I sat down on the mattress and looked around my last room option. It seemed… aggressively normal. The mattress was weirdly lumpy, the blanket roughspun, the furniture aged and poor quality. It was cramped, and the window was barely large enough to admit a slender slice of light. Overall, it was just what I’d expect from a dorm room on Earth, if a little more rustic.

  “This room seems good,” I told Calum. The obsidian ellid was had stopped at the entrance, leaning against the door jam with arms crossed as I inspected the room. “Why did you save it for last?”

  He held up two fingers. “One, it’s high up.” We were on the sixth floor, only one away from the top. “So, lots of stairs, but without the view and quiet you get by being on the topmost floor.”

  I nodded. “Sure. But the gravity seems to work, the window opens and closes, there’s no mystery water flow. Some stairs are worth that.”

  “Right,” he agreed. “The other thing, though, is…”

  Before he could continue, there was a loud clomping from overhead. Whoever lived above me walked with a heavy, belligerent stride, and apparently wore extremely heavy boots.

  “...that,” Calum finished lamely. “Unfortunately, this room is under Gwynnen.”

  “Okay, so she walks loudly,” I said. “I can ask her to just keep it down, right?”

  “Sure. That’s what Galin did.”

  Galin… that name was familiar, wasn’t it? “Why do I know that name?”

  “I mentioned that he resigned yesterday.”

  “Ah. Because of…?” I pointed at the ceiling.

  “Gwyn has a bit of a vengeful streak,” Calum explained.

  “...Cool.” I blew out a long breath, and lay back onto the uneven, lumpy mattress. “So my choices are the leak out of nowhere, a window that bites, being next to a couple screamers, or being under a loud, self-absorbed queen bee?”

  “You got here a little late,” Calum said, his tone faintly apologetic.

  “Nah, it’s fine.” I sat up with a huff and gave Calum a big sigh. “Weird magical maintenance issues aside, this is just the kind of crap I expected to deal with back home. It’s kind of comforting, in a way.

  The corner of Calum’s mouth lifted in a little smile, then he sharply looked out of the room and down the hallway. “Oh! Fen! Come here a sec?”

  Calum edged into the room–my room, now, I suppose–to make room for a girl to come to the entrance. She was an inch or two shorter than what seemed to be the norm, and shockingly curvy. Compared to most ellids, including Calum, who favored slender builds, she had the sort of rondure mixed with muscle that made her look like the love interest in an action movie. Her skin was a turquoise shade of green, dusted with pale white freckles, and her hair was long, and straight, a glossy shade of sapphire blue, and if I was being honest, all of that only made her harder to look away from.

  She was also wearing little more than a bandeau top and a pair of painted on pants that split the difference between leather and polyester

  I felt a blush burst immediately on my cheeks.

  “This is Fennia. Fen, this is Danielle, the newest addition to our grade, and your new hallmate.”

  “Dani is fine,” I squeaked.

  The startlingly pretty ellid gave me a frank look over, then turned back to Calum. “Well, there’s a story here.”

  Calum bobbed his eyebrows in a “you have no idea” gesture. Overhead, a loud series of clomps showed my upstairs neighbor was moving around again.

  “Goddess, is she still stomping around?” Fennia asked, shooting a glare at the ceiling.

  “Not everyone can be as pleased to be in Vigilant House as we are,” Calum said.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Doesn’t mean she has to take it out on the rest of us.” Fennia rolled her eyes. “I’m heading down to the lake. Either of you up for a swim?”

  “I’m on tour guide duty for the day,” Calum explained, nodding his head at me.

  “I’m good,” I tried to say, my voice once again coming out at a pitch normally reserved for dog whistles.

  Fennia arched an eyebrow and shrugged. “Sure. I’ll catch up with you two later, then.”

  “Evening meal’s at dusk,” Calum reminded her.

  “Oh goddess, what are we suffering through this time?”

  “Senna’s teaching Mell to make some sort of pasta dish.”

  “With fish?” Fennia asked plaintively.

  “Convince Senna, not me.”

  “Boo.”

  The girl turned and left, and I suddenly felt like I could breathe again.

  “You good?”

  “Shut up.” I felt my cheeks heat up. “Was it that obvious?”

  Calum arched a pale eyebrow. “I think I saw your eyes fall out of your head and roll out after her.”

  I flushed a little darker, and rapidly tried to change the subject. “What’s next?”

  Calum smirked and pulled open a drawer in the desk, pulling out a ring with two keys on it. “One for the door, one for your chest. Keep in mind that we are in a house full of rogues, though, so I wouldn’t put any credits on your security.”

  “Great.” I took the keys and tucked them into a pocket.

  #

  We spent the next couple hours wandering the Vigilant House neighborhood, Calum pointing out the various landmarks he had been shown during orientation. That included no less than six different course halls, which ranged from collections of claustrophobic classrooms to sprawling amphitheaters.

  “That’s the Outpost,” he said, pointing at a building that looked like a general store in a 20th century period piece. “You can spend contribution credits there on anything you might be missing. Which… I guess is everything for you.”

  “Thanks for reminding me,” I said with a scowl. “What are contribution credits?”

  “Seriously? Did the Magisters not tell you anything?”

  “They really, really didn’t.”

  “Okay, well, credits are how the Academy rewards good work. At our grade, they’re mostly awarded for performing well in courses and training, but we also get a little stipend each semester, enough to afford a few luxuries. At higher grades, once we become delvers, they start awarding higher numbers, and you can use them for infusion crystals and stuff like that.”

  I still wasn’t sure exactly how ‘grades’ worked, but Calum’s reactions to my ignorance were starting to chafe on me a bit, so I kept that question to myself. I was sure I’d figure it out eventually.

  “And over there is the House Therma, for once you decide you're brave enough to bathe with everyone else.”

  My ears reddened a little at the reminder of my behavior in front of Fennia.. “Are they… uhm… full?”

  “Full nude? Nah. The Magisters know that would cause a little too many, ah, distractions, in the Therma. There are bathing pantalettes available inside.”

  Okay. That helped a little. It made the public baths less exhibitionist and more like a functional public pool. I could work with that.

  “Of course, I heard from some grade twos that at night, people are a lot less-”

  “Oh hey, look, a change of topic!”

  #

  Our route soon took us back to our dorm house, just as the “sky” overhead was starting to darken. Disturbingly, I had noticed throughout my day that there was no apparent “sun” in the artificial sky. The light seemed to come from a few widely spaced points in the dome-like sky, causing shadows to shift depending on which part of the campus you were in. Dusk came as the sky simply began to dim, oranges and purples supplanting the bright blue even without any actual sun to set.

  I took a breath as I saw a familiar shape leaning against the front porch of our dorm, arms crossed, eyes cast up to the slowly darkening sky.

  “Eni!”

  Enila greeted me with a smile, pushing away from the porch. “Dani! Good to see you made the right choice.”

  “Well, you did do a lot to sell me on it,” I told her cheerfully. “Oh! Eni, this is Calum, Elbexas asked him to show me around and help get me settled. Calum, this is Enila.”

  Calum promptly bowed his head. “A pleasure to meet you, Delver.”

  “Oh, stop that. Vigilant House doesn't do that kind of formality, Calum, you should know that by now.”

  “Right. Sorry, Enila.”

  Eni rolled her eyes at me. “It’s fine, Cal. Mind giving me a few minutes with Dani?”

  “Not at all!” Calum gave me a look faintly tinted with surprise, and tilted his head towards the house. “Evening meal is gonna start shortly, okay?”

  “I’ll see you there,” I told him. “Thanks for showing me around, Cal.”

  The boy gave me what I could only call a roguish (groan) grin, then he went inside, leaving me alone with Eni.