Dinner that night began much the same as it always did. Students sat at their customary tables, and youngerclassmen scrambled back and forth with heaping platters of meat and bread. There was a large, roasted pig on a table in the center of the hall, seated on a huge platter and surrounded by baked apple slices. A thin, greasy looking cook with a scruffy beard was using a huge knife to carve off thick slices of pork and set them on trays for the students, while the savory smell of the meat wafted about the room.
Timothy and his friends were discussing various topics as they waited for their food to be delivered.
“It’s been the same rumor for the past seven nights,” Yule was saying to John.
“I tell you, they will be announcing it,” John retorted. “Dorven told me that he overheard the Superintendent and some professors talking about it.”
“Did Dorven hear them say where?” Timothy interjected.
In response to question, John leaned forward confidentially. “Dorven thought that he heard the Catacombs of Clearwater, in Eradnoer.”
Yule leaned back in his seat. “Clearwater,” he echoed.
“Is that near your village, Yule?” Timothy asked
Yule nodded, lost in his own thoughts.
Just then, a youngerclassman arrived with the food.
“Reporting with pork and apples as ordered, gentlemen,” he said crisply, setting a steaming tray on the table.
“Very well. You may take your seat,” John replied, waving him off. Grabbing a large meat fork, John scraped a pile of the food onto his plate and uttered a sigh. “I’m tired of eating this rubbish,” he said, seeming suddenly dreary.
“I always thought of this as decent food,” Timothy replied, amused.
At this, John shook his head, regaining his confidential air. “Listen. It’s like I’ve told you before. When we graduate next year, I’ll make both of you high nobles in my country; then you’ll see what real food is like.”
“Real food,” Yule said, nodding skeptically.
“Oh yes,” John said, raising his eyebrows. “Imagine a giant banquet hall, twenty times the size of this one. The tables are piled with delicious foods from the far corners of my father’s lands. The guests, my father’s nobles and courtiers, are dressed in colorful splendor, and my father is seated at the dais where my ancestors have sat for over a thousand years.”
“Bother,” Yule interjected, redirecting his attention suddenly.
“Wait, what?” John replied, confused.
“Kyle and friends,” Yule said. “Over there.”
Kyle, Ivan, and three others were standing in a group with their arms crossed on the other side of the hall. Seyanna was standing opposite them with a plate of food in her hands, trying to get around them. When they refused to let her by, she stepped back and said something, which Kyle answered by threatening to knock her plate on the floor. Timothy saw Kyle and his entourage snickering as she backed away.
“I don’t know why they bully her so much,” Yule said, pouring himself a glass of cider from a bronze pitcher.
“Well anyway,” John replied, chewing on a mouthful of gristle, “any enemy of Kyle’s is a friend of mine.” Then, spitting the gristle onto his plate, he stood up. “Seyanna,” he called across the hall. “There’s a seat here.”
A few students glance up to see what was happening, but soon were back to eating.
“Kyle looks angry now,” Yule commented to John, who had promptly sat down again.
“Good,” John said shortly.
A few moments passed before Seyanna arrived at the table. She set her plate carefully down and nodded to the three friends, smiling slightly as she took her seat. Tonight, she was wearing a neat, non-descript grey dress, along with the same unusual hair pin.
“Sorry about Kyle,” John joked, breaking the silence. “He can be a bit rude at times.”
“He’s an overblown egotist and an empty-headed wind-puff,” Yule added, slicing a biscuit in half.
Seyanna raised her eyebrows. “I always felt sorry for him,” she said
The three friends looked up from their food.
“Sorry?” John questioned, surprised.
“My father used to tell me that men like him grow up lonely and bitter, with no real friends,” she replied.
There was a pause as the three friends considered this.
“Well,” John finally replied, thoughtfully, “your father may be right. But if that’s the case, then he deserves it.”
Seyanna shrugged. “I wouldn’t want to be him.”
“That is true,” Yule rejoined, returning to his food.
“So did you travel a lot with your father?” Timothy asked, changing the subject.
Seyanna nodded. “My brother and I went wherever he did,” she said. “We began when I was six. By custom, Travelers usually only bring their sons with them on their journeys, but – after my mother died, he decided to bring me along as well.”
“I’m sorry,” Timothy said, slowly.
“It was good traveling with my father,” Seyanna continued. “I saw so many beautiful things and – other things.”
“Other things?” John questioned.
Before Seyanna could answer, however, the familiar sound of a crashing tray echoed over the dining hall. It was followed by complete silence, as everyone looked in the direction from which the noise had come. The perpetrator was standing next to a table with the tray’s shattered remains in one of his hands. Kyle stood on top of the same table.
“By the stars!” Yule exclaimed in disgust. “What is he doing now?”
Kyle looked around the dining hall. Seeing that he had everyone’s attention, he spoke.
“My fellow students,” he began. “Sons and daughters of kings and nobles, hear me. For the past year, a great disservice has been done to us. A snake, a vial of venom, has been given a place amongst us. Those charged with bringing about our lordly training have ignored our pleas on this subject. Therefore, we must act on our own.”
Then, without warning, two more of Kyle’s friends shoved the quivering form of Ellyra onto the table with him. He grabbed one of her arms, and yanked her up into a standing position. Many of the students in the crowded room immediately began to shout approval of Kyle’s actions.
Timothy glanced at Seyanna. Her face showed desperate alarm. Timothy himself felt a heat rising in his stomach.
“We shall show her that she is not welcome here,” Kyle bellowed, shaking his fist in the air. His words were greeted with a roar of approval. The sound of Ellyra’s frightened wailing could barely be heard through the noise.
“Timothy,” Seyanna whispered desperately.
Timothy turned to Seyanna, but he didn’t know what to say. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yule sitting back in his chair, staring unemotionally at the unfolding scene.
Suddenly, Kyle drew back his hand and knocked Ellyra hard in the face, sending her sprawling onto the table top.
“Please Timothy,” Seyanna said again, her voice barely restrained.
Timothy glanced at Yule, and then back at Kyle. Kyle had hauled Ellyra on her feet, and was preparing to strike her again.
It was then, through all noise and commotion, that Timothy thought he saw Ellyra mouthing the word “please” to her tormenter. He snapped. Before anyone could realize what he had done, he took a metal goblet from his table and, standing up, hurled it hard at the offending bully. It found its mark, striking Kyle square in the ear.
Immediately, the whole room fell into a deathly silence. The only sound was the clanging of the goblet as it hit the floor. Kyle turned slowly to see who had thrown the goblet, but said nothing in his surprise.
As Timothy waited for Kyle’s response, a sharp whisper came from behind him. “What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?” It was Yule.
Then, in the prevailing silence, the students could hear the sound of footsteps approaching the dinning hall’s main door. In a matter of moments, when the door opened and several professors walked in, everything in the hall had returned to normal.
The lead professor was Lord Elegand. He was followed by Darkworthy and several others, who strode to the center of the room. Glancing around the room, Elegand began to speak.
“Students,” he began in an officious tone. “The news for which you have long waited is finally here. General Donnel has conferred with the Counsel, and has decided that this year’s weapons trials and Quest will be held in Eradnoer.”
Immediately, the hall broke out in a buzz of excited discussion, and it took the best efforts of the professors to regain silence. It was Darkworthy who spoke next.
“It may be of your interest to know the exact location of the Quest. We have decided to hold it in the Caverns of Clearwater, and on the slopes of the Sentinel Mountain,” he said. “Also, for those of you involved in last night’s incident, your punishment will be as follows: for John, Timothy, and Yule, six hours in the trees; for the rest, you will be helping Mr. Barbacker in the library for six hours. That is all.”