Weeks 11 & 12

Friday came and Ky had the five students come to the classroom early so he could tell them the news. He had decided fairly and dropped the students with the five lowest point values from the class. He told them before class started so he didn't force them to waste their time by sitting in class for the day. It turned out that the other two half-human males besides Brawn were among the group. Ky felt the worst for them. Their memories would have to be wiped and replaced before they could leave. That was a grueling and painful process and reminded him of what the Chancellor had said about his class five years ago. Torin had been in the class and was one of the students who still wasn't right. Ky shook his head to clear it as the students departed. Ro came back in from her break then and watched the sad faced students depart.

"Where are they going?"

"I was told to drop five students from my class by today. They were them." Ro looked at him and saw sadness written in the slump of his shoulders. She reached out her right hand and placed it lightly on his arm as he leaned over his desk.

"I'm sorry. That must have been tough." She told him kindly. Ky growled and, placing his left arm about her waist, suddenly pulled her between him and the desk. Stepping forward and pressing his body against hers, he looked into her startled eyes.

"Ky?" Ro whispered in red-faced confusion. She placed her hands on his desk, so she could lean away from him, but he could still feel her body warming up through her clothes.

"You want to be with me, don't you?" he asked in a husky tone, wanting her to say yes. His family had ordered him to claim her as his, but he didn't want to do it if she said no. Not that he had much choice, orders from the head of the clan were absolute. A pretty blush of embarrassment overspread her cheeks as she glanced down and to her right. "You look so cute when you do that," He whispered as he leaned closer to her. "I can barely control myself." His voice was like a caress and Ro's body shivered in response. He smiled as he felt the tremor run through her body. With one hand he reached up like he was going to turn head to face him when he suddenly released her and quickly stepped back.

The classroom door opened and in walked Angelique with another male student. They stopped, looking at Ro as she braced herself on Ky's desk. She was breathing hard and still blushing furiously.

"Eww. What is the Nug doing?" The male asked.

"Ignore her. Everyone knows that she has a disgusting crush on Professor Arzandia." Angelique sniffed.

"I didn't realize that people so ugly could still get those. I feel sorry for him." The two filed to their respective seats as Ro blushed harder. She hastened to her desk to puzzle over Ky's un-teacher-like behavior. By the time Momo and Aerie arrived she had gotten herself under control. It was Friday however, and after meditation came the exercise exams.

Normally the students were called in order of where they sat, but today Ky completely glossed over Ro. She thought maybe this was because she was so bad with light magic that there was no point in testing her. She had barely made it to the second exercise during yesterday's class. At the end of the last magic period, after the last student was came out, she was called in. Tentatively she entered the room. When she turned and faced Ky, his was sitting in his chair smiling normally as if nothing had happened that morning. Slowly, she approached and sat in the chair across from him.

"Now I know it's been a while since the last time you did one of these exams for light magic but it's the same as last time. You do all the exercises you've completed for the week and for this week that is just the lighting of the orb. I'll give you the point if you can do it successfully. You have five minutes. Begin." Ro stared at the orb on its stand. As she concentrated hard, it slowly began to flicker. Time ticked by as the frequency of the flickering slowly began to increase.

"Time." Ky said just as the orb began to glow with a steady light. Ro looked at him wondering if that counted. He frowned considering it.

"I'll give you the point if you answer my question." The words popped out of Ky's mouth and he surprised even himself. He had been thinking it, but he hadn't meant to say it. Ro stared at him wide eyed. She didn't think she would like the direction this had taken.

"What question?" Ky looked deep into her green eyes with his softly glowing red ones.

"Do you want me?" His voice was soft and low, and Ro's reaction was immediate panic. She bolted upright from the table and dashing for the door, said,

"It's okay you keep the point this time." She giggled nervously. Ky stood up.

"Roselyn." He called her full name softly. She froze and turned hardly daring to look at him. He wore a look of hunger on his handsome face and the red glow from his eyes was pulsating again. She felt as if his eyes were deep wells and she was sliding into them. Even as her mind was giving way, the stress and tension of the moment welled up inside her suddenly she felt something pop. She blinked and realized that Ky had moved closer to her while she had just been standing there. He wore a confused expression. The bell rang signaling the end of the period.

"That's the bell. I should go. I don't want to be late for lunch." She put her hand on the door knob. It felt cold. She tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. She could sense Ky coming up behind her. Panic blossomed in her chest and her hand suddenly heated up. She turned the knob again and this time it went. She made her escape through the door.

After she escaped, Ky spent a few minutes frowning at the door. He knew that he had frozen the mechanisms in the handle, but she had still gotten out. He hadn't seen any fire, not that it would have been sustained enough to melt the ice. The only way to do that was to heat her hand and hold it there, but that was body manipulation. It was advanced magic and required a lot of control to heat just a part of the body. He couldn't wrap his mind around how she'd done it. Maybe the Chancellor was right, and adversity would really force her to improve.

That night after combat practice ended, Ro had fitful dreams. Ky was in them and he kept asking her if she wanted him. She didn't know why she was so reluctant even in her sleep to say yes, but she was. She never said it.

***

Over the next week Ro's days continued normally. Ky made no moves to press Ro for an answer to his question, although she frequently caught him watching her with that hungry look in his eyes. Alexi too just watched, although she remembered how he had watched her too before their last private meeting. Laine and Zephyr both still helped her with combat training. Now her routine was one hour of accuracy, followed by an hour of dodging, followed by two hours of blocking. She had gotten to the point where she could block almost all the strikes and she could deflect about half of them.