What I’ve learned about Palefish in the last five days is that despite the enormous range of experiences and backgrounds that eventually leads someone to enroll here, we can be sorted into two groups: the ones who will tell you why they’re here, and the ones who will not.
Wayne Muir became obsessed with a missing person his dad was involved in finding, discovered a strange creature not from earth, began trying to spread the word online with phone footage, and Lana sent someone out to investigate.
And the fact that I know all of that is the reason Wayne Muir is sitting down the table surrounded by new friends — or at least, an interested audience — while I am sitting here alone, updating my blog.
It’s Monday morning. I’ve just finished The Run.
It’s misty this morning, misty and stormy. The waves are crashing extra hard against the cliffs, loudly enough that I can hear them even now, just under the rumble of breakfast.
Usually I would be sitting with Bass right now — thank goodness for Bass, he always makes a point to meet me at the bottom of the Minnow House stairs after the run, and with Bass there, it’s like we’re friends with everyone. It’s not even weird to sit with Rook as long as Bass is around.
But this morning Bass got a phone call from his coven and he said he’d meet me in here, so I’m sitting all alone at the end of the table. I mean, initially I tried to sit with Rook, but as I was setting down my plate he folded up his book and pushed off the table before looking up to realize I was there, and we both stood there, frozen, each half-in and half out of our seats.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean — I just finished.”
So I squeaked out, “no, don’t worry that’s totally fine!”
And then we both stood there trying to decide what to do before Rook finally fled across the cathedral.
Agony.
Anyways, today we start touring the three Palefish colleges. Apparently at the end of the year we all have to take a test and apply to the college we want to finish out our degree at, so we pretty much spend all of September doing various orientations before we even start going to our regular classes.
They’ve got our class split into three groups by floor, which means that this morning, Rook, Bass and I are going to a lecture in one of the small auditoriums to start our tour of Saint Niveus. I’m pretty much expecting a tour of the library, which means I can mostly zone out ha. Like we all know I will not be attending Saint Niveus lmfao.
Oh Bass is here, I’ll update you after class.
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.
For starters, remember Bird, or Robert or whatever his name is? Well when we walked into the little auditorium today, he was leaning against the podium, idly turning the pages of the book in his hand, a billowy black robe over his uniform to distinguish him as a professor.
We found seats towards the back just as the cathedral bells tolled the hour.
“Welcome to Saint Niveus, minnows,” Robert called and we all quiet. “My name is Robert Pennington —” his name caused a stir of soft murmuring in the class, which happens around here when people recognize names “— and it is my absolute pleasure to introduce you all the mysteries Saint Niveus has to offer.” He came around the table and leaned back against it, crossing his arms, apparently totally comfortable with all of us watching him.
“Do any of you know what we specialize in Saint Niveus?”
There was an awkward quiet, and then Bass raised his hand.
Robert gestured at him. “Yeah go ahead Mr…?”
“Scelerat,” Bass said. “Saint Niveus studies like, the history of magic, right? Like they track chosen ones and stuff?”
“Yeah, we do some of that,” Robert said. “What else?”
Ichabod, a few rows up, raised a hesitant hand.
“Go ahead Mr Crisp,” Robert said, because Robert knows Ichabod already. Remember what I said about there being legacy kids around here? Yeah, well they all know each other, and they all know each other’s families. I feel like I got awkwardly invited to a big ass reunion I don’t belong at.
“Saint Niveus train archivists,” Ichabod said, somewhat gloomily.
“Yes, we absolutely do train archivists,” Robert agreed. I didn’t even know what the archive was yet, but we got there by the end of the day. “What else?”
In the front row, Andie raised their hand.
“Mx Maddox, what do you have for us?”
Andie spoke so quietly I couldn’t hear them from the back of the room, but evidently they had the right answer, because Robert smiled.
“Yes exactly,” he said. “Just like Mx Maddox said, here in Saint Niveus our main guiding principals are to study, to search, to remember, and to advise.” He paused there for drama. “We don’t chase glory, or crow our accomplishments, we work in the shadows. At Saint Niveus we know how precariously this world balances on the edge of disaster, and we steer the course as true as we can.”
We were all hanging onto his every word at that point, and he knew he had us, I could tell by that broad, straight-toothed smile.
“Students from this college have gone on to make great discoveries, advise politicians, and even direct powerful chosen people, including our own Chancellor Lana Sorley.”
We’re at lunch now, and all down the minnow table everyone is excitedly discussing their potential futures.
“I didn’t even know this was an option,” Darius Paul just said spreading mustard onto sandwich bread. “Records of all the magical shit that’s ever happened in the world? That’s news to me.”
“Oh yeah,” Ichabod said, gloomily. “The archives exist all right. They’re basically a catacomb.”
“You sound so excited about them,” Bass teased and Ichabod leaned onto his elbow, smooshing his cheek against his hand.
“My dad was an archivist,” he said. “That’s what my grandparents are hoping I’ll do, too but —”
“But Ichabod wants to be a hunter, don’t you,” Marina interrupted, pausing to take a roll of Andie’s plate as she passed by to sit with her friends.
Ichabod turned as red as his hair. “I mean, I wouldn’t —” he began but Bass interrupted him.
“You’d be a great hunter,” he said brightly, which I’m privately not sure is true. This morning he tripped on the run and knocked sideways into Andie who nearly toppled right off the cliff.
But then, I hunt I guess so who knows ha.
After lunch we’re going to tour the Saint Niveus facilities. I have to admit, Robert has a way of making it all sound appealing. Or maybe it doesn’t even sound that appealing, maybe he’s just appealing — lol that sounds horny, I don’t mean it like that. I mean they’re all appealing, Robert and his whole circle of friends. They’re all across the room right now. I just watched Theodore throw a knob of bread at Oscar. Katharine is laying shortways across the table, playfully trying to stick her socked toes in Robert’s ear.
Omg, Andie must have caught me watching because they just said, “They’re geniuses you know.”
“Who?” Bass said, and Andie indicated Robert and his friends with a nod.
“My dad says people have been keeping an eye on their work for years,” they said.
“What is their research?” Rook asked.
“No idea,” Andie said. “They’re keeping it a secret. But apparently they were here all summer working on something mysterious.”
Maybe they’ll tell us something this afternoon.
A Very Brief List of the Wonders I Saw While Touring Saint Niveus
1. The Library
Look, I’m not a huge reader, obviously, I write like it’s 2013 and I Have A Tumblr, but even I felt The Awe wash over me as we followed Robert through the gilded front doors and into the austere, dusty hush of the library.
I’m sure there are grander libraries in the world, but none I’ve seen.
Vaulted ceilings, tall, arched windows with views over the cliffs to the sea, rows and rows of books. More cozy corners than I could have dreamed of.
2. The Archives
The Archives are below the library. It is much less grand, and much more intimidating. It’s much more poorly lit, for one thing, and apparently endless? I mean I don’t know but it certainly seems endless.
So, Rebecca met us in the entryway of the library to give us the tour, first of the bright upper levels of the library and then down into the dusty, labyrinthine archives.
“Mostly you all will be working upstairs,” she assured us as we came off the stone steps and waded out into the rows and rows of ancient wooden bookshelves.
“How old are these books?” Wayne Muir asked.
“Some of them are older than the school is,” Rebecca explained. “Palefish has a number of very dedicated collectors who work with and for us.”
“Are any bound in human skin?” asked Tucker Gowie, clearly hoping for something gruesome, but Rebecca replied, “Oh yes,” as if this were perfectly natural and to be expected.
3. The Labs
The labs are crowded and mysterious, and Robert made a point to tell us that most of the labs are locked from observers because they’re dangerous. That said, what we did get to see was pretty fucking cool.
+ a jar full of eyeballs that I swear I SWEAR slowly turned to watch as I passed them
+ a wide stone bowl that was full of what looked exactly like a choppy, white-capped sea
+ incomprehensible papers covered in sigils and runes
+ beakers and cauldrons bubbling away with students bent over them, squinting through enormous, glass and copper lab glasses
+ jars of preserved… stuff that I was too afraid to ask about
+ a tiny planetarium in a jar, with tiny orbiting planets
Rook says that they’re less trying to introduce us to the colleges and more trying to woo us and listen — it’s working. Obviously I’m still going to study cryptid hunting, I would rather die than pour over books all day but I can’t help it I’m enchanted.