Basque - A Date
The restaurant Julvie boasted about was as good as she promised. It was the best-tasting food he’d had since arriving in Kruami, but considering his diet consisted solely of the school’s cafeteria food, there wasn’t much of a contest. Neither stopped him from missing Hianbrun dishes.
He told himself that when things settled in and slowed down, he would ask the kitchen staff to let him cook some dishes, but he also knew that he was lying to himself—things would never slow down. People thought teachers had it easy with all the breaks. What they didn’t realize was that only the students get the breaks. That was the time teachers got everything done that they couldn’t do because they were so busy during the school year with teaching, tests, and student life. Administrative work and the bulk of planning got pushed to the breaks.
Julvie’s company was nice. She was friendly, pretty, and obviously into Basque. That was something he found ironic. While it was flattering, since he didn’t reciprocate the feelings, he found it a bit off-putting. It was stressful having to watch his every action to prevent misunderstandings.
“Can you believe it? Our ancestors used to fly!”
Basque’s eyes widened. “Like birds?”
Julvie shook her head. “No, they would ride in these weird-looking tubes with wings.”
Basque tried to imagine it. In his mind, he saw people inside long, cylindrical birds. “It must have shaken a lot when the wings flapped.”
“That’s the thing, the wings didn’t move. No one knows how they stayed in the air or what propelled them. There’s been one or two nobles out there that have had too much time on their hands and have tried attaching wings to carriages, but none of them have gotten off the ground.”
Basque snorted. “You’ve got to be joking.”
“No, they really did. We’ve got old photos that were found inside parts of the Wall.”
The Wall. It surrounded the country of Kruami, protecting the people from the Yani. Basque had gone through it when he arrived. There were other ambassadors who were tasked to find out more about it. All Basque could tell about the Wall was that it was a combination of lost technology and newer construction.
“That’s pretty amazing.”
Julvie nodded. “There’s lots of amazing stuff about Kruami.”
“I’m sure there is.”
“So, what’s great about Hianbru compared to Kruami?” Julvie asked.
“Saying ‘great’ or ‘better’ isn’t really fair. There are differences and preferences, sure, but it’s all subjective.”
“Well, considering you say you won’t date me because you have to go back, that must mean there’s something greater about there than here.”
He smiled. “Well, since going back and reporting is part of my job, I have no other choice.”
“What about after that?”
“It took our ships six months to navigate the seas to get here. It’s not a trip to be made lightly, and I would be gone for an entire year, assuming I would be allowed to return at all.”
Julvie moved some vegetables around her plate with her fork. She stabbed one and popped it in her mouth. After she swallowed, she said, “Maybe…I could go with you?”
Basque shook his head. “We’ve been strictly told that that isn’t allowed. This is why I’m telling you we can’t do anything more than this. Marchioness Julvie, you’re attractive. I know you know you’re beautiful by Kruamian standards and you’re just as attractive by Hianbrun ones as well.”
Her face clouded. “Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with that Hianbrun woman?”
She had seen Rakelle. “It’s got nothing to do with her. We used to date, but—”
“So it is her!”
Basque shook his head. “No! Not at all. She has nothing to do with it.”
Julvie’s grip tightened on her fork. “What exactly were you two doing alone in that nurse’s office?”
“We didn’t do anything! And we weren’t alone, a student was in there.”
“You mean the unconscious boy?”
Basque sighed.
“Did you just…sigh at me? I am a marchioness. People don’t sigh at me!”
“Julvie, nothing is going on between me and Rakelle!”
Her face and ears turned beet-red. She slammed her hand down on the table. Her eyes glistened with moisture. “You! How dare you reject me so cruelly, then say my bare name as if we are lovers, and do it again with another woman’s name in the same sentence!”
“Marchioness—”
“No! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say!” She wiped her mouth off with a napkin and stood up. “I hope you enjoy your walk back.” She walked out the door. Basque slumped in his seat and sighed. Well, that’s one way to end it. He hoped he hadn’t ended their friendship as well.
Sitting alone, Basque finished his meal. After the hectic day, he was famished, and as he now had to walk back, he wanted to eat it all. In fact…
He raised his hand, and the waiter came over. “May I have your most popular dessert?”
“As you wish, my lord.” The waiter headed off to the kitchen.
Sitting back, he looked at the remains of Julvie’s dinner. It was some sort of poultry dish. She’d shared a bite with him and it’d been good, very light with a hint of citrus. His plate was empty. If he switched…
He was still staring at her plate when the waiter came back. He set a triangle-shaped thing with a white ball on top of it in front of Basque. “Salted caramel apple pie served à la mode.”
After the waiter left, Basque rotated the plate in front of him and looked at it from all sides. The white ball on top was slowly melting down on top of the triangle wedge. Picking up his fork, he scraped up a bit of the white stuff and licked it.
It was sweet and cold with a soft, yet poignant flavor. Next, he cut off the front of the wedge with his fork and took a bite. Where the à la mode was cold, the pie was warm. It was sweet as well and tasted of apples and some sort of sweet sticky substance with a hint of salt.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Last, he tried a bite of all of it at the same time. The hot and cold combination became its own flavor. Basque understood why this was the most popular dessert. Julvie’s scraps were far from his mind.
After he devoured the whole thing, he scraped his fork along the plate to get as much of the melted white stuff as he could. He only did it once, though. Placing the fork down, he waved the waiter down again.
“Did you enjoy your meal, my lord?”
“It was excellent. Please give my compliments to the staff.”
“That would be my pleasure, my lord.”
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about the dessert?”
The man bowed. “Once again, it would be my pleasure.”
“The white stuff, the à la mode—”
“It is called ‘ice cream’, my lord.”
A light went off in Basque’s head. He remembered studying that with Rakelle, and they’d both wondered what it was. He wondered if she’d had it already. She probably had.
“Yes, the ice cream, what flavor was that?”
“Vanilla, my lord.”
“Vanilla…I’ve never had that before.”
“I shall tell the chef. He will be pleased.”
“Thank you. Now, for payment, how is that handled?”
“You can either take care of it now, or we can arrange to bill your estate, my lord.”
“Can you bill the Hianbrun delegation?”
The waiter bowed. “That can be arranged.”
“Wonderful, let’s do that!” Basque said and clapped his hands together. “Oh! One last thing, can you send me a map back to Dyntril Academy?”
Once he received the map, Basque headed out into the evening. The sun was setting, and the horizon was an orangish color. There weren’t any clouds in the sky to reflect the light and create pink or purple hues.
Others were still out and about. Nobles here and there walked together chatting while their servants followed silently in tow. Servants without their noble bosses stood by carriages, waiting for their return.
One of the reasons Basque rarely left campus was the claustrophobia he felt when in the city. Buildings were squished up next to each other, and the only openings came from the occasional road cut through, but even then, the buildings lining that road continued the sense of being closed off. Maybe if the buildings had been shorter, one-story buildings like back in Hianbru, it would have been fine, but all the buildings here were four or five stories high.
That made sense because, as cramped as everything was, they didn’t have room to build out, only up. Basque could only assume it had something to do with trying to fit so many people within the Wall. He’d heard that there were farms inside as well.
The school had its own farm, and Basque had been there. The academy was built to be self-sustaining. Once the school year started, students weren’t allowed off campus until a long break, and Julvie had told him the teachers tended to stay there with them.
Thoughts of the dinner with Julvie filled Basque with regret. Her poultry dish was really good. He should have finished it. But the dessert was the best. He needed to see if the school had ice cream as well.
Following the marked route on the map, Basque’s claustrophobia finally let up when he exited into the large pavilion in front of the school. Like the city-nation the academy resided in, the school was surrounded by a wall. Two weeks prior, when the delegation first arrived, they’d just dropped him off out front. The gate had been locked, and Basque just stood in front of the gate, not knowing how to open it until Julvie came along and let him in.
Opening the panel next to the gate, he pressed the code she’d taught him and the gate swung open. It wasn’t much longer until he was back in his room. He had pushed Harnel’s questions off for another day and thanked his friend for helping out.
Seconds after he entered his room, Sophia appeared in the audience room. She’d let her hair down from the tight bun she wore through the day, and her vivid violet hair hung loosely down her back. Basque didn’t know if it was the servant’s uniform or how Sophia felt wearing it, but now that she was in more casual clothing, her face looked softer. This was his first time to see her out of uniform. His breath caught with how much more attractive she was, loose and free like this.
“Good evening, Master Basque.”
He’d forgotten that he’d told her he would teach her Hianb. He cleared his throat. “Good evening, Sophia.”
She stared at him expectantly while a debate raged in his head. What was this? Should he do this? Observe. Evaluate. Don’t get involved. Teaching her obviously violated the third tenet, but, he argued with himself, she wasn’t free to give her honest opinions in her native language. That affected the primary tenet of observing. So, come to think of it, teaching her his language was vital to completing his primary task.
“Would you like to use the desk in my room?”
She shook her head. “We are both unwed, and I am out of uniform, my lord.”
“Okay, then go ahead and have a seat.” He gestured at one of the chairs.
She didn’t make a move until after he sat down, and then she chose the chair across from him.
“As far as I know, we’ve not been open with our language. While I will teach you to read and write in it, I’m afraid I can’t let you keep any notes outside of the interface. I will have to destroy all your practice notes after each lesson.”
Even though her face was softer and prettier, he found it just as stoic and difficult to read. “Understood, my lord.”
“Shall we get started?”
Sophia nodded with an eagerness that caught him off guard.
An hour and a half later, when he ended the lesson, Basque was nearly speechless. Sophia was brilliant. In that short time, she’d mastered the written alphabet to the extent that her handwriting looked native. Her pronunciation lacked any foreign-born accent, and he couldn’t tell the difference between her speech patterns and Rakelle’s.
He knew that she was capable, and he hadn’t realized just how restricting her position in society was for her. His heart ached at the wasted potential that she represented. She should have been destined for something greater, but because of where she lived, she was already at her maximum.
“
“
“
She blushed.
“
She stood up. Basque continued to watch her, not letting her vanish like she normally did. He watched as she opened the servants’ door without a sound, then stepped through, and just as quietly shut it.
Basque made his way to the bathroom. He pulled his long black hair out of its ponytail and tossed the hair tie into his personal space. He stripped down and left his robes across the back of the chair in front of the fogged-over vanity mirror.
Steam slowly rose out of the bathtub, and Basque slipped in. The stress of the day seeped out of his muscles. He didn’t let any concern for the next morning creep in. Then he scolded himself for even the thought of worry. He needed to let things play out naturally.
Only one of you will live to graduate.
Did he really need to see children die? What was the value in observing that? The headmaster of the school had practically boasted about it! Couldn’t he just evaluate from that alone?
He shook his head in the water. No, no, he couldn’t. It could all be lies meant to deceive him. But considering the reactions of the other attendees, he couldn’t believe it was some large-scale ruse meant to deceive him. There was no way they could have gotten that many children to cooperate, and almost all of them had reacted as if they’d expected to be told that.
Last year, classes started short two students.
In his memory, Krill’s voice held more eagerness in it. There was no doubt to which class those students belonged. Until he’d heard the commencement speech, he had had no idea as to what sort of hellscape this academy was.
It made him wonder if he hadn’t been out observing the students, could something serious have happened? Thinking over the day, Fawna had been the only student of his he’d seen out exploring. Maybe that’s why Lavrence and his thugs had shown up to the dorms; they couldn’t find any Class E students to harass.
Observe. He had observed. Evaluate. He’d evaluated, and his evaluation clashed with his third tenet: Do not get involved. Without him, the students of Class E were in danger, but he couldn’t do anything directly for the students.
Did that mean he was going to have to watch students under his care die?
That realization hit him like a mage Yani. Would he be able to do it? He understood the reason for the third tenet. If he got involved, he wouldn’t be seeing the Kruamian education system for what it was. “But would that even be possible when they gave me a Yani-loving class to teach?!” he yelled at his empty bathroom.
Getting out of the bath, Basque toweled off and put on a simpler robe to sleep in. He was just about to head back into his bedroom when there was a knock on the door. Going over to it, he was surprised to find Reianna on the other side.