New World

Chapter Three

Cerulean let out a deep chuckle. "You seriously don't know?"

"No, I don't," Savi said. "So... can I?"

"Be my guest," Cerulean responded with a curtsey. "But you don't need to. I can tell you."

"Okay...?" Savi mumbled uncertainly.

"We're hated," Cerulean said, "because of one person in our family. Who everyone hates. Who killed his own wife."

"It can't be..." Savi said slowly as it started to register in her head. Her photographic memory had captured her foster-aunt's Wanderling the last time she'd gone there. "Brant?"

"Yes," Cerulean said. "His name was Brant Alger Tsynis."

"BAT?" Savi asked.

Cerulean cracked up. "We're talking about a murderer here, and you're asking about his initials?"

"Well... yeah, why not?" Savi asked.

He looked down. "Well, yup – totally lost myself my only friend. Way to go, Cerulean. Um – yeah. You can ask for a seat change if you want. Wait, no, you should definitely ask for a seat change. Want me to ask for you?"

"Why would I want a seat change?" Savi questioned. Was she missing something? Or maybe he'd connected the dots and she hadn't. Brant Alger Tsynis, who... killed Jolie. Yeah, she knew that already. Which meant he'd killed a member of her family. Eh. Who cared? Cerulean wasn't Brant.

"Because you hate me," said Cerulean, looking confused.

"Uh – AHEM, don't go making assumptions. For one, who said I hated you? And for a second, even if I hated you, why would I want to move my lazy bum to go ask a teacher to change my seat?"

Cerulean paused, then grinned. "Okay, I could get used to you."

"Same to you," said Savi. "But maybe you could be a bit less crazy."

He feigned an offended look. "Me? Crazy? No way!"

"Yeah, well, be crazy all you want. It's alchemy now," Savi said, looking at the clock. Great. First session and it was already alchemy. Lady Galvin was probably going to give Savi a hard time, and Savi hadn't even done anything yet.

Right on cue, Lady Galvin stepped into the classroom. "Follow me, prodigies," she said. "We will not be using this classroom. Head to Laboratory 1."

"Yes, Lady Galvin," the prodigies responded in monotoned voices.

Savi walked down to the laboratory with Cerulean, ignoring Via who kept staring at her and whispering for Savi to join her and Harmony instead of being with 'that weirdo'. Savi didn't care what Via thought of Cerulean. He wasn't Brant. He was his own person. And they had to respect that. If they couldn't, then Savi wasn't sure if they were worth her friendship.

"Instructions are on your table. Follow them closely, and ask me if you need help," Lady Galvin said. "First..."

She named all the different alchemy ingredients to them before showing them the finished product of that day's work. The potion was a pale pink, close to white but with pink traces like swirls. Lady Galvin droned on about the precise number of stirs which Cerulean tuned out but Savi listened in fascination. Make one clockwise stir, and the potion turned completely white and became useless. But stir it three times counter-clockwise, and it created the pale pink swirls that gave the potion the effect it needed.