It wasn’t until I was getting ready to make one of my regular trips to the roof of Mains that I realized the significance of something Kilvin had said to me. If the majority of the bone-tar had gone down the grates….
Auri. She lived in the tunnels underneath the University. I bolted to the Medica, moving as quickly as I could despite my weary, footsore state. Halfway there I had a stroke of luck and spotted Mola crossing the courtyard. I shouted and waved to get her attention.
Mola eyed me suspiciously as I approached. “You’re not going to serenade me, are you?”
I shifted my lute self-consciously and shook my head. “I need a favor,” I said. “I have a friend that might be hurt.”
She gave a weary sigh. “You should…”
“I can’t go to the Medica for help.” I let my anxiety creep into my voice. “Please, Mola? I promise it won’t take more than a half hour or so, but we have to go now. I’m worried I might be too late already.”
Something in my tone convinced her. “What’s the matter with your friend?”
“Maybe burns, maybe acid, maybe smoke. Like the people who were caught in the Fishery fire yesterday. Maybe worse.”
Mola started walking. “I’ll get my kit from my room.”
“I’ll wait here if you don’t mind,” I took a seat on a nearby bench. “I’ll just slow you down.”
I sat and tried to ignore my various burns and bruises, and when Mola returned I led her to the southwestern side of Mains where there were a trio of decorative chimneys. “We can use these to get on the roof.”
She gave me a curious look but seemed content to hold onto her questions for now.
I made my slow way up the chimney, using the protruding pieces of fieldstone as hand-and footholds. This was one of the easiest ways onto the roof of Mains. I’d chosen it partly because I wasn’t sure of Mola’s climbing ability, and partly because my own injuries had left me feeling less than athletic.
Mola joined me on the roof. She still wore her dark uniform from the Medica, but had added a grey cloak from her room. I took a roundabout path so we could stay on the safer sections of Mains. It was a cloudless night, and there was a sliver of moon to light our way.
“If I didn’t know better,” Mola said as we made our way around a tall brick chimney. “I’d think that you were luring me somewhere quiet for a sinister purpose.”
“What makes you think I’m not?” I asked lightly.
“You don’t seem like the type,” she said. “Besides, you can barely walk. If you tried anything, I’d just push you off the roof.”
“Don’t spare my feelings,” I said with a chuckle. “Even if I weren’t half-crippled, you could still throw me off this roof.”
I stumbled a little on an unseen ridge and nearly fell because my battered body was slow to respond. I sat on a piece of roof slightly higher than the rest and waited for the momentary dizziness to pass.
“Are you alright?” Mola asked.
“Probably not.” I pushed myself to my feet. “It’s just over this next roof,” I said. “It might be best if you stood back a ways and stayed quiet. Just in case.”
I made my way to the edge of the roof. I looked down at the hedges and the apple tree. The windows were dark.
“Auri?” I called softly. “Are you there?” I waited, growing more nervous by the second. “Auri, are you hurt?”
Nothing. I began to curse under my breath.
Mola crossed her arms. “Right, I think I’ve been plenty patient here. Care to tell me what’s going on?”
“Follow me and I’ll explain.” I headed for the apple tree and began to climb carefully down. I walked around the hedge to the iron grate. The ammonia smell of bone-tar wafted up from the grate, faint but persistent. I tugged on the grate, and it lifted a few inches before catching on something. “I made a friend a few months ago,” I said, nervously sliding my hand between the bars. “She lives down here. I’m worried that she might be hurt. A lot of the reagent went down the drains from the Fishery.”
Mola was silent for a while. “You’re serious.” I felt around in the dark under the grate, trying to figure out how Auri kept it closed. “What sort of person would live down there?”
“A frightened person,” I said. “A person who’s afraid of loud noises, and people, and the open sky. It took me nearly a month to coax her out of the tunnels, let alone get close enough to talk.”
Mola sighed. “If you don’t mind I’ll have a seat.” She walked over to the bench. “I’ve been on my feet all day.”
I continued to feel around under the grate, but try as I might, I couldn’t find a clasp anywhere. Growing increasingly frustrated, I grabbed the grate and tugged on it hard, again and again. It made several echoing metallic thumps but didn’t come free.
“Kvothe?” I looked up to the edge of the roof and saw Auri standing there, a silhouette against the night sky, her fine hair made a cloud around her head.
“Auri!” The tension poured out of me, leaving me feeling weak and rubbery. “Where have you been?”
“There were clouds,” she said simply as she walked around the edge of the roof toward the apple tree. “So I went looking for you on top of things. But the moon’s coming out, so I came back.”
Auri scampered down the tree, then pulled up short when she saw Mola’s cloaked form sitting on the bench.
“I brought a friend to visit, Auri,” I said in my gentlest tones. “I hope you don’t mind.”
There was a long pause. “Is he nice?”
“It’s a she. And yes, she’s nice.”
Auri relaxed a bit and came a few steps closer to me. “I brought you a feather with the spring wind in it, but since you were late…” she looked at me gravely, “you get a coin instead.” She held it out at arm’s length, pinched between her thumb and forefinger. “It will keep you safe at night. As much as anything can, that is.” It was shaped like an Aturan penance piece, but it gleamed silver in the moonlight. I’d never seen a coin like it.
Kneeling, I opened my lute case and brought out a small bundle. “I’ve got some tomatoes, beans, and something special.” I held out the small sack I’d spent most of my money on two days ago, before all my troubles had started. “Sea salt.”
Auri took it, and peered inside the small leather sack. “Why this is lovely, Kvothe. What lives in the salt?”
Trace minerals, I thought. Chromium, bassal, malium, iodine…everything your body needs but probably can’t get from apples and bread and whatever you manage to scrounge up when I can’t find you.
“The dreams of fish,” I said. “And sailor’s songs.”
Auri nodded, satisfied, and sat down, spreading out the small cloth and arranging her food with the same care as always. I watched her as she began to eat, dipping a green bean into the salt before taking a bite. She didn’t seem hurt, but it was hard to tell by the pale moonlight. I needed to be sure. “Are you okay, Auri?”
She cocked her head at me, curious.