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 |  The Legend of the Eyebright was thought to be just a myth... |
| Kasity felt she belonged in the lonely, wooden building high above the rest of the Academy campus—the one she had noticed as she was trekking across campus the first day of school. The dwelling was a trademark of the Sylphs, and she was not surprised when she was called to don the silver and blue. She got her first opportunity to check out her stepmates before the tour of the Sylph dwelling. Claia was smart and had mousy hair, and Kasity already knew Karynn, the girl with the grownup hands who used to have the bunk across from her. Then there were the boys: Tal, who was quiet and stood at the back of the group; Macom, who was missing his three front teeth and was from one of the highest noble families; Shant, another of high birth, and Aidan, who took the cake in noble blood. Aidan was technically a prince. Kasity wondered what it would be like to have classes with boys, since she hadn’t had any with them yet. As the tour started, Kasity’s attention shifted from her stepmates to the most beautiful building she had ever seen. An eighth step student with pimples, a prominent nose, and stubbly cheeks showed them the dwelling, talking monotonously about the rules and special features of the building. Accompanying him was a second step girl with bright red hair, freckles, and a friendly smile. She, however, kept silent. The first floor consisted of an octagonal den lit with glowing Orbs and littered with plushy cushions and chatting students. It was set two steps into the ground of the first floor, making it seem like a giant, octangular tub. Two winding stairways led to respective male and female sleeping areas, and an engraved door off of the first floor led to the Council Room, a mysterious place for only Council members. Behind another door was the Sylph Study Room, lined with bookshelves and populated with small, circular tables. Her favorite feature was a glass wall overlooking the cliff, and just standing by that wall and looking down the dizzying heights gave her a little thrill in her stomach. At the end of the tour, they all stood by that wall and watched the older steps jumping off the cliff and flying down to their classes. She learned the first steps, who could not yet fly, had to climb up and down the cliff every day, watching the older students swoop effortlessly through the air as they struggled through the cumbersome hike. Students weren’t really considered part of Sylph until they completed the traditional jump. It was an initiation of sorts. After finishing this tour, the eighth step said, “Alright. Any questions?” He looked around at them with a half-expectant look on his face, scratching a cluster of pimples perched on his nose. Seeing no response, he sighed and said, “We’re going to do course selection now. Most of the classes you are enrolled in right now are going to get shuffled. Boys with me, girls with Rissy.” He motioned to the petite second step redhead, who smiled and waved. The three first step girls followed Rissy, who led them into the den. She grabbed the silver tassel of one of the well-worn cushions and dragged it to one of the eight corners of the den, and motioned for the other girls to do so as well. Kasity looked around at the other students with interest; an upper step couple were lying in each others’ arms across from them; a gaggle of third steps were giggling together, hugging their cushions; one of them waved hi to Rissy as she crossed the den to get a cushion for Claia, who hadn’t managed to locate one. “I’m Rissy,” Rissy introduced herself again. “Calixte, my Ground Division Leader, is doing all the course assignment stuff for the first steps, and asked me to make sure you guys get assigned into everything okay. I think all your counselors have already sent in your recommendations and credentials; you just need to sign up!” She smiled brightly at all of them. Karynn returned it weakly, but she was the only one who did. Claia looked confused, and Kasity felt a tad overwhelmed by Rissy’s exuberant friendliness. Rissy looked at all of them for a moment, and then said, “I’ll explain how classes work now. Pretty much there are certain classes you are required to take, part of the core schedule. And then there are electives, which you get to choose. But because you’re only allowed a limited amount of electives, Sylph has a rule that you can’t take any until you’re an upper step, and know exactly what you want to specialize in. Make sense?” Kasity, Karynn, and Claia nodded. “But don’t worry,” Rissy added. “You’ll still get plenty of variety. There are so many required classes, there’s enough choice there to last you all four years of being a lower step.” She grinned, viewing the still stunned faces of the three first steps in front of her. “What’s the matter? Kelpie got your tongue?” Kasity wanted to ask what a kelpie was, but for once lacked the nerve. For some unsettling reason, Rissy’s friendliness was more disconcerting than Adely and Cairbre’s taunting and teasing. “You’ll still take eight classes six days a week, four hour-long classes a day, but you’ll have a lot more to do in your free time now. You have to sign up for special classes, which you’ll take three times a week in the afternoons, since all your regular classes are done by two o’clock. This still leaves you three afternoons and one day of free time. But don’t worry, come Resectioning and you won’t have any time at all. Plus, first years always get lots of chores,” Rissy said as an afterthought. “Anyway, as your first special class, you have to take a special CEL, or Cooperative Economic Living—” Karynn let out a plaintive moan, which made Rissy giggle. “CEL stinks,” she said consolingly, “but with a little luck, after Resectioning, you’ll get out of it. Look on the bright side: Golem Cloud has CEL for the entire year. They win the Housekeeping Award every time…” She winked knowingly, for everyone knew Golem stood at the bottom of the rankings; the Housekeeping Award was probably the only award they ever got. “Anyway, you can switch out of a Special Class once you’ve taken eight classes in a course. They’re pretty flexible, and it’s one of the Academy’s best options. Alright,” she said, taking a brown folder out of her canvas bag and settling into her cushion a bit more. “Let’s see…Sylph has mandatory classes for first years, and the first is Common language. Everyone on campus uses it, so you’d better learn it soon. Well, Karynn, it says that you’re exempt from the basic course, and you’re to be enrolled in the advanced class,” Rissy said, looking up from her folder. She took out a piece of paper from the folder, wrote Karynn Ames, and directly beneath that, Advanced Common Language carefully at the top with a pen she procured from her bag. She then took out two more pieces of paper and wrote Kasity Ké and Claia Lavaca at the top of them, and Basic Common Language under the names. “Okay, class two: history. Same thing for all three of you.” She scribbled down a few words. “Intro to Elemental, Meditation, and Arithmetic, Art, and Music for all three of you; Intro to Flying for Karynn and Claia…hmm, Kasity, you’re enrolled in Fundamentals of Flying, according to Calixte.” Rissy looked up. “Wow, Calixte must have really pulled some strings. Miss Kimimela teaches Fundamentals, and she hates taking first steps.” Kasity felt that if Miss Kimimela hated first steps, she would rather not take Fundamentals of Flying, but thought it tactless to say so. “That’ll be it!” Rissy exclaimed with a broad smile, closing her folder with a rustle of paper. “It might seem like there aren’t a lot of magic related classes, or even interesting classes, but you want to get these boring ones over with first, right? Are you sure you don’t have any questions? Nothing at all?” “When does Resectioning start?” Karynn asked shyly. “Pretty soon, actually. Probably in less than two weeks,” Rissy replied. “Don’t worry about Resectioning! You’ll probably be in Ground Division or Ground Patrol; all first steps are. In fact, Calixte was the only first step put into Aerials as a first step in a long time.” Kasity, who had already heard this, nodded. Kasity wanted to ask a question so that Rissy would give her a friendly smile, too, but her mind still could not formulate any coherent questions. After another period of silence, Rissy said goodbye and left the three first steps together on the cushions in the den. “Classes,” said Karynn to no one in particular. Kasity noticed she had a slight accent, one that she could not place. Claia was staring at her cushion and rolling a silver tassel between her fingers. “Do you think we will have classes together?” Karynn asked. “Probably,” Kasity answered, her voice hoarse from being quiet for so long. Claia still did not look up. They sat in this awkward quiet, listening to the other students around them chatter and talk. Soon, however, they noticed that everyone was leaving the Dwelling, probably for lunch—Kasity’s stomach was growling. She spotted the first step boys walking together, laughing and talking, and envied their seemingly immediate friendship. “Do you want to go down for lunch?” Karynn said in her odd accent. Kasity nodded her assent, and although Claia made no movement of reply, she got up, too. “I wonder what they will serve,” Karynn remarked. “Whatever it’ll be, I bet they’ll serve it on the plates we washed yesterday,” Kasity said in a disgruntled voice. This made Karynn laugh, and oddly enough, this laughter caused a happy heat to spread throughout her stomach. Karynn was trying act friendly, Kasity realized. Karynn shyly touched her arm as they entered the Centre Quad Dining Hall, and, for the first time, Kasity sat with someone during a meal. Kasity found friendship to be something unlike anything she had experienced. Karynn became her first friend. She waited for Kasity before and after classes, and she found herself doing the same for Karynn, and soon she realized that she liked having friends, especially because she had gained a definite enemy. Adely was increasingly derisive of all, except those of nobler blood or those who followed her every whim. But she attracted a large entourage of other noble blooded girls looking for attention. Very early on she detested Kasity, and Kasity was quite glad to detest her back, especially because Adely also disliked Karynn for being different, foreign, or perhaps not bending to her will. Once in Sylph, Kasity found herself interested in the girl named Calixte. From overheard whispers in the Primeval Academic Building (called PAB by everyone else), she learned that Calixte was indeed on the Council of Sylph, the youngest in ages—Calixte—brilliant, young, untouchable. Kasity also began learning about the Cloud system from overheard remarks and mixed up half-conversations with her fellow stepmates, who also were searching for information. She learned about the different Cloud dwellings. Dagda Cloud’s dwelling was the unobtrusive lump of dirt she had seen on her first day in the Academy; it extended two stories under the earth. Eloko Cloud resided in the deepest, densest part of the jungle in a hut-like dwelling. She learned which Clouds were good, which were bad, what specialties each had. Iris Cloud specialized in Art. Centaur was the cloud for academics. Scorpion and Aurora were mediocre. Golem and Unicorn Cloud were dead ends. The two best were Sylph and Wyvern. It seemed the school was split evenly into two competing teams—those allied with Sylph and those with Wyvern. For Calixte, only a fourth step, to be on the Council of such a magnificent Cloud—well, it hadn’t been done in centuries. She was well respected, if not liked. Those of Wyvern especially seemed to hate her. Adely, who was fortunately in Wyvern (meaning Kasity was perfectly entitled to dislike her), referred to Calixte with disgust. Adely could, of course, tell you all about the pompous, over bloated, snobby prick who pranced around the school as if she owned the place. The fact that Adely hated Calixte endeared her even more to Kasity. Another factor that played in was the boys. Kasity had already decided she hated boys in general from her experiences in the village near her house. But the Academy boys were worse. Always running around, shouting, getting people in trouble and not owning up to their mistakes—and Aidan Aé was the worst. She overheard some of the girls around her bunk talk about him. Supposedly he was a Prince of Irinifa, the youngest one. He was the first in the family to come to the Academy—weren't they lucky that they got the first royal in their step? Kasity scoffed when she heard that type of talk. To her, Aidan was just another stuck up boy, maybe even worse than the others, for he had an obstinate dislike of showers. |
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