Chapter 11: 10. Trust Issues

I'd never been in Candice's room before. I'd never been on the third floor at all, for that matter. It was pretty much like I learned last week. Her room was about the same size as mine, but it was furnished differently.

There were three beds, they were all smaller than the one I had. There was one table against the wall under the window, and three chairs around the table. And there were three locker-sized closets built into the wall by the door. From the look of it, either she only had one roommate, or she had one who perfectly made their bed and didn't leave any books or clothes around.

Me and Candice sat down at the table, and she cut right to the point.

"So you know about levels? You have an interface?"

I shrugged, "I'm not sure I use the same terms as you, but I know about levels and stats. I know about the status screen, and getting information on stuff."

Candi shook her head, "When I first saw you I assumed you were in the system, but I didn't get a message when we met. And you didn't mention anything to me either, so I figured I was mistaken."

I frowned, "Ok like I said about different terms? I don't know what you're talking about, 'in the system'. And what kind of message?"

She gave me a suspicious, wary look. "How do you not know the terminology? Weren't you given instructions when you were put in the system?"

I hesitated as I didn't know what to say. It seemed clear she and I got here through very different means. Should I trust her and tell her I died last week and reincarnated here? Maybe that happened to her too? Then again, maybe Natasha screwed something up when she set me up with this new life. Or maybe it wasn't a mistake, maybe she messed things up on purpose to make it more entertaining for her.

Then I got a red warning in the lower-right corner of my vision, as my Detect Magic passive was triggered.

For some reason it upset me more than I thought it would to realize Candice was trying to enspell me. Maybe because we were friends. Or at least, I thought we were friends.

'Magic detected: You are being enspelled! Spell recognized: Thought Skim (2)'

Dispell, don't bother to Scrutinize.

'Dispell successful!'

The whole thing was almost instant, like at best only one or two seconds passed from when I first saw the red light to the success notification. And Candice suddenly looked shocked and nervous as she obviously realized I blocked her spell.

I sighed as I looked at her. I wasn't angry, just sad. In the whole week I'd been here, I never once used any of the spells I learned on my fellow students because I was scared of getting caught like I just caught Candice. Well, apart from the stuff me and Evie got up to at night. But that was different, and even then I'd never used any of the mind spells on her.

Beyond that, in the past seven days nobody had tried to enspell me once since Evie did that first night. None of my fellow first-years tried anything. They probably didn't even know the spells yet.

Candice was still staring at me wide-eyed, and I realized her shock had given way to fear. She was expecting some kind of retaliation. Like I blocked her spell easily enough, odds were she was thinking I was more dangerous than I looked. Which was probably a fair assessment, all things considered.

We both stared at each other for another few seconds, then I finally told her "You can calm down, I'm not going to attack you. I'm sad, not angry."

She seemed to relax slightly, but remained anxious and wary. "I'm sorry Abby, I didn't... It's complicated. There's huge rules against discussing system stuff with people who aren't in the system. So I didn't want to ask certain things, incase that meant breaking the rules? But... How did you break my spell? How did you even know I was doing it?"

I was still hesitant, as I wondered how much it was safe to tell her. Especially if there were rules against talking about this stuff.

Candi spoke up again while I was thinking it over. "Um, full disclosure, before you ended my spell I only really got three things and they were pretty disjointed. Just three words basically? Reincarnated. Friends. Dispell."

I sighed, "Obviously dispell is what I did to your magic. And friends is because I thought that's what we were."

"And 'reincarnated'?" she asked nervously.

After another deep sigh I shrugged. "If you heard me thinking that you can probably guess the rest. I died last week, almost exactly a week ago in fact. I was given a second chance or something? I don't know. I was reincarnated, I came back and woke up in this body, this life."

She was quiet for a few more seconds as she stared at me. The look on her face told me however she got here, it wasn't through reincarnation. I was glad I didn't say anything about being isekai'd.

After a long pause she asked, "So this body, this life is new to you? You're literally only a week old? What were you before, if you weren't, well, you?"

I shook my head, "It's my turn to ask some questions. How'd you get pink hair?"

Candice sort of boggled at me, "That's your first question? After all this, the most pressing thing you need to know is about my hair?"

"Yeah," I shrugged. "It's been on my mind for a while. You and me are the only two with colourful hair. I got mine from being half sprite, so I'm wondering how you got yours."

She sighed, "You really don't know any of this stuff, do you? Ok. When you get into the system there's advantages but there's also some limitations. One of them is a change to our physical appearance, which includes something to make us different so we stand out. Eyes and hair are the most common tells, I think? They give you some leeway, I got to pick from a list so it meant whatever I got it'd be something I was ok with. The option I took included the pink hair."

"When we first met," she added, "I thought your hair was a similar tell. Or maybe your ears. Maybe your eyes. Maybe your size. Then I realized you were half-sprite and all those things were maybe just part of your regular nature. I wondered if being half-sprite was your tell, but I didn't get any feedback that you were in the system and you didn't say anything about it to me, so I figured you weren't. I assumed you were just a normal but rare student."

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Once again I was left with my mind reeling a bit. So however she got into this, she obviously got to make choices. She was an active participant in the process, where I was just sort of thrown in the deep end and left to figure it all out for myself.

Candi asked, "Will you tell me how you knew about my spell? And how you broke it?"

It took me a couple seconds to decide how to reply. I wasn't going to lie, but I didn't want to tell her everything. "My half-sprite nature means I'm a little more sensitive to magic than most people. So I could um, sort of feel it? Sense it? And I have a way to stop spells from affecting me. It doesn't always work..."

She looked suitably impressed, which made me realize she probably didn't have either of those abilities. Definitely not Detect Magic, or she'd have already known how I knew she was working magic on me. Then I realized she was staring off into space again, and a half-minute later her eyes went wide.

"Holy shit half-sprites get a plus-five in magic?!"

"Is that a lot?" I asked.

She gave me a stunned befuddled look, "It's pretty damn significant, considering you're only level two! It won't help you much against the staff or teachers, but you can probably beat every first-year girl in the school. And give second-years a run for their money."

That was maybe not news, but it was a nice confirmation of what I'd already kind of guessed.

"On the other hand," I pointed out, "I'm absolutely tiny, I probably weigh half of what some of the taller stronger girls weigh, and I'm fragile. Not to mention weak. So yeah, magic bonus, but it came with a cost."

Before Candi could respond to that I decided it was my turn to ask another question. "Everyone who's 'in the system' has a physical tell? Just about every student comes to the dining hall for meals right? I haven't seen any other funky hair or weird girls who stand out for some reason. Same with the teachers actually. Does that mean you and me are the only two in the whole school who have systems?"

Candice shook her head, "I don't know when exactly, but when you get to a certain level you can hide your tell. It helps fit in and stuff? Like in my case I'd probably be able to go back to my original appearance. Not that I'd ever want to, ugh. Anyways I guess it also helps you hide from other people in the system, sort of. I'd definitely assume the faculty are in it. Headmistress Siusaidh for sure. So don't go trying anything on any of them, or you'll be in for a world of hurt."

"Yeah," I grimaced. "I wouldn't risk it regardless."

We were both quiet again for a few moments, then Candi sighed. "Abby I really am sorry I tried to violate your trust with that spell. For what it's worth, it was only a very light spell to glimpse your surface thoughts. The best it would do is let me hear your inner monologue for a few seconds. And like I said, I only did it because I was confused and was afraid of breaking some serous rules."

After another pause she asked, "Can we still be friends?"

I thought it over for a few seconds, then nodded. "Yeah Candi. I still want to be friends. Please don't try and enspell me again though ok? And I won't try anything on you either."

She seemed relieved, and we exchanged a little hug. Better than a handshake anyways.

Maybe it wasn't the smartest decision, but I liked her and I felt like I needed a real friend. I wasn't ready yet to trust her with everything, but I hoped that would come in time. I suspected she felt the same, there was probably stuff she wasn't telling me yet either. At least we weren't going to turn into enemies, that was the main thing.

After the hug she frowned and asked, "How's it been having to live with Evelynn? She's pretty dangerous, you know? I've been worried about you all week, but so far you seem ok."

I grimaced again, but before I answered I asked her "How do you mean, dangerous?"

Candi sighed "Well I'm sure you've read the student handbook, you know they don't care if students use magic on each other as long as it's not permanent? There's not much any of us first-years can do to each other, not yet anyways. But she's a year two. And you won't know this since you weren't here, but back in the very first week one of our classmates, Michelle? She mouthed off to Evelynn. Two days later, something changed. She doesn't act any different most of the time, but whenever she sees Evelynn she goes funny. Not like fear though. Like... Awe? Respect? Almost love? I don't know. It freaks me out."

She shook her head and added, "I know your roommate did something to her, but I don't know what. I'm worried about you having to stay there with her. And I've heard the stuff she says about you to her friends, and seen how she looks at you."

I sighed as well, but that was stuff I definitely wasn't ready to trust her with. Instead I went with a sort of half-truth. Ok maybe it was a bunch of lies, but maybe later I'd make it true. Fuck.

In a hushed voice I said, "You can't tell this to anyone ok? She'll literally and actually kill me if it ever got out. Evelynn hates being the 'queen bitch'. She told me, in second semester they're going to pit us all against each other, it gets super competitive and stressful? She had to act like that to survive, but it's not really her. Only she can't drop the act or all her friends will turn on her and stuff? That's why she was so upset about getting a roommate, like her room was the only place she could drop the act and be herself. That first night she tried to keep the act up, tried to bully me and stuff, but I don't know. It fell apart. She couldn't keep it up all day and all night."

I paused dramatically then finished up, "So she acts like that towards me in public, to keep up the appearances. So her friends think she's tormenting me and stuff. But when we're alone in our room, she's just herself. She's kind of nice, and we get along ok. But like I said, if this gets out she'll probably kill me."

Candi's eyes widened as she listened. She finally said, "Ok Abby. I'm glad you're not being tormented day and night. That's a relief. I have one last question then we should get to class. Why the fuck did you put your free stat-point into charisma of all places?"

"I wanted to be cuter?" I replied with a blush.

She actually face-palmed. "You were already cute you goof! Now you're like, plus-two bonus cute."

For some reason hearing her say that put a very big smile on my face.

"Come on," she sighed. "Let's get back to class."

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