33 Risen#re

Under the chaos of the students lining up outside the academy, the reporters went crazy as they pushed their way into the students began interviewing as many as possible.

Lirian felt a headache creep up on him when they piled up in front of him, "What was it like experiencing an evacuation, now that you're blind?", he heard at least a dozen journalist shouting the same question at him.

'Blasted Journalists,' he cursed inwardly, they were like a bunch of starving vultures, he back away a little as their numbers grew, he started to consider using energy to strike at them, but before he could Anya appeared beside him and the incessant clicking of the cameras stopped.

It was a taboo to possess images of the aides of any leader, and it could not just make them lose their jobs but also their lives, any and all images of them were scrubbed from the internet and even the intel that could be freely purchased on them was insane in its pricing and lacked any images of them.

Lirian smirked and grabbed onto Anya's shoulder, letting her lead him to the limo, "I thought that you weren't supposed to enter the view of the cameras," he said curiously after taking a seat.

"This is different, in the chaos, there is an opportunity for people to strike," she answered while looking at him intently, she had felt a little of his killing intent slip out when those reporters crowded around him, and she truly wondered what was going on with him, lately he seemed to be obsessed with the idea of killing, it seemed like he was a killing addict struggling against his impulse's.

"Do we know how serious the breach is?" he quickly changed the topic.

"It's nothing serious, just a couple of sixth-graders from an outlier world, it's probably already resolved by now, in a few minutes everyone should be back in the school."

"Do you know which candidate's portal they came from?"

Anya looked at her communicator and saw the info getting relayed to her, one of the guardians was giving her a live report, "It appears to be someone you might have heard about from your little girlfriend," she teased him with a playful smile that was wasted on him.

"Is it someone from the Eden family?" he asked not even bothered by her teasing.

Anya pouted, him being a really old person meant that something like that wouldn't even make his cheeks change a single shade, "Her name was Ilma Eden and she shares both her parents with Edith, although she never met her sister, they were born like 80 years apart." she sighed.

Lirian sent a command into his watch and got it to bring up the info on Ilma, "Ediths parents seem to have really good genes," he commented, she was just as much of a genius as Edith and her achievements were numerous in the academy.

The other candidates soon made their way to him, "Where is Edith?" Lirian asked noticing that she was missing.

"Didn't she tell you?" Media asked curiously, ", she said she wasn't feeling well so she took the day off!"

Lirian shook his, something must have happened, she had never skipped a day in the time that he knew her, "I'll go and check on her later," he said after a while.

"Oh, Lirian about what we spoke about yesterday," Wentian said while casting a furtive glance at Anya, "I tried to find out what I could, but I got told off by my family and they even told me to avoid you until you give up on this," he shook his head slowly and sighed.

Lirian gave him an appreciative look, "That's okay, thanks but I already found out what I was looking for, and as long as the right people heard about it, it's fine."

It didn't take long before the announcement came from the school for all the students to go back in, Lirian waited patiently as the students began to fill into the school and got into the back of the limo.

He told the driver to take off and a moment later Anya was beside him glaring at him.

"School's going to be a bust," he said before she could start, "Everyone is going to be speaking about what happened for the rest of day, so I'm just saving myself from the effort of listening to the same things on a loop."

"Every time a candidate dies there is a ceremony that takes place immediately, and all the current candidates are supposed to be present to honor the fallen candidate," Anya said seriously, he was breaking the customs.

"I didn't know that," he said with a look of contemplation on his face.

"Driver change the course, take me to the Eden families manor," there wasn't any change in the vehicles driving, after all, they all lived in the most elite areas on the planet and while it could take a while to get from one manor to the next, they were all in the same neighborhood.

"You said that all candidates need to be present for the ceremony," he said in his defense.

Anya folded her arms and looked away from him before he could make her any angrier.

When Lirian got to the Eden family manor, he heard the sound of fountains spraying water and sighed that he couldn't take in the lovely scenery.

A servant came running hurriedly to greet him, "Sir Lirian," she bowed to him, "I'm so glad that you came, maybe you can convince miss Edith to leave her bed."

Lirian raised his brow but followed behind the servant, he knew that Edith just lost her sister, but it wasn't like she actually knew her, he reasoned that it had something to do with the intel she had been acting strange since last night he realised when he thought about.

He sighed as he realized that it probably had something to do with him.

When he got close to the door he could smell the potent smell of wine, "You didn't mention that she was drinking," he said with a frown.

The servant looked down with a sullen expression, "She emptied out a whole isle from the cellar last night, she didn't say why, but this morning she was too drunk to go to school,"

Lirian pushed the door open and was greeted by a very large room, as he tapped his stick around he made his way to the bed where he could hear Edith's soft breathing.

Lirian poked her on her shoulder he could tell that she wasn't really asleep despite having her head buried under her pillows.

"I s-said... that I don't wanna... get up Melly," she complained in a dreary voice and pushed some of the pillows off her face.

When she saw Lirian, she sat up in shock and cried out, "W-w-what are you doing here?" she yelped in surprise.

"I just came to check in on you," he told her with a grin.

"What for?" she said groggily still trying to adjust, she was only 10% certain he was really there, she drank a lot.

"Did something happen last night?" he asked her seriously.

While rubbing her eye's she looked away from him, "It's nothing!"

"Doesn't sound like that to me,"

"Then it doesn't concern you, so stop butting in!" she shouted with flaring nostrils.

"If it's about the intel you got yesterday, then it probably does," he said grabbing her arms before she could start swinging them around.

"Fine you want to know!" she said with her entire face going red, "My mom won't speak to me anymore and it's all your fault... with your stupid suspicions!" her yells turned into a silent sob as she finished.

Lirian's smile wavered as he pulled her close and hugged her tightly.

He wished that he could look at her, it was so much harder to understand what someone felt without seeing them, but he tried to imagine what it would be like if the same happened to him, and he thought that he'd definitely want to kill whoever was the cause of his problem.

"I didn't..." he felt lost for words and bit on his lips.

"You must hate me," he said in defeat, he had done it, even without that curse he still managed to make someone hate him. He laughed at himself in derision.

Edith looked at him in surprise, she could hardly believe that she saw genuine regret on his face, she knew him for years now and it's something she didn't even think he knew how to feel.

She let out a little hiccup and suddenly she became very aware of him as she realized just how close he was.

She was still wearing the same clothes from the night, her extremely short, shorts and her shirt that just covered her breasts and left the rest completely open.

She suddenly thought of the step-by-step program, and she felt the liquid courage that was inside her take over as she looked at Lirian with a completely different look in her eyes compared to earlier.