Camille shrugged and reached for mine with her chopsticks. I hurriedly covered my bowl with my hand. "I was kidding!" I laughed. "Eat your own lunch!"
“Ladies, it’s hot wings day!” Mac announced, setting his tray down triumphantly. Then he looked in shock at mine and Camille’s plates. “Did you forget your hot wings? Where are your hot wings?”
“You should say hot wings some more times,” Destin said, sliding calmly into the last open seat.
“Still a vegetarian,” I reminded him.
“Still makes no sense to me,” Mac said.
Camille eyed Mac’s plate dubiously.
“What?” Mac wanted to know.
“Chicken wings?” she asked.
“Well yeah.”
“They’re orange,” was her only comment, and she shifted her attention to her sandwich.
“Wait a minute,” Mac said slowly. “You’re not...are you saying...that you’ve never had hot wings before?”
“No.”
“No...you’ve had them, or no, you haven’t had them?”
She blinked, looked at me, then back at Mac. “Both of those are ‘no’?”
“Focus, woman, this is important! Have you ever eaten hot wings?”
“I have not,” she said cautiously.
“That’s insane!” Mac exclaimed, earning him some looks from nearby tables. He immediately pushed his plate at Camille. “Here! Eat these right now! My generosity knows no bounds.”
Camille looked baffled, but she reached for the plate anyway. Mac snatched it back suddenly. “Never mind, my generosity does have bounds. I forgot I was really hungry.” Then he frowned. “You’re serious? Never?”
Camille shrugged.
Slowly, like it pained him, he edged his plate forward again. “Ok, you can have one. One! I’m seriously starving, but I can’t let you go on living life without hot wings.”
“You sure you’re not going to take it back?” I asked.
“Quick, take it before I change my mind!” he said.
Camille shrugged again and reached for her fork.
“Put that down!” Mac ordered, aghast. “You really weren’t kidding! No, you eat them with your hands.”
“It’s covered in sauce,” Camille frowned.
“That’s half the point!” Mac insisted. “It’s like ribs, if you don’t have sauce all over your hands and face when you’re done eating them, you’re doing it wrong.”
“I don’t know, I’ve seen people eat them with only getting like two fingers dirty,” I offered.
“They’re doing it wrong,” Mac stated flatly.
Camille picked up a chicken wing with two fingers, looking at the bright orange sauce dubiously.
“Ok now,” Mac instructed, reclaiming his plate and digging into his wings in earnest, “Now you eat everything that’s not bones. You’re welcome.”
“I like buffalo sauce but wings look like they’d be really hard to eat,” I said, dipping into my soup.
“You’re missing the point,” Mac said with his mouth full. “If you’re not going to destroy the wings, you might as well just get boneless.” Beside him, Destin made a show of eating one of his boneless nuggets. “You don’t think about it as difficult, you think about it as awesome. And then it doesn’t seem difficult anymore.”
“That would sound more profound if you didn’t have sauce all over your face,” Destin said.
Meanwhile, Camille had wiped her hands with several napkins and was standing up.
“Aw come on, you seriously didn’t like it?” Mac complained.
“I’m going to get more,” Camille said gruffly, and took her tray back to the lunch counter.
“Alright, maybe she’s ok,” Mac admitted, in her absence.
My gaze wandered across the cafeteria to where Rhys sat with Kei, Hayley, and Amity. Hayley was chattering away at Amity and tugged on Kei's sleeve, demanding something or other. Rhys was buried in a book, ignoring them completely. Kei leaned over and tried to read over his shoulder, and Rhys snapped the book shut, giving him a genuine glare. It wasn't the same look of blanket disdain he gave everyone else - there was real loathing there. I remembered Rhys saying that Kei was his bodyguard. What would make him despise him like that? Why did Rhys even stay around the others when it was so obvious he'd rather be alone?
Kei looked up and met my gaze from across the room and he winked, like he'd done on the first day. I looked away quickly, but I didn't feel any of the thrill I had before. Between the way he'd appeared and vanished so suddenly outside the empty lab, and the look Rhys gave him - not to mention what he'd done to my mother's journal - he was beginning to make me nervous for non-romantic reasons.
That night, I couldn't sleep, so I snuck out of the house and went to the orchard mirror. I found the Tower mercifully empty. It was the middle of the night, after all. I didn’t expect Rhys to be here, and I wasn’t sure I had the energy to deal with him tonight. A thick tome lay on the table, and I moved closer to inspect it. Rhys must have left it out, forgotten to re-shelve it.
The book had a faded red cloth cover, with gold embossing that had all but worn off. Encyclopaedia of Spellcraft, third edition. Thinking this looked promising, I opened the cover. Property of the Runesong Monastery was stamped inside. I found that curious. Did that mean someone had stolen it and brought it here, or had a Mirrormaker created it from memory? I scanned down the table of contents, thinking I should look for something to do with iron swords. I tried not to get distracted by the other intriguing subjects - Uses for Feral Blood; Alchemy and other Human Spellcraft; Immortals in Folklore; Dragons Through the Ages; Baking with Magic; and then, towards the bottom of the page:
The Magical Properties of Iron, I read. Now we're getting somewhere. This could be useful in helping Camille. I thumbed to the page, spread the book on the table and read eagerly:
Iron is the most magic-friendly of all the metals. It readily takes to spells, seeming to make it a logical choice for enchanting. However, it is not often used, because of its capacity to take in more than is intended. A greedy metal, iron is entirely avoided by the fae, who despise its tendency to draw their magic out of them against their will, with unpredictable results. For this reason, they apply their enchantments to wood, or metals more difficult to spell, such as gold and silver. Iron is particularly harmful to dryads, whose powers are derived from the earth and plant life. Iron can be used to bar their connection to the earth and its flora, rendering them powerless. See chapter 12 for more information on dryads and other hybrids.
Unenchanted iron can be used by ferals or humans, but once enchanted, iron can only be wielded by a human, lest there be unexpected side effects. Though ferals (like humans) cannot perform magic, volatile magic will react to them, because of the magical properties of their blood. For more information on feral blood, see chapter 8.
Note: Enchanted iron may be reforged without losing its enchantment.
Iron can also be used as a portaling medium for imps. For more information on creatures from Below, see chapter 14.
Famous enchanted iron artifacts:
The Crown of Angwar - worn by the monarchs of the human kingdom of Angwar. Intended to prevent any non-human from succeeding the throne. It will permanently absorb the powers of any non-human who wears it. Following the invasion and takeover of Angwar by the fae Ryan dynasty, the crown was lost.
The Grey Ward - shield used by the warrior priestess Theodora Vogel in the War of Temples. Capable of absorbing incoming spells, and reflecting them back at attackers. Often credited as the sole reason the Vogels won the Battle of Waycross. The shield resides at the Runesong Monastery.