YP – B2: UtGoaFN – Chapter 12 (Chapter 58)

227 Days Until Wishes And the Uncertain End (part 3)

Zeydar sat with his head hanging low. Exams began within twenty-four hours and as prepared as he was for them, he was not ready. He was ready for the exams. He knew all the content, better than any other graduate before him. He knew all the content on a level higher than the test would test. It was the idea that he was finally going to be able to take the exams fairly that was starting to land. 

How could they ruin this for him? 

The ever present question continued to circle in his head as he sat in the library rereading the same sentence twenty times. How were the Superiors going to make him fail? What sort of tricks would they employ? How would they sabotage him? What if they didn’t and he just wasn’t good enough? What if he actually failed?

“You look miserable for someone taking their Superior exams.” May’s voice startled him.

“You are home?” He looked up to May seeing her starring over him and his books as if she had been standing there for hours. She stood in uniform, with her hat at her side and her hair pulled into a bun.

“I told you, I’d be back by your birthday.” Pulling out a chair across from him, May sat, putting her hat on the table and moving to take off her coat.

“I know…” This. This was a plot by the Superiors. He just knew it was.

“You have little faith Zeydar.” May pulled her coat off and draped it over another chair, loosening her collar. “How is studying going?”

“I don’t know what else to review.” He’d been reviewing everyday since he turned nineteen. He’d been paranoid every day since he turned nineteen, in many ways. And May probably wasn’t sent by the Superiors. She was his one true friend in all of it, and he had to trust her.

“You’ve been ready for this exam since you could breathe.” May laughed, unbuttoning her wrist cuffs.

“I wish that were true.” If it were true he would have passed at the one year they let him take it, even if he was in duress.

“It’s your birthright.” May smiled at him. Her eyes lit up in the full belief that it was the world’s only truth. “The Superiors know that.”

Yet they kept him from it. “What if they say, I’m not ready to lead the Magicians?”

“Most Superiors don’t begin as leaders. Superiors begin as teachers, Zeydar. Remember? Then you get a charge, to take care of and supervise.” Then they would assign another role, once the charge was of age and a Superior. It would take time to get to the Superior council to make decisions for all Magician and Star kind. The Superiors would determine the best path for him, as they always had, but at least he’d have his own vote and voice as most important.

“I know.” He closed the books. “I’m just nervous.”

“Nervous?” He heard the hidden question. Perhaps she was a Superior pawn.

“I’m not going to be dreaming for the exams May.” He answered anyway, hoping that if she was, she’d relay the information.

“I never said you would.”

But you insinuated it, he thought. With a sigh Zeydar decided to change the conversation. “How was your mission?”

“After Evester put out the video declaring those… assertions, we began to map his movement.”

“You were sent back here because of his mother?” Zeydar thought of the face from the party. Evester was in Valaria. Evester was there for him.

“Initially I was supposed to only be on a rotation between others who were searching for him. It was supposed to be over quickly… now… We have a belief that he’ll aim to make contact with his mother. Yes.”

Evester had made contact with his mother, of this Zeydar was certain. He was within Valaria. Who else could hide him so well? Who else could disguise him so well? Anyone who thought otherwise were fools, or perhaps they all knew he would and were just waiting for the signs of when. That made them bigger fools, for they forgot the pull their family had.

“What are you to do with him when you find him?” Zeydar asked the question, somewhat already knowing the answer.

“I can’t tell you.”

“I will be a Superior soon. You can tell me.” Yes, Zeydar knew the answer. Imprisonment. Perhaps magic investigation techniques.

“But you aren’t one yet, and the walls have ears.” May leaned forward, kicking her feet out and looking relaxed and more herself.

“True.” Zeydar looked back to his books and notes. The walls had ears and she was bound to her secrets of her mission. She had probably sold him out, would sell him out, and he would not sell out Evester. He’d seen Evester and no one needed to know that.

“Speaking of Circles, campus will be closed for your birthday and exams right?”

“Why?” Zeydar cleaned up his notes and shut his books. He did not want to pretend to study any longer. Not when the eyes that the Superiors had circling were now focused on him better.

“One of my circle friends contacted me trying to get to campus. I would typically say no, but she is bringing on some of Evester’s friends and brother.”

“Going to try to get information?” This was Evester’s way of trying to talk to him, Zeydar realized.

“Yes. So is it?”

“It should be closed, until I’ve completed.” 

“That’s what I thought. So I told her a few days after. Is that okay?”

“The day that campus opens again, after the testing period. Have it then.”

May nodded, saying how she’d get the passes for shortly after they were finished in the library. If Zeydar had been nervous before, the feeling slipped away as his body shook in anticipation of Evester coming to find him. Smile upon his lips, Zeydar returned back to clearing away his studies. He’d be a Superior the next he saw EverDanger and there was no time to worry otherwise.

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