The final day of the year soon came and it was going to be a unique one, it would be his first time witnessing the suspended animation of a candidate.
As he sat in the personal room of the candidates he turned to Edith, "Tell your family that I said thanks for the guards, lieutenant Hakuro came to my rescue yet again today," he said with deliberate exaggeration.
Edith raised her brow, "Another one?", she asked in surprise, the attacks were getting more and more frequent on Lirian, it wasn't uncommon for a candidate to be attacked but the frequency at which he was getting attacked was startling, it was the third attack this very week.
"No need to look so concerned," he flicked her forehead and grabbed a few grapes from her plate.
"It's just a bunch of probs to see how well we react, and they are trying to figure out my exact number of guards, it should be a few years before anything drastic happens."
"You are taking these attacks to lightly Lirian, maybe they want you to let your guard down so that they can take you by surprise at any moment!" she cried indignantly.
Lirian shook his head, "It's not like it matters whether I raise my guard or not, if a fifth-grader comes at me I'll be royally screwed no matter how many plans I make, in the end it all comes down to whether or not they can stall Anya, and beside while these probes make it look like they want me dead that's definitely not the case, they want me alive to use me as leverage and given my mother's history it's likely that she would give in to almost any demand to have me safely returned."
"Put bluntly even if they do get me, I'll be perfectly fine," he shrugged his shoulders and sat down.
"Do you really think that?" she questioned him.
"What if they force a slave seal on your soul, or they use some brainwashing method to turn you into a spy or worse,"
"You can't keep acting like you're invincible Lirian, it might be true while in the academy but in the outside world you're just a slightly bigger ant."
Lirian was touched by her concern but he still frowned, he didn't like being called an ant, even it was the truth he was once a god and to regard a mortal as anything more than a speck of dust felt like a humiliation to himself.
"You're are getting to emotional Edith, what happened to the calm and collected girl I met all those years ago, besides think about it if I somehow get killed it will mean less competition," he added with a chuckle.
He triggered an unexpected reaction from Edith, she pushed her food and let it all spill on the floor while grabbing her steak knife and she pounced onto him shoving him against the seat and she stabbed the knife directly above his ear and in the couch.
There was no killing intent behind her actions so he didn't bother to dodge her, "Since you dying is such a joke then maybe I should kill you right now," she whispered while looking into his eyes.
"You can go ahead if you want to," he said raising his neck slightly to reveal his artery, "Even it's just a pencil all you have to do is stab it right in and I'll bleed out in a few minutes," he whispered softly and she could hear that teasing tone underlining his voice.
She felt her hands tremble and a hint of desire crept in, if she killed him then she would become the star amongst the candidates again, they would speak of her daring act and there would be no punishment even the empress had to abide by the rules, candidates were allowed to scheme and kill other candidates if they deemed it necessary, but as she looked into his eyes, she knew that it was impossible for her to do such a thing even if she wanted to her body would never obey her.
"Lirian you're an asshole," she breathed heavily and cursed him as she saw his mouth curl into a smirk, from the start he knew that she couldn't do it, he was well aware of how she felt about him.
The door slide open and Tobias came towering in, he saw Edith sitting on top of Lirian with a steak knife in her hand, "Am I disrupting something?" he asked quizzically, he was uncertain there were many such scenes over the years with candidates attacking each other especially Lirian, he was never one to hide his true thoughts and more than once it resulted in a knives out brawl.
On the other hand, Edith was never one to get physical unless absolutely necessary and from how they were looking at each other he found it hard to judge what he was really looking at.
"No, nothing at all," Edith answered and climbed of Lirian.
Tobias looked around carefully but didn't comment any further, "That's good the headmaster wants us to gather at the bridge it's time for Indra to go into suspended animation.", he could feel the tension in the room and backed away, "I'll see you guys there."
When it was just the two of them again Edith looked away from him, if he knew how she felt and still said such a thing to her it meant that he was only playing with her emotions.
"Have you ever killed someone?" Lirian asked although he knew the answer already.
"I've seen plenty of people die and I've killed a number of creatures," she answered with a scowl.
"I'm asking if you've ever killed a person with your own hands," he moved in front of her faster than she could react and grabbed the hand in which she still held the knife, and plunged it into his own palm.
"Have you ever parted the flesh of another living, intelligent person," with the same hand that was dripping golden droplets of blood he held onto her tightly not allowing her to release the knife or pull it out of his palm.
"The course for candidates teaches us many things about politics and how to act, but it doesn't teach us how to survive in the trial, it doesn't teach us how to take lives," he spoke slowly, and watched as she trembled slightly as his blood flowed on to her and dripped onto the ground.
"Trust me Edith I don't take my life lightly I have too much I plan I to do, to let some fools take it,"
"In two-hundred-years I plan on showcasing myself before the empire and I will give them a show that they will never forget, if you want to be there as well you better learn to do this by yourself," he said while releasing her struggling hand and showing her the gaping wound in his palm and the blood that covered his entire hand.
"It would leave a foul taste in my mouth if you aren't there to see it."
When Lirian left Edith felt her breath growing erratic, he really knew how to be intense at times, she didn't know whether she should feel excited or scared of him, was he telling her those things to help her because he cared for her or was he just being helpful in his own way.
She had no clue what he was really thinking she never did but it didn't matter because she trusted him.
Lirian walked down the bridge slowly as he stared down at the area below, there were several bridges like this throughout the school and they looked down onto an area with many transmat gates, they were the gates that lead to the outlier worlds in which the candidates would undergo their two-hundred-year trial.
He clenched his left fist a little, the nurse that treated and bandaged his hand gave him an earful for what he did but finally let him leave when he mentioned Indra's suspended animation.
When Tobias saw the bloodied bandage on his hand he looked at Edith in shock, "Did you really stab him?" he whispered.
"Yes, she did," Lirian quickly beat her to answering and laughed while she glared at him, it technically wasn't a lie after all she was holding the knife.
Wentian laughed heartily, "Serves you right, finally someone got you, did you tell her that her butt is looking larger than normal?"
"I think that you're going to be next person to get stabbed," he said after glancing at Edith, her eyes had a devilish light in them as she glowered at Wentian.
Telamon came in and put on his most grandfatherly smile as he walked in with Indra following on his heels.
"It is time for another candidate to enter in to the suspended animation and await the trial of candidates, at every institute we gather the candidates for two decades and when that time passes we send them of onto their personal journeys in a batch."
He pressed the button on a panel and the opaque glass wall behind him went transparent to reveal five crystal embers floating the room with white light cascading of its surface each one had a person sealed within and Tobias and Edith called out a few of their names "Marakov, Silica, Kiazen..."
"Are they the previous candidates?" Media asked in wonder as she looked at the beautiful embers.
"Yes, they were the ones here when we first arrived." Tobias answered.
"Indra, I trust that you've said your goodbyes before coming here," she nodded slightly and didn't look at the other candidates, they never had a friendly relationship to begin so she had nothing to say to them, especially Lirian she still had nightmares about that day, in that pure silver energy she saw horrors and atrocities she could never fathom.
The candidates merely nodded to her as she glanced at them one last time and walked into the sealing room, several minutes passed and a new ember floated up into the room and sat beside the others, Tobias and Edith held their breath as they watched the familiar scene, in the next year it would be the two of them going up there, floating in a ball of ember.
"I guess that when you guys come out you'll have to tell me what's it like to be sealed," Lirian said, his final year in the academy would also mark the year that the current batch of candidates went their separate ways on their trials, so he had no need to wait in the ember.
He gave a quick greeting to the headmaster and walked away as all the others continued to stare at the floating embers in wonder, such things couldn't hold his interest it was too simple.