by S. E. Weir
She thought about everything she had learned about being a diplomat and what she had learned about being a spy. She examined how she felt when she used her body to fight and when she used her brain to solve problems. Finally, she replayed her interactions with the Gleeks, the Baldere, and the Aurians, how she’d felt about learning more about them and their interactions while she was helping them with their respective issues.
Phina realized there could only be one choice. She lifted her head and nodded, her green eyes meeting Anna Elizabeth’s kind but firm blue ones. “Yes. I would like to complete my studies.”
Anna nodded briefly, looking pleased as she smiled. “Wonderful. Now, I do need to explain some changes we had to make a year ago. After resolving the issues with having a rogue diplomat, we realized the diplomats are too isolated. Your suggestion of the appreciation event for the Senior Diplomats proved inspired and greatly increased our diplomats’ satisfaction in their job. Several people started families. Several others decided to retire to pursue a quieter lifestyle with their families, old and new. So, that part was a complete success.”
She smiled warmly and Phina returned it, reassured about her contribution even if she hadn’t been there to see it.
Anna Elizabeth continued, “In addition, one of the complaints we received after opening up lines of communication with everyone, again per your suggestion, was that I had too much power over determining when a student was able to graduate.”
Anna’s expression was sour, although she didn't appear too troubled about it. Perhaps time had lessened the aggravation. “To minimize this issue, all students now need to have each teacher’s approval to pass their class. Do you understand what that means?”
Phina frowned and shifted her weight. “It means that although I know the material given out for each class, I still need to attend each class or get the teacher to sign off on their area?”
Anna Elizabeth nodded, her hands clasped together on the desk. “Yes, that's exactly what it means. It will be up to you to prove your knowledge to each teacher, whether that be attending class or testing out. Once I receive approval from them, you can graduate from the program.”
Phina sighed and nodded. She could already feel the boredom of learning nothing new while she strove to prove herself to her teachers. “If that's what I need to do.”
Anna Elizabeth smiled as she leaned forward. “Cheer up, Phina. It won't be as bad as you think. In the meantime, there is always something new to learn. You taught me that before rather effectively.”
Phina nodded, then gestured at the door questioningly. Anna tilted her head curiously and looked at Phina for a moment before holding her hand out toward the door. “Of course. You should have your schedule now. It will be adjusted when you pass a class. Do you have any questions before you go?”
“Not at the moment, no.”
Anna turned to the silent observer. “Jace, if you want to take some time with Phina, go right ahead. You've been working hard. I'll be fine for a couple of hours.” She smiled gently and waved her fingers toward Phina and the door.
Jace had matured in the last year and a half. His eyes were more serious than playful now, his hair no longer flopped and spiked but lay neatly on his head, his jaw had squared out more, and his clothing showed more masculine elegance than she remembered. He was a good-looking man, but one she had difficulty reconciling with the almost-friend she remembered.
He nodded solemnly before standing and following Phina to the door. Phina hesitated and looked at Anna Elizabeth, realizing then that her hair no longer had gray streaks and that her wrinkles weren't as pronounced as they had been before her coma. She looked to be in her early thirties instead of her early fifties. Slumping in disappointment, Phina turned to walk out.
Apparently, everyone and everything was different now, even if some of those things were for the better.
Jace followed Phina out the door and tapped her on the shoulder before gesturing for her to follow him. He led her farther into the Institute and into a small room with a desk and a couple of chairs. On the desk lay his tablet and a few other things scattered on the top.
As soon as she stepped in behind him, Jace closed the door then wrapped Phina in his arms, hugging her tightly. “Phina! You don’t know how happy I am to see you.”
“I’m getting an inkling.” Phina’s voice was muffled as her face was pressed against his chest. “I know I’ve been gone a while, but I don’t remember us being the hugging kind of friends.”
“Oh, right.” Jace released Phina and took a step back, feeling relieved and nervous. Phina also took a step back and looked at him warily, almost as she had when they first met. Jace sighed and ran a hand through his hair, feeling deflated. At thirty years old, he didn’t think he should feel nervous about talking to a woman a decade younger, but he couldn’t help it. “I know we got off to a rocky start before, but weren’t we becoming friends when everything happened?” He waved his hand, flashing her a wounded smile.
Phina considered Jace for a moment before smiling more easily. “Well, it’s good to know that something is the same.” Her smile drooped as she shook her head. “So much has changed in a year and a half.”
He tilted his head as he dropped his hand. “You’ve changed too, Phina. You look great but still different.”
She froze, her eyes watching him with something akin to dread or horror. Jace turned to lean against his desk and crossed his ankles. He put his hands down on the edge of the desk and leaned forward. He shook his head as he watched her with concern. Well, he considered her a friend even if she didn’t feel the same. “You didn’t know that you’ve changed?”
Phina swallowed, looking younger for a moment, her more confident and challenging behavior gone. “Jace, you know I’m not interested in you, right? At least, not as anything more than friends.”
Jace grinned and straightened. “So, that’s what you are worried about? I know that, Phina. I’ve been dating someone for almost six months, and it’s pretty serious. I wasn’t trying to make a move on you, just pointing out how much you’ve changed and how great you look now.”
Relief mixed with confusion warred on her face in subtle ways. “Like, healthy? I knew I had changed in other ways, but I didn’t realize I had changed so much physically.”
Jace chuckled. “So in the week since you woke up, you haven’t looked in a mirror yet?”
She shrugged as she turned to lean against the wall in front of him, regaining her normal attitude and lack of emotion. “I don’t look in a mirror every day. Or at all, if I can avoid it.”
Jace’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes widened. He searched for words before finally closing his mouth and swallowing. “Wow, you really don’t know how beautiful you are, do you? I thought that was you…I don’t know, being humble or something.”
Phina appeared puzzled. “Thank you, Jace, but you don’t have to flatter me. Alina and Bethany Anne and Anna Elizabeth are beautiful. I’m just me.”
Jace laughed humorlessly before rubbing his face. “Yeah. Okay. Well, you’re beautiful, but you’ve been beautiful. That’s not how you’ve changed. You’re more…” He frowned as he waved his hand. “More…muscular? No. Well, yeah, but it’s more than that.”
She raised her eyebrows skeptically. He looked at her closely from where he sat, finally nodding. “It’s like you were distilled down or something. You’re more beautiful. More muscular, and it shows. More…vibrant, maybe?” He shrugged. “Who you are is more visible, I think.”
Phina blinked, appearing stunned. He smiled reassuringly. “Hey, it’s a good thing.”
She gave him a pointed look. “Except for when part of your job is to spy on people and be invisible.”
Jace stopped for a second, then nodded. “Right. Yeah.”
He sighed. Jace was smart, at the top of his class all his life, and he still felt like an idiot sometimes with Phina. He didn’t know if it was that she was that much smarter than he was or that she off-bal
anced him that much. Probably both. He looked up to take her in again. Yeah, both.
“So… You haven’t talked to Greyson since you woke up?”
Phina’s eyes rose to meet his, giving him nothing, the emotion gone. “No. You have a problem?”
Jace shook his head slowly before letting out his breath. Dang, this woman could do scary better than anyone but the Empress and her Bitches. Her eyes cut right into him. “No. But you might.”
She tensed, but her arms remained by her sides. She watched him for a moment before responding. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
He winced, then nodded. “It’s not easy for me to talk about so, bear with me, please.”
Phina frowned, tilting her head forward. “Jace, why would something between Greyson and me be difficult for you to talk about?”
“Because I’m not talking about you and Greyson. I’m talking about me and Greyson.” He glanced away for a moment before meeting her eyes again. She still appeared confused, so he clarified.
“He’s my guardian.”
Phina’s eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. She couldn’t have concealed her response if her life depended on it. Link was Jace’s guardian? Images of the past when Jace had looked to Link for approval but never seemed to get it suddenly made sense.
For some reason, Phina thought she should have known something like that, but when it came down to it, she didn’t know much about Link’s background. She thought she was the only one he had given the name Link to, which she suspected was real. However, it seemed more like a nickname than his whole name, and he had never mentioned his last name.
Of course, when you live with a name like Greyson Wells, it becomes your own. He had lived with that arrogant, demanding persona for so long that it pretty much became who he was…a good bit of the time, anyway.
Phina’s mouth finally closed with a click, halting her rambling thoughts. Jace had been watching her with wary dark eyes. His half Earth Asian looks made his appearance tilt on the pretty side, though still masculine.
“What’s the look for?” she asked.
“Why?” He watched her for a moment before answering the question she was really asking. “My parents worked for him before they died. After they were gone, there wasn’t anyone else to take care of me, and he felt he had a responsibility to do something about it.”
She frowned. “Was he a good guardian? You two hardly talk.”
Jace shrugged, hunching his shoulders. “Yes and no. He made sure I had everything I needed, but he was working so much that I didn’t see him very often. Maybe twice a week. Sometimes longer, and sometimes it would be a week or more in between.”
Phina’s eyes widened. “How could he get away with that? Leaving a child alone that much would be awful.”
He blinked in surprise before he understood what she meant. “Oh! No, I was sixteen when they died, so I was pretty self-sufficient.”
Her shoulders dropped in relief. “Well, that’s better than younger, but it still sounds lonely.”
“Yes.” Jace nodded and seemed to pull himself in. “I was mostly used to it. My parents had been gone a lot before then anyway. They didn’t have any family here. They paid for babysitters and nannies and such to take care of me for a while when they were going to be gone.”
She watched him as she assimilated it then nodded. “So, why would Greyson being your guardian cause me trouble?”
Jace sighed. “Because I think he feels like he let me down, and now that you’ve had problems, I think he’s feeling like he let you down, too. So, all of that together could cause him to have problems in your interactions. He doesn’t handle his reaction to strong emotions very well.”
Phina’s head whirled. No wonder Link had reacted so strongly when he thought she would die on the Aurians’ planet.
“What are you thinking, Phina?”
She shook her head. “That I should have seen something like this coming. That I grew up much the same as you, except my aunt watched me. Also that I should have overruled my scruples and read both of your files.”
Jace grinned then raised his eyebrows. “You mean you didn’t read our files? Hang on. You have scruples about hacking?”
Phina gave him a flat look. “Of course I do. Everyone has lines about what they find morally or ethically objectionable. One of mine is that I don’t hack my friend’s files unless it's an emergency.”
He nudged her foot with his as his grin widened. “I knew you were warming up to me and we were friends.”
She sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t make me regret it, Mister Mouth.”
“Mister Mouth, huh?”
“Would you prefer Mouth Boy?”
“Err, I guess Mister Mouth, then. How did I deserve this charming epithet?”
Phina raised her eyebrows. “Because you think by running your mouth, of course.”
His laughter was the best thing Phina had heard in days.
Chapter Seven
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Diplomatic Institute
Four days later, Phina was wondering if she should have said no to resuming her studies. Here she was in class again, learning the same things she had learned two years ago. These students were all new. The classmates she had been familiar with were gone, most of them into their apprenticeships, the rest dropping or failing out.
She sighed and leaned on her elbows, trying to pay attention in her Current Events class, but what had interested her before had descended to boring since she had learned it all already. Only references to the last year and a half perked her interest.
She had been able to get signatures for two of her classes so far, Languages and Ethics. Languages were easy for Phina. She had a fifteen to twenty-minute conversation in each language to demonstrate her fluency with the teacher who facilitated the class. If it was possible to over-pass the class, then Phina did since she was fluent in five languages and passable in the three others she had started learning before her coma. Having to exhaust herself before sleeping had led to her learning several new languages and subjects. Ethics had been passed after a three-hour conversation with her Ethics teacher, Mister Prez, who had some interesting thoughts on the ethics of mind-reading that Phina was still mulling over. She had used the rumors surrounding Bethany Anne as her example for the question.
Phina’s eyes drooped and she yawned, sagging in her seat. Ever since she had woken up from the coma, being unable to sleep hadn't been a problem. If anything, Phina felt fatigued often. Her mind drifting, she realized she was aware of the minds of the students around her. They each felt different and as she sleepily focused on what she was picking up, Phina realized that she could identify each mind by the feel of it. Curiously, she wasn’t overwhelmed like she had been when scanning her Aunt Faith. She frowned as she focused on the difference. She glanced around the room at each person her mind had touched before looking curiously at the teacher.
She had kept her mental senses mostly clamped shut since she woke up from the coma because she didn't want to intrude on people’s privacy, and she hadn’t yet figured out her code for when it was okay. Her conversation with Mr. Prez had helped, but she was still working through the issue.
However, what intrigued Phina was the realization that she could hear her teacher’s real thoughts and knowledge about what had happened, not just the socially acceptable ones he filtered through his words.
“The Gleek Accord has been an asset to the Empire over the past year. Who can tell me what benefits we have gained from our alliance with them?” And what a narrow thing that was. I still can't believe how close they came to declaring war on us. Hmm… That Waters girl supposedly helped make it possible, but I'm not sure how much I believe that. Anna Elizabeth is being so closed-mouthed about it. “Yes, Liane?”
As she listened to the new student proudly describe the knowledge and nature-based technological advantages the Empire had gained, Phina stared at her teacher. The short man occasionally glanced at her. His dark hair thinned at the top
in a circle, giving him the appearance of a reverse Jewish yarmulka. Professor Emerson had come on board recently, formerly a diplomat in the field. So far, Phina did not feel impressed.
However, from what she sensed mentally, he had a strange fixation on her role in what had happened with the Gleeks. Phina frowned at her discovery since she hadn't wanted to use her mind-reading abilities. She didn't want to know what people were thinking and feeling. It was frustrating enough trying to navigate her own life, let alone witness everyone else’s lives up front and personal.
Yet… If she could figure out a way to do it that didn't feel intrusive to her, it would be an undeniable advantage.
She tentatively reached out mentally to her teacher and listened to his surface thoughts rather than going deeper. It was more akin to hearing what his mind shouted and didn’t take much effort on her part.
Ah, this student shows promise… So eager to learn… If all students showed such eagerness, it would make teaching less tedious. “Yes, thank you, Liane. Anyone else?” Shame that the Waters girl seems so dull… I heard she was bright, but I don't see anything to indicate that's true.
Ugh. Perhaps she didn't want to do this after all. She rubbed her hand over her face before realizing that she didn't feel as tired as she had earlier. Strangely, the sleepiness had all but disappeared. That realization caused her to miss the next few moments.
“Would that be correct, Seraphina?”
Phina’s eyes jerked up to meet her teacher’s face. She saw a gleam of satisfaction in his dark eyes. Hmm…
Just as I thought. She wasn't paying attention. I bet she doesn't even know what turned the Gleeks’ minds from war to working with us. Genius protégé, my ass. She seems like a stupid bint.
Irritation at the man’s attitude welled up, and an edgy smile formed on her face. Clamping a hold on her temper, she quickly and lightly scanned the minds around her until she found the statement he wanted her to confirm or deny. The result confused her. What could be the teacher’s goal here? Though she loathed the idea, Phina felt dipping into the teacher’s head was worth it to find the answer.