Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 10 ==
''Fannara''

We left the caves and headed back to campus soon after the whole incident. Ari sat next to me on the transport but kept her silence. Everyone around us was whispering about what had happened. I couldn’t have imagined my healing would cause such an uproar. It made sense that my magic would work differently; I wasn’t Eldran, and they still were going crazy over it. 

I tried to hide inside myself as the whispering grew louder. Trying not to make it obvious, I started rubbing my ears and softly humming to myself, partially blocking out the noise. My attempts at being discrete failed on Arienna. 

“So, Fannara, what kind of music do you like?” She pulled out her telecom as she asked me. I was a bit confused. 

“Music?”

Ari nodded. “Yeah, music.” 

“Well, I don’t really know.” I tried to think of something. “On Alithos, we had our Past Songs, and only those anointed sang them.” 

She cocked her head. “Past Songs? What are those?”

I couldn’t stop the small scoff that came out of me. “Long. The Songs are sung in ancient Alithosi, telling the myths our people used to believe, but you have to sing all of them at once. They’re still considered sacred and only those trained for years may sing them and they are ''hours'' long. Still, you only hear them at big events.”

“Sounds boring.”

“It is.” 

Ari leaned back in her seat. “Well, I guess I’ll have to share some of my music with you.” I smiled.

“Yeah, that’d be great.” 

She kept talking to me for the entirety of the trip back to campus, and I was immensely grateful for it. Ari never once mentioned what had happened in the caves and never left enough silence for either of us to tune into what the others were saying about it. 

By the time we arrived at the university again, most of the conversations around us seemed to have turned to something else. I still found it strange that they were so hung up over the water. 

We exited the transport and went to our last morning class before it was time for lunch.

☙❦❧

On our floor, we had a type of telecom that was attached to the wall next to the elevator. It usually read simple things such as what was being served in the different restaurants, what classes had upcoming tests, study groups, stuff like that. Today it was different.

The whole screen was projecting a very brightly worded announcement. ''Floor Activity Night, meet outside of Cassia’s room at 9''.

Cassia was our resident assistant, or RA, as most people called her, and was in charge of all the floor activities. We hadn’t done much so far in the year, but I heard rumors that when she was the RA last year, she organized most of the pranks that had been pulled. {In the second draft, Fannara will have interacted with Cassia “on screen” so um, pretend you like her cuz apparently she’s a goofball} 

I felt a strange mix of emotions with the announcement. On the one hand, I would get to meet the people on my floor, on the other hand, that meant I had to interact with them, not to mention Ari and I were running on about three hours of sleep. I shrugged and walked to my room. It would sort itself out, everything had. Everything except Training that is. 

That’s what I had been going to do, get ready for Training. 

Our room was empty when I got there, as usual. I normally appreciated the few minutes of silence I got when I was early to change, but not today. There was too much running through my head that I didn’t want to think about. Nightmares, field trips, whispers, all of it was too much. 

I groaned and tried to shake the thoughts out of my head. Of course, it didn’t help, but it was worth a try. I pulled out my uniform for Training and quickly changed into it as if moving fast enough wouldn’t give me time to think. It smelled clean, as they required us to wash it after every session to avoid the stink. 

Ari and Mara came into the room as I was pulling on my left boot. The shoes were a recent addition to the uniform and very comfortable. Arienna was grinning wider than I had ever seen. Mara’s perpetual bounce was more pronounced than normal as she walked through the bathroom into her room. 

I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. “So, how was lunch?” I raised a playful eyebrow and Ari’s face immediately reddened. 

“It was great,” she mumbled. 

Mara yelled at her from the other room. “Oh, come on, Ari, it was better than ‘great’. Tell her!” Ari fidgeted with her uniform. 

“Well, um, he was sweet, as always, and uh..” she trailed off, smiling to herself. K

“Oh, my word, ARIENNA HARLEN, GET TO THE POINT.” Mara threw a tube of chapstick into our room, landing remarkably close to Ari. 

“Okay, okay, goodness. Well, we talked about...stuff, and well, I’m not sure if I told about this kind of stuff, but we agreed that we, um, wanted to start dating?” 

Mara quietly walked into our room and put a hand on her hip. She didn’t say anything, but her rather serious expression was enough to scare Ari.

“I mean, yes, we are dating. We said we liked each other last semester but wanted to wait and now..yeah, we’re dating.” She smiled to herself.

Mara began bouncing again. “I don’t know about you, Fannara, but I ship them ''so'' hard.” 

I started giggling at the two of them. “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m happy for you, Ari.” She blushed a little harder and smiled at the ground.

“Thanks.”

☙❦❧

Training was much as it always was. We were doing much more weapons training now that we had chosen what we wanted. I was fairly comfortable with the staff now and could hit a target with relative ease. 

Extended Training had changed just a little. Moren was better at correcting now, and I occasionally commented on some things he was doing. He still tried to avoid me but wasn't nearly as hostile during interactions. 

The biggest change was the little reminders we gave each other at the beginning of each session. Comments about foot placement and where your arms are supposed to go were helpful. Training remained exhausting nonetheless nonethelessnonetheless the less. 

That night, after I had finished most of my homework for the next two days, someone yelled “MAN ON THE FLOOR” before the hallway erupted into strange noises. Ari and I looked at each other from our desks, it wasn’t nine yet. We scrambled to the door at the same time as the hooting and screeching continued. 

Ari opened our door and immediately closed it again, sliding down it and laughing harder than I had ever seen. 

“What is going on?!” That only made her laugh harder. 

In between wheezes, she squeezed in an explanation. “I think...Cassia…” a fit of giggles overtook her again. “Cassia arranged a prank on us with our brother floor.” 

“''What?''” I pulled her away from the door and opened it. Part of me wished I hadn’t. 

The hallway was flooded with boys, covered in bright face paint and carrying...stuffed animals? And lettuce? I could see the other girls on our floor laughing or staring with scared faces in their doorways. The longer I stood in the chaos, I realized the boys were trying to sing the Palendine national anthem. In only falsetto. While running around the circular opening in the floor. 

I went back into our room, trying to process what I just saw. Arienna burst into giggles again when she saw my disturbed face. 

“I will never unsee that.”

She pushed off the floor with much difficulty and swallowed down the rest of her snickers. “Hey, at least Cassia isn’t letting them take off their shirts.” My eyes widened.

“Yeah, at least we have that.” I glanced at the clock. “I guess they’ll be doing that until we all get out there.”

Ari turned and checked the clock. “Yeah, quiet hours don’t start until nine, so they cannot be stopped.”  

“Just seven more minutes.” Someone knocked on our door, and it took a second to realize it was the bathroom door that was being knocked on. I opened it to find a very concerned Mara.

“Mel hasn’t gotten back yet and I don’t know what’s happening.” Ari and I stared at her in silence for a beat and then started smothering snickers. “What?” The laughter burst out of us and we had to open the door for Mara to understand what was happening. We couldn’t breathe enough to form the words. 

As soon as she saw the insanity that used to be our hallway, she joined in the wheezing. 

“Why...oh, my word...someone’s wearing a...a….duck hat!” She hit the floor and began rocking back and forth with the strength of her amusement. The faint ding of the elevator caused the crowd to quiet. Every person froze as the doors slid open and a confused group of girls, including Mel, hesitated to exit. 

“CHARRRRRGE!” One of the rowdier boys yelled. The girls in the elevator began frantically pressing buttons as the sea of college boys surged towards them. The doors closed just in time for one of the stuffed animals to land on the floor. 

Chimes marking the start of quiet hours sent another hush over. the crowd. This was going to be an interesting night to say the least.
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