"While I'm stuck in the Dimmer, what sort of punishment will Travis suffer?" Cerlius asked

"Nothing." Lance said. "Because he was in the right." Cerlius glanced at the orb, which was still dull. "It hurts to go through something like this. I know that feeling well. You feel like the world has turned against you but you need to accept the fact that what you did was wrong. Strive to never make that mistake again."

"You are just confused and angry because you were thrown into this new situation. You should have gone through the preparation process like the rest but we didn't have time. I know that your words of thanks were not a threat to this academy but chaos is. Everyone follows the rules, no exceptions, whether it be student or instructor."

"Then teach me." Cerlius said, sitting back down in his chair.

Lance narrowed his eyes, looking down at this student, this enigma Trenton had placed in his care. "I am teaching you. What more do you want?"

Cerlius folded his hands together: "I need to know the rules and how people work. I can't figure it out. Human…People are just so complicated. I need to learn. Teach me how to deal with them or this event will happen again." He stared up at Lance with a steeled conviction that one could only develop after facing death.

Lance let out a long sigh: "Listen Sozo…sorry I meant Cerlius. Names are not my strong suit as you can see. Some people just seem so similar that I sometimes confuse their names, no matter how different in appearance they may be." He held his forehead as nostalgia washed over him like a cold night's rain. "What…what are you?"

Cerlius shrugged. "I already said I'll let you know when I find out. It seems as if whatever you did to me resulted in more damage than wiping my memories. I don't think just teaching me the rules is enough. I might have only been here for hours but I already know I'm not like them, the other students. I'm not like you either. I'm not normal. You even said it yourself, albeit indirectly. Why am I like this? How can I be human again?"

Lance sunk into his chair and pulled out a tray of sweets from his spatial ring. "Take one." He said, pushing one into Cerlius's hands. "Me and Trenton swiped them from the headmaster. They'll help." Lance popped a sweet into his mouth, letting the sweetness of the sugar and the sourness of the situation balance each other out.

"Part of the process you underwent was to be bound and sat under a barrier. You did something to me right as I took your memories and destroyed the barrier with dark tendrils of magic." Cerlius raised an eyebrow and his eyes momentarily widened, but that was all. Lance's heart sunk. The student's reaction was not of doubt and denial, but something far more terrifying, understanding.

"Whatever your past was, it's not you anymore. I won't let it define you because I believe that you were once a dark mage. This feeling of not belonging and your past, try your best to forget them. You'll just suffer if you try to hold onto who you were. You'll make everyone you care for suffer as well."

Cerlius went through several expressions, that's what Lance expected. What actually occurred was a long sigh. Cerlius took a bite out of one of the sweets. "Thank you for being honest. Everything makes sense now, why I was in horrible clothes, why I had known about magic before class, and why I felt justified in my actions. It was all because of my past."

"For your sake," Lance said, dipping his quill in the ink well. "I'll say that you knew some magic in your past, but just the basics. That will explain away how you were able to perform the wave spell so early. Quite frankly, you shouldn't be at that level yet. No student is ready for several days." His quill traveled across the paper, recording lies and deception. How long it had it been since he had broken the rules? Ten, twenty years? Who was this student, who seemed to embody Sozo?

Lance finished the report and set the quill down. "You'll still be thrown in the dimmer for a day but that's unavoidable. Lastly, please don't tell anyone about your past or the fact that the process to erase your memories went wild. We will both be executed for either reason."

"Are you certain?" Cerlius asked.

"Of course," Lance said. "It happened before. I witnessed it personally. It can happen again." He went to open the door for him. "Now I'll lead you down to the Dimmer."

…

'Are you going to try to forget?' Larque asked, still that unwanted voice in Cerlius's head. 'And were you going to turn me in?'

'No,' Cerlius thought as he grabbed another sweet. 'I'm only more determined to learn about myself. I want to get out at all costs. As for the later question, out of everyone, I distrust you the least.'

'Even though I betrayed you?' Larque asked, a mixture of surprise and curiosity in his tone. 'Not many humans trust demons you know.'

Cerlius took a huge bit out of the sweet and let its sugar taste coat his tongue and fill a tiny portion of his empty stomach. It wasn't much. It barely satiated a portion of his appetite but it was something, the only thing he could find in this academy to eat. 'It is a given that not many trust demons. This is because demons only want what is best for them and are more open about it. Humans are the same, even if they deny it. They only want what is best for them. The only difference is that humans are much more…complex…'

Lance opened the door with his bracelet and pat Cerlius on the back as they left his office. 'Complex, meaning humans don't know if some things are what they want, or what other people want. They can change. They aren't predictable.' Cerlius took one last glance at the item laying on Lance's desk, a hollow rod made of wood and metal. It bent at a curve, turning into a handle and a trigger, much like a crossbow. Lance picked the strange device up before they left. '...And I fear things I can't predict.'

'Then do you consider me predictable?' Even though the demon was just a voice in Cerlius's head, he could still feel Larque break into a wide grin. 'Because if so, you have another thing coming-'

'Less unpredictable.' Cerlius quickly corrected himself. 'I know what you want: anger. Is that right? You want to feed on it. I can assume that the old me, Doevm, was filled with an immense rage that you want to once again taste. You couldn't control yourself and tried to settle for my rage. I'm not forgiving you; I'm saying I understand why you did what you did.'

Cerlius held his grumbling stomach and took another bite of the sweet. 'I want to escape and reclaim my memories. You want the rage buried deep in my memories. For now, our goals overlap. That makes you the closest thing I have to a friend.'

Cerlius took another bite out of the sweet, still expecting the relief of its sugar. Instead he found that the taste was lacking. With each bite, the sugar was less satisfying. It was too dry. It was just going against what he wanted. That was a shame, for he no longer had use for it. He tossed it on the ground and stepped on it.