Chương 295: Catching Up

Getting Belisa back to normal class functions was disturbingly easy. The pervasive and thorough magics that kept anyone from being able to tell where she is could also keep anyone from telling where she isn't. And in retrospect I can understand how that's a necessary component but I'm not sure I ever would have thought of that. But then, Meadwhite has had a long time to plan out exactly what he's going to do.

In addition to making his invisibility even harder to penetrate than I had expected, it also means that at no time have any of Belisa's teachers realized that she's not in their classes. She's been marked as present for every class she missed for the past year. The spells controlling any perception of her presence even work in her absence, which is something that I would have said was impossible. I mean, surely there's a maximum range for magic, right? Especially magic that affects thoughts and perceptions?

But there is not. The field is extremely limited in many ways, but this is not it. I had brought Belisa back to the administration hall to get her restored as a full-time student, but their records showed her still as a student in good standing. She had no grades listed but everyone seemed convinced that she was doing just fine, maybe a little above average for her classes.

"They never realized I was gone," she murmured, crestfallen. I could see this knowledge crushing her down, she could see a lifetime of loneliness ahead of her.

"I'm going to make sure you've always got people," I said to her. I wrapped her in a hug, and she took it gratefully. She shuddered, and then her breath stilled. She wandered the halls like she was seeing them for the first time. She was only enrolled for a few weeks before her awareness of the world was slammed shut. There is a dull, flavorless gray void in her memory encompassing the past year, and her memory now also includes the lore and biography of an ancient lich-duke.

That's a lot of distance in her recollection between now and then. Also, the place has gone through some subtle changes. Different students, familiar faces now a year older, furniture and signage has been moved around, one of the class buildings has had its entire front end replaced because of a booby trap and a giant oak tree.

"Wait, you did what?!" It's fun to tell her what she missed. Her reactions are strangely funny to me. Right now, she's the only person in my circuit that hasn't heard a hundred legends about Princess Natalie Harigold. Her roommate did not even notice that the other bed was never occupied. We bought Belisa some books and uniforms and necessities, and the school's porters moved her things up to her room for her to sort out later.

We did not bother thinking up a cover story for why this needed to be done, I just told the faculty and staff what I wanted, and they made it happen.

"Yes, and why is that? They are famously quite reticent to assist students without documents in triplicate. I had the hardest time moving in when I first arrived."

"Oh, it's because the minister of education owes me their job. I can kinda do whatever I want around here."

"Wait, really? What happened?" So I kept her busy with conversation and walks across the grounds and small errands to get her set up until it was time for dinner. I did not want to send her straight to classes, not like this, but I could not think of any way to get her any kind of help re-entering the student body that would not make things more difficult. We can't arrange any official measures to re-integrate her, because she's officially never been gone.

And telling the administrators that her grades and enrollment are all magically induced is going to put her future in a lot of hot water. I'm doing what I can to bring her back up to speed, but I'm hoping the others can help out.

"Hey everyone, this is Miss Belisa Roadaway. Belisa, this is Earl Elica Dandston of the Brunblin Dandstons, Countess Larianne Ebonder, Countess Vancy Tarcelle, and Miss Rinnie..." I paused, embarrassed.

"Rinnie, I have only this very minute realized that I have no idea what your last name is."

"Good," Rinnie said, with some satisfaction but very little venom.

"I've gone out of my way to make sure of that."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Roadaway," Elica said. She had a magazine in front of her, and the text on it was very dense, with a few diagrams only. She offered a hand for Belisa to nod over, and then gestured her to a nearby seat.

"You look familiar," Vancy said, squinting.

"Remember that one day that the Byeview Boys made a big scene right there?" I said, gesturing.

"And when it was done I went over to Nathan?" Vancy clapped as she remembered, beaming at Belisa.

"That was you! That strange box... anyway, it's good to meet you Belisa! Do you play cards? I think the more people we get at the table the better the chances that Elica doesn't win every hand." Larianne watched the new girl like a hawk, furiously noting every detail, every affectation. She was compiling a report to take back to her uncle, but from her stony, unmoving expression, it seemed like she was going to give glowing reviews.

Larianne reads as perfectly neutral when she's pleased, and if she is anything less than pleased she looks dire and dour. In either case she kept her silence. It takes Larianne a while to warm up to someone enough to speak. I spent a minute explaining to the girls that Belisa was coming to us from difficult circumstances, that she may need help with things both large and small, and that the specifics of her context were delicate enough that we would thank them not to inquire about it.

Also, that there are valid reasons for not getting the school's administration or staff involved, even with my special leverage.

"Of course!" Vancy said, patting Belisa on the wrist.

"I'd love to help!"

"This sounds so sketchy," Elica said, eyeballing both myself and Belisa.

"I'm in." Her voice made it clear that'sketchy' was a selling point, not a complaint.

"I'm generally pretty busy," Rinnie said warily.

"But, in a pinch." Larianne hummed a noncommittal sound and made a shrug that was closer to a nod than a no. So, unanimous support for the new girl. The start of a support network. Just what she needs to start finding her own feet and seeing her way to a new life on her own terms. I have concerns that she has a long road ahead of her, her label has not changed. Still the Broken. But I have hopes that she will soon be much more than that, no longer defined by the damage done to her.

And I think friends can only help with that, especially friends that have no reason to pity her. Vancy was enchanted when she watched Belisa eating, the deep enjoyment that she took from flavors. The food here is good, no doubt, but watching Belisa's epicurean sublimation was inspiring. She took such bliss from sensation that it helped the rest of us enjoy our food even more. Except for Elica, who had her food hand-delivered from the faculty kitchens, and now looked sourly envious of our more common fare.

By the close of the dinner hour I was not yet ready to turn her loose with my best wishes, so I asked her to stay with me for a while yet. Since I'm not protected by sigil tattoos, I need to attend my study hall in order not to be counted absent, and I've already taken several absences this day. And that is why Belisa came with me to my study hall, and that is why Belisa got to meet Quarl right after dinner. And there was no chance at all that he would not notice something was off.

When she sat down, he straightened fast, his hand moving off the desk to hang by his side, where it had ready access to two blades and two vials of poison.

"That's not teleportation," he said tightly, "but you certainly came out of nowhere." I offered introductions between them quickly. Quarl, Belisa, Belisa Quarl.

"She is no danger to you, Quarl. And vice versa, I presume. Though not teleportation, you are correct that she has some special capacities," I told him.

"I will let her decide how much of her background she chooses to reveal." Quarl gave me a raised eyebrow, and she did similarly.

"What?" I said to them both.

"I don't like giving people's secrets away. Though, Belisa, if you do speak and are not honest, I will say so. I abide secrets, not lies." They were both amenable to my terms, and started cautiously speaking while I mostly sat back and made sure they minded their manners. His normal circumspect way of speaking to people served in good stead here, it did the job of polite boundaries.

"If you don't mind my saying so, that special capacity you have would be extremely useful to people in certain lines of work." He looked so innocent and innocuous when he said that. But of course The Assassin would see real value in personal invisibility. I glanced to my side, and noticed Nathan staring at us with equal measures of confusion and surprise, with a dash of wonderment. I don't think he ever expected to see Belisa again. Good to know I can still catch him off-guard.

Truthfully, I would be really freaked out if he'd been wearing his all-according-to-plan face. If he'd been the one behind the Ebonder team-up then- Wait. This is the wrong time to ask, for sure. But soon. I want to get her a little more secure, and better acquainted. I don't want her to feel insecure and anxious. People's loyalties can slip when they don't know what the future may hold. I want her to see stability with me, and that doesn't happen right away. But maybe in a week or two I can enlist her help.

After all, it would take an invisible girl to keep track of my brother and find out what he's up to. And if I can get that before Fashion week next month, I'm going to be all set. Belisa followed me to the game room for the dorm, where she hardly knew anyone. This weekend I'll have to introduce her to my entire popcorn crew, but for now it's enough to get her socializing with my mean girls.

Down the road I'll see about helping her build a social circle outside of my own, but she's still kind of wobbly after being a soulless husk for the past year, and she needs some time to acclimatize. And, Rinnie decided to join us. Either because she felt more comfortable around us at the card table if it was not just her and four nobles, or if she felt the need to protect Belisa from our evil treacheries, I don't know. I didn't ask and I would not expect a straight answer if I did.

It's definitely weird, how refreshing that's gotten. Rinnie mostly responds to me with varying levels of contempt. On a long graph I'm gradually winning her over, but there's a lot of variation from day to day. Sometimes the exchange is "grudging respect we don't acknowledge", some days it's "ignored entirely," sometimes it's "any excuse to talk shit". It's very situational. But there's never an open and frank talk with her, she either blows me off entirely or she blows me off performatively.

So I never get straight answers out of her. When Rinnie doesn't want to tell me something she's not shy about letting me know. Sometimes after dealing with my brother I need to chat with Rinnie just to recalibrate my sense of normality.

"Ante in," Elica said as she turned the first card. Rinnie anted, then Vancy, then Larianne, then Belisa, then me. Elica turned the next and we stayed pat, not ready to bet earnestly yet. While we tapped the table in turn, Elica carefully started conversation.

"So, if we're not supposed to ask, then-""And you're also not supposed to cleverly wheedle out details until you can guess or deduce the answer," I said with a nudge of my elbow.

"Be polite, and be nice."

"Phooey," she pouted.

"This is why everyone says Harigolds are not fun."

"Hey!" I protested.

"That's not the reason why," Vancy said in my defense." Hey!" I protested again, with a little more heat. How does Vancy manage to drag me harder coming to my defense than Elica can drag me on purpose!? Rinnie had her hand over her mouth, snickering away with her eyes squeezed shut. Larianne just rolled her eyes and raised the bet slightly.

"Princess, it's all right," Belisa said to me.

"I can take care of myself." She called the bet.

"I'm sure you can, but I'm going to help," I said, checking.

"And it's 'Natalie' around this table. And when we're among friends like this. There's a lot of occasions that I'm going to insist on the 'princess', but I don't want to be respected for my title while I also get completely trounced at a cutthroat card game." Belisa scoffed.

"Surely not that badly." Nobody answered that directly, but the badly-suppressed gloating on Elica, the naked amusement from Rinnie, the uncomfortable sympathy from Vancy, and... well, Larianne didn't give anything, but Belisa could look across the table and see that I really was that bad at cards. Nothing keeps my ego in check quite like playing poker against these girls every night. But also, I've got a theory that nothing humanizes me quite like these games.

I'm trying to develop Belisa as a [Love Interest], but also as a covert asset. I've got a very short window of time to get her to agree to start shadowing Nathan, and the earlier we start the better. So far, she has a very mixed view of who I am. When she got to school she heard rumors about the white witch, the noble daughter of prophecy who is also a sorceress and also a mass murderer. She met my brother and they were hitting it off.

Honestly, before I interfered it looked like he was pursuing that romance even more than he was Lachel Freckentop. And then I kept making a scene at the school, which had very mixed receptions. And then I handed her the thing that could save her whole family, except that then she was punished for having it, and then she was locked in a sensory-deprivation hell for a year, and then when she was rescued my face was the first one she saw.

I have since then spent all day trying to soothe her, bring her up to speed, get her re-settled, and ease her back into her own life. That's all a lot. And it's all very high-stakes, very dramatic, very dynamic. What it did not give her, was a sense that I might also be a person. Someone that may have a softer side, and normal habits. From my own parents I've learned how important that is. My mistake there was to try always to impress them, to perform for them, to never show anything less than a hundred percent.

They thought I was something unnatural and unreachable, and I never gave them a good reason to question that. I should have tried less hard to have all the answers. I was already down almost half my chips. Belisa giggled.

"Oh, they were not kidding."

"I'm not bad at it, it's just that they're better," I grumbled.

"It's not like I can't hold a poker face! Or read one, for that matter! I just don't get the cards I need!"

"Oh, the princess doesn't get her cards?" Elica teased me.

"Well, if she can't inherit them, maybe she could sue you for them," Rinnie quipped. My cheeks flamed.

"You two!" Vancy scolded, puffing her cheeks.

"Leave the princess alone. Natalie, they don't mean anything by it." I sighed.

"No no. Rinnie's got a point. I've been dealt enough winning hands in my life already." While the next round of betting slowly fleeced me down again, Belisa had a question for the table.

"So, how is it that Natalie is 'the princess' when you guys chat? Did something happen to Lachel Freckentop?" Well fuck. Here's a conversation I had hoped to put off a while longer.