Describing Jina Pfyllat

[lantairvlea]

They finally stopped. The carriages rocked as hands unloaded the luggage before the new students were helped out. Sray claimed her two bags and noticed there were just over a dozen other students. They milled about uncertainly as the carriages moved off. This could not have been the whole school. It was too much for so few. Sray breathed deeply and clutched the handle of her case, looking around her.

Returning students must have arrived before them, as there was some movement around the grounds, most of it filtering back into the massive building that loomed a short distance from where they stood. Those near her whispered and chatted, excited and nervous as they exchanged names and hometowns.

"Are you a teacher?”

Sray turned and saw a boy in his mid teens. He had a mop of curly, reddish hair and dark eyes set in a round face. His cream long-sleeved, shirt had dark buttons and wore a plain, brown vest over it.

“No, I am a student.” He squinted up at her with suspicious scrutiny.

“You’re rather old to be here for the first time, aren’t you?"

"I do not know,” Sray replied. “The school invited me, so I am here.”

The youth frowned and moved to speak, but the group of them were called to attention by two tall, dark-haired people. The young man was broad-shouldered and obviously muscular, even under the long-sleeved shirt. The young woman that stood beside him was not quite so thickly built, but still tall, strong, and barely an inch shorter. The pair shared many of the same features; straight hair, sharp, angular jaws, and dark eyes set wide in their faces. Twins were common among klamon, but Sray hadn’t seen it in humans.

“I am Jorgin Pfyllat,” the young man introduced himself. He sounded Ela’yan, even if his appearance and name were anything but. He put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, “and this is my sister, Jina. If you all will pick up your things and follow us; boys with me, and girls with Jina. We’ll get you all settled in before dinner.”

They fell into step behind the pair as they turned and strode confidently towards the pale, looming walls that seemed to glow warmly in the fading light. Sray glanced nervously at those who strode beside her. They were all markedly shorter than Sray. She was a few inches taller than the average Ela’yan woman to begin with, and a lot of the men in all honestly. That combined with the obvious age gap and her straight, blond hair in the midst of the crowd of dark, curly and wavy-haired heads around her snuffed out any hope of her blending in. There was one boy who looked Golanan with dark, straight hair and brown skin, but he was around the same age as the rest of them. All but two of the others appeared to be in their early teens, the older ones, a boy and a girl, were around Kallon’s age. The other two girls were in similar garb as Elima and Seri. Instead of lacing about the neck and arm openings, there was embroidery along the neckline. The older burnette girl’s clothes had some simple vines, leaves, and flowers and the younger, black-haired girl’s embroidery was finer and more elaborate, stylized horses prancing alongside loping dogs amidst trees against the deep navy background. The hem of her apron was also embellished with a similar motif. The dogs were too stylized to figure out if they were pouched or not.

Sray took several deep breaths and focused on the direction they were headed. Their guides took them through the yawning front doors that mirrored the seal from her letter. The entry hall on the other side was tall and wide with large, mottled windows that scattered what little light remained across the stone floor. The walls were white marble swirled with darker veins. Their guides walked slowly and patiently as they all gawked at the massiveness of the structure. The eastern portion of Ela’yas, and especially the south where Sray was from, consisted mostly of unsettled frontier land. The few cities that did exist were young and had not yet amassed many large architectural monuments.

Sray couldn’t help but be impressed by the structure. She hadn’t seen anything quite like it. The buildings the Getier made were carved into the cliffs they lived on, impressive in their own right, but she had never seen such massive, free-standing structures.

The girls were led to the right, and the boys disappeared down the halls to the left, lugging their bags awkwardly beside them. The hallways were tall. Windows lined the east side near the ceiling, darkening by degrees as the sun vanished from the sky. Lamps shone brightly from their decorative perches set within the walls on either side. They passed many large, dark doors on either side of the hallway, set a dozen or more feet apart, suggesting the size of the rooms behind them.

They took a right, a left, another right and another left before Jina Pfyllat opened a door midway down the hall on the right. “This will be your shared room. You have a few minutes to freshen up, but the faster you’re back out this door, the sooner you get dinner.”

They filed past Jina into a sparsely decorated room. The outer wall and the one with the door they just entered were bare white stone. The other two walls were plastered and painted white except for the brick and stone around the fireplace. Five beds were neatly turned down and lined the south wall. There was a shelf set into the wall above each bed with a gas lamp and space to spare. Each lamp was lit, giving ample light to the room.

The east wall had three large windows framed with thick curtains, a square desk with an unlit oil lamp and two wood chairs under each one. There was a fourth, lower oval table set out from the north wall that had a large, three-wicked oil lamp glowing in the center surrounded by six cushy chairs. A second door on the north wall, to the left of where they entered, led to a modest bathing room with a cabinet full of linens, two baths draped in sheer curtains, two sinks, a wash tub and board to manage laundry, and a privy in its own little closet; all with running water. There was also a fireplace on the north wall with a dark stone hearth below the brick chimney. A few fresh logs were stacked within the fireplace and a large kettle hung beside it.

Sray allowed the other girls to go in ahead of her, having no desire to jockey for position, figuring it best to let them sort themselves out. She would claim whatever bed remained, which ended up being the one closest to the windows. She set her things down at the foot of the bed and re-entered the hallway.

Jina was leaning against the wall, arms folded, she raised her dark, thin brows at Sray’s quick return. “You must be hungry.”

Food was the last thing on Sray’s mind. Her gut roiled with anxiety at the thought of it. Sray forced a smile. “The sooner we get to dinner, the sooner I can get some rest after all this travel, right?”

“If that’s the way you want it,” Jina said. “You’ll be introduced to the rest of the school and your instructors at dinner, but after that, the time is yours.” She fingered an oval pendant that hung below her breastbone, glinting against the dull white of her shirt. The stone was set in silver and delicately carved. The natural tones were used expertly to accentuate the form of a flying dragon. Jina also had brass cuffs around her upper ear with complex geometric designs etched into them. Sray almost asked about the pendant, but the other girls filed out the door and it was a short walk to the heart of the building.

Their guide stopped just to the side of a pair of open doors even larger than the ones at the entry. The dark wood was carved with delicate, fine reliefs depicting stylized animals and plants. People were seated and chatting around multiple tables just inside. No one seemed to have noticed them yet. “This is the main hall where you will have all of your meals, please follow me to your table. You will have time afterwards to greet anyone you might know, but please be quiet and respectful as you enter.”