Right. The exam. The whole thing I had been waiting for.

  Elbexas took his seat, behind the simple table, and gestured for me to take mine, leaving me curious what this exam would be. He mentioned that the Arcane Conspectus was the most academic, and Almara said that Fal had to go to a drillyard for the warrior exam–so the exams were tailored to the college. What was a rogue exam then?

  I took my seat, and absently rested a hand on the handle of one of my sheathed daggers. Its solidity helped ground me.

  Elbexas leaned forward in his seat, resting his chin on his neatly folded hands. He no doubt noted where my hand had come to rest, but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he asked, “What did you plan to do in your old world?”

  “What?” That wasn’t a question I had expected.

  “You said you were hit by a large vehicle on your first day of classes at a school, right? What were you going to that school for, if not for your tragic accident?”

  “Oh…” Where was this going? “Teaching, actually. Mundane teaching, though. Math or history or something.”

  Elbexas nodded, seeming interested in that answer. His eyes, glassy and inhuman, were intent. “And was that something you felt a calling to?”

  Why did this suddenly feel like a job interview? “Not really,” I told him. “I mean, I didn’t hate it. It seemed like as good a job as any, and it was always in demand. But it wasn’t…” I paused, searching for the words.

  “Your passion?” Elbexas suggested.

  I nodded. “Yeah. It wouldn’t have been the worst life ever, but it wouldn’t have been very remarkable, either.”

  Elbexas nodded again, and I was reminded, again, of someone else. But who? I knew less than a dozen people in this entire world, who could he be reminding me of?

  “You killed two shadows.”

  It was a statement, not a question. “Uhm. A lot more than two. I think it was closer to a dozen by the end.”

  Elbexas flicked a hand, as if shooing a stray bug. “Sure, yes. After you got your rogue crystal. But before that–you were attacked twice by shadows, and without any magic or power of your own, you killed them.”

  “One attacked Fallon,” I corrected him. “But yeah, I guess. I stabbed them with a crystal I had pried out of the wall early on.”

  “Resourceful,” Elbexas commented. “What made you do that?”

  I shrugged. “I took the crystal to use as a light early on, because it was pretty dark in parts of the dungeon. When the shadows jumped us, it was the only thing I had on me, so I used it.”

  Elbexas nodded and sat back. Those iridescent, rainbow-flecked eyes studied me. “I think most of my peers forgot that part of the story,” he said, off-hand. “I didn’t. I actually thought it quite impressive–the instinct to note an advantage and the willingness to put that advantage to work are both valued traits for rogues.”

  “So… is this whole exam just a bunch of weird questions?”

  “Maybe,” Elbexas said, with infuriating calm. “But if so, I’m the one asking the questions for the moment, not you.” Another long pause, just long enough that my shoulders had started to relax before he spoke again. “Enila was quite taken with you. She actually suggested I try to recruit you. Why do you think that was?”

  I felt my brows come together. I knew that Eni had wanted me to join her House–she had made it plenty clear–but I hadn’t spent much energy on why. “I’m not sure,” I told him.

  “Not a very good answer,” he said, a little more intent now. “Try again. No false modesty, this time.”

  “Uhm…” I sucked my lips into my mouth, sinking my teeth down into them a little bit. “Because I’m a human, I guess? It seems like there’s some sort of prestige to having a human in your college.” Not that it made the rest of them want me.

  “Is that all you are then?” Elbexas asked, his tone unexpectedly hot. “Should I follow Elsenis’s lead and go for Fallon instead?”

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  I blinked, surprised at the sudden bitterness in his words. “Because I’m a rogue, then?” I guessed. “I chose that crystal, out of all of them?”

  “Crystals and classes are tools, not identities, Danielle. If unlocking the rogue crystal made you think and act like a rogue, Vigilant House would be much better off. This is the last time I’m going to ask you, so stop the excuses. What did you do to earn Enila’s respect?”

  I suddenly knew the answer, and my mouth moved before I could second-guess myself. “Because I fought,” I claimed. “Because I struggled. Because I woke up in a dark fucking hole in the ground after getting hit by a bus, and instead of having a mental breakdown, I found a tool, and I went to help Fallon when I heard her, and I fought and saved her, and me, and when the predator came, I threw myself in front of it to give her time to run!”

  “Yes!” Elbexas clapped his hand together, just the once, his frustration suddenly vanishing under a wide smile. “That is what makes you a rogue, Danielle. What makes you a delver. The others might not see it–but Enila did, and so did Charrin and Gellert, and so do I!”

  I swallowed, and I felt myself sag like a sail without wind, suddenly drained from my outburst. What just happened? How did he provoke that out of me?

  “Then… are you offering me a seat?”

  “One more question.”

  God dammit.

  “You told me what you were planning to do with your old life,” Elbexas said. “What do you want out of your life here?”

  I opened my mouth–then paused, taking a moment to think about it. The Watchful Magister had made clear that he didn’t care for wasteful answers, and I found myself wanting very much to impress him at that moment.

  Comfort? No, I could’ve had that without enrolling at Primevus.

  Power? Maybe, but not really. That was incidental.

  Meaning…

  Why did I think that? Meaning? That had never been one of those things I was all too concerned about, before, but…

  “Answers,” I finally said, ignoring the intrusive thought.

  “Oh?”

  “Answers.” Yeah. That sounded right. “If you asked a week ago, I would’ve said that none of this was possible. I would’ve said that getting hit by a bus was an ending, not a new beginning. But now, here I am. I’m in another world, and I’m not the first human to end up here. A magic crystal gave me the ability to conjure up weapons and armor. I’m interviewing to enter a magic academy apparently dedicated to clearing dungeons. None of this makes any sense. It defies all logic.

  “So maybe I’m dead, or insane, or stuck in a coma. But I don't think so. This is all too real for me to deny it. I think I’m really here. But if so… how? How does this all work? Why do humans end up here? Has anyone made it back to my world? Is there magic there too, that I’m not aware of? I just… I have a thousand questions, and more than anything else, I want answers. And so… a school seems like a good place for me to be.”

  By the end of my little speech, Elbexas is smiling broadly. “Answers. Interesting.” He looked at me for a moment, and I finally placed that flare of recognition. The way those unnatural eyes fell on me reminded me starkly of Elsenis Ful.

  The rest of it fell into place. His frown, his tone when he was being ponderous rather than cheerful, his body language as he sat across from the table.

  His weird eyes glinted, as if he had seen some hint of my thoughts. “Do you have a question for me, Danielle Starcrossed?”

  I swallowed thickly, but there was nothing cautious or warning in his tone and posture, so… Why not? “Are you Elsenis’s brother?”

  Elbexas took a long breath, then blew it out in a gust. “That’s a very good question, Danielle.”

  I don’t know what made me say it, but I did. “Dani is fine. Elbe.”

  The look of actual surprise on his face was a treasure worth seeing. “Well, well, well. Dani.” Without any further thought, he reached a hand across the table. “Dani Starcrossed, would you like a seat in the Vigilant House?”

  “That wasn’t an answer to my question,” I told him.

  “No, it wasn’t.” He smiled, and his teeth were bright against the tarnished bronze of his face.

  I bit my lip, feeling the anxiety in my guts suddenly turn into exhilaration, and I reached out to take his hand. His grip was firm but careful, not crushing.

  “Welcome to Vigilant House.”

  He stood from his table, gesturing for me to follow. “We’ll need to go get you formally registered,” he told me. “Then I’ll take you to the Domus Campus and get you a dorm room… and then you can meet your fellow grade ones!”

  My stomach did flip-flops. I hadn’t thought about that. I was lucky enough to be the new kid. Great.

  I stood, following Elbexas to the door–but just before he opened it, he paused. He gave me a look over his shoulder, odd eyes impossible to read. But finally, he asked, “Did you know there’s no record of two humans arriving at the same time? Ever?”

  I froze in place. “What?”

  “Yep. Merreira confirmed it last night, after you two took your leave.”

  “But… what does that mean?”

  Elbexas, the Watchful Magister of Primevus Academy, possible brother to the Pontifex of the Church of Facet, said, “I don’t know. But there’s one more answer for you to search for.”