I was so excited for my first day back at magic academy, I arrived 45 minutes early. I’d finally managed to navigate the trip without getting lost once, and pulled in to the familiar parking lot with all the eagerness of an outsider finally getting a chance to be included.

My excitement was misplaced.

Security had dramatically increased. The entrance hall was guarded by six uniformed officers, though they didn’t try to stop me. Other people scurried about, and I began to worry that I was too early. The dining hall was set up for a grand event, though apart from my outsider evening class I didn’t know what was going on. Maybe a welcome gala to start the new school year? But where was everyone who would be attending? The parking lot had been sparsely populated.

Well. I put it out of my mind and found my way to the familiar corner classroom, tucked away between halls and sitting rooms. This whole wing of the building had once been a mansion, before being incorporated into the sprawling complex that curved its way around the parking area. I’d never been in the other wings, and as an outsider likely never would.

I peered in through the door, expecting an empty room, but instead it was my teacher and my classmates, deep in discussion.

For a moment, I panicked. I glanced at the clock; no, I was still a half hour early. I hurried in, frowning, and received a glower from the teacher.

“So you finally decided to show up? What’s your excuse this time? Get lost on the straight road?”

“No.” I’d often taken wrong turns in the past, requiring long detours, but I’d never been more than a few minutes late. “When did the time change?”

“You think your class is the only one that matters? That you’re entitled to a dedicated time slot?” he shook his head. “Sit down. If you want to try to change your allocation, the token is there.”

I swallowed an angry ‘But no one told me!’ and forced myself to stay silent. Explanations were no use here. I’d only make myself look worse.

The token lay in the center of the table, an oval the size of both my thumbs and made of some thick paper board material. The top showing side was white, the bottom would manifest a colour appropriate to the branch of magic the student was best suited for.

I glanced around. Only four of my former classmates had returned, and there were no newcomers.

Two blues, a purple, and a green. I was the only red. Force. Destruction. Violence.

I seized the token and held it, wiling it to turn purple. I wanted to be an elementalist generalist, not a fighter.

Not a weapon.

I tossed it into the air. It spun downward in a lazy flutter, landing in the center of the table. Even I couldn’t argue that the faint discoloration at its edge, like a pale waterstain, indicated anything but solid red.

“So no change then. Unsurprising. Sit.”

I sat, feeling dejected and discouraged. Toward the end of last year I’d earned a rare eccentric spell. The illusion mask let me visually change my spells to appear as something other than what they were. I’d hoped dabbling in light magic would let my alignment shift. No such luck.

The lesson proceeded badly. I’d missed half of it, and this was no review. They’d already moved on to concepts which I struggled to place, let alone understand.

Once the lesson was over, I hung back instead of leaving immediately as was my habit. I had to ask for Lavern’s notes. As the most dedicated outsider student here, he regularly outstripped me by a significant margin.

Before I could ask, he beckoned for me to follow him and slipped down a dark hall and up a forgotten set of steps onto a balcony overlooking what had once been an atrium but now had been repurposed into a crossroad. Doors had been removed so halls met smoothly and diverged beneath us.

Lavern gestured me to silence and crouched by the balustrade overlooking the crossing. The lights in this section had been dimmed for the night, leaving him in shadow. I tried to speak, but he gestured me to silence and pointed downward.

Beneath, nothing stirred. We waited in silence.

Then Etria, one of our classmates, came skulking along, looking over her shoulder as though worried about being followed.

What was she doing?

Lavern started making soft taps with his hand against the floor, and Etria flinched and spun around, searching. She’d always been so cold and stoic, it was strangely gratifying to see her afraid.

I joined in, summoning tiny flames in a circle around her, painting them with illusions of floating candles in what I thought was a properly sinister display.

Lavern sat shaking with silent laughter as he struggled to continue his somewhat uneven rhythm. I couldn’t help it and giggled aloud.

I hadn’t anticipated how sinister my voice could sound. Perhaps it was the candles and the atmosphere, but it was the last straw. Etria screamed and ran.

Then Lavern and I were both laughing uproariously, only making token attempts to moderate our volume.

“Was that you?” he asked. “You can conjure?”

“Illusion. I was hoping—”

That’s when the teacher arrived.