>>5778864“…Huh?”
“I owe you,” Henzler repeated you words back to you. “What do you want, to repay the debt?”
You’re a little taken aback, actually. You were thinking an apology, or a ‘thank you’, or… Maybe you’d just spoken up to get her on her back-foot and embarrass her? Tod distract her from your own personal revelation? You didn’t expect the weirdo to be so freaking LITERAL about it. After all, you’d stepped on for YOURSELF, on your OWN initiative, not because Izirina Henzler had asked you to do so. You’re not so sure she actually OWES you anything, in truth…
But you weren’t averse to using this. A small smile played upon your lips as you considered the possibilities. Rare books? Private tutelage and access to the notes—however strange or byzantine those notes might be—of the Tower’s best student?
“Well, you’re rather putting me on the spot, don’t you think?” you’d asked, to buy time.
“But you were the one who—”
“Now now, is that any way to show gratitude?” you’d interrupted Henzler protest, shutting her up. “I’m going to need to think on this… But make no mistake, Henzler: the day wil come when I call upon you, and you WILL help me.”
“That’s not…”
You arched an eyebrow. Izirina Henzler withered under your questioning gaze, and nodded, pulling her hat down.
“Now, was that all?” you asked, feeling admittedly a little smug as you watched her squirm, an experimental animal in your own personal lab.
She nodded after a moment’s delay. You got the sense that maybe there was more—more to this meeting, more she’d wanted to talk about, but that—for better or worse—you had made her rethink the matter.
“Right,” you said, continuing on your way towards the hall’s exit. “Then I’ll see you in class, Henzler.”
She watched you go—you could feel her eyes on you, prickling the fine hairs on the back of your neck, but you did not turn around. You hurried and, having avoided any more of strangeness with the Archmage’s daughter, you managed to catch up with your friends in time for lightning-roasted drake-kabobs and to pick out some new attire for the one week study-and-decompression break between this year and next.
