Page Sanne couldn’t stop herself from peeking at the note she was handed by the headmaster. It was a summons for the entire faculty. Something big was happening and it all started when the letter for Luscin arrived. She was the one that delivered it to Master Fallen three days ago and he’s been holed up in the library every day since that moment. She can’t listen in on the library meeting, every Master in that room would detect her if she was anywhere near them. The only person that might know what’s going on would be Luscin.
Standing outside Luscin’s door, she knocks twice and waits.
After a brief wait the door slides open revealing the tiny girl that is suddenly of interest to the entire Study. Now that she’s here she realizes she doesn’t know what to say.
Luscin seeing Sanne is confused, “Do you have a message for me?”
“Message? No. I’m not here on business.” Sanne wants to blurt out what she knows, but she doesn’t really know anything. “Can I come in and talk?”
“Sure, go crazy,” Luscin swings the door all the way open and turns away from her guest. She goes to one of the three wooden chairs in the corner away from her bed.
Sanne enters and closes the door quietly. She has a sudden urge to be quiet as if she’s sneaking, which is silly, she’s a page and doesn’t need to sneak anywhere on study grounds. Regaining confidence, she strides to Luscin’s side and takes a seat without one being offered.
Luscin takes the initiative as always, she doesn’t care if she’s right, she wants her opponents to be reacting, not pushing. The fact that this is a fellow student doesn’t change her instinct to treat her like an adversary. “What can I do for you? Is someone bothering you, some city man stalking you? I’ll make him regret he ever looked at you?”
Sanne blinks for a moment as she processes the barrage of questions, “No, no! It’s nothing like that. Why, would you?”
Interrupting her Luscin continues, “Why would I not? You show up at my door at bedtime with your head hung low. You’re a senior page and acting like a little lost girl in the red district for the first time. If it’s not a man, I guess it could be a girl. I don’t want to know what they did, just give me a name and they’ll never bother you again.”
Sanne’s cheeks have turned completely red by this point and she’s about to lose her temper at the accusation that she can’t mind her own affairs when she remembers whose room, she’s sitting in. Luscin has a reptation for getting under your skin and making you wish you’d never met her unless you somehow meet her impossible standards and then you’re suddenly exempt from her caustic nature. She falls back on her training and breathes, not combat breathing, but restorative. She needs to change her stance from defensive to passive or Luscin will continue to pick at her nerves.
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Seeing the change in demeanor of her visitor, Luscin relaxes in her seat and waits for her visitor to speak up.
“Luscin, I have some news for you, but I don’t know what it means.”
“It must be important for you to come at this hour. How about if you stop being dramatic and tell me already.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” Sanne stops talking and looks Luscin in the eyes before continuing. “A letter arrived three days ago. It was redirected to the headmaster’s office. That’s why I know about it. When Master Fallon read it, he and Master Robles spent the next three days in the library doing research. That’s where they’ve been these last few days. Now they’re finished, and they’ve called all the Deans to a meeting in the library. All of them! I’ve never seen them all together like that except for official functions. Something big is going down and they’re not telling us anything!”
Luscin is nonplussed, “that’s it? You’re worried that a bunch of scholars are upset over a letter? What was in the letter do you even know?”
This is the part Sanne kept back because once she reveals this last bit, she has no idea what Luscin will do, “I don’t know what was in the letter, I didn’t dare open it. But I know it was addressed to you.”
Luscin’s breathing changed slightly at that news. A short abrupt intake of air signaled a shift to combat breathing. She stopped herself and resumed taking normal breaths, “Is that it? A letter addressed to me?”
Sanne noted the slip and continued cautiously, “No I also saw your family name, Lael.”
“So?”
“It was sent by someone named Lucy Lael. Is that your mother? Why would that cause the headmaster to lock himself in the library for three days?”
Luscin was quiet, the minutes stretched from one to two, to three minutes before she finally spoke, “Thank you for telling me about this letter. You should go now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing. The same thing you should have done. Coming here and revealing this information doesn’t help anybody, except satisfying your need to make everything about you. Go about your business and stay out of mine.”
“Luscin, it’s not like that. I’m worried about you. Something terrible must have happened and I thought you’d want to know.”
“No, you’re confusing your selfish curiosity with concern. I’ll find out what is in that letter when Master Gale decides it’s safe to tell me. He is a sworn Defender, he will not do anything that puts any of us in danger. Telling me my mother is trying to contact me could be exactly what I need to be protected from at this time and you’ve now exposed me to that information. Stop pretending you’re better than the rest of us because you wear that page’s uniform. You are nothing but an errand boy. You’ve run your personal errand. You should leave on you own before I see you out myself.”
Sanne stands and leaves, her blood pressure spiking, cheeks flushing red, her temples throb, the sound of her pulse fills her ears, “I... I’m sorry, Luscin.”
Luscin doesn’t move until she hears the sound of the door click shut. She stands slowly, looking around at her room for perhaps the last time before she begins to pack.