"Ako…" Zorian sighed.
"I know everyone thinks I'm jealous but that's not normal!" said Akoja in a hushed but agitated voice. "I'm pretty smart and I study all the time and I'm still having problems with the curriculum. And we've both been in the same class as Neolu for the past two years and she was never this good. And… and now she's beating me in every single class!"
"Kind of like Zach," said Zorian.
"Exactly like Zach!" she agreed. "They even hang out together, two of them and one other girl I don't know, behaving like… like they're in their own private little world."
"Or like they're a couple," said Zorian, before frowning. "Triple? What's the word for a romantic relationship between 3 people?"
Akoja scoffed. "Whatever. The point is the three of them do nothing but waste time together and antagonize the teachers and get perfect scores anyway. They even refused the chance to get transferred to 1st tier groups, can you believe that!?"
"You're too worked up over this," Zorian warned.
"Aren't you a little bit curious how they do it?" asked Akoja.
"Of course I am," scoffed Zorian. "It's hard not to be. But what can I do about it? Besides, Zach has never done anything to me. I don't want to cause problems for him just because he has suddenly discovered his inner prodigy."
Zorian felt Benisek join them suddenly, simply popping up from behind a corner so he could walk beside them. Sometimes Zorian wondered if the chubby boy could smell gossip.
"I know what you mean," Benisek said. "I always thought Zach was no good at anything. You know, like me?"
"Hah. Well there's no way he got this good at everything over one summer break," Zorian said. "I guess he was pulling the wool over our eyes all this time."
"Man, that's so stupid," said Benisek. "If I were that good I'd make sure everyone knew it."
"I don't think he was faking lack of skill for two years straight," Akoja huffed. "He would have slipped at least occasionally."
"Well, what's left then?" Zorian asked. He refrained from listing some of the more obscure ways such a rapid growth could be accomplished with magic, because most of them were criminal and he was sure the academy checked Zach to make sure he wasn't a shapeshifting imposter or possessed by the ghost of a long-dead mage.
"Maybe he knows the answers in advance," she suggested.
"Only if he's an oracle," Benisek said. "Boole gave him an oral exam last Tuesday when you went home early, and he was rattling off answers like he swallowed the textbook."
The conversation died down as all three filed into the alchemy classroom, which was really more of a big alchemy workshop than a typical classroom. There were about 20 tables, each one full of various containers and other equipment. All ingredients for the day's lesson were already set out in front of them, though some would require additional preparation before they could be used in whatever process they were learning about that day – he was pretty sure they weren't going to be putting live cave crickets into the boiling solution, for instance.
Alchemy, like warding, was a complicated art, but their alchemy teacher knew her stuff and knew how to teach, so Zorian wasn't having any issues with the class. Technically they had to work in groups of 2 or 3 students because there were not enough tables and equipment, but Zorian always paired up with Benisek which translated to working alone in practice. The only problem was getting Benisek to shut up and stop distracting him during class.
"Hey Zorian," Benisek whispered to him not so quietly. "I never noticed it until now, but our teacher is kind of hot!"
Zorian gritted his teeth. The blasted idiot couldn't keep his voice down if his life was on the line. There was no way she didn't hear that.
"Benisek," he whispered back to his partner. "I need good grades in alchemy to get my dream job when I graduate. If you screw this up for me I will never speak to you again."
Benisek grumbled mutinously before returning to his ogling. Zorian refocused on grinding the borer wasp husks into a fine powder needed for the particular type of glue they were supposed to be making.
Admittedly, Azlyn Marivoski did look surprisingly good for a 50-year-old woman. Some kind of cosmetic treatment probably – she was their alchemy teacher, after all. Maybe even a true youth potion, though those were really rare and usually imperfect in some way.
"I don't see why you like this class so much," grumbled Benisek. "I'm not even sure I'd call it magical. You don't need mana for it. It's all searching for herbs this, cutting the roots the right way that… it's like cooking. Hell, we're making glue, of all things. You should leave that to girls."
"Benisek…"
"It's true!" he protested. "Even our teacher is a girl. A hot girl, but still. I read somewhere that alchemy traces its roots back to witches' covens, with their potions and what not. Even now the best alchemical families are descended from witches. I bet you didn't know that, huh?"
As a matter of fact, he did know that. He was, after all, tutored in alchemy by an honest-to-gods traditional witch before he went to the academy. She was so traditional, in fact, that she scoffed at the name 'alchemy' and referred to her skill strictly as 'potion making'.
But that wasn't the sort of stuff you wanted people to know, for a wide variety of reasons.
"If you don't shut up right now I won't let you partner with me anymore," Zorian told him seriously.
"Hey!" protested Benisek. "Who's going to help me with that stuff, then? I'm not good at this!"
"I don't know," said Zorian innocently. "Maybe you should find some girl to help you."
Fortunately, the teacher was currently too busy fawning over Zach's newest masterpiece to pay attention to Zorian's table – somehow the boy managed to make some kind of enhancement potion out of the provided ingredients, and that was apparently very impressive. Azlyn didn't appear to mind that Zach completely ignored the assignment to make magical glue and did his own thing.
Zorian shook his head and tried to concentrate on his own work. He wondered whether he would have gotten the same reaction if he did something like that, or if he would be accused of showing off. The few times Zorian tried to wow the teachers he was simply told to work on his basics and not to get cocky, because arrogance kills. Was it because Zach was the heir of Noble House Noveda? Or something else?
It was in moments like these that he understood exactly how Akoja felt about all this.