Taro, Min, and Liu observed the exchange with expressions ranging from concern to confusion. Finally, Taro stepped forward.
"Professor," he began respectfully, "what exactly is happening? We felt those energies and then..."
Lin sighed, not releasing her grip on Ren. "Adult business," she responded dryly. "Things that don't concern first-year students, however impressive their recent achievents might be."
She looked aningfully at Ren as she said this last part, her gaze leaving no room for argunt.
"But..." Ren insisted, looking out the window where his fungus had already disappeared into the shadows. The absence of the mushrooms from his hair left him feeling strangely incomplete, like missing a limb.
"No buts," Lin declared, her tone final. "You'll stay here until the situation normalizes."
Ren looked directly into Lin's eyes, abandoning any pretense of submission.
"Professor, you don't understand," he said seriously. "My beast is heading straight toward the source of that power we just felt."
Lin's eyes narrowed. The feathers of her crane briefly rippled with concern. "What do you an?"
"My fungus..." Ren paused, considering how to explain sothing he himself didn't fully comprehend. "It has an affinity for certain objects of power. What it just felt, that sudden increase in the black turtle's energy... I believe was caused by an artifact."
Lin visibly worried. "How do you know that?"
"I could feel its intention before it left," Ren explained as he recalled the sensation. "And now my fungus is going directly toward it. If it reaches them... And the worst thing is that so of those present know the fungus is mine. If it starts acting strange near them..."
Lin cursed under her breath and hesitated for a mont, her professional duty warring with her personal concern for her favorite student. But...
"Even so," she said firmly, "I can't let you out. It's too dangerous."
♢♢♢♢
The shadows of the room stirred, montarily condensing before Luna erged from them as if passing through an invisible veil. Larissa and Liora barely got startled, already accustod to their cousin's sudden appearances. Maria rely nodded in acknowledgnt.
"Did you feel it?" Luna asked without preamble, her eyes brighter than usual, an effect of the partial activation of her beasts' senses. Her shadow wolf and light cat had heightened her perception, making the world around her sharper, more intense.
"How could we not feel it?" Liora responded, who was by the window with Maria at her side. Her will-o'-wisp briefly flared around her. "It was as if soone had thrown a huge rock into a small pool of mana."
Larissa approached the window, drawing the curtain slightly aside to better observe the outside.
"Since what happened with Klein, I knew the politics of how to deal with this would be complicated," she comnted, her tone reflecting the concern of soone who understands the political ga better than her years would suggest. "Julius ntioned that the Goldcrests wouldn't sit idle."
"Do you think they've co for Klein and Kassian?" asked Maria, maintaining her usual respectful tone but unable to hide her curiosity.
"It's most likely," Larissa confird. "The question is what they're willing to do to recover them."
Luna joined them at the window, her sharpened senses tracking the energy fluctuations in the air. The combination of her shadow wolf and light cat granted her perception superior even to that of her cousins.
"There's sothing strange about that energy," she murmured, her brow furrowing. "It's not like anything I've felt before. It's... corrupted."
A worried silence descended over the group as they observed the signs of activity in the distance. Figures moving, occasional lights, but everything too far away to distinguish clearly.
It was Liora who broke the silence. "Is that...?"
A small luminescent point was moving across the courtyard, bouncing between bushes and zigzagging as if following an invisible path.
"It's Ren's fungus," Larissa confird, imdiately recognizing the characteristic pulsing light. "What is it doing alone? I've only seen it separated from him once before..."
Luna leaned further toward the window, her pupils dilating as she activated the enhanced vision of her light cat. The image of the small fungus cleared as if it were closer in broad daylight, every detail becoming crisp and distinct.
It was a chubby creature that glowed with its own light, jumping with surprising agility for sothing so small. Its inflated cheeks bounced with each hop, and its round body swayed as it advanced toward the source of the energy disturbance.
'It's perfect,' thought Luna, feeling a sudden and irrational impulse to reach it, to hold that creature in her hands. There was sothing about its appearance, about its determination, that awakened a protective instinct she normally kept well buried under layers of self-control.
The fungus made a particularly high jump, its small arms extended as if celebrating its own feat, and Luna felt her heart racing.
How could sothing be so adorable? And why did she feel this enormous urge to hug it?
Before she could process these confusing emotions, the door to the room burst open. Two guards entered hurriedly, their faces tense with the urgency of their mission. Hana and Hikari, their beasts partially manifested in preparation for potential resistance.
"Your Highnesses," one of them began, her voice slightly trembling. "We have strict orders. Under no circumstances are you to leave this room until further notice."
The other guard nodded, adding: "And please, don't even think about 'playing spy' or investigating the situation. It's more dangerous than it seems."
Liora and Larissa exchanged glances. Simultaneously, both jumped, activating their displacent abilities, their beasts' energy flaring around them.
But they appeared in the center of the room. After the jump, a substance similar to vines erged from the floor and Hikari blinded them with a flash, effectively trapping them. Venus Antenna, Hana's plant, had anticipated their intentions.
"I'm sorry, princesses," said the guard with evident discomfort. "But we have direct orders from Lady Ashenway and His Highness Victor. No one leaves until the situation is resolved."
What none of them had noticed was that Luna hadn't attempted to use her shadow jump. Instead, while everyone's attention was on her cousins, Luna had made an impulsive decision sowhat uncharacteristic of her.
With an agile and silent movent, she launched herself directly out the window.
Her body twisted in the air with the feline grace of her second contract, landing perfectly on the grass several ters below. Without losing a second, she ran off in the direction she had seen the fungus go.
But for the first ti in a long ti, Luna Starweaver wasn't acting according to a well-thought-out plan. She wasn't thinking about her faction, her father, academy politics, or the situation.
At that mont, only one idea occupied her mind: finding that small bright creature and hugging it with all her might. The compulsion was overwhelming, drowning out the rational part of her mind.
Behind her, from the window, she could hear her cousins' exclamations and the guards' curses. But she was already too far away, too fast for them to stop her, and too absorbed in her objective to worry about the consequences.
Ren's fungus had beco, at least for tonight, the center of her universe.
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