NationStates Jolt Archive

Alice really didn't have anything else to ask. She'd decided she didn't much like Amalia, despite sharing many obvious character qualities with the mistress of the dark, it wasn't so fun when you weren't the one being blunt and insulting.

Looking around to see if anyone else was as curious as she, Alice kept quiet as she scanned the others around her and took in further note of the place around them.

"No more questions?" Professor Bräck queried. "Then if you'll follow me."

The headmaster then lead them outside the room to where an old looking boat was gently bobbing up and down on the edge of a lake, or perhaps it was a large river one couldn't truly tell. The water looked dark and still despite the boat bobbing up and down. Stood at the back of the boat was a dark robed figure.

"Right everyone aboard."

"That ends our lesson for today," Professor Kvapil then mentioned. "You have a half hour break before your next lesson, alchemy I believe."

The students were mostly glad to leave the lesson, it had been all talk so far. The professor watched them as they left, keeping his eye on the vampire students.

Mierin was happy to leave Amalia behind. She supposed that perhaps the woman reminded her of the negative things about herself. Whatever it was, the vampiress found her unpleasant. Hopefully she could avoid crossing her, as she had a feeling that would not be an enjoyable experience. She exchanged one of those brief looks that lovers give each other with Ruari and then, with him in tow, boarded the boat, sitting down next to Alice.

By contrast, Arpad sat alone. He didn't have a particular problem with anyone in the class, except for those two jerks who could only thinking about besting one another. Amalia intimidated him a bit, so like his fellow Callisdrunian, he wasn't particularly sorry to leave her presence, though for a different reason. He thought about reaching over the side of the boat to flick the water at someone (he hadn't decided who), but then reconsidered the wisdom of such an act. In this world, it might have very unfortunate consequences.

Robin sat next to Arpad and grinned at him. "Dare you to drink the water."

"Such an act would not be wise," came a voice behind them.

It belonged to Shari, the pink-haired girl.

"Oh have some sense of adventure at least," he said with a roll of the eyes.

With everyone aboard, the boat left the bank and the robed figure steered it into the darkness.

Alice gave Mierin a noticable nod when she sat down next to her. She was probably the closest thing Alice had to a friend in the school since they both seemed to possess a similar character.

"I can't help but dislike her, especially if she's behind more than a few of my failed spells."

The boatman was a little unexpected to Alice. She was quite familiar with the Greek mythology but hadn't expected to every see anything like it. Perhaps they'd run into Hades next.

So that was Vampire Studies, was it? It seemed that they weren't going to learn anything worthwhile, but that made sense - the Professor was a vampire himself, after all. He wouldn't want to teach them anything that might unseat his own position. Vampires couldn't help her command the Imperial Will in any case; what did they know about the God-Made-Flesh?

In the Palace she'd seen the Blood Lords of the Court at play, muttering words in the oldest of Atlantean tongues over their jagged rents in the fabric of the world, thrusting hands into the sucking gaps and pulling them free dripping with the ichor of unnameable things - and laughing, delighted, at their command of They-Who-Wait. Her half-brother Pharinex, five years and three-eighths of his blood her superior, had made her watch, his cold hands digging into her shoulders. He'd meant to scare her, of course. But Pharinae had discovered that those weeping sores in reality had not burned her eyes, and the roiling terrors Without rose up in homage to her blood ... but she could not send them back. Pharinex had banished them with a tossed word and a wave of his hand, and laughed - "So little sister has a little power?" - but she'd seen, for the first time, a hint of fear in his eyes.

The Lords of Night would not teach her the words and the ways that Pharinex had used, and so she'd been sent here, where there might be other words and other ways. In Alchemy? Pharinae didn't know. Her arms full of books it had turned out she didn't need, she slipped out of the Vampire Studies classroom after the other students. The Alchemy and Enchantment classroom was supposed to be down here somewhere ...

Robin sat next to Arpad and grinned at him. "Dare you to drink the water."

"Such an act would not be wise," came a voice behind them.

It belonged to Shari, the pink-haired girl.

"Oh have some sense of adventure at least," he said with a roll of the eyes.

With everyone aboard, the boat left the bank and the robed figure steered it into the darkness.

"She's probably right," Arpad chuckled. "Is it prudent to drink dead waters? I should think not, anymore than it would be a good idea to eat a banquet in Hel's hall."

Still, he glanced only nervously at Shari. Oddly enough, many of his fellow students were quite able to give him the jitters.

Alice gave Mierin a noticable nod when she sat down next to her. She was probably the closest thing Alice had to a friend in the school since they both seemed to possess a similar character.

"I can't help but dislike her, especially if she's behind more than a few of my failed spells."

The boatman was a little unexpected to Alice. She was quite familiar with the Greek mythology but hadn't expected to every see anything like it. Perhaps they'd run into Hades next.

The moroii gave a wry half smile as she nodded in agreement. "I'd say that's a good reason not to be overly fond of her." She didn't care for Amalia either, though perhaps the cantankerous woman was a sort of necessary nuisance. "Especially since she doesn't appear to have had a reason other than her own amusement for doing so."

Mierin silently wondered how Amalia had gotten her position. Had she simply always had it? Or was it something that was passed from one to another?

Robin peered down out the water just in time to see a pale figure float past. The figure was certainly dead, bloated somewhat from being in the water too long but there was no stench. Any smell of death was no different from when they had been on the river bank.

"Looks like she drowned," Shari stated. "Probably didn't drown in these waters either."

More students moved over to take a look at the body as it floated past.

"A soul of the lost," Professor Bräck mentioned. "Those doomed forever to float in the waters of the dead. Most souls never realise it, this one thinks to act like a dead body it would seem."

Alchemy. What the hell is alchemy?

Dimitri shook himsel back to conciousness and filed out of the room with all of the rest of the kids. Dimitri had no idea what room they where to be heading to, but several groups of the others seemed to, so he just took to following at a distance.