Aria sighed, realising she was being too cruel and deciding to drop the act. "Okay." she said, "How about you do me a favor then."
Susan looked up, surprised at what could Aria want from her. "A favor?" she asked.
Aria nodded as she walked up to Susan and spoke, lowering her voice with every word, "The last time you brought me here, there were two men on these trees." Aria successfully pointed to the trees where the men had been hidden without even turning her eyes away from Susan.
"Don't bother denying it. You know I can use wind bending to scan my surroundings." Aria cut as Susan opened her mouth to disagree.
"There were two men, trying to get a good look at me I suppose. Who were they and what did they want?" Aria's eyes and voice had dangerously lowered by the time she completed her sentence and stood looking into Susan's light blue eyes.
Susan, unable to handle the intensity of her gaze, dropped her eyes to the ground. "I - I don't know what you're - what you're talking about." she managed with some difficulty.
"That's how you're going to play it, huh? Okay then. I'll just go and tell everything to Professor Thomas then. And considering how close this thing happened to the night warriors incident, they're probably related. You can deal with the consequences then." Aria said, her expressions shifting to one of non - chalance as she moved to go back towards the kitchens.
She regretted her words when Susan didn't immediately call out. Aria knew that Susan was taking care of her sick mother back home from the salary she earned in the academy, and she really didn't want to get her fired.
But Susan had most probably taken some part in starting this whole incident. It had been because of her ill mother that Aria had given Susan this chance to speak up, but since she didn't seem to be willing to take it, she could very well be questioned by Professor Thomas and Mr. Scott.
All these thoughts rushed through Aria's head as she turned to go. But she had barely taken two steps when Susan grabbed her wrist from behind.
Aria turned and was not surprised to see tears in Susan's eyes. So she really had something to do with the night warriors incident after all.
"Please." Susan choked the words out. "Please don't tell anyone. I had no idea that those men were from the night warriors."
Aria pulled her arm out of Susan's grasp and folded them across her chest. "Tell me everything." she commanded.
Susan nodded and tears continued to fall from her eyes as she narrated how the two men had met her one day while she was out of the kitchen, throwing away some garbage. They had apparently seen her talking with Aria once in the forest, Aria had been in the habit of regularly lending Susan money whenever she needed it, and knew that the two were on speaking terms.
They had offerred Susan money and asked Susan all about Aria's powers and had decided they couldn't kidnap her by themselves since she was so powerful. It was then they had asked her to bring Aria somewhere near the forest. Where they could get a good look at her face and begin planning to kidnap her.