As we file out of class Briareth asks Folas. “What’s next?”

“Runes.” Folas says, “Joining us Adamar?”

“Sorry, I have History next.” Adamar replies.

“Ah well, we’ll miss you.” Folas says. We wave goodbye and head to our separate classes.

When we arrive in Runes, the class is already divided. I blink as we step into the classroom. It’s quite different from what we have seen so far, practically the opposite of Master Edraele’s classroom. Where his room was dark and hidden, this one is bright. You can see dust motes in shafts of light through holes in the ceiling and windows on the walls. Plants grow in every crack in the stone floor. Everything looks old, and slightly run down, but it’s still somehow beautiful. The serenity of the classroom however is cracked by the glares students shoot at each other across the large puddle in the center of the classroom.

In the middle of the puddle is a pedestal with a book on top, to the left and right of the pedestal are desks for students, and on the far wall from the entrance, directly in front of the pedestal, is a wall filled with weapons covered in strange carvings. Every other wall has windows on it that show the outside, including the wall where the door to the hallway is. Magic.

Folas leads us to the right side of the puddle, but as we walk I hear not very quiet whispers from across the water.

“He’s our prince, and he can’t even use magic? What a lame moron!”

“Yeah, the most he could do in illusions, even with Master Edraele using some fancy heirloom spell, was just sparks.”

“What? You mean he used that spell? The one where the last person it was used on blew up the school?”

“Yep. And it produced just a couple sparks for him. Then the useless idiot had the nerve to look proud of himself, like he had made an accomplishment”

The words stab right through my defenses and hit a very sore spot in my heart. I was hoping no one would notice, no one would care. Instead this sort of thing is floating around. Useless. Magicless. Idiot. Moron. Internally I flinch with each word, but externally, I only blink and frown, then look to find the source of my pain. The hurtful words come from a guy and a girl gossiping in a corner of the left side of the classroom. I think they were looking at me when they spoke, as if they wanted me to hear them. When my eyes find them though, they aren’t looking in my direction at all.

“Hey over here!” Calls a cheery voice, cutting through my attention to my internal pain.

“Yeah, come join us!” Calls a nearly identical voice. I look in the direction that they come from. Two Elves with half-green-half-orange hair are grinning at our group. The one on the left has orange hair on the right, the one on the right has orange hair on the left. They wear identical black robes. Each has one blue and one yellow eye. Folas switches our direction and we go and sit by them.

“I’m Eldrin!” Says the one on the right.

“I’m Erryn!” Says the one on the left.

“Just a wild guess here.” Briareth says. “But is there any chance you two are twins?”

“We are!” Says Eldrin

“How did you know?” Asks Erryn, wide eyed

“The fact that you are in the same class and talk like you’re used to finishing each other’s sentences.” Briareth says, completely straight faced.

“He’s smart.” Mutters Eldrin. I almost snort. “Anyways Prince Faladel, don’t listen to Alanis and Dordi, they are just jelly jerks. Jelly is short for jealous if you don’t know. Not everyone speaks our lingo, so sometimes we have to translate.”

“You could hear them?” I ask.

“Everyone could hear their blabbering; practically everything travels across the water. Honestly-”

“Master Vaeril is here!” Erryn interrupts excitedly.

I notice that the rest of the class is also quieting down. I follow the other’s students’ gaze towards the pedestal in the center of the puddle. Sitting on air in front of it is a silver haired elf with robes only a shade darker than his hair. His face is peaceful and his eyes are closed. He appears to either be sleeping cross legged while floating, or meditating.

As the bell rings his eyes open and reveal that they are also a pale piercing silver.

“Good day everyone.” His voice is soft, it sounds like the wind whistling through the leaves. “I’m glad everyone appears to have settled in their seats. I need to cover a couple things before we start I’m afraid. Don’t worry though, we have plenty of time for learning too.” Erryn snaps his fingers under his desk and looks slightly disappointed. “Briareth Herbalar, I believe this belongs to you?” He waves his fingers in the direction of the wall of weapons and a familiar looking bow rises.

“Yes, that is mine.” Briareth says, looking slightly nervous. Then his eyes widen as if his brain just made a connection. “So the carvings on it are runes! That makes sense!”

“Yes, although I’m not quite clear on what they are supposed to do. I was wondering if you could elaborate on its powers?”

“Ah, well, all I know is that the runes glow blue when danger is near. It doesn’t matter if it hasn’t noticed you, if they have harmed you before or if you associate them with harm it glows.”

“I already knew that bit. I also learned its name, Darkshine. But there is something else that I can’t define under that. Where did you get it?”

“A Dragon gave it to me.” Briareth says, cool as a cucumber. Master Vaeril’s face freezes for a couple of seconds, as if he is having problems understanding Briareth’s statement. Then he blinks.

“Could you talk with me about that after class? I’m interested in hearing more about this Dragon.”

“Of course.” Briareth says chirpily, no doubt happy to share his story with a new audience.

Time goes on. Very few interesting things happen. We go to a few more classes, some with just Folas and strangers, others with more people we know like Adamar and Valkallyn. We haven’t had any classes with the HeadMaster yet, though apparently he does teach. He just does it on his own schedule. I guess since he is the HeadMaster he can do stuff like that.

After about a week of school life I’m exhausted. I love all this new information I get from being here, but my brain feels worn out. I don’t like that my being magicless is still a source of ridicule for those on the other side of the divide. I also keep having nightmares that I forget when I wake up, and I can’t even go to sleep early because Adamar is always up late working on something. I don’t think it’s homework, he works on it constantly whenever he isn’t in class, and we don’t get that many assignments. It probably has something to do with his sources of information. But tonight I’m not that curious about figuring out our tea drinking roommate and his secrets. Tonight I just want to sleep. Unfortunately for me, Adamar is hard at work, the lamp that he uses flickering in the otherwise completely dark room, casting strange shadows above my head.

“It’s late Adamar, when are you going to be done?” I ask. Briareth is already snoring away, lucky fellow. He wasn’t lying when he said he could sleep through almost anything.

“Nearly finished Faladel. Sorry to keep you awake. Oh, no, wait. Caught something. Regrettably Faladel, looks like this may be longer than I thought. I’ve had a breakthrough.” I sigh, and turn over. Perhaps my body will allow me to sleep even with the lantern. Unlikely, but still plausible.

It

It scuttles back and forth through the corridors, searching for what It’s sensors had caught earlier. A faint sound of voices. Where had they been coming from? Well they are gone now. Everyone should be abed, so maybe they weren’t even there in the first place. If anyone wasn’t abed, they would be taken care of. The Masters would handle it, but it would be interesting to figure out who it had been. He might be able to use that information later if necessary. Then again, He rarely had the opportunity or necessity to use this sort of information, and there was always the possibility that It might be caught. Choices, choices.

His decision is made when It’s sensors pick up another voice, different from the first. One person might not be worth it, but two would be, and this one sounded familiar too. He sends It scurrying down the empty, dark, halls in pursuit of the voice. Where was it coming from? Who are they? What are they talking about? Curiosity drives Him to spurr It on, as a third voice joins the growing chorus. Then It stops, sending Its tiny lenses back and forth.

They should be right here, but the hall is empty. Another voice cuts the silence, and is caught by the sensors.

“Anything anyone else wants to bring up before we adjourn?”

He is frantic, they can’t leave yet! He hasn’t even found them! Who are they? What are they doing? Why are they here? None of His questions have been answered. Where could they possibly be? There are no rooms around here that He knows of, and He is sure He has mapped the school thoroughly. Perhaps they are all invisible? But then one of them might have spotted It!

“I want to address the matter of Ms Aumrauth. Her behavior is….” The last bit is missed by the sensors. But that is okay, He found their origin. The voices are coming from the other side of the wall to Its left. He sends It scurrying up a wall and finds a crack, perhaps leading to the speakers? He drives It down the crack. At this point He might as well, this is bigger than He first suspected. A secret meeting in which they are discussing a person of interest to Him and His friends, this could yield valuable information. Of course, what type of information He has no clue, but it is much more likely to be of use then anything else He has heard tonight.

The crack grows tinier and darker as It travels down. He doesn’t dare turn on Its flashlight for fear It will be spotted. He is too close to be caught now. Something is happening here, and He wants all the information possible.

“Well it wasn’t unexpected, we knew she would cause trouble ever since they came here.” Says a female voice. He wishes they would specificate, who are they? Are they talking about Briareth and Faladel? According to them, Lyra did cause trouble in art class. He urges It to hurry up. He wants to see who is talking. It scuttles further down the crack, increasing Its speed. The crack is definitely sloped upwards but that doesn't even slow It down. He smiles proud of His creation, and then It nearly falls off a cliff.

Well, it isn’t exactly a cliff persay. It just seems like a cliff to It. Really it would be about head-height to a normal Elf. Blue sparks fizzle around It as It quickly recedes from the edge. What was that?

That question is echoed by the female’s voice. “What was that?”

“What was what?” responds the first voice.

“Something broke the protection spell I put around the room, but it was so small that it couldn’t possibly be any student. Also, it was just a blip, like something popped in and out of the barrier.”

“Perhaps it was a mistake,” Says yet another strange voice, this one is masculine and smooth, but also cold.

“I don’t make mistakes as you well know.” the female voice says indignantly. “My barriers are perfect!”

“It never hurts to try something new.” The smooth talker shoots back.

“People, people, calm down. It was probably an ant or something that got shocked by the sparks and ran. Now can we please get back to the topic at hand?” says the voice that brought up Lyra.

“Yes I quite agree,” Says a second female voice, this one slightly higher pitched than the last. “The division in my classroom has become quite unstable.”

“The problem,” The first voice says. “Is that we weren’t expecting the other students to break into factions around the two as well.”

“Yes, quite the miscalculation on our part.” another voice breaks in. This one is deeper than the rest, and definitely coming from a male. A lot of voices murmur agreement. How many people are here?

He hopefully has It scan the room. It can’t make out any faces, but they referred to the students as ‘other students,’ does this mean there is a secret society of students meeting here? How come He wasn’t invited! Even if it was among the older students, He has contacts there, He should have at least been notified. Then again, it would be a Secret Society, so perhaps no one else was allowed to know?

But the ‘other students’ could also be referring to students other than ‘the two’, which would mean He is back at the beginning with no clues as to who is running this thing.

“What can we do to stop them from disrupting the environment?” The deeper voiced male speaker says.

“Why do we have to stop them from disrupting the environment?” Responds the first speaker, “I like the idea of just watching this pan out.”

“Seconded.” Says a third male voice, soft, but not smooth. He can only describe it as similar to the rustle of the wind through the leaves.

“But we can’t have chaos.” Protests the deep voice.

“It probably won’t be chaos, but it will definitely be disruptive.” Says the first female.

“I already heard from one of the STs that Faladel was testing the boundaries of the divide. Unfortunately for him class ended before he could get any results.” The second female voice adds in.

He shifts Its position slightly. He is surprised that Faladel tested the boundaries and kept it to himself. Then again, He feels that Faladel probably keeps a lot of things to himself. It isn’t surprising that he would test the boundaries, was that what the hand raising was about at the end of grammar earlier this week? He should have paid more attention in class instead of thinking about upgrades that He could make to It. But grammar and punctuation are so boring for Him. He shakes himself back to paying attention in time to catch the next speaker's words.

“He is quite the clever kid, although he keeps it quiet. I think he will do well for this country.” A different, cheery voice says.

“I thought we agreed at the beginning, no politics!” Cuts in the deep voice.

“Well it’s true. He would be good, if he wants the power.” Says the third male voice.

“Who doesn’t want power?” Says the smooth voice.

“Me.” Says the first male voice.

“Well, that’s only because you already have all of it.” the smooth voice retorts. “The rest of us aren’t that lucky.”

“I’m fine without power, just let me keep my plants.” Cuts in the one who brought up politics.

“And now we are on to personal opinions.” The deep voice complains. “Can’t we stay on topic please?”

“Alright, fine. No more off topic comments.” The third male voice says. The smooth voice murmurs agreement.

“It was adorable how confused the STs were at the beginning of the week though. You sure it was right not to tell them that this could happen?” Says the second female voice.

“Yes, it was the right decision, they need to learn to cope with unexpected circumstances.” Says the first male speaker. Others mumble agreement.

“When do you think the situation will resolve itself?” The second male asks.

“Well, it could be done as early as this month, or could keep on till next year. It all depends on how soon the Dwarves clear out, and how much Lyra is aggravated by the continued lodging of Faladel under the same roof. We can’t rightfully tell without breaking the privacy policy for students.” Says the first male speaker.

“I’m just curious,” Butts in a new voice, “but which student privacies are you considering here?”

“All of them.” The first speaker says diabolically. “But most specifically the ones to do with mind control and the reading of students' thoughts.” The entire room is silent for about thirty seconds. Then they just continue as if that question was never asked.

“Don’t forget Mr. Herbalar.” The second female says. “He and the Danala twins are wildcards.”

“Briareth was always a wildcard.” Says the first male voice. “I don’t think that will ever change.”

“I have another topic if we all agree that this one is finished.” Says a squeaky voice.

“Go ahead, I think we are done here, if everyone agrees?” Deep voice says. Murmurs arise from the group in agreement.

“Well, many students have recently reported their pets stolen in the night. And according to our charts, the amount of game in the woods has been dropping steadily, although no life signs that could be hunters have been reported there.” The new voice says. “I think the two incidents may be related.”

“I have heard many tales of shambling figures in the dark recently. Could some students have experimented perhaps?” Asks the third male voice curiously.

“If they created an Aberration it will take ages to hunt down and destroy.” Complains the first female.

“Well if someone did create one,” The third male voice replies, “They would be easy enough to find. Talent like that is hard to hide in this school.”

“There is no proof that it is an Aberration in the first place!” Says the smooth talker. “You two are just jumping to conclusions.”

“There’s no proof that it isn’t! It’s a very logical conclusion. If you add all these things together, then the only creature that it could possibly be is an Aberration!” Shoots back the first female voice. At her exclamation, pandemonium breaks out among the groups, each person sprouting his own theories and trying to disprove others. This chaos continues for around twenty seconds before the deep voice breaks it up.

“Calm down all of you!” Shouts the deep voice over the ruckus. “There isn’t even proof that any of these stories of things that go bump in the night are real, and if they are it’s likely someone pulling a prank. Jumping to worst case scenarios and connecting it to the missing creatures, then taking that a step further and adding in Aberrations is a stretch right now. We will have to wait and see for this as well, meanwhile we can all keep an eye out for hunters in the forests and missing pets. Are we in agreement?”

“Okay.” Says the first female voice, still sounding ticked.

“Fine.” Says the smooth voice, with a tone of calculated disinterest.

“Good. Any more topics of interest?” Says the deep voice.

“I have one!” Calls out a new jolly male voice. “We are going through donuts at a tremendous rate.”

“How does that pertain to what we are doing now?” Says the first female voice.

“Because we only have enough for two more batches. And you’re currently eating most of them.” A couple snickers burst out in the crowd. Deep voice tries to calm everyone down.

“So what do you want us to do about it?” He says after he’s succeeded.

“We can’t order more supplies.” Says the first speaker. “But to go without doughnuts, for potentially months… that is also unacceptable.”

“Seconded!” A voice calls. Lots of others murmur in agreement.

“But what shall we do?” Says the deep voice.

“Can we possibly repurpose bread dough?” pipes in the first female

“I’d have to do some research in the cookbooks, but I think that is possible.” Says the jolly voice.

“Excellent.” Says the deep voice. “Anything else?” It is obvious he hopes not.

“Weell…” Says a voice that sounds like it could belong to a mouse.

“What is it?” Says the deep voice tiredly.

“What’s an Aberration? I didn’t fully understand that concept.”

“This is why I hate newbies.” Mutters the deep voice, and then replies as if reciting from memory. “An Aberration is a creature that should not exist. It goes against nature, and the creation of it is forbidden. Basically, if we have one on campus, it means a student was experimenting using the darkest magic of energy transferral- the transferral of life. An Aberration keeps its prey in a comatose state so it can continue to draw lifeforce from them while it goes to hunt more. People have theorized that they can bring back the dead with transferral magics, but they only create Aberrations. Others guess that if we could see energy, an Aberration would look like a marionette, and if you cut its strings of energy, the comatose would wake up, and the beast would die. Unfortunately, no one can see the energy much less cut it, so no one can prove anything. The only proven way to defeat an Aberration is to capture it and burn the body in a Retort Kiln. You have to leave the body there for three days and nights to make sure it is dead.”

This is interesting. Perhaps He can look up these Aberrations tomorrow.

“Did that answer your question?” Deep voice asks.

“Ah, yes, thank you.” says mouse voice quickly.

“Then are we done here?” Voices mutter in ascent. “Good, because I’m tired. Goodnight all.” Deep voice concludes. Its sensors pick up footsteps coming closer and closer. He freaks out. There are ways of finding the owner if It is caught. He must make sure It escapes.

He has It scurry away back down the crack and down the wall. Then through the corridors. Then He freezes, and It freezes. Someone is talking to Him from far away. Their voice reaches Him as though He is underwater. He has It scramble to a corner, and abandons It for the world near His body. Who could possibly be talking to Him this late? Was one of His roommates still awake somehow?

Faladel

I turn over grumpily, trying to sleep despite the light has failed. I’ve been at it for ages, and now it is past midnight. Yet the flickering candlelight still persists. What is Adamar doing?

“Seriously Adamar, it’s past midnight. Turn off the light already. Even if you don’t need to sleep, I do.” Adamar jolts as if he wasn’t expecting me to say anything. Come to think of it, he probably thought I was already asleep.

After a couple seconds he whisper-shouts “Faladel! You freaked me out. You really can’t get to sleep unless all the lights are off then?”

“Yep.” I respond grumpily.

“Alright, just let me finish something here. Then I’ll blow out the candle.”

“You said that over an hour ago.”

“Something that I wasn’t expecting came up! Not my fault. I promise I’ll finish quicker this time.”

“Hmmm.” I make sure to sound doubtful. “I hope so.”

It

He steers It to a familiar nook. He can pick It up in the morning as He goes to breakfast. All this new information needs to settle in His brain tonight. Today? Well, anyways, He can analyze it once He has rested.