The Budding Metalinguist

XLIX

Lillian stepped nervously into the campus bookstore. Crowds of students chatted and milled around her, adding to an ambient atmosphere that, despite its normalcy, continued to unnerve her. Over the recent weeks, she'd developed the same kind of occasional social anxiety that she was fairly sure Dakota also experienced- she had become afraid that everything she did would be considered suspicious.

She sauntered over to the front counter and carefully selected two hand mirrors. The store didn't sell anything larger, so she would have to use her dorm's bathroom mirror if she was planning to go into the Alin Gap.

Lillian handed over a few crumpled dollar bills at the counter, slipped the hand mirrors into her pocket, and left the student union. Too casually. The more she tried to walk normally, the more she felt that she was sticking out. That she was obviously hiding something. When she eventually returned to the dorm, she locked the door behind her and leaned against it, breathing out in deep relief.

She set the hand mirrors down on Daria's desk near the door. Then she rummaged in Leslie's drawers until she turned up a string and a pair of scissors. Grabbing a small bell from her own desk, she picked up the hand mirrors again, cut a long piece of string, and tied one end to the handle of the front door. She entered the bathroom, slid the string underneath the door, and locked it behind her. She concentrated hard, calling up the Idea of Opening to create a rift to the arena in her bathroom mirror, stepping inside once she was finished.

Then she froze.

Em was already in the arena. She sat casually on the rim, dangling her legs over the edge and staring into the distance. She was munching on a sandwich, with a bowl of chips nestled in her lap.

Lillian dropped the mirrors on the slipstone and set up the string as quickly as possible. She dangled the bell over the edge of the arena. If one of her roommates tried to open the door, it would ring, giving her enough time to get back to the bathroom. She climbed the stairs set into the side of the arena and walked over to Em. She felt the usual pang of nervousness dangling her legs over the edge, but her typical logic dismissed it. The ground was made of slipstone.

"Hello," Em greeted.

Lillian smiled in response. "Hey."

❦

"Are you mad at Mira too?"

Ray shrugged in response. "I'm not normally one to hold a grudge. I'm not exactly angry, but I'm also not happy with the way she handled that situation."

"The Guardian is dead," Dakota said slowly in response. "The Delegation has practically fragmented. They all left and abandoned all their followers. Once we manage to get back, the Assembly would be much easier to rebuild."

"And my parents are dead," Ray snapped.

Dakota sighed. He didn't exactly have a response to that.

"Was it really worth that?" Ray asked pitifully.

"Would you rather that Glide and Skip were alive, and that hundreds of children were impacted?" Dakota snapped, almost angrily. "Would that be better for you?"

Ray looked away with a wounded expression. "I don't like it when you do this. Look at you. You've had years." He turned back to Dakota, light glinting off the tears pooling in his eyes. "Of course I don't want that to happen. Of course I hate what the Delegation tried to do. But my parents are dead. You have to respect that." He gave a deep sigh. "Em is strong. She got through it by becoming even stronger. I'm not like that. I need more support."

"I know," Dakota responded, his tone clipped. "But I don't like you laying the blame on Mira. This wasn't her fault."

"Say what you will," Ray answered, his face turned away. He abruptly rose from the couch and exited through the mirror.

Dakota rubbed his forehead in a recidivism to his usual exhaustion. It would take a long time for Em and Ray to come to peace with what Mira had done. Or, more precisely, what she had not done.