“So you haven’t interacted with humans before a few months ago?” Sylph asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Not since I was around ten,” Mark replied, picking up his utensils. He held the fork in his fist and jabbed it into the meat, cutting away a large chunk with the knife and stuffing the whole thing into his mouth.

Reena pierced Mark with a sharp glance and mimed closing her mouth. The boy continued chewing with his mouth open, but he cocked his head like a confused dog.

“What?” He asked through a mouthful of food.

“It’s impolite to chew with your mouth open,” Reena hissed.

“Oh,” Mark said, his mouth still open. He didn’t seem like he planned on apologizing.

“It’s fine, Reena,” Nolan said, his words somewhat stiff. He cut himself his own slice of steak and paused a moment before raising it to his lips. “Mark is still adjusting to civilized society. No offense.”

“It’s fine,” Mark said, swallowing and sending an annoyed glance at his fork before shoveling a scoop of mashed potatoes into his mouth. He closed his mouth, then tried to continue speaking with it shut. Nothing came out other than a series of unintelligible grunts.

Mark swallowed and pursed his lips. “How are you supposed to speak if you can’t open your mouth?”

“You wait until after you finish the bite,” Reena said. She sighed and massaged her forehead. She suddenly flinched and shot a glare at Nolan, who looked away innocently.

“I could probably give you some basic etiquette training, if you’d like,” Reena offered.

“I suppose that would be nice,” Mark said. “The mages focused mostly on reminding me how to speak the common tongue. I am out of practice in just about everything else.”

Nolan gave them a wide smile. Within Damien’s mind, Henry made a gagging noise, speaking up for the first time since they’d left the cave.

“That boy is such a suck up that I think I might be physically ill,” Henry complained. “Can you punch him?”

Look who decided to show up. I thought you might have gone back to sleep. And no, I won’t punch him.

“He’s trying to butter you up and act nice to people so you like him,” Henry said. “Disgusting politicians.”

You act as if you care about politics. Did you even have politics in the void?

“A bit,” Henry admitted. “When you’ve got a group of beings that have nothing to do for millennia, a few things tend to crop up. But if you’re aware he’s just acting, why bother with him?”

Because he’s still being nice, even if it’s an act. It’s not like he’s hiding it. He straight up told me what he was doing. I don’t care what his goals are. Since when have you cared about what other mortals do?

“Bah,” Henry said, ignoring the question and receding into the depths of Damien’s mind again.

“Since Mark told us a little about himself, it’s only fair that we do the same,” Nolan said, gesturing to himself and Reena. “We’re from the Gray family. We live a short distance from Kingsfront, in Capitol City.”

“That’s a noble house, right?” Damien asked.

“You haven’t heard of it?” Reena asked. She winced and shot a glare at Nolan, who ignored her.

“It is,” Nolan confirmed. “Our family has served the kingdom for over one hundred and sixty years.”

“The heir of the family is the greatest battle mage of their generation,” Reena said, shooting a competitive smirk in Nolan’s direction.

“I take it that person has yet to be decided?” Damien guessed.

“It’s still in the air,” Nolan said. “If you ask my father, that is. However, I’m sure this year will go a long way in determining which of us is more capable.”

The two Grays glared at eachother for a moment before remembering that they were sitting at a table with other people. They broke away and Nolan awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“I’m afraid our story isn’t particularly interesting compared to Mark’s.”

He trailed off, clearly hoping for Damien to pick up after him. The boy mentally shrugged and took the bait.

“I’m nothing special either. I was raised in a small town that isn’t even on the maps,” Damien said. “My dad is a combat mage on the front lines, but I haven’t seen him in years. My mom is a mage as well, but she never had any interest in combat. I studied a lot of rune drawing in school, and that’s really just about it.”

All four of the other students just stared at Damien with dead eyes.

“Seriously?” Reena asked. “How did you get your companion, then? You already had it before you took the tests, so you must have gotten it from your town, right?”

“I did,” Damien said, shrugging. He felt Henry stir, but he didn’t need his companion to warn him off. “I was a very impatient child. I managed to copy a rune circle from the Summoner's Almanac well enough to summon a companion. It was more luck than anything else.”

"I feel like it might have been more than luck," Sylph said. "Rune circles won't work correctly if there's even the smallest mistake, and they're very complex. It's borderline unbelievable that someone so young could make one correctly."

Damien cleared his throat and glanced to the side, pretending to be embarrassed. After a few moments, Nolan looked at Sylph.

“What about you?” He asked.

“I’m nothing special either,” Sylph said with a dismissive shrug. “I was trained by a combat mage before I got to the school, and that’s really all there is to it.”

She picked up her utensils and started eating, leaving no doubt that she was done speaking. Damien’s stomach rumbled and he joined her – the food was delicious, and he had no desire to let something that someone else had paid for go to waste. Especially when he knew what he’d be eating come the next day.

The five of them finished their dinner without much more conversation of note, then headed back to their rooms to sleep and prepare for their class the following day.

When Damien and Sylph entered their cave, a note had been placed on the floor between their beds. Sylph picked it up.

“It’s from Professor Delph,” she announced. “We’re meant to go to class right as the sun is at the top of the sky tomorrow.”

She handed it to Damien, who scanned through it. The curt handwriting said exactly what Sylph had read aloud, so he shrugged and stuffed the note into his bag.

The two of them took turns showering, which was made much less awkward by the addition of the curtain that the Grays had given them. As Damien slipped into bed, he sent Henry one final instruction.

Since you’ve already gone out today, please make sure I wake up two hours before the sun rises tomorrow.