The entire school knew what Eva looked like. She actually did not have to deal with much in the way of reactions. Not anymore. Half the school had been there to see her directly on the first night, an incident she fled from before anyone had a chance to do anything. The rest of the school had heard rumors–most probably exaggerated to the point where her actual appearance was boring in comparison–and were therefore prepared.
There was bullying after. Not much other than a thrown ball of dirt or water in the hallways. Most people tended to avoid her. And all that had pretty much stopped once the security force started patrolling the hallways.
Genoa had taken her appearance in stride, for the most part. Eva guessed that she had seen far stranger as part of her mage-knight guild. Carlos had been more interested in examining her than anything else.
As such, it was something of a daunting experience, watching as this presumably normal mortal took in her appearance. His eyes, though they started wide, had narrowed into thin slits full of suspicion and wariness.
Eva kept eye contact, her face remaining as impassive as she could make it, daring him to say something. She fully intended to make him blink first.
A third person walking in the door threw that plan to the winds.
Eva jumped to her feet, knocking over her teacup. Ignoring Catherine’s yelp as the hot tea ran down the table towards her, Eva strode across the room.
Only for the unfamiliar man to move in front of her path. He held a green baseball-sized gemstone focus in his hand, outstretched towards Eva.
She didn’t waste any time in readying for combat. Her dagger came out of her sheath at her back while her off-hand ignited in thaumaturgical flames.
“Erich! Stand down.” There was a slight pause. “She’s my friend.”
Those last three words made Eva forget everything that had been worrying her. It didn’t matter if Carlos hated her. It didn’t matter if the man–this Erich–attacked her. She could take him. Probably.
The flames coating her hand expired and her dagger disappeared into its sheath.
“Erich.”
After giving her a wary look, Erich’s focus disappeared into a pocket. He took an excruciatingly long time with moving out of the way, but he eventually did.
“Hello, Eva.”
There was a smile there. Maybe not a careless, gleeful smile, but a smile nonetheless.
Putting on a smile of her own, Eva stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend.
“Hello Juliana.”
Examinations
“Excuse my brother. He isn’t so high-strung normally.”
Eva pulled back from Juliana and turned her eyes to the man she had called Erich. That explained the vague likeness to Genoa that she had noticed. Yet he lacked all of the relative frailty that embodied Carlos.
Which didn’t actually mean anything. Juliana wasn’t frail in the slightest. She had inherited her father’s height impairment while taking after her mother in every way that mattered.
Probably a good thing. She might not have survived her ordeals had she her father’s constitution.
Looking closer at him, and looking past the resemblance to Genoa, Eva found that he had rather sharp features. High eyebrows, a pointed nose, a chin that stretched down to a single point–at least, that’s how it appeared through his goatee. Unlike Devon’s unkempt scraggly beard, Erich had styled his to a point.
His short hair even came to a well-defined widow’s peak.
Especially with that beard, he looked more like he could have been a younger version of Devon than any descendant of Carlos.
Eva suppressed a shudder at the thought of Devon having children.
“Ah,” Eva said, hoping that the lengthy pause had gone unnoticed, “so this is the mysterious Erich that Juliana has so sparsely mentioned.”
She had already decided not to hold his almost-assault against him. He was just protecting Juliana from a possible threat. That was an admirable trait.
Erich crossed his arms, not lessening his glare in the slightest.
Glancing slightly towards Carlos, Eva said, “I didn’t think you would be bringing along your–”
She cut herself off. ‘Bringing along your whole family,’ was what she nearly said, but without Genoa, the whole family wasn’t here. And she didn’t exactly want to call attention to that fact.
“–children,” Eva finished, feeling awkward. She was the same age as Juliana and wouldn’t appreciate being called ‘children’ in any sense of the word. Erich was worse. Eva wasn’t sure how old he was, but he had already graduated from Brakket Academy before she had started. That put him at twenty at the very least, though Eva was willing to bet closer to twenty-five.
Carlos didn’t respond. He used one hand to grip either side of his glasses, hiding his eyes as he readjusted them.
To Eva’s side, Juliana just let out a small cough.
Erich didn’t react in the slightest.
