Young Writers Society

Five Years Ago - Altesian Military Hospital, Atlas

Claret's visit with her brother went as well as she could have expected, considering...well, everything they'd been through in the last half dozen or so years. It was awkward, and mostly small talk, even though he was still recovering from the injury -- an injury he said he'd gotten from a Manticore. They both knew how nasty those type of Grimm could be. Mauve had experienced that first hand, after all. Claret would start on a topic, and Mauve would give one word responses or short sentence answers. Even when she asked about Lyall, his answer was half-hearted. Or, knowing him, half-assed.

So, she left. She sighed, walking past the man walking into the infirmary, but she didn't pay much attention to him. He was probably just a guard, but his weapon looked vaguely familar. Not that she cared much at the moment. Mauve had lost an arm, and he was sulking. Honestly, if she had known he would be such an ass, she wouldn't have risked so much coming to see him in the first place. She thought she was being nice to him.

At least he had a cybernetic arm, but he didn't seem too sure about it yet. He'd said he wasn't sure if he wanted it or not. Claret made sure she asked him to try it, for her. Because with only one arm, Mauve couldn't be a Huntsman anymore, and that was one thing both of them had wanted more than anything. Oh well, there was nothing more for her to do here. She debated leaving Mauve behind, leaving Azure behind, and just finding her way in Atlas. But, she was still recovering herself and had no weapon to defend herself. She'd be a nobody.

Again.

She started back to the wagon. Maybe he would be willing to take her to Azure.



Once at the wagon, Claret found the man was nowhere to be found. Instead, a small note scribbled on a worn piece of paper read, "Went to the market." So, not really knowing what else to do, she headed for the market.

Claret heard the shouted bargining well before she reached the market, and was only mildly surprised to find the man who'd given her a lift to Atlas had set up a makeshift stall and was in the midst of a rather vigorous bargaining war with an eldery woman over... Was that [something ridiculous]? She sighed and made her way over, raising an eyebrow as the bargaining came to a spectactular conclusion.

The customer grinned. "It's pleasure doing business, Mr. Carran."

"The pleasure was all mine," he replied before turning to get something else and spotting her. He looked mildly surprised for a moment before grinning and continuing to finish his transaction with the eldery woman. "Have a good afternoon, Mrs. Gorlassar!"

The elderly woman grinned, picked up her purchases and gave him a wave as she disappeared into the thinning crowd. Claret blinked slowly, eyeing all the different people carefully as they drifted off to other stalls in the market. Apparently the show was over...

"Your name is Carran?" she asked, once the last few people--a pair of tiger-eared faunus--had wandered off. "Were you ever gonna tell me?"

"No," he said, turning to her and planting his hands on his hips. He studied her for a moment and then sighed. "I was wondering if you'd come back, y'know." He eyed her thoughtfully again and then turned to begin packing up the stall. "Something tells me you aren't Azure's usual business partner."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not," Claret muttered with a snort, and then turned away, quietly considering what he'd said. She really didn't have anywhere to go, to be honest. She wasn't exactly on speaking terms with her parents and she doubted Mauve would want he to be hanging around with him and his two partners, let alone weaponless.

Well.... She could go collect the payment from her last mission, but there was no certainity that they'd honour it now. They probably thought she was dead, to be honest. And she may as well be dead in the eyes of anyone who cared, especially her parents. But not her brother. Mauve had seen her, and he knew she'd been injured and no longer had her weapon.

Claret sighed. No weapons, nowhere else to go, not even home... What was she supposed to do now?

She turned back towards Mr. Carran, frowning. She could disappear into the crowd... or she could go back to Azure. She did owe Azure for saving her life, and without her Huntress weapons, or her scroll, or well, anything really... What reason did she have to stay in Atlas anymore? She had no reason to live anymore, not here anyway. Claret watch the man for a few more moments. What did she have to lose? She may as well go back to Azure. That choice, no matter how dangerous, was probably a better fate than having no reason to live.

"Let's go back to the cabin," she said, startling Mr. Carran in the process. He glanced at her so she shruggged. "I don't have anywhere better to be, so I might as well head back."



Claret woke abruptly, disorientated and in darkness. She sat up slowly, not realising she'd fallen asleep or when. Blinking slowly to clear the confusion from her sleep-fogged mind, Claret shifted to glance over the edge of the wagon since it wasn't moving and she couldn't hear anyone--or anything--nearby. There wasn't anyone sitting on the driver's bench, and she couldn't see the horses anywhere, let alone Mr. Carran.

Cautiously, she edged towards the closet side of the wagon and swung down onto the forest floor. She'd been left in a tiny clearing, the trees surrounding it dark and foreboding. Claret shivered and reached for her staff before remembering that she didn't actually have a weapon anymore.

"Shit," she muttered, pressing back against the wagon. She was alone--essentially abandoned--in a dark forest with no weapon and no idea where in the hell she was. This is not good, she thought, gaze darting every which way as the forest seemed to shudder before an invisible breeze. Not good at all...

A caw echoed through the trees, followed by a dreadfully familar chittering sound. Dread pooled in her gut and she pushed off the carriage to search it for a weapon. There wasn't much left in it apart from a small metal rod. Claret picked it up; something was better than nothing at all. Rod in hand, she turned to study the tiny clearing again.

Another quick search of the clearing revealed the remains of a small camp fire. Claret frowned at it, a little confused. Before she could linger on it for too long, another shrill caw echoed through the forest again, making her flinch. Claret's grip on the short, metal rod tightened. That caw was so damned familiar, and it was making her pulse race. She really didn't want to think about why it was familiar. Her pulse quickened as her heart jumped to her throat, and her wounds pounded to the beat of it, as if they threatened to rip open.

Shaking the feeling off, Claret moved to scout ahead, slowly weaving her way between the trees. A shrill, bone-jarring chittering noise started up and Claret's heart sank in her chest. It couldn't be... She shifted to put her back against a tree, breathing heavily and then faster, and faster. It can't be! I thought Azure killed it--

The chittering grew louder and Claret froze, breath catching in her lungs. Slowly, very slowly, she shifted to peer around the tree. Her heart sank down into her stomach. There, on the other side of the clearing, stood the bird grimm. The...what was it that Azure had called it? Oh, right, the Trochilidae. Claret frowned at it, watching as it twisted this way and that, trying to dislodge a long, whip-like tail feather from a tree.

Sunlight glistened off it's sleek, black feathers and off the white-red, stone-like patches trailing over the bird's head. As she watched, the tail feather finally came free with a mighty crack! and the tree bgan to fall over, crashing to the ground rather hard. Claret gasped, and the Trochilidae's head twitched. It turned towards her slowly. Claret clutched the rod harder, shifting into a ready position. Ready to fight or flee, she wasn't sure.

The Trochilidae caught sight of her and seemed to hesitate, head tilted to the side. Claret shifted back a step. The bird grimm chittered at her, and then launched itself towards her--

--only to come up short as Azure stepped between them.

Team VRDN was late, for some reason. Bleu couldn't understand how they could be late. He was sure Valerian would be studious enough to wake the team probably hours before class because breakfast was the most important meal of the day and they should definitely be early for the first class of the first day. He stifled a giggle at the thought of Valerian trying to wake up Night. He could only imagine it was similar to Rhyence's reaction this morning. Bleu was so excited that he could barely sleep, and he was determined to make sure his bubbly attitude was as infectious as possible. Amaranth had joined in first, although Bleu wasn't too sure she had slept too much. Midori had to be convinced a bit because of her weapon breaking during initiation. But, Rhyence was definitely the hardest to wake up. It got to the point that Bleu almost jumped on his bed to wake him up.

But, he didn't, and sure enough Rhys was able to groggily prepare for class, much to the encouragement from the rest of his team. Bleu wondered how the other team was faring, especially since they were late. He looked over to Rhys who couldn't sit still and was glancing at his Scroll over and over again, probably to check the time. Bleu couldn't blame him. Finally, Rhys groaned and slammed the Scroll down. "What are we even going to be doing in this class," he gestured to the professor, who was pacing in front of her desk. "Is she going to teach?"

Amaranth shrugged as she pulled out a notebook. "She's probably just waiting for everyone to get here for the first class."

Rhys scoffed. "We're never going to let them forget this, right?"

"Of course not," Amaranth nodded enthusiastically.

Bleu noticed Midori looking noted at her notes, which he couldn't wrap his head around how she ALREADY had notes. Class hadn't even started yet. He nudged her. She glanced up with wide eyes.

"Are you okay, Battle Buddy?"

"Oh, yeah, "she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm just not used to classes." She gathered herself. "The first day has always made me nervous." She looked to the teacher and cleared her throat. "So, do we know what we're doing today? I kinda stopped paying attention."

"We haven't been assigned--" Rhys elbowed him, a dastardly glint in his eyes.

"The professor said something about separating us into pairs--"

"--Oh, I don't want to be separated--" Midori whispered.

"--Maybe even by ourselves."

Midori groaned, sliding down her chair.

Rhys hid a grin. "I believe she also said something about getting up and sharing something about ourselves--"

Midori slid even further under the table, now only showing her neck and up.

"--Individually. In front of the class."

Midori disappeared completely from view, the only trace that she was still there was a slight mumble from under the table.

Amaranth stifled a chuckle. "We're actually waiting for Team Viridian. But, it wouldn't surprise me if we did split up."

Bleu perked up. "Ooh, ooh, ooh, if we do get partnered up, I wanna be with Rhys." He sidled up to the man on his right.

The man promptly shrugged him off. "It's Rhyence."

Midori popped her head out from under the desk. "What about Battle Buddies?"

Bleu shook his fist to the sky. "Battle Buddies will last forever! But I want to get to know more about Rhys--"

"It's Rhyence."

"--And what better way then... CLASSWORK?"

Rhys rolled his eyes.



After class, Rhys and Bleu moved their work outside. Rhys said it was a good change of pace for them both from that stuffy classroom. Bley had to agree. He had been incredibly bottled up for the entire long, frustrating class period, so some time outside was more than needed for him.

Now that he had been able to let off some steam and energy, Bleu was finally ready to get down and dirty and focus on the homework. "Okay, so let's look at this scenairo. Ooh, it talks about them being outside. I wonder if they're in a place like we are. Oh! I see a butterfly. I wonder if that will play into the scenario at all. Oh! What if a large butterfly Grimm appears and starts flapping its cute but also entirely deadly wings around?--"

"Bleu," Rhys interrupted him quietly.

"Yeah?"

"I don't really think a butterfly Grimm is a part of our homework."

"Oh, true. Calm yourself, Bleu. Focus."

"This is a good place to sit down and focus on the work. Or as good as it can be." He sat down criss-crossed and opened his book. Bleu plopped down across him, still looking at the paper. He couldn't help but keep his legs in the air, kicking them.

Rhys pointed at the paper. "So, this Huntress is in a forest with large rocks. She gets ambushed by three large Grimm, which by large I assume it means something larger than two stories. While there are multiple levels by which she can manuever. . ." Bleu found himself not being able to focus on the words Rhys was saying. He glanced at the paper and absorbed the words, but he just couldn't understand them. He found himself verring back to Rhys as he talked. He noticed the way Rhys scrunched his eyebrows as he talked, and how shoulders hunched as he bent over, reading the paper. He noticed the bit of patchy stubble peppering his chin and jaw. The sleek cheekbones, and suddenly he found himself staring into Rhys' amber eyes as they scanned the worksheet. He couldn't help but smile, like it was busting out from his chest. Rhys glanced up from the homework and, for just the briefest of moments, they stared into each other's eyes. Bleu felt a spasm down his spine and a rush of anxiety soared through him, and he jerked his head down to the paper.

"Did you pay attention to anything I was saying?" Rhys asked.

"Yes! . . . No," Bleu muttered, blood rushing to his face. "I'm sorry."

Rhys scoffed, but said no more about it. "Well, there's a conundrum with this first scenario. I cannot wrap my head around how this Huntress makes it out of this alive."

Bleu found himself getting distracted by Rhys' eyes. Eyes. . . "Eyes!" Bleu blurted out.

"What?"

"Eyes! She has silver eyes!"

Rhyence eyed Bleu for a moment then sighed and turned back to the paperwork. He still wasn't feeling that great, even a week after the initiation battle. He'd just had to get his aura shattered, hadn't he? He hated the feeling, and then there was Menagrie... His gaze slid back to where he'd set his scroll down in the grass. He'd been trying to message his family for days, but none of them seemed to get through. As he watched, the scroll lit up with an error message. Yet again. The same one he'd gotten during class, and the time before that and before that. The last news out of Menagerie had been something about trouble brewing, but that had been a week ago. Just after he woke up after initiation.

He scowled and picked up the scroll again, unlocking it to check the error message and attempted to send another message to his sister. It immediately got bounced back and the error message popped up again. Rhyence growled and tossed the scroll back down into the grass. Bleu was rambling on about silver eyes and butterfly Grimm again, and Rhyence was trying to tune him out. One of his eyes twitched as he caught someone other than Bleu saying his name. He resolutely kept his gaze on the assignment paper or on his scroll. Which he couldn't resist picking up again to check his messages. It hadn't even hinted at receiving any messages or calls, so he knew it was stupid and impulsive.

"Hey, Rhys... Rhys..."

"Rhyence."

"Why do you keep checking your scroll?"

Rhyence glanced up to find Bleu watching him with worried eyes. Bleu leaned closer, and Rhys decided to ignore the question. He deliberately set the scroll down and picked up the assignment again. Apparently, his silence wasn't going to deter Bleu from asking him questions. He felt an eyebrow twitch and his ears flattened back against his head. He could still hear someone else talking about him--and Bleu now--and it was distracting, and definitely more than one person now.

"Rhys? You okay?"

He scowled, gaze fixed on the assignment. "So," he said, deflecting the conversation away from him and back to their assignment. "The warrior has silver eyes?"

"Oh, well that's the only thing that would make sense in the situation! I heard stories from my great aunt about silver eyed warriors, and how they could defeat Grimm in ways a trained Huntsman could only think of! And, of course, it's something that Huntsman Academies don't train for because it's a natural trait and not a skill that you can learn, but listen to the scenario. . ."

Rhyence really tried to pay attention to Bleu, but the other boy was just so excited and his ideas were growing steadily more outlandish, that he couldn't focus. inevitably, Rhyence's attention--and his eyes--drifted back to his scroll. It lit up with a message--Unable to connect to Menagerie Relay Tower--and Rhyence glared at it. Typical...

"Whatcha looking at?"

"What?" Rhyence asked distractedly, picking up the scroll again. He opened the message, muted the conversation and tossed the scroll down again. He looked up to find Bleu frowning at him.

"You keep checking your scroll."

He froze, glancing down at where it lay in the grass, and then sighed. When he glanced back up, Bleu was frowning down at the scroll. "Bleu..." He sighed. "I can't contact my family back in Menagerie, okay, Bleu?" He scowled and rubbed a hand over his face. "Now, will you please focus on the assignment?"

"Well, I was actually trying to focus on it, and I presented the wonderful solution of silver eyes but I'm not actually sure is wonderful. . . Do you--"

"I don't want to talk about it." Rhyence glanced down at the paper again.

"Okay..."

"Let's say we assume your silver eyes theory is correct."

"Well, of course it is! Unless it isn't."

"Let's just run with it being correct." Rhyence rubbed his temples.

"Am I giving you a headache? I know I tend to talk too much."

"No, it's not you. Well, not just just you." He sighed again, then frowned. "Right.... So, our warrior has silver eyes." Rhyence eyed the assignment thoughtfully and then glanced up to find Bleu staring at him rather intensely. He cleared his throat and Bleu blinked, jerking upright. "How does that fit in with this scenario?"

"Well, it says that, when it was only two Grimm that the Huntsman was facing in the beginning, they had a spear like weapon. That, combined with their non-offensive Semblance, leads me to believe that it would be difficult for a single Huntsman to defeat multiple Grimm at once unless they all lined up at once." Bleu breathed in. Rhyence had to admit it was impressive that he could say all that in one breath.

"That's... actually sound logic." Rhyence muttered. "Or, at least I think so. But, to be safe, let's think of another sound conclusion."

Bleu looked to the sky, furrowing his brows in concentration. "Okay, how about. . ."

A few moments later, after Bleu had gone off on a tangent again, Rhyence heard someone say his name. Again. He scowled and glanced around, catching the gazes of Light and Rowan Argyris from Team LBRT. Beside them, Beryl and Teal were talking in low voices--not low enough fo a Faunus not to hear, though--about him. And Bleu. And Faunuses, and how Bleu must like having beasts as friends and boyfriends. His gaze narrowed and Light smirked at him, then leaned in to add a rather insulting comment about his love life--and Bleu's preferences in the bedroom. He gritted his teeth and resolutely turned away, but not before he saw Rowan look away, something almost like shame in his expression and body language.

"What's wrong?" Bleu asked, startling Rhyence into glancing over at him. The other boy had a concerned look to his gaze and was biting his lip. Rhyence decided right then and there that Bleu was a Distraction. "Rhys?"

"Rhyence," he said, and made a vaguely dismissive gesture, even as Light started in on what he'd look like downstairs and if he had various things that animals had but Faunus did not. Rhys really tried to ignore it, but it was difficult. Focusing on Bleu and their assignment was helping, but not by much. "And it's nothing. Where were we again?"

"Okay, so, we can start with this one. It seems pretty easy," Amaranth started, reading one of the thought problems on the assigned handout. "The hypothetical has two hunters--or huntresses--facing off with four Grimm. We're in the middle of a forest, standing in a mostly level clearing. Behind the four Grimm, a young girl and a mother are stranded. The girl appears to have a broken leg, and the mother is unconscious. It's too dark and you're too far away to accurately assess the extent of the mother's wounds."

Midori was sitting across from Amaranth at the table in the library. They weren't the only ones in the library, but they were certainly the loudest, if not by much. Being so comparatively loud made Amaranth self-conscious, but she ignored it, focusing on the assignment that they needed to complete. "So the girl has a wounded leg, and her mother is unconscious. Meaning we can't rely on them to flee or clear the scene on their own. So we need to have at least one hunter manually retrieve them?"

"That was what I gathered, too. We have two hunters, so it seems straightforward. One distracts the Grimm while the other uses the forest to get behind without being seen. We don't know the skill of the hunters, but presumably even a newish hunter could keep four Grimm occupied for a few seconds," Amaranth said, her hand on her chin in thought.

Her expression told Amaranth that Midori didn't agree with Amaranth's approach. "With four Grimm, the hunter would truly only have a few seconds before they would be noticed," Midori started.

"Right. So the hunter has to work fast, but it's not unreasonable," Amaranth said, trying to figure out where Midori was going with this train of thought. She wasn't having an easy time focusing on the problem. Other things were pre-occupying her mind, but she was trying not to let Midori realize that.

"But there're two people, and neither can walk. The hunter would need to take two trips to get both of them to safety. They would get spotted by the Grimm after the first trip." Midori sighed. "I don't think it's a plausible strategy." Duh. How did I not think of something like that? "Maybe instead, we could try and scare the Grimm off, to leave us safely with the girl and her mother. Nowhere does it specify we have to kill all four Grimm. Our job is probably to save the victims."

Amaranth shook her head, not realizing how condescending it seemed until she watched Midori's face drop. "I can't see two hunters scaring off four Grimm. They would need more hunters, and I doubt we're allowed to change the rules of the scenario like that."

"Both hunters could make a dash for the victims through the woods, before the Grimm even--"

"Grimm aren't intelligent. The minute the hunters disappear, they would forget about the threat and turn their attention back to their prey."

Midori seemed to be getting annoyed, but she was good at keeping her temper in check. That was a skill Amaranth knew she needed to work on. "Then what do you propose we do to save both of the victims?"

Hesitation. Midori wasn't going to like the suggestion, but it was what Amaranth had concluded to be the only feasible approach. "Nothing. We don't save them both."

As predicted, Midori didn't support that plan. Her expression changed in seconds, clearly already writing off the plan. "No, we can't do that."

"A successful response deals with the scenario in the most ideal way. The mother is unconscious. Chances are, she's already dead. We can't ask the girl how bad her mom is injured from across the clearing, as she's probably going into shock while we rescue her. And if we get across to them, we won't have the time to assess her injuries. The best option is to just abandon the mother and save the girl." Amaranth looked away from Midori's unhappy face. "It's the best option."

"But what if the mother is still alive? We leave her to die?"

"Not necessarily," Amaranth explained. "We bring the girl to safety and then go back to fight the Grimm. If the mother somehow survives through all of that, then we save her too. But if she doesn't, then she would have wanted us to at least save her daughter." That specific wording really didn't do Amaranth's explanation any good.

Midori stood up. "I'll talk to you later." She turned and exited the library, leaving Amaranth alone at the table. Amaranth followed Midori with her eyes, not sure what to say to try and stop Midori. Instead, she said nothing, watching her partner leave in silence. With reluctance, she returned her focus to the assignment, but it wasn't meant to be completed alone.

After a few frustrating minutes of "problem-solving", she slammed her head on the table, completely forgetting that she was in a library.

She looked up to the sound of someone approaching her table. In front of her was Valerian, looking down at her with an unreadable expression. “Hi,” Amaranth said, taking as neutral a tone as she could. Valerian of all people was who he least wanted to talk to.

“Mind if I join you?” Valerian asked, his unreadable expression shifting to an uncomfortably friendly smile. Amaranth mentally flinched away from the gesture.

Yeah, I do mind. “No, not at all.” Damn it. “What are you up to ‘round here?” Amaranth said, realizing how ridiculous it sounded to ask someone in a library what they were doing. Reading and homework--what else do you do in a library?

Valerian sighed wearily and took Midori’s vacated seat. “Same as you, I guess. Working on my assignment without my partner.” A frown briefly appeared on his face, but it disappeared just as quickly. “How are you finding the questions?”

“Well, finding solutions isn’t particularly difficult, but finding solutions my partner can get behind is another story. Midori isn’t willing to make sacrifices in these hypotheticals,” Amaranth said after a sigh, surprising herself with how open she was talking to Valerian.

“That’s a difficult thing to get behind,” he agreed. “Sacrifices are sometimes the only way to achieve the best outcome. But they’re not always necessary! What’s the particular question where you’re suggesting one?”

Amaranth looked down at her paper quickly. “The one with the mother and the daughter being trapped by the group of Grimm. My solution was to save the daughter and go back for the mother after, assuming she survives. After all, there’s no confirmation she isn’t already dead, so why risk her daughter’s life unnecessarily?”

“Oh, question three!” He looked thoughtful. “Hmm, I’d say write it down anyway. Professor Goodwitch wants us to give the best possible answer, but part of that is explaining why you would and wouldn’t do certain things. If you say what you just said, that should earn you at least two to three marks. I didn’t think of your option to be honest. If you don’t mind my asking, why don’t you consider fighting the Grimm?”

“Neither person can move, since the girl has an injured leg and her mother is incapacitated. If the combat gets too uncontrollable--which is likely with four Grimm--then they’ll both be at risk,” Amaranth explained matter-of-factly.

“Oh, but Beowolves aren’t very hard to kill! Two hunters are more than a match for only four of them.” He grinned. “I was actually a bit disappointed that there were so few Grimm down in the initiation caverns. We fought some epic ones that I can’t even name, but there weren’t any smaller Grimm we could use to warm up.”

Amaranth thought back to the cavern, but not for long. She was more focused on her conversation with Valerian. “Knowing the guys in charge, giving us more Grimm wouldn’t have gotten us smaller ones to warm up with, just more of the big guys.” She paused, trying to think up some other conversation topic. “You said you weren’t making any progress with your partner either?”

Valerian shook his head. “I made a deal with Night that I’d leave him alone today and that he’d get to shush me for an hour everyday until our assignment is due, but in return, he would work with me whenever I asked him. He’s not here now because he claims I had specified he only had to agree if it was during our free time, and since this is study period, it doesn’t count. I tried convincing him that it meant he was supposed to work anyway, but he countered that you can use study period for anything you like. And what he doesn’t like is spending two consecutive periods on ‘mind-numbingly dull hypotheticals’.” He rolled his eyes. “The gods alone know what he does like.”

“Well then, he sounds like a fun character to be working with,” Amaranth said with a chuckle. “Is he actually any help answering the hypotheticals, do you reckon?”

“He prefers working on his own and we haven’t compared notes yet, so I don’t really know. I don’t understand what he has against people, but I’ll give him space. People usually open up once they’re ready.”

Amaranth shrugged casually. “Yeah, I guess I can understand not liking people. But even people who’ve had it rough should at least be able to force their way through interactions, you know?” She paused. “That… sounds a bit insensitive. Sorry. I’m sure you’ve been through things too.”

“Hasn’t everyone? That’s why I try to keep an open mind and stay positive. You’d be surprised how much a sincere smile can uplift someone’s mood.” He flashed an even brighter smile as if trying to prove his point.

“Hmm. Well, I get the feeling that sometimes a good smile makes things worse, actually. Especially if it seems disingenuous…” She trailed off.

His smile faltered. “Do I seem that way to you?”

Amaranth hastily shook her head. “No, quite the opposite. But that doesn’t mean you won’t seem that way to others, like Night. But I don’t know.” Valerian went silent, and Amaranth tried to salvage the conversation. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude. Was just commenting. I’m kind of out of it right now.”

“Something on your mind?”

“Little bit, yeah. Just been thinking about some stuff, and partner work is about the worst thing to possibly have to do now.” Amaranth looked away.

Valerian checked his watch. “It’s only ten-thirty now. If you want to go do something like take a walk, you have time. In fact--” He rose. “--I think I might go do that myself. I don’t blame the other students for seeking out fresh air. It’s a lot of heavy thinking they’re making us do on our very first Monday morning.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Was nice chatting with you, Valerian. Good luck getting Night to cooperate,” she said, nodding as she closed her packet and rose from the seat.

“Same!” he said, smiling cheerfully again. “I’ll probably just people-watch. You’re welcome to join me, even if it’s just for companionable silence.” He grinned mischievously. “I’ll need to practise that for Night anyway.”

Amaranth chuckled. “Thanks, but I think I’m gonna have to decline. Maybe some time truly alone will be better for me right now. See ya,” Amaranth said as she turned to walk out of the library, her assignment in a small folder in her hand.

“See you at lunch!” Valerian called after her. She waved over her shoulder without turning back and exited the library.