Losers Stick Together
The next morning the three victors left Lion Pavilion without so much as breakfast, on the grounds that class was starting early. Smith grumbled around a mouthful of lamb.
"No reason to show up if all you're going to do is drag the mood through the muck."
Tony took him to task.
"You'll spray food everywhere. Don't talk with your mouth full."
Chris took Tony's side.
"Mind your manners."
Smith carried on as if he'd been betrayed.
"A slave, taking a noble's side."
They were eating and trading nonsense in that fashion when David appeared, for the first time in a very long while. Everyone stopped eating and stood. Chairs scraped the floor with a loud racket.
"Sit, sit. Keep eating."
They sat, but they did not go back to their food. An awkward silence held for a moment. Tony cleared his throat and spoke.
"When do the ones who've sensed mana leave the dormitory?"
"The custom is to live a year with your cohort."
He ran his eyes over the squad and went on.
"Don't like living together?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I can't stand the way they preen."
"Then it's worked."
"Pardon?"
"The quick ones were set among you on purpose, to spur the members who are slow to show results. From the look of this room, the spur landed nicely."
His point was fair. They had already been working hard; from here on they would likely work harder still, with fire in their eyes.
"There's a saying. If it burns, climb."
David added the words and laughed. No one laughed with him. They were that stung. Looking awkward, David drew out five passage passes.
"Rest matters as much as effort. When your head is heavy and tight, go down to Stratton and clear it."
"Ah—!"
Chris was thrown. Once they had passage passes, Mark and Tony could take their own laundry in. The clientele that had shrunk to two only yesterday might vanish altogether.
Faye, Smith, and Alice were delighted to receive the passes. Mark and Tony were not pleased to quite that degree, but their faces brightened as well.
This won't do.
Chris felt the danger of it.
"It would be beneath royalty and nobility to haul their own washing."
Tony nodded.
"That much is true."
Whew. Thank goodness.
In the very instant Chris let himself breathe, the attack came from beside him.
"I'll do it for half."
Alice had stepped in as a competitor. Seized by a sense of betrayal, Chris stammered.
"You... you... you...!"
Tony accepted on the spot.
"Fine. I'll leave it to you, Alice."
Chris nearly jumped out of his skin.
"We were on good terms, weren't we? Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"
Tony let out a short laugh.
"Good terms? Please. I was sick of all that fawning."
Chris caught Alice by the arm.
"Cut it in half and there's nothing left. I mean it."
It wasn't a lie. With Alex and Catherine gone, the laundry had shrunk, and the fee would shrink with it, but a minimum cost still had to be paid.
Smith was enjoying the sight of Chris breaking into a nervous sweat.
"Your Highness, who will you be entrusting the laundry to?"
Mark looked from one of them to the other. Chris had his hands clasped, all earnest plea.
"You keep doing it."
Mark's finger indicated Chris. Chris leapt for joy, then realized that three-quarters of his customers had vanished in a single day, and his face fell. The swing of expression must have been comical. The whole squad laughed together.
For ten days they worked harder than before. Hard enough that one of the squad grew dark circles down to the cheeks.
At breakfast, Faye spoke.
"Keep this up and I'm going to lose my mind."
The others nodded as if they felt the same.
"I need to get to the village."
Then she looked at Chris.
"Show us the way."
"It's about time I took the laundry down anyway. I'll guide you."
Tony said,
"Let's all go down together."
The Lion Pavilion apprentices followed Chris's lead down into the village. At the Tower boundary, when he held up his passage pass and told them to do exactly as he did, a brief tension moved through them; aside from that, the mood stayed warm. Everyone enjoyed the rare walk down the mountain.
They parted at the village square. Chris and Alice kept together on account of the laundry.
"Traitor."
At Chris's whisper, Alice dropped her eyes.
"Sorry."
"I will never forget the betrayal of ten days ago."
The exaggerated tone made Alice laugh.
"You're laughing?"
"Sorry."
The two of them stepped into Stan General Store. Today Stan himself was minding the counter. He looked from one to the other with a wicked glint and crooked his little finger.
"You two an item?"
They waved him off at the same time.
"No, sir."
"We're not."
Stan smiled meanly.
"You suit each other. Give it a try."
"We're good."
"We're fine."
"If you don't want to, you don't want to. Here to drop off laundry, yeah?"
Chris set the bundle of washing on the counter.
"I bear grievous news."
Stan leaned his torso back, on the defensive.
"Grievous news?"
"Half my customers have flown."
Stan clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, tsk."
"So the laundry fee has to come down."
"Damn it."
Stan swore.
"No. We're already under cost."
"The laundry's only a quarter of what it was."
"You said half. How is it a quarter?"
Chris jerked his chin at Alice.
"Because there's competition."
Alice set her washing on the counter.
"Let's say half a silver coin a month."
"A month? Not per load — a month?"
Alice answered plainly.
"I agreed to take one silver a month for the work. It used to be two, but he's got a passage pass now, and there's a competitor here, so I had no choice but to discount."
Stan gazed steadily into her eyes.
"Truly?"
"Yes."
"Honest girl. All right. I'll honor that honesty. Half a coin a month."
"Thank you."
Chris said,
"Half a coin a month for me as well."
Tony had haggled his fee down, but His Highness the prince — the only customer Chris had left — had not. Chris pretended he had been cut just the same.
"Not you."
"Why not me? I'm a regular. You ought to make it even cheaper."
"Because you've got no manners."
"Me?"
"You beat my price down while I was away."
"Honestly. A grown man, sulking over ancient history. Shall I take it to the Brian store, then?"
The Brian Magic Store always worked. Stan spent a while vilifying the place, then sighed and accepted the offer.
On the way out of the general store, Alice asked,
"What's the Brian Magic Store?"
"Over there."
Chris pointed across the way, and Alice started toward it.
"Why there?"
"To look around."
"We've nothing to buy."
"Not much stock, then?"
"No. There's plenty of stock."
Chris made a circle of thumb and forefinger and went on.
"Horribly expensive. On our means, we couldn't even dream of it."
"That bad?"
"Yeah."
Hearing it was expensive only sharpened her interest. Alice walked fast and went into the shop. Donna had been reading; when she saw the two of them, she hid the book.
Chris asked,
"What book is that?"
"A magic book."
Chris's eyes glittered.
"Truly?"
"Truly."
"Show me."
"No."
"Why not?"
"It's a high-order grimoire. A wretch at your level looks at it and goes blind. Might even go mad."
Unconvinced, Chris pushed his lips out.
"You were a mage, ma'am?"
"Of course. How would anyone who isn't a mage run a magic shop? You didn't know?"
Chris was still doubtful.
"You don't look like a mage."
"When a mage's level gets very, very high, they come to look ordinary."
Had she claimed to be a Jenyeom, he might have believed her. Calling herself a mage of high rank only made it harder to credit.
"Then why doesn't a mage wear a robe?"
"If I don't feel like wearing one, I don't."
"Every mage at our Tower wears one."
Donna lowered her voice.
"That's because they've taken a fancy to the look."
While the two of them talked, Alice browsed the staves, then drifted over toward the mana stones.
"Ma'am, how much is this?"
Donna named a price, and Alice's eyes went round with shock.
"Don't you have anything cheaper?"
"Ordinary mana stones are a little cheaper than attribute stones."
"What's an ordinary mana stone?"
"A stone that holds mana bearing no particular attribute. Most mana stones in nature are like that."
Once Alice and Donna's exchange had wound down, Chris stepped close to Donna and whispered.
"Did it sell?"
"What?"
"Oh, come on. You know."
"Not yet."
"Guess Juan doesn't have the money?"
"He's bought all sorts of things, trying to feel mana. Been cheated plenty, too."
"That Mana Helmet of yours isn't a swindle, is it?"
"This shop is high-end. Can't you tell from the fact that we deal only in attribute stones? We don't do fraud."
"You mean it?"
"I mean it."
"I'm going to buy it, so don't sell it to anyone else. Hold it for me."
Donna pointed at the pocket of Chris's trousers.
"You haven't got any money."
"Not right now."
"Doesn't look as if you will later, either."
"A few more months, and I'll tell my cohort."
"And if you tell them?"
"We pool the money and buy it together."
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