Aybek Academy’s campus in Cadeyrn was yet another of the casualties of Fiendlord Aspersum’s invasion attempt. Considering that the school had been on the brink of being closed down anyway, repairs for the school and its dormitories hadn’t been very high on anyone’s priority list.

Thus though Henri was returning to her job after taking three months off, she wasn’t returning to the school she’d taught at before.

The school she was driving towards was Cadeyrn’s St.Vincent’s Academy. A much more prestigious school than Aybek, with ties to multiple groups and powers, including the Moon-fire Sect and its allies in the Black Sky Alliance.

Inexplicable as it was to say, for some reason or the other, the school had kindly agreed to take in all of Aybek’s students including the scholarship kids and those who’d lived on campus. Accepting them all with no change in the tuition rate. And also hiring some its teachers.

As to why one of the city’s most exclusive and expensive schools, an institution that was equally selective and demanding when it came to who it hired, and who it accepted into the student body, would suddenly become so open, Henri couldn’t really say.

She had a very strong hunch that a certain Samhain Foundation and its very powerful friends might have had something to do with that.

If so, she wasn’t sure how to feel about that, on the one hand, if it was for her sake, then while she was thankful for the sentiment, she’d have preferred to handle her issues on her own.

She’d never thrown around her identity as an Andras when she was still one of her family’s darlings. She’d never thrown around her identity as a sect member when she was one of their up-and-coming talents. And she wouldn’t be throwing around her identity as her husband’s main wife, now that she was married to the region’s immortal-king.

That was just the kind of person she was. If necessity didn’t demand she do otherwise, and the situation wasn’t especially dire, she was someone who tried to stand on her two feet and earn things through her own merits.

On the other hand, if it wasn’t for her sake, and it was just something he’d done for his own reasons, or for the children’s sake, then wouldn’t she sound like some kind of raging egomaniac if she brought it up?

Thus she’d kept mum, swallowing all her questions and doubts.

*****

“You’re late…” said the secretary at the front desk.

A prim woman who sat with her computer, phone, paperwork and coffee mug properly squared, and equidistant from each other.

“Um...Sorry. I-...I was told that we had to be here by eight.” said Henri.

The woman lifted a single brow.

“And you also should have been informed of an additional faculty-meeting being held for former-Aybek staff at Seven Forty-five.” said the Secretary.

She hadn’t been, so that was that. More to the point, Henri couldn’t understand why this secretary was giving her the business. Did she really look that easy to bully? She wasn’t...Not usually anyway. Not all the time….

“Yes, again. Sorry. I would have come earlier, but I honestly didn’t know about the seven forty-five meet.” said Henri. Apologizing profusely, and not entirely unsincerely, since Henri too understood the importance of punctuality. Hoping the old woman would let her go with a light scolding.

The old woman simply sniffed. Handing Henri a packet.

“These the things that would have been given to you and explained had you attended.”

Henri looked at the packaged and then looked at the woman. Deciding to just thank her and get out of their lest she somehow land herself on the woman’s bad side again. From the way everyone else in the office had been looking the other way while the woman had been giving Henri whatfor, Henri was guessing that she was someone important. Either holding a significant identity, or position.

“Thanks…”