“So,” Eni said, winking at me, “looks like you made the right choice.”

  I shrugged. “What can I say? You made a convincing case.” That sounded a lot better than “I literally didn’t have any other options.”

  “And Fal?”

  I blew out a breath, the reminder darkening my mood a bit. “Chorus.”

  Eni frowned, but she nodded reluctantly. “That’s what we expected.”

  “Yeah?”

  “The Chorus was always going to go hard to recruit a human cleric, and I sort of got the vibe…”

  “Yeah. I guess they were a better fit for her than I wanted to believe.” I shook my head, making an active effort to dislodge the painful emotions. “So do you live somewhere around here too?”

  Eni shook her head. “The three of us are high level grade threes–we make enough credits to live down on Vestige in our own place. I just come up here for some classes a few times a week. And… I wanted to make sure you were settling in okay.”

  After all the games and politics of the past couple days, it made me feel unbelievably good to have someone come check on me out of honest concern. “I’m okay,” I reassured her. “Calum was pretty nice, even if the rest of the house is kind of…”

  “Stand-offish?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t think they know what to make of me. Elbexas didn’t do a whole lot of explaining.”

  Eni huffed a small laugh. “Yeah, that sounds like him. He’s trying to leave it up to you, to let you tell them as much or as little as you want.”

  I chewed the inside of my lip for a second, considering that, but decided it was best to put it aside for later, when I had more time to think it over.

  Eni watched me, and I got the feeling she knew what I was thinking. Thankfully, she decided to change the subject. “Listen, I don’t want to keep you from getting to know your grademates. I just wanted to make sure you were doing good, and it seems like you were, so…” Eni paused, fidgeting for a second, and then said, “I just have one more thing for you, okay?”

  Without further explanation, she held out a simple little bag to me.

  I arched an eyebrow at it, and she shook it. There was a soft jingling inside, like two heavy glass objects jostling against each other. Confused, I took the bag and, at Eni’s urging, peered inside–to see two familiar crystals, both perfectly shaped, glowing with soft crimson and indigo light.

  The warrior and mage identity crystals, the ones that were supposed to have been destroyed.

  I looked up at Eni, panic and irritation fighting for supremacy in my expression. She had them all along? Why did she take them from me? Why did she let me think they were gone?

  Before I could ask any questions, Eni lifted a finger to her lips. Her eyes flicked around the neighborhood, and I took her point. There wasn’t anyone too close to us, but we were surrounded by rogues who would have considerable interest in a conversation between a new human and an experienced delver.

  “I slipped them off of you that first night,” she explained. “If you had shown up to Primevus with them on hand, they would’ve been taken off of you on the spot–and since you weren’t students yet, there was every chance you’d get zero credit for them, too.”

  “But…”

  “If you had lied, Elsenis and the others would’ve caught it,” Eni said. “You don’t have it in you to lie to a Magister. Not yet at least.”

  “And you do?”

  Eni shrugged. “They had other things to think about, and my answer made sense. Elbexas probably noticed, he just didn’t care.”

  I chewed my lip again, conflicted by the gift. “These are as much Fallon’s as they are mine, Eni.”

  “Fallon is in the Chorus now. She’ll be taken care of. But you joined Vigilant House, so you’ve gotta get used to being one of the Academy’s have-nots, human or not.”

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “What?” What was that supposed to mean? What was wrong with Vigilant House?

  “You’ll figure it out,” she told me. “It’s fine. But as a rogue, you need to learn to use every advantage you can get your hands on–and right now, that includes these two.”

  “What am I supposed to do with them, though?”

  She shrugged again. “Your call. Keep them, for now. Once you go on your first dungeon delve, you can claim you found them and get some credits, or even use them for yourself if you want. All that matters is that you're the one making the call, okay?”

  I still didn’t quite understand, but I had plenty of experience following suggestions without fully understanding the context, so I just rolled with it. If nothing else, I knew I could trust Eni, and that had to be enough.

  “Okay… thanks, Eni.”

  The ellid flashed me quick, bright smile. “Okay, you should run along. Get some food, meet your grademates. Good luck with your classes–I’ll try to swing by some time next span!”

  Fuck it. Without giving it any thought, I stepped forward and gave the ellid girl a quick hug. Eni stiffened in surprise, but after a moment, she relaxed and returned the gesture.

  “Thank you,” I told her. “For… everything. All of this.”

  “You’re welcome, Dani.”

  #

  Dinner was fairly simple fare, pasta in a light sauce simmered with some veggies. All of it, from the savory white sauce to the yellow leafy plants and solid chunks of red squash to even the pinched noodles, was unfamiliar, but it was close enough to be comforting, reminding me of home despite the weird flavors and texture of the dish.

  I ate at one end of the house’s dining table, which was located inside the kitchen itself, sitting next to Calum and Fennia (who I actually managed to speak a full sentence in front of this time). Not far from us were Senna and Mell, who had cooked for the night and sat close enough together to make me feel a lonely pang for Fallon.

  At the far end of the table was an ellid girl colored more similarly to Charrin and the Magisters. Her skin was a dark, burnished bronze, and her stark white hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail. The heavy boots she wore gave away her identity even before Calum confirmed that this was Gwyn, the girl who lived above me.

  She sat at the opposite end of the table, and seemed to act as an opposite social pole to Calum. Those who sat near her were more reserved and quiet than those that sat on Calum’s end of the table, and I caught more than a few resentful looks shot in my general direction.

  I didn’t need Calum to explain the dynamic to me. Fantasy world or not, the drama endemic to people in their late teens and early twenties was apparently universal. Calum and Gwyn were social rivals, one haughty and superior, the other friendly and companionable. The Watchful Magister himself showing up and asking Calum to show me around, instead of Gwyn, must’ve been a major blow to the swaggering girl’s influence.

  I didn’t necessarily have a horse in this race (do they have horses in this world?), but considering that Calum had done everything he could to help me out and make me feel comfortable, while Gwyn had shot me a venomous glare before we’d even been introduced, I didn’t exactly mind becoming a tacit Calum-supporter.

  I wonder if there were class president elections?

  “So Dani,” a boy asked me. I recognized his slight build, deep blue skin, and black hair–Elern, Essart, Essern, that was it, Essern! “You’ve been in a dungeon, right? That’s how you got here?”

  I swallowed thickly, fumbling for an answer for a second. He was the first person to talk directly to me without prompting besides Calum and Fennia, but his question had drawn some interested looks from Senna, Mell, and a couple others.

  “Uhm… Yeah, I was.” I looked around, surprised by the awe-struck faces around me. “Is that a big deal? I figured all of you would’ve been in dungeons before, right?”

  “No!” Senna said. She was a tall, well-built ellid, much of her silver-and-brown skin hidden under a thick sweatshirt. She had her blazing red hair pulled back, but unlike Gwyn, it was in a more relaxed tail that danced around as she spoke. “We’re not allowed into dungeons until late grade one–they’re supposed to be too dangerous for low levels, or those who haven’t gotten a class.”

  “How did you survive?” Mel asked. She had the pale olive coloring that seemed common to blonde ellids, although her hair was a washed out blue.

  I opened my mouth to respond, but Gwyn interrupted before I could, interjecting from across the table. “She was saved by some delvers, like that one that was outside before. No human makes it out of a dungeon without help from a delver.”

  I shot the girl a look, but she didn’t even look in my direction–she was too busy glaring daggers at Calum, who met the look with a mild expression.

  “She’s right,” I admitted, drawing a few disappointed sighs. “”The first day was bad enough–if Eni and her party hadn’t found me the second day, I never would’ve gotten out.”

  “You survived without help for a whole day!?” That came from Nenis, a petite little ellid who shared some of Calum’s covering, her skin slate-gray and her hair a shade of purple so dark it looked black in most light. She was tiny by ellid standards (which made her around my height, which had been above average on earth), and her meek demeanor made her seem even smaller.

  “Most of two days, I think,” I said, making the claim with the casual air of a humble brag. “It’s hard to tell time in a dungeon.”

  “Dar crap,” Gwyn spat.

  I just shrugged at her. I knew that was more effective than any argument I could’ve made.

  “Maybe you should tell the story, then?”

  Calum never spoke loudly, but he had some vague way about him, the vibe some people just seemed to have, and the entire group listened intently to every word he said.

  By that point, nearly the entire table was watching me, and those few that weren’t were making a clear point of ignoring me, an effort to impress Gwyn, probably. “Sure,” I told them, “I can do that.

  “So, it was…” I paused for a second, and thought of Eni’s words earlier.

  “He’s trying to leave it up to you, to let you tell them as much or as little as you want.”

  My story didn’t need to start at Coastside with a tragic accident. This was my chance for a new start, in a new world, at a very different school. Why drag all my past around with me like that?

  “So I woke up in a cave,” I started again, “with no idea where I was. There were these glowing crystals everywhere…”