"Right then, Elias," Aina announced the moment her father's thunderclaps had finished fading, stepping into the role of instructor with an authority that seemed to arrive fully formed, as if she'd been rehearsing it for years.
"With Father gone, you're stuck with me. If you want to make any progress, you'll listen to every word I say. Every single word. Disobedience will be penalized." She took his hand and led him firmly toward the manor.
Elias rolled his eyes the instant she looked away.
'My personal drill sergeant. Wonderful. Truly the crown jewel of this family.'
Then, abruptly, her demeanor shifted. A faint blush crossed her cheeks, and her gaze darted away for one fleeting moment before snapping back to him with renewed, deliberate coldness. Her voice dropped, becoming quiet in a way that felt entirely unlike her.
"And — you will call me Big Sister." A pause, defensive. "'Teacher' is too formal. I'm not skilled enough to hold that title. Not yet."
"Huh?"
"It's only proper," she said, firmer now, though the blush hadn't fully receded.
Elias stared. 'Big Sister?'
The words died in his throat as Aina stopped in front of the study door and turned, eyes narrowed into a fierce glare that dared him to argue.
"Alright, alright, fine." He swallowed the rest of his complaint.
"I'll do my best, Big Sis." He even managed his best wide-eyed, innocent look for good measure.
Something like triumph flickered across her face before she pushed the door open.
The study was small and bright, lined with academic texts and a large chart she unrolled across the desk — twenty-two symbols arranged in a circle, split into four larger Classes: Cosmic, governing space-time and gravity; Cognitive, governing mind and perception; Existential, governing reality and essence; and Soulfire, governing the raw life force itself. Two more symbols sat isolated at the very center, untouched by the dividing lines, tied to no Class at all.
"These two are anomalies," Aina explained, tapping the pointer against them.
"Wildcards. Unpredictable. Only two Paragons in recorded history have ever awoken either of them, close to a thousand years ago." She frowned faintly. "We can't say what they truly embody."
A thousand years, Elias thought, filing it carefully away. I would very much like to ask those two Paragons their thoughts on death and suicide, honestly, professional to professional if they are still alive that is. Nah i don't think they are.'
"Understanding your Trait," Aina continued, snapping him back to the present, "is only the first step. Your assignment, Elias — determine my exact Traits, based on my personality."
Elias stared at her perfectly composed, perfectly unreadable face. Her personality. Might as well ask me to dissect a ghost, or find a specific shadow in an unlit room.
He got a head start that evening, though, when a scribble appeared unbidden in the margin of a library book, ink swirling itself into English letters no one else in this entire world could possibly read.
An hour of careful interrogation followed — "What's your favorite color, Big Sister?"
"The absence of color. Like your intellect." — punctuated by one narrowly avoided impalement via flying metal quill when he guessed, under his breath, that her Trait might be The Devil. He reasoned it through afterward, alone with his notes: her control wasn't coldness for its own sake. It was care, filtered through a need for order so absolute it read as ice from the outside, and only from the outside.
"Your primary Trait is The Emperor," he said finally, when she returned precisely on the hour.
"Existential Class. Authoritative, controlling, establishes order." He watched her face for any reaction and pressed on before he lost his nerve.
"Your secondary is The Star — Cosmic Class. Not the hopeful kind. The renewal kind. You don't just attack with the lightning, you restore with it. Mend. Realign the pieces back into order."
A long, weighted silence. Then, flatly: "That is correct."
'Huh,' Elias thought, genuinely stunned.
He wrote it in his encrypted diary that night, alongside a new entry: Deus's tsundere hint actually helped. Still going to slug him someday, on principle.