Editing Eldramin (section)

= Part One =

== Chapter 1 ==
'''11 years later'''

''Fannara''

I sprinted down back alleys and empty streets, bags clutched in my hands. I could vaguely hear the murmur of people boarding the train in the distance. I was going to be late. I increased my speed, mentally noting that the last time I ran this quickly., I was being chased by a crazed man waving a spear over his head. Thankfully, this time, I only needed to focus on getting to the train station, and my life wasn’t in immediate danger. 

I arrived at one of the more crowded streets, and I had to slow my speed as I pushed through the oceantheocean of bodies. I glanced behind me, noting the clock tower proudly pronouncing the time:, ''1:58.''  

''Shoot,.'' I thought, ''I have two minutes''. I kept pushing through people, occasionally tip-toeing to check how far away the train station was. I got to the platform just as the doors began closing. I slipped in and walked to the back of the train. I found a mostly empty car and plopped down at a window, sighing with relief. The train began moving and then sped until the scenery blurred outside the window, the gloomy greysgraey’s melted into dull greens. Spring had been hesitant this year, and even though it was late summer, the trees had never flourished into their vibrant greens that so often came. 

I leaned back, still processing the fact that I was leaving Alithos, on purpose this time. I had won the scholarship from the academy; I had passed the tests, and now I was going to Lathra IV, representing my homeworld to the vast population of the surrounding systems. 

When the Lathran delegates visited Alithos for the first time after establishing a portal, they invited a student to go study on Lathra IV, the most advanced world in literally everything. Somehow, that student was me. I was on my way to the most advanced world we knew of to study at their most advanced university. It was going to be a long eight hours because the Lathran system was pretty far away. We’d have to go through Zora and Earth to get to Lathra IV.

I glanced at the people sharing the car with me. None of them looked like they would get off on Earth, seeing as they were still wearing the Lathinnyan style of clothing. The Lathrans liked to let worlds they discover they exist on their own before making their information trades. The Earthans still denied the existence of life other than on their planet, so the Lathrans were letting them figure it out on their own. However, Earth was a key portal platform to the rest of the explored galaxy, so the Lathrans made an undercover portal. 

Outside the window, the countryside began fading into graey mountains. The portal on Alithos was up in the mountains, but it would still take a while to get there. The roar of the engine echoed off the mountains and back at the train, filling the car with noise. I cringed at the screaming engines and noticed people had started staring at me. They hardly noticed the scream of the steam engine, for them, it was simply a low rumble. 

I leaned back in my seat, teeth clenched behind a feigned look of boredom. People turned their gazes away, and I relaxed slightly. People always stared at me, whispering rumors they thought I couldn’t hear. It made me uncomfortable knowing they were talking about me, but the fact that I could hear everything they said would nearly send me into a panic every time. 

As I watched, the mountains began turning white, the perpetual snow glinting as the train rumbled past. I wished I had a book to read, even if I already knew the plot, anything to distract myself from my brain’s meandering would have been a relief. From the back of the car, a child began wailing. I cringed once more. ''This is going to be miserable''.

☙❦❧

Nearly the full four hours later, the mother had finally gotten her child to be quiet, and we were at the portal. The train increased in speed as the first gasps cameescaped from those lucky enough to see the portal first. A few shrieks of surprise escaped my fellow passengers as we passed through the portal. The tingling in my fingers was nearly comforting. I had a nasty habit of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and ending up in a different world. This was ''not'' my first time encountering a portal, not by a long shot.

The dull mountains of Alithos seemed to explode into the vibrant greens of Zora. I wrinkled my nose at the humidity seeping through the window next to me. Alithos wasn’t pretty, but at least the air didn’t sweat.

Zora was a fairly large planet, full of lush forests, strobe lights, and people who looked like they were covered in toddler crayon drawings. Zorans were extremely proud of their advancements, as if giving yourself a neck ache to see the tops of their buildings was rewarding. 

The train began slowing as it entered the capital city. I turned away from the window, hoping to postpone the inevitable migraine Caileth would give me. The tinted screen windows of the towering buildings flashed advertisements for bath soaps and the next political runner-ups’ campaign. The one-government system on Zora had a nasty habit of sprouting dictators, and no doubt, the man whose face I saw was the size of a small house, and was going to “disappear” before he made any headway. 

The surrounding passengers were having a blast looking at the buildings, never having seen anything bigger than four stories. I grabbed my bags as the train screeched to a halt, once again flinching at the noise. I stepped out onto the glistening stage that was the Zoran train station. The bustle of tourists and yelling shopkeepers only motivated me to find the next train. I once again pushed past people, trying to get to my train. The Lathrans had invented camouflaged trains, and seeing as we had to go through Earth, they were the only ones fit to travel to the Lathra System in this sector. 

The cool air of the Lathran train was a relief from the muggy, crowded streets of Caileth. With a sigh, I plopped into my seat, pleased to find my car empty. Empty, until an entire group of loud Zorans burst into it. They seemed to be high enough in society to feel entitled to respect, but not quite high enough to deserve it. ''Aristocrats''. I never liked high-class people, maybe because they always looked down on people, maybe because they were just flat-out annoying. Either way, I was dreading what they were going to sneer at. 

They began by commenting on the other people in the car, debating what their shoes cost, and not really caring. Then one woman caught sight of me and pointed. The snickering began. Zorans ''loved'' humiliating cans. There had been some feud centuries ago, before communicating fully worked. A communication mishap started the whole thing. Unfortunately for me, I had a knack for languages, and I understood every word that came out of their ridiculously colored lips. Even worse, they didn't know and had no scruples against talking down to me.

They started by debating what shade of green my eyes were, and whether the freckles helped me look less pale. It was mostly negative comments, but I didn’t care. Moving to my hair, they tried to determine if the black color was natural or dyed. This comment made me more uncomfortable. Something always made me nervous when my hair was brought up. I never knew what it was, I just always felt weird about it. 

I was truly getting irritated when they moved on to my height. Yes, I was tall, and no, it was not because of surgery.

Under my breath, I muttered, "I can hear you." It was in Nzoran, but they didn't hear me, they just kept talking a mile a minute.

Honestly, the more they talked about me, the more I realized just how fake their beauty was. 

These Zorans had long hair, twisted intoup in the most ridiculous of shapes, their long ears protruding from beneath it. They covered the ears themselves in earrings on the bottom and decorative tattoos on the top. I don't even want to go into what they were wearing. It was mostly glittery garbage bags, complete with jewel-encrusted belts. Once again, these aristocrats' faces were smeared with neon paint and even more glitter. Yet, even with all their gaudiness, they seemed simple and elegant. Until you see how much of it was plastic surgery. 

After they dwelled far too long on me, I finally snapped. 

"Would you shut up? Some of us don't like being dissected by glittery garbage." The entire group quieted and stared at me. I glared at them, becoming exceedingly irked by their stares. After a full two minutes of silence, one woman burst out laughing and was quickly joined by the others. 

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bags. I was not about to put up with them for the next four hours. I left the car, this time looking for one with more people in it, wishing that for once, I could just blend in, it was a little hard to do that when you're six feet tall, have black hair, green eyes, and a weird name. I just hoped it would be easier on Lathra IV.

Four hours later, the train pulled into the station in Elquar. The air was crisp; the sky was clear, and the building in front of me was ''huge''. It made sense that it would be an extensive building; it was maybe the most important site in our galaxy, the place where the first portal to a different system was opened. It was extremely intimidating, all glass and marble. No, not glass, gems. 

The homeworld of the Lathrans, commonly known as Geterria, was full of elementals. They often hired workers from the Stone Tribe to create structures, making them both beautiful and durable. Nearly everything in Elquar seemed to be of Stone Tribe craftsmanship. It was breathtaking.

I moved farther into the maze of stone, miraculously finding my way to the immigration line. The people in front of me seemed to be native Lathrans, returning home. It’s a strange feeling, being the most noticeable person in the room, and suddenly being plunged in with strangers who took the cake in terms of being noticeable. Lathrans were known for their height, on average being taller than most people on Alithos. I finally blended in. It was such a relief not to be the center of attention. 

I got up to the counter and found myself in front of a woman who immediately handed me a stack of papers with different languages printed on them. She wanted to know if she needed to call a translator. I had been studying Lathran for the last month, but I had never spoken to someone in it.

“No, it’s alright, I speak Lathran.” I said. My practice had paid off.surprised myself. The language came so easily, not like any other I had learned.

The woman was slightly surprised but quickly recovered. “Alright, may I see your ID?”

''Oh, no. Do I need an ID?'' My look of concern and confusion must have puzzled the woman even more than my fluency in her language.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you not from here? Your accent was so good I assumed you were from here. My apologies. What's your name?" I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that I hadn't left something on Alithos. 

"Fannara Harpson, I'm the exchange student from Alithos."

The woman broke out into a smile, "Indeed you are, you can go on through, Ana Keleth is in the waiting area, she'll take you to campus." I waited, hoping I would get more information., I had no clue who Ana Keleth was. “The waiting area is that way.” She pointed a long finger down a corridor, still smiling, but with a hint of annoyance now. I moved in the indicated direction, muttering a thanks under my breath. 

☙❦❧

The waiting room was filled with so many people, I don’t think I could have found Ana., even if I knew who she was. Thankfully, she found me. 

She strode over to me, heels clicking on the marble floor. "You must be Fannara., I'm Ana Keleth, minister of education, but you can just call me Ana." She was a tall woman, seemingly in her mid-forties. She had auburn hair that framed her pale face, laden with two deep blue eyes. She woreIt was a kind face, one that seemed to understand both joy and sorrow.

I forced a smile back at her. Something about her was making me nervous, and I just couldn't put my finger on it. It was like a word you couldn't remember, almost a strange deja vu feeling. There was something wrong here.

== Chapter 2 ==
''Fannara''

Ana led me out of the lobby, commenting on my trip, and leaving opportunities for me to talk, but I didn’t take them. I was too distracted. ''What is different about you? Why do I feel like this?''

We got to her vehicle, a black thing that almost looked like an earthen car, but was hovering just above the road. As the doors opened seemingly of their own volition, I noticed the vehicle was armored, which. This too confused me. From all I’d heard, Paladine was a peaceful country. It had been for nearly a century, with neither domestic nor international conflicts. Why was her vehicle armored then?

I hesitantly climbed into it, trying, and failing, at hiding my confusion.  Everything was so different, yet somehow familiar. Ana began telling me about her kids when I remained pensive, informing me that her son, Moren, was in my class. She had a daughter too, LaraWrynn, who apparently was a week away from turning fifteen. I muttered congratulations, hardly looking at her before returning my gaze out the window. Right at that moment, the vehicle began gliding down the pavement; the cityscape unfolding outside of my window.

The next ten minutes of the drive comprised me gasping at the grandeur of the Elquar skyline, as Ana told me about what school will look like, and my occasional response or question. I gaped at the enormous palace on a hill overlooking the city, seemingly made of pure gold as the setting sun shone on the vast windows.

Ana caught me staring at it and quietly remarked, “It’s very bright in there this time of day, but those rooms have the best view of the city. The other side is nearly blinding in the mornings, but provides a beautiful look of the mountains.” I turned and stared at Ana.

“You ''live'' there?”

She laughed at my shocked expression, quickly returning her eyes to the road in front of her. “I have for the last twelve years after my husband took the reins of our country as Greatest Lordleading position in the government {I really need to name this} after the last one resigned.”  She seemed sad as she remembered the past family that dwelled in the palace.

“May I ask what led them to resign?” I put the question out there tentatively, trying to express that she did not need to explain if it made her uncomfortable.it was ok(I would use okay or OK) for her not to explain.

 Ana heaved a sigh, a tense look spreading across her face. It was the first time she had stopped smiling.

"You don't have to tell me." She turned to look at me, relieved., relieved gratitude in her eyes. 

"It happened years ago, but I don't know if anyone who knew them has fully recovered yet. It may be best not to bring it up around some." She pushed away the dampened mood with a cheery smile “Anyhow, we’ve arrived. Welcome to Elquar University.”

I stared at the campus. Rows of gigantic, fake trees encircled, acting as a fence for a twenty-story building, the top of which was emblazoned with a decorative “E”. The "trees" were connected by a curling sidewalk which was covered by a crystal canopy of fake leaves supported by marble columns covered in vines. 

The vehicle glided to a stop in between two of the giant trees, which I could then see were buildings of some sort. The doors opened and Ana stepped out.

“These are the dorms, and that,” she pointed at the closest “tree,” “is the one you'll be staying in.”

I turned and stared at her once more, a strange new habit I seemed to develop. “No way,” Ana merely nodded at my amazement. “But it’s ''huge''. How many people go here?”

Ana laughed outright. “Thousands. Keep in mind only that the brightest live here. This get in, but this is the best school in the galaxy.” She turned on her heel and walked towards the “tree”. I grabbed my bags and stumbled out after her, jogging to catch up to her long strides. 

The tops of the tree buildings stuck out over the road, casting emerald light dancing down from the translucent roof. The place was ultramodern and packed with buildings, but it felt like a forest for giants. 

Ana strode into the lobby, pulling a miniature silver frame from her pocket. I looked at it quizzically, wondering why she would pull something like that out while waiting in line in a girl's dorm. She grabbed two of the corners, sliding them open and then pushing a hidden button on the side of one. A screen lit up the area inside of the delicate frame. She began typing on it as if it were an earthen cell phone and kept typing for a while.

I took the time to look around the lobby, taking in my surroundings. Couches covered nearly the entire floor space and were in turn covered in dozens of throw pillows and exceptionally loud girls. What looked like a small café sat tucked against one of the curved walls. The crystal walls let in enough sunlight to light up the whole gigantic room. 

Ana suddenly slammed the frame in on itself and strode past the people waiting in line, seeming to give no regard to what they thought. She spoke with the woman at the desk, looking behind at the couch girls and nodding as the other woman spoke. She handed Ana a white bag, and suddenly looked over at me, eyes wide. Ana grabbed her arm and hissed something at her. I glanced away, confused again. ''Why is this place so weird?'' 

Ana walked over to where I stood, a fake smile on her face.

"Sorry about that, we had a bit of a mix-up." She took a deep breath, her face relaxing into a more natural smile. Ana stretched out her arms, offering me the white bag. "This has essentials and your schedule. Now, would you like to meet your roommates?" My gut dropped as she handed me the bag.

"Uh... sure." I had never had good interactions with the girls I roomed with on Alithos. Heaven forbid the daughter of the king's second cousin's, twice removed's fiancee be stuck with the scholarship girl. I was a plague among wannabe royals. I just hoped none of these girls knew how to get in my head.

Ana led me to one couch and three girls shot up, caught off guard. One girl was grinning from ear to ear.

She was the shortest of the three, but was by no means short herself. She had tanned skin, a frizzy head of brunette curls, and ridiculously excited brown eyes. Standing next to her was a very tall, skinny girl. She had dark skin, dark eyes, and a huge poof of hair, dyed in various shades of purple, bunched into a bun on top of her head. The third girl looked the least friendly. She had slightly tanned skin, stone grey eyes, and strawberry-blonde hair with two pointed and slightly curved ears peeking through. A very serious expression on her face told me she was reluctant to accept me. I was not expecting to get along with ''her''. 

"Fannara, this is Alamara," the short one, "Melody," the tall one, "and Arienna." The steel-faced one. 

"It's so great to finally meet you!" Alamara bounced as she spoke, excited energy radiating off of her in waves. “You can call me Mara. Then that’s Mel and Ari.”

"Yeah, thanks. It's nice to be here." I felt like an idiot as the words awkwardly tumbled out of my mouth. 

Melody smiled at me, her eyes conveying that Alamara was always like this. 

"Well, I'll let you ladies get her settled." Ana turned and smiled at me one last time. "If you ever need anything from me, I believe Moren is on your brother floor."

"My what?"

"He is?" Ana and I turned and looked at Arienna, who was now looking very uncomfortable. Melody and Mara exchanged knowing glances. 

"I think what Ari means is that he'll be a ''great'' help." Alamara was trying to fix the little mishap, but somehow her comment seemed almost sarcastic. Ana seemed a little uncomfortable as the girls tried to hide their grimaces.

"I'll let you settle in now, happy classes!" Ana left the building, leaving me with a trio of girls I was convinced wouldn't like me. 

Arienna turned to the other girls, a look of upset shock on her face. "We’re stuck with ''Moren Keleth''?"

Melody grimaced. "It would seem so. Training is going to be very interesting." I watched on as the three nodded in agreement 

"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what the problem is, or what this 'brother floor training' stuff is about." The girls looked at me as if they had forgotten I was even there. ''Typical''.

"Yeah, sorry. Hmm...how to explain the jerk that is Moren Keleth." Arienna furrowed her brows in an overdramatic show of thinking, her index finger tapping her chin. 

Melody gave a small chuckle. "How about we do that while helping Fannara move in."

"You just don't want Ana to come in and hear us making fun of her son." Arienna raised an eyebrow at her friend’s attempt at avoiding a potential confrontation. 

Mara jumped in. “I think Mel’s right. No need to talk about this right now.” She seemed uncomfortable with Melody and Arienna’s attitude towards this boy, and yet she hadn’t disagreed when Arienna had called him a jerk. 

“Alright, let’s get you settled in.” Arienna glanced at my two carpet bags and the canvas one Ana had given me. “You want help with those? We live on the top floor.” 

My eyes widened. “How many floors are there?”

“Seventeen.” Arienna looked at me, confused at my look of dread. She let the silent confusion hang in the air as the three stared at me. “There’s an elevator.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” The three looked at me, clearly shoving down giggles.

Alamara seemed to swallow a laugh as she asked, “Do you not have elevators on Alithos?” I shook my head at her. 

''We do not need seventeen stories; we aren’t huge on neck aches.'' I said none of my thoughts out loud, of course, and I mentally kicked myself. These girls had been nothing but kind, to my amazement, and it wasn’t fair to think such things. However, old habits die hard, and it would be a while until I fully stopped my cynicism.  

Melody took one of my travel bags. “I’m just going to carry this for you then.”

“You really don’t need-”

Arienna held up a hand, “Mrs. Keleth is infamous for her overpacking, that bag probably weighs a ton.” I lifted my arm experimentally. The white bag was rather heavy, and the straps looked about ready to snap off, but I had been so nervous, I hadn’t realized how heavy it was. 

“I guess it does. Thanks,.” I tried to make my smile look genuine, but I was very out of practice. Melody nodded her head, her purple cloud above her head bouncing as she began leading us to the elevators. 

Alamara began talking as soon as the doors closed, letting me know I was sharing a room with Arienna and that she and Melody were our suitemates, we would share a bathroom. 

The sudden stop of the metal box we were standing in shocked me as a bell dinged and the door glided open. I hadn’t realized we had been moving. We walked out of the elevator into a brightly lit, circular hall. The faux leaves of the roof patterned the wooden floors in emerald light. The center of the large hall was a kind of balcony, looking down at the other floors. I noticed the bottom floor that I could see was not the lobby, most likely for privacy reasons. It was the level above it. 

We walked around the decedent walls and doors without handles until we reached our suite. Two doors proclaimed who’s rooms they were. ''Arienna Harlen, Fannara Harpson'' were on a piece of elegant paper. The other door had ''Alamara Mullid, Melody Harfeld''. It seemed that Arienna and Melody had met in something name-related, and I had been assigned because of my last name to be her roommate. No doubt they had been going to room with another friend and something interfered with that. I hoped ''I'' wasn’t what had interfered. 

Melody put my bag down and reached into her pocket, pulling out the same kind of silver frame that Ana had used in the lobby. She stretched out the corners, much more carefully than Ana had, and swiped to a code of some sort. She passed it over a black square that was set where the handle should have been. A small click and the door swung open. 

“Ana probably armed you with a telecom. It’s how we get textbooks, sign up for classes, and talk.” Melody waved her screen around as she listed off the many uses of a “telecom”. She shut the frame again, the screen disappearing as the corners closed. Arienna grabbed my carpet bag before Melody could and strode into our room, her blonde ponytail waving behind her at Melody’s look of fake annoyance. Arienna turned her head and gave her an innocent smile.

“What, Mel? I don’t get to help my roommate?”

Mara leaned over to me and explained whatthat Melody and Arienna where doing, “They are competing to see who you’ll become friends with first. They are competitively nice and it’s ''weird''.” I looked at the two girls as they tried to out-shinenice each other. I had expected no one to know me from a bar of soap, but my roommates were aggressively trying to befriend me.and here were these three girls, all hoping to get along, be friends even, with me. I did not know what to do with the kindness they seemed to need to bestowed upon me. For the first time in years, I thought I had made friends, however long that would last.

== Chapter 3 ==
''Fannara''

I followed Arienna into her room–''our'' room, and stared. The far wall was one giant window, looking out over a forest full of lakes and rivers, stretching out to brush the mountains. The mountain range stretched on for miles all around, their white peaks bleeding into the bluish grays of the mountains.

Arienna tossed my bag onto a loft bed pushed against a wall near the window. I looked at the room itself for the first time and was slightly surprised by the simplicity of it. It was a large room but was smaller than most rooms in the Academy in Lathinya.

Two doors on the left wall led to a closet and a shared bathroom. The wall to the right of the bathroom door had a small couch pushed against it, sitting on a fuzzy rug. The window met with the right wall against which my loft bed stood, a desk under the white frame. Arienna's bed, desk, and shelf sat near the corner where the wall with the main door and the wall with the closet and bathroom door collided.

Her area was covered in pillows and blankets of various shades of orange, making it look like someone had set it on fire. Pictures and string lights hung on the wall over her bed and desk, a stark contrast to my side. The bleached white of my mattress matched the blank walls over my bed. The area looked cold and nearly dead. The dull greens and browns of my carpet bag were the only color.

Arienna studied my corner, a frown on her face. "Is it safe to assume that those bags don't contain bedding?" I nodded. I was used to the pre-furnished apartments at the Academy, I did not know that bedding wouldn't be provided. Arienna furrowed her brows once more. "Mel, you and Mara are going shopping, right?"

Melody stuck her head in the bathroom door. "Yeah, need me to pick something up?"

"You bet. I'm all out of milk and Fannara here needs some bedding.”

Mara stuck her head into our room too, pushing Melody out of her way. “What color? Green, maybe? Like a very dark, foresty green, ooh, and those string lights that look like leaves would look so cool, and-”

“-Mara, let her speak.” Melody laughed at Alamara’s enthusiasm.

I felt a genuine smile trying to ease its way onto my face. For once, I didn’t fight it. “That would be great. I’m not very good at interior design, so I’ll let you handle that if you want.” Mara’s face lit up with a huge smile.

“You would let me? Really?” She started bouncing when I nodded, clearly forming a plan for how to fill up the barren space that was my area. A small chuckle escaped me, the first genuine laugh in...I don’t know how many years.

"Well then, I guess we'll be heading off." Melody smiled at me, "I'd offer to bring you along, but you probably want to rest after traveling. We should go out some other time before school starts, get you accustomed to Elquar and everything."

Melody turned, closing the door after Mara bounced out of the way, leaving me and Arienna to unpack the few belongings that had been stuffed into my bags. We worked in silence, Arienna occasionally sighing and glancing at me. She seemed to be trying to come up with something to talk about, the slightly uncomfortable silence making her squirm.

"So," I started, keeping my eyes on the shirt in my hands, "I believe there was a certain person you were going to tell me about?" At the time, I couldn't remember Moren's name. It wasn't the best conversation starter, but my mind had gone blank.

Arienna drew in a long breath. "I really hope Ana was wrong about him being in our group, cause he has to be the most pigheaded person I've ever met." She glanced at me as if asking for permission to rant. I nodded my head slightly. Clearly, Arienna wasn't able to rant around Mara and needed to release.

“Ugh, things are just confusing and complicated and I can’t stand him anymore, I just-” She made a strangled screaming noise. “So we grew up together, right? His parents are in government, my dad was, a happy little bubble of children. Well, something happened to a mutual friend of ours years and years ago and he totally shut me out. I didn’t see him again until last year.” She glared at the bag next to her crossed legs. 

“When I saw him again last year, I was really excited, but also, meeting with old friends is always awkward. Now, he ''refused'' to acknowledge my existence for the first weeks, but my stupid brain figured that maybe he was nice again or something dumb like that. ''So'', second semester, we have a class together. And I’m like, great, now we can catch up.” A wry chuckle interrupted her story. 

“Let me tell you, that was the worst mistake all year. Moren Keleth is just so...''irritating''. He was rude every time I tried to talk to him, telling me there were plenty of other people to annoy on campus, literally, he said that. So you know what I did the next day? I ignored him, pretended he wasn’t there. And we haven’t acknowledged each other’s existence since.”

I stared at her, trying to put the story together. “So I take it you don’t like him anymore?”

She snorted. “I don’t think it’s possible to like Moren after you get to know him.”

“He sounds awful.” I pushed myself off the floor, grabbing a stack of clothes and stuffing them into a drawer.

Arienna squished my bags into smaller shapes and shoved them into the closet. “He is. Let’s hope he isn’t in our group.” As I was about to respond, something out the window caught my eye. Some kinds of birds seemed to be fighting in the distance.

“What kind of bird is that?” I pointed at the airborne creatures out the window.

Ari ran over to the window. “Oh, stink.” She put her palms flat on the window, pulling them apart and making the image zoom in like a magnifying glass had been placed in front of it. The enlarged view of the fight revealed not birds, but ''dragons''. I gasped at the enormity of the winged reptiles. One was a matte black color, the scales seeming to drink in all the surrounding sunlight. The second one was a vibrant red, glimmering like a ruby. They had to be hundreds of miles away.

As we watched, the black dragon dug its claws into the red one’s right shoulder, tearing off the scales. The red one seemed to shrink as it fell from the sky. The black flew away, victorious.

I turned to Arienna. “Was that a ''dragon battle''?” She was frowning at the open sky the red dragon had fallen from.

“That was a Shifter battle.”

“What’s a Shifter?” The name sounded familiar.

She sighed, her shoulders drooping. “Shape Shifter. They have three forms, fully human, fully animal, and a strange in-between. They,” she paused. “''Some'' of them have been doing ‘raiding parties’.”

“What do they steal?”

“People.”

I stared at Arienna as she fidgeted with the hem of her tank top. “They kidnap people? Why?” She shrugged.

“No one knows. Some people are returned, but they are different somehow.” She looked out the window as if she could will the fallen Shifter into the air again. “The leader of the dragons, the Deraal, is behind all of this, at least that’s what I think. Deraal Jana was appointed as leader fifteen years ago, and the second year into her leading them, something went wrong.

“Other races of Shifters went missing. No one has seen a bird Shifter in a decade. There have been occasional sightings, of course, but they have been strange, not like the Shifters used to be. The centaurs reached out to the Paladine government, my father, specifically, because he was a Shifter diplomat. They were seeking asylum. They were denied. We don’t know what happened to them, if they were slaughtered by Jana or if she had a crueler fate for them, we don’t know.

“Now we are on the brink of war. Every year more and more Eldran citizens go missing, and lately, they haven’t been returned.” She leaned against the window, a faraway look in her eyes.

“Why haven’t I heard about this?”

She scoffed. “The most advanced country in the known universe doesn’t want to promote they are on the brink of war. Many cultures see peace as the foremost achievement anyone could accomplish. Our government doesn’t want bad publicity.”

I thought about this for a bit, and with a gasp, remembered where I had heard the term “Shifter” before. ''Via''.

“Are you ok?” Arienna turned to me, looking rather concerned. I furrowed my brows.

“I’m fine, but I think I’ve met a bird Shifter before. She was an eagle Shifter, at least she looked like an eagle, maybe it was a different kind of bird.”

Ari straightened, now eyeing me with suspicion. “What color was her hair?”

I stared at her, very confused. “It was a light blonde, almost white.” I paused once more. “Are ''you'' ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just that…” She stopped again, leaving me exceedingly confused. She took another deep breath. “Well, like I said before, whenever people have said they’ve seen bird Shifters it’s been weird. They have all had black hair. And the next logical thing to think is, ‘oh, maybe only the crows have been seen’ or something along those lines,” I nodded, that was exactly what I had been thinking. “But here’s the thing, their wing shapes are wrong. They ''should'' be other colors, but they aren’t. They all have black feathers, and they shouldn’t. So the fact that you have not only seen but ''met'' a normally colored Shifter is great news.”

I thought about how I had met Via. It was one of those wrong place, wrong time instances. I had been teleported to a different planet, somehow, and she was there. Her tiny frame somehow supported giant wings, nearly three times my height. Yet, she had run so quickly, shifting between her fully bird form and half form with ease.

“I think she told me she had left her homeworld looking for someone. Do you think this Jana person could have taken someone she knew?”

Arienna thought about it for a minute. “I doubt that would be who she’s looking for, I’ve never heard of Jana sending people off-world.” She looked like she was about to say something else, but stopped. She shook her head slightly, as if to clear it, and pushed wispy strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail away from her face. “I’m so sorry, this is your first day here and all I’ve told you about are the problems. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

The rather abrupt change in conversion puzzled me slightly, but it was understandable. "No, no, I'm fine. Thank you for telling me though. I would rather know the ugly truth than live here in comfortable cluelessness." The old Alithosi proverb came out automatically, the saying had been drilled into me for years, being the first response when a student asked why they should study.

Ari shrugged, "I'm glad I could help."

☙❦❧

The rest of the afternoon was quiet. I had just finished unpacking when Mara and Melody returned, Melody, seeming tired from shopping and Mara practically bouncing as she clutched her excessive amount of shopping bags. Mara threw her numerous bags on her bed and ran into our room, grabbing Arienna by the arm.

“Ariiiiiiiiiiiii, you and Fannara have to go shopping with me tomorowwwwwwwwwwww.” She drew out each word as if it were burdensome to speak.

Ari merely raised an eyebrow, not even trying to free her arm. “And why should we?”

Alamara dramatically took a deep breath before releasing a torrent of words. “Mel said she doesn’t wanna go with me and I need to buy more clothes and Fannara should get more clothes and you are the best at that kind of thing. W and we could get ice puffssssssssssssssssssss!.” She once again whined out the last word, pleading with her friend. Arienna turned to me, the eyebrow still raised.

I shrugged. “As long as it doesn’t last all day.” Mara squealed, squeezing Ari into a hug that made her eyes bulge.

☙❦❧

The trip did take all day, but the ice puffs made it all worth it. I didn’t even know how to describe what I thought when I tried it, aside from heavenly. However, the situation I found myself in was not anywhere close to the level of pure joy the food had induced. I had found out while shopping that an annual ball was held for the beginning of school; that was why Mara insisted on shopping.

Partway through our shopping spree, Mara had to “go check on Mel”. I returned to a fully decorated dorm and two rather sweaty suitemates.

The casual comfort of shorts and t-shirts was a luxury I had never imagined, and being in a skirt again was something I had hoped could have been left with my Alithosi clothes in the back of our now crowded closet, but alas, the ball was set.

It hadn’t seemed all bad at first. The building it was held in was ridiculous though, five stories of just the ballroom, complete with mini waterfalls, forests of glass, and, I kid you not, spiral ''escalators''. They looked like glass, but considering all the advanced, magical technology, I knew that they could be something else.Made entirely of glass, of course, at least, what looked like glass.

I sighed as I looked over the gilded room from the third-floor balcony. "This place is ridiculous."

"Tell me about it." A voice from behind scoffed. Startled, I turned and nearly had to catch myself on the railing. A boy about my age was standing behind me, his dark blue eyes resting in what seemed to be a permanent glare. Tufts of reddish-brown hair fell over his light-skinned fac{color} face haphazardly. I was certain I had seen him before as the strange feeling of de ja vú returned once more, accompanied by a strong wave of dizziness. ''What is the deal with this place?''

"You're not from here, are you?" I nearly jumped as he walked over to the rail, clearly keeping his distance, and seemingly annoyed at ''my'' discomfort.

Trying to pull my thoughts together, I shook my head. "I transferred." That wasn't necessarily the whole truth, but I was rather preoccupied and didn't feel like explaining being from Alithos to someone who seemed so...''stuck up''.

"Well then," I internally groaned as he kept talking. I couldn't even tell ''why'' he was talking to me. He clearly didn't enjoy it. "You probably shouldn't get too comfortable. I can guarantee that this school is much more challenging than wherever you came from." He glanced over at me, doing his best to look down when we were practically the same height. "If you don't believe me, wait a month. All the exchange students will be sent back where they belong."

"Excuse you?" I glared back at him now, trying to keep myself from punching something, preferably him, as my face warmed. "Why would the exchange students leave when ''you'' are still here?"

He rolled his eyes. "Their primitive teaching can't prepare them for our university. They don't stand a chance." That's when it clicked. The eyes were the first clue, the hair the second. He looked like a darker shade of his mother. The rude attitude was the real giveaway. Arienna had been right; Moren Keleth ''was'' irritating.

I looked at him, completely unimpressed. "Our 'primitive teaching' is what ''your'' country is sending people to learn. It would seem you weren't smart enough to be picked to go, or maybe they didn't want you to start a war." I shrugged. "You would have fit in well with the jerks at the Lathinyan academy. Shame that you're still here."

It was his turn to get upset this time, but before he could start, Arienna came over, standing next to me and glaring darkly at Moren.

"Not to stoop to your level or anything, but do you ''always'' have to be this rude?" He glared right back at her as she took my arm and led me away.

"You were right, no one in their right mind would like him."

She nearly growled. "One of these days he's going to get what's coming to him and I fully intend to see it."

== Chapter 4 ==
''Fannara''

“Tell us something about yourself.” I internally called curses on the wrinkled professor as he made me stand before the huge class for longer. It felt like show and tell, but I was the item.

I wracked my brain for something-anything that was remotely interesting and not already known. Stupid responses fluttered through my mind, refusing to be dismissed. Someone at the back of the room snickered. Moren. He had made it his goal to be a jerk in every class we had together, and the History of Eldran Magic was no exception.

I glared in his general direction and straightened my spine, turning to face most of the class. “I competed in climbing in the international games on Alithos and got first place when I was sixteen.” I spat the age out with more force than was needed, aiming the information at the jerk in the back.

The class went silent for a beat. Every face staring at me had the same expression; shock.

“Yeah, Fannara!” Ari yelled from the far corner. Her cry was met with applause. Applause for me. For some reason, it felt strange. I had been applauded before, I had won that competition and many others, but this time, it felt genuine. The usual scorn at my achievement came from only one person, not the whole crowd.

I bit back a grin as the teacher released me to my seat next to Arienna.

“That's literally so cool. What kind of climbing was it?” She whispered the words under the buzz of the other students, but loud enough to be heard. And not just by me.

“Probably primitive tree climbing. Alithiosians are proud of their place in time, aren't they?”

Arienna whipped around, her ponytail nearly swatting me in the face. “Would you shut up?” She glared at Moren fiercely enough to make him lean back and roll his eyes. Why he had been assigned a seat next to mine in nearly every class was beyond me, but I knew it made us both miserable.

She turned back to me, awaiting a response. Unfortunately, Moren had been right. The climbing of the oldest tree on Alithos was an ancient ritual, performed as the opening game. Whether he had said that as a lucky guess or had done his homework, I didn't know. I did know that I wasn't going to admit to him being correct in front of him.

Thankfully, Dr. Kortsus began his lecture, informing us that even if it was a required class, he would be no less strict. I wiggled the pencil in my hand as he went on, wishing he would stop droning on about not accepting late homework and start teaching already. I was the only person in the whole class who had a notebook instead of a telecom on my desk. The devices were useful, sure, but the blinding blue light that relentlessly emanated from the silver frame induced headaches and migraines for me.

“Now, onto the material.” I positioned the pencil above the paper, more than ready to show the snooty-faced jerk behind me just how “primitive” I was. “Back in the days of the first Geterrian Queen, a strange anomaly occurred. As most of you should know, the formerly known as ‘vortex users’ lost their magic when the Empire of the Destroyed fell.” Someone in the front made a pun about the empire being destroyed, to which the teacher only deadpanned a response.

“If Miss Aelynn is done ''pun''ishing us with her bad jokes, we'll move on with our recap." The class laughed politely at the professor's pun, the awkward kind of chuckle between a groan and a cough that was often used in response to things that were more cringy than funny. "The former vortex users gained magic that would later separate them from the Geterrian people and they would become the Eldran.” He gestured at us students, indicating the majority of them were Eldran. 

“Time for a little trivia. What are the three main powers of the Eldran race?” At least twenty arms shot up into the air simultaneously, hands and fingers wiggling, hoping to catch the professor’s eye. He pointed to a boy near the middle of the room.

All the arms lowered as he spoke up. “Healing, light bending, and fields-I mean- force fields.”

Dr. Kortsus smiled at the boy. “Well done Mr. Kasivar. Next question: what is the Eldra and the Eldramin?” Dozens of hands flew up once more. He pointed at Arienna. “Miss Harlen, please keep it simple, we’ll be going into the different theories of the Eldra in another class.”

She nodded. “The Eldra is the source of all Eldran magic, and the Eldramin is the guardian of the Eldra.”

He nodded. “And who was the last Eldramin, and when did they live?”

Ari thought about it for a moment. “The last Eldramin was Altum Riddor. He was a fields manipulator, and lived one hundred and forty-nine years ago.”

The professor clapped for her. “Very well done, Miss Harlen, I am impressed. Moving on, after the Eldran separated from the Getterians, they colonized Lathra II, III, and IV after learning how to create portals. Lathra II is the smaller moon of Lathra IV and Lathra III is the second moon. Lathra I orbits Lathra IV, seeing as it's so small. What does this mean for our Getterian guests?" He gestured at Arienna again, but not so she could answer, so she could be an example for him.

A hand was picked. "Getterian's magic is strongest when Lathra I is closest because that's when they are closest to their Tribal Stones. That's why the Stone Tribe only fixes buildings every few months."

He nodded at the student. "Now, you have refreshed, or learned, the basic material of this quad. There will be time for discussion about different Eldra theories, and we will be taking a trip to the Burning Waters to further investigate that theory." A few whoops went up from the class. "We will also conduct further studies on different types of magic and the ancient art of creating portals. Questions?" Dozens of hands shot up once more.

☙❦❧

The morning seemed to speed by, with only a few classes feeling drawn out by a certain jerk who was in two classes too many. Ari looped her arm through mine, leading me...somewhere. I had explored the campus more, only to discover it was ridiculously huge and nearly impossible to navigate. I knew how to get from the tall office building thing, not so affectionately called the {semi rude nickname that could still be used affectionately}, to my dorm, West Eucalyptus.

W.E. was the third tree in from the gate leading to {nicknamed thingy}, standing proud in between the other girls' dorms and the bookstore/library. I loved the library. It had the same interior as our dorm, but, somehow, was more ornate. I had gasped at the dark wooden staircases with gold railings in vine designs attaching the handle to the base. The floors were three dorm stories tall, covered in books, painting, and well-lit reading nooks.

Arienna practically had to drag me out of there, insisting we had more places to see, and that I would have plenty of hours to study in the warm slice of home. I hadn’t expected to be homesick; I had hated living on Alithos, but maybe I had just told myself that so I wouldn’t miss it. Whether or not it was purposeful, it didn’t work. I didn’t miss the people there, not by a long shot, but the actual place, the trees, the smells, the buildings, I missed those. I missed the obnoxiously heavy books we had to haul around, the dozens of notebooks and journals and loose papers flying around in your room when it was windy, not some tiny silver square. Everything that seemed better about Elquar was everything I missed about Talidine.

Either way, Ari was dragging me through {nickname} with no explanation of where or why she was taking me. We were on the eighth floor, so it was no surprise that she led me to an elevator. What was surprising was that once we were in it, she pressed the button labeled "R" which was positioned on the row of numbers in a way that indicated it was one of the top floors. I had yet to go to the top floor that was apparently three floors without the dividers.

I didn't even know we were moving until we stopped. The doors glided open, revealing a cafeteria of sorts. Colorful signs boasting sandwiches, coffee, and ice puffs sat scattered throughout the large room, divided by chairs and couches. It was half the size of a normal floor, and the other half was the roof turned tropical garden, complete with waterfalls.

“Welcome to the Orchard.” Arienna threw out her arms in a flourish, presenting the area with contagious excitement. “The food here isn’t nearly as good as the food downtown, but it's much cheaper and much closer, obviously. But, the best part, it has the best view of the campus." She gesticulated at the windows this time, bringing my eyes to the expansive land laid out before me. {description of the campus that I’ll write later cuz I’m freaking tired of this scene}

☙❦❧

The rest of the day passed smoothly, classes starting up with much-needed summaries and too many unknown faces to count. The end of the day was when things becamegot interesting again.

All of my classes were in the {nickname}, but the last class only listed as a vague “training” was on the very top floor of the building. It turned out to be the height of three stories, with nooks, walkways, and random walls. It was one giant training arena. The only complete room was a large armory, full of high-tech weapons and more rustic-looking ones. Bows and spears sat next to handguns and strange handle-like pieces of metal. Shields made of different colors of diamond stood stacked together, leaning on each other and the wall for support.

The training area itself was full of ropes and chains attached to the ceiling. Obstacles had been set out in the huge space, pitch-black against the blinding sun beaming through the glass walls. Normally, this would have confused me, but that last few nights had shown me how the windows could go from seeming to not be there, to not letting a sliver of light through.

A voice boomed over hidden speakers, making me jump as I looked around the room. “All students go to your assigned group and await further instruction from your Trainer.” I started searching the area, now on the lookout for my roommates. At least, I was pretty sure that’s who my “assigned group” was made of.

I found Ari and Mara sitting near one of the hanging chains. I looked around.

“Where’s Mel?”

Mara’s brows quirked in confusion. “We thought she was with you.” We began our search once more. How hard was it to find a 6’5 girl with violet hair? Her bouncy head of hair was finally spotted and hunted down.

“Good Source Mel, where were you?” Arienna smacked Melody playfully.

She shrugged. “The view is very distracting.”

Mara was about to make a comment, but was cut off by the speakers again.

“For new students, let us explain what is going on. When you were accepted to this university, you were automatically enlisted in the Eldran army. You are free to  leave, but only after training, and you will be required to have check-ups every three months should you stay in the country. If you chose to stay or not, you must not tell a soul outside of this university what is happening. If the Deraal learns we are preparing for war, her attacks will surely worsen.” So that was what this was all about. War. The Eldrans needed students to fight for them. The logical thing to do would have been to distance myself from this world’s politics as much as possible, but after hearing everything the Shifters had done, I felt a strange loyalty to these people. If I could help them, I would.

“Your groups should be comprised of one force manipulator,” Mel raised her hand with all the other manipulators in the room. “One light bender,” Mara lifted her arm into the air. “And one healer,” my elbow straightened uncertainty until my long arm shot up like a flag from our group. “Your squadron’s trainer will come and assign your sibling group. Raise your hand when your room is called.” The speaker went through all the rooms on 17 W.E. until reaching our room. We all raised our hands when it was called.

A tall woman walked over to us, her uniform seeming to mean she was a manipulator. She pulled out a telecom, pulling apart the frame until it was the size and shape of a clipboard.

"I'm Valraea, I'm going to say your names and tell you your assigned guy." She said it playfully, making a joke out of how uncomfortable it sounded. "Alamara Mullid, Bryce Anderson. Melody Harfeld, Raymond Kasivar. Arienna Harlen, Lindin Garth. Fannara Harpson," She paused, her eyes actually widening. "Your partner is Moren Keleth."

== Chapter 5 ==
''Fannara''

The smile I had been struggling to maintain disintegrated as Valraea said his name. I had already been uncomfortable being around so many people I didn't know, but now they were all staring at me. Mara stiffened as Mel groaned. 

Ari let out a long breath. “Of course, of course, the one person we wanted to avoid is on our squad.” She yanked two ends of her ponytail apart, sending the hair tie shooting to her scalp and tightening its hold. 

“This won’t be a problem, right?” Valraea looked slightly concerned, but seemingly more about the hassle of reassigning people than out of sympathy.

I sighed. “We can handle his royal haughtiness.” She nodded and walked off to deliver the news to our brother team. 

“Maybe it will get better as time goes on?” Mara ventured. Mel was the first to reply, surprising us all with her comment.

“Mara, it’s Bryce.” She paused, her expression changing from one of exasperation into a sly grin. “I’m sure Ari and Lindin will have a good time even if Fannara and Mara don't.” Arienna glared at her, smacking her arm, but her cheeks betrayed the truth of Mel’s statement. 

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I haven’t heard about this.” 

“You see, last year aft-,” Melody’s story was cut off as Ari slapped her hand over the betrayer’s mouth. 

          Ari started again. "The point is that you two," she glared down at Mara and then up at me. "Better start some strategizing. The next three years are going to be awful if those guys stay as they are." 

          "Ok, I do have a question, though. What's wrong with Bryce?" Mara just pointed to where a rather short blonde boy was flexing in front of a group of girls who were rolling their eyes or practically drooling. 

          "''That's'' the problem with Bryce," Mel said once Ari released her.

"Ah, makes sense." 

“Look at them.” Mara pointed at a growing cluster of people heading towards the instructors in the room. As each had a brief conversation with an instructor, they opened their telecoms and scanned something off the other com. They then filled out whatever it was and had the instructors scan it. “They didn’t have forms last year. It was just strongly implied that no one talked about a chance of a Shifter attack leading to war. Anything relating to it was just taboo.”

I squinted at the screens, wishing I could tell what the little black dots against the glowing white screen said. “What do you think they have to fill out?”

Ari crossed her arms. “Probably their personal information, giving consent to get fingerprinted, acknowledging that if they spill the beans, the school and government have the authority to lock them up until the end of the war.” I was horrified.

“They can do that?”

Mara shifted uncomfortably. “Well yeah, if word got out that the Eldran are training for a potential war, it could be the excuse the Deraal needs to officially declare one.”

“Then why didn’t they have them last year?”

“Last year we had ‘fitness’, they passed off boot camp as a gym class.” Arienna chuckled at the cover-up. “And it didn’t matter, because no one thought Jana would ever find out. But then earlier this year….” She trailed off like she was regretting saying anything. 

''Great, another important event that was covered up. How is this country still running?'' 

“Oh look, Valraea’s back.” Mara’s cheery voice pulled me from my thoughts. ''And company'', I muttered under my breath''.'' 

“Girls,” Valraea gestured from us to the boys she had in tow. “This is your brother team. When I say your name, state the proper name of your power, and go to your partner, we have squad training after this.” Barely stifled groans sounded from everyone in our squadron. “I know it’s not fun, but if you didn’t want to do this, you should have gone to the front. Now, moving on, Raymond Kasivar,”

“Healing.”

“Melody Harfeld,”

“Force field manipulation.”

“Moren Keleth,”

“Light bending.”

“Fannara Harpson,”

“Healing.”

“Bryce Anderson,”

“Light bending.”

Valraea paused. “Two light benders on one team?”

“Yes ma’am, Moren’s bad at his job.” The boys snickered at the joke, and Moren rolled his eyes in a friendly manner.

“Well, I suppose there’s nothing we can do about that now. Alamara Mulid,”

“Light bending.” Mara’s face contorted as she tried to hold in a laugh at Valraea’s irked look. 

“Not only do you have three light benders in your squad, but two of you are also paired up?” She put a finger on either side of her forehead and groaned something about new administration. “Lindin Garth?”

“Light ben-” Valraea smacked him with her telecom.

“I know that’s a lie, you little jerk. What would your mother say?” She pretended to be upset until Lindin started laughing. His brown eyes practically disappeared when he smiled. 

“Alright, alright, it’s Force field manipulation.”

“Much better. Arienna Harlen?”

“Getterian metal bender.” 

Valraea smiled at Arienna. “It’s nice to know that not all the Getterians went back to the Homeworld.” Ari just nodded. 

Now that we were all lined up awkwardly, we started doing various exercises to assess our ability. We did nothing with our powers, everything was purely physical. 

Melody was the fastest of us girls, but I was close behind her, just a few seconds slower. Mara was the strongest, easily beating us all. I was excited when we got to test climbing and swiftly climbed the rock wall before any of my roommates were even halfway up. Poor Mel was shaking by the time she climbed back down. Even with her extreme height, she was terrified of them. Ari blew everyone away in the flexibility assessment, nearly folding in half before Valraea freaked out and told her to stop. She also had the best balance. 

As Training continued, I noticed something weird. Moren would talk to Mara and Mel, even make some jokes, but he wouldn’t even look at me or Ari. Not that we minded, but it got rather irritating, especially when Ari started talking with Lindin. I wasn’t mad that she was having a good time with him, part of me just wished that I had someone to talk to as well. 

By the end of Training, we were all sweaty and tired. We had literally been stretched to our limits and had probably each pulled something. 

Valraea studied the telecom she had recorded our times in. “You all did well, some more than others, but you all have room for growth.” I cringed. I knew I was one of those who hadn’t done “better than others.” I was from Alithos and it showed. “I’m going to ask that you all start one-on-one training with your partners starting next week. I think you can all learn from each other and you need to trust each other to be an effective squad.” She studied us all. “Alright, that’s all. You’re dismissed.” 

As we walked out of the huge room, we had to fill out a document likely similar to the one those who dropped out of Training filled out.

''Full Name:''

''Age and Date of Birth:''

''Height:''

''Power:''

The list went on. At the end of the form was a block of text. ''By filling out this form and signing at the bottom of this page, you agree to keep up with your Training and classes. In the likely situation that a war start, you agree to serve the army. You agree that you will be able to work with your squadron for the rest of the school year, and possibly the next three years. If you tell anyone outside of students and faculty of Elquar University about Training, you are susceptible to be tried for espionage and/or incarcerated.'' 

While the idea of being put in jail for telling someone about Training seemed a little extreme, it didn’t affect me; I didn’t have anyone to tell. I filled out the form and signed it at the bottom. I had naturally signed my name in Lathyian, and I wondered if I would have to learn how to do it in Lathran. For now, it didn’t matter. 

I handed the com to one of the Trainers at the door. He scanned it and let me leave the arena. 

I waited outside the two double doors as my roommates filled out their forms. Mel finished first and joined me. We stared out the windows in almost awkward silence. I hadn’t been around Melody as much as I had Mara and Ari. I tried to think of something to say, but my stupid brain blanked and I couldn’t think of a single question I didn’t already know the answer to. I came up with one and lost it just as quickly. By the time I remembered, Ari and Mara came out.  

Arienna groaned and stretched her arms above her head. “That was obnoxiously hard.”

Mara let out a slightly crazed laugh. “It really was, why do they think we need to be flexible to be fit? I just,” she paused with a strange look on her face. “Why?” Mel chuckled.

“Just think of it as a placement test, they just need to know what people are good at and build on that.”

“Valraea seems to think we need to be good at everything.” Arienna’s back cracked loudly and she sighed contentedly. “I mean, I get it, we aren’t that great at some things, and we still need to do Training, but one-on-one training with our partners? In ''addition'' to normal training? We’re going to pull things we don’t even know we have yet.” 

I shrugged. “I think she maybe wants us to do it to get to know our partners, not necessarily to actually show any improvements. At least for you guys. You guys did really well. I definitely am one of those with ‘room for growth.’”

Ari looked rather unimpressed. “Just because you don’t have Eldran training doesn’t mean you’re bad at it. We all have room for growth, and we just have a leg up. Anyway,” she bumped my shoulder with hers, “you beat all of us by a landslide in climbing.” I gave her an awkward smile.

“You’re a lot better than you’re giving yourself credit for.” Mara nodded at Mel’s statement. 

“You’re really good, and I’m really hungry, so if we could maybe move this conversation to the dining hall, my stomach would be much obliged.” Mara pushed us towards the elevator, all of us laughing the whole time. 

== Chapter 6 ==
''Fannara''

The rest of the week passed in a blur of activity. I went from class to class, learning and getting used to the different styles of teaching each professor had. I quickly determined that my mandatory magic class and healing forum were my favorite classes. The Lathran healing methods worked much better than the Alithosian ones, and I was advancing quickly. More quickly than anyone had thought I would. 

I mostly kept to myself in my classes where I didn’t know the other people in them. Thankfully, I had at least one of my friends in most of my classes, but I was the only healer for our group, which left me alone. I had worried about the healing class. It was mandatory that I take the sophomore class even though I hadn’t been able to take the freshman one, because I needed to be at the same level as my peers for Training; but I had caught on to the class. 

One of the most useful methods we learned the first week was how to heal without touching the wound. It wasn’t too hard, you just had to concentrate and it would eventually come without thinking about it. 

The magic class had gone rather the same. We had just gotten the overview of Lathran magic and were getting ready to dive into the different conspiracy theories about the Eldra. 

The weekend had mostly been homework and buying more notebooks. Ari still thought it was weird that I wanted to use paper to take notes, but she always went with me to buy more. 

I awoke Monday morning with a feeling of dread resting in my stomach. Today was the day we would have to start extended Training with our partners, and I was not looking forward to it. All my interactions with Moren had been less than friendly, and he still tried to avoid interacting with me. Aside from the few snide remarks on the first day, he hadn’t said anything to me. 

I heaved out of bed and started getting ready for the day. Arienna was still sleeping. She was practiced in the art of being ready for class in under five minutes after waking up and used the gift often. I got dressed and left the room to get something to eat from the dining hall before class.

The morning sped away from me with irritating speed as I began to get nervous about extended training. My leg kept jittering in my afternoon classes as the clocks clicked away and the sun began lowering into its bed. 

Once my last class let out, I sped towarded walked to my dorm to get ready for Training. They had given us a unique uniform of sorts for Training. B, breathable black fabric with a colored emblem of what our power was on the sleeve that ran three-quarters down myyour arm. The pants were made of a stretchy fabric. The mark for healers was an outline of a circle, but with only four curves in a bright green that didn’t connect. A stripe in the same green ran up the other sleeve. Stealth was by no means the goal. 

 Ari came in as I was brushing out my hair to re-braid it. 

“Whoa, why don’t you ever wear your hair down?”

I looked at her, confused. “Why would I?”

“Are you kidding? It’s so pretty!” I looked at the black waves that brushed my waist doubtfully. 

“It’s also really long.”

“That’s pretty!”

“That’s a choking hazard.”

“What’s a choking hazard?” Mara walked into the shared bathroom with a puzzled look on her face.

Arienna crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Fannara says her hair is a choking hazard, but I think it’s gorgeous.”

“Well, duh, it’s Fannara.” Mara laughed.

“Being a choking hazard or the other one?” I was getting lost.

“No, we think you’re a choking hazard,.” Ari’s voice dripped with sarcasm,. “No, you dumb dumb! Of course it’s the second one!”

Mara burst out laughing. “But for real, you’re really pretty, Fannara. Not at all like a choking hazard,.” She giggled again and went back into her room. I just stared at the sink, trying to figure out what in the world they were going on about. No one had ever called me pretty, much less gorgeous, and I had no clue how to take the compliment. I certainly didn’t feel pretty. 

I brushed it off as them just being nice and finished braiding my hair. Ari had changed into her uniform and was twisting her hair into a tight bun. Her sleeve had a sliver emblem of three narrow triangles touching at the tip.     

I waited in the hallway with Ari as we waited for Mara to come out. Mel had class right up to Training and couldn’t make it to the room in time, so she just used the bathrooms near the arena. 

Mara came out of her room, bouncing happily. Her emblem was an elongated, golden rhombus. Her curly brown ponytail was waving around the hair tie as she practically skipped to the elevator with us. 

“So, we start extended training today.” Mara’s bouncing slowed as Ari brought up the subject. “How are you two feeling?”

Mara huffed. “I really don’t think it’s going to be as bad as you seem to think. Sure, Bryce is a bit of a jock and Moren is a little...rude sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they can’t change.” She looked over at Arienna and saw her unconvinced expression. “Change for the ''better'', Ari.”

She shrugged. “I’m not the one who has to deal with him.” She looked over at me. “Good luck.” The doors slid open, and we strode out. 

The air outside still clung to summer; it would for a few more weeks, then autumn would come in its golden glory. I loved the fall. It was a season of changes, preparation for growth while still being familiar. 

We sped through campus in an undeclared race. None of us ever broke into a full run, but there was plenty of speed walking to the Elquar Training Tower{nickname for the building that I just spent a good 7 min trying to find the name of only to realize that I DIDN’T NAME IT smh} We squeezed into the elevator with some displeased upperclassmen on their way to class.

“At least we aren’t sweaty yet,” Mara giggled as the doors closed and the other students exited. Ari and I joined her in the giggling as more upperclassmen joined us on the next floor with similar expressions. They were deposited on their respective floors, and we finally reached our destination.  

The arena was already filling with people when we arrived, but our brother team wasn’t there yet. Neither was Mel, but that made sense, since she had her class and all. 

Ari drilled us through our now routine pre-Training stretches. Loud popping was heard from all of our joints, followed by either gasps of disgust or sighs of relief. Ari slid into the splits without batting an eye. Mara and I tried to follow suit but ended up falling on our rears. A loud crackling sound came from Mara’s hip.

“Ooh, Mara, was that you?” Ari’s face wrinkled into a sympathetic grimace. 

Mara sprawled out on the floor, giving a pained chuckle as she lay there. “Yep. You know, I thought that after a whole week of doing this every day I would be more flexible by now.” She sat up with a grunt. “I guess my body just isn’t built that way.” She shrugged and crossed her legs. 

“And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.” Ari raised her eyebrows at Mara, waiting for a response. “Right?” 

“Sure.” Arienna looked unimpressed with the listless response, but didn’t have time to continue the conversation. Melody walked in right as Ari was about to say something. Mel’s insignia was a very simple purple sphere. 

She joined in on our stretches, being slightly more flexible than me and Mara. 

“So, Mel, how are you feeling about extended Training?” Ari’s back cracked as she bent backward. 

Mel shrugged. “Eh, Raymond is shy and pretty quiet; it shouldn’t be very eventful.” She straightened and raised an eyebrow at Arienna. “How are ''you'' feeling? Still haven’t had that follow-up conversation with Lindin, right?” Ari sucked in a quick breath and her face reddened.

“No,” she mumbled. Ari being awkward was one of the strangest things. My normally confident and self-assured friend immediately quieted when her training partner came up in conversation. I had yet to receive an explanation. 

As if on cue, our brother team came over. Mara sighed with relief since the arrival of the boys meant stretching was over. By an unannounced routine, we all fell into our normal positions; Bryce was doing something stupid and Moren was laughing at him, Lindin was talking with Ari and Mel, with Raymond standing close by and avoiding eye contact. Mara would go between the two groups and me depending on the day. I still didn’t fit in well with my group, but also wasn’t willing to try to talk to people.

Mara chose me and stood by my side as we waited for Training to begin. She brought a strange feeling of being safe wherever she went, making even the most uncomfortable situations bearable. This being an uncomfortable situation, I was extra grateful for the company.

“So, are you ready for stuff to get intense?” Mara nudged me playfully, pulling me from my thoughts. 

“Hmm,” I shrugged. “Depends what’s going to get intense next.”

Mara blinked. “Oh, I guess that’s fair. Let’s narrow down the question then, are you ready for Training to get intense?”

“Will it be any different than normal today? Aside from extended Training?”

She nodded. “Yep. They have the weapons out today.” I looked to the middle of the arena, and sure enough, organized racks of weaponry were arranged there. 

“Oh. Are Eldran weapons reliant on magic or technology?”

“A mix of both, you’ll probably get to chose what kind of weapon you’ll use.”

I frowned. “Are there times when you can’t?”

“Yeah, healers with gold magic aren’t allowed to learn a weapon because they’re expected to only heal.”

“Why only healers with gold magic?”

“It’s stronger than green.” She glanced at my hands. “For Eldran at least, I’m not sure about Alithosians.”

I nodded. “That makes sense.” I looked over my shoulder as I heard approaching footsteps. “Here comes Valraea.” 

Mara smiled up at me. “Good luck.”

“You too.” I gave a small smile and turned to Valraea to begin.

== Chapter 7 ==
''Fannara''

Training started as it always did. Several laps around the arena, push-ups, burpees, and leg lifts. The week before, we had been doing slightly random activities for most Training. One day was rock climbing, the next sprinting, and the next jumping over hurdles. Weapons were a completely new subject. 

We gathered around the assortment of weapons and were given permission to select a few at a time and try them out. They had branded the structures holding the weapons with different symbols, similar to those on the uniforms. 

The archery sets were the first things to catch my eye, but the light and force field brand changed my mind. I doubted arrows would be very effective in any matter if I could use my magic through it. Mara snatched a bow and quiver and continued her search. I looked around in growing nervousness. What if I couldn’t find something that worked for me? How different would things be because of being Alithosian?

Ari walked over to where I was standing. “Can’t find anything?” I shook my head. She bit her lip and looked around. “Well, I already have everything I want, so you can either just grab the same things as me or we can find other stuff. What do you wanna do?”

“Um,” I felt ridiculous. “I think that just seeing what you have would work best.” 

“Cool.” She led me first to a rack of swords. I stared at the absurd range of them. Why in the world would a technologically advanced society still use swords? Then I realized Arienna was a metal bender. She didn’t need to be anywhere close to the swords to use them.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to use those ones as well as you.” 

“Oh. You’re right.” She looked at what else was around. “You know how to use a gun?” 

My eyes widened and I shook my head. Owning a gun was a symbol of power and wealth on Alithos, making me less inclined to use one. 

“Uhh, let’s see.” Ari tapped her chin and craned her neck. “Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “I have an idea.” She took my arm and pulled me over to a bucket full of metal staffs, each one with an intricate handle. There weren’t very many of them. “These are Getterian metal bending staffs, but you don’t necessarily need to be a metal bender to use them.”

She selected a staff and handed it to me. “That should be long enough for you. Now just need some guards.” Ari looked around the cluttered area. “We might have to ask for them...oh well. I’ll just show you how this works first and you can decide if you like it.” She grabbed herself one and began. “So these are very...versatile. You can twist the handle thing here and, boom,” Ari twisted her handle and a large spearhead stuck out of one end. “Now it’s a spear. If you twist the handle more, the whole thing comes out and it’s an arrow.”

I looked at the staff she had handed me and copied what she did. Nothing happened. “Um, why isn’t it working?”

“Ohhh, you’re left-handed, you have to twist it the other way.” I did as she said and it worked. “Ok, so next, you can find this little button here on the handle and boop it.” Ari pushed the button on hers and the staff separated into three parts, hanging together by a cord of some type.

“Now you have overgrown nunchucks, but you can put those back in the handle and then- this is where you’d need metal bending- you can take the cord, from one end and connect it to the other ''annnnd'',” her eyes glowed silver as she bent the metal. “Now you have a bow and an arrow.” 

“Woah.” 

“Yeah, Getterian weaponry is pretty great.”

I nodded. “But how am I supposed to use it if I’m not a metal bender?”

Ari grinned. “I’ll show you.” She twisted the bow and it clicked back into shape as a spear. Then she stuck the arrow back in the top, sharp side up. I repeated the action, twisting the handle again to make the arrowhead fully disappear. 

She stuck her staff back in the bucket and gestured for me to follow her. 

“Hey, Valraea?” Our Trainer turned to face Ari.

“Can I help you, Miss Harlen?”

Ari nodded. “Yep, I’m wondering if we have any metal guards in Fannara’s size.” I still had no clue what “guards” were, and was starting to worry about what Ari was getting me into. 

Valraea raised an eyebrow. “Why would she need guards? Are there no other weapons that’ll work for her?”

“Not that we’ve found.” It felt strange to be talked about like I wasn’t there, but I had gotten used to it years ago.

“Alright then, I’ll go check in the back.” She reemerged a few minutes later carrying a pair of arm guards. “These just arrived yesterday with the shipment of weapons.” She handed them to me. “Good luck.” I nodded.

Ari snatched them from me before I had even opened the package. “Before you try these, you should decide if the staff works for you.” 

“Oh, ok.” I adjusted my grip and experimentally swung it. I found myself giggling as the long staff swooped through the air. It was beautifully balanced, making low noises as it danced along. 

I stopped and looked at Ari. “I like it.” I was still feeling giddy from the testing of the weapon.

“Well, I guess that’s what we’re going to do.” Arienna handed me the arm guards. “Now these have been Casted, that means there is metal bending magic in there. You’ll basically have two sets of magic when you use them, but it might not work for you. It’s hard to learn another form of magic.” 

I tucked the staff into my arm and strapped on the arm guards. They were a dusty black color with two buckles near the top which just barely brushed the bottom of my sleeve. They felt surprisingly comfortable. 

Ari nudged me and contorted her hands, making her staff float. I copied her position but nothing happened. I frowned down at my hands. I wasn’t doing anything different. 

Taking a deep breath, I pushed magic into the guards, hoping something- anything- would happen. Something did. My staff shook and wobbled, but steadily raised off the floor. I straightened my fingers, making it stay in place. 

I started giggling again and lost control of the staff, sending it clanging loudly to the floor. Thankfully no one noticed, they were too busy testing out their weapons. 

“Well done!” Ari high-fived me. We spent the rest of Training learning how to use our weapons and doing target practice. I was silently pleased with how easily I had learned to use my weapon and the arm guards. It had been so enjoyable that I nearly forgot about Extended Training. 

Nearly. 

Mel,  Ari, and I had put away the weapons we had decided on and were about to leave the arena when Valraea caught us.

“Where do you three think you’re going?” She had both hands on her hips and an unimpressed expression on her face. “You don’t get out of Extended Training.” I couldn’t stop the groan that came out of me. Valraea turned her glare on me, making me squirm. 

Ari grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the arena, away from Valraea’s glare and into Moren’s. My hair was frizzing out of its braid and sticking to my forehead, making me strangely irritable. 

We lined up, girls in one row, facing our partners. Moren looked past my shoulder like I wasn't even there. I controlled the glare I felt rising up, it wouldn't do me any good.

Once our area was clear of people outside of our squadron, Valraea began. "Well, ladies and boys, today we will be starting self-defense." She waited for a reaction. Bryce gave one.

"Pardon me, but I don't think these ''ladies'' here pose much of a threat to us."

"Don't be so sure, Mr. Anderson, Alamara could slap you into next Friday if she wanted to." He glanced nervously at Mara while our Trainer continued. "No need to worry quite yet, you're just going over the basic moves today, no testing on your partner."

I felt relieved. As much as I hated to admit it, even just to myself, Moren was capable of beating me in a fight. He was bigger and had better training than I had, not to mention he was of a race known to be more physically capable. 

Valraea showed us a few of the basic moves, none of which were explained well. Parrying and defense were focused upon, since Valraea believed that the defensive abilities were more important now than offense.{Names of snazzy self-defense moves that require clear explanations to be understood}

She suddenly clapped her hands together, making me jump at the loud noise. "Now boys, be gentlemen, and ladies," she flashed us a grin, "make me proud." I had my doubts that either would be accomplished. 

The two rows that were our squad dissipated as others searched for suitable practice spaces. Moren did not move. Neither did I.

I stood still and looked him straight in the eyes, not quite glaring. The sapphire irises never met mine. I huffed, getting frustrated with his stubborn silence. 

“Well?” 

His eyes rolled on their way to meet mine. “Are you waiting for something?” 

I was unable to think of a good retort and had to resort to the first response I could think of. “Are you?” The words tumbled out of my mouth uncomfortably, and he was all too aware of it. 

“Nope.” He turned and began going through the moves we had been shown. I could almost feel the smugness radiating off of him. ''The heck is your problem?''

Trying to push down my stubbornness, I began practicing with him. 

“You’re doing that wrong.” Moren didn’t even look at me.

“Excuse you?”

He sighed dramatically and turn to face me. “You are doing that wrong.” He turned again, not specifying what I was doing wrong.

“Ah, extremely helpful, thank you for the clarification,” I muttered under my breath, but by the way he stiffened, I guessed he heard it. 

Now that I was paranoid about what I was doing, I went a bit slower, trying my best to replicate what I had seen Valraea doing. 

“Still wrong.” I bit my tongue and instead glared up at him from the corner of my eye. 

This time, as I was preparing to do the move, I went through a mental checklist, I knew where my arms were going, my knees were bent, what was I doing wrong? Was anything actually wrong, or was this jerk just messing with me?

I tried again, sure that I was doing it right this time. 

“You really don’t learn well, do you?” 

''That’s it.''

“Well, if you weren’t aware, it’s not very effective to just say something’s wrong without clarifying ''what’s wrong.”'' 

He glanced down at me, stating simply, “Your feet are in the wrong position.” 

''I’m going to kill him. I’m going to learn this stupid move and I’m going to kill him.''

A headache was on its way. I spat out a hardly convincing “thank you” and tried again, readjusting my feet to the correct position. This time he kept quiet. 

We kept going through the moves, doing our best to avoid each other. Moren continued to give vague corrections. I wished I could recognize something he was doing as wrong, but I was worried that I’d try to correct something he was doing right. I would not give him a reason to gloat more than he already was. 

Thankfully, the awkwardness was pulled to a close when Valraea yelled from the other side of the arena, letting us know we were free to leave. I didn’t bother saying goodbye. I just booked it out of there. 

Mara was the first to catch up to me. 

“Please tell me your time was better than mine.”

I looked down at Mara. “I highly doubt yours could have been worse.”

== Chapter 8 ==
''Fannara''

''Screams.'' 

''So many screams.''

''Everywhere. Inside me. And pain.'' 

''Too much pain.''

''My back feels like it could melt off me. I wouldn’t object. It couldn’t hurt more than this.'' 

''The screams continue. They echo in the cavern, bouncing off the foreboding walls and shattering into me. But above the screams, there’s something else.'' 

''A song.'' 

''Once a lullaby, now twisted. The voice singing is beautiful, hauntingly so.'' Child of prophecy, why do you weep? 

''Something large and shrouded in shadows moves out of the corner of my eye. I know I should run, but my knees are too weak. I’ve lost too much blood because of my back.'' 

You’ve doomed your people, you’re in too deep. ''I know those aren’t the real words, but I can’t remember the right ones. I wish I did.''

''I curl up on my side, covering my head and closing my eyes against the creature that is encircling me. I’m shaking and it hurts so bad.''

Child of prophecy, you’ve reason to cry. ''The voice is getting closer. Is it coming from the creature? Could something that terrifying have such a beautiful voice?'' 

''Light breaks through in jagged lines at one end of the cavern, like the teeth of a wolf. A silhouette is suddenly visible, standing right above me. A tall figure with wings.''

''Huge wings.''

''It bends down and must be looking me in the eyes.'' 

For in this cage, you will soon die.

''It straightens and slowly walks to the entrance. I try to get up, to follow it outside. To the light. I haven’t seen it in days, I’m sure. But I can’t move, I’m frozen. I try to scream, but my throat closes up.'' 

''I can’t breathe.'' 

''The light disappears and I can hear the cavern giving in on itself. Any hope of light disappears as a black thicker than anything I’ve ever felt swallows me.'' 

''The song begins again.''

I bolted up in bed, panting, as the nightmare began replaying endlessly in my mind. I put my hands over my ears as if I could stop the song. Another headache came roaring in as I began rocking back and forth on my bed. I tried to muffle the cries trying to escape my body. I didn’t want to wake Ari up. 

I looked over to see if I had disturbed her to see her bed was empty. The bottom of the bathroom door was dark. She must have left the room. 

I debated whether I should try to find her, as my body began calming down. I had no clue what time it was, but I knew the recurring nightmare was the only thing waiting for me. 

My sheets ruffled softly as I hopped out of bed and landed on the floor with a muffled thunk. I sniffed one last time, wiped my eyes, and went to find my roommate.

It wasn’t hard to find her. Ari was walking in circles around the hallway, singing softly and rubbing her arms. She was keeping clear of the railing that encircled the balcony looking down at the other sixteen floors. 

She stopped when she saw me. “Can’t sleep either?” 

“Can, just don’t want to.”

She nodded. I had told her about the weird nightmares I kept getting when they had started up a month ago, shortly after extended training started. Ari nodded her head at the elevator in a silent question. I nodded, and we went to the bottom floor and out the doors. She had her telecom with her, letting her enter and exit the building, even at this ridiculous hour. ''2:38''. 

We walked quite a way to the group of trees that overlooked the lake. It had a small clearing in it that she and Lindin had claimed as their extended training spot after Valraea gave us permission to go outside. Moren and I just stayed in the arena. 

“So the nightmare won’t go away?”

I shook my head. “And I keep getting headaches, probably from lack of sleep.” She sighed. “Why can’t you sleep tonight?”

Ari hunched up her shoulders and gripped her arms harder. “I get homesick.” She paused. “And, this probably seems super inconsiderate, but I really miss my dad.” Her voice hiccuped.

“Why would that be inconsiderate?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, the whole ‘your parents abandoning you’ thing. It feels really selfish to miss him when I still have my mom.”

“Ari, just because my parents were awful, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t miss your dad.” I was honestly a little confused by how self-conscious she was being. It was so unlike the loud, happy, and a little aggressive Arienna I knew. “My experiences don’t make yours any less significant. My parents hated me, which makes it easy to hate them, but you don’t have that- well not exactly luxury- but you can’t say that, And you shouldn’t.”

She sniffed and shrugged again. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t remember him. It’s horrible for me to even think that, but remembering his smile, still being able to hear the little nicknames he had for me, it hurts.” Ari started shaking, and her voice changed pitch. 

“He loved me so much, I have nothing to complain about. I had his undivided love for seven years. But I’m still selfish and awful and it ''hurts''. It hurts to know that this isn’t what he would want for me. He would be so ashamed of what I’ve become- of what I ''haven’t'' become.” I was shocked. She hadn’t spoken much about her father and had never said anything about how his death made her feel. I don’t think Ari had ever just told me how she ''felt''. 

I pulled her into a hug as she trembled. Mara had been training me in giving and accepting more hugs, and I desperately hoped I had done the right thing. She finally pushed away and sat down, sniffing and wipping her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything.”

She looked at me with a doubtful expression. “Yes, I did. I just dumped all of my junk on you. I told myself I would keep it inside. No one needs to pity me. Plenty of people have lost loved ones to Shifter raids.” She yanked the hair tie holding her loose bun out of her hair and shoved it on her wrist. “It just happened so soon after she died too.” She mumbled the last part to herself, so I didn’t ask. 

“Well, I don’t think you need to apologize. I told you my junk, it’s only fair.” 

Ari snorted at me. “Oh, please, Fannara, we both know you aren’t telling me everything.”

“Neither are you.”

“Fair enough.” She sighed and stretched her arms above her head. “I get nightmares too. Lots of them.” I sat down next to her. “They aren’t exactly like yours; there isn’t something coming for me. It’s always something that happens to someone I care about. Sometimes they’re ridiculous. Lindin got stuck in a portal we don’t even use anymore in one of them, but they always scare me. Knowing that someone you love is going to get hurt or even killed and knowing there’s nothing you can do is terrifying.” 

I grimaced slightly. “Mine always have to do with me being in danger. I guess I’m the selfish one.”

“Dreams just reflect memories and what we’ve had to deal with. You had no one you felt you had to look out for before coming here, so you naturally have dreams where you have to look out for yourself.” She leaned back on her hands as if pleased by her logic.

“Well, that’s not entirely true.” She turned to look at me, slightly surprised. “Did I ever tell you about my siblings?” Ari shook her head.

“You said something about a toddler but that was it.”

I felt a part of me stir at the memory. “Well, I had three siblings, I think. I had my older brother, my younger brother, and my little sister. I can’t remember their names, or even what they looked like, but I know I loved them. I think that my little brother would help me with pranks sometimes. My older brother was often too busy to join in, but he always laughed the hardest at our antics.”

I unbraided my hair and flopped onto my back. “I miss them sometimes, but I know I would never be here, be what I am if I hadn’t left them. Rather, if I hadn’t been taken away from them.”

Ari slowly lowered her head into the grass. “I always wanted siblings. It was lonely on Lathra I. My mother was always working and I did online school so that I could still be in the same school system. Because the school was based out of Lathra IV, I would have to wake up really early, about this time, to attend. It was awful. My mom would leave for work while I was in ‘school’ and wouldn’t come home until after I had gone to sleep.” She groaned at the memory.

“Being on a different sleep schedule than everyone your age makes friendships really hard. That’s something Mara really helped me with. She found that just being nice doesn’t always work, and people end up thinking that you must always be happy, so she made me agree to an experiment of sorts. She told me not to care what anyone thought and just act like me. So I did and Mel started talking to me the next day.”

She chuckled at the memory. “The only noticeable difference the first day was that I tied my hair back and didn’t try to hide my ears.” Ari touched her pointed and slightly curved ears as she thought about it. “It was obvious I was at least partly Getterian, ears and everything. It’s not like there aren’t a lot of Getterians here, there are plenty, I just didn’t like the fact that it made it easier for people to recognize me.”

“Tell me about it.” 

“Oh?” Ari prompted me to tell the story.

“Well, I was easily recognized at the Academy in Taledine, for multiple reasons. My height, my name, the kind of magic I had, and being the ‘smart one’.”

Ari frowned up at the sky. None of the moons or Lathra I were visible tonight. “What’s up with your name? Is it not a normal one?”

“Not really? ‘Fannara’ means ‘hope’ in Alithosi, not sure what my parents meant by naming me that, but they did. So it’s not an abnormal name, it’s just a more noticeable one.” 

She nodded. “That makes sense. Is ‘Harpson’ a common last name on Alithos?”

“Oh yeah.” I couldn’t help but scoff. “It’s the Alithosi version of ‘Smith’, ''everyone'' has that last name.”

Ari laughed at that. “What is with Earthens and the name Smith?”

“I don’t even know.” I giggled along with her. 

She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “We should probably head in now.”

“Probably.” I sat up and offered her a hand. She took it and we walked back to our dorm. 

“Thanks for listening.”

I smiled at her. “Any time.” 

She opened her telecom and tapped it against the door handle, letting us in the lobby. ''3:24.'' We were going to pay for that in the morning. 

But it was totally worth it.

== Chapter 9 ==
''Fannara''

I was right. We had completely forgotten what was happening the next day. ''Field trip''. After a few weeks of looking into different theories about the Eldra and all related to it, Dr. Kortsus had announced we would be going to, “Tthe Cave of Burning Waters,””, whatever that meant. 

Half-awake and with a roaring headache, I stumbled through my classes leading up to History of Eldran magic. I was going to miss the Healing Forum and a literature class because of this field trip; I was hoping it would be worth it. 

As I trudged down the hallway to the room where our history class met, Ari sprang on me, jumping and swatting my back with her hands. I yelped and swung around.

“What was that for?” My heart was beating faster than it had been after the nightmare. 

She began giggling uncontrollably. “To get your blood pumping!” I gave her a confused look until I realized what was going on.

“So either today’s the day you and Lindin were going to meet up, or you get really hyper when you’re sleep-deprived.”

“Correct on both points!” She bounced up and down in the hallway. This was weird. Ari cackled again and began dragging me to the classroom. Then she stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening. “I should get more coffee before we leave.” 

“''More''?! No wonder you’re going crazy,.” I sighed and took my turn dragging her to the room,. “If you drink any more, you’ll give me a migraine.”

“First off, I was already crazy, and second, fiiiiiine,.” Arienna groaned dramatically on the last word. 

I finally pulled her into the room and to her seat. She flopped into it and moaned. 

“Why were we up so late?”

I sat in my seat next to her and laid my head on the desk. “Lots of reasons.” 

Dr. Kortsus walked into the classroom right before a large crowd of boys entered. In her strange state of mind, Ari visibly grimaced at their entrance. She sat up in her chair and sighed again. 

“I’m going to fall asleep.” 

I laughed. “You were just bouncing in the hallway; how are you going to sleep?”

She gave me a very serious look. “Don’t underestimate my powers.” I snorted at that one. 

More people filled in and eventually the bell rang, officially marking the beginning of our "adventure" as our professor insisted on calling it. 

"Class," he began. "Today we are going on an important journey of knowledge. Today we will discover why so many believe the Eldra sits at the bottom of a lake. ''Today''," Dr. Kortsus paused for dramatic effect,. "We go on a field trip." He obviously knew how ridiculous he sounded, but he kept up the act and we played along. A few students let out dramatic gasps when he finished, quieting their giggles as he continued. 

"The transport is outside right now. First ones in line get the top floor!" A mad scramble for the door left me trapped in my seat as classmates stampeded each other for the seats. 

I didn't care. I wanted to sleep on the way there. 

I obviously never made it to the top floor of the bus. My legs groaned, or perhaps that was my stomach, in agony as I walked down the hallway. Once I had exited the building, I had to confront the massive bus which students had begun to file into. I had to settle for the bottom floor. I did so eagerly, sliding my feet into the seat and letting out a sigh. My head latched onto the window next to me. I felt someone talking to me, but I couldn’t figure out who or where it was coming from. For now, I immediately slumbered.

Half an hour of rest was what I needed, even if the ride to the mountain was bumpy.

I woke up towards the end of the trip. Light streaked past as the bus continued to move at speeds that were hard to comprehend. Having just woken up, my surroundings looked blurry before I finally closed and opened my eyes again. I felt the bus slowing down as the mountain was in sight. When I had finally finished waking up, the bus had already stopped in front of a small campsite. Ari began to freak out over how the surroundings looked. Now, I finally stepped out of the bus.

Fast-forward half an hour and we arrived at tThe mountain where the lake was supposedly located was impressive to look upon. I didn't see any rivers as I squinted up at the steep side of the mountain. But if it was magical, who knew. 

We were significantly closer to the Shifter border than we were in Elquar; not so much as to make me nervous, but it was noticeable. 

Instead of climbing up the mountain, or finding some other mode of transportation up the thing, Dr. Kortsus led us to a cave entrance. 

We followed him into the cave and collectively gasped. I was in awe. 

The cavern had a high ceiling, dotted with glowing crystals and bioluminescent plants. A waterfall similarly surrounded by light flowed from the corner behind the entrance down into the depths of the caves. The ground on which we stood was shockingly smooth and layered like a giant's staircase. 

The echoing of the cascading water didn't overpower our voices, it merely bubbled in the background. 

Dr. Kortsus led us into the lower areas of the cave. His voice echoed as he spoke. "When the first settlers arrived on Lathra IV, they made contact with the Shifters who warned them of this place, Falleng-Achat{insert cool sounding Shifter word} Burning Waters." He stopped walking and turned to look at us. "At this point, the water is perfectly safe." He walked over to the stream and stuck his hand in it, gesturing at us to do the same. 

It felt good, what I would consider the perfect temperature to swim in. We continued our walk. 

"The Shifters had steered clear of the mountain, claiming it was cursed with the Touch of HellFire. Now, this was a bit of an exaggeration on their end. The water isn't deadly, even farther down, just painful. No one knows for sure what it even does." Dr. Kortsus made a strange noise in the back of his throat. "Most experience a reddening of the area that makes contact with the water and sharp pain. It is one of the few known ailments that cannot be healed, not with Eldran magic at least." 

He looked back at me when he said the last part, and I could almost see what he was thinking. Would I, an Alithosi healer, be affected by the water? I wasn't sure I wanted to find out, but I had a feeling I would. 

We reached another large area of the cave where the Professor stopped. The stream that ran from the beginning of the cave collected here in a large pond (pool?).

Something far below the water was glowing brightly, but differently than the crystals and plants from earlier. There was something...off about it. It was rather warm this far into the cave. 

Dr. Kortsus fanned out his arms at the water. "Go ahead, try it. I know you want to, and it won't harm you, it'll just hurt." That felt like an oxymoron, and slightly off-settling. 

Ari, who was standing next to me, just shrugged and started walking to where the stone we stood on met the water. 

I looked at her, rather bewildered. "You're just going to touch it?" 

"Why not?" The ride had mellowed her up a bit, but this felt like a bit much. 

"I think that anything described as being 'touched by HellFire' should be avoided." 

She sighed. " Well, yeah, but when are you ever going to have a chance like this again?" 

I was about to respond when Dr. Kortsus resumed his lesson. A few of the more gutsy people had already stuck their fingers in and gotten them...burned? 

"Some believe the water burns because the glowing down there is in fact, the Eldra, and the water is so full of raw magic that our bodies cannot handle it. Others believe similarly, but that the water burns to protect the Eldra. A few think the water's just cursed and stay clear, but we're going to focus on the Eldra aspect." 

With that, Ari pulled me with her to the water, whispering, "That's why we're going to do this, because you might be in close contact with another race's magic source, and that's just cool." She stuck her index finger in and quickly pulled it out, giving a little yelp as it began turning red. 

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. But I complied with my friend's whims. Neither of us was Eldran, so if one of us did it because of that fact, the other had to as well. 

I carefully stuck my pinky in the water, bracing for a shock of pain. It didn't come. Someone gasped. I furrowed my brow and stuck more of my hand in, moving it through the water to see if I had missed something. Nothing happened.

I turned to Ari and shrugged. "I guess Alithosi magic just works differently." Most of the class was staring at me at this point, making me rather uncomfortable. I began pulling my hand out when the pain suddenly came, clear and sharp like a wrong note. 

I let out a small yell and yanked my hand the rest of the way out of the water. The tips of all the fingers on my left hand were turning red. 

From the back of the group I could just barely hear someone say, "I guess it doesn't." Moren. 

I growled and stood up, dragging my right hand up my left, healing away the redness. More gasps came from surrounding classmates. I ignored them.

“Well, class, we-we should keep going,” stammered Dr. Kortsus. We followed him silently out of the cave. I kept my eyes locked on the ground, but could still feel the eyes on me. Then the whispering started. 

== Chapter 10 ==
''Fannara''

We left the caves and headed back to campus soon after the whole incident. Ari sat next to me on the transport but kept her silence. Everyone around us was whispering about what had happened. I couldn’t have imagined my healing would cause such an uproar. It made sense that my magic would work differently; I wasn’t Eldran, and they still were going crazy over it. 

I tried to hide inside myself as the whispering grew louder. Trying not to make it obvious, I started rubbing my ears and softly humming to myself, partially blocking out the noise. My attempts at being discrete failed on Arienna. 

“So, Fannara, what kind of music do you like?” She pulled out her telecom as she asked me. I was a bit confused. 

“Music?”

Ari nodded. “Yeah, music.” 

“Well, I don’t really know.” I tried to think of something. “On Alithos, we had our Past Songs, and only those anointed sang them.” 

She cocked her head. “Past Songs? What are those?”

I couldn’t stop the small scoff that came out of me. “Long. The Songs are sung in ancient Alithosi, telling the myths our people used to believe, but you have to sing all of them at once. They’re still considered sacred and only those trained for years may sing them and they are ''hours'' long. Still, you only hear them at big events.”

“Sounds boring.”

“It is.” 

Ari leaned back in her seat. “Well, I guess I’ll have to share some of my music with you.” I smiled.

“Yeah, that’d be great.” 

She kept talking to me for the entirety of the trip back to campus, and I was immensely grateful for it. Ari never once mentioned what had happened in the caves and never left enough silence for either of us to tune into what the others were saying about it. 

By the time we arrived at the university again, most of the conversations around us seemed to have turned to something else. I still found it strange that they were so hung up over the water. 

We exited the transport and went to our last morning class before it was time for lunch.

☙❦❧

On our floor, we had a type of telecom that was attached to the wall next to the elevator. It usually read simple things such as what was being served in the different restaurants, what classes had upcoming tests, study groups, stuff like that. Today it was different.

The whole screen was projecting a very brightly worded announcement. ''Floor Activity Night, meet outside of Cassia’s room at 9''.

Cassia was our resident assistant, or RA, as most people called her, and was in charge of all the floor activities. We hadn’t done much so far in the year, but I heard rumors that when she was the RA last year, she organized most of the pranks that had been pulled. {In the second draft, Fannara will have interacted with Cassia “on screen” so um, pretend you like her cuz apparently she’s a goofball} 

I felt a strange mix of emotions with the announcement. On the one hand, I would get to meet the people on my floor, on the other hand, that meant I had to interact with them, not to mention Ari and I were running on about three hours of sleep. I shrugged and walked to my room. It would sort itself out, everything had. Everything except Training that is. 

That’s what I had been going to do, get ready for Training. 

Our room was empty when I got there, as usual. I normally appreciated the few minutes of silence I got when I was early to change, but not today. There was too much running through my head that I didn’t want to think about. Nightmares, field trips, whispers, all of it was too much. 

I groaned and tried to shake the thoughts out of my head. Of course, it didn’t help, but it was worth a try. I pulled out my uniform for Training and quickly changed into it as if moving fast enough wouldn’t give me time to think. It smelled clean, as they required us to wash it after every session to avoid the stink. 

Ari and Mara came into the room as I was pulling on my left boot. The shoes were a recent addition to the uniform and very comfortable. Arienna was grinning wider than I had ever seen. Mara’s perpetual bounce was more pronounced than normal as she walked through the bathroom into her room. 

I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. “So, how was lunch?” I raised a playful eyebrow and Ari’s face immediately reddened. 

“It was great,” she mumbled. 

Mara yelled at her from the other room. “Oh, come on, Ari, it was better than ‘great’. Tell her!” Ari fidgeted with her uniform. 

“Well, um, he was sweet, as always, and uh..” she trailed off, smiling to herself. K

“Oh, my word, ARIENNA HARLEN, GET TO THE POINT.” Mara threw a tube of chapstick into our room, landing remarkably close to Ari. 

“Okay, okay, goodness. Well, we talked about...stuff, and well, I’m not sure if I told about this kind of stuff, but we agreed that we, um, wanted to start dating?” 

Mara quietly walked into our room and put a hand on her hip. She didn’t say anything, but her rather serious expression was enough to scare Ari.

“I mean, yes, we are dating. We said we liked each other last semester but wanted to wait and now..yeah, we’re dating.” She smiled to herself.

Mara began bouncing again. “I don’t know about you, Fannara, but I ship them ''so'' hard.” 

I started giggling at the two of them. “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m happy for you, Ari.” She blushed a little harder and smiled at the ground.

“Thanks.”

☙❦❧

Training was much as it always was. We were doing much more weapons training now that we had chosen what we wanted. I was fairly comfortable with the staff now and could hit a target with relative ease. 

Extended Training had changed just a little. Moren was better at correcting now, and I occasionally commented on some things he was doing. He still tried to avoid me but wasn't nearly as hostile during interactions. 

The biggest change was the little reminders we gave each other at the beginning of each session. Comments about foot placement and where your arms are supposed to go were helpful. Training remained exhausting nonetheless nonethelessnonetheless the less. 

That night, after I had finished most of my homework for the next two days, someone yelled “MAN ON THE FLOOR” before the hallway erupted into strange noises. Ari and I looked at each other from our desks, it wasn’t nine yet. We scrambled to the door at the same time as the hooting and screeching continued. 

Ari opened our door and immediately closed it again, sliding down it and laughing harder than I had ever seen. 

“What is going on?!” That only made her laugh harder. 

In between wheezes, she squeezed in an explanation. “I think...Cassia…” a fit of giggles overtook her again. “Cassia arranged a prank on us with our brother floor.” 

“''What?''” I pulled her away from the door and opened it. Part of me wished I hadn’t. 

The hallway was flooded with boys, covered in bright face paint and carrying...stuffed animals? And lettuce? I could see the other girls on our floor laughing or staring with scared faces in their doorways. The longer I stood in the chaos, I realized the boys were trying to sing the Palendine national anthem. In only falsetto. While running around the circular opening in the floor. 

I went back into our room, trying to process what I just saw. Arienna burst into giggles again when she saw my disturbed face. 

“I will never unsee that.”

She pushed off the floor with much difficulty and swallowed down the rest of her snickers. “Hey, at least Cassia isn’t letting them take off their shirts.” My eyes widened.

“Yeah, at least we have that.” I glanced at the clock. “I guess they’ll be doing that until we all get out there.”

Ari turned and checked the clock. “Yeah, quiet hours don’t start until nine, so they cannot be stopped.”  

“Just seven more minutes.” Someone knocked on our door, and it took a second to realize it was the bathroom door that was being knocked on. I opened it to find a very concerned Mara.

“Mel hasn’t gotten back yet and I don’t know what’s happening.” Ari and I stared at her in silence for a beat and then started smothering snickers. “What?” The laughter burst out of us and we had to open the door for Mara to understand what was happening. We couldn’t breathe enough to form the words. 

As soon as she saw the insanity that used to be our hallway, she joined in the wheezing. 

“Why...oh, my word...someone’s wearing a...a….duck hat!” She hit the floor and began rocking back and forth with the strength of her amusement. The faint ding of the elevator caused the crowd to quiet. Every person froze as the doors slid open and a confused group of girls, including Mel, hesitated to exit. 

“CHARRRRRGE!” One of the rowdier boys yelled. The girls in the elevator began frantically pressing buttons as the sea of college boys surged towards them. The doors closed just in time for one of the stuffed animals to land on the floor. 

Chimes marking the start of quiet hours sent another hush over. the crowd. This was going to be an interesting night to say the least. 

== Chapter 11 ==
''Fannara''

They quietly pulled from our rooms, the occasional fit of giggles being quickly shushed. The hallway felt crowded with nearly all the girls on our floor and our brother floor in the same area. A line for the elevators quickly formed, slowing down the rather impatient guys. Every time an elevator arrived on our floor, a cheer went up, and a mass of students flooded the metal box to its full capacity.

It took nearly five minutes to get everyone to the lobby. How the boys had gotten on our floor without our notice was a mystery. 

We filled outside where a growing mass of students was forming. Cassia and the RA of our brother floor led us down the hill to a large field on the far side of the lake. 

Once we arrived, Cassia pulled out a megaphone, seemingly out of thin air, and started giving us instructions. 

“Everyone, listen up! We have a lot of stuff planned for tonight, and if you want to get it done in time to be awake tomorrow, you need to follow our instructions.” It got remarkably quiet. “Our two floors make our battalion. Now, I know most of you have been in Training with your squad, but tonight you’re going to know your floor.

“Some of you have chosen not to enlist, but you’re still part of our floor, so you have to suffer.” A few chuckles ran through the crowd. “Now, this,” she grabbed the arm of the guy’s RA, “is Joseph Marleyga{name}. He is in charge of the boys, so listen to him. You’re not in middle school, so I expect mature behavior.” Cassia stayed silent for a few uncomfortable beats before she started laughing. “I’m mostly kidding, ''mostly.'' Anyway, Joseph{name} is going to explain our first activity.” 

He took the megaphone from her and immediately burst our eardrums with a loud, “Who’s ready to show these girls who’s the best?!” A deafening roar came from the guys. Ari and I shared a look. “Tonight, we’re going to start off with some capture the flag, boys against girls!” Another round of strange noises came from our brother floor. 

Cassia snatched the megaphone from Joseph{name}, whacking him on the head with it before saying, “You’ve lost your privileges.” She turned to face us again. “Well, I’m assuming you all know the game. The border is that sidewalk.” She pointed to the left, and every head turned with her. I wasn’t sure if I did know the game, but I’d probably figure it out. 

Cassia held up two strips of fabric, one a neon purple and the other a radioactive green. “These are your flags. There are a few rules we have to go over real quick. Number one, no leaving campus, duh, no going into the lake, also duh. No trying to physically harm each other. Ladies, you cannot legally break someone’s knee with a salamander, just a reminder. 

“Lastly, no magic unless there’s an emergency. We have nonusers on our floors, and we love you guys!” A few cheers went up. “But it’s not fair to use magic. That’s all. Oh! Your flag has to be slightly visible, and yes, free walk backs. Now try not to kill each other.” She tossed the purple flag at one of the girls and the green one at a guy. 

This was going to be fun. 

We divided into our teams and prepared for what was guaranteed to be an intense game. The girl who had caught the flag, an Illitani, was yelling at the girls who were talking over her, trying to get everyone to listen. 

She eventually gave up and turned to her friend next to her, pure exasperation on her face. The friend, in turn, cupped her hands aboud her mouth, and, with incredible volume, shouted, "EVERYONE LISTEN TO LANYA!" All the girls stopped talking and turned to face her. I wasn't sure what race this friend was. She didn't have remarkably distinct features than the average Eldran, but she seemed a little...off. 

Lanya started again. "Thanks, now we need to figure out a strategy to win this game." Over the next five minutes, our team devised a plan to beat the guys. The flag was properly hidden, and we were ready to start. 

The boys started making guttural noises and yelling insults, which were, of course, returned in full by the girls. I had no idea how the smaller Venrlyn girls could match the lower pitch and volume of the big Eldran guys. 

Cassia and {le dude’s name} stood at either end of the sidewalk boundary line, leaving the anticipation to hang in the air. 

She slowly raised her arm before abruptly lowering it, followed by a “start!”. 

Everyone ran to their assigned positions. I was to guard the middle of the field with Mel and the other faster girls. Mara was helping guard the flag in the back, and Ari was one of the lucky few who had been chosen to enter enemy territory. If all went to plan, she or one of the other girls would sneak past the guys while the less athletic girls provided a distraction. 

As usual, the plan did not go as planned. 

The guys were using a different tactic. They suddenly flooded onto our side, leaving the bigger guys to guard their territory. It was nearly as chaotic as when they stormed our floor. The worst part? They still had the lettuce.

They chucked vegetables and stuffed animals at us as we tried to tag all of them. I don’t even know how many times I got hit in the head by stray lettuce, but I somehow managed to tag at least three guys before they all retreated. 

Overall, they had come out victorious in the confusion. None of them had spotted the flag, but they had taken note of where it wasn’t.  

During the confusion, the first wave of girls had tried to find the guy’s flag but they had caught almost all the girls. A new plan started forming in my mind, but I wasn’t sure I could get anyone to listen to me. I swallowed down the pride trying to work its way up my throat, and stuck to the plan. 

Nearly half an hour followed, with neither side gaining much ground. My brain had finalized the idea. It was worth a shot, and I was the only one who the team could possibly lose in it. I doubted it would be much of a loss if I did fail. I had hardly done anything the whole round. 

I jogged over to the girl closest to me. “Hey, I have an idea, but I want someone to know what I’m doing.” She raised an eyebrow at me. 

“I’m listening.” I felt a smug smile spread across my face. 

The tree certainly wasn’t comfortable to wait in. A knot in one of the branches stuck out just enough that I couldn’t lean back. But it was the best view I could get. 

I’d been waiting for at least ten minutes. The guys were only sending a few of their teammates across at a time. They had gotten a few of their members back. Occasionally I’d see one of the girls start looking around for me, to be stopped by the girl I’d told my idea to. 

My stomach kept reminding me that what I was about to do was probably a bad idea. Not that I needed another body part reminding me. I was so pent up with nervous energy I thought I would throw up. 

Then my chance came. A large group of guys began nonchalantly striding towards the boundary. I stood up and resumed my climb. I got to the end of my branch and checked the position of the guys. Still far enough away for me to cross. 

I swung from one tree to another, repeating my action until I reached where the sidewalk cut through the row. This had to be timed well. 

Taking a deep breath, I focus on the branch I was going to grab. I had done this a dozen times. Just not with these trees. With a horde of boys below me. Not a big deal. 

The guys got right up to the sidewalk. They were about to cross. 

“FOR THE LETTUCE!” The swarm gave me the distraction I needed to jump across. My hand wrapped around the branch, and then the other. I swung onto a lower branch and let out a small laugh. 

I climbed to the top of the tree overlooking the guy’s side, and scoffed aloud. In their confidence, they had left their flag in a painfully obvious spot. Conveniently for me, that spot was right below the tree line. 

Quickly and hopefully quietly, I got myself to the tree right above the flag. The neon green screamed painfully into the dimness. They seriously didn’t have anyone guarding it. 

I carefully lowered myself to the ground and grabbed the flag, stuffing it in my back pocket and quickly swinging back into the tree. I looked down one last time in satisfaction and froze. Bryce stared up at me in total puzzlement. 

Before I could think it through, I cracked a smile. “Bye!” 

I think I broke the Alithosi record for climbing, I had never in my life climbed that fast. 

Bryce managed to gather his thoughts and started yelling at the guys on his side. “It’s the Alithosi girl! She’s in the trees!” 

I let out a slightly maniacal laugh and fell back into the rhythm of swinging from branch to branch. Below me, the guys were frantically running around with their heads craned back, trying to find me. 

“It’s the Alithosi climber!” “She’s a freaking squirrel!” “What the heck?!” 

With much difficulty, I stopped my laughter. If any of them caught me, this idea would fail. From all around, I started hearing the girls yelling encouragement over the guys. 

“Heck yeah, Fannara!” “Show them who’s the boss!” “''Fly my child''FLY MY CHILD!” The last one was definitely Ari. 

I got to the sidewalk and hesitated. I was in such a rush; I wasn’t sure I could make the jump, but was that safer than making a run for it? I decided a head injury probably wasn’t worth it.  

Gripping a branch that jutted out from the tree, I leaned back, and then propelled myself forward. I held my breath and let go. My momentum carried me across the sidewalk and into our territory. 

A ton of guys immediately tackled me, but it was too late. We had won.

The girls helped yank the mass of sweat and flesh off of me. I stuck my hand into my back pocket and pulled out the green flag, letting out a victorious cheer that ended in a laugh. 

Ari and the other girls who had been caught ran back over to our side and joined in mocking the guys. They stared back with irritation gleaming in their eyes as we jeered at them. 

I just smiled and laughed. 

== Chapter 12 ==
''Fannara''

The rest of the night was a blur of activities that stretched way too late. Two nights in a row of not getting enough sleep was definitely taking its toll on both me and Ari. Neither of us regretted any of it, but it was a strain. 

I was excited somewhere under the exhaustion. I knew that at least. The healing class was getting more interesting. The last class I had attended covered healing without using your hands in any way. It was extremely different from what I’d been taught at the academy, but it worked so much better. 

Arienna had convinced me to drink some of her coffee, insisting I needed the energy. I had hesitantly taken a sip and then downed the entire thing in less time than I should have. It worked, though. A little too well. 

I held in comments and laughter for most of my first two classes which much difficulty. 

Finally, Healing was next. I sped down the hallways of {building I LEGIT STILL HAVEN’T NAMED IT LIKE AH}, trying to get seated before I did something weird. Up three floors, down two hallways, and then it was the sixth door on the left. I was still struggling with getting to know my other classmates, but it seemed the night before had gained me some popularity of sorts. 

A brown-haired girl sat down next to me. “You’re the one who beat the guy team last night, right?” I looked at her in surprise. 

“Um, yeah, I guess?” She smiled. 

“That’s awesome. Our floor did awful when we had our activity night.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Elara.” Her hazel eyes twinkled with excitement. I shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Elara. I assume you know my name.” 

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, you’re Fanera.” I tried not to cringe at the butchering my name.

“Yep, I’m Fann''ar''a.” I tried to make the pronunciation clear but didn’t want to seem rude. Even on Alithos, where Fannara was a fairly common name, most people couldn’t say it right. 

The bell rang and class began. 

“Now that we’ve studied the more advanced areas of healing, we’re going to move on to the lesser-known areas. These are much harder to master, so if you don’t get it right away, that’s perfectly normal. Most healers spend years studying these techniques.” I swear, I could never remember the name of this teacher. She was Eldran, clearly, with light blonde hair that was basically white. I felt horrible that I didn’t remember her name. 

“I, of course, know how to do it, but you all have so little experience that I don’t expect you to get it now, if ever.” Well, I didn’t feel horrible anymore. “The idea itself is fairly simple, but the execution is much more difficult. In normal healing, you draw energy from yourself to heal yourself or someone else. However, for our purposes, you want to swap the energy, resulting in either a pain trade or a wound trade, if you have strong enough magic.” She narrowed her eyes at us. “Seeing as only a few of you have gold magic, I doubt any of you could achieve a full wound swap.” 

It was physically painful not to roll my eyes at her. This woman was so full of herself, it was obnoxious. I sometimes forgot how self-centered she was, but then I would go to class.

Elara let out a huff next to me. “I can’t ''stand'' her,” she muttered under her breath. I gave a small nod in agreement. 

[I am currently having troubles with the magic, so, hopefully, at some point, there will be more explanation of what in the world is happening. In the meantime, ignore the short chapter and vague everything.] 

Our professor continued talking about the techniques used in both pain and wound trades. It was honestly very interesting. I found the material fascinating. I just didn’t like the teacher. 

We weren’t allowed to try out the methods taught to us that day, which was a bit frustrating. Even if I couldn’t do it, I still wanted to try. Instead, I just focused on the pounding headache rampaging through my skull. They had died down for a while, but they were getting bad again. I wondered if it had something to do with the change in environment. That would be a little weird, seeing as I had been on Lathra IV for nearly four months at this point. 

Class finished, and I headed off to lunch. I was so tired; I wanted to get as much rest as possible before my next class. 

I headed off to my dorm, figuring we probably had something resembling food in there. Lo-and-behold, we did. Some cut up fruit in a cracking container, a random box of cereal, and an unholy amount of granola bars. 

Settling with a granola bar, I sat cross-legged on the floor, trying desperately to stay awake. I glanced at my telecom. There was still had about an hour before my next class and I gave in to what my body was urging me towards. A nap. 

Opening a window to let some air in, I curled up on my bunk and, after doing my best to set an alarm on my telecom, fell asleep. 

☙❦❧

''I can hear the shrill cry of a baby as I wander the halls. I don’t recognize the place, but somehow I know where to go.'' 

''The crying gets louder and louder as I keep going. I pass closed doors, locked shut with golden locks. Everything in this building is beautifully made, like it should be a palace, but something about it feels like a prison.'' 

''I stop in a hallway where letters are scattered all over the floor. They’re covered in strange writing, completely illegible. A little boy runs over to the pile of letters and places a new one on the pile.'' 

''“What are these for?” I point at the letters.'' 

''The boy looks up at me, and I stifle a scream. Blood is seeping out of his eyes like tears. A forced smile wedges his face into a strained expression. “These are for the Lost Ones.”'' 

''A dread falls over me at the name, but I’m not sure why. “Who are the Lost Ones?” The blood coming out of his eyes quickly starts drying and cracking on his face. His eyes and hair go black and he slowly begins walking towards me.'' 

''I try to back away, but it’s like my feet are glued in place.'' 

''Dark figures melt out of the doorways and begin creeping closer. Closer. Closer. I’m completely surrounded by them now, all of them have black, lifeless eyes.'' 

''In one haunting voice, they say, “We are the Lost Ones. Betrayed by our king and chained to our queen. We serve the total eclipse. We clip the wings of the traitors. None shall destroy us, for we are already destroyed.”'' 

''Their hands all reach out at once, sharp nails dig into my skin. It feels like my veins are being flooded with tar as my limbs lose their will to move. I can’t protect myself from them.'' 

''The darkness begins to swallow me whole. Just as I begin to-'' BEEP. 

I woke up from my very unpleasant dream in a very unpleasant manner. To my surprise, it wasn’t the alarm I had set on the telecom. I had slept through that one. 

The loud ''beep'' rang out from the hallway again. I groggily slid out of bed and tapped my telecom against the door, opening it. Or it should have opened it. I pushed on the door, but it didn’t budge. 

I pressed my ear against the door, trying to figure out what the beeping noise was. I heard a very muffled announcement. 

''Attention all students. The campus is going into lockdown due to reports of a threat. This is not a drill. Get to the closest safe room and stay there until further instruction. We thank you for your cooperation.'' It repeated three times and then the beep went off again. 

I jumped to my feet and ran to close the window. It was still open from when I had taken my nap. I froze before I even raised a hand to the diamond glass. 

I could see students running into buildings, their faint shrieks of panic wafting up to my room. But that wasn’t why I froze. No, it was something much bigger. 

There was a dragon on campus, and it did not look friendly. 

== Chapter 13 ==
''Fannara''

''“Get it together, Harpson.” I gritted my teeth and glared up at the teacher towering over me.'' 

''“I’m trying.” My frustration strained the words as they came out.  ''

''He raised an eyebrow and bent lower to the ground, sticking his stuck-up head in my face. “Get up and go again.” I rolled my eyes and pushed off from the spot where the ground had so graciously received my body when I fell off the rope. I loved climbing, but this sucked.''

''Raising my hands to heal the bleeding callouses on my palms, I began the spell I’d been taught the other day. Before I was even halfway through it, the instructor grabbed my right hand and yanked it away.'' 

''“This is why you have no resilience,'' girl''. You send away your wounds before you can learn from them.”'' 

''I snatched my hand back and barely restrained myself from slapping him with it. “I can’t learn anything if my hands are about to fall off.” He glared down at me.'' 

''“You are no longer allowed to use any magic in the gymnasium.”'' 

''I sputtered. “Wh- what?! You can’t do that!”'' 

''“I can do whatever I want.” He crossed his arms and sneered. “Do you want me to ban you from using it at all?” I let out an irritated groan. “Now again, climb the rope.”'' 

''“And if I say no?”'' 

''He moved his jaw, disgruntled. “It’s not every day that a sixteen-year-old, unwanted, farmer’s daughter is given the opportunity to compete in the Alithos Games. I’d suggest you take that attitude of yours and put it where it belongs.”'' 

''I took a deep breath and stared the man down. “The only reason I’m here is because I have nothing better to do at this stupid academy. If you want to pick someone else to compete in the name of Talidine Magic Academy, be my guest.” I bowed dramatically and stormed out of the place.'' 

''Edmund pushed off the wall of the gym and jogged to catch up to me. “How’d your first day go?”'' 

''“The instructor is a jerk. I’m probably going to have my magic banned'' again, ''and my hands are bleeding. How do you think it went?”'' 

''“Bad enough that you forgot your jacket. Want me to go get it?”'' 

''I glared at him. “I’m not cold.” I bit back a shiver as the wind blew snowflakes into my face.'' 

''“You’re also not stubborn in the slightest.” He stopped walking and waited for me to turn around. I didn’t. Ed eventually gave up and jogged up to me again. “You’re aware this is the fourth time they’ve threatened to take away your magic privileges, right?”'' 

''Now I turned around and gave him the most sarcastic look I could. “Oh, of course not. Why would I keep track of that? It’s not like it makes a difference'' at all''.” I groaned and pushed loose strands of hair away from my face, wincing as it sliced my hand even more. “It’s really annoying. I can’t hold it in, there’s no other way to describe it, it’s like my magic is clawing to the surface constantly.”'' 

''Edmund rolled his eyes at me. “Yeah, yeah, I know, Golden Child.” I scoffed.'' 

''“Fool's gold if anything.”'' 

''“Oh, come on, give yourself a little grace. You’re not as awful as you think.”''

''I snorted and gave him a questioning look. “We’ll see about that. I’m a lot more broken than you think.”'' 

''“People don’t break, Fannara, people grow.”'' 

''I shrugged. “Maybe. All a matter of time, isn’t it?”''

''He shook his head. “Not really. You grow every day, every minute. Just remember to breathe now and then.”'' 

''“Aye, aye, wise guy.”'' 

It was impossible to breathe while looking at that creature. The dragon was huge and black as a nightmare. Thick fire dripped from its fangs in searing drops. The eyes were as wild and pitch-black as the rest of it. 

Everything in me stiffened and refused to move. I was glued in horror as the beast roughly jerked its way between buildings. Something large and dark was bothering the dragon. On the street, the sound of students screaming and running droned on, mixing with the clank of incoming soldiers meant to protect us in case of an attack. Training was nowhere near the point of preparing us for real fights. 

Sick fascination led me closer to the window, peering down at the chaotic swarms of people trying to escape. I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. The short gasps trying to be breaths didn’t provide sufficient oxygen anymore. 

A loud roar split the air, ringing above the din. It snapped me out of my panicked haze. Now I was just panicked. 

I stumbled away from the glass wall and then returned to it, realizing the window was still open. My efforts to close the stupid thing were so frantic, it only opened further. It was now wide enough for a small person to climb in through it. Realistically, no one would. Realistically, everything would be fine. The soldiers would manage the dragon, no one would get hurt, life would return to normal. 

Unfortunately, life is hardly realistic. 

I gave up on the window and instead ran for the bathroom. That door was locked too. 

“Breathe Fannara, breathe, think, ''think.”'' I whirled around and slid under my loft bed, curling my knees to my chest and pushing myself under the desk. 

The noises grew louder as the beast drew nearer. I covered my ears with my hands and started humming one of the songs Ari had shown me. It hardly blocked out anything. My thundering heartbeat was louder than my humming. 

I gave up on humming when I couldn’t really breathe at all anymore. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what the correct breathing pattern was. In for four, hold for…eight? No, that definitely wasn’t it. I groaned and pushed against the wall more. The cool drywall helped calm me down more than anything. 

Just as my breathing calmed down enough for the blood rushing through my ears to quiet, a loud ''thump'' echoed through my room, followed by an alarmingly near dragon roar. Something rustled. Something in my bedroom. 

I held my breath and tried to hide in the shadows of the desk. It was concealed, but a painfully obvious hiding spot if anyone came looking. Of course, someone did. 

I held as still as I could as limping legs came into view. Large, dark brown, feathered wings dragged on the ground as they searched the room. Wedged sandals turned away from me and then were blocked from sight as the figure bent down to look under Ari’s bed. 

They suddenly turned around and immediately made eye contact with me. It was a girl, and the most noticeable thing was her drawn bow, pointed right at me. She drew it back farther. 

“I can see you, get out from there.” Her speech was heavily accented, and it was clear Eldran wasn’t her first language. 

I slowly crawled out of my hiding place, hands in the air and wavering on my legs as a new migraine ripped through my skull. The girl, or woman rather–she looked like she was in her twenties–was tiny. I towered over her by easily a foot. 

Her glare suddenly faltered, and she lowered her bow, still keeping it taught. “F- Fannara?” She cocked her head and stared at me. Then it clicked. I knew I’d seen her before. 

“Via?” 

“Oh, thank the Source it’s you.” She switched to the Shifter language, something she knew I’d learned. “Hope, I need to talk to you, but I feel like now isn’t the time.” Literally translating my name to another language wasn’t something I was accustomed to. 

I furrowed my brow. “You…need to talk to me? Why- I’m not- I can’t do anything about ''that''.” I gestured at the window where the dragon was somewhere. “Actually, Via, what the heck are you doing here?” 

She gave me a halfhearted smile. “Now that is a very long story and we don’t have time, so I just need you to stay out of sight. I just dropped by to catch my breath.” This time, her smile seemed more legit. 

“I’m so confused. What’s happening? Why are you fighting a freaking '''dragon''' on my school campus? Why are you even here? Aren’t the bird Shifters extinct or something?” 

“Well, I had ''tried'' to lead that dragon away, but it seems Jana felt the need to send a scout, so I’m here to fight a dragon, and about the Shifters….it’s complicated and we-” 

“We don’t have time, yeah okay.” I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can you at least tell me what you needed to?” 

Via sighed. “I suppose now is as good as ever. Hope ther- oh crap.” She froze, and her golden eyes widened. I turned to look at what she was staring at and gasped, stumbling back a little. 

The dragon's head was peering into my room and had its eyes locked on me. 

Via jumped in front of me, raising her huge wings to block the dragon’s view. It moved its head and found me again. She looked increasingly concerned about its presence here. 

Setting her jaw, she swung around to face me, yanking something off her hand and shoving it into mine. “There’s a good chance I won’t be back. Whoever knows about the ring can be trusted, okay?” 

“What?! Via, what is going on?!” She gave me a sad look. 

“A war is starting, Hope. I just wish you didn’t have to be part of it.” Via turned back and ran at the window. The dragon had taken off, leaving a destroyeddestructed campus in its wake. Via shifted smoothly into a bird and back into her regular form, weaving through the window and taking off after the huge black beast. 

As cries for medics and support crews wafted up from the street below, I opened my palm to see if the item Via gave me would leave any clues. A notched jade ring sat in my hand, unassuming and unhelpful. I had no clue what was happening. 

== End Part One ==