Rising Shards

Stella sat in the university lounge with her head in her hands, and her lunch uneaten. Lunch breaks shouldn’t be this stressful. She was used to work being the stressful part, especially weekdays at the desk. Stella worked in a Litus Empirica university’s library, and front desk work generally meant she’d be arguing with people about how long they could stay in a study room. But after her sister called asking for help after she, of course, flaked out on doing her Fang Fair project, Stella felt conflicted about how to proceed. She took her head out of her hands and picked up her phone.

“This is for Zeta,” Stella muttered. “It’s just for Zeta. It’s for her, right? Because if she gets in trouble. Then we’re in trouble. Because that other school is the bad one. So it’s just a simple phone call. Just to help her. And not to talk to Dr. Diast. Definitely not to charm her, ugh. Who am I even talking to?”

Stella looked through her contact list and found Dr. Diast’s number.

“She probably doesn’t even remember you,” She said as she clicked the contact and started the call. “It’s fine. It’s fine! It’s just a phone call.”

Stella hung up instantly.

“This is why I’m a librarian.” She said as she put her head back in her hands.

“Phone trouble?”

Stella looked up to see an opossum Kanibari with round glasses and brown hair in a bob cut smiling as she stood with a tray full of Ultra Taco food. Crap, totally forgot we were meeting for lunch today.

“Hi, Pippi…” Stella said.

“Forget we were meeting today?” Pippi said.

“Yeah…”

“Was I right about phone trouble?” Pippi asked as she sat down. “Or is it library trouble?”

Pippi was an IT tech in the library. She worked on the top floor, so Stella didn’t see her much at work, but they sometimes met for lunch.

“Because if it’s library trouble, I did get you this.” Pippi said, getting out some stapled papers and sliding them over to Stella.

“Wait, you got them?” Stella asked, looking in wonderment at the papers.

“Well, I was looking into a transfer too, so…” Pippi said.

“Thank you,” Stella said. “Maybe we’d have closer offices there…”

“It’s no problem!” Pippi said. “But judging by your slouch that wasn’t the main trouble, was it?”

“Yeah…you were right the first time, it’s phone trouble,” Stella said. “Calling someone trouble.”

“Ohhhhh,” Pippi said. “Is this the one you met at that festival?”

“No. What?” Stella asked, caught off guard Pippi even remembered the series of failures that was her unrequited affection for an amateur singer she met at a music festival. “That’s long done. This is the doctor that—"

“Oh, hot doctor!” Pippi interrupted.

“Shh!” Stella said, flailing her arms to get her to stop, even though there wasn’t anyone nearby that was listening. “I didn’t say hot doctor…”

“Yeah, but your tone when you talk about her does.” Pippi said.

“She’s Zeta’s doctor and also her advisor,” Stella said. “So it’s weird. Zeta flaked out on a project, and now she wants me to call to help her out. But…ugh. Let’s just eat first.”

Stella somehow convinced Pippi to talk about her own issues while they finished their food, which took her mind off the call. After some venting about the current issues both faced at the campus, Pippi sighed in relief.

“So it sounds like we both really need the transfers, huh?” Pippi said.

“Maybe…” Stella said.

“Well, think about it.” Pippi said. “Also, just call her already.”

“Mmmm…” Stella winced. “Lunch is almost over…”

“Then it’ll be a short call, even better!” Pippi said. “If you don’t, you’re gonna make yourself mope about it all day. Just get it over with. It’s for Zeta anyways, right?”

“I guess…”

Pippi got up and grabbed her tray.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Pippi said.

Stella sighed. She didn’t want to tell her out loud, but she was grateful to have a friend give permission for this. It made her second attempt to call Dr. Diast easier, even if she did hover her thumb over the hang-up button the whole time. She heard the dreaded silence of the call being picked up on the other end.

“Hello?” Dr. Diast asked.

Crap, it’s really her, I really should have rehearsed this, crap crap crap–

Stella took a deep breath and finally answered.

“Sorry,” Stella said. “My service er. Cut out. Earlier. Hi, hello. This is Stella Faleur.”

“Oh, Stella,” Diast said. “I was wondering what that call was. I assumed butt dial.”

“No, yeah, no. Yeah. No.” Stella said, and silently cursed to herself. How can I recite the entirety of Edwind’s Treatise plays on stage, yet talk this badly on the phone? “I’m just calling to–“

“I’m glad you called actually, funny timing as Zeta just came down with some Feral Flu.” Diast said.

“I know she should’ve…” Stella started before what Dr. Diast said started to sink in. “Wait, huh?”

“Don’t worry, it’s all under control, no real bad side effects, and she’s safely locked up in her room now.”

Stella wasn’t sure whether to be furious at Zeta or impressed with her craftiness if she did what Stella assumed she did.

“She didn’t…” Stella said.

“She probably did, yeah,” Dr. Diast said.

Now she was feeling more furious than impressed and wasn’t sure what to say.

“Kind of a rite of passage though, right?” Dr. Diast said.

“Huh?”

“Feral Flu. Don’t tell me you never got it to get out of something.”

Stella laughed, feeling some flutters in her stomach.

“Oh my god, I remember I got it once because I didn’t want to be in a relay…” Stella said.

“It was always gym for me too!” Diast said. “So I guess this Fang Fair is Zeta’s relay.”

“Right…” Stella said. “So she’s not…in trouble?”

“She’ll probably have some kind of punishment, but like I said you can’t punish too harshly for a rite of passage like this.”

Stella giggled. “That’s true.”

Now with the relief washing over her, she felt panic replace it because she was now on the phone with someone she’d wanted to speak to greatly since they first met. If she waited too long now, the conversation could just end there, and maybe that’d be alright. Diast probably didn’t want to be chatting while she was busy at school, especially that day. But she couldn’t deny how sad that’d make her afterwards.

“Well, I’ll call her then to check in on her. Thank you, Dr. Diast.” Stella said. Alright, almost said 'hot doctor' there but didn't so if I stop now this could be a win. “I don’t want to keep you if you’re busy with Fang Fair stuff…”

“Oh no, you’re fine,” Diast said. “I’m on my break.”

“Me too!” Stella said, realizing that came out probably a bit too eagerly.

Alright, please don’t screw this up now, Stella thought to herself. She wanted the conversation to feel how it felt when Zeta had her first Cani appointment with Diast; where it felt like their words were flowing together, where they felt like perfect scene partners.

“I, uh…” Stella said, completely blowing her end of the perfect scene partners thing.

“Hey, so how have you been?” Dr. Diast asked, jolting Stella out of her silent self-deprecation. “It’s been a while since we talked.”

“Yeah, too long,” Stella blurted out, then winced and held the phone away as she braced herself for Diast to wrap up the conversation there. But even with the phone away, she could hear Diast laughing. She slowly brought the phone back to her ear.

“Well, conferences are soon so maybe we’ll talk then.” Diast said. “Everything else going well for you?”

“For the most part, yeah,” Stella said. “Everything’s pretty much always the same in the library here. I could really use a spa vacation right about now.”

“You and me both,” Diast said.

Stella eyed the papers Pippi had given her. She strummed her fingers on it. She’d only talked to Pippi about what was on them.

“I’m actually…thinking about a transfer.” Stella said.

“Oh?”

“Not too far…or I mean, I’m not too far from Zeta right now, but I wouldn’t mind working at a campus closer to her. And since it’s within the state, I’m thinking of transferring to one in Sky Clay.” Stella said. “Say, do you know anything about the Taramin college there?”

“Hmm, can’t say I do,” Dr. Diast said. “But did you say librarian? There is an opening for one here if you wouldn’t mind going from a college one to a high school one.”

Stella felt like a lightning bolt hit her.

“Wait, here as in at Rising Shards itself?” Stella said, impressed she got the sentence out without squealing.

“Yep, there’s a new wing that’s almost finished and they want to beef up staffing.” Diast said. “It’s internal right now, but I could pull some strings and get you an application."

“Wow,” Stella said. “Yeah, that’d be amazing if you could send that.”

“Sure, I’ll get it to you.” Diast said.

“Thank you!” Stella said. She saw the time on a nearby clock. “Crap, I better get back, my lunch break’s almost over.”

“Oooh, same here, glad you said it, I wouldn’t have even noticed.” Diast said. “I’ll keep in touch about Zeta if anything gets weird, but she should be good now.”

“Great, thank you.” Stella said. “Alright, bye Dr. Diast!”

“Yep, see ya.” Diast said. "Oh, and one more thing...you don't have to call me doctor."

"Oh...sorry." Stella said, hoping she hadn't offended her.

"No, no! Don't be sorry," Diast said. "Just call me Evy. Or Evaline, that's the full...some people also say Eva, but it sounds a bit too...I dunno. Not my vibe, I guess? Yeah, anyways. It feels weird to have a friend give me the whole title."

"OK," Stella said. "You can keep calling me, Stella though. Because I uh, don't have...a title." She silently smacked her forehead at her failed attempt at a joke and desperately tried to think of a way to salvage it. "Unless you count library tech, which obviously isn't the same as doctor in...stature or..." She trailed off and decided she wouldn't blame Evy if she hung up there.

"Of course," Diast said. "I'll let you go though, it sounds like a Fang Fair presentation either just exploded or imploded."

"Alright, good luck with all that!" Stella said. "I'll talk to you later, Evy."

"Talk to you soon, Stella."

Stella sighed as the call ended. She felt exhilarated just from the call alone, and the idea of a potential new position even closer to Zeta hadn’t even sunk in yet for her. On top of that, it took her a bit to remember she’d have to call her sister during worktime about her Feral Flu. She hoped there would be some downtime at the front desk where no one would bug her, and she hoped it’d take a little bit for that time to come so she didn’t sound too giggly while calling Zeta because of how well that call went. She had to sound somewhat authoritative, after all.