The mood in the dorm hall was dark. No one wandered about. Doors were closed. It was like that one incident had reverted Class E back to the first day of school. Reianna wouldn't stand for it.

After seeing the destructive powers of the school's other two mages, maybe it would be best to leave things like this. It might be safer for her friends. The other two mages were obsessed with Reianna and hated each other. What would Reianna do if it were Fawna who was caught up in their conflict? Luvina? Cayelyn? Jan or Xav? Or…Gerenet-Shr?

No. Reianna couldn't live in isolation. She needed to learn how to overcome Daymein and Loushee.

Opening the door to her room, Crystal bounded over to her and jumped up, smashing his paws into Reianna's stomach. Reianna held her blood-covered hands up high so that she wouldn't get his fur dirty.

"Hey, Crys, we're back."

Following Reianna inside, Fawna went in front and squatted down. Crystal dropped down from Reianna and went to the girl willing to give him the attention he craved. Fawna laughed as he licked her face.

"Welcome back, Miss Reianna, Miss Fawna." Natya bowed. "I have already drawn a bath for you, Miss Reianna."

"Thank you, Natya. Can you tell Yesenia that I need to see Natt as soon as she and Gerenet-Shr get back?"

"As you wish."

"Thanks."

Heading into the bathroom, Reianna plunged her hands into the hand bowl and scrubbed them as if the blood would never come off. Her body trembled. She'd gone overboard. Caught up in her anger towards Harnel, she'd provoked Julvie.

In a matter of time, Reianna would be strong enough that the pink Yani wouldn't be able to touch her, but that didn't apply to her friends or family. She knew that Julvie had no qualms about using them to get to Reianna.

Reianna stared at the bloody bowl of water. To some extent, Julvie would be bound by rules. Others, like Gerenet-Shr and Natt, would be able to handle her. Natt had saved Reianna's parents, sending them to Madam Aevangelina's county.

But only she would be able to stop Daymein and Loushee. She laughed at her arrogance. Daymein had sliced a girl in half by accident, and Reianna believed she could beat him? And that same Daymein hadn't been able to scratch Loushee.

Leaving her uniform in a pile on the floor, Reianna got into the bath and scrubbed Julvie's blood off herself. Gerenet-Shr had taught her that all mages had different powers. While Reianna had >Identify, Loushee, Daymein, and Liam all had something different.

She'd seen all their powers now. Liam, whom she still liked, could infiltrate the minds of others and access their interfaces. He'd told Gerenet-Shr that he could turn off access to interfaces. Reianna shuddered. She couldn't imagine going back to her life before she could access it.

Daymein could manifest things like fire and whatever those disks were made of. He posed a much greater physical threat than Liam did. Reianna wondered if Liam was as scared of Daymein as he was of Loushee. Reianna was terrified of the daffodil boy. Her attraction to him was too great. It was unnatural and, in her current state, irresistible.

That left Loushee. Reianna pulled out the dress the topaz mage had given her. It was currently in its cup form. Of the three mages she knew, Loushee's was the only one whose powers she held a physical manifestation of.

Turning on her skill, Reianna looked at the cup. The faded dress tag and the broken tag sat just behind the more solid "empty cup" dialog box. Curious, Reianna dipped the cup into the water and looked at the cup's description again:

Full Cup

Filled with dirty and bloody bath water.

0.03% chance of stomach ailment if drunk

Looking down at the bath, she pulled up its box:

Bathtub

Now filled with dirty, bloody water.

Rinsing off again is recommended.

As the highlights around things bothered Reianna in her daily life, she usually left her power inactive unless she wanted to copy a movement or something. Knowing that the interface thought she should rinse off again after already bathing didn't do much for her.

Reianna tossed the cup back in her storage, turned off the bathtub's dialog box, and ran her hand through her hair. Her breath caught. Her braid. Loushee had given her a second manifestation of her powers. Jumping out of the bath, Reianna ran over to the mirror.

Could she do it? Could she focus on her hair and get her own description box to appear? Looking at herself, nothing appeared around her. The only glow was that of the mirror itself. The items in its reflection, including her, had no glow.

Another idea popped into her head. Looking behind her, she opened up the bathtub's dialog again. She knew from previous experiments with Gerenet-Shr that the dialog box would stay open until she closed it, but she wanted to know if she could see the box in the mirror.

It didn't work. When she looked at the mirror, all she saw was the tub, but looking back, the tub's dialog was overlaid on it.

Reianna sighed. Maybe looking at the mirror's description would give her a clue. She pulled up its dialog box, and her blood ran cold.

One-way Reflective Communication Device (ORCD)

This device allows the owner to view and hear everything within visual and auditory range.

Reianna jumped out of view of the mirror. Rage raced through her. What pervert had placed this in her bathroom? Was it Daymein? She thought he was psychotic enough to do it.

Liam's warning about mirrors and reflective surfaces popped into Reianna's head. Looking at the mirror again, she saw it, that faded box behind the main one. Reianna brought it forward.

Mirror

 

Reflective surface made to check appearances

Loushee.

This was her power.

Leaving the mirror in mirror mode, Reianna ran back into her room and pulled up the dialog for the vanity mirror above her dresser. Sure enough, it was an ORCD as well. Reianna flipped it to mirror.

She felt sick and violated. How long had Loushee been watching her? Did that mean Loushee had come into her room to change these things at some point? Reianna's stomach dropped.

Pulling out a fresh uniform, Reianna dressed and rushed out into the sitting area. Fawna wasn't there, so Reianna ran over to her friend's door and knocked.

"Yeah?"

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"Fawna, can I come in?"

"Sure!"

Reianna burst into the room. Fawna lay on her bed, reading.

"What is it?"

Without answering, Reianna rushed over to the mirror, but didn't get in front of it. Sure enough, it was an ORCD.

"Reianna, what is it?"

Someone has been watching and listening to us through the mirrors. She might as well say she was as insane as Daymein and Loushee, but she needed to check the other kids' rooms.

"Reianna?"

"We broke the pod rule today. Every day, we do it when nothing bad happens, but today, when it was needed the most, we failed. I think as a class, we should come up with a punishment and present it as one to Gerenet-Shr."

"We could just sweep it under the rug and not do it again."

"Are you sure that's going to be possible?"

"Sweeping it under the rug?"

"No, not doing it again."

Fawna fell silent for a second, then said, "You're right. Let's go gather everybody."

The hall was silent. Reianna didn't like it. She couldn't remember the last time all the doors were closed, and none of their friends from the other classes were there either.

To make things go faster, Reianna started at the front of the hall, with room 302, Arion and Kyre's room, while Fawna went to the back, starting with Avae and Emilisa in 313. Crystal followed along behind Reianna.

After she told the two boys in 302 to go to room 314 for the class meeting, Reianna went into Dmi and Miya's room.

"Crystal!" Dmi threw herself at the class dog, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Miya stood back. "What is it, Rei?"

"We need to talk about today. We're having a class meeting down in 314."

"Did you need to come in and tell us that?"

Reianna shook her head as she walked over to the mirror in their sitting room, the one at the tea station. Sure enough, like the one in her sitting room, it was an ORCD.

Looking down, Reianna caught her reflection in the silver serving tray, and the innocuous words that Liam said popped into her mind. "Any reflective surface."

Reianna's stomach churned as she pulled up the tray's dialog box:

Silver Serving Tray*

Tray for serving tea.

DEF: +1

*Embedded with One-way Reflective Communication Device

"Reianna?"

Beneath that dialog was a second.

Silver Serving Tray

Tray for serving tea.

DEF: +1

That determined it. The mirrors had been changed by Loushee. The trays had been changed by her. In the carriage, when she and Liam had talked about Reianna's powers "nullifying" Loushee's, he'd ripped the mirror off the wall and thrown it out the window.

It wasn't because he was an insane mage; it was because he knew Loushee was watching and listening. Just how many does she have?

Looking at Miya, Reianna asked, "I know this is going to sound weird, but do you mind if I take a look at something in your room real quick?"

"Not at all," Miya answered.

"Thanks," Reianna said and walked into the hazel-haired girl's room. Miya was on the right side, so her room layout mirrored that of Fawna's rather than her own, but they were all pretty much the same.

Rushing over to the mirror, she inspected it. Miya's mirror was an ORCD, too. Loushee wasn't spying on Reianna in particular. She was spying on everyone.

After turning the mirror back into a mirror, Reianna ran out of Miya's room. "Can you guys get the rest of the class down to 314?"

"Of course, Reirei," Dmi said.

"Thanks. See you there."

Reianna ran down the hall, passing a curious Fawna on her way. Crystal followed behind Reianna with a bounce in his step, like he thought they were playing. Normally, she would have found it endearing, but now she worried about him tangling up her feet—fortunately, he didn't.

Since 314 was their entertainment room, the door was always kept unlocked, and Reianna burst through it. She knew the mirror and tray at the tea station were probably embedded, but she didn't think it was only that.

Trying something she'd never done before, she cast identify on everything she could at once. The room exploded in dialog boxes, and Reianna's eyes and brain hurt from trying to process them all, but it was worth it.

Just like Liam had warned, anything with a slightly reflective surface was embedded with the spying abilities: the brass lamp, the chrome doorknobs, even the spoons at the tea station. Reianna deactivated them all.

As she worked, the pain in her eyes and head dissipated; she was getting used to the constant barrage of dialog boxes. Slowly, she stopped seeing the objects themselves and saw the world as floating dialog tags.

Reianna was surprised to see one move around, then she read it:

Fawna Artsep

Level 1

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 29

Charisma: 26

ɪﾝţｅﾚʒｪпｃє：ＮＡ

</div> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-weight: 400">Subject is 100% integrated</span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Reianna stared at the dialog representation of her friend. She had no idea what any of it meant. She checked all of her friends as they came in. Xav, Ryleegh, and Avae were all level 2, while everyone else was still level 1.

Taraia was the strongest girl at 28, and only Kyre was stronger with his 29, while Fawna was near the bottom of the class with 11. Dmi was the lowest with a 9.

For Dexterity, Xav, Ryleegh, and Avae were top, all of them well over 30, and the acrobatic Ryleegh was at 39. Malcalm was the lowest at 24. Reianna knew dexterity meant the ability to move and dodge, and it played out as the numbers lined up with how they rated on the core machines.

Saevi and Jan topped out the Charisma ratings with a 40 each. Both of them were considered the most attractive in the class. Taraia was the lowest rated at 11, which Reianna didn't think was fair, as she thought Taraia was more attractive than that, but if the rating took attitude and personality into consideration, the rating made sense.

All of them were rated NA for the fourth, unreadable statistic, and all of them were 100% integrated.

Reianna didn't find anything else interesting until she looked at Crystal:

Dog (Husky)

Named: Crystal

Owner: Reianna Santi

Integration: 3%

</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Why was her name there? Before the dog had been named Crystal, what had been there? Did that mean the dialog boxes could be edited? Crystal only at 3% integration? It was something she'd have to talk to Gerenet-Shr about at their next mage training lesson.

In dealing with the two other mages at Dyntril, Reianna realized that this was what she was going to have to do. No amount of regular training would let her catch up to them and overcome the abilities that they had. She was a mage and needed to train her mage abilities.

However, it didn't mean she wanted to see her friends as nothing but floating numbers. She deactivated the skill and realized that everyone was staring at her.

"Uhh, thanks everyone for coming. I wanted to talk about today."

No one said anything.

"As you saw, the two mages are fighting over me for some reason." She couldn't tell them that she was a mage, and that was the reason. "But that doesn't mean we need to panic or change the way we live."

She looked around the room. All eyes were on her. "We failed today. Emilisa?"

"Yes?" the plum-haired girl responded.

"Where was Fawna when you left the grounds?"

"She—"

"Dmi, where was I?"

The bright turquoise-haired girl opened her mouth to respond, but Reianna talked over her. "Those two pods failed today. Fawna and I walked back to the dorms alone. We don't practice pods in peace just because. The point of doing it constantly is so that when the time comes, being together will be second nature to us.

"But the first time a test came up, we failed."

Reianna crossed her arms and looked around the gathered kids, meeting them all in the eyes.

"Gerenet-Shr will be disappointed in us. Sure, it was dangerous, but so is fighting Yani. Those two mages are our new Yani opponents. I'm going to speak with Gerenet-Shr about training with that philosophy in mind. It's also my suggestion that we give ourselves a punishment for today."

"Does he need to know, though?" Taraia asked.

Reianna nodded. "He'll find out eventually. Julvie had her arm severed off in front of Class 2-A. I'm sure it's all anyone is talking about. So, he will find out. I think it's better for us to establish a narrative and to request a punishment."

Cayelyn nodded along. "I agree with Reianna. How about you other pod-leaders?"

At the end of it, Reianna thought the hard part would be agreeing to receive a punishment, but thinking of their own punishment was harder. They were still debating choices when a knock came from the door.

Yesenia entered, followed by Natt.

The room went silent as they stared at the most beautiful woman any of them had ever seen. Gone were the black scars and eyepatch—her left eye was back like it'd never been ripped out.

Unable to help herself, Reianna pulled up Natt's dialog box. Reianna's mouth fell open when she saw the insanity of Natt's statistics. All of them were multiples higher than the gathered children.

Natt's level was 328, and her Charisma was 85. Reianna was scared to think of what numbers Gerenet-Shr had.

"So, I heard you were looking for me?" Natt asked.

Reianna nodded and began the story of what happened at the training field. Natt would be able to help keep Gerenet-Shr from rampaging. Right?

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