Page 60 of Elemental Affections

Eunny frowned, mouth twisting. “It depends.”

“You sound like your mother.”

“How dare you.”

Dae laughed, hands raising in surrender.

“Like I said, it depends,” Eunny said with exaggerated patience. “Type of injury, the patient, the conditions. But, sure, principles are similar. For poison, it’s usually more efficient to flush it out if it’s a wound. Ingested is—” Eunny cut herself off. Hunched her shoulders, the bleak look back on her face. “Ingested is bad if you don’t have personal defenses.”

Mind already tumbling over Eunny’s words, Dae gave an absent wave of her hand. Flooding the earth wouldn’t work, but—

“Float,” she murmured. “Flush! We could flush the iced poison to the surface. Ez wouldn’t need to burn the whole thing.”

She abandoned boatmaking and dove for her bag, scribbling notes before the fragmented ideas left her. Once she’d filled a few pages of the small notebook, she returned to Eunny at the table, an apologetic smile on her face.

“Ez, huh?” Eunny propped her chin on her hands.

“It’s—this is about the research project. It pertains to both our work.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Eunny said, leaning closer. “But you’re really gone. Youlikehim. More than this casual sex thing you two are doing.”

Dae’s mouth opened, the words to refute Eunny’s comment quick in her mind. They didn’t emerge.

“You do. See, I knew it, I said this would— Why the face? What’s wrong about it?” Eunny said, jokes giving way to sincerity. “Man has hearts in his eyes for you.”

“He does not.”

“The feelings are mutual. Question is, do you want something real with him?”

Dae folded a new boat. She had fallen for Ezzyn without meaning to, and an absurdly large part of her hoped Eunny’s claim was true. That the mutual attraction had become something more. It would mean so many complications, chances for things to go wrong, become awkward. Realities and likelihoods that should scare her. Yet it was hope she felt most of all.

“I don’t know what real is,” she said.

Eunny nudged a pencil across the table. “Why not ask the divine?”

Dae laughed. “What are you wishing for?”

“Peace,” Eunny said. “For myself against my mother. The world, too, but I presume the Empyrean Court already knows that.”

Dae mulled over what to write. Ezzyn’s name was too painfully schoolgirl, butlovefelt too broad.

In the end, when her boat sailed on the lake to the mouth of the river, her wish for wisdom drifted up to the sky.

The day before the spring term started, Dae received a meeting request from Vaadt. A university page found her in Ezzyn’s lab, which Dae had taken to haunting in his continued absence. It wasn’t completely aimless work, since she could complete preparations for the trials they’d discussed. There were the official experiment journals to update, memos for the invested parties within the appropriate university departments to write. All valid reasons to spend most of the remainder of her holiday break in the lab. The truth of it was that she wanted to see Ezzyn, and waiting outside of his house wasn’t an option. That he still had not returned nor sent any communication as to why was beginning to cause her concern. She couldn’t remember if they’d agreed on a date by which both would return to campus, her mind only recalling an unhelpful “before term starts,” but this was verging on extreme.

After thanking the messenger, Dae packed up her things and made her way to the water side of the Towers. Everything about Vaadt and their office appeared the same. Dae couldn’t decide if it was an air of timelessness or that Vaadt never seemed to leave Sylveren. Perhaps both. The Valley had a way of doing that. She herself had been eager to return, too, and though Ezzyn was a primary motivator, the comfort of being back amongst the wind and rain couldn’t be discounted.

“Ah, Miss Helm, come in.” Vaadt looked up when she knocked on the open door. “Would you mind closing the door?”

Dae complied, taking a seat in front of Vaadt’s desk. It was unsettling, for she couldn’t recall ever being asked to meet with such privacy. The door was always open during their previous meetings, and even the one-on-one lessons for her targeting drills could’ve been viewed by anyone passing through. But Vaadt didn’t appear concerned or grim as they set their current work aside and retrieved a small pile of various papers bound together with string.

Untying it, Vaadt shifted two thin folios and a sealed envelope from the top of the pile, removing a loose sheet from those remaining. “Congratulations. Your proposal has been chosen for the Rhell field trip.” They slid the paper across the desk. “This should cover the details on the expectations and arrangements.”

Dae lit up. “Thank you, Professor!” She accepted the paper, scanning it quickly before glancing back up. “Will there be a list of the others going?”

“Yes, once everyone has been notified. We’ll post it at the next seminar and have an informational meeting after.”

Only a few more days to wait. Dae was close to bursting with the desire to know if Zhenya had gotten in, but managed to summon a modicum of self-control.

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