“Drunk off their asses, apparently.”
The pair chuckled, and I raised a brow. I wasn’t sure why either of them found this to be newsworthy information. It was an unseasonably nice day, with half of the Studium already running off to the beach for the week’s end. It was hardly a surprise to hear that those who remained were getting up to some nonsense. Although, the Biblyos? That was kind of impressive.
The massive library was probably one of the tallest structures in the city. How the Hel did a couple freshlings manage to get up there?
“Oh, wait, fuck—you missed the best part, Kent,” the guardsman crowed. I pocketed the name away in my mind for reference later. “You’re not gonna believe this, but according to Andrea, one of the culprits? The brunette one we saw? That was the fucking Light Conduit.”
Immediately, I sat up from where I had been leaning lazily, shifting myself forward. Arken had donewhat now?!
“No shit? Girl’s been here for what, a month? Sounds like trouble, that one.”
They had no idea.
In one fell swoop, I leapt from my perch in the tree, landing gracefully to the left of these idiot gossips and startling the ever-living shit out of them both. They recognized me on sight and immediately started scrambling to hide the joint.
“Hello, boys,” I said with a wolfish grin.
“Shit!” Kent muttered. “I mean, uhh—Greetings, Captain Vistarii!”
“Greetings,” I parroted, letting my eyes narrow for show. Just to make them sweat a little bit.
“I don’t think that I need to remind you two that smoking in uniform isstrictly prohibitedby the code of conduct, do I?”
“No, sir,” the other man stammered out. “Apologies, sir, it won’t happen again.”
“Consider yourselves lucky that you’re not one of mine. I’ll cut you both a break this time,” I said evenly. “Under one condition.”
For whatever reason, that offer seemed to make themeven moreanxious, and my grin widened.
“Err, what’s that, sir?” Kent asked uneasily.
“The freshlings you two were talking about. Which holding cells does Andrea have them in?”
“Uhh, they’re at the Eastern Gates, I think?” Kent said, looking confused. “Why?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, Kent,” I replied easily. “Now put the godsdamned joint out and get your asses back to post.”
“Yes, sir!” the pair chanted, looking both shocked and relieved as I took my leave, headed towards the Eastern Gates.
Ten minutes later, I was breezing down the stairs of the eastern city walls. I had no good reason to be here, honestly—except the errant hope that our little criminals had not been released quite yet. Even so, this was a direct contradiction of my resolution to stay away from Arken…
It might have been a weak resolution to begin with.
We had a number of temporary holding cells scattered throughout the city, intended to quickly and safely remove threats from the public eye when necessary. In all likelihood, the two Conduits had already been released with a firm slap on the wrist and maybe a note on their student records, but on the off chance they weren’t…
I nodded to one of the guards as I passed through, rounding the corner, and then I heard a vaguely familiar voice.
“This is such bullshit,” a woman who was decidedlynotArken was moaning. “Since when is having a nice little picnic in the sunshine against the laws and regulations of the Studium?”
My lip quirked when I saw Andrea cough, attempting to mask her snort of disbelief.
And that’s when I heard herlaugh—sparkling, melodic, and sweet.
“I think when the ‘picnic’ is really just several bottles of wine, and the ‘sunshine’ in question is acquired via breaking and entering,Laurelena,” Arken replied sarcastically. “Namely the breaking and the entering. Wedidclimb up some questionable scaffolding.”
Gods, I liked her snark.
Andrea saw me out of the corner of her eye and began to turn, but I shook my head in silence, pressing a single finger against my lips. I was enjoying this banter of theirs.