"What do we do?" Fate asked.
"There's nothing you can do," Principal Alessandra replied. If she was distraught, she didn't show it.
She knew to keep her professionalism even in the face of crisis. Showing any anxiety or fear would only unsettle her students. "By now, the sorry excuse for a human being should be back at the Black Dragon's base of operations."
"What about you? Can't you do something?"
"I can and I will," Alessandra replied. "Go to bed, you'll need rest for your classes tomorrow. I'll contact the Empress and see how we can get ourselves out of this situation."
Fate opened his mouth, about to argue, before he clamped it shut with gritted teeth. He didn't like doing nothing, especially since Venden only emancipated himself because of his fight with Fate.
People rarely showed Fate kindness in his life. Those few that did were people he would always strive to return that kindness to, as they were the closest thing to what he could call a friend.
He closed Alessandra's office door behind him and was greeted by Kravoss, Deodeky, and her Familiar, Berny. Deodeky's cheery grin faded away when she noticed Fate's clenched jaw and eyes full of bitterness.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing you can help with," Fate sighed. "Nothing I can help with either."
"Does it have to do with the trouble Kravoss mentioned?"
"It does, but it's out of my hands now. No point in worrying about it. See you later, Deodeky."
He brushed past her without a second glance, back straight and shoulders squared as he walked to his dorm room.
After a worried glance at Deodeky, who appeared troubled by Fate's woes, Kravoss moved to catch up to Fate, leaving the girl and her Familiar behind.
'That was rude of you,' Kravoss told him. 'Weren't you just preaching about returning the kindness others gave you?'
'I did,' Fate said. 'No point in making her worry about whether or not Venden will ever be seen again, and no sense in filling her head with thoughts of assassins and poisons. She's too nice of a person to subject to that kind of stuff.'
'I can't be the only one you open up to,' Kravoss said carefully. 'Just the fact I'm not human should be enough to tell you I can't help you in any way other than being a bag to dump your insecurities into.'
'Why are we even talking about this? You know what I think about this.'
'And you know what I think. Tell me, do I not have a point?'
Fate opened the door to his dorm room and let Kravoss in, locking it and stripping down to his boxers before slipping into bed.
'Excuse me for being more careful with who I expose my weaknesses to after the whole Samantha incident.'
'That also happened because you refused to open yourself up, you moron!'
'Whatever. I'm tired, and I'm going to sleep. Nice hat, and go fuck yourself.'
'See? You expressed two of your feelings. Was that so hard?'
Fate groaned.
The next few days were just Fate going through the motions. He'd wake up, eat, browse the library, go to class, eat, work for Old Man Travis, then repeat. Deodeky occasionally asked him how he was doing or updated him on the status of the Febenochi siblings' dream of a news club.
The latter was met with congratulations as they became the first members of the Academy's first official club, while the former was just a convincing "yeah, I'm fine."
He had long since lost his mopey attitude, throwing himself into work with a fervor Old Man Travis appreciated. Fate had finished his Restrict Metal Imprint the day after Venden was taken, and was now working on the Negativity version.
The old man often gave Fate complicated glances during the latter's enchanting, sensing something wrong from their years together, but knew that the boy wouldn't talk about it unless he opened up first.
Now and then, he'd spot Cait the kitsubus around campus. Neither said a word to the other, but Kravoss and Pospo exchanged some hostile glances each time.
When he completed his first wand core, he managed to come to terms with Venden's situation. As Travis showered him with praises, citing Fate as the fastest he had ever seen a Journeyman complete a wand core, Fate couldn't help but grin.
Fate was the only Journeyman that could enchant in the first place, but it was still a record. And sinking so deeply into his understanding of his own Facet helped him learn to take the good with the bad, along with bringing him 7% through his Stage.
Intimately understanding how the negative of the Metal Imprint and the negative of his Facet's Imprint could bring about a positive result reminded him that there were still people he cared about, a life he had full control over.
Venden was gone, that was true. But worrying would do nothing but cause Fate pain. Worry wouldn't bring Venden back, and Fate was too weak for his actions to make a difference. All he could do was live his best life and hope that Venden was alright.
He still felt like shit about it, but it was a start.
Saturday rolled around, and it carried an announcement from the Empress herself.
A new law had been passed. Instead of noble families' ranks getting merits for certain actions and how many children they had enrolled in the Academy, merits would be entirely under the Empress' control.
Noble families would be demoted and promoted as she saw fit, and the first enforcement of this law came in the reduction of the Grendevens to the lowest Baron rank and the shuffling of the ranks of a few other noble families.
The young girl Kathrin, Venden's younger sister, cried out in outrage when she heard this news. Fate only heard her angry speech because he was in the cafeteria when it happened, the announcement playing on loop on the girl's crystal ball.
Her angry words quickly died in her throat at the Empress' next announcement.