The walk to the infirmary was painfully awkward. Liora floated slightly above the ground beside me, maintaining a careful distance. Neither of us spoke until we'd crossed through three corridors and descended a spiral staircase that seemed to go down much further than should have been possible.
"You didn't have to defend me," I said finally.
Liora glanced sideways at me. "I wasn't defending you. I was stating facts."
"Right. Of course."
Her pace slowed slightly. "I miscalculated," she admitted, the words clearly difficult for her. "I am Fortune, probability incarnate. I do not miscalculate."
"First time for everything," I muttered, then immediately regretted it when she shot me a look cold enough to freeze fire.
"You don't understand what's happening," she said. "When we... when our energies connected, something changed. I can feel it even now."
I was about to ask what she meant when we reached Lady Althea's door, a living thing of twisted vines and pulsing golden light. It swung open before either of us could knock.
In the center of the infirmary a massive tree with jade bark and leaves that changed from ruby to sapphire to emerald with each breath had grown, and under it, pale golden light radiated from Lady Althea as she tended to my friends.
Finn lay on a bed of moss, looking pale but conscious. Gavril sat nearby, cradling his right arm which now had an odd bluish tint. Elias perched on the edge of a crystal basin, looking disheveled but otherwise unharmed. All three turned as we entered.
"The causality disruptors arrive at last," Lady Althea said without looking up from Finn. Her luminescent skin pulsed with suppressed irritation.
"How are they?" I asked, moving toward my friends.
Lady Althea finally turned, fixing me with her ever-shifting green eyes. "Stop right there, Mr. Ardent. Your probability field is currently unstable enough to kill a lesser being with proximity alone."
I froze mid-step. "But they're…"
"Recovering from your previous proximity," she finished sharply. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Not just to your friends, but to the fabric of probability within the Academy?"
"We were trying to harmonize the probability currents," Liora began.
"I know exactly what you were trying to do," Lady Althea cut her off. "And you, of all beings, should have known better." She gestured around the infirmary, where I now noticed other students lying on similar beds of moss, faces I recognized from class, some looking worse than others. "Seventeen students affected directly. Four of them being senior students who tried to contain the cascade. Three buildings structurally compromised. And the Rift Garden will require complete reformation."
The guilt hit me like a physical blow. "I never meant…"
"Intentions are irrelevant when dealing with fundamental forces," Lady Althea said, her voice softening slightly. "But the damage is done. Now we must assess the lingering effects."
She approached me cautiously, her golden light extending tendrils that probed the air around me. I felt an uncomfortable tingling as they made contact with my skin.
"As I suspected," she murmured. "The harmonization created a probability vacuum. Your natural chaotic field has stabilized... partially."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"It means," Finn called from his bed, his voice rough but his humor intact, "that your luck went on vacation and left only the bad parts behind."
Lady Althea sighed. "Crudely put, but essentially correct. Your connection to positive probability outcomes has been temporarily severed. What remains is exclusively negative probability."
"Bad luck only," Gavril translated, wincing as he shifted his blue-tinged arm. "And that's not even the worst part."
"You've become a nexus," Lady Althea continued. "Your field has expanded to incorporate those with whom you share close bonds." She gestured to my friends. "They now share in your... misfortune."
Elias, who had remained silent until now, stood up. Even disheveled, he maintained an air of aristocratic composure. "It's rather fascinating, actually. I've never experienced sustained probability manipulation as a subject before."
"You find this fascinating?" I asked incredulously.
He shrugged one elegant shoulder. "Knowledge often comes at a price. And this particular experience is... unique."
"You're all insane," Finn groaned, sitting up slowly. "My breakfast literally exploded this morning. My spoon bent in half when I looked at it."
"My notes rearranged themselves into poetry," Gavril added. "Terrible poetry about fungal growth."
"And what about you?" I asked Liora, who had maintained a careful distance from everyone. "Were you affected?"
Lady Althea answered for her. "Lady Fortune exists outside normal probability currents. She was... minimally impacted."
"Of course," I muttered. "So everyone gets cursed except the person who actually caused it."
"We caused it," Liora corrected me, her eyes flashing. "And I am not unaffected. My connection to certain aspects of my domain has been... complicated."
Lady Althea moved to examine Liora, her golden light dimming slightly as it encircled the other Personification. "Interesting. You've absorbed some of his chaotic resonance. It's interfering with your natural frequency."
Liora's perfect face tightened. "It will pass."
"Perhaps," Lady Althea replied, not sounding convinced. "For now, all of you need rest and monitoring. Mr. Ardent, you'll remain here tonight where I can observe the fluctuations in your field."
"What about classes?" Gavril asked.
"Suspended for you four until this stabilizes," Lady Althea said firmly. "I've already informed your professors."
Great. More special treatment. I could already imagine the whispers, the stares. I'd managed to make enemies of half the noble houses in my first weeks. Now I'd given them perfect ammunition.
"Don't look so dejected," Finn called over. "At least we're in this together now. The Brotherhood of Bad Luck."
"The Fellowship of the Jinxed," Gavril suggested with a weak smile.
"The Inevitable Catastrophe Club," Elias added, surprising me with his willingness to jest.
Despite their attempts at humor, guilt weighed heavily on me. "I'm sorry," I said, the words feeling utterly inadequate. "All of you, caught up in my mess."
"It's not entirely your fault," Liora said unexpectedly. When we all stared at her, she added stiffly, "I am the Personification of Fortune. The responsibility for probability manipulation ultimately falls under my purview."
Was that her version of an apology? Before I could decide, Lady Althea ushered me toward an empty moss bed.
"Rest now," she instructed. "Your system needs time to adjust to the new probability parameters."
As I settled onto the surprisingly comfortable moss, I caught whispers from the other students in the infirmary.
"That's him, the one who caused the explosion…"
"…heard he kissed a Personification…"
"…the unluckiest student in history…"
"…Valentina's going to murder him when she gets out of here…"
That last one made me wince. Valentina Morgenstern, again. She would indeed be looking for revenge once she recovered. And she wouldn't be alone.
I glanced at my friends, Finn trying to make a flower grow instead of wilt under his touch, Gavril documenting the strange color changes in his arm, and Elias watching everything with that unreadable expression. Even in their misfortune, they were handling it better than I was.
"It will stabilize," Lady Althea said quietly, noticing my expression. "Probability always seeks equilibrium."
"When?" I asked.
She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "That, Mr. Ardent, is the one question even Lady Fortune cannot answer with certainty."
I closed my own eyes and tried to rest, wondering how much worse my luck could possibly get. Then immediately regretted the thought. At the Academy of Arcanis, that question was never hypothetical; it was a challenge the universe seemed all too eager to answer.