Chapter Ten
1285 Words
Cassiel looked up as Vespera and Lyra strolled in.
Their eyes met briefly, and then she looked away as she sat down.
Cassiel continued to look at her, and wished she would turn and just look at him back. He'd grown to miss the grey pools of steel, even when they always carried a degree of coldness in them.
She didn't turn.
The professor strolled in, and cast a level gaze over the class. Cassiel pulled his eyes away from her straight back, slightly hurt and disappointed, and another feeling.
Embarrassment.
At his own longing. Angels were not made to long for anything outside the divine acknowledgement of the Primarch.
So what was he doing, wishing to just share a glance with Vespera?
Cassiel shook his head, trying to dispel his thoughts.
He looked at the lecturer standing in front of the class, his mind a mess.
What he didn't notice, was Kaelen focused on him. And he saw everything.
"Welcome to Origins and Existences," the professor introduced warmly. "Here, we will delve into the origins of all beings, and the essence of their existences."
Vespera froze, though her expression remained composed.
Of all the classes she could have been put in, it had to be about the one thing she didn't know about herself.
It didn't help that she was there with Cassiel in it too. Another common class next to the Combat Fundamentals.
The first time she'd been in close quarters with him since the duel.
She had felt his eyes on her back. She had been so tempted to turn, but she didn't. And she'd gotten a whiff of his disappointment, a distinct smell amongst the fear and uncertainty and hostility she had been hit by the moment she had stepped foot into the class.
She had smelled that, and was that barely concealed embarrassment?
The angel was embarrassed? About what?
She didn't have time to think further as the professor continued speaking.
"Before we begin, allow me to ask a question."
His gaze swept across the room.
"How many of you know what you are?"
Several hands rose immediately.
Angels.
Demons.
Fae.
Dragons.
Mortals.
He nodded.
"Now tell me how many of you know why you are."
The raised hands slowly lowered.
"That," he said, "is the purpose of this class."
He began pacing slowly before the rows of students.
"Origins and Existences is not merely the study of history. History tells us what happened. This discipline seeks to understand why existence took the shapes it did."
He gestured toward the vast diagram carved into the board behind him.
"The realms did not emerge by accident."
Aurelia.
Noxareth.
The Mortal Realms.
The Wild Courts.
The Deep Seas.
The Celestial Expanse.
Each name illuminated briefly as he spoke it.
"Nor did the beings that inhabit them."
He turned back to the class.
"Every race possesses an origin story."
"Some are true."
"Some are myths."
"Most are a mixture of both."
A few students shifted forward in interest.
The professor's expression grew more serious.
"And that is where many scholars fail."
"They become so concerned with proving who came first that they forget the more important question."
He stopped.
"Why were they created at all?"
Silence settled over the room.
"In this course, we will examine the known origins of angels, demons, dragons, fae, spirits, mortals, and dozens of other recorded existences."
His eyes lingered briefly on Vespera.
"Recorded being the important word."
Vespera cast a cold glance at him, and he turned away. She felt Cassiel look at her again. This time, she turned her head and caught his gaze.
A mix of emotions filtered through his face.
Concern.
Worry.
Guilt.
Unable to stop herself, she smiled at him, and turned back, in time to hear his breath hitch in his throat.
Then the professor continued as though nothing had happened.
"We will discuss creation myths."
"Foundational events."
"The emergence of souls."
"The formation of realms."
"The birth of magic."
"And the few mysteries that remain unsolved even after thousands of years."
That last statement drew more attention than anything else.
Someone shifted, and Vespera felt unfamiliar gazes on her.
The professor smiled knowingly.
"Any scholar who claims to possess every answer is either a fool..."
His gaze swept across the room.
"...or a liar."
A few students laughed.
"Now then."
He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote a single question across the board.
WHERE DOES EXISTENCE BEGIN?
The words seemed almost too simple.
Cassiel tried to focus on the lesson, but his head was elsewhere.
With Vespera.
She had smiled.
At him.
Not a big, bright smile. But enough for his heart to still. For the chaos in his head to settle.
He had been anxious when the professor introduced the lesson, and worried she would react when the professor had glanced her way. His worry had been misplaced.
He had felt the room cool, and he knew her eyes had darkened the way they always did when she was hearing something she didn't like.
And then, she had turned. And the coldness he had expected to see was not there.
'She is infernal, but was I wrong about her?' he thought. The uncertainty hit him again, stronger than ever.
Was he wrong about a lot of things?
He had grown up learning that anything that came from Hell was not to be trusted.
Any spawn of Hell was incapable of anything good or any emotion that didn't border on dark.
So why was Vespera going against everything he knew?
Could it be that he had been... lied to?
So many questions. And he didn't know where he would get the answers.
"Ah, yes," the professor was saying, signalling to a student who had raised her hand at the back.
"What are the exceptions of existences called?" she asked. "Can they be considered anomalies?"
"Even Anomalies have identities, my dear," the professor answered. " You see, Anomalies are just beings that are part of a known recorded species, but have unique features, different from the rest of their folk."
"For example, among witches, there are rare individuals born with what scholars call a Primordial Affinity. While most witches learn and cultivate magic, these individuals seem to possess an instinctive understanding of it from birth. Their spells require less effort. Their connection to magical currents is unusually strong."
He moved on.
"Among dragons, there have been cases of Voidscale Dragons, creatures born lacking the elemental affinity expected of their bloodline. Anomalies, but they remain dragons."
Another illustration illuminated.
"Among angels, some are born with unusually powerful manifestations of divine gifts. A guardian may possess healing abilities rivaling those of higher celestial ranks."
His eyes swept across the room.
"And among demons, there have been records of individuals entirely immune to infernal corruption despite being born from it."
The room was silent.
"Different. Rare. Unusual."
"But still identifiable."
He turned toward the class.
"An anomaly belongs somewhere."
"That question has haunted scholars for longer than most civilizations have existed."
"There are ancient records scattered across every realm. Fragmented accounts. Contradictory testimonies. References to entities that appeared without lineage, without classification, without explanation."
His voice lowered.
"Beings untraceable to any known origin."
A strange unease settled over the room. Vespera felt it.
"The oldest texts refer to them by many names."
He paused.
"But the title that endured was simple."
"Nameless Ones."
Silence.
The professor turned back to the board.
"Not because they lacked names."
"Because existence itself never agreed on what they were."
A chill passed through the room.
"History records only a handful of such accounts."
He stopped writing.
"And every one of them appeared shortly before the world changed."
- Writer
