“Practice time.” Reno announced, shaking Alex. “You should get your own spirits to wake you up from tomorrow. I bet you’re skilled enough to do that much at least.” He was smiling as Alex sat-up, clearly happy to be starting the day.

“Ah, yeah. I’ll get them to do it from tomorrow onwards.”

Alex had not been asleep when Reno had shaken him. After circling around the academy to the North and entering via the forest, with Star silencing all observation spirits, he had arrived soundlessly back in his room only moments before Reno had woken-up. It was a very close-call.

Rising from bed now, his head was spinning. He had had almost five hours sleep before Star had woken him at midnight the night before, but the last twelve hours had been filled with various problems and challenges, and he’d been pushing his body to its limits. Happy to be back at Etheret and back to the usual lessons after a crazy night, he was looking forward to a very normal day in class, but he felt that a morning run was overdoing it. At the same time however, he didn’t want to appear to be acting suspiciously by changing his schedule, so he followed Reno out the door. The news about the battle from the night before would, without a doubt, reach the academy sometime soon, and when it did Alex wanted to be seen with as little suspicion as possible.

Running the grounds, he felt the necklace moving under his shirt and was reminded of its existence, and with it, Serah’s existence and the deal that they had made. Looking towards the practice fields like he usually did, he searched for her, but today he couldn’t see her. ‘Has she slept-in?’ he wondered. He hadn’t had much time to think about the conversation that they’d had in the coffee shop, or later that night because he was too busy making his move on the Dilstardt manor, but now that he had some time, he began to mentally revisit it.

Their deal would stop her from actively communicating with him from now-on, and likely stop their friends from doing-so also. This was something that definitely worked in Alex’s favour, and would serve to keep them safe. Looking at the situation objectively, there were times when it didn’t matter whether they talked together however: whenever they were all alone it would be fine to meet, and whenever they were far away from Zephyr and Etheret is should also be fine to meet. Another place where it was possible to stay together and talk, would be the foundations classroom, simply because the foundations class was almost completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

He couldn’t imagine that his enemies would research who he sat next-to for the first two weeks of the first year, and at this point it would be more suspicious for him to change seats and move away from them than to stay beside them. For these reasons, Alex decided that, while he would avoid sitting with them during break or after lessons had finished, he would continue to sit next to them until foundations ended and they all split-up to go to different classes.

Thinking then about his enemies, Alex mentally prepared for what was to come next. While things might be quiet for a few days, Art Dilstardt would soon find his way to Zephyr. If, like Dillan had said, Art would kill his brother for something as simple as disclosing his plans, then Art would certainly be the kind of man to follow-up on one of his families’ manors burning down, his brother’s death, and his entire operation in Zephyr being put to torch. Soon he would investigate, rebuild, and continue whatever plan Dillan was supposed to put in motion. At that time, Alex would need to make his move. From what little information Alex had been able to gather, Art was far wealthier, far more cunning, and now far more prepared than his brother had been. It would not be as simple as before, but this time Alex had more information too. He knew who the next threat would be.

This new approach to crossing the names from his list deviated greatly from his initial plan but was also far less roundabout. Looking at how things had developed, he felt that the unexpected intervention of Dillan had actually been a stroke of good luck.

Alex pulled his mind back and focused on his running. ‘Before worrying about surviving the next battle, I should just try to survive this jog,’ He thought, and grimaced in exertion.

As he took his usual seat, having finished his jog and cleaned-up, Alex couldn’t help but notice an awkward smile on Serah’s face. She seemed to be nervous and a little embarrassed, as she glanced away from him. He didn’t feel that she’d really done anything to be embarrassed about, and he certainly didn’t remember her being embarrassed at all when they’d been at the market the night before.

“Um,” she started nervously, “would it be alright if I talked to Star sometime?”

Alex frowned at her, confused. “Star? It’s not like I mind or anything. She’s a lightbringer though, so she basically sees and hears whatever I see and hear. She’s listening right now if you want to tell her something.”

“Oh” Serah blinked in surprise, then quickly waved her hand, dismissing the idea. “Ah, no, it’s fine then; I’m sure she understands.” Serah looked down to the front of the classroom, going silent.

“Okay” Alex turned his gaze to the front also, clearly realising that he was missing a critical piece of the conversation.

“Attention students,” the instructor began, cutting-off Alex’s musings. “We just received some news from Zephyr. Last night, the manor of viscount Dillan Dilstardt was burned down, and those who were living there, or working there, including the viscount, were murdered. At the moment the estimated deaths are around thirty.”

The classroom was buzzing the moment the professor stopped speaking. Murder was not a common thing in Windria, and it was extremely rare for a slaughter of this scale to occur. It was definitely a tragedy on a scale that Windria had not experienced in many years, and it had happened right on their doorstep the night before.

“Thus far, the guards have only determined that most of the deaths were caused by spirits, though they have informed us that there was at least one human involved. This leads them to believe it was the work of one or more magisters, though it’s still too early to draw any solid conclusions. Because of the proximity of the attack, the school will be on high alert for a while, and the order of Etheret will be active around the grounds. During this time, we ask that all students abide by curfew, and report any suspicious persons that you see around the school. There is no reason to panic and confine yourselves to your rooms of-course, but we ask that over the next few weeks, you students be more cautious and mindful of your surroundings, especially when visiting Zephyr.”

As soon as Alex had heard the news, he instantly felt a surge of joy. Nobody had mentioned Ashai or Etheret student involvement, and they even thought that more than one person was responsible. Everything had turned-out so well that he couldn’t help but be happy about it. His identity had not been compromised, Serah was not in any danger, and he had successfully crossed one of the names from his list.

“Serah, are you alright?” The voice came from Alex’s right, and when he turned, he saw Scarlet looking closely at her friends deathly pale face. Only moments earlier, Serah had seemed happy, despite the nervousness, when Alex had taken his usual seat beside her, so Alex could only assume that it was the news that they had just heard that had shocked her so thoroughly.

“Serah?” Alex asked, following-up on Scarlet’s concerns when she didn’t reply. Alaya and Jamie were looking at her too, clearly concerned, but it was Scarlet and Alex that directly flanked her, so they were the ones who had talked.

“Yes.” She answered, turning to look at him, her expression calm, but she held his gaze for less than a second before she looked down.

“Um, did you know Dillan Dilstardt?” Alex asked.

“No, not really… I mean that’s not it.” She seemed more confused, then she shook her head as though to clear it and stood. “Please excuse me, I just need a moment,” she said, still looking confused, and then she left the room.

Attendance was never marked at Etheret, and there were no assessment items during foundations, so skipping class was possible, but skipping class at this point was certainly considered ill-advised as the knowledge that one acquired during the first two weeks was essential to the rest of one’s time at the institute.

Scarlet stood immediately afterwards and signalled for Alaya, who was also about to stand, to stay seated, before turning and following Serah out.

The professor clapped her hands to bring everyone’s attention back to the front, stopping the chatter about the deaths. “Enough of that. I will need you all to pay attention today, students. Today we will be learning all-about spirits.”

Alex put a hand against his head. They had chosen the most important lesson of-all to walk-out-on.

“The fifteen spirits are listed in-order of which ones are considered the most dangerous, but this list does not consider circumstances or the strength of the individual spirit. We’ll be going through them all very quickly, glossing-over the details, as some things about them are more difficult to explain. Keep in-mind that each of these spirit types refer to the species, and that within that species there are a number of different subspecies, and also that different subspecies form different clans, which may side with humans, or oppose humans. If all that sounds too complicated, try to remember this instead: of the fifteen spirits there are only one species that unilaterally side with humans, and two that unilaterally oppose humans.”

She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, then began: “First are Carrion, which are divided into heat, light and force; they are the most abundant spirits, but also the weakest spirits by a great margin."

"Second are Hiveminds, able to push simple concepts into the minds of any non-spirit that they can see."

"Third are Phantoms: spirits that enter this world by taking possession of weapons. They then change the weapon in their own unique way, making it more effective. Some phantoms also partner with one or more subcontracted Carrion for greater power.”

Zero was a Naght edge: a subspecies of Phantom. Naght edges were blades that would move of their own accord by binding and commanding force-carrion under themselves and sacrificing some of their own payment to the lesser spirits. In a way, this meant that dealing with Zero was more like dealing with a set of spirits, rather than a single spirit, but those sub-spirits that communicated with Zero would not listen to Alex, simply because they were not his. They served as his blades “wings” (the only means by which the sword could move), so Zero was very possessive of them.

Two empty seats to Alex’s right, he could see Alaya furiously scrawling notes into her book. To his left, Jamie was doing the same thing. Alex obviously did not need to take notes. He knew the list of spirits well enough that he could give a far more in-depth lesson on them, but he also knew that for beginners, this was critical information.

“Fourth are Underworlds: spirits the size of a human head, capable of creating something similar to a mirage. They control many small heat and light carrion and use them skilfully, en masse, to form illusions. With their tactful manipulation of water-vapour and subtle use of light, they are able to fool even other spirits. Their illusions are always unmoving however, and often broken with even the slightest gust of wind."

"Fifth are Skyshadows: Flying beasts with excellent sight and hearing. Their night-vision is unmatched, and some of the larger variety also serve as mounts for our Southern magisters."

"Sixth are Doppelgangers: deadly monsters that can pose as humans, though they cannot change their faces to look like any specific human.” The professor then squinted her eyes for a moment, grinning. “Actually, this year we have a doppelganger that entered the school as a servant to one of the noble boys.” She winked. “I’ll let you guess which servant it is.”

The class completely ignored the comment as they were all furiously writing in their books. It was at this point that Scarlet came back into the room and sat down. Serah was not with her.

“Is everything okay?” Alex asked her quietly.

She shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to be doing so well, but she won’t tell me anything. How are things between you two? She seemed pretty bothered last night, but I thought that you two worked it out with spirits or something.”

“Huh?” this was all news to him.

“Seventh are reapers,” the professor continued, ignored by the two. “Their bodies produce a gas that conceals them in shadows by scattering light, rendering them and anyone that they are embracing unseen as long as they are moving slowly enough that the gas can fully envelop them.”

Alex stood. If whatever was bothering Serah was his fault, then he felt that he should talk to her about it. It would be fine, he felt, as long as they talked somewhere where others couldn’t see them. Alex had other reasons for wanting to leave the classroom too: there were certain spirits that he didn’t want to hear about. No matter how many years had passed, the events of his childhood and the memories that he had inherited would always cause him distress, but he knew this was normal. He knew that there was no way a person could go through what he’d been through and not be damaged by it afterwards.

“Perhaps I should give you all a chance to catch up.” The professor mused as Alex walked out, and a great sigh of relief escaped from the mouths of everyone present, before they all started sharing notes on the spirits that they had missed. The teacher was grinning evilly.

As Alex entered the main courtyard he became immediately aware of the students patrolling. There were only a handful of them, but they were clearly monitoring the activities that were going-on outside of the classrooms. For both of the upper year-levels the first two weeks of the year were a time to revise content that they had learned in previous years, so these students who were likely both upper-years and members of the order of Etheret were not really missing-out on anything important while they patrolled.

Alex didn’t attract much attention, as there were other upper-level students milling-about, and there were no visible indicators on the Etheret uniforms that would allow one to distinguish a first year from a second or third-year, but he still felt awkward under those gazes.

Looking for Serah, he went to the cafeteria, then the library, but he couldn’t find her, so assuming that she had returned to her dorm, he stood at the intersection that led to both of the commoners’ dorms and whispered, . He would have included a “Please” or “Thankyou” but the spirit language didn’t have any such words.

He did not use Star to command the spirit. While Melty would not be obligated to inform Serah of his presence and had no reason to listen to Alex at all, because Alex was not the one that formed a contract, Melty was a spirit that could think for itself, which meant that it could choose to help him anyway. For Melty, the course of action that Alex requested would be detrimental: communicating in the physical world used energy, and spirits were very conservative when it came to energy expenditure. This did not mean that Melty absolutely wouldn’t do it however.

“Alex? I’ll be down in a minute.” Serah whispered loudly enough for him to hear.

Alex whispered a quick “Thankyou” to Melty in the human tongue, though it probably didn’t understand at all.

“Eighth are Warbeasts.” The professor continued. “They can be ridden by humans; they have excellent senses for tracking prey; and they are very dangerous in a fight.”

Scarlet had just finished copying Alaya’s notes when the explanations began again. Jamie had moved next-to her, closing the gap so that they could all share their notes more easily. None of them expected Alex or Serah to return before break.

“Ninth are Rulers, which enter this world by possessing groups of weak-minded creatures and using them as a single body. Flies, hornets, snakes, birds, spiders, or even cattle can become their playthings. There are no records of a Ruler ever being able to control wolves or dogs, and certainly not humans however, so don’t overestimate them. It’s also a fact that they aren’t very intelligent themselves, so no matter what body they take-on, don’t expect anything too complicated. Please keep in-mind that Rulers don’t just control the minds of the creatures, they exist within those minds, so killing a creature that a Ruler is controlling will cause the spirit to lose a piece of itself and it will experience pain because of that.”

Scarlet winced at the thought of what that kind of spirit would have to go through to fulfil its contract. She definitely wouldn’t want a spirit like that. For Scarlet, the only spirits that she was really interested in for battle were Phantoms (the weapon spirits) or Warbeasts.

Alex had used tricks to beat her, she felt, but even after seeing and understanding those tricks, she felt that they were not what she sought; she wanted a strength that could overcome those tricks but was still a part of her. If she had owned a weapon that could strike at a distance, or a warbeast that could sense his whispers and pull-away in-time, she felt that she could have won that battle. She knew that he was right when he had talked about how important magic was, and she fully intended to master it, but unlike Alex who manipulated it around him, she wanted to make it hers; to wield it like she would control a spear or horse, or to wear it like she might wear armour.

“Tenth are Stonewalls. These are extremely powerful spirits, with giant bodies built from condensed ether, easily capable of crushing humans. Their contracts are expensive because they need plenty of energy to build their semi-physical bodies and cross over into our world. They can do this in an instant, and retreat just as easily. The catch to using them however, is that they never appear in our world for more than a few seconds. After receiving a command and acting, they will retreat, and they usually don’t come back for a while either. This is because their bodies here are only built to be temporary, and if they remain here for too long, those bodies will come apart.”

“Eleventh are Automata. Don’t think that they are just for possessing dolls; they are the most versatile of all spirits. As long as the physical form has the correct sigils and joints they can take control of pretty much anything inanimate. Dolls of many sizes and shapes including flying and crawling ones, suits of armour, and even dead bodies have been used to house Automata.”

A few low murmurs circulated the room.

“The trick to dealing with automata is to destroy the sigils. Without those sigils the spirit cannot keep track of the forms location in the physical world, and loses control of it. This is much harder when the sigils are not visible on the outside of-course, and harder still when they are surrounded by thick metal. This is what makes our heavy-iron soldier-dolls so devastating.”

The teacher took a breath and poured herself a cup of water from a pitcher kept on one of the tables closest to her. “We’re about to hit the final stretch, everyone. From here on-out the spirits become less commonplace and much harder to find. Twelve and thirteen are around five times less common than all the other greater spirits; the spirits that number fourteenth are about five times less common than those; and they say that there is only a single fifteenth spirit in existence…or maybe there isn’t.” Smiling then, she muttered loudly: “I hope nobody’s fallen behind, because all of this stuff is veeeery important.” She said that, but her face didn’t look concerned at-all.

Alex walked some distance ahead of Serah and led her to the library, where they moved to a vacant area among the bookshelves. She seemed hesitant to follow; her face showing clearly that she was struggling with something.

When they finally found a quiet place, Alex spoke first, seeing that she was unwilling. He felt, even from their first meeting, that Serah was an emotional person, but even taking her nature into account, she seemed quite shaken right now. “Scarlet told me that there was something bothering you last night, and you don’t seem to be doing so well today either. If it’s about yesterday, I don’t mind talking about it. I know that we agreed that you would give me some distance, but it’s not as though I hate you or anything, so if you need to talk about something I don’t mind.”

Serah’s eyes met his, and this time she kept them there. She spent a long time just searching his face and reading his expression, and then she spoke softly, “Alexander, what happened to your family? How did they die?”

The question shook him. It was something that he would certainly struggle to answer, and it was something that he had never expected her to ask. “It’s not something that I want to talk about.”

She turned her eyes away from his and looked at the bookshelves beside them before taking a deep breath, “Then, what is it that you want to accomplish? What is your goal?”

Another difficult question. He turned away and held his tongue.

Serah leaned against one of those shelves, clearly frustrated. “You have to give me something, Alexander. I need something to work with...”

He frowned. “Why? Why is it so important?”

She just looked down at the floor in silence, a frown darkening her face.

It was then that Star spoke through Alex, the difference in their voices clearly discerned. “I will vouch for Alex.” The interruption had been completely unexpected, and Alex immediately put his hands to his mouth and looked around. Nobody was near them.

Serah continued to frown, but now looked at Alex curiously. “You’re his spirit, so that doesn’t matter. He could have told you to say that.”

“Alex, put your hands down,” Star commanded.

Alex immediately put his hands down.

“Our contract is not like that…” Star explained, “but putting that issue aside, I vouch for him not as his spirit, but also as an elder to all spirits. Furthermore, I warn you Serah, daughter of Triss and Gervais, that no spirit will ever stand by your side if you betray him.”

Serah’s eyes widened. “How did you…” she cut herself off abruptly.

Alex knew that Star had enough power to carry out that threat, and while he didn’t like where the conversation was going, at the same time he wouldn’t argue with Star now that she had already made such a declaration, so he remained silent. She was his contracted spirit because she chose to be, and she would offer him whatever assistance she chose to offer, but that was the limit of their actual contract. His commands had no power, and she had no obligation to follow them; in-truth she only did-so because their goals were the same and because, in a way, they were family.

“Melty ” Star whispered quietly, and Serah’s little spirit flickered into view twice.

Serah noticed the spirit and realised just what had happened, and also had a brief vision of what could possibly happen if she didn’t accept Star at her word. From the look on her face it was obvious that she had immediately begun to think about Star as something greater than a normal spirit, and she quickly nodded, then turned that nod into a bow. “Okay. I will take you at your word, however I will warn you, if your word should ever prove false, I’ll make sure that you pay for it.” Her tone was serious.

“I expect nothing less of you, Serah, but I think you are misunderstanding something. My vouching for Alex isn’t for his sake at all. I’m vouching for him for your sake Serah: he is someone who you can trust.”

Serah blinked and paused for a moment, then bowed again, a little less formally. “I see. I’ll keep that in-mind. Thankyou.”

Alex stood for a few seconds scratching his head after the conversation had ended, feeling completely awkward. He’d never felt less involved in a conversation that he was directly participating in.

“Twelfth are Horned-ones. These spirits are one of the two spirits that are considered unilaterally opposed to humankind. Horned ones have the disgusting ability to climb inside human and animal bodies and use them like puppets from within, while keeping the creature that they crawled-into alive, watching, but unable to do anything.”

Scarlet, Alaya and Jamie had all stopped writing. Of-course, nobody was speaking. Everyone was struggling to imagine such a thing, and their faces reflected their thoughts clearly.

“They then bend the body that they’ve taken over time, making it stronger and faster, and warping it until it becomes something far more like a monster, before it eventually breaks apart, forcing them to find a new one.”

The professor left the class to stew on her words for a moment before continuing, but this time there was no hint of humour on her face.

“When they take a body, they also share their memories with that body, and can access information about the life of the person that they have taken control-of. This makes horned-ones extremely dangerous. You should also note that they are the most disturbed and devious of all the Ashai. Unlike the others, they don’t just seek to eat us; they like to cause us as much mental and physical anguish as possible while they do it."

Scarlet didn’t write anything. Instead she only scowled. Scarlet had never come face-to-face with an Ashai; She had never experienced fear of them like she’d seen in the faces of others; and she’d never lost someone to them, but that didn’t mean that Scarlet felt that she had no reason to fight. More than anything, Scarlet loved her family and her friends; even her newfound friends at Etheret. She loved them all so fiercely that at the thought of such a thing threatening their happiness and their lives, she couldn’t help but feel angry. It was this anger and the desire to protect and care for her loved ones that had driven her to train as hard as she had, and eventually, it was also what had pushed her to find her way to Etheret.

“Thirteenth are Lightbringers: they can possess any human who gives them permission, and control their body, as well as emit light. Their use of our senses, their grace and accuracy in battle, and their sharp minds are all exceptional aids to us. Lightbringers are unilaterally allied with humanity, and in the past few hundred years they have been our greatest allies, and it is because of the Lightbringers that the first pacts were made between humans and spirits.”

“Fourteenth are Behemoths: Creatures that grow larger and stronger the more blood, flesh and bone that they absorb. A full sized adult behemoth is the size of a keep. They can tear apart a city in a day, and without another behemoth or a small army, there’s not much that the enemy can do to stop them. On the frontlines, behemoths are only used in large-scale battles, though there haven’t been any of those in a very long time. It’s worth noting that a behemoth is also the only spirit that the spirit laws allow to make a contract with multiple humans, though one primary contractor must be specified.”

The teacher then waited for everyone to stop writing before continuing.

“Finally… the fifteenth spirit… is a myth. The only reason that we include it in the list is because the other spirits recognize it. To spirits, the fifteenth is something like an evil god. They believe that the reason that our two worlds came together is because this evil god wanted to feast on all the life in this world. Naturally this would make it the second spirit opposed to humankind.” She grinned at the expressions of concern around the room. “You can all relax when it comes to the fifteenth spirit because in the thousand-or-so years since spirits have come to our world, there has been no mention of it, and from the spirit worlds history before that, there isn’t much to go-on either.”

Walking to the front of the stage area, the professor looked up at the group, delivering what would no-doubt be her final point before she let them go to break. “Don’t be fooled: the physical existence of spirits hasn’t made fantasy into reality. Spirits are just aliens from another world: one that operates on different laws to our own, and what we call magic is just the terms by which we employ those aliens to do work for us. If you start acknowledging the existence of every fairy-tail that you hear because there are creatures in the world other than humans and animals, you’ll soon lose your sanity altogether. Just focus on the first fourteen.”