"Quizitively; who can tell me about the passage you read last night from the Shepard Cycle?"

Professor Hubron surveyed the classroom,

"Perturbed question; anyone besides Weylin?"

No hands were added to the Salarian's waving one. Typical. Weylin was the only student who volunteered information on a regular basis. He had heard that the rest of the council races sometimes considered that the Elcor hard to read or taciturn. Hubron did not think that they would call Elcors the quiet ones after observing his class though- forty-five minutes three days of week Professor Hubron trying to drag the slightest sliver of information out of any of his students. Usually without success.

"With growing impatience; you did do the reading, didn't you?"

Except the Salarian his entire sixth period galactic literature class appeared to have suddenly become fascinated with reading the contents of their notepads, fidgeting with their omni-tools or doing anything they could to avoid his line of sight. Hubron bowed to the inevitable.

"With resignation; yes Weylin."

Weylin drew himself up in his seat importantly,

"Shepard meet with the seer, Shi'ira who told him that he had to pass three trials to get into the underworld where the Reapers dwelt. First he had to perform the twelve labors posed by his comrades. Second, he had to learn the answer to the riddle posed by Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the Omaga Four relay. Finally he had to collect the three palladium apples that would make his ship impervious to attack."

"Insincere complement; very good Weylin. Unannounced question; Elban, did you notice anything interesting about this passage?"

Professor Huson was the only one in the classroom who could truly appreciate the fear and surprise in the young Elcor's eyes.

"With barely constrained terror; interesting?"

"With a great feeling of schadenfreude; yes."

"Uncertainly; there were motifs?"

"Wryly, such as?"

There was a long pause,

"Clasping at straws; water?"

The human girl next to him flicking through something on her omni-tool snorted derisively.

"With slightly sadistic pleasure; Miss Watson, perhaps you have something to add?"

The girl blinked in surprise

"I- I don't know. I don't think there even was any water in the last book. I did think that it was pretty terrible of Shepard to leave Liara behind to weave that 'Shawl of lies' all by herself on a space station while he went off on the rest of his quest banging seers or krogan princesses or whatever."

The boy next to her looked up in surprise.

"He was banging krogan princesses? What book was that in?"

"Archly; Perhaps if you kept up on your reading Mr. Tait you would be aware of these more; Suggestively; interesting passages. With morbid curiosity; Perhaps you could share you could share your thoughts on what you've read so far with the class."

"Uhh, sure, I guess," Daniel Tait said. He ran his hand through his hair, and looked up intently, as if the answers he was searching for were written on the upper part of the wall if he could only read them.

"Shepard's like- he's a bro, you know?" He said in a tone that was initially hesitant but seemed to become more confidant as he went along. "He's just like out there, with his bros, killing Rachni and doing what he has to do to get back to earth or Liara or his house or something."

"With mocking incredulity; Shepard and the companions are all bros. That is a unique interpretation, perhaps you should write a scholarly paper about it for publication."

"Uh, yeah. Maybe." Danial said, the sarcasm sailing right over his head, Elcor verbalized inflection or no. This was more than Weylin could stand and he shot back at Daniel without raining his hand.

"He's hardly much of 'brother' though to the rest of the comrades. He traded the palladium apples for a potion that would get rid of his scars and make him more attractive to women. Then he refused to complete the tasks posed by his comrades so they all died in the battle against the Reapers. He was the only one to make it back to earth in the end."

Daniel's eyes were wide.

"Hey- spoilers! We haven't been assigned those books yet."

Weylin rolled his eyes.

"You can't have spoilers on two thousand year old epic poetry."

The klaxon of the school bell came and the class seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as one, hurriedly rising to their feet and shoving notepads into bags.

"With great annoyance; I dismiss you, not the bell."

A/N Geth, Turian and Human chapters are coming along. Maybe keepers. No promises.