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Chapter 27 - Back Down
🕑 Added 2024-12-21 14:00:03 +0000 UTCWhat goes up must come down.
And Archie came down.
Hard.
A discordant, pulsing beat filled his ears, giving him a crashing headache as he threw up his second helping of The Groove. Kaleidoscopic liquid filled the toilet’s basin, lazily rolling from one color to the next.
The sight of it made Archie throw up again.
His eyes stayed glued to the floor as he stumbled out of the bathroom, catching a glimpse of a black jacket before bumping into its wearer. Archie bounced off the collision.
But Colby stood firm.
“Headmaster Aubergine tells me you missed curfew last night,” he said with a sick, stern perversion. No one loved to be mad like Colby.
“I…” Archie thought back to the previous night. There were a lot of blank patches in his memory, but things started to come into focus somewhere along their hour-long hike up the Trunk. They had spent all their money on drinks and couldn’t afford the tram.
No one had been in the great hall…and Archie and Nori had managed to stop giggling as they walked through the common areas, so they didn’t wake anyone up. The lounge was empty too, just Aubergine’s big sunflowers swiveling slowly in their pots.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Archie said.
“You don’t know anything about…what? When you got home?”
“About…” Archie winced. Under different circumstances, he might have been able to think of an excuse. But now, every thought came out dull and painful. “…anything.”
“And what about…” Colby nodded toward the toilet.
Even in his dull state, Archie had an excuse for that one.
“An Oliver drink.”
“Mhm.”
“Gotta be careful with him.”
“Indeed.”
“Yeah, I mean, you know.”
“Mhm.”
Archie did his best to stop swaying and look Colby in the eye. But he couldn’t focus. The heat of anger radiated from the Head Chef, dizzying Archie. Even Colby’s hair looked mean. Short and red. The top brushed sideways into a single curl. Even that little twist of hair seemed mean. Colby shifted his tongue around the inside of his lower lip, contemplating Archie’s fate.
“Elevator duty,” he said.
“Elevator?”
“You operate the wheel for those who can’t operate the noodle. All morning. This morning, and the same time next week.”
“But—“ As much as Archie hated it, his weekend mornings were supposed to be for dishes.
“It’ll be tough,” Colby said with a sinister smile. “All that up and down…sweating. It gets pretty clammy in that shaft. It’ll be hard not to vomit again.”
Just the thought put the sour taste of blood and iron into Archie’s mouth.
“But—“
“I’ll be going down to the fields in half an hour. Be sure you’re on the elevator by then.”
Colby left. Archie considered going to the kitchen, but he knew whatever he ate would just end up on the elevator platform. And he didn’t want to walk in Colby’s wake. Instead, Archie washed his face, dry heaved a few times, washed his face again, and made his way to the elevator.
Archie yanked the iron cage doors open and stepped onto the massive wooden platform of the elevator. He slumped down to sit against the wheel post. At least it was dark, just a single lantern hanging on a little post.
Archie’s eyes drifted shut and he fought to keep the world from spinning.
“Going down,” Colby said.
Archie snapped up, one of the wheel’s spokes catching his lower back as he stood. He knew he’d be feeling that for the next week.
Nori followed Colby like a scolded puppy. Her eyes caught Archie’s for a moment—neither could tell who was in worse shape—and then went back down to the ground.
“Going down,” Colby repeated, nodding to the wheel. He acted as if Archie was some unknown operator. Maybe that was to Archie’s benefit.
Archie groaned. “Can’t you use the noodle?”
“I can,” Colby answered. He nodded to the wheel again.
Archie took a deep breath and started to turn the wheel. Going down was easy enough, just requiring a bit of force to open the dampers and let gravity do its work. At least, it would have been easy if Archie wasn’t battling the worst hangover of his life.
“Head Chef Pomona deferred Nori’s punishment to me. She’ll be spending the next two weekends helping me restock the pantries.” Colby looked down at Nori. “All of the pantries.”
Nori let out a quivering sigh. When full, the Academy’s pantries could supply an army for weeks. And after nearly three months of classes, the pantries were getting low. Elevator duty didn’t seem so bad.
Archie stopped turning the wheel halfway down but still felt like he was falling. He doubled over, absolutely certain that if he had eaten breakfast, Colby and Nori would be witnessing its reemergence. Colby and Nori said nothing, leaving only Archie’s heaving breaths to fill the elevator shaft.
“Head…Chef…Colby…can you…make something…to stop…the nausea?”
“I can,” Colby answered. He nodded to the wheel again.
Archie tried to rub away the pounding sensation in his forehead. No luck.
In an act of desperation, he reached up to the noodle that ran down the elevator shaft. He put essence in his finger and gave the noodle a twang!
No luck.
He returned to the wheel, taking a fleeting glance at Nori to curse her for keeping him out late. Finally, the platform rumbled against the ground. A cool breeze came up the tunnel, restoring some life to Archie.
But Colby squeezed that life right back out of him.
“Alright. No leaving the platform until lunch. I’ll come by to release you.”
Archie groaned. Through herculean effort, Nori managed to offer a sympathetic smile for a moment before her face drooped back down into its weary depression. Archie watched them walk down the tunnel and closed his eyes.
After a few minutes—maybe two, maybe five, maybe thirty—the wheel started to move on its own and the platform lurched off the ground. Colby wasn’t there to watch him, but neither had Aubergine and Archie still ended up caught. He decided not to shirk his duties and helped turn the wheel.
It was harder going up, but whoever turned the wheel up top made things easier for Archie. It only took half a minute to reach the top and be looking through the iron cage doors.
Sutton looked back at him.
And they just stayed like that for a moment. Just looking. When Archie stepped to open the cage, Sutton stepped back, his arms tense against his body.
“Sutton, I…” Archie leaned against the cage. He wished his hangover would go away—not because of his misery, but because then he would be able to think of a proper apology. But he couldn’t. “I’m sorry. I…shouldn’t have…”
“It’s okay,” Sutton said. He motioned to the door, and Archie opened it.
As Archie started on the wheel, Sutton looked Archie up and down.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah,” Archie lied. He turned the wheel between each sentence. “Hungover. Went to Lifted Spirits. Stayed past curfew. This is my punishment.”
“Lifted Spirits…” Sutton mused. “Yeah, I know the place.”
Archie blinked. He thought of little, bespectacled Sutton losing all inhibition and dancing on the ceiling. Sutton sensed the thought and cut it off.
“For academic purposes,” he clarified. “To study the sign. They wouldn’t tell me what’s in it, but I think I know. Bitter oyster.”
Archie thought of the sign and how oysters might light it up. Sutton sensed that thought too.
“It’s a mushroom. Bitter oyster. Bioluminescent.”
Archie nodded and did his best not to look confused. “Bioluminescent…” he muttered.
“It glows in the dark.”
“Oh.”
Archie kept turning the wheel, hoping desperately that the next turn would be the last. He felt Sutton’s eyes on his leg.
“If you don’t mind me asking…” Sutton started. “Is everything…okay? You know, with…”
“I…”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Sutton blurted out.
“No, Sutton, it’s fine.” Archie stood up straight and took his hands off the wheel. “It was…weird. I feel like I wasn’t myself. And I—I know that sounds like an excuse. But really, I was…I was thinking things I’ve never thought before. Not even close.”
Sutton nodded and looked away. He knew something.
“Sutton?” Archie moved into Sutton’s eyeline. “What is it?”
“Just thinking.” Sutton pursed his lips into a forced smile. “Maybe it…maybe it’s just a traumatic response. From the attack. Uh, you know, in a heightened emotional state, things…you know.”
Archie chewed his lip and nodded. When Sutton explained things, he explained them hard. Something was different this time.
“Here, let me help you with that,” Sutton said as he stepped to the wheel. They descended and Sutton left in silence.
After a few minutes of much needed quiet and rest, the elevator shot up again. A third-year waited at the top, not saying a word as they plucked the noodle again to go down. Once they reached the bottom, Archie felt the noodle, assessing its essence. A trace of the magic lingered.
Archie plucked the noodle.
And stayed on the bottom floor.
He watched in sympathetic anguish as Nori pushed a cart of vegetables up the tunnel, Colby stalking behind. Archie wondered which punishment was worse—Nori didn’t get breaks, but she also got to breathe the open autumn air instead of suffocating on the stale air of the elevator shaft.
Archie offered Colby a pleading look as the Head Chef stepped on the platform.
Colby smiled. “Up please,” he said, motioning to the wheel.
Up and down and up and down Archie went, sweat drenching him, stale air suffocating him, an empty stomach devouring him from the inside. He cursed the students from his class every time he saw them and thanked the divine whenever it was an older student that could operate the noodle.
Barley and Blanche came up the tunnel, Barley carrying a massive wooden basket filled with carrots and Blanche humming a tune.
“I heard about this,” Blanche said as she wiped dirt from her eyebrow. She looked as if she had dove in headfirst to pick the carrots. “Head Chef Colby is the worst.”
Archie moved to the wheel, but Barley set down the carrots and stopped him. Without a word, the gentle giant pushed Archie aside and turned the wheel.
“Thanks, Bar.” Archie took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to operate the noodle, but…”
Blanche giggled. Even Barley grunted a laugh as he turned the wheel.
“Archie…” Blanche shook her head.
“What?”
“I mean, you’re certainly one of the best of us, but…Going straight to contracting a noodle to lift a thousand pounds is a little much, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well like, Head Chef Quince had us start with a flower pot, right?”
“Yeah?”
The elevator lurched as it reached the top floor.
“Start smaller,” Blanche said. She patted his cheek as she left, leaving the faint dirt outline of a handprint.
“Going down!” Oliver shouted as he ran down the hallway. “Wait for me!”
Archie sighed as Oliver jumped onto the platform.
“Good morning to you too,” Oliver chimed. “I gotta pick these shallots before work. If they still even want me there. I think they’re just waiting until the end of the semester to get rid of me. Come on, I know Colby’s got you operating the wheel.” He grinned. “Get to spinning.”
Barley turned the wheel, lowering the elevator.
“Barley,” Archie said. “Aren’t you getting off?”
The Khalyan shrugged. “I’ll stay for a while. You can rest.”
“Thanks, Bar.” Archie relaxed his shoulders and stretched his neck.
Oliver clapped Archie’s back. “So what, you and Nori got caught getting hot and heavy?”
Archie snapped up.
“What?! No!” The dirt on his face hid the red in his cheeks. “We went to a bar.”
“Mhm.” Oliver wore a coy smile, his emerald eyes squinting in playful disbelief.
“Wait! We went to a bar!”
“Okay?”
“Oliver, they’re hiring. They need a Chef that can make drinks. They seemed desperate.”
Oliver scrunched his face in thought. Then, revelation! His face stretched, his eyes wide with possibility.
“Barley!” Oliver turned, grabbing Barley by the shoulder. “Back up!”
“What about the shallots?” Barley asked.
“Forget it! They’re going to fire me any day, so why not today? Now get me up there before someone else takes that job!”
Barley turned the wheel with doubled fervor, rocketing them up to the top. Beneath a pudgy layer of fat, Barley had muscles Archie could only dream of. The platform slammed against the stoppers on the top level, momentum carrying Archie an inch off the ground.
“Later losers!” Oliver chided as he sprinted off.
Barley shrugged.
They went up and down a couple more times before Archie dismissed Barley, thanking him profusely for the help. With the elevator at the top of the shaft, Archie sat down, closed his eyes, started to drift…
“Oh Archieee! A lift, please!” Colby’s voice bounced up from the bottom of the elevator shaft all the way up to the top, penetrating Archie’s peaceful slumber.
Archie groaned as he stood up. He put one hand on the wheel, but then a moment of inspiration overtook him. He loaded his finger with essence, curled it past the elevator noodle, and…
Pluck!
Archie imagined the platform going into freefall, Colby getting flattened into a pancake as it hit the ground. Nori might be collateral damage, but after a day in the fields, she’d be okay with the sacrifice.
But nothing happened. The echo of the plucking bounced down the elevator shaft. Archie thought he heard Colby laugh.
Thirty excruciating turns of the wheel later, Archie reached the bottom. Colby couldn’t hide his sinister little smirk. Nori was covered in dirt up to her elbows, a bundle of stringy roots wedged under the fold of her orange jacket. Archie helped her pull the cart of vegetables up onto the platform.
“Last ride. Gonna give the noodle another try?” Colby asked.
Archie sighed and started turning the wheel. Nori let herself fall against the cart, slumping to the ground.
“Same time next week,” Colby said with a grin as they went up.
