Tinkerers Trinkets

The halls of the academy proper felt like a stereotypical private school and college. Wooden walls and floors, classrooms filled with rows of long benches and desks. Despite everything seemingly built in recent decades I couldn't help but feel as if the place was hundreds of years old. Maybe it was just the medieval era of Ennath but everything felt strangely old. Though the aesthetic of the academy might feel old it didn't feel stale to me, in fact I held a smile as I listened to the teacher of my favorite class. I made sure to wear a fresh uniform today, one that Diantha had gotten me after she realized me having just one was barely keeping me going. I sat in class listening to the teacher, her voice droning on yet it didn't bore me at all.

“Flip to page seventy-five in your textbooks. Today we will be learning the fundamentals of Selukan history. This is especially important for any wayfarers within class.” It was easy to tell who she was referring to with Scarlet and I being the only two wayfarers within the class.

Scarlet always held an ecstatic grin whenever she was in any of these classes that wasn't just math. Why did this school even have a math class anyways? Wasn't this entire world in medieval times? The only reasonable reason I could think of for the existence of math classes was because of some wayfarer hundreds of years ago ruining my curriculum by creating math class. I for my part liked most classes except for warfare, at least the worst thing that could happen to me in those was boredom.

“Hundreds of years ago dating back to at least fifteen cycles were the first records of the kingdom of Seluka forming.” Diantha listed off the event as if it wasn't really all that important.

Cycle, that word that apparently everyone knew and one which definition I only recently learned because it was in this textbook. A period of a hundred and fifty years which coincided with the arrival of wayfarers. The amount of wayfarers always changed with them being in the thousands usually, but this cycle for some reason brought tens of thousands of wayfarers to Ennath for some reason. I wasn't the first group of people to arrive here and I won't be the last.

“It was said that the offspring of the Lunar Wyrms and humans of the time were some of the very first Steilae of Seluka. Taking human forms they were able to mingle with the humans of the area. These Lunar Steilae founded the kingdom of Seluka which eventually grew into what it is today.” As Diantha continued on I began writing notes into my textbook. 

Not all of this was written down and my reading comprehension wasn't the greatest. Scarlet was also writing stuff down but she didn't take her eyes off of Diantha. I could tell from the reactions of the other students that they barely cared about this history lesson, probably already knowing this just from word of mouth. But I cared about it more than most of them ever would. Wyrms and Steilae, apparently Wyrms were the parents of Steilae, and though I wasn't any Lunar Steilae I was still a Steilae, someone close to royalty. No wonder people acted so weird around me.

“The current ruler Selene staged a coup with her siblings a century ago which ended in their victory with her on the throne. Her change from a man to a woman coinciding with her ascension to the throne.” Diantha said nonchalantly.

I propped my head up at that. Nobody else seemed to mind at all, in fact everyone looked just as bored as ever except for Scarlet. She held this weird gaping mouth as if some grand plot twist had happened within a movie. I cared about the fact that everybody just brushed aside the fact that this Selene lady was a man and became a woman and nobody seemed to care. In fact I wanted to know how she did that, how she could just change her body.

“That brings us to Rosurnan's civil war over twenty years ago. With the rise of the new queen many other cities began to rise up against their rulers with Rosurnan being one of the very last city states to do so ending in our independence from Seluka.” Diantha finished with a monotone voice as if she was explaining something she'd explained a thousand times over.

Now people were starting to pay attention to Diantha, apparent recent history was more appealing that old myths. I didn't get why everyone else felt like this was more interesting, it just felt like normal history class to me.

“Now then, does anybody have any questions before we continue today's lesson?” Diantha asked with a strange tone in her voice as if she expected something to happen.

Then just as quickly as Diantha finished her sentence did a dozen hands raise up into the air. Nearly every student within the classroom held their hands up high as if begging for their question to be answered. Diantha seemingly expected this to happen and looked through the crowd before apparently choosing a random student from the crowd to ask their question.

“What was it like traveling with the Queen?” A girl asked, human, brown hair, glasses, with enough excitement to fill the room.

“Exhausting. Next, you with the yellow eyes.” Diantha seemingly barely cared about the question with her one word response. I couldn't blame her.

“Is it true you were able to fight the king to a standstill before the rest of the party arrived?” Asked a white haired and yellow eyed girl with amazement in her eyes.

“Yes it is true but I was using the Rosurnan Rapier at the time so it barely counts.” Diantha said not without a smile on her face though. She looked around the room before finding the most attention grabbing person that wasn't me. ”Alright you with the blue hair go.”

“Is the Steilae your daughter?” The question would have made me spit coffee from my mouth if coffee existed, but the inquirer didn't seem to understand how bad his question was.

For a beat too long Diantha wavered and stood still, everybody noticed. “That's not related to the topic, now unless you have any actual questions about today's lesson put down your hands.” 

Diantha's good mood had fallen at that absurd question. As everyone dropped their hands Diantha continued her lesson, this time with far less passion in her voice. By the time that class had ended Diantha wore this weary disposition around her that made me nervous. As I was about to leave class Diantha stood by the door and subtly stopped me by grabbing my hand through the crowd. I stepped aside wondering what she could be doing and waited until everyone else was gone.

“Mikayla, after all your classes are finished would you mind meeting me here later?” Diantha asked in a tone with room for refusal as if I'd say no to her.

“Sure.” I said as I finally left the class towards my next. 

I didn't because lingering in the classroom of your assumed mother only made people assume more. Diantha seemed to understand and gave me a nod as I left her classroom.

—

The moon had begun to rise in the hours since my first class of the day and the sun was waning. Diantha led me through the empty halls of the academy towards a room I hadn't even thought would exist here. A kitchen. To be more precise a kitchen classroom made to be used by students. Built in red gems gleamed out of stoves and ovens, some others looked more medieval. It seems that the academy is more accommodating to people with sparks when it comes to cooking. All the tables were empty except for one littered with ingredients, dough, sugar, and a bunch of other stuff I couldn't place. There was even some chocolate.

“Diantha, why did you bring me here?” I asked with curiosity, though I had a pretty good guess.

“Well I have heard that wayfarers, especially those that arrive in Seluka, used to have chocolate cookies as a dessert and I thought we could make some for you.” Diantha beamed towards me with her signature smile.

“I've never actually had baked cookies before.” I said embarrassingly, people always mocked me for never making or eating them before.

“Really, I thought it was common where you came from.” Diantha replied giving the response I had expected.

“It is, it's just that my parents never bothered baking or buying me snacks, they told me it was always too expensive.” I stated trying to make up any excuse.

“Well I hope you like chocolate cookies as much as I do Mikayla.” Diantha said with that warm smile of hers before she stepped towards an oven and waited for me to follow. “I assume you've never used an oven before right?”

I shook my head at that. I've seen ovens and stoves but those were Silt made with knobs and gasoline, these also had knobs but were instead powered by gems. Even then I'd never used an oven on Silt.

“Well then just tap the red gem sweetie, then inside of the oven are five prongs, make a star for me inside there.” Diantha gave me instructions as if I was a child, I didn't mind, in her eyes I was a child.

Inside the oven was a large loom with five short prongs obviously meant to heat up the oven. I dragged the thread into it before exiting my head from the oven. As I finished up the loom I saw Diantha staring at something with Selukan numbers engraved within it.

“Good, now heat up the oven until it reaches here on the thermometer.” Diantha pointed to a point two thirds into the thermometer which read four hundred.

I did my best to will the gem into heating up. With each passing second the hand in the thermometer swayed to the right just a bit more. In less than thirty seconds the hand reached its mark, then exceeded it. It was harder to keep a certain temperature than just going as high as I possibly could like when I made my gun. For the next five minutes the temperature fluctuated between three fifty and four fifty until I finally got the temperature right.

“Good job Mikayla, hand me the string and we can make the dough balls after you clean your hands.” Diantha said reassuringly.

I didn't know how to give people gem threads so I just held out the finger it was attached to towards Diantha who simply touched it with her own. The thread seemingly transferred to her with no issue at all. After the string left my finger I washed my hands at a sink which strangely didn't have a blue gem of its own, instead probably running on plumbing.

“What next Diantha?” I asked hoping it wasn't something I could mess up.

“I've prepared a platter of dough alongside a block of chocolate. Since you washed your hands you can start kneading the dough into balls while I cut the chocolate.” Diantha said as she stared towards a metal tray with one big glob of cookie dough on it half the size of my head.

I had seen people bake in movies and I hoped they were accurate enough. Picking apart a blob of dough a bit smaller than my fist I began to squish and roll it into a ball until it was perfectly round. Then I began doing the same over and over until the pile of dough had halved in size with dough balls scattered all around the metal tray.

“Diantha look!” I excitedly said towards Diantha as I presented my work to her.

Diantha glanced at my dough balls and smiled. “Good job Mikayla, now can you put this chocolate into them? Make sure there are at least three per ball.” Diantha praised me as she handed me a bunch of perfectly cut cubes, each one being the size of one of those chocolate chips I'd seen in bags.

I easily put the chocolate cubes into the dough balls and before I had noticed it I was out of balls to fill with cubes. Looking to make more I found the large dough clump gone and more dough balls made. Diantha had somehow been making dough balls and filling them with chocolate without me noticing, and she was quick with it too, doing it in a fraction of the time that I took. It made me wonder why I was even here if she could have probably done this without me and faster too. Why would somebody want to make cookies with me?

“Mikayla, when was your birthday back on your world?” It was a sudden question but not one I minded answering.

I explained to her the Silt calendar, gap years in February, which months had thirty days and which had thirty-one. It took me at the very least fifteen whole minutes to explain the entire thing. My birthday was on July fourth, always celebrated by my parents with red, white, and blue cake alongside a barbecue.

“Hm, that isn't too far off actually. Just over three weeks away, accounting for Ennath's thirteen months calendar at least.”

“Really?” I muttered, it was less of a question and more of a surprise to me.

“Yes really. It's remarkably close.” Diantha paused for a moment after that. “Have you ever thought about having a small gathering for it?”

Just as I was about to answer suddenly a ring rang out through the kitchen as the cookies announced their completion. However Diantha didn't rush towards it, instead she stayed where she stood and looked at me expecting an answer.

“I've never had a birthday party before. I'm not worth having one for.” I told Diantha honestly, spending that much time and money on me was a waste. 

“Don't say that about yourself. You're more than worth celebrating Mikayla.” Diantha sweetly said as she pulled out the tray of cookies with her bare hands without even batting an eye. “Have a cookie and just think about it alright?” She said, handing me a surprisingly lukewarm cookie.

I gave a slow nod as I took the cookie from her and ate it. Despite never eating a chocolate chip cookie before I felt a strange sense of nostalgia pass through me. Non-existent good times that never happened, the very emotion of nostalgia. Before I knew it the cookie was gone and I couldn't help but reach for another but as I did the scalding hot cookie burnt my fingers a tiny bit. Diantha didn't seem too bothered by the dissonance between the temperature of the cookies as if she had expected this to happen.

“Careful, they're still hot.” Diantha stated as she laid the metal sheet onto the stove.

“Thanks Diantha.” I had no Idea why I was thanking her for warning me but it felt long overdue.

“Of course sweetie. Now why don't we wait for those cookies to cool off. The common room should be empty by now.” Diantha said as she began walking there, the aroma of chocolate caused me to hesitate but I quickly followed anyway.

—

Why did Diantha care so much for the sleeping Wyrm in her lap? All she was asked to do by Amaryllis was to simply watch over the girl and make sure she was safe. She was never asked to take care of the girl, nor to bake cookies in the midst of night with her whilst sipping hot chocolate. No, she was self aware enough to understand this was a purely selfish endeavor. She cared for the child far more than she should, too attached to be a mere observer, she supposed she was just like Kael then. There was this temptation to pat the girl's hair, to straighten it like a mother would, maybe she would do it to anyone else but her closeness was far too close. Instead she simply chose to wipe off the crumbs off the girl's face.

Once her mother had baked cookies for Diantha and Damian though he barely remembers, when she was still here, before she was assassinated by ‘unknown forces.’ It was a farce and everyone knew it but back then she was just a teen on the cusp of adulthood and Damian was a little kid. There was nothing she could do. Now she wondered what her mother had thought during those moments together. Surely she felt the same way to her as Diantha now felt towards Mikayla. That itch to make sure she was happy, content, and above all safe.

Diantha wanted to sit there forever, letting the girl rest the entire night. However she had responsibilities as a teacher and tomorrow would be yet another class. With a sigh she stood up gently, making sure to hold Mikayla in such a way that she rested upon her shoulder. The child's tail had wrapped around Diantha's leg and it seemed she would not let go for quite a while. She smiled at her as she began making her way through the empty hallways of the academy towards the dorms. The kitchen had been at the bottom floor of a non dorm building with Diantha needing to walk through the grassy campus until she finally reached Mikayla's dorm.

Echoes rang out through the halls as Diantha's shoes clattered against the hardwood of hallways and stairs. As she rose through the heights of the dorm she pondered the conversation she had earlier with the child. Something such as a party was not something most people could afford, yet it was still celebrated for one's birthday. Appreciation would be shown just for a person's existence yet Mikayla's previous life shows no such thing. It would be nice to give her something to remember, something not marred by hesitation, fear, or that dreaded Wyrm heritage of hers.

By the time Diantha had reached Mikayla and the princesses' dorm she had reached a dozen conclusions. There would be a party, something small with only her closest confidants, people who did not care about Steilae or Wyrms. Mikayla would be given gifts, things precious enough that she couldn't help but cherish for decades to come.

Entering the girl's dorm Diantha found it empty and silent only lit by the dim moons of tonight's sky. Diantha gently walked through the room unsure if the princess was here or not. With ease she let down Mikayla onto her bed, as she did so the tail still stuck to her leg like a grasping hand. She did her best to tuck the girl in with her plushie whilst still being held by her, eventually forcing her to sit next to the girl on her bed.

“Remarkable isn't she?” Suddenly an all too familiar voice echoed through the room. In an instant her father was there standing right next to her, right next to Mikayla, his wretched hand holding her chin as if inspecting a product. Somehow he had hidden in Mikayla's closet just waiting for this opportunity.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Diantha spat at him, this was why she was assigned to Mikayla.

“Can't a grandfather visit his kin? There have been rumors that you've taken another child under your wing. Though the validity of such rumors are mixed.” Her father said in that annoyingly calm voice he had practiced over decades.

“You're nothing but a sperm donor to Damian and I. You have no right to enter this room. If you lay a hand on her you'll regret it.” She spoke with vitriol and spite, her attempts to calm herself were futile in the end.

Dariel for his part glared at Diantha, her instincts built upon years of her presence yelled at her to stand down lest she be punished. But she wasn't a child anymore, her instincts shoved into the recesses of her mind so that she could face the threat in front of her. Her fingers tingled with arcane might, frost unkempt flowing through her ready to end Dariel once and for all.

“Do you really think I'd grace you with my presence if I wanted to harm her? You would end me without a fight. I am merely inspecting this specimen. A Wyrm, what a rare transformation for a wayfarer. If she were to join the Karizin lineage she would hold unprecedented political might.” Dariel tried to appeal to Diantha with political power but she never cared for such things, even after the revolution, Amy was always better at that.

“Leave us already.” Diantha didn't care for pretty words, not for him. Her words however came off too strongly as the child next to her began to stir although not awake.

“Alright but do not think you can hoard that child all to your own Diantha.” Her father said before leaving through the door she had entered through. 

As he did she let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding. He was no threat, she could've killed him in an instant but he wouldn't be stupid to come here alone. There were likely others working with him. It seemed that she would be staying by Mikayla's side a little while longer. With only the littlest of hesitation she brought her lips to the girl's forehead.

“Sleep well little Wyrm. I'm here to keep you safe.”

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