Bernadetta was in a bit of a bind.
Thankfully, her Professor was back in class today – although she did seem to be a little distant and distracted in her manner, which was unusual. Still, Bernie was considering catching up with her once lessons were finished to talk through her concerns, even though the girl believed that she might just be over-reacting in that ridiculously silly way that she always seemed to manage when her mind was unsettled.
'Hey, Bernie... Are you okay?' Caspar had turned around and was looking closely at her.
'Y...yes.' Bernadetta nodded shyly.
'You were talking to yourself.' Caspar told her. 'You look kinda pale too.' He added.
'I...didnt get much sleep...' Bernadetta murmured.
'That's criminal!' Linhardt declared passionately from behind her. 'You should always prioritise your sleep, Bernie.'
Bernadetta felt the slow rise of panic in her chest at all of the sudden attention. It wasn't that either of the lads was particularly scary, not in the way that Hubert was. Caspar was genuinely quite sweet when he wasn't noisy, and Linhardt was adamant in his general disapproval of any kind of violence. They were people that Bernadetta hoped she could become friends with one day – if her own stupid nature didn't destroy any chance of that ever happening.
'Aww, sorry, Bernie, I didn't mean to upset you!' Casper cried as she slipped down from her seat and under the table.
'I'm fine... Bernie is fine. Don't look!' She mumbled as her breathing started to become shallower.
'Perhaps get some sleep while you are down there.' Linhardt advised kindly. 'I will lend you my cloak to lay on if you wish!'
'Yeah, we'll cover for you!' Caspar added, glancing at the Professor who was deep in conversation with Petra, going over the notes they had been taking.
There was no reply from the girl under the table.
'Leave her be.' Linhardt advised Caspar. 'If you need any help Bernie, you'll let us know?' He added.
'Y...yes!' Bernadetta managed to squeak out.
After a few long minutes of silence, Bernadetta laid her head against the leg of the table and focused on her breathing, her eyes screwed shut, and her hands clenched almost painfully in her lap. Her instinct to run to her room and lock herself away was overpowering for a moment, but she resisted the urge and tethered herself tightly to the table instead.
The Professor stopped by Bernadetta hiding place for a short while, and she could hear Linhardt advocating for her in a distant part of her brain. She also registered the warm hand that fell on her shoulder as her teacher knelt to check on her.
'A few moments, please!' Bernadetta mumbled at The Professor's unspoken question.
'Do you need to leave?' Byleth asked quietly. 'I can distract the others if you need to get out.'
'No... I can manage... I think.' Bernadetta replied bravely.
'Good girl.' Byleth squeezed on her shoulder and then moved away to give her some space.
'I'll speak to the Professor...' Bernadetta said to herself. 'Bernie can always speak to the Professor.' A warm feeling that she was only rarely used to rushed over her.
As soon as the class began it's lively discussion again, Bernadetta managed to slip herself back into her seat, receiving a broad smile from Caspar and a smaller one from the Professor. While her sudden panic was receding away, Bernadetta was still anxious about the unusual happenings that she had witnessed last night, although now that her mind was made up to share them, she was struggling with how to present her worries in a way that would be taken seriously.
'Think it through Bernie.' She told herself resolutely. 'You mustn't falter and start to make ridiculous statements when you are trying to explain.' She was fully aware of her own shortcomings. They had been drummed into her fairly comprehensively after all.
Bernadetta took a deep breath and grabbed her notebook. Writing it down would likely help, and she loved to write. Words flowed from her pen out onto the page with ease. She noted down how she had taken a rather late trip to the greenhouse as she had been eager to work on her current knitting project and had simply lost all track of time in her enjoyment.
Bernadetta had headed directly to her usual section in the neat hothouse where her beloved carnivorous plants were growing beautifully under her tender care, and she had set about her work peacefully in the dim light from the lanterns set up at each intersection. She was almost halfway through her well-practiced ministrations when she had heard footsteps heading her way, albeit slowly. She lifted her head to see who was coming, but the man who had stopped to peer closely at a plant in another aisle was a complete stranger to her.
It was a simple survival tactic that whenever Bernadetta was interrupted in her work she would hide unless Dedue, Ashe, or the Professor was with her... sometimes she couldn't help herself even then. Her place of choice was under a particular bush that had now developed its own Bernadetta shaped crevice that she could slip into easily and be totally invisible unless the plant itself was being closely examined. It was kind of comfy too.
The man in the clerical robes was turning back onto the path and continuing to head in her direction when Bernadetta dived for her bush. She tucked herself in and prepared herself to sit out the intrusion - however long it took.
Despite her own level of camouflage, Bernadetta actually had a good view of proceedings herself, so she had a chance to study the man as he came slowly through her section, his eyes scanning the flora as if seeking out something in particular. He wasn't terribly big, and his face showed the wrinkles of an older soul, although there was a hardness to his blunt features that didn't sit comfortably with the rest of his appearance. In general, Bernadetta wasn't particularly intimidated by the ecclesiastical staff, most of whom seemed focused on things far removed from the students that they shared their space with. This man, though, made her anxious, although it may just have been down to his close proximity to her in one of her special ''safe'' places.
He stopped at almost the exact spot where Bernadetta had been working, his eyes roaming over the broad selection of exotic and unusual plants that she loved so much.
'Well, well.' He chuckled to himself under his breath. 'Whoever would have expected to find you here, my pretty!'
Bernadetta's brain froze, immediately thinking the man had spoken to her. That turned out not to be the case, though. He was tenderly running a gloved finger over one of her rarer babies, a beautiful purple flower with a shocking pink inner-rim, almost delicate despite its impressive size.
It turned out to be a lucky happenstance that Bernadetta has regressed into her frozen state, the one that people mistook for her fainting standing up and with her eyes open. When the man reached down and aggressively ripped her plant from the soil, she would have likely have cried out in almost physical pain, had she been able to.
Humming happily to himself, the man took out a bag from under his robes and stuffed Bernadetta's violated bloom into it quickly and without any due care. The bag disappeared back under his robes, and the man moved on, as slow and unconcerned in his step as he had been before he had committed his vile plant-based murder.
Still unable to move, Bernadetta nonetheless felt the hot flow of tears running down her cheeks unchecked. When she finally managed to extract herself from her spot, she was a complete mess, and she ran towards the entrance of the greenhouse without a care that she might bump into the villain at any time or around any corner.
When she burst out through the doors and out into the fresh air of the early evening, Bernadetta was in for her second massive shock of the night.
'Hey now! Careful, my friend... Slow down, or you're likely to hurt someone...'
Bernadetta looked up fearfully into the face of the young man that she had barrelled into, almost knocking him clean off his feet. In that instance, as her brain took in his painted face and his long purple hair, she felt a cold shock of recognition.
'No...No...No... Bernie is mad... completely mad!' She groaned as she pulled herself away from the surprised-looking individual and sprinted to her room, her tears bursting out afresh as she finally reached her sanctuary.
It had taken Bernadetta a long time to manage to get her tears under control and another few hours to finally squeeze herself out from under her bed, where she pushed herself to seek safety.
It was thoughts of her plant that eventually driven her out. She just could not comprehend why someone would desecrate so stunning and rare a specimen. The way in which it had been taken would not allow for it to be relocated or even be used to propagate any further plants. It was unthinkable. The plant itself was quite unique... mainly in its method of capturing its prey, and she wanted to check out her books to confirm what her memory was telling her about its attributes.
It took her less than fifteen minutes to find the information she sought. The plant secreted a toxin that confused its victims so that they floundered around helplessly while the plant consumed them alive.
It was a single paragraph at the end of the detailed description that brought yet another wave of fear to Bernadetta's already fragile mind. There was a very specific warning attached to the flower. If it was burned, even if the plant was dead... then it's toxin could affect any humans that came into contact with the smoke it emitted. The effects could take the form of anything from mild hallucinations to paranoia. If it was to be burned, it should be done outside and away from habitation, it's potency was extreme.
'Yes! Bernie is correct. This is a worrying situation.' Bernadetta nodded to herself as she finished up the account she had been writing. 'Bernie must tell the Professor.'
What she had kept out of her notes was the man that she had run into outside of the greenhouse. She wasn't entirely sure if that part had been real or imagined. She was fully aware that her mind could play tricks on her at times, and she had been under extreme stress at the time.
The thing was – that man had resembled someone she had worked hard to keep from her conscious thoughts. Her first friend - the only friend she could count from her lonely childhood. He had been the one person she had trusted and who had spent so much of his time and energy playing with her and looking out for her.
If the man she had run into was her previous companion though, he could only be a ghost. That lad was a very long time dead now. Indeed, she knew this to be unequivocally the truth because it had been her – Bernadetta von Varley - that had killed him.
~0~
As soon as the final bell tolled to mark the end of lessons for the day, Byleth was on the move. She had a lot on her ''to-do list,'' and her focus had been subtly off for most of her day's teaching, although the students had also appeared preoccupied, so she hoped she had gotten away with it. She would make sure that she managed herself better tomorrow.
Byleth's first chore was purely physical. She pushed her way out of the classroom, entirely missing the fact that Bernadetta was trying desperately to grab her attention – and she took off at a run, leaving the Monastery behind her and heading for the nearest village. She was happily rewarded when she arrived, as the information that Lysithea had grudgingly given her earlier in the day turned out to be entirely correct. Her sprint back to the Monastery barely winded her, and she arrived at the dining hall just before the main crowds began to converge for their afternoon meal.
After wolfing down some food quickly, Byleth next popped her head into the kitchen where the head-cook smiled and retrieved the item that the Professor had especially requested that morning. Byleth nodded her thanks and was off again, this time at as fast a pace as was appropriate in the hallways of the building.
It took a few moments of determined knocking before Jeritza finally opened the door of his room, his masked face scowling fiercely at the unexpected interruption. His harsh expression relaxed when he realised who it was that had roused him.
'Byleth?' He took in her somewhat dishevelled appearance. 'Is something wrong?'
'No, I'm just in a bit of a rush.' Byleth replied, stepping over the threshold when he moved back to allow her access. She thrust out the large bowl she had picked up from the kitchens. 'Thank you for all your help yesterday.' She grinned at him as he took the covered plate curiously.'
'Oh!' He sighed happily when he revealed the mountain of ice cream that lay within. 'For me?'
'No, you donkey...' Byleth smirked. 'I brought it all the way up here just so that I could eat it in front of your face..!' She made a playful grab at the bowl, which he raised high over her head.
'Good-luck trying to take it back!' He snorted.
'Pfft.' Byleth reached into her satchel and brought out the enormous bag of lemon-drops that she'd dashed to out to the village to pick up. 'I'll just scoff all of these instead then!'
He growled menacingly at her.
Rolling her eyes at him, she put them down carefully on his bedside table, then headed back towards the door.
'I'll leave you in peace so that you can gorge yourself silly in an undistracted frenzy of sugary goodness.' She declared, her hand reaching for the handle. 'Genuinely though Jeritza, thank you...' She added softly
He bolted forward unexpectedly and grabbed hold of her wrist before she could disappear, although he wisely continued to keep his bowl held far above her head. He pulled her hard towards him, unbalancing her and catching her up in a one-armed hug against his chest.
'Stay...' He requested gruffly, his face bent so close to her ear that his lips grazed her lobe - his word a gossamer cobweb of heated breath that brought a shiver to her spine.
'I really can't.' She murmured regretfully. 'I have a meeting with Seteth that should have begun about five minutes ago to discuss the Rite of Rebirth. Anyway...' She added with a raised brow, '... If I were to distract you any longer, your ice cream would melt and you would be left with just a sticky puddle!'
'Hmm. A valid point...' Jeritza's grip on her tightened for a second before he propelled her away. 'Tomorrow then?'
'I already have a...' Byleth began, then paused a second, considering. 'Actually, Jeritza, do you think you could spare me some time tomorrow? I am heading underground to check out a few things, but I did promise that I wouldn't go alone.'
'Are you talking about investigating the Sanctuary down there?' Jeritza asked as he removed his mask, found himself a spoon, then settled on the bed with his bowl. He took a mouthful of pudding, looking up at her enquiringly when she didn't answer immediately. 'Is that where you were attacked?' He asked pointedly.
'Yes, although not by people residing there...' Byleth responded. 'They reported some unusual activity, so Jeralt was charged with taking a look, due to the current threat against the Archbishop. There was an assault by some unknowns while we were down there.'
'Okay, I'll come with you.' Jeritza nodded, going back to devouring his sweet. 'On one condition though...' He mused thoughtfully. '... I get to choose the location for our next outing.' He snickered quietly to himself when she blushed. 'I mean, really Byleth... is the sewers the best you could come up with? How very... you!'
'If we leave it up to your preference, we'll probably end up on a battlefield...' She grumbled through her embarrassment.
'What a stunning idea...' Jeritza agreed as she hurried out of the door.
'You know, I think he likes you!' Sothis teased as Byleth made her way downstairs to Seteth's office.
'We need to focus, Sothis.' Byleth chided, although her breath was still coming a little faster than usual. 'The information we get now is likely to be important.'
'I'm not having a problem with MY focus.' Sothis pointed out. 'I have been feeling completely invigorated. It's you that seems distracted. Probably because you are only human...'
'Just... behave yourself.' Byleth begged. 'Don't make this as hard as you did yesterday... please!'
'How very rude! I always behave myself!'
'Then I'd hate to experience what you consider being naughty...' Byleth whined.
