Chapter Thirty-Five
“THE SPIRITS of the world will help us,” Barve said in response to the problem of Nolan. It was the Sunday morning after the noise and colour of the fireworks display last night and Elliot was feeling tired but relaxed. Barve seemed to be growing more comfortable around him again and Elliot was hopeful that there might be nothing going on between Farlden and Lila, which would give him a chance.
“What does that actually mean?” he asked in response to Barve’s words, curious about the Neans’ spiritual beliefs. “Who are these spirits?”
They were sitting in the residential hall kitchen where anyone could walk in on them, so Elliot understood why when Barve silently mouthed the answer: “Izients.”
He smiled as he realised that the Nean race had found a way to talk about the Izient people without others ever knowing, referring to them like a religion. Perhaps at one time Neans had even worshipped Izients as deities. Perhaps some still did. It wouldn’t be so strange when Izients seemed to be more knowledgeable and wise than the other races.
Sapiens were the only violent people – preying on every other species, animal or human – so shouldn’t they be stopped if it could be done peacefully? But he only had Dervyl’s word for it that her people did want to help others and cause no harm. Could he trust her and should he even consider working against his family and every other Sapiens? If people hated him now for being friends with two Neans, that was nothing to how they would react if he betrayed his entire race. But, if he didn’t and the Neans ended up becoming slaves again or the Izients were discovered, he would never forgive himself. There was so much at stake and he was the last person who should have an important say in the fate of the world.
Barve finished washing up their dishes and left to get ready for another day at university, leaving Elliot alone with Fal, something that drove other thoughts out of his mind.
“What happened with you and Callie last night?” Elliot asked him. “She said she’d accidentally upset you.”
“It was just a misunderstanding,” Fal said shortly, his curt tone killing Elliot’s good mood. “I have to go.”
Elliot put a hand on his arm, feeling the warmth of him through the jumper he wore. “What’s wrong?”
“Am I part of the reason you don’t want to date Barve?” Fal’s expression was guarded but his dark gaze moved over Elliot’s face as if searching for an answer.
Elliot’s heart began to pound in anticipation but – as his hand dropped away, breaking the contact – he had to be sure they were talking about the same thing. “How do you mean?”
“Have you been thinking of us... I don’t know, dating?”
Elliot swallowed. “Yes.” When Fal didn’t immediately respond, his heart began to sink. “Are you and Lila going out?”
“No.” Farlden looked confused at why Elliot would even ask this, and hope flared up in him once more.
“I do care about you,” Elliot said, the risk he was taking in admitting his feelings making the words sound stilted.
“Don’t.” The single word knocked the breath from Elliot’s lungs. Farlden saw his expression and went on quickly, unhappily, “I’m not trying to be mean, but we’d be terrible together. We’d never stop arguing. Maybe you should give Barve a chance.”
Farlden turned and walked out. When he had said he wouldn’t do magic jointly with Elliot again, it had felt like the worst thing imaginable, denying Elliot something that he needed to understand his own soul. He’d thought at the time that nothing could be more painful than that, but this hurt to a degree Elliot hadn’t even realised he was capable of feeling, as if he could barely breathe around it.
* * *
Nicola Rivers was working on Government papers when the house phone rang. She was going to let someone else in the family get it until she saw from the ID display that it was her younger son. She snatched up the receiver. “Elliot. How lovely to hear from you.”
“Mum.” He sounded a bit taken aback and wary and she blamed those Neans for the response. He continued, “Sorry it’s been a couple of weeks since I last spoke to you. I’ve been busy with university work but you’ll be happy when you see my grades.”
“That’s wonderful.” There was something wrong. She could hear it in his voice. “And how are you getting on with the other students?”
The fake cheer was gone from his tone as he said, “You’ll be glad to know that I just had a big falling out with Farlden.”
She got out of the middle drawer of her desk the thick file she had compiled on the two Neans and on their family. Trilema – Neans had such odd surnames. “Elliot, nothing that upsets you could make me feel good and I apologised weeks ago for my reaction to your Nean friends. If you’d given me some warning, I would have had a chance to get used to the idea. I love you.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just... complicated with Farlden. We’ll work it out. Did you find relationships got a hundred times more complicated as you became an adult?”
Half her mind was taken back in time to her own experience as an eighteen year old while the other half wondered who it was he liked so much. A revolting suspicion came to her. Surely he couldn’t have fallen for one of the Neans? She could never allow a child of hers to enter into such an unnatural relationship and it would put him in terrible danger from those in the government who made decisions about magic. “I did. You’re becoming a different person, learning to react to things as an adult instead of a child. Is there someone you want to date at university?”
His silence confirmed her fear and she gripped the file in front of her, squeezing it as if she could choke the life out of those wretched Neans through the pages of information about them. “We can talk about it when you’re ready,” she said, careful to keep her emotions out of her voice. She hated to deceive her own child but he had brought it on himself and one day he would realise how desperate she was to protect him. He would find out for himself how untrustworthy Neans were. “I think I’ve done my best to be open-minded about your friendships.” The lies came out of her mouth like vomit.
“You have and I really appreciate it. When you get a chance to spend time with Barve and Farlden you’ll see why I like them so much.”
“You could always bring a friend with you when you come home for Christmas.” It would give her a good chance to study the creatures close-up and provide information to the government, to show her family’s loyalty.
“I’ll think about it. I love you.”
She said goodbye to him and put the phone down. Barve and Farlden must be more devious than she’d ever guessed to have got Elliot so brainwashed and the closer he grew to them, the more difficult his future would be when he found out how the government treated magic users. She had to protect his future no matter what she had to do to his Nean friends to achieve it.