Chapter 99 — "Planning Purposes"
The headmaster’s office smelled like old paper and decisions.
Seraphina had been here exactly once before.
For something she had said to a third year student about their family’s investment portfolio.
The headmaster at the time had looked at her the way people looked at things they couldn’t categorize.
This headmaster was different.
Younger.
Sharp eyes.
The kind of person who had earned their position through competence rather than seniority and knew the difference between the two.
He looked at Seraphina when she walked in.
Then at Kael.
Then at Tax on her shoulder.
Then at Tax specifically.
For a long moment.
Tax looked back.
"Hello."
The headmaster blinked.
Once.
"It spoke."
"He talks."
Seraphina said.
The headmaster looked at her.
Then at Tax.
Then at his desk.
Then at his hands.
Then back at Tax.
"The crow speaks."
"Obviously."
Tax said.
The headmaster picked up his pen.
Put it down.
Picked it up again.
"Miss Valois."
"Yes."
"You’ve been absent for months."
"Yes."
"Without formal notification."
"There were circumstances."
"What circumstances."
Seraphina looked at him.
At the sharp eyes.
At the competence behind them.
At the specific kind of person who would not accept vague answers and would not be satisfied with impressive ones either.
She decided on honest.
"Complicated ones."
The headmaster looked at her.
Then at Kael.
"Mr. Arden was also absent."
"Yes."
"The same circumstances."
"Yes."
"Complicated ones."
"Yes."
He looked between them.
His pen moving slightly.
Writing something or pretending to.
"The Crown Prince sent word."
Seraphina stilled.
"About your return."
"What did he say."
"That you were found on a road outside Ashford Crossing."
A pause.
"Unconscious."
Another pause.
"With several others."
"Yes."
"And a crow."
Tax raised a wing slightly.
The headmaster looked at it.
Then at his pen.
Then at nothing specific.
"He also mentioned."
The headmaster continued.
"That your absence was connected to a matter of some significance."
"Yes."
"He didn’t specify the nature of that significance."
"Oh."
"He simply requested the academy extend appropriate understanding regarding your return."
Seraphina met his eyes.
"The Crown Prince requested that."
"In writing."
"Personally."
"Yes."
She processed that.
Filed it.
For later.
The headmaster looked at her for a long moment.
The specific look of someone deciding how much they actually wanted to know.
He apparently decided.
"Welcome back Miss Valois."
He looked at Kael.
"Mr. Arden."
Then at Tax.
A pause.
"The crow."
"Tax."
Tax said helpfully.
"Tax."
The headmaster repeated.
Like testing the word.
"Will Tax be attending classes."
"He goes where I go."
"I see."
He wrote something.
Seraphina tried to see what.
She couldn’t.
"There will be conditions."
"Obviously."
"No stealing."
Tax said nothing.
"Tax."
Seraphina said.
"I heard him."
"That’s not a confirmation."
"I’m processing."
"TAX."
"Fine."
The headmaster looked at Tax.
"Fine as in agreement."
"Fine as in I’ll be selective."
The headmaster looked at Seraphina.
She looked at Tax.
Tax looked at the ceiling.
"He means yes."
She said.
The headmaster wrote something else.
Probably a very specific note about the crow.
Third class was already in session when they arrived.
Late.
Obviously.
The professor stopped mid-sentence when the door opened.
Looked at Seraphina.
Then at Kael.
Then at Tax.
Then at Tax specifically.
The class turned.
Thirty noble students looking simultaneously.
The reaction split immediately.
Half recognition.
Half complete focus on Tax.
A girl near the window gasped.
"Is that a crow."
"Obviously."
Tax said.
The girl made a sound.
Her neighbor grabbed her arm.
Stared at Tax.
"It talked."
"He talks."
Seraphina said.
Moving toward her seat.
The class watched her walk.
Then watched Tax on her shoulder.
Then watched each other.
A boy near the back leaned toward his companion.
"The crow just corrected her grammar."
"I noticed."
"While sitting on her shoulder."
"Yeah."
"While she walked in late."
"Hmm."
"And nobody is reacting to how late she is."
"Because the crow talked."
"Right."
The professor cleared his throat.
Everyone looked forward.
Except the ones still watching Tax.
Tax watched them back.
One by one.
Until they looked away.
Satisfied with this result.
Seraphina sat down.
Her seat.
Exactly where it had always been.
Evelyne had been right.
It was still there.
Reserved.
Kael sat beside her.
Also exactly where he had always been.
Some things apparently didn’t require discussion.
The professor resumed the lesson.
About fifteen seconds passed.
Then a folded note landed on Seraphina’s desk.
She looked at it.
Looked at the class.
Multiple people were looking at their notes with suspicious innocence.
She opened it.
Where were you.
She looked around.
Couldn’t identify who sent it.
Wrote back:
Around.
Folded it.
Slid it sideways.
It disappeared into the row.
Another note arrived forty seconds later.
The crow talks.
She wrote back:
Obviously.
Sent it.
A third note.
Is it true about you and Kael.
She looked at this one longer.
Then wrote:
Depends who’s asking.
Sent it.
No fourth note arrived.
Which meant whoever sent it was still processing the answer.
A reasonable response.
Tax watched the note exchanges with great interest.
"You’re passing notes."
"Yes."
"In class."
"Obviously."
"While the professor is teaching."
"Also obviously."
"That’s against the rules."
She looked at him.
"You were going to steal something thirty seconds ago."
Tax looked at the ceiling.
"I was admiring it."
"The professor’s pen specifically."
"It’s a nice pen."
"TAX."
"I didn’t take it."
"Yet."
"That’s unfair."
"Is it."
The professor looked at them.
The specific look of someone deciding whether to address the situation or continue pretending it wasn’t happening.
He continued pretending.
A decision Seraphina respected.
After class.
The corridor outside was busy.
Students moving between lessons.
Conversations overlapping.
Seraphina walked through it.
Kael beside her.
Tax deciding the corridor was an appropriate place for observation.
Then a girl stopped directly in front of Seraphina.
Not someone she knew well.
A second year.
Dark hair.
The expression of someone who had prepared what they wanted to say and was going to say it regardless.
"Is it true."
Seraphina looked at her.
"You and Kael Arden."
"What about us."
"The announcement."
"What about it."
The girl looked between them.
"You’re really."
"Yes."
Seraphina said.
The girl looked at Kael.
Kael looked back.
Said nothing.
Which was its own kind of confirmation.
The girl looked at Seraphina.
"Since when."
"Long time."
"How long."
"Long."
The girl processed this.
Then looked at Tax.
Tax looked back.
"Hello."
The girl made the sound.
The specific short sound.
Retreated two steps.
"It talks."
"He talks."
Seraphina said.
For approximately the fourth time today.
The girl looked at Tax.
Then at Seraphina.
"You have a talking crow."
"Obviously."
"Who corrects people."
"Obviously."
"And you were gone for two months."
"Approximately."
"And you came back engaged."
"Approximately."
The girl stared at her.
Then at Kael.
Then back.
"Your life is."
"Yes."
"I was going to say interesting."
"I know."
A beat.
Something moved through the girl’s expression.
Not fear.
Not awe.
Genuine fascination.
She looked at Kael one more time.
Then walked away.
Quickly.
With the energy of someone who had information to share and very little time.
Seraphina watched her go.
Then looked at Kael.
"She’s going to tell everyone."
"She already was going to."
"Now she has more."
"Yes."
"Is that a problem."
Kael looked at the corridor ahead.
At the students moving through it.
At the academy doing what academies did.
"No."
He said.
Then started walking.
She fell into step beside him.
The corridor continued around them.
Then Kael stopped at a side table.
One of the small ones along the corridor wall.
Where students left things temporarily.
He picked something up.
Held it out.
She looked at it.
A small paper bag.
She looked at him.
"From where."
"The kitchen."
"The academy kitchen."
"Yes."
"When."
"This morning."
She stared at him.
"We got here this morning."
"Yes."
"You went to the kitchen."
"Yes."
"When."
"While you were talking to the headmaster about Tax’s stealing policy."
"That conversation lasted four minutes."
"Yes."
She looked at the bag.
"What’s in it."
"Open it."
She opened it.
Two small pastries.
The specific kind from the market town they had stopped at yesterday.
She looked at them.
Then at him.
"These are from yesterday’s town."
"Yes."
"The market stop."
"Yes."
"You bought extras."
A pause.
"You knew we’d need them today."
He looked at the corridor ahead.
"The academy kitchen doesn’t make those."
Said like that was the only relevant fact.
Like buying pastries from a specific market town on a road stop because the academy wouldn’t have them was completely obvious forward planning.
Like it required no further explanation.
Seraphina looked at the pastries.
At him.
At the corridor.
At nothing specific.
Something moved through her.
Not the warm thing she filed.
Something warmer.
Something she didn’t file fast enough.
Something that stayed for a full three seconds before she caught it.
Her face did something.
She looked at the pastries immediately.
Not at him.
At the pastries.
"Obviously."
She said.
To the pastries.
Kael said nothing.
But Tax on her shoulder made one small sound.
Not the usual one.
Just a single quiet note.
The kind that meant he had seen exactly what had just happened on her face.
And was keeping it.
For now.
Seraphina ate one pastry.
Held the bag out.
Kael took the other.
They walked.
The corridor continued.
The academy continued.
Everything continued.
And somewhere in the distance a second year girl was telling four people simultaneously about the talking crow and the announcement and the girl who came back different.
The ripple spreading.
Outward.
Quietly.
The way things always spread here.