The Exchange Teacher - Welcome to Dyntril Academy

"Harnel, how goes it?" Basque felt like he was twelve for ignoring Natt, but he really didn't want to talk to her.

"Basky, can we talk to you for a minute?"

Basque folded his arms. "Sure."

The three of them stood in silence for a second. "Umm, in your classroom?" Harnel asked and gestured at the room behind Basque.

Basque looked back at the closed door, sighed, and opened it. "After you," he said.

Harnel nodded. Natt just walked through the door.

Following them, Basque pulled the door closed as he stepped through. After gesturing for Harnel and Natt to speak with the palm of his hand, Basque folded his arms again.

"Natt has something she wants to say to you," Harnel said, elbowing Natt.

She didn't say anything. She just glowered at the floor with her arms folded like Basque.

"Natt?" Harnel said.

She dropped her arms. "Fine." She took a breath.

Basque held up his hand and stopped her. Whatever this was, he didn't need it. Once again, it felt like he was a little child and the teacher was forcing Natt to apologize. He didn't want her apology.

"Look, Miss Cormick, there's only one thing that I care about regarding you: are you sober when near the kids?

"Whatever your sad, tragic past story is that turned you into an alcoholic, I don't care. Yesterday, you were brilliant with the students. That's all I want from you. That's all I need."

Natt folded her arms again, but instead of tucking her hands under her arms, she rested them on top of her arms. She didn't meet his eyes. Her gaze stayed stuck to the floor, but it softened. Her right hand rubbed her left arm. "I understand."

Basque was taken aback. He'd prepared himself for her to explode at him, to meet his ire with her own. Even though she didn't, Basque couldn't stop himself. He was still stuck in lecture mode and was the teacher, not the student. "Good. At the morning meetings, if you're sober, you can come help me train the students. If you're hungover, or Yani-forbid, still drunk, don't bother."

"Yes, sir."

"Glad that's clear."

Harnel put his hand on Natt's shoulder. "Come on, Basky, don't you think you're being a bit harsh?"

"Harnel, I'm keeping things professional. I will leave being children to the students, cause Yani-knows they need it at this place. Now, is there anything else that you would like to say to me?"

Harnel shook his head, and Natt stared at the floor, hugged herself, and shook her head.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then."

Basque left them in the room. He knew he was setting himself up for disappointment. The flicker of hope that she would shine again glowed in him. He wanted to extinguish it before she drowned the hope in alcohol. He hated how vulnerable that made him feel.

The rest of the week passed in a blur. Other than working with the students, Basque pulled back from socialization. He wrapped his job around himself like a comfortable blanket, protecting him from the cold world around him.

The Tinkerer and his wife could have been a source of warmth with their bright and lively atmosphere, but the chances of seeing Natt there were too great. The less he saw of her, the better, and he already saw enough of her throughout the day.

Sophia went back to treating him in a perfunctory manner, and he left it at that. Between his suspicions that she was spying on him and how much she confused him, he believed it was the best course of action. Communicating in Hianb stopped, and the lessons stopped; the deepest their conversations went was about the bath. That was fine with him. He didn't know why he'd been so obsessed with crossing more lines than that.

On the weekend, Harnel invited Basque to do something out in the city, but Basque turned him down. Basque and his students didn't have time for a weekend. Days when the other students were idle were days when his students could make up ground.

Even Julvie and Krill left Basque alone. Considering Krill's past reactions, Basque was waiting for him to object to the cores, but the man never came to complain. With as many people who'd stopped to watch and laugh at Class E's students as they got belted by balls, Krill was definitely aware of them, but for whatever reason, the man let it pass without complaint.

Julvie, for her part, didn't say a word to him, but her stares were off-putting. She would stare at him as if she were mentally undressing him, but the second she realized he noticed her, her face would contort into a scowl.

Throughout the week, Natt was that bright star. She was brilliant with the students, and they responded to her, even Taraia. Her lessons were bright with a joyous atmosphere that shone on the students' faces when they listened to her. Not once did she show up drunk or hungover to the morning meetings. He didn't know if she'd cut out all alcohol or if she'd just tempered it so that she'd be fine the next day, but neither did he care. No, he didn't care. He didn't, he told himself.

As he'd required, his students came to him after classes, one by one, to show him something they'd discovered on their own or with a friend. Medow, Thoms, and Kamryn independently figured out how to change the display order of elements on the main menu. Working together, Avae, Emilisa, and Jame figured out how to rearrange the display order of items in their storage alphabetically, by size, or by the number of stacked elements.

Saevi's pod of Xav, Kamron, and Braelyne came in to show that they figured out how to synchronize a timer across the four of them, which thrilled Basque. That was an important technique for timing attacks.

Taraia had found the most unique thing, though not entirely useful. She'd figured out how to change the background color of the menus. "Because blue sucks! Kiwi green is where it's at," she said and ruffled her kiwi green hair.

The only person who'd not shown him something yet was Reianna, which he was surprised by as he thought she would have been one of the first. It wasn't until the evening before the end of the deadline that she came to his room.

"So, what have you figured out, Reianna?" he asked her.

"I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come to you. It's just, it's kind of taken me a while to figure out how to get this 'identify' thing to work."

Basque's stomach did a flip. "Oh?" Basque shot a look at the servants' door. His only hope was that there was no one there who understood the significance of what Reianna had just said. "Reianna, I've got to run an errand. Would you mind joining me?"

"Umm, okay, I guess. Don't you want to know what I learned, though?"

"I do. I do." Basque needed to keep himself calm. Excitement and dread mingled inside of him. "But my errand is pretty urgent. I kind of have to go now."

"Oh, well, in that case, I can just come back once you get back. It's no problem."

"No, no. I'd really like it if you'd come with me. We can chat on the way there, and when we get there, you can show me what you learned."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I insist."

"Okay."

Basque led Reianna out of their dorm hall and through the corridors. Despite saying he wanted to chat with her along the way, he didn't say a word. It took all his effort to not ask her to run to the Tinkerer's shed with him.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Once they were out in the training area, he lost his will to hold back. "Come on, Reianna, we're going to run from here."

The silver-haired girl nodded and followed at Basque's pace. Just a bit over a week had passed, but her stamina and strength had greatly improved, though she was still small for her age.

The Tinkerer's loud music saturated the air as they approached, and Basque didn't bother to knock when he got to the Tinkerer's house; he just burst into the workshop area.

"What?! What?!" the Tinkerer screamed out at the sudden intrusion.

"Hey, Tinkerer. I needed a safe, private place to speak with my student." Basque couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. He motioned for Reianna to go further in and closed the door.

"Okay, Reianna, can you tell me again what you discovered?"

"About the 'Identify' option?"

He hadn't misheard. She was a mage. "Yes. About that."

"Well, you never explained anything about it, and it took me a while to figure out that after I activated it, I needed to concentrate on something to make it work, but I figured out how to make a shortcut for it. All I need to do is visualize 'Identify' at an object now, and I can see its stats."

The music suddenly cut out. "What did she say?" the Tinkerer asked.

"She has identify," Basque answered.

The blood drained from the Tinkerer's face. "And she's one of yours? An E-student?"

"Yes."

"Oh no. Oh no-oh-no." The Tinkerer stood and ran out of the room.

Reianna watched him leave. Her previous look of satisfaction had crumbled, and her confusion was palpable. "Gerenet-Shr? What-what's going on?"

"You're a mage, Reianna. I didn't explain identify because I don't have it."

"A mage? Is that bad?"

Basque shook his head. "No. It's an incredible thing. It's an amazing thing."

"No, she's right. It is bad."

Basque whipped his head toward the door. Natt stood there with the Tinkerer in her shadow. "What do you mean? Mages are—"

"Great if you're from noble blood! She's not, ouwaller!"

Reianna looked from Natt to Basque. Her face was a blank slab, the expression she wore when her emotions overwhelmed her.

"Natt! You're scaring her."

"As she needs to be! You had the sense to bring her out here to tell you, so you must have an inkling."

"About what?!" Reianna screamed. "Stop talking over me and start talking to me!"

"I'm sorry, Reianna," Basque said. "Being a mage is a really good thing, where I'm from."

"And if you were nobility," Natt said and took a step into the room. "They'd sing your name from the skies. But, Miss Santi, you are not noble."

Natt paused. Basque and Reianna waited for her to continue.

"To them, you are a chance. You are a chance for those sick bastards to tear apart and study you to try to find out how people become mages, how to make people mages."

The butterflies that had been dancing in Basque's stomach settled at the bottom of it. Natt was right. Instinctively, he'd known that what should have been a blessing would be a curse for Reianna.

The girl wrapped her arms around him and hid her face in his clothes. Basque put his arm around her back and hugged her. While they waited for Reianna to compose herself, Basque glared at Natt, silently chiding her for being so blunt in front of the child.

Reianna let go of Basque and pulled back. She reached out and took his hand. He gave hers a squeeze.

Natt came over and squatted down next to the girl. "Does anyone else know?"

Reianna shook her head. "I thought about asking Fawna about it, but nobody else said anything about the option, so I kind of wanted to figure it out all on my own."

"Good, good. Then we can keep this just between the five of us." Natt looked up at Basque. "Right?"

"I want to train her."

Natt stood up. "Can you?"

Basque nodded. "I've trained three back home. But the question is, does she want to be trained?" Basque looked down at Reianna. She didn't let go of his hand.

She stared into his eyes. Her voice was hard. "Will I become powerful?"

He nodded. "Mages are revered not just because they're rare, but because they're powerful as well. Before you got access to the interface, did objects ever have a halo for you?"

Reianna shook her head. "No. Objects never did. The only thing I saw was people's auras."

Basque's legs went weak, and he fell into the desk next to him. He managed to keep himself upright by propping himself up with his free hand. Reianna let go of his hand and stepped away.

"What?" she asked.

Basque was a Tiger, the strongest a non-mage hunter could become. He could even hold his own against some of the weaker and more average mages. If Reianna reached her full potential, he wouldn't even be able to touch her in a spar. Were she Hianbrun, she would have had the potential to rival the Emperor in power. Basque didn't know anything about the ruler of Kruami, but he doubted it would have been much different.

Now supporting himself with both hands, he looked at Natt to see her reaction. She looked at him with the same questioning face that Reianna did. He felt it was good that she didn't know, either.

Basque shook his head. "It's nothing, I was just thinking about what Natt said, and I got overly worried. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Reianna, do you want me to train you?"

She didn't answer immediately. She looked at the ground. "You know, when I first came here, all I wanted was to graduate and become a noble for my hometown. We've not had a lord for twenty years and we're on our last legs."

Reianna looked up at Basque. A fire burned in her eyes. "I want to become stronger. This past week, I've realized that just becoming a noble isn't enough. Gerenet-Shr, please, train me."

Basque returned the girl's intense stare. He wondered where the new determination came from. While he'd thought highly of her, she always seemed to be holding back. That wasn't the feeling he got from her now. "It's not going to be easy. Especially since we'll have to do it here, out of prying eyes."

She nodded. "I can do it."

"You'll have to keep it a secret, even from Fawna and Dmi."

"I understand."

Basque nodded. He looked over to the doorway and saw the Tinker couple. "Symantha, would it be too much trouble if Reianna and I joined you for dinner tonight?"

The fiery woman lit up. "I'd be more than thrilled to have you all!"

"Thank you so much. Reianna, why don't you go with Symantha, maybe she can get you a snack or something."

"Okay…" Reianna looked at Basque. He could see the nervousness in her eyes.

The Tinkerer came over and put his arm around the girl's shoulder. "Come on, lassie. If you're from a fallen, I'm sure you've not had a good butterscotch before. They're a little pleasure of mine, and I'm going to make you a fan too."

Reianna went with him and Symantha, leaving Basque and Natt alone. She looked at him, and Basque stared back at her.

"A week ago, I had a bit of an existential crisis. I've pretty much lost all trust in every single person here. So, my question to you, Natt Cormick, is, can I trust you?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You trust me? How can I trust you? How can I trust you can actually train that girl? How can I trust that if not given the opportunity, you won't hop on a boat and go back to where you're from at the first opportunity?"

"Because these students that I'm teaching are precious to me."

"How easy words are. I know you don't want to know anything about me, but let me tell you a little story about my time at Dyntril Academy." She spat out the word academy. "Twenty years ago, when I was a first-year student in Class D, there was a boy in Class E who was a mage.

"I met him at orientation. My father was a low noble; he barely made enough kills a year to keep from falling, so I grew up mostly playing with common children, rather than other nobles, and I didn't know anyone here when I first arrived. That boy and I hit it off.

"Then, two months in, they found out he was a mage, and he vanished." Natt squeezed her eye shut. She put her hands on one of the Tinkerer's tables to support herself, as if she didn't have the strength to complete her story without aid.

"It took me three months of exploring every single nook and cranny to finally find him in an underground dungeon. What they did to him still haunts me to this day.

"It's not why I drink," she said, shaking her head. "But even when I do drink, I still see him; his arms and legs spread and tied down. His chest cut open, and every organ pulled out and spread out, but still attached and still functioning. His eyes removed from his skull, looking around the room because he was still alive.

"A mage was keeping him alive with a spell. Have you ever seen someone's heart still beating outside their chest? Have you seen their lungs inflate and deflate with every.single.agonizing breath they take?" She pounded her fist on the table when she said those three words.

"He begged me to kill him in a voice barely above a whisper because that was all he could manage. I told him I'd save him, that I'd find someone who could get him out of there, but all he wanted was to die. In the end, I took one of their instruments and sliced the ventricles to his heart. Could you, as a twelve-year-old child, do that?"

Natt stood up straight and walked over to Basque. She jabbed her finger in his chest. Her one eye was moist, but she wasn't crying. "So, you, who's been in this for less than a month, don't you dare question if I am trustworthy. I have been in this for twenty years. I will protect that girl with my life."

Spinning on her heels, Natt stalked off into the house. Basque just watched her go, then stared at the spot she'd vacated. His body felt numb. He didn't feel guilty about what he had said to her. He didn't want to know anything about her. He couldn't know anything about her. He needed to do whatever he could to stop himself from knowing more, learning more. Because he wanted to know everything about her.