Ballistic Coefficient

"Kayla!" Pale shouted as she reached the door. She went for the doorknob, but it was locked; immediately, a wave of relief washed over her, and it only grew when the door opened, revealing her friend standing there, a confused look on her face.

"Pale?" she asked. "What happened? Did you speak with Professor Virux?"

"I did," Pale said as she stepped into the room. Kayla closed and locked the door behind her, and she took a seat on one of the beds, Kayla having already claimed the other one. "As you can probably expect, he didn't believe us."

Kayla's eyes narrowed, and she let out a shaky breath. "That figures…" she muttered. Shaking her head, she added, "What do you want to do now, then? Sven is too dangerous to be left alone."

"More like left alive," Pale grunted. "And unfortunately, short of killing him in his sleep, there's not really anything we can do."

"Is that even an option?"

"Honestly? I don't think it is. Sven doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd be taken down so easily; it'd take more than a sneak attack to put him in the dirt, we know that from experience." Pale let out a frustrated sigh. "I suppose I could try to whip up some kind of poison to deal with him, but it doesn't seem like the students or staff prepare their own food here, and I doubt the staff would let any of us get close to the kitchens. Even if I could, there'd be no way to get the poisoned food or drink to Sven without delivering it myself, and he'd see right through something like that."

"So we're stuck," Kayla surmised, her ears flattening against her head. "We're being forced into waiting for him to make a move, then… assuming he does so."

"He will," Pale assured her. "I'm not sure when or through what means, but I know he'll try something at some point."

"So what do we do until then, Pale?"

"The only thing we can do," Pale told her. "Nothing at all."

Kayla's eyes narrowed, a sign that she wasn't happy with that answer. Pale couldn't blame her for it.

XXX

The two of them ended up tossing and turning for several hours that night before they finally drifted off to sleep. Kayla was the first to go, as per usual, which meant that Pale had been treated to the experience of listening to her have a terrible nightmare for the first time in months. The entire time, Pale had stared up at the ceiling, gritting her teeth in anger as she listened to her friend suffer.

It wasn't exactly hard to imagine what she was dreaming of. Especially not when Pale finally fell asleep herself and had Sven's face appear in her mind, too.

The sun rose a few hours after that, indicating that it was about time for the day to begin. Reluctantly, the two of them got up and started getting ready, eventually making their way out of the room and towards the mess hall.

As they left the first-year dorms, Pale was surprised to find Professor Kara standing outside, several stacks of parchment paper piled up on the ground nearby.

"Good, you're both awake," Professor Kara greeted. "Honestly, I was wondering when you both were going to show up. Long night?"

"Something like that," Pale answered. "What are the papers for?"

Kara flashed her a grin. "I'm so glad you asked."

At that, she passed a paper each to the two of them. Pale took one look at it before turning back to her.

"Class schedule?"

Kara nodded. "Yup! You both will have five classes to complete this year, three of them on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the other two on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays."

"Weekends are off-days?" Kayla asked.

"Usually, but occasionally we'll have a field exercise for some of you. You'll learn more about that as the year goes on, however. For now, I think you both should be on your way – classes start soon and you'll need to eat something beforehand."

"Very well," Pale said with a nod. "Thanks."

Professor Kara simply flashed her another grin, then turned back to the first-year dorm and continued passing out fliers to other students. Pale and Kayla didn't waste any time, and instead continued on their way, reading through their schedules as they did so. Pale noticed that there were five classes in total, just as Kara had said – today's allotment were History and Magical Theory, and Tuesday and Thursday's classes were Physical Training, Weapon Handling, and Basic Dueling.

It was an interesting mix, to say the least, but she supposed there had to be some method to the madness presented to her.

"Do we have the same schedules?" Kayla questioned, glancing at the paper held in Pale's hand.

"It would seem so," Pale replied, her brow furrowing. "This may be problematic."

"What makes you say that? We'll be together throughout the week."

"Because the second class for today is magical theory," Pale said, pointing to her schedule. "And unless something changes in the next few hours, I'm going to be completely useless there."

Kayla bit her lip, but ultimately said nothing as the two of them continued on their way. Pale didn't blame her; after all, it wasn't like any reassurance she could give would suddenly make her capable of casting magic.

XXX

After a quick breakfast, Pale and Kayla found themselves stepping into a classroom in one of the buildings right in the center of campus. As it turned out, the Luminarium had a few basic wall-mounted maps spread out at regular intervals throughout the campus, which made navigation much easier; Pale had taken one look at one of these maps and instantly committed it to memory. And now, before the professor for this first class did the same, she was flipping through one of the provided history books, scanning its pages for a second before turning to the next.

"What are you doing?" Kayla asked from beside her.

"Reading," Pale replied without looking up. "I suspect whoever runs this class is going to anticipate that everyone here has at least a basic understanding of this world's history, which means I'm already behind. So I'm reading through the book and committing it to memory as quickly as I possibly can."

Next to her, Kayla tilted her head. "Huh. I just realized that this class will probably be very easy for you, assuming it's entirely memory-based."

"I wouldn't disagree. Frankly, this is the class I'm least concerned about. By the end of tonight, I should have this book completely memorized, at which point this class will cease to be a concern."

"Must be nice…" Kayla muttered.

The last of the students came filing in just as Pale finished up yet another chapter in the book. She didn't need to guess who the final stragglers were; the sound of laughter echoing through the halls heralded their arrival. A scowl crossed her face as Joel and his entourage entered the room, but she did her best not to show too much emotion.

At the end of the day, she was a war machine. Getting involved with petty ridicule was entirely beneath her… even if a small part of her still wanted to wring Joel's neck for throwing away her ammunition and stealing her pack – a pack which, she noticed, was still slung over his shoulder as he walked in.

She must have been staring, because as he turned to look around the room, their gazes met. Joel flashed her a sly grin, and Pale grit her teeth before turning back to her book.

She only had time to get through a few more pages before the doors opened again, and the professor came marching in.

"Good, you're all here," Virux said as he strode to the front of the room, where a chalkboard was set up. "Normally, this is the part where I'd introduce myself, but given that I know most of you already, I think that would be superfluous. Instead, we should begin right away."

He turned and picked up a piece of chalk, then wrote something on the board before turning back to them; he'd scrawled 'History' across it in big, bold letters.

"Who can tell me what this word means to them?" Virux said.

A confused murmur went through the crowd of students before someone decided to be bold and raise their hand. Virux pointed to her, and she cleared her throat.

"It's, uh… the study of the past?"

"Close, but not quite," Virux emphasized. "Ultimately, what you all need to understand is that history, or at least the history being taught to you in these books, is the study of the past, specifically as recorded by people qualified to do so. There's an obvious problem inherent there, of course – can anyone tell me what it is?"

Again, another murmur went up through the crowd, but this time, nobody ventured forward with an answer. Virux waited a few seconds before nodding.

"Nobody has a guess, huh?" he asked. "That's fine; I wouldn't expect you all to realize it. The problem is this – who decides who's qualified to teach history and who isn't? I'll spare you the guesswork – it's whoever is in power at the time the historical record is taken."

Virux turned around and began to write on the chalkboard once again, this time scrawling the words 'Undead Crusades' across it.

"As many of you are probably aware, these were the single most impactful events to happen throughout the past few centuries," he noted. "The Four Undead Crusades as a whole spanned some three-hundred years and claimed the lives of millions of people. Many kingdoms rose and fell throughout their time, and indeed, depending on where you lived, it likely seemed as though the world was ending. We remember them now as a time of great suffering, but also great heroism – yes, millions of people tragically lost their lives, but there was no shortage of brave souls, willing to face the surging tide of undead, vampires, and other horrors of the night in order to slay the Elder Lich, which they eventually succeeded in doing." He paused for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest.

"How do you think the undead remember the Crusades against them?"

Silence reigned over the room, with nobody saying anything until Virux spoke again.

"That is exactly my point," he continued, unfolding his arms as he once again began to walk across the room. "History is written by the victor, ladies and gentlemen. We remember the Undead Crusades as a time of terror that ultimately gave way to a bright future; the undead, that is, what few of them are left and that are still capable of rational thought, consider the Crusades to have been the end of their world. Imagine, if you will, what would have happened if the Elder Lich had truly succeeded in his goal to spread decay across the land – the undead would have been the ones to write the history books, and we'd be the ones forced to scurry from shadow to shadow like rats in order to survive. We should all be so thankful that it didn't turn out that way, but at the same time, remember this – the history in these books, to a certain degree, is all propaganda. If ever you've flipped through a history book and wondered why it seems like the good guys always win, know that it's less because they were inherently good, and more because, at the end of the day, they were the only ones left standing, and they weren't about to write anything bad about themselves if they could help it."

Virux stopped, then clasped his hands behind his back. "I know this because I am a Dragonborn. There are precious few of my kind left in this world, and most of us that still exist are as long-lived as any elf. If there is a major historical event that occurred within the last two-thousand years or so, odds are that I at the very least have personal experience with it. I have witnessed the rise and fall of kingdom after kingdom in my time, enough to understand that most of what is being told to you in these books is not the entire truth. But that being said, you are expected to learn what is in this book, and that is what we shall do… but with a healthy dose of skepticism and reality added on to it."

At that, Virux stepped up to the large oak desk in the center of the room, picking up a book that was lying across it. The students mirrored his actions, and he cleared his throat once more.

"Now, turn to page thirty-eight. We have much to discuss."

XXX

"Well, that was intense," Kayla admitted as her and Pale left Virux's classroom a few hours later. "I'll admit, I didn't think he was that old… I mean, I know he's a Dragonborn, but still… what did you think, Pale?"

"It was interesting," Pale said with a grunt. "Honestly, though, I am not too curious about it. I am only here to gain access to the archives, which I hope will be happening sooner rather than later."

"Oh, come on," Kayla protested. "You're here anyway, so you might as well make the most of it."

Pale didn't argue, instead turning her attention back to her schedule. "Next class… Magical Theory…"

"You're not still worried about that, are you?" Kayla asked. "Look, whatever it is, I'm sure it won't be nearly as bad as you think it will be."

Pale's only response was to scowl as the two of them made their way over to the next classroom.