The corridor outside the Nurse's office was clear and empty. After dropping off the boy and finishing the Monday morning checkup, the rest of the day would be lectures I'd nap my way through.

By this point Hannah was probably going to be late for her morning lectures. Rather than being bitter about it, she was still thinking over what happened with the boy. We couldn't talk it over in this building for fear of someone interrupting us so the witch and her black cat went around the back of the building where it was a little more secluded.

In the shadow of the Triolo's tall exterior wall, the witch with her arms crossed and pursed lips mulled over what to do.

“It's not our problem. We could leave it. If he isn't saying anything, chances are he's got a reason.” Far be it for me to suggest that a human has a reason for doing something stupid. “But you do what you want. If you have a good reason, goes without saying you should probably do it.”

I was in danger of offering bad advice. I was well aware this would make me culpable over whatever screw-up that followed.

“But y'know, what do I know? You're all crazy to me.” I muttered a last ditch attempt to downtalk my own advice.. “Humans doing human things.”

Hannah was probably used to ignoring most of what I said. Most if not everything I said was usually just a counterpoint to what she wanted. Wasted effort when I already knew her mind was up.

“Barring the fact I could take that comment as you now owning the fact your now a cat-”

“Which I'm not by the way.” Being cursed to have the appearance of cat didn't count.

“-it's not that easy to sit back when your gut is trying to tell you something is wrong.” Hannah balled her hands into fists. “But yeah, I don't know if I should act because I don't actually know there's something wrong.”

It certainly felt like that boy might have been beaten up and left there by other students, but without knowing for sure it could end up like running into a wall of wooden spikes. “He seemed evasive.” Recalling how he joked off and ran around the subject of how he got his injuries, it didn't seem likely that he was going to talk to us about it. “Well I suppose that's natural for strangers.”

Irregardless of whether she could or couldn't do anything about it, it wasn't her problem in my opinion. Her problems were very different. Her goal didn't coincide with helping this guy out in the slightest. Going on another tangent like the child hunt would be a complete waste of time. The only thing she got out of the child hunt was some minor stress relief and forewarning that Riker was taking a break from running lectures.

What was there to gain from stepping in this boy's personal life? We didn't even know his name. Hannah was likely to get beaten down herself. She'd insist on going one for one at least. To dish out as much damage that is served to her.

I got relatively little from it as well. This was not any sort of crusade against children. There would be no heads mounted on pikes-that'd bring trouble of its own- or children traumatised into never approaching cats again.

Hannah kicked at the ground in frustration. “I'm not going to be able to get this out of my head now.”

“You could always check up on him later.” It was better than a worsening temper as the day went on.

“I just have a bad feeling about this.” She muttered beneath her breath. Surely that was reason to stay away if possible but by the looks of it, it was a certainty we'd be seeing this guy again.

When my instincts told me something was wrong, running away was usually the first thing that popped into my mind. “You know, I think I understand.” Since the exam, little things had been bothering me.

A long list of infractions against common sense had begun to arrange themselves in my head. Since that day, my instincts told me not to ignore the waist high puddle of human stupidity but to wade through it in search of something bubbling beneath the surface.

“I've tried not to question all of it. I felt like I was getting lucky.” Hannah furrowed her brows. “I hate to admit it, but the Order of Ice should have banned me from ever using magic after that exam.”

The confession nearly made my jaw drop to the floor. Finally some self-awareness.

Hannah, noticing my look averted her gaze. “Look, what Jean said made me think is all.”

“Th-think?! You?! Who are you and what have you done with the real Hannah?”

“Oh so you want to die now? You should've just asked earlier.”

“I'm just joking!” I jumped away from Hanna's half-hearted kick in my direction.

“Jokes have punchlines. You were just being a jerk.” Hannah scowled. “Now if you'll excuse me, I think I have just enough time to get some food before I join my morning lectures today. I feel like eating on my own today.”

“N-no wait! I apologise!” That was perhaps the biggest downside to relying on caretakers. They hold the biggest bargaining chip of them all.

Hannah turned a devilish grin in my direction. “Relax, I'm only joking.”

That bi-

“Keep your ears open for me today would you? I know you've got good hearing. Let me know if you hear any rumours about the boy.” Hannah shifted her satchel over her shoulder and looked towards the campus. “In return, I'll let you play with Linth this evening.”

Play with Linth? Who did she take me for? As if I would ever sell myself so cheaply. “I suppose you leave me no choice. I'll stay awake during your boring lectures. I mean, you clearly just want an excuse to see Linth... He he he.”

“That would almost have been convincing if you just taken a second to think it over.” She sighed and shook her head in disdain. “Clear up your drool you weirdo and stop it with that creepy laugh!”

Ahem. Obviously I was only agreeing to this because I, a superior creature, merely wanted to grace the lesser plebs with my presence. This had nothing to do with Linth's magic hands. Absolutely nothing at all.

Ah who was I kidding. I was practically Linth's number one fan.

Keeping my ears working and my eyes open for the rest of the day proved to be quite the challenge. I'd made such a habit of napping during Hannah's lectures, it was difficult to stay awake. When proffesors talked about “spirit highway theory”, or “mana meaning theory”, my brain naturally drifted towards the dreamscape. Several times I caught my head about slam into the desk.

I wasn't the only one. There were a handful of students I realised had mastered the art of sleeping with their eyes open.

Hannah usually managed to clear a space around her wherever she sat in the lecture hall. It was difficult to tell who was constructing the invisible wall. Hannah seemed fine with it. The black cat sat next to her on the table was no doubt a part of the reason why everyone gave her a wide berth.

Since Hannah was only allowed to study like the students who mostly read up on magic theory than exercise magic talent, passing the exam meant relatively little. It wasn't like what the apprentices had to do. She didn't need to prove she could use magic in order to read text on a blackboard.

The blackboard was relatively uninteresting to me. On and on the professor talked. His back, usually turned to the students as he scribbled away, didn't have the eyes to catch the whispers.

During the morning of eavesdropping, I mostly heard chatter and speculation at why the black cat was not curled up in ball napping as usual. Putting aside the bitterness about peoples' obsession with bad luck, I picked up one or two useful tidbits of information.

After the morning lectures were over, Hannah and I returned to our spot of conspiracy behind the Office building.

“Heard anything useful?”

“Well...” I thrust out my chest proudly. “Absolutely nothing about the boy.”

“Oh I see, and here I was about to feed you lunch.”

“N-no wait! Would you like to hear some of the other rumours I picked up?” Hannah, just about to talk away paused to hear my pleading. Her look dared me to talk whilst I still had her attention. “Well we have rumours about the festival... um... One or two about Mathers. Oh and did you know Linth was the headmaster'd dau-”

“Talk about Mathers.” Hannah decided.

Being so rudely cut across, I debated keeping quiet. Her loss if she didn't want to hear about Linth. Now that I knew who she was, the reason why the academy didn't come after her self-indulgent den made much more sense now.

Mather's was not a professor who had managed to endear himself to many students. He had received a bit of a reputation for being a bit too nice to students who'd been raised with a silver spoon in their mouths. Of which, there were very few at this academy. I'd learnt students thought he was not as subtle as he tried to be. “I think you'll like this.”

“It has something to do with Riker, right?” Hannah guessed right. She knew me way too well. With lunch on the line, I'd only spit out rumours that could be seen as enticing to Hannah.

“Meeting Mather's outside Riker's office wasn't a coincidence. He's been lurking around there a lot. This morning he got into a bit of trouble with the group of students who caught him looking through her desk drawers.” The rumour put Mather in a very creepy light. I wondered if the faculty kept tabs on the rumours spreading around the students. It sounded like something Jean might try to keep track of.

Hannah digested this and gave me no cue as to whether the rumour I said was good or bad. Considering we were at Riker's office this morning, I was doubtful of the validity of the rumour.

Maybe we arrived after. There wouldn't have been enough time for that rumour to circulate if Mather had been caught in Riker's office after we found the boy. A professor not held in good standing would definitely have one or two rumours flying around against them. This one must have been a fresh rumour because it had yet to be exaggerated to the moon and back.

I would have given it two more days before the rumour twisted into portraying Mather as some sort of insidious foreign spy or a sex offender if it didn't die down soon. Students were incredibly viscous sometimes.

“This morning huh... Keep an ear out for that rumour and see if you can tell anything more. Now what was the rumour about the harvest festival? Don't tell my you're still grumpy about the whole burning effigies thing.”

Yes, it was a complete waste of human effort and labour with no quantifiable gains but that aside, this was about the guards. “There's a little anxiety over the turnout of merchants being much lower this year. Just thought I'd let you know. Probably means food will get more expensive.”

“That's all?” Hannah furrowed her brow. “I mean thanks for the concern but I was looking for something a little more on topic.”

I sighed. I was trying my best to be helpful here. “Well some student named Sudo was involved in a bar fight with a foreigner. He tried to split up an argument that was being fought over a currency difference and well... the language barrier didn't help.” The language barrier certainly didn't help. The student got punched in the face.

“Again not particularly helpful.” Oh c'mon, I thought it was funny!

“Well an all too familiar guard showed up and imposed the rule of law. They lectured about morals for a full hour and how disappointed their parents must have been in all parties invovled. The student went straight to his dorms and wrote an apology letter home to his parents despite trying to be the good guy whilst it;s said the foreigner-who couldn't understand a word of what was being said- was moved to tears and vowed in some strange language to the holy seven never to wrong another human being ever again.” And that there was how rumours got twisted. Through peer pressure to make them more interesting.

Hannah gave me a long doubtful stare. Well deserved.

“Hey don't give me that look!” I snap. “Do you have any idea how scared the students were of me this morning?! Everytime they whispered to eachother my ears turned in their direction and the hushed conversations would immediately shift into how this was an omen of everyone's impending doom.” Talk about not very helpful. It wasn't my fault I couldn't pick up any good rumours when this happened. Thankfully, if I laid low, a new set of rumours about the witch and her black cat wouldn't make the rounds again.

The amount of headache Hannah got after rumours went around about her being able to curse people's arch-enemies for a price was seriously annoying. Turned out, far fewer students and apprentices got over their ex than anybody liked to admit.

Hannah cracked her knuckles. “Tell me their names and they'll never do it again.”

“Yeah, shake down the entire academy why don't you.”

“That might be a bit tough.” Hannah admitted. “Maybe when my arms heal properly.” That wasn't the problem here! “Anyway, let's go to the canteen and get some lunch before the afternoon lectures. If you hear anything useful, let me now.”

So meeting adjourned, we left the shady spot behind the office building and headed back to the canteen. Lunch, despite my given task, was the first and practically only thing on my mind. I mentally refused to focus on my task for an employer who wouldn't allow me lunch.

So one lunch later I was back on task. The canteen was far livelier place than the lecture hall. It was difficult for my senses to wade through the onslaught of discussions to look for anything valuable.

I might well have had superior hearing, but I still needed the keen mind to sift through that sensory overload of noise. I heard almost everything in the canteen. From the sharp clinking of cutlery to the dull footsteps of students finding somewhere to eat. Usually, I just focused on important people and ignored the rest as background noise. My ears twisted and turned in every direction to listen in on as many conversations as possible.

To appear less conspicuous, I was not sitting up this time, I was curled up in a ball with my eyes closed.

The same thing occurred later in the afternoon lectures. I picked up piece after piece of rumour, at first disconnected, but then forming a much more complete conspiracy and timeline. From the more political students, I heard rumours about the festival. From the more socialite apprentices, I heard the personal rumours flying around Mather, and the boy.

Killian Redcrow. That was the boys name.

“Right that's a lot more useful.” Back in our new favourite spot to hold shady meetings, Hannah finished up listening to my wrap up of the rumours around Killian.

Killian was not well liked. As evidenced when this morning, a plan had been concocted by a group of apprentices to beat him up somewhere private. Or at least, that's what was claimed. The ball going through Riker's window after it bounced off Killlian's helmet might well have been accidental and everything that came after was just the result of opportunities taken.

Killian had not gone to check the damage alone. The professor, concerned, sent a few volunteers to make sure he reached the Nurse's office as well just in case. The volunteers had ganged up on him in Riker's office.

“But of course when the group arrived at Riker's office they found Mather looking through her desks, or so the rumour claims.” Since the rumour was fresh, students were still asking when everything happened. Extremely helpful for a nosy cursed cat like myself.

Hannah didn't need me to finish, she could do it herself. “And so they chased him out. It's hard to believe that professor would feel so threatened.” That was a mystery of its own to sort out. “If I talked to him in any way that annoyed him, he'd let me know.”

“Killian's not all that liked. He's high born, which is odd considering this isn't an academy that's picked by nobles for their children often.” I felt the urge to puff my chest out proudly. It was time to flex my skill at eavesdropping. “He's the third child, not the heir, not even the spare to the family fortune. But he's got strong views on who should and shouldn't be allowed to study magic. And what could piss off the educated more than such divides being drawn along class and birth circumstance.”

Wincing hard, Hannah clicked her tongue in frustration. “Is it bad that I feel a little ashamed of helping someone like him?”

I wished cats had the shoulders to shrug with. “I suppose if you have a reason to feel that way, then go right ahead. Feelings aren't particularly harmful, actions are what have consequence.”

“Feeling sagely today?”

“It's all that listening to students studying philosophy. I'm seriously doubting my own existence? Do you really exist just because I can see you? Is what is presented before me just a construct? Another figment conjured up by myself, like a wispful thought, fleeting and tainted with bias like a memory-”

“All right, well thanks for the eavesdropping. Shall I come back tomorrow to pick you up after your done with your little talk with yourself?”

“Nah, that stuff doesn't matter.” Apparently nothing did. “The rest of the stuff I learnt today is mostly politics.” Hannah didn't look like she'd be particularly interested at the moment so I didn't press but I made myself a mental note not to forget what I learnt because, y'know...

A world war was apparently brewing.

Small stuff really and easy to forget or ignore. Had to keep those thoughts tied down before they flew away thanks to my own indolence.

That was how the rumours treated it at least.

Far fewer merchants had come this year around trading goods from the archipelego. Looked like the Island Free Marches weren't impressed with the Visduke's trade policy. Apparently, the situation had gotten tense enough that more guards had been stationed here in Kasper for the festival in the event of troublemaking.

The Viceduke held a great deal of influence. The Teifi river was a trade corridor inland. It was one of the few places goods could move up and down with great ease. Once the flats around Kasper finished, to get to the heartland of the kingdom, convoys would have to trek either through a contested wooded north or brave the rough terrain mountain ranges to the south. Using the River Teifi to bypass all of that hassle, or at least half the journey, was incredibly important.

But who was I to care about all of that? No soldier was going to invade Kasper and chase down black cats. If trends were anything to go by, something would happen to do with the Triolo to get nearly every other nation in the known world to get involved. Seemed impossible, but the bad luck around the Triolo was probably up for the the challenge.