It was strange, standing in front of the gates to B.I.D. Cobalt had been trapped on the Suyas Estate for so long that he had almost forgotten what it was like to be back on campus. As he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, he sighed and began to trudge his way up the path towards dormitories.

After a few days of recovery at his mother's house, the doctors finally deemed the Incubus fit to return to work, much to his relief. Staying in bed with Jezebel fussing all over him was not Cobalt's idea of a good time.

But as much as he enjoyed being back, a part of him was apprehensive. Lorenzo Suyas' had far-reaching contacts, and he couldn't be certain that the Oni warlord wouldn't try to exact revenge upon him whenever he least expected it. In this regard, his mother helped somewhat, urging her son that she would do whatever she could to try and curb the Oni's wrath.

He knew not what their relationship was, but the Trayer name held great weight with the Suyas family, so Lorenzo was likely to listen to Jezebel. Though he knew it wouldn't be enough to stem his ire completely, at least he wasn't liable to send anybody around to kill the Incubus.

Hopefully.

Pushing the doors to the boys' dorms open, Cobalt shook the snow off his boots and stepped into the front hall, where the housekeeper sat at her desk, drumming her lacquered nails against its scuffed wooden surface.

"Oh, you're back," she said dryly, eyes widening a little.

"I am," Cobalt replied.

"Would have been nice if you didn't leave your room in a mess before you left without telling anybody."

He sighed.

"I left in a hurry, and wasn't given much choice in the matter."

"Mmhm. Well, anyway, this came for you before you arrived," spoke the Glutton, sliding a folded note across her desk.

Raising an eyebrow, Cobalt gingerly picked it up and unfolded it.

Come to my apartment the moment you get back. We need to talk.

Bold, formal cursive written with a black ink pen. Mistress Viola's handwriting.

"Do I have to...?" he murmured miserably, shoving the note into his pocket as he wound his scarf around his neck.

"Have to do what?" asked the housekeeper, glancing up from her computer.

"Nothing."

Turning on his heel, Cobalt ventured back out into the snow, shivering all over as the night wind cut right through him. The staff apartments were on the other side of the campus, and with the school shut for the winter, he would have to take the long way around, by some of the abandoned buildings.

As he trudged through the almost knee-high snow, Cobalt peered up at the old science building and bit his lip thoughtfully. B.I.D. had downsized somewhat due to budget reasons, as well as the Headmistress' personal beliefs surrounding the application of clubs and other such groups. Such things used to be run by a dedicated Student Council, but that lead to many students lording themselves above their peers, which resulted in faction fighting between many of the various societies. He couldn't find much information about said incidents, however, and even less about what happened to the Council house. It burned down some twenty years ago - that much was obvious - but nobody seemed willing to talk about what caused the fire, or why Mistress Viola never bothered having it rebuilt once she took on the role of Headmistress.

He stopped in his tracks, just outside the teacher's apartments.

"Wasn't there another fire...?" Cobalt murmured, holding his hand to his chin.

His memory wasn't the greatest, and only seemed to grow patchier whenever he tried to think back on his schooling days. There were fragments of memories floating about in his head; he could feel the heat on the back of his neck and the glint of flames in his eyes, but when he tried to put the pieces together, his mind was pervaded by numb blankness.

"Maybe I'm misremembering..." sighed the Incubus, shaking his head as he stepped inside.

But as he stepped into the elevator and hit the button for Viola's floor, he began to doubt himself.

No, there definitely was a fire. During his third year at B.I.D., he could vaguely remember something going up in flames. It was around about the time of his final exams, just before he was admitted to the hospital for-

He paused, brow furrowed as the lift rose.

What was it? From what he saw on the files that Alison had "acquired" from the hospital, Cobalt had undergone some kind of surgical procedure around about then, but that didn't make any sense. He couldn't remember anything like that happening, and his body bore no surgical scars either.

The elevator dinged and the door slid open, allowing him to step out into the hall of the apartment building.

"Agh, get it together Trayer..." sighed the Incubus, shaking his head as he made his way towards Mistress Viola's domicile.

He couldn't help but feel slightly irritated as he traversed the halls of the teacher's apartments. After all, he had been looking forward to living there since he applied for the job, only to be forced into the far-inferior student dormitories at the last moment.

Oh well, at least the student dorms were more fun. Or so he had been told, anyway.

Reaching his destination, Cobalt took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Enter!" echoed Mistress Viola's voice from deeper within.

Startled by her curt response, the Incubus eased the door open and nervously slunk inside.

Her front hall was bigger than his entire room and kitchenette combined. The walls had been painted a pleasing shade of burgundy, and dozens of pictures hung upon them, each depicting either Viola or Karazelle from various points in their lives. The Headmistress wasn't smiling in any of them, in stark contrast to her only daughter.

"Take a seat in the main room! I shall be with you presently!" he heard Viola call, though her voice echoed so much that Cobalt couldn't tell where it was coming from.

"O- Okay!" he responded, shaking all over.

The entire apartment smelled slightly like incense, similar to the stuff his own mother burned, but less sweet. As Cobalt navigated the front hall, he eventually found what Viola called the main room. It was more of a living-dining room, complete with a dark wood table and a full set of chairs, as well as a furniture suite complete with a sizable TV and an electric fireplace.

He clucked his tongue, still a little bitter that he missed out on the same.

Unsure of what else to do, Cobalt sat himself down on one of the couches, almost melting as soon as he felt how comfortable it was. It was miles away from the sad leather thing he had in his own room.

It felt weird, being in his boss' personal space like this.

Fiddling with the end of his tie, Cobalt tracked his eyes across the walls, blanching at the sight of the mounted deer head above the fireplace. A number of kickboxing trophies decorated the a few shelves, and there were photographs from Viola's school days above them, where she stood sternly in the old B.I.D. uniform, a drab grey ensemble with a striped tie. In some, however, she wore a white jacket, as well as a silver armband that designated her as Student Council President.

Was she there when the Council House burned down...?

He heard a door open.

"My apologies. I misjudged your exact time of arrival," announced the voice of Mistress Viola.

Cobalt made to dismiss her apology, only to nearly choke on his own tongue at the sight of his employer. She stepped into the main room dressed in a black bathroom, steam still rising from her damp hair. He had never seen her before in anything but a tight bun.

Noticing her subordinate's slackjawed gaze, Viola raised an eyebrow.

"Something bothering you, boy?" she asked in a cutting tone.

"Um...! Your...!"

"I hope you're not trying to tell me what to wear in my own home."

"N- Not at all, miss!"

"Good. Sit there."

Turning on her heel, she stepped into the kitchen, leaving him alone once more. For a few moments, he heard the sound of something sizzling, coupled with scraping and clattering.

"How do you take it, boy?" called Mistress Viola from the kitchen.

"Take what?"

"Your steak."

"Um... Any way's fine!"

"Rare it is."

She was making a meal for them? Why?

After a few minutes, the Succubus returned carrying two plates. A fine steak lay upon both of them, garnished with sautéed mushrooms and some kind of whitish sauce. Placing them down on opposite ends of the dining table, she nodded to the Incubus.

"Come on then."

Swallowing hard, Cobalt nervously thanked her and took a seat, completely unsure of both himself and the overall situation. Across from him, Viola began to cut into her meal.

"I heard about what happened with the Sulfur Bloods," she said, blowing on her steak.

Cobalt flinched.

"A- Ah... I see..."

"I didn't think you had it in you, to defy even the great Parricidio. But I probably should have expected such a development. Like as not, chaos runs in your blood."

"S- Sorry?"

Shaking her head, Viola chewed thoughtfully before she stood up and returned to the kitchen.

"Just for the record, I didn't know Lorenzo planned on marrying you to his daughter," she called over the sound of clinking glass.

Well, that only made sense. He would have lost his job if the ceremony had succeeded.

"Still, standing toe-to-toe with an Oni crime lord... you've got neck, if nothing else."

Returning with two glasses and a dark bottle, she poured out a full glass of wine for the pair of them and returned to her seat.

"I'll admit it. I was wrong to do what I did. Emotions got the better of me, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry," sighed the Succubus, taking a deep swig of her drink.

Nervously picking at his meal, Cobalt nodded sheepishly.

"It's okay, miss. I- I shouldn't have stepped out of line..."

"I've decided to reinstate your pay."

His eyes widened.

"B- But the school's finances...!" he exclaimed.

"The Sulfur Bloods paid up front. Their 'contribution' shall keep us afloat until the end of the year, and besides, your wages weren't doing much to offset our expenditures. Though, I trust you'll be forthcoming with any ideas to raise funds later down the line...?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

A smile broke out across Cobalt's face. It would be good to actually have some money in his pocket again. As much as he appreciated the food his students donated for him, he missed being able to eat what he wanted.

"O- Of course!"

"Good. Now eat up. That's ribeye, and I expect you to clean your plate, boy."

He had no arguments there. For a few minutes, their meal passed on in silence, save for the scraping of cutlery and the clinking of their glasses.

But Cobalt just couldn't supress his curiosity.

"Mistress Viola?" he asked, glancing up from his steak.

"You're not in school anymore, boy. You can call me by my name," came her curt response.

"U- Um, well... I was wondering... How many fires has B.I.D. been through?" he asked.

She stopped cutting her meat.

"Just the one."

"Really? I could have sworn I had been through-"

"There was only one," Viola interrupted, raising her voice.

The Incubus' eyes widened, a little taken aback by her aggressive response.

"O- Oh... I was just wondering, because we have a lot of empty buildings on campus, I thought that maybe-"

"The Council House was burned down in 1993, at the end of the student riots. The Student Council was forced to disband, the Societies fell apart and major reformations were put into place. B.I.D. ceased charging tuition fees, and the school downsized overall. Does that answer your questions?"

He blinked a few times. This was a lot to process.

"Student... riots?" he murmured, raising his eyebrows.

"My fault, if I'm being honest. The previous headmaster had a very laissez faire attitude towards student matters, and thus the Student Council had far more power than it should have been allowed. I was a different woman back then. Ambitious. Arrogant. Foolish..."

She paused to take a drink of her wine.

"I worked my way into the seat of the Student Council president, and through my actions, I inspired a certain individual to inspire his peers to rise against me. I raised the funding of the Societies, which caused friction between the students that had membership, and the students that did not."

"They couldn't just join up?" asked Cobalt.

"No. The Societies were no mere clubs. They were more than that. They were cabals; sects of likeminded individuals with ambitions that reached further than B.I.D. The Baseball Society... The Occult Society... The Gambling Society... they were all very exclusive, and very much at odds with one another."

She poured herself another glass of wine. The Incubus could see her cheeks growing rosier, but he was too fascinated to stop her rambling.

"Until one day, on the year I entered the school, a plucky young man from the West Country arrived. He was rough, and crude, and brash, and... my equal. For everything I did to assert my authority, he would do what he could to sow dissent. For every Society I funded and supported, he'd tear another down, by beating its president in combat. And when I finally had enough and hired a private security force to lay down the law on campus, he retaliated with an army of his own, comprised of those students trampled upon by the Council and the Societies. Thus started the student riots," continued Mistress Viola, leaning back in her chair.

A humourless smile appeared on her face for a moment as she tapped her fingernails against her glass.

"After days of chaos, destruction and violence, I finally beat the ringleader in fair combat, and secured his passivity by threatening expulsion upon his companions. A few days later, I began proceedings to induct him into the Council."

Cobalt choked on his wine.

"You did what? W- Why would you do that?!"

The Succubus gave a long, drawn-out sigh.

"Because I told myself I loved him. I didn't, of course, but I knew that his strengths - his raw prowess in both battle and his pull with the student majority - perfectly complemented my own. I reasoned that together, we would be unstoppable, and I let this delusion get the better of me."

Her dry smile returned.

"He didn't agree. His heart belonged to another, and with the glass of celebratory whiskey I gave him, he burned down the Council House," she sighed, staring at the ceiling.

Cobalt stared at her, completely dumbfounded. Never in his life - either as a student or a teacher - had he heard this story. Viola must have had a Hell of a job covering it up.

"So, this man set the Council House aflame, destroyed all the Societies and incited a full-on riot?!" he exclaimed.

"Indeed. He was expelled. He married. Had a child. Then... he was gone."

Draining her glass, Viola began to finish off the last of her steak.

"The last time I saw him, I was holding his intestines in with one hand and holding a spool of thread with the other while his wife stitched him up in the back of a moving pickup truck. And despite all the misery he caused me... that man made me a better person in the end."

Setting his cutlery down, Cobalt swallowed hard and looked up at the headmistress.

"Who was he?" he asked, not even sure if he wanted the answer.

She shrugged.

"He was like you. An Incubus."

His heart lurched. Another mysterious Incubus from the past, just like the old friend of Lorenzo's. Cobalt didn't know what to think; on the one hand, it was somewhat relieving to hear that he wasn't the first one to grave the town of Brimstone, but on the other, it frustrated him to know that he'd never get to meet them. If the Council House was burned down in 1993 by a third-year student, then he would have been long gone before Cobalt was even born.

He suddenly remembered something that she had told him.

"Wait, what was that you said about his intestines? What happened to him?"

His employer shook her head.

"That's a story for another time. Are you finished?" she asked, nodding at his half-eaten steak.

"Oh... um, yes miss. Thank you," he stated, slightly disappointed.

Nodding, she picked up the plates and brought them into the kitchen, before she returned with a brown envelope.

"Here. Your wages. Let's consider everything to be good between us, yes?"

Slipping the flap of the envelope open and peeked inside, his heartbeat growing faster at the sight of the brands that lay within.

"Thank you, miss. Things are good. Thank you."

With a sigh, she patted his shoulder and guided him out of his seat, towards the hall.

"Just... don't cause any more trouble for me, boy. Okay?"

Nodding shakily, Cobalt scuttled towards the exit.

"Yes miss. I promise."

"Good boy. I'll see you back at work on Monday."

With an affirmative smile, Cobalt bid the headmistress farewell and made to leave her apartment, still reeling from all the information she had dumped upon him.

"Oh, one last thing," called Mistress Viola, just before he shut the door?

"Yes?"

She raised her wine glass.

"Have a good New Year's."