Our room has a big common area with a living space, a kitchen, a shared bathroom, and four individual rooms—cells barely big enough for a mattress, one for each of us. I'm happy to share with Enea. I hope the two other girls that I still don't know are nice.

It smells of stale air, ink, and a sour undertone, like pickles.

I open the living room window to let some fresh air in and take a look outside.

I can see a narrow hill flanked by acacia trees. Their leaves rustle in the breeze as if they are constantly whispering secrets to each other. Maybe they are. Maybe they chatter about all those silly but bloodthirsty students running to and from under their shade, eager to improve, not to fall behind, not to get kicked out.

Kylo shifts on my shoulder, sniffing the air, his nose twitches.

"Sweaty," he mutters. "Mmm. Iron claws. Girls. Mud. Blood. No bunnies."

"Very specific," I say, snorting at his antics.

He chirps and settles in again.

On top of the hill is a structure made from pale and polished stone—alabaster, or something similar. It's too far to make it out. Dark tiles cover its sloped roof. They gleam like oil when they catch the light filtering through the branches. I wonder what it could be.

I squint my eyes. There is something engraved on the entrance: a stylized dragon biting its tail. I'm not that familiar with the local symbology. Maybe it's a temple. But with the local aversion toward gods and spirits, I doubt it. It could be the personal pagoda of some high-ranking cultivator of the Han clan.

Maybe Enea will know it. I open my mouth to ask her, then snap it shut again. The question could come around as strange, exposing me as someone not local.

I feel her glance at me. "Is something the matter?" she asks.

"Nothing," I blurt out in a hurry, searching for an excuse. "Well, did you meet our other roommates?

"Just one." She leans against the table, careful to avoid the cluttered scrolls sprawled upon it, and purses her lips. "Ina, from the Kong clan, a side branch of the Han. She was… Well, I suppose she is okay?"

I narrow my eyes. "That bad?"

"What? No! No!" Enea's eyes widen, and then dart around as if to make sure nobody is listening in. "She was okay, just a bit snobbish. It's as if she believed she was my better just because her clan is a tiny little bit more influential than mine." Enea looks at me, neck hidden between her shoulders. "But don't tell her I said that, okay?"

Great! I roll my eyes, more snotty cultivator brats with an inflated feeling of self-importance. "Obviously, not," I assure her.

The door clicks and we fall silent. A girl walks in, nose upturned. Her hair trails behind her like ivy, hiding the sheeted blade strapped on her back. She stops when she notices me, raising an eyebrow as if waiting for me to introduce myself.

"Oh! Hi Ina. This is Minae," stammers Enea, wearing a grin like a mask. "Our third roommate."

"It's Kong Ina, to you," says the new girl, her tone cold. She studies me as if she is trying to determine if I'm made out of hardened bones and trained meat or only soft fluff. "Are you the one who decided it was a good idea to smack some third year into the sand this early?"

"Humm, I suppose?"

The girl huffs, then flicks her hair and walks past me as if the conversation is over. Enea glances at me over the girl's shoulder, raising her eyebrows as if to tell me I told you so.

"Don't touch my snack and my robes, and we will get along," says the new girl, heading toward her cell.

"Noted," I mutter.

The girl puts her sword on a rack, then opens the door. "Don't touch my sword either, it bites." I see her glance at the ring on my finger, then huff even louder, before disappearing into her cell.

"Heavens help me, I'm surrounded by wealthy idiots."

Her voice is barely louder than a whisper. She probably thought that we couldn't hear her.

The door slams shut.

Well, charming. I feel the same.

"Fake fang not friend?" asks Kylo, narrowing his gaze at the sword, fluffing up his fur as if expecting it to move. He tilts his head, then snorts. "Lie! Fake fang dead," he concludes.

I hold my hand over my lips, stifling a laugh.

Enea grins at us, then laughs too. "Your cat is funny!" she exclaims. She brings a hand closer to pet him. He seems to like it because he leans into it, purring. "Gosh! He is so adorable!"

I almost roll my eyes. You say that because you don't know about his leopard form.

"Kylo, handsome," he declares, puffing his chest. Then his attention gets caught by a flock of birds fluttering past the window. He stares at them, pupils dilated, eyes gleaming. "Kylo hunt."

Wait, what? Before I can react, the weight on my shoulders disappears. I try to grab him midair, but he slips through my fingers and jumps out the window in a blur.

"Shit!" I mutter. "Too slow."

Enea stares at his disappearing figure, eyes wide. "Your cat!" She looks at me, hands gripping the edges of the table. Then she narrows her eyes, seeing that I don't look overly worried. "Should we not go and catch him before he gets into trouble?"

I massage my temples. "Nah. It's pointless. We would never be able to catch that sneaky bastard unless he wanted to," I say. "Don't worry, he will come back once he gets bored. He can take care of himself."

Enea stares at me as if I were crazy and irresponsible. What else am I supposed to do? I mean, the freaking cat is fast. He still has runes to turn invisible, and his steps are almost noiseless. At this point, I don't even know where he is anymore.

I open my mouth as if to explain that, then close it. Instead, I choose one of the empty cells and start unpacking some of my things to make it appear inhabited. I put an inkpot and a notebook on a shelf next to a tiny window, which could serve the double function of a desk on which you can write while sitting on your bed, I suppose. A bit more cramped than I expected from an institution as relevant as this academy. It seems as if

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we are the lowest of the low on the totem pole. I suppose that higher-ranked students enjoy better lodging. Or maybe wealthy and important ones do. I need to check out what advantages being on the ranking brings. I'm sure there must be some. The local culture seems quite hierarchical. I'm sure that the young Han mistress has some palace or personal wing for herself.

Whatever, it's still more space than what I had back in the city in the Solarian Kingdom I grew up in. There, having some personal space was a luxury.

The exhaustion assaults me without warning, after the day's events. I lean back, my eyelids heavy, and stifle a yawn. Well, there shouldn't be a problem in falling asleep now. I've done it, I'm in! First step of the plan accomplished.

I wake up in the dark, instinct pressing me upright, years of needing to be alert before others. I'm in a city. I'm not alone here like I was in the wilderness. My eyes dart around the place. The door is closed, I'm alone, I'm safe. My heart stops galloping in my chest.

Through the window, I can see the faint hue of the first light on the horizon announcing the arrival of a new dawn.

Wait, I'm alone?

I look at the emptiness next to me. Kylo is still missing.

I sigh, then stand up, shaking my head, still a bit drowsy.

There is no one in the living room. I step into the bathroom and wash my hands and my head in the basin. Then I step back into the living room, feeling fully awake.

Someone closed the window. I frown. Okay, maybe Kylo couldn't enter. I hear a scratch on the door. There he is!

I open the door and find him sitting on his haunches in the hallway, glaring at me. Something is hanging from his mouth. How long has he been waiting?

"Sorry," I whisper.

He tilts his head and opens his jaw wide, letting something wet and slimy—furred, with limp paws and a tail too long for comfort, fall onto my bare feet.

"Cook breakfast?" he asks. "Cook wrong bunny?"

I stare at the corpse: gray fur, long tail, round ears, pointy snout.

"Eww, Kylo! That isn't a bunny!" I hiss, feeling a wave of disgust race up my throat. "It's a rat!"

He tilts his head even further. "Cook rat?" He expels a tiny puff of air through his nose and curls his tail around himself like a curtain, blinking up at me. "Raw tastes funny."

I sigh, rubbing my temples. "Where did you even find it?"

"Cave!" he declares. "Lots of rats in cave!" he raises the volume of his mental voice, sounding increasingly excited. "Lots of rats, dump rats, slow rats. Kylo stalk, Kylo pounce, Kylo rip, Kylo tear. Now less lot rats. Rats hide," he relates his nightly adventure, puffing his chest out.

"A cave? Where the heck did you find a cave?"

"Under city, big cave, long cave, under city. Lots of river cave. Lots of exit cave. Cave everywhere."

I narrow my eyes in suspicion and sniff at him.

A sharp tang of ammonia mixed with the earthy musk of mold hits my nostrils like a physical force. It wants to cling, sour and oily, infecting my lungs.

I flinch back. "Eww, Kylo! That aren't caves, that are the sewers!"

I whip my head around to gaze over my shoulders and hold my hand over my mouth, remembering that I'm not alone, that I could wake up my roommates if I'm too loud. But only soft snores come out of two of the cells. The fourth is open and remains empty.

"Come, let's get you washed and cleaned up before the other girls wake up and throw a fit," I tell him. "And we are going to throw that dirty rat away and get some real food. We aren't that poor anymore to need to eat whatever we can catch."

The sewers, huh. Maybe I should check them out. It could be a good way to get around unseen if they are wide enough to walk inside.

I kneel on the backed clay tiles of our shared bathroom's floor, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The lower half of my robe is soaked and slippery from trying to wrestle with Kylo, currently looking more similar to the rat he caught than a majestic hunter. It could count as one of Bae's training exercises. It must be great for your endurance and dexterity!

I frown. Do I miss the foxkin?

"Water bad!" yowls Kylo, glaring at me as if I had betrayed him.

"Just another rinse, please," I beg him. "I saw you swimming in the river back in the valley. Why is this different?"

He tilts his head. "River good, water bad!"

That doesn't make any sense! I groan and rub my temples with my soap-covered hands, letting him go.

He sneezes, then shakes himself, launching a hail of droplets all over my face, almost as if he were trying to get revenge for the blatant and outrageous manhandling.

I snort. Now I have to change again into something dry.

Outside the fogged-up window, the courtyard is beginning to come alive. I see students hurrying around, alone or in groups, all dressed in the same type of robe I have already grown accustomed to.

A few of them are doing sword drills, blades flashing like fish scales in the pale dawn. Others yawn, working on their footwork half-asleep, or vomit mana when they try to use a technique but fail.

I narrow my eyes, intrigued. I thought techniques were a matter of inscribing or branding them into your meridian network. If they settle the proper way, how can they fail? A lack of internal mana control? A matter of shoddy inscription? In my mind, they should either work perfectly or not work at all. Maybe my understanding of what they are falls short, and I'm biased because of my knowledge of runes.

I also notice that only half of them shout the name of their techniques out aloud when they execute them. It still seems silly to me to do something like that, but maybe there is some benefit. It could help you concentrate or better control your mana. How should I know?

I feel eager to start classes and find out. Lacking Wen's and Bae's direct guidance, this seems a good place to patch up knowledge gaps. I shouldn't get too comfortable. But heavens, it's hard not to want this place to be more than a step in the plan.

The scent of steamed buns and fried dough drifts up from somewhere. My stomach growls. Kylo sniffs the air in interest, before shaking his fur again.

"Foood!" he yells far too loudly inside my head.

I hear a yawn, followed by the reluctant groan of a door opening.

"Oh, morning, Minae." Enea stops on the doorstep of her room, blinking at us, before wiping the grit and sleepiness out of her eyes with the back of her hands. "Why are you up so early?" She looks at us, narrowing her eyebrows. "You know that our first class isn't until much later today, and it's just orientation." She curls up one corner of her lips in a half-smile. "For us newcomers, the real fun doesn't begin until tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know. I couldn't sleep any longer," I confess. "And then Kylo came back."

"Oh! Hi Kylo!"

She glances at him and blinks, then blinks again, taking in his still a bit soggy fur. The cat ignores her, still sniffing the air.

"We are going to grab something for breakfast at the canteen," I say.

"Oh, wait for me, I wanna go with you," she blurts out, stepping into the bathroom to wash her face, a bit too hurried."

I narrow my eyes. "What is the matter?"

"Nothing!" She glances at me, smiling sheepishly. "Well, I heard that sometimes the older students play pranks on newcomers. I wanna go with you because, after your fight yesterday, they shouldn't mess with you."

"Oh, okay," I mutter, relieved on one side, but not liking to stand out on the other.

"There you are!" Kenae slams a tray onto our table and drops into a seat next to us like a felled tree. She looks tired. Her hair is unkempt, and dark circles surround her eyes. "I can't stay there," she mutters, stabbing an exotic fruit I've never seen before with a knife. It's green inside too, just a bit paler than the outside and with a buttery texture. "My new roommates are blumen in human skin! One practices his techniques inside, trashing everything, the other believes she is a famous singer, practicing her opera at dawn, but she sounds like a drowned cat." Kenae gives Kylo a side-glance. "No offense, Kylo."

He snorts and swipes a slice of the exotic fruit from the girl's plate in revenge. Then spits it out after taking a bite, glaring at it as if betrayed.

"Is it that bad?" I ask, sharing a look with Enea.

"You can't even imagine it! Please! I'm begging you. Let me move in with you. I'll sleep on the floor. I'll clean. I'll make tea. Whatever I must do to escape that hell!"

"Well, you drew the short stick there," I say. "Our other roommate doesn't seem that bad. The typical snobby kind that keeps to herself. But well, not the kind to bother you either. And we don't even know if we even have a fourth roommate."

Hope seems to kindle in Kenae's eyes.

"There is a problem, though," comments Enea, her cheeks slightly flushing. Kenae glares at the younger girl. "Wait, wait! I'm not against you moving in with us. It's just that the one managing the rooms this semester is that stupid registrar whose nephew Minae got expelled."

Kenae's glare whips around toward me.

"Shit!" I mutter. She stares at me, fire smoldering in her eyes as if I had betrayed her or insulted her ancestors.

I groan, rubbing my temples. Yesterday's events are already coming back to bite me in the ass. I can't seem to escape that stupid man's shadow.

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