“You have all been lined up here today because you tested for magical aptitude.  Not all of you have made the draft. Should you be enlisted into the military  as a recruit of the Hiraeth Division. You will  train in Leicester, our capital, to fight the recent surge of vampire attacks.”

A woman stepped forward with a long scroll and read from it. 

“Aleksander Goldswift, Xiongyan Lishi…”  She read on. “…Jin Nam.” 

I jumped when I heard my name. 

“Nam! Step forward with your fellow recruits.” 

Someone slapped my back and I stumbled forward. I bunched up my pants in my fists to keep them from shaking. 

“You will leave immediately. Training begins tomorrow.”

A gate appeared as an officer snapped their fingers with  Hiraeth Division's  official base on the other side. Killing vampires? What if there’s one like Father? That’s wrong…Will I have to kill those like me? If my secret is found out what will happen to me? Will they kill me? I can’t do that to him. Whatever it takes I’ll keep my secret hidden.

“Nam! Get your head out of the clouds!”

I jerked my head up, then followed the others through the gate.  I like moving through mud. I was the last to cross, and as I turned, it closed behind me. 

“Now that all of you have been assigned a dorm, those assigned to the same one will be in a squad. However, not all squad members will share dorms. Report to the dining hall in two hours.”

I looked at the letter with the directions to the dorm. Once I got close enough I caught the scent. It got stronger someone scent like a vampire and human, as I got closer to my dorm. There were only two people there. The half vampire turned out  to be the pink haired boy. How did I not notice before? The other was the blue haired man from the draft, his expression was exactly the same as that day. Cold and emotionless not even his eyes had and life in them. He glanced up at my approach The pink haired boy looked at me, then hopped off the edge of his bed and rushed to greet me with a bright smile on his face. 

“Hi! I’m Aleksander Goldswift. Nice to meet you! Call me Alek please.”

"Xiongyan Lishi" He said without looking

…

Clack! Clack! Clack!

I swung the quarter staff and made jabs at Xiongyan. The few jabs that landed he winched from, in pain… Am I not holding back enough? Does he suspect anything? 

“Take this seriously, Jin. And pay attention,”' Xiongyan said dryly, landing a hard hit on my shoulder blade. “You’re going to be killed by vampires at the rate you're going.” 

I blocked his next one, barely.

“Next you’ll spar with magic. Anything goes.”

I dropped my staff and immediately slipped into the shadows, barely dodging his spell. I threw a spear of shadows and he dispelled it without blinking. All… All I can do is dodge. Maybe if I got behind him- The ground flashed, a magic circle launching me into the air. The wind forced my lungs to suddenly empty. I gasped desperately to get some air in. Xiongyan stood over me with a sphere of magic glowing in his hand. 

“You’re not cut out for direct combat with the enemy if you can’t even scratch me. If you’re lucky, the snipers will take you.” 

“Did you see that? They recruited a witch!”

“No good will come from him being here…” 

“Was it his mother or father that's a witch…? Or…perhaps… he acquired it…” 

I’m not a witch…My magic isn’t a taboo right? I’ve never even harmed anyone with it before, even by accident … it's not powerful.  Destroying puppets isn’t a big feat; many people succeeded in the test. Why are they calling me one?

“Are you okay, Jin?” The boy I met on the first day here stood over me. 

I couldn’t respond as my body struggled to take in air. “I’m… fine…”

 Howin sighed and walked away to find someone else. 

A loud chime sounded off.  The loud sound hurt my ears.

“That concludes training recruits. You have free recreational time for two hours.

“You’re bleeding.” He bent down and yanked me up a little too hard. “Let’s get you cleaned up!” He smiled, not letting go of my wrist dragging me toward our dorm. He dragged a stool to a sink and filled up a basin with hot water.

“I can do it myself, Alek.”

“You sure? I can heal the cuts for you.”

 Looking in the mirror, my face was covered in dirt, the cuts healing my brown hair messy. The glasses I had, from when Father was human, askew. Good thing they didn’t break. Without his scent from them, I can’t stay calm easily when I’m not with him. I scrubbed my face with the rag. The smell of iron filled my nose as it became wet again.