by Maria Amor
“You really think that Dimitrios is up to something big,” Dylan said after a while. Julia nodded.
“I have to think that everything has to be related, somehow,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense for it all to be random.”
“But sometimes random things just happen,” Dylan pointed out. “I’m not saying that’s the case here, but it does happen.”
“But come on,” Julia said, already tired of arguing with him about it yet again. “Give me one thing that Dimitrios accomplishes by alienating air-aligned creatures from the school? It’s not a good thing to have one of the four elements’ representatives suddenly all go away, so there’s no reason for the school advisory board to back him up on it unless there’s something bigger.”
“I know, but we don’t know that it has anything to do with the relics. Or maybe he’s doing this to try and figure out something about someone who’s after the relics.” Julia considered that.
“He might be, but that seems kind of like a bad way to do it,” she said, frowning. “If everyone’s accusing the wrong people of stealing from them—when they’re not even stealing—it just makes it seem like all accusations of theft are wrong.”
“I guess,” Dylan conceded.
Julia settled in the back seat again, thinking about the situation in front of them once more. She knew they didn’t have enough information to go on, but there had to be a connection between Dimitrios being hired, the old professors being fired—seemingly with no one to know the reason why—and the accusations of thefts going on at the school, that Dimitrios seemed to be encouraging rather than suppressing.
There’s something we need to figure out, but we don’t know what it is, Julia thought, staring out the window as the car made its way up the highway, towards the school. Dylan had lapsed into silence as well, but Julia felt almost strange at the fact that she wasn’t speaking, wasn’t trying to argue with him. She wanted to think—and think hard.
It was like when her mother had given her brain teaser puzzles as a child. Obviously, there was some kind of benefit to both the school advisory board and to Dimitrios in the students not being able to trust each other, and teachers being against air-aligned students—although some water-aligned students had been targeted too.
Did the new professors have some kind of hold on Dimitrios? Maybe the dean was letting them do what they wanted—even to potentially endangering students—because he owed them. Maybe they had blackmail on him. Or maybe he didn’t particularly want to corral the new teachers. But he’s definitely looking over the older teachers’ shoulders constantly, Julia’s mind countered. Why?
It all hinged on finding out why so many teachers had left over the summer, and to do that she would need to get one of the few teachers who remained alone. But how to do that? Julia looked at Dylan. She had a feeling that there would be a way, but she didn’t know for sure—she had never tested the extent of her sense of charm, of persuasion.
It was one of the gifts she knew that she had, but there was another one that the professors at the school—the ones responsible for teaching the air-aligned classes, at least—had talked about. “Compulsion isn’t just about persuading someone; it’s a talent that some air-aligned creatures have, particularly Guardians.”
It was, according to the teachers, almost like an instant hypnosis. It didn’t last long, and there were limits to what someone with the talent could compel a person or creature to do, but for specific things, Julia had thought that it would be very handy indeed.
The trouble was that she wouldn’t know whether she had the ability or not until she tried it; and it wouldn’t do to assume she had it, try and use it, and fail. It’s not even supposed to come into play until the full abilities, anyway, she reminded herself. Even if she had been gaining more control, and even if her energies had started to more obviously manifest, that didn’t mean that she had the compulsion ability; and it didn’t mean that she would have it when she finished her “blossoming” into her full abilities.
At some point, Julia dozed off, only to wake up when the car approached the school, alerted by the shifting feeling of the energy around her. She looked around, and smoothed her hair against her scalp as the driver turned in at the outer gate to the school. The little nap had let Julia’s brain continue working without interference, without the need for coherent, linear thoughts, and as she fully awakened, she smiled to herself slightly.
Even without the potential ability that she might or might not have, she thought she had an idea for how to get the information she needed to figure out what Dimitrios was doing. She was fairly certain that Dylan wouldn’t like it; but he hadn’t liked many of her ideas, and he’d still gone through with them. We’ll get to the bottom of this within a week, Julia thought optimistically.
“Dylan, I think I have a new idea, something we can do to get ahead in figuring this out,” she said, turning to look at the boy who’d become her friend once more.
“Leave it to you to scheme in your sleep, even,” Dylan said, smiling at her slightly to take any sting out of his words.
“We know that we’re going to have to question students during the welcome-back party, but we really need to corner like, two of the older professors, too,” Julia said. “And I think I might have come up with a way to make them talk, even if they’re worried about Dimitrios coming against them.”
“If you can do that, then I’m not even sure why you’re bothering to go back to school,” Dylan said. Julia rolled her eyes.
“In any case,” she said. “I think we can figure out at least how all of the weird stuff going on at school is connected by next week.”
“That long?”
“Stop being so skeptical and listen to my plan.”
“Fine,” Dylan said. “Tell me the plan.”
“I’m going to need you to do that thing you do with emotions,” Julia said.
“Ruth told me specifically not to do that,” Dylan said. “She didn’t give me all that many specific instructions on using that ability, but using it against a professor could get us kicked out.”
“Not if I’m distracting them at the same time,” Julia pointed out. “They won’t notice. They’ll just think that their emotional reaction is in response to what I’m saying.”
“I don’t like it,” Dylan told her, shaking his head.
“I know, but it’s the best way to get the job done,” Julia said. “Promise me that you’ll think about it—I mean really think about it.” Dylan sighed.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll think about it. Let’s give it at least a day.”
CHAPTER 18
Dylan felt nervous as he and Julia walked towards Professor Ardan’s office. He had to admit, after thinking about it—that her approach made the most sense; but he also knew that what Julia wanted to do was risky at best. Professor Ardan was an air-aligned teacher, one of the foreign language professors at the school: he taught German, and French as well as language studies for the fae, changelings, and sylphs.
Dylan had to wonder what the man had done to avoid being fired, considering that Dimitrios seemed to have an issue with air-aligned creatures; but then, Dylan thought, it wouldn’t be as easy to get away with getting rid of the air-aligned complement of professors altogether.
Julia had somehow managed to convince Ardan to meet with them before the back-to-school party in the convocation hall, and Dylan still wasn’t entirely sure he understood how she’d done it. She had said something to him about cornering the professor, and using what she’d learned at the New Year’s party to her advantage, and Dylan hadn’t been able to get much more out of her than that—and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to. It would have been during one of her classes with the professor, in the week since they’d come back from break; that much Dylan knew.
“Okay,” Julia whispered, as they got within a few yards of the professor’s office door. “You understand what the plan is, right?”
“Mostly,” Dylan said, half-smiling wryly
. “I know what you want me to do. Whether it plays out…”
“If it doesn’t play out, or if you think Ardan is starting to catch on, then you can stop,” Julia said. “The last thing we need is to get in big-time trouble before we can figure out what’s going on.”
Dylan resisted the urge to point out that if they really wanted to avoid getting in big-time trouble, they wouldn’t interrogate the professors at all, much less the way that Julia had in mind. She’d decided on a course of action, and Dylan knew that if he stonewalled her, he would have to deal with the outcome of her pursuing a plan on her own. And just think, this isn’t even as impulsive and as volatile as she’ll get, Dylan thought with a little bit of weariness.
For the most part, it seemed that his job of escorting her was more important than any work he could ever do in actually protecting her against an attack—he couldn’t think of any situation in which she’d actually been threatened with some kind of attack.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Dylan said, taking a quick, deep breath. He followed her as Julia approached the office door and knocked quickly—a fast staccato beat that he couldn’t quite follow, but which was obviously some kind of ID for Ardan.
“Come in!” Julia glanced at him and Dylan pushed his shoulders back, closing his eyes for just a moment as she turned the doorknob, and then opening them again to join her as she stepped into the office. He closed the door behind them and stood back slightly as Julia took a seat on the other side of Ardan’s desk from where the man himself sat. “Hello, Dylan,” Ardan said, sounding a little uncertain.
“You know that Ruth won’t let me go anywhere—apart from the required, obviously—without Dylan with me,” Julia told the professor quickly, and Dylan resisted the urge to grin at the bantering, charming quality of her voice.
She will never understand that this kind of thing is exactly why people tend to think air-aligned creatures and Guardians are just naturally untrustworthy. Dylan leaned against the door, watching as the girl he was supposed to be protecting turned the charm up. “I’m glad you were able and willing to meet with me, Professor Ardan,” Julia said.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to help you with what questions you have, but I am happy to at least hear you out,” Ardan said. It was obvious that Ardan was trying not to respond to the cheerful, almost glittering facade that Julia put up—he was, after all, air-aligned himself, and there was the old saying about kidding a kidder.
At the same time, Julia was keeping things just light enough, and being just honest enough, that the professor was starting to respond to her almost against his better wishes. Dylan took a slow, deep breath, keeping part of his awareness on the professor, and part on the flow of watery energy through his body.
After a good bit of practice, it was getting easier and easier for Dylan to perform the little spell, tapping into his emotional awareness and directing the right flow of emotion into another person to manipulate their feelings, bringing underlying emotions to the surface of their mind. He knew that he would have to be careful with Professor Ardan, since the air-aligned Guardian could get them both in trouble if he realized how he was being manipulated by both of them.
Dylan focused on the sensation of the feeling of guilt, of sadness and remorse. He directed the emotions towards Professor Ardan just a little bit—not enough to be noticeable, not the way that he normally did to bring Julia down from an air-fueled high, but enough to cause some stirring. Dylan half-listened to what his friend was saying and responded with the appropriate emotions, just enough to get the professor going.
“So you see, I feel like if anyone can tell us something about what happened during the summer, it would be you,” Julia said. “And obviously, this would remain completely quiet between the three of us, but it just—it’s hard for me to focus on what I should be studying in school, when I think about how strange things have been.”
Julia folded her hands on her lap and Dylan tried to keep his focus, tried to keep his awareness split between her and the professor, keep a light hand on the emotional flow he maintained.
“Julia, I can appreciate your concern but this point the questions about what happened over the summer are moot—it’s been months.”
“I know, Professor Ardan, but I was just thinking that if I could pick your brain a little bit, I might be able to make sense of things.” Julia was all but fluttering her eyelashes at the professor, and Dylan tried to decide if he should be more heavy-handed with the emotional manipulation.
“What do you think that I’ll be able to tell you, Julia? Dylan, are you with her on this?” Ardan looked at him, and Dylan managed to shrug.
“I’m here to be Julia’s escort and bodyguard,” Dylan said, carefully increasing the flow of emotions towards Ardan. “I agree with her that there’s something going on, and that no one seems to be doing anything about it…” he met Ardan’s gaze. “I think that if we felt like we understood how certain things came to happen, we might be able to relax a little more.”
“Absolutely,” Julia said. “I think you know that all of us air-aligned students have been feeling jumpy since the accusations started up. And now with the changelings gone completely from the school, we’re even more anxious. If we knew just a little bit about what’s going on, it might make us all feel a little more at ease.”
“I don’t know,” Ardan said. Dylan couldn’t push against the man’s emotional state any harder without risking that the professor would notice what he was doing. It was up to Julia.
“Professor Ardan,” Julia said, leaning in a little closer to the teacher. “We need to know what happened over the summer. Just what happened—whether Dimitrios fired the teachers or not, and why they got fired.”
“I don’t understand why that’s relevant to what’s going on right now,” Ardan said, guardedly, but Dylan could feel his resolve weakening every moment. Come on Julia, convince him! He couldn’t keep the emotional flow going for much longer, not without Ardan noticing, or without losing his focus.
“It’s relevant because we want to understand what’s going on with this new dean,” Julia said. “I mean, if there’s been a problem with thefts before, then maybe that’s why things are so strange with the false accusations being believed.”
“I guess, if you swear to me that this isn’t going to create some huge controversy on campus, I could tell you about what happened,” Ardan said.
“We promise,” Julia said, “this is just for my own peace of mind. I think you know that there are lots of the air-aligned creatures at school who have asked Guardians what we can do about what’s going on.” That wasn’t, strictly speaking, true, but Julia did have something of a point in the fact that she was a representative, an emissary, between humans and air-aligned supernaturals.
Ardan resisted for a moment longer and then sighed. “Fine,” the man said. “Dean Dimitrios was here before the teachers left; he fired them.”
“Do you have any idea why?” Julia’s voice was too innocent, but Dylan could feel that Ardan was consumed with too much of a sense of guilt for being at the school still, that he was too wrapped up in a sense of culpability, to notice it.
“We all know why, but there’s nothing we can say,” Ardan said, shrugging. “And you aren’t to say anything about it either, Julia—or you, Dylan. There was a scandal.”
“What kind of scandal?” Julia raised an eyebrow, and Dylan backed off on the flow of guilt into Ardan slightly, but only a little bit, letting him—at least somewhat—make up his own mind whether or not to say something.
“There were accusations of theft,” Ardan said. “There was never any proof that anything was stolen, but there was a big meeting, and then somehow the accusations turned back onto the professors, and then…” he shrugged. “They were all dismissed, and Dimitrios had to hire a bunch more professors.”
“He’s been riding the ones who are still here pretty hard, too,” Julia pointed out. Dylan nodded his agreement.
&
nbsp; “Do you think there was something to do with Dimitrios?” He kept his voice as light as possible.
“I think that Dean Dimitrios isn’t someone that either of you need to come up against,” Ardan said. “I think you both need to keep very, very quiet about your curiosity.”
“I have every intention of staying quiet,” Dylan told the professor. “I just also kind of have to go along—to a degree—with what Julia’s doing.” He smiled wryly.
“You need to be more concerned with keeping this girl from drawing fire on herself,” Ardan said. “My understanding from Ruth was that you’re functioning as a protector for Julia, in light of her coming into her full abilities and how vulnerable that makes her politically.”
“Stop talking about Julia as if she’s not here,” Julia said, her voice strident, and Dylan could feel—vaguely—a kind of pressure against his mind, against his will. He knew that his friend wasn’t doing it consciously, but he knew too that letting her get upset, letting her get angry at being treated like an object rather than a person, would only make things fall apart in the office.
“Julia, we should probably get to the party, anyway, right?” Dylan raised an eyebrow and Julia met his gaze steadily.
“You’re right,” she said, some of her charming brightness returning. “We should be getting to the party before someone wonders why we’re absent.” She rose and inclined her head towards Professor Ardan. “Thank you very much for being willing to speak to us, I understand why you were hesitant.”
“We won’t violate your trust.” Dylan wasn’t sure that he could—strictly speaking—promise that, but he would do everything that he possibly could to keep Julia from using the information in a way that would specifically get Ardan into trouble.
They left the professor’s office together, and for a few moments walked down the hall in silence, as both Dylan and Julia tried to sort through what they’d learned. “So, what do we know?” Dylan glanced at Julia.
