//------------------------------// // Practice // Story: Solstice // by Scorpius //------------------------------// … though the attackers had managed to subdue the guards before any could sound the alarm, the warning nexus built into the fort was triggered only minutes later, as Captain Phyra was unable to cast the half-hourly safety check. The signal alerted not only the nearest of the northern keeps, but also the Thaumata, who interrupted their debate to declare a state of emergency. When reinforcements arrived minutes later, however, they found that all the attackers had fled the scene[a]. Quite what caused them to flee remains a mystery, but many scholars believe that they had realised an alarm had been tripped. Border patrols were increased twofold overnight… —from The Lesser-Known Battles of the Northern War The beauty of creating a moving-quill Illusion, Maria thought, was that unless one looked very carefully at what was being written it was virtually indistinguishable from actually taking notes—and so by the time History was over she had just about mastered her paragraph. She had always struggled to pay attention in History, and at least this way she could disguise her boredom. Perhaps learning to create Illusions of text I’ve not written before will keep me occupied until Hearth’s Warming? Packing away her things (carefully, so that nobody spotted the blank pages of her notebook), she waited for the class to rise and leave before she got up from her seat, nodded once to Doctor Starkad, and turned to leave the room. “Boo!” Maria jumped—literally, straight upwards—at the shout as she left the classroom. Her heart drummed loudly in her chest, and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself before turning to see the mass of green mane that was standing by the door. “Tim!” She said, her voice not as loud as she would have liked. “What are you even doing here? You scared the living daylights out of me!” The older stallion blushed, his gold-ochre fur tinged with bronze at his cheeks. “Sorry, Maria,” he said, rubbing a forehoof through his mane. “I just had a free period, and thought that maybe—” “You get free periods in fifth year?” “Of course!” Tim said, letting Maria’s outburst slide. “I mean, just three a week, but I figured I could come meet you after classes and walk to lunch with you?” Maria frowned at that. He should have been using those periods to study, not come and find her: their fifth-year exams determined what subjects they could study in sixth and seventh year, and if Tim wanted to get into law… Still, it was sweet that he’d thought of her. “Thanks, Tim,” she said, turning to walk towards the dining hall. Tim followed suit, falling into step by her side. “So, what was Starkad on about today?” Tim asked, clearly fishing for something to make conversation about. Maria rolled her eyes at that, though made sure that he couldn’t see—the older stallion was not the best at idle chatter, but at least he tried. “Honestly?” she asked. “No idea. I spent the lesson practicing an Illusion instead. Besides, you know what Starkad’s like—there’s no point paying attention when all he’s going to do is read the book at you.” “Point taken,” Tim said. She knew he couldn’t blame her for ignoring Starkad—not after his first year, when he’d gotten detention for falling asleep in History. It was the first thing she’d heard about him—after hearing that he was a neophyte, of course. “What Illusion were you working on?” “I was just practicing that note-taking Illusion Whitetail set us for homework,” Maria said, innocently, “so really I was working on school things the whole lesson.” Tim grinned at that, and his deep chuckle briefly filled the hall. “And, of course, Starkad wouldn’t notice that you weren’t even taking notes on his lecture.” “Why would I?” Maria said. “It’s not like he’s saying anything I don’t already have in writing. I’m surprised he didn’t call me out for taking notes, after the last three years of just reading the book to myself.” They both chuckled at that, but as they rounded the corner at the bottom of the staircase and entered the dining hall they hushed themselves, and dropped their voices to a minimum. Tim craned his neck to look over the crowd—he must have spotted a table, Maria thought, because moments later he was snaking his way around the outside of the room to get past the other students. Maria sighed—it really wouldn’t do for either of them to push through the crowds, or even be seen to be getting in anyone else’s way, but she wasn’t about to let Tim go off on his own. Pressing her lips tight shut to avoid murmuring apologies that would only draw attention to herself, she tried to press herself up as close the the wall as she could, and gently made her way forward whenever there was a space. The crowd was thinning out as she was moving, which helped, but it still took her a minute or two to reach Tim at his table. It was off to one side, in the shadowy part of the hall, which she supposed was why nobody had been trying to pick it. She hadn’t noticed it when they filed in for dinner the previous night, but she supposed it would have been hard to spot. “What took you so long, slowpoke?” Maria sighed as she sat down, tucking her hind legs beneath her on the cushion and inching herself closer to the table. “Prof— Dad’s asked me to try to avoid accidentally insulting any more Houses, and Professor Whitetail said I should be trying not to draw attention to myself. I figured barging past students wouldn’t help much with either of those.” “Point taken,” Tim agreed, grimacing. “Sorry I ran ahead. I should have thought about that.” “It’s okay,” Maria said, shrugging it off. Tim didn’t have so much to worry about when it came to public appearances—House Sparkle might have seat at the Thaumata, but they generally kept to themselves, and nobody expected all that much of them. “I don’t need you worrying about my appearance, too.” “I should, though,” Tim said. “That’s what friends are for.” Maria smiled at that, and levitated over a tray of sandwiches from the nearest serving table. She was glad that lunch was a relatively quiet affair at the Arcana: an opportunity to sit and talk quietly in a corner with Tim was always appreciated after a morning of being the quiet, modest neophyte of Everfree. It was about the only time she got at the Arcana to let her guard down, and she wasn’t going to miss that for the world. [a] the only sign that that attack had even taken place, despite the wounded & unconscious guards, was a single mauve feather found caught in a doorway.