by L Cross
I was thoughtful as I crunched through an egg roll. "I just didn't like how Lance was looking at Hanami. As if she had anything to do with it."
Kat snorted. "The girl's ruthless, yeah, but she plays—and wins—fair. That's how she's made. You play by the rules, and whoever plays better, wins. And that girl always wins."
"How did you all meet? You all seem close."
Kat shook her head. "Dara and I are close because you can't help being close to Dara. We were roommates last year as freshmen in these tiny closets of a room. It was like, there was no other choice!"
We laughed, probably more than we needed to. Pent up adrenaline and tension needed an outlet. I could picture that though. Dara seemed the type.
"I actually didn't meet Hanami until around Spring Break, so almost six months ago?” Kat started ripping into her napkin, and rolling the little pieces between her fingers. “There was a...party that I thought I could handle on my own. I was wrong. Anyway, I somehow signaled for Hanami to get me, and in a blink, she was there.”
Kat had a far off look in her gaze as she recounted that night in her memory. “She took the dude off me before things got really bad, and threw him off the fraternity house landing. She could have set him on fire and made everyone forget it happened, but didn’t. She got me out of there, kept me safe. We hung out ever since."
The emotional trauma that Kat had to carry permeated into this room. The air was thick and heavy, and I felt the need to say something but the words couldn't seem to form in my mouth.
I never knew what to say in these kinds of situations, so I said the only thing I could think of to say. "Dude, that sucks, I'm sorry."
Kat gave a wry smile. "Yeah, totally sucks, but could have been worse. Point is, she helped me out of a bad situation when no one else did. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that if she was every accused of murder, and even if she was standing over a dead body with a bloody knife in her hand...if she said that she didn't do it, I would believe her."
She gazed hard and direct into my eyes.
I didn't know any of my roommates, not really, but I trusted my gut. And my gut told me that I’d believe her, too. "Fuck, so would I. I don't even know the girl, and I would say the same exact thing."
The door of our suite flew open, and Hanami waltzed through it. Because of the spells that warded all of the dorms and other Academy safe houses, there was no magicking ourselves in and out of the buildings.
Not even the Merlin could appear here.
"Hey girl. Egg roll?" Kat offered.
Instead of an answer, Hanami looked like she was about to spit fire.
"Yeah, just a sec." The girl who would be the Merlin seemed smaller somehow. Fuming and stiff, she marched her way into her room. She didn't quite slam the door, and somehow that chilling control made it all the more eerie.
Kat and I exchanged worried glances.
I quickly cleared away our empty plates, and heated up some food for Hanami. By the time she opened her door and joined us at the table, the food was steaming and waiting for her.
Hanami looked at the food glumly, dark circles under her eyes. She didn't have her contacts in—or at least didn't have anything that altered her eye color—and her face was scrubbed clean. Without her makeup and her hair back to her natural black and pulled back into a simple ponytail, she looked like she belonged in middle school.
She tucked her legs underneath her and started stabbing the shrimp on her plate of lo mein. "Thanks guys," she mumbled.
She didn't look at us when she spoke.
I shared a look with Kat, and we had an unspoken conversation.
Say something, I said with my raised eyebrow.
Kat countered back with her own eyebrow arch. You do it.
"You two don't have to tiptoe, you guys have questions, just ask. Everything's fine. I'm just annoyed."
We made noises of protests as if we were totally about to ask something, but Hanami eyebrowed us herself as if to say, I'm the future Merlin, I could figure out what you all were thinking.
"So what did the Merlin ask you about?"
She twisted her lips. "She didn't really ask me anything. She doesn't really have to," she said.
"Like she's a mind reader?" I asked.
"More like she has this look," Hanami said. "Like it pierces into your soul. So either she's a really good interrogator or she's been there-done that. Regardless, it's not like we knew anything."
"Well she didn't blame you for this evening did she?"
"Not exactly. But she had that whole 'you should have known better' vibe going on. Like her words said one thing but her thoughts were another."
"Wait wait wait," I said. "Are you a mind reader, now?" I asked.
Hanami just sighed.
"Look, you're hard on yourself, I get it. Future Merlin vibes. But you don't have to carry the weight of the world," I told her.
"Dude, Artura's right. You need to get over yourself, and the Merlin needs to get over herself. The demon thing’s appearance wasn't your fault. The mayhem was no one's fault. Well, aside from the person that actually conjured up the demon...or whatever it was." Kat chewed thoughtfully. "What the hell was that thing anyway? Did they say?"
"No. They were trying to figure out what would be physical like that yet dissolve into blackened nothing."
"So, they're already ruling out demon," I asked.
"Yeah, not even a low-level one, at least none that they knew of."
"I know that the Merlin can be a hard ass," Kat asked, "but is there another reason why you're so glum chum?"
Of all the possible reactions in all the universes, I didn't expect what happened next.
In a small voice that tore at my heart, Hanami answered, "I got kicked out of the Merlin's program." Her face twisted in an unspoken grief before it crumpled into sobs.
I reacted out of instinct. I slid out of my chair and wrapped my arms around the middle of her trembling body. Kat stood on the other side, arms wrapped around Hanami’s shoulders, the both of us trying to hold her together as best as we could while her world crumbled around her.
"What? That's crazy! You said that they didn't blame you?"
"They didn't. But there was an inquiry. They took our wands and staff, at least the knights' and mine." They would have been the only ones authorized to carry one. "And when they tested mine, they found traces of black magic."
Kat's eyes were round they nearly swallowed her face.
"That's impossible," Kat said. "You wouldn't have anything to do with that shade. You wouldn't need to!"
"That's what I told them," Hanami said. "But until they figure it out, I'm suspended pending trial." She fought through her hiccups. “I could be kicked out of the Academy and possibly ex-communicated.” Her sobs swallowed any other words that might have followed.
My heart broke for this girl. She was the smartest person around, and not only that, but a decent and good person who didn’t need to misuse her magic. Apprentice or no, she was ahead of most knights and lived up to her reputation.
Better than her reputation, actually, since there was a lot of whispers about her general bitch reputation. She spoke her mind, but I didn't consider that bitchy. That just meant that she was fearless and didn't cater to others.
"What the hell! With your reputation, they had the nerve to suspend you?"
"It was because of my reputation that I only got a suspension versus immediate expulsion and jail time."
"Holy shit!" I said. "They're really against black magic!"
Kat said, "The threat of the Morrigan and her armies building outside of the mists has made all the mages, especially the Aegis Council on hyper edge."
The scene that Professor Jameson showed me with the Morrigan’s armies stretching over a countryside played in my mind’s eye. "Dude, there's no way the Merlin would believe you'd do this? Right?"
I looked toward Kat for confirmation. Right?
Kat bit her lip, a twinge of worry in her eyes.
For Hanami’s sake, she said, "Well, you don't have to worry. We're gonna help you out, okay? And then all this would just have been a big misunderstanding. You'll see."
We stayed like that, and for a brief moment, we were just a bunch of girlfriends, completely normal, as if we were a family.
That was how Dara saw us a moment later. "Oh no, am I missing a group hug moment?" she exclaimed and bounded over to us and wrapped us up in her arms.
Hanami squealed at the crush since she was in the middle. “I can’t breathe, Dara!”
"Psh, you're going to take it," Dara replied, and squeezed harder.
After we joked with Dara about her evening plans to which she blushed furiously while claiming that nothing happened, we caught her up on what had happened with Hanami while she shared more food with us.
"Well, you know what I heard," Dara said. "Since I was with Gunnar—”
"Gunnar!" both Kat and I exclaimed in unison, startling Dara.
"Sorry," I explained to Dara, "we were trying to figure out his name, go on."
"Anyway," Dara said pointedly, "we were just hanging out, and I heard the other guys talking in their common room. They were talking about what happened and what they were questioned, etc. And the way they were answering, they had no idea what happened. And, on top of that, Lance felt bad about getting in your face, Hanami."
Dara was petting Hanami’s head. With their size difference, Hanami was like Dara's doll.
"Yeah, I figured that. He apologized to me after I got chewed out by the mages."
"You don't even care about him, why do you let him annoy you so much, Mimi?"
Hanami shrugged. "Habit?"
That got us all laughing again.
"Good, well, I love you and I want you to get over it. It'll be better for your aura," Dara said.
"And it would make you feel better since you're gonna be boffing Gunnar, and it would be convenient if you didn't have to take sides when you're there with them?" Kat hinted.
When Dara looked at her with her hands on her hips, and Hanami smirking, Kat shrugged in response. "Tell me I'm wrong."
Dara notched her head back. "Can't I want good things for my friend and get something in return?"
"It's cool. I really don't care about Lance. About any of them. They're just there to annoy especially when I get to crush them a lot." Hanami's face fell again.
"Oh no, what's wrong now?"
Hanami tsked. "I just realized. With the suspension, I'll definitely be off the rankings."
"Okay, you all need to tell me about these ranks," I said. "I scoured the welcome letters and admission packets. There have been no mention of ranks whatsoever!"
"There wouldn't be. The ranks aren't a formal thing. Well, not really. But they're a point system."
"But if they're not a formal thing, who is creating points? Who is the one keeping track?"
"That's the beauty, no one knows. School legend has it that it's the mages of the council, but of course that would be a little too on the nose. Plus, there would be too much favoritism since many of the mages would want to favor their apprentices or protegés."
"I like to think they're the Order of Nimue," Dara said. "The ladies who serve the Lady of the Lake," she said for my benefit.
"The point is, once the formal school calendar starts on Monday, we will come in with ranks already listed, and it's up to us to either keep it up or..." And she trailed off.
"But that's crazy!” I protested. “There are so many people in this school, the ranks are probably endlessly long!"
They all looked at me like I was the crazy one.
Hanami ventured to educate me. “Of course the ranks would be long, but there really aren't that many people here, and they only keep track of the top hundred. The rest would be so far down." She gave a careless wave of her hand.
Kat interrupted. "Don't get me wrong, though. The others would still be ranked. Just not shown outside of the top hundred.”
And then they all started to speak all at once, each one giving her own opinion of what was most important. They all seemed to agree that being in the top ten to twenty was the most important part.
I sort of got it but I was still a little fuzzy around the point of it all. It was like I was trying to see street signs from a great distance. "And why is any of this important?"
"Rank,"
"Benefits,"
"Because,"
They all answered at the same time like they were marketing robots for the academy.
I tried again. Hopefully this time they’ll understand what I’m asking. “But what’s in it for a ranker? Like, physically? Are there any tangible benefits from ranking?" I asked.
"Not directly, and not with anything that anyone would actually admit to," Dara hinted, "but the higher the rank, the more presents you get, more opportunities, more invitations. Just more."
I scrunched up my forehead. Something about that didn’t feel right. Probably because I’d had to work for everything in my life…sometimes, double or triple depending on the number of jobs I’d be juggling at any given time.
“That doesn’t feel off to you, though? It makes it like the strong get stronger. Or the rich get richer. Or the mages get more…magicky.” I paused. “Is that even a thing?”
“I think you’re trying to say those in power become more powerful,” Hanami said, making sense of my clumsy words. “And to address that, the ranks aren’t like that. Not by a long shot.”
“Yup,” Dara agreed. "It's not about any of that. Most of the time, it's about character and skill. Stuff that you can't buy or bribe."
"Dara and Hanami are legacy kids, but I ranked in the top ten last year, too, as a total outsider to the magical community,” Kat added.
Impressive. "Wait, are you saying you all were top ten last year?" I asked.
They nodded. "Hanami was first, of course, then Kat at seven and I was nine!" Dara said proudly.
Wow. "Great, that's not intimidating whatsoever," I said. "What benefits did you guys get then, if you don’t mind me asking?”
"This dorm for one. Usually it's only reserved for upperclassmen, but Hanami was able to secure this for us. And then our first choice of classes. At least, that's what we've been able to get so far."
"I'd say that's an awesome benefit so far," I said.
"Hey, don't worry," Dara said. "You're here. You wouldn't have gotten into this dorm with us if you weren't going to be a ranker."
I just looked at her. "Why do you say that?"
Hanami got that look on her. "Girl, you found—and then pulled—the dragon sword from the stone. You might have been recruited, but for all intents and purposes, you have a legacy here."
"Yeah, I can totally see all that counting for you when it comes to rank," Dara said. She turned toward Hanami who was still chewing on her lip. “You have nothing to worry about Mimi. You're gonna get your privileges back, we'll reverse that suspension, and the people responsible will be the ones who get in trouble."
"Thanks guys, but I don't even know how one would be able to plant black magic onto anothers' wands. Hell I don't even know how it's even possible to do it. How are we going to prove it happened?"
“Would someone be able to pick up your wand and use it?” I ventured.
“Yeah, I guess, but there was no one else there.”
“No one we could see, at any rate,” I said.
Hanami froze at my words, and then took a pose of deep thought as if mulling over my statement. She shook her head, as if dismissing the possibility.
“They should have been able to trace someone else on there,” she said.
“I think you give the mages too much credit,” Kat pointed out. “You’ve seen plenty of the knights. They’re trained to do as they’re told, not necessarily to think.”
Hanami allowed herself to be swayed, though the expression on her face was still fragile and bleak.
It made me angry and indignant on her behalf.
"Well, you know
that you didn't do it. I know that you didn't do it. So clearly there's a possibility of it happening because it happened to you. Proving it will be a challenge of course, but we'll do everything in our power to help you."
"Guys, I don't want you to go through any trouble for me," Hanami said.
I looked at that little girl who was a fierce warrior during laser tag, full of power and spunk. I might have only met her a few days ago, but I felt like I’d known her for years.
The look of defeat and loss wasn’t like her. I could feel it in my bones.
"It's not trouble. Think of it this way: When we didn't know what that demon was, you were the one who was going to go at it all by yourself. Why would you do that?"
"Morgan implied that if I was the one who conjured it, then I knew I wasn't going to be hurt so there wasn't a risk."
Good lord, the overwhelming need to punch that guy in the face made me shake. "Morgan is an asshole, so you don't have to listen to him at all."
Where the hell did he get off saying shit like that? "Anyway, even the Merlin doesn't believe that because if she did you'd be so far beyond expelled, and there wouldn't be a hearing or summons to appear before the council."
"We'll make sure you have the evidence before that date," Kat said.
"It'll be a long shot, no one's gonna want to admit to being a black magic user even for a prank."
"We don't need to know who did it," I said, "we just need to find evidence you didn't do it. One step at a time."
"Thank you all," she said. "I don't deserve your friendship."
"You deserve it and more," Kat said fiercely.
"We love you," Dara added.
"And I hate seeing you like this, all mopey. Besides, you promised that you'd teach Kat and me some tricks," I winked at her.
A grin broke out over her face, and I knew she would be all right. We were too wired to go to bed despite being well past midnight, so we spent the rest of the night watching scary movies and laughing at the cheesy effects.
We slept like that, snuggled under big blankets in our squashy lounge chairs.
