A Pane of Glass to Stay the Flood

Aria stood at one of the windows, peering out into the murky lake, a hand pressed against the cold glass. Occasionally, a grindylow or some other aquatic creature would swim past. Mismatched eyes tracked them all.

It was difficult to say how long the blonde had been standing there or what was on her mind. She had no love for water. In fact, she still possessed some lingering fear for the substance. The windows in the common room had never failed before, so there was no reason to believe they would, now.

If they ever did fail, however... Well, it was no small lake. It would flood the dungeons.

Mars watched the blonde. She had been looking out into the lake for a while now and didn't look like she was going to stop. He walked up behind her to look over her shoulder through the window.

"Either grindylows were doing underwater ballet or you're figuring out the answers to the universe. What's on your mind, Dite?"

Aria had sensed the boy long before he had approached--she was not an easy one to sneak up on. She had ignored him in favor of keeping to her thoughts. Either he would address her or continue on his way. She felt no need to act until necessary.

"Obviously, I was thinking about the grindlylow underwater ballet," the blonde replied. She turned her gaze from the window to look at him. She never had figured out what he was. He wasn't human, not entirely. He felt like one tainted by demons.

"So, what's your story?" Aria bluntly asked. "Made a deal, didn't we?" She was right; she was certain of it. Her senses were never wrong.

"Obviously," Mars said. At her question, he looked at her. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours. You aren't human. Not demon. Not anything else I have encountered. What are you? Some sort of earthy fire starter? You wanna trade information, you get to go first, sweetheart."

He had wondered about what she was ever since he saw what she had done to the chair at the beginning of the year. A lot of people in the school were more than human. Obviously she was one of them.