Don’t fucking think about it.
I summon my memories from the past few days instead. The way her gaze twitched away from Asher every time she might have looked at him, even when he was speaking to her, trying tohelpher. The tension in her expression, as if fighting to conceal her horror at the thought of being matched with him.
Why in all the gods’ names did I rally her spirits that afternoon I went to see her after school? We all might have been better off if she’d stayed deflated and despairing in that ostentatious house of hers.
I went because there was something odd about her poisoning too. About the impressions I gleaned from the ephemera she left behind.
Someday soon, there’ll need to be a reckoning.
For the moment, I concentrate on the screen in front of me. Kenneth’s average grades across Primary, Junior, and Senior divisions look predictably mediocre, though a tad higher for his senior years.
I click through to the trimester-by-trimester breakdown. And then I pause, with uneasiness curdling in my gut.
Across his past five years in the Senior division, Kenneth’s marks were generally on par with what he earned in the lower divisions. In fact, in his 13thand 14thyears, there was a small but noticeabledownwardslide.
Then all of a sudden in the first trimester of year 15, they tick a little upward. The second trimester, he’s around a full grade point ahead in nearly all his subjects: 60s transforming into 70s and 70s into low 80s.
Even his Divination marks… I hadn’t paid attention amid the few hundred other students I’m grading, and it wasn’t a huge enough leap all at once that the change stood out on its own, but he had mid 60s last year, 68 first trimester, and 73 second trimester. I think I graded most of his performances this final trimester in the 70s as well.
They’re still not impressive marks. They simply put him at the upper end of the middle of the pack rather than the lower end. But seeing the change spread across nearly all his subjects at the exact same pace, it’s impossible to dismiss.
There are plenty of perfectly legitimate explanations. Most likely, his parents were troubled by his increased struggle and brought on tutors for extra help. Although why they weren’t having him tutored all those years before, I have no idea.
Unless they were, and it wasn’t enough, and then…
And then what? He stumbled on a massive boost in motivation and focus? How could this have anything to do with him attacking Elodie?
I suck a breath through my teeth and skim through the data some more, but I can’t discern any deeper patterns. None of the sparse notes left on his file indicate any worries or surprise from my fellow teachers.
Hmm. Well, it’s one more piece of data to add to the scraps we have.
I should dismiss the database and head home. It’s past the time I’d normally be sitting down to dinner with Asher. My stomach gives a faint gurgle of agreement.
But I’m in here now. It’d be silly not to check…
I bring up the records on Elodie Devine.
There’s nothing particularly startling about them. 90s and a very occasional high 80 across the board. As much as her snotty attitude has irritated me, she’s always put in enough of an effort that it’s hard to justify marking her down too much even when I’d like to.
I can’t deny that she’s got a sharp enough mind when she chooses to use it.
But until recently, her snottiness didn’t catch my attention more than that of any other pampered princess in my classes. The past month…
I click through subject by subject so I can see the marks that have been uploaded for this trimester so far.
In the first several, nothing jumps out at me. Then I get to Combat Tactics.
Fighting wasn’t Elodie’s forte—or at least, it didn’t use to be. Professor Kwong gave her 80s that I’d imagine were as much about effort as skill, considering no one seems willing to risk grading her any lower than that.
But the two numbers he’s entered for April so far are both high 90s. That’s… interesting.
Extra tutoring could be the answer there too, although Elodie never mentioned it. Why would she suddenly focus more on combat of all things? Simply because it was one of her weakest areas?
She managed to fend off—tokill—Kenneth despite his military-grade weapon and oddly enchanted clothes. Even Cosgrave, star of the Cutting Flame, didn’t manage it.
I frown at the screen. I feel as if I’ve picked up a new piece of a puzzle that’s just doubled in size. Is that actually progress?
The hum of the building’s ephemera resonates around me through the stillness of the early evening. Almost everyone else has gone home by now.
