Before you read the rest of this... UGH, this was hard to write! The only bit I really like is the very first section, which is more Nino and Nils interaction.


Chapter Three: Sixth Period

Nino came to a quick conclusion: Remedial math was very, very boring. Even she wasn't quite this bad; maybe if she could get one of her brothers to help her, she could test out by Christmas…

Nils was the only thing that kept her awake. Whenever the teacher turned around to write on the chalkboard, he would mime talking along with him, along with the funniest faces she'd seen in a while. Several people, including Nino, chuckled when he did this, but whenever the teacher turned around, Nils would be sitting diligently copying from the board, practically radiating innocence. About halfway through the period, Nils got bored of doing this, and started making paper airplanes out of blank notebook paper, which touched off a contest around the room, to see who could make the fastest, the coolest. Soon they sported drawings, insults, some profanity, and Nino found herself joining in. And they were all having a fine time when the teacher's back was turned, until someone threw theirs directly at the teacher, knocking off his wig. He stared, no, glared, and spluttered in rage, scooping up his wig and putting it on (lopsided) before demanding to know who had thrown 'that thing' while shaking the piece of paper at them like a drawn sword. One of the more annoying boys, a guy with sandy brown hair, beady little eyes, and a bulbous nose who was sitting near the back claimed that Nino had thrown the paper airplane.

The teacher rounded on her. He didn't look comical, now he looked scary.

"And what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?"

"I…" Really, she couldn't think of anything. She didn't know who had really thrown that airplane, didn't think that she could have said anything even if she did remember. All that she could think about was how disappointed her mother was going to be when she heard about this. "I..."

"I threw it!" Nils said cheerily, with an innocent smile. The teacher was so stunned that he just stared, stupidly, for several minutes. Apparently, he had not been expecting a confession.

"Hey, look!" said someone else. "The squirt freshman has a girl- GAAH!" the teen who had been talking leaped out of his seat. "Cold!"

After a few more moments of pandemonium and leaping around, a now very small ice cube was extracted from the boy's shirt. Since the person behind him hadn't been leaning in his direction, and an ice cube couldn't have stayed cold for so long, no one could figure out how it had gotten there in the first place, although Nils did have a small, smug smile.

Nino blinked. Had Nils done that? Without a spellbook or an incantation? But that was impossible!

But if she could get him to show her how to do that, would her mother would look at her and smile for once?

Maybe she didn't need to transfer out… after all, math had never figured prominently in any of Linus or Lloyd's stories of fighting evil.


Lyn stared at Nadia's lunch; three bags of chips, a packet of Skittles, and a bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red. "Remind me to stay away from you in gym class," was all she had to say to her friend's choice of lunch.

"Feh. It was either this, or eat the slop that they're passing off as food. And if I must eat out of the vending machines, why not eat whatever I want?" To prove her point, she pointed over at a nearby table, where everyone had trays of… well, it did look an awful lot like cat vomit, but she was pretty sure that it was supposed to be spaghetti and meatballs…

"Ugh. I'm going to hit the vending machines. Could you find chairs for Eliwood and Hector and Ninian?"

"Can do," Nadia said with a smug grin, tossing their backpacks on their chairs so no one would take them and then going off to hunt down three more.

When Lyn came back five minutes later (stupid machine had eaten her money, all she wanted was water, was that really so hard to get?) Nadia, Ninian, Eliwood, and Hector were already arguing about something, but it looked like Ninian and Nadia had proven their point, and the two boys were starting to back down.

"Okay," Nadia sighed, stretching in an almost catlike manner. "So we have Ninian, myself, Hector and Eliwood. Small enough not to attract attention, and with Ninian's help we should be able to avoid any… unpleasantness." She rubbed her temples. "And hopefully I'll be able to get us out of anything we do run into… Mother Earth, I can already feel my headache coming on…"

"Are you sure that's not just the sugar getting to you?" Hector teased.

Nadia smirked, and the bottle of soda started to glow an eerie purple-black and pointed itself at Hector. "Care to retract that statement?"

"What's that going to do if I don't?"

"Spew soda all over you."

"Hmm…" Hector pretended to think hard.

"I say soak him," Lyn added. Everyone suddenly started

"Eh heh… Hey Lyn!" Hector said.

"Don't you 'Hey, Lyn!' me! You're all planning something, and I want to know what!"

Eliwood… Eliwood! This is HIS idea, and he won't tell me! sighed, and started to explain…

Once he was done, and Nadia had thrown in her veiled warnings about her grandfather's health, even Lyn had to agree that she had best stay behind… for the moment.

"Could you look after Nils for me?" Ninian asked hesitantly. "I… I don't want him to miss any school. Gods only know how he managed to make it to high school, he has no work ethic at all, and he won't make up anything he misses."

"I promise I'll keep an eye on him," Lyn swore. Conversation gradually turned to less morbid topics as Nadia started teasing both her and Hector, while they both retaliated in kind.


Leila was looking at Ephidel with something akin to shock. "I'm sorry, could you run that by me again? You want me to…"

"Free the ex-Lord Lundgren from prison. I assume you have objections?"

Of course I do! The man's a greedy snake who would turn on his own family! "I find someone who poisoned his own brother to be untrustworthy. Can we really believe that he'll remain loyal to us, and not sell us out to the Lycian Greater Council should it become advantageous for him?"

"Oh, but would they offer him a second chance to become Marquis of Caelin? I doubt it. However, your objections are noted, Leila." He actually smiled at her. "I'll be sure to watch him closely."

Leila bowed. "I hear and obey. Is there anything that should be tended to immediately, or should I return to class?"

"Hmm… do you… what do teenagers call it? 'Cut' often?"

Leila smirked. "But of course. It makes a good smokescreen for… when I have something important to do. Do you have any further orders, Master Ephidel?" Not 'Lord' Ephidel, although he was certainly arrogant enough for it. Oh no, only Nergal was 'Lord'.

"No. But keep an eye on Sonia's brat if you can. If I could make the little worthless child useful somehow it would certainly take that miserable, conceited witch down a peg. And keep an eye out for the children, of course."

"Of course." To tell him, or not to tell him? No, she had no choice not to tell him, he was going to find out eventually anyway, neither of them made any effort to hide it. "Actually, the girl Ninian is closely associated with, possibly dating Lord Elbert's son. Her brother also attends this school. However, removing them could be difficult. Witnesses everywhere…"

Ephidel's eyes widened. "Really? Why… how deliciously ironic, Leila." He smirked as only she had seen him do so, an annoyingly mysterious smirk that revealed nothing but his smug satisfaction. "Deliciously ironic indeed… you've always done well, Leila… I look forward to watching you."

There were worlds of meaning in that last sentence, and not just the sexual one, which he made all too obvious by delicately arching one of his perfect eyebrows. But he was watching her performance as well. She was going to have to be extremely careful in the future.

Lunch and sixth period drew to a close, and the five friends departed from the lunchroom. However, as she was leaving, Lyn noticed that a piece of notebook paper had fluttered out of Nadia's bag and fallen to the floor. She called to her friend, but Nadia was already out of hearing range. With a sigh, Lyn tugged on her ponytail, and decided to look and see if the slip of paper was anything important.

It was a list.

-

Ephidel

Vladimir Nagaria

-

Lord Elbert's disappearance

Unrest in the Laus province

Unrest in Bern

-

The Black Fang – (something had made the rest of the line illegible, Lyn couldn't read it.)

Nils and Ninian

-

Connected?

It seemed like an utterly disordered list, and Lyn almost threw it away. However, on reflection, Nadia's thought processes were odd enough, but usually came to important answers. Lyn folded the paper into quarters, then eights, and shoved it in her pocket so she could ask her friend what was going through that head of hers later on. Some of the things on that list were disturbing, and she thought that she had heard of the Black Fang from… somewhere...


Before I conclude this chapter, let me give an explanation as to why, in my twisted little alternate universe, Lundgren isn't well and deservedly dead.

First of all, think about it, this is more or less modern times. You can't just go around bumping people off in a modern society without there being some sort of inquiry. So, to make her assimilation into Lycian society as painless as possible, Nadia had several long discussions (shouting matches) with Lyn, and convinced her that she should let the courts deal with Lundgren. So now he's rotting away in a jail cell until the Black Fang busts him out or he expires… whichever comes first.

Does anyone want me to do a modern Lyn's story as a prologue to this? I think it would be… amusing.

Sorry there was such a gap between chapters… I got stuck on the first cafeteria scene, and I think that the rest of the chapter reflects that. (Curses writer's block to the lowest hells) Next chapter is weapons/magic practice, and study hall for Nils and Ninian. I hope it'll be easier to write.

Thanks to Sakura Irving, elven-girl10, Error404WriterNotFound (Mind if I just call you Error for short?), asarin, magebear7, Fullmetal Child, Dark Cherubim, Random Person, and peter for reviewing! Enjoy the chapter!