It was a cheap laugh, but it did get the expected result. The candidates all laughed too, though Nava doubted they were amused. Still, the waiting would be over soon. Pascual had the results.
‘Since it’s a stressful time,’ the outgoing president went on, ‘let’s make this short.’ He tapped at the lectern in front of him. ‘Tracey Spears Cook, three thousand nine hundred and eighty-two votes.’ That was under fifty percent of the total number of students, but it still might be enough to give her the presidency, depending on the no-voters and Sebastian Ranta’s count. ‘Sebastian Ranta Voll, ninety-two votes.’ Okay, so he was not going to be having much of an impact. Still… ‘Mitsuko Trenton Sonkei… four thousand–’
Uproar. The crowd went wild. It was a little divided over how it went wild, but there was definitely a majority of the crowd who seemed positive about the outcome. It also seemed to Nava that the group who had voted for Tracey Spears were not heavily represented by those yelling ‘boo!’ Yes, their candidate had lost, but they were taking it with good grace. It still left quite a few people vocally decrying the result.
‘Four thousand one hundred and twenty-six votes,’ Pascual said when the noise had died a little. ‘I declare Mitsuko Trenton Sonkei to be the next Student President of the Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery. Mitsuko Trenton, please come forward.’
Nava’s body tensed and her senses went into overdrive. This was when it would happen, if anything was going to happen. This was when she would have hit the ceremony, when Mitsuko took centre stage to accept the presidency. There was already a little drama going on at the back of the stage: Tracey Spears was refusing to shake Mitsuko’s hand and was storming off in a huff. Nava filed that information away because, if she was right, that would change how things went going forward. Mitsuko took Sebastian Ranta’s offered hand and then turned, walking out toward Pascual and the lectern. Nava moved away from the rear of the stage and started keeping pace with Mitsuko as she moved, parallel and about three metres away to the left and behind.
The theatre was built with a large expanse of seating on the ground floor, but that was not enough to allow some eight thousand students to sit down. There were two balconies to give more seats, though the highest one gave you a really lousy view of the stage. That was likely why Maya appeared at the back of the lower balcony. This time, she was wearing a helmet and Nava could not see her face, but she was sure it was Maya. Maya with a magitech carbine and, since no one around her was reacting, she had her invisibility spell up. She took a second to assess her situation before raising her carbine to her shoulder, a second to take aim, a second of adjustment as Mitsuko finished her walk and, smiling, shook hands with Pascual…
It was too long. Maya had always been a confident one, maybe overconfident, right up until the point when… Recollections could wait. Nava was raising her arm and taking aim even before Mitsuko had Pascual’s hand in hers. A pulse of light flew up toward the back of the hall some fifty metres away and then exploded in Maya’s face. It was the weakest Magic Burst Nava could fire and, this time, Maya had had the sense to put up magical armour before teleporting in. Nothing got past that to Maya’s skin, but her shot went wildly off as she lurched back from the expanding wave of energy. A pulse of red-orange flame hit the ceiling at the back of the stage and exploded. Concrete dust and larger fragments rained down from the ceiling. The screaming started.
Up on the balcony, Maya vanished. On the same level, Kyle was rushing toward the spot where Nava’s spell had detonated, but he was going to find nothing except a few people in need of medical aid. Nava closed the distance between herself and Mitsuko, moving into a guard position. It was possible that Maya would try again and Nava needed to be ready. Possible, but Nava would not have been willing to risk money on it.
~~~
Mitsuko had wondered why Nava needed some privacy for a few minutes, but she had not asked what her bodyguard was up to. They had retired to Mitsuko’s apartment after leaving the theatre. The ceremony had been cut short due to the attempted assassination, but it was a formality anyway. Mitsuko would be taking over the presidency during the next week, while the school was taking its early spring break. By the start of the following week, when school restarted, she was supposed to have the other council positions ironed out, so she was going to be a busy girl.
Nava took out her ketcom, pulled out the screen, and activated the call function. Flicking through her contact list, she found the one she wanted and placed the call. A few seconds later, the call connected and a round face with tanned skin and large green eyes appeared on the screen. You could just about see the collar of her ASF uniform at the bottom of the miniature image.
‘Nava? Is there a problem?’
‘Good evening, First Lieutenant,’ Nava replied. ‘There are a number of problems and I’m sure you’ve been keeping up to date on them. Have you had a report on the attack that happened tonight?’
First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell Hamilton glanced away for a second, possibly to hide the fact that she had been checking up on Nava and Nava was not supposed to know but clearly did. ‘I got a report, yes.’
‘Did anything strike you as interesting about the attack tonight?’
‘It… A spell like that could have wiped out all the candidates and a fair amount of the audience. It was beyond effective range when it hit the ceiling
