The mood in the rest of the school was noticeably sour the next star cycle. The teachers had put up a notice forbidding students from leaving the school during their rest days, and had even strictly limited their access areas. The students were now effectively confined to the barrier the instructors had set up, and after two weeks the students were starting to complain.

Caleb was forlorn. Even he wasn’t allowed to return to Buddington Town on the rest days to help his parents, despite having arranged for golem transport. When Aida had asked him how he felt about it, he responded despondently that he understood it was for the best. She ached with him, wondering how his parents would handle the business without him.

“They’ll be able to manage,” Caleb murmured. “They will have to spend some more baen to pay the workers for the shifts we would cover, but that’s the price to pay for safety.”

“Are you going to stay during the recess?” Aida asked hesitantly. “It seems like a good time to visit with your parents.”

Caleb’s cheeks pinked. “I think I will stay for the Old Moon Festival and a few days after, and then possibly return home for the New Sun Festival.”

Aida nodded enthusiastically. “That makes sense! See your family and friends for the new year.”

“Yes, and then I will be able to make some more preparations so my parents don’t need to rely on outside labor so much when more of my time is occupied with the sponsored assignments.” Aida glanced curiously at him, but he didn’t seem inclined to explain. He steeled himself to say something, but before he could, they were interrupted by a pompous throat clear.

Peeking over her shoulder, Aida was surprised to see Pritchard standing behind her, with his hands tucked behind his back. At the table on the far side of the dining room, she could see Pritchard’s friends trying to unobtrusively offer moral support, quickly hunching back to their breakfast trays when they caught her looking.

“May I please speak with you?” he asked stiffly. “…in private.”

Aida frowned, glancing back at a bemused Caleb. He didn’t seem to be defensive, and Aida couldn’t sense any malicious intent from Pritchard. She wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of wandering off with him, though, despite his - at the moment - seeming harmlessness.

“No offense, but…” Aida trailed off, unsure how to voice her discomfort without antagonizing him. “…maybe we can talk here?”

Pritchard fidgeted, glancing at Caleb. The uncharacteristic deference was perplexing and stirring some alarm in her.

Caleb glanced at Aida questioningly. She shrugged back.

“I’ll go drop our trays off,” Caleb said quietly, nodding at the dining hall entrance. “And I’ll wait for you there.”

Pritchard stood still as Caleb departed, his face red as he struggled with some internal turmoil. Aida cautiously rose from her seat, moving to the other side of the table and claiming Caleb’s chair. “Do you want to sit?”

He walked robotically over, dropping into the seat Aida had vacated. They stared at each other - or more accurately, Aida stared at him while the muscles around his lips worked furiously, his own gaze aimed at his fingers laced tightly together.

Pritchard’s mana was superficially calm, but she could sense that underneath the veneer of stillness he was roiling. His jaw worked as he attempted to open his mouth.

After a few moments of watching Pritchard struggle, Aida finally took pity on him. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”

Pritchard closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “I wanted to apologize.”

Aida felt her eyes widen. “I beg your pardon?”

“I apologize,” Pritchard repeated. He began rambling, as if he had a whole speech memorized, but was so nervous that he stumbled over his words. She caught the words “my actions,” “insecurities,” “unwarranted vengeance,” and other generally apologetic phrases.

“I…I appreciate your apology,” Aida said lamely, when Pritchard had finally stumbled to a halt. She wasn’t sure what he was expecting with this interaction, but she would much prefer it if they could just keep doing what they’ve been doing these past couple moon cycles - ignore each other.

Pritchard nodded, his face red, but his posture visibly more relaxed. Even his mana was starting to move more naturally, wisps of it beginning to swirl around his person.

“That’s all I wanted to say.” Pritchard got out of the chair, his arms stiff at his sides. He jerked an awkward nod towards her, not meeting her gaze. “Thank you for hearing me out.”

Before Aida could even think of a response, he scampered out of the dining hall, a light comical cloud of dust kicking up behind his heels. Aida looked after him in disbelief.

Did that just happen? Pritchard found the maturity to apologize, and not use that opportunity to demand a response from her?

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“I take it his apology went well?” Aida looked up at Dev. He smirked lightly at her mystified expression.

“Where did that come from?”

“Professor Gemma has been having regular mentoring sessions with him,” Dev said softly. “She said it’s shameful for a practitioner to so easily fall victim to the whims of his desires…and also that he needs to grow up and learn the world won’t bend to an individual’s will.”

“Wow.” Aida was impressed. Maybe the teachers weren’t as useless as she had thought. She was struck with a sudden thought, and she looked at Dev with apprehension. “Is Pritchard hoping that we’ll be friends?”

Dev met her eyes, and his flinty blue eyes seemed to thaw a bit as a smile crossed his face. “No. But I am.”

Aida felt a shiver run down her spine. “Well, I guess that might be a possibility now that Pritchard is less against my existence. I’ll see you in class.” Sliding away from Dev, Aida sped towards where Caleb was waiting.

“Is everything all right?” Caleb asked, looking at her with concern. He glanced behind her, a slight frown on his face. Aida pulled on his sleeve, hurrying him out of the dining hall.

“Pritchard apologized - can you believe that?”

“Really?” Caleb asked, startled. “Was it sincere?”

“He didn’t follow it up with any other demands, so I guess it was sincere.” Aida dragged Caleb out through the front doors of the school, where she was certain she had placed enough barriers between her and Dev in the dining hall.

“If the apology was sincere, why are you so agitated?”

“Dev!”

“What?”

“I can’t get a read on Dev,” Aida hissed. “Earlier this moon cycle, he insinuated that he deliberately lost his match against Lara so that he could be placed in Class 2.”

Caleb’s brow furrowed as he frowned. “That’s odd. Why would he do that on purpose? Especially when their clan’s heir selection will be happening so soon.”

Aida felt the heat rise up her neck. She had a suspicion, but it would be so egotistical to say it out loud. Caleb leaned down, bringing his face in front of hers so he could peer into her eyes. His violet eyes blinked innocently, the corners of his lips turned down in a small pout.

“Aida?” he reached out, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

She was enveloped in a whiff of earthy musk - Aida had never noticed Caleb’s scent before. Was it the first time she was close enough to smell him? Or had Dev set her so on edge that she finally noticed these minor details? To be fair, it is very light…

“Aida, are you all right?” Caleb repeated. He placed the back of his hand on her forehead. “You’re burning.”

She stepped back several paces, pulling away from Caleb’s touch. She rubbed her cheeks, taking a deep breath to recenter herself.

“I’m fine.” She opened her eyes, looking at Caleb. He looked so nonplussed. She couldn’t help but smile at his cluelessness. I wouldn’t know what to say in his position, either. Her theory couldn’t possibly make sense. She was a side character. Side characters weren’t meant to have romantic relationships.

Or was it acceptable, since Dev was also a side character?

Aida staggered as the obvious thought struck her. Can it be? But he was the scion of a powerful family in this world - and she was just the daughter of a lowly sanitation family.

She almost felt ill at the possibilities that opened up before her. Because why couldn’t she try kindling a romance with someone who was all the way up there? Especially if he was also interested - it wasn’t like she went after him first. And he wasn’t off-limits like all the other male leads in this world - the ones who were safely earmarked for Sue.

“Aida!”

She was broken from her reverie by Caleb’s incessant shaking. He had her by both shoulders, and was now looking thoroughly alarmed. “Do I need to bring you to Healer Luk?”

“No,” she managed. “No, I’m okay…I just had a lot to think about.”

“Aida! What are you up to?” Sue’s soprano sang through the air as she skipped over to them. She was dressed in her typical rest day attire: a comfortable blouse and shorts. “Were you guys going to try to sneak out of school? I’ll help!” She had a feral smile on her face.

“No, we can’t,” Caleb said, looking scandalized at her suggestion. “What if we were attacked by something worse than a charred zard?”

“I was just joking,” Sue said, sticking her tongue out at him. “But what are you guys going to do? It’s so boring since we aren’t allowed to go anywhere now.”

“Well, Aida was—“

“Do you guys want to help me train?” Aida asked hopefully, interrupting Caleb. She didn’t want to know how Sue would react if she got ahold of Aida’s suspicions. It was one thing to tease Ezra with Sue, but she had a feeling Levi and Sue’s teasing would get extremely out of hand. “It’s been a couple moon cycles since placement matches, so I want to see how much I’ve improved in Class 2!”

Sue’s groan transformed from annoyed to interested as Aida completed her thought. “Yeah, actually! That might be fun! At least this training session will be less pressure than the other training sessions.”

Aida turned her gaze to Caleb, smiling brightly. He hesitated.

“I suppose, since there’s not much else we can do at the moment,” he agreed reluctantly.

Sue did a small happy dance, throwing off sparkles as she shimmied her shoulders. “Yay! This will be so much fun - we haven’t had a chance to spar since first year, Aida!”

“Wait, I don’t want a real spar,” Aida protested. “Can we just compare our abilities against the training dummies?”

“Nope!” Sue declared cheerfully. “We’re beyond training dummies! Don’t worry Aida, I won’t go hard against you - let’s see what you’ve got!”