The Sorcery classroom was massive and almost entirely empty.
There was only one other person.
Hermes stopped in the doorway.
Cassie. Sitting at the front right corner, quiet and still, her pale blond hair catching the light, her sightless eyes directed at nothing in particular.
Oh.
Right.
It made sense that she would choose Sorcery. She learned runic sorcery from Noctis in the Second Nightmare and later from the Valor clan. Of course she would start here.
Should I switch to Combat?
He stood in the doorway for exactly three seconds.
No. It's not that deep. You were going to meet her eventually. Delaying it changes nothing. Just get it over with.
He made his way to the front of the classroom and stopped in front of her. She gave no indication of having noticed him. He cleared his throat carefully — the specific throat clear of someone trying not to startle a blind girl — and said,
"Hello there."
"Eeeek!" said Cassie.
Ah.
"Sorry — are you the Sorcery teacher?" she asked, pressing a hand to her chest and collecting herself with considerable dignity given the circumstances.
"No," Hermes said. "I'm just your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man."
Cassie's expression did the specific thing that expressions did when someone had just said words that did not assemble into meaning.
He felt some of his nerves dissolve. There it is.
"I'm joking. I picked the Sorcery class, which is why I'm here. I'm assuming you're here for the same reason?"
"…Yes," Cassie said, with the careful hesitation of someone who had not yet determined what category he belonged in.
Oi, you're making it look like I'm bullying you.
"My name's Hermes. What about you?"
"Cassia."
Silence settled over the room.
Am I bad at talking, he wondered, or is it the people I talk to that are dry?
He decided the answer was probably both, in different proportions depending on the day, and pressed on.
"Well — nice to meet you, Cassia. I hope we can be friends. And if we ever end up near each other in the Dream Realm, I'd like us to help each other out."
Something shifted in Cassie's expression. Not confusion. Something quieter than that and considerably more painful — the particular expression of someone who had just heard something they wanted to be true and had already decided wasn't.
Oh no.
She thinks I'm mocking her.
He took a deep breath.
"I'm not mocking you. I genuinely meant that. I've been talking to every Sleeper I can find for exactly this reason — building goodwill before the Dream Realm scatters us all."
"…I see," she said. In a tone that suggested she did not entirely see.
He tried again.
"I was actually scared to approach you."
Cassie's head turned toward him with an expression that said very clearly: scared of a blind girl?
"Not for the reason the other Sleepers would be scared," he said quickly. "Not superstition. It's just — I have a theory. The worse the Flaw, the stronger the Aspect. The Spell doesn't hand out something as devastating as blindness without a reason. So my conclusion was that you must be considerably more powerful than you look." He paused. "That's just a theory. But it was enough to make me nervous."
Cassie was very still.
Then, slowly, her face crumpled.
Oh no. You made her cry. You absolute dickhead. What do I do. What do I do.
She looked at him with a scowl and tears running silently down her face and said, in a voice that had clearly decided it was going to be steady and mostly succeeded,
"My Aspect is not powerful. Not my Ability. Not my Innate Ability. Not my Attributes. None of it amounts to anything that could be called powerful." Her jaw tightened. "If it were, I wouldn't be in this state."
Hermes stood there.
She composed herself after a moment and continued, quieter now.
"When my parents dropped me off at the Academy, they had already prepared themselves that I wouldn't be coming back. I heard them talking. They were crying. But they put on a strong front for me anyway — to give me hope." A pause. "They had already given up. I know I'm going to die in the Dream Realm. I can't even walk without assistance. What help could I possibly offer you?"
Hermes looked at her for a moment.
"You won't die in the Dream Realm," he said. "Don't worry. You have main character energy."
Cassie blinked. "…What?"
"Anyway." He moved on before she could pursue it.
"What I meant was don't lose hope just yet. Try your best anyway. Again I really did mean what I said before and wasn't mocking you or anything."
Then he felt it.
A gaze.
Not the ordinary kind. Something that went considerably deeper than eyes — the specific sensation of being perceived all the way through, as though every wall he had carefully constructed around his interior life had become suddenly transparent. It felt as if he were stripped naked in front of everyone. His secrets sitting there like a personal diary being read aloud to a room full of strangers.
Of course Hermes knew it was Cassie.
He had been expecting this. He had prepared for this.
He held very still, took a quiet breath, and activated his Oculus Sapientiae in return, taking it as an invitation to see Cassia's runes as well.