"No, still not right."
The table had been moved in front of the professor's window. Kraft took two crystal-clear little lenses off the shelf, wrapped them separately in silk, and put them in small wooden boxes padded with cotton balls.
Then he took out two similar ones that looked a little "fatter" and fixed them onto the stand. His nimble fingers adjusted their positions so slowly it was almost impossible to see.
The only thing that marred this harmonious scene was the thin strips of cloth wrapped around the tips of two fingers.
A drop of red liquid, flattened between two thin crystals until it let light through, sat directly in front of the eyes behind the double lenses. This had been going on for half the afternoon.
Lucius lay bored in his chair, staring up at the ceiling, a strip of cloth wrapped around one finger too. Ever since someone had delivered these custom-made little things that morning, Kraft had been acting strangely for half the afternoon.
As for why he hadn't been acting strangely all morning, that was simply because he'd already skipped class for a month and a half, and felt awkward about missing it for no reason.
Even so, most of the students could tell his mind wasn't on the lesson. Every so often, he'd let slip made-up terms like "chamber" and "microscopic," then announced before class ended that everyone would soon have a whole new subject to study.
The dreadful news left all the students, Lucius included, wearing expressions of indescribable shock. Even his most devoted, fervent admirers later admitted that it was hard to call this good news.
As the student closest to Kraft, Lucius had been offered plenty of perks to go and find out what was going on.
Then, the moment he