By the end of the day, Rachel was a ball of nerves, even worse than before she had told George and James her secret. She hadn’t realized how much she didn’t know about the situation she was in. Walking back to her room from her class, Rachel felt alone and out of control. It was a new feeling when compared to the life in her home and the couple of days of freedom she had when she first arrived. But she still felt hope, she found people she truly cared about, people worth protecting and even if they don’t quite like her anymore, she was going to keep trying. There was no sense in going back home where no one wanted her. But she had more questions now than ever. Why send her to Gerais with no helpful information? And why could she experience what the people the magic connect to experience? Before sending any information in a letter to her mother, Rachel decided to see what the first one since arriving at the academy says. Regarding the last question, Rachel wasn’t ready to notify her mother about her seemingly irregular ability.

Lost in her thoughts and with it being dark outside, Rachel completely missed the two people hiding out in the shadows of the bushes. As she reached her hand out to grab the doorknob to the dorms, she heard a familiar voice speak out to her.

“Rachel, it’s me, George and James.”

“What. What are you two doing hiding in the shadows?” She asked.

“Well, we were avoiding people, we can’t draw a crowd. The duke wants to see all of us for dinner, so we can talk about everything,” George replied.

“Okay, should I change, or is what I am wearing fine?” Rachel asked concerned about where they were going and putting on appearances.

“It’s up to you, but I think if you dressed up a little more, we might all fit in. As it is, we are wearing more official clothing than we normally wear in the presence of the duke. So, if you have something that suits this look, that will work,” George explained trying not to offend Rachel.

“Sure, I’ll go change quickly. Are you too okay staying out here for a bit?” Rachel asked before leaving.

“Yea, sure, go ahead. See you in a bit,” George replied quickly.

Rachel swiftly opened the door and ran to her room. She opened the door and found her roommate there just finishing her look for dinner in front of the mirror. As Rachel placed her belonging on her bed her roommate acknowledged her with a glance through the mirror, finished checking her appearance, and then left the room to go to dinner. With her gone Rachel opened the closet and pulled out the two dresses she had. The one that fitted the materials and styles found in Serra did not match the image she had in her head that George’s clothes gave her, but the red dress she loved from home could be used in any setting, especially since it was one color, very much like George’s uniform. But now shoes, she only had three pairs. Her work boots, black flat shoes, and black laced shoes with a white sole. All three of these shoes were very comfortable, but the flats were probably the ones best suited to this dress code.

With clothes, all picked out Rachel, glanced for barely ten seconds at her hair before turning to leave the room. She only took about five minutes to change but was already worried about George and James waiting outside. After grabbing her purse and slinging it across her chest Rachel left her room and headed for the exit that hopefully was just as quiet as it was when she passed through it minutes earlier. There was no noise near the door and when she passed through it, looking around quickly it seemed as though most people had left or were already at dinner in the academy’s eatery. Upon looking around even George and James were gone. They were probably hiding again, she hoped. Eventually, she expanded her search and when she couldn’t find them, she decided to check the front of the academy where they always met, for Saturday lunch.

No doubt about it they must have been caught by someone because there was a crowd surrounding them here again. This crowd was bigger and meaner than what was surrounding them at lunch. Maybe someone had gotten wind that the duke was in town and wanted to see him or something. Anyway, she needed to let George and James know that she knew where they were and the only way to do that was to fight her way in, and then they could figure everything out together. One by one person by person, Rachel pushed and shoved her way through the crowd and when it became too dense, she pulled people out of her way by anything she could grab. Eventually when she was at the center and there was space the last person she pulled out of her way pushed her into James.

“Ahhh, Oh. Hi James, thanks for catching me,” Rachel said out of breath. “I am so glad I found you two.”

“I’m glad you found us Rachel, but I don’t know what to do with this crowd, it's just wild,” George said.

“Maybe it’s time to put down some boundaries with them?” Rachel said pointing to the crowd at no one in particular.

“Everyone,” George yelled with only the closest people pausing for a second. “Everyone!” George screamed at the top of his lungs, causing almost everyone to stop. “I don’t know what you all hope to see here, but you are bothering us. I don’t like these crowds forming when there is nothing to see. We aren’t an event and all you are doing is wasting our time and your own, so if you could just disperse and go on your way, I would be grateful.”

The faces that the trio could see showed embarrassment or sadness/pouting, and within minutes the crowd broke up enough for them to start walking away from the academy.

“Wow, George that was a very effective speech,” James said all excited shaking off his built-up energy.

“It was unfortunate that I let those people think that that behavior was okay,” George replied. “Are you alright, Rachel?”

“Yeah, it was no big deal. If anything, I worked up an appetite for dinner and also relieved a lot of stress,” Rachel admitted.

“Are you worried about the fairy thing?” George asked.

“Well, I’m worried about a lot of things, like if we can still be friends?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah of course,” George said without hesitation. “I didn’t mean to worry you after you told us, because you being a fairy doesn’t change things between us, if anything I was hoping my father wouldn’t make it hard for us to be friends, but I haven’t been able to talk to him yet.”

“Okay, and how about you James?” Rachel asked.

“We’re still friends,” James replied.

“Anybody who feeds him is stuck with him for life, first the duke, then me, and now you,” George said.

Everyone laughed releasing the tension that was beginning to build from the conversation.

“You better find someone who can cook well then, James. It’s not cheap buying cooked foods,” Rachel commented.

“I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m not in a rush when I’ve got you two,” He said throwing his arms over George and Rachel’s shoulders.

The crowd hadn’t followed the trio out of the academy’s grounds, luckily. When James returned to his position beside George, Rachel decided she should tell them what she had told the duke.

“As you already know I met with the duke earlier, I think it would be best if I told you what I told him. It would prepare you for what plans they might have thought of with this information. The most important information is that when I officiated the ceremony on Friday, I could process the information that was flowing through the magic. I could feel what the students in the tournament felt, their fear, excitement, disappointment, see from their eyes the attacks coming at them, and hear everything. I can’t focus on it at all at the moment, everything hits me at once and is very overwhelming. But as you are thinking, I knew that this would be essential to military strategy, and as your friend who doesn’t want to see you killed have allowed the duke access to this information and also this power only when you two need it,” Rachel explained, whispering when they passed other people on the street.

“Rachel, that’s dangerous, you could get killed trying to get involved in our wars like that. And what if the king finds out?” George replied.

“Considering you would go to war to protect the people here, including myself, I could, in turn, help your efforts have a lasting effect, by recording the event, but I am limiting my use. Where you go, I’ll go. If the king wants me, I’ll return to Tetrades. If he wants any wins recorded at all for Gerais, he will get this or nothing at all,” Rachel said defiantly. “Although, I guess that plan doesn’t work if he sends you wherever he wants, if we can end the wars together it wouldn’t matter to me, as long as you are okay with it.”

“Rachel, you are crazy. But if you are so determined to do this, as long as you do as I say, I’ll accept your help,” George said shaking his head. “I guess we’ll have to get your information flow under control asap.”

“Do you have tournaments with other academies, or do other things outside of the academy? I am pretty sure I’ll be assigned to officiate academy events, and no doubt they’ll increase their events, but I’ll need to learn what information is important to the military and how to convey it accurately so it would be better for me to officiate Military Arts events,” Rachel asked.

“Yes, as you have predicted the Military Arts section competes with other similar sections of academies in other regions of Gerais, and we will go hunting once we’ve honed our skills, and practice military maneuvers in various areas. There’s also an event in the capital, but they have more fairies there so hopefully you wouldn’t have to officiate that one and could just relax and cheer us on,” George explained.

“Well, the problem with that event in the capital is that fairies are selected at random, so there would have to be a lot of them for me to have a chance to not officiate the ceremony, but if you are okay with that, I could accompany you there, too.”

“We’ll have to discuss that with the duke, but it’s a long way off so we have time,” George said.

“Okay, I think I’ve told you what I discussed with the duke. So, where are we going for dinner? It can’t be the one restaurant in Serra, right?” Rachel asked.

“No, it's dinner at the house we have here,” George said. “We are almost there, if we turn right here, and walk down this pathway, it’s hiding behind these buildings and a little bit away.”

“Okay.”

The whole walk was about 15 minutes long, and they all individually hoped they weren’t keeping the duke waiting too long.