Oberi padded up and down the hall in concern, then barked loudly. Ava gave a start, and her words halted on her tongue.
“Pidge, you’re having a panic attack,” I stated. “What do you need me to do?”
Ava continued to tremble, but she reached out for me and grabbed my arm, as if using it to keep herself steady. “Nothing,” she rasped. “I’ve got it handled.”
She couldn’t fool me. The way she shook told me she definitely didn’t have this handled. I had to distract her somehow, and pull her back to reality.
“Ava, I don’t know where we are,” I said, coming up with a wild idea. “I don’t know this part of the Institute. Where are we?”
“It’s a hallway,” she replied through ragged breaths. “Just a back hallway that’s a shortcut to one of my classes.”
“Which part of the school?” I asked.
“The West side,” she answered, falling for my ruse.
“I can’t see anything. Can you describe it?”
“It’s nothing. There’s nothing,” she spoke quickly. Her fingers curled tighter around my arms, and I held back a gasp as her nails dug in.
“Tell me what you see,” I pressed.
“Carpet. Red carpet.”
“Like in the entry of the school,” I replied. “What else?”
“Um… windows. Stained-glass windows.”
“With bars on them?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“What pictures are in the stained glass?” I continued.
Her breaths began to return to normal, and her grip on my arms loosened. “There’s a woman… and a tree. The whole hall tells a story of a woman turning into a tree.”
I could tell she was starting to come back to me, but I didn’t think she was all the way there yet. “Do you know the story?”
“I’ve heard of many similar stories. Almost all races have a legend of a woman turning into a tree.” Her arms stopped shaking, and her voice slowly returned to normal. “In our culture, a Nivita woman saved a man who’d been robbed and beaten. The ancestors gifted her magic, but the thief wanted her abilities for his own. He killed her, and out of her power sprouted a tree.”
Ava finally calmed, and she sniffled. She drew away from me, and the sleeve of her shirt rustled as she wiped her nose. “Ancestors, Charlie. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I reached for her and wiped the tears from her cheeks. I hadn’t even decided to do it until it was already done.
Ava grabbed my hands. At first, I thought it was to stop me. But she held on, like she needed to ground herself in the moment. Oberi pushed himself between us, and Ava dropped one of my hands to stroke Oberi’s head. She pressed her face into his fur, and her voice came out sounding muffled.
“I’m so embarrassed,” she admitted, before drawing away from our Familiar. Her voice became clear again. “I can’t believe this happened.”
“What brought this on?” I asked.
She sniffled again. “Nothing. I can’t explain it. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Try me,” I challenged. I wanted to know everything.
Ava drew in a deep breath. “It’s just something that happens sometimes— without warning. I can’t control it or predict it. I don’t do it for attention.”
“I didn’t assume that,” I assured her, but the way she said it told me she’d been accused of attention-seeking many times before.
“Ishouldhave a reason, though,” Ava argued. The shame was evident in her tone.
