Sain Clare Academy (gxg, 18+)

Chapter Thirty-three

"Good morning, Principal," I greeted, my throat barely croaking the words out.

"So formal, even at a time like this?"

"Now is not the time for informalities and relaxed conversation," I said in return. He stretched his thin lips, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"I can assume you're here about the recent attack on the Academy, then?" His words were detached, almost too detached. My eyes narrowed into a glare as I fought the urge to touch my fingers to my still-pounding head.

"You mean how Professor Thurman attacked me in the hallway yesterday?" I shot back. The principal slammed a fist down on his desk, and I startled at the discrepancy in his behavior. His eyes were calm as he stood, approaching me.

"My, Professor, that isn't how I remember it at all. In fact, by royal decree the notion was that the traitorous Morgan Eclaire, daughter of an enemy of state, lost control and almost harmed a student. Professor Thurman was only doing his job-- subduing a threat." I froze at the accusation.

"You..." I ground the words out, a rage flaring in my chest. The principal grasped one of my hands in his faux sympathy.

"Rest assured that I did not want this to happen. In fact, I was very much on your side-- however, the Princess has spoken, and I am unable to go against royalty, especially in defense of an Eclaire." Right, because the Eclaire name had forever been tainted with treasonous undertones.

"And the assassination attempts on Grace and Annakin?"

"Why, professor, I'm not sure at all what you're talking about. It was the work of a Yvenni soldier, we both know that."

I was angry-- pissed, in fact. Perhaps I should have been grateful to the pain in my chest, to Grace's rejection, because it numbed the fire and allowed me to think with an apathetic tone.

I bit the inside of my cheek, hard, the stinging pain merging with the boiling of my veins. Yesterday, I lost Grace. Today, I was losing the Academy; my career, the only thing I had cared about since my father's death-- my dream. It felt as if I were submerged in an icy fish tank.

"I've been told by the Duke that he wants to offer you a job."

Those words served as enough fuel to cut through the water, past my stinging grief for Grace. My body felt light, as if my toes were barely touching the ground, and I had to work to calm the raging mana within me.

"No," I spoke coldly. His smile didn't falter.

"I don't think you have much of a choice in the matter."

...

I'd collapsed into Katarina's arms before I even had the time to recognize how upset I was. If I had felt cool before, or red-hot, it was nothing compared to the searing grief lacing my body every sob I heaved into Kararina's shoulder. She placed a gentle hand on my back.

"It's not fair," I choked, like a toddler. I screwed my eyes shut, twisting my hands into the fabric of her robes.

"I can't believe it either," she said quietly in return. Thurman's betrayal hummed between us, though no one would say it aloud.

"Today I lost everything," I said, trying to school my voice to a steely monotone, "I lost the one place I felt was home, I lost the respect of my name," again, "the worst things that could have possibly happened to me happened. My job, the career I bled for, I will never recover." And I lost Grace. I could not say it-- that thought had to remain private.

"Morgan..." Katarina squeezed me, and another sob wracked my body.

"You know what's worse? What's impossibly worse? The Duke requested I work at his residence as a mage." My laugh was dark and wet. "After everything, after running my name to the ground, trampling on my father's innocence once again, after stripping me of my honor and happiness, I am forced to work for the bloodline that sentenced my family to their deaths in the first place." Katarina froze. Still pressed against her, I noticed as the muscles in her back tense.

"They wouldn't," she seethed, and I could feel the barely-contained anger in her voice as well as if it were my own. "Can't you turn it down?" I scoffed, though the sound was subdued by the constriction in my through and sorrow in my bones. 

"It's hardly a choice. If I say no, I'll be executed for an attempt to assassinate Grace. I had hoped they would give me the option to leave the country, but that duke..." I don't know what had to be running through his head. First the inheritance, now this? My body burned in rage. "I will not forget this humiliation, Katarina, mark my words."

A/N:

It's back again!! I'm trying to adjust myself to the new school year, and as soon as I work out a regular writing schedule the updates will be regular again :)

This is the last chapter in the first plot arc! Except, well, everything, to change. 

I wonder what Grace thinks about all this, hmm?