Aida dropped off Ezra’s lunch tray with an apology, explaining her encounter with Professor Gemma to him. He looked concerned, offering to go to the office with her, but she declined his offer. “Can you imagine the fuss Healer Luk will make if she sees you? She’ll probably lock you in the healing ward until dinner.”
“She already discharged me,” Ezra refuted. He put the tray on his work table. “I’m coming with you.”
“You shouldn’t—“
“If they really are going to talk about the monster we encountered, I want to know.”
“But you haven’t eaten—“
“I’ll skip class to eat, since I’m technically still supposed to be on bed rest.”
“You’re so ornery now,” Aida teased as they headed back down the stairs. “Are you sure you don’t need a good nap in your luxurious bed? Or a full meal for your tummy? The healing ward’s accommodations must have been miserable for one of your esteem.”
“I’m not so delicate that I cannot handle the same conditions that you peasants experience,” Ezra grumbled. “Although I will concede I am not used to being knocked out.”
Aida made a face at him before she knocked on the instructors’ lounge door. The door opened immediately.
“Miss Loreh, please come in - Mister Riolt, what a pleasant surprise to see you up and about,” Gemma said in surprise. “We only wish to speak to Miss Loreh, so you may return to your room.”
“If you are discussing the monster from the lake, I believe it is only fair that I am present for the conversation as well.”
Gemma hesitated, glancing back to her colleagues in the room. “…This is not going to be a pleasant conversation.”
“Just let him in,” Professor Kozu said from the back. His voice was frosty. “Having Mister Riolt in the room isn’t going to make it any worse for her.”
Worse for me? Aida stepped in nervously, feeling her body lock up despite her improved dexterity from the past month. Kozu had an angry look on his face, his uninjured eye narrowed in a slit to the same size as his burned eye. He was glaring at Professor Havi, who had his nose raised loftily as he stared down his nose at her. Professor Lloyd’s lower lip was jutting out in dissatisfaction, also side-eyeing Havi. Professor Bruce looked only mildly disturbed, which compared to his original demeanor, meant he was extremely disturbed. Gemma looked resigned as she shut the door behind her and Ezra.
“Please take a seat,” she said quietly to Aida and Ezra, pulling up two chairs for them at the table. She went to stand against the wall, crossing her arms and looking deeply unhappy.
“Would you like to start us off, Havi?” Kozu asked sarcastically, after a minute of Aida and Ezra staring at the teachers. “Don’t bother with a speech, no amount of nectar is going to make whatever you want to say palatable.”
Feeling the pit in her stomach grow heavier, she looked at Havi, who had the courtesy to lower his nose slightly. “Very well,” he said stiffly. He cleared his throat, speaking in a stronger voice. “Can you please, Miss Loreh, explain once again, what you did when you were at the lake on Spark Day evening?”
“I told you, Ezra and I were taking a walk, sensed something off, and then we both investigated the source of the unfamiliar mana, which came from the Lake,” Aida said blankly. “There’s literally nothing else. Did you find something?”
“Miss Loreh, have you noticed anything odd during your trips to the lake prior to Spark?” Bruce asked gently. “Did you experiment with your mana at the lake, perhaps, or anything else?”
“I’ve used the water from the Lake for my training,” Aida admitted, furrowing her brow. What are they looking for? “But I’ve never noticed anything out of the ordinary.”
“And to clarify, you’ve never used your mana to create anything at the Lake? Just Water Manipulation?” Lloyd asked, leaning forward.
“Correct,” Aida agreed, her confusion growing. “Just Water Manipulation.” Technically true, because Freeze was just manipulating the water’s molecular structure, as the Lake had taught her. But with the hostility in the room, she wasn’t going to admit to anything more.
Kozu exhaled noisily. “I think we can agree that beating around the bush isn’t going to get us anywhere,” he said, renewing his glare at Havi. He turned to Aida, sparks snapping in the air around him. Despite his aggression, she had a feeling his ire wasn’t directed at her. “Aida, ‘we’ have suspicions about you, and therefore have a few questions we hope your answers can help clear up.” He threw a nasty look at Havi. “Given your academic performance the past two years, how did you go from being consistently ranked 30th to being ranked 15th this year?”
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Aida felt her heart lodge in her throat. Stick to the truth. The truth is your anchor. “Well…you changed the point system this year,” she said slowly, fighting to keep her voice steady. She took a steadying breath. “The other years, you determined rankings based purely on number of matches won. If we had followed the same format this year, then I would probably be ranked no higher than 20th. Would that ranking have been too unbelievable?”
“Thank you,” Kozu said crisply. “A follow up question: you have put in significantly more effort this year than previous years. Why is that?”
Aida pressed her lips together, focusing to keep her heart from beating out of control. How much truth can I stick to? “…My parents. They are planning to marry me off. When I graduate.” Next to her, Ezra shifted slightly. Her voice cracked. My real parents never saw me as a burden. “I…don’t want that. So I’m trying to make something of my life. Something of my own.”
The room was silent, though Aida couldn’t get a read on the atmosphere. Her mana was too unstable for her to get any clarity on everyone else’s mood. She was just as blind as the tears in her eyes made her.
“I believe I know what you are trying to say,” Ezra said from next to her. His voice was steely. “And if it is what I suspect…I firmly refute your conjecture.”
Aida swiped the tears from her eyes, looking up at Ezra. What is he saying?
“I’m inclined to agree with Mister Riolt,” Kozu said, tapping his fingers on the desk impatiently. “There is no way Miss Loreh has the capacity to do what you’ve suggested. A significant jump in rankings, in conjunction with the new system we’ve implemented this year, is too large of a variable to support your hypothesis.”
“What are you all saying?” Aida demanded.
“You are being accused of bringing about the monster,” Ezra said lowly. She whipped her head to him, aghast. He didn’t look at her, but was instead glaring directly at Havi. A tic worked in his jaw. She whipped back to the teachers, but none of them gave any indication that Ezra was wrong.
“Why?!”
“As part of our duties in ensuring we understand everything that happens on school grounds, I put forth a possible cause to explain the oddities we've observed. It was merely to serve as a starting point of discussion,” Havi said stiffly. “But I can see that no one else thinks there is merit in this hypothesis.”
“Causation doesn’t equate to correlation!” Aida said, outraged. “Is there a reason you don’t suspect other, stronger practitioners? What about Lara Lorr? Haven’t you seen her in the placement matches? She’s ruthless!”
“Enough,” Lloyd said, raising a hand. “It was not an accusation,” he said, addressing Ezra, “it was merely a suspicion, and we had to do our due diligence to explore all possibilities. That was why we asked for Aida only, just to get some more details ironed out so that we could eliminate this most unlikely of options on the list.”
Aida bit her response back. Law enforcement would do scummy underhanded tactics like this: bring an unsuspecting suspect in under the guise of collaboration, and then pin the crime on the suspect as soon as they said something even remotely incriminating. Fortunately, it seemed like of the five teachers, only one was inclined to believe that she had the motive or the method of creating the monster that hurt Ezra.
“If you have satisfied your curiosity, then Aida and I will be taking our leave now,” Ezra said coldly. Grabbing her by the wrist, he pulled her out of her chair, casting a scathing look over his shoulder as he lead the way out.
Ezra let her go when they had reached the end of the hallway, far away from the teachers’ lounge. “My apologies,” he murmured, gesturing at her hand. “I may have gripped too hard.”
Aida folded back the sleeves of her blazer and long-sleeved shirt. She had instinctively used Defense Up when he grabbed her so she didn’t really feel any pain, but there was still a faint bruise. “Looks like it’s okay. I can just heal it up really quickly.” She looked back up at him. “Thank you for standing up for me in there.”
Ezra shook his head, silver eyes glimmering with anger at the accusation. “Even if what they say is true, that they’re just evaluating all possibilities, that’s too far.” He bit his lip, looking like he was swallowing words.
“But…if it really is true, that might mean they don’t have any other likely explanations,” Aida said softly. “They’re out of ideas…they don’t know what that monster is, or how it came to be here…so they don’t know what might happen later.” A chill went down her spine. She was a lot more sympathetic to the staff now. They were shaking all the trees, trying to find a clue so that they could plan their defenses accordingly…but if they didn’t have an explanation, they wouldn’t know what to expect at all. They were hamstrung by the lack of information.
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Down the hall, the door to the lounge opened, and the teachers trudged out in a line. The fact that they still had classes to attend seemed so incongruous with the danger and uncertainty lurking over them. Aida shook her head, bewildered. Just when she thought she had settled into a comfortable routine, things had to get shaken up again.
Ezra sighed. “I’m going to go eat my lunch. Let’s have dinner together?”
Aida smiled. “Let’s do it.” Waving goodbye to each other, Aida watched him head up the staircase. As soon as he turned the landing, she dropped her hand.
Even though she was outraged that Havi had the gall to accuse her of deliberately unleashing something that dangerous, and accusing her of cheating somehow in order to tie the two events together, a part of her wondered if he was the only one who might be on to something. The series of questions had been heading inevitably towards revealing Aida’s secret, and if it wasn’t for Ezra interjecting himself into the questioning they might very well have uncovered enough answers to make her look extremely suspicious. Suspicious enough that they would probe deeper into her, and she wasn’t confident she could keep ahead of them.
I may not have intended to unleash the monster, but what if my arrival into this world is related?
The warning bell rang, causing Aida to sprint to her next class.