Evie watched silently, anxiously, as Professor DeLuca observed the light-pink Lust Crystal in his hands, looking at it from every possible angle. There was no sound in his cramped office save for the soft whining of the lights above them and the computer tower beneath his desk, as well as the occasional hum of interest the man gave out as he studied the object.
Her hands twisted in her lap—she wouldn't normally feel so anxious presenting something to her mentor, especially such a massive breakthrough as this, but the man had been weirdly solemn ever since she had arrived in his office that morning. The haggard appearance and uneasy tone in his normally youthful voice would have put anyone ill-at-ease. He had barely given any comments or questions when Evie gave her report on the ritual and its results, taking care to preserve the privacy of said ritual's participant of course, and shortly after she finished he took the crystal in his hand and had spent the last ten minutes in silent contemplation.
Aside from unnerving Evie, it was also kind of pissing her off. She didn't really
do
silent contemplation, especially when she was on the cusp of the biggest breakthrough of her career—no, of the entire history of the Mages' Guild! Why wasn't he more excited about this!?
With little else for her to do but wait, her eyes wandered around the room, taking in the shelves crammed with thick, leathery books—all of which she had read multiple times since DeLuca took her in as his protégé—and the walls filled with worn maps and framed copies of historical documents. There was a white board on the far wall with notes scribbled in black marker so messily that Evie could barely read them, or even determine if they were in the Common tongue. Next to it was a picture of a girl no older than ten, held onto the wall with office tape, and above that a four-point star nailed into the wall at its center—the star and nail both a symbol of the local faith of DeLuca's homeland. At the apex of the wall, running just below the edge of the ceiling was a mural of the Icasian Wall, painted with a stunning degree of finesse, even down to the glowing runes on its surface and the way that the barrier ever-so-slightly distorted the view of the land beyond.
She turned back to face her mentor and found him staring at the mural as well, a single finger laying on top of the crystal that now rested on the scratched surface of his desk.
"Professor?"
"Forgive me, Evie," he said, removing his spectacles with one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. "I have had a long night."
"You look exhausted," she said with a nod. "Were you working?"
"In a sense."
He didn't look up to meet her gaze, eyes fixated once more on the crystal. His lips curled up in a humorless smile. "Make no mistake, this is an incredible discovery. Not only to work out the mechanism of a long-lost ritual, but to also successfully perform it...I am immensely proud."
There was something in his tone that Evie found unsettling. As though he was a movie character building up to some awful plot twist.
"Okay," she said. "...but?"
DeLuca glanced past her, at the door that Evie had closed behind her. She heard a clicking sound; the door was now locked. DeLuca leaned in as Evie scooted her chair closer.
"There was an incident last night."
"What do you mean?"
His voice lowered. "At the wall. Around midnight."
Evie pursed her lips, fists clenching the fabric of her skirt. "What kind of incident?" she said, her voice shaking
"An opening in the barrier. Only for a few seconds, but still unmistakable."
"Did anything get through?"
DeLuca shook his head. "Nothing visible."
"For whatever that's worth," Evie said with a sigh; for a land as infused with magic as Icasia was—and likely still is—the fact that nothing visible escaped the barrier was, in actuality, worth very little.
"It was at least enough to reassure the guards. But there will undoubtedly be a state inquiry. And any suspected parties will be punished, whether anything got out or not."
Evie crossed her arms over her chest. "It must have been a coincidence," she said, more confidently than she felt. "You know how the ritual went; how could it have done anything like this?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "It's very likely that it didn't. But there is still the possibility that it did, and for the military, that will be more than enough."
Evie glanced down at the Crystal. Before, it had seemed lovely, pleasing in the way it sparkled beneath the lights of the office. Now, it almost seemed sinister, as though it was hiding something. And yet, something about that was also thrilling; perhaps it had more secrets to it than just of Eroturgy.
What could it possibly tell her about the lands beyond the Wall?
"Evie."
She snapped back to attention. DeLuca's dark eyes bore down on her. He spoke clearly and deliberately, with no room for misunderstanding: "No one else can know about this."
-
By the time Evie returned to her apartment—a modestly-sized flat that was nevertheless far more extravagant than what most Academy students had—Lisette was fully dressed and showered. Dressed in the clothes she had worn the previous day, but dressed regardless. Sitting across the dining room table, she looked up from her phone—a cheap looking model that had no doubt been obsolete for at least two years—and greeted Evie with a smile.
"'Morning."
"You're up already?" Evie said, closing the door behind her. "I thought you didn't have any morning lectures?"
"Neither did you."
"I was meeting with DeLuca." Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the half-full cup of coffee in Lisette's other hand. "Yeah, just go ahead and help yourself to some coffee."
"How very hospitable of you," Lisette said, taking a sip. "It tastes like shit. You really need to get a proper coffeemaker."
Evie rolled her eyes and pulled herself up onto the breakfast bar grabbing a slightly overripe apple from the bowl next to her. "So to what do I owe this early-morning pleasure?"
"I woke up after you left and couldn't get back to sleep."
"Bed too lonely without me?"
Lisette scoffed, rising from her chair and putting her phone in the pocket of her button-up shirt. "Yeah, that was probably it," she said as she took a final swig of coffee and set it back on the table. "Either way, the guys all wanna try and get a last-minute rehearsal in before tonight, so I gotta get going." She glanced back at Evie, a stern look on her face. "You're still coming, right?"
Shit,
Evie thought.
I completely forgot the music festival was today.
