Cross Conviction

Silently scribbling away on their respective clipboards, the candidates filled out their after-action questionnaires. Every so often, Max, sitting backward in the desk chair to face the center of the room, took a moment's pause to frustratedly tug at his hair. This went on for some time before Gustavo finally reached his limit with the distracting gesture and decided to address his comrade.

"Is there a problem, Max? Let me see what you have written down."

Max looked up at him suspiciously before turning away in his chair. "Nah, I'm good."

"Knock it off," Gustavo pressed, "You've been sighing and pulling your hair out for an hour. Just let me see it."

"I said I'm good, man, lay off."

"Just let him take a look, Max," Sturm interjected.

Puffing his cheeks, Max exhaled sharply before tossing his clipboard up to Gustavo on the left top bunk. His teammate wasted no time running through the sporadic, half-hearted attempts to address each question.

Q #3: Who was the most difficult opponent you faced during this trial?

A: The Grizzler AKA The Temporal Knight

Gustavo peered down at his ally, eyes narrowed to cynical slits. Surely this was some sort of inappropriately-timed joke.

"This isn't funny, Max," chided Gustavo, his annoyance palpable. "You know that our grades get averaged out, right? Even if the three of us get a 100, you're going to make certain we don't get a point above seventy-five, if you keep goofing off."

Max scoffed and leaned back against the desk. "Who's goofing off? I just don't care about this stupid-ass written crap. This is your specialty. Or Magnolia with her flowery-lookin handwriting."

"Then at least say that you're not going to try so we can tell you what to write down!"

"Whadaya mean? I wrote the shit down, didn't I?"

"Yes, you wrote down 'The Temporal Knight.' Do you even know what that word means?"

"That his powers are temporary? Maybe he got em from a temple or something? What does it matter?"

For Sturm, the silly argument faded into the background as he turned his head to the right in observance of Magnolia, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. She hadn't spoken a word, which was especially unusual given Max's stubborn antics. As a matter of fact, she hadn't had much to say at all since waking up a few hours prior, getting cleared by medical, and cleaning herself off in the washroom. All of this behavior was out of character for the girl, but it was what Sturm observed during this passing glance that convinced him something was wrong.

Despite having settled in to fill out the test just over an hour ago, Magnolia hadn't written a single word.

"Hey," said Sturm, beckoning for her attention, "are you alright?"

Evidently lost in thought, Magnolia simply stared at her paper with a blank expression. Though he didn't want to trouble her, Sturm couldn't shake the feeling that something had deeply shaken his teammate.

"Magnolia?" he spoke up once more, "Is everything good with you?"

She blinked twice as if she had been suddenly torn from some deep daydream and gave a weak nod. "Yes, I'm quite alright," she answered without making eye contact.

"Do you want help with that?" he followed up.

Magnolia shook her head. "No, that won't be necessary."

Without another word, the girl stood up, tossed her exam down on the bed, and made for her room. No insults, no slammed down, no goodbye. Confused by Magnolia's abrupt exit, Max ceased his petty argument and raised an eyebrow toward Sturm.

"What's with her?"

Sturm shrugged. "No clue. She didn't even start on her test."

"Both of them, now?" asked Gustavo, "Then the best we can do is a fifty. Give me that, I'll do it."

There had been a fair period when Sturm was separated from the rest of the group. As such, there was a possibility that whatever was bothering Magnolia occurred without his knowledge. After all, Captain Scharf had made it quite clear when he delivered the written exam that the candidates' disablement did not equate to failure during the physical portion of the test. There would be no reason for Magnolia to be so worked up over having been defeated in the final stretch.

"Max," started Sturm, standing up from the bed, "Did something happen with Magnolia before I showed up to the fight against Grizzler?"

"Beats me," replied Max, fumbling in an attempt to balance his pencil on one fingertip. "I showed up a few minutes before you did though, so I'm the wrong guy to ask."

Accepting this explanation, Sturm immediately looked up at Gustavo expectantly. The boy returned an uncomfortable look from the opposite top bunk as he shifted his jaw. When Sturm's stare remained ceaseless, Gustavo resigned himself to answering the question.

"I'd rather not get into specifics, but she had an episode or two that might have been more than a little embarrassing."

Max leaned forward and folded his arms over the back of the chair. "So what? It was a totally crazy situation! I got my ass kicked like a hundred times. Get over it, right?"

After a contemplative hum, Gustavo offered further explanation. "It wasn't really like that. She and the captain exchanged some fairly sharp barbs and, a bit later, she told Grizzler something extremely private."

Leaning further forward in intrigue, Max rocked his chair back and forth on two legs. "Oh yeah? What'd she say, then?"

"I told you, I don't want to get into that," said Gustavo as he shook his head in refusal.

The young knight candidate was right to be hesitant. During a moment of desperation, Magnolia had admitted to being the product of an extramarital affair between her mother and an unnamed exceptional. Whether or not this was a legitimate admission or simply a part of her ploy to buy time for Gustavo's counterattack, he didn't view it as his place to judge.

"Aw, come on, buddy," Max chimed persistently, "We're the Third Hunter Team, right? Aren't we supposed to know everything that's going on with each other? We can't be hiding stuff."

Sturm forced his way back into the conversation with a stern, "Drop it, Max."

With a long sigh, Gustavo put his clipboard down at his side and began to recount the less sensitive of the two events. "If she wants to tell you that part, she can do it herself," he explained. "As far as the argument with the captain goes, they both said some decently horrible things to one another- Magnolia with her usual comments on his disabilities taken to the extreme, and Scharf spouting off about her being emotionally weak and-"

The boy caught himself just before he could stumble into revealing too much. Similar to Magnolia's difficult admission, Scharf's decision to expose her as a runaway was likely too personal to mention at this time.

"And?" Max urged him on with a wave of his hand.

"No, that's all. Just that sort of hurtful talk."

Though Max's eyes conveyed skepticism, he didn't press this issue this time around. Perhaps he had come to accept the importance of respecting the girl's privacy. More likely, he sensed the shortness in Sturm's prior objection to his prying and wished to avoid catching any further ire.

With surprising confidence, Sturm leaned back against the bedpost and said, "I'm sure the captain will address it at the appropriate time and place."

"Ya have a lotta faith in the captain..." Max chuckled.

That much was true. It was a difficult enough task to get the swordsman to take action against his instructor in the first place. Even in the face of apparent betrayal, Sturm was willing to accept any excuse that might explain Scharf's actions. For Gustavo, this was a troubling observation of weakness; one that he would be sure to consider in the future.

"Alright," yawned Max, stretching his arms toward the ceiling, "Give me my stupid test back. Let's wrap this shit up."

Gustavo tossed the clipboard back down before taking his own in hand. "You're going to fix that nonsense you wrote, no?"

"Man, lay off. There's nothing wrong with it," Max stubbornly protested.

"I'm serious Max, this isn't a game!" Gustavo responded, starting to lose control of his volume out of frustration.

Rolling his eyes, Max turned to Sturm for support. "Buddy, what does 'temporal' mean?"

Without giving Sturm the chance to answer, Gustavo slapped his test down on his pillow and gripped his headboard, leaning down at Max. "It doesn't matter what temporal means because that's not what he's called. Grizzler is 'The Tectonic Knight', Max."

"Oh yeah, and that makes more sense to you? Tell me what technology he uses, then."

Gustavo wasn't the only one who was taking note of his teammates' behaviors. Normally, Magnolia would have been the one to grow tired of Max's antics and ignite an argument. With her absence, however, it was now clear that Gustavo's breaking point lay just beyond hers.

Sturm would remember that.