Algernon Black

(Chapter 55) Pitful Regret

Lucy entered Professor Punditwood's class for the day with her head held high. Her visit with the god of destruction last night ended quite differently than how she intended it, but her outlook had changed for the far better. Franchesca and her groups' jeers didn't seem a third as powerful as usual to after a very chipper Jasper called out to her.

"Lucy," he said with a smile and a pencil twirling between his fingers. "Good morning,"

"Good morning," Lucy greeted back less boldly. She was worried her other classmates' might denounce Jasper for acknowledging her, but thankfully most seemed to ignore it.

Pecilia, however, made an effort not to ignore it and folded her arms across her chest with her eyebrows raising up her forehead.

Jasper hopped off the desk he was sitting on, nestling his pencil behind his ear. "I have something I want to show you." He held open a book for Lucy as she tried to read the scribbled cursive. "It's a recounting of the last good king's upbringing from a friend. I think it was one of the men, he left an artifact too."

"Really?" Lucy asked, examining the faded drawing of a pair of boys. There were no discernible features on either but the closed-off stance of the friend of the dead king rang familiar. "They don't look like they like each other much."

"Is that what you see?" Jasper double-checked. "It said they were the best of friends back before he even became a vessel."

Lucy frowned and tried to make out any kind of kinship from their worn-out expression. "Maybe they lost it." The longer she stared the sadder she became as the loss of love but not familiarity was all that came through the artist's rendition.

"Hmmm," Their conversation was interrupted by Wilham. "What's going on here, Fenney?" He hooked an arm around Jasper but side-eyed Lucy. "Didn't know you two were so close all of a sudden."

"I didn't either," Pecilia said, smacking her lips. Their broodiest classmates had just entered and the devious smile Pecilia greeted Algernon with thoroughly offset him. He grew even more dismayed when he spotted the reason for it.

"Stop it, Wilham," Jasper said, pushing him away. "You're being annoying."

"Oh and now you're defending her?" Wilham mocked Jasper but the years of friendship between the boys made it playful. "What has gotten into you?"

"More likely it got into her," Pecilia added, joining Wilham's quest for drama.

Lucy blushed furiously from their insinuations.

"It's enough to be annoying, but don't also be perverted," Jasper said, jabbing his friend in the side with the shape point of his pencil, but glaring at Pecilia. "Not everyone is as sex-driven as you two."

Pecilia glimpsed at Algernon, silently cheering at his sullenness. "Some are more."

Lucy started to notice all the attention she was garnering, and worried her classmates' disdain would spill onto Jasper. "It really isn't like that," she tried to explain and create a safe buffer between them.

"Then what is it like?" Wilham grilled her, but wouldn't be satisfied until he heard something that answered his call for drama.

Lucy's tongue caught. She didn't know how to defend herself without revealing how they met, but if they found out she had gone to pray for the god of destruction's help it would only make her weaker in their eyes and satisfied to know they had broken her to the point of praying for divine intervention. Lucy looked at Franchesca's group and bit the inside of her cheeks. Jasper noticed her distress and rightfully assumed where it steamed from. He had witnessed the abuse she had been enduring and at the very least did not want to add to it and was about to cut in for her defense when from behind them Freya interrupted.