Kio tapped his lip. "I\'m not sure there is a headmaster..." he said, thinking back to his time here. No, no, he\'d never seen one... Rarely seen any of the high masters, either, and those were about as close as one got, he supposed. "Try the High Master of Purificio, perhaps. At least we can be fairly sure he exists," the shifter said, a bit of a laugh in his voice.
Ah, that kind of thing, Kio thought, nodding as he listened to Zane\'s story. "If you can escape a battle so easily, you probably could have gotten out of whatever chores they tried to shove on you too," he said, grinning. His expression turned serious afterwards, though, and he frowned a little. "Who was that high apprentice, though? I\'m sure that\'s not allowed," the white-haired boy said, brows knitting slightly in concern. After all, Zane might be able to manage such a slick escape, but many other students couldn\'t. If such grudge-battles were condoned, what would happen to the less-capable among them?
On the one hand, it would "cull the herd", as it were. The weaker ones would not be able to win, or perhaps even survive, the battles, and the stronger would gain respect and momentum. The flaw in that, though, was the variability of living organisms. Someone could be very weak when they first arrived, or perhaps even for several years afterwards, only to later turn out to be a very powerful assassin. To promote such "cullings" before everyone was on the same page was potentially very wasteful, and the curriculum itself got rid of everyone who really couldn\'t make it here anyway.
Kio shook himself lightly, remembering Zane\'s question. In answer, he gestured back to the ravens. "To visit them - Gold particularly, but all of the flock," the student said fondly. One raven hopped over, stretching its wings and cawing at him. Kio laughed and reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of a cookie. he said to the bird, who snatched it from him before taking off. Kio smiled at her as he flew; she was prickly, but one of Kio\'s favourites.
