“And this is an acting class,” another adds. “What’s the point?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask me that.” I set the fruit on the portable desk onstage and point at a pasty, curly-haired student frantically scribbling something down in his notebook. “What’s Avernia’s motto?”
“Uh…” He panics, glancing at the girl with a dark brown complexion sitting next to him.
She makes a face, then lifts her chin. “Mortui vivos docent.”
“Excellent. What does it mean?”
A few titters in the crowd, but no one comes forward with an actual answer. Not even Sabrina this time, though she at least has the decency to look ashamed.
Jesus. So much for a clean slate.
“The dead teach the living,” I offer. “Avernia was founded on the idea of learning from the past and the dead. Everything we use to progress as a society comes from what we glean from our ancestors, their societies, and how we utilize that knowledge to evolve.”
More silence.
I smirk to myself, clasping my hands together. “You all are in for a rough semester.”
“Professor,” the boy from before calls out. “Is it true that a bunch of students almost died in the caves this past winter?”
The question catches me off guard. I cock my head to the side, folding my arms over my chest.Deny, deny, deny.“Where on earth did you hear a rumor like that?”
He shrugs. “The Delphic Pagesmentioned it a couple of times, although the posts keep getting removed.”
“That’s just urban legend,” someone toward the back replies. “Same as all the bodies that supposedly go missing in Lake Lerna. When’s the last time anyone was even close enough to that thing to fall in?”
“Yeah,” a blond with three eyebrow piercings and a pinkish freckled face agrees. “You can’t trust anything Pythia says.The Delphic Pagesis just a site for gossip. Half the rumors end up not being true.”
“Well, they were right about the program cuts last spring and reported that new Anderson kid before he even showed up for class in the fall.”
My heartbeat grows louder, drowning out the noise as they descend into arguing among themselves.
Shit.This isn’t good. Discord on the first day rarely produces favorable long-term results, and I don’t need future castmates clashing already.
Nor do I need anyone poking around, looking for answers that will get them into trouble if found.
Holding a hand up, I wait for a hush to fall over the crowd. “Unless this discussion is directly related to Visio Aternae or has something to do with acting, I’m going to request you all put pins in the ideas and hold them until after my time with you is up.”
“Ifit was true,” the kid continues, ignoring my request, “I was just wondering… What would we learn from the dead students then?”
I stare at him for several beats, waiting for the erratic pace of my heart to relax. Gritting my teeth, I bend down, grabbing a stack of Visio Aternae pamphlets and philanthropic guides frommy briefcase, even as memories flank my vision, threatening to drag me down into complete and utter desolation.
There’s a reason the forest is supposed to be off-limits. What happened last semester is only part of why.
Hopping off the stage, I pass out the information to the class, ending with the inquisitor. As people chatter around us, he looks up and meets my gaze.
I don’t like how easily he does so—like he’s actually trying to figure something out.
Something he perhaps knows too much about.
“They’d probably learn not to believe everything they hear,” I tell him in a low voice, turning away to speak to the class again before he can respond. “As you all are aware, Pythia is notorious for spouting mindless drivel on our school’s online forum, and you should take what she says with a grain of salt. I would have petitioned to have her shut down years ago if she wasn’t so damned entertaining.”
They laugh, but it’s true. My issues withThe Delphic Pagesdate back to my undergrad years when it was still in its infancy.
In the wake of my sister’s death, the forum allowed Pythia to publish heinous lies about Bellamy and her involvements at the school. Those were the only things written about her at all—that we could find anyway.
Pythia said nothing of me, which always made me question who runs theaccount.
