Chapter 71: She Had Already Invited Her

Honey set both hands on the closed folder before answering the student. Dante’s blood had dried on a discarded tissue in the bin, and she disliked the fact that it had already become somebody else’s reason to volunteer.

“You aren’t supplying a test,” she said. “Wanting to help doesn’t tell us whether the transfer would stay with you, how badly it could hurt, or how long recovery might take.”

“He chose to do it himself,” the student replied, looking toward the cabinet where the case had been secured.

“He did, with limits we still have to study. That doesn’t make doing it again safe for you.” Honey lowered her voice without softening the answer. “The ruby stays with Professor Bell, and there won’t be another attempt in a corridor because somebody feels brave.”

The student tucked her notebook against her chest. “Then let me help with something else.”

“Perhaps ordinary session records, if the others agree. That would mean accurate notes, including results he doesn’t like. It wouldn’t promise you a place beside him.”

She considered that for a moment, then nodded. “I can keep notes. I just don’t understand why the people who care about him should always be the ones who pay.”

Honey knew several answers she should give and one ugly answer she had already used. She told the student they would arrange a separate conversation about records, then waited until she had left before picking up the folder.

Later, Dante sat with his friends at a campus meal table beside the open courtyard. He had rested, eaten, and followed Professor Bell’s instructions, which had not prevented him from replaying the audience’s silence several times.

His nose had stopped bleeding before he left the equipment room. His pride showed no similar sign of recovery.

Jett brought a tray of chicken, rice, and roasted vegetables, while a serving golem followed a student who had borrowed a bowl without putting it on his meal account. The pursuit remained slow and polite, making it somehow more threatening.

“You were good on the release,” Dante told Jett. “You waited for the instruction instead of deciding the frame looked close enough.”

“I enjoy being praised for not pulling things,” Jett said, sitting down. “It gives the evening somewhere to improve.”

Rhae made a sound into her drink and showed Dante the confirmed order for her next batch. He asked whether it used the smaller ingredient purchase she had planned, and she looked pleased that he remembered.

“It does, and I won’t have half of it dying before somebody pays.”

“An excellent policy for both business and leadership,” he said, which made Anika watch him over her cup for a second longer than necessary.

Honey arrived with her research bag, and Dante asked about the shaded plant before asking about the demonstration record. Five pots were responding more reliably, she told him, while the comparison still needed time.

He made room for her bag on the dry part of the bench. “Keep the stubborn one facing outward. It has earned its reputation.”

Her smile was small but real. Posey slipped her hand into his beneath the table and pressed her knee against his, smelling faintly of the same clean scent from the boat.

“I have practice in an hour,” she told him. “After that, I want some of the attention everyone else keeps borrowing.”

Dante turned toward her. “I could issue a reservation system.”

“You could answer my message,” she said, blushing as she squeezed his fingers.

He promised to meet her afterward, which satisfied her more than the proposed system. Lucan congratulated him on the test while passing the vegetables, offering no hidden insult that Dante could reasonably attack.

“You kept the rail inside the mark even after the line dropped,” Lucan said. “I wasn’t sure you could control that part without moving the whole frame.”

Neither had Dante, quite so confidently, but he accepted the praise without volunteering that detail. His rival continued making friendship appear alarmingly useful.

The notebook student stopped beside their table to thank him for admitting her to practice. Dante remembered making her wait during an earlier session, then preferred the more flattering version in which he had recognized her potential exactly when it needed recognizing.

“I look after the people who stand with me,” he told her.

Honey mentioned that the skeptical student had stayed to clear the wet pads after rehearsal. Dante acknowledged the help and said he should be included next time, although the grateful woman beside the table remained easier to enjoy.

He left with Jett after the meal, carrying his bag toward the residence and thinking about Posey’s message. Nobody told him about the offer Honey had refused.

That evening, Honey sat in the reserved library room near the entrance with Posey, Rhae, and Anika. Mira joined them by video from Lakehaven, her equipment shelves visible behind her. The closed door separated their voices from the public reading area, where a returns cart squeaked past on small wooden feet.

Night Class had no ruby on its table. Professor Bell still held it, and Honey began by making that fact clear before describing the student’s offer.

“Ordinary records only, if we even bring her in,” Rhae said. “Someone eager to matter to him isn’t a supply we should be measuring.”

“I won’t recruit sources,” Mira said through the speaker. “Helping with notes doesn’t mean she gets told our history before we decide what we’re asking.”

“She hasn’t heard our name,” Honey confirmed. “We’ll meet her separately about the practice records. Nobody promised more.”

Posey looked toward the empty chair beside Honey. “She shouldn’t have to hurt herself to get his attention.” Her own hands rested in her lap, clear of the records on the table.

“And the director didn’t deserve being used because we disliked him,” Honey said. “The complaint against the chairwoman doesn’t answer the source question either.”

Anika placed her phone on the table. “I asked her to meet about the old terms and the welfare complaint.”

Honey read the accepted invitation. It promised no demonstration, no Dante, and nothing about supplying magic. Then she saw the meeting time.

“You invited her before asking us?” Honey asked, keeping the phone flat on the table where everyone could read it.

Mira leaned closer to her screen. “She agreed to a conversation. That’s all she agreed to, and we aren’t changing it because she’s easier to dislike than that student.”

“I know what I wrote,” Anika said.

Honey looked from the accepted invitation to the closed door. A public meeting room and a polite message could be ordinary things. She had also watched Anika hold an ordinary door shut while a man asked to leave, and the memory made the harmless details harder to trust.

Rhae moved the extra chair away from the door so it could open fully. “Then we keep it a conversation.”

“She was available tonight,” Anika said. “She’s waiting outside the library.”

A knock sounded at the room’s door before Honey could answer, followed by the chairwoman asking whether Anika was ready to let her in.