Stephanie had never been so embarrassed in her sixteen years in any world.
"I...I..." She stuttered before Professor Avery decided to relieve her of her misery.
"Come in, and lock the door behind you—Ok so I'm going to ask one more time, what do you want?"
Nessa had never seen the Professor so angry. The Professor's face held no emotion, but her voice said it all. And clearly, Stephanie saw past the flat expression, because it took her a few seconds to speak.
"I came to talk with Nessa." She finally said.
Professor Avery arched a brow. "So you followed us."
"No..." Stephanie spluttered, "I used the map."
A twinkle in the Professor's eyes, and Nessa knew Stephanie had given a wrong answer.
"If you lie one more time," The Professor snarled. "I'll make sure you experience more pain than you could have thought possible."
Even if Professor Avery wasn't talking to her, it took all of Nessa's effort not to whimper. She had never seen this side of the Professor before, and it scared her.
In her opinion, all Stephanie had done was eavesdrop. Although it's clearly wrong, Professor Avery seemed to be going too far.
"I'm not lying," Stephanie defended, barely keeping a steady voice. "I used the map."
"Before you make a lie," Professor Avery's voice was cold, as she walked towards Stephanie, "Make sure you check just how much sense it has. This office is not plotted on the map. So you can either tell me who sent you, or..." Professor Avery formed a dark energy ball in her left hand, and a fire ball in the other, completing the sentence in the best way possible.
"Ok, ok." Stephanie finally said. "After you stopped Nessa's magic from going haywire, I followed the both of you."
"Why?"
"I was curious. I was wondering why you showed interest in Nessa. I was wondering if you also thought she deserved more attention than I did."
Professor Avery's eyes softened. Immediately the magic in her hand disappeared. But when she spoke, her voice lacked any emotion besides anger.
"Is that all?"
"No," Stephanie stared at her boots. "I...I...I also came to ask for Nessa's help."
What?
Nessa could barely breathe much less think. It suddenly seemed like she was in a movie, and some epic twist just occurred.
"You came to ask for my help?" Nessa asked. "If that is the best lie you can come up with..."
"I'm not lying." Stephanie defended heatedly, her eyes barely meeting Nessa's. "I need you to help me," she paused. "with magic."
Nessa barely suppressed a laugh. A laugh that would have punched a hole in Stephanie's heart if she was being serious.
'Surely this chic is joking.' Nessa thought to herself First she challenges me, and now she's asking for my help. Does she even expect me to say yes?'
"We could help each other out," Stephanie continued, breaking Nessa's thoughts. "You help me with magic, I help you with—what do you need help with?"
The laugh finally broke free, filling the room with a hint of mockery. Stephanie hadn't even thought the whole thing through. It was obvious she was a better fighter than Nessa. That could have been useful for leverage.
But now, since Stephanie obviously wasn't very smart, Nessa could make it seem like she's doing her a favor by teaching her magic, while also learning fighting techniques from her.
"Why are you laughing?" Professor Avery asked.
"Nothing," Nessa said immediately, stifling her remaining laughter. Then she turned to Stephanie. "Fine, I'll teach you magic."
"Really?" Stephanie met Nessa's eyes, her face shining briefly. "What's in it for you?"
Nessa shrugged. "Did I ask for anything? I could change my mind if you..."
"No," Stephanie said immediately. "When do we start?"
"Two days from now, after lunch."
Stephanie smiled. "Thank you. See you then." Then she turned to the Professor "I'm really sorry for—everything."
The Professor said nothing. She just stared at Stephanie as she considered the possibility that Stephanie was playing them. Finally deciding not to act unnecessarily paranoid, she said.
"No problem. I'm not going to punish you if you promise me one simple thing."
"Anything," Stephanie said immediately, hoping she would get out of this situation without having to fight the Professor.
"Before that," The Professor said. "I need to know how much of our conversation you heard."
Stephanie told the Professor all she had heard, and thankfully it wasn't much. Stephanie claimed she had only listened in from the part where Nessa asked the professor for the creators' true goal.
"Ok," The Professor said. "What you have heard is top secret. I would kill you now, but I don't want to do that, especially if you could co-operate."
'And I want you to at least become a friend to Nessa. She needs people like you in her life' The Professor added inwardly.
Nessa just stared at Professor Avery, trying to figure something out. Judging from what Stephanie had claimed she heard, there was nothing 'top secret' in any of it. Even if she had heard from the beginning of the conversation, she wouldn't have left with more information than Nessa.
And the only information Nessa was leaving with—which was more or less useless—was that Professor Avery wasn't the creator of the Marth Universe.
So, if that was the case, why is the Professor making such a big deal out of nothing.
"Thank you," Stephanie broke Nessa's thoughts. "What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing." Professor Avery said. "In fact forget everything about what you just heard. If I hear as much as one word of this outside..."
"I won't say anything."
"Good," the Professor smiled. "Now that we understand each other, you can leave."
Stephanie left the room without another word. As soon as the door closed behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly a flood of shame washed over her.
Why had she been scared? She hardly ever got scared of anything? But just looking at the Professor had made her shake in her boots. She couldn barely even think logically. She clenched her fist. She hated feeling weak.
But a part warned her, and she decided she wasn't going to breathe a word of what she had heard, even if she had heard more than she told them.
_____
"I have two questions." Nessa said the moment she was sure Stephanie was no longer at the door. "And you must answer them."
"Nessa,"
"You must answer them." Nessa repeated.
The Professor hated the way Nessa seemed to be forcing her, but for some reason she couldn't get mad. Mad at the person who had more right to be mad at her. Mad at the person who decided to trust her despite all that she did. Mad at the very person she hoped would one day save them all.
"Fine," she finally agreed. "I will if I can."
Nessa nodded, partly satisfied
"How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Make Stephanie scared. I know her type, and it's definitely not the type who gets scared that easily."
'Plus, I got scared too.'
Professor Avery chuckled slightly. "I used mind magic."
"What?"
Suddenly, Nessa started feeling soft and gooey inside. This was exactly how she thought being in love would feel. Guard-less, wall-less, defenseless. She hated the feeling. Moments later, she successfully suppressed it, way beneath her heart.
Professor Avery looked a bit surprised. "You have a strong mind."
"I just hate the feeling."
"Of being in love?"
Nessa shrugged. "It doesn't make much sense to me yet."
The Professor shook her head, and thought to herself.
'Nessa needs more help than I thought. I have to do something, but not yet. She's smart. If I act too fast, she'll notice.'
"Ok," she said moments later. "What's your second question?"
Nessa narrowed her eyes. "I don't understand why you made Stephanie promise not to say anything. It's not like she heard too much."
"We have no proof that she didn't hear much." Professor Avery replied. "And assuming she heard more than she admitted, which would be incredible considering the amount of pressure I put her through, making her promise tells her that I saw through her lies. She wouldn't dare utter a word to a soul."
Nessa thought about it for a few seconds. She had to admit, it was quite smart. Then she sighed within herself. 'I need to be smarter, if I want to stay alive.'
Suddenly, a question popped in her mind. "Can I use Mind magic to read people's minds?"
Professor Avery stared at her like the fact she had even asked the question was absurd. "No, you can't."
"So what use is mind magic?"
"With my current power, if I tried hard enough, I could make you kiss a frog and you wouldn't even flinch."
"You're kidding."
"Do I look like I'm kidding?"
"Maybe," Nessa taunted. "But still, does the magic have any use against monsters? They are the ones I need to be fighting if I want to clear this game."
"It does. But sadly, even I am not capable of achieving such a feat, and I don't plan on teaching you how to."
"But," Nessa spluttered, ignoring the last part. "You have a blue cursor."
"Which is clearly not enough. If I had a violet cursor for instance, I would be able to command even a floor boss to end its own life, and I wouldn't need to lift a finger."
Nessa's eyes widened. "So why aren't you teaching me?"
"There's no time," Professor Avery said returning to her seat. She laced her fingers under her chin before speaking again. "There's definitely no time. We need to start your training in earnest. You can leave, but remember that tomorrow your training begins."
"Ok," Nessa said as she made her way to the door. The moment her fingerd curved around the cold handle, Professor Avery asked a question.
"Why did you agree to teach Stephanie magic?"
Nessa smiled and turned around to look at the Professor. She finally had the opportunity to use that line.
"Even if I wanted to tell you, I can't."
Professor Avery's eyes widened as she realized Nessa had just quoted her. Then she laughed.
"See you tomorrow." she said
Nessa left and shut the door with a partially triumphant look on her face.
The face burned itself deep into Professor Avery's mind as she thought.
'She's so crafty at her age--'
Then the Professor stood up and walked closer to the portrait on the wall.
'--she's definitely our savior.'