Chapter 3

"What is it that you wished to discuss with me, Azel Belzarius?” the golden-haired teacher, Capricron, said.

“Well, it’s just that nobody is discussing the element Aetehr,” Azel said wit ha dejected slump of his shoulders. “They act like it doesn’t exist and that it doesn’t need to be taught because it’s not on the test. But don’t you think that all knowledge is something to be invested in?”

“You have to be discerning when it comes to knowledge,” Capricorn said. “Though I think that Aether is truly an element that needs to be taught in this school. Though I think the reason why Aether may not be taught in classsrooms is because of…political reasons, I should say.”

“Political reasons?” Azel said, intrigued despite himself. He was already warming up to his teacher, who seemed to share the belief that knowledge was meant to be given freely. “Like the great Purge of the Priests and Priestesses for holding knowledge about Aether in their libraries before it was burned down?”

“Ah, so you’re quite knowledgeable a bout that, my boy. Yes…That is what happened. Mother Evangeline lived during those times, when the Great Purge happened when knowledge about Aether was being censored throughout the world because they believed it was a dangerous element. It’s still sensitive to talk about it now these days; though I understand your need for k nowledge, and that’s what I admire about you, Azel Belzarius.”

“Do you think that…I went too far?” Azel said while chewing his lip. “There’s this girl that argued wtih me in class about Aether, and I kind of made a bad first impression on her.”

“Do you mean miss Damiell?” Capricorn said with a secretive smile, and Azel nodded. “She is a Priestess sent here from Mother Evangeline from the Temple to study here.”

“Really?” Azel said, before slumping further. “I didn’t know that. I’ve been so insenstive to her faith by mentioning Aether.”

“I certainly hope that you can make things up with her,” Capricorn said. “Of course, I could always have a word with Miss Damiell, if you wish.”

Azel shook his head. “I think I’m good, thanks! I need to solve this on my own really, and I’m sure that we’ll get on better terms with one another. Thanks for everything, Professor Capricorn!”

Capricorn bid him farewell from his office, and Azel left with a light step in his gait. He decided to meet with Astraea again, though he also thought of the strange trance that she regressed to when he spoke to her about Aether. What did it al mean? She did mention that Aether used to involve the movement of the planets, so maybe Pandora was researching Aether on her own? Was that what she was so embarrassed about? He didn’t get to glimpse in her notes in depth, though he knew that the astronmoical model and the movement of the planets were an important part of her research.

Once he made his way up the spiral staircase, he called out to Astraea breahtlessly. “Astraea?”

“What, do you think that you can simply come up here and have me come at your every beck and call, Azel?” Astraea said as she jumped off from a bookshelf and landed perfectly on her feet like a lithe housecat. “I suppose I don’t mind, however. I knew that you would come up and talk with me. While you were gone, I was dreaming my visions and reimagining scenarios from the various pieces that I’ve been given through my clairvoyance.”

“What futures did you see?” Azel said, curious despite himself.

“Oh, I have but on riddle for you, Azel Belzarius,” Astraea said while giggling. “And that is…how do you kill a phoenix?”

Azel pondered his head on that one. “That’s a tough one. Phoenixes are immortal, aren’t they?”

“Basically,” Astraea said. “They reincarnate after dying in a burst of flames and then are reborn from the ashes. The answer is very simple, actually; you just have to think backwards.”

Azel scratched his head again. “Is that another riddle?”

“Oh, Azel, Azel…” Astraea said in a singsong voice. “You’re so cute. Though I know that you’re smarter than that. Hmhm. Still, that is the only piece of inofrmation that I wish to share today. I shall take a long nap and piece together more evidence and clues. Something’s brewing in the Academy—and I stand sentinel in the Observatory to protect the Academy and it’s secrets, after all.”

She disappeared once more, leaving Azel to ponder her various mysteries.

—x—

The Alchemy class started. They finally cleared up the various spilled ingredients for alchemy circles and the various dangerous fauma and sometimes creatures that were used for alchemic recipes. When Azel approahced Pandora to apologize for his behavior, she proudly lifted her head and gave him the cold shoulder, as usual. He wondered how long it would take for Pandora to defrost, though he supposed that he unwittingly made a fool of himself in front of her and lessened his family’s reputation in her eyes through him. Even though Pandora had every right to be angry with his ignorance, Azelt still felt his stomach plummet. Couldn’t she at least give him a chance to redeem himself?

“You’re staring at Miss Damiell,” a brunette girl with violet eyes and a white ribbon in her hair said. “Do you fancy her, perhaps?”

“Not exactly,” Azel said, before he let out a sigh. “She certainly doesn’t fancy me, that’s for sure.”

“Pity,” the young brunette girl said, before she gave Azel a cheery smile. “Your name is Azel Belzarius, isn’ it? My name is Estelle. Estelle Ashcroft. I have a twin sister who looks like me, actually. Though she doesn’t make an appearance into classes very often. For future reference, she wears her ribbon on the left side, while I wear mine on the right side.”

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“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind then.

A diminiutive creature shaped like a humanoid popped out from behind a container, with overly large eyes that reminded Azel of innocent babies. Azel startled, nearly knocking over an alchemy set of tubes and pointed towards the human like figure that resembled a doll more than anything else.

“What…what is that?” Azel asked, before Estelle huffed a little.

“How rude. She is a Homunculi that I created myself. She’s my constant companion, you see, and she normally behaves herself. Usually.”

“Now that I think about it,” Azel said while poking a finger towards the little Homunculi at her stomach. “She’s kind of cute…yeowch!”

The Homunculi, just as he was complimenting her, bit down on his finger. At least it wasn’t bleeding, though little bite marks imprinted in a ring around his finger. Azel supposed he deserved it, however. He did refer to the Homunculi as a ‘that’.

“No, no, Hazel,” Estelle said with an admonishing finger towards the Homunculi. “You know better than that! Oh, I’m sorry, she doesn’t normally bite other people like that.”

“Hey,” Azel said softly to the Homunculi. “I apologize for calling you a ‘that’. Can we please be friends?”

Azel extended his finger towards the Homunculi again. Her cheeks were puffed out in a pout, though a huge grin soon spread across her little babydoll head and she shook Azel’s finger. It seemed as though they were friends now. Estelle giggled, before saying, “I think that she’s taken a liking to you, Mr. Azel. You addressed her like you would a person, and she likes that.

“Hahaha,” Azel said, before he noticed that Pandora approached Pandora them, her brows narrowed and her eyes squinted towards Azel or Estelle. Azel couldn’t tell.

“You little bobble-headed freak,” Pandora said, pointing towards the Homunculi. “That…thing…stole something very important to me.”

The Homunculi, sensing Pandora’s storm signals, then disappeared. Estelle let out a sigh, before saying, “You scared her off.”

Pandora pressed her lips together, looking overall discontent with the situation, though her features suddenly smoothed themselves over into a stoic expression that revealed no emotion on her face.

Estelle started to chase after her Homunculus, worried about where it might be going. The Homunculus waddled off at top speed, and then Azel and Pandora were alone. Azel cleared his throat.

“You know, Pandora…I apologize for peeking at your notes without permission.”

Pandora nodded her head stiffly. “I have more pressing matters than to stay mad at you, I suppose. I need to find that book. It’s very important to me.”

Azel was about to ask another question when EStelle came back, huffing and puffing, cheeks reddened with exertion. “No good! She disappeared.’

“I’ll find Hazel for you,” Azel said to Estelle. “I promise.”

Estelle’s eyes lit up. “You would? Would you? Oh, I would be ever so grateful! Please do.”

Pandora’s sharp eyes stared at Azel, before she looked at Estelle. She then shook her head, before saying, “I suppose I have to search for that little toddler bitch too. Only to recover my notes, of course. Whatever happens to that thing is none of my concern.”

Estelle put a hand to her face in a gasp. “Hazel is not…Are Priestesses allowed to swear?”

“This one does,” Pandora said rather coldly with a glare that could freeze anyone’s blood cold.

“All right, Ladies,” Azel said, trying to sooth the atmosphere as much s he could. “We’ll search for her after class, okay? But right now we have to work on transfiguring this pressed flower into solid gold…”

“Easy,” Pandora said, and mixed several elements together expertly together into a single vial and dripped it on the pressed flower that she had. It had glints of gold in its color. “I’m close…just need to do a little more experimenting…”

“Wow,” Estelle said, before she mixed up her vials and liquids in fluid motions, before adding another recipe to the mix that Pandora didn’t. The pressed flower turned into solid gold. “Hehehe, would you look at that.”

Pandora looked displeased at being shown up. She pressed her lips together, before storming off. Estelle blinked, before saying, “What’s her problem?”

“I guess…Pandora is very prideful,” Azel said while gazing after her, before he turned to look at Estelle’s alchemic recipe. “You did that so expertly. How’d you do that?”

“Oh, I’ve been studying alchemy as my specialty for years,” Estelle said cheerfully. “But Pandora is pretty good. She seems to learn things quickly. There’s more to the Priestess than we’ve seen.”

“Yeah,” Azel said, and when class ended, teh students poured out of the alchemy room and Estelle and Azel were together.

“I promise that I will look for little Hazel,” Azel said, and Estelle nodded to him.

“I just hope that she hasn’t…you know…gone someplace dangerous. I really worry about her, I do!” Estelle exclaimed. “The catacombs would be the absolute worst place to go to. I hear that there are ghosts and spirits and other dreadful things lurking underneath the castle.”

“Why would a school have such dangerous elements?” Azel wondered out loud, before Estelle looked particularly enthused.

“Well, the history behind this school is that it’s the relics of a great castle that belonged to a Kingdom that was championed by duelists,” Estelle explained. “They innovated the castle to have secret rigs and traps and other dangerous things hidden in its corridors as a challenge for the Heir to go through everyday during training to become the Grand Duelist, of course. Isn’t that fascinating? So the Headmaster of this school, who is said to be descended from the Rozarrian line, wanted to keep that tradition and have its students explore the corridors. The castle is so huge and wide that they couldn’t clean out every single room of beasts or traps and whatnot. Some people have even lost their lives in the attempt. But there’s a legend about this school, and that’s what compels teachers and students alike to come to Collegia Magicka, despite its dangers.”

“And that is?” Azel said.

Estelle leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. “The Current Headmaster think the ley lines are most potent here, which is resplendent with certain magic that will let students perform their most optimally here.”

“Ley lines,” Azel murmured. “Ley lines…lines of power…was that what Astraea was talking about?”

“Who?” Estelle said politely.

“A girl in the Observatory,” Azel said, before Estelle still held that puzzled look on her face still.

“Astraea? The Raven-Haired Fairy of the Observatory? She’s said to be on of the mysteries of this school but…”

Estelle bit her lip.

“I heard things about things about Astraea. Peoiple will shun you if they find out you talk to her, just to give you a warning.”

“Astraea is a little weird,” Azel admitted. “But I don’t think she’s all that bad. Why would everyone shun her?She’s just a normal little girl, from what I’ve seen.”

“That’s just it though, Azel,” Estelle said. “She’s..not exactly what you’d call human.”

“What do you mean by that?” Azel said, seeing that Estelle grew more flustered by the more.

“Well…it only matters what you think,” Estelle said. “But I have to know for sure. Would you consider Hazel a human?”

“I think so,” Azel said straightofwardly. “She can think and do everything like we can, right? Though I’ve yet to hear her talk, but I’m sure that she’ll learn very quickly.”

Estelle smiled at this, before putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’re a good person, Azel Belzarius. Keep an eye out on Astraea, will you?”

With that, Estelle turned on her heel and left the scene. Azel was left wondering about her words,