I don’t know why the walls of the school looked metalic from the other side of the barrier. From the inside, the walls were just plain stone. Maybe I imagined the small golden glow that emanated from them but they were still just rock. I could also get a better look at the four castle-things as we walked to the smallest building. They were all made of the same sort of glowy stuff. I could also see more students walking around, most of which I should have seen from the other side of the barrier. What was the point of this little bit of magic?

If this school was only for nobles, I did not expect there to be that many students and indeed I only saw about twenty people walking around. I was not sure but I think a few of them had stopped to stare at me. Were they whispering about me? I could certainly see their mouths moving but convinced myself that they must have been talking about something that did not involve me. That is until someone said in a whisper that was too loud, “she burned down the maze.” That changed everything. If they were talking about my achievements, I might as well look proud. I cast a quick smile in the direction I heard the words. You’d almost think I boiled a cat from the look on their faces.

Coming up on the entrance of the smallest building, I noticed a ridiculously tall door. I barely had the time to wonder whether giants attended the school when it began to shrink. It was a regular sized door by the time Gabriela reached for the handle. What was the point of THAT piece of magic?! I never thought I would feel so confused by being surrounded by magic. The door opened to a hallway and several doors, too many of them. Was everything different in a small magical way? There was no way that the hallway could be that long for such a small tower! Was this school just using magic because it could?

We walked the hallway for quite a while before we met another person, a boy followed by a maid of his own. He had to be here for the orientation thing. He looked older than me, not by much but still students were supposed to start at the age of seven and that guy had to be at least ten. He turned as we approached. There was nothing noteworthy about him except pale blond hair. He was also wearing robes so he was clearly a student.

“Welcome!” He started cheerfully. Would it be rude to take a step back? I didn’t fully understand why but I was suddenly filled with a strong feeling of dislike and it was all directed at some pale kid in robes. “You must be here for the orientation. Ten new students this year, much more interesting than last year. There were only four last year.”

He gestured to the door which was promptly opened by the maid beside him. 

“Who are you?” I asked testily.

“Iker Bennett. I led the orientation last year too, not that you would know since you failed the test.” Yeah, that was a more concrete reason to hate the guy. Also, the orientation was up to a kid?

“Fantastic…” I said with a fake smile.

We walked into what looked like a small auditorium with a small raised platform in the middle. The sears in the audience part were wooden and painted a shade of gold similar to the accents from my robes. They also all faced the raised platform. Some of the seats were even filled by about seven kids, all of whom were staring at me. Behind them were also a line of maids just kind of standing in the back of the auditorium. Gabriela moved to join them after shooting a concerned look at Larissa.

As I was thinking about where to sit I noticed a familiar face, the nephew of the king, sitting in the back of the room very far away from the other kids. I headed straight for him. 

“You actually decided to go to school this year?” I asked sitting down. He sat up as if he had been startled out of a deep sleep.

“I have to.” He said looking from me to Larissa. “My little cousin is starting this year. I have to beat up anyone who dares look down on him, not that I think it will happen?”

“Your little cousin, as in the prince?” Yeah, the guy original Anastasia was obsessed with. It was about time I met him.

“Well, yes. He might take a bit longer to get here since the king moved the palace out of the city and halfway up a mountain ‘for safety’. I think he just added falling off a cliff to his growing list of things that could potentially go wrong. He is a bit of a paranoid guy. Wouldn’t tell him that to his face though!” He stopped to scoff before turning his attention to Larissa. “Leanne, you made it! I hope the journey was okay!”

Right, Larissa was going by a fake name. I watched Larissa move as far away from him as the seat would allow.

“I know you traveled from out of the city, halfway across Turoe if my information is correct. Not that I paid anyone to follow you around or anything!”

I looked at Larissa with concern. Being unable to physically get away from Night, she must have resolved to ignore him and he was making that very difficult by talking to her loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

“Speak,” He said, suddenly whispering. “I am solidifying your fake backstory.”

Oh, that was surprisingly nice of him. I was still not sure if I could trust him or not, though. Night’s eyes flickered to me for a second. I again wondered if I had said something out loud because if I didn’t know better I would have said he reacted to my thoughts. Would someone being able to read minds be that unusual in a world with magic?

I hurriedly looked over to Larissa. She was giving Night an odd look. If I didn’t know better I would say she was glaring at him. What reason would Larissa have to be angry at Night? The one who dragged her off to the school was me but it was as if he had orchestrated the whole thing rather than facilitated.

Seconds passed slowly before the door opened and closed and Night jumped. A boy was at the door. I didn’t think much of it for a second until I remembered that the prince was on his way. I looked with a bit more interest but somehow I found myself slightly disappointed. It was a kid, at least seven years old with purple hair tied in a small ponytail. He was dressed in the same robes we all were and his eyes were the same color as Night’s. He was looking around with some uncertainty while the other students were hurriedly standing up. With some confusion I copied them and so did Larissa. I half glanced at Night, he was still sitting and he had the same creepy smile that I had seen in my father’s study. The prince was glancing around the room wearily.

“If you do that every time he walks into a room, it’s gonna get really annoying after a few days.” Night loudly said to the room at large. He got a bunch of glares from the other students but they slowly started to sit back down.

I didn’t fully understand the reason since it was only vaguely mentioned in my reading but it was traditional to stand up when the royal family entered a room. I was not sure if they had done so for Night since he had been sitting down when we got in but that tradition seemed a bit silly. Maybe not since most were convinced he was the bastard son of the king, maybe they considered him less than prince. 

With a heavy sigh, the prince slid into a seat in front of Night as Larissa and I sat back down. He basically ignored us while shooting Night, an uncertain look which, fair enough, we were essentially strangers.

“There you are! How was the trip down the mountain? I assume the view is great but falling off must be a real concern right now.” Night began loudly while another maid, probably the prince’s, joined the back of the room.

“We would not be up there if you had not mentioned the faulty wall on the old castle.” He gave Night a look that almost looked exasperated but not quite. 

“If I had mentioned dragons, you would be living underground right now.”

The irritation on the prince’s face faltered for a second. 

“Like anyone has seen a dragon this century, they are about as rare as elves at this point! Don’t mention dragons to my dad, though. I’m worried he will actually move the castle again. Who are your new friends?”

He was looking at Larissa with mild curiosity and maybe familiarity? No, I must have imagined that. I’m probably just biased since I know they are supposed to get together by the end of the story. It was not even likely that they would this time since Larissa was not technically the original Larissa and this main character seemed a bit put out by everything in general. I glanced at Larissa. Her face was carefully blank but she didn’t look as concerned anymore. Her gaze was fixed onto the prince’s face as if she too found him familiar. Is this what two characters having a moment is supposed to look like from an outside perspective? 

“Oh yes, my friends. These are Anastasia Salvestro and Leanne Brown.” He gestured as he talked but I noticed he pointed to Larissa when he said Anastasia. I opened my mouth to say something before he let out a small laugh. “My bad, I got it backwards. This is Anastasia and this is Leanne.”

I looked back to the prince just in time to see him kiss Larissa’s hand. It is either something related to the original novel or something really weird. At least Larissa was smiling slightly. It was still weird though. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Night was smirking.

Thankfully we were spared seeing more of whatever was going on with the prince and Larissa by Iker clearing his throat. Oh yeah, the Iker guy was in charge of the orientation, whatever that means. He began by passing out a few papers before walking to the front of the room.

“Welcome to your first year at the Golden Cauldron Magic Institute! I see we have a few people who look like they should have enrolled last year, thee as far as I can tell. Please remain sitting until I am done talking.”

Someone slid into a desk next to me. I got the vague feeling that I knew her but in the vague sense that I knew the girl outside. She might be a friend of the original Anastasia or I’m completely wrong and she is just some stranger that wanted to get close to the prince. Before I could ask, Iker continued talking.

“Every year we have one or more people who fail but I hear that this year three of you got lucky that someone destroyed the maze.” He may not have been looking at me but I had the feeling that that was the second jab directed at me. Lovely…

I barely knew that guy, what was his problem? Too late I realized that he had kept talking and I no longer had any idea what he was going on about. Who knows, maybe I missed another snide comment that may or may not be directed at me. Instead of listening I looked at the page he had given me. It was some kind of form with basic things including name and area of study. My attention immediately focused on combat. Maybe that is what I have to study if I want to learn to use a sword? Someone tapped me on the shoulder, I looked up to see Iker in front of me.

“Am I boring you?” He asked.

I looked back down at the paper.

“Just about, can you hurry this up?”

“I am sorry the history of this esteemed academy is boring to you.” Was his voice shaking? I hope he found me as annoying as I found him. 

“Oh please, this is where nobles send their kids so they can make connections to other nobles so they can all get together and find new ways to make the lives of commoners worse. I agree with Ana though, hurry this up. I’m getting bored.” Night was already filling in his form. Also, he called me Ana?

With a deep breath, Iker walked back to the front of the room. 

“There are three buildings,” he began but he seemed to be shaking slightly. I spaced out almost as soon as he started talking. I already knew that from the brochure a few days ago. Weird how the brochure did not mention the barrier around the school. What was the point in having a barrier in the first place? Maybe it was because something like that was supposed to be common knowledge? The buildings were separated into dormitories, magic research and some other thing, maybe that is where combat was taught. Not that I was all that sure what a bunch of nobles even wanted to learn combat for, maybe to show off to each other? Scanning down the page again I noticed that I could focus on magic, combat or both and I chose the third option. Beside me, I watched the random kid that had moved next to me copy my choice. She was small, even in the small desk, her feet did not even reach the floor. Was the fact that she was copying me, make her a friend of Anastasia’s?

Glancing around some more, I found Larissa, maybe I should try getting used to thinking of her as Leanne…

I watched Leanne leaning forward in her desk, probably the only person giving Iker her undivided attention. No, the prince was also focusing on the orientation. Night was making what looked like a paper airplane out of his paper and a boy on the other side of the room seemed to be drawing something that looked like a lizard on his desk. 

Looking down at my paper again, I pondered what Night had said. This school was fairly small because the only ones who could attend were the children of the richest nobles. It made sense for them to be sent to a place where they could make connections with the other children of the most noble people to ever noble. Was that it, though? Because if I had known that I would not have pushed for Lari-Leanne to follow me to the school. Though I guess that making friends with the other nobles could actually help her family regain status? Is that how that works? How did these noble nobles even get to where they are in the first place? I tuned back into whatever Iker was saying.

“Now if you will see the paper I gave you had a few options-”

Not interesting. He was probably talking about the study options of which I had already picked. Leanne looked down to her paper as Iker walked to the other end of the room probably to help out the kids over there first. I watched her pick magic research. Probably a good thing for her to study and apparently the prince picked that too. How nice for them, they get to share classes. The school was a lot less interesting since Night mentioned the nobles getting connections thing. I heard a small gasp from the other side of the room. Iker was holding out a stick and tapping the paper of some kid and that was followed by another exclamation of surprise. As far as I had read wands were not really widely used by Sorcerers and were in fact more popular with Witches, but they were really good for spells that dealt with precision. Or maybe it was concentration since they usually had gems embedded into them to help out in spells? Iker’s wand had what looked like a black gem at the end close to his hand so it could be concentration. Was he just using the wand to show off? He tapped another paper and more noises of wonder followed. Yeah, he was definitely showing off.