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"This is good," I whisper, trying to reassure both me and Juliet at the same time. "We can work with this."
She reaches out and takes my hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. "We will," she promises. "And this is just the first step. We've been training for digging and researching. We will find more answers for you. I promise."
A genuine but weak smile stretches over my face. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. This is what friends are for," she assures me. "We'll figure all of this out, no matter how long it takes."
I believe her. Not just because she doesn't have any reason to lie, but because I think she's right. It may take time, but we've already gotten this far.
Finding out where I came from feels like it's just within reach.
7
The thrum of the grove magic filled me, even from within the academy walls. It's like the trees know I'm heading in their direction and want me to remember them.
I close my eyes and drink it in for a moment, not waiting too long in case I run into someone.
Or into the wall. That feels like the kind of thing I'd manage to do.
The grove is surprisingly empty to say we have a lesson. Normally there are thirty to forty students whenever we have a Reaper Skills tutorial, but this time, there are only seven other people when I get there. Normally, at this point, almost everyone has arrived already.
Mathias waves to me. My heart skips a beat when my gaze lands on him, only to turn into a dull ache as I remember everything that's going on between us.
Reluctantly, I make my way over. It's not that I don't want to spend time with him. I do. But I don't know how to act now he's made it clear I'm interpreting what's going on between us wrong.
A couple more people trail into the grove after me, but it seems this class really is just for the ten of us.
Mr Denzel strides to the front of the grove, his scythe strapped to his back just like ours are.
"Good afternoon everyone," he says as he turns to face us. "I'm sure you're all wondering what you're doing here."
No one says anything. I just assumed we had a normal lesson, and I'm sure the others think that too.
"You're the ten first years with the highest reaper bounty points," he says. "That means you're the ten students who have shown you're abl
e to reap the most difficult and complicated cases compared to your peers..."
I glance at Mathias, a little confused. I know we're doing well, but considering I haven't even been here the entire year, it's surprising I've made the top ten.
He shrugs. "I was doing okay before I met you, but we've cleared some big cases."
"Oh." I'm not sure I agree with that. None of what we've done seems to have been very noteworthy, but it must be to the higher-ups.
The bounty points are assigned based on a rigid system, which implies there isn't much room for cheating.
We're here because the points say that we're good. I just have to get on board with that. I suppose there's a chance they didn't start counting them until later in the year. Another question for me to ask Juliet.
"You're here to learn a scythe technique that can cut a ghost's tether to the world," Mr Denzel announces.
Cold seeps through every part of me as the meaning of his words sinks in.
"I thought the whole point of seers and porters was that we didn't do that?" I blurt.
Surprisingly, the teacher nods, as if expecting someone to say as much. "Thank you, Miss Weston. You're correct, that is the point of seers and porters, and it's been debated whether teaching this technique is a good idea, but we believe that it is. Every reaper throughout the world has the power to do this, and the knowledge of how is what it takes to be able to stop it happening by accident. That's more important than keeping the technique a secret."
Oh. I suppose that does make sense. Even before I found out I was a reaper, I could talk to ghosts, and I did. But knowing that I can, and what I should actually be saying has made it a lot easier to communicate with them in the right way.
"There are two different ways to do this. One only requires a single reaper, but the other needs two."
