“Let’s get closer,” I said to Clem and pulled her toward the other side of the hallway, where we could get a better look at Rachel’s progress.
“I don’t like this,” my friend whispered. “It’s dangerous.”
“I agree,” I said. “Ardith’s being a very special kind of jerk today.”
“Cruzal should know better,” Clem muttered. And then we were too close to the teachers to speak and had to worm our way through the other students to get a front-row seat to Rachel’s attempt.
She’d already cracked the spigot open by the time we could see her, and her aura contained the first waste aspects that had leaked out of the containment vessel. Her face was wrinkled into a disgusted frown at the stink and slimy feel of the rot aspects she’d already processed. She wasn’t used to handling waste like this, and the handful of disgusting green motes clogging her aura must have tasted like a hearty gulp from a gallon jug of spoiled milk.
With one shaking hand, she closed the spigot and cycled deep, cleansing breaths through her core. The air in the waste unit was far from pure and clean, but it was a far cry better than the disgusting mess in Rachel’s aura. As we watched, she fashioned one of her serpents and guided it toward the funnel. With each breath she took after that, the rot aspects flowed out of her aura and into the transport vessel. It was a gross, annoying job, and I was impressed at how well Rachel had handled herself. She’d lost some aspects by not using a serpent to gather them from the spigot, but she’d still done very well.
Much better than I had my first time in Hahen’s laboratory, as a matter of fact.
“I suppose that’s acceptable for a Disciple,” Professor Ardith said. “When you’ve cleansed your aura, you may exit the chamber and our next volunteer can continue the process. Perhaps we’ll finish the transfer by sometime next year.”
“Considering her background, she’s done very well,” Headmistress Cruzal said. The words set my teeth on edge, and I opened my mouth to say something.
Only to be stopped by Clem’s sudden stomp on my toes.
“Don’t get yourself in trouble,” Clem said. “Rachel can handle herself.”
While my friend’s words were true, that didn’t make it any easier for me to swallow my anger. I knew what it was like to be treated like dirt. Clem didn’t. Still, it wouldn’t do any of us any good for me to start a fight with the headmistress. So far, she liked me. If I upset that apple cart, there was no telling what kind of trouble I might get myself into. Assassins were enough for me to deal with at the moment.
Rachel finally shambled out of the chamber, her eyes wide, her forehead dotted with beads of perspiration. She blew strands of her bangs out of her eyes with an exasperated breath and bowed to Professor Ardith.
“Thank you for the instruction, honored Professor,” she said. “It was most enlightening.”
“Yes,” Ardith agreed. “I’m sure it was. Since your friends also can’t quit talking during a demonstration, Ms. Hark will be our next volunteer.”
Clem frowned at the professor’s words, and I braced myself for an angry retort. Instead, the adjudicator’s daughter nodded, bit her lip, and marched into the chamber. She stiffened her spine and took up a position midway between the spigot and the funnel. She cycled her breathing, filling her aura with aspects from her surroundings and her own unique aspects. From the latter, she fashioned her serpents, and they rose from her palms like a pair of ivory cobras.
Clem guided her right hand’s serpent toward the spigot and her left toward the funnel. I recognized what she was trying to do and wondered if she could pull it off. Pulling the rot aspects in through one serpent and pushing them out through the other was a tricky maneuver for someone without the benefits of a core like mine, and I’d never seen my friend do anything remotely like this before.
Ardith must’ve really ticked her off.
Clem took another deep breath, and at the same instant used her serpent to crack the spigot on the containment vessel. The glowing tentacle of her essence swooped down to plug the spigot so the aspects couldn’t escape into the air. She then inserted the other tentacle into the funnel, closed her eyes, and began her meditation technique.
With every cycle of breath, Clem absorbed more and more rot aspects into her aura. I was no expert on waste management, so I wasn’t sure why the school had so many garbage aspects around. Maybe they were reclaiming the jinsei and storing the waste aspects, like I’d done for Tycho.
Whatever the case, the containment vessel had far more rot aspects than Clem had anticipated. Her aura filled with them, and she struggled to push the toxic gunk up through her other serpent and into the funnel. She was overwhelmed and needed help.
I took a step forward, only to be hauled up short by Ardith’s barked command.
“Stop.” He stepped forward, put a hand on my shoulder, and glanced into the room where Clem struggled valiantly to do as she’d been asked. “She’s fine. Certainly the daughter of someone so powerful as Adjudicator Hark won’t have any trouble with a little job like this.”
“It’s poisoning her,” I said. “Let me close the spigot so she can process the aspects.”
“It’s an important lesson to learn,” Ardith said, his voice low. “She thought she was more capable than she was. It’s a mistake she won’t make again.”
I glanced toward the headmistress, who was busy discussing some unimportant bit of school business with one of my fellow students. I started to raise my hand, and Ardith snatched it out of the air and forced it back down to my side.
“Don’t embarrass your friend,” he said. “Or me.”
Clem’s aura had taken on the the foul, sickly green of stagnant swamp water. Her head lolled on
