Chapter 8

Verity

Okay, okay, so I was shamelessly eavesdropping. That was a habit I'd picked up back in Chaotia because nobody would tell me anything! …Actually, the reason I'd come was because I smelled that Hassleberry had pocketed a candy bar and I was, um, hungry enough to be curious but not hungry enough to shed all my dignity and beg.

My ears continued bouncing up and down. I truly hadn't realized I was scaring people off with my attitude. I just…hadn't wanted to be hurt more than I already had been over the past decade.

But…thanks to the thoughts I was picking up from both Alexis and Abidos…they'd noticed me. Blair only thought she had noticed something, and all the remaining guys were clueless.

Well now what do I do?

After a minute, I made up my mind. I slipped in through the open door…on all fours…with my ears down and my tail between my legs. There were days I wished I could turn off the animal reflexes, because this pose just screamed "I'm submissive, please don't throw a rock at me." Plus, I bet my expression was just as pathetic.

Syrus jumped, fell out of his chair, and scampered backwards. Way to make me feel better, Syrus. Never mind that I knew he was paranoid.

Everyone else just stared at me as I took an extra few paces into the room. Of course, they didn't need to know that I was fighting another instinct: the submissive gesture of rolling over onto my back. I didn't know if a real fox technically had these instincts I tended to display, but I knew I had them. And if I rolled over now, Chazz would probably laugh at me.

Finally, I compromised between my instinct and my pride and sat down on the floor, my tail curling around as far as it would go.

Chazz spoke first. "How long were you out there?" He sounded thoroughly suspicious.

I just looked at him. It took a few seconds before I actually answered. "I don't need to answer that, not to you anyway."

He looked about ready to hit me or something.

Then Abidos stood up and walked over to me. "Ah…Verity? I am…sorry I, um…" His thoughts were quite plain to me: How am I supposed to apologize for insulting her, when I didn't actually say anything insulting?

I glanced up at him, thinking over what else I'd picked up from him. He really hadn't meant to insult me, he was still a little uncertain of how to progress with me, and he was struggling with a lot of his old ancient-Egyptian reflexes – huh! We had more in common than I'd thought!

With a big grin spreading over my face and my ears straightening up, I glided up to my feet and held out my hand. "Apology accepted, partner!"

He blinked in surprise, but then he smiled back and took my hand. The next few minutes were a bit chaotic in my memory, as Hassleberry, Syrus, Alexis and Blair all basically said they'd like to be friends with me and apologized for the way they'd reacted to me. Chazz didn't say anything, and Abidos ended up distracted by my claws.

"Your, ah, um…" I glanced back at Abidos as he traced his thumb over one of my nails, "these are…impressive."

"It's okay, Abidos, I really do call them claws myself."

Finally, Chazz said something else. And it was snide. "And what do you call those?" He was pointing at my head, and I could sense exactly what he was talking about.

I turned a cool eye to him, the fuzzy objects of the conversation twitching backwards. "I call them ears. You know, like the rest of the world?"

Hassleberry snorted.

Then Alexis spoke up again. "By the way, Verity, um…do you know anything else about why you were sent here?"

"You mean do I know anything that wasn't told to Abidos? Ah…okay, he knows this too, he just hadn't brought it up: the curse is stuck on a person – Lady Kisara's twin brother, Professor Maximar."

"That creepy guy?" Chazz opted to be rude again, though I was getting the picture that he was always like that.

Blair tried to defend him. "Hey, once you get over the shock of his skin color and stop staring at his eyes, he's hot!"

I rolled my own golden eyes with a smile at the boys' expressions; like they weren't sure what to make of Blair's revelation. Even Alexis looked a bit uncertain, though she was the one to actually say something. "I don't know if I'd have gone right to 'hot'…"

"Off-topic, people," I reminded. "We're talking about how to get the curse off of the hot guy, Blair."

At least she had the grace to look embarrassed.

"Okay, um…I can sense that neither of us was briefed enough on the curse to say anymore about it."

Abidos spoke up again. "Your, ah, telepathy control really does…need work."

My ears twitched back and down a little. "Yeah…I'll be getting extra classes with Professor Maximar on my magic abilities while I'm here."

"What?" Syrus had spoken, but nearly everyone else looked so blank…

"You guys didn't know that there are magic classes here, too? Since magic is so closely tied to this card game, Lady Kisara had arranged for there to be lessons in magic as well for any student that showed the Gift. From what I'm sensing from all of you about Jaden, I'm sure he'd have gotten those lessons really soon if he hadn't disappeared when he did. It kind of hinges on being able to see or hear duel spirits."

Chazz stared at me. "So, wait a minute…"

I caught the thought immediately. "I know you don't like the Ojama brothers, but the fact that you can see and hear them means you've got the Gift. I can't claim to know the roster, but I think you're on the list for magic lessons." I laughed. "In fact, your, um, interacting with them the way you do just puts you even higher on the list of potential."

"Did either of my brothers have this 'gift'?"

I studied him. Then I took a couple of steps and set my hand on his forehead, delving into his memories of his brothers. After a couple of seconds, I stepped back. "No. Neither of your brothers had the Gift. It's just you. That's actually kind of weird, because normally power runs through the family lines, and all siblings have it." I glanced at Syrus. "You and Zane, for example; you both have it, though yours is somewhat weaker than his was."

"Oh."

Suddenly, Hassleberry, Alexis, and Blair all but cornered me. Alexis spoke first. "Okay, my curiosity has officially been piqued: do I have any of this ability?"

I covered my ears for a second, trying to block out the eager enthusiasm coming off all three. Then I tagged each on the forehead with my fingertips and thought about what I'd found. "Blair…if you've got it, it's still too weak for my fluxing power to pick up. Alexis, you've got something, but it's got a bit of a block. Hassleberry…um…" I set my full hand against his forehead. "…you're a bit harder to read for some reason. You might have the gift, but it's…weird."

"Your kind of weird, you mean?" Chazz snidely remarked.

I stared at him. He was being sarcastic, but… "Actually, it's similar to my kind of weird. I think…" I lifted my hand away from Hassleberry's forehead and waved it up and down as if I was running a scan. I got the strongest pulse from…one of his legs. "This is where the power signature is strongest."

He stared at where I'd set my hand. "That's where I had a piece of dino-bone set into my leg! Are you saying that gave me some kinda magic power?"

I glanced up at him. "You already knew that, what with the way you were able to resist the influence of losing to Sartorius." Then I blinked. "How did I know that? Oh yeah – I was in your head just now."

Blair suddenly pointed at Abidos. "Hey, does he have any gift?"

I took one look at him and said, "Yes. He'll have a bit of trouble accessing it because of how many guiding spells had been set on him recently, but both of his parents had the Gift, so…yes, he'll definitely be a strong one." I smiled at Abidos, hoping he was picking up on my thoughts of apology for talking about him as if he wasn't in the room.

After a minute, he smiled back at me.

Why did that make the fur on my back shiver?