Ballistic Coefficient

Neither of them moved, even as they both stared at the man they knew was Sven. Pale was simply in disbelief – the last time she'd seen him, he'd been buried under a bombardment of 250-millimeter high-explosive shells that she'd rained down on his village. And now he was here – worse for wear, to be sure, but here nonetheless.

Sven locked eyes with her, and she tensed, a hand falling to the sheathed knife at her waist. Inwardly, she silently cursed Virux for confiscating her guns from her. The last time she and Sven had faced each other, they hadn't done her much good, but they were still better than being armed with just a knife and Kayla's magic.

At that thought, Pale turned towards her friend, only to find her sitting there, equally as tense, some of her teeth bared as her body trembled with rage. Between the two of them, Kayla had far more of a reason to hate Sven – he'd killed her father right in front of the two of them. Pale still remembered everything in detail, between tracking Kayla's father across the north side of the kingdom to eventually finding him being held as a prisoner in one of Sven's camps… as well as his ultimate fate, dying at Sven's hand in order to protect Kayla. The mere thought of it still made her blood boil with sheer rage.

They'd both thought he was dead. It was an easy thing to assume – Pale had just about reduced his entire village and all its occupants to little more than ash on the ground. For all intents and purposes, that should have been enough to kill him, but somehow, here he was, staring at her. Pale held his gaze for a moment until he did something entirely unexpected.

He blinked and turned away, seeming for all the world to not even have recognized the two of them.

That took her off-guard, enough that she nearly felt the breath be stolen from her lungs from the sheer shock of it. He'd killed Kayla's father, not to mention however many other people, but in return, Pale had all but bombed his entire village back to the Stone Age, severely wounding and disfiguring him in the process. That wasn't something somebody just forgot, particularly somebody as unscrupulous as him. Her brow furrowed as thoughts ran through her mind.

Was it possible he'd lost his memory somehow? She supposed so, but that didn't explain why he was here now, and why nobody else seemed shocked to see him there. Perhaps they simply didn't know who he was, but given the path of destruction his men had carved across the northern parts of the kingdom, that was hard for her to believe. But then again, they were very far south now, so she figured it was certainly possible…

Albrecht was saying something, she finally realized. He'd been speaking for the past minute or so, and she'd entirely tuned him out, instead laser-focusing on Sven Greymane as he stood at the back of the room, his one remaining hand shoved into his front pocket. Idly, Pale stared at him from top to bottom. He was dressed differently from what she was used to – gone were the ornate furs, and the metal armor, replaced instead with a set of simple, almost common-looking clothing and some lightweight leather armor over top of it. He'd once had a large sword sheathed at his hip, but that had apparently been set aside in favor of a wicked-looking dagger on his waist. That wasn't to dismiss him as dangerous, however – of all the opponents they'd faced since her arrival here, Sven was the only one to have dealt her a defeat so crushing that she'd had to resort to an orbital bombardment just to survive.

And, more than that, he was the only one to ever haunt her nightmares.

Pale grit her teeth as those thoughts came rushing back. No matter how hard she tried to push them away, they refused to leave. A quick look over at Kayla confirmed she felt the same way.

The only question now was what they were going to do about it.

Albrecht finally finished speaking, and all the students stood up, apparently having been dismissed at the end of the speech. As they all filed out, Pale took Kayla by the hand and began to pull her away, heading for the doors farthest from Sven as she rushed back to their dorm room.

XXX

They both ended up sprinting back to their shared dorm, Pale slamming the door behind her as they both entered the room. And the moment they were alone, Kayla exploded.

"What is going on?!" she demanded. "How… how is he here?! You killed him!"

"We never confirmed it," Pale growled. "I just… figured a barrage of 250-millimeter shells would be enough. I never could have suspected he was tough enough to actually survive it. Nothing else in that village did."

"The village…" Kayla echoed, her eyes widening. "He's going to want revenge, Pale. You know he is."

"I'm aware. And believe me, I intend to do something about it."

"What…? Don't tell me you're going to try to-"

"Relax," Pale urged. "I'm going to talk to Professor Virux, see if I can't get him to see where we're coming from. I'd rather not get kicked out of this place for spilling blood. Granted, the last thing I want to do is talk this out, but we have to be careful how we handle things at this point. We can't afford to lose our spots here, even if he's now here with us."

Kayla hesitated for a moment before nodding. "And… if Virux doesn't see sense, or understand how dangerous Sven is? What will you do then?"

Pale said nothing, instead turning away as her expression darkened. Kayla didn't call out to her, but she didn't need to; Pale knew she understood regardless.

"Stay here," Pale told her without looking back. "Lock the door behind you, and don't open it until you know it's me coming back. If he comes for you, go out the window and run like your life depends on it."

Kayla was taken aback. "You're going alone?"

"Yeah. Believe me, I'm not happy about it, either, but I'd rather keep one of us out of harm's way for now. Someone has to stay alive to tell the truth if something happens to one of us, after all."

Kayla offered no arguments to the contrary, even as Pale opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. She took a few steps before hearing the door close and lock behind her. Slowly, a soft exhale escaped from between her lips, and she started walking.

With any luck, she could get Virux to see sense in this matter.

XXX

It wasn't hard to find Virux's office – the professors had all showed the students where they could be found most of the time when they weren't busy teaching. And sure enough, as Pale approached, she could see there was a light on in the room. Pale didn't hesitate; she stepped up to the door and knocked on it, loudly enough to get Virux's attention.

"It's me," she said. "We need to talk."

She heard movement from the other side, and then a moment later, the door opened. Virux stared down at her from inside his office, a perplexed look on his face.

"Pale?" he asked. "No offense, but it's a bit early for this, isn't it? The academic year doesn't officially begin until tomorrow."

"I know. This isn't about that; it's much more important. May I come in?"

Virux, to his credit, didn't hesitate. He stepped aside, allowing her entry. Pale walked into his office as he closed the door behind her, taking a moment to look around. From what she could tell, it looked like a stereotypical academic's office – stray books and papers were scattered haphazardly across the entire room, which itself was fairly small, and was mostly occupied by two large, very overstuffed bookshelves lined up against the back wall. To put it simply, it looked as though a tornado had swept through the room, though she couldn't find it in herself to care about that at the moment.

"Have a seat," Virux offered, motioning to the chair nearest to her. "Oh, don't mind the books, either – you can set those on my desk."

Pale did as she was told, picking up the stack of books and setting them on Virux's desk before settling into her seat as best as she could. The moment she was seated, she locked eyes with Virux.

"One of the adjuncts for this year is a bloodthirsty murderer and slaver," she said bluntly.

Immediately, Virux blinked, taken aback by her statement. "What…? How do you know?"

"It's hard to explain. I'll give you the short version – the burned man who's missing an arm? He's the leader of a clan of barbarians, far to the north, and sent his men to attack several villages along the northern part of the kingdom. One of those villages was Kayla's home town. His men slaughtered almost everybody there; whoever they didn't immediately kill, they took as slaves, including her father. Kayla was the only survivor, and together, the two of us tracked her father back to where he'd been taken." Pale leaned forwards. "You asked how I know for sure, Professor? It's because I watched with my own two eyes as he murdered several slaves, killed Kayla's father, and tried to kill the two of us right after.'

Again, Virux was taken aback. "This… this is unbelievable…"

"I'm aware that this probably sounds crazy to you-"

"Then you must understand where I'm coming from." Virux took in a shaky breath. "Do you have proof of any of this?"

Pale shook her head. "Just my word and Kayla's. I doubt he'd tell you the truth, but if you're curious, ask him how he got so disfigured." She paused for a moment. "What's he doing here, anyway?"

"He's… a servant of one of the royal families," Virux informed her. "He's here representing them, though personally, I think he's mainly here to keep an eye on their heir, who is attending this year."

"That's allowed?"

Virux nodded. "A few of the wealthier noble families tend to be very protective of their heirs. They make generous contributions to the Luminarium in order to ensure they have someone inside its walls who can look after their family members."

Pale's eyes narrowed. That explained why certain people became adjuncts, then. But it didn't explain why Sven, of all people, was currently serving as one.

"Regardless, we don't have any kind of concrete evidence aside from our word," Pale told him. "Do you believe me?"

To her dismay, Virux sucked in a breath before speaking again.

"It's not about what I believe, it's about what you can prove," he told her. "And right now, you can't prove any of this. You understand that, right? Your story, even if it's true… ultimately, it's your word against his, and he has the backing of a noble family on his side."

Pale grit her teeth. She'd suspected it would ultimately come down to proof, and unfortunately, neither her nor Kayla had any.

"Just promise me this," Pale urged. "Promise me you'll keep a very close eye on him. He may not look like it, but that man is incredibly dangerous."

This time, Virux nodded. "I will. You have my word on that."

"Thanks."

And so, resignedly, Pale stood up and left Virux's office, marching down the hall back to her dorm.

She wasn't sure what happened next, but one thing was certain – her and Kayla were going to have to be very careful with Sven around.

XXX

Pale moved through the campus as quickly yet carefully as she could, taking pains to not leave herself exposed for too long as she went. The knife at her waist provided some semblance of comfort, but it paled in comparison to the weapons she ought to have had, or even the weapons still on her ship. If nothing else, she knew those would do a number on Sven, even if the collateral damage was unacceptable at this point.

Still, though, if it came down to it, and he was about to kill her… in that case, she wouldn't hesitate.

Pale continued to move through campus as those thoughts and others like it plagued her mind. It was dark now, the moon high in the sky already by the time she stepped through the doors to her dorm building.

And the moment she did so, someone roughly grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the nearby stone wall, holding her in the air as she futilely kicked her legs, trying to free herself. Through the pain and her rapidly-closing airway, Pale managed to crack one eye open to get a look at her assailant.

She was not surprised to find Sven staring back at her.

"Well, well," he said. "How amusing that the two of us should cross paths here, of all places. One might consider it to be fate, even." His one good eye narrowed. "Did you really think your explosion magic would be enough to kill me?"

"I… had hoped…" Pale managed to get out.

Sven shoved her against the wall yet again. "You were wrong," he said with a snarl. "Of course, the rest of my village wasn't so lucky. You killed a lot of innocent people that day."

"You're one… to talk…"

Sven snarled at her once more. "Consider this a warning," he said. "I know what you're capable of. If you even think of hurting my ward, I will end you and that mutt of a Beastkin friend of yours. And when the time comes… when the time comes, I will be back to take my revenge for what you did to my village."

Despite her lack of oxygen, Pale still managed to open both eyes and glare at him. "And we… will be ready… to pay you back for Kayla's father and village."

Sven gave her one final, baleful look before dropping her unceremoniously to the ground and stepping away. Pale instantly scrambled to her feet, ripping her combat knife from its sheath, only to find that he'd already stepped outside, leaving her alone. She took a moment to suck in a few deep gulps of much-needed air, both to stave off the encroaching unconsciousness and to calm her pounding heart. And the moment she had recovered enough to move again, she took off down the hallway in a dead sprint, hoping that Sven had left Kayla alone.