There was a distinct possibility this is who I always was. Someone who tired when they were bombarded with high energy. But somehow I felt that wasn’t true. With every moment, I was given a forced reminder that I was no longer of the Before. I remember how social I was, the decades of friendships, the romance, the time I spent loving simply being with others, and I also remember how lonely the first 7 years in this world were. I remember the mocking from the older siblings. I remember the only interaction with the parents through meals. I remember how this body craved love and companionship. This would be the Before’s dream, and my own comfort zone. Yet with every cheerful remark or innocent question, I felt my battery drain. Whether it was the fact that they were children, or that I was being treated like another child, or that I was still emotionally numb from the past hour, I couldn’t find it in me to care about the four children in my group.

Maybe something is broken in me, now.

Oliver and Louis had continued chattering as the instructor began making her way through the rest of the quads. I must have been following her for a bit longer than I thought because I was brought back to the group by one of the boys clearing their throat. As my eyes snapped back to them, I could feel my face settle in confusion.

“Yeah?”

“Are you the youngest or oldest?” Louis gave a lopsided smile, he was quite an adorable kid. He reminded me almost of a puppy. And he didn’t even seem to mind that I hadn’t heard a bit of what he was saying.

“I’m an only child.”

It was more reflex than anything. When they asked about my family, the Dawns didn’t actually come to mind. Just thoughts of Before and a dull pang. Although it wasn’t quite true in the old world either, but the fact that it was the safest answer remained unchanged.

But somehow that caught Remour’s attention more than our shared lack of last names had, “Truly? I have three younger. It must be a dream to have your parents to yourself.”

Briefly, I wondered what would happen if I simply turned around and ignored them. Probably nothing good.

“Same - but opposite. I’m the youngest and the only one with a higher rarity-“ Louis was cut off when Oliver jabber him in the side with a finger.

“Shut up, Louis. It’s not proper to say that and you know it.” Oliver’s smile was more strained than before but it was the way his eyes kept flicking around that made his nerves apparent.

“What? You think no one knows?” Louis scoffed, even though his lowered voice betrayed his own sense of caution, “There’s a reason the five of us are separate and it’s not like anyone our age is over the halfway mark to tiering up. So, obviously, we’re not [Common].”

I knew, from some distant memory of the Countess, that status details were a bit taboo. Not even family freely spoke about it unless they were extremely close -or extremely strict. The Dawns, or rather the Count, Countess, and the older Dawn children, had never asked me my [Class], or what my stats were. Not that a newly Awakened child was much different from any other. But it had been made clear to me that in Maeve it is illegal to coerce some to tell you these details. Most seemed to barely consider such things in their day to day life, and if they found themselves curious limited it to vague questions that gave few details -such as if they were tiered, or if they had a general type of [Skill]. All this to say, I hadn’t expected someone to announce their class rarity out loud so casually.

“Still, you should be more mindful. You never know whose listening -or what else they’ve heard.” This time it was Uriel who spoke, not unkindly but with a bit of an edge. Though the words were directed at Louis, as I looked at Uriel his eyes were narrowed and zoned in on me.

Louis groaned and gave a huff, “You two shouldn’t be so quick to gang up on me when you know we’ll be sparring partners.”

At this Remour gave a small laugh, the sound of a tinkling bell seemed to accompany it in the background. There was something about it that once again reminded me of the ethereal.

“Might makes right, then?” Oliver’s voice was filled with disbelief, “Did we cross the border into the Calistonia now? Where has your logic gone?

“Besides, it’s not like you’ll be beating Remour now that she’s picked up the sword.”

“Eat it. I’ll bet I get a spear [Skill] before you even figure out which end is the pommel -or Oliver figures out how to hold a dagger.” Louis flicked his hand toward Uriel, mimicking shooing him off. Both Oliver and Uriel tightened at Louis’ words.

“Willing to bet weekend prayers?” Uriel’s voice was nonchalant but there was something malicious in his eyes.

“Fine- but each of you have to take a day so I get the whole weekend off.” Louis grinned.

“Deal, but you have to beat us both - all or nothing.” Oliver half-laughed.

As they continued, I couldn’t help but lean towards Remour and ask, “What do they mean ‘bet prayers’?”

Remour leaned a bit back from my approach, but still gave a near-whisper response, “They’re all dragged to weekend services together and have to make prayers to three Gods each. But it winds up taking an hour, so they’ve made a game of pushing it onto each other.”

“Is there even a point to that? Why not just skip together?”

Remour shook her head lightly, “They won’t admit it, but they’re all faithful. They’d never short the Gods on prayers - and they said last month it was a wash. They did the math and they’d all done the same amount of prayer.”

I rolled back on my heels and nodded. I went back to scanning the room, letting my eyes slide over the other children. Unintentionally I made eye contact with a haughty looking boy who was smirking at me. I held his gaze with a neutral expression before focusing behind him, where another unfortunate sight waited me. Klein and Theo were standing behind the window, leaning on the ledge so that only their chests were hovering in the courtyard. Theo was also letting his gaze flicker, but Klein met my eyes. All over again I felt my back stiffen and forcibly turned my head away, turning my whole body to face the three boys -who had grown quiet after settling the rules of the bet.

This is why I was trying to focus on the kids! Now I’m stressed all over again! I internally groaned.

The problem is I only have a middling knowledge of the consequences of having a high rarity class and an above average level. I’ve only been given the information a child would need. On top of that, I know how manipulative those with power are. Does this mean I have to attend those afternoon lessons at the estate? Will they even cover something like this? I may be in exile, but the Countess told me to “prove” myself. So likely at least some politics and System discussions will happen. This is so frustrating. I don’t even know if the Dusk members will report my [Skill] to the family. And even though Maeve and the Dawns seem upright on the outside, I can’t stop thinking about why Gristle has a [Skill] for assassins. Why would the Dawn’s require an Assassin as a Butler! I had to fight back fidgeting with my hands as I spiraled, instead opting to tighten my hold on the wooden sword until my knuckles whitened, All this and I barely want to move. Whatever happened in the forest settled into my muscles. I just want to sleep for days. A horrific realization hit me as I made eye contact with Uriel. The Hyperion kid! And I’m sure there are other noble children here -at least four from what I noticed earlier. I’m being tailed by two members of the Dusk! How many will be directly under the Dawns? Local nobles likely haven’t met a member in person, but Uriel may have met one of my siblings. But black hair and blue eyes? That’s… common enough? And I said I’m an only child. It’s fine. I’m not going to be participating in high society anytime soon. Nothing annoying will happen. The Academy will be calm. Nobody will know. I’ll be free to be Nori, not Eunora, not a Dawn. It’ll be-

“Woah- you should stay away from this one, young Lord.” I snapped my head to the voice, it came from a group of kids making their way over to our quad, “Can’t even be bothered to freshen up for class, eh?”

I didn’t know children knew how to sneer like that. Luckily, whatever anxiety Eunora would have felt had been stuffed back into whatever hole it had crawled out of. This is something I was familiar with. Young scions in the old world hadn’t been much different than this when I was young.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” A girl to the right of the boy spoke, both were holding wooden swords and dressed in fine clothes. But more importantly they were talking to a third person, definitely a ‘young Lord’. As she glanced to him she didn’t hide her malice, “You should answer when someone deigns to speak to someone so raggedy.”

Are they… bullying me? Am I being bullied? That’s…

“So cute.” I whispered. After catching the looks on Uriel and Remour’s faces -as well as the kids who’d come up, I cleared my throat, “Ah - pardon my appearance? I tripped?”

Remour had gotten noticeably tense and Uriel went back to the bored look he’d had when he was lounging earlier. Meanwhile, Oliver and Louis were nowhere to be found -likely in the spear and dagger quads already. I suddenly noticed I’d been spiraling long enough for the instructor to finish her rounds and a half dozen kids had made their way over, including the three who were standing on front of me. I peered to the side of them to see the spear group had over twenty kids.

Wow, a lot of them listened to the instructors recommendation.

The girl spoke again, bringing me eyes back to her. Her hair was pulled to tightly into a bun that her skin looked stretched -which had the added bonus of making her sneer fit perfect on her face, “Hey! Pay attention when I’m talking! Who do you think you’re ignoring?”

I hadn’t ignored her, but I wasn’t sure if that even mattered. They’d decided I was ‘raggedy’, and low enough to bother. It seemed the others in the sword group were going to leave it be. Then they must all be nobles, not only the ‘young Lord’. Seems Hyperion doesn’t like them, but also won’t interfere. That’s fine. They’re all only eight, after all. Just smile and… make friends? Or at least not enemies? Who cares. It’s not like they’ll hit me.

“I’m Nori, of Adeline.” I spoke in a measured tone and inclined my head, “You all are?”

The girl snorted, “A peasant, of course. I’m Juliette, of House Mithra. Mind your manners!”

The boy next to Juliette sniffed, his displeasure clear enough, “How dare you make demands of nobles. But a commoner such as yourself wouldn’t know much better -ha! Paul Starling.”

Starling is likely a house under Dawn, but I’ve never heard of Mithra. Like Mithril? Are they ‘miner’ nobles?

I took in the sight of the only two who had spoken, Juliette was waif like. She was very much a frail child going by looks alone -and the tightness of her skin only outline her angular features. But her eyes were wide and were a verdant green. The auburn of her hair was quite nice when paired with those eyes. It seemed a bit of an injustice that her eyes were my favorite color when she seemed to dislike me so. Meanwhile, where Juliette was thin and sharp, Paul was soft. He had a bit of baby fat that reminded me of those paintings of cherubs, and his eyelashes were unjustly thick. His eyes matched his hair in their darkness, the deep brown contrasting his pale skin -another difference, as Juliette’s skin was a deep tan.

They both were looking expectantly at the last boy, who they had effectively been speaking for since they popped up. I had only glance at him briefly when they’d called his title, but now that I looked at him again I internally choked on a laugh. He looked mortified. His eyes flicked from the two by him to Uriel then back, until finally he sighed. His hair matched my own, loose black curls crowning his head, but his eyes were like gemstones. He had ruby eyes similar to Remour’s. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, children may be a hassle but damned if they aren’t adorable.

“I’m Edwin Horus.” His voice was remarkably steady for all the contrasting body language.

“It’s a pleasure, Juliette, Paul, young Lord.” I had briefly wondered if it was a good idea to poke fun, but- well, it was quite freeing to be out of earshot from anyone who knew I was a lady of house Dawn. And it made the tips of Edwin’s ears red too, so it was arguably worth it.

Right as Juliette crossed her arms and went to retort, a red light manifested at the edge of the sword quad. It started similar to the motes of light that had hovered over the new students but it quickly expanded. After the light settled and my eyes focused, I noticed it was a familiar shape. It was a hologram-type version of Instructor Revel with a sword in her hand.

“QUIET.” The Instructors voice filled the courtyard and everyone looked to the center of the yard where the flesh and blood Revel was standing.

“The constructs in front of each quad will go through a series of moves on repeat. Your task will be to follow the sequence to the best of your ability. In a moment it will duplicate and shift to an angle. Today is a measure in repetition. You will begin to feel how you should move your weapons, which ways compliment your body best, etc. I will be going through correcting forms, starting with Spears.”

After a brief pause, Revel held up her hand.

“Begin.”