The first few days of academy classes went by in a blur for Olivia. Her favorite part of the day was during the morning when she and her cohort would find a quiet place in the first-year library to study runes. The library, even the limited section for first-year students, was a magnificent place with an ambiance of gravity that made Olivia feel special just for sitting in it. The bookcases were massive and ornate, tall rolling ladders affixed to each bank. The tables and furniture were richly stained hardwoods and leather, and fascinating artwork from portraits to battle scenes could be found in every nook and cranny.

By the third day, Olivia had made a significant dent in the runes, proving that she could both write and define more than half of them when quizzed by her classmates. None of the others could match her, though Shani came close. Adaida was miffed that Shani beat her on the practice quiz, but the most explosively frustrated reaction came from a surprising source - Veena. “This is rot! If you have a trick you’re not sharing, you need to come clean with it, Olivia!”

“I don’t have a trick, Veena. I’ve always been good at memorizing. If you think I’m bad, you should have met my sophomore student advisor - he had an eidetic memory.” Veena had stared at Olivia and then packed up her books and walked out of the library. The following day, when they went to study, Veena had gone off by herself. Hanwol had laughed it off, saying that Veena was too used to being the top student. Aside from that minor conflict, Veena seemed amiable enough during their other classes and in the dormitory that afternoon, so no one pressed the issue when she said she just wanted to study runes in peace.

Olivia noticed something strange during her rune study: some of the runes looked familiar to her, though she couldn’t place them. At first, she thought they were runes she’d seen on System items like the Colony Stone, reward chests, or skill scrolls. When she brought it up, her classmates said that wouldn’t be possible because the System used a set of runes that were different from the ones taught at the academy. This opened a whole other can of worms - how many sets of enchanting runes existed? None of her classmates knew the answer. Olivia wracked her brain for possible sources of her sense of familiarity with some of the runes. Then a dim recollection stirred in her mind: Bronwyn handing her a tapestry with a colorful ringed design.

She’d had that thought in the middle of physical education on the fourth day. They were practicing falls; as strange as that sounded, Commander Grobak insisted that knowing how to fall without hurting yourself was vital to fighting and surviving combat. She grunted as she landed on her butt and back, slapping her free arm out to absorb the impact, Rald’s firm grip on her other wrist. The memory flashed into her mind as she hit the mat, and she resolved to dig the tapestry out of her satchel when she got back to the dormitory.

After their “combat practice,” the cohort hustled to the cafeteria, grabbed a tray of hot food, and then made their way back to their dorm. They didn’t stick around to eat or socialize - too many pressures were on their minds because of the competition, and they’d agreed to spend as much time as possible studying or preparing. Olivia thought over her other classes as she walked back to the dorm with the others.

Things were going very well in her spellcraft class. On her second day, Alyss spent some time evaluating each student and assigned them a first-month project that they’d be evaluated on. She’d seemed to like Olivia right away, asking her about her experience with spells and if she’d ever modified any. Olivia hadn’t seen any reason to dissemble, so she’d told her about the two spells she’d created. They were talking at the front table, and Alyss had assured her that their conversation was private; even so, Olivia had looked around nervously when she finished describing her exploits. Alyss had smiled and asked her about her affinities. Then she’d assigned her what seemed like a challenging but exciting task: She was to read chapters twelve through fourteen of her spellcraft text about meta-elements, and then she had to create a spell that used one of them.

The class was working through the text chapter by chapter, and they were still on the first one, so Olivia had been excited to dig into something more advanced. It turned out that meta-elements existed in a state “beyond” the primary four elements. Some were created by applying attuned Energy through a catalyst, and others were made via a combination of more than one element in a specific ratio. That was as far as Olivia had read so far; she knew she’d need to figure it out before the month was up, but she figured she had to prioritize, and some of her deadlines were coming up much more quickly.

Alchemy had been very easy so far. They were assigned some pages to read each day, professor Ghall demonstrated a simple recipe, and they had to replicate it. So far, they hadn’t had to make anything with more than three ingredients, the only tricky part being the application of Energy at the correct times and in the right amounts. Olivia never had any issue with this, though it surprised her that so many students did. Several gaseous expulsions had required the students to move out into the open air while it cleared. Each time this happened, Ghall looked annoyed but resigned and made notes on her ever-present clipboard.

Her best class by far, though, was Cultivation and Core Development. On the second day, she had sat in front of an altar with burning incense that smelled vaguely like sandalwood and began channeling her cultivation drill. She remembered what Sange had told her to do, and she’d thought about it all night. While she ran through her drill this time, she let her senses drift, and she focused on the flaming tip of the incense. Ever so slowly, she became aware of the fire Energy hovering around that orange ember, and she began to pull it toward her while she ran through her drill. Soon, she had a steady, impossibly fine thread of fire-attuned Energy streaming into her through the channel at her belly button, flowing directly into her Core with each cycle. Sange had been thrilled. After that, she found it easier to notice the differently attuned Energies around her, at least those Energies that matched her affinities. On the third day of class, she’d leveled her Core, and Sange had crowed about it, resulting in Olivia receiving some glares from the other members of her cohort.

They arrived back at the dorm, cutting Olivia’s reminiscing short, and she flopped down on her bed with a loud sigh. “I’m so sore! Why on earth do we need to slam each other onto the mats over and over and over?”

“If you don’t learn to fall, then when we start throwing each other around for real, you’re going to break something.” Rald shrugged and moved to the far end of the oblong room, where he dropped down and started doing pushups.

“Oh, Matron! Who are you trying to impress?” Shani had a look of utter disgust on her face as she watched Rald pumping up and down.

“What? Grobak, of course! I don’t stand a chance to win points in most of the classes, but I know how to get stronger, and I’m going to damn well do it.” Olivia laughed and looked around the dorm to see what everyone else was doing. Veena sat on her bed staring at her enchantment text, and Adaida and Hanwol had taken a seat by the window and were quizzing each other with flashcards. She shrugged and put a hand into her satchel, “looking” around at the contents. She found the neatly folded tapestry and pulled it out.

The conversation among her peers faded into the background while she stared at the exposed flap of the folded cloth. Even on this relatively small portion of the tapestry, she could make out dozens of runes in the faded design. Some were very similar to those she’d been studying, though they were all slightly different. She wondered if this tapestry had a foreign runic language on it, but one that was close to her textbook runes. Her mind wrestled with various ideas, and the truth she had to accept was that she just knew too little about runes and enchanting to understand the implications. She’d have to set this aside for now, but something told her it was significant. Very carefully, she slipped the tapestry back into her satchel.

Laying back with a sigh on her pillow, Olivia struggled with her desire to close her eyes and get a long night of sleep; she had to get some more studying done if she was going to ace that test in a few days. She’d prioritized learning the runes because that was her first tangible assessment that she knew about. She was aware that the other professors were constantly watching her and the other students, making little evaluations day by day. Still, this test was going to be a serious score, and she’d have an honest idea of her standing with the other students after it.

Idly, Olivia rubbed at her forehead, and she thought she could feel a tiny nodule of bone that stood out from the rest of her smooth brow. An image of a stone flashing in front of her eyes and then everything going dark made her wince. She’d not said a word to Gwinna since that first day, and she didn’t think the other girl even acknowledged her existence. Olivia tried to shrug it off, but then she thought of that stone cracking into her head, and she thought about how the nurse had said she was lucky she didn’t die. Had that bitch actually been trying to kill her, or was she just careless? Olivia was good at burying things, good at concentrating on other thoughts when something bothered her, but there were times when those thoughts would bubble up, and right now, she was having a hard time not feeling very alone and vulnerable.

She was the only human in a thousand miles, as far as she knew. While everyone in her cohort was friendly, they were also different and tended to do their own things when they weren’t actively moving around together or studying as a group. She wished she could travel quickly and easily back to the colony. She’d love to sit in the tavern and listen to other humans gossip and maybe drink a few cups of mead with Bronwyn.

She wondered how Bronwyn was doing - had she settled things with the Urghat? Did she still have one of their Underclaw titles? Olivia felt like Bronwyn had to be doing okay - like she’d know somehow if she weren’t, but she also knew that was silly. Bronwyn could be dead for all she knew. That idea caused her heart to lurch for a moment, and Olivia had to come to grips with the notion that Bronwyn and Morgan were the only people in this world whom she’d grown really familiar with. What would she do if they were dead when she returned to the colony? These sorts of thoughts kept her mind spinning for a while, and then Olivia forcefully shut down the self-destructive tailspin of emotions and pulled out her enchanting textbook.

When the group made their way to the library the next morning, Veena wandered off alone, and Olivia almost followed after her. Adaida saw her looking in the direction Veena had gone and said, “She’s moody, and if you go after her, you’ll either irritate her or encourage this behavior. Best to just let things go; the test is Monday, and then she’ll either get over it or not.” Olivia almost argued with her, but she just sighed and nodded. She sat in one of the luxurious leather chairs at the study table and pulled out the flashcards she’d made herself.

“Anyone wanna take turns quizzing?” She looked around the table, but Rald and Hanwol had already paired up, Shani and Adaida were slow to respond, and Olivia could take a hint. “No worries, I’ll just quiz myself for a while.”

“Why don’t you come study with me for a while?” Olivia spun around to find the source of the invitation and saw that Sarice had walked up behind her. “My cohort members aren’t taking this quiz as seriously as I’d like, and I could use a partner for a while; the test is tomorrow, afterall.” Olivia looked back at her group; Hanwol and Rald hadn’t even looked up, and Adaida and Shani shot her looks that she was having difficulty interpreting. Were they warning her off? Adaida had a raised eyebrow and a bit of a grin, and Shani just had a frown on her face. Olivia opened her mouth to speak, but then Shani cut her off.

“Trying to poach one of our best?”

“What do you mean?” Sarice glared at Shani.

“For next year. Trying to get her to skip up to Gold?”

“I hadn’t even thought of that, no. I’m just trying to get through tomorrow. What do you care? The test is individual, not cohort-based.”

“Whatever. Do what you want, Olivia.” Shani turned back down to her book, dismissing the matter. Olivia had a waspish retort on her tongue, something about not asking for permission, but she bit it back. Her face red and a stormcloud behind her eyes, she stood up and nodded to Sarice. Sarice, for her part, managed to keep her smile almost imperceptible, and she turned and walked a short way to a couch situated under a tall, narrow window. She and Olivia sat down next to each other, and Olivia scooted sideways a bit so she could look at Sarice more easily.

“I don’t mind studying with you on something like this, but I’m not going to do anything to harm my cohort.” Olivia wanted to set the ground rules as clearly as possible.

“I know that, silly. I wouldn’t expect you to. I’m not going to betray my cohort either!” Sarice's smile was really something. Unlike the Ardeni and Shadeni, the Ghelli had very human-like teeth, and her whole face lit up with warmth when her lips curled up in the friendly expression. “Tell me, Olivia, are all Humans as interesting looking as you? Your dark hair and light eyes are quite a contrast. You seem a lot like us Ghelli, but you’re sturdy like an Ardeni, and of course, you don’t have wings. I wonder what other differences there are?” At first, Olivia was taken aback by her forwardness, but the scientist in her was pleased.

“Oh, I’m sure there are more differences, but I’m amazed that so many races here on this world are so similar to humans. Bipedal, mammalian, you get the idea. Though, I suppose, having wings sets you quite apart. Can I ask, are you able to fly with them?” Sarice stared at her for a moment before responding, and Olivia wondered if she’d gone too far. Then she wondered if it was her lack of response to the compliments that had baffled the girl or the fact that she hadn’t returned them. Olivia’s sense of awkwardness began to grow, and she could feel some heat in her cheeks; then, Sarice cleared her throat and spoke.

“Well, not until I evolve my race quite a lot. Then I could, yes. Right now, the best I can hope for is to slow my fall if I jump off some high point.” Sarice looked over her shoulder at one of her shimmering wings with a bit of a wistful sigh.

“Well, they’re beautiful, in any case.” Olivia smiled at the way Sarice’s face lit up at the compliment. That had definitely been the problem earlier; she’d wanted a return compliment.

“You’re very sweet, Olivia. Well? Shall we see what we know about these runes? Tomorrow’s the big day.” Sarice gestured toward the stack of flashcards Olivia had gripped in her hand.

“Yeah, of course. Let’s do.” She glanced to her right at the table where her group was sitting and saw that they all seemed engrossed in their own studies, all but Shani. Shani was staring right at Olivia, and her face didn’t look happy.