Aida woke up to a bright and sunny day, the heavy weight in her belly utterly incongruous with the joyful sunlight streaming through her windows.

  Remembering why she had fallen asleep so late, Aida jerked out of bed, running her fingers through her hair as a sad excuse at tidying up as she threw on her clothes.

  Skipping the dining hall, which was deep in the midst of serving lunch, Aida ran straight to the Healing ward.

  Aida was immediately stopped by Healer Luk, who was standing in front of the door with her arms crossed.

  Luk glowered at her, refusing to move.

  Finally, Aida’s stomach growled, making her concede defeat.

  Her lips curled down in displeasure, Aida trudged back down the hall, before running into Sue, Levi, and Caleb, who were all bearing trays of steaming hot food.

  “Ah, there she is,” Sue said with a strained smile. “We brought you food.”

  “I woke up late,” Aida mumbled, running her fingers through her hair again in a sudden bout of self-consciousness.

  “Healer Luk wouldn’t let you in because you hadn’t eaten yet?” Levi asked shrewdly. Aida nodded.

  “Good thing we’re prepared for that,” Levi said cheerfully as Aida turned right back around to return to the Healing ward with them.

  Healer Luk let them in with an exasperated sigh, bidding them to put the trays of food in the kitchenette.

  “Has he gotten better?” Sue asked worriedly.

  “No,” Luk said grimly.

  “Have you figured out what happened to him?” Aida asked, her voice raspy.

  “No.”

  “But—“

  “Eat your lunch, or I am kicking you out,” Luk warned, her voice low and threatening. Sue and Caleb gently drew Aida into the kitchenette, placing her on a stool and a bowl of rice and chopsticks into her hands.

  Levi flashed one charming smile at Luk before gently easing the door shut, waving apologetically at her.

  “What have you heard?” Aida shot at Sue, Levi, and Caleb.

  Sue exchanged glances with Levi and Caleb, before she scooted forward on her stool to start feeding Aida.

  “Vanita and Lily told us how you and Dev brought Ezra back to the golem after the fireworks,” Caleb said quietly, his hands squeezed into fists on his knees. He blinked his indigo eyes endearingly at Aida, concern evident in his expression. “Other than that, nothing else.”

  Aida chewed robotically, shifting her gaze to Levi. He was leaning against the door, his arms folded thoughtfully across his chest.

  “What do you think happened?” Aida swallowed at Levi’s query before she glanced at Sue and Caleb, who didn’t seem to have an inkling of the deeper question Levi was asking.

  “I…I’m afraid Ezra might have continued with his Ascension Meditation before he was ready,” Aida said haltingly. Her throat closed up, making her turn away from the spoonful of rice and vegetables Sue was holding up to her lips. “I wanted to talk to Professor Bruce to see if that was the case, but they sent me to my room…”

  “I mean, Ezra is still alive, though,” Sue said reasonably, trying to keep the grimness at bay. “And if Ezra really did fail at Ascension, that means he completely departs from the mortal plane, right?”

  Aida took a shuddering breath. “His body is still alive, but…I can’t feel his mana.” She looked entreatingly at the other three Class 1 students. “Can you?”

  They looked at each other uncomfortably.

  “But remember when he first got consigned to the Healing ward during the Last Moon?” Sue pressed. “His mana was kind of dead, too…”

  “That’s even worse!” Aida set down her eating utensils with a loud clack. “If Ezra got attacked in the middle of Shale Port, with no other casualties, what does that mean about whatever the thing is that attacked him?”

  Sue and Caleb stared at her blankly, their expressions slowly transforming from blank to horror mirroring each other as they worked through Aida’s insinuation. Levi caught on quicker, his eyebrows coming together in the middle.

  “Do you think the monster is human?”

  Aida’s mouth dropped open. She had never considered the primary adversary as a human, but Levi’s assumption made sense, in a certain twisted way. A human would be able to blend in to the village, and also sneak up on Ezra.

  The prospect of facing a human made it even more terrifying. He, she, or it could be lurking among us.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I don’t know,” Aida said uncertainly, as she tried fitting what she knew with Levi’s theory. “How would one person be able to sow all that discord with all these monster attacks? Especially on such a large scale?”

  “What if it’s not only one person?” Levi persisted. “What if it’s a group of people?”

  Aida considered, dread and hopelessness warring within her. For some reason, the abstract idea of fighting an undefined monster was less terrifying than being faced with the prospect of fighting a group of humans. Monsters might have more raw power, but humans could lay traps, derail the resistance force from the inside…

  “I don’t think so,” Caleb said hesitantly. “When we were separated in the Deep Western Woods, we didn’t sense a person, right?”

  “That’s true,” Sue said thoughtfully. She looked back to Aida. “When you got attacked at the lake, did it feel like a person?”

  “No,” Aida agreed dubiously. “And I can’t imagine the eels during the North Ocean Village attack were led by a person, either…” Not without suffering grievous casualties.

  Levi exhaled. “Okay, so likely not human. But that means this non-human enemy managed to bypass human defenses.”

  They all lapsed into silence, at a loss.

  “I really need to talk to Professor Bruce,” Aida said, standing up.

  “Oh, but you haven’t—“ Sue started, staring at Aida’s half-empty rice bowl.

  “It’s not like seeing Ezra is going to give us more answers,” Aida said angrily. She paused mid-stride, looking guiltily back at the food trays. “Can you guys clean up for me?”

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  “I’m sorry, Professor Bruce is occupied.”

  “When will he be available?”

  Professor Gemma peered at Aida through the half-open door of the teacher’s lounge. She gave Aida a full once-over, before sighing and opening the door.

  “Come take a seat. I’ll pour you some tea.”

  Aida stepped through the door, taking in the occupants of the lounge. Professor Kozu was standing at a window, giving her a brief nod before turning back to look out over the grounds. Professor Havi was in a corner, looking down at a thick stack of papers as he cleaned his spectacles.

  Aida sat quietly at the large circular table in the middle as Gemma poured tea into several tea cups, setting a steaming mug down in front of Aida before she made a loop around the lounge, handing tea to Kozu and Havi. Finally, she took the seat next to Aida with her own mug.

  “I take it you’ve already seen Mister Riolt today?”

  Aida hesitated before shaking her head, resting her fingertips lightly against the hot base of the mug. “Healer Luk said he hasn’t gotten better, so…”

  “I see.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments, with Gemma languidly sipping at her tea.

  “What did you want to see Professor Bruce about?” Gemma finally asked.

  “I wanted to see if he was able to figure out what happened to Ezra…”

  “Obviously he hasn’t, otherwise we would know,” Havi said absentmindedly as he flipped to another page on his desk.

  “I understand your concern,” Gemma said gently, ignoring Havi’s comment. “Rest assured, we are actively working to discern what happened to him.”

  “Professor Lloyd is at Shale Port right now.” Kozu turned from the window, looking at Aida with his bloodred eyes. “He’s interviewing the villagers to get a clearer picture of what happened.”

  “What is Professor Bruce doing?” Aida asked, somewhat desperately. “Why can’t I talk to him?”

  “He is deep in meditation,” Gemma replied. “He is also working hard to discover what Ezra might have done.”

  “Does he think Ezra proceeded with Ascension Meditation despite not being ready yet?” Gemma and Kozu exchanged glances as Havi sighed quietly in his corner.

  “We aren’t ruling that out, though we don’t think he did anything permanent,” Gemma said reassuringly. “The fact he is still alive is encouraging.”

  Aida felt her shoulders slacken at Gemma’s words. She hadn’t realized how wound up she was.

  “Even though his mana is…weak? I mean, it feels like…it feels like his mana is only as strong as…a normal person,” Aida tapered off, before gathering all of her courage and giving voice to the thought that had been percolating in her mind all night. “Is it…possible that he might have lost all his mana abilities?”

  Her question caused the room to freeze completely. Even Havi seemed to be holding his breath.

  Finally, Kozu took a seat on the other side of the circular table, his gaze fixed on Aida’s.

  “There are no documented cases of that happening.”

  “Have there been documented cases of what happened to Ezra?” Aida asked quietly. After several long breaths, Kozu finally dropped his gaze to his tea.

  “I’m sorry we don’t have any answers,” Gemma said softly. “The best I can promise you is that we are doing our best.”

  “Speaking of doing our best, you should take the rest of today to prepare.” Havi glanced over at Aida, betraying an uncharacteristic compassion in his eyes. “Final placement matches will begin tomorrow.”

  “We’re still having placement matches?” Aida asked, aghast. “How will Ezra participate? Do you expect the rest of the student body to be in the mood to take exams?”

  “You don’t expect us to graduate you all without some form of evaluation, do you?” Havi asked sternly.

  Aida gaped at him, before looking to Gemma and Kozu for a more appropriate explanation. Kozu had a faint smirk on his face.

  “What Havi says is a bit crass,” Kozu said dryly. “But the point he is trying to make is that we must maintain some semblance of normalcy during these abnormal times, if only to do our part in preventing society from collapsing into anarchy. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Aida struggled to formulate a response, before finally conceding his point. Even though forcing them all to take final exams in light of everything that was happening in the world seemed ridiculous, she could understand the adults’ desires to maintain routine and structure during times of chaos.

  They must be feeling helpless, too. This is the only way for them to cope. Especially for fully-fledged practitioners, they must be feeling incredibly impotent…so they needed to keep the school running as they know it. Not for the first time, Aida wished human resources could be easily assigned to more obviously productive tasks like a real game; such as figuring out what happened to Ezra, or researching the changing phenomenon.

  “Look on the bright side,” Gemma said dryly, draining the rest of her tea. “After the next two star cycles, you will be a graduate of Maglica Academy, and you can do whatever you want.”