Liar's Mask

[The events of that day only happened because of his misunderstanding. There's no merit in focusing on something that's out of my control, much less my fault.]

Sitting at her desk, Laura idly tapped the tip of her eraser against her bottom lip. In front of her sat an intimidating pile of documents, all assigned from the eccentric Professor Oobleck. Even with her chipping away at it during her breaks, the stack seemed no sooner to being completed by tomorrow's due date.

"Nobody ever said being a Huntress would be easy." She murmured under her breath while casually throwing her smooth white hair over the back of her chair. She plucked a piece of paper from the foot-high stack with a resigned sigh and began to answer the questions listed on it. The moment she set the finished document aside, a sudden pressure began to build near the back of her head.

[How diligent of you. Burying yourself in work, so you don't have to face the consequences.] A feminine voice rang out clear in Laura's head. [Your little tantrum over leadership has drawn so much unwanted attention towards your team, the team of the runaway Legion. Their gazes are so stifling, aren't they?]

Laura winced and clutched her right eye. While she wasn't in pain, she found the action helped suppress the voice whenever it appeared. She waited a minute, the usual time it took for the voice to fade, only this time nothing seemed to happen.

[Oh dearie me, you really believed the same old routine would work?] The voice laughed, [Getting rid of me won't be that simple, especially in your current state. Why I don't think you've gotten a proper night of sleep all week-]

[Silence.] The white-haired Huntress snapped as her temper began to flare at the voices' taunts. [Gil and I took the proper precautions when we set out from Mistral. With new identities and a continent's worth of space between my father and us, I don't believe we'll be so easy to track down. Even the Schnees don't have enough funds to scour all of Remnant.]

[Normally, you'd be correct. But when a team with a newly awakened Legion has issues… well, there isn't a single person in all of Remnant that doesn't know about it.] The voice gradually grew louder in her head, causing her vision to go fuzzy around the edges, [But all this pain and trouble can be gone in an instant if you just give in. Just accept me into your heart, and we can put an end to this life of running. No more looking over your shoulder or worrying about how long you can stay in a single place.]

"Go back to your cage, demon." Laura spat in a voice that dripped with malice, "Lest, I decide to destroy your other half."

[You can't hide forever, my Little Moon.] The voice replied in a tone that caused the Huntress to tense up. [There will come a day when you're found by that despicable father of yours, and you'll have to choose. Either seize your fate with both hands or be condemned to a life of servitude. Whether by force or by choice, you will have to accept me into your heart if you want any chance at survival. I'll relish the expression on your face when you succumb to the one thing you despise more than anything else.]

With the threat still looming in the air, the pressure near the back of Laura's head began to fade away. The consciousness that seemed attached to hers pulled away like the waning tide. Once she was confident the voice was gone, she pulled another paper from the stack and moved to work on it. She froze; not only had she snapped her pencil in half, but the eraser was also chewed to bits.

"That's fantastic." She leaned back in her chair with her groan and stared blankly at the ceiling. Her conscience was torn between thoughts of Raishun and the task at hand. After a moment, she let out a resigned sigh. "I suppose a quick peek wouldn't hurt."

Reaching into the pocket of her school blazer, she pulled free her scroll and began to struggle with the device. It took several long minutes of opening incorrect apps and grumbling to herself in frustration before she finally found what she was looking for. Displayed on the small hard light screen was a minimalistic monochrome website. The website's center was a blank search bar, with the words' Legion Database' written in eloquent letters above it.

[I know this isn't a reliable source of information. Many Legions go unnoticed for years after their awakening or are kept a closely guarded secret by their respective kingdom. Even if it's not run by a kingdom, with the videos of our entrance exam being public knowledge, someone has to have seen him.]

She dexterously entered the name: 'Raishun Alenko' into the search bar. She watched as a small circle spun in circles on the screen. It turned 3 times before her results bloomed onto the screen.

{NAME: RAISHUN ALENKO} {AFFILIATION: VALE}

{IMPERIAL ARM: CALIGULA} {TITLE: VANGUARD / TYRANT}

{IMPERIAL ARM FORM: ARMING SWORD} {ENHANCED FORM: UNKNOWN}

{SEMBLANCE: UNKNOWN / FOOTAGE HINTS AT AN ENHANCEMENT SEMBLANCE}

{CURRENT STATUS: UNKNOWN}

Laura's eyes narrowed with worry. [Do they know he's missing? If they know, why didn't they list him as missing? I'm sure the headmaster is trying to keep his disappearance from becoming public knowledge, so how do they know?]

"We better hope another Kingdom doesn't get their hands on him. He's Vale's fourth Legion. With every other kingdom having 3, that makes him a real game-changer in terms of politics."

Laura turned around, hand already reaching for the stiletto she kept inside her coat pocket. She stopped herself just as she grabbed the hilt when she saw who was behind her. The pink-haired girl named Alisa leaned over her shoulder, emerald eyes staring at the scroll. Her side braid swung from side to side as she nodded.

"Of course, I don't think he's the type to turn his back on us. He seemed a lot more honest than that when I met him." She flashed a toothy grin, "Real easy to read too, like a children's picture book."

"Alisa…" Laura withdrew her hand and put on her best fake smile. She knew what her presence meant. "Please speak up next time you come in. You gave me quite the fright." She glanced around the room curiously, then turned her attention back to the Huntress, "I don't see Gil with you. Did Professor Port decide to finish class early?"

"Come on, this is Port we're talking about. We're more likely to get hit by a comet than to have him end one of his thrilling stories early. No, he let me leave early since I already turned in next week's essay." With practiced grace, she began to gather dust particles into her palm. She tinkered with it for a moment, and they took the form of a small figure, which she spun on her fingers. "You know, you still haven't told me why he left. You and Gil always have a convenient excuse whenever I corner you in the halls about it. Rumor has it that he was abducted by another Kingdom's spy. Since a student heard him screaming to be left alone the night he disappeared."

Alisa looked into Laura's eyes with a piercing stare as if she were watching for the slightest bit of hesitation or doubt. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"It's as I told you before, he left of his own accord." Laura replied calmly, "Had he wanted to remain at Beacon, he very well could've. The last time Gil and I saw him was when we had our disagreement in the dining hall." She shrugged, "Many people find out the life of a Huntsmen isn't the fairy tale they imagined. Perhaps being a Legion was a burden too big for him to shoulder."

"You're talking about him like he's a coward, Leader." She retorted the word leader dripped with venom as she said it, "Even if he's not here, he's still our teammate. It's pretty unbecoming of a leader to trash talk her teammates."

"We only knew Raishun for a week, a portion of which he spent comatose in the infirmary because he accepted a fight he had no chance of winning." Laura replied in a matter of factly tone, "We're in no position to claim we knew him well, let alone say we were close. Besides, I'm not so simple to let my thoughts be filled with someone so cowardly they left the academy."

"Cowardly? When everyone was running from that Grimm at the entrance exam, he drew its attention so it wouldn't attack the wounded. Yeah, he was a little weak, but that doesn't mean you can call him a coward!" Alisa crushed the figure in her hand and let the particles fall to the ground. "You can keep what happened that day between you and your cousin. You've already shown me you're not worth pressuring for info. Make sure not to fall off that stolen throne of yours and break your neck."

Alisa stormed off, stopping at the door for a moment to stare at the shelf above Laura's desk. "Those are some pretty flowers, Laura. They'd turn out really pretty if you pressed them." She said before slamming the door shut behind her.

Laura waited several seconds before letting out a slow breath. There had been a moment when she considered telling Alisa about the horrible misunderstanding that had happened. But doing so would mean revealing her secret, and it wasn't worth putting Gil at risk to do so.

Her violet eyes drifted up towards the flowers in question. They were still as white and pristine in their vase as the day she had received them. [I was lucky to find someone with a plant-based semblance.] She thought, brushing her fingertips against the petals.

She clicked her tongue, then frowned when she tasted iron in her mouth. Before she could dwell on her thoughts, she felt her scroll buzz in her pocket. Pulling it free once more, she read the message displayed on the screen.

{NOTE TO ALL STUDENTS FROM FACULTY:}

{THE FIELD TRIP TO THE FOREVER FALL WILL TAKE PLACE NEXT WEEK. PLEASE BEGIN PREPARING ACCORDINGLY, AND BE AT YOUR ASSIGNED BULLHEADS BY MIDDAY.}