Fates Parallel Chapter 50 - Suspicion

Seong Eunae—actually, just Eunae, thank you—the less she had to associate with her family, the better. Eunae was worried—more concerned, really—about one of her friends. She had precious few of them, and all of them she had met after coming to the academy. Well, nobody who knew her before coming here would have ever dared call her a friend—she regretted that deeply.

Jia was particularly precious to her—not because she was her closest friend, that would be Rika. No, what made Jia special was the fact that she remained a friend despite all the myriad reasons she had not to.

Rika was wonderful, but even if she learned the full extent of Eunae’s status, she could never possibly understand it, as a foreigner. An Eui was adorable in her strange, crabby fashion, but she knew—and while she mostly used that knowledge to tease Eunae, the fear hidden behind those jabs was clear.

Jia knew, but had no fear—not anymore. It had been there when they first met, plain as day, and Eunae could hardly blame her for that. It was entirely her fault, after all. In a moment of weakness and loneliness, Eunae had spotted the girl—so obviously alone and out of place—and thought that maybe one thrall wouldn’t hurt.

What a joke—the very first day at the academy and she had already broken her vow. She had broken contact immediately—given no orders—but the damage had been done, she knew. Nobody who ever felt that power wielded against them would ever trust the one who used it—or so Eunae had thought.

Fate had given her a chance to mend that bridge, and atone for her mistake. In hindsight, Eunae might have been a little bit too aggressive in her attempts to make amends with Lee Jia. She wondered what kind of strange impression she must have left, but in the end, Jia had forgiven her, and they had become friends.

It turned out that friendship meant quite a lot to Lee Jia. There was no middle ground with Jia—if you earned her trust, you earned it in totality. She shared openly and freely with those she considered her friends, and expected nothing in return. It was refreshing just how guileless Jia was with her friends—also, deeply concerning.

Which brought Eunae back to her worry. Jia had made a new friend, recently—her new roommate Yan Yue, one of the new students from Qin. She seemed nice enough, but there had been two things that concerned Eunae—First, she was from Qin. It might be a bit bigoted of Eunae to think so, but selfishness and manipulation was deeply rooted in the culture of that nation.

Second, though Yan Yue participated in the same morning training classes as Eunae, she had never spoken a word to her. In fact, she had been quite transparently avoiding her. Perhaps she was shy, or had heard of Eunae’s status from Jia and Eui, but it was unusual enough for Eunae to take note of it.

The final straw had been a letter. It had been innocuous enough—a simple missive informing her that Jia had reached a breakthrough and would be going into closed door training for a while, and thus unable to join her for either tea or training. There really wasn’t anything unusual about the letter—it was the kind of thing that happened all the time among cultivators of any discipline.

Unless you knew Jia, habitually observed the habits and actions of others, and had grown up among some of the most manipulative and backstabbing people in the entire continent—all of which was true of Eunae. To her, there were a number of peculiarities about the letter that stood out rather jarringly.

For one, the fact that it existed at all. Jia had only learned to read and write fairly recently, and while the quality of her talismans was superlative—well, she cheated. Her actual handwriting was atrocious, and unless she had improved significantly while studying with Hyeong Daesung, the letter was too neatly written.

It was also unusual that Jia would say that she had made a breakthrough. It was an open secret among their circle that Jia and Eui were dual cultivators. Xin Wei had rather rudely outed them, and while they denied that their relationship was anything but platonic, it was clear that they did all of their practice together. She would have expected the letter to speak for both Jia and Eui, but it didn’t.

None of this was conclusive proof of anything, but it made Eunae worry. So she had decided to check on her friend, confirm her wellbeing, and apologize profusely if it turned out that she really had interrupted a closed door training session. When Yan Yue answered the door, it was the first time she and Eunae had ever formally met.

Eunae bowed politely in greeting, being careful to avoid eye contact.

“Pardon my intrusion, Miss Yan, but is Jia home? I have an urgent matter that I need to discuss with her.”

Yan smiled and bowed in return.

“Not at all, Miss Seong. I’m afraid that Jia and Eui are in closed door training at the moment, and I’d hate to interrupt them, but please come in for tea. If it’s not a matter of secrecy, perhaps we could discuss it.”

“Of course, thank you for the invitation. It’s nice to finally meet you, Miss Yan—I’ve heard a lot about you from Jia. Please, just call me Eunae.”

Yan Yue glanced oddly to the side as she ushered Eunae inside. Eunae never looked at people’s eyes—avoided looking at their faces entirely, if she could help it—but that didn’t mean she wasn’t watching.

Her greatest—and arguably only—talent with magic was her overdeveloped mana sense. It wasn’t a replacement for proper eyesight, nor did it compare to the ‘domain’ that Jia and Eui described after their unusual breakthrough into the second stage, but Eunae was confident that her mana sense wouldn’t even lose to Hyeong Daesung.

So she noticed Yan Yue’s odd glances, in part because of her advanced mana sense, and in part because she was long used to people trying to take advantage of her lack of eye contact. It was amazing the kinds of faces people thought they could get away with making when you weren’t looking straight at them.

Eunae surreptitiously examined the place that Yan Yue had looked towards, but there was nothing there. No aura, no presence—absolutely nothing. Eunae thought it would have been less suspicious if she had found something.

As they entered the living area, Eunae looked around at Jia and Eui’s dorm for the first time. Her first impression was that it was small. In fact, with the impressive stack of bags shoved into the corner, it felt downright cramped. Eunae had no idea that the accommodations even got this small, and couldn’t help but feel bad for the girls living here.

Yan Yue took a pot of tea off the stove next to the couches and poured them each a cup. Eunae accepted her cup and sat across from Yan Yue, observing her patiently as she waited for the other girl to speak.

“So, Miss Eunae, if I might be so bold—what was the urgent matter you needed to discuss?”

Eunae looked at Yue’s shoulder—she tended to keep her eyes closed entirely, when it was expedient, but she was trying to stay alert—and noted that she wore her own custom robes that matched the color scheme of the uniforms.

“It’s urgent, but not immediately pressing, Miss Yan. Let’s not waste our first proper meeting going straight to business. Those robes are quite lovely, where did you have them made?”

Yan Yue seemed to be taken aback by Eunae’s attempt to make small talk, and glanced at nothing with confused expression. Once again, Eunae sensed nothing, wondering just what she was looking at.

“Oh, our sect has a well established tailor and enchanter who makes mystical robes for the sect. His disciples furnished my wardrobe for this trip. I’m surprised that I seem to be the only one who chose to personalize my outfits. I understand my brother did the same while he was here.”

Eunae was glad that Yan Yue hadn’t yet awakened her mana sense. It wasn’t something most low level mages were capable of noticing, but Eunae had learned to tell at a glance whether or not someone was a mage. It meant that she could thoroughly examine the area without any chance of Yan Yue noticing.

“He did make alterations to his uniforms, yes. I’m sorry about what happened to your brother, his loss was a tragedy.”

Yan Yue sighed, and smiled sadly. She was clearly no stranger to these kinds of pleasantries, but Eunae knew a fake expression when she saw one.

“Thank you. It was an unfortunate accident, but Zhihao knew as well as any that the path to ascension is fraught with danger. His ambition turned out to be greater than his ability.”

Eunae nearly scoffed at the idea that such comments were what Qin considered appropriate for a grieving family member. Instead she schooled her expression and continued to carefully probe the area for anything unusual with her mana sense.

“What about your ambition, Miss Yan? You’ve taken to interdisciplinary cultivation with a fervor that I haven’t seen since meeting Jia and Eui.”

Yan Yue giggled softly, and it sounded like the most genuine expression of emotion Eunae had yet heard from her.

“Jia and Eui haven’t really given me much of a choice. They’ve been extremely gracious hosts, but demonically spartan tutors. I’m quite lucky to have met them.”

Eunae nodded along—Jia and Eui were extremely hard workers, and it was no surprise that they expected the same of those they trained. Finally, Eunae found something with her mana sense—a strange, subtle thread of mana that nearly blended in perfectly with the ambient mana in the air. It was difficult to follow, since Eunae kept losing it and having to find it again, but it appeared to stretch between Yan Yue and one of the rooms.

“Indeed, they are wonderful people to know. A rare confluence of talent and diligence. I have to admit, it chafed my pride a bit at first to see how quickly they advanced, but they truly are hard workers. Did you know that Jia had actually asked me to train her against spiritual and mental attacks?”

Yan Yue visibly stiffened, but kept her expression neutral as she responded.

“I had heard, yes. I suppose that’s been delayed, given the circumstances.”

“Understandable, I suppose. I can’t say I’ve been looking forward to it, anyway. My ancestral art is rather intense and difficult to control. It would have made for poor practice, and an unpleasant experience for both of us. Come to think of it, don’t you practice spiritual attacks, yourself?”

Eunae innocently took a sip of tea as Yan Yue grimaced openly and narrowed her eyes. Eunae considered that maybe she should lean into Rika’s teasing and pretend to be blind after all—it was convenient how much people would reveal when they thought you couldn’t see.

Yan Yue glared pointedly at the empty space next to Eunae as she responded.

“Jia should have kept my abilities in confidence. It’s terribly rude to give away a cultivator’s secrets so freely.”

Eunae gave Yan Yue a gentle smile and shook her head.

“It’s easy to forget, thanks to her rapid progress, but Jia is still a novice to the world of cultivation. She is simply unaware of many of the conventions which we take for granted. I hope you won’t hold it too strongly against her.

“Still, I can’t help but wonder—if you are capable of such techniques, why not help with Jia’s training yourself? After all the help she’s given you, surely it’s the least you could do to return the favor?”

Yan Yue simply shrugged.

“Of course. I would have happily helped, but she never asked me. I can only assume that she felt more comfortable asking someone more familiar.”

“Perhaps...”

Eunae bit her lip and frowned—she was getting nowhere. There were so many small pieces of evidence, but nothing that Eunae could act upon. Was she just being paranoid? Projecting her own darkness onto others and assuming the worst was a habit that had served her well in the Seong clan palaces, but maybe things were different here.

No, she had to confirm it. Even if Jia never forgave her for interrupting a crucial breakthrough, Eunae couldn’t possibly leave without meeting her face to face. If she was wrong, then she could live with being chastised for her presumptions, but if she was right and left things here—she would never forgive herself.

“Well, this has been a lovely conversation, but I suppose it’s time I got to the point. Miss Yan, I understand that Jia is in closed door training, but this matter really is urgent, and it’s for her ears only. I hope that since she’s only just recently begun the session she will forgive me for interrupting it, but I really must insist on speaking with her.”

Yan Yue bit her thumbnail and furrowed her brows into a conflicted expression. After a few moments of contemplation she seemed to come to a decision and sighed with resignation.

“Tsk, fine. I had promised not to interrupt her, but if you really insist that much, then I suppose I have no choice. Please wait here a moment.”

Eunae watched as Yan Yue left to fetch Lee Jia. She was tempted to follow after her, or even approach the door to sweep the room with her mana sense, but if Jia and Eui really were in closed door training, then that would have been the height of rudeness. Instead, she decided to hedge her bets and wait patiently.

She was almost surprised when Jia exited the room a moment later, closing the door behind her with a rather perturbed look on her face. Eunae felt a complicated mix of guilt and relief as her friend sat across from her, appearing completely unharmed—albeit a bit miffed.

“Eunae, what is it? Didn’t you get my letter?”

Eunae flushed with embarrassment and had to consciously keep her ears from drooping, but as relieved as she was to see the Jia was alright, she couldn’t let her guard down yet. Spreading her mana sense out, she schooled her expression as she responded.

“Of course I did, Jia. I’m sorry for interrupting—are you so upset that you wouldn’t even call me Eun-eun?”

Jia gave her a strange look and raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, no? Why would I? Only Rika calls you that. What’s going on, Eunae?”

Eunae let out a heavy sigh of relief. It seemed like everything was alright, after all. Eunae wasn’t able to detect any trace of that strange thread of mana anymore, either. She supposed that it must have simply been a normal part of Yan Yue’s technique.

“I’m really sorry about this, Jia. It seems like I’ve interrupted you for nothing.”

“What!? Come on, Eunae, Yue said it was urgent!”

Jia had a very put-upon expression, and Eunae put her hands together and bowed in apology.

“Sorry! Something felt odd about your letter and I was worried. I just wanted to make sure you were ok—ancestors, this is so embarrassing. I forgot that I’m not back home, dealing with the schemes of my sisters and cousins.”

Jia slumped in her seat and sighed.

“Ugh, that was all? I’m really touched that you would be so worried about me, Eunae. You scared me, though—if it was something so urgent that even you couldn’t handle it, what in the ancestors’ names was I going to be able to do about it?”

Eunae covered her mouth with a sleeve and giggled—Jia was always so refreshingly direct.

“Do you forgive me for interrupting your training, then?”

“Of course I do, Eunae. Thank you for looking out for me—you’re a good friend. I promise we’ll do our spiritual training once I am finished with this breakthrough, alright?”

“Of course. Sorry again, Jia. I’ll leave you to your training—oh, and please relay my apologies to Miss Yan, as well. I was overly suspicious.”

Jia nodded with a bright smile.

“Will do! Thanks for checking in, Eunae. We’ll talk again later, ok?”

Eunae nodded and stood to leave. As she began to bow farewell, she was suddenly struck by a wave of nausea and discomfort. Her skin itched, and it felt as if something was rotting in her stomach. It was the first time she’d experienced it herself, but it matched the description others had given of Jia’s combat aura.

She kept her expression neutral as she stood straight again, and saw that Jia was still smiling at her as if nothing had happened. Eunae’s mind worked furiously to try to understand what was happening. Had Jia suddenly lost control of her aura technique? That could have something to do with her breakthrough, but it didn’t quite seem to fit.

If nothing else, surely Jia would notice that her aura was leaking out and apologize or explain, but she seemed completely unaware of it. Or maybe she was just playing coy and getting a little bit of revenge for being interrupted—no, Jia wasn’t like that. Then what purpose could she possibly have for using her aura here?

A cold sweat began to form as Eunae came up with a possible answer. What if Jia couldn’t control her body, but could still control her aura? Eunae was certain that she had checked for any mana influencing Jia, but her domain was impossible to detect via mana sense and Eunae had very little experience with internal techniques. What if whatever was controlling her didn’t require a constant link?

She only took a short moment to consider all of this—the thinking speed of a mage was nothing to laugh at—but even Jia had noticed the sudden pause.

“Eunae? Is something wrong? Your face has gone pale.”

Eunae swallowed hard—her mouth had gone completely dry. She knew what she had to do, and hoped—prayed—that she wasn’t off the mark. A second chance was already more than she deserved, she had no expectation that she would get a third.

“Jia...if I am wrong, please—no, never forgive me for this. I’m sorry.”

“Eunae? What are y—”

Before Jia could finish speaking, Eunae steeled her resolve, opened her eyes, and met Lee Jia’s bright, golden gaze.