Silence. The students glanced around at one another for a moment before everyone faced forwards.
Zoe breathed a short sigh of relief. Her arm was still in a sling–the bone had healed but was still very sensitive to movement–and her leg required a crutch. Yet letting that woman continue to have run of her classroom was a recipe for disaster.
Before she could move on with the day’s lesson, and hopefully regain lost time, Mr. Wilcox sat up straighter.
“Yeah, I got one,” he said. One finger swung around to point at Eva. “What is the deal with that? I went to school last year and she didn’t have those hands then. She definitely didn’t have those eyes before you got injured.” His finger moved from Eva to point at Zoe. “You had something to do with it. And before you start talking, I don’t believe that drivel the dean spouted about her being half elf. She didn’t have eyes before that meeting either. At all.”
Zoe let out a small sigh. It came out more as a sharp hiss. Talking about this beforehand would have been a wise idea in retrospect. Something to corroborate whatever stories they told might have helped as well.
Before she could open her mouth for an explanation, Eva opened hers.
“They’re the eyes of a fire sprite. One was found at Zoe Baxter’s home the other night ago.”
“Fire sprite?”
Zoe didn’t catch which student asked. She caught on quickly enough. “A fae of the seelie kingdom. We’re unsure if it just happened across my home or if someone set it against me. My home burned down and I got trapped beneath a wooden beam that fell, breaking my arm and leg. Way–Professor Lurcher was severely burned in the incident.”
“So how did your fire thing’s eyes end up in her?”
“Miss Eva was meeting with Professor Lurcher and myself over her Alchemy lessons. Before he was incapacitated, Professor Lurcher managed to kill the sprite. And then…”
Zoe trailed off with a pointed look at Eva. She had no idea how to explain anything. It wouldn’t be hard to project some false confidence and come up with a believable method of transferring the eyes–she was the premier theorist after all–but Eva likely had an idea if she brought up the fire sprite in the first place.
The students not looking up a picture of a fire sprite would already be too much to hope for. There were similarities to be sure, but the slit pupil was a defining feature of Eva’s eyes that fire sprites lacked.
“And then–” Zoe tried not to sigh in relief as Eva picked up without hesitation “–I decided that since I didn’t have any eyes, I might as well take the sprite’s eyes.”
“You just popped them in?” Mr. Wilcox shook his head. “Just like that? I don’t believe it.”
“There are many strange and cruel magics not taught at this academy. Or any academy,” Zoe said.
“Strange and cruel magics?” His question came out harsh. After a moment, his expression turned more to curiosity as he glanced towards Eva. “And you know these magics?”
Someone Zoe would have to watch carefully in the future. Looking around, several of the students had the same expression.
Eva let out a short laugh. “Of course not. I can barely manage a proper fireball.”
“Oh,” he said with barely hidden disappointment.
“Last year I was abducted by those necromancers. They did something to my body. I can attach the limbs and organs of magical creatures and adapt them to my body.” Eva shook her head.
Compared to the little girl the previous year who couldn’t lie to save her skin, Eva of today was doing far better at deceit.
Eva had explained it once upon Zoe questioning her. It helped a lot to see her own facial expressions as she made them, her own heart rate, and other such tells.
“Don’t ask me how or why. I don’t know. Ask the necromancer that escaped.”
Her barely-there smile widened into a maniacal grin that sent shivers down Zoe’s spine. It didn’t help that her eyes burned with a demonic glow.
“If you find him, let me know. I have words for him.” The skittering of her claws as they clacked together actually sent chills through most of the class.
Some people stared at her.
Some turned away.
Silence reigned supreme.
Until Zoe cleared her throat. “Yes, in any case, we’ll be turning to page one-fifty-one and getting started with the Manton Effect. We have a lot to catch up on and less time to do it in.”
That set most of the class into motion. A handful of students stared even as they groped around for books.
Eva’s smile turned far more polite. She gave Zoe a light shrug as she picked her own book out of her book bag.
The first time she had used her book in Zoe’s class since early last November.
— — —
“A right mess is what I found.”
Eva frowned as her master glared around the room. Being in Ylva’s private meeting room didn’t help his temperament in the slightest. He’d been getting grumpier and far more agitated every time something happened.
She couldn’t quite blame him for that. ‘Somethings’ happened an awful lot at Brakket.
Before Brakket, Devon would occasionally bring Eva along on jobs, sometimes with Arachne and sometimes without. Those jobs were always planned or, at the very least, Devon would know roughly what to expect. That could be anything from fairies to people with guns. Whatever the case, they could prepare.
At Brakket, they were the ones being attacked.
It didn’t sit right with her.
“The fire was demonic in origin. That much was plain to see. Beyond that,” Devon gave a one-armed shrug.
“Obviously from the jezebeth,” Arachne said.
“I don’t like that a jezebeth was involved, we can’t be sure of anything.” He swung his arm around to point across the table, though he gave an aside glance towards Eva and Arachne. “Especially first hand accounts. They tend to be skewed.”
Zoe bristled under his accusation. She opened her mouth, looking like she was about to protest. No words came out. She stared until her mouth clamped shut. Her gaze dropped down to the rich mahogany table.
It was… odd. Zoe looked older than Eva remembered.
The tests Eva had run on her eyes didn’t show significant improvement over human eyes. At least, not in a bright room. Seeing in the dark was far easier. Not much else. As such, Eva felt fairly confident that her eyes weren’t magnifying stress lines in Zoe’s face that she had simply missed in the past.
In addition, the professor seemed downtrodden. She had lost weight–not a lot, but enough. Her face showed off the same pallor as sickly hospital patients. The near fatal amount of lost blood might be part of the cause, but she should have been over that by now.
Eva made a mental note to talk to her afterwards about her health. Perhaps Arthfael would be willing to sit on her for a few hours.
Nel, who had been seated between Ylva and Zoe, unsubtly slid her chair away from the downcast professor. Several of her eyes sent accusing looks towards Zoe.
Looks that Eva had often been the recipient of. If it weren’t for Ylva, Eva would have demanded that the worthless nun not be a part of the meeting. It wasn’t like she had any useful information.
“Your implications are unfounded, Devon Foster. We can confirm, the mortal in question is undoubtedly Zoebell Baxter. She bears Our ring.”
And she did. Zoe reached one hand over the other and lightly rubbed the smooth, black ring. Arachne had recovered and returned it at the start of the meeting without a single complaint or snide comment. Likely fear at what Ylva might do after Zoe had been attacked once.
Devon stood from his seat. “And how do you know that you aren’t being fooled?”
“You doubt Us?”