I'm being so much nicer to Vayne and Roxis in this fic version than in the original concept and the RP fragments. I need to stop doing that.

Have you ever read or seen something out of context and the impression you got from it was the opposite of what was going on? Know how much trouble Japanese cultural differences can make in figuring out just about anything up to and including gender? In the same way, the Bible needs to be read in the correct cultural context.

That caused a great deal of trouble during the Reformation. One of the causes was poorly-educated priests who often didn't know what they were saying, let alone the context needed to provide the interpretation that was their job. Even the priests who were rebelling against this had been trained by that system and thus lacked a lot of necessary knowledge. These people, and even laymen with next to no knowledge of the various cultures that wrote the thing using their own metaphors or idioms, then translated the Bible, which added playing Telephone into the problem.

It occurred to me that as educated Latin and Ancient Greek-speakers (probably Hebrew, Arabic, and a host of others too), trained in interpreting not just ancient texts but coded ancient texts that required a lot of knowledge to decipher who traveled around helping the common people with their ailments and weren't church-affiliated, alchemists were going to be dragged into the Reformation's issues like it or not.

As for the Holy Sophia, basically all of the early Christian churches believed in her. Including the Catholics, who just didn't tell the common people about her.

The dub seems to be aiming for making the VP Eastern European something, but given her hair things and so on… the idea of making her Chinese kind of appeals. They do use 'gypsy lawyers' in the translation, but I could probably claim that's taking liberties with the translation (or she encountered gypsies while a traveling alchemist and it didn't go well) and ignore it.

Paltia, the holy mana.

"Come in." Before anyone sees you: that was Roxis' response to Vayne's knock at his door. Of course, people already knew that Vayne was visiting him for study sessions. They just didn't know what the two of them were studying. "I finally managed to borrow a copy of St. Augustine's writings on mana and alchemy." Another class was doing an assignment on it, and all the copies had been checked out. "Exactly how humanlike did you make your body?"

"Well… I breathe, and I can eat?"

"Mrow." "He made himself edible."

Roxis decided not to ask. "Be very, very careful that you don't make it human enough to have desires of its own. That's the true meaning of original sin." He'd read through a few more of the theologian's writings that might be relevant to Vayne while he was at it. It was a good thing he had. "In essence, humans are born with sinful desires, gluttony, sloth, lust, wrath, and so on. And, sometimes, the higher self will simply be incapable of overruling those desires. No matter how good a human is, it is inevitable that they will sin. Even the son of God violated one of the commandments." Honor thy Father and Mother: he'd stayed in a city to preach once as a child without telling them and caused them to worry. Allowing himself to get carried away and not consider the feelings of others: a simple thoughtless action. Normal. Only human.

"That is why God does not demand that we never sin, since that perfection is impossible, but forgives us our failures and simply asks that we try to refrain from sinning and do our best to make up for it when we do. You, however, lack even our flawed ability to restrain ourselves." Without a soul, it would be harder to realize that there was something wrong with some impulse, and the fact that he existed to fulfill desires would make it practically impossible. "You're having a hard enough time with the desires of the human mind. No one can deal with the human body. You're already close enough to human that the school doctor hasn't been able to discover your secret, so be very, very careful."

Vayne looked stunned by that concept and somewhat frightened. Good. "You know how many people have pursued Nikki even though they knew better. Don't end up one of them." Dragged around by their… Ahem.

"Right…" Vayne smiled, looking sheepish again. "There's so much stuff I don't know."

Understatement. "People don't teach theology here. The infirmary has fewer deaths to deal with that way. The exception to this is the theological explanation for alchemy, including the existence of the fourth aspect of God, who is well-known in the East but not really discussed in the West, except by theologians and alchemists." The fact that fewer and fewer people spoke Latin was really harming public understanding of the Bible. "Even I tend to think of the Lord as a trinity, instead of having four aspects, like the four arms of the cross. Although some people are trying to equate the Holy Sophia, the Wisdom of God, with the Holy Ghost, since it is the Holy Ghost that grants understanding, although either way they are the same entity, as God is both plural-aspected and one being… that sort of thing needs to be left to the experts."

Leaving out whether the Holy Ghost, the Voice of God, was technically an aspect of God or just the Metatron, which edged on serious heresy due to violating the Nicene Creed. Theoretically, as long as you believed in the Nicene Creed you would be fine and everything else was really just details. Or, God forbid, politics.

At least the selling of indulgences had stopped, between the objections and several alchemists volunteering to help with the construction provided it did, but the Italians were practically auctioning off the Holy See. By definition, the Pope was infallible. By that definition, there hadn't been a true heir of Peter in decades.

Not that Roxis would ever say that out loud. Not when the Holy Roman Empire was such a powderkeg.

Except that he was going to have to teach Vayne enough theology to avoid getting himself in trouble and know why what Theofratus had done was entirely Theofratus' responsibility and not Vayne's fault in any way, shape, or form.

"The Holy Sophia is referred to in the Bible a few times, but mainly in passing and it's easy to miss that she is a person instead of a concept if you don't have a thorough knowledge of Greek and Latin, not just the words themselves but the turns of phrase. All alchemists do, by necessity, which is why it's common to be asked a lot of questions about the Bible if you're a traveling alchemist. Nowadays, priests aren't as well-educated as they used to be, and so people will often ask for a second opinion." Listening to sermons had often made him wince as a child: it was painfully obvious the spare noble brats didn't know what they were saying, let alone how to pronounce it. "You can just remind them that you're not ordained if it's a difficult question or you don't want to be bothered."

Vayne looked lost. "If you're asked about it by someone who knows you're a mana, just say you don't know anything. The position of the church and alchemy in general is that mana are part of this world in the same way beasts are and don't possess any special knowledge." If they were angelic beings, on the other hand… Or if the Creation Mana's name had really been Lilith… He really needed to focus on telling Vayne what would help him survive, not concepts that might get him killed.

"Okay…"

"The Holy Sophia matters to alchemy, or Hermetic alchemy, since she's at the root of the belief that alchemy can be used to refine the body and soul, purify them and bring them closer to their divine origins. Oh, yes, the Gnostic Heresy." Really couldn't afford to forget them. "They believed that the world was created by the devil and that if awakened the Holy Sophia, knowing the depths of its evil and corruption, would smite it out of existence." Although there was much more to it than that. "That's actually been rather helpful to alchemy. No one wants to denounce it without good reason since that risks being accused of Gnosticism."

"It sounds… really complicated, huh? Wow, Roxis." Vayne smiled, sitting down on the ground next to the pile he was working on. "You really do know a lot about alchemy. I need to work hard too if I'm going to catch up."

Vayne kept saying these things that either made Roxis despise him or feel incredibly… Like the way he'd felt when they won the quiz contest. "You'd better get started then. Well, time to check on Isolde." Roxis turned back to his desk and turned over one of the five cards there, invoking the Eye of Truth. Another shadow mage would have seen him spying on them when he used this card, but Isolde was no shadow mage.

"You're spying on her? Is that okay?"

"She's an alchemist. She has a mana looking over her should every moment of every day." Well, they could say they had other business, and Roxis trusted that Dour would look away when Roxis was washing or things like this happened, but if you hated the idea of being watched then you shouldn't become an alchemist. "So far she doesn't seem to be doing anything especially interesting." Back to studying, then. Or rather, sitting here and watching Vayne read in order to make sure that Sulpher didn't make him stop reading and take a nap in the sun or some such thing.

Then there was a sharp knock on the door of Isolde's office. "Ms. Isolde!" The vice-principal opened the door after that warning. "What is this? Excuses worse than gypsy lawyers'!"

Roxis' eyes widened. The Vice Principal's grammar was never the best, but he'd never heard her speak this incorrectly. It sounded like she was just converting her thoughts in her own language to Latin instead of either thinking in Latin or taking the time to remember the word order rules. She clearly wasn't even making the effort, which was very unusual for her.

"That cat… I know it became younger."

"It's not a cat, it's a mana! Yes, I know," Ernentraud cut Ms. Isolde's objection off. "You say the boy is a mana. You say all sorts of things. But all this time, and not one bit of proof! And now you think a student has the water of youth recipe, which no one has been able to discover?"

Roxis' eyes narrowed. "Well, that's inconvenient." Understatement.

"If he does have it, then everyone will benefit, won't they?"

"And when he tells them he does not have it? Handing a student over to them… You go too far! If word spreads that they took one of our students, the peasants will think the worst, they always do." She shook her head fiercely. "No! I will not be having with this! Al Revis takes care of its own problems, and a student is a student!"

"Speaking of which, the people who refuse to learn how to use their power properly, without abusing it, have been causing more and more trouble lately, haven't they. Gathering in stronger groups. The Student Discipline Committee," Tony and Renee, "are doing everything they can, but we've even had to contract other students to help." The jobs. "If they get much more organized, we might have a real problem on our hands." That was clearly a threat, as politely and regretfully as she put it.

"Huh?" Vayne asked.

"Graduation isn't just a matter of grades. Later." This was important. This was why he'd taken the risk of setting the eye of truth and kept checking it whenever he had a moment for weeks.

"The Inquisition, here? No. The principal will not stand for it." Ernentraud shook her head forcefully ,but she knew and Isolde knew she knew that the principal was weak-willed, the kind of person who fell for Pamela. He'd agree with whoever was yelling at him at the time, or that was Roxis' impression of him.

"What's the-" Vayne realized that Roxis' face going white meant he was scared. Roxis, scared?

Vayne was relieved when Roxis returned to his normal anger at the world's unfairness. Sometimes he thought that Roxis wanted to challenge the entire world because it kept cheating.

"You don't want to know, but you're likely going to have to." Narrowed eyes focused on the window, demanding it give him something he could use.

"One of the conditions of the school charter says that the instant anyone discovers the secret to making the water of youth, we have to give the recipe to the proper authorities, just like the recipe for gold." Which had caused a world economic crisis, albeit lessened by the fact there were few alchemists able to make it. It was still highly valued, for jewelry and its other properties. Many court alchemists spent most of their time making it.

"Damn." Roxis cursed.

"You know how they envy the near-immortality of alchemists. If they suspected that we were keeping something like that a secret?" Roxis and the Vice-principal didn't need her to explain the consequences. "But even that is nothing next to the power to revive the dead. That was the original purpose for which Theofratus set out to create a refined form of mana, who had power over more than the material world. To give a little girl her life back."

Sulpher made a sound that Vayne's magic translated to a disgusted snort.

"And why would they think something like that?"

"Well, I do have to write annual reports, don't I? I've kept quiet about the artificial mana because I won't let Theofratus' name be sullied, but something like this? Of course, it would be better if we could handle it ourselves, you're right."

"You hold this school and all alchemy hostage? Despicable woman! It is just jealously."

Isolde laughed. "Maybe you're right. He chose it over me, didn't he? His death and his revenge on the world that mocked him: an artificial mana even more dangerous than Mull's Amalgam."

Roxis' breath came in through his teeth, almost hissing. "So it wasn't a demon." Somehow he wasn't surprised.

"Far more insidious. No one wants the world to be destroyed, but a power like that? To bring back dead loved ones, to live forever? Theofratus… when he died, he was no longer the man I knew. He wanted everyone to weep with envy, knowing that he'd created something that made all our work look like a child making pies in the mud. He wanted the world that had rejected him to go to war over something they couldn't live without. Even I'm tempted to bring Theofratus back, but the man I knew would want to stay dead. He wouldn't be able to live with such a terrible sin, not just failing to save a child but setting in motion a plan to kill scores of thousands."

"Is this true, Isolde?" Now the Vice Principal raised her eyebrow. "Why do you only say this now?"

Roxis heard a rueful laugh from behind him. "Should I not have?"

"Loosened her tongue? That depends," Roxis had to admit, but he'd deal with Vanitas trying to be helpful later.

"Why? Because…" Isolde blinked.

Roxis cursed, sweeping the cards off his desk, hurriedly placing them inside a pocket. "It appears that no, you should not have. Tampering with someone's free will is cheating," despite how useful the information could have been, it wasn't worth the karma, as this proved.

"What about your magic?"

"It doesn't tamper, it strengthens." Shadow magic brought out the true self, it didn't seek to control or confine it. "Well, it can be used to control others, but we shouldn't be talking about this now." He scowled at the books scattered around the room. "Why can't you read faster?" Books on mana theology, the argument claiming that alchemy was a natural science incapable of creating life, a history of Palaxius and his effect on the fall of the Empire: the reading list he'd selected for Vayne was quite, quite damning. Hiding the books wouldn't help: he'd checked them out properly and the library kept records. Except… "Eital. If you go ask Pamela to wreck havoc on the library's records, I'll do one thing each of you asks of me."

The white beast appeared and vanished again. The fact she reserved her quips for later showed how urgent this was.

Roxis began to stuff the books onto one of his now-bottomless pockets, then fished his deck out and handed it to Vayne. "Make it look as though we were busy playing, and hand me your Heavy Storm card." That would allow him to wipe out any residue of magic, but Isolde would know regardless. It was just a matter of finding proof, and now that she knew more about the threat Vayne posed and Theofratus' intentions, the Vice Principal might cease to oppose Isolde so fiercely.

He had to pause for breath after using something that powerful (the danger it posed caused some to consider it a forbidden spell), but he didn't object when he felt Vanitas' energy replenish his own. "Either she'll come now or she'll set up another trap, like the Great Beast. Something to make you reveal yourself."

"You don't need to… Roxis, it's Eital and Pamela." He knew what he was letting himself in for, and Vayne didn't want him to do that on his account. "I'll do whatever it is they want."

"Pamela will already wonder why I'm doing this. It's best not to bring you into it."

"Won't my mana carrying the message to hers do that anyway?"

"First, she'll assume Eital did it for her usual reasons. Second, Pamela suspects we have a relationship of an entirely different sort. Since she thinks she knows what's going on, she won't feel any need to discover it."

"You're still… Roxis…"

"For heaven's sake, stop trailing off constantly and finish your sentences."

"Roxis, you… shouldn't be doing this."

"Better." There had been a pause, but at least he'd finished. "And you are my mana. You loan me your power: I loan you mine."

"The other mana don't… Make people go to so much trouble. Not even Eital."

"If I wanted a life of ease with no responsibilities, I wouldn't have studied alchemy, I would have waited until my father died and sold the estate to a nobleman." Roxis sat down opposite Vayne and picked up the hand Vayne had dealt him, observing the pretend game he'd laid out.

"This is… He was my father. I'm the one that..."

"You didn't kill him. He killed himself."

"And I don't want other people to die because of me!" Vayne glowed, body radiant with power, eyes sparking with anger.

Roxis felt Vanitas manifest. "Your first wish. Not an easy one to grant."

"'This is between you and me,'" Vayne quoted. "Ms. Isolde and I."

"No, it was between her and Theofratus. I'm attacking with this," Roxis said. So sit down, focus, and tell me if you think you can do anything to stop it.

"Dad…"

"That's not good. It's not going to solve anything, you know," Vanitas said, and Roxis started paying serious attention. Vanitas was being the voice of reason now?

"I know, but…"

"If that's really what you want." It was Vayne's job to be the one to understand human things like consequences and conflicting desires.

"What on earth are you…" The two vanished. "…Talking about… That idiot." Roxis cursed, gathering up his deck again, focusing his will on the block Vayne had placed on their pact, wishing, no, demanding, that he lower it. There was no response. "Sulpher, do you know where that idiot went?"

"Mrow." Sulpher got up, tail lashing a bit in irritation. Just irritation, certainly not worry.

"We'd best hurry, then."