Shay

"Wait- How did you... then?" Katania flexed her jaw and stomped her foot in frustration. 

The man picked up on this and offered her a small smile as he raised his hand in a calming manner.

"I know what you want to ask," he said, chuckling bitterly, "I've only answered them a million times before." he added.

"When we speak, our voices disturb the air, this results in vibrations that can be felt through the skin, so when you yelled..." he broke off and Katania's face flooded with embarrassment. 

The man laughed, and the sound was rough and stirring, Katania felt as if she were suddenly beneath a warm cascade of refreshing water as his laugh washed over her. Smiling despite herself she offered her hand, "Katania," she greeted warmly.

Beaming as he took it, "Call me Shay." Shay replied.

"Shay." Katania nodded, her embarrassment quickly returning and she shook her hand free of his and turned to leave. "See you around, Shay." Her face flooded again as she fought the urge to ruthlessly slap herself in the face, she looked back to see his bewildered expression, "See you around, Shay." she said pointedly. Shay seemed to relax then and Katania found that she was able to breathe again. Shay nodded and resumed collection of the energy seeds scattered around the field, a faraway look present in his eyes.

Katania had been so flustered she had forgotten why she had gone over in the first place. Either way it was time to get to her class, Katania glanced at her schedule; From Mirais to Harvest is free study, from Harvest she had Herbcraft until Wing, after Herbcraft was Magecraft which Katania had already made up her mind to skip, lunch was at Povoc and then Swordcraft was at Shadow.

With a quick glance at the sky Katania stored her schedule before rushing off, it was already early Harvest and she couldn't be too late if she hurried.  

It didn't take long for Katania to locate her classroom, "How nice of you to join us, Katania, the instructor said icily. Katania glanced in the direction of the voice and saw a stern wooden back covered in a free mess of steel gray hairs. it seemed the instructor hadn't even bothered to look at the late arrival.

"My apologies, Instructor, I..."

"Take your seat." She said shortly, cutting Katania off. As Katania quickly moved to do so, a hand in the midst of the row of desks beckoned towards her, Katania saw that it was Empress motioning for her to take the seat beside her and she moved all the more rapidly. "I've been looking for you," she hissed as she sat down. Empress shrugged, "You need only have made your way towards class and you'd have found me." Katania sighed dejectedly, "At least tell me her name." Katania whispered whilst rolling her eyes at Empress.

If Empress noticed Katania's annoyance she did not show it, "Instructor Gilchrist." she answered simply before returning to her notes.

"As I was saying, rockseed and songflower of varying potency can create the effect known as paralysis, this effect ranges from mild to severe, with some cases involving highly potent ingredients resulting in even death."

Instructor Gilchrist resumed her lesson after seeing Katania take her seat.

A hand shot up,

"Yes, Ms.Laurient." Instructor Gilchrist nodded towards the raised hand in the middle row.

A wave went through the classroom as everyone shifted in their seats to observe the girl who was now standing rigidly beside her desk with both arms folded behind her back.

"Thank you Instructor," she began amidst a few snickers from behind her which she chose to ignore. "You mentioned that the combination of rockseed and songflower can cause death if mixed using ingredients with high potency, however, this information is incorrect." she stated, shaking her head.

Instructor Gilchrist's look of surprise told them she had not expected to be contradicted but before she could answer the girl continued, "It is not my intent to gainsay your esteemed self, Instructor," she said, allaying her concerns. "However, if the intention is paralysis, one should not be concerned with using weaker ingredients to avoid death, high potency in a paralysis concoction should result in a longer state of paralysis. The combination of rockseed and songflower can be prepared in one of two ways, paralysis; in which the rockseed is dried and cut and poison; in which the rockseed is crushed into paste. Naturally, if the latter is prepared as opposed to the former then the result is death." She resumed her seat as she finished. Katania glanced around at the now silent classroom, quiet apart from the feverish scribbling of Empress's pen as she took notes. Instructor Gilchrist had a bit of a dazed expression in her eyes as she muttered quietly to herself while making her way towards the cabinets lining the wall.

She filled her arms with ingredients before returning to her desk and began to arrange them into neat piles before she set to work carefully preparing the materials.