Young Writers Society

When they walked in, Sergius was already there in his human form, sitting at the back of the class and scowling at everyone who came in. When he saw the two girls walk in together, he stood up, gave them a quick bow, and walked over to them. In a low voice, he said, “I am told that I owe you an apology. So consider this it: sorry.” He gave another bow and then walked back to his chair and sat down again.

“Horrid Swan,” Alainna muttered under her breath. But she seemed too distracted to care that the apology was wholly inadequate.

Solea didn’t care either. She watched as the class filled up, every seat filled. Most of the girls whispered with each other with excitement. After all, the last time they had been in this classroom, it had been an exciting class. And, since Sergius sat at the back of the class, they expected a similar level of excitement.

And why shouldn’t they? thought Solea grimly. If there was a Conqueror coming, then it would definitely be an exciting class. Solea tried to imagine in her head what the Conqueror would look like. She had always imagined that the Conqueror was a stunningly beautiful woman with a cruel face and evil eyes that seemed to pierce through the hearts of people that she looked at. She would be pale and tall and very elegant — after all, she had once been born of White Swans, so why shouldn’t she at least look like a White Swan? But everything about her would seem cold and cruel. After all, she was evil incarnate.

As for her children? Solea didn’t know what they would look like. And this made her nervous.

The girls had been coming into the classroom quietly. But suddenly, someone knocked on the door so loudly that the class practically jumped out of their seats. The knock was strange too — it was not just a mere banging, but it almost seemed rhythmic, as if it were part of a song. The excitement, which had been there before, reached a frenzy while several girls sprang out of their seats and pointed to the door excitedly.

Then, just when Solea thought that she couldn’t bear it anymore, the door burst open with such force that the whole classroom shuddered.

And the whole class full of girls shrieked.

“Look! It’s a boy!” screamed a girl.

And it was a boy! He strode in, his arms full of papers that didn’t quite fit in the leather satchel that hung from his shoulder, while Archondid, still in his Black Swan form, skittered at his heels, trying to keep up with him. But that was hard to do, for the boy moved quickly and energetically, almost as if he were dancing. The boy seemed young too. While he was older than any of the girls in the class, it was not by much, perhaps by a couple of years at most. And, while he might not have been considered traditionally handsome, seeing as his nose looked like it had been broken several times and his hair color was a dirty brown, he moved so energetically that his crooked face and messy brown hair could easily be forgiven from his sheer energy.

When he saw the class, his face lit up with joy. His eyes were a startling blue. He set down his satchel and papers and gave the girls a sweeping and impressive bow.

“Hello, students!” he called out in the Swan’s language. “My name is Cyrus, and I am your new teacher!” Then, quickly in their language with a distinctly foreign accent that made everything he said sound softer and more gentle, he repeated his greeting, once more giving an impressive bow. Finally, he repeated himself once more, in the Swan’s language, and bowed yet one more time.

The girls cheered.

“Where is the Lady?” he cried out, looking over the room with palpable excitement. Alainna sunk into her seat, her face filled with shock. The girls laughed.

“There she is! There she is!” they called out, pointing to Alainna while Alainna stared out in horror at the scene.

Cyrus beamed at her and gave her a sweeping bow. “Hail Lady!” he called out. “Thank you for letting me serve you.”

Alainna stood up and nodded to him sullenly. Then, without saying anything else, she sat down quickly.

“You’ve stunned the Lady into silence!” one of the girls laughed. She stood up and curtsied to Cyrus. “My name is Clarise,” she said importantly.

Cyrus laughed and bowed to her. “It is good to meet you!” he said, once more in both languages. Then he went back to his satchel and snatched up a handful of papers, scanning each of them quickly before tossing them away. Finally, he found the paper that he was looking for and held it over his head, smiling over the class. “My lesson plan!” he said, grinning. He glanced at it briefly before setting it down on the desk.

“Today is for introductions!” he announced in the Swan’s language, pacing in front of the class. “And I suppose I should be first, seeing as I am the teacher. But, looking around and seeing all the lovely faces of everyone here, I must admit that I am much more interested in your stories. So, I shall be as quick as I can!” He repeated himself once more in both languages and smiled. “My job, as your teacher, is to give you a voice so you can tell your story. For one of the most sacred traditions of the Swans is the exchanging of stories, for to be able to share your story is to be able to allow your heart to take flight and become part of something greater. To learn the language of the Swans is to be able to use your voice to share in the legacy of Diamea. And so, that is my goal. To let you find that voice so you can share in that legacy of Diamea.” He bowed and repeated himself.

“What legacy do you share with Diamea?” Alainna asked loudly after he finished.

The girls around Alainna glared at her. Clarise whispered loudly, “Just shut up and let him talk. Nobody wants to listen to you right now.”

Alainna blushed and shrunk in her seat, glaring back at Clarise, mortified.

But Cyrus continued talking as if nothing had happened. “We do not have enough time to do stories for this class, unfortunately,” he said in the Swan’s language. “There are too many people here and not enough time during class to properly do that. However, I would like to know more about you. And so, I would like to invite you to tell me one or two things about you that you would like to share with me and the rest of your classmates.” He repeated himself in both languages again, then continued, “The way I would like you to tell your story is the following. First, do your best to tell your story using the Swan language. At first, you may only be able to string a couple of words together and perhaps it won’t make sense, but please don’t worry about that! Right now, I want to be able to tell where you are and how comfortable you are with the language. Then, I would like you to use your own language that you are comfortable with and retell your story that way. Finally, I would like you to repeat your story in the Swan language. If I believe that you might need help telling your story, I will help guide you along with finding the right words for your story. So please do not feel embarrassed! It is a beautiful language, and I am honored to help guide you through the language of Diamea.”

And so that’s why he kept repeating himself, Solea realized. Then she felt silly because it genuinely sounded like a good way to teach people a new language. And yet, she had assumed that this new teacher would be bad, or at least no better than Madam Burl. So the very fact that he seemed to be competent — or maybe even a good teacher! — surprised her.

His words about Diamea also made her hesitate. Had she not spoken to any of the Swans beforehand, she would have assumed that he was perfectly normal. Indeed, she had a hard time believing that he could be a Conqueror at all. He was too young! He was polite! He spoke of Diamea reverently! He respected the traditions of the Swans! He even sought out and bowed to the Lady at the very beginning. And, most surprising of all, he seemed to be genuinely interested in teaching his class. Surely these were things that the Conqueror could not or would not do.

And yet, when Solea looked at Archondid or glanced back at Sergius, she wasn’t sure. Both of them were very quiet and still, watching Cyrus with grim eyes as Cyrus paced enthusiastically at the front of the class.

“I shall share three things about myself that I would like you to know,” Cyrus continued. “First, has anybody gone ice fishing?” He repeated himself as usual and waited for anybody to say anything, but the room stayed quiet. Then, very slowly, Solea raised her hand. He beamed at her. “Wonderful!” he said in the Swan’s language. “I was hoping someone had done it before. Do you mind telling me your name?”

Before he could repeat himself in the common language, she responded, “Solea.”

“Solea?” He squinted at her, and then suddenly his face lit up. “I met your father during my interview for this position! You are the Voice’s daughter, are you not?” When Solea hesitated, he started repeating himself in the common language, but she shook her head quickly.

“I understand you,” Solea said in the Swan’s language. “You don’t need to repeat yourself. I just was surprised by the question. It’s odd hearing him being referred to as the Voice.” Also, she thought grimly, it was odd to hear someone refer to Theron as her father now, even though she had thought that Theron was her father for most of her life. Nowadays, most people thought of her as the Black Swan’s daughter. But it was an easy mistake to make, especially for a stranger, and so she tried to not let it bother her.

She guessed she must have looked grumpy, because Cyrus immediately bowed to her politely. “My apologies. I shall call him by his proper name. Though, may I be permitted a personal question? I never thought of Theron as the sort of man who would go ice fishing. Did he take you fishing, or did somebody else?”

“He did,” Solea said shyly.

Cyrus smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. He seems to be a good man.” He nodded to her and added, “By the way, you have a delightful way with the language, my dear. It is a pleasure listening to your voice.” Then, still smiling, he looked over the class and said, “For the rest of you girls who haven’t yet had the pleasure of going ice fishing, I will explain! When it gets cold, you can go out to a frozen lake, cut a hole in it, and catch fish from that hole. It’s a wonderful way to get meat in the dead of winter, especially when you are on the brink of starvation and food supplies are low. Now, once when I was about eight years old, I was looking for a place to put my hook, when suddenly the ice cracked and I fell through. I was able to get back out with my limbs intact, as you probably gathered, but thanks to that accident, I lost the hearing of my left ear,” he said, pointing to it. “So if you are on the left side of me and call out to me, I might not hear you. I apologize in advance!”

Solea looked at her sister; Alainna was sitting on the left side of the room. And it occurred to Solea that perhaps the reason why Cyrus didn’t respond to Alainna’s sarcastic question was because he genuinely didn’t know that she had said anything at all. Not only that, but it meant that Alainna’s plan to annoy the Conqueror — if he even was one, and Solea was starting to have her doubts — would fail spectacularly, if only because he wouldn’t hear anything that she said, unless he focused solely on Alainna.

“To make matters worse for all of you ladies on the left side of the room,” he continued, nodding politely to the girls that were there, “my left eye is not very good either. Has anyone here ever played Dodge the Rock?” He paused again, but the room remained silent, and this time even Solea didn’t raise her hand. “Basically, you throw rocks at each other and you have to dodge the rocks that are thrown at you. It’s quite a fun game, normally. However, once I got a rock thrown at my left eye, it never healed right. Ever since then, things have looked a bit blurry from that eye. I can see movement, but not much else. So, if you’re on the left side of me, you might have to wave your arms to attract my attention. Once more, I apologize in advance! I will try to look over there often, just so I don’t miss any questions that might come, but if I seem to be ignoring you, please don’t take it personally! The slight is completely unintentional and I hope you will forgive me. And, as for you ladies on the right, don’t be afraid to help out your sisters on the left, please!

“The third thing and final thing that I would like you to know about me right now is that I am a foreigner in your land. Your common language is still very new to me. The Swans have been generous with their time and have helped me learn your language in the astonishingly short time that I have been here — I believe it’s been about five weeks so far — and for that I am truly grateful. But I might need some help and your patience, as I am still in the process of learning it. While I can now speak and understand the language, I am still frustratingly slow at reading or writing your language.”

“Wait,” Alainna said suddenly. “You’ve only been here for five weeks as a total stranger and you’ve already learned our language?”

Cyrus glanced over to his left and frowned. “Did somebody say something?”

“You can switch back and forth between the Swans’ language and our common language effortlessly, and you’ve only been studying our language for the last five weeks?” Alainna said again, this time louder and when he was facing her. “Isn’t that impossible?”

Cyrus bowed to her. “My Lady, with a lot of hard work and very little sleep, miracles can sometimes happen.”

Then he turned to the rest of the class and smiled. “And those are the things that I wish to tell you. Now, I’ve been talking too much! Let me hear your stories. Let’s start with the left corner first so that they do not feel neglected by me!” He turned to Clarise, who was sitting in the left front corner, and bowed politely to her. “Clarise, isn’t it? What a beautiful name! Your father is involved with paper manufacturing, if I remember correctly. A wonderful industry, if I don’t mind saying so! When I talked with him during my interview, he said that when you were only nine years old, you invented a particular type of perfumed paper that is now one of his bestselling paper lines. The story absolutely fascinated me. Can you tell me more about this paper that you invented?”

Clarise blushed happily and began to talk.