Nar from the fire III

Unfortunately, as Ren suspected, the time to reveal the truth about the previous night's failure came all too soon.

During his morning meditation and then at breakfast his peers gave him curious glances, not daring to ask questions for fear of being overheard by the adults.

The older boys, needless to say, ignored Ren and the other younger disciples and preferred not to meddle in those matters, especially since it was such childish nonsense. And yet, even the most mature ones were still teenage kids, and they couldn't help being at least a bit curious, even if they maintained a facade of indifference and aloofness.

The younger ones, on the other hand, were too impatient to wait till class ended. While taking their seats in the classroom, they surrounded Ren and finally asked him what had happened the night before.

Ren was not a liar: he knew how to lie and did it when needed, or as a joke, but he didn't really have the heart to lie to his friends, therefore, with a downcast look, he had to admit his unsuccess.

The kids were disappointed: they had all hoped to see the famous Chinese fireworks.

Ren was still determined to please them at least with a good story, so he began a detailed account of the events that had occurred the previous night, adding a little spice to his exploits.

Fiamma listened in silence, occasionally throwing him a warning glance as if to make him understand that he was gilding the lily a little bit. The guards had become ten instead of two, the warehouses were "dozens", while in reality they had seen just six and inspected only two.

Reading his friend's glance Ren tried to hold back his enthusiasm, and continued the story, the kids were hanging from his lips.

When he got to the point in the story where he had to tell how he had deceived the boy to save himself, Ren hesitated for a moment, his gaze fell on the ribbon he still had wrapped around his wrist and swallowed.

Then, with a triumphant smile, he told his audacity to his listeners who burst into a chorus of "Oh" and "cool!"

"This time I didn't find what I was looking for but, my troth, I'll go back to that Villa!" Ren swore solemnly.

Only Nasir noticed a hint of indecision in that brazen bravado.

The Master made his entrance and the classroom fell into respectful silence, although a sense of excitement filled the air among the young alchemists: Ren's promise had left them thrilled.

The boring lessons of Master Guglielmo were enough to extinguish their fervent spirits. All morning they did nothing but listen to the story of an alchemist who had lived a thousand years earlier in Greece, and not much was revealed to them about the man's alchemical practices.

Instead, they had to put up with an account of an almost ordinary life spent studying and generically "practicing Alchemy", without being explained to them what this practice consisted of.

By lunchtime, Ren's promise, which animated their hearts in the morning, had almost been forgotten, buried underneath boredom and the prospect of an unreasonable number of pages to study and copy for the next day.

The boys and girls in Nar attended the theory classes together but were separated for the practical ones. They did not practice together with weapons or in anything that involved physical contact; therefore, in the afternoon Fiamma had to part, leaving Ren and Nasir on themselves, and they rarely met before dinner.

Ren loved company, was naturally inclined to befriend everyone, and his cheerful and lively appearance generally guaranteed him success in this area, but in reality, he hardly ever talked seriously.

His mouth was always busy talking nonsense, but he kept the thoughts that really mattered safe within himself.

Nasir knew him too well not to have noticed his tendency. And although he was too young to know what to do to get his friend to speak truthfully, he really was a very observing, bright-minded kid: it was often enough for him to look closely at Ren to guess what the problem was.

"You didn't tell the others about the ribbon." Nasir noticed, they were sitting on one of the marble benches in the cloister, trying to catch their breath between exercises.

Even if they wore only light training clothes, the heat was stifling, and the boys took turns plunging their heads into a large bucket full of water to cool off.

Ren, as a true disciple of Nar's school, got hot particularly quickly, and ran to stick his head in the water even before his hair had dried out. Now he was sitting next to Nasir, with his head tilted back to enjoy the sensation of the drops of cool water sliding down his hot back.

Nasir, on the other hand, had cooled with water only his forehead, he didn't like to sweat but even less he enjoyed the sensation of wet clothes against his sweat-soaked skin: it made him feel dirty.

"Uh?" Ren asked, without straightening up.

Nasir touched the green silk ribbon wrapped around his friend's wrist. "This. You didn't talk to the others about it" He explained himself.

Ren followed his friend's movement with his eyes up to his wrist, then he seemed to understand, at the end he shrugged.

"It's nothing important." He said, squinting to enjoy a sudden gust of fresh wind, Nasir did the same but didn't want to drop the conversation.

"If it's nothing why are you taking it with you?"

Nasir chuckled. "Actually, I forgot." He answered cheerfully. "But it was good to tie this ribbon to my wrist, it will serve as a reminder that I am in debt to the owner."

Nasir didn't understand.

"I tore it from that kid's robe by mistake." Ren explained.

"How nice of you. You threw him to the wolves and broke his clothes too. It's precious silk, you'd better give it back to him." Nasir noted.

"Wolves seems a rather excessive description." Ren chuckled. "Anyway, don't worry, I'll go look for him tomorrow, apologize to him, and give him back the ribbon."

Nasir nodded in approval. "Let's hope he's not too angry with you, you have really wronged him." He murmured.

Ren did not answer, and so Nasir realized that what had troubled him during that day must be guilt.

"Let's say it: it is a weird coincidence." Nasir noted. "Another kid tried to get something from that villa at the same time as you and Fiamma."

Ren opened his eyes. "I don't know if he was looking for something." He objected.

"What else could he have been up to?" Nasir asked.

Ren shrugged, and looked at the tape again. "Whatever he wanted, he didn't get it because of me." He observed. But then he realized that it was probably just a kid like them who had gone there looking for trouble and to steal some precious object.

Ren got up and held out a hand to his friend and help him to stand up, then they picked up their canes from the ground and went back to training.