45 Ji-ho feels burdened

Ji-ho fell to her knees, clutching her head which felt like an overripe watermelon that wanted to explode.

"What in the seven hells is going on?"

"Is that girl a sentinel?!"

Several voices said many things that sounded jumbled and too loud to the kneeling Ji-ho.

"Robinson!" She heard a female voice next to her. "Focus on your breathing and calm yourself."

"A fucking miracle ain't it? You found yourself a sentinel and synced with her too, Archer."

His pain having been alleviated to a manageable level, Archer sat up and stared in shock at Ava Robinson.

_________

"Ava, how are you feeling?"

Ji-ho had been removed from Archer's presence for a while so that she could be taught to shield herself from psychic interference.

"Demi?" She answered, looking around and seeing that they were alone behind a building. "What happened to me?"

"There's no tactful way to say this Ava, you synced with Archer."

Ji-ho was silent as Demi's words echoed in her mind like a bad joke.

"Can I restart this day?" She mumbled out. All she had to do was avoid the road that went through the solar park. Could the grim reaper reset this mission again?

"Others would consider themselves lucky, Ava," Demi sympathetically told her. For a sentinel and a psychic to sync, their neural compatibility had to be higher than sixty percent. Not every psychic was lucky enough to sync with a sentinel. Most Psy-sentinel pairings functioned on a level between twenty to forty percent compatibility. Syncing with a psychic tied the sentinel to them. Ji-ho wasn't about that life. She had a ghost waiting on her to become a navigator.

"His fiance won't like it," Ji-ho said with a surge of annoyance. She pitied the girl who was going to find out that her future husband had synced with a sentinel.

"Demi," another girl showed up as they were talking. "Archer needs…" her gaze landed on Ji-ho.

"Two minutes," Demi told her. "Ask him to bear with it."

______

When Ji-ho came walking back to the newly born psychic, his vitals were being monitored by medics. An older male sentinel had just arrived and could be seen helping Archer. The man was letting off soothing waves of calm that even Ji-ho was sensitive to.

She made eye contact with the young man and saw the deep reluctance in them. Neither of them wanted this but it had happened.

"What is your name?" Archer asked Ji-ho, regarding her through his long dark lashes. Oh to have the attention of the Academy's handsome princeling. Ji-ho felt anything but lucky.

"Ava Robinson," Ji-ho gloomily answered. Her mental walls were up, a constant shielding that Demi had instructed her to maintain. Hers was still a paper thin shield but she kept it up because something thin was better than nothing.

"Miss Robinson, have you had any training?" She was asked by the sentinel.

"No. And i don't intend to." Saying so, she gave Archer a pointed look.

An uncomfortable silence pervaded the group.

"Can't he just sync with someone else?" Ji-ho asked upon seeing Archer's shattered expression. She hadn't expected her rejection to hit him so hard. Ji-ho had no way of knowing it was a part of the effects of his manifestation. Archer had never been this emotionally vulnerable in his life.

"Unlikely to happen, Robinson," Demi answered. "He'll require your presence by his side for the next few months.

"I will not," Archer immediately responded in a cool tone. "I'll be fine with any sentinel."

"Mister Svenson," the sentinel interjected. "You must know what it means to sync with someone. Your growth will be hampered-"

"I said its fine." Archer's exhausted face drew shut and there was no pain to be seen on it. "If we're going to the med bay then hurry up. I have an essay submission to work on."

Ji-ho suddenly felt bad for the young man. It hadn't been his decision to sync with her. Not only was he the one being rejected, he would be the only one feeling the pain of her decision to reject the partnership.

"Ava," Demi turned to her after Archer had left with the medics. "You don't have to become his sentinel. Just help him deal with the side effects for a few days."

Ji-ho watched Archer disappearing into a medevac. Her reluctance was strong but if it was only for a few days then she would put up with the inconvenience.

"What do I have to do?" She asked the silver haired prefect.