“I hear you and Miss Ice Queen are best friends now?”

Nearly a week had passed since the last pair of apprentices returned from the Trials. Under normal circumstances the end of the Trials was a chaotic time. Celebrations for those who had completed their Trials could last for days, much to the annoyance of those who failed theirs. Search parties were sent out for those who couldn’t make their own way back, whether from injury or some other factor. The whole Academy can be in state of near constant tension for days after the Trials were supposed to end. And that’s when a Professor doesn’t try and kill two students.

Rachel and Alexia had stumbled through the return portal, half supported by Al’tun. Compared with the peak of Mt. Krals, the slight wintery chill felt positively warm to the pair. Cheers and applause greeted their arrival as Professor Trin conjured a fire to warm them.

“Welcome back, girls,” the Professor said, her musical voice full of joy. “Congratulations on completing your Trial. If you make your way to that tent over there we have a meal prepared and we…”

“Professor Saroc tried to kill me. Tried to kill us.” Alexia said, interrupting Professor Trin. The Professor’s expressions gradually changed from joy to outrage as Alexia told the story of their encounter with Professor Saroc.

“That’s quite the accusation you’ve just leveled. What proof do you have?”

“If you go through the portal, you’ll find Professor Saroc’s frozen body,” Rachel said. Professor Trin turned to her for the first time. Before the Trial, Rachel would have thought twice about saying something that may have displeased her, but now… “If you thaw him out, I’m sure you’d be able to hear all about his ‘Great Lord of the Depths’ if you ask him yourself.”

The rest of the evening was a blur to Rachel. Academy Knights and Wizards went to collect the frozen Professor, as Rachel and Alexia were rushed to the infirmary. Rachel was sure she slept for three days straight. She had vague dreams of Professors asking her questions and her friends visiting her. There was a really nice one where Jerome stopped by and told her how worried he was for her.

Once she woke up, the Healers gave her a few potions and elixirs and sent her on her way. The next day she was back to her normal schedule of Beast Tamer training. The same couldn’t be said for Alexia. She was sequestered by the faculty with only a select group of individuals allowed to see her.

Rachel had tried to visit Alexia shortly after she woke up. She didn’t want her budding friendship with the Elemansits to wither. She knew how tiring and lonesome it could be to work by yourself, so with a basketful of fresh meat pies, Rachel went to bring some cheer to Alexia’s life. Her solid work boots echoed all down the marble hall as Rachel walked to the rooms where Alexia had been hidden away. She was being kept in a suite of rooms on one of the upper floors of the main building. The hall was grandiose, decorated in tapestries depicting the lofty and great heroes from the Academy and made Rachel wish she had taken a bath before arriving. An Academy Knight lounged near the door. Rachel thought she seemed more bored than interested in protecting Alexia. However, Rachel was quickly dissuaded of that notion as she neared the door.

“Halt!” commanded the guard, levelling a long pike towards Rachel. “State your business.”

“I’m Rachel,” Rachel said as she stopped down to pick up the meat pies she dropped in her shock. She hadn’t expected to have a pike pointed at her, and now her heart felt like it was going to tear out of her chest.

“Apprentices are not allowed here,” the guard said, laying her pike across the door.

“It’s OK. I’m a friend of Alexia.”

“Did I stutter?” said the guard. “Apprentices are not allowed past this point.”

“But I got a gift for Alexia!”

“I don’t care if you are have a letter from my mother. No one is allowed here.”

Rachel wanted to fight on, but one look at the guard made it clear she would have more luck arguing with the ocean.

“Could you at least give her these?” Rachel asked, holding out the basket.

With a warry eye on Rachel, the guard stepped forward and lifted one edge of the cloth covering the pies.

“Leave the pies.”

Rachel dropped off the pies and walked away, hoping that Alexia would know the gifts were from her.

Since then, Rachel’s life had gone back to normal. Well, mostly. Now that she and her friends had passed their Trials, the next stage of their education could begin. Now they got to focus on a wide range of class specific training, truly learn the meat of their new trade. Rachel was excited by this, no way to deny that, but the excitement was tinged with sadness. Because she was the only Beast Tamer among her friends group, it meant she ran into them only sparingly. She had run into Benzen a handful of times as he strolled the grounds ‘finding his muse’ as he put it- though Rachel was sure it was more like avoiding his work- and Jerome only once and then only briefly. He had been suited in a full set of armor running with other Paladins down to the Darkwood. He had flashed her a smile that could brighten even that forest before he jogged out of sight. As for Ezah, Rachel hadn’t even seen a hint of the Acrobat since she returned to the Academy. Which made her appearance now in front of Rachel quite the surprise.

Rachel sat in the dining hall, finishing her breakfast when a strange girl plopped down in the seat next to her. Whereas most of the denizens of the hall wore the gear they would need for that days lessons- exquisitely crafted metal armor, finely worked leather padding, detailed and stuffy robes, and the like- this person looked like she was dressed for a ball. Hair like golden silk fell down to a dress that looked like it was made from golden silk. She moved with a poise and grace that gave her a regal bearing fit for any court. Altogether, she couldn’t have looked more out place if she had been a hobgoblin.

“Ezah?” Rachel asked, once she finished taking in the sight.

“Yeah, yeah I know. Get your laughs in now,” Ezah said. As if to confirm her identity, she grabbed an apple from the table, and bit into it, headless of the juice the drippled down her chin. Yep. It was Ezah alright.

“What are you wearing?”

“It’s for practice alright? Professor Duncan wants us to be to blend into any environment. ‘Even high society,’” she said, putting on a terribly nasally impression of Professor Duncan, one of the head Acrobat instructors. “Personally, I think I knife in the dark works in any situation.” Ezah pulled a knife out of… somewhere and twirled it about before hiding it again.

“Well no matter what you’re wearing, it’s good to see you Ezah! How did your Trial go?”

“Oh it was simple. Our orb was in the center of a hedge maize filled with gates that only opened if you solved their riddles.”

“I didn’t know you were good at riddles, Ezah.”

“I’m not. I cut our way through the maze. Like I said, a knife in the dark works in any situation.”

Rachel couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Ezah cutting her way through this carefully constructed maze. Whichever Professor constructed that Trial surely must have been heartbroken once they realized how it was completed.

“Oh Rachel, I’m so glad I found you,” Ezah said, taking another bite from her apple. “You and our Future Queen of Ice are the best of friends now, right?”

“You heard about our Trial?”

“Who hasn’t?” Ezah exclaimed, spraying Rachel with bits of chewed apple. “You took down Professor Saroc! The whole Academy was talking about you two for days. Well, so I hear anyway.”

“Where have you been, Ezah? I’ve at least seen the others here and there.”

Ezah looked down at herself and gestured. “I’ve been preparing.”

“Preparing for what.”

Ezah leaned close to Rachel, looking around first to make sure that no one was in ear shot. “Preparing to break into Alexia’s Family’s home and steal their most prized possession.”