The Solveig Playbook, Epilogue

SOLVEIG

“That tutor of Cain's got up there in a flash!”

“How did she get past the guards so easily?! Without using any magic as well…”

“Perhaps not eating does have its benefits…”

Solveig had already crossed half the stage, one hand raised, the other braced against D'Igoll's chest as though she could physically hold the demihuman together through sheer force of will.

“My name is Solveig Walks-On-Water, and I’m intervening on Cain’s behalf,” she said firmly. “As his tutor, I have made this executive decision. To all my new… classmates… pleased to meet you as well.”

D'Igoll looked at her incredulously. "You… you effectively made Cain forfeit… when it should have been me."

Solveig pouted angrily. “Yeah, no thanks to you!!”

“I would’ve controlled myself in time. I could’ve…”

Cain, halfway across the stage himself, one hand still raised from where he'd been about to do the exact same thing Solveig had just done, stopped short.

He looked at Solveig with the kind of expression that signaled imminent murder.

Honestly, the resemblance to his dad has never been more apparent than it did now…

“We are not over this,” the boy seethed at her.

Cain adjusted his collar before motioning to the audience. His jaw was taut, as if dreading what he was about to say…

"Before you ask, yes—I forfeit!"

Solveig looked at him in thought. Forfeiting for your friend… surely to help D’Igoll save face…

Very shrewd, my apprentice, very shrewd…

"The vileness of Isolde's argument is not in the spirit of the Debate,” Cain continued, “and I refuse to engage such an adversary in good faith when she clearly has none."

He looked at D'Igoll, and he lowered his voice considerably.

"You should forfeit too. The audience already knows your stance. Getting worked up like this in front of someone who wants your fury to be shown in public will do you no good."

D'Igoll looked physically pained. Every sinew in his powerful jaw strained against the urge to let something dark and furious loose, to close the distance and sink his teeth into Isolde's smug, eminently punchable face.

Alas.

The demihuman seemed to be losing that particular war with himself.

Thus, slowly, the fur along his forearms began to recede. His shoulders dropped, just slightly, the coiled tension bleeding out of them like water finding a drain. His shadow, finally settled back into something merely healthy boy-sized.

"...I forfeit as well," D'Igoll rasped.

A ripple of murmurs swept through the crowd.

Isolde, for her part, simply smiled.

“I-I suppose that settles things in the Debate then,” the Principal said nervously.

Solveig stared. He really was useless, wasn’t he?

He got up and gestured his arms widely toward the crowd.

“Through automatic disqualification, Isolde is entitled to all points up for grabs in this year’s Grand Debate. Please give her a round of applause.”

The crowd did so, but it was somewhat muted.

But the points were not abstract, no.

It was part of his administrative formula spell.

The Principal casted it, and the air filled with floating alphabets and numbers.

HRAFEN RANKINGS

1. ISOLDE BLACKMORE: 182 (+20)

2. D’IGOLL SHARPCLAW: 160 (~)

...

15. CAIN CUNNINGHAM: 68 (~)

Wow…

I have my work cut out for me.

"As I said motioned earlier,” the Principal said, “your test results correspond with your points on the Hrafen Rankings board. Of course, they are more incremental than what you witnessed today; one debate does not make or break a semester. But every student's placement is recalculated continuously, publicly, and without exception. There is nowhere to hide on this board. That is rather the point of it."

Solveig's eyes searched the crowd.

Miriam was nowhere to be found in her seat.

That was to be expected, given Solveig had sided decisively with Cain in front of half the academy. Cain was Miriam's enemy, at least for now. Ergo, by simple transitive logic, Solveig was probably also filed somewhere under "enemy," or at best, "complicated."

I may have ruined her chances at another friend, this was true.

But…

From what she learned, back in her room…

The future does not have to be set in stone because you deem it to be…

That’s right.

She will earn the right to earn her trust again. If she doesn’t reciprocate, fine. But she had to try.

Her mind quickly discarded the burgeoning thought. She scanned for another person in the crowd.

Rick, when she found him, was staring at her. As soon as her eyes caught his, he shook his head sharply. He was also blushing. For reasons Solveig could not begin to guess.

Boys in this era truly were confusing.

\\

???

They watched from afar as the two humans and one demihuman exit the stone stage.

"Mein Gott… what a bizarre turn.”

“Impervious, indeed. And I imagine, one that you welcome.”

“Of course! It was exhilarating! That demihuman really screwed everything up. Ubermensch move, honestly, from whoever the girl was."

"I'd say that girl caused everything to spiral, really. She better have cleaned it up," his sister said quietly.

"The tutor?"

"Ja. Come to think of it, a tutor studying the same kind of content as you while having the authority to teach you will be quite… odd…"

“And to name herself after one of Illustria’s apotheosis too. Hahaha~! She’s a riot.”

"We ought to watch out for her, I think," his sister said.

He blinked, then grinned.

"Why's that, dear sister?"

"I sense something different about her." She finally looked up, eyes tracking to where Solveig stood, small and out of place amid a sea of nobility. "The way she maneuvered around those guards. That was someone who has done that before, somewhere, to someone."

"You're overthinking it. She's probably just some idiot with a heart of gold who got lucky. Who’s to say Illustria’s guards are simply weak by nature?"

"Perhaps." His sister did not sound convinced.

He followed her gaze back to the floating numbers.

“She will have to start from ground zero.”

“Like we haven’t, ourselves? We have trained our whole lives for this. I suspect a character like hers… She wouldn’t be able to stand losing.”

"Regardless…" he mused. "We'll introduce ourselves properly to her eventually, anyway."

“With that, we’re in agreement.”

Because no matter how it panned out, an element of chaos benefited nobody.

But having an element of chaos on your side…

It was invaluable.

“She will soon see for herself how… inefficient the Illustrians really are. The true nature of demihumans will reveal themselves eventually. And when it does…”

Her brother finished for her. “We will swoop in to recruit her.”

“Ad quattuor partes!”

“Ad quattuor partes.”

…

She stared at her brother flatly. “Your pronunciation of our native tongue is terrible.”

“It’s not my fault our education is so geared toward espionage in other nations!”

“The Mother Superior would’ve had your head if I had not been there long ago.”

“Would not.”

“Would.”

“Would not.”

“Would.”

“Would not!”