Chapter 5—The Persona Mirror

I was a little later getting to class than normal—I went to the headmaster's office first thing. I had gotten a magic note last summoning me to his office this morning. Apparently he wasn't sure when exactly Klaus and Selene would be returning. He told me what he knew, though, seeing as I was Klaus' brother, Selene's friend, and temporary prefect. Yesterday, in fact, he had gotten a note from Klaus that was dated from earlier this week—apparently there were undefined reasons and Klaus wasn't sure when he and Selene would be coming back. Something had happened, and he was taking initiative to fix it. He asked for the two of them to be excused and for it to be kept a secret.

I was in the front hall when I saw her first that morning, and she was yawning. She looked like a puppy when she yawned, her tongue curling and eyes closing. It was kind of cute...wait. What am I thinking?! "Ladies cover their mouths when they yawn, you know." Aaand there I go. Again.

She jumped and jerked her head to look at me, "Elias!"

"Good morning." I said. There. I managed to say something somewhat pleasant.

"G-good morning…" she stutters a lot, doesn't she?

She looks exhausted, and I speculate whether or not she did sneak out last night. "Didn't get enough sleep?"

"Yeah…" she sighed, "I kind of ended up getting lectured by Professor Schuyler for a few hours…"

"By Professor Schuyler? What did you do this time?" I have a dreadful feeling about this, "It's not something that'll reflect poorly on me, right?"

"N-no, it won't! I just, you know," she shuffled her feet awkwardly, "got caught on the way to grabbing the Persona Mirror…"

She didn't.

"What?! You're kidding…" Please tell me you're kidding! "You actually tried to get it?"

"Yeah…" she sighed.

I was aghast. "...I'm in shock. You really are an idiot."

"Yeah, I guess I am." She was depressed now. Great. At least she realizes what she did was dumb.

"And aware of it, I see."

She looked up, face pouting, again looking a bit like a puppy, "But hey, can't you at least acknowledge my courage?"

I did my best not to roll my eyes, "Well, you're brave and not much else. I'll give you that." And now I'm wondering if anything else besides getting caught happened, "So what about the mirror?"

"Well, I got caught before I could get into the headmaster's office." she admitted. Oh thank the sun.

"Well, yeah, of course." I replied, "What did you expect?"

"But I did manage to get away with it by saying I forgot something in the classroom."

I sighed. "You really are just all guts, aren't you?"

She smiled at me, "Aww, thank you!" Maybe she's a bit more like Selene than I thought. That was totally how Selene would've responded.

"That wasn't a compliment."

She pouted. Selene would've shrugged, grinned, and said something along the lines of, "So? I took it as one!" Again, subconscious trains of thought, this isn't Selene.

"Oh, Fair Elias! Good morning." Oh sun…please no.

The sun apparently didn't care, because the three sisters just pushed Katalina away and crowded around me.

"Ahh, as dashing as ever!" Dashing? Does an airhead like you even know the meaning of that word?

"What a blessing, meeting our Fair Elias this early!" Blessing, or curse? I'm heavily leaning towards the latter.

"It's too early to be this loud." I practically groan, resisting the urge to mimic my brother and pinch the bridge of my nose. I get compared to him often enough as it is. "Could you quiet down?" At least Katalina's not as annoying as these three.

"O-oh, please, forgive us." the oldest one sighs.

"Aw…" another pouts.

"Fair Elias…" the last one whines.

"Hey, Elias!" I think that's Katalina. "That's no way to talk to girls!" These sisters aren't girls. They're pains in the butt! I can feel the metaphorical irk mark on my face. As if I weren't annoyed enough as it is?

"Ahh...how wonderful! That expression of suppressed rage!" The girls each put there hands to their foreheads and visibly swoon. Seriously, how does Katalina not see that no matter what I do, they won't leave me alone? Maybe I should get a girlfriend to dissuade them, like Selene suggests all the time. Scratch that—there's the problem of them probably hazing and/or murdering any girl that dared date me who wasn't "worthy" in their eyes. Meaning most every girl in existence.

"Ooh, our Fair Elias' rage…" I spotted Katalina over the sisters, and she looked completely baffled. Ha. I almost want to say "I told you so" but what I said that would warrant that was, sadly, only said in my head.

"Could this morning get any better? Oh, please, insult us more!" Exactly my point. At least Luca's not here. And before you try and prove me wrong, Universe, just don't. Please. I sigh, brush past the sisters, and make my way to class. I heard the sisters making their strange comments as I left.

"Ahh, he left."

"The view from his back is wonderful too…" Oh gross. I felt a shiver go down my spine. "See you later, Fair Elias!"

Oh. I left Katalina back there. I hope the sisters don't bother her. I wouldn't wish that even on Luca, my worst enemy.

Wait, when did I start referring to her as Katalina, even in my head?

Sun help me.

…. …. ….

I found Yukiya in his seat when I got to our first class. I set my stuff at my desk then slid into Selene's seat, "Yukiya." I whispered. The headmaster told me not to tell anyone, but I have to tell Yukiya. He wouldn't tell anyone, anyway. He barely speaks to begin with.

"Huh?" He looked at me, face blank. "Did you apologize yet?"

Oops. I'd forgotten about that. "Uh...kind of, maybe, a bit…"

He turned back to the window, intent on ignoring me. I sighed again, for what seemed the tenth time this morning.

"But I do have some news on Selene and my brother." I said softly. That got his immediate attention. "I asked the headmaster this morning, and he showed me a note he'd gotten from my brother. Apparently, the leave of absence is going to be extended for an undetermined amount of time."

"Why?"

"We don't know. The note was kind of vague on the reasons, Klaus just said it was an emergency, and that he was working on taking care of it. That was it. Oh, and it was confirmed that the original reason Selene left was because her brother and his family was in an accident. It was the oldest one, Johnathan, the one we met at the party all those months ago. He was killed, his wife is currently in a coma, and of their two children, one has a broken leg and the younger one was just a bit battered."

Yukiya's eyes widened, "No wonder she left. Johnathan was pretty much her father."

I nodded, "I just hope she'll be okay." The new information had just made my worry become a different kind.

He nodded in agreement, "Let me know is you learn anything else, please." He looked back at the window. Most people would think that he was no less apathetic than usual, but I could see the small crease of worry between his eyebrows.

I got out of Selene's seat and went to my own as the sisters walked in. Please don't bother me. Please. Not now. Not now.

…. …. ….

Practical Magic was outside today. It was an Umbra Attack day. We've only had two since the school year started—one during Selene's trial, and then another about a month and a half ago. Selene had surpassed the all-school record at that point, as well as her own—132 in an hour. All with fire magic. Let's just say she got a lot of extra credit.

The professor asked what the four elements were, and called on Kata—Sommer. She is Sommer. Anyway, he called on her and she got it right, meaning we didn't get a demerit for it, thankfully. It honestly wasn't a hard question, though. Even young children should know the answer. The restrictions, as per usual, were only attacking spells from the four elements were allowed.

As usual, I challenged Luca to a match. And, as usual, he didn't take it seriously.`

"Luca."

"Yeah?"

"Let's have a serious match to see who can beat the most Umbra. Seeing as Selene's not here to defeat them all."

He rolled his eyes, "Seriously? Well, sure, whatever." Was it just me or did he see more distracted than normal?

"I won't lose." I said confidently.

The professor called to start. I first used a fire spell Selene had taught me. Her spells were always easy to use. She was really good at revamping old fire spells to make them more effective and/or easier. I noticed Luca was playing around with the Umbras—again—using water spells.

Eventually the umbras disappeared. "With that, let's see the results of today's lesson." He called the spell which revealed the scores in the form of glowing, floating numbers. Mine was 50, so not a bad amount for me. But then I saw Luca's. 30.

You'd think I'd be happy, but I was just mad. He didn't take it seriously. Again. I hated that he didn't care enough to actually try. And that infuriated me. I marched up to him, glaring, "Why?"

"Hmm?" he looked up—or down, rather, since he just had to be taller than me—and smirked slightly, "No need to look so scary, man. You won, didn't you? Congrats."

"There's no way you were serious. Why can't you compete like you mean it?" I demanded.

He chuckled, "There's a surprise if I ever heard one. I was serious, you know? And I mean, you won. Why're you getting so mad?"

"Because you won't actually compete with me." I was trying my utmost not to yell at him. What is wrong with him?!

"Is that so?" he said, acting like he hadn't realized it, "If you were up against Yukiya, I wonder if you'd get this pissed? You know, I was thinking this from before, but...Elias, aren't you, like, too fixated on me?"

"What!" He was going to say something stupid, wasn't he? Why am I so fixated on you? Because you waste a gift that I'd give just about anything to have!

"What to say, what to say…?" he mused, "A guy likes me...well, unfortunately, I'm into girls, you see."

"What are you even saying?! Nonsense!" I snapped.

He smirked, "I see your sense of humor is as great as ever. Selene would've been rolling on the ground laughing. But seriously, I can't help but think you're a little obsessed with me. Are you, Prince Elias?"

I felt more anger than I wanted slip into my visible face. I opened my mouth to yell at him to stop calling me that, but...

"That's enough, you two! Quiet down!" Professor Schuyler snapped.

"Aww, looks like we ticked off the professor." Luca said, sounding not at all remorseful, "Tch, whatever…" He then walked away. I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to calm myself down.

"Luca Orlem!" The professor then yelled at him to return to class, to which Luca made a vague excuse of not feeling well and going to take a break.

"Luca! Elias!" And there's Katalina. She came up to me, looking a little unsure, "Are you okay?"

I turned to her, emotions perfectly controlled once again. "Why would I not be?"

"Well, just now, that fight…"

I sighed, "Look, it's not something you should worry about. Luca...has incredible talent. And everyone knows it. But I can never understand why he just squanders it like he does. I don't understand."

"He probably has his reasons." She replied.

"Enough. Leave me be." I said wearily, waving her away. Before going to gather my stuff up and leave.

"Elias…"

…. …. ….

I headed to the room where I normally did experiments. We used it today for our last class, so I had left for a while to let everyone filter out. Instead, I found those Idiotic Sisters ganging up on Katalina. Again.

"All right, if you're only going to keep dragging our Fair Elias down, then just leave the academy!" one demanded.

"That'll solve everything!" another agreed.

Oh my. This was a little more severe than times previous, wasn't it?

"That has nothing to do with you three." I wish they'd just take a hint, thick-skulled morons.

"Elias!" Katalina sounded surprised.

"Elias?!" Echoed a sister.

"Sounds like you're talking quite a bit about me when I'm not around." I continued cooly. Nevermind that the sisters probably talk about me all the time...yuck. Don't think of that sort of thing Elias. Creepy girls.

"U-um! Big Sis Lily, what should we do?!" Violet whispered.

"D-don't ask me! Rose, you're the oldest! Do something!" cried Lily.

"Huh?! M-me?!" The three kept on trying to pass responsibility to the other two. It's revolting how they do that.

"Now, the results of that test were certainly terrible." I began, "But do you girls really think I'm one to get dragged down to the bottom by some incompetent Buddy? Don't sell me so short, would you?"

"Of course not! We wouldn't dream of it!" Uh-huh. Then what was this I walked in on?

"We were just thinking of you…" Of course you were. You never think of anything of actual importance.

"And just wanted to help any way we could…" If I wanted help, I'd ask for it.

"I don't need help from the likes of you three."

They then got excited. Crap. Dang crap crap. You three are creepy.

"Woah! Elias!"

"Oohh, his words are as cold as ever!"

"The way he looks like us as if we're cockroaches...wonderful!" Cockroaches rank above you in my books.

"I think I'm going to faint!"

I rolled my eyes. Please do. It'll be one less annoying voice that way. "Still have business with her?"

"N-no, none at all! Please, excuse us!"

"G-goodbye…"

"We'll be going now…"

The three shuffled out of the classroom. Good riddance.

I sighed, "Some people, I tell you." I looked at her, "If you've got time to play around with that kind of crowd, at least learn a magic formula, or something."

She looked mildly offended, "I wasn't playing around, I…"

But I was leaving the room. I was going to take my experiments to another classroom. I didn't have time for frivolous conversation, particularly with her.


Fun Fact 6: Again, the Sisters. I always wondered what Elias' would think when faced with them. Authoress had fun writing his thoughts on the sisters, and yes, she's switched to speaking in the third person. She does that in real life sometimes (mostly unconsciously, and doesn't even realize it until her irritated friends point it out—needless to say, they find it annoying when she does that, particularly since they think she's lying about not realizing it most of the time. She did it on purpose this time, though).