Noble climbed into the polymer chamber that resided in the corner of her classroom. It had been a long time since she had last used it personally. As a Master and now a Saint, her intuition had grown better, and her use of skill had become more refined.
Her body could withstand almost anything this world could throw at it, so the professor's main concern was with not knocking herself out by accident. Her flaw was as active as ever, and she had no desire to see how far she could float into space before no longer being able to breathe.
'That won't happen today, though.'
Noble was not planning on overdoing it. She had classes to teach that afternoon, and she refused to cancel them for her own stupidity.
Bee Two shut the chamber and engaged the intercom system. "What would you like me to note from this experiment?"
"I need you to register any strange readings you might get. Actually, any data you might be able to collect would be of interest to me. Just don't upload it anywhere, even to print." Noble felt like she was being paranoid, but until she knew what the readings said, she didn't want anyone, even the government, to be able to peek at it.
With everything set, Noble circulated her essence.
'This would be easier with Nectar.'
Silently, Noble commanded the orb tethered to her soul to surround it instead. Her body felt suddenly lighter and at the same time filled with power. Adjusting to the strange yet familiar feeling, the professor continued to move her essence through her body.
'Here we go...'
Of course, Noble wanted to recreate the occurrence where she had attacked the Others with an explosion of emotion. Only this time, instead of a nuke in all directions, the professor hoped to create some directionality and intent to the assault.
After all, a weapon was of little value if it hurt friend and foe alike.
'I can figure this out. I just need to direct the emotion without overloading my system.'
There had to be a way to concentrate feelings without making her own soul suffer. All she had to do was collect and direct those feelings before they could build inside her.
That was easier said than done. Noble envisioned a gun. The buildup of pressure caused the bullet to go in a singular direction because of the barrel. She would have to create an emotional barrel of her own.
Taking a deep breath, Noble held out her hands. The emotion would not flow from her fingers, but the action helped her to mentally focus on the spot just beyond them.
Her eyes swirled. Her body tensed. And then...
Nothing happened.
"Are you still warming up?" Bee Two inquired after a time.
"Yes," the professor did not want to explain her dilemma.
She was not emotional enough to forcefully eject her feelings. Noble could try to think about things that would evoke those feelings. With the state of the world and her most recent Nightmare fresh on her mind, there was plenty of emotional fuel for the fire. Too much fuel…
Noble resisted. Making herself afraid or angry felt risky. While harnessing her own emotion was the most straightforward method, indeed the only method that had worked so far, there was another thing she wanted to try first.
Expanding her emotional sense, Noble felt the students around her. At the beginning of winter, there were many.
And most of them were frightened. Other than the legacies, the people still in the Academy this late in the year were the teens who didn't have the time, money, or resources to escape the Solstice.
Soon, they would be put through a trial in the most inhospitable place: the Dream Realm.
Fear was only natural. Fear of the future. Fear of their present predicament. And the fear of falling asleep and realizing that the Nightmare wasn't actually over.
The professor's heart went out to them. So did her care and concern for their well-being. She didn't know them and might never meet some of them, but that did not change her hope for a better future for them.
Intangible strings formed as Noble felt her attribute work. They knitted together, tying themselves to her. It was strange to not only sense her connections to the people around her, but now she could also actively form attachments to those who did not even know her.
The stage was set.
'Now. Here comes the tricky part.'
Using the strings like anchors, Noble gently pulled on the fear of dozens, bringing them to herself with an invisible force that she could not name. She was worried that there would be resistance, but it seemed the owners of the emotion were glad to be relieved of it if only briefly.
The emotions of others trickled toward her at first. Noble collected them in an invisible cistern. She pulled a little harder. Suddenly, the emotions came at her like a flood.
"Oh!" Child of Promise momentarily felt overwhelmed.
She would not give in to the feelings as she had once at a concert that would not be named. Noble took a deep breath and regrouped, bottlenecking the influx to a manageable amount.
This time, she would run the emotions, not the other way around.
Noble's fists clenched as she collected the tide of emotion in herself. It wasn't something tangible, and that made it that much harder to contain. It was no wonder toddlers were so quick to let out their feelings. Holding them like this was exhausting!
But Noble did not let the intense headache or fatigue bother her. If anything, it made her more determined to make it work the first time.
The people's separate emotions twisted together, coalescing in an invisible cauldron inside Noble's Soul Sea.
Noble tried not to be too excited by that development. She wasn't done yet, and her emotions could hamper how effective her next action was.
Instead, Noble tried to find a bit of unhappiness in her. Not a lot, just enough to light the fuse for what she wanted to do.
Quickly, she searched for just the right thought. She needed something that irked her but was not too explosive.
Her mind flipped through a myriad of thoughts, but none of them struck the right chord. Between being a mother and teaching at two different schools, her patience had grown such that few things truly irritated her. Still, there had to be something.
Searching the room for inspiration, Noble found it in the figure sitting on the edge of her desk.
The Queen Bee bobblehead.
That thing had somehow made it from Fort's former office to her own. While the memento reminded her of her husband, the creation of the merchandise was still a sore spot.
Whatever had made Fort mass-produce them?!
And why did so many people want them?
Even Flint had demanded one as payment to keep her secret.
Flint!
The mild irritation swelled into all the agony that she had been repressing.
Sorrow mixed with the amassed fear, creating a tinderbox.
There was no more holding back. Training her eyes straight ahead, Noble let loose the emotional bomb.
Things went as planned…almost.