Chapter 3 #2
Allen drifts towards us, cutting a dashing figure in a three-piece suit. He takes us in, and then says, ‘Ellie, right? We met the other day in the Healers’ Quarter.’
I nod.
‘Ellie,’ Julian says. ‘That’s right. It was Ellie. Not Ellen.’
An elbow knocks me in the ribs, making me huddle closer to Allen. Chrissy. She throws us a venomous glare as she rushes by. Gone as quickly as she appeared.
Julian sighs.
‘Want to tell me what that was about?’ Allen asks, nodding towards Chrissy.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Julian says, though I have the distinct feeling that he does.
‘Did you mess with Chrissy?’ Allen says.
‘Please tell me you didn’t,’ Xandra says, rolling her eyes.
‘No. Chrissy and I are good,’ Julian says, unconvincingly.
Allen smirks. ‘Exactly how angry is she with you?’
‘Quantify angry…’ Julian shrugs. ‘Low-key angry? I’ll-rip-your-head-off-when-I-see-you angry? Anyway. What’s with the questioning? You usually don’t give a shit about what I’m up to.’
‘I give a shit when it affects how we interact in the future with the Healers’ Quarter,’ Allen replies calmly. ‘So it’s relevant for me to know. Especially since we’ll be going into the Test Missions soon and I might be stuck with bad vibes if she gets assigned to our team.’
‘Aren’t you a sensitive little flower?’ Julian pinches Allen’s cheek. ‘Cheer up. The two of us might not be assigned to the same team, so you won’t have any bad vibes to contend with.’
‘You didn’t…?’ Xandra narrows her eyes. ‘You got with Chrissy?’
Julian shrugs. ‘We just had fun for a couple of nights, that’s it. What did she expect?’ He catches another server and trades his empty champagne flutes for two full ones. ‘We all know how it is. No fraternising outside of our own Quarter.’
They must have gotten together after the Field Healing Simulation. Not that it’s any of my business. I’m just floating above the surface, a mere shadow that no one pays any attention to.
Allen nudges me, cocking an eyebrow, like saying, Can you believe this idiot?
I give him a faint smile in return. Truly unbelievable.
Xandra eyes Julian’s champagne. ‘You need to stop drinking.’
Just then, the Commander leaves and Mace turns around, laying a hand on Xandra’s back. There’s so much familiarity in this gesture. My mouth is dry as I gear up to say hi, but Xandra moves like lightning.
She plucks the champagne flutes out of Julian’s hands, lays them on a high table nearby, grabs Julian and Mace by the wrists and drags them towards the dance floor. ‘That’s it. Dancing time,’ she says.
I don’t know what to do with myself now. I scan the crowd for familiar faces, desperately hoping to see someone I know. Top Team seem so comfortable together. So tight knit. As always, I’m the outsider. I find myself staring at Mace with his back to me, as he melts into the crowd.
‘Ellie?’ Allen says beside me, and I look up. ‘I’m not telling you this because I want to hurt you. But I need to warn you that it’s hopeless.’ He nods over at his teammates. ‘He’s so pathetically in love with her, that he’s unable to see anyone else.’
I startle. ‘How did you?—’
There’s pity in his eyes and this takes me aback, because I don’t want a stranger to feel sorry for me, for whatever reason. And this was meant to be an amazing night.
He squeezes my shoulder, and the small touch does its job. It makes me feel like I’m not completely alone.
‘I often see things that no one else does,’ Allen goes on. ‘And you feel like you’re crushed right now. Are you an Empath, Ellie?’
Empath powers are extremely rare. They give the person who possesses them a read on the aura of the others, a sense of their intention, or if they’re lying or not. They’re tactically valuable. But I’m terrible at reading intentions.
‘I think I would have noticed by now if I could read people,’ I say.
Though, I have to admit that a few of my exchanges with Allen are strange. It’s almost as if I can hear what he isn’t saying, like now, as he falls quiet.
‘So. You, Mace and the others, you’re all pretty close, aren’t you?’ I ask, just to fill the silence.
‘You could say that,’ Allen replies. ‘When I started my Apprenticeship, Mace sort of took me under his wing. I had Warrior powers, but the heart of an Engineer, and I struggled at first in the Quarter.’
I throw him a baffled look. Why is he choosing to feed my obsession, when he just told me to let it go?
Allen knits his eyebrows, as if he can’t make sense of something. ‘What kind of magic do you have, Ellie?’
‘I’m not sure,’ I say.
‘Are you feeling confused right now?’
What a strange question. I guess there’s no point in denying it. ‘Yes? Why?’
Allen shakes his head, as if trying to clear it. ‘Never mind. Come on. Do you like chocolate?’
‘Who doesn’t?’
He grins. ‘Well, then. Did you ever have strawberries dipped in chocolate? Let me show you one of the best treats in the world,’ he says, and before I get the chance to protest, he begins dragging me towards the table of decadent food.
This. Party. Is. Awesome.
Allen’s stuffed me with sugar and treats, and maybe a glass or two of wine, and at some point, his calm has rubbed off on me. Then he pulled me onto the dance floor.
I lost sight of him a while ago, but the music is fabulous, and I don’t feel like such an outsider anymore. Apart from when I ran into a group of top-tier Healers earlier.
Not good.
Chrissy completely ignored me, so she must have drawn the wrong conclusions when she saw me standing next to Julian.
But then I saw a group of Engineers I knew from spending a few months in their Quarter.
They’re pretty easy-going people, and we’ve been dancing in a wide circle and exchanging news and gossip for the last hour or so.
After my stints in the first two Quarters, most other Apprentices had no interest in staying in touch, but the Engineers are a friendlier bunch than I thought.
The circle widens as a group of middle-tier Engineers arrive, greeted enthusiastically by the rest.
‘What’s up with you guys?’ Felicia – one of the top Engineer Apprentices – asks. She slings her arm around a tall, curvy girl in a short, red dress. ‘I thought you were partying in the Engineers’ Quarter.’
‘What, and let you have all the fun?’ Red-dress girl grins. ‘This place is awesome.’
‘You have to check out the chocolate fountain,’ Felicia says. ‘How did you get in?’
The girl shrugs. ‘We got a message from Stella half an hour ago that said we were ‘cordially invited to the Commanders’ Ball. People have started getting sent to random parties all across The Citadel.’
‘That’s strange,’ I put in. ‘Something like that happened to me, too.’