Constellations Glossary

ante lucem

noun. Before light, before dawn, from Latin.

Sol

noun. The sun, singular, from Latin. Plural: sols, from Spanish.

ayudante

noun. Helper, teaching assistant, from Spanish.

Novae

1. noun. One who is new, as in a new student, from Latin.

2. adjective. New.

Secundae

noun. Second year student, from Latin.

Days of the week — Derived from Latin dies: day, singular

dies Solis, day of the Sun
dies Lunae, day of the Moon
dies Martis, day of Mars
dies Mercurii, day of Mercury
dies Iovis, day of Jupiter
dies Veneris, day of Venus
dies Saturni, day of Saturn

I'm not going to tell you which days they are, guess! (Would this be more fun if I scrambled them??)

Circles Part 3

"Sit with us tomorrow if you want," Inyanga had told Mingxia.

Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough. Which was why Mingxia went to bed soon after sunset, woke naturally before it rose, and was getting out of bed ante lucem.

Because Inyanga and Amafu always sat near the front, and if Mingxia wanted to sit with them, she would need to get to class early.

As her watched ticked away the last minutes of the night, she beamed with confidence that she would make it early enough to sit in Inyanga's row.

Thirty minutes to prima lux, Ma took off and drove over a twilit city, street light turned up, and most any other kind of light still off.

Slamming the moto door with a "Bye Ma, sorry Ma," when the moto landed, Mingxia even ran, sprinting across the grass lit by the moon, which was a reflection of Sol's light, and the effervescent light of al-Maysan hall, which was probably a reflection of the light of infinite sols.

A few solidae in her pocket jangled and only when she heard the clamor did she worry that she might have dropped a coin or two. Too dark to go looking anyways, she ran on. Not to al-Maysan, though; their first class was in Sanxing Hall (which she overheard many students pronounce Sank-sing but Ma said San-shing).

Though the building was landed, an old edifice planted and rooted into the ground, link portals were open to each lecture hall — and out of the link to Novae Magical Economics extended, not a line per se . . . but a procession. A moving queue. A march. Getting into the procession at the end, Mingxia felt a little bewilderment, and she tromped slowly now (partially relieved to be able to catch her breath) after the backs of the students ahead.

Filing into the lecture hall, the marchers descended, row after row, toward the front. From up high Mingxia could already scout, though she continued down the stairs at the end of the aisle anyway, that every seat in the first several rows was taken.

In the second row, every seat next to them full, Amafu and Inyanga were bunkered down, bags and textbooks spread across the desk in front of them. No spot saved for new friends, not in this stars damn competitive school.

The procession stopped even trying to get down there, and as Mingxia descended, she became the only one on the steps approaching the sixth row from the front, the fifth, the fourth . . . and then giving up, she turned back. As the lecture hall had filled from the front to the back and the traffic on sets of stairs on each side of the hall proceeded in an orderly manner, she was pushing against the direction of the stream to slink back to her preferred seat in the back.

Checking her watch again, she saw it was now seventeen minutes to class time; it had taken her thirteen minutes to get into Sanxing Hall, and it had been too late. As she settled into her chair at the back, she knew she would need to get to campus even earlier.

Novae students had morning lectures in Sanxing Hall every day: Practical Spellcasting 101 on dies Lunes, Mercurii, and Veneris, and Intro to Magical Economics, a required course, on dies Martis and Iovis.

Every day Minxgia arrived a little earlier, and found the seats in the first, second, third, fourth rows to be full well before class was scheduled to start.

She would sprint across the grass in the dark, dropping solidae coins half the mornings she was too early morning comatose to remember to hold on to her pocket, and take a seat in the fifth row. Bury her nose in assigned readings. Consider talking to whoever sat next to her and fail. It was always a different student, with lecture cohorts so large.

Every dies Iovis in the tutorial, Mingxia arrived just on time and not a second early (sometimes just after a nap in the library to recover from not getting enough sleep), and sat on the edge of her seat in hopes of the magic happening again, in hopes that Inyanga would say something she could jump off of. Yet silence and her mute tongue became what she was accustomed to; every day she sat silently by herself in lectures set her back.

And once she made it to Sanxing Hall early enough to sit on the aisle edge of the fourth row, she tried, at the end of the lecture, asking the girl next to her to borrow notes. Ma, perhaps beginning to see through the lies about her friends, said that borrowing notes could be a good way to bond with another student.

So Mingxia lied, "I couldn't take notes last class, I forgot to pack my bag," and did that even make sense? About to add she forgot to pack her airweave paper and her gnomon, to make the lie more believable, the girl was already saying, face blank, "No, I need to study. You can't borrow them," and she packed up and left.

From the fourth row, Mingxia could overhear Amafu and Inyanga in the early mornings before class; the hall was mostly quiet with sleepyheads, but that never stopped Amafu from cracking jokes before the lecture started.

Those two always sat in the second row from the front, and one morning Inyanga was the one making trouble. She complained, "That girl up front, why does she magic her hair so high and then sit in the middle of the front row? And she's tall! I can never see the bottom portion of the board."

The girl in front turned around, beyond curly black hair extending from her head in every direction, including up. "I can hear you," her voice sang out. "Don't be so dramatic. The rows are elevated; you can see."

Ignoring her, Inyanga said to Amafu in a stage whisper Mingxia could make out from two rows back, "We need to come earlier. Sit in the first row."

Always the comic, Amafu put a hand on Inyanga's forehead as if checking her temperature. "Fever dream hallucination? Nope. Just your regular level of crazy. I always have to check."

Inyanga argued, "San-ksing Hall isn't as elevated as al-Maysan."

"If you don't want to sit directly behind Storm," Amafu took a diplomatic tone, "you and I can change seats."

"But then you won't be able to see!"

"You can see fine," Storm tossed back over her shoulder.

Amafu leaned sideways as if trying to get into Inyanga's angle of vision and see through her eyes. "Hmmm," said the quite obviously partial judge. "It is very high. I think anti-gravity spells may be in play. Perhaps there should be a regulation about that. It's kinda blocking the view such that movements would prove a distraction during the lecture. Maybe if Storm agrees not to move all hour."

Of course when Mingxia finally arrived to class early enough to find a free seat in the second row, middle, it was because Inyanga and Amafu had moved up to the front row, sitting next to Storm. 

The three fought like cats for the final lectures of the semester, and would continue to do so all year, and into the next, while Mingxia eavesdropped from the row behind. One row back, she considered each lecture whether she should ask Inyanga to borrow notes, or whether borrowing notes in this competitive environment would turn a potential friend into an enemy, or whether she should just say hello and let whatever awkward silence might ensue just have at it.

Exam time came with a break from lectures, and when classes resumed, with Practical Spellcasting and its tutorial on dies Iovis, the tutorial circles had shuffled.

Thankfully, Mingxia was still assigned to Inyanga's circle, but Canción was no longer their ayudante, and Amafu was gone — and in their place, Storm Gloriam.

The first week back after exams, the break had given Mingxia a new resolve to try to speak up early and often (and her participation grade for first semester had been X out of XX, half marks, with a note from Ayudante Canción that her perfect attendance had helped her score, but she needed to "speak up in discussions!")

Setting her goal to speak, starting with one sentence of contribution per week, Mingxia piped up the first time she caught an opportunity, so afraid of missing the chance to, because she couldn't go on like this forever — and she didn't care so much what she said. She didn't need to sound like a genius; she just needed to say something.

The bar was set to any commentary that wouldn't make her sound like a complete and absolute starfire brains.

Back on the subject of the practical methods of spell tracking, the first time there was a pause, she put up her hand. Ayudante Surya chose her, pronouncing her name carefully, slowly, mostly correctly. "Yes, Ming-shah?"

"I am wondering if perhaps . . . the problem may never be solved. Just because many advances in magic have resulted from the solving of big questions does not mean that every magical problem is ineluctably and inevitably solvable, does it?"

A question, not an answer — but she had spoken two sentences, not one! Momentarily (mostly while still in the midst of speech), she felt proud. The good feeling was like a protective pillow of clouds welling up from within, shielding her from panic. A little elation buoyed her up.

Then Storm Gloriam spoke.

"That's dumb." Out of turn, no hand up, just speaking up, as if with no forethought. "We're at Magicians College to become the future developers of magic. We can't come at it from the assumption magical problems have no answers."

Blinking and processing, Mingxia took her deep inhales instinctively, but by the time Ayudante Surya was saying, "Fair argument, but let's try not to call each other's ideas dumb," Mingxia's heart was swelling.

It did something different from the panic pounding now, and the sensation in her belly felt different from the electric shocks of worry. Pain was there, like when you wanted to cry and felt it in your whole body, not just your eyes. Yet there was something else, too. Big and rock hard. A lump forming in her throat, and an outrage that sent her mind racing because her postulate hadn't been that dumb, and she didn't even mind a little criticism, and she knew she had spoken just to speak, it's not as if she thought she had the most genius idea in the whole world. It's just that there was no reason to be so mean about it.

Mingxia glared across the circle.

For the rest of the hour, whenever Storm Gloriam spoke, Mingxia listened with extreme scrutiny. This girl was not so smart she should walk all over everyone else. Not everything she said was pure intellectual wizardry. Mingxia listened and examined every argument. She judged every statement. She did not smile and nod. And she realized that she. did. not. like. Storm. Gloriam.

When Ma picked her up from campus, that was all she ranted and raved about from the passenger seat of the moto as it flew over downtown.

"That girl thinks she is so smart, but she's mean to everyone! She responds to everyone's ideas with a complete lack of kindness and empathy! How does anyone like her? How is she going to get anywhere being so mean? I hope she never does make it anywhere. People like that do not deserve to climb to the top. It's not fair. It's not fair that she can just speak her mind and say whatever she wants, while some of us spend all of our time worrying, afraid we might say something stupid, or something that could be misinterpreted, or even come across as unkind when we didn't mean it to be. How dare she? How can she always talk like she's everything? She is the worst person I have ever met in my entire life."

She. did. not. like. Storm. Gloriam.

Mingxia's Star continues! Thanks for reading. Please give a star if you enjoyed reading this chapter.