A very strange morning

By when the rumor made it to Elia's ears, it had spread through the academy and even the younger population of the city. It had by then drawn itself several faces but what wound its way to Elia was one that favored her the most.

She woke up feeling strange. She slept late last night, only minutes before midnight, and was woken in a few hours by the nightmare. She had some water and returned to the table where the textbook was open to the unusual rune she had been studying earlier. It was made up of three concentric circles with alien characters inscribed between the rings. It was especially unique in the company of the sharper and more angular runes that were more common. Last she remembered, she was mystified. She woke though with a certain clarity, which was confusing in itself because she couldn't know whether the epiphany came while she slept or was a gift from the nightmare.

She had no classes today, so she wasn't wanting of time. She walked out of her dorm wearing an expression that was a mix of amused and confused, but looked more like a blank face. That probably played a role too. She didn't go far down the corridor when her sensitive ears caught the whispers. When she heard her name mentioned, she paused. And thus, the most outlandish tale flowed into her ears. Before she could stop herself, she was headed over toward the girls she only knew by face. Luckily she had no intention of stopping in the first place.

"What is this you were saying," Elia asked.

The three girls who were two years younger were scared stiff because Elia did look rather terrifying with her severe expression and wide eyes. It was that same fear that came to their rescue, pulling their nerves taut and forcing the words out.

Elia listened carefully to the end when she paused as if frozen stiff for a while, and then walked away. She was gone some distance before she burst out laughing. She was tickled. But her juniors who didn't know her well were convinced she was laughing out of anger. They had never been as afraid as they were at that moment and they had never run as fast in their lives as they did at that moment running away from there. Unaware of any of this, Elia laughed all the way back to her dorm having completely forgotten her purpose in leaving in the first place. It didn't matter though because she was revitalized by the round of laughter.

She sat herself back at the table and continued studying the unusual rune. Such was the grammar of the old runes that each was a complete unit in itself. Ideas were constructed as buildings were, by putting together individual and separate runes. Completeness was more important than flow, which the biggest difference between the old runes and the Word. This made it easy to study runes. Like right now Elia could spend all of her attention on the single unusual rune. Though slow, the pen in her hand was continuous without pause or break as she put all the thoughts bubbling in her head into the notebook without filter. She called this the first stage – the expression. She let the inspiration flow and she rode along wherever it went. Most of the time, by the end she would have forgotten the beginning. That would be the start of the second stage – the consolidation. Today was definitely a strange morning. Hours later, she still wasn't done. She was so engrossed in her thoughts, she lost all comprehension of the passing time and her surroundings. When she finally stopped, her hand was hurting so bad she couldn't grip the pen, her stomach was screaming of hunger, her eyes were flailing like a feather in wind, and she couldn't be more tired. It was past noon and the room was bright as the outdoors with daylight flooding in through the open windows. And the visitor was lying on her bed like she owned it. Elia said nothing, even smiled, for it was her beloved elder sister – Amaya.

"I take it you aren't bothered by the rumors," Amaya said knowingly.

"I only heard of one in the morning," Elia answered truthfully. "I was deceived and as an expression of my anger I'm breaking off the engagement. That's the one I heard. What are the others?"

"That's the gist. They are all variations of the same. Franz cheated. You're hurt and angry. The engagement is dissolved. I take it you're hearing all of this only now. And you aren't affected. Good. I'm still curious. Why?"

Amaya shifted to make space for her little sister. Amaya was tall and graceful, traits she inherited in full from their mother and the head of the Greene family, Natalia. Elia was smallish in comparison and though prettier she didn't leave as much an impression. Together, the sisters were delightful, for their love for each other enveloped them like a cloud that couldn't be hidden beneath any sky. Elia grabbed her sister's hand for a pillow and nestled into her sister's ample bosom for warmth. And then, with her eyes closed, she answered lightly.

"They should stop before going too far. Whoever is responsible has no idea who they're messing with. It's funny to me, so far. And I don't have to be concerned because they'll take care of it."

Amaya smiled fondly as she caressed her little sister's back, lulling the girl who would always be little in her eyes to sleep. She only allowed a short nap though. There were pressing things to be done, first among them being getting some food into that starving stomach. She slapped her sister's back hard enough to sting and wake the sleeping girl but short of bringing tears.

"Let's get something to eat," Amaya said to her sister who was pouting. And then, not allowing Elia the chance to complain, she pulled her to her feet and dragged her out. They were going to their favorite restaurant for lunch.