Chapter 56
Quill
Power Structures
Fading Hours
Ahmet Kenan Bilgic, Turgut Mavuk
I already knew that Troy was a stickler for rules. But the fact that he would break the law he always preached about so obsessively was the crowning contradiction embodied by this man.
I had just entered the lecture hall and sat down when he strode in with a box, reached for the students' desks before they could react, and collected any copies of Atrianima that couldn't be pulled back quickly enough.
“This ridiculous reading game...” He quickly pulled more books from the writing surfaces, and the student next to him, his face horrified, slammed his hand down on the empty surface because he failed to grab his copy in time. “...comes to an end today.”
Some students quickly ran to their seats to hastily shove their copies into their bags.
“After this lecture, my fireplace will burn like never before.”
There was something devilish in his tone, adorning his expression as he quickly wheeled around and headed for the next row.
He managed to grab the book lying on the edge just before the young student could react.
The boy already opened his mouth to say something, but quickly pressed his lips together, his gaze fixed on his tally mark list on the board.
Fitzek Junior ignored him, walked on, and put his hand on the next copy, but the student who owned it also managed to grab it.
Fitzek looked up with a menacing glare.
However, this seemed to intimidate the student only minimally, as he clenched his hand around the book.
“Let go,” Troy growled. “Now.”
The student gave in, slumping into his seat, paralyzed and looking like someone who had just lost a fortune, while his friends gave him pitying looks.
Only Lucas leaned back with a triumphant grin, as if this idea had been his.
Zach, next to him, just shook his head and watched Troy.
Neither of the boys had probably ever even touched these books.
A student jumped up as Fitzek Junior walked over to his own desk and put the box down there.
“Are you aware of how expensive these books are?”
Fitzek Junior looked around, unimpressed.
“Admittedly, I could resell them. But I think nothing of this obscene literature. It will give me great satisfaction to rid the world of some of these copies.”
I was already seething inside, but I tried – as I had done for the past three weeks in order not to be suspended from this course – not to let this clown's behavior get to me.
“You can't do that!” the young man continued to protest.
Now Troy looked at him before he reached for a piece of chalk and walked over to the blackboard.
“Do you think, Mr. Finchman, that I can do it any less than I can draw this tally mark on this blackboard?”
He drew a tally mark, causing the blackboard to screech and most of those present to wince.
Moritz Finchman stared at Troy, his jaw working, but was pulled back into his seat by one of his friends, before he tore himself free.
“That's not fair. That book cost me a fortune. Just because you guys can afford to get another copy…” I heard him curse under his breath.
This was going too far.
Troy turned back to the blackboard to write down the title of today's lecture.
Government
Rupert Gregson-Williams
I stood up, immediately drawing everyone's attention, but I didn't let that deter me, and stepped into the aisle, walking down the stairs, causing a murmur to break out around me.
Troy turned around and his expression darkened instantly.
“What do you intend to do, Miss Veritas?”
“The only right thing, Professor Fitzek Junior.”
The students around me began to whisper more intensely, some laughing quietly, while Troy's right eyebrow twitched.
He wanted me dead. Fine.
I reached his desk faster than he could process what I was about to do, grabbed the slightly too heavy box of books, lifted it up, and turned away from him.
“Miss Veritas! I advise you not to do that!”
Ignoring him, I strode through the rows and let the hesitant students reach into the box. After a few seconds, they all hastily grabbed their copies.
“Miss Veritas!”
My silence was answer enough.
However, I didn't expect him to appear next to me, snatch the box from my hands, and carry it back to his desk, where he set it down and, amid loud murmurs from the students, stormed to the blackboard like a fury.
He put the final tally mark.
“I haven't broken any of your rules,” I muttered unenthusiastically. “But you?” A soft snort escaped me as I crossed my arms over my chest. “Broke the law.”
“Oh yes, you did. Do you see this, Miss Veritas?”
He spun around, eyes wide and brow furrowed, and hammered the chalk against the blackboard, leaving dots on my tally mark list without breaking the chalk.
Automatically, I raised both eyebrows.
Where did he get that stuff? From an accessory shop for juvenile detention centers?
“You are suspended from my module! Suspended!”
Oddly enough, I couldn't help but grin.
“What are you going to do, hm?”
The murmuring around me quieted as I walked toward his desk.
Lucas's dirty grin finally disappeared as well.
“Carry me out of here?”
I spread my arms invitingly.
“Go ahead.”
Students began to laugh.
I could literally see the vein running along Troy's temple pulsing as his jaw seemed to jump out of his skull.
The next moment, he threw the chalk on the floor.
“That's enough!”
He lunged at me, grabbed my arm, and I flinched.
“Come with me!”
Breaking Point
Ahmet Kenan Bilgic, Turgut Mavuk
My fellow students stopped laughing and stared at me, whispering.
“Absolutely not,” I gritted through my teeth, trying to break free, but his grip was tight. “Let go of me!”
He literally dragged me to the still-open door.
“Let the director decide what consequences are appropriate for a brat like you.”
A loud murmur broke out as Troy dragged me into the hallway, but it faded into the distance as he continued to drag me through the main building.
At some point, I stopped resisting, ready to face Arnold.
“Let's see if Daddy will take the side of a snitch, Troy.”
He spun around and stared at me as if I had slapped him. I bet I was the first woman who ever spoke to him that way.
“What did you just call me?”
“Do you prefer Fitzek Junior?”
His hand twitched and I almost instinctively dodged him, but managed to control myself because he surprised me, spun back around, and pulled me further up the wide staircase.
“Just you wait...”
“Troy!”
My head jerked around when Davian appeared behind us on the stairs, and I pressed my lips together.
Troy glanced back briefly but didn’t stop, pulling me with him around the sharp turn of the staircase.
“What are you doing?!”
Davian caught up with us, and I didn't miss how he reached for my hand but pulled it back before his jaw started working and he rushed forward to block Troy's path at the top of the stairs.
“Oh, Davian.” Troy paused in front of him and laughed devilishly. “You're not going to like this.” He took advantage of Davian’s moment of distraction and pulled me past him, Davian’s eyes fixed on me. “Out of the way!”
I looked back at him apologetically, wanting to somehow let him know that everything would be okay, but Davian clenched his hands into fists and followed us.
“Troy!” he growled.
But Troy had already pushed open the double doors to the law school director’s office and shoved me inside.
The first thing I saw was my father.
Confession Tapes
Paul Leonard-Morgan
Automatically, I stiffened and stared at the man sitting two meters in front of me in the armchair diagonally across from Arnold's desk – dressed in one of his black-green three-piece suits – who stared back at me with the same bewilderment I felt.
“Father,” Troy announced in a voice dripping with pride. “Her tally is full. This means she is not only suspended from my module, but also expelled from Maplecrest.”
Somehow I managed to tear my gaze away from my father, so that I could focus on the old Fitzek and turn to him, an unpleasant prickling sensation in the back of my neck.
Dissatisfaction ran through the deep wrinkles of his face, but something in me doubted that it was entirely directed at me, because he glanced briefly at his son as if he were a thorn in his side.
Davian entered the office, but I focused on the wrinkled Nazi director in front of me.
“Your son wants to burn books that don't belong to him.
That counts as damage to students' private property.” I tried not to grin triumphantly, instead looking unimpressed at Troy, whose expression now seemed blank.
Then I turned back to the director. “What would the Ethics Committee say about that?”
Director Fitzek's glare froze, piercing me.
There was no denying that I was now the thorn in his side.
I could feel my father's gaze fixed on me, and it took all my strength to ignore him.
He couldn't hurt me anymore.
I flexed my hand demonstratively, knowing that he was staring at my crusty wound at that very moment.
You can break me. I'll always get back up.
“What is this all about, Troy?!” Arnold snapped.
I flinched.
“Miss Veritas is being provocative. You know she’s deliberately manipulating my lectures!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Troy,” Davian snorted, taking two steps closer, his fists clenched.
Troy gestured in his direction.
“And Joseph's protégé is defending her!”
Davian snorted. “I've already had to defend countless students from your insane attempts at discipline.”
Arnold slammed his fist on the table and everyone present, except my father, flinched.
“That's enough!”
It didn't escape my notice that my father was no longer staring at me. His gaze was fixed on something else.
On Davian's fists.
“Professor Fitzek,” Troy's father growled. “As a participant in the debates, you are prohibited from disciplining students who are also participating in the debates.”
Joseph cleared his throat and let his gaze wander around the room as if he found the whole situation uncomfortable. At least, I hoped so.
Right now, I had the power to expose him. To devastate him in front of his mentor.