The three went back inside the Maze. Ciaran walked in the middle and had Clara to his right, and Sunny to his left. The girls knew he wasn't running away, but it never hurt to make sure.
The first area they entered only had two benches in it, and one of them was already occupied. Eleftherios was sitting there, playing with Roxy.
The girls froze. The man hadn't bothered to hide his antlers or his green skin. It was obvious that he was no human.
"What is it?" Clara asked mesmerized.
Ciaran got defensive, but before he could defend his mentor, the dryad answered.
"A mix between a fox and a wolf. Come, Roxy is a very friendly girl."
Sunny was a little more interested in the man but chose to stay silent for now. She was sure that Ciaran brought them here for a reason.
The boy was planning to sit with his teacher and create an image of mystery, while the girls saw opposite them, having all their questions answered.
Seeing as Clara rushed in to go play with the mutt, however, the plan crashed and burned before it even started. The worst part was that the damn girl wasn't even playing with it. She just stood there and looked at it.
Clara was a true genius, but because of her upbringing, she had a mental lock on her actions. She couldn't just pick up a random dirty dog, she had an image to protect.
"For the love of all that is holy, give her the damn dog, I can't take it anymore. Damn, you Clara you ruined my stage." Ciaran got mad at his friends.
For two whole minutes, they just stood there and looked at the man petting his dog.
"Ever the drama queen, aren't you?" She said, not a hint of happiness on her face when the pup was placed in her lap. She, of course, didn't reject it, and in fact, started to gently pet it. It couldn't be helped, now that it was there.
The boy was irritated, but he felt a small tap under his sleeve. Ariadne was reminding him of what they were to do today.
She wanted to meet the girls too, but they had no delusions of the girls handling their friend being a mage and having a giant creepy crawly as a familiar. At least not paired with all the other information, and definitely not if it was all unleashed on them in a single day.
"Right, introductions first. Girls, meet Eleftherios, my Master. I got under discipled him two years ago. He is the gardener of the Academy. And the Maze is his. He has agreed to help us bully our enemies to death." Ciaran said, after taking a good long breath to calm himself.
"I have not. I agreed to change the rules a little. I gave your class a better trial than the rest sure, but the other students are still treated fairly by me."
"Now the classes of those twenty-two, those I gave to Verdania. What you two planned for them, I don't want to know. I am not in the business of torturing children Ciaran, and once again, I ask you not to go too far." He said to the boy.
He stood up and bowed to the man.
"As per your wishes sir, not a single hair on their heads has been harmed." He said, with no emotion in his voice, mimicking a soldier reporting to his superior. He then looked at Sunny and winked.
The girl gave a big toothy smile. If they weren't harmed, then they were probably tortured in another way. She got what she wanted from this place, but now she was more curious about what her friend had put their enemies through.
Sunny was a lot more vicious than the boy, but she lacked his imagination. Where she would break someone's legs, he would only bruise them and allow them to run, forcing them to do the damage themselves. He had taught her how to be patient, and how to play with her prey, and she knew she had a lot more to learn.
Eleftherios felt a shiver crawl down his spine when he observed their silent interaction. He got a bit curious and he inspected both girls.
"Of course, you three would be friends." After the scan he said, worry in his eyes. The kids didn't know what he meant, but he didn't intend on expanding on his outburst.
Clara was calmly looking at them, trying to ignore the pup climbing on her stomach to lick her face.
"Sir, you mentioned a woman, who is she, and why did you give her authority over the others?" She asked.
Unlike Sunny, Clara came here for answers, and she intended to get as much as she could.
"Verdania, my sister, the brat's other mentor. She had something to do, and couldn't join us today."
Ciaran then sat down next to Sunny and sighted, relieved he was given a break from his jailer.
"I pissed her off today, and she is actually very racist to humans. I think at most she could tolerate your existence. Oh and don't worry about supervising the 'victims' bro, we made the process harmless to them." He said and laughed.
There was a lot to unpack from what the Ciaran had just said.
"You are that confidant that they would break on their own?" Sunny was amazed once again.
'Whatever these green-skins had taught him, they definitely hadn't poisoned his mind with talks of 'morality'.' Sunny was beyond happy, Her paranoid friend was spewing his secrets to her, and he was still the same madman he always was. To her, this was more than enough.
"We will talk later about your training. I want to know the details." Eleftherios said, trying to hide the worry in his voice.
He was still a bit uncomfortable with leaving his disciple with his sister unsupervised. She loved the boy as much as he did, but she was fundamentally different. She would push when he would nurture. She demanded excellence when he demanded nothing but effort.
The dryads were at odds their whole lives, but they made it work. Their different ideologies on life hadn't hindered them before, but now they were raising a child, and that tended to complicate things.
Clara wasn't blind to Eleftherios's distress. What got her more curious however was the way Ciaran told them about her hate towards humans.
"Rony, are you human?" She didn't beat around the bush. With Ciaran, it was always better, to be frank about things, or he would make a joke out of it.
Both the man and the boy got startled, while Sunny was still in a lucid dream, trying to imagine what the 'victims' could be going through.
"No, I mean yes, I mean sort of. It, ah, it's complicated. I have been told I am a halfy if that makes sense. I am half man, half fish." The boy got visibly flustered. He never planned to reveal his origins to them, or at least not today.
Clara was stunned, and Eleftherios got serious for a split second, before feeling no malice from the girls. Sunny had registered the new information finally, but couldn't be bothered to give a single fuck about it.
Clara didn't know how to react and was visibly angry, but it wasn't at the boy.
"Let me guess, the Clades adopted you when you were young and hid it from you until about two years ago. Tell me one thing Rony, was your 'condition' when we were young their doing?" She asked, hugging the pup to calm down.
"I don't want to talk about that." The boy said, and the life in his eyes faded, the life in his voice dying.
Clara got up and light engulfed her body. She always acted elegant and refined, but at the end of the day, she believed that might makes right.
Eleftherios was about to stop her when a spider grew out of Ciaran's sleeve.
It only grew as big as his fist and climbed on his head, but the warning it gave the girl was obvious. If she moved a step closer, things would get dirty.
"I knew you were a mage Boss. The moment I read about it, I knew. And a spider as a familiar? Are you going for the supper villain image or what?" Sunny was more impressed with the image the boy just showed than the situation that was unfolding in front of her.
"Clara drop it already, who cares if he is a fish, a cat, or a hairless monkey. What matters is, how we can catch up, and does magic come with instructions, because there are a lot of theoretical books on the second floor, but nothing on how to start."
Clara's light dimmed, and she jumped on the boy, giving him a hug, and Ariadne a scare.
"Protect this moron for me, will you?" She asked the spider, before letting the boy go. She wanted the hug to last longer but had forgotten that she still held Roxy.
The poor pup got squashed between their bodies when the barbaric girl launched herself at the boy.