Chapter Twenty-Nine: Watcher

The next morning, Professor Nigel called the kingdom together for a meeting. Everyone took a seat around the fire, and the tall professor stood at the front, hands folded neatly in front of him.

"Starting today, all students will be escorted by a professor or staff member."

Galio made a boo'ing sound at that. "C'mon, Prof! We can handle a monster."

"I'm sure you'd love to try, Mister Galio," Professor Nigel smoothly retorted, "but nonetheless, we must be cautious. Everyone is to be gathered no later than nine in the morning until the end of the school year. I will take you all to breakfast. Your professors for your first period will take you to your first class, and will escort your class to lunch, and so on and so forth. No one is allowed to leave the dormitories without an appropriate escort."

"What about clubs?" Lanna asked, frowning.

"All clubs will have to meet in the main hall on Saturdays and will be supervised by teachers."

Galio and Lanna made offended noises from that and both were slapped by Havi.

"Until such a time arises that we can determine the source of the monster, and measures to prevent such a thing from appearing again, we will do what we must to protect you," Professor Nigel said firmly. "Please do bear with it."

There was a general murmur of acceptance, even if Galio continued to pout.

"What if we need to leave but we can't find a professor?" Galio asked, folding his arms over his chest.

Professor Nigel gestured towards the front door of the kingdom. Beside the door was a pedestal that had a big black sphere on top of it. "The headmaster reactivated the old watchers. They will be set up in all the common areas and kingdoms."

"Old watchers?" Rose asked, intrigued.

"When Gardenia was first founded, there were… some incidents involving students. Not all Neheburs wanted to get along, after all, and so the watchers were created by Elder Maylanna. All you need to do is place your hand over the orb and recite: pâiti. Miss Havi, would you please demonstrate?"

Havi hesitated for a split second before she strode over to the orb. She reached out and touched it and repeated the phrase with perfect pronunciation.

That's going to take me a lot of practice, Rose thought, not even sure how to spell the word, let alone say it.

There was a small white light glowing inside of the sphere before it shot out. The light began to take shape and dull until a vaguely humanoid shape with wings of light stood before Havi. It wore armor made of woven light, with dull blue writing drawn all across it. The symbols and letters didn't belong to any language Rose recognized.

"This is called a watcher," Professor Nigel explained. "They will watch over whoever summons them until you say: uzvarezem."

Havi repeated the word and the watcher disappeared like foam on a wave.

"They are very good defenders, but their commands are limited outside of protecting," Professor Nigel said. "It would be best if you asked for a teacher, but we understand this may not always be an option."

"How long do they last?" Philip asked, eying the orb with great interest.

"However long they need to. In the past, each student was assigned a watcher who would stay with them the entire school year."

"Is that what we'll end up having to do?" Lanna asked, her eyes narrowed.

"We would like to avoid that if possible, but if things persist, then likely yes. We will always prioritize our students safety," Professor Nigel said firmly. "A proper investigation will be taking place over the summer break, as well as an attempt to amend the school wards to detect Yellow Magic."

"Why not just investigate now?" Galio demanded. "We all know who's behind it—"

"The Community feels that there is no immediate danger to the students with our current protocol in place," Professor Nigel explained patiently. "They wish to avoid further disruption of classes and give those involved a chance to come forward and confess. We are still dealing with other students, Mister Galio, not hardened criminals.

"It is possible one of the older students tried to perform the ritual and simply lost control. There are other factors to take into account, such as the fact that it might not be a student at all. While it is rare, there have been documented cases where dense areas of Yellow Magic will create such monsters. Gardenia's wards are heavily intermingled with Yellow Magic, and some areas are denser than others."

"But—"

"Nothing more can, or will, be done at this point in time, Mister Galio," Professor Nigel said softly. "Now, I believe it is time for us to head to breakfast. Come along, students."

...🌹...

There was a knock at Rose's door that evening, and Rose got out of her bed to answer it. Havi greeted her with the same warm smile she always did, but to Rose's surprise, Delilah stood shyly beside her. The Chasm kingmate was fiddling nervously with some kind of small white tub.

"H-hello, Rose."

"Hi, Delilah," Rose responded, looking up at Havi curiously.

Havi patted Delilah's shoulder. "Let me know when you're done, I'll take you back to your dorms with a watcher."

"Th-thank you," Delilah stammered out.

Havi waved her fingers in goodbye to Rose before she turned away. Rose opened her bedroom door further, silently inviting Delilah to come inside. Delilah whispered another 'thank you' before she entered Rose's bedroom.

Everything about the girl screamed anxious, but Rose could smell no fear from her. She knew Delilah was a shy person—she always struggled to answer questions without stuttering and seemed to practically run away if anyone tried to talk to her—and thought maybe that was why she was nervous. Rose could understand that much and sympathized with the small girl to an extent.

In an attempt to help ease her nerves, Rose said with a smile, "Would you like to take a seat? I think I have some candy in my desk."

"O-oh, no thanks. I'm not allowed a lot of sweets," Delilah said. "Um, here, this is for you."

Delilah held out the tub and Rose hesitantly accepted it. When she opened it, she found it was filled with a pink cream that smelled like the ocean. Rose looked back up at Delilah, uncertain what it was.

"I, I noticed you had horns like mine," Delilah explained, summoning up a pair of black horns that curled on either side of her head. "Th-that's cream to keep them from drying out and cracking."

"Oh," Rose said, brightening. "Oh, thank you."

"It—it's the least I can do," Delilah said. "You came to rescue me, e-even though I wasn't your kingmate or your friend. M-my mom wants to send you some stuff, too, b-but—"

Rose rapidly shook her head, genuinely taken aback by Delilah's words. "Please don't worry about it. It's common sense to help someone, right?"

Delilah's eyes widened momentarily. "I—I don't know. You got awfully hurt though. Some of your scales came off… I know Doctor Basileus is good, but—I… please. It wouldn't be right if we didn't thank you properly."

The shy girl seemed strangely adamant about such, so Rose reluctantly nodded her head. "O-okay."

Delilah smiled hesitantly. "Thanks. M-my mom's a really good beautician. She wants to send y-you supplies to take care of y-your scales and claws, but we need to know wh-what kind of scales you have?"

Rose summoned up her tail, raising it out for Delilah. "I, uh, I didn't know there were different kinds of scales."

A small, slim, black tail appeared beside Delilah and waved behind her. Delilah held her tail out next to Rose for the young dragon to see the differences. Delilah's looked much smoother in comparison to Rose's rocky-look.

"Your scales look very strong," Delilah said, "and… elemental base? Do you have to bathe it in mud, or lava?"

"Lava," Rose answered, surprised by Delilah's guess. "How can you tell?"

"I-I remember in Red Class, Professor Luck said you were elemental base, right? I-if your scales were smooth like mine, I would have thought water, but they remind me of rocks, so you probably have a s-strong magical connection with the earth. Then it c-could only be mud or lava."

"That's interesting," Rose commented. "Are you familiar with dragons?"

"Oh, no, but I w-want to be a beautician like my mom," Delilah confessed quietly. "S-so I kind of kn-know about scales, and stuff. U-um, th-thank you for helping me with this a-and thank you for saving me."

"Please, don't mention it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Rose said, sheepish by Delilah's gratitude. She never knew how to handle that kind of stuff.

Delilah asked Rose a few more questions that Rose didn't know the answer to—she had to show Delilah her wings—and then the pink skinned girl headed back to her own dorm.

...🌹...

As Rose headed out of her bedroom the following morning to go to breakfast, she was surprised to find Professor Nigel in the common room, a very large box wrapped in pretty pink and white wrapping paper beside him. Rose gave the box a curious look.

"Good morning, Miss Rose," Professor Nigel greeted her pleasantly. "A package arrived for you last night. I hope you don't mind that I did a cursory examination of the contents to ensure nothing unsavory was placed amongst it."

Rose shook her head. "Thank you, Professor. Um, so does that mean it's for me?"

"Yes. Miss Delilah's mother was quick to send her thanks, it seems," Professor Nigel said, cocking his head. "While I'm happy my student acted so nobly, I do wish you would place more concern for yourself than others in such situations, or at the very least, contact a teacher before proceeding."

Rose had a feeling she was being chastised and bowed her head. "S-sorry, Professor."

Professor Nigel waved her off. "That is merely a selfish request of mine, Miss Rose. I would hate for you to be harmed under my care. Do enjoy your package, my dear."

Rose nodded as Professor Nigel left to drag Galio out of bed before she looked at the package. It was as high as her belly, and wide enough she couldn't wrap her arms around it. She thought it would be best to bring it into her room before she opened it so she wouldn't make a mess in the common room. The issue was that it was too big for her to pick up properly, and Rose didn't want to drag it across the carpet.

Thankfully, Havi and Philip left their rooms before Rose could do much else. Havi glanced at the package in surprise and asked, "Rose, what's that?"

"A thank you from Delilah's mom," Rose explained. "Can you help me move it to my room?"

Philip walked over to the package before easily lifting it up. "Sure, little one. Havi, would you please open the door?"

Havi hurried over to Rose's bedroom door, opening it widely enough for Philip to squeeze through with the package. "Where do you want it, Rose?"

"Anywhere is fine," Rose said, and Philip placed it on the floor by her desk. "Thank you very much."

"Do you want any help?" Havi offered.

"Oh, no, I think I can open it on my own. You two go get some breakfast," Rose said with a smile.

Havi and Philip left her alone and Rose picked up the attached envelope. Inside of it was a perfume-sprayed letter that read:

Dear Rose,

My name is Dia Lillian, I am Delilah's mother.

I cannot thank you enough for saving my beloved daughter. When she told me what had happened, I could hardly believe it. Monsters inside of Gardenia, and my precious and only child attacked by one? Such a thing has never happened before in thousands of years, and I'm sure you can understand how utterly shocked I was to learn of it.

But then I heard about you.

I, like many parents, were wary of a dragon attending Gardenia. Even with reassurances of Unity that our children would be safe, it's hard to look past what we have been taught for centuries.

Never would I have even imagined that you, a lone dragon, would save my dearest Delilah. Words of gratitude cannot express my feelings enough. My Delilah is my whole world, and by saving her, you have saved me.

Truly and sincerely, from the very bottom of my heart: thank you.

I know words alone cannot give justice to what you have done, and so I have sent along my very best products for you. Please accept and use these freely, and know that you will always be welcomed at my shop. If you ever need anything in the future, please only ask.

With adoration,

Dia Lillian.

Rose peered into the box and gaped. It was filled with more boxes! She pulled out one of the boxes that read: Lovely Lillith's and opened it up. Inside of it was a jar filled with pink crystal-looking things that were labeled as Dazzling Love.

"What?" Rose whispered to herself, "What is this for?"

She went through the rest of the boxes and only grew more confused. Delilah said her mother was a beautician, and her mother said in the letter that these were her "best products", so Rose could conclude they were beauty products.

Rose had never, ever used such things before. She hadn't even seen make up outside the occasional lip balm during winter. None of them had directions or labels outside of their names, and it wasn't like there was a Google for Rose to use to look these things up.

She didn't want them to go to waste since they all seemed nice (and they smelled great), but she didn't have a clue what to do with them.

Maybe… Havi will know? Rose thought carefully to herself.

Havi struck Rose as the kind of girl who used beauty products. Rose poked her head outside her bedroom, relieved to find that Havi and Philip were still there. It was early enough in the morning that Galio and Lanna hadn't gotten up yet. It would probably take Professor Nigel another solid ten minutes to drag the sleepy gargoyle out of his bed, too.

"Um, Havi?" Rose tentatively called out, "Do you have a moment?"

"Anything for you, dear," Havi said, getting up from the couch and moving some of the hovering textbooks out of her way. The vampire princess entered Rose's room, glancing over at the box. "Do you need help opening some of the jars?"

"I don't know what any of this stuff does," Rose confessed, holding up one of the boxes.

Havi looked at its contents and grimaced. "I won't be able to help you there. I don't have any scales, so I use completely different stuff."

"Oh."

"Why don't you ask Delilah? I'm sure she knows all about this stuff."

"Oh… yeah, thanks."

Come nine o'clock sharp and Professor Nigel escorted the students to breakfast.

The escorting was met with reluctant acceptance. Some students were notably irritated about having to be chauffeured—most of the biggest complaints came from the Hero Kingdom, Aella would later tell Lanna and Rose—and the rest were indifferent.

The fact of the matter was that a monster was set loose in the school and attacked students. The students' safety was their priority.

The Chasm Kingdom—and Warrior, Rose would reluctantly note—were vehemently out for blood after breakfast that morning.

Rose had been hoping for a perfectly nice breakfast with her kingmates—Chester and Keinan also ate with their kingmates—but that was abruptly cut short when Galio stormed over to Deo's table.

Her king, wearing his paper crown, quite loudly told Deo, "You better watch out for your little kingmates, Deo."

"Eh?" Deo snarled. "You trying to start something, stone-head?"

"I mean, everyone knows now that the Hero Kingdom is so bloodthirsty for a little kid's blood, they'd get it from anyone," Galio nearly shouted, glaring hatefully over at Kyros, the king of the Hero Kingdom. "They're the ones behind the attack."

"If that were true, we would have been expelled already," Kyros snapped, silver eyes flashing.

"Lucky for you, the investigation's postponed until after school, then, huh," Deo growled, leaning over his table.

"Enough," Professor Yūei cut in, "Mister Galio, return to your kingdom."

Galio raised his hands up in a gesture of surrender, but with Rose's draconic eyes, she could see a tiny little spark of magic fly off one of his fingertips. It was an odd thing, but Rose didn't comment on it. Galio headed back over to his table, exchanging a brief look with Deo. When he came back, he sat down beside Rose, ruffling her hair.

"Don't worry, kiddo," Galio told her. "I gave 'em a chance to get their heads outta their butts, but if they wanna pick on you, they're gonna be in for a world of hurt."

"Whatever you do, make sure you leave Aella out of it," Lanna warned. "She's already having a tough enough time with her whole kingdom ignoring her."

Galio shrugged in response, glancing over at the Hero Kingdom. Aella sat at the very edge of the table, miserable and poking at her food.

Rose's chest tightened at seeing the normally bubbly girl look so defeated, and she asked, "Can she come sit over here with us?"

"Might not be a good thing to do right now," Havi observed, her red eyes narrowing as she looked coldly upon the kingdom. "If they're ignoring her because she's friends with us, they might start picking on her if she openly chose a side."

Lanna heaved a great sigh, and Rose's stomach turned to rock as guilt settled over her. "I'm sorry."

Lanna shook her head at Rose's apology. "You've done nothing. I really don't know what's gotten into their heads this year. Kyros is usually, like, the nicest guy."

Galio scratched his cheek. "Doesn't matter now. He crossed the line."

"I'd say he crossed the line with the hex," Philip muttered.

"Feh," Galio muttered. "Deo hexed me my first year to throw up spiders."

"You hexed him first,��� Havi dismissed. "Rose hasn't done anything to warrant their hatred."

Food was conjured at their table, and Galio glanced back over at the Hero Kingdom's table with a dark grin. He waved his right hand and suddenly, a massive explosion of food erupted at the heart of the table. All the Hero Kingdom's breakfast flew into their faces and completely covered them.

There were gasps from the other tables, but shrieks of outrage bounced around the Hero kingmates. Through the corner of Rose's eye, she could see Deo slam his foot down on the ground and a burst of magic shot out from under him and towards the table. As soon as the magic hit the table, all of their benches flipped over, knocking the Hero students down to the ground.

"Covered in food and on the floor," Galio cooed, "you all finally look like the pigs you are."

"Oink, oink, losers," Deo called out, and students from Chasm started to laugh. Aisling and Logicke joined in.

Professor Yūei angrily stood up from the table she and the other professors had been sitting at. With a wave of her hand, all sound disappeared from the cafeteria as her magic filled the air.

So filled with fury, she quivered and bit out in a voice colder than a blizzard, "Detention, Mister Galio and Mister Deo."

Galio and Deo looked entirely unrepentant, still smirking over at the Hero kingmates who were trying to clean themselves up with what dignity they had left.

A part of Rose felt vindictively pleased, but the rest of her only felt uncomfortable. She especially hated the fact that Aella got caught in the crossfire, and she couldn't help but think that this would only cause more problems.

"You jerk," Lanna snarled, "you hit Aella!"

"If I left her alone, it'd be worse for her," Galio retorted. "Shut up and eat, thunderbutt. If you aren't going to protect our kingmate, I will."

Lanna's face darkened, and sparks of electricity danced off her hands. She slammed her hands down on the table as she stood up in anger.

"What?!"

"Enough," Havi cut in sharply. "Sit down, Lanna. Galio, remain quiet. We're going to enjoy a nice breakfast before going to class. Lanna, you are going to remember that Galio means well. Galio, you are going to remember that Aella is Lanna's mate, and you will be considerate of both of their feelings."

The two emotional kingmates sat back and stubbornly looked away, thoroughly chastised by the vampire princess.

"Galio, keep your pranks to the upper years," Havi continued, "and I will allow you to rope Philip into it."

Philip perked up at that, and Galio was back to grinning hugely again, his tail out and wagging like a happy dog.

"Philip, please refrain from maiming anyone again," Havi went on, "human skin or not, that's simply poor manners."

"Sorry," Philip apologized. "I won't get carried away again, I promise."

"Mm-hmm. Lanna, you are more than welcome to invite Aella to stay with us at our kingdom for the rest of year, but don't pressure her."

"Yes, Havi."

The future queen of the Warriors smiled at everyone. The smile did not reach her eyes. "Good. Now, Rose, promise me you'll let me know if they try anything further, and make sure you don't go anywhere alone."

"I promise."

Havi nodded firmly, then clapped her hands once. "Now that that's settled, let's eat, everyone."