The course fair is held in the same hall as the opening assembly. Teachers set up tables holding pamphlets for their classes. Headmaster Mingyur is here. She explains, “Each first-year student must attend mandatory classes in the morning. You will all be taking History of Samathali City and Magic Theory, and you will be put into literature and math classes according to your skill. In the afternoon, you get to pick your magic classes. In addition, you may pick a supplementary class, such as art, animal husbandry, or archery…” She explains a little about our intended course trajectories, going up to sixth-year.

As soon as the headmaster lets us go, the girls rush across the hall to find their tables. I’ll pick Elda magic, like I already decided, I think to myself. Spotting the Elda magic table, I approach it.  But as the teacher looks up at me curiously, for some reason I feel a chill tickle the back of my neck. She doesn’t appear that old, perhaps thirty, but she has the air of an austere mage. Withering, I slip past her gaze and pretend to be eying the other tables. But ultimately, I’m only interested in Elda magic.

Taking a deep breath I return to the Elda magic table. Under the teacher’s cold stare, I keep myself from shaking. “I’m Elodi Myo f-from the village Minenn. I— I’d like to register for your class.”

“I am Corihala Samangden of Guild Eternal Melody, though you may call me Specialist Samangden. You seem quite sure,” she remarks. “You understand you cannot change your decision?”

I nod firmly.

“Good. Will you pick a specialty too?”

“A specialty?” I ask.

“Most students specialize in a branch of magic. First-years are not required to take a specialty, but I encourage it. It’s astute to plan for your future.” The mage fingers a pamphlet on her table. “Oh, judging by your clothes, you can’t read, can you? Elda magic is divided into multiple branches: Elda Magic for the Homestead, Elda Magic for Naturalists and Travelers, Elda Magic for Alchemists, Elda Magic for Healers, and Combat Elda Magic.”

As she turns the pages, I grin at the illustrations of fluffy animals being bandaged bordering the description for Elda Magic for Healers. Specialist Samangden reads the description for me. It’s a long, technical-sounding passage. “Heal ailments… cure diseases… aid the immune system… medical research.” The last line is, “Elda Healing Magicis considered one of the more challenging branches and can only be taught to girls with nimble fingers and agile minds.”

“Will I really be good at something like that?” I don’t think my fingers are nimble or my mind agile…

“I can’t tell you that. Pick the one you feel most attracted to, and you can change your specialty up until your third year.”

My gaze returns to the Elda Magic for Healers booklet. If I choose that branch, I can become a healer like Ala’hana. I can help people.

“I’ll pick healing magic,” I determine.

“Hmm, interesting,” the mage says as if amused. My heartbeat suddenly quickens. Did I pick poorly?

Touching her palm to a tree shooting up from a pot at the table’s feet, she melts a layer of its bark and transforms it into paper, on which she jots my name and ID number. “Hand this in to the assistant at the front. Remember to pick a supplementary class too.”

I nod and head to the tables in the back. So many people are clustered here that I can hardly see the tables, but my attention catches on something much better. It’s Wu Lisong, the girl from last night. I sidle through the people to reach her, sticking my hand in the air. “Lisong!” I call.

A couple heads turn to look, and I instantly shrink. Why did I do that? I’m not usually so loud and rude…

When I finally arrive, I say more quietly, “Um, thank you for saving me last night. Are you registering for classes too?”

“No, third-years registered a while ago. I’m actually a teaching assistant for Beginning Beast Mastery. Professor Hyu just left to tend to something, so I’m manning the table for the rest of the morning.”

“Oh, beast mastery, that’s cool! Um, so beast mastery is…”

“The taming, handling, and training of beasts, like my cat.” She nods to a corner of the hall, and I spot the large feline curled up on boxes of papers. “Are you interested in registering?”

“Sure!” I can’t deny her invitation. I can’t think of any other class I’d enjoy more than this one. I hand Lisong my paper, and she prints the course’s name on it and signs it. “I’ll see you on Mariday,” Lisong says.

“See you,” I reply, bringing my paper to the assistant at the front of the hall. The assistant produces a second piece of paper with my official class schedule for the spring quarter on it. She helps me read it.

8:00 Reading and Writing

9:00 Basic Math

10:00 Samathali History

11:00 Magic Theory

12:00 Lunch

13:00 Homeroom/First-Year Elda Magic

14:30 Beginning Elda Healing Magic

16:00 Beginning Beast Mastery

I suddenly feel a little lightheaded. Will I really be able to attend this many classes?

On Mariday morning, I rise at 7:00. Moving as quietly as possible to not disturb Edda and Riyani, I exit the room, eat, then to go Eutana Hall, a majestic five-story octagonal building with arched, painted glass windows and a teal domed roof. I gather in one of the great halls for my morning classes. Glancing around, I realize all of us here are from the villages. Their clothes are as plain as mine, though most of them are in better repair.

A bell tolls faintly in the distance, and the teacher glides into the room. A bunch of people stand up and bow, and I scramble up and do it too. The teacher pauses in front the handful of students who remain sitting down and orders sternly, “It matters not your customs. Here, you will stand up and bow when greeting adults.”

Once those students do so, the teacher introduces her name and guild and passes out quills and paper. We’ll be spending much of this week just learning the letters of the human language. As the reading and writing class ends, math class begins. “In the villages, you used bartering to trade for items you needed,” the teacher says. “In this city, you’ll need to learn how to manage your money.”

By 10:00, I feel so mentally exhausted that all the letters and numbers blur together in my head. The rest of the first-years stream into the lecture hall for the history class. I spot my roommates, but they either don’t see me or are pretending not to, as they sit in front of me without looking at me. Maybe I should say hi to them, but class is already starting.

At noon, I aimlessly trail after the other girls to the dining hall. The campus dining hall is a grand complex with four wings enclosing a garden dining area with a small fountain. The four wings are: underclass students, upperclass students, guild dining, and adults. In the wing for underclass students, I join a long line to get my lunch. On either side of the line cutting through the middle of the wing are long dining tables and ornate dining chairs. In the dormitory dining room, there are just the first-year girls, about 300 people. Now I’m surrounded by about 900—the full student population is about 2,000. It makes me a little dizzy.

On the menu are a wide variety of foods, including fried noodles, different sorts of wontons, soups, vegetable dishes, and other things I don’t recognize and feel too tired to be curious about. I get the plain porridge.

My stomach knots. Who will I eat with? I scan the room for Wu Lisong, but I don’t think she’s here. She seems older, and her lunch might be at a completely different time slot. Gritting my teeth I find my roommates, the only other people I met so far. I grab the chair beside Edda, but Riyani slaps my hand, shooting me a gross-out look. “You aren’t invited, village girl.”

One of the other girls sitting beside her grabs crumbs that’s fallen off her cookie and flings it into my hair. They giggle. Edda says, “Why don’t you find someone more like yourself to eat with?” She gestures behind her to a group of village girls in plain clothing eating. They look kind, and I decide even though Edda might look down on me like her friends do, her advice is genuine.

Brushing the cookie crumbs off myself, I walk to the village girls, but I realize the one chair that appeared unoccupied from afar actually has someone’s bag on it. They might be saving that seat for a friend, or perhaps someone just decided the chair would be a good place to store her bag. I open my mouth to ask if I could sit there, but no sounds come out. I’ve never approached strangers before.

Suddenly one of the girls looks up, and I think she notices me. I must look like a creep, just standing here and staring at her and her friends while grasping for something to say. I whirl around, walking back to my roommates. Spotting my approach, Riyani stands up and comes to head me off. “I thought we told you to get lost!” She flips the tray in my hands, spilling porridge all over the front of my blouse. She and her friends burst into laughter.

I stare at the stain forming on my blouse, my lips quivering. “Why did you need to do that? You’re wasting food.”

Riyani scoffs. “It’s your fault.”

She hasn’t starved a single day. I scramble to bring my bowl to the kitchen then head into the bathroom to clean myself off. Most of the children in Minenn hated me, so I ought to be used to it, but I’m just not! I grab a rag and begin wiping the porridge off my blouse. This day couldn’t get any more horrible. Once I’m done here, I’ll have to walk outside with a huge stain, and I still can’t find anyone to eat with… Slinking out of the bathroom, I grab more porridge and am hit with how stifling it feels to be inside. I go out to the courtyard, but just my luck, the tables here are all full too. Strolling through the campus alleys, I sit beneath a tree far from the other people, nibbling on my food. I miss my sister, eating with her, just being beside her. I feel so vulnerable alone.

The lunch period soon ends. I find Selathalas Hall. Like all the buildings on campus, it’s an elegant stone building with vines blanketing the pale stone walls in radiant begonias. Hugging the building is a shallow moat. Sunlight shines through the huge glass windows, warming up the hallway filled with floral scents. I head up to the second floor.

Inside, fragrant pink and yellow peonies potted along the windowsill soak up sunlight. Wooden trellises blooming with purple foxgloves run up the back wall, and various other plants grow in small, decorated pots lining the side walls.

I sit in one of the chairs encircling a wooden table in the center. On top of the table is an ornate metal chest with thorny barberry bushes carved on its silver sides. Following behind the last girl to enter the classroom is Specialist Samangden. She shuts the door and we stand up and bow to her.

“Good afternoon. I am pleased to see all of you after you registered for my class yesterday. Today I will be transforming you into Elda mages today.”

Opening the metal chest, Specialist Samangden retrieves a needle. “I’ll begin by pricking your finger for a blood sample.”

I close my eyes and feel a sharp poke. Storing the samples in the chest, Specialist Samangden lays out green vials of serum. Clicking one of the vials into a glass syringe, she administers it to the first girl.

When Specialist Samangden reaches me, I let her stick my arm with the needle.

The Serum courses through my blood with a strange sensation I can’t quite place. As we sit and try to feel our souls changing, Specialist Samangden explains, “When this world was first born, it was a desolate land of earth and rock, magma churning beneath the crust. Then an atmosphere developed, water pooled into oceans, and forests grew. The first animals were simple, and some remain simple, but others evolved. A few evolved into magical beings which generate mana in their souls. As beings of Elda, our mana allows us to manipulate any living plant.”

Distributing little pots of vines around the room, Specialist Samangden instructs us to meditate on the plants.

My last magic class is the healing class. The classroom is just down the hall. In the classroom, the desks are arranged around a cage holding a goat. When I see the blood pooling beneath its leg, I feel a little squeamish. When the bell tolls, the teacher walks in. We stand up and bow to her. She’s much younger than Specialist Samangden, perhaps only 20. “I am Aeindra Yi of Guild Sky Flower. Welcome to Beginning Elda Healing Magic. In Samathali City, most healing is done through Elda magic. In this class, you will learn how to tap into the natural healing abilities of specific plants.”

Teacher Yi kneels beside the cage. “One of the most essential plants to an Elda healer is motis grass. It can grow through the flesh of a being, stitching the wound closed. The motis grass we cultivate here has natural anti-infection properties.” Reaching her hands through the wide bars of the cage, Teacher Yi washes the wound. She places little beige seeds in the water puddles around the leg, and thin, hair-like blades sprout within seconds to creep through the air and pierce the animal’s skin. The goat twitches but otherwise remains calm. Teacher Yi holds the goat’s leg in position as pale golden hairs enter it. Teacher Yi narrates in detail as the motis grass writhes through the animal’s flesh, sewing the wound shut and bandaging it over. I realize motis grass is what Ala’hana used to bandage me.

For the rest of class, Teacher Yi walks to a supply closet in the back of the room and grabs pots of motis grass. “They can be difficult for beginners to urge out of their seeds but becoming acquainted with it is essential if you wish to become a healer. Since you likely have never seen motis grass until today, you will meditate on these plants and become familiar with them.”

I watch the other students close their eyes and meditate and close my eyes too, though I hardly feel anything. After all, I just became a mage an hour ago.

Finally, it’s time for supplementary classes. Beginning Beast Mastery is taught in a stone gazebo behind Tang Hall, where the combat classes are held. A long bench circles inside the gazebo, merging seamlessly into the wall. Upon reaching it, I’m shocked to see Edda and Riyani. “Hello,” I mumble softly.

“You’re taking the class too?” Riyani grumbles.

I nod meekly as she glares at me like I murdered her family,

A couple minutes later, a fourth student trounces into the gazebo. The nogitsune is a foot shorter than Shinji but with the same icy blue swirls on his midnight sky fur, donning an indigo cotton hakama. I think I vaguely recognize him from assembly. He resembles Shinji a little, though I guess all nogitsunes do to my untrained eye.

It doesn’t look like any more students are coming. Maybe I should introduce myself. He’s alone, and I’m alone… “H-hello,” I say in my best attempt at a friendly, outgoing voice. “I’m Elodi.”

“I’m Tsutsumi Masato,” he says.

“Wait, Tsutsumi? Are you related to Tsutsumi Shinji?”

The nogitsune nods. “He’s my older brother.

He’s Shinji’s little brother! I should totally make friends with him. Perhaps he can tell me a little about his brother and give me tips on sneaking out of this city to visit my sister!

Our attention is stolen by a giant boar with tree-bark hide like the ones that pull wagons. Stopping outside the gazebo, a woman dismounts from it. Realizing she must be the professor, we all stand up and bow. “Thank you all for arriving on time,” she says. “I am Durmira Hyu of Guild Harbingers, and this giant boar is my personal mount.”

Professor Hyu glances over her shoulder, and in that moment Lisong arrives on Yawen.

The other girls lump together, and although I’m unsure why they’re frightened I instinctively join them. Scrunching up her nose, Riyani says, “My mother warned me about anyao.”

“A-anyao?” I repeat. I remember that’s what Lisong called herself.

“Anyao are vicious monsters that slaughter innocent humans for fun. Within their bodies, they harbor Noctis magic that can be shaped into weapons or used in horrifying blood magic rituals to mutate and corrupt living things. They killed every last human in Guzhou.”

What? That can’t be true. Lisong’s been nothing but kind to me. She saved me from them. Also… “What is Guzhou?”

Riyani sighs. “You really are ignorant. Hundreds of years ago humans lived north of here in the region of Guzhou, mostly in small villages or vertical cities scattered throughout the dense jungle. But due to anyao and other Noctis beings like mughae, humans faced extinction in the region and came to Elthaya as refugees.”

Edda adds, “While some joined existing cities like Chandrail and Mukalam, a large population founded the city of Nanzhou, a city in the northeast whose people are known for courage and cunning. Its military is by far the largest on all of this content—though their human soldiers can’t defeat mages, naturally.”

The anyao announces, “I am Wu Lisong of Guild Sinister Heart. I am a third-year student and the teaching assistant for this class.” She pats her cat’s shoulder. “This longbao, Yawen, is my personal mount. She is a feline from Guzhou.”

A couple animals trail behind them. An elk, a woolly rabbit, and a fluffy white cat.

Professor Hyu continues, “Welcome to Beginning Beast Mastery. In this class, you will learn how to tame and train the most common species in this city. Some of my colleagues prefer starting off their students with something dull, like reading journals. I’ve never liked reading or writing essays. Learning by doing is good enough for magic, so it’s good enough for beast mastery. You will become acquainted with a good variety, starting with these animals.” We’re allowed to go up and greet the animals. The cat purrs as I pet it, leaning into my hand.

Professor Hyu spends the rest of class telling us about the beast mastery supplementary branch. Unlike a core magic branch, you cannot graduate by completing a supplementary branch, but by completing the courses, students will earn a beast mastery license for each course we finish. It looks like it’ll be a long way until I can get a license for a griffin, which only happens after the third year of taking these classes…

When class ends, Riyani and Edda say farewell to the teacher and take off without talking to me. Masato takes off too, but I lag behind, wanting to talk to Lisong. But what do I say?

Thankfully, she speaks first. “By the way, did the dormitory master sort it out between you? You aren’t still roommates with them, are you?”

“I got punished by having to clean the bathrooms, but she didn’t do anything to them. I didn’t tell her they tricked me.”

“Why not? She needs to punish them too. It’s their fault.”

I shrug dismissively. “It’d just cause more trouble… They aren’t that bad. I mean, at least they recognize me. People in my village usually pretended like I didn’t exist.”

Lisong frowns. “Well, perhaps you could change rooms once you find someone you like. Have you made any friends yet?”

“No. It’s only the first day of school,” I say. Though just glancing around the campus at the girls skipping home, either back to the dormitory or other residences off campus, I realize they’re all in groups. I spot four girls donning short, flouncy dresses reaching only to their knees, light paint coats their faces, and their lips are red like pomegranates. Passing by is a large group of girls from the villages. I recognize them from the first assembly, but I haven’t talked to any of them. How did they make friends so fast? “How do you make friends?” I ask.

Lisong bites her lip and glances at her cat, which is rubbing itself against her. “Did anyone come from your village?”

“No.” I suddenly feel sad. “My sister should’ve, but the nogitsune said she was too old…”

“Just try finding something in common with the other village girls. Join a club, perhaps,” Lisong suggests. “You’re an Elda mage right? I remember seeing it on the enrollment sheet. The herbology club is meeting today. Go see.”

“O-okay. I’ll see you later?”

Lisong says goodbye to me and goes to return the animals to their homes. Finding a map in front of Eutana Hall, I trace my finger to the garden and take off for it. But the circular streets of the campus befuddles me, and by the time I actually reach the garden, the meeting’s started. see an older girl directing a group of other girls to plant little seedlings in the dirt. They giggle, all chatting together. I stand there with no one noticing me. What should I say? Is it normal to be late? Will the older girl get mad at me?

I back up. Maybe I’ll just come to the later meeting. Turning my back, I return to the dormitory. I go the dining room and set up on a table with my homework. I’m supposed to be learning the alphabet.

Suddenly my roommates walk by. They see my schoolbook and laugh. “Elodi’s reading a preschool book!” Riyani shouts. I shrink in my chair and try to ignore them. As they dart off, I wish I could be like them. They’re rich and comfortable. They attended school growing up so they aren’t starting behind like I am, and their best friend is each other. I doubt I could find a friend like that. I can’t talk to people, and I’m just a dumb girl learning the alphabet.