Aida blinked, squinted, rubbed her eyes.

  Nothing changed. As far as she could see, there was nothing. And not just darkness, either—complete and utter whiteness. It wasn't even as if she was blinded by lights; there were no shadows, nothing reflecting off of anything else.

  As she began taking stock of her surroundings, she was relieved to find that she could see herself—or at least, she could see a dim outline of her arms and fingers.

  Feeling more wary, she spun in a circle, trying to get her bearings.

  Even as she spun (it felt like she did, not that she had any visual frame of reference to confirm), she noticed that she wasn't even standing on anything—she was floating.

  Her stomach dropped, as if it finally realized it didn't have the comfort of the ground's support.

  No—she was falling now, too.

  As Aida unleashed an unearthly shriek, her wispy limbs flailing in the air, several presences converged around her. They didn't have any clearly defined shapes, though she got the impression they were curious about her.

  Interestingly enough, as she focused on these amorphous shapes, her stomach firmly settled back in her body, her fall arrested.

  Aida flinched as she felt something gently stroke her back—a completely unexpected sensation.

  Whipping around to see what touched her, she saw a small tendril made of the same shapeless substance as the stuff that surrounded her.

  "Hello?" Aida finally croaked out, though she noticed her voice seemed...flat. Not quite echoey, yet also like it was coming from her toes. "Are you...sentient?"

  At her words, the blobs surrounding her seemed to start convulsing, almost as if...in excitement.

  "Can you understand me?" Aida tried putting her chest into it, trying to make her voice sound more normal—but all to no avail. "Where am I?"

  "—!"

  Before she could even think to try something else, Aida felt a jerk—a distinctly physical and human sensation, as her shoulder was viciously yanked back.

  "—go back—"

  As Aida spun helplessly through the aether—she had no doubt that's where she was at this point—she thought she saw a flash of silver. As she tried to orient herself to get a second look, all she saw was a more human shape before it faded in among the rest of the whiteness.

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  Aida blinked as her vision refocused on meaningful images. She had Ezra's arm in a limp grip, and raucous shouting was starting to fill in the channels of her brain signals.

  "—say that!"

  "What is going on here?"

  Aida was pulled—not ungently—away from Ezra's bed, his arm slipping out of her grasp.

  "She wasn't doing anything," Sue said beseechingly to Healer Luk, who was now standing at the door. The blonde-haired girl had her arms wrapped protectively around Aida.

  "Something—" Sue clapped her hand over Aida's mouth, preventing her from offering an explanation of how she had been out for a couple seconds.

  "We were just here to say goodbye to Ezra," Levi said smoothly as Sue pulled Aida insistently out of the Healing ward, leaving Caleb to cover their rear. "We'll be going now."

  Interestingly enough, Jasper Riolt was still standing at the door, his silver eyes narrowed as he watched her pass—though Sue placed her body protectively between them as she ushered Aida through.

  Aida waited until they had piled out the front door of Maglica before finally putting up some resistance. "What happened?"

  "What do you mean, 'what happened?' We should be asking you that," Levi said grimly.

  "All I know is I was out for a couple seconds when I touched Ezra," Aida said, unconsciously shivering as she recalled the emptiness she had witnessed. "And then next thing I know, Sue was yelling at Jasper. What?"

  Sue and Levi were staring at her with concern. "Aida, you weren't out for a couple seconds...you were out for minutes."

  "No way, it didn't feel that long," Aida said, unnerved. Her eyes widened as she remembered how she had been violently thrown back. "I think—I think I was in the spirit realm. I saw Ezra!"

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  "Wait wait wait, what?"

  Sue had Aida sit down on the grass with her, Levi pacing in front of them as they absorbed Aida's ramblings about what she had seen—felt—in that weird, amorphous place.

  "It has to be the spirit realm, right? I've never even seen anything like that before."

  "But...how did you get to the spirit realm in the first place?" Sue asked hesitantly.

  Levi knelt down in front of Aida, peering into her eyes. Aida stared back, wondering what he was seeing. Behind Levi's shoulder, Sue craned her neck so she could also peer thoughtfully at Aida.

  Finally, Levi exhaled, shaking his head in defeat. "I don't even know what I'm looking for. I think it will be worth the effort to talk to Professor Bruce before you leave."

  Aida chuckled weakly. "You think he'll have time, with all the angry Affiliates?"

  Levi shrugged. "What other choice do you have? Once we leave, we won't even have access to the Library, and Buddington's public library isn't well-stocked with this kind of high-brow, spiritual realm stuff."

  Aida pressed her lips together before noticing Caleb jogging towards them. "Where—"

  "Sorry," Caleb said. "I hung back to talk to Lara."

  "What did she decide?" Sue demanded.

  "She decided to take it," Caleb said, his voice low. "She says she doesn't have a choice."

  "Doesn't have a choice?" Sue scoffed. "She had those other offers from the Strongholders!"

  "Not if she wants to improve her family standing," Caleb corrected, shaking his head. "She's genuinely worried about their fate. I can understand that," he said softly.

  Crinkling her brow, Aida looked to Levi, who had a more objective view about the state of people's situations. "Is Lara's family really doing that badly? I thought they were, I don't know, upper middle class or something."

  "They are," Levi said flatly. "Nobody needs to worry about them. Aside from not being clan head, they're still a very respected family with comfortable means. She really doesn't need your pity, Caleb."

  "Baen isn't everything," Caleb retorted, showing the first sign of vehemence Aida had ever seen when it came to defending the unfriendly girl. "Just because they're doing well financially, doesn't mean they aren't facing other challenges."

  "What kind of challenges? Challenges in not being as powerful as the Riolts?" Levi asked dryly. "They're still powerful enough that they don't have to contend with the kind of struggle the majority of Wyndians suffer, like the Lorehs," he said, waving at Aida. "If anybody needs sympathy, it's people like you and Aida."

  "Everybody deserves sympathy," Caleb argued back. "They might have more baen, but their struggles are still real."

  "Caleb, we're not saying people in Lara's circumstances don't deserve sympathy," Sue said beseechingly. "We're just saying...if Lara wasn't such a rotten person, then we'd be a bit more sympathetic."

  "If Lara didn't insult me every chance she got I'd feel bad about the pressure she's under," Aida murmured.

  "Anyway, you should go talk to Bruce," Levi said firmly, turning his back on Caleb's anguished expression. "Who knows how long that conversation will go, and you don't want to miss the golem back home."

  "Ah, I wonder if the people delivering our things home have left yet!" Sue said, hopping to her feet. "I'll grab my fire float if it's still there, so Aida and I can go home later if we have to. Come with me?" she said to Caleb, laying her hand gently on his arm. He looked at her with a miserable expression before letting her lead him away.

  "Why is Caleb being like that?" Aida asked no one in particular as Levi tugged Aida to her feet. "When did he get so friendly with Lara?"

  "It started during that Deep Western Woods escapade," Levi said quietly as they began heading back into the school building. "It seems they bonded during their escape. But ever since then, he's been slowly warming up to her. I guess she's a bit nicer to him now, too, but it clearly doesn't extend to the rest of us," Levi said scathingly.

  They found Professor Bruce in the staff lounge, leaning back in one of the cushy chairs wearily. He straightened as soon as he heard Levi and Aida tell Charma they wanted to speak to him.

  "What is it now?" he asked, leading them into a private conference room.

  "I think I entered the spirit realm," Aida said bluntly. Bruce's gaze sharpened. "Not on purpose!"

  "Explain."

  Again, Aida recounted her story of what happened in the Healing ward—supplemented by Levi—finishing with the question, "was I in the spirit realm?"

  Professor Bruce tapped the table in front of him as he stared at her, hard. Finally, he sighed. "I am conflicted. You are technically no longer a student here, so my responsibility over your actions and wellbeing is lower. However, because you are no longer a student here, that makes it difficult to ensure you are prepared for what is in the spirit realm.

  "Yes, the phenomena you described would indicate you manifested in the spirit realm. However, the lack of details you noted is concerning—it means you did not possess the mental and spiritual development to accept and process what your soul noted."

  "So—does that mean I saw Ezra? Ezra sent me back?" Aida asked eagerly. Levi's hand on her shoulder made her realize she was leaning towards Bruce, and that he was looking at her with alarm as he leaned away from her. She pushed herself back into her seat with a muttered apology.

  "Yes, it seems likely it was him. I have noted—with relief, I might add—that his soul lingers in the vicinity of his body, which means he still has enough attachment to the mortal realm to be recoverable. He likely recognized you were going into shock, and ejected you from the spirit realm before you lost yourself."

  "But how did Aida get there in the first place?" Levi asked, somewhat belligerently. "She's not like Ezra, she didn't try to learn Ascension Meditation on her own!"

  Bruce exhaled slowly. "I have no answer for that."

  "Does Jasper Riolt know anything? Maybe he knows some sort of technique to—I don't know—expel somebody's soul," Levi continued ruthlessly. He stood up from his seat and began pacing in the tiny room, frustrated. "When he entered the Healing ward, he was needlessly exerting his mana on all of us. What if he was doing that to hide the fact that he was doing something to her?"

  "Inconceivable," Bruce said, frowning. "It would take more than a lifetime of mana and spiritual mastery to be able to tamper with a healthy individual's soul. I highly doubt he has the patience and dedication to self-improvement to pursue such a skill."

  "But—"

  "Enough," Bruce said, raising his hand. "We have more pressing matters to deal with than speculation on how Aida entered the spirit realm, at the moment.” He turned to Aida with a serious expression, making sure she was focusing on him, paying attention.

  "It is paramount, now more than ever, we discuss how you can receive meditation training while you are working."