Veronica was still staring at Marcus.
Marcus's mouth opened—probably for another line, another jab, another reason for her Annoyance to keep climbing.
Alex moved.
Just a step. Enough to block her line of sight. Enough to put himself between her and the target.
Marcus blinked, then raised an eyebrow.
"You know," Alex said, voice flat, "for someone who talks a lot about posters, you're really bad at reading the room."
Silence.
Marcus's eyebrow stayed up. His friends exchanged glances.
Alex didn't wait for a response. He walked to the bench, picked up Veronica's tablet, walked back, and—
He grabbed her hand.
[Curiosity: 62% → 80% ↑]
He pulled her toward the door. She didn't resist.
And they walked.
Thirty seconds. Maybe a minute. Long enough for it to become real. Long enough for Alex to realize he was still holding her hand and she hadn't pulled away and oh god what was happening.
They rounded a corner. Out of sight. A safe distance. He immediately dropped her hand like it burned him.
"Sorry—I—that was—" Words tumbled out, tripping over each other. "I didn't mean to—I just needed to—you were going to—and Marcus was—and I panicked—"
His face was red. His hands were doing things. The guy who'd just delivered a verbal jab to a Gold Mark noble was now a stuttering mess because he'd held her hand for sixty seconds.
Veronica stared at him.
[Amusement: 28% → 19% ↓]
[Annoyance: 6% → 10% ↑]
"The clause says I can't kill you," she said. Flat. "It didn't say anything about not hurting you."
Alex's mouth snapped shut. He swallowed.
"Right. No. I know. I'm sorry. I just—" He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm really sorry."
She kept staring.
He looked genuinely sorry. Not performative sorry. Not scared sorry. Just... sorry. Besides, Marcus's face was gone. That alone made this whole thing almost tolerable.
She exhaled.
[Amusement: 19% → 19% —]
[Boredom: 73% → 73% —]
[Annoyance: 10% → 4% ↓]
"Never do that again."
Alex froze. "The—the hand? Or the—"
She just looked at him.
"Right. Okay. Got it. Never again. Understood."
She turned and walked.
Alex watched her go. Watched the numbers. Annoyance had dropped six points. Just like that. He had no idea why.
Did she forgive him? Did the apology work? Did something shift that he couldn't see?
Probably made it worse, he thought. She's probably going to make me pay for that later.
Then he followed her.
‡"‡
‡„‡
Now they were back at his dorm.
Alex had been sitting at his desk for ten minutes, looking at Veronica. Then looking away. Then looking back.
Veronica was on his bed, tablet in hand, scrolling through something. Expression unchanged.
He stared at the numbers.
[Curiosity: 41% → 40% → 39% ↓]
[Amusement: 19% → 19% —]
[Boredom: 76% → 78% ↑]
[Annoyance: 4% → 1% ↓]
[Cognitive Engagement: 12% → 10% ↓]
Since we got back, curiosity keeps dropping. Engagement too. She's just... scrolling. Ignoring me.
Boredom climbing, that made sense. She's bored. She's always bored. Annoyance is back to baseline, one percent, like the hand thing never happened.
I don't understand any of this.
His eyes drifted—as they always did, eventually—to the corner of his vision.
[ARSENAL STATUS: LOCKED]
It never changed. Never flickered. Never gave him anything except the quiet, constant reminder that everything he wanted was right there, and he had no idea how to reach it.
He rubbed his face.
And I was about to ask her to teach me. How am I supposed to ask her to teach me when I can't even get her to look at me?
He looked at her again. She didn't look back. Not once. Not even to check if he's there. She just kept scrolling away on her tablet.
The numbers in his vision held steady.
He had nothing.
After a minute—maybe longer—she finally looked up.
"Why does everyone call you Poster Boy?"
Alex blinked.
[Curiosity: 39% → 44% ↑]
[Cognitive Engagement: 10% → 12% ↑]
"You..." He paused. "You really wanna know?"
She nodded. Tablet resting on her lap. Eyes on him. Actually on him, not through him.
[Curiosity: 44% → 52% ↑]
[Cognitive Engagement: 12% → 14% ↑]
He exhaled, then rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's from the Equity Clause. The thing that let me get in here." He shrugged. "I scored highest on the entrance exam out of anyone who's used the clause in like... ever. So now I'm the poster boy for why it works." A bitter edge crept into his voice. "Look, a Black Mark can be smart. See? Progress."
He looked away, down at the floor.
"Doesn't matter though. Still R-14. Still can't win a fight. So the Golds use it to remind me what I really am. Poster Boy; all talk, no levels."
Silence.
Veronica nodded. Just once. "I see."
Alex didn't look up. He didn't want to see her expression. He didn't want to watch her boredom climb.
She stared at him for a moment, then:
"All Artifice are imbued with energy from Resonance crystals during construct. But the same energy is found in the Core of every practitioner."
He looked up at her and blinked. She went back to her tablet.
He stared at her for another second, then it clicked.
Wait. She's actually—
"So you just..." He spoke slowly, working through it. "You took energy from your own Core and imbued it into my pole axe?"
She didn't look up. "Hm."
[Cognitive Engagement: 14% → 20% ↑]
"But... how?"
She looked at him now, red eyes, flat expression, like she was weighing something.
Then:
"I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat."
Alex opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"What?"
She stood, grabbed her tablet, walked toward the door.
"You heard me."
He was still sitting on the desk, completely lost.
"You—" He gestured at nothing. "You just—and now you want—"
She stopped at the door, and turned to look back at him.
"You coming or not?"
[Amusement: 19% → 22% ↑]
[Curiosity: 52% → 53% ↑]
[Boredom: 78% → 72% ↓]
[Cognitive Engagement: 20% → 27% ↑]
Alex stared at her for a second, trying to figure out how "I just explained the fundamental nature of your existence" turned into "let's go get food." It was like watching someone pivot from astrophysics to asking about the price of milk. Smooth. Baffling. Somehow threatening.
Then he stood.
"Yeah. Okay. Food. Great."
‡«»‡