When Antony left, Reed and Matsias fell into an uncomfortable silence. Reed looked at his history book, then turned to Mat. "Have you read chapter six yet?"
"Yeah. I worked on that with Miriam and Key at dinner. Do you uh... need help?" Matsias hoped Reed would say no, but he also hoped the other boy wouldn't hear it in his voice.
"It's okay if you've got other stuff to do." He eyed Mat as Miriam might after he told a half-truth.
Mat used his crutch to move back to his desk. "I probably should get back to work anyway. I still have to finish the paper for Mrs. Theelnin. And channeling objects never ends."
Reed actually grinned. "My brother warned me about that one."
"What magic practicum are you taking?"
"Magical compounds. For a plant wizard, it's kind of everything you do."
"Fair enough." Matsias had already started on the third page when he realized he was having a civilized conversation with Reed. He looked back at his roommate. Reed returned to reading. Matsias decided not to argue with it and settled down to finish the paper.
When Reed clicked off the lamp by his bedside, Matsias though he should probably do the same. He was tired enough, but he had been tired the night before. He needed to talk to someone. He didn't want to climb the stairs to Key's room. And he knew what she would say. The only other person he could think of was Antony.
Since Antony lived on the first floor, it wasn't a long walk to his room. Mat buttoned up the loose end of his pajama pants and went down the hall on his crutch. As he neared the door, it occurred to him that the older boy might not be awake. Of was he just making excuses to turn around? He forced himself to knock, but he tried to knock lightly. His heart pounded in his chest, and for a moment, he wished he hadn't come. Then the door opened.
"Hey! Need help with the paper after all?"
"No. Um... I... I didn't wake you, did I?" Matsias found himself hoping Antony would say yes, and he would have an excuse to return to his room.
Antony shook his head. "You think being a freshman is hard, try being a senior." He opened the door for Mat and pulled out his desk chair for the other boy. Antony's room looked like his own, but smaller, with only one bed, desk, and chair. He kept it quite clean, as if he expected other people to be there a lot. He also had brought in a small bookshelf, which had an array of books Mat recognized, as well as many he didn't.
Mat pointed to the shelf. "Did you... transport that every year?" He couldn't think of where Antony might keep it during breaks.
Antony laughed. "Oh, the woodworkers magicked it, so it's easy to dismantle and put back together. Makes it a lot easier to carry."
You must have had nothing but books in your suitcase."
Antony laughed again. "Well, I picked up a lot here. You know how that is." He gave Mat a knowing smile. It was true. Matsias had accumulated a small pile of books on the floor by his bedside in the last couple of weeks. He wasn't sure how he planned to get them home at the end of the year.
"So what's up? Or did you knock on my door to talk about my book collection?" Antony flashed Matsias the same easy smile he'd worn when he'd announced to the girls Mat had just seen his first movie."
I need some advice." Matsias felt uneasy asking Antony, but he shoved the thought away.
"Sure, what is it?"
Now he had to say something. "I... I can't sleep."
"Oh." Matsias knew from the sound of Antony's voice that he couldn't do anything, but Antony pressed. "Insomnia?"
Matsias had to think about the word for a moment. When he understood Antony, he said, "No, I sleep, I just... don't feel like I sleep. And sometimes I dream about... bad things." Matsias bit the inside of his cheek so he didn't cry in front of Antony.
"Bad things? What kind of bad things?"
Matsias clenched his hand into a fist to keep it from shaking. "Um... that fire I told you about. I have some tea that helps sometimes, but it--the dreams--are worse lately."
Antony nodded. "It's probably school stress. Everybody gets stressed by the workload at Faraday, especially in their first year. I know Faraday's supposed to be the best of the best, but sometimes I seem like they're trying to torture us. But you probably felt that way at your old school, didn't you?"
Now Matsias knew this had been a bad idea. "Um... I didn't really have a school."
Antony raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Well, since we travel so much, Key and I were tutored by our dad. And other family." This, at least, was a practiced lie.
"That's right, you're Thisaazhou. It's definitely stress. New school, new country, new continent. And it sounds like you're not even used to an all day class schedule. I bet if you give it some time, it'll go away by itself. Take a nap at lunch tomorrow. And don't work so hard!" Antony chuckled, the smile still not reaching his eyes. Matsias could feel himself shaking more, a sense of panic rising up from his stomach. The room felt hotter. He wanted to leave, but he didn't know how. He had started this conversation, and he couldn't get out of it.
Antony didn't seem to notice Mat's panic. "That's really all I can tell you. Unless you want to tell me about your nightmares. You know, talking it out could be a big help."
Matsias shook his head. "I don't think I'm ready to do that. Sorry, it's still..."
"Well, I don't know what else to tell you, unless... oh." He said this last word to himself, his eyes going out of focus with some sudden thought.
"What?" Matsias asked, "What is it?"
Antony hesitated and sighed, as if Mat had dragged a secret from his lips. "Well, I know there's dream magic that dampens bad dreams. But even around here, there's not a lot of people who do dream magic, and you wouldn't want something like that backfiring."
"What would happen?"
Antony considered this. "You could make the dreams worse. Or inflict them on someone else. Or... really, this is silly. Like I said, it's first year stress. Eat well, take a nap, stop sweating your homework so much. Don't go burying yourself in dream magic. Most of it's only for particularly bad dreams anyway."
Matsias used his crutch to pull himself up. "Okay, thanks."
Antony stood to open the door for him. "You good?"
"Yeah, I think so." Matsias returned to his room and Antony shut the door behind him.
