It was surreal for her to wander through her days like a regular student, acting as if her biggest concerns were finishing her homework on time or helping Jordan and Bear avoid detention. Her instructors, at least, were treating her like a normal student regardless of her purported role in the upcoming war.
But she wasn’t a normal student. No longer did she have fears of getting beaten up in Combat, prodded by Finn’s Taserstick in PE, or being trapped by a snare in SAS. Her Meyarin abilities made her Gamma-level Archery targets almost too easy, while Equestrian Skills left her suppressing tears from the acute realisation that riding a horse was nothing like flying the skies on the back of Xira.
Somehow, though, she managed to play her role perfectly. Like her peers, Alex scrunched up her nose when she learned the health benefits of Korsobear droppings in Species Distinction; she ingested different toxic berries in Medical Science and then concocted their corresponding antidotes; and she hid her laughter along with everyone else when Fitzy failed to notice that he’d set his moustache on fire during Chemistry. In Core Skills, Alex encouraged her classmates when they struggled to control their gifts, while in History and SOSAC, she spent her time trying not to not show how mind-numbingly restless she was.
The drain of acting like a normal student was taking its toll on her. But that was mostly because, with every passing day, Alex was growing more and more concerned about what Aven was doing—or rather, what he wasn’t doing.
Although Niyx assured her daily that the new ruler of Meya was too busy reacquainting himself with his city to make his next move, Alex wasn’t convinced. Aven had spent millennia planning his overthrow of the Meyarin throne. It didn’t make sense that now, when he was exactly where he’d always wanted to be, he was willing to take his time settling in rather than utilising the formidable forces he had at his disposal.
To avoid lingering on her fears, Alex kept her mind on the upcoming weekend. At Hunter’s suggestion, on Saturday she would be visiting the Undersea Islands—the territory of the Flips—and afterwards, Maroo—the treetop city of the Jarnocks. Presuming things went well enough that she and her friends returned in one piece, they would tackle the Shadow Walkers and Dayriders the following day.
Until then, Alex had to figure out how to balance everything else in her life—something that was much more challenging than she would have liked.
There were only three reasons why she was able to get through the week with her sanity intact. The first was her friends, who offered their silent support when she went on—and on—about how concerned, frustrated and powerless she felt while she waited for the time to come when she could act. Jordan, Bear and D.C. must have heard the same ravings from her every day, and yet they didn’t snap at her, they didn’t avoid her and they didn’t rebuke her impatience. Instead, they listened. They offered moral support in the form of hugs and comfort food. And they reminded her that no matter what happened, they would be with her through it all.
It helped that there was another bright light in the darkness thanks to her friends. And that was because something had happened with Jordan early on in the week. Alex wasn’t sure what, exactly, but the shadows under his eyes were fading, his overzealous appetite had returned and, most notably, his smiles weren’t as fake anymore. It was as if a weight had been lifted from him, like he’d found some inner peace to act as a balm against what he’d been through.
That balm may have been in the form of a fiery red-headed princess, because the one thing Alex did know was that Jordan and D.C. had finally admitted their feelings for each other—to each other. The two of them were now joined at the hip—and the lips, more often than Bear and Alex cared to witness. A hint of pain still swirled in Jordan’s eyes when Alex looked at him sometimes, usually when he didn’t know anyone was watching, but for the most part, it seemed as if he had begun to recover from his time with Aven, inasmuch as he could.
Alex had no doubt that D.C.’s continued devotion was largely responsible for the change in him, for helping him step out of the darkness he’d been so determined to make them all think didn’t exist. It helped Alex feel less guilty that her time and attention were divided elsewhere, knowing that her friends were there for each other just as much as they were for her.
The second reason she was able to maintain her sanity was because of her daily training with Niyx. While his sessions were more ruthless than ever before, every morning when he hauled her out of bed and whisked her up to the top of Mount Paedris was another morning where she increased in strength and skill—which meant one more notch of confidence in her ability to go up against Aven and his Claimed warriors when the time came.
Noticeable improvement or not, Alex still had to rely on a steady supply of laendra to survive their workouts, as well as to provide the energy she needed to get through a full day of classes afterwards. But ingesting the sweet flower was hardly a sacrifice given how pleasant it tasted and how good she felt afterwards. That, and having her own personal stockpile meant she spent less time in the Med Ward with Fletcher after some of her more injury-prone classes, something for which both she and the doctor were grateful.
The third and final reason she was able to stay relatively sound of mind was due to her nightly training with Athora and the fact that he claimed she was already making discernible progress.
She had feared after their first two encounters that his continued tasks would all be just as extreme and time-consuming as the lake and air-platform tests, but that wasn’t the case. The challenges he set her were varied and, to Alex’s thinking, utterly bizarre, but she stuck by his one rule and didn’t question him.
She didn’t question him when he had her stand on one leg with a banana resting on her head for as long as she could hold her balance, and then made her repeat the task but while hopping.
She didn’t question him when he had her roll what had to have been at least a hundred balls of yarn, before unrolling them and then re-rolling them once again.
She didn’t question him when she had to spend hours putting together a jigsaw puzzle where the seemingly unending pieces were all completely blank with no distinctive marks whatsoever.
And she didn’t question him when he gave her a book and told her to read aloud, but ordered that she do so by shifting the letters of each word to be spelled backwards. That had been an arduous task, and by the end Alex had been very tempted to mumble, “Ereht dah retteb eb a tniop ot lla siht, uoy suoiretsym, ylkcirp nam.”