Chapter 50: Nobody Had Ordered a Secret Society

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Nobody Had Ordered a Secret Society

Dante rode back beside Rhea while a medic checked her readings and asked about every spell used since the false shuttle turn. He described his lift before anyone had to prompt him, including where he had stood and when the warmth had faded.

The medic recorded it without announcing a cause. Rhea was awake and steady enough to complain about the vehicle’s seat belt catching her tail, which relieved Dante more than the calm voice explaining that she needed rest and another check.

Professor Bell traveled with Anika after sending the animal to Professor Helena’s team. The resident went separately for treatment with her recorded release strip and band.

At student health, Dante messaged Posey and Jett before the nurse took him for a check. He had made it back, he was not hiding another nosebleed, and he would tell them the story after someone decided whether his hands required any fresh wrapping.

Jett replied that this was a poor interpretation of doing something stupid without an incident report. Beneath it, Posey asked whether Rhea was with him and told him she would keep her phone beside the bed.

The nurse found no new injury, replaced his dressing and repeated the ban on private casting. Dante separated exact times from estimates while she compared his lift with Rhea’s reading, grateful for something useful to do with his worry.

It was after midnight when they returned to residence. Mrs. Han checked them in without pretending the search had been a normal night out, and Dante accepted the next morning’s appointment before following Jett upstairs.

Jett had brought sandwiches in a bag that breathed steam whenever its mouth opened. He cleared Dante’s desk and took the chair while Dante sat on the bed. Before handing over dinner, he asked for the actual shortcut story, before Dante turned the mushroom into a kingdom he had conquered.

Dante admitted choosing the shortcut and making a promise that burned somebody’s ankle. Jett listened without joking until Honey’s upside-down book appeared, then said she sounded qualified to run half the clubs.

Jett offered the bigger sandwich half, and Dante asked whether his friend had eaten. "I’m charging you a creature visit after class," Jett said, taking the other half. Dante would ask Professor Helena, glad his debt involved company instead of another rescue.

Jett asked whether the animal had enjoyed his cheese speech. Dante said it had stopped trying to escape, which put it ahead of most audiences. They divided the fries while Jett interrupted every impressive claim with a question. Dante complained, then corrected his notes. His friend stayed until the food was gone, even after the exciting part ended.

They slept before the morning appointments, and Dante woke to a message from Anika saying she had submitted her account with the route photographs. Rhea’s latest reading had stopped falling, while Posey had another scheduled check after breakfast.

After Monday’s appointments, Dante spread his notes beneath the green lamp at their common-room table. Jett found a chair, Posey divided crackers and Anika rescued pages from cups, giving the investigation a familiar problem: too little food for Jett.

Posey’s shoulder pressed his while she found a page, and she quietly promised he could look at her after they finished. Dante immediately developed an unreasonable interest in completing homework.

She marked potion ingredients and treatment questions for Professor Artemis, while Anika requested archive records about weather machines drawing power from several sources. Dante wrote that comparison down without assuming it explained him.

He took the casting record and wrote his question for Professor Bell where everyone could see it: how could he keep learning without another woman needing a nurse? He wanted stronger spells, and hiding that would make the next mistake easier.

"Nobody should have to beg somebody to notice they’re getting worse," he said. "If we can actually help, we should make it easier for people to reach us."

Anika started a list, but Rhea asked who would check requests and correct Dante when his confidence ran ahead. He suggested overtime pay, and she offered to accept someone following instructions the first time.

"We could ask people quietly, if they want help," Posey said. "But they shouldn’t have to join us to get it." Dante agreed, then answered Anika’s question about trusted contacts by offering access to his notes. He thought they were still discussing homework.

Posey added a space for permission while they divided the work. Dante matched questions to people, pleased his suggestion had become everybody’s plan, then pictured them waiting for his next instruction, realizing he liked that too much.

Professor Bell called while Anika and Posey were comparing schedules. Dante stepped into the hall to answer, leaving his notes on the table and asking Jett to keep his food from being recruited into anything.

The professor had spoken to student health and offered a short supervised exercise the following afternoon, with measurements before and after. Dante agreed to the limit and asked whether he could bring the records rather than explaining everything from memory.

When he returned, Anika had named the folder Night Class. Posey handled check-ins and potions, Anika took contacts and archives, and Rhea kept health questions. Dante recognized the tasks without understanding when they’d decided this would continue beyond his own problem.

"So I’ve accidentally organized homework," Dante said, watching Anika close the folder. "I was hoping for something with better outfits and fewer deadlines." Jett asked whether the uniform budget covered medical bills, and Rhea told both of them that the first rule was going to involve listening.

Posey apologized for another correction, and Dante asked her to explain it instead. Her hair brushed his cheek as they bent over the sheet, but he repeated her answer until she nodded, looking pleased he wanted more than an excuse to sit close.

Anika asked Posey whether she knew other students who had trouble getting someone to hear them, and Posey mentioned asking quietly after class. Dante heard that as a plan to compare notes and agreed before Professor Bell’s instructions distracted him again. Rhea added that nobody was to offer treatment without approval. Anika kept the list open after Dante returned to his own page, leaving him pleased with how much work they had volunteered to do.

At the door, Posey reminded him the homework was finished and he’d been promised a look. He turned to find her smiling over the folder. She waited while he admired her, making him feel far less skilled at flirting than he had when he imagined doing it.

That afternoon, Honey sent a photograph of the transport crate’s corrected record and a second picture of an old page she claimed explained why the gate had accepted him. The heading used a word Dante could not translate, but the sketch beneath it showed several thin streams entering one human hand.