I think I'll make this a 3-part instead of a 2-part. :s

This is the second story out of three. I used the word 'heretics' too much in one part. :o

Please tell me what I can do to improve my stories. Thank you.

Thanks to all those who reviewed… :D

Marlois: I just like the name, I guess… I never really thought of it….

Now that you mention it, maybe my name should be Raine Nocturne instead. XD

Nah.

))((o))((

Inquisition: Part 2/3

Seryu Cerulean was a history teacher, the primary instructor on Protection Magic, and an educator of Rune Studies all rolled into one silver-haired, brown-eyed package. Wasn't she the child prodigy who had mastered several different courses when she was just 17? Hadn't she been valedictorian of a class wherein she was years younger than her classmates? Hadn't she been featured in Scribendi, the top-selling magazine in Rune-Midgard, only a few years after she graduated? She had faced many things, and she had conquered them all. She could do this. Of course, she had never faced a whole class full of hyper teenagers before.

She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, class. This is a history class, not a rave party!"

A few minutes of silence, and Seryu sighed with relief. Then a red-haired girl turned to her friend and exclaimed, "Speaking of parties, there's one tonight at Damon's house. Wanna go?" Her friend squealed,

"Ohmygosh, Damon? That hot swordsman!" That started it up again. Now the noise slightly reminded Seryu of a chonchon fly. Buzzing, buzzing, always buzzing. The buzzing grew to a low roar. The teacher groaned with annoyance and slapped her hand to her forehead. She tried another tactic.

"Hey, class! What don't you like about history, anyway?" A chorus of replies rang out.

"It's boring!" Some cried.

"Who cares about the past!" Another shouted.

"We wanna hear about wars and bloody stuff," Yelled a group of guys in the corner.

Seryu raised her hands for quiet. She waited until the classroom rang with her favorite type of music. Silence.

"Hmm. Why should we care about the past? Well, if we don't look at our past, then we'd just keep making the same mistakes over and over again." All of the students started speaking at once.

Seryu raised her hands again. Silence.

"About your other two comments, how history is boring, and how you want to hear about blood-shed. There are many times where history was definitely not boring, you know. And Rune-Midgard's history is soaked in blood. Wars, persecutions, you name it, humans have done it." She paused and smiled at her class. Now, she was in her element.

"Let me teach you about something that's… a little close to home, so to speak. Corrupt priests, torture, burning at the stake…" Seryu looked around at her class, which was quiet as a grave and hanging on to her every word. "I'm talking about the inquisition." One of her students raised her hand. She pointed at her. "Name please?" The blue-haired acolyte flashed her a timid smile and told her, a bit hesitantly,

"Mizu, Miss Cerulean. Shizuku Mizu. I'm the exchange student from Payon."

"Oh yes. Of course. Now, your question?" The student fidgeted a little in her seat and asked her,

"Doesn't inquisition mean asking questions? Why would there be torture during an inquisition, then? Uhm… Well, maybe I haven't fully mastered your language, but… Well, that's what I've always thought… Inquire… Ask… Questions…" She trailed off helplessly, then shrugged. Seryu grinned reassuringly at her.

"You are correct, Mizu. Inquisition does mean asking questions. The Church was asking questions to those whom they deemed heretics, though those so-called heretics were usually no more than herbologists or crude doctors. Since the 'heretics' wouldn't confess that they were heretics, religious fanatics would usually torture them until they would sign a piece of paper saying that they were, actually, heretics." The class gasped.

"That's horrible!" Eluoj Oridel, the class president, exclaimed. His brow was wrinkled with disgust. Seryu nodded solemnly.

"Though it's horrible, it's still very true." She suddenly snapped her fingers. "Oh yes! I almost forgot. Wait a minute, class." She walked out of the classroom. The moment she left, the class burst into excited chatter.

Natsumi turned towards her seatmate, Prophesy. "So, Proph. What happened in the headmistress's office? Did she let you off easily?" Satsuki, who was seated right behind Prophesy chimed in,

"Yes, what happened?" The boy shook his head and pushed up his glasses.

"She was horrible. That old witch." He shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it."

Satsuki poked him. "That bad eh? What's she making you do?" Natsumi laughed.

"Come on! It can't be worse than what she made me do when I got caught." The blonde had been caught several weeks before smoking behind the church with an archer, a swordsman, and a female thief. Not only had Miss Vanderbilt lectured her on proper decorum, but she had also slapped Natsumi with a three week long stint of extra cooking duties. Needless to say, after the three weeks were up, most of the student body was sighing with relief. Proph ventured a grin.

"You can't cook to save your life, Nats. After the second week, half the school was ordering take-out." Natsumi playfully punched him.

"So what is it, Proph? What's your sentence?" Satsuki asked him.

"Ugh… Two weeks extra cleaning and cooking duties. And she said that she was taking it easy on me!" The blue-haired boy sighed dramatically and lay his head down on his desk. "Thank Odin Professor Metcalfe interrupted." He cracked his knuckles. "Now, can we please talk about something else?" The girls shrugged.

"This History class is the coolest! Last year, it was sooo boring." Natsumi exclaimed. Her two friends nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. Miss Cerulean's actually pretty cool. I never thought that the Church would actually participate in such things." Satsuki shuddered. Natsumi elbowed her seatmate.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Miss Vanderbilt was an inquisitor." At that, the three laughed. Prophesy raised his eyebrows mischievously.

"Well, she's definitely old enough." The two girls paused for a moment, and then burst into laughter.

"That… is… so… mean!" Sats told him, in between giggles.

Natsumi shook her head in mirth. Their headmistress, an inquisitor? Perish the thought.

Just then, their teacher walked back in. She was carrying an extremely large and dusty tome. It was bound with black leather, and inscribed all over with runes, symbols, and charms. She tottered over towards her desk and dropped it unto the hard oak table. It landed with a heavy thud. Seryu tucked some stray strands of her silvery hair behind her ears and started flipping pages. She stopped on a page, and grinned, showing two rows of straight white teeth. She took out a small mahogany wand and tapped the book, twice. From the book, an image arose. It rotated silently and slowly in mid-air. Seryu Cerulean smiled, satisfied.

"That, my class, is an example of an instrument of torture used during the inquisition." The image consisted mostly of a long wooden staff, quite innocent, but for the blade at the end of it. The piece of sharp metal scintillated and shone, in sharp contrast with the dull wood from which it had been attached to.

"What is it?" Nicole Solaris asked, her mouth hanging open.

"That is a toe-sweeper. It was used to cut of people's feet, toes, etcetera." Nicole's mouth formed into a little 'o' of horror.

Prophesy sat up with a jolt. A bead of sweat rolled down his back. Miss Cerulean noticed the look on his face. "Mister Hyrule? Anything wrong?" Prophesy gaped at the slowly revolving vision and shook his head, his mouth opening and closing on their own accord. As the teacher started lecturing again, Satsuki poked the blue-haired lad's back.

"What's wrong, Proph?" Her friend slowly turned to meet her stare, and Satsuki almost recoiled in shock. His face looked like it had aged several years in a few seconds. His eyes were wide with fright, and his mouth was still opening and closing. Like a fish. After a minute or two, Prophesy closed his eyes and forced himself to speak.

"Satsuki! That… That image that Miss Cerulean showed us? I... I think Miss Vanderbilt has one of those. I saw it in her closet. She was going to use it on me, Satsuki! On me!" The brunette's eyes widened at this new piece of information.

"So she is an inquisitor! We have to stay away from her, Proph!"

"Oh no."

"What is it, Prophesy? What?"

"I told Grey before class to go see the headmistress. She wanted to see him, Satsuki. Maybe… Maybe… Oh Odin. I wonder what he did to deserve an inquisition?" The two friends looked at each other, their horror mounting. They looked over at Grey Wilde's seat.

It was empty.