Chapter 27: Defending Honour.
Aldous Grieve’s class went on to talk about a few minor skirmishes that happened because of the Sundering War, the class ending with the professor giving them the homework of memorizing all of the dates that he had written in the board today.
Next was lunch, which Elian found himself dreading because of what had happened yesterday. He even thought about trying to find Bellamy before going into the mess hall, because he believed that was his best option.
But that wasn’t going to work, since Elian didn’t even know what classes Bellamy actually took.
Yet. He made a mental note to ask him later. I only don’t know for now.
He had to settle with taking Cordelia instead, much to the girl’s dismay.
Thankfully, the traffic coming towards him had considerably died down compared to yesterday, fully ceasing when they finally managed to take a seat.
Cordelia was still talking about wanting to go back to the artifcers’ hall to test out something she needed to do when Bellamy arrived on the table they were sitting on.
Bellamy dropped onto the bench across from them without waiting to be invited, already reaching for something off Cordelia’s tray before he’d fully sat down.
"There you two are!" He surveyed the table like he’d been personally inconvenienced by having to search for it.
"I went to the dormroom first. Do you know how far the dorms are from here? Genuinely inconsiderate architecture."
"You could have just come to lunch," Elian said, not admitting that he was looking for him as well.
"I did come to lunch. Eventually. After a small detour." He looked giddy about the last fact, for some strange reason.
Then Bellamy’s attention snagged on Cordelia, visibly recalibrating.
"You’re new... I thought you were Milena! I remember everyone within about four seconds of meeting them, I would have remembered you, it’s a wonderful skill."
Elian didn’t find it in his heart to remind him that Milena and Cordelia had two wildly different hair colours, Milena being raven black and Cordelia having red.
"Cordelia Ashworth." She didn’t look up from the last page of notes she was frantically finishing, pen moving fast enough that Elian believed she’d actually forget the thought entirely if she didn’t get it down before lunch fully distracted her.
"You’re the roommate that Elian mentioned? Sort of... Mostly he made a face."
"I did not make a face." Elian protested.
"You made a face." Cordelia finally set the pen down, apparently satisfied.
"It was fond, for what it’s worth. At least I recognised it as fond."
Bellamy looked delighted by this in the specific way he seemed to look delighted by nearly everything.
"Fond. I’ll take fond."
He stole another piece off her tray, entirely unbothered by her mild noise of protest.
"So, Ashworth. That’s Duke Ashworth’s line, isn’t it? You’re that Ashworth?"
"Unfortunately."
"Why unfortunately? Duke’s daughter, that’s a good deal, better than most of us get."
Bellamy tilted his head, genuinely curious now rather than just performing interest.
"I’d kill for that kind of standing, if i had to be honest."
"You say that because you don’t have to sit through the meetings."
Cordelia’s tone stayed light, but something in it flattened slightly, just for a moment, before she visibly shook it off and reached for her tray instead.
"Anyway. I need to get to the artificer’s hall before my next class—I got a calibration rig I’ve been trying to get working properly for a while, and I think I finally know what I did wrong with the containment matrix, and if I don’t test it now I’ll lose the thought."
"You’re leaving already?" Elian asked.
"I eat fast when I’m thinking about something. Occupational hazard." She was already gathering her things, notebook and all, with the same brisk efficiency she seemed to apply to everything, before uncermoniously walking off.
"it was nice meeting you!" Bellamy called after her, already reaching for a fourth thing off what remained of her tray.
She didn’t look back, weaving off through the crowd with the particular single-mindedness of someone whose actual priorities had never once been the social ones.
Bellamy watched her go, then turned back to Elian with open, unashamed curiosity.
"I like her."
"You’ve known her for four minutes."
"Four very informative minutes." He shrugged, entirely at ease with the assessment.
"So. Tell me about your morning. I want the whole thing. Especially the part where apparently a professor made you the subject of a live demonstration. Did you know that’s the rumor currently circulating? I need to know how accurate it is before I decide how much sympathy you deserve."
"I don’t deserve any sympathy," Elian went back to his own plate.
"All the professor did was point out that i had a resonance artifact that i bonded with."
"Oh that I knew those bastards were exaggerating when they made that face, pathetic really." Bellamy shook his head in disappointment. "How many classes do you have left for today?"
"Two more, unfortunately." He caught himself on that word, making a mental note to not sound so pessimistic next time. "I have practical casting and special classes with Miss Vale."
Bellamy made a pained face. "So busy huh, I only have one more class, so I’ll be free the entire day."
He leaned back on his seat, "It’s gonna be soooo boring~"
Elian looked up.
"I can’t take you with me."
"Why not?"Bellamy sat up immediately, offense arriving fast and entirely unconvincing.
"I’m delightful. I would improve both of those classes considerably."
"It’s a special class. With Rowan Vale. For five people, specifically, none of whom are you and the other three of which would definitely find you distracting."
"That feels like an oversight on the school’s part, honestly, not a rule I need to respect."
Bellamy propped his chin on one hand, undeterred.
"Fine. Practical Casting, then. Surely there’s no rule against moral support."
"There’s a rule against you not being enrolled in it."
"Unimportant Details." He waved this off entirely, already moving on before Elian could argue further.
"Alright, fine, I’ll suffer through my one class and then sit alone in our room like an abandoned houseplant, is that what you want to hear?"
"A little bit, yes." Elian was surprised himself by his own snarkiness.
"Wow." Bellamy pressed a hand to his chest, wounded, though the effect was somewhat undercut by the fact that he was still smiling.
"I befriend you on day one, I defend your honour against at least three separate haircut rumors, and this is the thanks I get."
"What honour? What rumors?"
"Doesn’t matter, already handled, you’re welcome."
Bellamy finally reached for his own plate, apparently satisfied with having gotten the last word in, or at least having declared himself satisfied, which functionally amounted to the same thing with him.
"Fine. Go be mysterious and special with your five-person secret class. I’ll be here. Alone. Bored out of my mind."
"You have a class."
"One class. The rest of the day stretches before me, vast and empty." He said it with enough theatrical despair that a nearby first-year actually glanced over, startled, before deciding not to get involved.
"You’ll tell me everything after, though. Every detail. I require full reporting."
"I’ll tell you some of it."
"I’ll accept some of it as a starting position and negotiate up from there."
Bellamy finally started eating properly, apparently having exhausted his complaints for the moment, though the look he gave Elian over his fork still carried the faint, plotting energy of someone already working out how to get more information than he’d been promised.