A heavy breath left me as my knuckles rasped against the hardwood.
After a few moments of silence, a voice answered me.
"Come in!" it called. I knew that voice; I suspected as much that it would've been her to answer.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside. My hand instinctively ran over the leather sheath at my side.
A red-headed girl whom I was all too accustomed with sat at the head of the table. Her eyes widened as she acknowledged me.
"Elias? It's been too long." She smiled. "What brings you here?"
"It's quite a long story…" I smiled back in return as I rubbed the back of my neck. I reached to my side and slid the onyx dagger free from the dark leather.
"Why do you have your brother's dagger?" Curtis asked, making himself known. He leaned towards me, both elbows resting on the long oval desk, where the other 4 members of the disciplinary committee, in kind, watched me eagerly for an explanation.
An awkward laugh escaped me as I looked away from them all.
---
"I need you to cover for me for the next few days with the DC."
I looked up at him with one boot still half-laced. The other sat on the floor on its side waiting for its twin to join it. "Cover for you doing what, exactly?"
"Meetings. Rounds. Whatever Claire tells you to do." He crossed the room and dropped down onto the edge of my bed, elbows on his knees, and for someone asking a favour, he didn't look like he had time to wait for an answer. "Tess needs me. I don't know how long I'm going to be away."
"Arthur, I'm not part of the DC; shouldn't you be asking Curtis or something?"
"He's already busy enough with his own assignments." He reached into his coat and pulled a black dagger free. Turning it once in his hand, he held it out to me by its blade.
I didn't take it right away.
"I know she's your girlfriend, but shouldn't I be the one going with Tess, you know Avalon and all…"
"Lias… please," he breathed, edging the hilt closer to me.
"Fine… It's just for a few days, right?"
"A week at most." He smiled tenderly, pressing the handle into my palm.
He climbed back to his feet, brushing metaphorical dirt off his lap.
"If you need anything, come get me, though I will be charging you the emergency rate and will be getting rid of the friends and family discount."
He smiled back at me as he closed my bedroom door behind him.
After the thud, I leaned back against the softness of my mattress.
"Is he stupid or something? Why would you hand a child a knife?"
After a few moments of admiring how the moonlight reflected against the dark metal, I let it fall from my hands; it bounced against the mattress and dropped at my side.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
---
"So that's the gist of it…" I laughed, smiling awkwardly at the five teenagers before me. "He's in Elenoir as I said... and uh.. Asked me to sit in for him for the next few days."
Claire's smile widened. "Of course he did." She gestured to the empty chair beside the red-haired prince of humanity. "Sit. We'll sort out the details later."
I crossed the room and dropped into the seat. Though before I'd even settled in place, Curtis wrapped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me towards him.
"There he is." Curtis knocked his knuckles lightly against the top of my head. "Can't believe it took Arthur running away to get you a seat at this table."
"Sorry, sorry," I pleaded, squirming under his hold, "But I've been kept busy by the student council."
"More like busy avoiding Claire's paperwork." He let go of my shoulder and leaned back in his chair. "So how long's he got you covering him for?"
"Until he's back," I exhaled, "And I'm not a member, so why would I be doing paperwork in the first place?"
Before I could get an answer from my friend, a voice tore from across the table.
"It's good to see you again, Elias." The older teen laughed. His black polo tight against his biceps; he almost seemed to flex them as he gripped me.
"Same to you, Theodore," I nodded awkwardly. "How-"
"Are you free later?" he asked.
I was cut off by the scraping of a chair to Curtis's right.
"Oh right, you're the one who kicked his ass back last summer, didn't you!" She laughed, pointing at the human who I could only assume was her friend.
"It was an even fight!" Theodore shouted back as he squared up across the table to the ginger dwarf.
"I don't ever remember being choked out against a wall as 'even'."
"That was only at the en-"
"To be fair, miss, he also threw me about as well." I interrupt them, finally getting a word out.
"You're no fun." She slumped back into her chair as she then looked at me. "And Don't call me miss," She grumbled.
"I see…"
She's certainly interesting…
"Oh, the name's Doradrea, and if you actually want a challenge, instead of fighting that weakling," She smirked at her friend before she added as she pointed to her chest with her thumb, "then I'm your girl!"
"Noted," I smiled as the incredible hunk also settled back into his chair.
Theodore leaned against the desk as he looked back at me. "So are you busy later? I want to get some rounds in against a conjurer, and you'd be perfect for it." He flashed me a proud but equally toothy grin.
"Sorry I can't, I uh… I have a lesson with the director…"
"A shame," he grumbled, "I wanted a rematch to rectify the result of our earlier battle."
"So you've gotten stronger, then?" I asked.
"Much stronger." He rolled his shoulder like doing so would lift the weight of my earlier beating.
"I'll have to take your word for it then."
"You won't need to. Next time we spar, you'll feel it." He said it without any real heat, more like a man stating the sky was blue or grass green.
Claire cleared her throat before he could start again.
"Since you'll be here a few days, you might as well know who you're sitting with. You're already acquainted with four of us…" She coughed as she nodded to a young man with pale skin and blonde hair to her right.
He sighed as he reluctantly obeyed his leader. The blonde turned his head as he acknowledged my existence. "I'm Kai, Kai Crestless," he said dismissively, and just as quickly, his attention returned to the window behind Curtis and me.
Cool…
Before I could lament his attitude, the elf at his right had already stood and raised a hand to his shoulder.
"My name is Fayrish Ivsaar III." he lowered his hand from his shoulder and extended it across the table to me.
I leaned forward and took it in my own hand.
"So you're Arthur's brother. I've heard a great deal about you, or rather, about your name being attached to his."
I shook his hand, mostly out of reflex. "Can't say I've heard anything about you." I failed to stop myself as the words poured out of me.
"What?!" he exhaled.
My eyes went wide with horror. "I- Uh- I didn't mean for it to come out like tha-"
"It can't be! I'm his rival! Surely he's mentioned me?"
"I- I'm sorry, Feyrish, but I can't say he has…"
"F-Feyrith…"
"Yeah, that's what I said, Feyrish."
The elf settled back against his seat with a defeated sigh.
Claire clapped her hands, gathering the attention of the entire table.
"Right then, with introductions completed, we can move on to more pressing mat-"
"Umm, excuse me?"
Every one of the Disciplinary Committee members, including myself, whipped our heads at the unexpected voice coming from the wide double doorway.
"Elijah? What are you…"
"Ah, you're Arthur's close friend, right?" Claire said, standing up as she gestured for him to approach the table.
"Lias? What are you doing here?" he asked, finally noticing me.
"I could ask you the same thing…"
"Wait a minute! Last I heard from Arthur was that you fell down a shaft in a dungeon. How did you…" He stopped himself as he realised that the members of the DC had been staring at him.
"Oh, uh, yes, I am," he added awkwardly. "I'm sorry for intruding on your meeting, but I got to school a bit later than I expected, but it's great that you guys are all here. Listen, I know you guys are going to be short-handed with Arthur not being here and al-"
Elijah was cut off by a series of thunderous explosions that shook even the reinforced walls of this room.
"What the hell!" Theodore shouted, rising to his feet.
Claire withdrew her rapier from her dimension ring and vaulted the entire length of the table without a second thought. "What are you all waiting for!?" she called back, looking at us over her shoulder.
With that, the DC, Elijah, and I rushed out of their building and shot toward the blazing fire that lit up the evening sky with smoke and sunder.
"Holy shit!" Doredrea exhaled as we ran through a courtyard; seeing the nearing fury, we sped up.
We climbed the steep steps towards the building that served as the bonfire's kindling.
A heavy exhale involuntarily left me as I took in the sight before me. My body tensed as both horror and anger consumed me.
Students ran scared for both themselves and their classmates. Teachers and faculty weaved between them, checking on those same students as well as running into the flames to get more.
"Who…"
"Damn! It's them again," Theodore yelled, as if he'd predicted this.
"Them?" I asked over the roar of fire and the cries of children.
"Those supremacist bastards!" He shouted back.
Before I could ask further, Claire's strained voice cut through the chaos like a lighthouse in a thunderstorm.
"Elias!" she called, "Focus on helping the injured!" She added, her eyes scanning the rest of the DC as well as Elijah, "The rest of you with me, coordinate with the different groups and help in any way you think you can best."
With a resolute shout of agreement from all of us, we separated.
I ran over to where a temporary tent had been set up. A swarm of Nurses had colonised the tarp that was filled with the squirming bodies of burned students.
Without a word or a chance to be given permission, I extended my arm before me and let Avalon's warmth swell.
Golden flame bloomed around the injured.
It was ironic, in a way, that flame healed the damage fire had caused.
With a strained breath, I lathered the students in Avalon's grace, letting its radiance soothe their suffering.
By the time the 37 students had been healed to an appropriate degree, the fire itself had been quenched.
"Thank you, Mr Leywin," A nurse no older than 30 smiled at me.
I let out an awkward laugh as I scratched at my nape. Only then had I noticed how long my hair had grown. I took a tuft in my hand and twirled it.
I smiled back. "It's fine; I was happy to be of-"
"Someone help!" A shrill voice shrieked.
My head snapped towards the sound, and before I could even register what I was doing, I found myself running towards it.
"We need to ask you a couple of questions. If you would so kindly cut the crap and come with us," Theodore growled as he wrapped a hand around a teen I wasn't acquainted with.
"What's going on?" I asked, coming to a stop beside Elijah, who stood poised as if he was ready for a fight.
Elijah's eyes narrowed as his presence darkened. "They were running away from the scene and-"
"What is the meaning of this!?" a stout man asked, his potbelly inflated and jiggling as he wobbled towards us. Sun gleamed off his head, and because of this, I could only assume, based on his apparent age, that he was a professor.
Though my brother was technically his colleague, so what do I know?
"I should be asking you the same thing, Professor!" Theodore snarled back as his captive cowered under his grip.
"I wasn't aware that the prestigious disciplinary committee officers were mere thugs that would try to drag an innocent student away," Baldie reprimanded as he withdrew his wand from his dimension ring and levelled it at Theodore.
Without waiting a moment, I snapped my fingers and lit the thin stick aflame, reducing it to ashes in mere moments with Avalon's golden might.
He released an audible wince as he flicked his hand away from the sudden warmth.
"Why you!" he growled as he bore daggers at me.
Theodore didn't give him a chance to breathe.
"Innocent? Ha! This brat has been seen multiple times with the radical group you've been having such a hard time capturing. It can hardly be anything short of guilt by association. What, are you protecting a criminal right now?"
Theodore was at his last straw as the ground underneath him started crumbling from his gravity infused mana.
"S-Someone save me from this brute! I'm innocent! I s-swear!" The boy protested, his arm and body falling under the power that had been used against me all those months ago.
I could almost pity him.
Almost.
"Theodore, I understand how you feel, but this isn't the right way to do things. Taking in a student without any evidence besides your word will lead to repercussions from parents and maybe even the Council. Please, we can't afford to be rash right now." The voice came from another professor; she got in between the two of them, holding them both back and against both of their chests.
"Professor Genert is right. Theodore, we can't go out of line right now. Too much is at stake to be reckless. Besides, there are more important things to do than this. We need to make sure that no one has been left inside that building," Curtis pleaded as he joined us in this dwarfen standoff, his face a mixture of frustration and helplessness as he looked between both sides.
With a tired grunt, Theodore threw the quivering boy to the ground. Not wasting the opportunity to achieve his freedom, he scrambled to his feet and ran back to a group of boys whom I could only assume to be his lackies. They carried him away as he shot a smirky glare towards Theodore.
"You okay?" I asked, smiling up at the snarling giant.
He didn't offer me an answer and wordlessly grunted, walking away from us towards the ruins and slamming his gravity-enhanced fist into a nearby pillar.