is no stone stele with runes of the treaty and claw marks (or whatever dragons sign).
On the other hand, I wasn’t so interested in the symbols of the university to study all the sources. Maybe there’s something somewhere.
And what if, after all, it was imprisoned?
Oh!
He is able to destroy half the country if anger freezes his eyes.
Stop! Stop. Dragons are wise, aren’t they? Wise. Even the drakens are said to be very pleasant conversationalists, thoughtful and thorough if they deign to condescend to ordinary mortals. So, dragons even more so. But did Azuin keep that wisdom in prison? Maybe he has dragon Alzheimer’s.
I giggled and shook my head: stupid thoughts. Wiping the sweat dripping from my forehead with my hand – agmarates grew only in a real steam room – I stepped away from the mixer. Then the substrate will go along the distribution conveyor without my control.
I looked around the greenhouse. It was a small space – well, compared to the industrial greenhouses that grow raw materials for sale. However, it contained everything that was needed for primary research: tabletop and hanging containers, mixers, pumps, conveyors, a complex irrigation system, fans and heaters, a brand new control panel, a bunch of sensors and racks with countless flasks, jars, test tubes, and so on, with which I conjured up new nutritional mixtures. In a separate cool room behind the wall there are several microscopes, a file cabinet, a refrigerator with samples, a computer (though without a holographic monitor, as in my office) and, most valuable, journals with all descriptions of experiments.
The results of the work were pleasing. We have been trying to get agmarates to increase the juiciness of their foliage for a year now. It’s simple: more juice – more essence. More essence means easier and cheaper teleporter operation, i.e. the journey itself. More travel, more connections. Development, the economy, and all that, yes.
In principle, there has been progress: we have raised the thickness of the sap-forming layer by thirty percent on average. However, this is only the first or second generation of plants. For breeding, it’s not much. Stable fixation of the trait is what we wanted. And the new greenhouses that will appear if my plan for the botanical garden works will contribute to this.
From the garden, thoughts strangely switched to Erchin. Ugh!
Should he have pinned me down there under the stairs like that?! At night I dreamed of all sorts of things…
Oh no, my professor, I’m going to put you out of my mind today.
The girls and I decided to go to the Dark World and have fun. There is no shortage of attractive and always ready men at Saul’s bar. Not that I’m planning anything far-reaching, but it doesn’t hurt to snuggle up with some handsome guy in a dark corner, huh?
***
After lunch in the cafeteria – my favorite meatballs, as always – I got back to paperwork. The disadvantage of a managerial position is a bunch of reports that are not directly related to my practical activities. And it all takes so long! However, I was helped a lot by Olischka, my deputy, my right hand and in general an irreplaceable person. The methodologists didn’t mess around either, though all four of them were a long way off her. But for a week now, I have more work to do, because she went to the capital, have been improving her skills, comprehending the science of managing complex social systems (it seems so). And then there’s all these limitations… so bad luck to him, a thief, I mean.
The display on the selector lit up, the red light flashed briefly, and the connection automatically turned on.
«Zulina, come to me, please,» the rector’s voice seemed to me somewhat slow. «In ten or fifteen minutes. I’m waiting.»
The machine shut down before I could answer. Tahoni didn’t wait for an answer, though. Would I object?
With the last changes in the report saved, I got up, took a quick look in the mirror by the door, making sure I didn’t look like a mess, and walked out of the office.
Exactly at the appointed time, I stood in front of a tall, narrow door, old and shabby, but still beautiful because of the carvings that covered it. An extremely delicate work, seemingly very fragile – all these leaves, twigs, feathers – but somehow preserved from the very foundation of the university.
After knocking and hearing a short invitation, I entered.
«Close the door, girl. The conversation is not for prying ears.»
Sir Archibald Tahoni, a sturdy man of about sixty, in his usual gray checkered suit, a crisp white shirt buttoned at the neck, and a brown sweater for a waistcoat, was seated, contrary to his custom, not at a huge oak table, but in an armchair by the fireplace. His hunched back and reddened eyes betrayed fatigue.
With a short gesture he invited me to join him for tea, immediately poured a cup from a clay teapot on the table and pushed it in my direction.
Sitting down in the chair across from him, I took a sip of a fragrant drink that smelled of the woods – Tahoni loved herbs – and leaned back on the high back. It’s both comfortable and impossible to relax at all.
He had been Azuin’s rector for nineteen years, and it was hard to imagine what could be otherwise. And today, for the first time, his sunken face made me think that one day someone would replace him. I even put down my tea, suddenly feeling an unusual uneasiness. Tahoni was always dear to me.
Well, not a relative, in the literal sense, it’s just that he had been friends with my parents for a long time, or rather, first of all, with my paternal aunt. He has been to family gatherings and stuff like that. In general, I have known him since I was a child.
In fact, it was Sir Archibald who first noticed my serious interest in horticulture and recommended my parents to pay attention to it. And then, somehow, everything went well: he monitored my progress, helped me with my teachers, convinced me to enter Azuin, supported me in choosing a direction of research (as it turned out, not in vain: I more than met his expectations by taking up the agmarates), and got me a job. No, not the current one, don’t think about it. A simple assistant in the department. And I was elected to the position of dean much later, like everyone else, by a teacher’s vote (well, I do not rule out that the old man had an influence, but he did not drag me up the ladder, that’s for sure). In short, Tahoni wasn’t just a boss, but rather a beloved uncle, so I was worried.
He looked at me for a long time with his warm brown eyes, twirled an empty cup in his hands, sighed, but still did not start a conversation. I was the first to make up my mind:
«Archibald, are you well? You look haggard and…»
He interrupted me, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
«Me? Come on, girl. I’m as healthy as an ox,» he puffed out his chest and flashed his eye, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly in a smile, «no, don’t worry. A little tired, that’s right. And how not to get tired here… Just… you’re in serious trouble, Zulina.»
My
