The Principal's Office

[tailor_made]

The door to the principal’s office is open at all hours, although you will only find Hester at the receptionist’s desk from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. This is primarily where you can have private conversations with her. Though there’s an actual office in the back, it is always closed and locked.

Comments

[tailor_made]

[When Benjamin wakes up the next morning there's a folded note, written on crisp white stationery and sealed with a little "Great Job!" sticker, sitting on top of his trunk. The sticker might seem odd but some of us didn't get access to fancy wax seals.]

It just felt like the right thing to do.
- Hester

[barberic]

[He's not in a state to deal with the note, at first. The fresh memory of taking a man's life for threatening to out his secret (a man he'd known as a boy, no less, bright-eyed and eager to learn his trade), the churning, surging tempest of despair and anger and bloodlust boiling hot in his veins... it's an ugly, living, rotten thing sitting like a rock in his gut.

But in the end, he remembers her begging them not to bring the bodies to the trial. Thinks about Higgins' body shoved unceremoniously in a trunk, and wonders how she must have felt, having to sing through Varian's execution, sitting in her bubble, knowing what she had to return to.

He can't bring himself to face her in person still, doesn't feel safe for anyone to be around. So another note it is. He spends a while in the cafeteria composing it, worrying the end of the pen in his teeth. This one, on Monday evening after the thunderstorm has rolled through, long after she's closed up her office for the night, pushed underneath the door.]

Your kindness deserves to be repaid, nonetheless. You did not have to help us. I hope there were no unintended consequences for you, for all you've done to help us.

If he's frightened you, seal your reply with something red. If you're in danger, some kind of black.

You deserve better than a gilded cage.
-B. Barker

[If he can do nothing for Johanna, he can reach out to this girl, under the thumb of an oppressive father.]

[tailor_made]

[Bright and early Tuesday morning there's a response waiting for him. It's sealed with a yellow apple sticker.]

The Wizard was confused but had no objection to letting you have the bodies if you want to bury them. I didn't exactly ask permission with Varian but he was otherwise preoccupied anyway.

I appreciate your concern, Mr. Barker. Really. But I'm in no danger from the Wizard.