scion went. She'd been rejecting bouquets of flowers long before Jacinth had really understood the intentions behind said flowers. Or understood that she should be envious.

"That's the unsoiled for you. Related to half of campus," Jasper said with a half-laugh. But, he wasn't smiling.

Lilith pretended not to notice. Jacinth could tell that much. So what had happened over the summer to make Jasper Creed on friendly terms with Lilith? As far as Jacinth could remember, they had hardly spoken during Primaschola. What had changed?

One last minute pile of students shuffled through the classroom door, followed by a professor wearing an especially fancy waistcoat and tassled hat.

The Ethics professor called the classroom to order, quieting any last minute conversations. Class was in session, and there was no time for Jacinth to consider the various things she had just learned about her classmates.

Magical Ethics class focused on discussion, with essays as the primary form of homework. The professor announced that one essay would be due each week, on the subject of conflicting viewpoints in an ethical dilemma. This was in addition to reading, essay exams, and journal entries. Journal entries were due at the end of every week--but were expected to have at least five entries regarding everyday observations regarding ethics.

Maybe the professor got that idea from the Divinations professor. There was always a perpetual dream journal assignment in Divinations. Jasper Creed remembered many a lunch spent falsifying dreams that the professors at P2A4 would maybe accept. Jacinth remembered very early learning to falsify dreams so the professors wouldn't become concerned or frightened by her real ones. Lilith remembered often writing 'I didn't sleep' over several nights per week during primaschola, and sometimes labeling the dreams she did have with 'my temperature was 103F, so I'm not sure if this means anything.'

Lilith took turns exchanging glances with Jasper and Jacinth. Of course, Jacinth wasn't going to reveal any overt feelings about what would probably end up being a second journaling assignment every day. She was too bottled up to do that. But, Jasper seemed to fall forward onto the table in front of them with a tortured expression. Then, he slowly oozed backwards like a snail retreating back into its shell before raising his hand high in the air and speaking.

"Professor, in the spirit of class discussions, I propose a topic for today," he said.

The Professor paused, seeming to be taken aback. He mentally wrestled with the question of whether or not this was going to be a legitimate discussion question, or some smart-ass attempt to get out of homework.

"Indeed. Please go on. And your name?"

"Jasper Creed, Professor. And I would like to discuss the concept of homework being at cross purposes with learning. If you consider the academic structure of both the mundane and magical societies of Scandinavia--" Jasper began.

Both. Professor Jareño mentally sighed. It was both.

The worst part was that Creed was knowledgeable enough about the subject to make several legitimate points--which would only encourage the other students to start up. And while Professor Jareño himself was not unopposed to that particular direction, the Magimundi had certain standards enforced by the Department of Education. The current Marshals in charge of that governmental body had beliefs about grades that could not be backed up by documented assignments. Thus, Professor Jareño found himself having to mentally prepare to start in defending that particular piece of federal mandate.

Several minutes in, more students began joining in the conversation. They were almost overwhelmingly on Jasper's side of the debate. Someone even managed to pull out some statistics, and damn if the professor could figure out where from. The temperature in the classroom rose by several degrees, indicative of the ferocity sleepy students could muster when attempting debate or negotiations for more free time.

Damn these smart students could really put you in a tight spot sometimes. How long could he really let this go on?

"Settle down, students. Settle down. Unfortunately, you can convince me all you like. But, unless you can at least convince the Arch Justice of Solaris, then I'm afraid that you're stuck with the homework," Professor Jareño said.

Groans and dissatisfied chatter swept over the class, but then ebbed away like a slow tide. Most of them knew it was a long shot, anyway. At least they tried. Copies of the syllabus went around the classroom. Several students began copying down important dates into their planners and notebooks. Lilith and Jacinth were among them.

It was only after the class settled into the lecture that the last student made her appearance. The classroom door crept open, followed by a sunkissed hand. A blond student with long hair in loose curls, and a cherubic face, did her best to sneak into the classroom without causing much notice. So, naturally she looked like one of the bigger weirdos due to her effort.

"Is that you, Miss Lafayette?" Professor Jareño asked, barely interrupting his lecture.

The blond student paused, cheeks growing red as she paused to curtsey.

"Yes, professor. I'm sorry I'm so late--" she began.

"Just take a seat. There should be some extra syllabi around here somewhere. And you don't have to curtsey. This isn't Imperial Magischola," Professor Jareño replied, then turned back to write some notes on the blackboard.

Jacinth looked between Lilith and the newcomer--who squirreled her way into an empty seat at the back of the room. She had to be careful. Her mother wouldn't approve of her making friends with a Lafayette--not after what happened. And no doubt, Arista and the Lafayettes would be a bad influence on Lilith. That is, if Jacinth wanted to keep trying to keep Lilith as a friend. Or whatever they were. The point was, if Lilith was the best friend material around, then Jacinth couldn't let a chance like that slip by.

And if Jacinth was going to be able to keep Lilith as a friend, then there were certain requirements that had to be met. First and foremost, Jacinth's parents had to approve. And for that to happen, Jacinth had to make sure Lilith didn't go down the path of the Lafayettes and go too liberal to be ignored. So, in the end, she'd have to live up to her parents' expectations and figure out how to be a better influence on Lilith.

Maybe Jacinth couldn't do it for herself. Or, just herself. She couldn't do it without the promise of not being lonely.

"You there, Akeldama? Class is over. You'll be late for the next one. I need to get going, since my next class is all the way on the other side of campus," Lilith's voice snapped Jacinth out of her thoughts.

"Oh. Yes. I'm sorry. I was just thinking. I'll be fine," Jacinth said.

But, for the promise of a friend...then maybe she could muster the willpower to figure out how to meet her parents' expectations.

Lilith paused, and looked like she might say something. But, she seemed to decide against it. She finished packing her black leather shoulder bag and walked out of the classroom.