Daisy Pragnya: Yeah, I was pretty proud of Yukiya's speech at the end there. He's the type of character who rarely speaks, so when he does speak up, what he says tends to hold a lot of power and weight behind it.

TheFallenHer0: I agree. The odds are against Katalina. She'll manage to catch up, though. And with Elias, I was trying to convey a sort of academic anxiety disorder with him. He's very attached to his perfect grades, because he has an insecurity that they're the only thing he can be perfect in.


Chapter 4—A Promise to Elias

I'm still distracted by my conversation with Yukiya from last night. By the time I'd dragged my sorry self back to the dorm, he'd already been in bed, asleep. And, as usual, he was gone before I was even awake.

I was walking down one of the sets of stairs, in a daze, and ran into someone on the flat median where the stairs changed direction.

"Ah…!"

"Hey, are you alright?" I said automatically.

"S-sorry, I-I was just concentrating on something, and, and…" the girl stuttered. I then realized that it was Sommer. Crap. "E-Elias!" she gasped, realizing that it was me.

My eyes widened in surprise, "...It's you." I looked away. I was kind of harsh on her yesterday, but before my head catches up, words slip out of my mouth, "Watch where you're going."

"Sorry…" she mutters. She's not the one who should be saying that—I am. But my pride won't seem to let me.

"Listen, I beg of you. The buddy ordeal is terrible enough, can't you keep your meddling to that alone?" Wait. Why did I say that? What is wrong with me?

"Wha…?" her eyes widened, and she looked hurt, "I've already apologized! What else do you expect me to do?"

I paused, "...You don't have to apologize if you don't want to. Your face is saddening, you know." Better. But not good enough. Why is this so hard? I know what I should say, but whenever I open my mouth it becomes so jumbled!

"Ah…" she looked surprised.

"Do try not to blunder your way through today's class, would you?" And here I was trying to sound encouraging. Bah. Look how well that turned out.

"I-I won't…!" she looked like she was both confused and a bit irritated. I brushed past her and headed towards the first class.

…. …. ….

Classes didn't go so horribly—Sommer was surprised to see the headmaster teaching, but then again a lot of new students were. With most magic schools, the headmaster didn't teach. This particular academy wasn't as big as some of them, though. Take Reseth School of Magecraft—that was by far the biggest magical institute in this world. They weren't so specialized as this academy, though, and was composed of mostly students who used normal magic. We've got a special class for students with unique magical abilities like spellsinging and other odd magics, Vir Ingeniosus.

In History, we learned about the story of the Dragon of Time and the Tower of Sorrow. I, for one, learned that Luca had actually been in the East Forest about a year ago, and had nearly died and had gotten suspended for his efforts. Moron.

The headmaster called on me to answer a question on why people can't just go and see the Dragon of Time.

I stood up, "Because the East Forest has been enchanted, in numerous layers, by the Three Mages to confuse and misdirect all those who set foot in it. There are some who say that the only way to be able to get to through the forest and to the tower are those who are either of Fae blood or Fae gifted, otherwise known as Fae touched, and can hear the magic that guides them. This being because the Fae tend to be guardians and keepers of relics and are generally very untrusting of humans, making it a great way to protect things such as the Tower of Sorrow. Furthermore, it is said that only someone with the blood of the royal family of Gedonelune are able to access the room which contains the Dragon of Time. Currently, that would be the king, his father, and his two sons."

"Good job, Elias, you can be seated. But I think you're neglecting a bit of the royal family." The headmaster replied, "Can anyone complete it?"

"The Vanished Sisters." Luca said seriously, far more seriously than I'd ever heard him. I glanced at him. He looked more serious than I had ever seen him, too.

"That's right, Luca. There used to be two more members of the royal family—the twin sister of the king, and their younger sister. The older sister, the king's twin, was named Aurora Twilight Gedonelune. She completely vanished soon after her engagement to Duke Bertolt, approximately thirty-five years ago. We do know that she died about ten years ago, because the jewel under her portrait of the royal family tree stopped glowing. The younger sister, Princess Aulelia, was said to have kept in contact with her sister, but refused to reveal as to where she had gone, only that she had a family and was happy. But then Princess Aulelia herself retreated from public eye and was not heard from again, about twenty years ago, and within two years of her disappearance, her jewel also lost it's light. King Wilkin, then only Prince Wilkin, was said to have nearly gone mad with grief at losing his two beloved sisters. The kingdom will always miss the princesses. That is why there is a special tribute to them each year in the Memory Festival." The headmaster nodded respectfully, then continued on about the Tower of Sorrow.

I glanced back at Luca again. He seemed distracted, but not in the usual way. He looked a bit upset, as well. Eh, no matter. It has nothing to do with me.

Class ended, and I saw Yukiya talking to Sommer as I began packing up my stuff. I haven't really seen him that talkative with anyone other than Selene or myself. Not that it was any of my business. But then Luca went up and started talking to her, and that was a significantly worse sign. He seemed to be offering to help her with her magic, and I could see the reluctance on her face. At least she's not entirely clueless. He put his hand on her shoulder and it made something in me feel irritated, and then smug when she quickly pushed it away. But she was smiling.

"Thank you so much for the offer, Luca, but I'll be okay!"

"Huh? Why? But it's pretty rough trying to figure it all out yourself, isn't it?" he asked.

"Well, that's probably true, but…" she began.

"And I mean, it's not like your buddy's going to be helping you anytime soon. C'mon." He persisted. Go away, Luca, go away.

"I want to do it myself," Sommer insisted, "I want to get as far as I can, alone."

But this just made Luca's smile grow, and he laughed a bit, "I knew it, you are an interesting one!"

"Y-yeah?" she sounded confused at his sudden change of attitude.

He winked at her, "Yeah, I'm getting more interested by the minute."

"I-interested…?" she shook her head, "Anyway, I'll make it work somehow."

"All right." Luca finally said, "But if you want any help, just ask."

Sommer smiled, "Sure thing. Thanks."

…. …. ….

After all the classes were over, a girl from another class—Marelda Kramer—pulled me aside and asked where Luca was. I didn't know, and hadn't seen him since History ended. Yukiya somehow knew, and told the girl to go look in the archives. I wonder why a girl who seemed so serious, and not the type to associate with people like Luca at all, was looking for him. She said she had to apologize for something. I vaguely wonder how that happened.

Forcing those useless thoughts out of mind, I found my way to the usual classroom I used and set up my things. Time to get to work. I prepped everything and got ready to say the incantation. Most of the reference grimoires were written by my father. What I was trying to do was develop a method to help people living in areas of drought.

I pointed my wand, "Aeveh Phons!" The water in the pitcher did nothing. I glared at it, then sighed, muttering. "With this, even if the water endlessly flows, it'll just spill out of the jug...however, if I can just cast a spell to prevent the water from flowing out of the jug...alright, but is I try with this, what'll happen to the water that disappeared…?" There were so many factors you had too look at with magical tool creation. If you miss even one detail, it can have disastrous results. "Aethernitas Pot!" I removed the original spell and cast it again. "Aeveh Phons!" The water in the jug increased. "...No good." I sighed. Why was this so patience-trying? "Even if the water doesn't spill out, this just doesn't look good. Looks like I'll have to go back to the drawing board…" I stopped, "Well, maybe one more try. Third time's a charm, right?" I readied my wand.

I heard a creak, then, "Ah, ah, ah...!" followed by a thumping crash and a really...bizarre cry. I turned around, completely shocked, and saw Sommer, lying on the ground. Had she been spying on me?

She let out an awkward laugh, seeming unsure of what to do.

I decided to tease her a bit, "So...you're into peeping, are you?"

"S-sorry…" She seems to be apologizing in every other sentence to me.

I shook my head, walked over, and held out my hand, "Come on."

She looked at me in complete surprise. I felt a little offended.

"When a girl's fallen down in front of me," I said, "I'll at least lend her a hand. I'm not a monster. I won't bite."

"Th-thanks…" She took my hand and I pulled her up. She's so light...seriously, does she eat enough? She's even lighter than Selene, and at least Selene has reasons for her lack of weight.

"So," I began cooly, "would you like to tell me why you were spying on me?"

"W-well, it's not that I wanted to spy on you, I just, ah, wanted to talk to you about something…"

"That something being?"

"Um, about yesterday, really, I'm sorry." she looked down, looking completely and honestly contrite

"Oh, the insults? Well, I'm over those…" Not really, until just now. They did sting. But seeing how she's genuinely sorry about them, I'll forgive her.

"Well, it's not just that! Your grades, too." She took a breath, and then declared, "I'll do my best! My absolute best, so that you'll acknowledge me as your buddy!"

"Huh." I said. I honestly hadn't been expecting that. "You're pretty strange, you know that?"

"Am, am I…?" Don't look like that. It's a compliment, as Selene always says...but she wouldn't know that, would she…?

"Even though I said those terrible things to you yesterday, you're still rather...positive." I was honestly surprised about it.

"Well, it's like you said...what you were saying, it wasn't wrong."

"So, you were aware?" and there's the snottiness that keeps slipping out.

"Yeah." she became momentarily crestfallen.

Then I thought of something, "At the end of class today, Luca said he'd teach you magic, didn't he?"

"You heard that?"

"I just happened to hear it." I said nonchalantly, "Why'd you refuse? He may not look, or act, like it, but Luca's a more talented wizard than me."

"Elias…" she said, "I was grateful for his offer, don't get me wrong, but I want to do as much as I can by myself."

I withheld a smile, "Heh. You've got guts for an amateur."

"Well, I've been through a lot." She said, like it was no big deal. But I saw something flash in her eyes, something sad, even though she was still smiling. That glimpse I managed to see made something in my chest twist. She continued, "Up until now, all I did was blame myself because I'm new and inexperienced, but that's wrong. I now think that if I work at it, even I can get better. So, I'm going to work hard and join this academy! I'm going to wipe away the word 'provisional' from my name!" She said confidently, looking me right in the eyes, "If I do...Elias, will you acknowledge me? As your buddy?"

And now we're back to that. "And why are you so fixated on me?" Seriously, I wanted to know.

"Well, I, I really like your magic." She admitted.

I blinked, taken aback, "Huh?"

"Every movement has meaning. It's beautiful." she continued, "I really look up to it! I would love to be able to use magic like that one day."

I honestly couldn't believe what she was saying, and that my face wasn't as red as a tomato. I was constantly getting criticized for it being so by the book. Mostly by Klaus, but Selene was always encouraging me to forget the text and have fun with it. But never had someone so earnestly said that they liked my magic. "I thought you admired Serge Durandal?"

She shrugged, palms up, "Well, yeah, Serge Durandal's the mage I look up to, that's true, but it's not like I've actually seen his magic. I've seen yours up close, and the first time I saw it, I thought straight from the bottom of my heart: 'I like this.' And I do."

"Rather simple and foolish, you are." And there I go again, covering up embarrassment with curt words.

"Huh?" she is really easy to confuse, isn't she? But it's kind of nice to know someone who doesn't quite roll with the punches and is rarely confused. Selene confuses other people, but is rarely confused herself. Sometimes I wonder if she's not-quite human…

"Sorry, but I don't think I need a buddy." More like you don't deserve to have someone like me as a buddy. "Not you, not anyone. I can do it all myself. I don't need anyone's help, and I don't intend to ask for any." She'd honestly be better with someone else as her buddy, someone who's not so harsh as I am. "I've come this far without anyone's assistance, and I'll be fine without any." Selene doesn't count. She does what she wants whether people ask her to or tell her not to. Exception to every rule. "Therefore, I don't need a buddy. Come to think of it, being alone is far more preferable." Preferable for you. I'll only hurt your feelings. Again.

"B-but…" she protested.

"That's just how I am."

"W-wait! What about…what about..." she was clearly grasping at straws, then seemed to get an idea, "What about the Persona Mirror?"

That startled me. It was random. Completely, entirely, utterly random. "What about the Persona Mirror?"

"Well, Luca told me...if...if I…" she took a breath, "If I took the Persona Mirror out of the headmaster's office, you'd acknowledge me."

My eyes widened, "What in the...there's no way you can do it." Or should. Don't listen to Luca. Rule of Thumb. Common Sense.

This seemed to only encourage her, "Yes I can!"

"You're very bold." I wasn't too sure how else to respond.

"I believe I can!" she repeated.

It takes a little more than determination to pull something like that off, "Just because you believe you can do it, you think you can break the seal on the mirror?"

"Yes I do!"

"Do you even realize how ridiculous you sound?" I sighed, "Well, for the record, I don't think it can be done." You're just likely to get in trouble for trying.

She looked me dead in the eye, her face showing nothing but determination, "If I manage to take it out, will you acknowledge me?"

"If you can manage it." But I had every doubt that it'll ever come to be. I don't even think Luca could get past all the barriers. But if it gets her to stay away, all the better. "Well, there's no way you can, so..." It's not like she's Selene, who'd only be encouraged by someone saying she can't. I turned around and gathered up my stuff, leaving the room.

I just hope she doesn't do anything stupid. It's not like she's brave enough to sneak out of the dorms.


Fun Fact 5: Yeah, there was foreshadowing in this chapter with the Vanished Princess' and all, as well as with Luca's interest in them. Those are actually going to come into play after Taming, and back in Elemental. They'll take place over the last bit of Midwinter Break at the academy.