>>5942906“How come? Don’t you leave to go home at the very least?”
“I can’t…” Says Alice as she rests her hands and chin on the thin side of her book.
“Did your parents kick you out?”
“Nonono. They are keeping my room tidy and clean when I finally come back to them. Even if it takes years they will wait for me.”
“Is it rent or food costs?”
“Actually none, all my tuition for books is helping pay a part of the mortgage as I am still getting that government money. I know they are safe right now and I could try to reach them but I can’t put them at risk.” States Alice with a wince as she looks down.
“Fo-wait are you being hunted by mages?”
“I would not say actively hunted but I would get kidnapped and experimented on because of this stupid halo.”
“Ahhh, tch.” William tries to mime to avoid having to ask about the halo thing not knowing how to proceed.
“I wasn’t born with this halo, it was from an experiment of some kind.”
“By Prisma?”
“By the Coven. To me at least they are much worse than Prisma as the Coven want to push the limits of knowledge and research, no matter the cost.”
“So science interns?”
“Backyard science teams funded with magic teaching and whatever allowance they get but yes.”
“How are they worse compared to soul tearing?” Asks William with a bit of skepticism in his voice.
“Prisma would just kill men and maybe press gang women and be done with it. The Coven would use you for experiments, tear off your skin for a deeper look, heal you to keep you alive longer, and leave the subjects behind or at least what is left of them.”
“Just randomly?”
“No and that is the worst part. They would have a thesis of the week and look for candidates that might help their little experiments. They prefer living people and if they live they get data, if they die they can just redo the experiments to avoid “cross contamination of results” or some other excuse.”
“How have they not terrorized the rest of the school?”
“Usually either they hit a research roadblock or they got scolded for leaving the latest mess behind. From what the old librarian said the Coven take breaks after getting caught to avoid getting marks on their academic reports. So they are getting better at hiding experiments and they should be picking things back up by the end of the week.”
“How does anyone avoid them?”
“Run and hope they lose interest or hope you get lucky and live.”
“How did you live?”
“I think it was a mental experiment or something as I still had all my limbs and most of my blood. Just felt like I was being stretched and almost ripped apart but I somehow woke up in the dumpster.”
“Woke up in the middle of a trash compactor?”
“Flame enchanted dumpster before after school classes finished and activating the enchantment.”
