Guardians of the Light

Gossip

♦ The weekend came after another, as the students said, gruelling week. It was a rainy morning and the students were complaining to each other over breakfast in the cafeteria about how they were missing out on gym and music classes because the teachers were getting the flu, but the alchemy teacher or the metamorphology teacher showed no signs of getting sick anytime soon. They were all sitting in small groups at the round, or rather oval, tables and talking to each other, only Emma didn't show the slightest interest in communicating with anyone. She just sat, silently eating her muesli and waiting for Erika, who wanted to "introduce" her cousins. Of course, it wasn't a complete introduction, since they were all in the same class, but they didn't know each other too well. She kept looking back towards the door and finally caught sight of Erika with her relatives. They took their food and looked for Emma. Emma didn't know what to do in this situation, she didn't want to shout at them and draw attention to herself. In the end, she didn't even have to; Erika noticed her and sat down with her relatives. "Hi, Emma." Erika greeted. Emma also said "hi" but hardly looked at anyone. "So," Lenny said, trying to break through the awkward awkwardness with a laugh, "Emma, right? Do you remember me? You kind of snapped at me on Wednesday."

"Sorry about that," Emma said, still not looking him in the eye. "What happened, happened," Lenny just waved his hand as if to shoo away a fly, "Even though I don't quite get it, we met at the station, we literally bumped into each other."

"Oh yeeaah. Sorry, I forgot, it's been quite emotionally intense for me, the last few days. New school, new people, new world." Emma's eyes were now even more fixed on either her breakfast or the floor, it was hard to tell. Kamila put the spoon in her mouth and looked at Emma as she did so. She swallowed and asked, "Listen, aren't you the..."

"Disabled one, yes," Emma cut her off in a faintly angry voice. "No, I meant the one," Kamila continued, "who's almost lying on the desk during Earth history and wizarding history classes. Have you fallen in love with the teacher? You know it's inappropriate, right?"

"I didn't fall in love with him, ugh. I have fallen in love with the subject he teaches. And I've had that relationship since I was six, maybe even longer."

"Riki said that you said that these Guardians of the Light actually lived," Lenny said. Emma nodded. "Some did." Emma put a spoon in her mouth. Lenny was about to say something, but Diana cut him off, "Do you really want to discuss this in front of so many people?"

"She's right," said Kamila, "Let's go to our room after breakfast, we'll discuss it there."

♦ When they had eaten their fill, Kamila, Lenny, Diana, Erika and Emma went to chamber number 12. Just in case, Kamila used her school brooch, which was able to lock and unlock a certain accommodation chambers and the room where the student lives. She didn't want to risk any girls spying to see what was going on. The five allies sat down in the living room, some on the sofa and others on the floor, and began to discuss everything they knew. Kamila used her magic power and conjured a light, almost white, hologram board, on which they wrote all available information with their fingers. "Cool," Emma marvelled, "That's a cool spell."

"Thanks," Kamila said, "but it's actually a pretty simple and ordinary spell for us magicians of science and technology." Emma dropped her eyes to the floor. She stood up and said quickly, "I probably shouldn't be here." She went to the door, but Erika grabbed her arm. "Come on, Emma, stay."

"Yeah, Emma," added Lenny, "I've always thought Kamcha had great spells, too. I've got great spells, too, of course. And you sure have great spells, too. Besides, this is a pretty great mystery. You want to miss out on great investigation with great people?"

"They really are great," Erika whispered, "And they're used to me being weird, they'll soon get used to you too." Emma sat down with a small giggle and said: "Alright I'll stay, I have nowhere to go anyway. And will you still say the word great? I'm just asking." Lenny heard Emma's voice but her lips didn't move. "No." he thought, "Are you a psychic?"