"You t with Aria?"
Isabella nearly choked on her breakfast pastry. The morning after lisa's talk, she and her friends were huddled in one of the academy courtyard's corners, early morning sun barely peeking through the clouds.
"Don't act so surprised," lisa rolled her eyes. "She might be queen now but she's still the sa Aria who helped us take down the Shadow Mages. Besides, soone had to do sothing about these attacks and, well, who better to go to than the ruler of Syux herself?"
"And?" Raven leaned forward. "What did she say?"
lisa glanced around before lowering her voice.
"She wants to work together. Quietly, though. I an, with everything that's going on, being too close to a nim would probably be a bad look to all the humans in the city."
"Politics," Isabella snorted. "You'd think saving the kingdom would earn you so public credit."
"Most of the kingdom don't even know they've been saved," lisa replied. "The Shadow Mages didn't ss with many non-nims. But, anyway, speaking of politics..." lisa's eyes drifted to Armia, who'd been pushing the sa piece of fruit around her plate. "I tried, Armia. I really did."
"Shit." The darian girl's shoulders slumped. "She couldn't do anything about it?"
"She said if she tries to cancel your 'voluntary service', the nobles might try to kill her. Again."
That got everyone's attention.
"Again?" Raven's eyes narrowed. "How many tis?"
"Multiple attempts," lisa sighed. "All from her own court. Apparently throwing the Shadow Mages in prison just pissed off their noble friends."
"Shit." Isabella whistled. "And here I was thinking she just sat around the palace all day looking pretty."
"That's why she can't help you," lisa reached for Armia's hand. "As sympathetic as she is to your situation, she thinks she needs to show the nobles her loyalty still lies with Syux."
"With the humans, you an," Armia muttered.
"... Yeah."
Armia didn't say anything to that. Neither did the others. As shitty as the situation felt, lisa had a hard ti criticizing Aria's decision, given recent events. Armia must have felt the sa.
The morning bell cut through the tension. Students started filing into the academy.
[Great timing. As always.]
"We'll figure sothing out," lisa stood up, brushing off her skirt. "Maybe if we can solve this nim situation first-"
"You an, if we can stop your people from burning down houses before the humans send my people off to die? Sure, no pressure." Armia gave a bitter smile.
"Don't talk like that," Isabella bumped her shoulder. "Nobody's dying. Look," she leaned back where she sat, "although this problem is clearly growing in intensity, as long as we find the criminals and lock them up, we can probably lower tensions enough to prevent you from getting sent to fight... Right?"
Armia didn't say anything. Neither did lisa.
[To be honest? I kinda don't see that happening.]
---
Class was torture.
lisa stared at the chalkboard, not registering a single word Professor Hartley was saying about advanced fire magic. Her mind was elsewhere.
[If I'm gonna make this work, if I'm going to solve this little problem Syux has goin' on... I need a plan. A real one.]
For the last twenty minutes, she'd been pretending to take notes while actually sketching out possibilities. Most trains of thought lead nowhere, though.
[Can't exactly walk up to every nim I see and ask if they can kindly stop burning down houses and assaulting innocent humans. So, what do I do? How do I...?]
Her eyes drifted to the window. Outside, a group of human students were walking past. So of them were probably nobles, if not all. So probably had nim servants or workers of so kind, if not all.
Resting her head on her palm, lisa slowly nodded to herself.
[Recon,] lisa tapped her quill against the desk. [I need to figure out where they're eting. Who's leading them. What they're talking about. All of that.]
That much seed obvious. The problem, however, was her face.
At this point in her life, she wasn't exactly unknown anymore. Hell, she was probably a household na, even if not everyone knew what she looked like. The whole "first nim to use magic" thing had made sure of that, not to even begin to add on everything involving the crown.
But, even if not everyone knew, too many people did know what she looked like for lisa to just walk around asking shit.
[Hmm... I could disguise myself sohow...]
The professor droned on about proper fla control during the use of Fire Magic. anwhile, lisa's mind wandered to all the places nim gathered in the city. Most were too public, too obvious, but they clearly had so places they went to where they could avoid being seen by the normies of society.
Then it hit her.
[That bar Dad goes to!]
She sat up straighter. He'd talked about it. That bar where he saw the humans being hurt. Aside from that instance, her father had ntioned it other tis as well, always noting the amount of nim there. A place where they could exist away from human eyes.
[A perfect place for angry nim to gather. And they wouldn't look twice at another purple girl in the crowd.]
The bell rang. Students started packing up their things.
"I've got an idea," lisa announced as soon as they gathered for lunch.
"What is it?" Isabella asked, grinning.
"What's that face for?"
"I don't know. Just kinda have this feeling in my gut that you're gonna say sothing fun."
Shrugging, lisa leaned in close.
"So, there's this nim bar in the lower district. Dad goes there sotis after work. It's a private eting place for nim specifically. If anyone knows anything about these attacks, they'll be there."
"And you think they won't recognize the most famous nim in the city?" Raven raised an eyebrow.
"That's the thing - I need a disguise."
Isabella's eyes lit up.
"Oh! I can help with that!"
"Really?"
"Kimiko likes to dye her hair sotis. We can probably get you looking different enough."
[Hm... That actually doesn't sound half-bad.]
"Will you need soone else to co with you?" Raven asked. "I..."
"Raven, you're human," lisa said with a smile. She appreciated the thought, but if anyone was going to co with her, it couldn't be her. "I'll think about it. Right now, though, I'm thinking this should be a solo venture."
"Hm... I understand," Raven acquiesced.
"We can still help you prepare in other ways, though. When do you want to do this?" Armia asked.
"Has to be soon," lisa replied. "Who knows what else these people could do if I wait too long. But, that said, it doesn't have to be right now. I can take a bit of ti preparing for it."
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