Ch 3.5: Dinner

Elaina knew it was better to just knock, get it over with. She was already late, after all, and waiting just made her more late, but there was a pit in her stomach that still didn’t want to touch the door of Alonse Stormshine’s office. Breathe, get it over with, just raise your hand and—

“Ah, Miss Weaver.”

Elaina turned, eyes wide as she backed up to the door at the sound coming from behind her. But it wasn’t whatever frightening thing her subconscious had imagined, just Alonse, looking slightly taken aback himself.

“My apologies, you must’ve been waiting on me a while,” he said, reaching into his robe and pulling out a key.

“Oh, not really,” Elaina said, stepping away ash he walked forward and opened the door. “Only a minute or so.”

“No need to humor me,” Alonse said with a chuckle. “Tardiness is not the worst of my faults, but it certainly is one of them. Please though, come in.”

Elaina did as she was told, stepping into the headmaster’s office for the second time. It was only a few seconds later that she jumped again at another sound, the footsteps of Endrin’s automatons coming up behind her, two of them, each with a lidded plate they placed on the desk as Alonse pulled two glasses out from the same cupboard he had last time. “A bottle of water for the student, please. I’ll pour for the both of us.”

Silent as always, the automatons made no indication they’d heard him, but Elaina knew they would certainly be back with her drink soon.

“It’s nice to see you,” she said, still on edge in her mind, doing her best to hide it.

“And you as well,” Alonse said with a warm smile as he sat down. “Thank you for accepting my invitation.”

The automatons lifted the lids off of their plates at the moment Elaina sat down herself, revealing a display of food genuinely unlike anything she’d ever seen. She’d thought herself spoiled by her regular meals already, but the dish in front of her was another thing entirely, consisting of a pre sliced, bloody-red steak, some sort of dark purple sauce drizzled over it, what looked to be a potato somehow shaved in the shape of a spiral with flecks of grated cheese and pepper on top, some sort of mashed orange vegetable thing with dots of white cream on it. At that moment, she would’ve sworn her eyes were stuck in one direction.

Remedial Etiquette lessons ran through her mind. Unfortunately, only three things were sticking out at the moment: don’t show up with wet hair, don’t be late, don’t gawk at food. “I lost track of time and had a late shower,” Elaina said, peeling her gaze up from her plate. “Sorry…”

Alonse looked taken aback once again, but simply laughed. “No worries, dear. This is not so formal an event you need to be worried about such things, else I would’ve had a proper meal prepared. I just wanted to speak with you about a few things.”

“Oh, okay,” Elaina said, glancing back down at her food and wondering what in the stars a proper meal would consist of.

“How have your classes been?” Alonse said as he poured from the bottle of water an automaton had just placed down for him, followed by a tall pour from the same type of brandy he’d once served Elaina.

“Uhm, fine, I suppose. Good, I mean,” Elaina said as she picked up her knife and fork. Drinks were poured, so it was safe to eat now, right?

“Excellent,” Alonse said, right before shoving an entire piece of meat into his mouth. Elaina was astounded that nothing seemed to get onto his beard.  “I mean, I’ve heard from your instructors of course. Each are nothing but complimentary of you.”

“Really?” Elaina asked. She wasn’t too surprised to hear that about people like Calivahn, Koh, Sylvas, but when it came to etiquette… Maybe he’s just being nice,  she thought as she took her own first bite into a steak that seemed to melt directly onto her tongue, the sauce coating her mouth and overwhelming her with the flavor of berries and rosemary.

“Indeed. Not to mention, Watch Captain Strask has taken to you quite a bit as well.”

Tender as it was, Elaina still choked slightly on the piece of meat she was eating, but Alonse didn’t seem to notice. “Yeah, we’ve gotten to work together quite a bit.”

“That’s one thing I wanted to discuss.” He made it look so easy, speaking only while he used his utensils, always finishing a bite at exactly the right time. “Her report from your practicum assignment was quite unusual, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

Elaina froze mid bite, looking back up at Alonse. His eyes were on his own plate as he placed his fork down and grabbed a spoon for that pureed vegetable. “It was?” she asked.

“Quite,” Alonse said as he took a bite. Elaina followed suit, and the taste of that bite almost calmed her, some type of pumpkin or squash she wasn’t fully familiar with with nutty overtones. Almost calm. “There is not official leader in these assignments, but I had assumed she would be the de-facto one with her experience. She was adamant that you were the one who showed the most leadership though.”

“That’s… She’s being modest,” Elaina said, blushing a little at the thought.

Alonse laughed again. “That girl is many things, but modest isn’t quite one of them. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that the matter has been looked into. The camp you four found was abandoned, but clearly was there, and we found the golem guarded cave you mentioned as well. Let me tell you, it was hard to convince the capital of that, but I knew Tira meant it when she said it.”

“Oh,” Elaina said. “So, everything’s good then?”

“Excellent, actually. A contingent of Awakened with suitable aspects were dispatched and eliminated the threat, so the crystal mine is under out control now.”

If Elaina hadn’t been in the process of swapping utensils, she would have dropped hers. Alonse once again didn’t seem to notice her freezing up, mind consumed by his dinner and his own thoughts. The golem… it had thoughts, just like us.

“Which brings us to the primary matter at hand. Strange things are happening all over the world. Golems in caves, platypi in the forest, monsters on school grounds, strange explosions in the mountains near the capital. The kingdom is short on people who can handle these things.”

“Right,” Elaina said, though truth be told she wasn’t exactly sure why she was the one in this meeting. Surely this was for the king and his ministers, right?

“These are unprecedented times,” Alonse continued, placing his utensils down and staring out the window. “I wanted to tell you in person because I wanted you to know this was not my idea. Your and your fellow students’ educations is my foremost concern, one reason I decided to become headmaster in the first place. But the Minister of Education has made a decree, one that I have no authority to argue with.”

Elaina had stopped eating as well, both of them avoiding their plates, Alonse staring into the stormy night, Elaina at him. “What’s the decree?” she finally asked.

“An expansion of the practicum program,” Alonse said, turning to look her in the eye. “In light of your recent performance, your group will be deployed the front lines of the Kaldish Rebellion.”