“Bath, you're here because your roommates claimed that you filled your common room with bugs to intimidate them. Is this true?”

Bath sat before Ellis' Dean, Dr. Greenberg. She fixed him with an intense gaze. Bath’s eyes were playful.

They had the nerve to report me? he thought to himself. They have more backbone than I thought.

“I have no idea what they’re talking about.”

“They also said that you threatened them if they kept the common room messy or threw parties,” she added. “Is this true?”

Bath deadpanned. What did she expect him to say? Yes? Actually, Bath was quite curious to see what would happen if he was honest.

“If you don’t say anything in your defense, I’m going to have to take further measures. I can’t just dismiss the claims of three people, especially when one of them has officially been diagnosed with PTSD by one of our school psychologists.”

Suddenly, the Dean had a glint in her eye.

“Would you agree to see a school psychologist?”

Bath’s face actually displayed a modicum of shock. Psychologist?

“Dr. Greenberg, I don’t need therapy,” he stated firmly, a slight bit of annoyance seeping into his voice.

“It would greatly ease my worry if you went for a psychological evaluation,” she pressed.

Bath groaned internally. A psychological evaluation? This was absolutely the last thing that he needed.

“Fine,” he acquiesced. It wouldn’t really affect him, anyways, besides wasting his time. And if it would get the Dean off his back...

“I'll go.”

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Earlier that day:

Bath and Lisa located Angelina, eventually tracking her down in a local coffee shop. Lisa didn’t bother to hide her shell since Angelina already knew that she was a mind-manipulator. Bath could tell that Angelina was wary when they walked in, instantly taking note of Lisa and hiding her own shell, as expected.

They walked right over to Angelina’s table where she was working on her laptop.

“Hello, mind if we sit?” Lisa asked cheerfully. Before waiting for a response, both she and Bath sat down in chairs across from Angelina.

Lisa reached out to touch Angelina with her mind. She could tell that Angelina tried to resist reacting to the probe, but as the mind tendrils grew closer to Angelina’s shell, the woman eventually flinched and batted them away with her own mind defense.

Lisa tried, and failed, to conceal a jubilant laugh. We’ve finally found one, she thought to herself. There was no doubt now.

Angelina looked furious. She stared at both of them as though by doing so she could set them on fire.

“How did you find me?” she hissed. Bath thought that the question should really be, “How did you know that I'm also a mind manipulator?”

“Oh, come on,” Lisa said. “I know all about your plan to approach me. To save us both some time, I thought I'd beat you to the chase.”

“What plan?” Angelina replied hotly. Lisa noted that she was a decent actress. “I have no idea who either of you are.”

“I'm Lisa, and this is Bath. I'm here because I want you to take us to Ritus. I'm interested in possibly becoming a member.”

Angelina looked confused. “You...want to join Ritus?”

Lisa nodded. “Maybe. But I need to visit the organization myself and develop a first-hand perspective. I've heard a bit about Ritus in the past and...fishing...and I'm not sure what I think. Yet.”

“I suppose I can take you to Ritus,” she said slowly.

“Great! When can we go?” Lisa asked enthusiastically.

“There’s a meeting in twenty days,” Angelina admitted cautiously. “I can take you then.”

“Great, we'll see you then,” Bath stated cheerfully.

“Not you, her,” Angelina clarified. “She’s the Regis. You're just...” She frowned, suspicion clouding her features. “What are you?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I'm Lisa’s guardian. So, accordingly, I shall be accompanying her to Ritus.”

Angelina apparently didn’t know what to say, for she stayed quiet for a moment.

“I suppose...that will work...”

“Twenty days,” Bath repeated resolutely as he and Lisa stood up and left.

Lisa noticed that Angelina looked positively shocked by what had just transpired.

Good. Like Bath said, she needed to make an impact.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Over the next few days, nothing unusual happened. Angelina kept her distance, while Professor Scranton didn’t have any new updates other than that she was “Conducting More Research.”

His roommates still couldn’t stand to give him eye contact. He hadn’t confronted them about their reporting him to the Dean, believing it best to let them think that nothing had come of their accusations.

Soon, the date of Bath’s “psychological evaluation” arrived.

The psychologist was waiting for him in a small building a few minutes away from the center of campus. Bath entered the designated room and found a woman waiting for him on a cozy couch. The room had two couches opposite each other. Bath sat on the other couch and waited for her to begin speaking.

There was only silence. Bath knew that the evaluation would at most go for an hour, since that was the length of his appointment. If this psychologist didn’t care to start her evaluation and wanted to play the “quiet game” as a sort of test-of-wills, he wasn’t going to stop her.

Bath looked at her patiently, unperturbed in the least. He took in her features and poise while he waited for her to speak. She was fairly young, likely mid-thirties. She also seemed very calm, matching his own demeanor.

After what was likely five minutes of silence, the psychologist said, “You're the first I've ever had to go the first five minutes without speaking.” She wrote something down on a sheet of paper on her lap. “Why didn’t you break the silence?”

“Why would I?”

“Many reasons. Most people find silence to be uncomfortable. Most people break the silence the minute they step into the room by introducing themselves.”

Bath just stared at her, his face serene.

“Tell me about yourself,” she prompted.

“My name is Bath,” he began. That was the most basic thing he thought of. “I enjoy art, history, and nature. I’m adopted. I have a younger sister named Avery. My parents are happily married and have always made sure to provide Avery and I with everything they can.”

The psychologist remained impassive.

“I have a best friend named Lisa who I've known since preschool. She’s actually here at Alens with me.” He didn’t know what else he was supposed to say. He felt like he'd already exhausted everything. Bath generally thought in terms of big, general ideas and feelings rather than specifics. He didn’t think much of his life’s narrative as a human since it was such a short period of time. He therefore had very little to tell the psychologist.

“What makes you tick?” the psychologist eventually asked. Bath gave her a look. What made him tick?

“That’s a rather difficult question to answer,” Bath replied with a smile. “Though in general, I want to stop people from destroying the environment. Also, I want to explore what it means to be human.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“There’s tons of research about sociology and the human experience and whatnot. I want to live each day learning more about people.”

The psychologist nodded.

“So, then, what is your analysis of what it means to be human?”

Bath laughed. “My analysis? Humans are just like other mammals in almost every way. The only only real difference between humans and apes is civilization. So, I suppose my analysis is that to be human is to be a really smart ape willing to work with other apes to make a big city,” he said jokingly.

“That’s rather pessimistic,” she replied. “Do you believe humanity is inherently good or bad?”

Bath didn’t skip a beat, having debated this issue with Lisa more than a few times.

“Good and bad are meaningless,” he asserted. "I would rather say, humans are generally cruel. But Nature, too, is cruel, so I can’t fault humans for following her example.”

“You talk about humanity in a very objective sense. Hmm. Do you believe in any religion?”

“I was raised Catholic,” he said simply, not bothering to provide more information.

“But do you believe?”

Bath cocked an eyebrow. “Who’s to say?”

“You mentioned how you can’t fault humanity for following ‘Nature’s example.’ What do you think about nature?”

Bath blinked. What did he think about nature? These questions, they were so open-ended. “Nature is...a pattern," the said slowly. "Slowly unfurling itself. It starts as a speck, barely visible, then fans out, blooming like a rose from a bud.” He thought of his Center similarly.

The psychologist seemed a bit surprised by his response.

“Do you believe that nature is beautiful?” she asked.

Bath laughed. “Beauty is Nature’s daughter.”

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

The psychologist’s face darkened. Over their time together, Bath’s manner of speaking had changed. At times it was casual, while at other times haughty. It struck her as inconsistent and peculiar, but then again, this was Alens, a school that housed quite a few geniuses.

After half an hour of Q&A had passed, the psychologist announced that she would now administer a standardized psychological evaluation. It was a questionnaire on a tablet. She handed him the tablet and waited patiently for him to go through all of the questions.

A few minutes passed. Then, Bath sighed, turned around the tablet, and handed it back.

She looked at the evaluation, absorbing its results. Bath appeared to be within the bounds of normality. He was a calculating person who was predisposed to being a good leader, and was moderately prideful. But none of the results suggested that Bath had any abnormal personality traits or some psychological scarring that would cause him to be a threat to others.

She explained the results a bit to Bath, discussed a few more questions with him, and then, exactly as the hour turned, he soundlessly got up from the couch and left, giving her a small wave as the door shut behind him.

Now that she thought about it, because he had skipped introductions, he didn’t even know her name. Was he really that eager to get this meeting over and done with? So uninterested to meet with a psychologist?

She thought, perhaps, that Bath had something he was hiding. People could fake psychological evaluation results. After all, Bath’s actual behavior didn’t completely match up with the standardized evaluation.

She frowned to herself, considering what to do next.