After parting ways with Syra, the duo returned to the dorm and settled in for the evening.

  Neska wasted no time after cozying up on her bed and opened up her alchemy book, flipping through pages and silently recording notes. The only sound was the occasional scribble of the pen across the page.

  “You know, you could use the note tool from the Interface,” Juni suggested, having settled onto a coil of Neska's serpentine lower half. A blanket was draped over her as she read from her alchemy book, frowning. "Well, this is a shame. Without a class, I'm only going to get so far with actually making substances. According to this, mixing, separating, and other chemical applications are only part of the process. Some class abilities enhance your alchemical mixing and incorporation into substances--or people, even, depending on the concoction. I won't be able to make more than basic formulas."

  "Knowledge is still knowledge," Neska reminded her. "Identifying rare ingredients and their properties is also immensely useful, something you've had practice with." Then she considered Juni's suggestion. “What are the limitations on this note-taking thing?”

  “It seems to be limited to about several hundred pages of information. Beyond that, you have to pick and choose what to keep.”

  Neska continued to write. “I still prefer writing things. That way, others can read it. Keeps me sharp.” Then again, her writing was erratic and sloppy when using her hands. She'd only begun relearning how over the past few days.

  She skimmed through the potion sample section, identifying relatively simple alchemical mixtures. Mixing chemicals was one thing, but some required certain abilities or specializations that only came from the alchemist class, or those with alchemy secondary powers.

  Eventually, she settled on something she wanted to test: a sedative intended to treat insomnia or for those requiring a counter to anxiety. The ingredients were easy to get and should be available in class. She’d ask Professor Sakiri about it in the morning; surely it wouldn't be a bad thing to show initiative in making a simple potion, right?

  "You're gonna zonk yourself out if you drink this," Juni called out. "What's your Endurance at?"

  "Not high enough. I've been dumping a lot of points into Intelligence, Perception, and Soul." Neska realized that, to fully utilize this new [Venom Imbuement], she'd need to take abilities that increased her resistance or amplified her Endurance. Right now, she was convinced that she couldn't spare the attribute points needed to fill all the gaps. Yet. She'd needed to gain a few levels, test by trial and error, then record the results.

  Juni yawned and stretched out her arms. “Alright. I think that's it for me. Time for bed. We apparently only have…” she checked a small sheet of paper. “Alchemy class and defensive training. Apparently, we have a weird block schedule for classes. All classes meet on Wednesday. Two classes apiece the remaining days, with physical training and alchemy on Monday and Friday, general studies and rituals on Tuesday and Thursday.”

  “I have one more.” Neska pointed to her schedule. “Witch training. I’ll be with the other witch Classes, but it's once a week, on Fridays. The Interface is great at honing power, but these classes are for the practical application of hexes, blessings, and natural fonts of power. Whatever that means.”

  “Risha didn't explain it?” Juni's tone softened, and she was quieter now.

  Neska shook her head. “No. Not every angle of it. Risha rarely did more than test rituals or run the shop. To do all that in Peolein, that far from the academy…why did she leave? Serkin either knows and isn't telling us, or she was so paranoid about secrecy that she cut out the staff, too.”

  She leaned back, thinking of her words on that last day. “Can I tell you something I haven't mentioned yet, Juni?" The mouse girl nodded quietly, leaning back against Neska's body. "She said she did something terrible a long time ago, out of love. I can't help but feel there was a personal motivation, something she did that she regretted. What do you think it means?”

  “I wasn't there. It could be something she thought was the right thing at the time. Or, something she knew was dangerous, and it hurt either her or someone close to her as a consequence.” Juni stroked one ear and glanced at Neska, head tilted. “What are you thinking?”

  “Me. I was likely at the epicenter or involved in this terrible thing. I can't help but feel that the way she sacrificed her life like that was solely so I would survive. It was her redemption. Her way of balancing the scales of her self-imposed sin."

  Juni patted her shoulder. “You don't know that for sure. It could be something entirely unrelated. Not every great sin is related to the Divines or Arivol.”

  “I also can't dismiss it, either."

  "Neska...you don't have to be defined by your past. I know you feel like you owe it to Risha to finish her work, stop the monsters, dig up the past...but people need you now, in the present."

  She didn't disagree with Juni. Mostly. But finding her past would likely provide her a path to helping the present. "Should I pretend that it doesn't define me?"

  "You define yourself. Here and now. Not by what happened a lifetime ago," the mouse stated with a firm voice. "For all we know, Risha set in motion a chain of events that will lead to the Varadur's defeat. I hope, anyway."

  "Hope's a dangerous word. We make our own hope, Juni. With training, creativity, and determination." Neska smiled softly, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. "Ah, listen to me. I can't let it gnaw on me. I have foes to beat, and studies to master.”

  Neska closed the book and set it on the nightstand. “What about you, Juni? Anything from your past you're looking for?”

  “Well…no.” She clenched her claws, and her eyes closed, shaking her head back and forth. “No, Neska, I was a nobody before. I loved research, but I was barely an adult in a remote town, closer to the skirmish lines than I should have been. I miss the feel of being human, but what did I accomplish back then? Nothing.”

  “You had a family. Friends. You had something. A father whose last thoughts were for your safety.”

  Juni frowned, then sank herself deeper into Neska’s coils, as if she were something comfy to burrow into. “Well…there was one thing I was looking for. Never found it, but…Maybe I still can.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “O-oh, it’s really nothing.” Neska was puzzled by the mouse sinking further down. Was she trying to hide? Was she shy?

  “Oh, I have to know, now.”

  “Well…I never had a..." Juni shrank further, scrunching her face as if embarrassed. "Uh…you know, a courtship. If you know what I mean.”

  Neska must have been staring for a touch too long. “Stop that. I know you have eyelids now, but that unblinking stare is unnerving," Juni said sternly, though a soft smirk betrayed her facade.

  “So, you never had a companion who was a boy, and then…” Neska tilted her head in curiosity. “Juni, we are in an academy filled with youth coming of age. I am sure this is someone here for you, and you for them. N-not that I'm looking for that kind of thing. I've got so many more things on my priority list, personally speaking."

  The mouse had sunk her body so low she was barely visible over the top of Neska’s loosely wound coil. “I'm glad you think there's someone who would be interested in a mouse girl. B-but, um, I guess companionship can wait until we beat the Varadur. You know. Because it could be a distraction.”

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Neska patted the mouse gently, who shot her a dirty look. “Friendship is important, Juni. It’s one thing that the Varadur doesn’t have. At least, I don’t think so.”

  Juni considered Neska's words, then slowly nodded with a proud smile. “When you put it like that..yeah, that does make it seem important in the scheme of things.” She pulled the blanket over herself, as if she were making this bed hers for the night.

  “Uh…Your bed is over there.”

  “S’okay. I have my security snake. All snug and cozy now.”

  Neska chuckled softly in response. “Honored to have the title of the great mouse protector. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d utter.”

  Neska clicked off the arcane light and rested her head on the pillow. Alright, five minutes, then when she falls asleep, I’ll put her in her bed.

  The next morning, Neska rubbed at a spot on her serpentine lower body where it felt like there was a crick in her spine.

  She’d fallen asleep with Juni resting her heavy body on her serpentine lower half. Neska hadn't quite had the heart to wake her or move her. “Can you pass me the salt?” she asked the mouse.

  Juni eyed her suspiciously. “Do you even taste anything when you swallow food? Asking purely for my academic curiosity. ”

  “I mean…a little?” She stuck her tongue out for emphasis; it was far longer than she remembered it being. "It's weird how my taste and smell are linked." Juni handed her the salt shaker as Neska peeled apart a hard-boiled egg the size of an apple. “With softer stuff, I can chew a little bit. But, you know, old habits die hard.”

  Juni pointed to another serpent down the aisle in the mess hall, gulping down what might have been a game fowl whole, drawing a few cheers from their table. Currently sitting at the table were a few humans and one goblin.

  Apparently, the humanoid students had no compunctions about sitting at the same mess hall as the Awakened. Though a few did give wary glances as the goblin devoured a slab of meat so raw, Neska swore it came right off the butcher’s block.

  And that probably wasn’t too far off the mark. She bit down on the hard-boiled egg, and it split easily. Swallowing it down, though, was always pure reflex.

  Juni twitched as she watched this. “I know this shouldn’t bother me, but your neck bulges out a bit when you eat things. It’s so weird.”

  “I am weird.” She swallowed the other half of her egg for emphasis. “Where do you think the eggs come from?”

  “From large birds?” Juni asked. "We passed a lot of farms on the way in. Bound to be some with domesticated fowl for eggs."

  “Yeah, but I haven’t seen anyplace around on the campus for a fresh source. It's probably from there, right?”

  “Oh no. That was just Marcie’s egg.”

  Neska froze mid-swallow as Syra practically puddled into the seat next to Juni, who got a splash of water inadvertently sent her way. The elementa set down a plate filled with rice and fish, and began eating it. “Oh, don’t stop on my part, Cassia. She’d love to know her efforts brought joy to others."

  “I don’t think I understand, just yet.” No, specifically, she didn’t want to understand just yet, if she heard Syra correctly.

  “Oh, Marcie? Yeah, she sits over there.” Syra pointed over Neska’s shoulder to an avian girl with an eagle-like head and dark black and white wings on her back. The girl was currently talking gossip with a few others, laughing loudly about some joke that Neska must have missed.

  Neska gripped her utensil tightly. Syra had to be joking, right? As if reading her thoughts, Syra leaned in, head resting on one shoulder and tossing her anemone-like hair. “So, the funny thing is, a few avian species? They’re kinda like chickens, and they can lay unfertilized eggs every few days. Selkie, of course, insists that such a thing is not suitable when in training, so most of them get this little alchemical potion to suppress that, provided on demand."

  Neska’s fork dropped on the tray as she felt her cheek twitch like she had a muscle tic. “Syra,” she said in an edged tone, “Are you saying that I am eating an egg…that came…from a student?”

  “Yep.”

  She didn’t have sweat glands anymore, but she felt heat prickles across her face, and it also felt like she’d swallowed a lead weight.

  Juni eyed her currently untouched eggs and pushed the plate away slowly enough that it made a grating screech of metal. She looked to Syra, currently wearing a bemused expression on her face as she rested her elbows on the table, propping up her chin. "You're evil, you know that?"

  “Me? Nah, innocent as a Divine." Syra directed her gaze back to Neska. "I mean, did it taste good?”

  “I might be sick."

  Juni nodded her head up and down slowly, her eyes bulging. “Syra, any time you want to tell the snake you’re joking, please do.”

  “Well, I mean, sometimes, monsters lay eggs, and yeah, staff have to figure out what to do with them. It’s almost criminal to let them go to waste. A whole meal from one egg for some Awakened!” Syra grinned as she munched on a piece of what Neska thought was smoked fish. “It does get a little bit awkward here, I know. Most eggs are donated anonymously, because some students get a little…weird about it.”

  “Syra,” Neska said with a hint of a hiss in her voice, “If I’m violently ill, guess what direction it’s going?”

  “I’m guessing not into the nearest trash barrel.”

  “Yep.” Neska felt herself breathing rapidly. Oh no, this is gonna be a scene.

  Syra’s face cracked into a smirk, then shame burst out into full tilt laughter, slapping the table. “Oh my Divines, the look on your face!”

  Neska unclenched her claws, currently digging small divots into the table, and let out a groan. “So, you're telling me that…”

  The water elementa settled down, wiping her eyes as if she were tearing up. Which, to Neska, didn't make much sense; Syra was practically almost entirely composed of magically charged water. “No, no. It’s just an Emsura egg; they farm them all the time out east of here. Many of the proteins are produced locally in the valley, with select imports from downriver. Otherwise, it might be difficult to feed this many. The verdant valley lives up to its name; agriculture is a major draw, along with the academy."

  Juni’s teeth were on edge. “Its getting really unsettling about how much gets brought up about food.”

  “Indeed.” Neska pushed her plate away, even though she no longer felt nauseated about the source of her current food. “I think I’d be better off hunting on my own. That way, I know what I’m getting.”

  The elementa’s smile faded. “Maybe I stretched that a little too far as a joke. Sorry. Peace offering of gilded trout?”

  Neska eyed the smoked fish skeptically. But it did smell good. “I trust this is sourced locally?”

  “The river has bountiful fish populations south of here. There are also a lot of glacially carved lakes nearby, very deep, very cold water, which they prefer.”

  Neska tossed back the fish after cutting a chunk with her knife, and had to admit, it was pretty good, with a hint of spice, salt, and a slightly buttery flavor.

  Wait. How did she remember these tastes? Likely, from before. Small flashes of a lake, roasting fish over a fire coming from a stone and metal mesh grill.

  And Risha, again, was wearing more common clothes, and not her typical longer dress and witch hat. She was saying something, but the sound was out of focus, in the distance. Muffled by time and death.

  How long ago was this? Where? Risha looked...younger before the weight of the world had descended upon her.

  She blinked, and the memory was gone. All that was in front of her was Syra’s expectant face. “So, was it good?”

  “Very.” She cleared her throat, pondering that memory that had cropped up suddenly. “Syra…uh…do you ever get flashes of what came before?”

  “Sometimes. It can be anything that triggers it. One moment you're looking at a painting of the seaside, the next, bam.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis. “You’re playing back a memory of running along a beach, wet sand squishing beneath your toes, and a warm, salty breeze caressing around you. It feels like it's the first time you've been to the ocean.”

  “Is it common? I only knew one or two other Awakened before I met Cassia, so I wondered if that was normal.” Juni looked relieved by this news, as if this worry had plagued her, too.

  “Pretty common. The soul remembers. Or some other memorable saying by Serkin, or any number of the other professors.” Syra shrugged as if this wasn't big news. “Of course, it can work both ways: good memories and bad ones.

  "This girl I know, Ellie, is a cute little raptor girl. Gorgeous feathers, but piss her off, she'll turn you into ribbons, monsters, or Awakened alike. She went to the medical center in tears about a month ago, after we started attending a Varadur biology lab class. We started dissecting a dead beast as part of lessons, because some professors try to learn about the monsters we fight, and teach us some tactics to employ."

  Syra wagged her hand, like this was not a big deal. “It triggered a reaction, and she remembered being cut open by a monster, some bear-like thing. They were eating her alive. She was on the ground, screaming, in the middle of the class. Poor thing. I was there trying to console her that the past couldn't hurt her. It took her a week to recover from that. Some don't. They...don't always come back from that kind of nightmare."

  “How did–” Neska started to ask a terrible question about whether Syra remembered her own death in vivid detail, then redirected it. “Did she recover?”

  Syra nodded, though her expression was more sullen than before. "Mostly. We all carry scars, Cassia. Some are deeper than others. But scars do fade over time. That's why it's so important to make friends around here."

  Neska felt a pair of eyes watching her before she turned her head to confirm it. Kasfew was sitting three tables down, looking at the gathered trio, and sipping a cup of steaming hot liquid. Why did he look so irritable, so angry?

  She had a feeling it wasn't just because he wasn't a morning person. She pushed up from the table, motioning to Juni and Syra. "Well, let's get to class then. Got some fun stuff coming up with Corvin's class today. Ranged attacks."

  Syra grinned. "Yes, bonding over classes and grueling training is a great way to break the ice. Guess we can all demonstrate each other's abilities in detail. Though your magical bolts are definitely an exciting unknown."

  Neska gave her a fanged smile. "You don't know the half of it."

  **New Subscriber Count: 1/5**

  | | | | |