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Aaron and Lilie each got a text at the same time, Lilie’s phone chiming and Aaron’s phone and watch buzzing in tandem.

[Color=82ca9d][i]> Somethings Wrong! All of my stuff, its missing![/i][/color]

Aaron’s brow furrowed at the message, and instinctively he looked around the dining hall for Lucan, though it was crowded enough that if the vampire was there, Aaron couldn't find him. First a suspiciously sudden exit on Salem's part - Aaron made a mental note to inquire about that later - and now his dorm was cleaned out? It would make sense if he returned to a few items missing, if he had anything that the investigation into him might need to look into, but everything? He was already cycling through possible reasons for it in his mind as he tapped out his reply.

[color=f0d705][I]> Everything? Are you sure? Are Lucan’s things missing too?
> I'll see what he knows.[/I][/color]

To just that end, he also wrote a quick message to Lucan.

[color=f0d705][I]> Are you aware that your dorm has been emptied? Salem says all of his belongings are gone! Do you have any idea why that might have happened?[/I][/color]

[hider=Conversation with Salem]Salem’s reply came soon after, reading:

[Color=82ca9d][i]> Well he never had his things here but yeah everything's missing. I should speak to Ryner about this after class.[/i][/color]

Frowning at Salem's texts, Lilie found it strange that his belongings were missing. Could there have been a break in? She hadn't heard of a plant thief before, but he did mention how he used some of the plants for his medicines. It was alarming to think someone would just take everything he had, though she knew the best thing to do was report it and have the school handle it.

[Color=00BFFF][I]> You should go to administration and report it! D: [/i][/color]

[color=f0d705][I]> You might have a hard time getting a meeting with her on such short notice. Lilie's right, maybe go to administration first? See what they can tell you?[/I][/color]

[Color=82ca9d][i]> I suppose it's time to learn who the administration is then.[/i][/color][/hider]
The bell rang sooner than expected and Cassandra was quick to leave, Aaron standing soon after. He collected his empty tray (and Lilie’s as well) on autopilot, depositing them in the proper place before collecting his things to go and offering Max a wave.

Gathering her backpack from the floor, as she slung it on her back Lilie figured now was as good a time as any to properly apologize to Aaron. It would have been better in private, but the last thing she wanted was any lingering negativity between them. She quietly followed him out of the dining hall, waiting until they were out of earshot from the others before trying to decide what to say. ‘I'm sorry for being stupid’ was a start, but she couldn't help her own curiosity. There probably wasn't going to be another chance to ask, so now was as good a time as any.

Inhaling slowly, Lilie gathered up some courage as she looked up at Aaron, a slight hesitancy before she spoke, [Color=00BFFF]“Um...can I ask you something?”[/color]

Aaron couldn’t deny that he was pleased that Lilie followed him, hoping she was walking with him on purpose instead of just as a consequence of going the same direction. Her calling him a friend led him to believe the former, and his suspicions were confirmed when she asked him a question, even though her tone was less enthusiastic than before. Salem’s drama was momentarily forgotten as he looked over at her - and then down, she was shorter than he’d realized in comparison to him, even in heels - and offered a small smile, hoping to put her more at ease. [color=f0d705]“Of course, go ahead.”[/color]

Lilie was relieved that Aaron was so receptive, hoping he would stay that way as she decided to go ahead with his blessing. She still hesitated for a second, averting her gaze for a second as she tried not to look too embarrassed. [Color=00BFFF]“About earlier...I'm really, really sorry,”[/color] She started with an apology first and foremost as she looked back at the taller boy, ignoring the blush on her face as she went ahead with what she wanted to say. [Color=00BFFF]“I didn't mean anything by it--I mean, I just thought it was something we could all talk about. Not that I thought it was you! I never would have dreamed that they meant you, you're way too nice to do something like that.”[/color] She explained herself as best as she could, trying not to get too flustered.

Aaron’s brow furrowed as Lilie worked through her apology, though his expression softened as she got to her point. He would have time to be flattered by her compliment once he’d cleared the air about what was going around. [color=f0d705]“Oh, you mean that rumour?”[/color] he confirmed, before waving her concerns away. It was mortifying, sure, but it wasn’t [i]her[/i] fault. [color=f0d705]“Don’t worry!”[/color] he insisted, [color=f0d705]“I heard about it from Salem earlier anyway, although I didn’t get all the details...”[/color]

He cleared his throat, wanting to move right along from [i]that[/i]. [color=f0d705]“I suppose it’s my own fault, really-- not that it was me!”[/color] he corrected quickly, [color=f0d705]“Salem was right, I was busy all of yesterday, and I would never do something like that anyway. I have no idea where that rumour could have come from.”[/color] He took a breath, not wanting to get flustered himself. [color=f0d705]“I mean that I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised, I suppose. I didn’t really expect rumours to be flying about me, but maybe that’s an unrealistic expectation. I’ll admit, I’m not very familiar with how this -”[/color] he gestured to the campus around them, [color=f0d705]“- all works.”[/color]

Saying she was relieved was an understatement, Lilie visibly relaxing as Aaron forgave her easily. She thought she might have needed to go further with it, but he seemed just as surprised as she was. Humiliation aside, she had to admit that knowing he was a Noila mage did pique her interest a bit more, mostly wondering what he was doing here at the Academy in the first place considering that he should have been at the castle. When she first brought up the rumor, his initial response was ‘sort of’.

[Color=00BFFF]“I didn't think you were that type of guy, too. You seem more like a gentleman to me,”[/color] Lilie agreed with him, mentally noting how silly everything sounded now. After a second, she continued. [Color=00BFFF]“But earlier, you said that you're ‘sort of’ a Noila mage. What did you mean by that?”[/color]

Ah, yes. [i]That.[/i] Aaron started spinning his ring, looking down at his hands as he let out a slightly nervous laugh in an attempt to brush off the discomfort surrounding the issue. Damn it, he shouldn’t have mentioned that. But she would have found out anyway, once she learned who his master was, right?

[color=f0d705]“Right,”[/color] he replied, admittedly stalling. He paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase things, before drawing a long breath.

[color=f0d705]“So, remember how I told you I grew up around nobles?”[/color] he began, [color=f0d705]“Well, I’m the youngest member of the Starag family, so I was raised to serve the Noilas. My grandmother served the Queen before she passed away, and my mother and one of my aunts serve the Princesses. My other aunt serves Count Alder.”[/color] He looked to Lilie to make sure she was following, knowing he was probably over-explaining, but he was admittedly hesitant to get on with the point.

[color=f0d705]“Anyway,”[/color] he forced himself to get on with it, painting on a smile in an effort to seem more nonchalant about the subject than he was, [color=f0d705]“The Starags have always served the Noilas, ever since my great-grandfather originally submitted to the Queen. But…”[/color] He let out another nervous laugh and shrugged before finally coming out with it. [color=f0d705]“I guess I’m the first one to break the tradition.”[/color]

Saying Lilie was shocked was an understatement all things considered, her jaw agape at the news. She had already thought Aaron was a step above her growing up around nobles, but he wasn't just a Noila mage, he was a [i]Starag[/i]. An actual Starag! She honestly had no idea what to do with this information, a flurry of different thoughts hitting her. Maybe she should apologize again. Maybe she should excuse herself and run away. Maybe she should say another stupid thing to distract from the fact that she had no idea who Aaron actually was. If he didn't think she was stupid before, he definitely must have now. All the signs were there, too, and she never pieced them together: the Noila symbol on his sword, his upbringing, how he seemed comfortable with vampires, how he fell into place quickly.

Snapping back to reality, Lilie cleared her throat as she tried to think of what to say. [Color=00BFFF]“Wow...that's really something,”[/color] She tried to remain calm, ignoring her anxiety building up as she focused on the positives. [Color=00BFFF]“You're basically royalty! That's amazing!”[/color] She focused more on him than her own ignorance, though she couldn't hide her surprise. [Color=00BFFF]“The first one here, huh? Lucky you!”[/color]

Smiling bashfully at the royalty comment, Aaron tugged at his ear, doing his best to swallow the uncertainty that had been swirling around the subject that Lilie brought up. [color=f0d705]“Yeah, lucky me,”[/color] he commented, before quickly moving the subject along.

[color=f0d705]“But hey, this is the [i]Academy,[/i] right?”[/color] he offered, more optimistically this time, [color=f0d705]“I would imagine everyone who got accepted here is probably feeling pretty lucky.”[/color] He offered Lilie a more genuine smile. [color=f0d705]“But now that you know all about where I come from, how about you? Are you the first mage in your family?”[/color]

Lilie nodded slowly, her hands lightly tugging at her shirt. [Color=00BFFF]“Yeah,”[/color] Her response came out a little quieter than she had intended, though she caught herself. No point in being negative, if she was going to get depressed at every mention of her family, she was going to give people the wrong impression. No need to drag Aaron down that road. Besides, Aaron's question was innocent enough. She couldn't possibly be the [i]only[/i] person who was the first mage in their family.

[Color=00BFFF]“Yeah, so I'm taking things day by day, I really have no idea what I'm doing and no guideline to follow,”[/color] She was a lot more optimistic as she spoke, shaking off the uncertainty as she released her shirt. She was a little embarrassed at admitting how clueless she was, but she felt like he wouldn't judge her too harshly. [Color=00BFFF]“If you have any pointers, I'd be happy to take them!”[/color] She joked, nudging him with her elbow before clasping her hands together.

Aaron wasn’t blind to that little crestfallen moment, but it was all forgotten when Lilie brightened back up, and he smiled when she nudged him. [color=f0d705]“Well, if you have any questions, like I said earlier, I’d be happy to help,”[/color] he offered in return, delighted that her opinion of him hadn’t been soiled by that rumour. He was trying to think of any general pointers he could offer Lilie as they approached the entrance to Rose Hall.

Aaron reached for the door handle, though Lilie would put her hand on his arm to stop him. Before they would go in, there was something else she wanted to tell him. She debated internally for a moment before finally speaking her mind.

[Color=00BFFF]“Um...I wanted to thank you for last night,”[/color] She said, giving him a shy smile. [Color=00BFFF]“I know it didn't seem like much, but everything's been a lot harder than I thought it would be and it's really good to know I have a friend nearby. I just thought you should know,”[/color] She finished somewhat lamely, but she meant it.

Surprise turned to humility when Lilie stopped him to get something on her chest, and Aaron could feel his ears burning again as he offered Lilie a bashful smile, glancing down. [color=f0d705]“Thank you, too,”[/color] he replied, lowering his voice. [color=f0d705]“Truth be told, the feeling is mutual.”[/color]

He didn’t know if that would mean anything to Lilie, but while he’d never been good at voicing this sort of thing, he didn’t want Lilie to think she was some kind of burden. With his own admission off his chest, he opened the door to the hall, gesturing inside. [color=f0d705]“After you.”[/color]

Lilie beamed at the blond, all too happy to get into the classroom. A gentleman indeed! And the feeling was mutual! He definitely thought of them as friends, too, and she felt herself swell with excitement. There was no way she could possibly get any giddier, unable to dim her smile even if she wanted to. As the pair entered, their classmates seemed to have caught up, filling the empty seats. His tall stature made it easy for her to keep track, but people were starting to duck between them, causing her to stop. She wanted to make sure they got to sit next to one another, so she decided to take a hold of the strap of his messenger bag to better follow him.

Once they reached the second row, Aaron would stop, and Lilie released him long enough to put her bag down. Taking her seat, she dug up a blank notebook and her fluffy pom-pom pen, she wrote “Spell Theory” on the top line, following it with the date on the right hand corner. [Color=00BFFF]“I've been looking forward to this one all day,”[/color] She leaned over and whispered to Aaron.

Aaron’s ears continued burning when Lilie took the strap of his bag, and he dared not look back in case he was actually blushing. Luckily that faded quickly as they took their seats and he focused briefly on getting out a notebook, producing a fountain pen as well from a pocket in his bag. He could get away without it in Treaty Law, but he [i]definitely[/i] wanted to take notes in this class. He took a moment, as Lilie did, to title and date his page, before leaning over a bit to hear what Lilie was telling him.

Not wanting to talk any more - the professor looked like he wouldn’t be impressed by it - he simply gave her a warm smile in response. He’d been looking forward to this class too, though he was pretty sure his reason was different than Lilie’s.

As soon as the hall quieted, the sharply-dressed professor began teaching, speaking in a no-nonsense tone that Aaron was quite familiar with from his instructors back home. Aaron listened eagerly, soaking up as much of this new information - his first class of the night where he was learning something [i]new[/i], he noted - as he could and taking notes as he did, only rarely glancing down to make sure his lines weren’t crossing. He didn’t write in English, though; much like in Affinity Mastery, his notes consisted of a series of loops, lines and curves, looking more like nonsensical doodles than words.

Meanwhile, Lilie's page was quickly filling up, making sure she got nearly every word the professor was saying. No slides to condense, and she had no prior experience with magic so she couldn't tell what was important and what wasn't. Fortunately, he didn't seem like the type to waste his time, so she had nothing to lose by writing everything down. At the mention of her own element, Lilie frowned slightly, listening intently. Arcane magic must be anything that wasn't her affinity, so it would be easier to control her element for the payoff of struggling more when it came to anything else. Deflating slightly at the thought, she figured the best thing to do was focus on controlling her affinity and then see just how difficult everything else would be before putting in more effort. Aside from the workload from this class and Treaty Law, she assumed she would have plenty of free time to practice; she would dedicate as many hours as it took.

On the margin of the page, Lilie put small symbols defining the elements she knew and writing down names of the people she knew that matched to them, sorting them by their classification: Cassandra the fire mage in Primary, Salem the plant mage in Secondary, and Aaron the light mage in Conditional. There was the slightest bit of jealousy on her end, wishing she had a more interesting element to use, or at least something that didn't fluctuate with her emotions so much. The sooner she got control of it, the better. Then maybe she could move on to more interesting things, or at least practice safely. Cassandra was already able to produce a flame, Aaron could produce light, she hadn't asked Salem his own control but he seemed to know what he was doing--she wanted to keep up with everyone, so she promised herself to give it everything she had going forward.

The Conditional elements seemed like the most elusive study-wise, and she found herself smiling a little at that. Go figure, an amazing element for Aaron. He was leagues ahead of her in everything, it seemed. Flickering her eyes to the blond, she reached over and scribbled something on his page, returning to her own notebook as she jotted down few more thoughts she had.

Sparing only the odd glance at the distracting and comically adorable puff at the end of Lilie’s pen, not to mention her strangely endearing expression as she concentrated, Aaron paid otherwise rapt attention to the lesson. The categorization of affinities was fascinating in that it explained the relationships between affinities; he knew already how different types of affinities behaved, but he’d been considering them more as basic vs complex, rather than falling into four distinct categories. Already he was connecting the dots of what he’d experienced and what he was learning, from his mother’s difficulty with arcane magic to Dora and Clara’s differing issues. Unsurprisingly, he was most interested in Conditionals; he wrote the phrase “Light -> Conditional = Primary <-> Tertiary” in English in his notes for emphasis. It was exciting to learn [i]why[/i] he and his magic seemed to get along so well - it felt more like an extension of his body than a force to be negotiated with - in the context of affinity categories, and he hoped they’d delve into it further later on. As he wrote, the small puff at the end of Lilie's pen came into view, scribbling something on the top of his page:


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Oh good lord, she was doing this on purpose! No sooner had Aaron read that little note than the burn in his ears was back, a little bashful smile sneaking onto his face despite his best efforts. But there was no time to be flattered and humbled and all-around delighted as the professor opened the floor for questions, Aaron raising his pen in the air to pose one.

[color=f0d705]“Professor, are Sound and Emotion affinities also considered Conditionals?”[/color] he asked once he was acknowledged, [color=f0d705]“Also, if Conditionals can sometimes behave as Primary affinities, does that mean that in those cases it’s possible to use them without a casting focus?”[/color]