Page 87 of Akarnae

Alex thanked the little girl with a squishy hug and a raspberry kiss, before she picked up her next package, which was from Blake. She wasn’t sure what to think when she opened up a small jewellery box and found a ring inside.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” he joked from across the room. “Even I don’t move that fast.”

Alex chuckled along with everyone else, but she was distracted by the strange ring. It was unlike any kind of jewellery she’d ever seen before. The band was as black as onyx, but it was the stone secured in the centre of it that was most intriguing. It was also black, but as she looked closer she noticed that the inside was swirling with dark, inky colours as if there was a gas or something trapped inside.

“Hey! How come she gets one of those? I’ve wanted oneforever!” Bear said, looking enviously at her gift.

“From what you’ve said, little brother, it sounds like Alex and trouble go hand-in-hand,” Blake said. “I thought she might need it more than you.”

Bear grumbled a little, but he reluctantly agreed.

“There’s only enough Shadow in there for three Walks,” Blake told Alex as she slipped the ring on her finger, “so it’s for emergencies only, got it?”

She nodded even though she had absolutely no idea what she was agreeing to. She would just have to ask Bear about the ring later. In the meantime, she had one gift left, and it wasn’t labelled.

“That came through our TCD earlier in the week,” William told her. The Ronnigans had a much more integrated TCD than her new little Communications one. They used theirs for everything from grocery shopping to sending and receiving post. Alex had even used it to send D.C.’s gift through to the academy with a note asking Jarvis to forward it on to her roommate.

Alex opened the gift in front of her, wondering who could have possibly sent it. Inside was a book:Overcoming Iatrophobia: How to turn your fear into your friend. The author had a list of abbreviated titles next to their name, as if that was supposed to mean something, but Alex still had no idea if the present was actually for her.

She turned the book over and read the blurb, laughing out loud when she discovered that iatrophobia was a fear of doctors. She opened the front cover and found a note inside:

Happy Kaldoras, Alex!

I don’t normally give presents to students, but I saw this book and thought of you. Here’s hoping it will provide you with some much needed counselling.

Wishing you an enjoyable holiday,

Fletcher.

Alex laughed again as she read his scratchy note, and she wondered briefly why all doctors seemed to have nearly illegible handwriting, no matter what world they came from.

Now that everything was open, she put her pile of treasures to the side and waited while everyone else finished with their own unwrapping. Theyoooohed andahhhhed, and, in Evie’s case, squealed with excitement. Some of the loudest exclamations came when they opened up their gifts from Alex, but their reactions weren’t quite what she’d expected.

The first surprise came when Johnny opened hisAdvanced Metaphysicsbook, which apparently wasn’t meant to be released to the public for another six months. There was an awkward silence when he asked her how she’d received a copy so early, and she ended up stammering out an uncertain answer.

“I guess the woman who gave it to me must have known the author?”

Everyone—including Alex—was sceptical about that.

The book for Blake caused her even more trouble, since she soon discovered that it was an original copy of a manuscript that was handwritten over three thousand years ago. Only two copies were ever made, and neither had been seen for hundreds of years. Even the dialect was ancient—a dead language. Meyarin, as a matter of fact.

When Blake mentioned that little piece of information the room went completely silent as everyone waited for Alex’s explanation.

“Um…” she hesitated. “The woman at the bookshop must have had it for a while then, I guess?”

Even to her ears it seemed impossible.

Her predicament worsened further when William pulled out the glinting dagger. He stared at it in wonder for a moment before locking eyes with Alex. They weren’t the comforting eyes of the Ronnigan patriarch she’d come to know, but instead they were hardened, suspicious eyes. Eyes that made her realise she was now facing William the Warden.

“Where did this come from, Alex?” he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

“The same place as the rest,” she said, feeling a flicker of anxiety. “Lady Mystique helped me with all of your gifts, except the ones for Jordan, Bear and Evie.”

“Lady Mystique?” William asked, walking over to sit beside her.

Alex furrowed her brow. Maybe they knew her by another name. “The owner of the bookshop.”

“What bookshop?”

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