by D. S. Craig
I hesitated for a minute, thinking it might be better if she thought I was the only one who knew. In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her. “I did. I told them about it later that evening.”
“So, that’s why she came up and talked to me so suddenly.” Rose turned her gaze downward, staring at her dusty boots. “I thought it was strange that someone so famous would bother with me.”
I felt an uneasiness growing inside me as she echoed Elliot’s words from earlier. From her perspective, it probably looked like we were only interested in her for her power, and in my case, I think that was true. Seeing her looking so depressed, I felt disgusted with myself.
“This may sound like I’m making excuses since I’m the one who told them about your ability.”—I looked over at Lesti and Aurelia—“but I don’t think the reason they approached you really matters. Whether it’s your looks, power, or some talent you have, people take an interest in others for all sorts of reasons. What’s really important is how they treat you and what kind of relationship they want with you.”
Rose looked out at Lesti and Aurelia in the field, a conflicted expression on her face. Lesti noticed her watching and waved as she called out to her. “Rose! We’re finished, so come check our work already.”
Rose stood up, dusted herself off, and started walking over toward the pair. However, she came to a stop after just a few feet and turned around to look at me. “I don’t infuse the seeds with magical energy because I can’t. No matter how hard I try, it never takes.” A strangely pained looking expression crossed her face at that moment. “I guess it’s just a limitation of mine.”
Without waiting for my response, she turned and jogged over to join Lesti and Aurelia. Thankfully, it seemed like my words had gotten through to her just a little bit.
Internally, I let out a sigh of relief and turned my thoughts to what she had said. I had learned a little bit about magical infusion, but Rose’s words seemed to imply that it wasn’t impossible to infuse living matter with magical energy. Rather, it seemed like she simply wasn’t capable of it herself. But even if that was true, why did it look like it pained her so much?
* * *
A few days later, we once again found ourselves heading to the usual classroom for our evening training session, but Rose was with us this time around. We had spent the last several days helping her work her field in the evening. Afterward, Lesti always invited her to join us for dinner. The first several times, she refused, but today she had finally accepted. The three had hit it off pretty well, chatting up a storm as they ate. It was the first time I had seen Rose smile so much since we had met her.
She was joining us for training because, during their chat, Rose had mentioned to Lesti that she felt nervous about the tournament. Lesti, being who she was, immediately promised I could make Rose the top of her class. I did my best to deny any such claims, but I couldn’t keep up with Lesti’s endless praise for me. So, now I found myself with not one but two students that I didn’t have any idea of how to train.
“This is it.” Lesti walked into the room ahead of Rose, spun around on her heel, and grinned at me mischievously. “This is where we spend our evenings, slaving away under the harsh tutelage of Instructor Astria.”
Rose eyed me wearily after hearing Lesti’s declaration. It was bad enough she was nervous around me because I was an Astral Cat, but now Lesti was going to make her think I was some sort of demon teacher. I wasn’t going to be able to teach her anything at this rate, so despite my irritation at Lesti, I did my best to respond calmly. “Relax. She’s just joking. My training methods aren’t anything too crazy.”
“How can you say that when I have bruises like these thanks to your training?” Lesti pointed to a rather nasty looking bruise that she had gotten from her training with Elliot, pouting all the while.
“Th-that wasn’t my fault!” My eyes darted about as I tried to come up with an excuse. “You’re the one who got Elliot all worked up before sparring with him. You only have yourself to blame!”
“What kind of instructor doesn’t accept responsibility for her student’s injuries?” Lesti looked at me with mock shock. “I should report you to the headmistress!”
“For the last time, I’m not an instructor!” I finally lost my cool at Lesti’s teasing and snapped back at her.
“Mmm. That’s not true. You’re a great instructor,” Aurelia chimed in at the worst possible time. I turned, ready to give her a piece of my mind, but unlike Lesti, she was gazing at me with an expression so earnest and sincere that I couldn’t possibly refute her.
Seeing my anger disarmed by Aurelia, Rose let out a little chuckle. “This seems like a fun environment to learn in. I’ll be looking forward to your lessons, Instructor Astria.”
Rose curtsied rather skillfully, catching me off guard. I hadn’t expected such a gesture from a commoner girl. It made me wonder where she learned that from. Was her sponsor training her to enter noble society or something?
As my thoughts wandered off, Rose looked at me expectantly. Realizing that she was waiting for my response, I let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. You win. I’ll figure out something to help you in the tournament. What’s one more at this point anyway.”
“Yes!” Lesti pumped her fist and ran over to Rose, embracing her in a swift hug. “This is gonna be great. I’m looking forward to working with you, Rose.”
“Mm. I am too.” Aurelia smiled at her gently. “Let’s all work hard together.”
Rose, clearly surprised by Lesti’s enthusiastic embrace, stared at the two for a moment before smiling brightly. “Yeah. Let’s all do our best!”
“Alright, let’s get to work then. Aurelia, how is your training going? Making any progress?” I hopped up on a nearby desk and started to get each of my charges in order. Unlike a standard classroom, each of my students had their own unique training, so I would have to be organized about this.
“Mm. It’s still pretty hard, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.”
“Alright, keep working at it then.” I nodded briefly before turning my gaze to my next target. “Lesti, were you able to get any ideas from your training with Elliot this morning?”
Lesti grinned at me. “Yeah, I have a few ideas.” Her expression then grew more serious. “Still, I don’t think they’re going to be enough to beat Alex. I’ll keep working at it, though.”
“Good. Then, the last one would be Fang.” I paused for a moment as I looked down at the pup, whose tail was wagging excitedly at being mentioned. “Sorry. We can’t work on your ability here in the classroom. There isn’t enough space.”
Fang lowered his head and whined slightly when I mentioned that he would be left out. I was excited to keep working on his abilities. We made some excellent progress earlier in the day, but there was no way we could spar and use magic here in the classroom.
“Don’t whine. Practice your tracking instead. There are treats in it for you if you do a good job.”
“Rarf!”
At the mention of treats, Fang perked up instantly. No matter how many times I saw it, it was scary how well that worked. With him taken care of, I turned my attention to my newest student. “That just leaves you, Rose. If it’s fine with you, I’d like to ask a few questions before we get started.”
“Of course.”
Rose’s reply was a bit stiff as the others moved off to do their training, leaving her alone with me. I felt my tail start to swish about in irritation, but suppressed the urge. It was going to be frustrating trying to teach someone who was always on edge around me, but showing that frustration would only make things worse. Besides, I’m sure Rose had her reasons for being scared of animals.
“Perfect. Then why don’t we start with your ability to infuse magic into objects? I’ll need to know more about how it works in order to come up with ways you can use it in the tournament.”
“Well, I don’t mind since you already know about my ability, but…” Rose paused, glancing over towar
d the doorway. “I don’t think I’ll be able to use it in the tournament. My sponsor has ordered me to keep it a secret.”
“I see.” I lowered my gaze for a moment as I thought through my options. “Well, I certainly don’t want to cause issues with your sponsor. However, I think you should work on cultivating that ability of yours either way.”
Rose turned her gaze away from the doorway and back to me, a surprised look written on her face. “What makes you think that?”
“Sorry if I’m being too forward here, but I don’t think the tournament results are going to be that important to your future, right?” I glanced over at Lesti and Aurelia as they both threw themselves into their studies. “For those two, the tournament is an important chance to show off their abilities. They need to get good results to help secure the future that they want. Since your sponsor already knows about your ability, I’m assuming they plan to hire you after you graduate, so you’ll do quite nicely for yourself, no?”
“I suppose that’s true. Regardless of my results in the tournament, my future is already set in stone thanks to my ability.”
Rose smiled softly as she confirmed my reasoning, but for some reason, the smile didn’t seem to reach her eyes. First, Elliot was acting strange, and now this. I was beginning to wonder what was going on behind the scenes here. But it wasn’t my business to meddle in. Rose had asked me to teach her, and that’s what I was going to do.
“If that’s the case, then we should take a longer-term approach to your training. You have three years that you’ll be spending here at the academy. If you can start to find ways to use your ability now, then it will only help you out once you graduate. Whether you decide to use what you learn publicly, I’ll leave up to you.”
“Very well.” Rose took a deep breath and sat upright. “What is it you wanted to know?”
“First, how does your ability work exactly? Lesti and I have tried to put our magic into objects more times than we can count, but every time it just drains away.”
“Well, I’m honestly not one hundred percent sure how it works myself, but…” Rose tilted her head and looked up toward the ceiling. “If I had to give you an answer, I’d say that I don’t put magic into objects. I put feelings into them.”
“Feelings?” I cocked my head to the side, trying to decipher her strange statement. “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
“Alright, let’s use the field as an example, then. When I’m tilling the field, watering the plants, or anything else related to farming, I don’t think about infusing the soil with magic.” Rose pulled both hands close to her chest and gazed down at them before slowly opening them as she continued to speak. “Instead, I think about how I want the plant to grow well. I pour those feelings into my work, and apparently, that causes my magic to flow into the soil.”
“I see, so you think about the result that you want. Wait, doesn’t that sound just like image-based magic?” I looked up at Rose, confused. Something about what she was saying didn’t add up. “I just don’t see how that’s different from what Lesti and I were trying. Sure, the end goals were different. No, wait. Rather than being different, it was like we didn’t have an end goal in mind at all.”
Rose furrowed her brow as she processed what I was saying. “No end goal in mind, huh?” Then, all of a sudden, her eyes went wide. “It’s the same.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“My sponsor would try and have me create artifacts, but he never gave me a clear direction on what they should do. I had no end goal in mind. It never worked, not even once. Maybe, you can’t just put magic inside an object with no purpose. You have to give it a reason for being there. When I would help my parents create medicines, I would always think that I wanted the medicine to be super effective and make whoever was using it recover quickly. Was that the key this whole time?”
“I can’t believe it was so simple.” I stared at Rose, dumbfounded. Thinking back on it, it all made sense. All of the items that Thel’al had created that held magic had some other purpose. The bracelets and Fang’s collar tried to corrupt the wearer’s soul. Meanwhile, Fang’s anklets transformed the wearer, enhancing their physical abilities. Lesti and I had never even thought to try anything like that.
Just as this revelation hit both of us, a clunk came from just outside the door. Our gazes snapped over to see who was there. A moment later, Elliot stepped around the corner, carrying a small bag with him. Rather than relaxing when she saw it was Elliot, Rose only grew tenser.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go.” Standing up quickly, she power-walked out of the room, pushing past Elliot. “Excuse me.”
“Rose, where are you going? What’s wrong?” Lesti stood up and made to follow after her, but Elliot blocked her path.
“Leave her be for now. We need to talk.” Elliot’s expression wasn’t his usual casual, joking one. It was clear he didn’t have any intention of letting Lesti follow after Rose.
“Elliot, what’s going on?” I glared at him from my spot on the desk, fur bristling. “Why is Rose acting so scared of you?”
Elliot, seeing my body language, threw up his hands. “Hold on, I plan on explaining everything, so just calm down, okay?”
I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself. “Fine, I’ll hear you out.”
He let out a sigh of relief before looking at Lesti and Aurelia in turn. " You two should take a seat as well. I think you both need to hear about this too.” They both sat at the front of the classroom while Elliot stood there, gathering his thoughts.
Rose’s Situation
“So, let’s begin with some basic facts.” Elliot looked at the three of us as we sat in front of him. “First, I want you all to know that I’m just now learning about Rose’s ability, same as you.”
I had just finished giving Elliot a rundown of Rose’s ability. After my conversation with her, I felt like something was off, but it didn’t seem like she would open up to us anytime soon. Besides that, Elliot had pretty much figured it out already after overhearing our conversation. There wasn’t much point in hiding it from him, and he didn’t seem the type to try and take advantage of Rose, either.
Lesti sat up straight at his statement, fully focused. “Right. We covered this before. Rose’s sponsor didn’t tell your father what her special ability was when he asked for permission to send her to the academy. Plus, your father, being busy with the fallout from the war, didn’t push him for answers.”
“That’s right. As you know, when a lower-ranked noble within a territory wants to sponsor someone, he has to give his reasoning to the lord of the territory. In this case, Rose’s sponsor used the political situation in our territory to hide her ability from my father.”
“Isn’t that kind of dangerous for him?” I asked. “Why would he take that kind of risk?”
“Before I answer that, I need to ask you one last time—are you sure you want to continue to be involved with Rose? If we go any further, then you’ll become involved in the internal affairs of the Gambriel family, and there won’t be any going back.”
Lesti stood up, a surprisingly serious expression on her face. “As if I would let something as small as the internal affairs of another family stop me! Rose is our friend, and if she’s in trouble, we intend to help her out, right, Auri?”
Aurelia smiled up at Lesti before turning to Elliot, her gaze full of conviction. “Mm. We’ll definitely help her out.”
Elliot, for his part, looked utterly baffled. “Friend? Didn’t you two meet her just the other day? Aren’t you rushing things a bit?”
“E-even if we haven’t spent that much time with her, we can still be friends, you know!” Lesti slammed her hands on the desk. Her argument was pretty weak overall, but Elliot only smiled.
“Well, I can’t say I hate that sort of attitude. Alright then, if your minds are made up, who am I to stop you?” He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. “For some time now, we have suspected Baron Arvis, Rose’s sponsor, of
planning a coup.”
“A coup?!” Lesti’s eyes narrowed at Elliot. “How is Rose involved in this?”
“Calm down. I’m getting to that.” Elliot glared back at Lesti, clearly irritated at the interruption. “My father has had his spies investigating Arvis. Until recently, we weren’t able to find any evidence of his plans. Then, a little over a year ago, he brought Rose to us and asked for my father’s permission to enroll her in the academy. But he never once mentioned the abilities that I just heard about. Instead, he just implied that Rose had some sort of hidden talent.”
Elliot turned and began pacing back and forth in front of us, brow furrowed in thought. “My father found this strange. Rose had been mentioned in our spy’s reports, but the spy had never once seen Rose using magic.”
“What’s so strange about that?” I tilted my head to the side. “Isn’t it possible that the spy just happened to never be around when Rose used magic?”
“You might think that, but the castle that Baron Arvis holds is rather small. Plus, both the spy and Rose had been there for over a year at this point.” Elliot stopped pacing and turned to meet my gaze. “If Rose’s abilities were normal, then she would have been practicing them out in the open. The spy’s reports and Arvis’s request tipped my father off that something else was going on. He agreed to allow Rose to attend the academy and contacted me to keep an eye on her.”
“So, you’ve been spying on her for your father.” I stood and took a step toward Elliot. “Does that mean that you’re planning on reporting what you just found to him?”
I braced myself for Elliot’s response. If he was going to tell his father about Rose’s ability, then I might have to stop him. Just like they had a spy in the Arvis household, it was likely that Baron Arvis had a spy in their home. If that was the case and they heard the news, then Rose could find herself in danger of some sort. I had to assume she was being threatened in some way, based on her reaction to Elliot showing up.
