"Come in," Simma ushered, standing up from the floor.
The door flung open with a majestic flourish as Sarah came walking inside. She was still in her gliding attire, a cropped top singlet that partitioned her tits into a "look at me twice" cleavage, also showing her flat and seductive belly.
Then a tight tracksuit pants clinging to her waist, showing those elegant curves without effort.
Simma collapsed onto his bed, landing seat-first with a soft bounce. Sarah, without a word, crossed the room and settled into the chair beside his desk, positioned against the window.
She actually felt somehow after their just-not-long-enough talk on the final hint, but that was not what she wanted to start with. She looked around, trying to get a topic of interest to look at, but nothing came.
It was about to be a kind of weird silence between them when her eyes fell to the book that still lay on top of the table. She read the topic which said;
"My past self and the me, me."
She traced her hands across those embossed titles again, and opening the book she asked,
"What figure of speech do you think this is?"
Simma, who had been looking at her with the edge of his eyes so as to quickly avoid eye contact when it came, spoke, but the first words were not so clear, so he cleared his throat.
"I don't know."
Sarah's full gaze was on the book, and it was like she didn't even hear Simma's answer. She kept turning the pages one by one, noting the gothic black font that introduced each new chapter.
moments lingered by, until;
"You won't find anything relating to the tournament," Simma said, breaking the silence that had draped its blanket on top of them.
Sarah didn't stop turning the book, and her eyes never left it.
"Who said I was looking for hints?" she replied, still scanning the text.
"Who knows? I was just trying to save you the trouble." He paused, a thought striking him. "How did you get past the guards?"
Though boys and girls could visit each other during the day, there was a strict curfew, after 19:00 No girl was allowed to visit a boy and vice versa, and to enforce this, a little kind of house was built between the two wings, and some guards were kept there to make sure that no one passed.
But rules were rules, and some would say that they were made just to be broken. Lucy being one of them, since she could just portal herself into a boy's room if she wished to. And also Mrs. Pink, she had the power to go invisible, but due to the fact that she was still a low rank, in fact a recruit, her power was not yet so good.
And to go invisible she had to be entirely naked, she hadn't unlocked or mastered how to make her wear go invisible with her.
"A girl can't say all her dirty little secrets," Sarah replied, still going through the book.
That reply was like a finger to the ribs, tickling it more and more, making it tease with curiosity.
"Come on, you can tell… not like I'm going to snitch or anything."
"You don't need to know," she replied with a sly smile that only deepened his intrigue.
Simma couldn't help but feel like she was enjoying the way she teased him, adding to the itch in his inquisitiveness.
"Why not?"
Sarah now turned. The look on her face was the kind that said, 'I'll tell you just to shut you up.'
"Well…" She hesitated, then veered suddenly off track. "Someone told me I wouldn't find anything about the Wood Hint, but they'd been studying Yiriana's bow." She leaned back, a self-satisfied glimmer in her eyes, as though she'd just cracked the greatest mystery in history.
She shook her hair, assimilating what she just discovered.
"No wonder you were so good at that bow."
Simma exhaled. The oozed out breath saying 'unbelievable'.
"Well someone said that they weren't looking for hints" he replied, countering Sarah, who just chose to ignore those words and focus more on what she saw as her win.
But instead of the guilty reaction she expected, Simma simply sat there, calm and unreadable.
"I wasn't.... okay?, I just happened to be lucky enough and stumble into these" Sarah explain it was as if her words were forcing there way out of her mouth. Well, it turns out she could even ignore those words after all.
"You sure that you saw the Yiriana's bow there, or you just want to trick me?" Simma asked, his words as simple as ever, not even a hint of surprise in them.
Sarah scoffed.
"You are just so unbelievable. Just admit that I have found out your little secret and stop lying about it already."
Simma heaved a sigh, a smirk on his face. The one thing that he discovered he was naturally good at is what Sarah was trying to say he learned from a book that just showed up a few days ago.
Well, if Sarah wanted a mystery to solve, she could begin by finding out who sent the book in the first place and also who had impersonated his handwriting.
"I found that book some days after our first basic training… you'd really think that I would find out about the bow and how to make use of it and not tell you about it?"
Sarah shrugged.
"Maybe…"
She paused mid-statement and then pierced her eyes into the book again to make sure she saw what she saw.
"Well, I believe you," she just added all of a sudden.
Simma stared, surprised. He might have worn a lawsuit already, in the sense that he was getting ready to argue the motion, and this time he was determined not to get angry, but Sarah just believed.
"Now you just believe me?" he asked, still astounded. His stare was so cold and unyielding it could strip a person bare.
Sarah chuckled, casting a glance at him and looking away, not wanting to be intimidated by his stare. Then calmly she replied.
"Yes… I believe you."
"Well, I'm not sure I believe that you believe me," Simma threw back.
Sarah stretched herself on the chair, and bending back over the book, she replied,
"Nothing about how to use the bow or even the bow's description is here."
Simma winced.
"So?"
"So," Sarah continued, "I believe you didn't learn it from here. Just like I said, nothing about how to use the bow is written here. Meanwhile, it was just busy describing Yiriana and her love life and...."
"Hang on," Simma cut in, amazed, his hand stretched towards Sarah, gesturing to his words.
"Her love life? Who was her lover?"
Sarah looked at him.
"I thought you'd read this book?," she questioned, raising a brow.
Simma shut his eyes, knowing where she was headed with her question, and then he opened them. How possibly did she think that he would have finished this huge book?
"Yes… I have."
Sarah threw her hands up to show the seriousness in her words and also the disbelief in them.
"Then how do you not know this?" she challenged.
Simma didn't answer, but that look on his face, how piercing and dangerous-looking it was, well, Sarah knew it and needed not to be told what it was saying to her.
"Fine," she gave in.
Simma smiled, evilly and also to the fact that his suspense was about to be dissolved.
Sarah read from the book,
"She had taught the one very person that means the whole world to her how to wield and use her bow, the one very person that she might even give up her sentinel position for, something that she had fought hard to get, som..."
"Just cut to the chase already, Sarah," Simma cut in impatiently, curiosity gnawing at him.
Sarah exhaled. "Right… the very person… blah blah blah… that had captivated her with his Within Beast… blah blah blah… alright, here is the name… Gregor Swamwood."
Simma's eyes widened in shock, his mouth hanging agape like someone who had just discovered or seen death by its real face.
"No.... bloody.... way."