Mia had finally left Arry and her boyfriend about twenty minutes later, deciding to give them some privacy. The magician seemed very sympathetic and his interest in the redhead seemed sincere.

At least he doesn't look down on me because I'm human. It's sad to say, but it's enough to offer him my friendship.

The faces of her friends Eva, Lydie, and Maxime imposed themselves again on her mind. She allowed herself a pang in the heart and a bit of melancholy during her walk to her destination.

What are they doing right now? How did they experience my disappearance?

She hadn't even been at the Arena a month. If time passed the same in her world as in the one she was in, they must still be grieving, slowly realizing that she would not come back alive.

Or swimming in delirium. It's not like they could find my body down there. Maybe they were all placed in a psychiatric hospital for mass hysteria...

A young girl who fell from a building and whose body remained untraceable strongly resembled a madman's story. Or liars. Since they were drunk that night, Mia could easily bet that no one had believed them. The fact remained that her disappearance was justified and that must have brought them some trouble with the police. Especially with a story like this.

In the meantime, they weren't the ones who had landed in a world populated by mythical creatures as the one and only human. They would get over her loss and eventually mourn, she knew. However, she...

I'll probably end my life here, not gonna lie. Well... if these creatures don't kill me first. Maybe I should research whether or not the possibility of going back home exists.

As she passed the bulletin board in the Great Hall, her eyes fell on a piece of paper hanging in the center of the board. A dozen students gathered around the panel and discussed the message's content. A few hateful or annoyed looks landed on her as she sneaked through the group to inquire about the piece of paper, but she ignored them as usual. The blonde was not going to give them the pleasure of showing them her fear right after being attacked. She had just come close to death, it was not a few disparaging glances that were going to give her goosebumps.

It was a note from the headmaster announcing that a meeting would be held at the arena – the only place big enough to accommodate all the students – the next morning at ten o'clock. Mia repeated the number several times in her head to memorize it before stepping away from the group.

Before she could pull away, a hand grabbed her arm. The young woman jumped and tried to control her heartbeat somehow as a female face with black hair approached her ear.

"A word of advice: be careful and beware of everyone. You became a target the second your Vila protected you, you better keep him around," she whispered.

Frozen, Mia did not answer the stranger. She released her and disappeared into the crowd after delivering her message. She couldn't tell if it was a threat or a warning, although she leaned toward the latter. Her grip was firm but devoid of aggression, and her tone was non-threatening.

Well, this is not very reassuring.

Was her new life going to consist of receiving threats and brushing with death?

Don't talk to me about a second chance, it looks more and more like hell here. Maybe I still died that day.

Dead or alive, it didn't make much difference to the situation. She had to recover quickly before attracting other creatures who would have in mind to whisper to her other words as little reassuring.

Crossing the corridors to the library was a relatively easy task. The students had no class and few walked the interior corridors of the castle. The young woman hoped that this would also be the case in the library. She had some research to do on this matter of soulmates and Vila. The books held the knowledge, and maybe even the secret to getting out of this mess.

The room was relatively deserted, as expected. No one would come to revise or learn after such an event. At this point, the creatures seemed very human to her. It was much more interesting to take advantage of the catastrophe to excuse oneself from tasks considered daunting for a day or two. And discuss it. All day. As if repeating the same sentences and the same facts would suddenly lead to a different conclusion.

Of course, she had often acted the same way with her friends, drinking in rumors and helping to disperse them, like everyone else. Not this time. She was too much in danger, she had to move on from such futile activities.

In the end, I don't feel like I have a lot of choices. Seems like we have something in common, the Vila and me.

It took her a good two or three minutes to find the section that interested her in the large library: ethnology. In this category were all the biological and sociological works on the different races of Istarea. Finding a book on Vilas was a cup of tea.

Mia settled down peacefully on one of the armchairs at the back of the library, betting on the fact that no one would disturb her thus hidden. The book was an old tome of a few dozen pages. So much the better, it seemed at least to go straight to the point. She perused the summary to find what she was looking for and quickly skimmed the descriptive pages on the biology of the Vilas. She would eventually read it, but that wasn't what interested her the most right now.

Finally, she arrived at the part she had been waiting for: this soul mate story that promised to ruin her life.