Chapter 141 – Showing Up
The next morning arrived without hurry.
The light coming through the window was clean, no more rain like the days before. Kuroe was already awake in her chair, as if she'd slept with only one eye closed. Harley snored softly in the other, mouth open, hair at war with the improvised pillow.
Elowen opened her eyes and, for the first time since she'd passed out, didn't need several seconds to remember where she was.
The room.
The bed.
Her arm, still immobilized.
And the fact that, now, a lot of people knew things she'd kept hidden for years.
She moved slowly. Kuroe's eyes snapped to her immediately.
"Pain?"
"Some. Manageable."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"It answers it my way."
Kuroe let out a breath through her nose, almost a dry laugh, and stood to help her sit up. Harley woke up mid-motion, confused for two seconds, then bolted upright all at once.
"Already? No announcement? No trumpet? No me cursing first?"
"Good morning to you too," Elowen murmured.
"Morning. Now tell me, are you staying in bed or are you going to be stubborn?"
Elowen looked at her good hand. Then at the door.
"I want to show up."
Harley raised an eyebrow.
"Show up."
"Just that. Class. The hallway. Existing in the same place as before. If I stay here one more full day… it'll feel like I really broke."
"You did break, a little," Kuroe said, plainly. "That's not weakness. That's fact."
"I know. Even so."
The door opened before the argument could go any further. Marina came in with a water pitcher, followed by Rina and Astrid. Sylvara and Lirien right behind them. Joker came last, hands in his pockets, already reading the room.
"She wants to go," Harley announced.
"Partially," Elowen corrected. "I'm not training. Just… showing up."
Astrid crossed her arms.
"And if you feel sick halfway there?"
"Then you all drag me back and I won't argue."
"Promise?" Rina asked.
"I promise."
Joker studied her for a second and nodded.
"Then go. Short. No heroics. If someone asks, you don't have to force a whole story. Just say you're doing better and leave it there."
"No extra details," Marina added. "The more you explain, the more it turns into gossip."
"No extra details," Elowen repeated.
---
Breakfast was quick.
Not because anyone was staging urgency. Because Elowen, truly standing for the first time in days, still measured every step like someone testing the ground. Her immobilized arm drew looks. So did her paleness. Even so, when they crossed the hallway together, she kept her spine straight.
A few students looked over.
One whispered.
Another looked away too fast to pass for indifference.
That was when Talia appeared, coming the other way.
The girl from the kingdom slowed her steps without quite managing to hide it. Short hair, that same open expression as always — the same one that, back on the road, had tried to make conversation and hit a wall. For a moment, her body was already preparing a polite detour.
Elowen spoke first.
"Talia."
The name came out simple. No speech. But it came out.
Talia actually stopped.
"…You're back."
"Back. Just the one class. My body's not accepting heroics yet."
The sentence came with an ease the group beside her noticed instantly. It wasn't the dry one-word answer from before. It wasn't the "sure" that had meant "no need." There was too much room in it to be a coincidence.
Talia blinked, surprised, and a small smile appeared without asking permission.
"I was going to ask if you were okay. Then I remembered you hate that question."
"I hate it less today," Elowen answered. "And… about the trip. I'm sorry. I didn't know how to answer properly back then."
Talia opened her mouth, closed it, then let out a breath.
"I thought you just didn't like us."
"That wasn't it."
"I'm seeing that now."
Irielle, a few steps behind, had slowed down when she noticed the pause. She watched the exchange in silence, her usual calm gaze steady. Elowen turned to face her too.
"Irielle."
"Elowen."
"The offer to sit together… still stands?"
Irielle took half a second, like someone confirming she'd heard right.
"It stands."
"Then later. When I don't look like I'm about to collapse in the hallway."
"Deal."
Behind them, Harley muttered, just loud enough for the group to hear:
"She opened her mouth. With outsiders. Somebody mark the date."
"Marked," Marina answered, too serious to be a full joke.
Talia still seemed to be processing when the flow of the hallway pushed everyone forward again.
"Take care," she said.
"I will," Elowen answered.
And, for the first time since arriving at the academy, the distance between her and the girls from the kingdom didn't feel like a wall. It felt like something merely delayed.
---
The first class of the morning was History.
When the group walked in, the seat by the window — Elowen's seat — stopped being empty. The effect was immediate on part of the room. Selene, already at the front, low bun and understated formal robe, lifted her golden eyes and lingered on her half a second longer than usual.
"Elowen."
"Professor."
"Can you keep up with the lesson?"
"I can. If I need to leave, I'll leave without making a scene of it."
Selene arched an eyebrow slightly, as if noting the difference in tone, and nodded.
"Then sit."
Elowen sat. Kuroe took the desk beside her. Harley right behind. The rest of the group settled into their usual cluster.
Selene opened the map in the air.
"In our first class, we covered the structure of the Eternal Academy itself — its position, its function, and why it stays neutral among the kingdoms. Last time, we got into the Fall of Vareth. Today we move forward: the trade routes after the collapse, and what that did to the continent's political map."
The magical diagram expanded. Old trade lines appeared first in gold. Then, one by one, they began to break apart.
"When Vareth fell, it wasn't just a capital that disappeared. It was the central hub of the routes. Grain from the south, ore from the west, textiles from the coast, escort contracts… all of it passed through there, directly or indirectly. Without the hub, the whole continent choked."
She pointed to three alternate paths that lit up in blue.
"Some kingdoms tried to inherit Vareth's role. Others just tried not to starve through the first winter. The difference between those two goals seems obvious. In practice, it mixed bloodshed and rushed taxation far too quickly."
Selene looked out at the room.
"Can someone give me an example of a kingdom that came out stronger because of everyone else's disorganization?"
A student in front answered with the name of an eastern port. Selene confirmed it partially and added:
"The port did grow, yes. But it grew because it had a fleet. A kingdom with no access to the sea, even one rich in land, lost its bargaining power. That's why the Fall of Vareth didn't produce a single winner. It produced several survivors, each with different wounds."
The map shifted again. Borders overlaid themselves on the routes.
"Pay attention to this: trade isn't just goods. It's dependency. When the route breaks, the kingdom that relied on a single path finds out too late that sovereignty without supply is just talk. Some started taxing smaller roads. Others closed their borders. Others still bought peace with escorts too expensive to sustain."
Elowen took notes with her good hand, slower, her handwriting less steady. Even so, she kept up. Every so often her attention slipped for a second — not toward the basement this time, but toward the hallway, toward the fact that she'd spoken to Talia and Irielle without her chest locking up the same way.
It was in the middle of the explanation that a student two rows ahead glanced over his shoulder and muttered, just quiet enough to seem almost polite:
"Three days out and she comes back acting special."
Harley leaned forward instantly.
"Say that again."
The boy swallowed the rest of it.
Selene, without pausing the map, addressed the whole room:
"Anyone with energy for side comments has energy to summarize, by the end of class, the three trade consequences of the Fall of Vareth. In writing. With route names."
The silence improved considerably after that.
At the end of class, as the room stood up, Selene passed by Elowen's desk and spoke without any theatrics.
"Good to see you back. Don't force what your body hasn't given back yet."
"I won't."
"Feeling better already?"
"Better enough to sit and listen. The rest is still coming slowly."
Selene glanced at the immobilized arm for a moment and simply nodded.
"Then keep to your body's pace. The room misses its best students… and it also notices very quickly when someone comes back too soon and collapses in the hallway."
Elowen lowered her head a fraction.
"Understood."
---
During the break, the group surrounded her without turning it into too obvious a wall.
"One class," Kuroe said. "That's enough for today."
"I wanted the second one too."
"I wanted a castle too. Still no castle."
Marina offered water.
"You're pale."
"I'm always pale."
"Now you're pale with a stubborn look on your face. That's worse."
Elowen drank. Then, almost without making a scene of it, she said:
"I didn't think I'd be able to talk to Talia like that."
Astrid raised an eyebrow.
"Like that = using words?"
"Like that = without it feeling like I was banishing her from existence."
Rina let out a short laugh.
"Progress."
"The mark helped," Elowen admitted, quieter. "Before, everything used to come at once, all tangled together. Fear, guilt, the urge to answer, the urge to run. Now… it sorts itself out. I'm still me. I just don't freeze in the same place."
Lirien tilted her head, attentive.
"That makes sense. Her emotional flow is less tangled than it was on the first day."
Joker, hands in his pockets, remarked:
"Good. So keep it up. Sociable without being suicidal about it. You showed up. You talked. Now go rest."
Harley pointed at him with a thumb.
"First time this week I agree with you without irony. Mark the occasion."
"I'll mark it and use it against you."
"Go ahead and try."
Elowen looked between the two of them, then at the rest of the group, and felt that strange pressure in her chest again — not fear this time. A recent sense of belonging still hard to name without getting too emotional about it.
"Alright," she said finally. "I'll go back."
"No drama?" Rina asked.
"No drama."
"Liar," Astrid murmured. "But I'll take it."
---
On the way back to the room, they passed through the inner courtyard. Sunlight hit the pale stones. In the distance, a training class already occupied the field, command voices cutting through the air. Elowen watched the movement for a second and looked away before the urge to step into the circle could grow too strong.
"Soon," Sylvara said, noticing.
"Soon," Elowen repeated. "Not today."
When they reached the room, Lysithea was near the door with a small basket of clean clothes. She saw Elowen standing, uniform straight, arm still bound, and the relief crossed her face too fast to hide.
"You went."
"I did. One class."
"And came back on your own."
"Came back under collective pressure. And… I talked to two girls from the kingdom. On the trip, I hadn't managed to."
Lysithea's gaze softened.
"That counts too. Come in. Sit. If Graciela finds out you stood too long, she'll show up armed with food."
"She always shows up armed with food," Marina remarked.
"Then the system works."
Elowen sat on the edge of the bed. Her whole body was more grateful than she wanted to admit. For a moment, no one spoke. The room went back to being just a room: fabric, water, morning light, too many people for the space and somehow still no excess.
"Yesterday I told the worst of it," Elowen said, suddenly. "Today I just existed in the hallway. Talked more than usual. It seems like so little."
Kuroe pulled her chair closer.
"It's not little."
Joker, standing by the window, added without any showman's smile:
"Sometimes the next step is just not disappearing."
Elowen looked at him and nodded slowly.
Outside, the academy bell marked the end of the break. Ordinary life went on. Inside, the girl who had once chosen the empty corner had shown up again — not whole, not healed, but present.
And, for the first time, a little more open too.
**End of Chapter 141**