"Is there a problem, my child?" Mother Jose asked.
"It's almost time for prayers, I came to remind you," she replied from the door.
"I'll be out in a bit." She waited until she heard the soft padding of feet moving away before she turned to Ivie. "Hold on." She shuffled to her cabinet and opened it to reveal bottles of oil. She rummaged the bottles to the side, dipping her hand further into the cabinet until she found a hinge.
She disengaged them and it unlocked to reveal a carved part perfectly camouflaged to look like the part of the wooden cabinet. She reached for the content in it and brought it out.
"Here." She gave it to Ivie.
Ivie received the brown envelope, more confused than ever. "What is this?"
"The deed to Quain, then the deed to the convent."
Her eyes nearly bulged out of its socket. "What?"
"Take it, when the time comes, burn it."
"W..why me? Why not burn it now.?"
"Everything, my child," Mother Jose said walking pass her, "happens in due time. The people who wants to restore Quain will need this, as well as the royal globe. You have this, find the royal globe and destroy it."
"No." Ivie dropped the envelope on the desk. "I'm just a girl wanting to live a normal life. The one time I tried to involve myself in such things, I didn't even know how happened to me. Give someone else."
Mother Jose turned back and held both of her shoulders. "Except King Anton will miraculously come back and put a stop to this madness he caused, you have to do it. There's something about you, a darkness inside of you. And no, it's not because your soul is inside another body, there's something else. Find a way, leave this place, you must leave this place. Find the royal globe and destroy it." She gave her shoulders a light shake. "Don't ever trust anyone here, nobody is who they claim to be."
"Then how can I trust you?"
Mother Jose brought her hand down. "You already did the moment you walked in here to tell me a secret you could not tell any other person. Trust that feeling that made you decide to tell me. I have a prayer to lead."
Ivie watched the nun leave, even more confused than before. What was in the envelope was the reason students committed suicides in her school. She had pieced everything together. If King Anton had left the royal globe at St. Stephen, then it only made sense why there was a cult group there, why students were killed on the pretense of suicide. The suicide note now made sense.
Knowing all these, would she endanger herself on the words of a nun? Should she?
"I already have a problem to fix, I shouldn't be adding more to my plate."
Yet she carried the envelope and stepped out of the door.
"What is that?" Sister Rita asked immediately she came out. She was perched on the wall in a position that gave away that she was waiting for her.
Ivie still remembered how Mother Jose's eyes clouded with fear when she had knocked on the door. Why would the mother be afraid of this young nun? Why had she told her not to trust anybody?
"Ah," she replied, "it's something Mother Jose have to me."
"What is it?" She pressed.
"Something she gave to me," Ivie stuck with her vague reply. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"There are dusts on the portraits."
"Again? I cleaned them last week," she groaned.
"And there is dust this week," she firmed as though upset she did not get to know the content of the envelope.
"You're the one who poured dust on them!" Ivie accused. "You could bring it horse shit and smear it all over the floor just so I can have work to do."
"You're very lucky then that there are no horse shits around here."
Ivie glared at her. How had she gone from very friendly to mildly hostile? She sighed. "Do you know why my suspension was increased?"
"We do not ask your Dean questions. Are you going to wipe the dust off or what?"
"Fine! Don't you have prayers to attend yourself?" She eyed her before stomping her feet away. How did dust magically appear on the portraits? It wasn't even anywhere near the window.
She slipped into her room first, deciding to keep the envelope first. She tossed it on the bed and tuned the to leave, but something gnawed at her and she stared once at how lazily the envelope laid on the bed and she imagined coming back from wiping the portraits to not find it there.
She felt chilly at the thought.
She went around the room, searching frantically for where best to hide something of such grave importance.
She found it under her bed.
There was a slide that fit to the wooden frame and its edge kissed the edge of the bed with a perfection that you wouldn't know anything was there at the first feel.
Ivie opened the slide and slipped the envelope inside before putting it back in place. If she was going to trust the gut that made her run to Mother Jose with her secret, then she trusted she had done the right thing.
Back in St. Stephen, Father Chibuike walked to the Dean's office after successfully coaxing a vexed Gaga to cool off in office. The news about Ivie would have been a bigger shocker if he hadn't first noticed the changes in her. She became immune to his teasing, like she didn't want to regard him anymore and it took all the fun in pressing her buttons away.
Even Amaka seemed to avoid her. Well, she hadn't told him any take of their recent rendezvous so he could guess.
Maybe it was a sign that he should look for another object of amusement, he had already gotten her off Precious's case so he didn't have to worry about her poking her curious nose where it would weep up in flames.
Remembering how similar his story was to Gaga's, he wondered if he could return to see that his father had already found a replacement for him, that he wouldn't be needed anymore.
"That will be for the better then. Plus, I'm not even going back."
The corner of his eyes caught a figure hiding and he stopped. "You really do not have to bend when trying to hide, I'm not trying to insult you, but it's one of the benefits of being so close to the ground."
Odion stepped out from her hiding place. Since her last incident with Ivie, she has being on eggshell. She only left the room when necessary and she stuck close enough to her dorm mates for them to guess she was besieged with fear. They just didn't know about what.
"What are you hiding from? Or a better question should be, what are you hiding to do? Something tells me it's about…."
"I saw Ivie going into the dean's office, I'm waiting for her to come out."
"It's always about Ivie. Do you have feelings towards her? That's the only explanation to this obsession."
Odion looked around, making sure no one was around before gesturing that he draw nearer to her. "She's a witch, Father," she whispered.
Father Chibuike laughed. "I take it back, you don't like her at all." But if there was one thing he had learned, it was to regard every joke with seriousness. "So how is our dearest Ivie a witch?"
"I'm not joking. The other day she was doing something with her face, changing her look to appear like a monster. She even had horns coming out from her head, I'm serious!"
"What exactly happened? I don't suppose she did those in the hallway where everyone would see her."
Odion gulped. "She walked to me and I bragged about how it was me who told you about their misconduct, then she said something about making such I don't stress her again. At first her face changed to look like it was burnt by fire. Ugh, so ugly."
He was quiet for a while. "And when did this happen?"
"I don't remember very well, but I think it was after the day she went into your office, the next day or the day after. She's a witch, she was doing things no one I've ever seen have done. I couldn't even speak."
Now this was a brow raising news to Father Chibuike. He had been with Ivie, even in close proximity, but he had not noticed anything about her.
Well, he hadn't noticed Suster Omo either until they had a combat. So maybe he should draw Ivie to a fight to have her show her true self. He laughed out loud to the thought.
"It's not a joke!" Odion hissed.
"I believe you. Who else knows about this?"
"Am I crazy?" She asked. "Do I know what she will do to me if words of it ever get out? I've not told any other person."
"Good. Let me handle this. Now go back to your class like a little angel and let me discover why Ivie would visit our friend, the Dean, alone, especially when she knows his vile intentions towards her."
But when he opened the door to the Dean's office, after knocking thrice to get no response, the sight before him had him utterly confused and surprised.