Book 2, Chapters 1-6: Denedien

“Now class.” Instructor Dainanan leaned forward, smiling.  “While this is a class mainly on theory, we are always going to have some practice involved.  So each of you has a small piece of linen and several colors of embroidery thread. We no longer know exactly how the ancients wove aether into their outfits, but what we do know is how they sometimes put codes and meanings into their embroidery.  Work in small teams, come up with a code, and see if you can work in something that your teammates can read.”

Denedien looked at his school-assigned teammates and stifled a sigh.  They were nice people. They were even clever people. Uzharrienie was even quite pretty.  Kivsi was very entertaining. But they had absolutely no interest in the finer things in life.

On the other hand, that team over there – he could just seem himself as the center of a very nice sandwich involving two of the three, and since the third was an Art House clod who probably would fail out within three years, if not sooner, there was no reason he shouldn’t just sort of work his way into the team.

But right now, right now he had to sit with Kivsi and Uzharrienie and talk about embroidery.  Except the way Uzharrienie was eyeing the Art House clod…

“How about we shake things up?” he offered.  “I’ll trade with, uh -” he gestured towards the Art House boy.

“Loonzhoon,” Uzharrienie whispered.  “Loonzhoon.”

“Okay, I’ll switch out with him, and we can both,” what was the phrase?  He should remember this. “We can gain perspective on other teams and how they do things.”

“Well, if you think it’s a good idea….”

“I do.  And that way we’re not always just guessing each other’s stuff.”  He got up before she could change her mind. “Loonzhoon, right? You and I are playing ambassador to each other’s teams.”

Kivsi might have had some argument, but if he did, Denedien didn’t hear it.  Then again, he was busy smiling at his new, if temporary, teammates. They were smiling back at him, albeit not nearly as enthusiastically as he’d hoped for.  “So.” He smiled at both of them. “Codes. This looks like it’s going to be interesting, doesn’t it?”

The girl rolled her eyes.  “Oh, I suppose it might be rather interesting, in a boring sort of way. You don’t really like this sort of thing, do you?”

Denedien winced.  “Oh, I think it’s interesting enough. Let me see.”  He picked up his pen and started doodling designs, all while wondering if he could get Kivsi to trade with him.  “What about you-?”

“Levlielev.”  The boy made a slight bow.  “I like the idea of codes. Lakevbie here doesn’t like anything that doesn’t stab someone or heal them, but that’s her.  I with we still had other nations, and wars, you know?”

Now that, that he could work with.  Both of those. “You’re not going to stab someone with a needle?” Denedien offered.  “I mean, Levlielev’s spy ideas could be useful for killing someone-”

“Why are you even here?”  She glared at him. “At least Loonzhoon is quiet.”

“Well, because you are lovely, both of you, and I thought it would do me good to know my classmates.”  Honesty, Denedien had found, was often helpful, especially when it was often flattery.

Not this time.  Well, not for Lakevbie, at least.  She rolled her eyes at him.

“Flirt with Levlielev and leave me alone, then.  I’m going to write ‘boring’ in my code. We’ll see if you can figure it out.”

Denedien sighed and turned his focus on Levlielev.

So Solace went and gave me two Books of all the characters, and thus is getting all the Edally ficlets ever. 

This one takes place sometime around the time Riensin is talking to Instructor Dainanan about aether in textile codes. 

Denedien shows up here: http://www.edallyacademy.com/2015/12/07/ch14both/

His teammate Kivsi shows up here – http://www.edallyacademy.com/2015/08/14/2a/