June – Chapter Ten

As I listened to my grandmother recall her most precious memories, of her husband and her son and her coworkers, I felt myself becoming more comfortable with the information I was learning. It started off as a lot to take in, and it definitely still was, but after the initial shocks came I felt myself lose that shocked chip on my shoulder. I was the grandchild of Divinity, technical blood relative to both superpowers of this world, and probably could do whatever I wanted with those kinds of revelations. I could call in any favor I wanted, I could demand rightfully owed land and title in the Empire, and I could accelerate my education by force if I wanted to. All of this because my grandmother would vouch for my credentials.

But that would be the easy thing to do, and even before Sir Mirroheart took me from my home yesterday I refused to take the easy way out of anything. There was a certain satisfaction, even, in knowing I had all these easy ways out of hard work and I would earn my own place anyway. Certainly, I felt my shock and the magnitude of the world I would be joining soon, but at the same time, I felt a renewed sense of pride in my own actions; I worked hard to get to Magnum, I would continue to work hard to become a Peacemaker, and I would decide my own inheritance in the world if I truly wanted it, but I doubted it would be necessary.

“Hey, are you still awake? You look like you’re struggling.” I heard grandmother say, as I felt a small nudge at my shoulder. I realized then that I became so immersed in my own satisfaction that I’d looked to daydream a bit, and nervously apologized.

“I’m alright. I think. Probably.” I confirmed. “Actually, I really appreciate you telling me all this. It makes working hard even more rewarding when you know you’re doing it despite birthright, I think.”

“Definitely.” she leaned back to her own spot on the couch. “I can’t understand people who just want to live and not do anything with it. It’s like, congratulations, you’re set for life. Now what? Your hobbies eventually get boring if you do them too much, and there’s only so many times you can travel before you’ve seen it all. What fills in those gaps?”

“Some people just want to exist I guess.” I shrugged. “That’s never been me, and it sounds like that’s never been anyone in this family, too.”

“Well, my nephew-in-law was a bit lazy, but that’s neither here nor there.” she returned my shrug. “Anyway, I’ve taken your time long enough. You’re in my class, so we’ll be seeing each other around, but why don’t you go and explore the city a bit more? It’s still a new day.”

“Is it? I was out cold for a little bit.” I joked, standing to bow. “Thank you so much for this, grandmother. I can’t explain it, but I feel so much more energized now than I was before.”

“Glad to hear it. Come on, I’ll see you out to the University District. Technically you don’t have the paperwork to be in the Tower District yet so you’d be in big trouble if anyone saw you without a chaperone.”

“Sounds good.”

We moved through a rather well built building, which I assumed was the case considering how nice the common room was, until we got to the doorway at the other side of the same floor, across two hallways and past some stairs that had hand painted murals depicting a six winged, green haired woman and a white haired child, one was holding a planet and the other was crushing something to dust, yet, in between them was a whole surface of another planet. I assumed that this was actually a mural of Saoirse and grandma. On the opposite wall, I saw a rather beautiful looking shield with Imperial sigils engraved into the face, trimmed with some white jewels and thicker steel in the shape of a standard kite shield. It was aged, but not rotten, and the metal wasn’t rusted either. Small signs of wear and tear, scuff marks from where blades had shattered against it, indentations of where arrows attempted to penetrate it, and all sorts of other battle scars.

Once we arrived at the entry, she opened the door for me to let me out and at once I realized it was still early as she said, the light blinding me reminding me of yesterday when Sir Mirroheart did the same thing. The light reminded me of my new hairstyle, and I immediately took a bit of a step back.

“So, what should I say about this?” I asked, pointing at my hair. She teased a hand up to her chin in pretend thought before shrugging.

“People develop affinities at all ages, so it’s not that weird in all honesty. Plus it’s just a strand or two, You can brush it over if you’re worried about your fashion.”

She knew exactly what I was going for, and hit me with it. Her direct approach was charming until it was pointed at your own insecurities. I swallowed my nerves and nodded, stepping out into the Tower District with her following behind and locking her door.

“Oh, Drey lives down the road. Want to give him a visit?” she asked. It was tempting, but I shook my head.

“I feel like visiting him this soon after saying goodbye would be a sign of weakness. I’ll see him around campus.”

“Fair enough. Let’s get back to the gate then.”

The Tower District was gorgeous, beyond anything I believed possible for humanity to construct. I thought that was the case about the Outer Wall, but it absolutely was the case about this area, which was like standing atop a mountain and gazing down at the world below. I could see so much from up here between buildings – The Market District below me, far away and feeling like it would take days to get there, was a bit one. Beyond that, I could see the continent behind me, and if I turned the right direction I could see another mountain in the distance that was emitting an ominous dark cloud with the faintest signs of civilization leading in that direction. Looking beyond that, I could almost make out a great beach to the north, but this platform was not at the optimal spot to see that directly. The faintest visuals of that aside, all of it was microscopic in comparison to the Tower that the district was named for. It reached beyond the clouds, with walls of the same ivory color as the walls outside. I couldn’t make out where the top of the tower might be, regardless of breaks in the clouds that gave me a brief look upward.

“Don’t look up too long, you’ll get dizzy.” I heard grandmother say, snapping me back to reality. 

“Thanks. It’s just, this is massive.” I was so impressed that my vocabulary failed me. She laughed.

“Yes, yes it is.” she folded her arms behind her head as we continued, her leading the way down a new path that seemed to be the main road. I noticed it was much more open and quiet here, with streets as wide as a city block from the lower sectors that had streams of water running down the middle of them, bridges to cross over the water scattered about every few buildings. I could see the water splitting into smaller channels further down by what I assumed was the stairway down to the gate, which was confirmed the moment I noticed the platform we were on disappear. Grandmother didn’t live very far from the edge, it seemed. At this edge, it became even more apparent just how high up we were – The walls of the gate reached parallel to the platform I was on, as did the gates from the Market District and University District, though there was a secondary gate to get between those instead of a sheer staircase like there was here. I wondered about the design of that briefly before realizing it didn’t matter too much and was probably just because they trusted those up here to not be dumb and jump down.

“Once we’re through the checkpoint, I’ll leave you to it, alright?” she asked. I nodded.

“Where’s the office from here? That will help me get my bearings.”

She pointed off to my left from the position we were at, and I could make out a few things I thought I recognized, though it may have been placebo. I did see a similarly bland building in comparison to the iron fenced housing that surrounded it, and decided she must have been pointing to that. If I followed my walk in reverse from the office to my dorm, I could almost just barely make out where it was, I thought. 

“Got it. That’s not too bad.”

We descended the stairs in relative silence, I assumed she stayed quiet to let me continue gawking like an idiot at the view. That’s fine, I felt like gawking like an idiot at the time anyway. The stairs took us a few minutes to descend, which I expected considering there had to be more than several hundred of them. At the gate, we were greeted by someone who seemed to just nod and let us pass, wearing the same uniform as the others. I didn’t get a good look at her face, but I assumed grandmother knew her, because she called back.

“Thanks Saki! Big help today..”

“Friend of yours?” I asked. She nodded.

“You tend to make friends with the gatekeepers pretty quick if you move around as much as I do. I know a lot of them by name now – Saki, Jhordan, Jericho, Kiara, Scudlington, Zephyra, Corwin…”

She started listing all kinds of names of people I’d never heard of, and seemed to lose herself in the topic. I coughed to snap her out of it and began my goodbyes,

“Well, I can’t thank you enough for all the stories you told me today. I’ll see you in class, right?”

“Me and Tariah, yes.” she waved as she turned to head back up. “Don’t get lost out there!”

A few moments later, I found myself lost. The buildings were all blending together more so than yesterday, and the crowds that began to grow the deeper in I went did nothing to help. I decided to try and follow the water patterning, which helped a bit, but not so much that I didn’t wind up lost again after a few moments. I remember thinking to myself that this would be a pretty common event until I got used to the environment, and that helped me stay calm and make the decision to ask someone for directions. I decided to grab the nearest person’s attention, this fairly tall woman with blue hair.

“Excuse me” I said, realizing that wasn’t very specific. “Um, blue?”

While I expected that to not help at all, she did in fact turn to notice me.

“So that’s where that came from.” she said, I assume to herself in response to my question. “What’s up? Lost?”

“Yeah, I’m trying to find the Ouzo building.” I decided I’d start by getting back and exploring from there in little set trips.

“Oh, no worries. That’s not too far.” she pulled us both aside into one of the more quiet streets. “From here, head west after the next two blocks. Should be right there.”

“Thanks!” I shook her hand. “I’m June by the way.”

“I know.” she said, quietly leaving me there before disappearing into the crowd. Not only did this serve to confuse me further, but it also kind of scared me. I decided news of my collapse must have spread a bit further than I anticipated, and ran with it, as thinking that way calmed my sudden tension. I followed her directions very closely, having to make one route change due to how crowded the roads were, but eventually I made it to the rough location she stated and found that it wasn’t what she said it would be. Instead, I noticed it reminded me a lot of the area before the Market District that I entered from. This would mean I was very far from my building, but it also meant Key lived nearby. I decided I could ask her for help instead. She lived nearby, and pointed out her home to me yesterday, so I was able to find it being right in the same area anyway. It looked just like everyone else’s home, but that was to be expected.

I knocked gently on the door, hoping not to disturb whoever was inside before realizing that I was absolutely supposed to disturb them in order to get their attention. I was about to knock harder, before the door swung open from the inside. I saw Key there, wearing something very similar to what she had on yesterday and probably surprised to see me here, since she immediately had to double-take and shake off some sort of look she gave me.

“June, what brings ya ‘ere?” she asked. I looked away in embarrassment this time.

“I got lost on my way back home after getting my uniform info. Where do I live again?” I asked in an almost pitiful tone. She laughed it off and grabbed a bottle from behind the door frame, filled with some sort of brown liquid, and stepped outside.

“A’ight, I’ll getcha home, butcha gonna explain th’hair as we go.”

“Oh, I uh-” I was about to say I met my Divine grandmother and realized that might be bad. “I just woke up this way, I’m not sure what’s going on.”

“An’ the truth?” she pressed. Busted.

“Ah… About that…” I swallowed hard. “I met my grandmother, and this happened after I woke up. I really want to say more but it’s not a good idea in the open.”

“A’ight, a’ight, fine, le’s go. Tell me when we get t’ya house.”

“Deal.” 

With that, she started leading the way, and I followed closely. She sped up every so often which I had no trouble dealing with, but it was especially jarring around corners when I thought I’d lost her. Instead, I’d round the corner to see that she was turned to face me, hand up just in case a crowd passed through, and she was always pointing to a street sign above me when she did so. I realized she wasn’t just leading, but teaching as well. Of course, I thought, it made sense that this street connected to that one. How could I have gotten lost when things were laid out this simply? The more I learned, the more a fool I felt myself, but also the more thankful I was to Key for being available. I worried that I may have interrupted work for her, or some off-hours school work or something, but I never got the chance to ask because we arrived as soon as I had the worry. I could tell it was my dorm because of Ragnis, leaving from the direction we came from. She waved to me and pointed at her own hair, and mouthed what I imagined was ‘explain’ silently as we passed each other. After that, it was just a matter of getting inside.

“A’ight, now, le’s hear-”

“I’m  not interrupting you or anything am I? I’m sorry.” I blurted out before she could finish her sentence.

“Nah, jus’ tell me wha’s up.”

“Okay, so, don’t spread this around but…”