It has been a few weeks since Rhea became the ward of Darren Murphy, during this time, she cooked, cleaned, prepared baths, washed clothes and a whole manner of things that would befit a maid. Now she finds herself in a carriage alone with her guardian, to a place a couple of miles outside of the city. Rhea, rather than wearing her usual maids’ outfit, was now wearing one of the dresses belonging to the previous owner of her room, it was fair to say that it didn’t suit her. Darren had just finished looking over a set of documents he had brought with him before he decided to address Rhea. “Alright, you are going to be taking some classes at the Imperial School of Marksmanship, specifically the rifleman’s classes. As a note, they are already a week or so into their training so you will be coming into this late.” Rhea felt a sudden sense of anxiety wash over her, realising that she may stand out if she joined in these classes.

“Since you’re a shifter, it won’t be easy to make friends here.” Darren paused so he could think of a follow up, “Which is fine because you’re not here to make friends anyway.” The carriage soon came to a halt, and Darren opened the door to let Rhea out. “I’ll be back for you later, so wait for me here when your class is done.” Darren closed the carriage door and stuck his head out the window, “Your instructor is named Mr Bailey, he is an acquaintance of Johan, he’ll look after you. Good luck!” The carriage left the area quickly before Rhea could get a word in. “Oh, so you’re not coming in with me then?” Rhea began a brisk walk towards the school building, with a feeling of frustration. “No that’s fine, I will go here by myself to a place I have never been before.” She continued, “I definitely won’t get lost, and I will definitely be fine around a bunch of people who hate me for no reason.”

Rhea continued into the building, through an empty hallway, all the rooms were empty around her, everything was silent. “Where is everyone?” she wondered aloud.

She continued looking around until she heard a loud BANG coming from outside the back of the building. As she peaked her head from behind the door, she saw four older teenage boys standing there, each holding onto a rifle, each wearing the same kind of military uniform. Based on their posture, they sort of reminded her of thugs, like the gang 0076 had follow him.

“Oi oi, what’s this here then?” The boy was a tall bookish type with a long face and long hair, he wore small rectangular glasses on the end of his nose.

“Looks like a shifter doesn’t it, and look, she’s wearing a dress too.” This one was short and fat, with bright orange hair, his skin was pale and marked with a scattering of freckles.

“It’s pretty obvious what it is, the question is, why is she here?” This boy was only slightly taller than the red head, he had short brown hair, and olive shim, he stood with a slouch.

“Now boys, there’s no point in making guesses, we can just ask her, they speak common right?” The last boy was taller than the others, he had a stronger physique and tanned skin. He seemed to have put a lot of effort into spiking his hair, perhaps to distract from the claw-like scar left on his right cheek. This boy began to approach Rhea. “Oi, shifter, what’s with the numbers on your face? Some kind of trend?” The boy chuckled, he crouched down in front of Rhea to get to eye level. “I’m just kidding, I know what it means. It means your someone’s pet” He let out a large grin, clearly trying to intimidate her. “You lost? Or did your master send you here to be target practice?” There was an almost scripted round of laughter from the other three. “Would be a shame if that was the case, you don’t look terrible, almost human” Rhea began to look a little angry, especially when the boy grabbed her chin, trying to inspect her face. “Ya know, my dad said you beasts reach maturity at the age of 10.” The boy smirks, “Why don’t you come find me in a few years, show me what your good for-…”

A loud bang echoed from nearby, Rhea suddenly felt a warm liquid on her cheek, near where the boy was grabbing her, upon inspection, it appeared to be blood, and it came from the boy. The boy was on the ground screaming out in pain while clutching his hand. “WHAT THE FUCK, WHO THE FUCK WOULD FUCKING DARE!?” from behind the other boys stood an older man, wearing a black dungaree over his military uniform. He was wearing a woollen hat down to his eyebrows, inhaling a lit cigarette in his mouth. The one of the four barrels on his pistol was smoking, pointing towards the boy he just shot. “Well shit, guess I missed, was aiming for ya head.”

“FUCK YOU BAILEY, YOU FUCKING SHOT ME”

“Oh stop crying and go get it healed, I taught you how to didn’t I?”

“I CAN’T FUCKING CAST IT WITH A HOLE IN MY HAND!”

“You goddam wimp, Lucas, go give Chadrick a couple o’ Goodberrys while I go catch your new classmate up on what she missed.” The short brown-haired boy nodded and rushed over to the bleeding Chadrick, trying his best to cast the spell he recently learned.

Mr Bailey gestured to Rhea, and she followed him to an empty classroom. Mr Bailey sits comfortably at the front desk, legs raised onto the table, letting out a long puff of smoke from his nose. “I’d say sorry you went through that, but honestly I am sure you were told to expect it right?” Rhea answered with a half nod as she sat down at a desk. “Just gotta put the shitheads in their place every once in a while, or they think they run the joint, bunch o’ losers.” Mr Bailey moved his shoes slightly to get a better view at his new student. “Right so, your gonna have to read up on the shit you missed already, but I will teach you the shit you can’t learn from reading.” Seeing as Rhea didn’t know how to read, she could already tell this school was going to be difficult. She straightened her back to show she was ready, replying, “And what would that be?” Mr Bailey grew a wide smile, stubbing out his cigarette and putting it in his pocket.

“I’m going to teach you how to perform magic.”