The next morning Rachel was woken up by a knock on her door. She woke up in a bit of a panic due to the unfamiliar feel of the sheets on the bed and the arrangement of the furniture in the room. It took a few minutes of laying still for her to get comfortable enough to leave her bed. When she was ready, she found the dress she left out to wear and brought it with her to the bathroom to change into it and out of the nightgown that was provided to her last night. Rachel wouldn’t easily admit it, but she had chills for what was about to happen at the academy. For a good while, she had a relatively quiet and simple scholarly life, which she enjoyed. Thinking about who she was Rachel agreed that her personality didn’t suit that of a fairy’s. She wasn’t at all like her family or Elanor who sought attention and the lavish payments for their services. At least she wasn’t alone.

Taking the stairs down to the dining room from before, Rachel found an assortment of foods for breakfast. The butler had informed her that the duke had already left to inform the principal to gather a meeting of all the students just after breakfast for the regular students, who are still just barely waking up. He also told her that George and James were also getting ready at the moment, but already had breakfast and that she could start when she was ready. Rachel took a good long look at all the food on the table. She didn’t recognize a lot of the fruits on the table and although curious was nervous about accidentally giving herself a stomachache. Instead, she ate only two pieces of her regular fruit, which was technically more than usual, but felt too little underneath the towering extravagant display of fruit and baked goods present. Rachel had a thought. She asked the butler if she could take some of the fruit for her friends and asked which ones they might be interested in as agricultural students. He picked out the ones he thought were best and packed them very nicely. When they were done the butler escorted Rachel into a living room to wait for George and James to come down when they were ready.

The anticipation was eating at Rachel and she decided to pace around the room casually looking at anything that seemed interesting. During her second time around the room, George followed by James finally made their way down. Rachel almost laughed thinking they were going to be wearing something more extravagant than what they wore to see the duke.

“Did you just hold back a laugh?” George asked.

“Well, I’m surprised you’re wearing the same clothes when it took you so long to come down.”

“I was helping the staff nurse James’ wounds.”

“You sure don’t go easy on anyone do you?” Rachel taunted.

“No, I don’t.”

“No, he doesn’t,” James said while rubbing his right arm.

“Well, you might want to learn how to not hurt him seeing as he’s going to have to be ready to protect me at all times.”

“Oh, Rachel! I wish you hadn’t mentioned that…” James whined.

“What?” Rachel asked.

“What you are saying is that James needs to get better, which means he’s going to get more practice with me,” George said with a small evil smile.

“Stop scaring him, don’t worry James, I’ll be sure to occupy George enough for you to get some rest,” Rachel replied winking at James.

“That’s a promise Rachel!” James said smiling weakly after his soul tried to leave his body.

“Let’s get to school. Is everyone ready?” George asked.

With two yeses from Rachel and James, the three of them exited the house and climbed aboard the carriage. What was a fifteen-minute walk was barely a five-minute carriage ride, but there were already crowds forming at the entrance and the carriage helped get its passengers closer towards the entrance to the academy. The students who began to gather around this new carriage were assuming that George would be in this one as they noticed correctly, he wasn’t on the academy’s grounds last night, what they hadn’t expected was for him to help down the girl that everyone had begun to hate for being able to worm her way into George’s very private circle containing himself and James. Rachel couldn’t care less about their awful stares. Instead, she was worried about how Tina and Nathan would take the new information, she hoped they wouldn’t distance themselves in class and at lunch, plus they would be essential to lessen her guards’, George and James’, duty.

When Rachel, George, and James were out of the carriage one of the duke’s knights escorted them into the academy. They weren’t quite sure of where they were being led, but the crowd was following up until they saw more knights down the hallway that contained the principal’s office that wouldn’t let them pass them and instead directed the crowd to go to the auditorium. Once in the office’s meeting room, Rachel, George, and James found the duke, the principal, and all the teachers.

“As some of you may know, this is Rachel, the fairy whom I have been talking to you about,” Duke Langston announced. A few gasps escaped the teachers' mouths. It seems they couldn’t believe that a fairy was hiding in plain sight.

“She has agreed to record events for the academy, while she attends the academy, but she is to be protected and she can refuse events, so make sure you discuss with her what you think would be good to record. I will have someone report to me on her progress, so if I find you are taking advantage of this opportunity, I will personally have your actions corrected,” the duke continued.

Everyone was silent after the duke spoke his last words, but Rachel found this as a chance to speak up.

“I … would like to thank everyone here for having me. I have enjoyed attending this academy since I have been here, despite coming from a different country. I look forward to working with all of you as a student and a fairy,” Rachel said with a smile.

With Rachel’s words, a lot of the teachers relaxed. The principal on the other hand was a poker-faced man, who didn’t react to the duke’s words or Rachel’s. He decided to keep the schedule moving for the sake of the other students who were waiting for information as to why they were called or directed to the auditorium and with a single look agreed to the terms and motioned for everyone to follow him to the auditorium. The auditorium was packed just as it was during the welcoming ceremony. This time instead of eyes following the fairy in the room, they were following the duke, who was extremely hard to see on any normal occasion except here because his son attended this academy.

The duke didn’t move to say anything to the crowd. He let the principal do the talking as this academy was his domain and it showed that he acknowledged the principal’s power in this place. The principal knew the duke would stand back because the duke explained everything beforehand early this morning, so he took to the podium and began speaking to the students.

“Good morning students, we have all called you here early this morning to introduce you to someone special. As some of you may know this girl, Rachel Barlow, is a student in the Agricultural Arts program, she is also a fairy from Tetrades,” the principal explained. The crowd didn’t speak but instead stood almost still dumbstruck by the information. “The duke has asked her to officiate some of the academy’s events in exchange for protection from our Military Arts students while she attends the academy. Please treat her well. If you have any questions, please ask a teacher or me. Thank you for gathering students, you may return to your scheduled classes.”

The crowd of students was shocked into place, very much like the teachers were. It took them a long time to return to their senses and exit the auditorium. Rachel had a huge wave of relief wash over her, but she was still uncertain about how the student body would treat her. She was hoping they wouldn’t crowd around her as they did to George and James, she wasn’t famous, and she didn’t have any political power, like duke and George. Regardless, when she gets to class, she’ll find out what the students will do. Once most of the students had left the auditorium, the duke followed by his knights, George, James, and Rachel left the stage and spoke to George briefly before leaving with his knights back to his main estate.