Compounding Traumas (Artemis University #6) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,12

the others.

I gave him an amused look. “Do I have to? Are you incapable of doing it yourself after I’ve outlined a program that works?” I kept going when he opened his mouth, and steam about came out of his ears. “I was outlining what we’ve found as you now have all the leverage you need to make it happen in your own schools.”

“Please, enlighten us what that could be?” he drawled.

I raised an eyebrow, making it clear I was mocking him for not having figured it out for himself already. “Not every elite goes to Artemis. Every school has them, or the next level below them, that want to be like the elites. That’s your leverage.”

“If the best school does it, of course we should too, and keep up,” a man from a different group surmised. He waited until I nodded. “You might not have known you were a supe very long, but you certainly understand the politics of our world.”

I tried to swallow a snort, but failed. “Thank you for the compliment, but before I came here, I was dealing with criminal and corrupt humans. I realize you didn’t mean it that way, but it sounded… Amusing.” I shrugged, leaving it at that.

His lips twitched. “Yes, lots of the elite families act more and more like human mob families the longer the fairies are gone, instead of noble as they should.” He was studying my aura as he said it, but I’d made sure one of the runes I’d prepared was the one to keep my aura muted and calm. I had expected someone to poke me and see if I gave anything away after the dragon royals said I was like a fairy.

Plus, people just poked at me when I breathed.

“Our systems weren’t set up to lead to such blatant corruption as the Edelman family did,” someone else called out, clearly taking a shot at the headmaster.

“Well, that’s good to hear and less work for you then,” I threw right back. “Maybe start by remembering that the sins of the father aren’t actually the sins of the whole family, especially their children.” I kept talking before he could reply. “I did this here because I could, and we had the right backing and support to make it work. The next step will need support outside of the Artemis community.”

“What comes after fixing the scholarship programs?” that nice guy asked before anyone else could start shit.

“Getting the councils and elite parents out of every area of your schools all day, every day.”

He blinked at me several times, the entire room silent. “Ms. Vale, you have my undivided attention.”

I smiled brightly when there were many murmurings saying the same. “Glad to hear it. I did some pushing after I won the Power Playoffs here and discovered that the supe community was behind the humans on their education system, crass in how they handled certain things. Teachers here didn’t know TAs got paid or free tuition.”

“We’ve done a lot of auditing of how human Ivy Leagues do things and it’s astoundingly different,” Edelman interjected. “While none of us want to hear we’re lacking, or our schools are, we can’t blame it all on the councils and elite parents. We didn’t push back when we should, or could have, and allowed too much of this to grow into the system it is. We’ve all done it, giving in when it was easier.”

I nodded. “And you’re going to have to acknowledge that if you want real change. Everyone has caved on something they shouldn’t have because it was easier, we were tired, or didn’t have the energy for the fight. It’s part of life. Accept that, and your part in it, so we can move on and make things better.”

“How?” a woman asked after a few tense minutes.

“First, we changed the scholarships,” I answered, holding up a finger and then another. “That outed the cheating as ‘help’ and other bullshit. Next is taking swift action on that, and Artemis will next semester. Before we can move into our dorms, there is a new addendum to the student forms that clearly and specifically lists what is considered cheating.

“More importantly, the punishments. This ‘getting kicked out of a school only to go to their council for a second chance like nothing happened besides blowing a stop sign’ is bullshit. You want another chance? Great, get one, but you lose what you blew, so there won’t be any readmittance to Artemis. Their spot will be