Chapter 55: Good Luck.
Bala and I held eyes for exactly one second. Long enough to confirm that he had seen
and I had seen him and we were both going to pretend, for now, that this was ordinary.
Then he moved toward the administrative block with the unhurried authority of a man who had never needed to rush anywhere because everywhere waited for him.
"Has he co to visit Mable?" Isabelle asked, falling into step beside
as we descended the stairs, with the tone of soone who expected
to have information I didn’t have.
"I don’t know," I said honestly.
[LEWD LEVELING SYSTEM]
[CGI presence confird. Ti at Central is limited.]
[Use every available opportunity.]
I know, I told it. I’m working on it.
"Anna told
you were always asking about ," Isabelle said.
I processed that. Annabelle had told her sister I’d been asking about her. Which ant Annabelle had been laying groundwork.
Which ant she had decided, without telling , to make this easier. The girl who had co to my room on day seven of a plague was now doing advance work on her twin sister’s behalf.
She wants it to happen, I thought. She just doesn’t want it to feel arranged.
"Sure," I said. "Who wouldn’t be interested in the ice?"
Her face moved. A small involuntary thing, the kind you can’t manage because it arrives before the decision to manage it. She was used to being Annabelle’s sister. The other one. The cryokinetic in the shadow of the pyrokinetic.
Being noticed independently was a different experience.
"The ice?" Her lips were fighting a smile and losing. "That’s what you call ?"
"Just made it up," I said. "Seems to fit."
She laughed. Soft and low, the laugh of soone who doesn’t do it often enough for it to be a performance.
[Host is becoming smooth.]
Thank you, I thought. High praise.
"With respect," I said, keeping my voice easy, "I’d rather not spend this walk talking about Anna. When it’s just us I want everything to be about ice."
She smiled properly this ti. No fighting it.
"Where are you heading?" she asked, her voice carrying a lightness it hadn’t had at the top of the stairs.
"Looking for Sherry. She’s like a sister to , I want to see how she’s finding the place."
"I want to find Anna too," she said. "We don’t usually spend this much ti apart."
[LEWD LEVELING SYSTEM]
[Isabelle: Cryokinesis, Level 4. Twin dynamic noted. Latent emotional needs identified.]
[She exists in Annabelle’s shadow. Being seen independently is the key.]
[Affinity pathway open.]
I noticed, I told it. Already ahead of you.
We reached the bottom of the steps.
"Vale building," I said. "That’s ."
"Okay, Bram." She said my na the way the others had started saying it, easy and familiar, like it had always been hers to use. "Link up after?"
"Definitely," I said.
She went left. I went right.
***
The campus between the buildings had the energy of a place still figuring out what kind of day it was. Students moving between classes.
A girl with silver hair levitating slightly above the path, which nobody around her appeared to find remarkable. A boy whose shadow was moving independently of him.
Two hundred and fifty nine, I thought, watching the campus.
Bala was sowhere in the administrative block. His daughter was in this school. His outsiders, which apparently included , were below the threshold he needed. He had co here for a reason and the system had already told
my ti was running short.
My concern right now, I thought, is that Rob still hasn’t shown us our dormitories. I’m planting seeds with no idea where I’m supposed to bring the harvest.
I climbed the Vale building steps and turned the corner.
Sherry. Coming down with another girl, laughing at sothing, the specific easy laugh of soone who had made a friend in the ti it takes most people to find a seat.
I had been at this school for two hours and was still learning nas. Sherry had apparently built a social life, sothing she never managed at Hogsby.
She lit up when she saw .
"I was actually about to co find you," she said.
"Here I am."
We hadn’t spent many days together in the grand scale of things. But there was a particular feeling I had noticed, in the corridors of Hogsby and the back of cars and the bench outside the practical room, that sothing was missing when she wasn’t nearby. I wasn’t going to examine that too closely right now.
"Ivy, this is Abram." She turned to her new friend. "Bram, et Ivy."
Ivy was a happy soul. Blue hair, large eyes, high cheekbones, small nose, full lips. White top cut above the waist. She was looking at
with the open curiosity of soone who made friends easily and had decided I was interesting.
"Hey, Bram," she said.
"Hey, Ivy."
She smiled. "Actually, I’ve heard a lot about you."
"Really?"
"A joke." She smiled wider.
[LEWD LEVELING SYSTEM]
[Ivy: Telekinesis, Level 4. Depleted. First encounter candidate.]
[She approached you. She’s already warm.]
I see her, I told it. Give
a minute.
"Sherry Vayne and Abram Nadez." The campus speakers cut across everything, efficient and indifferent. "Please report to the administrative block imdiately."
I looked at Sherry. She looked at .
"Bala," I said.
"Yes," she said.
We both knew it. I had known it from the mont he appeared in the courtyard. Whatever had brought Lord Bala to School Central on our first day had our nas in it, and now the speakers had confird it for the whole campus.
"Good luck," Ivy said, and winked.
[LEWD LEVELING SYSTEM]
[Summoned. As predicted.]
[Host must be aware: the clock is running. Whatever happens in that office changes your tiline.]
I know, I thought, falling into step beside Sherry toward the administrative block.
I know. This is where the real story starts.
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