Halkegenia Online - Chapter 3 Part 4

In a small room, tucked into the corner of the school infirmary, a young girl rested in a cot. Covered in blankets and head propped up by a pillow, only her face and hair were visible as she slept peacefully, she looked to be a child of ten or twelve. It was hard to believe that Louise Valliere had already reached her sixteenth year,

At her bedside, Kirche Von Zerbst sat and waited. The school physician had barely sparred her a second glance when she asked to see Louise. The Doctor assumed that Kirche was a friend, and she was after a fashion, just this once.

Normally, a Zerbst wouldn't be caught dead helping a Valliere. Normally giant magical trees didn't appear in the middle of Tristain accompanied by Faeries. It had been a very abnormal day. It was eating at Kirche, the whole situation, there was an explanation that fit perfectly, too perfectly, but nobody else seemed willing to accept it save Tabitha. And maybe it really was nothing, after all, the faculty here were knowledgeable about magic and it flew the face of how how magic was accepted to work. Maybe the Zero's summon really had failed and this was all a big coincidence. But Kirche wanted to know for sure, and she wasn't the only one.

She recalled the last words spoken to her by the dark haired Fairy, Kirito. The sun had almost completely set by the time they had finished helping to write the dispatch to the Palace. It was around that time that Professor Colbert had returned to the Academy. He arrived on foot from the direction of the world tree, looking harried but otherwise alive and well. The Professor had conversed briefly with Old Osmond in private. While they had waited Kirito had spoken to her.

The black garbed Fairy had looked at her seriously. "You're idea from earlier." He said.

"What about it?" Kirche asked, surprised.

"I'd like you to pursue it." He bowed his head. "Please."

Kirche blinked. "It was just speculation." She said hesitantly, "You don't really think its possible, do you?"

"I don't know." Kirito had admitted. "I don't know anything about the magic of this place. Right now, I think anything could be possible." He seemed distracted by his own thoughts as he spoke. "The Headmaster and Professor Colbert seem really knowledgeable, but maybe a different angle will help, I think."

Colbert and Old Osmond had emerged from the Headmaster's office a moment later, cutting off any reply that Kirche could have made.

Instead, she'd broached the subject once more with Tabitha that night after dinner. The dinning hall had been abuzz with rumors that visitors had arrived from the direction of the World Tree. A few students had made the connection with the strange messengers from earlier and both Kirche and Tabitha had been thoroughly questioned by their fellow students in an effort to tease out any morsels of information. Guiche had seemed to enjoy all of the attention, especially from the fairer sex, fortunately, the foppish boy at least knew how to dodge difficult questions, sort of. What none realized was that Kirito and Leafa had already departed, slipping away via the top of the Academy Tower.

"Look", Kirche said as she sat at Tabitha's desk. The blue haired girl was already seated on her bed, thumbing through a book. "The problem is that we can't prove Valliere summoned the World Tree, right?"

Tabitha nodded.

"So what did Professor Colbert say?" Kirche asked.

"Willpower exhaustion, the summoning would have killed her."

"Right." Kirche agreed. "So, if Louise did summon the World Tree, that means that either her willpower reserves are impossibly enormous, or there's something strange about her magic."

"Or the summons was strange." Tabitha said.

"That too." Kirche agreed. "But we already know its strange, its a giant magic tree!" That was completely ignoring the city of Faeries that apparently lived at its base.

"Ok, so what else did Professor Colbert say? We have a correlation, but no causation, right? Help me on this Tabitha, by causation he means we have to show how Louise could have summoned the World Tree without dying."

Tabitha nodded.

"So how do we prove that? First we prove that her magic is unusual. Well we already know that, but how it is unusual?"

"We can observe her."

"You mean like spying?"

The other girl looked up and shook her head. "We'll learn more by interacting with her."

"Like, be her friends?" Kirche asked, the idea of being close with a Valliere didn't exactly appeal to her.

"Like tutors." Tabitha said, and then elaborated, "While she studies magic, we study her."

"I gotcha." Kirche brightened and then almost immediately her spirits sank, "But wait, everyone thinks she failed the familiar summoning right?"

Tabitha nodded.

"So, she'll be expelled."

"Maybe." Tabitha said.

"What do you mean maybe, that's the rule isn't it?" Kirche said, frustrated.

Tabitha looked up from the book she was reading and tapped on the cover.

"What's that?" Kirche asked.

"A book."

"I know its a book."

"Genealogy."

"You mean like blood lines?" Kirche asked.

Tabitha nodded. "Tristanian noble lines, all of the great houses and their histories."

"And how does that help us."

"Sub dots and magical failures, historically they were killed or disowned by their families."

Kirche's eyes widened, "You don't thing the Valliere's would abandon their own daughter. Would they?" Kirche was viewed by many as a complete disgrace, shuffled off to Tristain to keep her from causing her family any more headaches in Germania. Even then, their had never been any serious threats of disowning her. Well, none that had been carried out anyway.

Tabitha shook her head. "The practice has fallen out of favor. More preferable to marry her off to a low noble seeking status."

"Okay, sure a low noble might marry a weak Mage to associate with her family, but Louise is a sub dot!"

"That's why she needs to graduate. Even if she doesn't." Tabitha said.

"Wait, what?" Kirche almost jumped out of her seat.

Tabitha raised a finger to her lips. "The academy has bent the rule before." Tabitha said simply.

"You mean, they've given a diploma to a blunt so their family could marry them off?" Kirche whispered.

Tabitha nodded. "To save face."

"How did you find out about this?" Kirche asked.

Tabitha shrugged, "Open secret."

Kirche supposed it would be, all of the great families produced a magical blunt from time to time. There was no helping it. Once upon a time, such children would be drowned like the runt of a litter, but such things had fallen out of favor. Instead this harmless little white lie had probably been created to see that the unlucky runt that popped up every few generations was cared for and their family saved face, foisting the problem off on some rising noble willing to gamble on his progeny to grow his status. And if their unfortunate parent's ailment skipped the next generation or new blood revitalized the line, so much the better.

It was likely that every house in Tristain had made use of this maneuver from time to time. In which case they would no doubt turn a blind eye when it was the Valliere's turn.

"The diploma is honorary. They flunk out and the diploma is dated to a year or two after graduation."

"That way is looks like they came back and got tutoring. Nobody from their class years can argue it because they would already have graduated."

"Just have to find a way to keep her here for real." Tabitha said. "Keep pretense."

Kirche clapped her hands together. "That ones easy. Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Tabitha?" Kirche said.

"Need a Zerbst." Tabitha observed.

"Thanks Tabitha, I'd be lost without you, but wait, you've been thinking about this since at least dinner, how did you know I'd . . ."

Tabitha smiled a little. "We're . . . friends."

Kirche shook her head at the memory. If she could get along so well with Tabitha then she could at least tolerate a Valliere. Kirche leaned in, sleeping, without the constant aura of boiling anger, Louise was kind of cute. She looked like, well, she looked like every ones kid sister, Kirche decided. A days rest had done her wonders, there was a healthy flush to her cheeks and she was breathing easily. Kirche poked the girl's cheek. Louise's breathing shifted and her nose twitched.

"Look, Valliere." Kirche said to the sleeping girl. "I've been giving this some thought, and I think maybe I've been a teensy bit unfair to you." She paused and shook her head. "Okay, I've been really unfair to you." She sighed, "Tabitha says that I've been bullying you, but its not bullying when you fight back right? I mean, its just training for when you're older and a Zerbst steals away your husband."

Louise didn't say anything, of course not!

"But Tabitha did make a good point, you haven't really had a fair shot. So what I was thinking is, that when you wake up, Tabitha and I can help you out. I mean, you're always studying all the time so you must know something about how magic works. Obviously you just haven't found your talent. Someone told me, that a different angle might help, though this isn't really what he talking about, but I think its good advice, so maybe we can give you a fresh perspective." Kirche trailed off.

"Honestly, you're probably wondering why I would even bother to help a Valliere. The truth is, I've had a lot of fun with you Louise." Kirche smiled a little. "Back home, I'm kind of considered a joke, and the only person I have here really is Tabitha, but you've taken me seriously, and you've never backed down even though you've never once beaten me. Valliere, you're the best enemy a girl could have. So I'll make you a deal, the only one who gets to insult you is me."

Louise shifted a little, her face tensed.

"Valliere?" Kirche asked.

The girl groaned softly.

"Valliere, can you hear me?" Kirche asked, she peaked out the door to the small private room. The infirmary was empty save for the school Physicians at her her desk near the infirmary door. Every little while she would come by to check on Valliere, most recently had been about five minutes ago. Kirche quietly shut the door to the private room and went back to sit beside Louise.

The girls eyes had cracked open blearily, squinting even in the dim candle light.

"Valliere, are you okay?" Kirched whispered.

"Thirsty." The girl rasped. Kirche looked about, there was a glass and pitcher of water on the table beside the bed.

Kirche filled the glass and then helped Louise to sit up. "Take slow sips." Kirche said gently.

Louise drank the whole glass and then demanded more. She was definitely as bossy as a kid sister.

"Where am I." She asked, squinting. "Zerbst?"

"You're in the infirmary." Kirche said. "What's the last thing you remember?"

The girl tried to sit up further before wincing in pain. "Familiar summoning. What happened?" She shook her head slowly."I failed, didn't I."

"It . . . seems that way." Kirche said slowly. She wanted to tell Louise her theory, but there was lingering doubt, what if she was wrong? Not even a Valliere deserved that cruelty. "You passed out from willpower exhaustion."

The tiny figure in the bed seemed to deflate before her eyes, there wasn't even any fight left in her. Kirche felt a sense of pity for Louise, a Valliere without her simmering anger was like a Zerbst without her passion.

"Did you come to gloat?" Louise asked, she sounded tired, not just physically tired, but weary, old.

Kirche sighed and put a hand on Louise's shoulder. "No, Valliere, I didn't come to gloat."

"Right. . . I wouldn't be enough sport." Louise said bitterly.

"Valliere." Kirche breathed slowly, any other time she would have taken this as an invitation for some verbal sparring. But this was different, it wasn't fair that Louise got to punch low.

"Then what are you doing here? I don't . . . Need pity either." She threw Kirche a halfhearted glare. "Not from some Germanian harlot."

"I'm not here to pity you." Kirche said, okay, that wasn't entirely true, she felt sorry for Louise.

"There's nothing for you to say to me." Louise said softly. "I failed, that's all I needed to know. I'll be sent home soon. Until then, just let me sleep." The girl tried to turn over in bed to face the wall.

"Valliere." Zerbst said. There was no reply.

"Valliere." An arm weakly pulled the blanket over her head. Now this was getting ridiculous.

"Louise." Kirche said softly.

The covers didn't move, from somewhere under the blankets a small voice squeaked out on the verge of cracking. "Just . . . Go away." The words were so soft and final that for a moment she couldn't believe that they'd come from Louise.

Nothing more passed between the two girls. Slowly Kirche stood. She filled the glass from the pitcher once more and left it by the bedside. Walking out of the room she leaned against the wall beside the door and pretended not to hear the soft sobs that issued from within. The pain that Louise only let out when she thought no one was looking. The Doctor would come back soon and see that his patient was awake.

Kirche Von Zerbst sighed, this was going to be a lot harder than she'd thought.


"I still don't know what to make of it."

"Even in all of my years I've never seen anything like it, much less on such a scale."

"Is it spirit magic?"

"It is the only thing I could imagine working on such a scale, other than . . ."

"Yes?"

"No, it was just a suspicion, pay it no mind."

"But . . . "

"Pay it no mind I said."

"Do you believe them?"

"That they do not know? Perhaps. But I can only say that there magic was not like that cast be Elves. They may not fully understand it themselves if what the boy, Kirito, said is true."

"Then what if it was a mixing of magic."

"A mixing?"

"Yes, like with elements, but across magical systems. I don't believe it has ever been observed, but if there magic is based on neither the Brimiric Elements nor pacts with the spirits, then it may be possible."

"An interesting theory."

"You're distracted, what is it?"

"Have you heard about the Valliere girl?"

"Louise Valliere? I took her to the infirmary this morning, why? Has something else happened to her?"

"She collapsed from exhaustion did she not, and then the World Tree appeared."

"You can't be entertaining that theory as well!"

"You said yourself, a mixing of magic is a distinct possibility. In that case I must wonder just who's magic was mixed. It may explain how she survived. Perhaps the girl's affinities should be more closely examined. I believe Miss Valliere will be staying with us for the foreseeable future."

"But she failed to summon a familiar, the school rules are quite clear."

"I prefer to think of them as guidelines really."

"Headmaster!"

"Oh hush now, what's the point of living this long if I can't bend the rules from time to time for fun and profit?"

"But the other students, and her parents . . ."

"The Valliere's will be informed of course and the crown, a suitable cover story will do for everyone else."

"What of Tabitha and Miss Zerbst? Neither is loyal to Tristain."

"Those two? Oh, and that foppish young Grammond as well, they already suspect, marvelous insight on the part of your students, you should be quite proud. We'll be wed with Germania soon enough so there is little to fear from Miss Zerbst. Miss Tabitha will be difficult but manageable, and we have more to fear from the Grammond boys stupidity than any chance of disloyalty. Simplest is to let them know what we want them to know. Yes, that could work quite nicely."

"You seem to be enjoying this."

"What? Hardly, well perhaps, these are interesting times after all."

End of Chapter