No Clare yet, so lets learn some theory

When you enter the classroom there is no Elf to see but her tree in the corner looks smaller than usual. Taking your seat you wait for your teacher to manifest. Anastasia shifted to sit a little closer and rested her hand on your outer thigh. You looked at her from the corner of her eye and saw a soft smile of her face. It was cute to see so you didn't make any comment or movement.

Asune had appeared and was sitting down but wouldn't look over at you and Vatarie was smiling at you each time your eyes strayed to her. Anastasia's hand tensed a little each time you looked over so you stopped.

There was a soft gasp from behind you but before you could turn to investigate your desk spoke, "Good morning students." a face grew from the wood and regarded you and Anastasia with a happy smile. "I am glad to see everyone is recovered." The face disappeared but no body was formed and the voice came from another desk with she spoke again, "Last time we spoke about the Living Magic Theory. Master Edin would you care to remind the class?"

"We don't control magic, magic controls us through our us of it." Edin said. There was another gasp from behind you.

"Thank you Young master." The voice moved to another desk. "Now we shall discuss the inverse. Dead Magic Theory. Would anyone know the basics?" There was a long pause then a gasp. "Young Miss Anise?" The voice moved to a desk by the gasp.

"Y-yes, the theory me-ans that there is no power beyond u-s. Magic doesn't im-pact us we impact magic." Anise says between gasps. You turn in your seat to see her red nosed and looking pale. You'd never seen someone get sick before but she looked like she had a cold.

"Wonderful Young Miss." The voice came from her desk and was replied to with a **** cough. "Yes dead magic theory posits that the only thing magic does is what we tell it. Does this sound familiar to anyone?"

"It's the basis for self and nonself-consciousness." Asune said.

"Correct. The theory is the basis for those concepts, you may note that self and nonself are a combination of these two theories." The sound of everyone literally writing that down filled the room for a moment. "At it's core this theory says that magic is simply yours. At its most **** it also means that any failing in magic is the fault of the person, magic cannot fail you only you can fail magic." There were some uncomfortable shifting at that.

"Would that not require proof?" Asune said as the one of the people who hadn't shifted in the least.

"Well the theory comes from a period with of questions rather than proof." The voice appeared from Asune's desk. "The only real way to provide proof of this theory would be to do the impossible." A tiny women stood from the desk and examined Asune's face. "Using magic to change your nonself-consciousness for example." The women bowed at Asune then fell into the desk and grew out of the teachers desk and started patrolling back and forth as she spoke. "Now you may be wondering which came first, the living or the dead theory." Two small trees grew from each corner growing and shrinking at random. "Would anyone like to guess?" The was a gasp from Anise. "Yes Young Miss?"

Anise let out a few soft gasps before asking, "Living first?" There was a loud cough from her.

"Sorry Young Miss it was something of a trick question. The theories are from before Your Highness's family came to power." The mini elf bowed to Anastasia. "Neither was know as living or dead at the time the terms were applied as something of a joke in a play written by a philosopher who wanted to make fun of both of them. It's not hard to see why, both are rather dumb." The elf beamed at the class and there was laughter from most of it. "However it is important to be aware of the history of theory. If the roots are shallow the tree falls quickly." There is a louder gasp from Anise and the mini elf turned to face her. "Something to add Young Miss?" The tapping foot and crossed arms were met with silence.

You turned in your seat to see Anise starting at her desk not looking up at the many eyes on her. "Sorry Miss." Anise said under the attention.

"As far as which came first both theories originated in a period before even my life began." The mini elf and the two trees shrunk into the desk. There was a slight lull before the face returned to the desk and started to go into further detail.

At the end of the lesson you were once more sure of your decision to like this class. You'd been aware of the theory but had disregarded it quickly, as far as you were concern it had been wrong, your nonself-consciousness had been evident since you were aware of your subconscious from your previous world.

"Young Miss Anise please wait a moment." The voice was followed by the mini elf reforming on her desk tapping her foot and glaring at Anise. You were walking past her at the time so you could see her squirm in her seat. Her nose was red, her eyes dilated and she was sniffing. A magic cold maybe?

You hesitated at the door and tired to look inside when it closed. You looked for a key hole to peep through when Anastasia cleared her throat. "Sorry." You said looking up at her. She stepped towards you looking down with a bit lip.

"For tonight." She reach over and stroked your hair. "You'll be attending me, when I walk you'll be beside me, when I sit you'll be looking after my needs," she licked her lips at that word, "and you'll be spending time with people I tell you to spend time with."

"Yeah tonight, wait." You wrinkled your brow. "Was the party for Friday?" You pulled the memory of Anastasia telling you about the party and you were sure it was supposed to be on Friday.

Anastasia smiled at you. "It would be a shame to waste everyone's recovery." She stepped over to you.

"Huh?" That was a reference to something but you aren't sure what.

She looked at you for a moment the licked her lips and chewed her bottom lip. "When you finish recovering from exhaustion everything feels," she reached over and stroked your hand with a soft smile, "stronger. I'll have another party on Friday as well but tonight's maiden party will be shorter." She leaned forwards until her lips and just shy of yours.

"Oh." You say as some of this mornings interactions made a bit more sense now.

"Christopher." The shout came from Vatarie who was waiting at the end of the corridor. She was being much less pushy with you around Anastasia than she usually was. Maybe those few days of exhaustion they had spent together had settled something between the two.

Anastasia stepped back and wove her elbow into yours. Walking you towards Vatarie. "Oh, Cynthia, Oriana and Auria were asking if they could have an invitation to the party tonight." You said recalling their request. You didn't see a reason to not ask.

"They should know how to earn one at the maiden party." Anastasia said smoothly. Maybe you should ask some more questions about what the party entails.

"So what happens at the party?"

"You don't need to worry about the details." Anastasia said as you joined Vatarie and and Edin. Asune wasn't here again.

"Right." You say chewing your tongue. Hopefully Clare gets here before you are whisked away for party prep.