20 Drop-off

"Sis Hiila!" The young girl who had been the first to succeed in elemental control jumped out of her seat and ran towards the visitor in the class. A few heads perked up at the name, and a few more hopped out of their seats to greet the entrant too.

Kyvas blinked and turned to the newcomer. She looked to be in her late teens, and about a couple of years too old to be in this class. She had her brown hair fashioned in a thick braid and ornamented with a garland of crystal flowers.

These crystal flowers were a common occurrence, Kyvas noted. A considerable portion of this class' population wore them in one form or another. The girls usually wore them in their hair, while the boys did so in the form of bracelets. A few others even had them pinned to the shoulders or cuffs of their robes.

"Kaeyina!" Hiila exclaimed as she embraced the girl. Her big grin widened as she ruffled the young girl's hair.

"I did it! I was the first to do the spell today!" Kaeyina boasted. "Look!"

Kaeyina performed the spell again, but the orbiting orb was not as stable as before. She must have been tired after all the practice in class. Kaeyina frowned as she noticed that.

"Impressive!" The older girl ignored the imperfections. "You've improved a lot!"

Hiila ran a hand through Kaeyina's blonde hair again, distracting her. The orbs wavered momentarily and threatened to fall, but Kaeyina dismissed the spell before that could happen.

"All thanks to you!" The blonde grinned.

Some of the students around them protested.

"What!?"

"No fair! I wanted some help too!"

"You have betrayed us, sis."

"Well, none of you asked me!" Hiila roared in laughter. Kaeyina stuck her tongue out at her classmates.

Kyvas chuckled. The scene in front of him reminded him of his school days. It was nice to be with that circle of friends. He should hit them up sometime.

… But he couldn't hit them up now, could he?

No, he would! He'd try his best to get back! His nervousness was stupid, he had to keep trying!

"Alright, alright! I'm not here to hang out!" Kyvas heard Hiila chuckle. She shooed some students away and made her way to the teacher's desk.

"Jach sent me here. He isn't coming back for a while. So—"

The class' cheers interrupted Hiila.

"Wait, wait!" She raised her voice. The class did not comply.

Hiila rolled her eyes with a smile and stepped before Kyvas, and before Jach's things—a couple of books, his quill, and a pouch containing... Something. The cloth the pouch was made of was a Living, so he couldn't see through it. Hiila stacked them, swooped Kyvas off the desk and stashed him in her belt, and picked everything up.

Kyvas almost let out a screech. Almost.

He trusted that someone wouldn't just pick up a teacher's things for no reason, but being picked up like an object was... still rather unsettling.

"Kae!" Hiila called out to the young girl. Kaeyina waved off a few of her classmates off before presenting herself to Hiila.

"Thanks again!" Kaeyina replied with a hug. Hiila tapped her on the head with the books.

"Get them under control, you-!" Hiila nodded towards the class. "Jach told me to tell you lot to stay in the class and practice. I don't care what you do here, just be careful. Jach can get... pretty devious when he wants to."

Kaeyina looked up and nodded with a smile.

"And get off already, you gremlin! I have to get these back to Jach." She added with a laugh.

Kaeyina gave Hiila a final squeeze before letting go. She looked up at Hiila and pouted. "Come here without a professor's orders next time! We miss you!"

"What? These oldies don't give you free marks?" Hiila teased. "Yeah, I'll drop by later, I promise."

With that, Hiila said her goodbyes to the class and headed out. Her bright smile during the class dropped off as soon as she stepped out of it. The shift felt a little jarring, but Kyvas paid it no mind.

He did wish he could talk more freely, though. He had to stay quiet lest someone shady find out about the possibility of human summoning. Talk non stop with people for days—he added that to the list of things he wanted to do when he got back as well.

Hiila hummed a sombre tune. It was pleasant, but it oozed sadness.

…

Perhaps he should not have dismissed that emotional shift earlier. He couldn't figure out what prompted it. Was running errands for a Professor that depressing? Probably not. So what happened to make her sound so sad now?

A fight earlier? Or was it the commitment about visiting that class again?

Perhaps he was just overthinking it? Probably.

Hiila wound her way through the labyrinthian floor until she reached a staircase.

"Ah, finally!" He heard a new voice call out. It came from a girl sitting atop the steps of the staircase.

Hiila's smile returned, if only to a lesser extent.

The girl hopped off the steps and made her way to the two. She looked familiar to Kyvas. That shoulder-length black hair. Those amber eyes. That build, bordering on lankiness. He couldn't put a finger on where he'd seen her.

"Go get her out of this, yeah?" Hiila mumbled. She pulled Kyvas out of her belt and handed it to the girl.

'Wait, what?' Kyvas couldn't help but exclaim. Why was he being transferred over?

The girl nodded and moved Kyvas to her belt instead. "... Good luck with the Professor."

Hiila nodded and smiled. "Good luck to you too, Seph."

Seph?

Wait. She was the girl Kyvas had seen the day he was brought over. How could he forget?

Hiila made her way upstairs to where Jach was. With his books. With his quill. And without Kyvas. Seph, however, made her way downstairs. Was... was he being stolen? No wait, kidnapped! He was still a person, damnit!

She reached the floor beneath them but didn't stop there. Traversing a corridor or two, Kyvas found himself at another stairs. They went down that and then down a couple more floors before they reached a rather long and wide hallway. All that time, Kyvas stayed silent. He didn't know what to do, but he knew that he had to be discreet.

"I know you can talk." Seph's comment took Kyvas by surprise.

Was she... was she talking to him?

"I heard you. Back at Krys' lab last weekend."

When he was summoned? But he could only talk to someone when they were touching him back then. She never touched him.

"And then again. In Krys' class, when you tipped over that bottle."

No, no, that wasn't possible. He made sure to only transmit his thoughts to Krys; he wasn't broadcasting them!

'She must be bluffing.' Kyvas thought to himself.

"You just said something." Seph frowned. "Did you say that I'm bluffing?"

He didn't send it to her, how did she—

"Look, this... this isn't that great of a time for me. My friends and I were blackmailed into stealing you. Blackmailed by Lyk. One of us is currently stationed with one of his henchmen. I'm worried for her..."

He was actually being stolen!? He had to do something.

Kyvas looked up front and saw that the corridor met up at a wide Intersection. In the middle of it was a large, double spiral staircase heading down to a floor below. The outer wall of the staircase was transparent - made of some form of glass - and through it, he could barely spy... some trees? They were headed to the staircase. If they went down there, maybe he could get out of her cloak and hide somewhere there.

But how would he-

Seph suddenly turned into a fork in the corridor, ridding him of that view of the staircase.

'No-!'

"I need to hand you over to them. To just get this all over with but... but I've heard you talk before. I've seen you use magic before. I..."

She sat down in the doorway of a classroom, hiding herself. She pulled Kyvas out and looked at him, directing her questions to him directly.

"I just need to know. Am I going crazy? Did I make all of that up? Or... Or did Krys and Jach... use that spell...?" She sighed.

"... You've got a lot of mana. I knew that the moment I saw you." Seph continued. "Did you know mana reacts differently based on who it belongs to? I can feel that. I can feel the way mana reacts."

She took a breath.

"When I saw you, the mana I saw in you, it... It behaved in the same way mine does. Then, back in class. I saw it. I saw you perform telekinesis. And the mana you gave off, It was still the same as mine. I need to know how. I need to know why. What are you?"

Kyvas couldn't understand what she meant by that.

"... Did Krys and Jach summon you? Did... Did they use the spell I had found? Did it summon a person rather than..." Seph couldn't continue with that sentence, and Kyvas could see that.

... Was this kidnapper the one who was responsible for him coming to this world? Was that what she was implying? Kyvas had to know.

'I—I'll talk,' He mumbled.