Lady Melanie Mosquerra sat rigidly upright in the stiff leather chair and leaned as further as she could into the uncomfortable back. She tried her hardest not to cough in front of the man before her, who was currently watching her from behind his spectacles and slowly dragged from his pipe.
The smoke that filled the room was seeped into every possible surface and crevice in the small office; it clung to the faded wallpaper, fogged up the windows,and layered itself thick on the few paintings of beautiful scenery that hung as decoration, so that the colors had become a yellowed, oppressive on the senses mess. She had the feeling that if she stayed any longer in the room, the suffocating smell of tobacco would become permanently affixed to her skin and hair.
"It is an honor for our school to accept a member of the peerage," the Headmaster said after another slow drag. His eyes were leveled on her, but their look was so vacant and devoid of recognition, Melanie was not sure he was actually speaking to her. "We wholeheartedly hope that you will find our professors and the service they provide adequate to your standards."
He didn't have any intonation or feeling in his words. His voice was a steady, emotionless burr that gave out neither sincerity or insincerity.
He went on, "Sadly, as you're a foreign student we're not allowed to give you the full experience of the students in our school. Certain lectures and wings of the school will be unavailable to you." His eyes were still locked on hers, unblinking, their grey pupils boring holes in her face. "Our school's rules and mode of conduct will, however, be upheld with you the same as any other student and punishment will be served for any misbehaviour accordingly."
He kept silent for a few beats, obviously looking for affirmation, so Melanie cleared her throat and steadily said. "Perfectly agreeable and understandable."
"Your roommate will be one of our best pupils who will show you around and answer any of your pressing questions." Melanie's lips tightened in a barely restrained grimace. "Lily, enter please."
He'd turned to the door behind Melanie but hadn't raised his voice or done any of the things that would suggest he was calling out to someone, so she was surprised when a girl of far eastern descent opened the door and stepped into the room. There was something...off about her. And it wasn't because she was the first normal person she'd met after being dropped off by her carriage in front of the school. She had an upright posture and her face was schooled into a neutral mask, but her pretty blue eyes were unfocused and foggy, and her tanned face and neck were flushed into a bright red.
God help Melanie, but the girl was foxed. She was startled and offended, and somehow even more put off.
"Lily, please show Lady Melanie to your room and help her settle in." The man either didn't notice or didn't care and the indignation annoyed Melanie even more. She felt like she was made fun of.
"Understood, sir." The headmaster shifted his attention out the window and Melanie guessed that this was her dismissal. She rose from her seat stiffly and walked out with the girl on shaky legs. The carriage ride had been a long, painful experience and the knowledge of the kind of hell that awaited her on the end of her long journey had not let her have more than an hour of sleep at a time.
She was tired, sweaty and grimy from the road and she was currently being led down the winding, maze-like hallways by an inebriated girl. She was upset and terrified at the fact that she was in a strange, unkind land, but she clenched her teeth and pushed back all the anxieties that haunted her in that moment.
She had a duty, no matter how terrifying and strange. She was going to do this, and she was going to do it alone, because someone had to.
-
The room she and the girl - Lily, she supposed she should call her- were to live in was small and bare of any decorations or personality. Melanie's rooms back home were lavishly furnished, with embroidered upholstery, colorful cushions and heavy drapes dyed in several colors. She was not used to bare walls, iron bed frames and small wooden chests, which she supposed were meant to keep all of her belongings in. It was almost a surprise that the windows didn't have bars on them.
She set her valise down on the thin mattress and sank heavily in.
"Where are the desks?"
"Desks?"
Melanie frowned. Now that she noticed, there were no shelves for books either. "Aren't you supposed to study? This is a school."
Lily had been carefully observing her from where she was leaning against the wall, head tipped back against the wall sluggishly. When Melanie spoke her parted cherub lips spread into a smile. It wasn't a friendly smile, nor a mocking one. She couldn't quite place it.
"Oh, you're in for a treat." Was all she said before she walked steadily to the bed, that was just opposite Melanie's, and sank in with a sigh. "You're in for a real good treat."
Melanie did not like the foreboding sound of that. She also did not like the fact that she noticed the muscular calves that flexed from beneath her skirt, and the short silky black hair that spilled on the covers. She still looked, though, and perhaps for a little too long, because Lily raised herself up on her elbow and raised an eyebrow at her.
Melanie held her gaze levelly and tipped her chin back. "Is it a custom here to get drunk before the first day of school? If so, they failed to let me in on this. I do want to fit in."
Lily chuckled and fell back on the bed, arm falling over her eyes, "It's the only way if you want to survive out here. Trust me."
Melanie looked out through the window at the bare landscape outside. There was no greenery in the near vicinity of the school, up until the dark woods that stretched very far ahead. The mountains behind them were sharp and pointy and only inspired a weird, inexplicable agitation.
She had to admit that Lily probably had a point. It was only day one and she was already on edge.
-
Lily sobered up an hour or so later when dark had settled over. Melanie had put away her clothes by that time, leaving in the valise only the books she'd brought with her as well as the dagger she'd sneaked over the border. She wasn't supposed to be armed and had the border control been alerted to her weapon, she'd have been detained immediately and her country would've probably been called war on.
But there was no way she was going to be vulnerable in this country, so she kicked her valise under the bed and lit the gas lamp on the chest.
Lily rose with a groan once the light filled the dark room, and said, groggily, "Shit, it's time for supper."
And just in that moment someone knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply. A blond boy about their age stood at the threshold. His skin was tanned like Lily's, his shoulders set wide and imposing, and his expression had a violent severity to it. He had sharp grey eyes that surveyed his surroundings with a wary look.
Melanie noticed a deep scar on his jaw and thinner scars peeking from his shirt's collar. She remembered with a deep pang in her chest just what kind of school this was.
He startled when he saw Melanie and then froze as he surveyed her, eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed.
"Melanie Mosquerra," Lily said as she came to stand beside her. "My shiny new roommate. Do you like her, Stef?"
Her voice was silky smooth and cold when she was sober and Melanie didn't know which version of her she liked least.
"Stefan Leonov," he said tersely and held out his hand for her to shake. She did and noted that he didn't squeeze it hard to assert dominance or anything stupid of the kind. It was a brief, polite shake that didn't leave her hand smarting. "My father said you'd be coming. Welcome to Tengra."
Tengra was the name of the academy, and also, the name of the deity that the Honians worshiped. Tengra and Freyr - the two main deities that in their mythology, Melanie recalled, had split apart the people they created and forced them at war against each other. The Honians were one kingdom and the Jutians were another and they'd been fighting in their gods' stead since the dawn of time.
She was from Chasar - a country known for its neutrality in regards to war and the prosperous, joyful living of its people. Chasar was, according to historical records, a kingdom that came to be a couple of thousand years ago, after tribes of people from the two nations came together and unanimously declared that they would no longer be a part of the crude fight and, due to the sheer number of people, they were hesitantly allowed to create their own state and govern themselves.
So Chasars like Melanie grew up living in a peaceful, calm environment where she didn't have to worry about provisions being scarce or her home being blown up. And Honians like Stefan Leonov and Lily...well. They had battle scars at the crisp age of seventeen.
"I came to pick you up for dinner," Stefan said and wrapped his big arms around himself. "I thought you'd be...indisposed." He paused for just long enough to make it clear he meant passed out drunk somewhere.
"How gallant of you, darling." She said the word like it was an insult and then walked by him and opened the door for them all with a bow. "Then we shall all go and enjoy our dining like the best and dearest of friends."
Stefan walked past her with a shove to her chest and Melanie followed after with a concerned glance to see if Lily had been hurt. She rubbed where Stefan had pushed her with a lazy grin on her face.
They walked down the steps of the dormitories and came to the first floor where the dining hall was. It was full of students; the three long rolls of tables held at least five hundred students, but as opposed to the loud chattering and laughing Melanie was used to, there was only a hum of quiet conversation. If she were to drop a spoon she felt like everyone would cease their conversation and turn to look at her.
Stefan and Lily walked towards the first row where three seats were left empty. Every other space was occupied. She seated herself next to Lily and across from Stefan. In front of her was all ready a bowl of soup that looked neither appetizing nor disgusting and coarse bread. She did note, pleased, that there was dessert and it was a cake with fruit. She dug in hungrily into her dinner and took the moment to look over the surroundings.
After the rows of tables was a single long one that faced all of the students and had six adults on it. The professors, she guessed, and the headmaster. They weren't noteworthy with anything, except that they kept vacant watch on the students and ate their food silently. They all did that except for one professor. He didn't have the same rigidity as his other colleagues. Instead, he looked quite bored and out of place. Somehow, he caught Melanie's gaze and, to her surprise, he winked at her. She gave him a small smile and then he turned away again towards his food. She glanced at the headmaster and noticed he was looking at her. Her smile slipped away and she turned back as well to instead look at the students.
Girls and boys ranging from early teens to eighteen, all in the same smart uniform - white shirt with a vest on top, woolen skirt or pants and - the one thing that set them apart - the different gemstones that shone on the brooches on their ties and cravats. She noticed Lily and Stefan had those as well.
"Excuse my ignorance but," she called after a moment, her voice as quiet as the other students'. Lily turned to her with a tilt to her head, "What do those pins mean?"
Stefan's face turned sour as he kept eating his soup and Lily gave her one of her wry smiles. "They show our social standings. It's a custom here, once you're born, to have a gem that signifies your rank. See pretty Stefan's howlite over here?" She pointed to his cravat with her spoon. "His dad, the headmaster you must know, and his dad before that, and so on, and so on, have all served the King in battle, so Stefan is kind of an important, big deal over here."
Stefan growled at her when she said that and she leaned her head on her hand. "And here I have a sunstone, because my dad is a distant cousin to our gracious King, so I am also a very big deal." Melanie tried her hardest to focus on her brooch, but her gaze kept straying down to her chest, so she looked away and nodded.
"Keep your voice down," Stefan hissed. But she didn't.
She kept point to students and explaining their gem's meaning with the same dry irony, until she came to the end of the table and faltered. There were two boys there. One whose face was shielded by his really long black hair, and who was leaning over his soup to talk intently to his friend with chin length blond hair and gentle eyes. The black haired boy had an all black gem and his friend had a spotted brown one. She didn't know the names of gems. She was surprised that Lily had them all at the ready.
Melanie had been only nodding along and humming in agreement up to that point, but that caught her attention. "What about them?"
Lily turned back to her soup, with a small frown on her face and took a spoonful. "They're outcasts." Melanie raised her eyebrows and Lily turned to her, again with that infuriating smile. "Oh, but on one hand, so are you right now. So maybe you'll fit in with them."
Stefan still had that frown on his face, but it was deeper now. Interesting.
Guess she was going to have to find out on her own. Partly out of curiosity and more out of that belief that maybe they'll help her figure out what's going on as people on the outside of things.
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