Violet was hopeful as the graded assignment landed in her inbox. She took a brief look around the room and saw her fellow classmates reacting to their grades. Some cursed silently, others smiled, while a few just shrugged as if they’d gotten exactly what they expected. Violet wished she could be like one of the shruggers. But to be honest, she had no idea what to expect.

The class was Political Science, taught by Professor Piotr Volny. It was generally regarded as one of the most difficult to pass, but there were also rumors that Professor Volny played favorites.

Violet worked up the courage to open the message and couldn’t believe what she saw. Instead of her grade, she found a note:

See me after class.

Violet’s heart pounded in her chest. This couldn’t be good, right?

She spent the next hour in torturous agony as Professor Volny droned on about the importances of cross-system trading and the forging of strong shipping alliances while Violet nervously chewed at a stubborn flap of dead skin on her thumb. Finally, the alert tone rang out, signaling the end of class. She slowly gathered her note tablet and water bottle together, placed them in her bag, and then waited as her classmates filtered past her on their way to their next class or training session. Violet was actually supposed to have a scheduled break between this class and her next. She’d planned on hitting the gym to get a few reps in with the gladius on a training dummy, but that plan was probably shot to shit.

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice the lecture hall had emptied out.

“Miss Weaver,” Professor Volny said with a wide smile. “Thank you for staying after. Please, forgive my cryptic message. You must be wondering, why?” Volny spoke with an accent that belied his upbringing on one of the outer system worlds where some cultures still spoke non-Common languages as their primary dialect.

“Did cross my mind…” Violet stood and slowly made her way down to the stage where Volny was stuffing some papers and folders into his satchel.

He finished and hopped down from the stage before Violet arrived, pointing to some chairs in the front row. He looked to be middle-aged, perhaps mid-forties to mid-fifties, but he moved like a much younger man. He was not unattractive, but neither was he particularly good-looking. He had the look of someone you’d seen before, but would forget as soon as you weren’t looking at them anymore.

“Please, let me assuage any nervousness I may have caused.”

Violet sat, and Volny sat beside her, uncomfortably close. There was literally every chair in the room to pick from and yet he chose to sit directly beside her. His knee brushed against Violet’s and she drew her legs back unconsciously, switching her weight to her other hip while her upper body remained twisted to face the professor.

“So, what was it you wanted to see me for?” Violet asked, hoping this wasn’t about to get weird between a female student and a male member of the teaching staff.

Volny gazed down in the direction of Violet’s lap. Where, exactly, he was staring, Violet couldn’t tell, but she crossed her legs and shifted her hips again.

“You look uncomfortable,” Volny said. “Perhaps I should sit over here?” He indicated the next chair over.

Violet felt both relieved and foolish upon hearing the suggestion. Perhaps she was imagining things where they were not.

“No that’s fine,” Violet grinned awkwardly, trying to dispel the embarrassment she felt. “I’m just worried that I did something wrong.”

“Nothing of the sort, dear Violet,” Volny said, shaking his head. “In fact, you scored in the eighty-ninth percentile on the assignment, so, congratulations!”

Violet beamed and a wave of relief washed over her. She needed to hear some good news lately. Between the stress of dealing with Marten’s bullying, the constant fear that Trace and her would be found out for retaliating, and the grind to keep up with her training and coursework, Violet’s wins felt a little few and far between.

However, her elation was short-lived, as Volny slowly leaned in, placing a hand on Violet’s shoulder.

“I could have given you the grade just like any other, but the truth of why I wanted to meet with you is that I heard you’ve been having some difficulties with some of the–let’s call them, more privileged, students recently. Is this true?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Violet envisioned reaching over and grabbing hold of the fingers and violently wrenching them back in ways fingers were never meant to bend.

Following her glare, the professor promptly removed his hand, but he wasn’t done with his pitch yet. “I know boys like these… families like these. I had a similar situation many years ago when I was younger at university. It was very hard for me, I came from a poor family. We had no connections. One day, a boy from the inner belt–his family had maybe more money than my entire city on Slafgaed–he said something foolish in class one day and I corrected him. He didn’t like it. First, it started with jokes and name-calling. Then one day, leaving my dorm room, I found myself surrounded by some of his friends… They beat me. So, I did what you did… I found a way to fight back–”

“I don’t know what you mean… I haven’t done any–”

Volny raised a hand with a smile that said who are you kidding. Violet remained silent and let him continue.

“This boy really didn’t like that. He’s not used to being challenged. All his life, if he wanted something, he got it. Until he met me. And for my sin of standing up to him, he had his family revoke my housing and force me out onto the street. It was not easy, but I found a way to continue my studies, and after a while, the boy grew tired of university life and his family paid an outrageous sum to have him graduate early with honors.”

Volny shrugged. “Such is life for those with the means.”

Trying to take advantage of what she perceived as the end of the story, Violet stood and started to leave. “Thank you for the comforting story, Professor–”

“Sit.” Volny said, sharply. “I am not finished.”

There was something to the man’s tone that Violet at once feared and respected. She sat down.

“There are stories about how you first came to be here at the Academy…” Volny let the words hang in the silence that followed.

Violet tried to determine if he expected her to speak, but soon saw that the Professor was just ordering his thoughts, preparing to ask what came next.

“Do you know why you were taken off the ship that first brought you here?” he asked.

Warning bells went off in Violet’s mind. She’d been debriefed by more intelligence officers than she could count for almost a week after she’d been picked up. She had asked that very same question, but she’d received little in the way of answers. One thing that had been stressed to her was not to talk about the experience to anyone but a superior intelligence officer, and even then, she got the impression that what they really meant was to stop asking questions. That was their job, hers was to give answers if she could or else shut up and follow orders. Could this be some kind of loyalty test that the professor was giving on their behalf?

The more she thought about it, the more her head started to hurt. In the end, she couldn’t make up her mind one way or the other.

“They told me not to discuss it with anyone.”

“Ah, very good, Violet. Smart… Perhaps they were right to choose you.” Volny stared off in the distance for several moments. Long enough to build the awkwardness in the room to an even greater height.

“As there needs to be some trust between us, and that trust cannot be established without risk, I’m going to put myself out on the line. But I warn you, if you reveal what I’m about to share with anyone, I will deny it and do everything in my power to ensure you end up like the boy from the inner belt in my story.”

“What?” Violet asked. “The one whose parents paid to make all his troubles go away? Sign me up, Professor. That sounds wonderful.”

“Very cute, Violet. But yes, I suppose I did leave out the part where I planned for years to leave him a cripple and financially destitute. I guess I got ahead of myself, this is beyond my normal scope, but do we understand each other?”

Violet wasn’t sure the man in front of her was capable of such a Machiavellian feat, but she did sense something dangerous about him. Violet nodded. Let the professor speak and then she would make up her mind.

“Very well, now let’s see… Where do I begin? Ah, yes, how about with, Dr. Silva says hello.”

Violet felt him watching her intently, and it was all she could do to keep from gasping out loud. How could he know? He couldn’t. Unless… Upon further thought, there were two possibilities that immediately came to mind, she was sure she would think of a thousand more as she lay awake in her bunk tonight. The first possibility is that the professor is a military intelligence operator of significant rank himself, and thus privy to her debriefing file. And this was in fact some kind of sick test that she was being subjected to. This seemed the simplest, most obvious answer. But then the second possibility was that he was some sort of colleague of the doctor’s, and had found out the information from her somehow. This seemed a bit far-fetched, but if it were true, raised all sorts of other questions. Questions that he might possibly have the answers to. Such as, what did Dr. Silva’s rebel group want with her? Why had they kidnapped her in the first place? How did they know about what had happened to her on Tryptek station? With each new question that popped into her brain, she found herself hoping against hope that the second possibility was real. But was it even plausible? This was a secure military intelligence academy. All communication was monitored coming in and going out. How could the professor be in touch with an outside rebel faction?

“I can see the doctor’s message is having its intended effect.” Volny raised his hand to cut off Violet’s reply. “You don’t have to say anything right now. As I said before, there will need to be trust between us. Consider what you’ve heard, and let me add that there may come a time when you need help against enemies seen or unseen, and I’ve been instructed to provide that help if it is within my power to do so. While I don’t relish the thought of blowing a cover that has taken me years to establish, the doctor and her compatriots seem to think that you are worth the sacrifice.”

He stood and prepared to leave. “So all that to say, if you need me, you know where to find me.”

Violet sat in silence and watched Volny’s back as he walked out of the lecture hall.