IGNORANTIA (Dark Academia!Wesper AU)

twaalf

"Shit!"

"What's happening?" I ask. Jesper pulls the door open so aggressively I'm worried he's going to tear it off its hinges completely.

"I don't know," he says, "but it can't be good."

He runs out the doorway, and I follow reluctantly, my head swimming from the booze and the kiss and the screaming. We go down the grand stairs two by door, and I nearly trip on Jesper's skirt. How he can run in heels, I'll never know. He pulls me down the last few stairs and finally I see the ballroom for what it really is. Curtains fly against the wind as bloodied glass from the broken windows trail the floor. Everyone's are running around screaming like it's the end of the world.

No, that's not right, either. It's not the dinner guests running around, but a new group entirely. They all appear to be Shu women, their country's symbolic emblazoned in gold on the shoulder of their maroon tops. Armed with daggers as long as their forearms, they've begun herding the guests into one large group in the middle of the ballroom. Jesper sucks in a breath of air as he stares at the mess.

A gust of cold wind blows through the window we stand beside, and a new figure leaps inside. At first I assume it's one of the Shu women, but this girl is distinctly Suli. Despite the cloth she wears over her mouth and nose, I see thick black brows and her dark brown forehead. She's wrapped head to toe in a purple fabric so dark it's nearly black, silver knives fit onto her legs, arms, and torsos. I don't know who I should be more scared of: this masked vigilante or the Tavgharad in front of us.

"There you are!" The Suli girl hisses at Jesper. "You were supposed to be on the floor watching Kuwei!"

"I'm sorry!" says Jesper. "I got—"

"Distracted, I know." Her brown eyes flicker my way, and my heart tries to leap out of my throat.

"Do you have eyes on him?" Jesper asks.

"He got lucky and went upstairs before the Tav broke in," she says. "He slipped inside a broom closet to hide when he heard the screaming."

"I can go get him," Jesper says, glancing up the stairwell.

"No, you need to go hide with the others." The masked marauder pulls the scarf from her face, revealing her pinched expression as she scans the room. She's young — maybe even my age. It only makes this entire situation seem that much more ridiculous. "The Stadwatch have already been called in. They should be here at any minute."

"Kaz called the Stadwatch!?"

"No, one of Councilman Hoede's maids did," she explains. "She got out just in time."

"You don't have to sideline me, you know," Jesper pouts. "I can take them."

"You can't without blowing your cover even more!" she presses. "I'll go get Kuwei. You go hide with the others."

"Take Wylan with you." Jesper takes my arm and pulls me to the front.

The girl's eyes narrow. "What?"

"What?" I repeat.

"Please," says Jesper. "He's just as important as Kuwei is to Kaz's plan, trust me."

She frowns, her thick eyebrows pinching together in concentration. I can see her weighing out her options, the choices running through her mind at the speed of light itself. Then it clicks, and she sighs.

"Fine," she says. "Just go already."

Jesper nods solemnly; a soldier being given orders. He takes a step away from us, hesitates, then grabs me with both arms.