The Academy: for the peacekeeper, PIRATE

The Oracle is certainly not omniscient, but she does know many things.

She knows that Pirate, student of Hypatia, has rallied the Jaeger scholars together with the same message that she often delivered to her scholars and pupils. That unity between the herds was possible – that friendships, rather than feuds – could flourish between the herds if canines and birds desired it. There was no history of violence, no deep chasm of hatred, that broke them. No lines of race or culture separated them; in fact, there was little to keep them apart other than their own foolishness.

So when the Oracle heard of Pirate’s speech (and more importantly, of the words he said) she was intrigued. Perhaps her message in the beginning, when she had been naļve and starry-eyed, had lasted. Her first task for Hypatia had been to befriend a Wolf, and Pirate was the newest Oracle’s student, after all. Perhaps, distantly, her words had trickled through the grapevine. Perhaps they had made a difference. And even if not, the Polestar still wanted to speak with him.

Nyota does not wait for him to come to her. Instead, she goes to the edge of the brilliant academy, awash in summer sunlight, and calls to the Reef. Around him, her element will come alive; sand will swirl around his ankles and tiny, crimson crabs will rise to meet him. They will chatter with the click of their pincers, which will rise in chorus with the caws of the gulls. She cannot control water, but the tide will recede to the growing amounts of sand at his feet, and when all is said and done, he will hear his name whispered between the miniscule grains of sand. Pirate, they will say, and perhaps he will know who calls.

She stands and waits for him near the crumbling ruins of the Academy’s stone-pillared gazebo. In the fading daylight, the marble building is cast in brilliant oranges and reds, and Nyota herself shines in the Academy’s brilliance. She waits for him, patiently, with her white jaguar Familiar at her side. “Patience,” she says to Kivuli, when his tail begins to swish irritably. “He will come.”