"I don't, I really don't." Patricia looks at her, "At least, not in the manner that I have shown to you. I would have done it with words rather than whatever I just did back there." She shakes her head, trying to shake off the thoughts of what happened before. "Please, let us not take about that in greater detail."
"I respect your decision." Antonietta smiles, "Besides, I just came here to eat lunch with you, not to pry with your decisions before." Patricia stopped herself from sighing and forced a smile on her face, "That makes me better."
They talked and talked more until it was already time for their last class of the day. They part ways as their class was different from each other. She goes to a building overrun with vines and plants. If it was as not pretty as it is, she might have been mistaken it for an abandoned building. It has a dome room, contrary to the administrative building, it was made of glass. It has greenhouses on its side, confirming that it was her Thereal Bestiary and Herbology class. She entered the building that only have one big door and two separate hallways that must have been leading to the two greenhouses.
Their classroom was like her history class, but the tables only occupies one student instead of two. There are also many plants in the room, even vines crawling at the side of the building. The roof above shines a light upon them, but it was not harsh on their eyes nor skin as Patricia expects it to be especially holding the class in the afternoon.
After a long while waiting, the teacher of them arrived in the classroom. "Good afternoon, class." A plump ebony woman greeted. "I am sorry I'm a bit late, I was called by the Chancellor himself. I needed to get something fixed. Anyway, good afternoon, again." The students greeted her which improved her mood.
"Welcome to Thereal Bestiary & Herbology class, my dear students. I am Mrs. Lenaiah Alaya." She smiles as bubbles appear at her back. "You could say, I am a bubbly teacher."
She giggles at her own joke, "Weird and lame jokes aside, I know you are wondering why the two different subjects are going to be discussed in the same class. This is just a class to just refresh the Mentiels that have already studied the fauna and flora of this world and orientate those who are new to the wonders of nature. I will be expecting the Mentiels who had a Thereal curriculum to be active and participative in my class."
A small introduction activity was held before the lesson. Their first lesson was all about the differences between the animals in Thereal and The Earth, or as they call it Arthean. "Animals and plants in Thereal have one key difference from the animals and plants from the Earth. Most of the living things here in Thereal are exposed to a lot of elemental energy that they have adopted to either have some for themselves or change their physical appearances to combat said elements. For my Arthean Mentiels, I know you have heard a chicken, right?"
She explained a lot of goofy and fascinating differences in every animal and plant from the Earth to Thereal. Some of them are seemingly entirely untrue for Patricia, yet she can't deny that these are existing in the world she's in.
"Another difference on them is how you handle a Thereal animal and plants. Most of them require an element attending them, so sometimes the only specific type of regions or people have the ability to take care of them. Unlike Arthean animals where you could make everything a pet, as long as you're brave enough. That's the reason for this subject reappearing in the curriculum, and we're discussing much more dangerous beasts and even plant-beasts that you may encounter on your journey to be a better Pristine." The class goes onto the basic rules of handling animals and plants, and other basic things that they need to know throughout the whole year.
In Patricia's peripherals, as the class goes on, she spotted a certain black-haired girl just across her seat. With her short hair and seemingly emotionless face, she knows that it was Veronika, her roommate. She confirmed that she wasn't just pissed at her when they first met, it's just her default expression and attitude. She sighs, "This is gonna take a long while to get through her." She said to herself as she continues to listen to the class.
The class ended early as Mrs. Alaya's compensation for being late for class. Patricia decided to head to her dorm for a while to drop all of her school stuff and leave the ones she suspects she needed. She saw Veronika heading the other way, to the school market, it seems. "I guess it's better to avoid awkward silence for the both of us." She shrugs and continues walking towards her dorm.
Patricia entered the room and was relieved with the utter quietness of the place. Although, it gives her a sense of dread inside. She always comes home with her father either nagging her or just plainly talking a lot.
"I… wonder how he is." She sets herself on the bed, "Don't worry, Patricia. I am sure sihsih will take care of him while I am here." She sighs and leans her back on the wall. "If only I controlled my temper at that time. He wouldn't end up in that situation." Patricia places her hand on her face, "I am sorry… dad. I am really sorry."
She spent minutes murmuring her regrets and the things she have recently done. She didn't realize she fell asleep thinking heavily about things. As she looks at the time, it was already 10 minutes past three.
"Oh no!" Patricia exclaimed, "Miss Cassidy is waiting for me for ten minutes already!" She looks at herself, "And I am not even dressed properly. Wait, do I need to be in uniform? Is this technically still a class?" Patricia decided to leave in her condition in rush to get to the faculty room to meet up with her teacher.
When she arrives at the door, she knocks politely and a man opened it. "State your business here." He said sternly, with some voices in the room, she might have interrupted a meeting. "Where is Miss Cassidy?"
"Miss Stanton? She already left. If you are wondering her whereabouts, we don't practically know. What do you want from her?" Patricia gulps, "Miss Bethel-Craith arranged a special class for me with Miss Stanton." The male teacher looks at her, more rude this time. "Another special student. I hope you are the good type, not the bad one." He sighs, "You should have known where your meeting place is, but with the years she has been doing this, maybe you could find her near the Valiantry building. Now, go. You have interrupted us so much."
"T-thank you—" Before she finished talking, the professor shuts the door in front of her. In the embarrassment of anyone who may have seen their conversation, she rushes outside the building. With the map she has in her bag that she hasn't emptied yet, she heads to the Valiantry Class building.
As she arrives, the said building looks more like a stadium rather than a school building with its unusual circular shape. In the distance was Miss Cassidy, just near the door. She rushes towards her and immediately apologized for her tardiness.
"I am sorry, Miss Cassidy, I didn't realize I fell asleep." Cassidy puts her hand on her waist, "Are you sure you just fell asleep? You seem like you came from a wooded area. Your hair is a mess and your uniform is all tangled up." Patricia sighs, "I was rushing to go here that I didn't think of fixing myself first. If I caught myself in the mirror, I should have taken notice."
Cassidy sighs, "Next time, have an alarm with you. I know classes will be pretty tiring for you, but we have much more important matters to discuss. Your control over your power." Patricia nods as they went inside the stadium-like classroom. "This is a whole classroom just for one class?" Her professor nods, "This is only used by the first years, so don't worry about any elemental residual. Besides, Sir Rohan didn't start teaching everyone how to fight using elements yet. If that's another cause of your uncontrolled power, you don't have to worry about it."
"Elemental residual? What do you mean?" Cassidy smiles, "Some of the elemental attacks or anything that uses your elemental ability will have most likely elemental residuals. Magic couldn't be created nor destroyed, it is only transferred from one medium to another. So, any magic that isn't received by someone or something will be left in the air. It is known to cause some bad implications to irregular Mentiels."
"Irregular mentiel? Am I one?" Cassidy shrugs, "Maybe so or no. It depends on what really is your problem, but it is a big possibility. Taking into account that you are an Armientel and an Arthean Mentiel, there is a huge chance you are one."
"What's the difference between them? It seems like the prior is just the short version of the other." Cassidy giggles, "Armientel is rather a short term for Arthiel-Mentiel. It refers to a subrace of Mentiels determined by one's parents. Arthean Mentiel is a term for a Mentiel who spent most of their lives have been on the earth and have not been exposed in Thereal magic."
She rubs her chin, "One another reason it might have been the magic leak that recently happened. Your body might have been shocked on receiving such magic since you have never got in contact with one, correct?"
"My mom was a mentiel, she died when I was still young. Does she have any magical radiation to her?" Cassidy laughs, "Magical radiation, interesting wording. It depends, it's a long story how magic worked if it's on the Earth. It will be a future lesson in either Pristinity class or History. At least, it will be talked about some time. Anyway, let's focus on the matter at hand."
They walked up to the center of the classroom. "Say, have this incident happened before? Apart from the one in the school, did you experience one before you got into the academy?"
Patricia was frozen, she doesn't know whether to say that she almost killed two other people. She was silent for a while until she heard Cassidy's voice among the thoughts that are running on her head. "Patricia?" She jolted and looks at her, "Yes, M-miss Cassidy?" Her concern was written all over her face, "Is something wrong? Are you okay? You seem to have spaced out suddenly. Did you see something in the building?"
"No, I am fine, Miss Cassidy. I'm just thinking if there are any instances that I have been like this. As far as I am aware, none." Cassidy wasn't convinced, "Are you sure? The sudden shift of your tone says otherwise. Don't hide anything from me if you want to fix your problem, Patricia. Communication and understanding between us is the key to preventing further incidents of that happening. Now, tell me, what's wrong?'
Patricia was still undecided as to whether to tell it or not. For years, she has not been the one who is telling her problems to someone. "It's… quite awkward to tell, Miss Cassidy." She sighs, "I don't want to relieve what happened before. I… just can't."
Cassidy sighs, "If you insist, but tell me when you are ready. Inner problems and regret could disturb your inner tranquility needed to have more control over your ability, especially those that will send you into a spiral of emotions." She sighs once more, "Anyway, we shall begin—"
The door suddenly shuts open, "Miss Cassidy, we need your help!"