Among Stars - 5

"Follow." 

With that declaration came a burst of power, tearing those watching with giggling eyes and scandalous expressions all ran from their places.

"Serves them right…" I muttered. 

"Did… you say something…?" Gabriel muttered. 

"No. Nothing too important." He hummed and I smiled, patting that head of his. Letting silky hair flow through my hand. Like some sort of drug. Pulling me closer to that passionate state.

I shook my head, opening the gates and dragging the hand I held further through the garden, making sure his every step was peaceful.

Only then, after moments of silent walking did we finally make it to where we needed to be. A special place made for him specifically.

It truly was suspicious. To be given such special treatment. Given he did need to have an artifact to even be able to test.

But still, this wasn't something the academy would do without good reason.

Reason here being money. A favor, less likely though because really, when you had so many of their heirs by the tits did you really need favors.

"Here," I spoke, breaking the silence, "Sit and the test will be brought to you. Do well, I have expectations."

Even with that blank look of his, staring at some unseen entity. I could still tell when they smiled, compounding with that pure smile of his.

"Of course. I will strive to live up to those."

I fawned, staying silent for a minute while I both waited for the others to arrive and for the cuteness to go away.

My god, I just wanted to gobble him up right now. But I couldn't. It truly was a pain.

'Just remember,' I reminded myself, 'He is your charge, as long as he passes he is yours.'

I took a deep breath. Stabilizing myself. And just in time too.

"Miss Julian." They spoke, their voices a strange mirror of the other. Twins of white and black. Each with a different style, a different color scheme. But that was the only thing to track their differences. 

Their faces, their heights, their expressions, all was the same.

"Koya, Skaya." I greeted.

"Good. Then we are ready to begin." They spoke together, activating the ward placed over this room.

To detect any cheating, not that it was too likely.

"Gabriel."

"Yes?" He responded.

"You will be given two hours to complete this section. Ten minutes to rest and repeat. Until you have completed three sections. If this is what you want to do please confirm."

I read him off the rest of the usual drawl that we were forced to recite. Getting confirmation after every one.

On the bright side it was only one person that I had to recite to. And on the flip side it was one person.

It didn't save any time and clearly he was already here to be here, so why wouldn't he know of this stuff.

The same complaint I had for everything.

Nodding to the last point he took the quill in his hand. One that was enchanted for his special purposes.

Well that wasn't exactly true as it was repurposed. Originally it was made to translate the chicken scrawl that more humanoid familiars could write into something more legible but it turned out that just teaching them to read was much easier.

And so it was scrapped until now. A new facet that found the inventors quite bored. As it wasn't something new, merely a modification.

But even then it was quite useful. We might even give it to everyone now, it would help with both their homework in that they could complete it faster and that we would actually be able to read it.

I was actually excited to introduce this, of course after thinking of the implications.

Scrawling filled the room, corrections to posture and hold here and there. Moments and minutes of thought. Another filled with nothing but writing.

I watched as his answers evolved. Containing complex reasoning and derivations that I found myself whistling at.

We had a genius here.

Yet as the tests were, difficult. In one word at least. And as he reached the third section, I couldn't help the smirk on my face.

Now this was the true test. Sure you could pass on the other two and didn't even need to do well on all but one.

But this was where the chaff was separated from the wheat. Where we scouted the true geniuses.

And so as I watched him fly through the questions, finding both wrong and true answers. It was a miracle.

A jealousy that found its way into my mind.

Questions of my own adequacy filling my mind.

Was I truly a genius, for someone that had truly never seen the problems to be able to do so well, with guesses and logic.

Yet more than annoyance and inadequacy it just begged the question, why was he here? Why was he not married off but implicitly stated as open? Was there some kind of objective or were his parents that liberal.

To leave their only son in the hands of the dragon's den. Where any woman could take him. Especially when he was so helpless.

Honestly, I had to scoff, there was something going on here. Some political maneuvering I wasn't aware of, or maybe something sinister. Though I doubted that, he didn't seem the type.

Or maybe that was my rose filled glasses, searching for rights in this cute specimen.

"And… done." He put the quill down. Hopping out of his seat with a little pose. It was so cute. Especially since it contrasted that serious personality of his.

But then he realized what he had done. Somehow staring straight into the eyes of us three and apologizing in a solemn manner.

"Good, give it here and I'll hand it off to be graded." The twins said. Only through their colors could I tell that it was Koya, the one wearing the white dress. The other, Skaya held her hand out expecting him to place it in her hand.

"He is blind." I curtly stated, taking the paper off of the desk and into my hands, "I'll take it to be graded. You two can… do whatever it is you two do."

"Am I to follow?" 

I looked down at Gabriel, to his pitiful eyes staring up at me.

Only then did I sigh and take his hand in mine.

"Yes, I can-" I cut myself off, not daring to slander the two in front of them.

He nodded and followed after me, trailing using my hand as a guide.

…