For a second, Caius wondered if he had really witnessed what he had witnessed. Had he really just seen Aylin control herself out of consideration for Kaya?

He shook off the thought then as a wide smile spread across his face and he approached Kaya's bed to sit at the side and reach out to take her hand which he gripped tight.

"How are you?" He asked and despite his genuinely happy smile, sadness seeped into his purple eyes.

Kaya stared at that look and her leaf-green eyes narrowed.

"What's with that look you're giving me?" She asked.

"What look?" Caius asked.

Kaya raised a brow.

"My gods, do you— do you pity me right now?" She asked and she sounded on the brink of outrage.

"What? Of course not," Caius said and then paused as he added, "However…"

Kaya's eyes went wide now.

"What did you hear?" She asked, "What did they tell you?"

"That you tried to keep Seven Star Beasts away," Caius said.

"That makes it sound so much worse than it was," Kaya said.

Caius continued.

"I heard you used up your Mana and the spell began to sap your life force because you didn't want to let go of the spell."

Kaya was no longer at the brink of outrage anymore. She was now smack-dab in the center of it and dropped Caius's hand to cross her arms across her chest.

"If I had let go of the spell, everyone would have died." She said with a deep frown, "Would you have preferred that?"

"I didn't say that," Caius said, "I think you did a good thing. A great thing. I just— I wish you hadn't had to do it."

Kaya paused now. Something broke through her outrage as she realized she hadn't actually read the look in Caius's eyes as accurately as she thought earlier. He didn't just look sad. He looked… guilty.

That was a look she had never seen Caius have. At least not like this. Her eyes softened and she leaned forward to grab both his hands now and stare into his eyes.

"Caius, what's wrong?" She asked.

Caius was surprised by how much he wanted to tell her. That tone of hers nearly drew it out of him. But he couldn't say it here. Not with many attentive ears listening just past the partition of curtains.

So he tried to get his smile to touch his eyes.

"Let's talk about it later. When you're well," he said.

"I'm fine now!" Kaya said, "You can say it now!"

Eloise and Aylin had drawn close. They seemed to have taken note of what Kaya had taken note of and were just as curious to hear what Caius had to say. Kaya welcomed them drawing close. After all, it resulted in more pressure to get Caius to spill his guts.

Alas…

"Later," Caius insisted.

… He remained firm.

"Why…?" Kaya started to say when Caius cut in with a low voice.

"Not here."

Kaya stopped talking then and finally, she understood. Caius didn't just mean to talk about it when she was well enough to talk but rather when she was well enough to be let out of the infirmary. Whatever he had to say, was for select ears only.

Eloise and Aylin had leaned in but now they leaned away in understanding. All four remained as they were for a few seconds then before Caius cleared his throat.

"So, I'd like to hear what happened," he said with a brilliant smile, "Every little detail. I heard Aylin refined on the spot…"

"I did," Aylin said with a smile on her perfect face as she brushed her grey-white hair back in a haughty but sexy flourish,

"And might I add, it was a very big deal."

"It really was," Kaya said agreeing with a nod, "We'd have died without her."

This caused Caius to marvel again at such a drastic change in the relationship between the two ladies. Now he was all the more curious about the details and what had led to this.

Aylin and Eloise plopped down on the bed then and Aylin launched into the tale. She didn't start from the beginning though. She started from when she first began to really 'shine'.

"I had this brilliant idea," Aylin said with grand hand gestures, "Mana disrupting Potions. Damage the foundation and you can rob the Beasts of their demonic boosts."

"Oh, that is a brilliant idea. It works by inhalation. If it can get through the layer of demonic energy, it's a perfect counter to demonic boosting," Caius said and he looked amazed but also a little ashamed as he added,

"Damn, why didn't I think of that when we faced the Clacking Centipede?"

"Don't beat yourself up," Aylin said 'graciously', "My genius is simply hard to beat. Or even match up with."

"Gods, you're not even telling it right," Eloise voiced out then, looking annoyed and maybe a little jealous of the one who had Caius's attention.

"Of course, I am," Aylin countered.

"Oh yeah?" Eloise said with a raised brow, "Then how did you get this 'brilliant idea'? What inspired you to think it might work?"

"I— Well, when you have a mind like mine…" Aylin said, stuttering a bit.

"Just admit I inspired you!" Eloise snapped.

"I would if you had. But you didn't," Aylin said having regained her haughty confidence.

"Kaya," Eloise said turning to the third girl in the partition, "Back me up."

Kaya raised her hands.

"Aylin, you were indeed brilliant but Eloise did inspire your discovery," she said.

Aylin scoffed and looked off to the side.

"Thank you," Eloise said and looked at Caius with a grin, "In honor of being right, I'll tell things as they actually were. And I shall give credit where it's due…"

Aylin scoffed again for emphasis and Caius would have assumed she was so annoyed that she would give everyone the silent treatment and let Eloise tell it all. But of course, he should have known better than that.

Eloise was barely into talking about the first encounter after they left the Sealing Cube behind before Aylin cut in. And thus, the back and forth began. Each cutting in and never letting the other really control the narrating pace.

Caius was as amused because before today, it would have been Kaya in Eloise's place while Eloise acted as a mostly neutral party. Now the roles had been switched and Kaya joined him as an observer.

The one constant detail was Aylin who seemed most in her element when she was being challenged. Kaya or Eloise, it didn't really matter. She simply welcomed counter/competition.

The thing was though, it didn't take all that long before the competitive style of narration became collaborative. Suddenly, Aylin and Eloise weren't trying to one-up each other, they were supporting one another.

When one forgot a detail, the other would chime in to supply that detail and occasionally, they'd launch into a Segway where they spoke so fast and about something so completely different from the topic at hand that Caius would be lost.

In cases like this, Kaya even joined in. But then, they'd look back at him and get back to narrating, like they hadn't just forgotten his existence for a minute.

Ultimately, the ladies had fun with the narration. Now that the danger was past, it was easy for them to laugh at things that had, at the time, terrified them. Now that it was confirmed that no student had been fatally wounded—especially those who they hadn't been able to get to—they could find the fun in the experience.

Adventure is hardly ever fun in the moment. Only in hindsight when the hurdles have been crossed. This had been an adventure for the three and they had come out changed. Caius didn't even think they understood just how much they had changed.

Like how they seemed like friends now rather than just three people who happen to sit at the same cafeteria table for meals. Or like how they had been able to inspire one another in more ways than just Alchemical genius.

Caius was glad.

This was what he had always wanted for them— especially Aylin. He just wished he hadn't put their lives at risk to get to this point.

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