Levi accosted Aida in the stairwell, dragging her into the library where they were able to dodge the librarian and sneak to Aida’s favorite corner desk.

  Aida ran her hands over the rugged desk surface, wistfully remembering all the long hours she had spent in here catching up on three years’ worth of academic reading. And after tomorrow, she would probably never see this place again.

  Levi didn’t give Aida enough time to reminisce.

  “So what happened?” he asked impatiently. Unlike Aida, he had taken to pacing in front of the window, as if he didn’t care that he would never be among the bookshelves again. But he had three sun cycles to get his fill of the place, so maybe he doesn’t care.

  “You didn’t get a chance to talk to Dev when he came out?” Aida asked instead. She had been in the conference room for hours, having what amounted to a philosophical debate about destiny and free will with Professor Kozu.

  “No, that would be odd,” Levi said brusquely. He placed his palms on the desk in front of Aida, leaning his weight on his hands so that he was towering over Aida. “Why did Dev get released so much earlier than you? Were there any concerns about him? You? Are you okay?”

  “What’s with all the questioning?” Aida asked with a laugh. She straightened and cleared her throat as Levi glowered at her.

  She hadn’t told any of her friends what Bruce had intimated to her and Dev when they returned from North Ocean Village, nor had she explicitly detailed the emotional distress she had undergone when it came to ignoring her feelings towards Dev—though her friends had been oddly perceptive and respectful of the complicated feelings she had, all things considered.

  “I’m serious,” Levi insisted. He knelt in front of the desk so that they were eye level, his bronze eyes reflecting the afternoon light. “Dev becoming monstrously powerful in such a short period of time was already an oddity, but when he unleashed that attack on on Lara—“

  He hesitated, glancing off to the side. “The mana in the air was strange,” he finally said. He straightened and ran his hand through his dark green hair, frustrated. “There was a vacuum.”

  “A vacuum?”

  Levi nodded, looking at her warily. “It happened very quickly, so I didn’t get a good chance to observe in detail, but no matter how I think of it…” he ducked his head again, pressing his hand against his eyes. “Dev clearly didn’t have enough mana to pull off whatever skill he was going for—“

  “Liquefaction.”

  “Liquefaction?” Levi stared at Aida, shocked. He shook his head, focusing back on the point he was trying to make. “So he didn’t have enough mana to pull that off, but it looked like he was pulling mana from you.”

  Aida gaped at him. “But…I didn’t feel anything.”

  Levi waved his hand in irritation. “He wasn’t pulling directly from you, but it was obvious he was reaching for you.”

  She leaned back in her chair, beginning to feel ill at ease. No wonder all the professors were worried.

  “They were asking me about that. About why I was heading towards Dev,” Aida said softly.

  Levi’s brow was furrowed, clearly seeing flaws in that approach. “Is one supposed to ask a seed why it sprouts when the ground is warm?” he asked sarcastically. “It seems out of line to ask the person being preyed upon why they’re helping the perpetrator, but maybe the teachers know something I don’t.”

  Aida smiled feebly. “You’re right. There’s some information you’re missing…”

  The green-haired boy’s biting humor slowly transformed to incredulity over the course of an hour as Aida finally filled him in on what had transpired just two moon cycles ago—she was shocked at how quickly time passed—during the near-fatal assignment she had been sent on to what was supposed to be a safe, slow-paced location.

  “I can’t believe you’ve been sitting on this information this whole time,” Levi said, flabbergasted. “That does explain the sudden tension I’ve noticed between you and Dev, though…”

  “I thought it was just the excitement of having a new crush, not that there actually was some preordained directive saying I’m going to become some lovestruck fool,” Aida said crossly. She glanced at him with barely concealed hope. “Do you think I’ll avoid the fate of a lovestruck fool?”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Well if your behavior with Ezra is anything to go by—“ Levi coughed as Aida’s expression darkened. “To be honest, that kind of mana complementation…it’s the stuff of lore,” he said, shrugging helplessly. “It’d be more believable if a student was the one who suggested it to you, but since it’s one of the teachers…”

  Levi began pacing again, muttering to himself as Aida sagged against the desk. She hadn’t been expecting much, and in fact had been bracing herself for that answer, but it was still disappointing to hear Levi say there wasn’t any hope.

  “You can use this to your advantage, though.” Aida dragged her head up from the desk to see Levi standing in front of her, his hands on his hips. When she only showed mild resigned interest, he raised his brow. “This would be an indisputable reason for you to wholeheartedly reject any suitors your parents might have arranged for you. And who knows, maybe you can even say you’ve been so mentally rattled by everything that’s happened and that’s why your personality has changed so much.”

  “I don’t know,” Aida said dubiously. “I don’t think it’s fair to use Dev as a shield like that…”

  “You don’t have to involve him directly,” Levi argued. “You’re just using the situation as an explanation for why you’re not acting like the daughter they so fondly remember.”

  She chewed her lip as she thought. She had an inherent resistance to any clever schemes Levi came up with, based on how he had tried to manipulate things with her—but he was right, if she just stuck to the situation as it happened. After all, it was true that she had gone through something incredibly life-changing, if not traumatizing—that could be enough for her parents to decide to hold off on forcing an engagement on her.

  And if that didn’t work, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her to be a bit more firm in refusing to take part in the arrangement at all.

  “You have a point,” Aida finally said. “I’ll keep that in reserve.”

  “I suppose that’s all I can ask,” Levi said, exhaling. “But…did all that conversation really merit two extra hours with Kozu?”

  “Yes! It was very helpful,” Aida said indignantly. “He gave me hope.”

  “But Gemma said the studies only showed ways to manage the effects of complementary mana, not actually remove it,” Levi said suspiciously.

  “Well, sure,” Aida nodded. “But Kozu also said that destiny is defined as the most probable outcome, while free will is the variable that changes destiny. And I have free will!” her fist slammed down onto the heavy wooden table, her conviction making itself known with a deep thud.

  “That does sound like Kozu.” Levi grinned appreciatively, shaking his head ruefully. “If ever there was a man who thought he could defeat destiny, it would be him.”

  “Yeah, but he’s right.” Levi followed Aida out of the cozy nook, since their conversation was over. “If I really, truly don’t want things to play out the way Bruce of Gemma say it will, then what am I losing by fighting against it?”

  Levi barked out a laugh, waving farewell to Charma the librarian on the way out. “I suppose if you exhaust yourself from fighting against the inevitable, it will make accepting the outcome easier as well.”

  “Yup. Professor Bruce likes to position himself as the philosopher, but I think Kozu is the real philosopher,” Aida giggled. Kozu’s justifications sounded ridiculous—perhaps even pointless—on the surface, but they made the sort of sense that gave desperate individuals hope. Even if he was lying to her, making her think she had choice in the grand scheme of things…was there any way to prove her wrong?

  “So…I guess this is it, then,” Levi said as they wandered out of the building onto the grounds, following an unspoken itinerary. “After the graduation ceremony tomorrow, we won’t see each other every day anymore.”

  Aida scoffed. “We haven’t been seeing each other regularly since Second Moon.”

  “You know what I mean,” he said waspishly. “You’ll be in Burston City, doing your best to avoid returning to Buddington Town for any holidays…”

  “Stop it,” Aida said sternly. “Sadness is unsightly.”

  Levi sighed. “You’re so harsh.”

  The paused at the entrance of the forest, Aida slowly turning on the spot as she took in the view of the woods and the school’s manicured grounds from that position.

  This was where Levi had first tried to use his charm on her, begging her not to report his lackadaisical oversight of some sort of plant that made normally docile creatures aggressive. She had been so clueless and vulnerable back then.

  And truth be told, she was sad at the thought of leaving Maglica—possibly for good, as far as she knew. It hadn’t even been a full year, but she had so many memories of the boarding school—both good and bad—and yet she felt like she hadn’t made enough memories of the place yet. Not like when she graduated from her regular high school, the first major milestone in her life that made her realize the routine she had been keeping for the past twelve years of public school education no longer applied. She had been delighted, eager, to leave behind the restrictions of mandatory classes that did nearly nothing to improve her earning potential.

  Now, she had a tangible future ahead of her. A future of her choosing. And yet…she wasn’t ready to let this place go yet.

  It’s not the place, it’s the people.

  Aida looked up at Levi, who was examining a small leafy branch above her head.

  “What are you planning on doing the star cycle after graduation?”