Honeydew

“Now everyone, please turn to page…” Fairburrow’s lecture droned on in the background. On a typical day, I found magical philosophy boring. Today, I couldn’t even make it through a sentence.

“You alive, girl?” Val sat to my right, also barely paying attention.

I could see the entire class following suit. That was the one nice thing about Fairburrow’s class. As long as I kept up with the readings, this was the world's easiest A plus.

“Huh? Yeah, just thinking over a few things.”

“Like what? You’ve been ‘thinking over things’ for the past like five hours.”

“Isaac,” I said.

Everything made less and less sense by the minute. Fairburrow hinting Isaac was on a mission, his late-night visit, his sudden disappearance, and even Arthur declaring that Isaac apparently hated Prismas.

It was like every new fact that came out just contradicted everything I’d learned so far.

“You and everyone else, Ruby.” Val jotted a few quick notes down. “It’s been three days now. Basic royal missions typically don’t take that long.”

“You still don’t think he went on a mission?” I asked.

“I'm sure of it.” Val glanced back down at the lecture. “I’m not the right person to pry into things, but something feels off.”

“What do you mean, you’re not the right person?” I tilted my head.

“Commoner and all that, remember? The Church may not like that the one commoner here is ‘pushing her boundaries’ or whatever.”

“What a boring answer,” I muttered.

Where are you, Isaac? I glanced out the window. Did he just want to gain my trust with that Prisma line? What if it was just a ploy? The princess of Everbit is known to be friendly, maybe we can catch her being pro-Prisma.

But that thought just felt so fundamentally wrong.

I feel like a toy… It’d barely been a week since I'd talked to Isaac, and it felt like he was already trying to lead me along on a string. Which is the real you, Isaac?

Royals always had to wear masks. As a Prisma, I could especially understand that. But that was the problem with masks. Whenever I wore that many layers, it felt like the real me was so buried, that just trying to peel them off felt halfway impossible. Is this a mask, Isaac? Is there some game you’re playing here?

That wasn’t even mentioning that research. If only I could get my hands on those papers. That would answer everything.

“Wait, what's stopping me?”

“You think of something?” Val asked.

“You can't look into Isaac. What's stopping me?” I pulled Val up from her seat. “Come on! I got an idea.”

“We're in the middle of class!”

“So?” I could feel everyone's eyes pointed towards us. “Trust me on this one!”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely! I got a plan.” Isaac’s research wouldn't just fall into my lap. If I wanted answers, I'd just have to go find them myself!

                                                                                  ☀ ☀ ☀

After a quick detour to grab Mary, the three of us all sat around my desk. Val with crossed arms, and Mary, who looked more confused than anything else.

“I’ve been hiding a secret from you, Val.”

“Jumping right into it then?” I could tell that, despite her posture, Val was very intently listening to every word. What a nice change.

“M-My Princess! A-Are you sure about this?” Mary stuttered.

“When am I not?”

“Not often enough…”

“I’m going to ignore that,” I said.

“Sounds secret.” Val’s thought trailed off as she stayed quiet for a second. “I'm assuming it’s about Isaac?”

“You have no idea.” I took a deep breath and spilled everything to Val: Isaac’s visit, his speech about saving all Prismas, what I learned from eavesdropping on Arthur, all of it.

Mary nodded along, jumping in here and there with stuff I missed from Isaac's talk. Thank the gods she was there for that.

Val listened intently, but it was Isaac’s Prisma line that really got a reaction from Val. “Say what?”

“You heard me.”

“Isaac, the famous Prisma hater, said he wanted to save Prismas?”

“I think that's the whole reason he came to talk. Isaac knew he had an upcoming mission that’d keep him away for a bit, and he saw how well we’d been getting along, so he figured that was the best time to tell me.”

“That sounds awfully convenient,” Val said. “And… I could see Isaac faking his opinion one way or another, but liking Prismas? I don’t know if he’s that good of an actor.”

“Come on, back me up here, Mary! You were there too!”

“Y-Yeah, Princess, but… I don’t think he was planning to head off on a mission either…”

Way to back me up, Mary. “It just connects so many dots. Fairburrow is sure hinting he’s on one, and surely if Isaac had simply disappeared, the royal family would be frantically looking for him.”

“Maybe… With Vertana it’s hard to tell.” Val said.

“And,” Mary froze as both our eyes drifted toward her. “I mean… Well… that wasn’t the feeling I got from Isaac when we met.”

“Maybe, but he could’ve just hid it well,” I said. “I don’t have any hard proof, but that’s what this plan is going to change.” I leaped up and grabbed a notebook from the shelf. “I took a few notes from what I overheard with Arthur and the Headmistress.”

Thank the gods I actually remembered to write down what I overheard for once.

Val read my overview silently, with Mary looking over her shoulder. I hadn’t had a chance to update her yet. My bad…

“I see…” Val muttered. “Isaac fooling me? Sure, but Arthur? They were practically attached at the hip! If anyone knew the true Isaac, it would be him.”

“But not the Isaac I know.” I collapsed back in my seat. “The Isaac I met that night was someone who cares about people, including Prismas. I keep hearing about this other Isaac, so I figured that I’d just have to go and figure everything out myself.”

“Figure it out yourself?” Val looked doubtful. “So then, what’s your brilliant plan to find out?”

“I want you two to ask around about Isaac’s research. Yes, you too, Mary,” I said, before she could complain. “And I’ll go and sneak around the dorms.”

“So, you don’t have a plan,” Val said.

“Yes, I do! Listen, Isaac must have spent a lot of his time in his dorm room with Arthur, right? I’ll just sneak in there.”

“And how do you plan to do that, Ruby?”

Black magic, duh. Though I couldn’t exactly say that out loud. “I’ve got my ways.”

“I-I did hear that the dorms here are pretty magic-proof.” Mary stuttered. “Even skilled black magic users can have trouble.”

I get what you're saying, Mary, but you should know who you’re talking to. Vertana’s dorms would have no idea what hit them. “Only one way to find out.”

“So you’re going to show up, and pray things happen to go your way?”

“Pretty much.”

“If you’re the one risking it, I don’t see a reason to refuse.” Val smiled. “I’ve got concerns of my own, and worst case I can just say the princess of Everbit forced me into it. I’m a commoner, I couldn’t dare refuse a Church-aligned Princess.”

Her sarcasm was aggressively thick with every word.

“Mary, do you have any thoughts?” I asked.

“Well… I do think that there's not a lot to go off of, and breaking into Isaac’s dorm could end up looking bad for Everbit…”

“Not if I don’t get caught! You know I can do it.” I wouldn’t get caught—I couldn’t—not unless I wanted the capital to burst into flames, at least after Vertana found out a Prisma had infiltrated their royal campus.

“You also never know who's watching. You could get spotted by someone…”

Using black magic. I mentally finished her sentence.

“I won't.”

“B-But—”

“I guarantee it. In and out, nobody will notice a thing!”

“You—I want to strangle…” Mary mumbled something out of earshot. “I’ll do whatever you need me to, Princess.”

“Sounds like a plan!” I clapped my hands together and stood. “We still have some daylight left. Let's get this started!”