Blaring loudly Ui beeped rapidly next to Lydis"s ear. In a groggy haze she was about to smash Ui but before her fist connected Lydis stopped and tapped Ui"s head gently."Good morning Ui…" Lydis rolled over and swept her legs over the ledge. Valfafer wiggled and stretched his back legs. Ui beeped twice in confirmation.
"Good morning Master Lydis. It is currently zero four hundred." Lydis struggled to open her eyes, the faint morning sun threw a greyish hue over the room. Valfafer walked over and rested his head on Lydis"s legs. She looked down and patted his head. Sleep tried to pull her back to bed but Ui stabbed Lydis"s other leg with a small needle.
"Ow!" Lydis jumped and moved away from the bed, rubbing her right thigh. "Ui, what was that for?"
"Master Lydis seemed to still be asleep. Based on previous actions and outcomes I concluded that a little pain was needed to wake you up. It is currently zero four hundred zero two." Lydis sighed and stretched as she stood.
"Alright, I"m awake now Ui." Ui beeped twice.
"Confirmed." Ui flew over to the curtains and pulled them open, the grey light turned a clear yellow. It rested on the window sill and popped out a solar powered recharger. Ui concentrated on fixing the angle to the sun"s trajectory while Lydis shuffled to her bag. Someone knocked on the door.
Valfafer perked his head up and zoomed towards the door. Lydis stopped moving and started to become wary. Her senses heightened, sleep fading from her instantly.
"Yes?" No answer. Lydis reached her bag and pulled out Kyle"s knife. In her other hand were the small blades, one between each finger, ready to be thrown. Valfafer growled slightly. With soft steps Lydis made her way to the door, careful to not make any noise. One hand against the handle Lydis turned it slowly. She bent low behind it and opened the door swiftly, her knife in position to attack or defend. In the hall there was no one. Before going out herself she nodded for Valfafer to go out. If anyone wanted to attack her they wouldn"t expect Valfafer to walk out alone.
Valfafer gladly took the role as bait and walked out as calmly as he could. He looked to the left then right, up then down the walls. There didn"t seem to be anything unusual except for a pile of neatly folded clothes next to the door.
"Master, there isn"t anyone here." Lydis didn"t ease up. Still ready for a sneak attack she quickly poked her head out of the door and s.n.a.t.c.hed the clothes bundle. Valfafer jumped back into the room, the door closing soundlessly behind him.
Lydis looked at the bundle of clothes. They were the academy"s uniform. The two pairs given to her by Hal. A pale letter was tucked into the folds of the clothes. Lydis plucked it out and opened the letter.
"h.e.l.lo Lydis, can I call you by your first name? Wait, that"s not what I wanted to say. This is a little weird and I understand if you think it is but I just wanted to give you back your uniforms. I forgot to give them to you when you left yesterday. I tried to give them to you last night but I guess you were sleeping. I didn"t do anything weird to them either! I have three older sisters who worked me to the bone doing house ch.o.r.es so I tried my best to fold them without looking. I guess that"s all I wanted to say? From, Owen."
Lydis closed the letter and eyed her uniforms. They were folded so crisply. Owen"s letter didn"t seem to have any bad intentions, she could see that from the way his penmanship wasn"t hesitant. His words also didn"t hide things.
Lydis smiled thinking about how hard Zai had tried to teach her how to detect tracks but she ended up using it to a.n.a.lyze written words and penmanship. It also worked as a way to detect lies. Someone had kept taking extra rations from the cafeteria and Lydis asked them to write down the words, "I"ll never betray Valeri and did not steal the extra rations". In the end, based on how they wrote it Lydis determined that it was Blair.
Lydis remembered how embarra.s.sed Blair had been when Lydis called her out. It turned out the Blair wasn"t satisfied with her current portions at dinner or breakfast so she had "borrowed" some rations. Valeri reprimanded her after that.
"Master?" Valfafer had watched Lydis smile after reading the letter.
"It"s nothing. We should get ready soon. It says here…" Lydis opened the pamphlet to look at the ceremony time "…the ceremony is at zero eight hundred. We have plenty of time." Lydis tossed the pamphlet on her bed and took one uniform from the bundle and picked up Valfafer. "What we need is a bath."
Inside the girls bath Lydis was worried about towels but there were some already stocked in there. A locker was already labeled with her name. Inside she grabbed the fluffy white towel and quickly changed out of her sweat covered clothes. Now that she had a moment to herself Lydis could tell how much she smelled. Like a hundred pairs of socks that had been used for a month without washing had been left in a humid room to stink.
Stripping quickly Lydis stuffed her clothes into a small washing machine. It would wash and dry her clothes while she showered. Since it was similar to the one at the camp so she had no trouble working it. Valfafer danced around Lydis"s legs. She bent down and plucked him off the floor, her towel wrapped around her body.
Lydis walked to one of the showers and left her towel outside. Placing Valfafer on the floor she turned on the shower head and warm water soon enveloped her body. The water soothed her aches and washed away sweat. She could feel her joints loosening from the water. After washing herself with soap she bent down to wash Valfafer"s fur. She used a bit too much soap which made too many bubbles and caused his fur to puff out. Lydis rinsed him off as he struggled to keep the soap away from his nose.
Finishing her shower Lydis noticed that someone else had entered. Without the noise from her shower Lydis could hear the one a few stalls down pouring out water. Lydis tensed a bit but didn"t stop. She took her towel and led Valfafer to the drying station. There she found a stand in dryer and a small handheld one for hair, as well as her other pair of clothes. She left the stand in dryer on for Valfafer as she dressed herself.
The uniform"s smooth fabric felt cool and slightly heavy against her skin, fitting perfectly. The cuffs of the sleeves stopped at her elbows. The skirt ended just above her knees having adjustable lengths. If she undid the folds holding the extra layer of fabric to the waist band the skirt"s length would double, ending just above the ankles. Lydis didn"t like how the long skirt made it hard to take wide steps so she decided to leave it at the length it was. Her b.u.t.toned shirt reached her waist while the semi overcoat ended a bit after the skirt did. Inside the overcoat Lydis found a brooch pendant in the pocket, the school crest carved into the shining silver. She pinned it in the middle of her neck, not sure where it should go.
Looking at herself in the mirror Lydis could not deny that she was pretty. Although she was too tanned from training outside to be considered "lady pretty", she wasn"t horrible. Valfafer pranced back to Lydis"s side, smelling of the same shampoo and a happy grin on his face. Lydis bent down to brush his fur when she saw that someone had left two pairs of socks and boots next to her locker. On top was a small piece of paper.
"From Hal."
Lydis looked at the socks and saw that they were also part of the uniform. Black knee socks or black thigh socks, either way they were long and hard to put on. When she finished putting on the knee socks Lydis found that the socks didn"t slip down like she thought they would. Instead they hugged her legs nicely. The shoes were the bigger problem. Although her current shoes weren"t broken or badly damaged the pair left in her locker were just horrendous.
At least an inch of thick rubber separated her feet from the ground. Lydis wasn"t used the ankle cut length of the shoes. She"d only ever worn combat boots or knee boots when she went out into the snow at camp. Lydis slipped her feet in and the sheer weight of them made her take them off instantly. Lydis could handle going barefoot to her room.
Grabbing her clean clothes from the machine Lydis took the extra socks and shoes as well. On her way out she saw a sign that said towels with a arrow pointing down. Lydis tossed her towel in and left. As she closed the door to the girls bath she heard the other shower stop. Paying it no mind Lydis continued to her room.