Xia checked Reina. Call her a genius, a mongrel, or a plain old simple jerk. There was no denying Xianthos cared for those she loved.

It was only unfortunate those she loved was a short list. Regardless of what people said, she did love Reina which is the reason she’s staring down her friend, Dawn.

Her sweet little sister figure needed only the very best friends! Those who would stick by her side like glue and make sure she stayed grounded. Very few people qualified and as much as she loved Reina, this one was too naive. She would probably end up ‘befriending’ psychopaths and not know they were deranged.

Xia wondered what she should do. Technically, the government law stated you couldn’t put trackers on people without permission.

However, her sister was a great reason! And if that wasn’t enough, screw the government. Not like she ever cared much about following it.

Her mind made up, Xia deployed SPZDR. A small tracker with 8 metal appendages which enabled it to crawl even on roofs and walls. Like the name implied, it appeared to be a spider.

“Watch after Dawn. Report back to me any suspicious activity.” she ordered. The device beeped once to indicate it understood and made its way over to Dawn. Indiscernible, it slipped underneath Dawn’s jeans.

For a split second, Xia felt guilty. She was only around 14 and already, she lost all sense of privacy. Who knows, she might be in the bathroom or doing stuff with other people. Let’s be honest though.

The kids lost their privacy the moment they entered Neverstien’s registered land space. Neverstien was a hardworking place; the instant the Academy drifted here, everybody onboard and their records were downloaded to be easily accessible. It’s one of the deals Neverstien made with the rest of the world to allow outside access.

Besides, these were dangerous times they were all in. Xia’s face twisted as she recalled the horrific murder scene she’d seen earlier today.

“Oh god,” Xia murmured, taking in everything that laid before her eyes. Next to her, the other teachers were gagging and choking.

The entire staff was crowded around a lone tree, in an area that had been sanctioned off to the other students. The tree trunk was coated with blood, with a dagger stabbed into one the gnarled roots. Sickly green flames plumed from the hilt.

“What happened here?” Veriy demanded to know, anger spilling from his every word.

Arcturus stepped forward, facing his fellow faculty members. Xia studied him carefully; hard lines were etched into his face, and his shoulders were locked into place. Those were the only outward signs that he was affected by this tragedy at all.

“Around 2 AM, I received notifications from Marigold Mary, a senior at the Academy, that her friend, Nicholas Jones was missing. At the time, I had just released him from detention for being a nuisance.” Here, Xia spotted him clench his fists and the realization struck here; he blamed himself for the whole ordeal.

He took a deep, wavering breath, and continued. “I told her to stay by my side and headed to where Nicholas’ phone signal had come from, which led us to the greenhouse. The glass was shattered and the produce was scattered everywhere. We can assume that Nicholas used his Air Arts to fight against his assailant.”

“There was a trail of blood and we followed it until we reached this area. On the way, I spotted the b-the body of Nicholas and decided to quantile the area, while also making the decision to keep Marigold away from the body. I didn’t want to cause her any more pain.” Arcturus stated stiffly.

Xia heard people shuffle next to her and panicked slightly; were they going to blame Arcturus for this as well? It really wasn’t his fault!

“You made the right choice, Arcturus,” Wynn reassured. “None of us could have known this was going to happen. An attack on the Academy like this. . .it’s almost as bad as the incident 2 years ago.”

There were a lot of murmuring at that. The incident 2 years ago had been the worst period of time in the Academy’s history. Enrollment dropped tenfold, the budget was slashed, the majority of the trust in the Academy had vanished. . .and that was with the general public not knowing the truth of what happened.

If this escalated even remotely to that level. . .

Xia looked at Wynn and felt a shiver down her spine when she realized the Headmistress was looking back at her. She knew what they were both thinking: was it really a coincidence that this happened the same day Reina came back to the Academy?

“Where’s the body?” Athena asked. “We need to send him back to his family, to let them grieve.”

Wynn sighed. “Unfortunately, the body has been confiscated by the Precept Prime. As of a few hours ago, Nicholas Jones’ body is Neverstien property.”

Xia growled. That bastard. . .a quick look around told her the feeling was mutual. There was nothing they could do however; the Precept Prime’s word was law here.

“I’m sending a letter to Nicholas’ parents. In the meanwhile, we cannot let this slip. The students must not learn of this. Arcturus, I trust you to explain to Marigold why keeping this a secret is paramount?”

Arcturus nodded sullenly, but then Veriy stepped forward. “Is this truly the wisest choice we have? The students have the right to know there is a killer on the loose!”

“The Precept Prime has decreed that no one is to leave Neverstien’s territory. Even if we do tell them, it will do nothing but elicit fear and panic; they can’t leave. No, we will keep this a secret for the time being. Resume your teachings. However, I’ll be making an announcement later that the old dorm rooms will be reopened. Nobody will go outside by themselves, and 3 teachers will roam the grounds every night, from 8 PM to 7 AM. Is that understood?” Wynn asked.

“Yes!”

Xia rubbed her forehead. No time to think about that right now. She couldn’t let it slip that something was distracting her, especially not to Reina.

“Teacher? Are you out there?” A head popped out from behind the doorway, revealing the voice to be that of Logan.

Xia jolted, abruptly broken from her thoughts. Frantically composing herself, she adopted the friendly-teacher persona again. Xia forced a frown. “What did I say about my name?” she asked in a mock-firm voice.

Confusion passed over his face before understanding hit him. “Sorry, Miss-“

“No Miss either. Just plain old Xia. That goes for the rest of you as well, got it?” she barked. The class mumbled in response.

Xia tried to smirk. Looked like they were tired. Seeing all of them laugh and talk amongst themselves. . .a brief image flashed through her mind.

Decomposing bodies, in the very seats where her students had been seconds ago. Blood dripped from gaping wounds, drawing the floor.

It was her duty to prevent that future.