After my morning classes, which are reading and writing again, John comes in to deliver my lunch, and I carefully eat my way through the bowl of food. I picked up a little water mana once I got to the refinery, which did its job perfectly fine thanks to being so strengthened by the thing I ate earlier.

Now, Claire must have noticed the change in my demeanor, because she's watches me more intently as she nibbles on her sandwich across the table.

This time, there's only one food I avoid, with an effect that feels kind of like... liquidy? It's hard to wrap my head around it, but it definitely has a different feel that gives me a weird feeling. Not necessarily bad, but I don't want to take any chances with my afternoon classes coming up. Claire raises an eyebrow when I attempt to spit the piece out as... politely as possible, but doesn't say anything about it. Even Eryk takes notice, and I try not to show how nervous both of them watching me eat makes me...

Once that's finally over, we move into my afternoon classes. I briefly go over my homework with Claire, telling her about what I read as she nods along and fills in anywhere that I have questions or she thinks I should know more that wasn't included in the documents she had me read.

When she's satisfied with my understanding, she leans forward, folding her hands together, and thinks for some time. I guess she's considering which topic to move to next? We have started to cover everything she's supposed to be teaching me, so it might be a little more difficult to choose.

"Aria," my train of thought is suddenly interrupted by a worried call from Avara. I don't bother complaining that I'm in the middle of class. She already knows of course, and I can feel that this is serious. "Something's wrong." Some motion around her just seriously put her on edge, something different from the beasts they've been fighting. She wouldn't interrupt me otherwise.

"Use your magic," I tell her. There's no need to be stingy when she has such easy access to it now. Not when she thinks something is dangerous. Following my instructions, Avara channels mana to her fur, while continuing to survey her surroundings. Then there's another sound, a swish in the nearby brush to her left, and she spins to face it.

It comes a moment later, an arrow flying from a long way off. Then what was that motion nearby? While I question that, Avara shifts, the incoming attack deflecting easily off her impenetrable fur as it skims by.

Our hearts start to sink. That was a human weapon. Why would humans be attacking her? Do they think she's one of the things attacking the town? Then there's another crunch, directing her attention toward a nearby tree, before a man appears.

He shouts and rushes for her, and for just a moment, I think he's insane. What could a human possibly do to a powerful magical creature like Avara? But then his appearance draws that into question. His weapons and armor aren't like anything I've seen on the town guard. They're... different somehow. Not as shiny as they should be. Rounded in some places, pointy in others. More like bone than metal.

Even as the man rushes in, there's another rustle just a moment later, behind her this time, alerting her to another attacker, trying to take advantage of the first man, to use him as a distraction.

Pinned between two attackers, using unknown weapons and armor that put her on edge, but also unwilling to kill them outright, Avara is stuck. She hesitates, just a moment, before coiling low. It doesn't matter who these insane hunters are, her best bet is to flee so she can avoid this entire thing.

Then there's a third sound, drawing her attention up. Were both men decoys? Just as she's considering that, another arrow flies in from the side, and she doesn't have the attention to dodge it, so she just strengthens the magic in her fur to deflect it.

As she looks up to catch sight of the third attacker, coming in from what should be a blind spot above her, she feels the arrow hit. To her surprise, it sinks far too deep into her strengthened fur before stopping. But she doesn't have time to deal with that, because she finally catches sight of the main attacker.

What she sees makes my heart stop, the instant of that image burning into my mind. It's an enormous woman with bright, brilliant white hair streaming behind her, and piercing blue eyes. Her face is all harsh angles as she glares down at Avara from above, her massive sword as large as some of our divine armaments. How could a human even use something like that?

Avara focuses her mana into her legs and leaps aside so fast, everything around her turns to a blur, just in time to avoid the ridiculous blade, double the length of Avara herself, from cleaving her in two. Instead, it buries itself in the ground, all the way to the hilt. Her paws slide over the rough ground as she skids, just an instant of hesitation in the face of something so unbelievable.

The woman doesn't pause at all, the moment her feet punch against the ground, she's flying forward in a way I can hardly believe, a booming shout exploding from her throat that hits Avara with a mind-numbing wave of terror. She flinches, all her muscles locking up, even as she's trying to flee.

The effect only lasts a moment, but it's long enough for the impossible woman to bring her sword to bear. It rises, like it weighs a fraction of what it should, and Avara finally manages to force her paralyzed body to move. She watches the path of the weapon as the woman swings, coming in from her left, the blade an odd, somewhat curved shape, like it was carved from some giant block of stone, or bone, all in one piece.

Avara pitches to the side, allowing the weapon to slide past by the most narrow gap, and feels as it passes through the edges of her mana-hardened fur without a bit of resistance. Even expecting as much due to the strange nature of their weapons, it's still shocking on some level, feeling anything pass through the seemingly impenetrable armor that's regularly turned aside charging boars and giant monsters like nothing.

But she won't be put off. Avara swipes up. She knows she can't pull her punches, so she channels mana to her claws, bringing them right into the side of the woman as she recovers from her attack. As she suspected, the strange, rounded armor covering the woman's abdomen stops her claws with a shrill screech, but the power of the blow flings the woman away into the forest anyway.

Using the opportunity, she drops into a dead sprint, straight toward one of the men who tried to distract her earlier. It forces the man to dive out of the way to avoid her charge, but another sting lands against her side, the arrow sinking a little further into her fur this time, before she bursts clear of that area, off into the trees, deeper into the forest.

She aims toward where Myra, Gram and Hilde are gathering, taking up a position they can defend together if they have to.

As soon as Avara is safe, I turn my attention back to my own situation. That entire battle was so blindingly fast, everything blurring together into a wave of motion, that it only took two ticks, but even that amount of time could be a huge problem in the middle of class.

So when I blink at Claire across the table, I'm surprised to see her still thinking. In fact, she continues rolling her head slightly from side to side for a little while longer.

"Maybe... no." She breathes, and I keep waiting. This is... really unexpected, and incredibly lucky, given the sudden danger elsewhere. A few ticks later, she closes her eyes, taps on the table a couple times, then nods her head.

"Yes. Yes," she says. "Since you've learned about The Bromunst Expansion, it makes the most sense to cover the Melphiran Revolution next. Then we can get to Eschalle's effect on The Long War and the arms race that came with the decline of the heroes. That makes the most sense without needing to jump around as much."

"Ok." That's all I can say, because I have no idea what any of those are. And most of my mind is still in shock from what just happened to Avara. But obviously Claire doesn't know that, and I can't let that affect my studies. Just think about it later...

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Claire spends the remainder of class talking about Melphor. I can hardly focus, so I just try to file it all away for later. I think she can tell too, because she barely skims over his early life, how he was born during The Bromunst Expansion and forced to move repeatedly as they captured more and more land, their armies moving ever further south.

And... that's all we cover before class ends. We don't even get to the whole 'revolution' part. Claire hands me another stack of paper, more homework for tonight, and she leaves for the day.

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Then I fall into my usual seat at Eryk's table.

"Aria?" he asks worriedly.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I'm such a terrible liar. I know that my anxiety and some level of terror are written all over my face. I can't help it, Avara almost died. To humans. Impossibly powerful humans with equipment like nothing I've ever heard of. He frowns at me, and I just shake my head to let him know I can't tell him.

"Something you learned about today?" he asks anyway.

"No, just..." I shake my head again. "I don't know." That finally gets him to circle around his desk. He kneels, a hand stroking through my hair.

"Aria, I can see that something's wrong," he speaks softly, his voice more gentle and comforting than usual. "You can talk to me."

I fight for words for a few moments, then ask one question that's burning through my mind, something I can talk to him about. "Have you ever heard of a woman with white hair?" His eyebrows pull in, that way they do when he's not sure what to tell me. "A huge woman. A hundred eighty, a hundred ninety centimeters tall. Blue eyes." I breathe the words out as I stare out, her terrible image still burned deep into my memory.

"Why are you asking about her?" he asks, clearly dodging the question, even as it gives me the answer I need.

"I..." I don't know what to say. I can't tell him about what just happened. My mind is still reeling, trying to put things together. I can tell all the pieces are there, but I can't think straight enough to understand. I need help. Maybe I should have asked Reena?

"I'm sorry, I don't know, I... I..." I'm drowning, my words not working through the fear. What if something went differently? If Avara didn't catch onto those attacks early? If those diversions had worked? What if she really died? Cut in two by that monster of a woman?

Just thinking about it makes it hard to breathe. Worse than considering that I might die, I'm used to that already. Thinking about any of them dying is way more terrifying!

With tears welling up in my eyes, Eryk starts to get flustered. He gulps, then leans in a little closer and hugs me. "Shh, it's alright, Aria," he assures me. "Whatever you're so worried about, I'm sure it's alright." His words feel silly. He has no idea, but he's trying to calm me down anyway.

"Here, listen up," he finally says with a little more determination. "Whatever it is, I'm sure you can work through it better with more information, right?" I gulp, then nod a few times. Yeah, knowing more always helps me out with things.

"Ok. So the woman you're talking about is Catherine Lundrum."

That's all he needs to say. All at once, every single piece falls into place.

"Catherine Lundrum, angel of Hurena," I mutter, shoulders shaking and eyes darting as I string everything together. "Her power... A monster hunter. Bone weapons and armor. From other magical creatures."

That explains everything.

"Aria?" Eryk questions. "What are you talking about?

"O-oh!" I gasp a little. "Sorry, that just, that explains everything."

"What does it explain?" he growls slightly, "you aren't making any sense."

"Umm, uhh..." I stammer, trying to come up with something. "I'm sorry, it's just something I'm... not exactly comfortable talking about. But knowing who she is makes it all make sense. She's the one Hurena tasked with wiping out the monsters in the forest."

"Yes..." he makes a gesture like 'go on...' but I don't really have anything else I can say there.

Wait, actually, I don't have to talk about Avara and the others, do I? He already knows that I just 'know' some things.

I shake myself a little. "Alright, ok. I just uhh, sort of became aware of her, out in the forest earlier. I can't really explain it." Eryk blinks rapidly, entire face with confusion written across it. "Basically, she was hunting monsters, and she's absolutely terrifying."

"Uhh... ok?" He cocks his head slightly to the side. "That's all? You think she's scary?"

I scratch my head. It sounds silly when he puts it that way, completely opposite of the physically paralyzing terror Avara felt with the angel bearing down on her. Even now, Avara is huddled up with the others, keeping a close watch on their surroundings for further attacks. Myra dug the two arrows out of Avara's side earlier, arrows which nearly made it through her impenetrable, magic fur. I want to get a look at them, so the current plan is to hand them off to Emily when she goes to the forest later.

But even that feels like a risk. Like, they aren't the biggest, scariest things in the forest anymore. Instead of the hunters, now they're being hunted... When that stallkeeper told me about monster hunters, he never mentioned them using ridiculous equipment like that. Of course ridiculous equipment like that would massively level the field against such powerful creatures.

"Hey," I speak up again, "monster hunters... Do they use equipment made from the parts of the things they kill?"

"Huh? Yeah?" Eryk reels again at the random change of topic. "I think so anyway?" I nod a few times. If they'd killed Avara, would they have cut her up and used her to make more weapons? More things to kill even more powerful creatures like her? The same way the animal parts we sell to that merchant are supposed to be made into tools? I don't want to think about that, but I can't help myself.

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A short time later, I manage to calm myself down again. Now that I at least have an understanding of the situation, things make sense. I'm still scared for my magical creatures out in the forest, but now we know what's coming. We have more information, so we are much better prepared to deal with the danger.

Still clearly confused, Eryk asks, "So... are you feeling a little better now?"

I bob my head. "Yes, much better. You were right, having more information makes the situation a lot more clear, and a whole lot less scary."

With an awkward half-grin, he just responds, "I have no idea what would be scary, but as long as you're feeling better..."

I finally smile back at him. "Yeah, I'm sorry I'm not really explaining things, but I really do feel better."

Eryk shakes his head. "Alright then. Just one more thing. You can't tell me you haven't thought about it." I tilt my head, not knowing where he's going with this. Leveling me with a frown, he asks, "The family resemblance?"

I open my mouth. Family resemblance?

I close my mouth again.

Oh.

Duh.

I stare at him for a bit, then blink a few times in a row, trying to process that, having overlooked it for so long due to the shock of Avara almost dying.

Finally, the only thing I can say is, "She has white hair."

"Yes, she does," Eryk says, actually sounding somewhere between annoyed and patronizing because I missed something that obvious for so long. "And if word from my contacts are right, so does her mother. Apparently, white hair is a shared trait in the Lundrum noble family."

"Oh."

He waits. Then, "Oh? That's all?"

I'm reeling. No idea how to respond. What to think.

What are the chances?

Out of all the rail units, could pinpointing my human parents really be that simple? I can't believe it. There's just... "No way..." I mumble. "That can't be it, it's too obvious."

Eryk frowns. "What's too obvious?"

"The... the relation. There's no way they could be my family. White hair? Who could possibly miss that?" I'm rambling. "If that's all it took to find them, wouldn't someone have noticed?" No, because I was a rail unit. Even if they were my human parents, they threw me out because of my disease.

Finally letting out a long, sad breath, I shake my head. "Even if they are my family, it doesn't matter."

Mouth falling open a little, Eryk says, "Doesn't matter? How does the possibility of you being directly related to an archduke not matter?"

I frown, looking down at the table. "I can't explain why, but even if I was born to that family, I can never be a Lundrum." He falters briefly, then I add, "Besides, I can never meet Catherine anyway. She's the angel of Hurena, I'm the angel of Reena."

With a groan, his head finally falls into his hands. "Ugh, that's right, whatever that damn goddess has you doing, she has to hide it from the others..."

"Hey!" I exclaim, seriously offended when he says that. "Take that back!" I glare at him. "Whatever it is, it's important enough for her to risk her own life!"

Eryk blinks. "Uhh, Aria...? Did you just say 'life?'"

Oh no. Wait. "Uhh........"

"Are you saying that one of the twelve gods of our world is somehow risking her life for you?"

"No?" I'm... such a bad liar... "Don't tell anyone?" I squeak. He just nods numbly in response.