Chapter Text
History of Magic was always kind of boring, in Ace Trappola’s not-so-humble opinion. Too many words and too much time going over the actions of some guy who died ten billion years ago. Which is why he had to keep himself entertained through other methods, such as card tricks. Easy (most of the time at least), fun, and it got a good smile or two out of Yuu, Deuce and Grim. It was a typical day. Waiting for Professor Trein to come, messing around with the deck of cards he normally kept on him, chatting with Yuu, Deuce and Grim.
“Where is Professor Trein anyways?” Yuu readjusted their glasses with a finger, glancing around the lecture room. Grim yawned, the dire-beast making a sound suspiciously similar to a purr as Yuu scratched his ears.
“Myah, who cares? As long as we don’t have to take five pages of notes,” Grim yawned again, his canines glinting slightly in the warm light of the classroom. Ace hummed in agreement, resting his feet on the table and leaning back, hands behind his head.
“Yeah, so long as I don’t have to take any notes, I’m chill.” Ace said, stretching his arms out a little, earning a small pop from his back in response. Deuce sighed, exasperation and fondness crossing his face, “Ace, we should still try to focus a little.”
“Loosen up a little, Deucey!” Ace smacked his back (lightly), causing Deuce to stumble a little, a smirk on his face, “We’re still in our first year, it’s fine if we mess around a little.”
“I think we’ve messed around enough for our first year,” Yuu sighed, a hand going up to a small scar that crossed over the bridge of their nose, fingers brushing over the familiar markings of a puncture wound caused by a rose-thorn. A brief silence stretched between the group, before it was shaken off with a groan of annoyance from Ace.
“Aahh, seriously, we got dragged into so many incidents, we should be allowed to mess around a little. I mean, our upperclassmen did so much damage, but we can’t skip school once?”
“To be fair, Grim causes enough trouble for all of us,” Yuu hummed, squishing Grim slightly in their arms, to which the dire-beast made another disgruntled ‘myah?!’
“I don’t cause any trouble! Especially not for my hench-human!”
“Tell that to your…” Deuce counted on his fingers, muttering the numbers under his breath, “five detentions, six time outs, eleven reports to the Headmage and three beheadings by Housewarden Riddle.”
“That doesn’t count!” Grim huffed indignantly, the flames from his ears flaring bright blue for a moment, while Ace stuck his tongue back at the grey-furred dire-beast.
“It so does count! You even got me and Juice–”
“It’s been six months and you’re still calling me that?!”
“Fine, Deuce into all your messes! And Yuu had to clean up for all of that too!”
Yuu sighed as the squabbling between the two boys and dire-beast escalated, Ace now sitting up-right as he fiddled with his cards, while Deuce tried to keep Ace from fighting with Grim, but was now beginning to stand up, cracking his knuckles as Grim stuck his tongue out at him. The rest of the class had devolved into a cacophony of voices as conversations sparked between students, and small petty arguments and spats began. A sharp rap against the door interrupted the uproar, a familiar wine-red coat trailing into the classroom as Professor Trein stepped in, accompanied by magically levitating boxes and the familiar meows of Lucius as the cat padded over to his usual resting spot in the sun.
“Gentlemen, back into your seats! Mr. Trappola, cards away, thank you very much!” Trein often raised his voice, but despite the frequency, it always managed to silence whatever chaos was happening between Night Raven College students. Deuce took his place next to Yuu, and Ace on their other side. Ace huffed, as Trein addressed him, rolling his eyes, but slipped the deck of cards back into his blazer and slouched in his seat. The boxes were moved, arranged in a neat stack as Trein took out his usual teaching materials– white chalk, worksheets and (what Ace would inevitably procrastinate on doing), a large pile of homework.
“I apologise for my late arrival,” Trein said, readjusting his pristine white jabot, “However, we are to move onto our new unit of study, and so, I have procured materials that I believe you would all take great interest in.” The soles of his black leather shoes clicked against the ground as he began to write in white chalk against the classroom’s blackboard, writing out three words, “Now, what do you all know about the Seven Hands?”
Deuce’s eyes widened slightly as he listened to Trein’s words, while Ace’s eyes brightened up with interest, sitting up in his chair as opposed to his usual slouch. Yuu tilted their head in curiosity, as did Grim (Ace could barely hold back a laugh at how in sync their actions were). The classroom once again broke out into hushed whispers and murmurs, surprise and excitement permeating through the air. Yuu turned to Ace and Deuce, thoroughly confused as they repeated the title, “The Seven Hands?”
Ace blinked at them, a sarcastic retort on the tip of his tongue before he remembered. (They weren’t from here. They had another home far, far away from anything Ace knew. He swallowed down something too uncomfortable to name.) Ace sighed dramatically instead. “You seriously haven’t heard about them yet? They’re a band of super famous criminals that caused a bunch of chaos in Twisted Wonderland,” Ace explained, before quickly quieting down as Trein shot him a warning look. He made a vague hand signal to them, mouthing ‘talk about it later’. Ace knew better than to invoke what students at NRC referred to as ‘The Wrath of Professor Trein’. Three detentions in a week was more than enough trouble for him.
Trein cleared his throat, continuing on, “As you may know, the Seven Hands were a group of notorious criminals that threw Twisted Wonderland into a period of confusion, chaos and great fear,” He sketched a rough map of Twisted Wonderland onto the board, a dotted line trailing from the Queendom of Roses across the Coral Sea to the Briar Valley (Ace could faintly hear a very familiar ‘MY LIEGE!’ as the dotted line crossed into where the Briar Valley was on the diagram), dipping down to the Island of Woe, then the Shaftlands, across the Sunshine Lands and ending back at the Land of Dawning.
“Now, what do you all know about the Seven Hands?” Trein finished his diagram with a quick stroke to mark the end of the trail, as the class clamoured again, voices overlapping one another.
“There’s seven of them!”
“They were really strong?”
“They started doing stuff a little after the war between the Queendom of Roses and the Briar Valley!”
“There’s the Jester, the Knight, the Prisoner, the Servant, the Farmer, the Guard and the Vagabond,” Ace chimed in, listing each one with his fingers. He wouldn’t have to participate in a class discussion again if he spoke now, at least.
“There’s a bunch of stories about them, and now they’re used to teach kids about not making mistakes?” Deuce added, scrambling to take notes. Ace couldn’t help the little snicker that came out of his mouth– Deuce really was a goody-two-shoes.
Trein cleared his throat and the students all began to settle down. He nodded in approval, beginning his lecture again, “Good. Let’s begin with the Jester, one of the more popular figures from the tale of the Seven Hands,”
Trein turned back towards the blackboard, beginning to scribble down dates. Ace sighed, but reluctantly took out his notebook (at this point more doodles and scribbles than actual notes), and unclipped his magical pen from his breast-pocket to take notes with the ink built up in his magestone.
He blinked a little as light from the sun shining into the classroom’s windows reflected off the sparkling red gem. There wasn’t that much blot in it before, was there? Ace knew that blot built up after a while, but all he had done was use a few spells and go to alchemy classes. He quickly shook his head, rubbing his eyes, and went back to idly doodling a cartoon Trein and Lucius in his notebook. (He couldn’t keep his eyes from returning to the blackened gem every so often.)
“The Jester was known foremost as an entertainer, revelling in the spotlight,” Trein continued, writing down notes on the blackboard for the class to copy down, “Though his eager betrayal of the then Red Queen of Hearts revealed him to be a capricious, selfish man, only performing for the sake of his own self-interest.” A feeling resembling pins and needles began to crawl up from the base of Ace’s elbow. He looked down, rolling his sleeve up to check for a bruise, though there was nothing there, his skin unblemished. His face scrunched up with confusion and suspicion, but he shook his head again, turning his attention back to Trein’s lecture.
“The Jester was accused of treason against the Queendom, by releasing the most dangerous of what we now call the Seven Hands– the Vagabond, and was found guilty in his trial. He was executed near the end of September, with most historians estimating days from the 20th to the 23rd.” More concise notes were written up on the board. Trein gave his students a moment to catch up, before returning to the stack of cardboard boxes he had brought in. (A strange sense of nausea built up in Ace’s stomach, a stinging pain in his throat).
“Now, gather around the table. I was fortunate enough to have access to show you all an artifact from that period– a personal belonging of the Jester.” Trein carefully opened the box, as chairs screeched against the ground and excited students quickly crowded around him. Ace’s expression brightened up with curiosity as he followed, leaning slightly to get a look at what Trein had brought. Another small box was taken out of the cardboard, the outside painted with intricate red and black patterns, hints of gold forming the outline to what seemed to be a spiralling rose. The cards themselves were old and yellowed, but similarly painted with elaborate designs for each suit. (And yet, Ace felt something familiar. But that wasn’t right. He’d never seen this deck before. There were copies online, of course, but he’d never seen the real thing. So why did it feel so—)
“The Jester was said to have used this specific deck when performing and entertaining the Queen and her Court. His cardistry was said to be one of the sole reasons for visitors to come to the Queendom of Roses, during that period of time after the War of Thorns,” Trein explained, carefully holding the yellowed deck in his hands. He gently passed an ace of hearts– (Ace could feel the stifled giggles from both Deuce and Yuu, and he elbowed them both. But it was a good distraction from the confusion and nausea building in his stomach)-- to a student, “Now, carefully– and I do mean carefully pass this around. Observe the intricate patterning on the card,” The card was slowly passed between each student, some oohing and aahing, but most happy to take a quick glance before handing it over to the next person. Trein continued, watching the card be passed around with a sharp gaze, “It is said that only the Jester had a connection with these cards, and they would automatically be summoned to his hands when he was near,” Trein explained, earning small murmurs from the crowd of students.
As Ace was handed the card, before anyone could properly react, the rest of the deck had somehow quickly settled in his hands, and it felt… safe. As if the little yellowed pieces of paper belonged there, in the palm of Ace’s hand. Six other cards separated from the pile, two wedging themselves into Yuu and Deuce’s hands, while the four remaining cards flew from the room in different directions down the corridors of NRC.
There were a few moments of stunned silence before the class erupted into a decibel of noise that had never been achieved before at NRC. Clamours and shouts of surprise filled the classroom, less-than-appropriate-for-school language thrown around by students before any of them had the instinct to stop themselves. Even Trein’s own shouts for the students to settle down that had previously been able to silence the class had no effect on the chaos. Instead, he approached Yuu, Ace and Deuce, a grave expression on his face while chaos ensued around them.
“Mr. Trappola, Mr. Spade. I would like you to return to your dorms and contact your parents. Yuu, please go to the Headmage’s office. You are not in trouble. Do you understand that?”
Trein spoke just loud enough that the three could hear over the racket. Ace had never considered Trein to be a particularly nice man, let alone someone who was gentle. And yet now, his voice was still firm, but there was a level of softness that Ace had never heard Trein take on before. (He couldn’t tell if it was comforting or not. The nausea crawled up his throat).
He nodded, as did Yuu and Deuce. Grim made a little confused noise, but Yuu shook their head at him in that way they did when they couldn’t trust themself to speak. (Ace began to extend a hand towards them, but quickly retracted it.)
Trein’s expression softened slightly. His voice was just barely audible as the shouting around them continued, “Good. Go now,” Trein said, before turning around to face the rest of the class.
Ace didn’t look back as he walked out the door, with Deuce and Yuu quickly following alongside him.
Ace really hated History of Magic.