Chapter 21:

  By the time Mme. Okoro finished with the lesson and left the study room Aria seemed to have visibly deflated.

  “I’ll work really hard, I promise. I’ll catch up,” she said. Her eyes were pleading with him. It was like she believed he would reprimand her for not automatically knowing all the answers to questions she never even knew existed until just a few hours before.

  “It’s okay, Aria. Nobody expected you to know everything right away. I am not worried.” Eli just smiled at his friend, though her expression didn’t ease much at all.

  Eli let out a large breath and turned to face the front of the room where the slate wall had been retracted into the floor. They both sat in silence for a while as Eli wished once more that he and Aria had a bond in place. That way he would be able to tap into exactly what Aria was feeling, and maybe help both of them sort through it.

  “Do you think I can ever do it?” Aria asked, breaking the silence. Her voice was small. Eli turned to look at her, his gaze far away.

  “Do I think you can ever do what?”

  “Be smart like you,” she responded, her eyes trained on the smooth, pale wood that made up the desk in front of her. Her small fingers dragged along the smooth surface, trying to feel the invisible micro fissures in the treated wood, as though if she focused hard enough she would be able to divine the imperceptible imperfections.

  “Aria,” Eli said. She nodded, paying attention, but not daring to lift her head. At her non-reaction Eli just scooted his chair closer to hers and gently rubbed her back. Her small hand seemed so large against her even tinier frame. “Aria, look at me,” he called again. This time she did. “You’re already smart like me.”

  “Elias,” she said.

  “No, really. Not knowing something you never had a chance to learn does not mean you are not smart, it just means that now you know there is something new out there to learn. Now that you know, you can do something about it,” he said. His voice was kind and entirely honest as he spoke.

  “You mean it?”

  “I mean it,” he responded.

  “But you already know all these things, and sometimes it felt like you could read Mme Okoro’s mind. Like you had an answer in your head before she even needed to ask anything.” She replied, her voice getting stronger towards the end.

  “Aria,” Eli sighed. “I know the answers because I study. I can sometimes guess what is coming next because I have read ahead.” That last part was only a partial truth. It was not like he could go around saying that he had already had a lot of these conversations before or conversations and lessons similar enough to them that his mind would sometimes skip ahead.

  “Still,” she said, her face a medley of frustration and dejection.

  “You want to learn?” Eli asked.

  “Yes,” she said. Her response was so fast Eli was momentarily taken aback. Then he grinned.

  “Did I not already tell you I would explain after. I can help you learn Aria. I want to help you learn.” Much like Kara and combat practice, teaching Aria academic fundamentals would also help Eli to see things from new perspectives. She would also make a great sounding board for some of his own theories, plans and ideas with the added benefit of never getting suspicious.

  “You really think I can do it? You really don’t think I’m dumb and slow?” She asked again. This time her voice was a little firmer, like the question was half for reassurance, and half convincing herself.

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  “I really think you can do it,” he reaffirmed. “And I know you are not dumb, or slow.” Those weren’t the types of words a child would naturally call themselves. Those weren’t petty town kids insults either. Children didn’t call themselves or each other ‘slow’ unless an adult was involved. Even then, it only really spread if the adult was referring to a specific individual or situation. Someone, probably an adult in her life had called her that, and it made Eli seethe. He had to really work to prevent his feelings from showing as he refocused on his friend.

  Eli leaned toward her, voice low. “I did promise I would explain the lesson to you. Did I not? Do you still want to learn?”

  “Yes,” she said, then tempered herself. “But it’s okay if you can’t. I don’t want you to waste all your free time on me.”

  “Do not say that about yourself,” Eli said. “Spending time with you is never a waste.” Eli said matter-of-factly.

  Aria smiled, and Cailean coughed quietly into his fist. Eli ignored the latter.

  “Okay I wont. But what if you’re teaching me and I don’t understand, or if I can’t do it?” The unspoken implication was loud.

  “Aria, learning takes time. If you had come to me and told me you heard something you thought you should learn about, but you decided not to learn it even though you had the chance, then we might talk about if I think you are smart or not.” He smirked at her. It was as much reassurance as it was a challenge. It took a beat for her to speak, but when she did her voice was resolute.

  “I want to learn.” It was a declaration, and Eli wholeheartedly approved.

  “That is good, Aria. That is very good.”

  “Cailean, bring us a drafting sheet, please.”

  Eli sat at the desk, and spreading the large, thin paper Cailean had handed him over the surface between himself and Aria.

  “You know, you are very lucky you chose to come today.”

  “Lucky?” She asked.

  “Yes, we could have been doing math, and not economy. I promise you it is not nearly so fun to listen to when you do not understand it.”

  “But I did not have fun not understanding, echo-no-mii,” Aria said, breaking down the unfamiliar word as she spoke. Eli chuckled.

  “Ee-con. Economy,” he corrected. “And yes, that is the point.”

  “I know my numbers,” Aria said, though it was neither defensive nor petulant.

  “Yes, but the math you learn in the empire-schools does not cover all the different kinds of math we do here.”

  “Different kinds of math?” Aria said, half horrified, half intrigued.”

  “Yes, different kinds of math. Are you just going to keep repeating what I am saying or are you going to come over here?” Eli asked. As they were speaking he had stepped around the table and was breaking the large piece of paper down into sections, his small body half bending over the table to reach the edge of the page, before he gave in and decided now was a good enough time to train his wind control.

  With a thought and a gesture, the writing stick was seized by the finest, most delicate tendril of wind Eli could muster. In truth, the gesture was more theatrical than anything else. For less experienced mages, gestures, mnemonics, and certain items could work as catalysts to focus magic and facilitate spell weaving. They were training tools and occasionally failsafes. Eli needed neither, but it would have been beyond odd for someone at his perceived level not to use them. He trusted Aria to keep his secrets, and barring that, to be too ignorant of magic theory to give anything away, but with both Cailean and Angela in the room he didn’t want to take any chances.

  ~

  Eli did not adequately account for Aria’s reaction to his casual use of magic.

  She gaped at the floating stationary as it drew clean lines down the page and formed elegant script according to Eli’s will.

  “Is this you?” She asked, her hand reaching out before she caught herself, tried to recover but ended up just freezing mid motion.

  “Yes, it is me.”

  “That’s real magic,” she said.

  “Aria, you have seen real magic before. My mother does it all of the time. Mme Okoro just did some when she was here.”

  “But that’s them. This is you.”

  “This is me.” He agreed as he turned to look over at her. The writing stick not wavering even as he turned away. Sure, he wasn’t going to use his spatial magic openly for now, but he would absolutely take advantage of some of its invisible applications things like absolute spatial perception. Nothing within a certain range would escape his notice. Even without it, using air mana as a sort of pseudo-spatial sense was well within his capabilities. However, none of that was remotely obvious to Aria.

  “Economy, different maths, easy magic. I can’t catch up.” She turned to look at him, and her expression was so lost, so pitiful, that Eli had to turn around to prevent her from seeing his entire face scrunching up with repressed laughter. Both of them reflected in silence, the quiet only broken up by the sound of writing, and the gentle breathing of the people in the room.