“I don’t understand,” Ezra said quietly. Aida shook her head. Understatement of the year.

“I don’t either. Levi has a theory—“

“Levi’s known? Since when? Who else knows?”

“Only Levi right now,” Aida said hurriedly. “And he found out during the first week of matches.”

Ezra swayed on his feet, heading towards the training dummy. He pressed a hand on the torso, leaning his weight on it as he hung his head as if he was drunk.

“Are you all right?” Aida asked anxiously, hurrying to his side.

“How can it be?” he murmured, flinching away from her hand. “Your mana feels exactly the same.”

“What do you mean?”

Ezra turned toward Aida suddenly, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders and staring deep into her eyes. Aida felt his mana probe insistently at her, just as his gaze probed deep into her eyes, making her feel unbelievably vulnerable.

“Your mana signature feels exactly like Aida’s - other than more fluidity and dexterity, there’s no difference,” he whispered. His breath was hot on Aida’s face. “But it’s such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things - I assumed it was due to training, a maturation of your mana control, but…”

Ezra released Aida, stepping away from her. Aida couldn’t read his expression, though his body language seemed to take on a deranged, jerky movement. “How did Levi find out?”

“I don’t know,” Aida stammered. “I think he said…some of my behaviors weren’t like Aida, and the things I said tipped him off…”

“So he didn’t depend on mana sensing?” Ezra asked, seemingly to himself. He lifted his eyes to the sky, as if the answers he wanted were up there.

“Are you all right?” Aida asked again, thoroughly unnerved. She had been expecting Ezra to think she was joking, or question her relentlessly about her claim, but she didn’t anticipate this particular line of questioning.

“I don’t know,” Ezra said, his voice strained. “You have just told me a preposterous truth, but it somehow makes sense in retrospect regarding all of our interactions.” He gave her a piercing, wide-eyed stare. “But if I were to accept that you are telling the truth: what happened to the real Aida? Is your arrival related to all the chaos we are starting to see? What are your intentions now that you are here?”

“I don’t know what happened to her - the real Aida,” Aida admitted. A chill ran down her spine. “If I somehow took over her body, I suppose it would make sense that she somehow took over mine. I hope.” She winced at the thought of Aida waking up in her body as Annie, and wondered at the havoc she might cause. Based on Levi’s careless insinuations, Aida really did seem particularly dull, not merely below average for the student population at Maglica. “And I can’t answer for whatever has been happening with the monster surges, but I can promise you I didn’t intentionally do anything to make all that happen.”

Ezra nodded slowly as he continued staring at her, his jaw tight. “And your true intentions?”

Aida wilted at his accusatory question. “I…I just want to do my best here.”

“You want to do your best here,” he repeated lowly. “For what reason? You don’t wish to return home?”

She took a deep breath, wrestling her tears at his harsh tone back. It’s not personal. He’s handling this bombshell quite well, all things considered.

“I…other than to see my family, I don’t have a desire to go home. But it’s more because…my future there is much bleaker than it is here.” Realizing how that sounded, Aida shook her head and said more forcefully, “Besides, it’s not like I’m deliberately trying to avoid going home - I haven’t found a single clue on how I could return home, so I’m not going to waste my time ignoring my mana abilities when I might very well end up trapped in Aida’s life for the rest of my life.”

Despite her bravado, she felt like crawling into a hole at Ezra’s mistrustful gaze. She had thought Levi’s scrutiny of her had been difficult to bear, but having someone she cared about - and who allegedly cared about her too - look at her with such cold distrust made her crumble.

“I-I know it’s hard to come to terms with, but I promise everything I did - I did it all in earnest. I never had any bad intentions.”

Ezra’s eyes darkened even more. “Forgive me for saying so, but how am I supposed to trust you are telling the truth when I can’t even differentiate you from Aida? How do I know you - through whatever demonic technique you may or may not have used - haven’t already killed my classmate’s soul? Perhaps you felt like you secured my loyalty, so are safe to finally reveal some of your secrets?” His words were like shards of broken glass stabbing through her lungs.

Annie was speechless. What can I even say to that? She knew his fears and questions were at least marginally justified, but it still hurt so much to be blatantly accused of being a killer.

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“I understand this is a lot to take in,” she said, unable to keep her voice from shaking. Ezra’s eyes were guarded and merciless, colder and more stiff than the very first time she had ever met him. “And you will need time to organize your thoughts. I’ll give you some space so that you can process all of this.” She hesitated, trying to find the right words to convince him that even though she wasn’t Aida, and their relationship was built around him thinking she was, she still cared about him. My feelings are genuine. I never mislead him about who I fundamentally am…

Unable to bear the cutting gaze Ezra directed at her, Aida quickly left the training ring, making a beeline for her room so that she could avoid her more diehard fans who hadn’t yet gotten bored of tailing her whereabouts.

“Watch out!” Aida skidded to a stop at the shrill warning, just narrowly avoiding trampling Lily. The small girl straightened from her panicked leap to the side as she checked the item in her hand, making sure everything was in order. “Where are you off to in such a rush?” she asked conversationally once she satisfied herself the small burst of purple was fine.

“Hey Lily - not much, I was just going to head back to my room. Going to do some reading,” Aida said with forced cheer. Lily peered beadily at Aida, her lips curled in a skeptical frown.

“Really? By yourself, instead of with Ezra?”

Aida squirmed, trying to inch around Lily. “Yeah, he’s busy with a thought experiment, so I thought I’d leave him to it. What are you doing?”

Brightening, Lily reverently held up the small pot she had been clutching. The flower she had seen was the size of Aida’s palm, and the five petals were thick and plushy, making it look like a chubby purple star. “Check this out! This is a hybridization of the harmony herb and the soother’s succulent. Healer Bokar mentioned how difficult it was to grow the harmony herb a while back, so I thought it would be fun to try to breed it.” Lily puffed out her chest with pride. “Do you want to go with me to see Bokar? I was on my way to show this to him.”

“Sure,” Aida said blithely. I can use the distraction. She paused, once she processed Lily’s words. “Wait a minute. Are you sure this is a safe plant to be around?”

“Of course it is!” Lily said indignantly. She shoved the flower towards Aida’s face, nearly forcing her to inhale the flower. “Look! You don’t feel woozy or anything, right?”

“You’re right,” Aida said, leaning away. “I’m just making sure, since Healer Luk said to be careful of—“

“That was once,” Lily said in exasperation. “And besides, I didn’t know anything back then! And nobody got hurt!”

“Of course,” Aida said soothingly, carefully placing her hands around Lily’s as she gently pressed the pot back towards the girl. She made sure to take shallow breaths until the flower was safely back under Lily’s care. “I believe you. Tell me more about how you…bred this herb. What are you calling it?”

“Ooo, I haven’t even thought of a name for it yet,” Lily said happily, looking down at the flower fondly. Now that Aida had time to observe it more, she noticed there was a plump little green dome beneath the flower, nestled within the soil. “The harmony herb is already a bit of a misnomer, since the herb’s effects are usually opposite of what the name implies…”

Lily continued prattling joyfully about the two plants she used to grow this one-of-a-kind sproutling as the two of them made their way onto the school grounds, heading towards the plain three-story building next to the woods that housed the school’s workers and visiting Affiliates. Aida made interested noises to encourage Lily’s recitation, keeping a cautious eye and sense out for Healer Vega.

“But you know…I don’t mean to sound ungrateful at all,” Lily said quietly, in a rare departure from her energetic personality. “But…sometimes I wonder if I really deserve to be at Maglica.”

“What?” Aida was caught off guard by the sudden change in topic. Lily laughed awkwardly, staring at the ground as she trudged forward.

“I mean, it’s kind of obvious that my interests are super different from everyone else’s…I don’t care about combat at all, or even the mana applications Lloyd teaches us. I just want to study plants, you know?” Lily sighed heavily, her breath blowing some of the soil out of the pot. “It didn’t really hit me until now that for the past two sun cycles, I’ve been studying things that I don’t care for. But last moon cycle when I was trying to grow this plant—“ she tenderly stroked a purple petal “—I’ve never felt so motivated. It took this long because I had to experiment a lot with different grow conditions, different plants, and different pollination techniques. It was so complex I had to start an entirely separate notebook for it.” Lily looked up at Aida with watery eyes, slowing to a stop.

“Even though I had fun growing random plants in my garden during my free time, what Bokar said about harvesting the potential of the harmony herb…it gave me direction, I guess. All of my plants were grown without purpose, but this soothed harmony succulent herb thing…” Lily looked back down at the treasured plant in her palms before looking back to Aida, her dark green eyes glimmering. “It was the first time I tried to grow something with a bigger goal in mind. Not just ‘I should grow something that tastes good for my friends and makes them happy,’ but…’I should grow something that can be used to save people,’ you know?”

Aida nodded silently, digesting Lily’s words. “You found purpose.”

Lily blinked, before a smile spread slowly across her face. “Yes! Exactly! I found purpose! I finally found something useful I can do with my plants - and I can learn while growing at the same time!”

Aida smiled at Lily, caught up in her enthusiasm. “That’s great! I’m so glad you found fulfillment in something you enjoy.”

“Is this how you feel about becoming a healer?” Lily asked as she resumed walking, her usual skip back in her steps.

Aida considered Lily’s question as she followed. They were approaching the Affiliates’ quarters now, and she could sense some of the occupants moving about in the building. “I don’t think so, not exactly,” Aida said thoughtfully. “I mean, I do want to help people…but if I’m honest, I’m more motivated by what’s possible with my skillset. If I had Sue or Ezra’s combat abilities…I wouldn’t mind joining an Adventuring group, for example.”

Lily sighed dejectedly. “I thought Maglica was supposed to make us the best versions of ourselves, but it seems like they’re just focused on churning out combat specialists…”

Lily’s words faded as she opened the door to the staff quarters, where a wave of agitated mana and raised voices swept over them.