Soulstone Blue

Luckily, the night passed by peacefully, and the sun rose again like any other day.

The wind flew through my hair, pinker than before now that summer had started to show itself, as the remnants of a stray fireball flew by.

“Not bad at all!” I silently watched as Professor Gregory applauded two of my classmates in the colosseum—both scuffed with more than a few scorch marks. “Your firepower has definitely improved since the start of the semester.”

Gregory had decided to surprise us with mock battles today. It’d be nice if he made these a bit more predictable.

It was like Gregory picked them by drawing names out of a hat once every other week or so.

Typically, I’d have practically begged to go in. Today, I couldn’t do anything but glance over at Val, who refused to meet my eyes.

At least Mary is getting some good sleep right now. I sighed.

“Could you at least give me a hint, or something?” It wasn’t the first time I’d spat at Val today.

“I just went to run an errand.”

“Run an errand where?” Every few minutes, Val’s story changed, always getting further from the truth.

“Somewhere,” Val said calmly, staring straight ahead.

“This isn’t a game, Val,” I barked. “Not after last night.”

“I never said it was. You’ll see what I mean eventually.”

“I’d rather see it now.” Just talking to her made me want to punch a wall. “I’d rather drink concrete than deal with you right now.”

“Nobody is stopping you.” Again, Val refused to even attempt looking me in the eye.

Unfortunately, Gregory decided to speak up again. “Who’s next?”

I glanced back at the field, where Professor Gregory hovered near the center. His eyes scanned the bleachers as the dust finished settling, and I could feel myself twitch as his eyes locked onto mine.

“It’s been a while since you showed us how a Varie fights. Want to give it a go, Ruby?”

“Not really,” I muttered, standing up. Professor Gregory wasn’t the type of person to take no for an answer. “Who am I fighting?”

“Great question.” He scanned the benches again. “Lloyd, you want to give it a shot.”

“Yes sir.” Lloyd stood up from the crowd, a ball of a man with muscles for brains. His dad was some general if my memory served me correctly. Not that I particularly cared.

I dragged my feet to the far corner as Lloyd leaped down from the stands with a faint red glow. Gods, I don’t want to deal with him right now. Why not pick someone who barely knows what a color is? Lord knows we have more than a few of those in our class.

“You two know the drill.” Professor Gregory floated up toward the sky. “The first one to knock the other out of the arena wins. Good luck.”

“Whatever.” I eyed Lloyd as his red hue deepened.

Back when facing Isaac, I’d gone for the first punch to catch him off guard. There wasn’t any reason why Lloyd would react any better. These types of brutes never bothered to think past their next move.

Back with Isaac… Thinking of that fight stung. Time hadn’t healed that wound, not yet anyway.

“You’re mine.” Lloyd was the first to move this time, using a red-boosted leap to barrel toward me. “I’m not losing to some foreign princess.”

“Whatever.” I tapped my heel on the ground. “Go drown for all I care.”

A tsunami burst from the dirt, nearly ten stories tall, the same kind I’d used against Isaac to soak the field.

“Blue? Is that all you got?” Lloyd laughed as the water barreled toward him.

“Nope.” Honestly, if he wanted it, I saw no reason not to make it hurt.

I quietly watched as Lloyd ran straight at the wave. His plan wasn’t hard to see: just run through the water and get up close, just like any other red.

Don’t they ever learn? I thought, right as Lloyd plowed right into the water.

He didn’t have Isaac levels of movement, but he slowly tugged his way through the wave. It was more like a beast swimming than a man.

That was until I sent a small jolt of electricity into the water.

Lloyd froze in his tracks, jolting like someone had impaled his skull. Fairburrow apparently already knew; no reason not to sneak a bit of electricity in to end the fight.

Electricity wasn’t visible in the water anyway.

Lloyd collapsed onto the floor as my wave splashed onto the bleachers, twitching. A bit of smoke rose from his clothes.

“You’re still alive, right?” I walked up to his simmering body and gave it a tiny kick. A small groan escaped his lips. “Good enough for me. Hey, Professor, I’m good to go, right?”

“Feel free,” Professor Gregory grinned, completely undisturbed while the rest of the class sat in silence.

“Thanks…” I walked back as the Professor searched for two more victims. That was stupid, I knew that was stupid. But right now I couldn’t make myself care one bit.

According to Isaac, the Church didn’t have anything on me. And Gregory didn’t exactly seem like the hyper-religious type.

I plopped back in my seat next to Val, who still refused to look me in the eye. “So, are you going to tell me now?”

Val didn’t bother to reply.

“Suit yourself.” I leaned forward onto the railing. Professor Gregory found two more of my classmates ready to spar, and between the giant hot explosions, random splashes of water, and giant pillar of steam, I couldn’t make out a single thing going on.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang before they could finish. Typically, I’d be annoyed, but with everything going on, sparring sounded like the least fun thing imaginable.

“Good news for everyone, no homework for tonight because I don’t feel like grading it!” Professor Gregory clapped his hands together. “Class dismissed.”

“Finally.” I scooped up my bag and marched down the stairs. Until today, I hadn’t bothered to skip a class, but gods, I was tempted.

“Ruby, Val, would you two stay for a second?”

“What the—” I leaped back from Professor Gregory’s voice, barely a foot from my ear. “When did you get there?”

“Who knows,” he said. “Come on, let's talk in my office. I’d rather not have this conversation overheard.”

                                                                              ☀ ☀ ☀

I didn’t know exactly what to expect from Professor Gregory’s office, but reality was so much stranger than anything I could have imagined.

Thin, framed posters covered every inch of the wall, with people and drawings I’d never seen in my life. He’d set a bright orange chandelier to hang from the ceiling. Giant spike-like daggers stuck out like a compass, with the chandelier slowly spinning to the right.

Those posters… They feel so lifelike. I’d seen nice posters and tapestries before—being a princess had its benefits—but these were just on another level.

“Take a seat, you two.” Professor Gregory fell back onto his spinning chair.

I hesitantly followed and sat on his blue leather couch. What animal does blue leather come from? “What did you want to talk about?”

“The future, what else?” His tone made it sound like the most obvious thing in the world. “The official stance on Isaac’s death is that we know nothing. The royal family doesn’t have a clue where to begin, and the Church is even more lost. Funny times.”

“You sure know a lot.” I leaned forward. “Why tell us about this?”

“For fun, the love of the game, or maybe I’m leading you astray right into a trap. Good question.”

“How much do you know?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Enough,” Professor Gregory said. “Though, good move snatching Isaac’s notebook before those snobs could get it.”

He even saw that? I narrowed my eyes.

“You’ve been watching us the entire time, then?” For the first time in this entire meeting, Val actually spoke up. “So you know who did it?”

“What I do know is that you’re a Prisma, Ruby. The rest of the staff may not be able to recognize brief flashes of red, but my eyes are a bit better.”

“So you did see that…” I wanted to curse myself out. That was two people in two days now. My parents would be having a panic attack if they knew. At least, unlike with Val, it was pretty obvious Gregory wasn’t exactly interested in turning me in.

“Though, nice touch with the yellow today. I never did like Lloyd much.” Gregory laughed. “But enough about that. I need a favor from you, Ruby.”

“A favor?”

“Go talk to Arthur.”

“Arthur?” Of all people… “You want me to go talk to the Church?”

“I’m not that insane. No, I want you to talk to Arthur.”

“So, the Church.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Gregory shrugged. “Nice kid, he means well.”

“Well enough to think we murdered Isaac because of his research,” I scoffed. “But fine, I need to get some more info from him anyway.”

I don’t get where Gregory’s going with this, but I have a weird feeling he’s leading us somewhere. But why bother? Clearly he’s powerful enough to do all this himself.

“Whatever it takes,” he clapped his hands together again. “That’s all I have. Oh, though, Val, I do have a few things to talk to you about if you have the time.”

“I can make some,” Val said, though she didn’t sound thrilled.

Gregory grinned while I slowly rose from the couch. I wasn’t the best at reading between the lines or anything, but I got the message. “See you later, girl. You can’t keep that secret from me forever.”

“Nor do I intend to.” Neither of us bothered to look at one another as I left the room.

“Maybe Arthur knows a few of those answers." I didn’t particularly like my odds, but if anyone would have some information I didn’t, it would be him.