Today Reynard helps Abby catch up to her classmates at the Academy. While she gets to use magic for the first time, she starts to better understand her abilities, as well as her limits.
Avalon Academy of the Arcane is a Magical Slice-of-Life short story series that follows the daily lives of various students and staff at a magic school housed on the wandering island of Avalon.
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“Good morning, Abby,” Came Reynard’s voice from the door to the kitchen at Willa’s place.
Abby’s head shot up from her plate of pancakes with a wide smile. “Oh! Good Morning, Reynard! What are you doing here?” Thankfully she hadn’t been mid-bite when he entered.
“I spoke with your instructors last night, and they agreed with me that it would be prudent if we took today to help catch you up to speed with where your class is at right now. Help you get a jump start.” He came to sit across the table from Abby, smirking when he saw the wonderful stack of pancakes in front of her. “Willa’s famous pancakes?”
“Hope’n ye aren’t expect’n any fer yerself, young man,” Willa said from the stove, a flurry of work and industry as she readied breakfast for the other residents.
Reynard chuckled, “Oh, worry not ma’am. I ate before I came. I wouldn’t dream of imposing.”
“Such a terrible liar,” Willa said, whipping around and setting a plate in front of Reynard before flipping three pancakes on it. “The herb garden needs weeding, when you get a chance.”
Reynard shook his head with a massive grin on his face. “Today will not be a lucky day to be a weed in you garden, dear Willa. You are far too kind.”
Willa went back to her work, and soon had put together breakfast for the other students who stayed at the house. Abby hadn’t really met any of them yet. There was about a dozen of them in all, different ages, some girls, some boys, and different ranks. Willa had said the eldest, Martina, had been looking for her own place.
She looked back over to Reynard, who was savoring his first bite of pancake. Abby imagined her face looked much the same as his expression of pure elation. She had helped Willa with making the batter that morning, something she said she had never done, and expected Abby to keep her mouth shut on the recipe. Honey, yogurt, coconut milk, and an extra egg she said were the secret, as well as leaving the batter to rest before cooking. Abby felt so honored to have been trusted with the knowledge, especially after hearing how coveted her recipe was from the other students.
“I don’t know where that woman learned to cook, but I can tell you I want to go study there,” Reynard said between mouthfuls.
Abby looked back to her own pancakes, cutting a new piece as she said, “do you cook?”
“I took it up at my master’s suggestion when I was having trouble with magic other than Fire. Scholar Malenia made the point that something about the creative outlet, and using different ingredients to make different things, has a way of opening one up to other ways of thinking.” Reynard took another bite, and swallowed before continuing. “every dish has a kind of ethos. A stew operates by different rules and philosophies than, say, smoking meats, or baking bread. Even different stews have different concepts, rules, and processes to follow.”
“Did it work?” Abigail asked.
Reynard smiled. “Yes, actually. Now, whenever I feel stuck with a spell, or something, I find a new recipe to try, and somehow things seem to start making sense. And, usually, I get to taste something new.”
Abby raised an eyebrow. “Usually?”
“Well,” He laughed, “There have been some complete failures, if I’m honest, either through my poor execution, or the ill intent by the person who wrote the recipe. Whoever decided to commit the recipe for Smoked Asparagus to paper must have been a truly diabolical malefactor indeed.”
They laughed together. Abby couldn’t imagine what that would have tasted like, but the look of utter revulsion on Reynard’s face when he said it as more than enough to tell that it must have been quite vile.
After they had breakfast, and helped Willa clean up the kitchen, Reynard and Abby set out through the rolling grassy hills outside of campus. The wind seemed a bit calmer today, with a slight chill that nipped at her nose and ears. A question came to Abby as they walked, “Reynard, I never really asked, where is this exactly?”
“North Central Avalon?” he suggested.
She laughed, “No, I mean, where is Avalon? During the Initiation you said that this land was connected to all times and places. Does that mean we are outside of… well…” the thought died on her lips as Abby realized that she wasn’t even sure what she was asking.
Reynard turned and nodded with a knowing look on his face. “Almost there. This is something usually that isn’t explored until Apprentice Class, but I think you’ll be able to grasp it.” He gestured a spherical shape with his hands. “Avalon is a physical place on Earth, but this location is not fixed. When the First Voyagers came to this land, it was close to ancient Sumeria. They sailed to it on boats, finding their way through the guiding hand of the Three Goddesses. They soon realized, however, that it would move on its own. Sometimes it would shift position in the sea, or would pick up and fly to a different place altogether.”
He looked to his pocket watch for a moment, considering. “Right now she is over the Pacific Ocean somewhere near the Aleutian Islands”
“Wait, really?” Abby said, wondering what he saw in the pocket watch since all she could see was its brass case from where she stood.
“Quite so. I’m sure you’ve noticed how much cooler the air is today,” he started, walking through the endless blades of grass again, “Avalon roughly circumnavigates the globe every 160-210 days. The path she takes shifts and diverges over time, following the currents of magic”
Abby found that somewhat difficult to believe, more so than, well, magic being real, and being able to step through doorways to magical floating islands. “If that’s true, how come people don’t see Avalon all of the time? Why aren’t sightings a regular occurrence?”
Reynard grinned. “Good observation. In ancient times a moving or even flying island could rather easily escape scrutiny, though you will find stories about a lost, moving, or floating island in nearly every culture. With how widespread, and populous mankind is now, the Three thought it best to disguise the island. Sometimes it will be as a cloud, or the island will curtain the land in a dense fog, and so on. More recently she has started taking the shape of a large, ornate airship. To be honest, I’m not sure if that is more or less conspicuous than a floating landmass in the sky.”
Abby giggled, shrugging. “Can’t say so either.”
“Even though the island is near constantly on the move, in a metaphysical sense, Avalon has a connection to nearly all intersections of time and space. This is how, in a much more simplified sense, you are able to connect to Avalon through nearly any door if you have a Key, and vice versa. The mechanics of how this works is, frankly, beyond my understanding at this time. But it’ll be something that we get into at the Magus and Master class level.” Reynard said before clearing his throat. “Today, however, we are going to focus on something much, much more straightforward. Something I suspect will be intuitive for you, given that you passed the Test on your first try.”
“What is that?” Abigail asked as they came to a depression surrounded by the grassy hills, where a circle of stones sat. Each stone was about the size of her hand, and was stark white. As she got closer, she thought they looked as though they had once been hewn into an even shape, but time had worn them down since then.
Reynard stepped into the middle of the ring of stones, closed his eyes, and lowered his head. Then he took a deep breath, spread his arms out, and swept them forward. Something thrummed in her as she could feel as the wind was pulled to push as he had gestured. A gust blasted the side of the hill in front of him. He looked back to Abby with a satisfied smirk. “Simple Applied Intuitive Control is the technical term, but most people call it Freeform Casting. In short, basic control of an element. It is one of the earliest applied lessons students get to help them build an understanding of magic.”
Abigail smiled so wide her cheeks started to hurt. “How do I start?” She said, barely keeping herself from jumping with excitement.
“Glad to see your enthusiasm,” Reynard said, laughing. “Let us briefly discuss what magic is, first. Magic is both the force that creates our reality, and is given shape by reality. It both creates and is created by its virtues. For example, Fire is the source of passion, creativity, and pride, but the passion, creativity, and pride of people also creates Fire, and gives it form. To understand an element, you must understand the emotion, or state of being, that is associated with it. Someone who has never experienced Anger, for example, will find it incredibly difficult to use Metal magic. For it is difficult to understand that which one has not felt. Not impossible, mind you, just difficult.”
He stepped aside from where he stood in the ring of stones, “Come stand here in the Circle. We’ll discuss more after you’ve tried it yourself.”
Abigail stepped in the ring of stones, and felt as though static electricity had built up all along her skin. “Wow…”
Reynard raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“I-uh.” She suddenly realized she wasn’t entirely sure how to describe what she felt out loud. Abby stammered, “There’s this…uh, energy? Like ready… waiting…power?”
“Impressive…” Reynard smiled, and shook his head. “I knew you would catch on quickly, but being able to feel the valence arcana in the Circle without any training…”
“That’s not normal?” Abigail asked.
Reynard laughed. “Maybe for those with a Wind affinity. There are so few examples it is hard to say. But, Abby, the ability to understand what you are describing in such a way is something that even some Senior Scholars might only barely be able to grasp.”
“Oh,” it was really the only thing she could think to say. Once again, something that seemed, well, almost natural to her seemed to be some kind of exceptional feat. Abby really wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all.
“Well, this should make this lesson quite easy for you. You see, we bring Initiates to Circles like this because the valence arcana, or what is more commonly called “ambient energy” is collected and focused by the stones. This makes it very easy to use magic, even for the untrained, since the wealth of compliant power so readily takes the shape that a user pushes upon it.” Reynard said, crossing his arms. “We can skip the lesson on starting to sense valence arcana, since you already are able to, and we can move on to the fun part, casting”
Abby grinned, and rubbed her hands together. “What do I need to do?”
“We’ll start with your affinity first, since it is the easiest place to start.” Reynard gestured a deep breath with his hands. “First, breathe deep, and try to clear your mind.”
She did so, though Abby always found the mind-clearing part hard to do.
“Now you will need to touch that ambient energy with your spirit. Invite it in. Open yourself to it,” Reynard said.
This didn’t exactly make sense to Abby. How did someone do, well, anything with their spirit? Yet as she focused on the power that was building in the circle, she could feel there was something keeping that power from being hers. It was reaching out to her, but she hadn’t… accepted. Suddenly, as if drinking ice-cold water on a hot day, she felt the power wash into her.
Reynard smiled. “Now, just give it a push to change. Let your drive for change shape and mold that power, to give it a purpose. Then, tell it where you would like it to go.”
“How exac--,” Abby stared.
“Don’t overthink it. Just do what feels right, natural. Trust your instincts.” Reynard stepped out of the ring at that point. A breeze caught his embroidered blue silk coat as he stepped out, making it billow out in a somewhat dramatic fashion.
Her attention went back to the expectant energy she held onto. He had said to give it a push… Abby extended her hand out in front of her, and felt the energy somehow align to match it. The power was ready to do this. It needed somewhere to go, something to give it a new state of being.
“You will be Change” Abby found herself saying, as the energy spontaneously became a gust of wind that blasted from her hand, and pushed the grass on the hill in front of her against the current breeze that coursed through the endless blades of emerald green.
The sound of clapping brought her attention back to Reynard. “Just as I thought, this is almost natural to you. It usually takes days of trial and error for new Initiates.” He laughed, scratching his head. “It really is hard to believe that you haven’t been researching and training for this your whole life. That wind blast, while small, was better than the trickle of current I was able to make my first time trying to use Wind magic.
Abby smiled wide, “ I just did what you told me to do!”
“Be that as it may, you are the one who accomplished the feat. I can teach and instruct all day long, but it is entirely incumbent on you to actually take those lessons to heart.” At this Reynard crossed his arms.
Abigail shrugged. “I suppose I see what you mean.”
Reynard smirked. “I must admit, I am curious to see how you do with other elements…” He seemed to consider for a moment, scratching his chin. “Let’s try Water. It is a close cousin to Wind, and should be easier for you to attempt than something contradictory like Stone, or destructive like Lightning.”
“I’m ready for anything,” Abby said. Before she thought to draw in the ambient power of the Circle, she realized that the energy was flooding into her, expectant, ready.
Reynard put his right hand over his heart. “This time, I want you to take the power, in all of its raw, random chaos, and bring it to peace. Calm yourself, and the power. Focus on the image of a still, cold pool. Serene, calm.”
Abigail nodded her head, and closed her eyes. Peace, bring the energy to peace. She kept trying to focus on the image of a still pool, but just as the image formed it began to roil and churn. She kept trying to hold onto the idea of peace, but she couldn’t calm herself down she just wanted—
Then everything changed. The energy became violent, ferocious, lashing out at her as an unworthy container. Abby yelped in pain, and did the only thing she could think of, willing the power to leave through her hand. Bolts of power sparked down her arm, and a blinding flash of pure energy shot from her into the hill, followed by a deafening boom. She fell to the ground, covering her ears with her hands, and shut her eyes against the terrible sound.
As her ears recovered, she looked over to the hill, where an impact crater the size of her fist had formed. Much of the grass around the crater was on fire. Abby felt her heart drop.
Suddenly, a sphere of water splashed over the crater, and the burning grass. Abby looked over to see Reynard lower his right hand, a look of concern on his face.
“Reynard, what was that? What did I do?” Abby asked, terrified. She walked over to him, feeling like a child who had broken a window, or a priceless heirloom.
He looked back to her, nodded, and spoke in a subdued, reserved tone. “That was Lightning, a rather powerful bolt at that.”
“How did I do that? I was trying to focus on what you said, I just wanted to—”
Reynard raised a hand. “That’s just it. Peace is free of Desire, for Peace cannot exist when there is want. Or rather, metaphysically, Peace is the abnegation of desire.”
Abby looked at her right arm, which tingled on the verge of numbness. Her coat and blouse had been ruined as the lightning had coursed through her arm, holes were burned along the length of the right sleeve. Willa would be furious…
She felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Reynard had walked over to her. “You are not hurt, are you? Lightning can be dangerous to the caster when they aren’t prepared for it,” Reynard said in a comforting tone. His eyes, somewhat on guard, obviously had a touch of concern.
“My arm feels like it is on pins and needles, but otherwise I am OK.” She said, looking away as her cheeks started to redden. Somewhere between the intense focus on her, and her spike of embarrassment over what had just happened, Abby felt it difficult to maintain eye contact.
“Abby, it is alright. These things happen as you learn. I accidentally materialized and dropped a stone on Scholar Malenia’s foot one time as an Initiate. I thought I’d never live that down.” Reynard said with a chuckle. She met his eyes, and laughed nervously. “This is all still very, very new to you, Abby. Mistakes and surprises are bound to happen. On the bright side, you seem to have an inclination towards one of the more difficult forms of magic to master. The sheer force and violence of Lightning makes it quite hard for most students to tap into.”
“I don’t get why I would be able to…” Abby said with a sigh.
“You have had a hard life, one where you have been in need and want of many things, but were denied them until now. Lightning is the spark and current of Desire. It is the need to acquire, to break apart, to surge forward. It is Change electrified into a direct, insatiable pursuit.” He looked over her right arm, pulling up the ruined sleeve to check for any injury that might have been hidden, she supposed. “I should have anticipated this, and better prepared you. You seem so calm and unaffected by the trials you have had to go through in life, that I didn’t think to expect this.”
“So, how do I keep this from happening again?” Abby asked.
Reynard smiled. “That will be easier to explain that it will be to do. Essentially, focus on the emotion, or image that we discuss. Don’t let doubt or frustration push you towards a want of success. That desire will contaminate whatever you are trying to focus on.”
She nodded. “I suppose that makes sense.” Thankfully, the pins and needles feeling was starting to fade from her arm. For a moment Abby had feared that she may have been stuck with a half-numb arm for the rest of her life.
“The good news is that it should only be an issue in Circles. Valence Arcana so readily takes any shape given to it. A single cohesive suggestion can polarize it in an instant. When you are channeling your own power, you will find that even with some contamination from other emotions pressing upon your thoughts, accidental casting is much more difficult. The level of control and effort you must exert in order to cast by yourself is just too great.” Reynard said.
A thought came to Abby. “That’s what the Sphere is, isn’t it? A ball of Valence Arcana? That’s why it can reflect what you focus on, right?”
Reynard grinned. “Quite astute. The Sphere is similar to Valence Arcana. Notice that you didn’t have to draw in its power in order to use it.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess that is true,” Abby said, nodding. Just when she thought she was starting to understand things a bit better…
“It is something we haven’t discussed yet, a different mode of Valence Arcana, that we call Reflective Arcana. Instead of being ready to use, it shows what the user is feeling. We will actually use it later to help refine focus on the root emotions that are tied to each element,” Reynard said before stepping out of the circle again. “Now Abby, let’s try Water again. Remember, peace, a still pool of water, serenity, and, perhaps even more helpful to you, the abnegation of want.”
Abigail nodded, and closed her eyes, ready to try again. She didn’t care how many times it took. She would learn, and she would do better.
Avalon Academy #9, “The Archives” Maya
“Maya, could you put the returns away for level 6?” Archivist Leilani said, scribbling away in her notebook, as always. Her chin-length dirty-blonde hair hid her face as she hunched over her work. A small library of books and scrolls lay on her desk, some open and resting on top of each other, others in a neat stack yet to be disturbed.
Maya, who had been walking to her desk after putting away the returns for level 75, bowed her head. “Yes ma’am.” She walked over to a row of book carts, and found the one marked with the number 6 on the side. There were quite a lot of returns for 6, all three rows of the cart were full, and some books had even been further stacked on top. Perhaps one or more of the professors had assigned some kind of project in Archeology, judging from the titles on the spines. Level 6 was never this busy, unless there was some project or something along those lines. She started to push the cart towards the lift when he saw another heavily-laden cart marked with the number 6. A strange day indeed.
With both carts on the lift, she turned the brass knob from 99 to 6, and the machine lurched upward. Her heart briefly joined her stomach with the jolt. The Operations elevator had become rather terrifying to use over the last few weeks. She kept forgetting to speak with Administrator Shran about having it serviced. Something had to be done about the shaking, ascending and descending much too quickly, and that unnerving creaking sound that made the whole thing feel like it was about to fall apart.
Trying to take her mind off the possibility of her impending doom at the hand of falling from a faulty elevator, Maya grabbed her thick glasses, and wiped them with a cloth she kept in her pocket. It always seemed funny to her just how smudged her glasses got over the course of the day. The world around her was a blurry, confused mess as she cleaned them, and the growing anxiety in her made her realize that perhaps impairing her sight as she ascended on an, at least, questionable lift, was rather unwise. Her hands shaking, she put her mostly smudge-free glasses back on, and her brown eyes adjusted again so she could see the hundreds upon thousands of bookshelves passing by her as she went up each level.
She breathed a sigh of relief as the lift finally came to a stop at level 6, and she pulled the book carts along to the Archeology section. Maya came to a stop at the Roman-style archway tucked in between the winding, endless bookshelves that led to the section, and looked over the carts to see where to start. Archivist Leilani usually sorted books as they came in, but she had been so busy with her newest research project that she hadn’t had the time to do anything but sort the books by what level they went to. Apparently, there was a new student who had passed the Ambitus Arcanae Reflexionis test on her first try, and Archivist Leilani was looking into what could be found on the student, and related historical accounts for Headmistress Corvinus.
So, Maya looked over the titles, and grouped the volumes by category. First Voyagers had quite a few, some 12th century, Interregnum Arcanum had even more than she’d have guessed for such an overlooked period of history. It took about half an hour with the sheer number of books to sort, but eventually she got them alphabetized by section, and found a couple that actually belonged on Level 5 with General History. An easy mistake to make, though.
She left one cart at the archway so she did not have to drag both through the, at times, narrow walkways between bookshelves. The First Voyagers was a logical starting subsection since it was just to the right of the archway. Osiris the Builder, The First Campsite, What They Left Behind, and so on went back to their rightful places, filling the gaps on shelves that held nearly as many questions as they did answers.
Maya soon fell into that familiar rhythm of returning books: look at the title, look for its spot on the shelf, fit it back into place, and move on to the next. There was something so satisfying about taking a collection of misplaced volumes, and returning them to their home. Sure, it was tedious, time-consuming, and took her away from things she’d rather be doing. But, seeing the missing pieces returned to where they belong just made her feel happy. She idly wondered if that was why she enjoyed puzzles so much.
Before too long, with returning The Lost Pyramids of Avalon, Maya had gotten through the first cart, and moved on to the other one. This started with Pre-History, and Jenson’s Written in Stone. She came around the corner of Late Bronze Age to one of the reading and work areas, and saw a handsome young man, a third year Stellarian cadet, and an attractive young woman, who looked to be in the same class, sitting at one of the tables together. The woman, with a warm, contented smile, had her head resting on the man’s shoulder as she read. From the quick glance that Maya stole, the man seemed to be having great difficulty actually focusing on the book he was reading. His eyes kept darting from his work to the woman’s head, and he was practically sweating every ounce of moisture in his body. The poor man’s face was even more red than his short hair. Maya smirked as she put away Refugees of the Collapse.
She checked her pocket watch and decided she had more than enough time to take a… break. So, Maya came back around to the other side of the bookshelf. Since there wasn’t a full backing panel on the shelves, if she stood on the tips of her toes, she could see the couple at their table. Her hands resting on the shelf, Maya briefly found it interesting that the mahogany shelves here in the Archeology section matched her skin tone rather closely. Would this act as a kind of camouflage? After a moment’s fancy, she shrugged, and looked back through the shelves at the couple.
By the three, if the man blushed any deeper, he might just burst into flames. Maya couldn’t decide if she’d want to see such a spectacle or not. For one, observing a case of legitimate spontaneous combustion would be fascinating. The screams of pain and terror would be a pretty significant negative, however, not to mention the danger to the books around him. Maya noted that the woman seemed quite aware of her effect on the man. She caught her sneaking a peek at the man, and grin mischievously. This young woman had the man exactly where she wanted him.
Giggling as silently as she could manage, Maya withdrew her notebook from her beige Assistant Archivist coat, and jotted down some notes about the scene for later. Maybe this situation she had stumbled into would be the exact thing she needed to breathe some new life into that romance novel she had been working on in her spare time.
Suddenly, the woman stood up and said something. Maya thought she heard something about a Café? And then she was off, sparing the man one last wink and smile before she stepped out of the Archeology section. He looked to be collecting the books they had been reading.
Maya stepped from around the corner, and feigned surprise as best she could with her voice. “Oh, hello there, young man. Done for the day?”
“Oh, uh, yes. For now. We’ll probably be back tomorrow.” The man said, scratching the back of his head nervously.
She held a hand out as he put the last book they had gathered on top of the stack. “Will you be needing the same books again tomorrow, then?”
“I, uh… don’t really know…” he said as he picked up the stack, looking to the side as he thought.
“How about I put them on Recall for you? That way you can easily collect them tomorrow?” Maya asked.
A look of surprise hit the man. “Oh, that’s a great idea! I forgot Archivists can do that.” He then handed the stack of five books over.
“That and more! What’s your name, young man?”
“Oh, right, Garrett Grant, 3rd year Cadet of the Stellarians,” he said.
Maya placed her left hand on top of the stack, and closed her eyes. Her heart quaked as she reached unseen hands out to bind each book to him with a thread that would wear off after a couple of days. Finally she anchored the threads to the Archive, it’s thrumming essence sending jolts of power through her. Then she said, “Recall Set, Garrett Grant, libri quinque.” Then she felt that familiar sensation of a connection becoming solid, like her ears popping after climbing a mountain.
She smiled, and placed the books on her cart. “Just say Recall, Garret Grant while holding this card,” at that Maya extracted a slip of card stock she had inscribed with a dormant activation circle. It was a quick cast card, which allowed the user to use a spell, even if they were not trained in it. “And they should materialize in front of you. I’d suggest placing the card on a desk, or other flat surface after you say the words. Otherwise they will form in your hand, which might be rather more weight than you will be ready for at once. I’ve made that mistake once, ended up dropping the poor books on my feet.”
Garrett smiled, and took the card. “Thank you… what was your name again?”
“Maya Abebe, Assistant Archivist.” She held out her hand.
“Well met, Ms. Abebe.” He said, shaking her hand. “I’ve got to get going. Thank you for the help!”
Maya watched as the young man walked to the lift, and then went back to her work. About half an hour later, she had put the rest of the books back to their rightful place, including the ones that belonged on level 5, and she took the carts back to level 99.
After she had put the carts back where she had found them, and removed their level markers. Maya walked back to her desk, and found Archivist Leilani slumped in her chair, rubbing her eyes.
“Lani, how long has it been since you got some sleep?”
The woman chuckled, which turned into a yawn. She spoke in her signature sing-song, almost dream-like voice, “Oh, probably the day before last. I think I’ve found what I’m going to be able to find, though.” She yawned again, larger this time. “Would you read over my notes? See if they are making any sense?”
“Of course, ma’am.” She walked over to the Archivist’s desk, and fished out Leilani’s notebook. In her mentor’s immaculate handwriting, she saw the name of the student she had been researching, Abigail Clarissa Scott. Parents presumed dead, and then there seemed to be quite a few guesses at who her parents might be.
“So, we don’t kn—” but she cut herself off when she realized that Leilani was asleep, and likely would sleep as soundly as a rock for the rest of the day. She shook her head and smirked. Every time she got a research task from a professor or one of the Headmasters, it was the same story. She’d pull as many all-nighters as necessary to work, and then crash once she had reached some kind of conclusion.
Maya settled down at her desk, and extracted her own notebook. Now it was time to find gaps, mistakes, and adjustments for her mentor, a task which Archivist Leilani said was “Essential for thorough research that is both accurate and insightful.” Besides, Maya really wanted to learn more about this new student herself.
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