The classroom was fashioned much like an amphitheatre, with the professor at the very bottom: a young lady standing in the centre of that stage. It seemed from the format of the lessons that they were only required to take notes and listen.

Alex sat slightly further to the back of the group. To his left a short, blonde-haired male student with feminine features stared intently towards the stage, and to his right sat Serah, equally as intent on hearing the lessons contents, her friends sitting to her right side. As this was the very first lesson in the fundamentals, most of the students present were giving the teacher their undivided attention.

“Fundamentals is not a part of the general curriculum, but rather an introductory unit that lasts only two weeks. During these two weeks you will learn about how to begin using magic, the many kinds of magics and who uses those magics. You will also be gaining a simple grasp of the hierarchy and makeup of the spirit world. All magic relies on spirits, and without the assistance of spirits, magic is impossible, thus learning about their world and workings is essential to us.”

She smiled in a friendly manner. “During this unit you will not be tested or need to complete any kinds of assessment. This unit is entirely for your benefit, so ask plenty of questions, and don’t worry about being judged. Arcane knowledge is not readily available to the general populace because it’s dangerous, with those who are knowledgeable about it rarely training children; it’s perfectly natural that only a few of you would have any insight into the matter, so we ask that you take these two weeks to grasp the basics. For those of you who are already skilled in the arcane, we ask that you see this unit as a refresher-course.”

A student towards the front raised his hand, and the teacher permitted him to speak with an encouraging smile. “What do you mean by spirits. Are they like ghosts, or something?”

“Yes and no. The spirit plane is another world that exists in the same place as our world but has different rules. This spirit world overlaps our own world, on our world alone, with its centre on the continent of Glass, which is why more spirits can cross-over there, and why it becomes harder to contact spirits in the other world as one moves further North.”

She moved about on the stage, “Spirits on their own plane are something like nightmares or dreams, or maybe just disembodied minds: they don’t have a physical presence. By drinking the energy from the living creatures of this world however, through our whispers which distribute energy and cause ripples in their world, they can amass enough power to cross over. Even then however, the bodies that they have when they move into our reality are not the same as human bodies, as they cannot generate energy on their own, and must consume the energy of living things to stay here. One could even say that they are in-truth nothing but aliens, feasting on the bodies and energy of the creatures of this world.”

The professor then walked to the front of the stage area. “When in our world, they take-in blood or body-parts instead of food, turning those pieces into material to fuel their body and develop their body further, which in-turn affects the blueprint that they use when crossing-over. It’s all very complicated, but it’s something that you’ll come to grasp as we move forwards I’m sure. As for what they look like in our physical world…”

The teacher then turned to her right, and a whisper sounded-out. It was too quiet for the students to hear, but Alex could make it out as it rippled through the spirit world. “Targas, show yourself.”

There, in the centre of the stage, directly before her, an off-green ball-shaped creature that was as tall as her waist appeared suddenly. It had four flat arms that were longer than its body, and protruded from four different directions to hang limply on the floor. It had no legs, and at the end of those arms three banana-sized claws appeared to hold it upright. The creature had no visible mouth, but eyes studded its body en-mass without any symmetry or reason. Those eyes were constantly flittering over the students watching their faces and hands, ever-probing for something.

A gasp sounded-out from much of the student body, and many of them stood up. Some even drew weapons. “Ashai” someone called, and Alex knew that they were not completely wrong. That creature was certainly similar in appearance to one family of the Ashai. It was the kind of creature that appeared in books, sketches and paintings that showed the war in the far South on the continent of Glass. It was just like those monsters that attacked human villages to eat every single man, woman and child. It was the same, but it was different.

“Calm down everyone. This is a spirit that abides by the law of the spirit world. It is a spirit bound to me, so it is even safer than the hundreds of spirits on our plane moving freely in this room. This spirit is the same as one of my arms or legs, and will absolutely not act on its own.”

Slowly calm returned to the room. The blonde man on Alex’s left sat back down, and it was then that he realized that Serah hadn’t moved once. When he turned to look at her, she was looking back at him with a half-smile on her face. “You knew it was there didn’t you? You didn’t even flinch.”

Alex hadn’t known it was there because Star hadn’t bothered to tell him that it was there, and for good reason: the spirit was clearly not a threat. Alex could have asked Star about it and found-out in an instant, or used any of the free-floating spirits in the area to find out just as easily, though there was no guarantee that they would tell the truth. The reason that he had known that Targas was about to appear was because the professor had requested for it to appear, but if he was to reveal that, he would also have to reveal that he was oversensitive, and that absolutely could not come to pass. It was something like a trump card. “I didn’t know for sure, but I expected it. She’s a teacher, so she’s probably a fairly skilled magister; I guarantee that she has at least two more loyal spirits hiding somewhere, whether here or in the other world.” Alex avoided an outright lie. He had expected it, but he’d expected it because she’d whispered, and he’d heard it.

Serah turned back to the stage. “I see.” And then she followed it up with another question. “How many do you have?”

Alex laughed softly. “That’s like asking about a fighter’s hidden weapons.”

“Ohhh, so if I tell you about my hidden weapons you’ll tell me?”

The smile she flashed was infectious and he couldn’t help but smile back. “Haha, no, I don’t think I will.”

She watched him silently for a few moments while he turned back and pretended to be inspecting the creature on the stage before speaking. “I get the feeling that I annoyed you earlier this morning when you fought Scar, but I didn’t really intend to. I’m not sure exactly what I did, but we’re okay, right?”

This time Alex did meet her gaze. She didn’t appear hurt, but she did seem a little anxious. He’d noticed it the day before, but she seemed to be someone whose emotions got the better of her. It took some time for him to consider his reply. “We’re good. It’s just… I’d prefer that you don’t make me reveal too much, especially lots of people like that.”

She opened her mouth in silent understanding and nodded. “It won’t happen again. I guarantee it.” Her face was very serious.

At her confident and natural answer, Alex found himself smiling again. She wasn’t asking what he had to hide, or why he felt that he needed to keep secrets, she’d just accepted it and made a snap decision. Alex appreciated that, but some part of him knew that her answer didn’t matter in the long run. That part of him was saying that he needed to sever this bond that was forming between them before it became a problem.

On the stage below, groups of students were circling and touching the spirit, and talking with the teacher. It wasn’t reacting to them at all.

“Why do they look like the Ashai?” Serah asked.

“It’s not like that. The word Ashai refers to all spirits that have disregarded the treaty set down by our ancestors and decided that they want to rule and consume all the creatures of this world instead of living alongside them.”

“Scary” Serah mumbled while looking at the creature on the stage.

“Oh no, that thing might look impressive now, but it’s only a pup. With lots of food and time, Spirits grow and change, becoming far more dangerous and more suited to a specific role. That thing on the stage isn’t all that strong when you look at the fully developed ones; a fully grown Hivemind could overpower the minds of everyone here in a moment, crushing us with fear until we were just about as dangerous as babies, before leisurely taking its time eating us. Other Hiveminds might grow those arms hundreds of metres to drag soldiers off cliffs, up trees, or down into deep water without even a moment’s notice. Furthermore, of the fifteen different kinds of spirits, hiveminds aren’t considered to be all that difficult to deal with.”

Alex looked at Serah worried that his speech might have rattled her a little, but she was smiling instead. “But our side has been fighting those things off for over a hundred years, right? So, we’re pretty dangerous too.”

“Well…you’re definitely not wrong.”

From the opposite side of Alex from Serah, a very rattled person spoke. “How are you supposed to fight something like that?”

They both turned to see the blonde boy with girlish features staring at them pale-faced.

“Um…” Alex began awkwardly, looking at him. “Who are you?”

“Ah, sorry, Jamie Kirschaltz.”

“Were you planning on joining the battle in the South?”

Jamie shook his head.

“Then you’ll probably never have to fight one. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you, Jamie.”

“Right.” He swallowed hard but seemed to regain a bit of composure.

Serah then asked “So, how are you supposed to fight something like that? I’m only asking in-case you know of-course.” She threw Alex a quick, and very innocent-looking secret wink.

That was probably her way of saying that it was okay to lie and pretend not to know. Alex stared confusedly at her for a moment, stunned by the cute gesture, but then realized what she intended by it. It’s not as though the answer would be something secret, so he threw her a quick smile and answered. “When it comes to mental attacks, humans are useless against spirits. We have no way to resist. At those times, we can only trust our own spirits to come to our aid, and luckily for us, Hiveminds aren’t all that dangerous in close-combat, especially compared to some of the spirits kept on-hand by our Southern units. Their long-arm ambushes can be far more dangerous, but if you have spirits with strong powers of perception, or lightning reflexes and a sharp blade, it’s not impossible to survive. I’ve heard that when a hivemind uses its mental powers to seek out soldiers that have already experienced such an ambush before, they sometimes notice its mental touch too. I guess it’s kind-of like instincts telling you that a hivemind has locked onto you.”

Serah nodded while listening carefully and taking it all in. “You sure know a lot about the South.”

Alex smiled at that. “I used to hang-out at a tavern where a lot of old soldiers would go. They told plenty of good stories and I asked lots of questions.” He left-out that his education had included the spirits of the South.

“Nice. My mother always tells me stories about the South too, but she’d always leave-out the stuff about the war.” Then she frowned. “You weren’t drinking all the time, were you?”

He laughed. “No, never. I was a bit too young to even think about that, and then as I got older, the couple who owned the bar were kind-of like foster parents to me, so that would’ve been impossible.”

Alex couldn’t help what followed. The darkening of his mood at the memories of everything that happened. Serah noticed but pretended she hadn’t, and as though it were perfectly natural she turned her gaze to the side and looked past his shoulder to ask: “So what are you studying to become, Jamie?”

Jamie had been listening in-on the conversation without speaking, but from the expression on his face he wasn’t feeling left-out at all. “My family owns a doll shop. I’ve got two brothers and a father who are both much better at the hands-on stuff than me, so it made a lot of sense to come here and study about all the different designs and spells to make better dolls and bring them to life, instead of improving my skill with the materials.”

Serah’s face seemed to light up at the word “Doll” and Alex couldn’t help but sigh internally at her reaction. “Doll” referred to a puppet that was manipulated by a spirit known as automata. Rather than appearing in the physical world on their own, they would fuse with objects, and as long as those objects had joints and were marked with sigils in all the right places, they could move the doll as though it were the spirits own body. A major advantage to this magic was that destroying the dolls physical body only returned the spirit to its own world instead of putting the spirit itself at risk. This was something completely unique to automata. It effectively meant that once the doll was repaired or replaced, the spirit could be returned to the shell.

On the stage the students finished talking and examining the spirit, so the teacher dismissed it and turned back to the class. The spirit began to use its mind manipulation, and soon escaped beyond notice. “It’s approaching midday, so the break’s about to begin. Let’s all reconvene at one o’clock.” The institute had many clocks, so a timed break wasn’t a problem. “When we return, we’ll begin with whispers, and I’ll teach you all how to communicate with spirits.”

Alex let out a sob.

*****

“Alexander, could I please speak with you for a moment.” It was unexpected, this sudden request from Lance Verdi, the head of the order of Etheret.

It had come shortly after the group had taken their seats in the eating hall, having just served themselves food. Scarlet, Alaya, Alex, Serah and Jamie, the last two members of the group engaged in a heated conversation about the specs and cost of heavy iron soldier dolls, were seated around a table for six when he had approached from opposite Alex.

After looking down at his food for a moment regretfully, Alex nodded and stood. The others threw them curious glances, but he was honestly as clueless as they were as to what this was about. Deep down he was preparing for the worst case-scenario; for what might be a fatal confrontation, ready to call-on Star at a moment’s notice.

As they walked away from the table, Lance addressed Alex: “My name is Lance Verdi, you might be familiar with me, as I believe that you were among the students that I introduced myself to yesterday. Your year has started lessons already, are they going well?”

“Yes m’lord” Alex answered, a little confused, before he realised that Lance was only introducing himself and taking care of pleasantries before getting to business. “They’re still at the most basic level so I can’t say much for the lessons thus far, but I’m getting along very well with all the students here.” Alex carefully added a little more stress to the word “All”.

Lance nodded, his expression showing that he approved of something.

Alex felt that Lance was getting a feel for his character before moving forward, and didn’t mind going along with it since it deviated greatly from how he had thought the conversation would go, though he couldn’t help but wonder about how cold the meal would be by the time he got back.

“I hear that you went for a jog yesterday afternoon into the forest.”

Alex showed nothing. “To maintain as many strong spirits as possible, it’s important to have a lot of energy m’lord. Jogging every day to raise my stamina has been a daily routine of mine for a long time, and the forest looked like a great place to go for a jog in the afternoon light.”

Another nod. “Did you spend a long time in the forest?”

“No m’lord, I returned just as night fell. I figured that breaking my ankle on my first day wouldn’t have been a good start to the year. I wasn’t aware of the curfew at the time and I had a bad headache, so I just sat outside and watched the stars for a time.”

“I see.” His voice sounded a little disappointed. He stopped walking and turned to face Alex. Alex faced him, and their eyes met. Alex lowered his. Lance had black eyes that seemed sharp, and his expression was very stern. “Did you notice anything unusual while you were in the forest?”

“No m’lord, nothing.”

He nodded and stared at the younger student for a few seconds.

Alex remained silent but frowned as though thinking, still not meeting his eyes. It was only natural for a student to be curious about the conversation at this juncture.

Lance let out a faint sigh. Alex couldn’t help but think that this would be too open a gesture of frustration to be shown by a son of high nobility: he was likely faking. “Last night there was a bit of an incident in the forest, and carrion spirits belonging to an upper level student and one member of the order were destroyed.”

Alex opened his eyes wide at that, feigning surprise. Star hadn’t destroyed them of-course. She’d simply used her rank to banish them, instructing them to break their pacts. She’d chosen to banish them instead of silence them, which was a little unusual, but Alex never questioned her decisions when it came to commanding her own kind. Carrion would never deny her, whether free or bound, but that wasn’t something easily revealed. Star wasn’t just any spirit; she was something akin to spirit royalty.

Lance took-in Alex’s surprised expression and shrugged (another obvious farce). “Anyhow, thanks for your help on this matter Alexander.”

Alex bowed. “Glad that I could be of assistance m’lord. Was there anything else?”

He shook his head. “No, that will be all, you may go on your way.”

Alex bowed again and turned, but before he was a few feet Lance called-out: “Oh, and Alexander…”

Alex turned back but Lance was facing away from him.

“Avoid the forest for a while.”

Alex bowed in acceptance of the order: not because he thought that Lance would notice, but because someone else may.

Curious expressions and questions assaulted Alex as he arrived back at the table, but he dismissed them with a wave of his hand and some noncommittal words. Serah was still watching Alex of-course, but she didn’t pursue the issue. She would probably wait till the next time they were alone, Alex thought, which was something that definitely bothered him. He had no doubt that she could read him better than Lance Verdi, and furthermore, Lance had seen the two of them sitting together.

Alex sighed. Poking at the cold meal he couldn’t help but feel that the day had started badly and was getting worse.

The afternoon classes proved his “bad-day” theory correct. After learning the imagination exercises and how it should feel to whisper properly, the class had soon learned the difference between empty words and infused words and was whispering en-mass, pouring their attention and energy into their words. Those whispers were more-often-than-not louder than full-voiced shouts for Alex. Then, because that wasn’t enough for them, they began learning and using the first words of the spirit language. About half-way through the lesson he just gave up on trying to hear anything through the noise and buried his head in his hands to try and suppress the oncoming headache.

It was only when Alex felt a light touch on his shoulder and looked up that he realized everyone else had gone. Only Serah stood there beside him. For a moment Alex got a sinking feeling; a premonition that she was going to question him about the conversation with Lance earlier.

“A headache, huh? Do you want to get some fresh air? It might help with that.” Her voice was filled with sympathy. She’d noticed that he was holding his head.

The whispers were still loud, but Alex resisted the urge to complain about that. The students were wandering all-over the campus practicing. All the carrion, those little tiny spirits that feasted primarily on the energy in whispers, were probably swarming like sharks in a frenzy. Alex hesitated. “I think I’ll just head back to my room for the day and sleep it off.” That cautious part of him was telling him that this was getting dangerous.

“Okay. Mind if I head that way with you?”

“…I guess that’s okay” he responded hesitantly

She looked at him for a moment trying to figure out why he was holding back. “Scar, Alaya and Jamie are probably hanging out and having fun right now. They went into the city to see the shops. I decided to stay behind because I was worried.”

Alex wasn’t sure how to respond, but he certainly felt a little guilty for trying to part ways with her immediately after that.

“Is this about those things that you don’t want revealed again?”

Alex hesitated, then nodded. “I’d just rather not answer too many questions about myself. I didn’t really want to get too involved with people because of that.” Because of that, and one other reason. From the start he hadn’t intended on making friends at all, so why had he gotten involved? His head throbbed.

“Alexander; you can tell me whatever you want to tell me, and not tell me whatever you feel you need to keep to yourself.”

From the very beginning, when they’d first met he wasn’t planning on continuing to talk to her. He’d only introduced himself to her because she had introduced herself to him. ‘I’d talked a little, but kept my guard up, fully intending to make our introduction our last talk,’ Alexander thought ‘but then I’d been caught off-guard by her deduction that I was a scholarship student. I’d been thrown off balance. But why did I end up being on talking terms with her in the end? Why had I begun to see her as someone I could talk to?’

She was still staring at Alex who wasn’t responding, but then she sighed a little and lowered her arms. “That offer is the best I can do. I mean, it’s not as though I’m going to reveal everything about myself, so I’m obviously not going to push you to say anything about yourself, and I don’t really want to. I think that people have their reasons to keep some things to themselves, and I’m okay with that. People keep secrets. Secrets are fine. There is one thing that I can’t stand however, and I’ll definitely get angry if you do it...”

Then Alexander remembered. The day before, he had been so concerned about her blackmailing him, that when their conversation had ended with her overlooking his scholarship status completely he was relieved. That was it. That was the moment everything changed. He was relieved that she was not going to try to manipulate him and his guard had come down. It was because of that slip-up that she was able to get closer.

“Don’t lie to me.” her voice and face were dead serious, but she wasn’t angry. “Even if it means saying nothing, or telling me to back-off, I don’t want to be lied to. Friends don’t do that to each other. That’s my final word on the deal. Take it or leave it.” She put on a smile, and Alex had to force himself to take a breath. He wanted to answer that friendly smile, but some part of him had already decided that the connection between them had gone-on too long. ‘I’m not here to make friends,’ he thought, ‘I definitely shouldn’t make friends.’

“Okay… I won’t lie.” Alex answered simply. He wouldn’t lie to her, but he would step back. From here-on, he wouldn’t let her get any closer. From here on-out he would slowly separate them.

She nodded, and then she extended her hand to Alex in the same way that he had done the day before. “So, friends?”

Alex stood and took that hand. “Yeah.” They were friends. In only a day she had become his friend. He realized that.

After the handshake she stepped back to allow him out the door next to her, and they started to walk back towards the dorms. “So…did you feel like going into the city? Or did you really feel like getting some sleep?”

Alex shook his aching head. “Actually, I think I should definitely lie down.” It wasn’t a lie. The headache had become much worse.

“I see.” She said, “Then you have to promise to go with me tomorrow.”

Alex hesitated, and in that moment her expression became very sad, and he had the distinct impression that she had seen through him completely.

“Promise” she insisted, her gaze steady.

“I promise” Alex answered, thinking ‘this is going to be harder than I thought.’