Chapter 215: At the Threshold
Damien
Month 8, Day 23, Monday 9:20 p.m.
Back at the University in time for curfew, they found Tanya Canelo waiting at the entrance to their dorm room, doing what looked like a practice exam. This would be the end of her fifth term, giving her a Journeyman certification if she passed. She looked up at Damien expressionlessly as they approached. “Professor Lacer is looking for you, Westbay. He wants you in his office.”
Damien checked his pocket watch. “This late?”
Tanya shrugged, standing up and brushing past Damien to talk to Sebastien. “Miss Gervin reported the situation with some of the other students to me,” she told Sebastien. “I’ll do what I can to keep an eye on them. I may not be a student liaison anymore, but being Professor Lacer’s student aide still has some weight.”
Damien narrowed his eyes. Was it just his imagination, or did she seem a little too eager for Sebastien’s approval? Did she like Sebastien, too? The two of them even had similar hairstyles, though Sebastien’s was getting a bit long. Was Tanya enough older to be considered “mature?” Damien let out a snort and left.
When he arrived at Professor Lacer’s office, the man was still there, though his low ponytail was a bit disheveled and his face was drawn with fatigue. He scowled down at a stack of student papers, holding a mug in one hand and his Conduit in the other as a free-floating pen filled with red ink made angry scribbles and slashing marks across the paper.
The pen dropped and half a second later, Professor Lacer gestured to a chair, which scuttled across the floor and settled ominously in front of his desk. He gestured again, at Damien, and Damien almost expected that he, too, would be magically picked up and moved. However, in the end he had to take the inauspiciously placed seat under his own volition.
Professor Lacer put down his mug, steepled his fingers together and pressed them against his lips, then stared at Damien silently.