Chapter One: First Period – Six days to Halloween

"Ungh," Lyn groaned, banging her head lightly on the desk. She did not want to be here. Did anyone really want to be in school after the novelty of it wore off sometime in the third week of September?

Not to mention that her first period was Science… with Canas. Even though Canas himself was actually a very good teacher and very interested in his subject, Lyn herself couldn't care less about Physics, especially when someone mage in the class asked a question about the application of physics to magic, and sent Canas off onto a long and utterly confusing tangent. On mornings when she was especially tired (like today) she found staying awake in his class a trial. So she prayed to all the gods of her people that Erk would stay quiet today, or, better yet, that he had been moved up to AP Physics and Magiology, which was where he was supposed to be. Damn guidance councilors messing up everyone's schedules and then being 'too busy' to fix the problems…

It wasn't that she hated Erk, in fact, even though he wasn't the most talkative guy in the world, she rather enjoyed his company, and he had been one of the people who had helped her during the… incident last summer. But he was the person most likely to ask questions, and Canas was easier, much easier to listen to when he was focused. She noticed that his desk was empty and perked up a little.

Serra was nattering away to Rebecca, mourning the fact that her 'darling Erky' wasn't here yet. Lyn winced, and tried to block the cleric out. It was too early to listen to one of Serra's tirades. The others were people whom she knew by appearance and not by name, and their conversations held no interest for her. She checked the clock. Three minutes before the late bell rang. Odd, Florina was usually here by now, and she hadn't sounded sick on the phone the night before…

The orchid-haired young woman scuttled into the room, ducking into the seat next to Lyn, shaking ever-so-slightly. Lyn blinked. Florina was often shy and easily startled, but very rarely was she truly frightened. And right now she was clearly afraid of something.

"Florina? Is something bothering you?" Lyn asked, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. Florina flinched slightly at the sudden contact, something she hadn't done in years. "Florina? Please, tell me what's got you frightened so badly."

"I…I-It's silly…" she muttered, blushing.

"Not if it has you this scared!" Lyn said angrily, wishing that Nadia was here for added encouragement. But no, she only had two classes with her friend: gym and Language Arts. And lunch, although that didn't really count.

"W-well… I was walking to class, minding my own business, when a boy I've never seen before pulled me aside and started asking for directions. I think he's new. H-he didn't bother me or anything, but… Lyn, there was something wrong about him. He was just… eerie… oh, I can't explain it, I must sound like such a coward…"

"Hey, it's okay Florina. If you say that there's something wrong with this guy, then I believe you." Although Florina was a little nervous around all men, the ones who really spooked her were either exceptionally nasty or perverts like Sain. So, if this person was frightening Florina without being overtly threatening… she may not be able to actually sense danger like Ninian and her brother can, but she's a surprisingly good barometer for picking out trouble. "Why don't you tell me what he looks like, so I can be on the lookout for him in the future?"

"Um… he's actually kind of cute, in a dark way. Wavy black hair, tied back in a ponytail, maybe down to his shoulders, dressed in black everything, really pale… and his eyes were gold, Lyn. He reminded me of… of a fox, or a wolf…" she laughed nervously. "Ahah… I'm being stupid."

"Florina, you're actually being helpful. Stop being so negative about yourself all the time," Lyn sighed. "Truth be told, this guy does sound creepy. Like Karel." She shuddered. He was knew what he was talking about, which she had always liked in a teacher, and he wouldn't be so bad if he would stop staring at her during weapons practice… "If we're lucky, we don't have any classes with him."

"We probably won't," Florina said, calming down visibly. "He's a senior."

"Oh, is he now…" a somewhat evil grin spread across Lyn's face. "Then let us offer a silent prayer that he ends up in pre-Calc this period."

"You mean… Miss Veinian's pre-Calculus? With Farina, and Raven, and all the others?"

Lyn smiled even wider. "For bothering you, he deserves it."


Ephidel looked at his new class, his scrutiny falling in particular on one girl with flat, brown hair and dark eyes filled with boredom. At least, they were filled with boredom until they brushed upon him, and then they lit…

And only the fact that his emotions were much weaker than a human's kept him from giving in and actually registering surprise. He recognized the human female, even though the last time he had seen her, her hair had been the color of straw, not brown, and she had been less than six years old. Thankfully, when he didn't show signs of recognizing her, she turned her attention back to the window, her look of confusion and speculation fading back to boredom. He would have to be careful to spend as little actual time around that one as possible, if she remembered when she had seen him last, there would be no small amount of trouble. And even though she had been at an age where most adults think that children are too stupid to understand 'adult' things, that child had been perfectly aware of what was going on around her. Unsurprising, really, considering who her father was.

A boy with red-brown hair glared at him for a moment, then passed him over with something akin to contempt. The blonde-haired girl sitting next to him elbowed him in the ribs, and made a protest about being nicer to new people.

"I know, Lucius, I know…" The redhead replied, in a tone that said that they'd had this conversation several times before.

Lucius? That was a man's name! And she…

Come to think of it, 'her' chest was completely flat. And although 'she' had one of the most feminine faces Ephidel had ever seen… well, some people were born unlucky. Although, he would really look less like a woman if he would just cut his hair. Regardless, it would be highly amusing to have this boy meet Sonia. I wonder how that spoiled witch would react to encountering a man who is more beautiful than she will ever be?

He had more important things to think about…

"Why, hello. You're certainly a new face around here." He started and turned to see a blue-haired young woman smiling at him. "The desk next to mine is empty. Why don't you sit there?" she asked seemingly innocently. Ephidel had a sneaking suspicion that this was anything but innocent, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time a woman (or even a man) had tried to seduce him. However, periodically he didn't mind, the girl was certainly attractive… and he was almost as bored as the young woman staring out the window, the one who was pretending to be a brunette. "I'm Farina, by the way. What's your name?"

"Ephidel." She nodded, clearly content to simply observe for the moment, waiting for the best way to get… whatever she was after. Sex? Money?

Probably money. She didn't act like a woman who recklessly threw herself at an attractive stranger.

"Ah, since I'm new around here," he said, trying to act the part of a simple high school senior, "Could you tell me who that girl by the window is?"

"Who, you mean Nadia? She's a junior, one of my kid sister Florina's friends. Pretty much keeps to herself most of the time, although she's scarily intelligent when she feel like proving it. Why? If you're interested in her, you're out of luck. She doesn't seem to show any interest in anyone, boy or girl." The way she raised her eyebrow left him with no illusions about how she meant 'interested'.

"No, I'm not… interested… in her. It's just, she reminded me of a girl I saw once, a blonde girl… can't remember her name at the moment, it was a long time ago."

The brunette sitting by the window jerked slightly. So, not only was she not as oblivious as she was pretending to be, she also had good enough hearing to listen to their conversation, even though she was on the other side of the room, and neither of them were speaking very loudly. Definitely someone to watch out for. Maybe, if she thought that he didn't remember her yet, and she was doing what he thought she was doing, she would leave him alone. If she had run away from her father, she would probably be doing everything in her power to avoid drawing his eyes.

Risky gamble. But better than having her spend long hours staring at him until she remembered where, why, and when she had seen him last.

"If you say so…" she didn't look entirely convinced, but took another look at Nadia, who was about as plain as plain could get, and accepted his answer. "So, where did you live before you came here to Lyc-"

Ephidel stopped listening to the teen at the moment, because his eyes were glued on the couple that had entered the door, a sandy-haired boy with laughing light brown eyes, and a redhead with a beauty mark on her chin. And, for the first time in a long time, he felt true shock.

Of all the things he had expected to find in this school, one of his actual contacts in his very first class, also posing as a student, was an unexpected and welcome surprise.


Leila blinked. She knew who she was looking at, but had never once seen so much of his face before. And in her class! If asked, she could not have picked a less likely place to find Ephidel. Next thing, her employer would come waltzing in wearing a pink dress, with bows in his hair…

She actually laughed out loud. Picturing Lord Urther, with big pink bows and his battle scars… it was just too funny.

"Something wrong?" her fiancé, Matthew, asked softly. He was too good not to miss the semi-hysterical note in her laughter.

"My job is sitting next to Farina," she replied under her breath, keeping her smile plastered on her face.

And it was hard, very hard. Ephidel was not stupid, not by any means, and Brendan Reed had just moved his family here from Bern, to 'give them a taste of other cultures'. Feh.

Matthew laughed, as if she had made a joke, and his expression also remained light and carefree, but he squeezed her hand under the desks sympathetically. They had both been doing what they were doing long enough to know that everything could blow up in Leila's face very, very easily.

"Good Morning, students, this is Principal Marcus with your morning announcements. First of all, I would like to remind you all that there is a ten o'clock curfew in effect on Halloween Night, and what the rest of you hooligans like to call 'Mischief Night.' We will NOT be having a repeat of last year's incident, or I will personally make sure that the entire senior class is forced to help clean up the mess."

Matthew and Leila grinned at Nadia, and she smiled back. Between the three of them, they had planned, coordinated, and executed that little plan… with carefully chosen helpers. To this day, no one knew exactly who had participated, although everyone was suspicious.

"Furthermore, there will be a school dance on Halloween Night, should you wish to attend. Donations will be five dollars, and will go to…"


Ninian tried to block out the teacher and take notes at the same time, something that never worked very well for her in practically. The result being, she heard more and more of the health teacher's lecture, which was on sexually transmitted diseases. She also heard the rather crude questions asked by several boys in her class about ways that one could get these diseases, and felt herself turn redder and redder and redder until she felt she might burst into flame. The fact that Eliwood was in her class, sitting several seats in front of her, just made everything even worse, because every once in a while some of those inappropriate suggestions would create… interesting mental pictures… that just made her blush even redder.

"And today," the teacher said, pulling out a banana and what Ninian feverishly hoped was just a balloon, "we are going to have a practical demonstration…"

Please, Ninis, don't let this be what I think it's going to be…

"…of how to use a condom."

And just when Ninian thought that she could not be any more embarrassed, she suddenly recalled the end of the dream she had had last night, the dream of the boy with red hair and blue eyes, the boy who had called her 'mama'…

Hadn't he looked an awful lot like Eliwood?

Maybe, if she prayed earnestly enough, the gods would let her melt through the floor. Or make the clock go at the right pace. There was no way she could only have been in class for ten minutes…


Nadia ignored the teacher. She didn't need to listen. She already knew everything she was saying anyway, and with Raven and Matthew and Leila in the class poor Miss Veinian had enough problems keeping the class under control. Farina was already taking bets on when the first fistfight would be. Nadia had put her money on February 15. By then, it would finally have sunk in for him that Priscilla had grown up over the summer and that boys were noticing her and that she was noticing them.

However, that wasn't what she was really thinking about. Nor was she putting any real work into the diagram on the desk, which was the master plan for pranking City Hall on Mischief Night.

She was worrying about that golden eyed man, the one who had almost recognized her. Even though he claimed to be a senior, and looked the part, there was something in his eyes that gave lie to the illusion.

And, he had seen her before she had met Lyn. Perhaps he had met her in one of the small towns she had passed through on her way to collapsing in that particular spot on the Plains of Sacae, but she sincerely doubted it, especially since he knew her real hair color. No, he had indeed seen the old her…

Which meant that hewas involved with the typeof societyshe had once lived in. Which could not mean anything good.

She would have to find a way to avoid him and watch him at the same time. She would not be recognized. She was too happy here to be forced to disappear again, and she would slit her own throat before she let her father take that away from her the way he had stolen everything else.


A tall, imposing man dressed in an extremely expensive business suit looked down on the table. There were currently three chess sets, each unique, each expensive, set upon the table. One was already swarmed with black pieces, that was a battle already won. In the center, the white was in retreat, most of the major pieces captured, including the queen, although the king had yet to move, as if the player did not yet realize the danger, regardless of the fact that the white forces had been reduced to pawns and little else. On the far left, only the opening moves had been made, that was a game he was playing slowly, for even though that white king was a fool, most of his advisors were not, and some of them were in position to become quite annoying the moment they became suspicious. And several of those pawns on the far left had the potential to become quite dangerous indeed…

And, on the center board, there were two unique pieces that were no part of any game of chess anywhere else. A woman, dressed like a dancer, and a boy holding a flute, hidden behind a few easily disposed of pawns. Although to any other chess player, these carvings would have no immediate value or significance, well, these weren't actually games of chess. They were representations of actual struggles, the beginnings of the steps to unlimited power… and revenge. Oh yes, revenge…

He removed something from one of the pockets of his suit, a small ivory figurine, the white queen from the center board. Very soon, it would be time to grind the person that the white Queen represented into powder, and the sooner the better. He really was getting bored of listening to the man's impassioned speeches.

A woman glided soundlessly into the room. To anyone else, she would have been both silent and without any presence at all, but he had been the one who had created her, he could always sense where she was.

"Master, your meeting will be in a half an hour," she said diffidently, although she had no actual emotions. She was a classical beauty, her face like a statue, her wavy hair still neat and stately, not wild like her 'sister's'. She dressed conservatively, her clothing no different from any other secretary who worked in this company, although of better quality. But Limstella was more than just his secretary, much more.

"Has the meeting room been prepared?"

"Of course."

Limstella… she had been one of his later morphs, not tainted with emotion like Kishuna or Sonia, or even Ephidel to a certain extent. No, Limstella was perfect. And whenever he looked at her, she almost reminded him of… someone. It was too frustrating to try and remember today, he had important things to do.

His hand tightened on the white queen in his hand. Very important things…


Hehheh… poor Ninian. I'm so evil sometimes. :)

So, you like? All the pretty reviews made me happy, so I worked a lot harder and updated a lot quicker than I thought I could.

I would like to thank peter, Sakura Irving, elven-girl 10, Vaun Harkinian, Ayane-san, and magebear7 for reviewing.