“So what did you think of the Grand Magister? Fallon asked.

  It had been about an hour since our awkward parting in the hallway, and we were both taking the mature route of not addressing it in any way, shape, or form. Instead, we were sitting at the table in the small suite that I had been given, discussing the council meeting we had been put through. We were both dressed in the simple tan shirt and pants we had been provided, made from a material that felt incredibly similar to starchy linen. My hair was still vaguely damp from the single best shower I had ever taken, while Fallon’s was still bound up in a towel atop her head.

  Each of us were sipping from a bowl of dark, savory stew that was bursting with unexpected flavor notes and textures. The broth had a rusty reddish hue to it, seasoned with simple but unfamiliar spices, while the meat and veggies in it were at least vaguely familiar from the skewers we had shared with Charrin’s party.

  I mulled over the question while I chewed a mouthful of stew. I considered trying for subtlety, but I had never been very good at that, so I went straight at it instead. “I didn’t like him.”

  Fallon seemed surprised at that. “Really? I thought he was quite kind, all things considered.”

  My lip twitched at the corner, and I shook my head. “No kinder than he had to be. He looked at us like… like we were unexpected pieces on a gameboard, and he was trying to figure out the best way to take advantage of our presence.” I didn’t say you especially, but I was thinking it. There was no way Fallon had missed that Elsenis Ful’s attention had fallen much more on her than me.

  “I mean, we are somewhat unexpected, I think.”

  “Still.” I shrugged, and sipped at a glass of the weak yellow wine they had brought us. It was too sweet, but with a little bit a tang to it that reminded me of at least one of the spices in the stew. “I don’t think he’s concerned about what’s best for us–he’s concerned about how we can do what’s best for him. Same with Almara, and that Bela woman. Half the things coming out of her mouth were his words.”

  Fallon frowned, and I could tell she disagreed, but was being polite enough to keep it to herself. It didn’t surprise me when she changed the subject. “What about the others? For me, it was that Elbexas that put me off. He was so rude.”

  I shook my head. “Hard disagree,” I told her. “He seemed like one of the only ones in the room trying to fight for us. He is the only reason we’re even getting this chance to rest before we’re bombarded with offers, after all.”

  “I guess,” Fallon admitted, frowning to herself. “But it seemed like he just wanted that time so he could try and influence us, didn’t it? Elsenis had to shut him down when he suggested it.”

  I shrugged. I didn’t get most of that weird power struggle that had passed between them, but I was also sure I didn’t know enough to pass judgement. “I don’t know. I’m just going off my gut.”

  “Well some of us prefer to think about things logically, and my logic says he was much more shady than Elsenis and the rest of them.”

  “Oh, he’s definitely a weird creep,” I agreed. “I just think he’s a weird creep with a heart, which I'll take over a stone cold politician any day.”

  “You know, you say ‘weird’ a lot.”

  “What?”

  Fallon shrugged and ate a spoonful of soup instead of explaining.

  “Okay, even if I do, everything here is weird, so I’m right.”

  “Okay.”

  “Stop judging me.”

  “So what did you think of Helda?”

  I stared at Fallon through narrow eyes, ensuring she understood my frustration before I accepted her change of topic.

  “She seemed fine to me,” I told her. “Kind of straight-laced. Severe.” I paused to consider, then added, “Pretty hot.”

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  “Dani!”

  “What? C’mon, I grew up on Xena, it’s not my fault I’m weak to the whole beautiful-maiden-of-war look!”

  “You’re a pig, Dani.”

  “I think you’re hot too. Promise.”

  “Perv.”

  “I can have more than one type, you know.”

  “Okay, we’re moving on now.”

  I frowned a little. I couldn’t help but be disappointed that she hadn’t picked up the flirting when I offered it. I suddenly became aware, in that way you only are after you make a giant mistake, that there was something different in the energy between us, something that hadn’t been there in the days previous.

  “That just leaves Merreira.”

  “I like them,” I said simply. “They were the only person in the room that felt like they wanted to be there even less than me.”

  “And that’s… a good thing?”

  “Sure. They weren’t into playing politics with the rest of the Magisters.”

  Fallon considered this with a frown. Lots of frowning going on at this table, right now. I pawed through my thoughts somewhat desperately, trying to come up with something, anything, to lighten the mood, to make Fallon smile–or even to make her stick out her tongue at me again. The previous night, with her curled up against me, under my cloak, on a bed of moss, seemed years away.

  “So are you going to try for the Arcane Conspectus, then?” Fallon finally asked. “If they offer it, I mean?”

  I shook my head. “No chance. Eni made it pretty clear that she’d be mad at me if I didn’t choose Vigilant House.”

  “And that’s reason enough for you?”

  “I don’t know. I guess. I chose the rogue class, and I do like it. If nothing else, it makes me look fucking cool.”

  Barely a hint of a smile. Damn.

  “I guess I wouldn’t be against the mage college, though,” I told her. “It might be my best shot at figuring out the how’s and why’s that got us to this world.”

  Fallon blinked at that, surprise evident on her face. “What do you mean? You want to find a way to go back?” More than surprised, she seemed faintly… horrified?

  “I don’t know,” I told her with a shrug. “It’s not like I left a whole lot behind. But still… Fal, we got hit by a bus, and we somehow woke up in another world. And apparently, that’s just a thing that occasionally happens here. You can’t tell me you’re not at least a little curious about why that is?”

  “I mean, of course I am,” Fallon admitted, “but it’s not front and center in my brain right now. This world is just… I don’t know, a fresh start. One where we’re being offered the kind of opportunities and privilege we could only dream about in the other world.” The other world, I noted, not our world.That was a quick change of mindset.

  “So what college are you thinking of?” I asked, knowing deep down that I already knew the answer.

  “The Crystalline Chorus, if they offer it.”

  The bottom of my stomach dropped out. I had expected it, but still… “Really, Fal?”

  “Of course,” she said, as if it should’ve been obvious. “Maybe you’re right, and maybe Elsenis and the others are a bit political. But so what? You don’t get anywhere unless you’re willing to play politics, and it’s pretty clear that the Chorus is the fast-track to political prestige around here. Based on what the others said, I think an offer to enroll in the Chorus is like getting into an Ivy League. Of course I’m going to take the chance, if I get it.”

  “That’s something you want?” I asked, boggled at the idea.

  “Sure!” Fallon said. “Look, I want to know how we got here, too. I want to know more about this world, period. Well, if anyone has figured it out already, I’m sure the Church knows–and the only way I’m getting into the Church is if I go through the Chorus.”

  “Maybe, but still…”

  “I’m sure they’ll give you an offer too,” Fallon said confidently, confirming to me that no, she really hadn’t noticed the way Elsenis had focused on her. “We could stay together, Dani. If you want to.”

  I saw the offer for what it was. An olive branch, an attempt at a connection. It was the warmest Fallon had felt to me since we sat down together, and I didn’t doubt that she was being sincere, either.

  But there was more to this choice than my relationship with a girl I had known for all of three days. Even if Fallon hadn’t noticed them, or was simply more able to turn a blind eye, I couldn’t ignore the things I had seen and heard about the Chorus in just a few days. The way Eni and Gell had talked about them. The way Almara, apparently one of their representatives, had so condescendingly berated the same ellids that had rescued us. The way Elsenis had only been turned from his course in the face of overwhelming opposition from three of the other magisters.

  The weight of those heavy, crystal eyes every time they drifted over me.

  “I can’t,” I told her. “You can do what you want, Fallon, but… It’s just not for me. I can’t.”

  The girl–my friend–the angel unexpected–frowned, and it was like something in her closed up, a door that had just barely started to crack open being slammed shut once again.

  We finished eating in silence, and Fallon left shortly afterwards, with little more than a quiet, sad, “Good night.”

  I laid down on my soft, clean bed, and after everything the past three days had thrown at me, I expected to pass out the moment my head touched the plush pillow of the bed in my room.

  But I didn’t.

  I just laid there in the dark, unfamiliar room, for hours, missing the feeling of a soft warmth curled against my side, and wondering what I could’ve said differently.