Celeste~

"That's cool as hell though, I didn't even know that fire benders could do things like that and you would think we would considering how popular the power is."

"Right?" Rain chimed in.

"But I'm so happy for you, you improved a lot as well you might be heading to number one, don't forget me when you're rich." I joked

Chloe laughed and said, "Don't be silly you'll be right there with me. But we have waited long enough now, how did your Trial go."

I began to tell her all about what happened in my Trail, I told her about the whip and the energy balls and what she said about my power being unique because it comes from me like firebenders.

"And she said something at the end that was really weird as well, she was telling me about how the practitioners were intrigued by me and they knew about the fight with Caspian, I knew that I had a few watchers because of the fight but I didn't even know it was that bad."

"Well of course, it was the performance of the year."

"Kind of a stretch but if you can't beat em join em. Anyways after that she kinda just told me a few things about myself that I didn't know before, basically consisting of me holding myself back. It helped me, especially when I was improving."

Chloe replied, "I'm so proud of you, and she's so right you're definitely gonna end up in one of the top academies."

"Thank you, all we can do is hope for the best."

"What's there to hope for, you're basically guaranteed to be successful or at least in a very good place, just like Chloe and me." Rain said.

"Yeah, it's just so hard to believe." With the amount of variation that we all had

amongst our magic, it was hard to tell who was powerful and who was not without an obvious demonstration or notoriety. All of our powers were a bit shaky and as being only students we were not permitted to use magic in any way unsupervised unless we were here. "I'm happy for us though, we're going to great places" I continued on.

"Do you think any of you are gonna get called back tomorrow, I can't see what else they can explore that isn't just actual training-"

"Celeste." A deep raspy voice echoed from behind me "I need to speak to you." I instantly knew who he was. He was standing directly behind me, he sounded a little more serious than usual, I didn't even know that was possible but alas here we were.

I turned to face him.

He stood above me with his arms tightly crossed on top of his chest in a way that flexed his muscles in just the right way, His hair was messier than the last times I saw him but it being dishevelled only added to his rigour. Chloe and Rain's facial expressions were neutral but I knew that they would have a whole lot to say about this after. "Okay, where?"

"Come." He began walking as I trailed behind him. We walked along the hallways until we found a secluded spot where we could talk privately. I knew that this was probably gonna be about what happened with that girl but I didn't care because I was most definitely in the right.

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He leaned on the wall and after a long pause and a deep breath he began to speak to me. "Anastasia came up to you?" So that was her name.

I couldn't read the expression on his face, I couldn't tell if he was about to berate me or her but I guess we were here to find out.

"Yeah, she did, do you know what she said."

"No, she just said that the girl that I had a fight with, said that we were in an entanglement, she then started complaining about my choices in women." He didn't give off the vibes that he even cared about little about her 'complaints'. Neither did he sound completely thrown off by the fact that he was being accused of being in an entanglement so I actually didn't think he gave a flying fuck about her, go Caspian.

"I see, I didn't say that we were in an entanglement it was rather something along the lines of so what If I was."

"Oh, so you poked the bear a little I see." There was clear amusement in his voice when he spoke of my actions, it was clear that he found this more entertaining than he did a cause for concern.

"I did not 'poke the bear' I simply told her to mind her business." Which she should have done anyways.

"You sure? Maybe there was a little bit of subconscious jealousy there." The same glint of humour still lingered in his eyes.

"There definitely wasn't."

"Me and Caspian huh?" Well, that was my fault, I should have known better.

"Not in that way. And you told me you didn't know what I said."

"No, I told you I didn't know what she said."

Ugh, It was basically the same thing.

"Either way I didn't mean what I said like that. So I'm guessing she's not your girlfriend?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Admittedly It was funny that he caught me out a second time with this but I couldn't deal with his games any longer, I turned and began to walk away before he said my name.

"Celeste." My stomach did numbers when he said my name like that. "There's an issue." I turned back around. Although I didn't sense anger, his face became slightly more serious now.

"See, there's still an issue." I knew from the tone of his voice that this was gonna be a whole different mess, what the fuck had I gotten myself into now.

"Which is?" His apprehension to saying what he was about to say made me feel just as uncomfortable as he was, the hallways felt a lot smaller than before.

"We did have a contract though." okay.

"Right."

He was slow with his words when he replied. "Listen, I never planned to talk to any girls in that way when I came here. I have jobs to do, I wanted to come here, and leave as fast as possible. I signed the stupid fucking contract with Anastasia because I knew that. Obviously I don't have any emotional attachment to Anastasia, but see I owe Judias, and Anastasia knows some things that would say, break things apart if she doesn't get what she wants, which is me. It would expire when Judias inherits part of what his parents have which is when he leaves Blue Phoenix. Another part of signing the contract was that I could not only be an assistant, but an assassin if I had someone that I'd wanted to marry."

He took another deep breath.

" I ignored all potential offers until I found one that I could break, Judias could pull a few strings from his newfound position and she would be banished for attempting to defame him and all would be good. Until you."

Oh, I see.

"A while ago Latía convinced Judias that Ana was gonna tell his secret unless he makes me sign a contract to marry her. Judias has a few tricks up his sleeve though, when the secret is released it was always going to be on Latías time because that is her man, so he convinces Latía that Anastasia was flirting with him and trying to break them up by revealing it because if she can't have what she wants then neither can she. She half believed it so now she's taking the evidence from her and just keeping it for herself. She only cares about herself so giving her friend the option to marry me was just a fun thing they did because they could, not out of loyalty or anything. The only issue now is that my job is going to get taken away. I could have let that one slide if that was just the case though it would have only had been for a couple of years. She’s now threatening to release our marriage contract and the voice recording of your conversation to try and say that we were childhood lovers but I betrayed her out of temptation for you.”

Even as someone who found the essence of reputation and hierarchy so very stupid. The guilt I felt because I knew how bad this was was indescribable.