"Sometimes I just want to turn my brain off for a while and watch two Huntresses go at it in a karate duel."

Neo grins and nods at Lilian.

"Sable and I love sci-fi, Jade loves political intrigue — as if we didn't see enough of that in Mantle — and Neo's other favorite is watching gorgeous Huntresses have a well-filmed fight."

"It'll be fun to watch some sci-fi with you two, then. Do you have any ones you like in particular?"

Sable smiles and goes on to list a bunch of films. Remnan sci-fi has a higher proportion of aliens landing than Earth does, due to Dust not working in space, but Sable seems to overwhelmingly prefer the rarer films where people manage to figure out some alternate propulsion and go exploring and Things Happen from there.

December's knowledge is more limited, but she's eager to hear about all the films she hasn't seen. They can go on like this for a while.

Maya will just smile fondly at the two while she finishes her lunch, and squeeze Jade's hand across the table.

Eventually everyone finishes their lunches, and Sable and December run out of sci-fi to nerd out together talk about.

"Shall we go to see the Headmaster, then?"

"Sounds very smart to me," December replies. "Let's go." 

She waves goodbye to the table. "See you all after dinner," she says. "Or maybe sooner!"

Sable smiles and leads the way, waving fondly at everyone on the way out. The route takes them toward the central tower on campus, through some lovely courtyards.

This is nice. The impending talk with the most important person in all of Vale is pretty intimidating. Nice gardens though. 

She squeezes December's hand encouragingly. "Talking to the Headmaster is... a lot, I won't lie, but from what I've seen he's always trying to help. Sometimes he seems to be playing chess, figuring out a bigger gameboard than any of us see, but even then he tries to make things go well for people."

"Yeah, it's just... awkward to talk to someone so important after my little life before. I guess I'm a little important now."

"Yeah, you are. You're Huntresses in training, you've got three souls, and you've got these weird bonus powers. You count as important, even for someone like the Headmaster."

"That's going to be interesting to get used to."

"Welcome to Huntress life: there has never been a shortage of Interesting Times and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying."

"Yeah. Violet's excited, but... I think you have to be sensible about this and recognize it's a dangerous profession. If glamorous."

She nods. "Yeah, it is. I'm a decent insurance policy, as long as I get to you while you're still breathing, but there's no guarantee of that."

Lilian looks away. "Yeah."

"Unfortunately there are no safer occupations for Aura wielders than security guards in remote areas, and I had to awaken your Auras to fix the mess your souls had become. I hate that I took that choice away from you, but it was that or let you die."

She squeezes Lilian's hand.

"I will absolutely take this over that. You made the right call."

She smiles, perhaps a bit bittersweetly. "Doesn't stop me from wishing I had better options, like I always do, but I'm certainly glad for the chance to get to know you three."

And they reach the tower and step inside, taking the elevator up to the Headmaster's floor.

There's a pause. Nobody really steps forward to occupy the brain. It's an in-between moment. 

Looks like it's me, then. For a serious talk.

Go ahead.