“Well I've got to go back to practice. It was nice meeting you, Linth.” Killian waved his goodbye as he left. A little too cheerfully he left this sanctuary to the outside world where he no doubt would be ganged up on again.
The moment he was gone, both Hannah and Linth let out a sigh of relief. I felt their pain.
“He's not bad.” Hannah tried to reason with her better self.
“Just a little... Too weird.” They looked to each other and came to a quiet agreement.
Killian was very forward. When he wanted to talk he didn't hold back. He was joking but at times he showed consideration for others. But in my gut I suspected it was disingenuous. Because above all else, he seemed outwardly a go with the flow kind of person. He was probably just playing along.
Hannah was quite the opposite. She often spoke her mind bluntly. She didn't go with other people's flow, but set her own. Sharp tongued and bad tempered, if anyone bothered her then she'd make sure they knew.
And then there was Linth in the middle with her childish timidity. And yet if those shelves were anything to go by, she had a burning curiosity and love for reading.
The silence was palpable with Killian gone.
“I should probably get back to studying.” The tall wall between her and her dreams wasn't going anywhere at this rate.
“Um... How is your studying going? If you don't mind me asking.”
I could answer that. Poorly. Things that weren't about studying kept happening.
“Pretty good. Well, it's looking better.” Hannah corrected herself. The distant expression on her face made me wonder whether she was trying her hardest not to think how poorly it had been going.
There had been no breakthroughs. It was endlessly going over the same material she had at hand. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd memorised word for word the texts she had at home.
“Maybe I should ask Jean if she can lend me more help.” Hannah leaned back in her chair, mulling over her options.
“I don't think that will work.” Linth's cryptic reply caught Hannah's attention.
“Why not?”
Linth chewed her lip as though internally admonishing herself. “It's just, well, you know, umm... Sorry.”
She floundered like a fish out of water with all the composure of a child caught with her hand in the forbidden cookie jar. Hannah decided to throw her a rope. “Just a feeling?”
Linth nodded. “Yeah. That.”
Perhaps to escape the invasion of further uncomfortable silence, Hannah decided she'd take a walk to the canteen. It was close enough to lunch time anyway.
Linth's place was at her den. We'd never come across her anywhere else.
As we walked through the quieter parts of the Triolo, there was a question on my mind I'd been meaning to ask. The sight of the Cathedral looking down at us reminded me of something that had been mentioned earlier.
“That story you talked about.” I spoke up out of the blue. My ears told me there was next to nobody around. Not even birds nested in this part of the Triolo.
Hannah glanced behind her. “Oh, about how we found Linth?” I nodded. That story had bothered me. “Yeah, it's one hundred percent true.”
“How we met Linth?” Was that what it was about? “Why is now the first time I've felt like it's been brought up. This isn't some kind of prank, is it?” I pushed through a rising haze in my thoughts. It was entirely possible this was a prank. But there'd be some giveaways if this was some sort of confusing joke. Hannah would be smiling for starters.
But why was I asking? It was just a story about how we met Linth. I didn't really need to know or remember.
No, but I should remember. I was curious. Wouldn't anyone be curious if they'd forgotten how they met a friend? There was another element to the story. We hadn't just stumbled across Linth, we were visiting the ca-
It was a long time ago. What can I expect? Of course I'd forget. If it was anything I really cared about, I wouldn't have forgotten.
That was... True. I couldn't argue with that. But as much as I liked the taste of smoked salmon and ham, I couldn't actually remember how they tasted despite how much I loved them. Things slipped from people's minds no matter how much they tried to fight it. But this didn't have to do with ham. What did it have to do with again... There was me, Linth, no wait there wasn't a Linth yet. It was me and Hannah and we were on a walk. But didn't I get scared? I saw some-
Man, you haven't had breakfast yet have you? She forgot about that again.
Hannah suddenly turning to face me snapped me back out of my thoughts. She was at the edge of her patience over something. “I've brought it up loads of times. Loads. Why do you keep forgetting? I've brought it up so many times but you kept forgetting.”
I pause for a moment, unsure of what she's talking about. “Forgetting what?”
“The story! Oh my gods you are the worst cat a witch could ever ask for!”
“The story? What story? Where's this coming from?” There was a twisting feeling in my gut and a haze in my thoughts. It was a familiar haze. We had been talking about something. Were we talking about some sort of story?
One moment she looked just about ready to kill me, but the next moment her expression of frustration abated. “Adam... Is there something wrong?” The tone was charged with concern.
Something wrong? There wasn't anything wrong. Well besides me being cursed to look like a cat, all was well and truly good with the world. Well mostly good if you removed the people who lived on said world from the equation.
“This happens a lot Adam.” She crouched down, bringing herself closer to eye level. It was a difficult task considering my height.
“What happens a lot?” I felt patronised but I kept myself from snapping. Somewhere deep down, I knew she was right.
What were we talking about?
Don't think about it.
Don't think about what?
“Nevermind.” Hannah shook her head with a disappointed sigh.
A tightness gripped my chest. This was wrong. Something was wrong. What were we talking about it? I needed to know otherwise this chance would pass me by into oblivion.
No, don't get up. Don't stand up and turn your back. Remind me. Remind me of what? I've forgotten. But I need to remember. Remember what? Open your mouth Adam, stop her from walking away.
But what would I say?
What did I want to say?
And suddenly the haze disappeared. I was left standing where I was. Hannah was walking away, fists clenched and with a sour expression on her face. And for whatever reason, I couldn't remember why.
We continued to the canteen, sat down, and Hannah had some lunch in eerie silence. Of course, it's not like we would ever chat openly here but even so the silence felt uncomfortable.
The canteen was always one torturous experience for me. Tables of lunch trays and students with their heads turned towards eachother. They were perfectly distracted. And yet I knew the result of stealing food.
I could beg for food. That usually yielded results. But Hannah didn't like it and I certainly didn't like the idea of begging for anything.
Spacious and wide, this room could well have been a mess hall for the clergymen who once lived here. The tantalising scent of meat drifted it's way into my nose from the connected kitchen.
It was still early for lunch so the canteen wasn't packed. Even saying that though Hannah stood out by sitting alone by herself when so many were sitting in clusters and idly chatting.
And then a familiar face came to sit down next to us.
“So feel happy about rescuing Killian?” He set his lunch tray down and shot Hannah a spiteful glare. He had walked towards us with a curious limp in his legs.
Hannah returned the glare and he instantly crossed his legs. It was Kyle. I shrunk back guardedly. There was the possibility he was here for revenge. He was alone and in a very open and public space though so the suspicion abated.
“Aren't you supposed to be in practice or something?” Hannah pointed out. “Killian left earlier. You two share the same classes right?”
Kyle didn't answer immediately but his expression did sour at the mention of Killian. “Why you...” He gritt his teeth, holding back his anger. “You kicked me so hard I can't walk properly.”
“Oh really?” Hannah raised a smug eyebrow. “Bruised are they?”
“It hurts to walk.”
“I did notice the limp.”
I felt the undeniable urge to curl up into a ball and cease existing. With every word she dug a hole for herself, deeper and deeper.
Had it not dawned on her that this guy would be further trouble down the line? But she was in a foul temper. Every crack of her verbal whip helped ease her bad mood.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Kyle, for what it was worth, sat there and took it. At the very least, he hadn't stood up and thrown a punch yet. “Please stop,” He pleaded. “You're being a real dick about this. What did I do to you?”
Hannah tapped her finger impatiently on the desk as she rested her chin on her palm. “I guess, not much really.” She admitted after a reluctant pause.
Hmm... She was distracted. I wonder if I could...
I shrunk back to my spot the moment Hannah threw a loaded glare in my direction. I wouldn't be stealing any food today then. At least, not from Hannah anyway.
“Yeah. That's right. Nothing. Nothing at all and I get kicked in the nuts. You're a dick.” Kyle announced a little too loudly. His voice was boisterous. He was a big lad with a big presence.
“You were going to beat someone up. Was I supposed to sit back and do nothing? Stopping that is reason enough for any sane person.” Hannah leaned up in her chair, crossing her arms.
A deep scowl twisted Kyle's face. “That Killian isn't a very nice guy. You probably have no idea what he's like.” From where we were sitting, Kyle didn't seem like a very nice guy himself. “Okay okay, let's be civil here. I don't want to pick a fight with you.”
“I'm not surprised-”
“No, seriously. Stop. Don't be a dick.” Kyle growled. “I'm not joking here. I'm coming here offering a white peace. Just shut up and listen.”
This was definitely worth hearing out. We could get back to things that really mattered after accepting this peace.
Hannah furrowed her brows, not appreciating being talked over. “Fine. Just so you know, I'm gonna get up and leave the moment you start talking about witches or bad luck.” It was an easy request. “On friday, you were in Riker's office right?”
“Huh? Yeah. I won't hide it.” So his was the same gang who beat up Killian and left him there in Riker's office. “What about it?”
“Did you steal from her office?” Tactlessly, bluntly, unashamedly she might as well have just straight up accused him.
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs that it was obviously Mather and not Kyle.
“What? No! Why would I do that?” Kyle shook his head, dumbstruck by the sudden question. “What the hell man? If anybody is gonna steal anything it'd be Killian!”
The accusation caught us both by surprise.
And then a third lunch tray hit the table surface. “Hey Kyle, how come you're having all the fun talking to the witch all by yourself.”
Hannah immediately stood up.
“Wait, hold up, don't go! Ah damn it Teel you dumbass!” Kyle launched a rant at the new entry to the conversation.
Just as Hannah stepped away from the table, she sighed and sat back down. The other two fell into silence with Teel, the new boy, looking rather exasperated.
Kyle let go of Teel's collar. The new boy was a lot smaller than Kyle. He wore glasses and I didn't recognise him from the gang that accompanied Kyle that morning. He had a genuine friendly smile on him, even if he was a little taken aback by Kyl'e outburst.
“Oh I'm sorry, do you not like the rumours?” To Teel's question Hannah answered with only the most deadpanned glares she could muster.
Kyle let out a sigh. “It's just a joke. Nobody actually thinks you're a witch.” Hannah was not going to feel better about that.
Teel scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “I'm the one who started the rumours actually. Sorry if you didn't like them. I just thought it suited you.” Just like that, Teel went from Hannah's bad books to her good books in one swift motion.
I had to fight to suppress my laugh at how hard Hannah struggled to keep a stoic unfriendly glare on her face.
“If Teel is bothering you, just give me the word and I'll throw him into a bin.”
“No it's fine.” Hannah waved away Kyle's threat. “Maybe I'll cast one of my trademarked 'curses' on him later.”
“Trademarked?” Teel tilted his head quizzically.
“Teel, are you here just to piss me off?”
This was the liveliest lunch with Hannah I had ever seen. Most of the time, her table was empty. The invisible walls between her and others evident. And yet here we were. Kick one guy between the legs and the walls came crashing down.
Despite going on and on about how Linth needed to learn how to make friends, Hannah herself had evident deficits in that area as well. Killian, Kyle, Teel, all new people were making themselves known.
“Anyway, ignore Mr Grumps here, my name's Teel. It's nice to talk to you for the first time.” Despite his joking attitude, I could tell just from Teel's eyes he was sincere.
Never the less, this was still someone who spread rumours about others in their spare time.
Hannah hesitated as Teel stretched out his hand. “I'm Hannah. Likewise I guess?” She lamely shook Teel's hand.
Kyle watched this exchange with an ambivalent expression. All too fast he'd been sidelined as Teel and Hannah began making small talk. For a solid three minutes, he barely said a word before finally. “Teel, I was trying to talk to Hannah about something serious before you came.”
“Oh c'mon, it's not like I could start a convo myself with the third most popular girl at the Triolo.”
“Number three?” Hannah raised an eyebrow at Teel's mysterious deceleration.
Teel grinned slyly. “I'll let you in on a secret if you promise to keep it.”
Who was she going to snitch to? The Nurse?
“Here at the academy, I am the chairman of the unofficial popularity charts and you rank in at number three.” Teel shot Hannah congratulatory finger guns. His enthusiasm died a little when he noticed Hannah's disapproving stare.
I on the other hand wondered what sort of criteria were these people being ranked by. That Hannah the bad-tempered would rank in at third place in a popularity contest made me pretty suspect of some sort of bias from the chairman.
Teel, sensing the heat rising from Kyle next to him and the judgement rising in Hannah's gaze, tried to quickly change the subject. “So what were you two going to talk about?”
“None of your business.” Kyle menaced.
“He was going to tell me why everyone is picking on Killian.”
Teel raised a brow in surprise. “Meaning you don't know?”
“I heard he had some problematic political views but that's about it.” Hannah trailed off. “Why? Is there something else I should know?”
Teel laughed nervously and Kyle winced. They looked at eachother as though asking where they should even begin.
I got a very bad feeling rising in the pit of my stomach.
Kyle started. “firstly, he's a thief.”
“They found a classmate's missing necklace in his luggage during a dorm inspection.” Teel elaborated. Teel was the counterbalance to Kyle's bluntness.
That certainly was new news to us. We didn't have to take it at face value though. “It could have been planted there.”
“No, he owned up to it.” Teel dismissed Hannah's defence quickly. “He didn't have much choice. She knew it was him who stole it. Apparently they grew up together and she claimed he'd always been quite nasty like that.”
“He's still not given up on that necklace.” Kyle grumbled to himself.
Still, being a thief didn't warrant the sort of reprisal they had planned for him. They had gotten the necklace back, right? All that needed to happen was to make sure he never stole it again.
Hannah crossed her arms, her lips pursed shut and a strained look on her forehead. She probably didn't understand what this had to do with her. If I was in Hannah's head, she'd probably be thinking something along the lines of 'that sounds like a you problem.'
“He might be a really nice guy, uh... sometimes? I dunno but here's the thing.” Teel pressed his finger on the table as he leaned forward. “He can be really nasty.”
“He just doesn't get the message.” Kyle stabbed at the food on his tray. “The shit he said to her and then to us? Somebody had to teach him a lesson. The last straw was when he punched her. I don't care if you believe our side of the story or not, but if you try and step in and stop us again like this morning, you'll be picking a side.”
At Kyle's overt threat Teel jumped in, arms raised. “Woah there, let's not be too hasty. Picking fights is one thing but making new enemies is another. Let's be chill and friends here.”
Hannah had patiently listened to everything that was said. If she was shocked, she didn't show it.
I on the other hand hadn't expected this. People are complex things. They had many faces and many sides that only came out in certain environments. Like switches connected to invisible mechanisms, people were unpredictable. Never assume when meeting a stranger for the first time you've really met them.
This could all have been a lie. But if so, Teel and Kyle were both in on it. It felt unlikely. Teel didn't seem the kind of person to harbour malice. Kyle was being straightforward and blunt with his issues. Never the less, people's perspectives were fickle and prone to bias. How small were the odds that they let their perspective be influenced by Killian's side of the story? Or if that blithering idiot had half a braincell to even give one.
Hannah didn't look particularly shaken by Kyle's threat. Finally after a long spell of silence she let slip her thoughts. “I just don't see why I should care?” This took them both by surprise, but she didn't give them time to recover. “What's going on here is between you guys.”
“You don't care that Killian stole from and hurt my friend?” Kyle lurched upwards from his seat.
Teel began to shy away nervously. “Guys, peace yeah?”
With tension once again rising, a single look from Hannah made clear what she thought of Kyle. “You got the necklace back, didn't you? So what's the problem?” Before Hannah's composure, Kyle looked like a child about to throw a tantrum.
“He punched my friend!” Kyle had a good point. This was not an alienable perspective to Hannah who had chased down a gang of children for attacking me despite her being in a bad condition at the time.
“And you beat up Killian again and again. So you've got you're revenge, haven't you?” And yet Hannah continued. Conflict felt inevitable if this new attitude of hers didn't go away.
“Would you just sit back whilst your friend was being insulted to their face?” Kyle asked with barely concealed venom in his tone.
Hannah narrowed her eyes and turned her cheek apathetically. “How long has this been going on? If your friend is still finding new ways to feel insulted by what Killian says, that's her problem.”
Ah geez, why did she have to say it like that?
That friend of Kyle had been physically and verbally assaulted as well as stolen from. It didn't matter how much time passed, Killian's presence would always unsettle and upset her. I didn't know who Kyle's classmate was, but I could sympathise with their pain.
I felt like I could trust Kyle and Teel as well. At least, I felt like I could trust these two far more than Killian. But then again, I'd already described Kyle's gang as opportunistic for beating Killian up in Riker's office.
“If I have to chose between two evils, I'm going to end up losing either way. So I don't care.” Hannah lifted her tray of half eaten food off the table. “You two can fight it out. Just don't do it infront of me.”
She left Kyle and Teel behind. Kyle looked tempted to chase her down there and then but raised voices had already gotten the attention of quite a few students. It'd have been a bad look for a fight to break out in the canteen, and thankfully Teel was there to pull on Kyle's shoulder before he took one step too far.
Hannah left her tray in the canteen and headed out with a stormy expression. “Why me? Always me.”
Knowing her, she hoped that both Kyle and Killian would miracilously take themselves out in one epic battle so she'd never have to look at them again. At the very least, that's what I was hoping for anyway. I had to sit through that conversation in hunger whilst they chose to gossip instead of eat the perfectly fine food they had on their trays infront of them.
At the pace Hannah was walking, I had to run to keep up. This was awkwardly difficult. One step from her covered a distance of four steps from me.
She waited the rest of her break out pacing back and forth in the library. A rather bored librarian rested her cheek on her palm as she lazily flipped through an open book on her desk.
The library was massive. Shelf upon shelf of books reached as high as the ceiling. It would be impossible to reach for the top without a tall stepladder. The only one who knew where everything was, was the librarian with her index.
Nobody was allowed into the library with their bag. If the Librarian caught you smuggling a tome out under your clothes, apparently that was licence enough for the academy to suspend you.
The methods they used to keep tomes with more restricted access out of reach of the students was ingenious. They kept them literally out of reach. The only stepladder was kept in view of the librarian.
Despite being a library, the place was far from quiet. The was always a subdued amount of background noise. Idle chatter from groups studying around tables, and every now and then a professor would appear to return or borrow books. They'd flash some written form of consent to do so from the headmaster.
Hannah, not having been born with the blessing of great height, couldn't just lift the tomes she was eyeing off the shelves. Climbing them would lead to a suspension.
Whilst Hannah perused the shelves, simmering in quiet anger, I sat some distance away.
It was definitely something I said, I decided. At some point, or in some way, I must have said the wrong thing. This ire was definitely directed at me.
I didn't have much evidence for this, but after having spent twelve years around Hannah, I could pick up the subtleties. The clues were in the small things. Her walking speed, how long she held doors open, and just in general a refusal to even look at me.
She was acting like she didn't have a cat. That's was fine with me. Vaguely. Admittedly, I was a little nervous thinking about how when I'd next be fed.
I got back up onto my feet and decided to roam. There was little point in sticking to one place.
Sauntering beneath the shadows of the shelves, I seemed to go unnoticed. This place might have been fun for me if I had thumbs to help me go through the literature gathered here.
Passing by shelf after shelf, always with my eyes and ears open to anyone approaching, until I drew to a stop at a quite despairing sight. It was a sight that reminded me of why I was kinda glad in this form I didn't need to get involved with so many people.
Standing, open book in one hand and a strange metal object in another, was Killian.
Hannah hadn't noticed. She was on the opposite side of this shelf and I imagined if she pulled out the right book in the right place she'd catch a glimpse of joker.
He had lied about going to practice. But that wasn't all. I recognised that metal object to be similar to the many that I'd seen heaped on the tables in Riker's office.
Mentally I cursed. In the back of my mind, a smug phantom of the Mather I was eager to accuse laughed indignantly at me. Right next to the professor, an imaginary Kyle yelled 'I told you so!'