Arian had to admit, strange things had been happening.
Of course, there had been Satori's collapse. While sudden and shocking for others, Arian had seen the signs of her weird exhaustion early on. Her collapse proved to him that he was right about noticing such small details, like looking out of breath and having a weird skin colour. In that situation, he hadn't been overthinking.
So maybe I'm not doing it right now, either?, he thought and immediately realized he didn't like this thought at all.
The implications it had were just too immense and something he really didn't want to consider.
So, to satisfy his conscience, Arian tried to find a counterargument.
Thinking back, he realized there had been two incidents in the latest weeks, where he had severely misjudged the situation.
The first one was when Pidgeon had wanted to talk with him again. Arian didn't understand what he wanted. After all, he was the one who had punished Pidgeon severely. Because of that, Arian thought the boy would want nothing to do with him. But Pidgeon was a strange guy. He didn't act like Arian would have expected.
So when he requested an audience with Arian, the prince thought he was going to complain about how terrible his punishment had been, but instead, he wanted to talk about something that had happened while he had been outside during nighttime. There was something he had seen, and now he wanted to know what that was.
Since Arian hadn't the slightest intention of talking with Pidgeon personally, he brushed him off by letting Marie tell him that teacher Javis would take care of such problems. After all, he was the principal of the school.
For once, Arian followed through with his intentions and didn't let himself be ridiculed to talking with the commoner personally. Marie, more tactful and soft spoken than Maloc, managed to get rid of Pidgeon without offending him too much.
The second incident where Arian misjudged the situation completely actually involved his deputy. Since he had ordered Maloc to help the school by doing dishes, the deputy seemed more energetic- at least to Arian. He got up earlier than ever before and disappeared so quickly into the kitchen that Arian sometimes didn't see his deputy for an entire day.
Arian originally thought that Maloc stayed in the kitchen for so long because he finally had the distance he wanted from Arian and because he liked the work there so much. But when the prince confronted his deputy about it, Arian's assumption turned out to be wrong.
To his surprise, Maloc only complained, saying things like "My prince, this is a disgrace!! I am the son of a duke, to ridicule me to such a state is, is...is a joke. A joke!" or "I have never done a more stressful, tirering and annoying task!".
Maloc whined so much that he completely forgot to tell Arian the exact reason why doing dishes was so awful.
The prince himself had no idea about how bad doing dishes truly was. He was a prince, which granted him a higher status than any duke's son. It was only natural, he had never done dishes. But if it had such an effect on Maloc, it truly must be worse than any whipping could ever be.
Arian even noted in the back of his mind that if he had to punish someone again, he would just send them to wash the dishes instead of thinking about any fancy way to punish them.
Anyway, there had been three instances where I judged a situation wrongly, and only one where my worries were justified. In conclusion, the odds are in favor of me misunderstanding something here. Probably I'm just thinking too much about it.
Arian took a deep breath. He tried to calm his nerves, but to no avail. His heart continued to hammer in his chest.
Again, Arain tried to calm down.
Everything's normal, he told himself.
But telling yourself something and believing it were two different pairs of boots.
No matter how often the rational part of Arian's brain told the him, his worries were unfounded and he was overthinking it- the prince struggled to shake off the bad, unsettling feeling.
While Arian's mind did its best to calm his nerves, his heart told him he could certify if his suspicions were true. All he had to do was use his powers and glimpse into the future.
Why shouldn't he?
No, why was he resisting using his magic?
Arian believed there was a reason, no, he knew the reason, had known it just a moment ago- but why didn't he know it right now?
Whatever, Arian didn't care about it anymore. He wanted an answer. He needed to leave his worries behind.
In the end, the temptation was too big and Arian gave in.
His mind focused on all the incidents he found strange. He recalled how he had seen Satori during practice, how exhausted she was, and how she sometimes swayed slightly during her strikes at the straw puppet.
Then he recalled the blonde girl, whose skin color seemed more green than pale.
And at last he remembered the other girl in class that seemed utterly exhausted.
He recalled the three images as clearly as possible, with as much detail as possible, before focusing on the actual question he wanted to get answered.
Were they connected? Was there a pattern or had he just interpretated to much into a mere coincidence?
He tried to channel the intention of the question with all his will, while at the same time remembering the three girls who looked ill.
Soon, he felt how his mind got fussy, he knew it was the critical stage, of where he could loose control and could slip off into a future that would tell him nothing if he wasn't persistent and held onto his memories.
So Arian pushed through the fog, trying to block out all the noise around him and solely focusing on the pieces of memory that would lead him to a hopefully satisfying answer.
He felt, how his surroundings were sloley fading away, the voices around him hardly reaching the prince.
But still, he heard them.
"Oh gods, what is happening with the prince?!"
"Noo!"
"My prince!"
"Arian?!"
Vaguely Arian felt someone touching him. The touch was cold and felt like metal, which meant it was probably a guard.
Then he heard another voice scream. This one was close by and so loud it almost threatened to tear Arian out of his state of concentration.
"Oh dear gods! Look! He's convulsing!"
"Quick! What are you doing you fools?!", another voice shouted.
Arian was sure Marie was the one screaming. But even though he heard her words, he couldn't make sense of it. He was too far gone.
"Stop shaking him, that's dangerous, loosen the collar of his garments and then get away from him!"
There were more voices, by now they were all merging together.
Arian felt like he was slipping away and yet, he still heard their whispers.
"Stop, my prince!"
"What the hell is happening to him?"
"He's using his powers!"
"Arian!"
"His powers?"
"Yes, the powers his former beast possessed."
"Hey, Arian, can you hear me, snap out of it!"
"No way he's accessing their bond?"
"Why now, he had been able to resist it for all these months ever since that ungrateful beast rejected him!"
"This is dangerous!"
"Can he die?"
"Why is it dangerous?!"
"He can access the powers, but his former beast can resist it, I don't know how it works. All I know is one can seriously get wounded."
The last thing Arian heard was a faint wind, carrying Marie's words. "What are you all standing there? Get a medic! Immdediatly!"
Then he lost consciousness, entering his vision completly.