Chapter 28: Chapter 27 - A Worm of Worry

Loria stretched her fingers subconsciously, working out some of the lingering soreness still remaining from the PMT malfunction at the end of the Hands-on. Her eyes glanced around their table. They were grouped by team, though their own table had one conspicuous absence. Thalos was infirmary-bound for two more days, but the rest of the school couldn’t wait on him, not even the Courier class. A little shock of pain shot down her wrist when she flexed a finger too hard, and she hissed a tiny breath. Dr. Harkin had assured her there would be no lasting damage from the PMT mishap, though he’d advised her to take it easy on the PMT use for the next couple of weeks. Not that she really had a choice, when her PMT was somwhere outside Clearspring in a million little pieces.

“Think we passed?” Cliff said casually. His feet were propped up on Thalos’s empty chair, and a part of Loria wanted to smack his ankle and tell him to put them down. She realized that would be excessive, though, so she shoved that urge out of her mind.

Nym had her elbows on the table, her chin tucked in her palms. “Maybe. I mean, team A passed last time, right? Wasn’t our situation just like theirs?”

Cliff grunted. “Considering they didn’t have a disciplinary review after their little mishap, I’d say things are a mite different.” He turned his head towards Loria. “What do you think?”

She blinked, brushing a stray hair behind her ear. “About passing?” He nodded and she frowned. “Its a tough call – what we did do, we did properly, but, well, the entire operation was interrupted well before we finished our work.” She paused. “If I was forced to guess, I’d say we passed, conditional on the results of the disciplinary review.”

“We should be good then,” Nym said with a sigh, and Cliff nodded. Loria was not quite so sure. No one else on her team seemed to really be taking the disciplinary inquiry seriously, but she’d seen those types of things in her father’s work. Oftentimes, they were just hunting for excuses to punish someone, no matter how unjust it might be. She hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but she wasn’t particularly close with any teacher besides Roose, so it was difficult for her to get a grasp on the character of the administration.

The door banged open and Roose entered with his typical swoosh of a cassock and grin around the room. He had a familiar stack of papers in his hand, and when he came to the lectern, he knocked his fist on the wood once. “Alright, let’s get this over with – you all passed, more or less. The ranking is rather pointless, considering the differing nature of your assignments, but score-wise, it would go A-C-B-D, though team B has a little star next to the score.” He glanced significantly towards their table, and Loria didn’t need any explanation beyond that. “As with the first Hands-on, we’ll take the next few days to go over your performance, with the added bonus of assessments from your client, that is, the government of Clearspring.” He paused for a moment, and Loria felt her hand shoot up before she could even really think about it. “Yes, Loria?”

“You said we’ll be going over the results for the next few days, but our exams are next week. What can we expect to see on the exam for this class?” She didn’t forsee it being difficult – the written part of the course was far less demanding than the practical portion – but it didn’t hurt to clarify.

Roose beamed at her. “Fantastic question, Loria. I was going to save mentioning it until the end of the period, but, since you’ve asked – the lion’s share of your exam grade will be pulled from the results of the second Hands-on, but there will be a written test with several situational response questions – it shouldn’t be a problem as long as you’ve engaged in our in-class discussions thoughtfully.” He raised his eyebrows questioningly, and she nodded her satisfaction. That was good – from their first study session with Thalos, it was clear that he was woefully behind on a few subjects, and it would be difficult to accommodate any more studying in their brief meetings. “If that’s it,” Roose continued, “I’ve made copies of the assessment packet for all of you – ah, team B, I made one for Thalos too, so please bring it to him this afternoon.”

***

Roose gestured at the seat across from his desk, and she took it, tucking the two packets – one of her and one for Thalos – on her lap. They looked at each other for a moment, but he had called her for the meeting, so she would wait for him to speak first. “Hows the hand?” he finally asked.

She flexed her fingers, that now-familiar soreness plucking down her tendons. “Better.”

He nodded. “How did the others react when you told them about the pain?”

Looking away, she frowned. “I didn’t.” She’d debated it for a moment, but ultimately decided that it wouldn’t be good for their team. Cliff had already apologized more sincerely than she’d ever seen him about her PMT being vaporized, and she thought he might redouble his apologies to the point of discomfort if she told him about the soreness. “It was my decision to take the risk, so I’ll bear the consequences – privately. Besides, Dr. Harkin said I would be fine within a week or two.” She turned back to her teacher to find him studying her with a conflicted expression.

With a deep sigh, he shook his head. “Well, it’s your body, and I’ll trust your judgment.” Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a pair of papers. “Do you know why I asked for this meeting?”

She recognized the papers as some kind of boilerplate administrative forms, though she couldn’t read the specifics upside down. “My PMT, right?” Gone as it was, she had nothing to use for her Advanced PMT class, nor the Courier course’s spars.

“Sharp,” Roose said with a nod, spinning the forms and pushing them towards her. She read them quickly as he explained. “The academy has some extras we give out for loan – Crestfall mark 4s, so a generation back from what you’re used to, but it’ll have to do.” Loria nodded, and Roose handed her a pen. With careful, quick strokes she started working through the empty boxes – name, year, class. “Unlike with the scholarship program, these are rentals, so you are expected to, at some point, provide a replacement for your PMT.” Her writing paused for an instant, but it passed and she continued. “Have you contacted your – ah, family regarding the incident during the second Hands-on?”

She checked the box marked ‘rental,’ writing a short summary of the Hands-on in the ‘reason’ box. “No,” she finally said, signing and dating the bottom of the paper and looking up at Roose, “I thought the academy would have.” While it was true that the students there were technically adults, for most attending the academy, their tuition was being paid for by family, so she imagined that there was some line of communication with whoever was actually footing the bill.

“Well, yes, we have, but-” Roose took the papers, eyes flicking over them before he looked back at Loria, raising his brows. “I think most people would prefer to hear the words from their daughter rather than the school, no?” He slid the papers back into his bag. “It’ll be a couple of days before you get the replacement PMT, but I’ll make sure you have one in time for your Advanced PMT exam.”

She nodded. If the first exam was anything to go by, Lieutenant Ulster’s exam was going to be a round of sparring, same as they always did. She felt a pang of annoyance when she remembered that her fire node had been butchered to save Thalos – it was a worthwhile reason to lose the thing, but she would feel its loss every time she used her PMT. She didn’t think her father would offer her a replacement. “I guess I should write them a letter asking them to provide me with a new PMT.”

Roose hummed, smiling lightly. “You might also share your feelings on the incident, and that you’re doing alright.” She gave him a blank look, and he shrugged his shoulders. “Or not, if that’s your relationship.” He paused to sigh again, raising a hand to rub at his temple, and Loria realized, suddenly, that he looked very tired. “How do you think they would react to news of what occurred during the Hands-on?”

The corners of Loria’s mouth quirked downward. “My mother would express, first and foremost, concern for Thalos’s and my wellbeing. My father-” She paused, shutting her mouth after a moment while she thought. If he were in command, she had little doubt he would have taken the same risk she did. But he wasn’t, she was, and that might change things. “I don’t know how he’ react,” she finally admitted, “Why do you ask?”

Roose leaned back in his chair, eyes going distant in thought. “There’s not too much of a reason, it’s just – well, put simply, you are not the only one receiving a disciplinary review.” Loria blinked, and Roose continued. “It’s my first year advising a class, and so far, both of the Hands-ons have resulted in serious injury for the students.” He let out a little sardonic laugh, turning towards her with a smirk. “That’s non-standard, if you were wondering.”

Loria shook her head. “There were injuries, yes – but it’s ridiculous to blame them on you! The first was due to a bizarre anomalous appearance of a Blink Boar, and the second – well, the Spike Spitter was on the list of monsters, but we would have been fine if not for the fact that the monster somehow managed to perfectly slice through Thalos’s PMT.” After the Hands-on, she’d asked Templar Roose if the monster had known in some way that Thalos’s magic came from his PMT. He’d shot her down, explaining that most monsters were not that intelligent. The ‘most’ part of that statement frightened her slightly, but that the Spike Spitter wasn’t smart enough only bolstered the idea that it was just an unfortunate series of events. “It’d be foolish to blame you for a pair of unlucky coincidences.”

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“And Cliff would say it’s foolishness to blame your team for saving Thalos’s life.” Roose said, “but here we are, both under disciplinary review. You have to understand that, from the administration’s point of view, once is a coincidence, but twice might point to a worrying trend. Add that to the fact that the harvest festival – one of the academy’s big fundraising and advertising pushes – is coming up, and they are eager to avoid any possible controversy. Especially when one of the parties involved has relatives with particular sway-” Loria blinked – that was why he’d asked about her father, then. “-but it would be crass for me to say any more, and perhaps I’ve already overstepped by sharing this much. Would you mind keeping this little venting session of mine between the two of us?” He smiled tiredly, and she couldn’t help but nod.

“Ah – of – of course.” She thought for a moment about encouraging him, but she shared his hesitations about the disciplinary review. “Do you – I mean – is there anything else?”

“No, that should be it.” He glanced at the clock on the wall and grimaced. “in fact, I really should be going – endless meetings and all that, you understand?” He groaned as he rose from his seat, and she followed suit. “I’ll get these forms squared away as soon as possible, and – hey, forget everything I said about your father and disciplinary stuff. That’s not for you to worry about, yeah?” She nodded absently, but as they left the room, a nugget of concern had begun to form in her stomach.

***

Fingers dancing down the length of her spear’s haft, she worked through an ingrained set of motions, doing her best to sharpen each stab, tighten each swing. The sequence was one she’d learned in her very first days of holding a spear, and she still went through it whenever she got the chance. A final slash, and it was finished. She held the last form for a moment before relaxing her muscles, planting the butt of the spear on the ground and leaning into it as she steadied her breathing. She nodded appreciatively to herself – her form was mostly unaffected by the pain in her wrist, and she’d always appreciated how satisfyingly tired she got when training without a martial node – it was part of the reason she joined the dueling club, after all.

Turning towards the rest of her Advanced PMT class, she watched the end of a spar between Gallio and Nym. The cadet was one of the better performers in their class, and with his Gift, he normally would have the upper hand against Loria’s teammate. That had changed, though, with Nym’s recent rapid improvements with her Gift. Gallio slashed his sword forward, but Nym managed to sidestep the invisible bar of force, slamming her palm against the ground and shackling Gallio’s arm in a bar of earth. He managed to tug himself free, but not before Nym got in close, catching him across the calves with her quarterstaff and following it with a spinning flourish that ended in a heavy blow across his back. Loria nodded appreciatively as Gallio fell onto his stomach – he was an elitist ass, and she didn’t feel particularly bad to see him get knocked around, especially when it was one of her friends doing the knocking.

Lieutenant Ulster called the class around, and they went over the post-spar comments as Loria made her way towards them from her own training area, off to the side. Because she didn’t have access to a PMT, she’d asked their teacher to excuse her for some self-guided practice – much better than just sitting around watching for the entire hour.

She joined the group at the tail end of their teacher’s summary. “Better, from both of you, but keep working on it.” Nym and Gallio joined the rest of the class – Nym smiling, and Gallio grumbling and frowning – and the lieutenant moved to dismiss everyone. “Well done today, everyone. Our slot is the first period of the third day of exams next week. I expect you all to be there punctually – if you aren’t, it will negatively impact your grade. Dismissed.” The twenty students of their class immediately broke out in conversation – half making their way away from the sparring grounds and the other half staying to mingle. Loria started to make her way towards Nym when a voice called out to her.

“Loria!” She turned to see Vincent waving a hand and coming closer. She returned the wave and he stopped in front of her, smiling openly. “Why were you off practicing alone today, if you don’t mind me asking.”

Loria shook her head. “I don’t mind at all – my PMT was, ah – damaged, and unfortunately needs to be replaced.” His eyes widened slightly. “How were the spars? Anyone manage to take one off of you yet?” Even after Cliff had deciphered his Gift, Vincent was undefeated – she was hoping to be the first to take his crown.

“Well no, but – the spars were fine – I mean, hold on, your PMT was damaged?” The pudgy redhead was struggling to keep up. “What happened? Was it something with that Courier training you just got back from?”

Nym strolled over to join them, and Loria exchanged nods with her. “Yeah, the damage happened during the training, but I’m not sure we’re really supposed to talk about it.” She glanced at Nym. “What do you think?”

Nym kicked out a hip, leaning most of her weight on her quarterstaff and pressing her cheek to the wood. She hummed for a moment as she thought. “Well, it’s not like Templar Roose said we couldn’t talk about it – just that we can’t brag. Besides, I think Cliff is the only one who’s really expecting to – how’d he put it? ‘Have his hide tanned.’”

Vince was looking between the two girls. “What? Cliff – he’s the guy who figured out my Gift, right?”

Loria ignored him, nodding slowly. “I’m not sure you’re right about the punishment – they did say we would all ‘prune the bush we planted’.” Another Cliff-ism, this one meaning to deal with the consequences of your actions. She turned back to Vincent. “It’s more or less like this.”

As she went over the second Hands-on and their unfortunate encounter with the Spike Spitter, the seminarian’s eyes got wider and wider – though by the time she got to the part about her PMT exploding, his eyes couldn’t go any wider.

He let out a breathy laugh when they finished their explanation. “Sounds exciting.”

Loria and Nym shared a look. “You know, our friend almost died,” Nym said, a little bit gentler than Loria would have.

“Oh! I’m sorry – I know, it’s just – well, the seminary hasn’t done anything that sounds nearly as interesting as what you just described – there’s sparring and drilling with the other first-year seminarians, yeah, but mostly it’s just studying and prayer.” He sighed.

“You guys don’t have any kind of field exercises?” Nym asked.

Vincent shrugged. “There’s this big long pilgrimage next term – I think it’s a month long, and half of that is travel, but no, other than our curriculum is relatively tame compared to yours.” He sighed again. “You know, I wanted to be join the Courier college, but – no, I shouldn’t complain.”

“Really? You wanted to be a Courier?” Loria couldn’t contain her surprise. As far as she understood it, Vincent was something of the poster child of the seminary – he’d even been chosen by to speak at their matriculation ceremony. “Why did you enroll as a seminarian, then?”

Scratching at the collar of his cassock, he let out a little laugh. “Just personal stuff, I guess.” Before the point could be pressed, his eyes suddenly widened. “Oh yeah! Loria, Ronnie has been organizing these study sessions for Sister Aster’s class – she announced it to everyone last week, but, well, you obviously weren’t here.” He paused. “I thought I’d invite you to come – she’s booked out a classroom in one of the lecture buildings.” Ronnie was another member of their Post-magetool Revolution history class, and the three of them often worked together in class.

Loria frowned. “I’d love to, but as a result of our – ah, exciting field work, me, plus Nym, here, are on probation – no extra-curricular activities outside the dorm aside from our club meetings.” She really would have liked to attend the lessons – Ronnie and Vincent were some of the highest performing students I the class along with Loria, and studying with them would probably ensure her own performance. Plus, seeing how they reviewed things might give her some insight on how to help out Thalos for his exams. “In fact,” she continued, “we really should be heading back to our dorm or risk finding ourselves in even more trouble.”

His eyes widened. “Oh, I see! I won’t keep you then. Sorry for taking up your time – just thought I’d extend the invitation.” He waved a hand, smiling. “See you, Nym, Loria – good luck on your exams!” Without another word, he turned, leaving them behind.

They both watched him walk off, and when he was out of earshot, Nym turned to Loria. “He really is bizarrely nice.” They turned to make their way back to the courier dorm, walking in the direction opposite of where Vincent had gone.

“Yeah,” Loria confirmed, “and it seems genuine, too. Makes me feel bad for turning him down like that.”

“Right. You know, I’ve heard five different girls say that they’re sure he has a thing for them – plus two guys.” She shimmied over to Loria, prodding her in the side with an elbow. “Hey, hey – did you hear the rumor that’s been going around?” Her tone had turned conspiratorial.

Loria turned an amused smile on her friend. “No, what are they saying?”

“Well,” Nym said, threading her arm under Loria’s elbow, “apparently, he’s a direct relative of the hierophant – her nephew or grandson or something.” Loria’s eyes widened – the hierophant was the head of the Church in Marifond. Considering the country was a federation of city states with no proper head of state, that made her possibly the person with the single most power in the country.

Loria’s eyes flicked over her shoulder, but Vincent was long out of view. “Did he tell someone that?”

Nym shook her head quickly. “No, it’s a rumor, right? But, I mean, he just said he joined the seminary for personal reasons – that’s got to be it, right?”

“Or,” Loria countered, dragging the word out, “it could be that his parents are just regluar priests, or simply devoted to the goddess – it doesn’t have to be a huge secret, right?”

Nym puffed her cheeks out. “You’re no fun, Loria, but how about this? The second part of the rumor is that the hierophant will be visiting the academy for the harvest festival. If she does – well, that’s got to confirm it, right?”

Eyebrows rising, Loria opened her mouth to protest again, but, seeing the good humor on Nym’s face, decided against it. If the hierophant really did show up to the academy for the harvest festival, it would be big news, even if Vincent wasn’t really her nephew or grandson or whatever. As far as Loria knew, the hierophant rarely ever left Crestfall outside of the Hierophants’ Synod every five years.

“Just think about it,” Nym continued, “if the hierophant comes, and your dad is here – those are some pretty big names. Plus, everyone’s parents will be coming, too – it’s going to be exciting!” Loria felt her smile falling from her face, but she forced herself to keep it up – she knew Nym was quite looking forward to seeing her father, and she didn’t want to ruin her friend’s good mood.

“Well, don’t let your excitement distract you from the exams – you’re in charge of the review session tomorrow, you remember?” Loria’s eyebrows came down as she continued to think. “Plus you still have to finish up your club work, right? Then you can be excited.”

Nym made a noise of protest, throwing her weight to the side and dragging them a few steps off the path. “Loria,” she whined, “You really have to learn to read the mood.”