[Wednesday Morning - Before Flavia's Class, Library - Felissia's Perspective]
In the early hours of the morning, I had decided to go to the library to collect my thoughts a bit before Flavia's class. The corridors were still quiet, the chaos of the day hadn't begun yet. I loved these moments. But just as I was passing through the entrance of the main building, I saw him coming straight toward me. Octavian.
A sudden chill spread through my body. At that moment my logic completely shut down. We had made eye contact, just for a second, but even that was enough to make my cheeks burst into flames. A single command echoed in my mind: Run.
Without thinking, I turned around and began walking quickly in the direction I had come from. My heart was pounding against my ribcage. I didn't know where I was going, I just wanted to put distance between us. I took refuge in the safest, quietest harbor: the library.
When I dove breathlessly through the library door, I threw myself among the massive shelves. About ten minutes had passed. My heartbeat had finally slowed when I heard those footsteps. Slow, measured, and determined steps. They were approaching me.
Books had always been a refuge for me. The silence between books, the smell of ink, and the rustle of pages were the complete opposite of that noisy, unpredictable chaos of the outside world. Minerva Institute's library was like the fortress of this refuge. But for the last few days, even in this castle I wasn't comfortable. The panic I had just experienced was all from that day: my collapse to the floor under the mercilessly bright lights of the cafeteria. The sound of food scattered from the tray, a moment of silence and then... stares. Ella's worried face and Octavian's... those calm, piercing looks whose feelings I couldn't even understand.
That's why I was running from him. Facing him meant facing the shame of that moment again.
The footsteps stopped right beside me.
"Felissia?"
That was his voice. Calm, questioning, and inevitable. I froze. I felt like all the blood in my body was rushing to my cheeks. The pages of the book blurred. I wanted to run again, I quickly jumped up, stuffed the book randomly into the shelf and took a step in the opposite direction.
"Just a second," he said in the same calm voice. He hadn't blocked my path but his tone had nailed me to where I stood. "I just want to talk. Please."
I stood with my back to him, my shoulders tense. Talk? About how I had just run from him like a coward?
When he saw that I remained silent, he continued. "Look, I know you're uncomfortable. I think what happened in the corridor just now was because of me too. About what happened in the cafeteria... I'm sorry."
With these words I slowly turned to him. Was he sorry? Why? I was the one who fell to the ground. "It... it wasn't your fault," I managed to whisper. How weak my voice sounded.
He was looking at me without averting his eyes. But there was no judgment in his gaze. "Maybe not directly," he said. "But I was part of a situation that caused you to feel uncomfortable after that moment. It was never my intention to frighten or embarrass you. When I saw you run away just now, I realized we needed to talk about this."
I felt my face burning. "I... I just..." I couldn't finish my sentence. What could I say? "Yes, I'm running away from you all because I'm dying of shame"?
As if he had read my thoughts, he took a step closer but was careful not to enter my personal space. "You know," he began, his voice had lowered a bit. "When I was in high school, I used to run away from people too. Even the idea of talking to someone new was enough to make my stomach knot up. I was very afraid of doing things wrong, understanding wrong, making myself look stupid."
I lifted my eyes from the ground in amazement and looked at his face. Him? Octavian, who always knew what to do, who was always confident?
He smiled slightly. It was a bitter smile. "I know it's hard to believe. But that's how it was. So... I understand more or less how you feel. Nobody judged you, Felissia. Or laughed at you. Ella and I, we both just wanted to make sure you were okay. That's all."
His words seemed to loosen those tense, knotted strings inside me one by one. They came like a balm over my shame. I hadn't been judged. They had just worried.
"I'm... clumsy," I said. The words were finally flowing more easily from my mouth. "I always knock things over or trip and fall."
"That doesn't matter," he said immediately. "Who's perfect? Sometimes I lose the connection between my brain and my mouth and say ridiculous things. What matters is intention. And we all know your intentions aren't bad."
At that moment, I felt that heavy, invisible burden I had been carrying on my shoulders for days lighten. I took a deep breath. A really deep breath. I looked into his eyes for the first time really. And there I saw only sincerity. Understanding.
"Thank you," I whispered.
He nodded. "You're welcome. You don't have to feel like you have to run away from us anymore, okay? We're just... friends."
"Friends," I repeated, savoring the word.
He smiled, more genuinely this time. Then he stepped back and gave me space, saying, "I'll leave you alone with your book," and walked away as quietly as he had come.
After he left, I stood there for a long time. I took back the book I had stuffed into the shelf earlier. The pages were no longer blurred. The silence of the library now felt peaceful, not suffocating. Someone had understood the weight of my silence and reached out to lighten it. And this had changed everything.
[Same Time - Before Flavia's Class, Library]
While the sun was just beginning to filter through the pointed towers of Apexia, I was already up. That familiar restlessness upon me had drawn me early to the small forest at the edge of the campus. This was my refuge. That small, secret place I had built from parts I collected from the junkyard that no one knew about.
It was an escape point where I came sometimes just to think, sometimes to not think at all. There was absolute silence except for the rustling I made stepping on the leaves. My refuge stood as I had left it; untouched, undiscovered. This simple fact gave me back that small sense of control I needed to face the chaos of the rest of the day.
As I left the forest and walked toward the main building, my thoughts were clearer. But this clarity scattered instantly when I saw that familiar silhouette coming straight toward me. Felissia.
We made eye contact. Just for a moment. But that moment was enough to see the panic inside her. Her averting her eyes, her shoulders tensing, and without thinking turning around and quickening her steps... She was running from me. Just like she had been doing since Monday.
My first reaction was a momentary anger and disappointment. What had I done? I had only tried to help. But then the combination of my father's and Marcella's words echoed in my mind. "Even good intentions can become a form of control." "Let people make their own mistakes."
I paused. I just stared after her. Should I leave her alone? Maybe that's what she wanted. But was this the right thing to do? Her running from me, constantly being on edge because of me... This wasn't a healthy situation. This wasn't a problem I needed to solve, yes. But I couldn't remain indifferent to a problem I had caused.
I took a deep breath and made my decision. I wouldn't chase after her. I wouldn't pursue her. But I would find her. And I would just talk. Calmly. Without judgment.
I knew where to find her. The library. The only place she could hide behind silence and books. About ten minutes later, when I entered through the library door, my instincts led me directly to the Valerian History section. And there she was. Tiny among the shelves, trying to hide behind a book.
When I approached her, I noticed how fast my heart was beating. What if she ran away again? What if I frightened her even more?
"Felissia?"
What I expected happened. She jumped up from her place, stuffed the book into the shelf and was about to run away. But this time I was prepared.
"Just a second," I said, keeping my voice as soft as possible. "I just want to talk. Please."
She stopped. Her back was to me but at least she had stopped. This was progress. When I told her about my high school self, I was surprised at how easily the words flowed. At that moment I wasn't planning, I wasn't analyzing. I was just honest. Seeing her amazed but gradually relaxing expression made me feel I was on the right track.
"You don't have to feel like you have to run away from us anymore, okay? We're just... friends."
After saying this sentence, as I left her side, a worry sprouted in me. Had I done the right thing? Or had I crossed boundaries again and overwhelmed her? But then I thought to myself: What was the worst that could happen? At least she wasn't running from me like a ghost anymore. This was a beginning.
With these thoughts I walked toward the amphitheater where Flavia's class was held. I saw Cassius and Gaius at the door. Gaius, with his usual wide grin, said, "Here comes our genius. Last night in my dream you were solving Ventorius's codes again."
Cassius just nodded hello and smiled wisely. "Leave the boy alone, Gaius. He's living his last happy moments before Flavia's class."
This banter had relaxed me. When I entered the classroom, my eyes immediately searched for her. Ella. She was sitting at her desk, organizing her notes. When I approached her, she raised her head and that sincere smile appeared on her face.
"Good morning," I said as I sat in the empty chair next to her.
"Good morning," she said. "Your library mission seems to have been successful."
I frowned. "How did you know?"
She pointed with her eyes to the other side of the classroom. When I looked there, I saw Felissia sitting diagonally a few rows from us. She had raised her head and was looking at us. When our eyes met, she didn't quickly turn away. Instead, she smiled slightly. A shy but sincere smile.
The last crumb of worry inside me evaporated. I was relieved. I turned to Ella, "Yes," I said. "I think it was successful."
Just then Professor Flavia entered the classroom. With her usual stern and serious expression, she walked to the podium. All the murmurs in the amphitheater stopped instantly. No matter how relieved I was, the real battle was now beginning.
[Same Time - Amphitheater - Flavia's Perspective]
The moment I entered through the amphitheater door, that familiar wave of silence spread before me. This was a respect born of fear, and I was pleased with it. My class wasn't a refuge; it was a martial arts dojo. An arena where minds were beaten, the weak were eliminated, and the strong discovered their limits. As I walked toward the podium, my eyes scanned the amphitheater. Each face was an equation to be solved. The laziness equation, the fear equation, the arrogance equation...
And then I saw him. Octavian Corvus. My most complex equation. His intelligence was sharp as a knife but an uncontrolled fire burned within him. I had been watching him since the first day I saw him. A mind that challenged, pushed boundaries, but was also hungry to learn. Today I was determined to bring that mind to its breaking point.
I also noticed the girl sitting next to him. Ella Novell. Quiet, almost invisible. But there was a weight in her silence. Next to Octavian's chaotic energy, she stood like a calm puddle of water. And diagonally across from them, that constantly timid Felissia... Today her shoulders were a bit straighter. Interesting. A small anomaly.
I started the lesson. The topic was "Ghost Variables in Stochastic Processes." It wasn't a topic written in books to be memorized. It was a labyrinth. I threw my students into that labyrinth and expected them to find the way out. I presented them with data, formulas, and a seemingly impossible problem. The problem was intentionally flawed. It contained a paradox that couldn't be solved with logic, but could only be understood when you transcended the limits of logic.
My eyes were on Octavian. As I expected, he dove headfirst into the problem. I could hear the rapid tapping of his pen on his notebook. The expression on his face had the concentration of an engineer dismantling a complex mechanism. But I could see he was beginning to hit the walls of the labyrinth. I could see his jaw tightening, his eyebrows furrowing, his breathing quickening... He was falling into the trap of his own intelligence. He was intelligent, yes. But intelligence without discipline is nothing. I was cornering him mentally. I expected him to break, give up, or at least have that annoying confidence of his shaken.
Then my attention shifted to the girl next to him. Ella. She was also struggling, this was obvious. But her struggle was different. She wasn't trying to solve the problem; she was waiting for the storm to calm. There was no panic on her face, but a tiring resistance. She was like a soldier who had taken cover against a mental attack. This was also a talent. The ability to survive.
And then it happened. I felt that invisible energy flow between the two of them. Octavian's hand disappeared under the desk for a moment. There was contact. I didn't see it but I saw it. Because Octavian's posture changed. That tense, ambitious energy suddenly dispersed. His shoulders dropped slightly, his pen slowed. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, his gaze was different. He was no longer fighting the walls of the labyrinth. He was looking at the labyrinth from above.
I couldn't prevent a faint smile from appearing on my face. At that moment, he had noticed the trap. The paradox. He understood that the solution to the problem lay not in more calculation, but in accepting the flaw in the calculation itself. The answer wasn't a complex formula, but a simple question: "What if the initial data is wrong?"
He calmly put his pen down on his notebook. He had found the answer. But he didn't shout, didn't raise his hand. He just leaned back and looked at me. There was an expression of victory in his eyes. But this wasn't an arrogant victory. It was the calm satisfaction that came with understanding.
Then he turned to the girl next to him, Ella. On his face was a soft smile of the kind I could never show. The girl's cheeks had turned slightly red. So she was the one who had calmed the storm. A lightning rod that guided Octavian's intelligence.
As I finished the lesson, I had only one thought in my mind. Corvus was more than I had expected. But he didn't draw his strength only from his own mind. This made the equation even more interesting. Indeed, this boy was steel worth beating.
[Same Time - Amphitheater]
When Professor Flavia entered the amphitheater, I felt the oxygen in the room decrease. This was part of her presence; like a black hole that drew everything to itself. But today, with the calm brought by Felissia's shy smile and Ella sitting next to me, I felt more resistant to this gravitational pull. The battle was beginning but this time I wasn't alone in my trench.
When Flavia wrote "Ghost Variables in Stochastic Processes" on the board, my mind immediately shifted into high gear. This was her signature. Abstract, confusing, and most likely full of traps. When she put the problem in front of us, it looked solvable at first glance. Data, formulas... Everything was familiar. My brain, as usual, began to piece things together, to find the fastest and most effective solution path.
My pen was practically dancing on the notebook. I easily passed the first few steps. But then... I hit a wall. There was an anomaly. My calculations were contradicting each other, I was trapped in a logical loop. Every path I tried led to the same meaningless result. This was impossible. I wouldn't make mistakes. At least not on a problem at this level.
My heartbeat quickened. My palms began to sweat. This wasn't just a lesson; this was Flavia's direct attack on me, on my intelligence. I was losing control. The calm, orderly room in my mind suddenly seemed to be on fire. Panic spread over my logic like a dark veil. "Think more," I told myself. "Analyze faster. You must be missing something." But the more I forced it, the tighter the knot became.
Just when I was on the verge of giving up, of admitting the defeat of my arrogant intelligence, I felt that warmth from under the desk.
Ella's hand was on mine.
This wasn't a consoling touch. It was a rescue operation. At that moment, all those noisy, panic-filled sirens in my brain went silent. The flames seemed to be suddenly extinguished. That simple, human contact had pulled me out of the labyrinth of my mind.
I closed my eyes. The driving instructor's voice echoed in my mind: "Stop thinking, feel." My father's words: "The issue isn't being the strongest, it's being able to make the most correct move."
I put down my pen. I was no longer trying to solve the problem. I was just looking at it. And at that moment I saw it. Flavia's genius, her trap... The problem wasn't in my calculations. The problem was in the problem itself. The data was flawed. "Ghost variables" were clues. She didn't want us to find them, but to understand how their existence made the equation impossible. The solution wasn't to do more operations, but to reject the operation.
When I opened my eyes, I made eye contact with Flavia. On her face was one of those rare, almost invisible smiles. She understood that I understood. I leaned back, not a feeling of victory but deep relief washing over me. I turned to Ella. She was also looking at me. There was an expression in her eyes that said "You did it." I felt a smile spread across my face. "We did it," I corrected internally.
That day, walking home, the same moment kept spinning in my mind. My conversation with Felissia, passing Flavia's test... Everything I had accomplished happened when I abandoned my old methods. When I stopped analyzing, controlling, planning. When I was honest, when I accepted help, when I allowed another person's presence to calm me...
Ella was my safe space. A force that grounded the storms in my mind, that calmed me even in the most chaotic moments.
When I sat at my desk in my room, I wrote the most important formula I had learned that day in my notebook: "Intelligence + Intuition = Understanding."
This was a new equation and I was still very amateur at it. But I felt I was on the right path. I took a deep breath. Tomorrow was Thursday. The last face-to-face school day of the week. And the most red, most dangerously marked day on the calendar.
Tomorrow was Professor Aurex's day. And his games would be much more merciless than Flavia's mental labyrinths.
But as I closed my notebook, a sudden realization hit me. My father's voice, Marcella's warnings, the driving instructor's mantra - I had been cycling through these same thoughts for days now. The same mental references, the same internal discussions, the same analytical loops...
I rubbed my temples where a dull ache was beginning to form. "Enough," I muttered to myself. "Why do I keep thinking about the same things over and over? My head is starting to hurt from this loop."
I had learned the lessons. I had processed the advice. I had understood the principles. Constantly rehashing them wasn't making me wiser - it was just mental noise now. Tomorrow I would face Aurex, and I needed clarity, not the echo chamber of repeated analysis.
It was time to stop overthinking and start living the wisdom I had already gained.