Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

28. Fulcudo

The sun had already set when a series of urgent knocks smashed into her door. It'd been so sudden that Gulp the veldora snaptrapper made a strange, gargling noise from where he bounced his bulbous head up and down in his pot. Elaine assumed it was the plant's equivalent of a gasp, although it lacked the proper vocal cords to reach higher pitches. Fearne, on the other hand, let one out well enough, and she dropped the textbook she was carrying as she hopped in surprise.

Yawning into her hand, Elaine kicked her legs over the side of her bed and made for the front door. Truthfully, she couldn't be bothered to see anyone at the moment, her exhaustion was too great, and her head pounded from casting too many advance-leveled spells. The same could be said for Fearne whom Elaine had spotted lying in her bed motionless earlier on, staring at the ceiling with half-opened eyes.

Elaine was on the cusp of falling asleep herself, and perhaps she would have been drifting in a pleasant dream had it not been for whichever sulmo thought now was a good time to be banging on their door. In fact, Elaine was more than incentivized to stay right where she was, plopped on the bed, her face buried in her pillow. But it didn't sound like their unexpected visitor would be leaving anytime soon, the knocking only became more obnoxious the longer persisted.

Sharpening a frown, Elaine rested her hand on the enchanted door. Two seconds later and it disintegrated as a puff of white smoke. Standing in the hallways, bolstering a wide grin, was none other than Custas. He wasn't wearing his student uniform, however. Instead, the boy donned a long-sleeved, grayish shirt and some trousers. A green-colored sash was also tied around his waist, dangling past his knees and just barely grazing the floor. Should he be careless, Elaine imagined him tripping over the thing.

"Why, a mighty good evening to you," Custas started, giving a jovial bow towards her, an arm bent behind his back. "You look...ah...I want to say lovely, but your appearance is that of someone who just got run over by a horse. A really, really angry horse."

"What do you want Custas?" Elaine apathetically yawned. She was too tired to humor him and his antics.

"Well, I was just in the neighborhood and I thought, hey, why not come and see if two of my best buds would like to accompany me to the Fulcudo game that's going on."

Through her exhaustion, Elaine's eyes stretched upon an ignited investment. "Fulcudo?" Elaine asked, and from his mischievous sneer, it was plain that he most likely knew that the mention of the sport would swindle her intrigue.

"That's what I said." He snagged something from out of a pocket, and once he raised his fist at her, scrunched between his fingers were three silver-colored tickets. "Tada! Got one for me, you, and Fearne. You know, because I'm considerate like that."

"...You did...wait how did you...when was the...?"

"Now, I know what you're thinking," Custas snickered. "Fulcudo tickets aren't easy to come by, right? Well, they certainly are if you're a student of Glyph. Ah, this school does have its perks I must profess."

Elaine never considered herself much of a sports fan, especially not when compared to her father and two brothers. Whenever a Fulcudo match started over the radio the three of them would go ballistic, almost as if Aeris herself was descending from the Eternal Gardens. Even still, Elaine was aware of just how popular it was. 

It was the most popular sport in the entire country, as far as she knew. That being said, however, she wasn't explicitly confident in how the odd sport worked. Ellend had once tried to explain it to her...but he hadn't gotten very far before he went on rambling about the Silver Falcons—his favorite Fulcudo team.

Though she hated to admit it, a part of her did want to accompany him, if not to crave her curiosity. But the way her head hammered warded her against the idea, and Elaine had to hold a hand to her scalp as Custas continued talking at a rapid-fire pace, oblivious of her internal torment. She wanted to tell him that she wasn't interested...although he did go through the trouble of buying them tickets...