Bones of Salt

Jonathan

Jonathan had been in some fights, growing up. He'd been beaten up by Pablo more times than he liked to recall. And he'd always tried to start everyday with a smile on his face.

Still, when he woke up a few days after the encounter he and Roman had with the Demon, his back and his hand still hurt like hell.

The day before, Minx Morris had told him that he wanted to speak to him in private that very day. Sometimes, it was hard for Jonathan to forget that not every adult was like Pablo. He'd known his mother for so little that he certainly didn't think of her as the blueprint for every grown-up he would meet in his life.

Despite his efforts not to, he kind of thought of Pablo that way.

Before Minx had time to talk to him, Jonathan met up with his friends at lunch. They had briefly told Matias and Cypress everything, but they'd been busy that week, so it had been only a handful of comments, like 'we didn't exorcize the Demon, but we made him weaker' (this was Roman) and 'at least, we think we did, but we did do something' (this was Jonathan). 'However, we found the book. Of this we're sure', Roman had added.

That day, Matias said, "We still haven't told you we had an inkling of what you were going to do, and we were distracting Mira and Aurora, who had decided to stay up to study alchemy."

"I offered to explain to them some calculation," Cypress said. "I'm trying to teach myself alchemy. But Aurora had done the same at the training, and they were discussing things I'd never heard of."

"So," Matias added. "We didn't relent. We had to come up with something else."

"I know Aurora likes to gossip, or so Roman had said," Cypress said. "So, we started discussing who was married in the Court, and to whom. You wouldn't believe what User's former wife says about him."

Because of the concept of soulmates, even the existence of a divorced Blood Drinker was some kind of scandal. Of course, User hadn't divorced his soulmate. No one would. It simply meant he had married someone who wasn't, and had tried to make it work.

"We need to come up with more topics to cover," Matias said. "For one of those days we need to regroup, and read about the spell. Whoever is not performing it will have to distract our teachers."

"Cypress can talk about Buttercup O'Acneh," Roman smirked. "I'm sure there are a lot of things to say."

"And they all sound slightly distracting at the very least," Jonathan agreed. Matias, for some reason, only accepted with a stern nod of his head.

"Your Skill is very important and one of the rarest," Minx told Jonathan after lunch. "Even though you haven't passed your tasks yet, I think we should meet to discuss what you already know of Knowledge. Know of Knowledge. What a tongue twister."

"It would be an honor, sir," Jonathan tried to hide his real excitement.

There was the Skill class, but it was more of a formality than anything else. Skills couldn't be taught, at best they could be taught how to control. And there was another issue -- the recruits couldn't use theirs yet, while the others had to wait some time, from weeks to months, to recharge before they could use theirs, so Mira and Minx weren't about to make them waste it in the training room.

"I knew your father personally," Minx added. "As you know. I've seen his power in action."

"How did you meet my father?" Jonathan asked Minx when they were training privately. "He wasn't from around here. It's my mother who was Megleni. Did you know her too?"

"No, I didn't know her," Minx looked sorry to let Jonathan down. "But I met your father during a trip later in life. Blood Drinkers need to know a lot about magic and such, so they get to travel the world. Isn't it amazing?"