The next morning the chill of autumn brought snowflakes to greet us as we stepped out onto the academy lawn, our packed bags heavy on our shoulders. The sun still had a bit before it would crest the surrounding cliffs and the icey grip of night lingered even while the sky was aflame. It somehow made the cold feel worse. Brandi and I walked together through the grounds and out into the city proper.

People were already up and about, heading to work or already working. The bakery already pumped plums of smoke into the sky and the golden glow of their windows was painfully inviting. If we weren’t already close to being late I would have dragged Brandi inside for a few slices of warm bread.

We made it to the tram station to the call of crows that were perched on the pillars of the gate. The gate stood closed. Others were already there, silhouettes of shrouds that created puffs of white every few seconds. Their voices were low and they shifted about to try to keep warm. We stopped a few feet away from the group as I wasn’t sure if we were to join them just yet.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and shoved me forward a step, only their grip kept me from face planting. I turned to see Gaven standing behind me, a cloak around him that matched the others in its forest green with orange accents around the shoulders and along the hood. He gave me a toothy grin and held out a small package. “Here, put these on.”

“What are they?” I asked and he shoved the package into my chest.

“What everyone else is wearing. The travel down is freezing cold. You’ll be icicles by the time we reach our floor without them.” He patted the package against my chest and then continuned to the gate.

Someone else had been behind him, but she was facing out toward the clearing where Brandi and I had been tested. It wasn’t hard to guess who the figure was as when the wind kicked up and blew snow across us, it also blew a few strands of black hair free from under the hood. It was Cassie. She seemed to feel our stare and turned to make her way over. She stopped beside Brandi, the heels of her shoes making a clack that cut through the silence. No one took notice.

“Good to see you’ve made it,” she said and pushed back her hood. The falling flakes of snow stuck to her hair, a stark contrast between the two. “I heard how things went with your selections. Were you trying to burn the place to the ground, Aidan? Was it necessary to show off like that?”

“He’s always looking to tick everyone else off around him,” Brandi said with a sidelong glance.

“Wasn’t something I planned, okay?” I said and recieved a disblieving look from both of them. “None of this was planned by me. I didn’t expect to even come to this stupid—”

“What’s all this jabber going on?” We turned to the source of the voice and found a tall girl wearing a robe just like all the others. The cloak hung off her shoulders like a curtain and she stood a few inches or so shorter than me, if I disregared the two points on either side her head pushing up her hood. “We’re gonna miss the first of the harvest if we don’t get a move on.”

She drew back her hood and two dog like ears perked up on the top of her jaw length redish brown hair. She smiled at us, two sets of fangs fitted together neatly with her teeth closed. Her pointed nose scrunched up in amusment. Her pale face was covered in light brown freckles that darkned her skin from a distance.

“We are not the one that was late,” Cassie said and gathered the animal girl up in a hug. “It’s good to see you again in that garb. You’ve spoken to your people?”

“Aye, heard from them yesterday morning. They’re smarting about having you lot all down there, but they get it. Treaties are treaties and all that. Who are these two kits?”

“Aidan and Brandi, meet Amber. If it isn’t obvious, she’s a Wilkit of the fox type—”

“Aw, you flatter me, I don’t think I look good enough to be called a fox,” she said and Cassie just shook he head. “So, this is the mage that’s got everyone’s backs up like a catkit that walked in on her parents screwing?”

“That’s… a colorful way to put it,” I said and it hit me when she laughed. She was the girl that had jumped into the bathtub and exposed Brandi and me. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh, is it?” Her tail appeared behind her and swayed back and forth. She leaned forward, her hand closing around my shirt and she pulled me close. She titled her head up just a bit and sniffted at me. She bared her teeth and shoved me back into Brandi.

“Awfully talkative when you ain’t peeping on a bunch of tits in a bath, huh?” Amber snorted and crossed her arms. “Should tear out your throat for it, but seeing all those mice dancing about over the thought of ghosts was entertaining enough to forgive. You like the view, though?” She placed her hands to her chest and pushed against the tiny rise of her breasts. “Got only a bit more than your witchy there, which is a bit sad. I’m constantly disappointed by the teats the girls around her have. Makes me feel a bit better about myself, to be honest.”

“Better? I like my tits just fine, thanks. A bunch of fat on your chest doesn’t make damn difference,” Brandi said.

“Oh, touched a nerve, did I? No reason to be upset, I’m sure your mage is okay with the tiny pair you got. Just don’t get mad if his eyes start to stray.”

I brushed off the cloaks and handed one to Brandi. “Yeah, about that whole bath thin—”

“It can wait for another time,” Cassie said and patted my shoulder. “We should be moving with the rest.”

I turned at the sound of screetching metal echoing in the early morning. The gates were opening and the sound of air bursting free from the trams followed quickly after in a cloud of steam.

The crowd before the gate started to file in and Cassie shuffled us along from behind as we tried to get our cloaks on. Amber led the way through the crowd.

The station’s floors were grey stone that once had a design to it that had long since been worn away. The metal roof was held up by massive iron beams that went the entire length of the station and those beams were held up by large stone pillars made of the same grey stone as the floor. In the middle hung the tram car, a steel beast of windows and cables. Beyond the car and down the trough was my first real upclose look at the abyss. I had seen it many times from atop high buildings and once sneaking into the docks area of the slums. Neither compared or gave me the sinking feeling in my gut that this view did.

Clouds of grey and white twirled about at the mouth of the abyss. The curved walls were of dark brown and red stone. It did not look like a natural hole, the walls were too smooth and the opening almost perfectly circular. The hole itself was impossibly big and the far edge of it was hidden in mist.

The cables of the tram disappeared into those twirling clouds and for a moment I felt fear at the idea of going beneath them. I was the only one it seemed, as the rest of the group lined up near the entrance to the tram and talked as if it was just another day of work for them.

Some of them perked up when they saw Amber, but most just tiredly stared at the tram and fought off yawns that crept up on them.

“Okay, you need to ease off the anxiety there, bud,” Brandi whispered to me as we came to the back of the line. “It’s giving me the jitters now.”

“Now? You weren’t nervous before?”

“Gods above, what’s there to be nervous about? I got my seeded magic and there are teams of mages and witches around. We’re as safe as could be.”

“Oh yeah, cause 7th team came back looking as fine as fresh baked bread in the morning.”

“You worry too much,” she said and shoved me with her shoulder.

“And you don’t worry enough, so I guess it balances out.”

“Lover’s quarrel?” Amber hissed in my ear and I turned with a start to find her behind me, her lips pulled back in a snarling smile.

I took a deep breath to calm my heart and lazily turned back to the tram. “Nothing to worry about. Shouldn’t you be hanging around with your own coven?”

“Shouldn’t yours be bigger?” she asked and sniffed at the back of my neck which sent an unpleasant tingle down it. “You have power, but something is… off.” She sniffed again. “It’s strange.”

“Careful or your mage is gonna get jealous,” Brandi said and there was a surprising amount of malice in her look.

Amber straightened and took a step back from me which allowed my heart to slow. “Didn’t mean a thing by it, girl. Not that it matters, don’t got a mage-mate of my own just yet.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Brandi said under her breath, but Amber and I heard it.

Amber twirled around me to stand before us. The action was too graceful for a normal human. “Well, maybe I’ll den up with you two? Wouldn’t that be a treat for us all? What do you say, kits? You think you could handle a Wilkit?”

“That’s a gigantic no. Abyss sized,” Brandi said before I could speak. She looked over to me for agreement, but apparently my thoughts were written on my face and I got an elbow to my side. “You can’t be serious. I swear if you d—”

“Oh stop, you wouldn’t do a damn thing,” Amber said as she stepped up to me and laid her arms on my shoulders. She had to tilt her head up to look at me. “Guess you did like what you saw in the bath.”

“Aidan.” Brandi glared at me so fiercely that with our bond I felt fear rise up in my chest.

“I haven’t said anything, so put your murder plans on hold, all right?” I said as I lifted Amber’s arms from my shoulders. She stepped back with a pout. “But, we do need to build up our coven and… she’s offering?”

“Damn right I’m offering. I heard about the healing thing and I can smell the magic on you. I want a taste of that.” She made a show of licking her lips with her long pink tongue. A mind could wander, but I quickly shut down that line of thought.

“But I haven’t said I agree with you joining our coven either. I’ll think about, but that’s all I can promise. Is that fair to both of you?”

“Whatever,” Brandi said and stalked off to stand closer to the tram.

“Oh she’ll get over it once I have some time with her,” Amber said. “But hey, take all the thinking you need. I’ve been looking for a mage for weeks and haven’t found one worth bonding with.” She walked around me, her tail rubbing along the outside of the cloak and then across my fingers. It was very soft. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you down there, so let me know when you decide to stop playing hard to get.”

With that, she walked off to the tram, her hips swaying in time with her tail. She looked back after a few yards and smiled when she noticed I had been watching. I turned from her and tried to find Brandi.

She was farther to the front of the line than I expected. As I neared she seemed to put off this dangerous air and part of me just wanted to wait until we were on a tram, but then I remembered what she did in the clearing. It would be better to defuse the problem before we were in an enclosed space. I reached out and touched her shoulder. She shrugged me off.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she spat and crossed her arms tight against her body. “They’re starting to board. You have everything?”

“I don’t know. Do I still have you?”

“Idiot,” she said shortly and turned to me, eyes narrowed. “You’re an idiot. I don’t know why I expected anything else. All those stories about the smart thief Aidan must have been just that. Stories.”

“Stories?” I asked. I had made a name for myself in the slums, which wasn’t the greatest thing in my opinion, but I didn’t know there were stories about me. It explained all the trouble and I had a pretty good guess that the stories were told by my so called friends once they had a round or two.

“Forget it,” she snarled and tried to move away. I followed. “You need to step off here, buddy.”

“I don’t think I will,” I said and saw her fingers flex against the edges of the cloak. She was considering hitting me. “Nothing has changed. You know that, right?”

“Nothing has changed,” she mocked. “Bringing a Wilkit would change verything. Do you even know anything about them?”

“Just what I’ve read. Why? Do you know something I don’t?” I moved to stand before her and she looked like she would bolt at any moment. I reached out and grabbed her arms to keep her place. “What’s the real issue here? You said you didn’t mind sharing.”

“I don’t. But she’s… they’re animals, Aidan. Dangerous and aggressive. They’ve torn people apart.”

“That hasn’t happen in years.”

She shook her head, her pink ponytail brushing aginst her shoulders. “You don’t get it.”

“You’re right, so explain it. What’s the issue?”

She stayed quiet for a moment and then clicked her tongue. “I don’t like them.”

“Why?”

She frowned and leaned away from me. “I don’t want to say.”

“Sorry?” I asked and moved with her as she turned her head down. “I’m not following what’s going on here.”

“Forget it. Fuck her if you want. I don’t care.” She went to leave, but I held her in place. “Let me go.”

“Nope.”

“Aidan.”

“Explain and I’ll let you go. Don’t and we’ll stay joined like this until you do.”

“I could just blast you off the platform.”

I had no doubt that she could, but I held my ground. “Go ahead. I’ll come back up and we’ll be where we are now.”

The anger in her face slowly fell away and she cursed. “You’re such an idiot.” She sniffed and pulled away from me, but moved no more than a few steps. “They killed family members. We worked the saturate fields that surrounded the underground forest that was their home and they would just attack with no warning. My grandfather and a few of my uncles were killed by them.”

Her words caught me by surprise and it took a moment to find words. “I’m sorry.”

“Sure.”

“I am, but that has nothing to do with Amber. You know that, right? She’s too young to have been apart of that.”

“They live a lot longer than normal humans. She could be—”

“No, she couldn’t. I’ve read about their lifespan, they only come to human academies in their late teen years. That means she was born after the treaties were fully ratified and was only a pup when that happened to your family.”

“She still—”

“I know, she’s still a wilkit and you’re still a saturate born. How about we judge people by what they do and not what affliction or whatever is part of them?”

She looked up to me, sadness mixing with anger and then she looked away. She shoved passed me and headed for the opening doors of the tram and said something that I almost missed.

“Asshole.”