Guru Sable slammed his hands down on Miata’s desk, stirring her out of her dozing. "How many times must I tell you," he cried with exasperation, "that there is to be no sleeping in class?!"

Miata looked up at him and yawned. "I already learned all this when I was living at the palace," she said. "Teach me something I don’t know and I’ll be as attentive as you please, but until then—well, g’night." She put her head back down on her arms.

Guru Sable clenched his fist, and the other students who saw his expression thought he looked as if he might explode. "Are you intent upon driving me crazy?" he demanded.

"Do you really think I care that much about you?" Miata replied, barely looking up at him.

"I can’t take this any more! I have been at teacher of magic since you were in diapers, but I have never—never—had a student as frustrating as you!"

"I’m honored."

"I refuse to put up with you any longer."

That made Miata pay attention. "You know you can’t kick me out," she told him smugly.

"Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to deal with you any longer. You’re being reassigned, to Guru Altima’s class."

He had named the oldest, strictest teacher at the Cephiran Academy of the Magical Arts and Sciences. Guru Altima’s class was rumored to be a nightmare.

Miata shrugged and stretched lazily. "Like I said, if you taught me something new, I’d listen."

Guru Sable hastily scrawled her a note and thrust it into her hand. "There. Take this down to Guru Altima. I’m done with you, and good riddance!"

Miata strode away with the confident air of a person who doesn’t give a damn. When she reached the door labeled Guru Altima, she knocked and waited for an answer, her mind on other things. There was a school dance coming up, and she still had to find a date…

The door opened to reveal a man who was definitely not Guru Altima.

"I’m looking for Altima, please," Miata said, twirling a lock of her red hair impatiently. She looked the man over—not all that bad-looking, really, though maybe a bit old for her.

"Altima passed away last night. I’m her replacement. What can I do for you?"

Miata gave him the note, and he scanned it quickly.

"So, you’re Sable’s troublemaker, eh?" the new Guru said.

"I see that my reputation has preceded me," Miata replied with a shrug.

"Well, it looks as if I’m your new teacher now, may the pillar’s prayers be with me," he said.

"Thought you were going to have it easy, huh?" Miata replied with a grin.

"I don’t believe I asked for your opinion, Miss Mazda," the Guru replied, turning his back on her. "Follow me, please. My name is Clef."

"Yes, Guru Clef," Miata replied, her tone mocking that of an obedient child.

"I want to get this settled right now. I’m not going to tolerate any of your backtalking…" Clef began, while Miata made yapping motions with her hand behind his back. The Guru spun around, and she stopped and looked at him innocently. "Are you even listening to me?"

"You do have such pretty eyes," Miata replied, batting her eyelashes at him. Clef clenched his fists and counted to ten to hold back a scream of frustration. He would not be beaten this easily!

"Welcome to your new cell, Miata," he told her, keeping his voice cold and level. "I’d like you to meet your fellow cellmates, Lincoln, Alcione, and Prism." He turned to his three other students. "This is Miata. I trust she’ll make your lives a living hell. If she doesn’t, it certainly won’t be from lack of trying. Class is dismissed for the day. I’ll see you all at 7:30 tomorrow morning."

"7:30!? What are you, nuts?" Miata grabbed Clef by the throat of his robe, glaring at him.

"Why are you so upset? You have plenty of time to get to bed, so you can be up at 7:00."

Miata let go of him and stomped away.

"I am going to kill Sable for this," Clef muttered.

Miata ran to catch up with Lincoln, whom she had judged the better looking of her two male classmates. "Hey, remember me?" she asked him cheerfully.

"Sure, you’re the new girl. The one who’s supposed to make my life a living hell," Lincoln replied.

Miata giggled. "Why would I want to do that?" she asked. Lincoln shook his head and started to walk away, but she chased after him.

"You doing anything tonight?" she asked.

"Of course not! I have to get up early for class tomorrow."

"You’re no fun." Miata pouted and turned around—

Finding herself face to face with Alcione.

"Are you flirting with him?" she asked icily, her arms folded across her chest.

"So he’s your boyfriend? I’m sorry," Miata replied mockingly.

"Don’t you dare talk about him!" Alcione cried. "What makes you think that you can waltz in her like you’re queen of the world, flirt with all the boys like you’re some kind of whore—"

"Well, at least I don’t dress like one!" Miata shot back.

"You—damn—bitch!" Alcione replied, and swung her staff at Miata, who ducked and then fought back

"You weren’t in class today."

"Go away," Miata replied, burying her face in her pillow. "You don’t need to rub it in." Clef sat at the foot of her bed, his hands folded primly in his lap as he looked at his student with mild concern. Her hair was mussed as if she had not been out of bed the entire day, which was probably the truth.

"Rub what in? What makes you think I didn’t come out of concern for my student?" Clef replied placidly.

"Because you hate me. You shouldn’t give a damn what happens to me."

"Miata, you think you know everything, don’t you?"

Miata’s face emerged from the pillow. "I know enough," she told her teacher.

"Well! The black eye becomes you."

Miata laughed. "You should see Alcione."

"I did." Clef had to hide his grin. Alcione had always grated on his nerves—she’d been his first student, before Altima’s Lincoln and Prism had been dumped upon him as well. For once she had gotten exactly what she deserved—and that Miata had been the one to deliver the beating was almost enough for him to forgive her skipping his class. Almost. He cleared his throat. "You know, she’s threatening to leave the school."

"Good riddance."

"Did you decide to stay home from class to test me?" Clef wondered idly.

Miata laughed. "You think I care that much? I just didn’t feel like getting up."

"Well, I’m sure I can come up with a solution for that problem. I think that from now on, I’m going to come here every morning and make sure you get up."

Miata rolled her eyes. "Oh, you are too kind."

"You’re not at the Palace anymore. The rules are different here, and it would greatly behoove you to keep that in mind." The Guru left her alone then, and Miata flipped over onto her back then, staring up at the ceiling for a long time.

Miata and Alcione exchanged glares the next day at school, but no words were spoken between them. In fact, Miata was acting surprisingly well-behaved and attentive—for her, at least.

Someone poked their head into the classroom. "Guru Clef, come quickly," they said, and the teacher excused himself, leaving his students unsupervised.

"Now we really settle this," Alcione began, but Miata was uninterested.

"No time, sweet pea," Miata replied, looking out the doorway cautiously before discretely following Clef to find out what was going on.

And immediately regretted her decision to do so.

"Guru Tacoma…" Clef murmured, shaking his head as he looked at the body sprawled on the ground.

"He stayed late to work last night, and I just found him like this," another Guru explained. Miata thought she was going to be sick.

"First Altima, now Tacoma—it’s not a coincidence, is it?" Clef asked, his voice dully thoughtful.

"The Academy’s not safe anymore."

Miata wanted to run back to her classroom, but it seemed like her feet were rooted to the floor.

The Guru…Clef… The voice was fading.

Cressida!

So, it’s a boy… The voice said, with a burst of joy that had the same feeling as hearing Cressida’s gentle, bubbling laughter. Then there was silence.

Cressida! Oh, Cressida, answer me! Cressida! her mind seemed to cry out, but there was nothing but emptiness where the pillar’s voice had been. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she couldn’t stop them. "Oh no…it can’t be…"

Only now did the other Gurus notice her presence.

"Miata, I thought I told you to stay in the room!" Clef began, but didn’t have the heart to continue yelling when she was crying.

"You said no such thing," Miata replied, "but—oh, Clef, I think that the Pillar has died!"

"How do you know this, child?" demanded Guru Sable. "This isn’t the time for one of your jokes!"

"She spoke to me in my heart, but now she’s gone, and Emeraude is the pillar," she told them, her hands shaking.

"How did she die?" wondered another of the Gurus.

"I…I don’t know! She only told me…just told me…" The words would not come out, and she sunk to her knees in tears.

"Miata, go back to the classroom. I will return shortly," Guru Clef told her sternly, showing little empathy for her situation.

"Make me," Miata replied.

"Miata, I will discuss this with you later."

"The whole lot of you could use some serious help," Miata muttered as she turned and left.

Guru Sable let out a heavy sigh. "I’m sorry I sent her to you, Clef," he said. "You certainly didn’t deserve to have someone like that in your first magic class. If you want her transferred, we’ll understand completely—"

"I haven’t given up on her yet," Clef replied. "I’m not giving her up to anyone."

"You’re just as crazy as you were when you were my student," Sable said, shaking his head.

Miata did not go back to class, but instead sought refuge in her room. Cressida couldn’t really be gone…the woman who had been a second mother to her, who taught her much of what she knew of magic and life, couldn’t have vanished just like that. How would Emeraude cope? She was no longer a child, Miata knew that, but neither did she have the experience and competence of Cressida.

Why did she have to die? What happened? When Miata left the palace, Cressida had been healthy, and everything was peaceful…and even if it wasn’t, no Cephiran could kill the Pillar. Her last words were a mystery…Protect Guru Clef from what? And what did she mean by speaking of a boy? It didn’t make sense.

Maybe she would be better able to handle it after she got over the initial grief. Miata decided that if she only possessed a limited number of tears, it would be best to get them all out now, while she was alone, and let herself cry out the anguish of her loss. She became so absorbed in it that she did not hear a gentle rapping on her door.

Clef opened the door, then pulled back…maybe it would be better to leave her alone. He hesitated in the doorway a moment, long enough for Miata to notice his presence.

"You can come in," she murmured, looking up at him with one red, puffy eye. The other was hidden by her hair, but this made her look no less miserable. Clef didn’t look very cheerful, though, either.

"I knew her, too," he said softly. "I spent a few years at the palace between when I graduated and when I came to teach here. She…she seemed to take special attention to me, when nobody else would."

Miata sat up, and motioned for Clef to sit beside her. He sat, and she watched him with interest. "Go on."

"Oh, there’s not much of a story, really. Cressida asked me how things were at the Academy—asked me if I’d met you, I guess, because it was just after she sent you…but no, I had graduated just before you came here. When I said I wanted to teach, she introduced me to Alcione. I guess, from the way she’s turned out, though, I wasn’t too good a teacher…"

"You’d have to be a wonderful teacher to put up with that bitch," Miata replied derisively.

"In fact, it was just a week ago that she told me I had to come back here. She didn’t tell me why, but looking back on it, I think she knew…"

"You saw her so recently?"

"Well, actually, I hadn’t seen her in—well, almost nine months. No one had. She was supposedly on a journey, and Emeraude relayed all her messages."

"Nine months…" Miata murmured, things beginning to fit into place in her mind.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, nothing. It’s just strange of her to do that."

"Pillars are strange." Clef laughed. "You know, it’s funny…I can hardly even remember what she looked like."

"I can still see her clearly," Miata replied. "But then, I was always cursed with a photographic memory."

"That doesn’t sound like a curse to me."

Miata laughed. "Maybe it isn’t the memory that’s a curse…just the things I remember seem that way, sometimes."

"You don’t like to let people get near you, do you, Miata?" Clef asked. Miata laughed again, though it sounded forced.

"What gave you that idea? I love people, I love being around people, it’s being alone that I can’t stand."

"I see," Clef replied. "But it seemed to me that you were only trying to push people away."

Miata shrugged. "I guess I don’t know. I don’t like it here, but I don’t know where else there is to go. With Cressida dead, there’s no point in going back…Cressida’s dead. How can that be?" Her eyes tearing over again, she threw herself into Clef’s arms, taking him by surprise. He didn’t know what to say to her, only patted her back gently while she cried herself out. After several minutes spent dampening his shirt, murmuring to herself and rubbing her head against his shoulder, she pulled away from him and looked up at him angrily.

"Get out of here," she demanded. "I just want to be left alone!"

"Miata, I—"

"Go away!"

Clef left, feeling entirely confused and upset. He had known from the moment he met her that she would be difficult—but how difficult, he never would have guessed…