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 Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:33 pm
 Naihilus peered into the library and tried to remember the last time he’d been in here for research purposes. The first thing that occurred to him was computer research—there were a few computers around the library. But generally, he preferred to use the computer lab for his research. It wasn’t as quiet, but it was easier to find an empty computer there and they had more programs. Library computers tended to be…limited. If you wanted something more complex than a word processor or the most basic internet browser, you needed a computer lab computer, not one from the library.
So the library was mostly for book research. There was a newsprint collection at the college and university libraries, and at the city library, but the Academy’s own library would do you in a pinch if you needed a regular book. And yet, Nai hadn’t stepped foot in the library’s nonfiction section since his junior years. Funny, that. Oh well. He stretched and entered the silence of the school library. Seriously, there was little sound besides the constant hum of the air conditioning. Probably that was because it was summer. Nai figured that about half of the kids on campus these days had families to go home to. Cache kids were no longer the overwhelming majority at the school—at least not the overwhelming majority they had been when Nai was a child. Not that there was anything wrong with that, mind you…
So summer was now quieter. The cache kids and the modern orphans haunted the campus throughout the entire year, but a lot of them would be exploring the campus, or hanging out at each others’ dorms, or exploring the town beyond the Academy’s gates. Nai…was not much of an explorer. Not an outdoor one, anyway. He could never do what his roommate was doing right now—three weeks, naked and alone, in the wilderness? No thank you. Just not worth it. Nai would much rather work on his summer homework in an air conditioned building.
He made his way over to the magic section. Okay, so…where were the books on alchemy…?
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:34 pm
 Zalir practically lived in the library full time. Zey sort of always had, ever since zey had been old enough to read. Zey’d read most of the nonfiction books zey were interested in already, some of them multiple times. The fiction books were taking much longer to conquer, but Zalir had time. Er, less time than zey once had had, but, um, time…?
Zalir was getting older. Zey were a senior now, with senior classes and senior responsibilities and senior…stuff. Soon zey would be graduating from the Academy, leaving it and living somewhere else for the very first time in zeir life… Zalir shuddered. Zey weren’t ready for that. Zey weren’t ready for a new cafeteria, a new dorm, a new campus, a new library. Zey knew this library. Zey knew every poster here, and where all of the books belonged. The Dewey Decimal system could take you a long way, but it still wouldn’t tell you in which room you could find the books on ancient alchemy and which room contained the latest books on modern advances in chemistry. Zey would have to relearn all of that, and it would be soon. Too soon, at least for Zalir’s taste. I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here, at least for now.
That was why reading all of the fiction was so important. Well, okay, not all of the fiction, but quite a bit of it. Zey just had two years to finish zeir grand, lifetime tour of the Asphodel Garden Academy school library. Just two years to read every mystery novel, every romance novel, all of the fantasy and science fiction…
So why was Zalir once again in zeir home-away-from-home, the alchemy shelves? There weren’t even any new books to read. There hadn’t been a new alchemy book in about a month, and he didn’t think they’d get a new one until the school year began again.
Soft footsteps on the carpet heralded the approach of someone else. Zalir looked up to see who it was.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:36 pm
The books on alchemy were more or less exactly where Naihilus had expected them to be—next to the books on enchanting. Pretty elementary, that. Nai made his way over there to find the book he needed, only to find another student sitting there. He tilted his head. The stranger was another Litch, one with dark skin, orange face markings, and a pair of intense orange eyes. Nai blinked. Except for the color of the claws—gold—the marking on the face—a swirl—and the color of the hair—orange—he could be looking at a copy of himself. This was hardly unusual—after all, Litches were one of the most common races in Below, and they were well-represented in the cache—but, actually, no, this was unusual. Nai had never met someone who looked like him before. It just hadn’t happened. Most Litches were paler skinned, and many of them had stitch markings. Spots, freckles, and swirls? Much less common.
A wild thought entered Nai’s head. No one knew much at all about the cache. There were no documents about it—no one had known that it existed until the cache was found during an excavation. Some of the stones had been neat and orderly, but others totally higgledy-piggledy. There was no way of knowing what the stones were until they were awakened, or where they had come from or what their history was. Soul stones didn’t just pop out of the ground already imbued—everyone here had a history, a secret family history that even they didn’t know. Who were their parents? What were they like? Were they in love? Where did they come from? Why were they in the cache? What had happened to their parents after they had been imbued? No one knew.
So was it possible that this Litch sitting on the ground in front of him was a long-lost sibling? Some meant-to-be fraternal twin separated in the jumble of war and reunited now, with the chorus of a chittering air conditioner heralding the reunion?
Impossible to say. Or was it? Divination…that was the key…
“Hey,” Nai said softly. “You look knowledgeable. Is there a book there on the history of alchemy? Also—I know this is awkward,” Nai took a deep breath. “But—may I have one of your hairs? It’s not for anything creepy, I promise. I just…I’d like to run an experiment.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:36 pm
Zalir blinked behind zeir glasses. The newcomer was another Litch, one with a familiar complexion. Zalir frowned. Had they met before? Was he remembering a classmate? They looked like a senior, maybe a year or three older than them. No, wait, seniors couldn’t be three years older, they would have graduated already…two years older, then? Had they had classes together? No, probably not…so where had zey seen the stranger? On campus, obviously, but at an event? In the dining hall?
With a jolt, Zalir realized where zey had seen the stranger. In the mirror! If Zalir was a little bit older, a little thinner, with red hair and freckles instead of a swirl, then zey would look almost exactly like the stranger in front of them! Zalir shuddered. Zey’d heard the expression “feeling as if someone walked over my grave,” but zey’d never understood it before. Zey felt exactly as if someone had just walked over zeir grave. No, zey thought. I’ve just walked over their grave, and it was mine as well. Creepy. Definitely creepy.
The doppelgänger was speaking, asking for something. Huh? Oh! A book! “Y-yes, I c-c-come here all-all the time,” Zalir stammered. “P-p-practically l-live here. Um. So, um, yes, b-book, book on history of the, um, of the art of, er, alchemy, right, that would be, um…” Zey looked up at the shelf above zem. “Which one would you like? I-I mean the book! Which book. Would you like. And, um. Why? Do you need my hair?” As Zalir asked this latest question, zey reached up to zeir head and plucked an orange strand from zeir braid. If you wanted Zalir to do something for you, all you had to do was mention that it was for an experiment…
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:37 pm
Nai was grateful not to be looked at as a freak. Asking for the hair had been an impulse, one that had been likely to get the older Litch into trouble. Nai didn’t want that. He just wanted to have something that carried the stranger’s—or, possibly, the not-stranger’s—DNA. If he could have that, he might be able to get some clue as to whether they were related or not. The divination section’s just on the other side of this shelf, Nai thought. There should be a book on pilimancy there… Divination by hair would be the easiest way to do it. It wouldn’t be particularly accurate, though. The most accurate way would be divination by imbuing magic. How would he do that, though? Compare two people’s imbuing magic? Imbuing magic was tied to family and genetics. That was why blood relations couldn’t imbue with each other. It just…didn’t work if they were similar. So how could Nai compare their imbuing magics without imbuing an actual soul stone…?
Pilimancy was an easy place to start, but it was just that. A place to start, not a place to end. If he wanted to follow this through to the end, he’d need to go further to find out if this stranger was family to him. He pulled out a clean Kleenex and accepted the hair in that, then tucked it away. He didn’t want to get too much of his own…stuff on it. His dead skin cells and skin oil could obscure or skew the reading. He didn’t want that. “Um, if you know the books really well, maybe you could pick for me? I’m looking for something on the earliest days of imbuing. I mean alchemy. Earliest days of alchemy. Obviously the earliest days of imbuing would be in the biology section. Earliest days of alchemy, here in the alchemy section, the earliest advancements in the alchemical arts.”
Okay, so that was one question answered, but the other one? For this one, Nai took a deep breath. “Um…well…looking at you, I was sort of curious as to whether or not we’re related,” he said. “Maybe it’s just me, but I think we look very similar to each other. If you’re from the cache, it’s possible even that we’re siblings or cousins. I’m from the cache myself, so.” Wait, there was something missing from that explanation. Okay, two somethings. “My name’s Naihilus, by the way, and I’m asking for one of your hairs so that I can try divination to figure out if we’re related or not.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:39 pm
Having handed over zeir hair, Zalir got to zeir feet and looked over the books. “If you want a book only on early alchemy, um, th-this one is your best option. B-but it doesn’t explain alchemy very w-well, o-or why these developments were as important as they could have been. It, um, it s-sort of expects you to already know all th-this. So, um, in m-many respects, this one—” zey pulled out another book “—is the s-superior option. So, um, you c-could go with that one. Instead. O-or! W-with, um, with both.”
Zalir blinked at the revelation. So it wasn’t just zem thinking that the other looked similar? It wasn’t just a figment of zeir imagination? “I’m from the c-cache too,” Zalir said quietly. “M-my name is Z-Zalir. I, I mean, it’s Zalir, I just, I have this, um, I st-stutter.” Zalir caught zemselves looking at the ground and fiddling with a strand of hair. Zey snapped zemselves back to attention, looking Naihilus in the face. “O-oh! Divination. I, um, I don’t know a lot about it. Um, I think the section on divination’s on, on the next shelf over. Um, in that direction.” Zey pointed in the direction zey thought it was in. “I could be wrong, though, uh, like I said, I d-don’t know a lot about d-divination. It’s just not something I’ve been ever, um, interested in.” Zalir blinked and tried to think of something else to say. “Um, so, um, why a hair…? Is there some sort of, um, test? You do?”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:40 pm
“It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Zalir.” Naihilus picked up the indicated books and compared the two. The first one was thinner, and was indeed only on early alchemy. The other one was on alchemy in general, with a section on the early discoveries. “I think I’ll check out both books,” he said. “That way, I can get a better idea of general alchemy, then plunge on into the important stuff. Alchemy’s sort of the one area of magic I’ve neglected,” he added. “I’m sort of into a lot of different magics—actually, I’m into a lot of different things. But, huh, haven’t really gotten around to alchemy yet.” He shrugged. “I’m not sure why. I guess I’ve just…had other stuff to do. But I am interested in divination. It can be…useful for answering questions that can’t be answered by other means.” He patted the pocket where the other Litch’s hair lay. “There’s a lot of divination that can be done with something that carries a person’s DNA. Divination provides us with a rough way of ‘reading’ what’s there. In the DNA, I mean. There are dozens of spells for divining a person’s location or finding your true love using DNA. I can’t see why it couldn’t be used for a familial test.”
He made his way over to the divination section, but carried on the conversation. After all, the books on divination were just on the other side of the shelf. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get much of a result out of this,” he added. “I haven’t had practice with pilimancy, and I don’t know how much hair I need. If I need more than one strand from you, I’ll figure out some other way.” It occurred to Naihilus that he may have missed a vital step. He looked back around the shelf to look at Zalir. “I’m sorry, I’m sort of rushing into this. We’re strangers, and I walked up to you and told you that we might be long-lost siblings. I’m a very…curious person. I like to ask questions and get answers. But I haven’t yet asked you if you’re interested in the result. Or if I’m invading your privacy.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:41 pm
Zalir opened zeir mouth to say something, then closed it. Then zey opened it again, trying to think of something to say. What did zey want? Zey closed zeir mouth again. Do I want a total stranger to suddenly have a relationship with me in some way? Zey were…intrigued by this strange Litch, by their familiarity and also by their thirst for knowledge. But Zalir had never really cared about the family zey didn’t have. It had never bothered zem that zey had no roots, no background. The Academy had always been enough for zem, and the fact that Naihilus was a child of the cache was enough for Zalir to already consider him to be family. Did they really need to share the same genes, the same ancestry, to be close and to be relatives?
Zalir had never really thought about it before. Now it was time to consider it—and figure out how zey felt about the whole thing. Where zey bothered? Maybe a little, but zey weren’t sure why, or even if it was a result of the lateness of the hour—so often things seemed worse in the afternoon and evening, but felt more natural, better, even, in the morning. So maybe zey weren’t bothered. But did zey really care if the stranger was a relative or an unrelated stranger? Did zey need to have a family member on the campus? Zalir wanted to know the answer, but zey felt like zey didn’t really care what the answer was, either way. Why? And how to put it into words?
“I’m…not sure,” zey said slowly. “I guess…I am c-curious why we l-look alike? And I’d like my curiosity to be, um, answered. B-but I don’t really…care what the result is. I guess I’m interested in the answer as a…scientific experiment?” Zey took a deep breath. “I’d like to know what the answer is, when you find it. And, um, how you found it out. But I think, mostly—I’d kind of like to get to know you.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:43 pm
Nai listened to Zalir’s answer and nodded. That was an entirely fair desire, and he couldn’t help but smile. He really couldn’t—he liked Zalir’s answer. He liked the way that Zalir had phrased it, and he liked how upon voicing a crazy idea, zey had not responded either by rejecting it—and him along with it—or by jumping onboard and to conclusions. He had been a little worried, now he thought about it, that the other Litch would react by immediately clinging to him and declaring him to be a cousin or brother or something. He wasn’t really ready for that. No. He wasn’t. He was ready—very ready—for the answer, but Zalir was right—the answer’s existence was more important than its identity. The pursuit, that would be the thing. And it would be a tricky one—family identification was difficult, and it was expensive. “I don’t know if I’ll get results,” he said. “It’s supposed to be pretty tricky, and I’m still new to this. But I’ll do what I can.” He pulled out a book on basic pilomancy—the only book they had—and added it to the stack of alchemy books. “I’d be happy to get to know you better, Zalir, whatever the answer to our question is.” He hefted the books and smiled. “Maybe after I read all of these, you can explain the difficult bits of alchemy to me. I’m sure there’s going to be something I don’t understand here. Maybe we could get together later this week, tomorrow or the day after, and discuss it?”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:44 pm
Zalir breathed a sigh of relief that probably should have been silent (or, better yet, internal!). Thank goodness that Naihilus hadn’t responded by clinging to zem, or demanding a better answer, or being disappointed or something. I’ve never had family before. I don’t want to rush into having family. Er, if I do have family. I want to be family in my own way, at my own pace, not get…rushed into anything. Oh, right! “Um, if we are—if we are family…I think…I don’t know how to be a s-sibling, so, um, I don’t know how to get into this, and I’d appreciate it if, if you’d like a f-amily relationship instead of a f-f-friendship, we c-could, ta-take it slow. And not, um. Immediately rush into. Clinging. And. Stuff. Not really…I’m not v-v-very good at being, um, close? To people?” Intimate was the word that Zalir was thinking of, but zey really couldn’t bring zemselves to voice it. It was…well, it was a weird word. It spoke of romance or, or sex or something, and this wasn’t like that at all! This was a conversation about kinship, not romance! This was…it was friendship. Nice and platonic. Just the way it should be! Er.
But the anxiety of the possible revelation was swept away by a new and exciting possibility. Oho! Explaining things? Zalir loved explaining things! “W-why not right now?” Zalir said. “I c-could, um, I could give you a primer on alchemy? I love alchemy, I love it, and I love chemistry, too, but alchemy’s um, the subject of the moment. So why don’t we discuss it? A-and we can get to know each other better.”
The other Litch smiled and nodded. “I’d like that, Zalir,” he said.
Zalir returned the smile. “I’d like it to. Naihilus.”
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