Relic Heirs: Chapter Thirty

Chapter 30: Nothing Ever Changes

Crawling, weak they came before her, laying down prayer and beleaguered begging, pleas for salvation lifting up to the heavens on a thousand final breaths. 

Classes didn’t resume until part of the way through the next day. Bridget had plenty of time to adjust her essay after the chaos died down and all of the greencoats were herded into their dorms until further notice.

By the time they were allowed back out, gossip and rumor had traveled through the class like lightning across a sky, revealing suspects and theories as to what had really happened. Those on menagerie duty claimed the breakout hadn’t happened until almost everyone was gone, and, as Briddy listened to Gemma’s version of the tale on the way to Relic Mastery, Warrin and Asher had been looking particularly suspicious the entire time they were down there. 

“They kept looking around and checking to see where Doctor Nguyen was.” She insisted to the group at large, which consisted of most of Briddy’s cell and a couple of Warrin’s, all determined to get to the bottom of what happened. 

    “If only I hadn’t been in the dorms,” Niles said mournfully. “the doors locked us in the second the wards were raised, and I couldn’t get out.” 

    “That’s not your fault.” Kurtis empathized. “It must have been so hard on you to be trapped like that, unable to help people.” 

    Bridget barely suppressed an eye roll as they entered the training building and walked down the hall toward the Relic Mastery classroom. “Where is Warrin?” She asked. 

    “Dunno. They hauled both of them off to Terna’s this morning.” Gemma shrugged. 

    “What?” Bridget said, the question echoing across the group. “Why?” Because of some odd looks?” 

    Gemma just shrugged at her, not answering

    “They must have had something on them,” Niles said. 

    “Well,” Gemma said conspiratorially, looking over her shoulder at him “I heard Doctor Nguyen telling Maistwel that they found out that the locks had been melted by some kind of unknown, uniquely made acid.” 

    Bridget pursed her lips. That didn’t seem like enough evidence to pin the entire thing on them, and besides… “They think a pair of greencoats is capable of concocting and maneuvering, and applying something strong enough to get through defenses they set up? Without anyone noticing? What about the wards on the lock itself?” 

    Gemma shrugged, fiddling with the brooch on her chest in the shape of a cracked hammer. “Dunno. They wouldn’t own up to it. Protested their innocence all of the way out of the common room this morning.” 

    “Hm.” Gail’s mouth twisted. “Odd that they wouldn’t own up to it. I’ve never known Asher to lie about a prank.” 

    “Warrin either. I think he likes getting scolded.” Bridget said. 

    Gail didn’t respond, cutting off the conversation and leaving her in awkward, uncomfortable silence. They still hadn’t spoken about what happened in front of Liberty House that afternoon, and Bridget had thrown herself into studying to drown out the voice in her head asking why that was. 

    The wide-windowed walls of the Relic Mastery classroom winked at them as they entered, already propped open to let the hope of a breeze into the sweltering oven that was the rest of the space. Even the blue practice mats underfoot seemed to radiate heat, sending the smell of hot rubber and old sweat to assault Briddy’s nose. 

    “There’s Warrin!” Gemma said suddenly, darting across the mats and onto the stone tile half of the room. Leaning against a wall, looking at the ground with a torn look in his eyes, Warrin glanced up as she called out. A small stampede of feet made their way over to him as the class grouped around him, desperate for more details. True to his nature, Warrin waited until most of the class was around him before he spoke. Briddy could see his brown eyes darting about, taking stock of how many ears had been pointed at him, waiting for his tale. 

    “We didn’t do this.” He began, “I love a prank as much as the next person, but this wasn’t us. Not that Terna would listen to that, because she’s so desperate for a damn scapegoat that she was willing to throw us both into punishment without even hearing our case.” 

    “I mean, monstrosities running free across school grounds does not give great optics about our security.” Niles pointed out. 

    “What about the optics of a pair of first-year students being able to get through their security without anyone witnessing it?” Bridget said. 

    “Guess it’s not as bad.” Warrin grimaced. “And it’s student, really.” 

    Confused murmurs rippled across the groups as Bridget’s eyes widened. “Did he-” 

    “Yup. Terna was more than happy to let him.” 

    “And you let him?” Gail said from behind her. 

    “He said it wasn’t worth both of us getting punished, so he just took the blame before I could say anything.” Warrin scowled his feet. 

    “But did he do it?” Niles asked. 

    Bridget looked over at him, mind processing whether or not she had actually heard him say that. She had never wanted to slap Niles silly more than in this moment. 

    “No.” Warrin looked at Niles like he was insane. “We were together the whole time, trying to snitch some dung for a project of his.”

    “What did they do to him?” Parvati asked, looking at Warring with dark, concerned eyes. 

    “Said something about throwing him into the eels for half an hour and he doesn’t get to go to the rally the day after tomorrow.” 

    Bridget grimaced. From what she had heard from Adelaide and Nolan about their many, many stints in detention, the eels were a miserable, squirming experience. She felt horrible, thinking about Asher trapped in there for something he didn’t do. It wasn’t fair. 

    Life rarely is. Vex told her. 

    “I’m just saying.” Niles cut in once again. “It does sound like something he’d do.” 

    A flash of irritation stoked the fires of Bridget’s anger. Did he not know when to shut up? 

    “If Warrin says that Asher didn’t do it, then he didn’t.” She said firmly, ignoring Niles’ glare. “Listen, Asher likes pranks, but nothing I’ve ever seen him do has intentionally put people in harm's way. You seriously think that releasing a pack of Kelpines or a Carrion Serpent is something that would be funny to him?” 

    Niles looked away, working his jaw as they sat in silence. No one seemed to disagree with her. 

    “Well, we’ll have to give him a good welcome back for all of his trouble,” Thurston said, grinning at the solemn group around him. “Any idea when that is, Warrin?” 

    Warrin shrugged. “We usually meet up after this, so I guess we’ll see.” 

    The group scattered as Hennigan wandered in the doorway, his unexplained lateness now a pattern of habit that his class had come to expect. As he growled, snapped, and ordered them through exercises to raise the amount of punishment they could take before they lost control of their summoning, Bridget did her best to double down, avoiding looking at the way Gail’s muscles had begun to glisten with a sheen of sweat, or to Niles’ cold gaze boring a hole between her shoulder blades. 

    Just focus. You don’t have time to be thinking about that. You need to do better. She firmly told herself. Even after thinking the words, she felt her stomach twist. Even if she could somehow ace every single class, would it be enough to get her another year? 

    Class drew to a close with Hennigan lining them up, one by one to withstand a blow from his large, mighty axe, seeing who could hold onto their Relic the longest. To Bridget, it seemed like an excuse for Hennigan to take his aggression out on them, but she wasn’t exactly in a place where voicing that observation would have brought anything good. 

    Watching Parvati tremble underneath a blade that spanned from her torso to her head, Briddy grimaced in sympathy. None of them really stood a chance, against a professional like their Instructor. While the exercise was one of endurance, it was ultimately, one of futility as well. The muscles of the girl’s bronze arms stood out, pushing the short, silver blade in her hands against Hennigan’s wicked crescent. Suddenly, they trembled, and the blade flickered out of existence like starlight behind a cloud. With a small cry, she fell forward, Hennigan neatly stepping out of her way, his axe gone in a black cloud the second Parvati’s blade vanished. 

Glancing to the side, Bridget eyed what little was left of the line. Just Thurston and Abaget to go before her, and Gail was the only one left after that. She tried to swallow the taste of bile that rose in her mouth, tried to wipe away the clammy sweat on her hands, but her Shroud twitched its fabric out of the way. 

“Better,” Hennigan said, watching as she picked herself up off the ground. He turned his scarred, short-shaven head toward the line. “Next.” 

Bridget raised an eyebrow. That was the third time he had given out a compliment today, which was an all-time record over his usual one. Warrin had received a ‘passable’ while Niles had received the high praise of  ‘well done’. If anything, his behavior was putting her more on edge, as though waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Screwing up her lips in thought, Bridget watched as Thruston swung his club up to meet Hennigan’s blade. Maybe the menagerie breakout had caused him to think differently of his class’s capabilities. He had told them to come with them, and Briddy had managed to only need two dives to capture her MarrowBoarlet. Could that really have changed his perspective on them? On her? 

Thurston’s knee hit the ground after a few moments, his relic dissolved, and Bridget caught Abaget’s shoulders tensing out of the corner of her eye. Though the girl’s dark eyes were set into a neutral mask, her lips had unconsciously turned down at the corners. 

Hennigan dismissed Thurston with a dismissive wave and a ‘disappointing’, turning towards Abaget as she stalked her way over. Eyes cold, she summoned a long, flexible blade, the hilt covered in a conical protective handle decorated in pale silver-blue filigree. 

Folding one hand behind her back, she met Hennigan’s axe with her blade, the metal sliding down and locking into place at the gap between the blade and the curved handle. Bridget’s eyes narrowed as she watched Hennigan put a second hand on his axe, pressing harder than he had for anyone else. Abaget was holding him, she realized, and quickly took note of the other girl’s footing. If she used both hands and Vex’s crossguard…

Abaget’s thin blade began to waver, its form wiggling in such a way that reminded Bridget of a ribbon fluttering through the air, loose and curved before snapping back to a straight line as Abaget strained, sweat beading at her brow. Slowly, she shifted her back foot so that the toes pointed outwards, and thrust her sword harder against his axe. 

“No need to push so hard, Arment,” Hennigan said, seemingly doing that very thing as the muscles in his shoulders stood out. “If you strain your summoning, it can cause irreparable damage to your relic.” 

Beneath them, her sword wiggled once again, pushing the hold closer and closer to the girl’s chest. 

“Should we stop them?” Bridget asked, watching the muscles in the girl’s legs tremble like a leaf in a storm. 

“Stay in line, Vasily.” Hennigan snapped, not taking his eyes off of Abaget’s winking blade. 

Moving as if to hiss a reply at her opponent, Abaget’s lips moved, her teeth tightly gritted beneath. Weakening into a shaking ribbon once more, her sword nearly disappeared, but with a cry, she dug in, and the sword snapped back into silvered existence, a pulsing shine emanating from within the thin blade. Silver white, the light raced along the sword, coating it like a new edge. 

Bridget could feel the thrumming energy emanating, quickly building as Abaget pushed back. Hennigan’s mouth drew to a thin line, an answering cloud of black hovering around the great half-moon of his axe. With a creaking snarl, sheets of metal began to fly up from the floor, knocking aside mats and tiles as they wrenched themselves out from underneath. In a rush, they all gathered around the axe, coating its blade with jagged spikes and rusty edges. 

With a snap, Abaget fell to the side on her hands and knees, her sword completely gone while she gasped in exertion, chunks of hair escaping her normally smooth bun.  

“You heard the next piece?” Hennigan said, standing over her and offering a hand. 

A shudder of excitement ran through the class at that, and Bridget swallowed a small pit of jealousy. Abaget had made progress that, so far, neither Briddy nor any of the other greencoats had. She was one step closer to her relic’s full name and wielding its entire power. 

As Abaget rejoined the huddled group of those that had already taken their turn, she was greeted with congratulations and pats on the back that the girl brushed off, her eyes honed in on the young lord she served. Bridget watched as Thurston gave her a reassuring smile before launching into what looked like a thousand different questions. Stomach turning, Briddy slowly turned towards where Hennigan waited. He did seem different today, so maybe, just maybe…

“Vasily,” Hennigan said each syllable of her name like it was a four-lettered word. 

“Hello, sir,” Bridget said with false cheeriness, hesitantly taking a few steps forward to stand in front of him. 

Looking her over, Hennigan’s face darkened. “Let’s get this over with, then.” 

Something within Bridget could almost feel that dark, thick cloud that swarmed around him, even before the crescent of his axe cut through the fog. Stomach dropping, she swallowed, raising her chin and summoning Vex into her trembling hands. Hennigan swung over his head with both hands, a cruel glint glittering in the corner of his eye that threw Bridget off guard. 

Barely swinging her blade up in time, golden metal clashed loudly against pale steel, and Bridget’s mettle met Hennigan’s. He pushed down, the axe grinding down Vex’s blade with a ringing screech that hurt her ears. Breathing deep, Bridget tried to push back, catching him on the crossguard with a bone-shuddering slam. Pain began to radiate from her shoulder, but Briddy pushed it away. She didn’t need it right now. 

It seemed like her arms began to shake almost immediately, time slowing as she desperately tried not to lose more ground. As fatigue began to creep across her muscles in dead, cold fingers, she felt her own begin to sink into the hilt of her blade, the tan-leathered grip beginning to fade to mist. Panic flashed across her, turning her thoughts into a muddy haze where words and ideas began to float to the surface, but were too dirtied to see clearly.

“Focus.” Gail’s husky voice cut into the mire like a spring of rapidly bubbling water, clearing out the mud. The hilt in Bridget’s hands grew solid once again, and she set her jaw as she looked up at her opponent. 

“Silence.” Hennigan drew out the word as though he was speaking normally, no strain escaping his voice. 

Eyes widening, Bridget wavered. Even though he didn’t sound like it, his arm was just barely shaking, wasn’t it? Just slightly. Was she misreading it? Her eyes darted up, taking in a narrowed glare. This reminded her of a tactic Adelaide liked to use, messing with her prey’s perception…but doubt stained the thought, blotting out its conclusion. 

Suddenly, Hennigan pushed, and she tripped backwards again, her foot sinking into the mats at the front of the classroom. Vex was fading, she could feel her shaking arms about to give out, smell the stink of sweat radiating from her body while her heart thudded in her ears. 

It felt like nothing worked. Her eyes shifted in panic, taking in his face, and a quick glance of her surroundings. There wasn’t anything to use. Nothing she did was working. What did? Abaget. A memory flashed to her mind, and Bridget felt her foot slide to the side. She dug in, pushing back with every last bit of energy she possessed. She felt him stutter, his grip shaken against her raw will. 

Hennigan’s nostrils flared, and his axe suddenly sank into Vex’s blade, Bridget’s summoning finally giving out.  The crescent moon of Hennigan’s weapon came far too close to her face, the force of the blow threw her backward to the stone, where she landed painfully on her tailbone. Standing up, she rubbed her back with a glare. Whatever usefulness she might have shown during the menagerie catastrophe clearly didn’t matter, because in Hennigan’s eyes, nothing about her ever changed. At least not for the better. 

Thanks, Adelaide. She thought bitterly. 

“Lackluster,” Hennigan said, already motioning Gail forward to take her place. 

Walking away, her arms limp at her sides, Bridget rejoined the group, a few sympathetic claps hitting the numb muscle of her shoulder. It all felt so unfair, like she could never claw her way out of a dark cocoon that filtered her every movement, shadowed by her sibling’s actions. Which she had no control over. 

It was not something you were supposed to win. Vex reminded her.  

Bridget pursed her lips, not replying as Gail took her turn, holding out almost as long as Niles before her gauntlets suddenly retracted, and she fell onto one knee, punching the ground in frustration. 

As they shuffled out of class, a cloud of drooping shoulders and frustrated looks hovered over the greencoats. Even as murmurs of Abaget’s achievement rippled across people peeling off to other classes, their voices were quiet and lifeless, or too loud and quick. 

“Asher!” Warrin said suddenly, his fatigue forgotten as he peeled off from the group. Bridget trotted along behind him, zeroing in on the limp curls on Asher’s head and the gaunt arch of his cheeks. He looked like he had undergone a year’s worth of nightmares within the space of his punishment. 

“Why’d you do that?” Warrin said, skidding to a halt.

“Are you alright?” Bridget said at the same time. 

“Probably not,” Asher said, voice croaking like he had been drug up from the depths of the sea. “and Terna wasn’t letting us leave without her scapegoat. I’m the one in classes with access to the Alchemy Labs.” 

“Asher,” Bridget said softly, the word still carrying a small amount of scolding underneath. 

“It made more sense.” He gave them a wobbly grin, the smile fading before the rest of the group could make their way over. 

    “How were the eels?” Niles said, arriving first. 

    “Seriously, Niles?” Warrin and Bridget said at the same time. 

    “What?” He said. 

    Asher sighed, his normally bright eyes dull and tired. “Horrible.” He muttered. “They did something to me, I couldn’t feel my magic or anything. I was just helpless as they slithered and writhed across me and it was… horrible.” He was bombarded with questions from all sides as the cluster of students waited for his tale, but his lips remained sealed after that initial answer. Eventually, the crowd began to break up, and they headed towards Bestiary Study in the basement of the Menagerie building. A crop of staff still swarmed around outside its perimeter, casting spells and shooting dirty looks at the greencoats as they came closer. 

    “Anyways.” Bridget said, drawing attention away from the teachers “What was the dung you were trying to steal for?” 

    Warrin and Asher broke into identical grins, though Briddy noticed that Asher’s didn’t come anywhere near meeting his eyes. “I’m working on a potion of Instant Spoiled Milk.” 

    Opening her mouth to ask why, Bridget thought better of it and closed her mouth once again. This was the person that Terna was pinning an entire breakout on? It just didn’t make sense. 

    “Speaking of spoiled food,” Warrin said. “I heard the Titan’s Breath camp had their rations ruined by a particularly nasty Slimeslug outbreak.” 

    “Wonder how those got in there,” Gail said with feigned innocence. 

    “Poor food protocols?” Warrin shrugged with a smirk. 

    Gemma huffed. “Sabotage is more like it.” 

    “Could be Boneeagles,” Niles said. “according to Taming the End, they feed on Slimeslugs and Humworms.” 

    “If that’s true,” Bridget said, ducking towards the desk that she and Gail shared during Bestiary Study. “then they have bigger problems than lost rations.”

    “You think?” Warrin said and Asher slid into the row behind them. 

    Gail turned around to face them, leaning back on the desk. “Have you never seen one?” She said. 

    “No?” Warrin mumbled, eyes searching as though trying to recall. 

    “They feed their young Humworms,” Gail said. 

    “So?” 

    “If they feed their babies bugs the size of anvils,” Bridget said grimly. “imagine how big mom’s going to be.” 

    “Oh.” Was all Warrin said as Doctor Nguyen swept into the room, a dark cloud of wrath shadowing her normally relaxed brow. 

    “Today, class, we are going to have a special assignment on monstrosity handling, yes? And the importance of secure and safe environments for those kept domestically.” 

    Bridget sighed, sinking down in her seat and opening up her notes as each stressed word was spat in the direction of the pair sitting behind her. It was going to be a long class.