Xavier shut the door behind them with a soft click. The hallway was eerily silent. It was a little odd at first, considering how alive this hallway usually was with discussion and debate.
But not today. After all, today was the banquet.
Everyone had gone, even the reclusive ones. A dinner with the world's most brilliant minds wasn't something scientists of any rank easily skipped.
Xavier and Aria walked side by side for a few steps before falling into a natural, reflective silence.
As such, memories began to flash back in their heads—almost intrusively.
For Aria, the thought of seeing Astra in such a public, formal setting sparked more than a curious and opportunistic desire within her. She had admired Astra since college: her beauty, her confidence, her calm and stoic demeanor. They were close in age, but Astra always seemed like she belonged to another world. It wasn't just her intelligence, but it was also how different she felt. She was distant, and completely untouchable. This aura that was wrapped around her made Aria naturally think: "No wonder she has no friends…"
But despite this…Astra chose Aria as a coworker.
It didn't take long for her to rationalize her thoughts.
"That had to mean something!"
"There is no way she'd choose someone like me over better people…right?"
"Maybe she was looking at me this entire time?" All of these thoughts lingered in Aria's head.
Aria had clung to these thought more than she liked to admit.
But over time, that hope soured. But, she wasn't rejected. Arguably, it was something even worse.
Astra was largely…indifferent?
Astra was brilliant, yes. But she remained mostly emotionally unavailable, her presence sometimes more alien than human. And it was as if seeing Astra like that ominously reminded her of that fact.
Aria was never meant to be Astra's friend.
Xavier had gone through a similar journey. At first, he'd been honored. He was excited, and he felt that he was chosen for something that stemmed deeper than mere academic brilliance. He thought Astra saw something in him—not just a skillset, but a person worth connecting with, and someone worth opening up to.
Astra, unfortunately, never opened up to him.
Like all humans do, Xavier tried to rationalize this: thinking that such a thing was just a phase coworkers go through.
But as if Astra herself was piercing through those delusional thoughts, she never opened up to him. In his mind, she never even attempted to connect with him.
Even now, after what they'd seen—the scream and the transformation—she hadn't explained a thing. Sure, she had proven that she was, well, herself…but it was always herself that felt alien; almost as if she was someone that refused to connect with him.
This rationalization gnawed at him. Everything that flashed back in his mind gnawed at him.
He glanced over at Aria. She walked quietly beside him, keeping her thoughts to herself.
They turned a corner as they both reflected inwardly about the enigma called Astra, and her isolation from them.
The hallway was blank white, streaked with violet lines, every door a sleek grey. Neon-blue lights glowed along the ceiling edges, giving the hallway a minimalistic, artificial feel. The air was cold and dry—but despite this, Xavier still felt sweat dripping down his face.
Xavier sighed, his body still processing the amount of courage he had to go through. His limbs were still slightly shaking.
Meanwhile, the almost casual Aria let her eyes wander, scanning the framed portraits of history's greatest minds lining the walls.
Newton. Curie. Planck. Einstein. Schrödinger. Hawking. Bohr…
Xavier ceased his movements, however the faint echo of his feet against the floor still lingered for a short second.
Aria slowed and looked at him, eyebrows raised. "What caused you to stop? This is certainly a way to rush to the banquet when we're late…" She muttered with a ting of sarcasm.
Xavier didn't answer, even though he heard Aria's soft voice. He was staring at a portrait.
And this portrait held the picture of Astra Sera.
It was the version of her everyone knew: golden eyes, dark skin that contrasted with her blonde hair, a calm but confident smile, and a presence that suggested she was five steps ahead of the universe.
So why—when they saw her earlier—had she looked like someone else entirely?
He sighed quietly as he looked at his coworker, his eyes seeming a little heavy.
Noticing this, Aria narrowed her eyes slowly. Hesitantly, and with a softer tone, she asked:
"You okay? You don't have to be so mysterious standing her like this, you know?"
"…I'm fine. But I don't know if Dr. Sera's completely fine. She's hiding something," Xavier muttered.
Aria blinked as she narrowed her eyes even further. "Astra? Isn't she always?"
"No, I mean really hiding something. I can excuse her hiding things about her job, or about her personal life. As for the latter, that's completely normal." Xavier gazed back at the portrait.
"But don't you think that scream…that transformation or whatever that was…don't you think it wasn't normal? I mean, I know she's a calm person, but isn't that a bit too extraordinary? It's something you can't explain with science alone, and knowing how she speaks about the heavens, she should also know what's going on with her. Isn't that logical?"
Chuckling softly, she shrugged as she gave a sarcastic remark.
"Who knows? Maybe a ghost really did possess Astra?"
Xavier creased his eyebrows as they raised simultaneously. He showed a face of annoyance.
Reading the tone, Aria responded seriously.
"Well, Xavier, what I'm trying to say is that I disagree with your assessment. She might not know either," Aria offered, folding her arms. "You said it yourself, it's not something you can explain with science alone. Even though she may seem alien, she's still a human at the end of the day. You're assuming she understands it better than you do."
"She's Astra Sera, though…" Xavier relaxed his face as he lowered his voice.
Aria frowned, but didn't interrupt.
He continued, softer now. "Astra picked us, even though we were one among many students who had doctorates. We were her first. That has to mean something, right? Shouldn't that mean that she should trust us, even just a little?"
Aria sighed gently.
"Astra is a…" She held her breath for a second, but continued afterwards. "…weird existence. You know this. Her actions don't follow the normal way of doing things."
Xavier scoffed.
"Ha, tell me what I don't know. I'm saying it's a problem that we don't understand her. Despite being her coworkers, we never got any closer to her than before we were chosen. Again, isn't that a problem?"
"She doesn't owe us that, Xavier." Aria replied, almost gently. "We're coworkers. Not confidants. Not friends. We shouldn't be thinking about how we like her while we work."
Xavier's jaw clenched. "But I want it to be something that extends beyond work. That's what I'm getting at. And I thought that maybe she wanted that too."
Aria stared at him, her voice suddenly more pointed. "Is that why you did something so reckless as to stand up to someone that you didn't know was Astra? I mean, I was thinking that it was quite strange for a coworker to be doing something like that for another coworker…"
Xavier answered, just after a flicker of light.
"Yes. I trust her. I just wish she'd trust me back…"
They stood in silence. A quiet flicker yet again passed through the lights above, casting a brief stutter of shadow across the portrait.
Aria finally spoke, her tone again soft, yet heavy. "How can she trust you when she doesn't understand herself?"
Xavier glanced at her with no discerning emotion.
"And if she doesn't," Aria added, "how could we? We're not nearly as smart as her after all."
She stepped forward again, her steps echoing on the polished floor. Her fingers gripped the strap of her purse a little tighter.
Xavier watched her walk away, emotions tumbling through him like waves—admiration, doubt, confusion. But beneath them all, something darker finally rose to the surface:
Distrust.
It startled him.
"No," he whispered to himself. "That can't be it."
But the feeling stuck, lodged in his chest like a splinter he couldn't remove.
Behind him, Astra's portrait stared calmly ahead.
And in front of him, Aria's words lingered in the air like smoke:
"Until she understands herself… maybe all we can do is help her find out who she really is."
Xavier followed in silence.
…
Not long before Xavier and Aria left the hallway.
The liminal space fell into silence, the flickering lights began to darken.
Then—without sound, without motion—the space beside Astra's portrait darkened, as though the light itself bent away in deference for something…strange.
A figure stood there. He didn't appear to have walked in. In fact, he didn't appear to have arrived at all.
He was a tall man in a black and white magician's suit, gloved hands folded over a silver-tipped cane. A top hat tilted slightly over his sharp, indecipherable eyes, hidden beneath the glint of a porcelain mask—one shaped like a certain Tarot card.
He glanced at Astra's portrait, but didn't speak.
Then in a slow but rhythmic motion, he raised his free hand. And alas, from thin air, he pulled out a thin black book bound in threads of gold.
Opening it, he read, his voice inaudible:
"But for both of them, at the end of this conversation, they both fully came to the realization that the person who they saw was Astra. They didn't burden themselves with the doubt that such a thing was actually her, despite how abnormal it was."
"Indeed, it was the fact that it was abnormal that made them come to that realization."
Then, continuing, he uttered:
"Neither of them knew that after tonight, they would eventually know that everything they thought they knew about Astra—and themselves—would change. Their entire world would completely shift."
"After all, this is what fate has written."
Laughing softly, he closed the book. And in an instant, he vanished.
Everything remained unchanged, but for a second…
And only a second…
The smile in Astra's portrait looked a little more knowing than it was before.