The Lady-Professor Veshal-- though Cacopheny had trouble remembering her name, Sentio most certainly did not-- seemed to take the half-demon's story in stride. She certainly didn't seem as surprised or disgusted as Sentio had thought she would; she even took in stride his momentary panic when he couldn't figure out where Cacopheny went so suddenly, and then slipped into one of his "shadows".

Cacopheny's not here, brat, the voice had snapped at him, then laughed at his shock. He said I could tear up a pillow, so I am!

He left his bond alone for the rest of the afternoon, after that, shuddering at the quite insane giggle in the non-existent voice of that particular personality. Instead, he spent the first half the lunch hour trying to explain Cacopheny's past to the formidable Idela Veshal, and the latter half catering to Kenjista's appetite in the kitchen with all the other kits. The whole interview, he'd been terrified that Kenjista-- who refused to leave him alone, once she was left behind by Chario and Akija-- would somehow disapprove of his bond, once she heard some of the things that had happened to him and he was capable of, but apparently she either didn't understand or just didn't care. That he left out a few key things-- like Cacopheny attacking him, for one thing-- might have helped.

At any rate, Lady Veshal promised she would speak to the other teachers on the matter of the half-demon and work out how to teach him to read, and Kenjista promptly forgot that he had stuck around for Cacopheny's sake once he was finished talking to her and dragged him off to get her something to eat. The most the little daemon-dragon had to say on the subject was, "I knew he was a freak." Sentio didn't bother to correct her. The afternoon classes were quite a bit more interesting, as they were more hands-on and engaging than the lecture of the morning, and Sentio found himself "apprenticed", as it were, to the Lady Veshal herself, as one of the few students of a purely scholarly bent. For Sentio, at least, he could put the difficult first half of the day behind him. Since Cacopheny didn't want to talk about it, and Sentio was afraid to ask, he just decided that Cacopheny could do the same.

Whatever the lady Veshal did, it did improve the morning classes, at least. Cacopheny was not to worry about learning history or geography, though he was to pay attention in magical theory and sciences given he did have magic, even if no one really knew how it worked. He was obviously excused from reading and writing assignments, unless Sentio had time to read to him. Instead of schoolwork and tests, however, he was to begin learning how to read and write letters. Sentio was torn between pleasure that Cacopheny was going to learn something they could share, and embarrassment that his bond was the only one in the whole building, it seemed, who could not do such a simple thing as read. Lady Veshal was, however, quite patient and even gentle with him, leading him through carefully paced lessons while the rest of the class was working on something else. Oddly enough, Cacopheny seemed to get along just fine with her, despite their poor first impression of each other.

When it came to that odd magic of his, though, not only could no one figure out how to teach him to master it instead of letting it master him, no one could even convince Cacopheny to talk about it. He seemed to think that his powers were part of his insanity-- which, actually, might have been true, to some extent-- and that he would never be able to control them-- which Sentio highly doubted. Sentio was frankly frustrated with his bond's habitual supersticions, and rather quickly gave up trying to talk sense into him: the half-demon could be unbearably stubborn. He told himself that once he was older and Cacopheny more recovered-- because he would start to get better, after all-- he'd broach the subject again. For now, he-- and everyone else-- would just have to let it lie.

Lady Veshal also managed to convince the other teachers that Cacopheny was not to be hated or feared, which improved things immensely on its own. Their magic theory and sciences teacher, the Lady Air Peirol Saranya, was no longer so obviously afraid whenever he attended her class and even managed to look at him off and on, as if, once in a while, she forgot that he wasn't an ordinary student. The Light history professor Unter Mallocau-- he tried to keep his horrid first name a secret, but somehow every kit in his class knew and whispered it with giggles-- never really lost his suspicion of the dark-eyed, fanged "student", but to his credit, he also seemed suspicious of everyone else in his class, to some extent. To their biology and natural sciences teacher, a bubbly, excitable Earth named Abeysta Felicita, Cacopheny's nature didn't seem to matter one bit-- a welcome relief for everyone. Cacopheny still didn't come to the afternoon classes, so trying to wriggle him into those teachers' good graces wasn't necessary.

There was nothing any of them could do, unfortunately, to change the opinions of the other kits. Some of them still ran and hid when Cacopheny looked at them, some of them looked at him with disdain, and a few seemed to think he was some kind of freak of nature to be poked at and studied. And, through their association with him, Sentio, Chario, and Akija got similar treatment-- though that might have been partly Kenjista's rather unpleasant influence, as well. Sentio just kept hoping that time and exposure would make everyone treat him, and the rest of them, more normally, but after a whole month of classes, only Chario seemed to be universally accepted, and probably just because he was so easy-going and cheerful. Sentio was used to it, as he never really had all that many friends, but he was surprised, at first, to find that Akija didn't get along with the other dragons very well.

Then, as he got to know Akija better-- for the five of them actually spent most of their time as a group, now, unless the pairs or a pair and trio had split up-- he could understand. The dragons didn't have as much problem with her being a daemon as she had thought they would, but that couldn't warm her to the fact that none of them were particularly comfortable with Cacopheny. For some reason, the distrust and dislike that just about every dragon instinctively felt towards even a half-demon irritated her, and she would glower darkly whenever she noticed it in evidence. That didn't win her any friends, and certainly didn't foster friendships on her end. Sentio was actually pleased at how much Akija seemed to like his bond so fearlessly and unconditionally. After all, even he was prone to the occasional nervousness or discomfort, bond or no bond, for though Cacopheny never actually tried to hurt him, he couldn't quite forget that first morning and the stalk across the bedroom, and there were still times when Cacopheny's shadow-voices held more sway than Cacopheny himself. So, having someone who didn't disturb Cacopheny, who could handle Cacopheny without fear, and actually seemed to enjoy spending time with him was a very good thing, in Sentio's mind.

There was only one problem. Cacopheny acted as if he didn't want to be anywhere near her, for the most part. Sentio didn't understand it at all; from what he could gather, Cacopheny did like Akija, quite a bit, in his own confusing, twisted way. But inexplicably, whenever Akija was around, he would fall even more silent than usual, withdraw a little into himself, and would be at the same time less anxious but more jumpy. Not even Kenjista, who still made Cacopheny uncomfortable though he was slowly getting used to her, caused such a reaction. It wasn't so bad when they were in a group, even just their group of five, but for some reason, Cacopheny absolutely could not bear to be alone with her, and would flee the first chance he had.

Though her faith in Cacopheny's better nature seemed unshakable, even Sentio could tell Akija didn't understand, just as he didn't, and was even a little hurt. All he could do was promise her Cacopheny did like her, and that whatever he was doing would probably pass on its own eventually. At least, he hoped it would.