Ch 2.51: Gold


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m sorry you had to go through that, ina,” Tira eventually said, breaking the silence. The four of them had been in her office for almost ten minutes, none of them making a sound.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You know,” ina said, looking back up at the crystal monitor on the wall that disyed the dining hall as it was slowly clearing out, “I actually felt bad for him. For Waine.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira sneered, shaking her head. “Not him, the new professor. She’s the one people wereughing at, even if his name was the one said.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina did feel bad for Koh, of course, felt more for her than she did Waine. But that was what she expected of herself, what anyone decent would expect. Waine was different, someone she’d never feel bad for. Not even during the attack when it seemed like he might’ve died did she feel bad about that, but for some reason this was different, the one time she could imagine feeling something other than contempt for the boy.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Let’s get back to the time sensitive topic, shall we?” Flora asked.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah,” ina said, resolving to sort her feelings regarding Waine and Koh outter. “Brink said something about an entry fee, but not how much it is. I’ll need to know how much I need to bring.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I actually heard about the entry fee in the library,” Carly said. “It’s twenty a piece.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Twenty?” ina asked. That was way steeper than she’d been thinking, but she could afford it, barely. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Unless she means… </i><span style="font-weight:400">“Wait, do you mean bronze or silver?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uhm, it’s gold, actually.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh.” It took her brain a moment to even process the information, that twenty gold was what it would cost, that twenty gold was something <i><span style="font-weight:400">anything </i><span style="font-weight:400">could cost. She remembered her mother telling her once that their family made about five gold a year, and that had been something to be proud of, even if they’d never actually owned an entire gold piece itself.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Gods,” Tira said, leaning back into her chair and kicking her boots onto the desk. “Nobles and their fucking gold.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“We can cover the entry fees for the four of us,” Flora said, gesturing to herself and Carly, who nodded in agreement.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“But that’s, that’s way to much money!” ina said, heart starting to beat as the reality of it set in. Twenty gold, each, eighty total.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s nothing,” Flora said, “don’t worry. I mean, it’s not <i><span style="font-weight:400">literally</i><span style="font-weight:400"> nothing, but it’s not that big a deal to us.” ina couldn’t even think of more words to protest, so she let that portion of the conversation drop even as it rolled her mind over inside her head.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I wish we could have just one weekend where something System rted wasn’t going on,” ina said.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’ll be fun though!” Flora said. “We’re going to Mirage! Drinks, games, all sorts of stuff.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s not what this is,” Tira said, face in her palm. “And you know it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah yeah, I’m just kidding,” Flora replied, with a side-eyed look to ina that indicated she very much did not seem to be kidding. “There is one thing to worry about though if Carly and are paying, and I think you can help with that ina.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">That at least seemed like an honest thought, but ina wasn’t sure how she could be of any use. “What am I gonna do?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, we’re all gonna need dresses of course!.”