Maeveen Soret

Maeveen is more of a wallflower in terms of the academy, but she is far from being a shy pushover. She prefers to be soft-spoken and kind, and she’d rather not stand out too much in crowds, but she is not someone to compromise her values or omit her opinion. She’s one of the most trustworthy individuals one could meet, as she will take every secret -both her own and others- to the grave. She’s someone that enjoys being confided in, though she is not one to vocalize her own struggles or mishaps. She is thoughtful of others, and will go out of her way to remedy others pain and strife the best she can. She despises conflict and unnecessary violence though, and it’s a sure fire way to trigger her rage. While she keeps everything close to her, including the realm she comes from, some could speculate she aligns more with something like physically manifested spirits.

Maeveen thinks of herself as rather simple in terms of ability; being able to shroud herself and thinks of her choosing in invisibility. She’s not about spying on others… even though she is fully capable of being quite the skillful spy. However, that goes against her values.

Personality:

Caring || Secretive || Introverted || Thoughtful || Trustworthy || Analytical || Refuses to Compromise Her Values || Reliable || Despises Conflict/Violence || Goal-oriented || Reserved || Perceptive || Opinionated || Clever || Gentle || Mature || Neat Freak || Optimistic || Reflective || Selfless || Daydreamer || Can Be a Bit Passive Aggressive || Placid

Appearance:

Mauveen is a woman of shorter stature at 5’4, which helps her all the more blend in a bit to the background. Her skin is a luscious golden bronze pigment, with quite warm undertones. Her hair is a dark shade of chestnut brown, with it usually always styled in two longer braids that cascade down her back. Her eyes are that of a true hazel; with a vibrant mix of browns, golds, and greens all swirling marvelously together. She is a bit more averagely built, with there being not too little nor too much fat or muscle clinging to her, but she does have a bit more of a pear shaped body type.

Sala Preece | Light | Máxime, Ruairi

“Please let me do your homework? Please? Pretty please? With beautiful pink pansies on top?”

The dark-haired figure lifted his hood over his head, pretending to disappear as he forcefully lost himself in the crowd. Unfortunately for him, his massive figure betrayed him in situations such as this, leaving him at least a head above everyone else in the crowd.

Though he was at least two heads above Sala, the little blonde scurried around him in an effort to grab his attention and steal a word, a murmur, or a grunt out of him every now and again. She took three steps for every one of his reaching strides. Yet, somehow, she was like the energizer bunny. She was the solar power that provided the energy for the entire earth. Three days at this school and he hadn’t managed to lose her yet. Every single moment that passed made him wish he’d chosen to sit anywhere else in that first year orientation.

Spinning on his heel, Máx came to an abrupt stop off to the side of the crowd. Sala went tumbling into his muscular body which was nearly double her size. When Máx grimaced and plucked her off of him, it seemed no more effort for him than removing an ant or a fly. “For the last time,” his utterance made her out to be a disgrace, “leave me the hell alone.”

Though his face demonstrated the serious nature of his personality, there was a lack of fierceness to his eyes that made him seem remarkably tame. Though there was definitely a darkness to Máx, he seemed like the misunderstood type rather than malevolent or villainous. He seemed more interested in keeping to himself than getting involved in the business of others, which is more than she could say about some of the others she’d met who practiced darker forms of magic. She wondered how he’d come to inherit such a dark form of magic, which led to a number of musings about whether magic shapes personality or whether personality shapes magic. All of this was in a matter of seconds before she gave up her internal dialogue for an additional thirty steps of pursuing the hulking figure.

“Okay, I don’t have to do your homework! I’m sorry I offered! It’s just that I accidentally saw your transcripts when I was working in the office-” The glare he offered her gained him another few seconds of blissful silence. “Okay, I’m sorry! It’s just that I’m new here and I really really really want to make a billion best friends and I want you to be my first new best friend. But I’m not doing a good job of showing you how awesome I am at being a best friend. So, I’m sorry. I am. I’m really sorry. Super sorry.” She offered him her hand.

“I’m not going to touch your hand, Sala.”

“Okay, fine,” her voice droned on as if she were a young girl who’d mastered the art of childish cuteness. There was a twinkle of something in her eye that made him wonder how innocent she truly was. She was surely a strange figure, and he wondered if the personality she was showing him was an act. He wondered how much of her was genuine and how much of her wanted something from him other than to suck the very lifeblood out of his veins with her endless optimism and mindless ranting. “Forgive me? For everything? Please? Pretty please?”

“If I do, will you shut up?”

“If I shut up, will you come with me to the party tonight? I heard everyone’s going and-”

“If you stop talking immediately, I’ll consider it.”

“Great,” she exclaimed before covering both hands over her mouth, bright eyes wide as she realized she’d already broken her promise. “It’s at seven. Boathouse. Please?”

“Every word that comes out of your mouth makes me consider it less and less.”

“Okay! I- Ah! Uh! I’m leaving now, this is hard.” She wrapped him in a tight and unexpected hug that made his entire body tense up uncomfortably. Surely time around her would whip him into top hugging shape. “See you later! Bye, Max! Have the best day!”

He mumbled something under his breath as he continued to get lost in the crowd, headed back towards the male dorms. She got to the edge of the male dorms before turning back, noticing a beautiful blond figure walking towards his room, presumably. He was one of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen in her entire life and even just noticing him made her pale complexion turn bright red. Despite her affinity for being friendly with everyone, Sala always became incredibly shy and awkward around people she found attractive.

Accidentally making eye contact with him by way of nearly walking into him, she said, “you are an incredibly attractive human being and I hope you have the most awesomest day ever tomorrow,” instead of simply apologizing for not watching where she was going. Cringing and talking to herself under her breath, Sala continued back towards her room to study and prepare for the party that would be taking place that evening.

Henriik Delamater | Air | Edward, Freyja, Ruairi, Sala

Henriik entered the scene at a quarter to eleven, far later than he had intended. Warmly-hued lights flickered in rhythmic movements with the heavy bass that seemed to be shaking the ancient wooden boathouse. It had been there since the beginning of time, or so it felt. For as long as he’d lived there–his entire life–Henriik had been entranced by the building, and how it always and never seemed to age. Probably some kind of magic spell, and probably not even one with any kind of valid reasoning behind it. He’d always thought the spell was cast by some drunk academicians from years prior who were worried about the floor caving in and dumping all of the fire elements in the lake it sat on. That would explain why they had done such a sloppy job–the boathouse itself was sturdy for its age, and held an air of consistency–however, the docks were decaying all around, and nobody seemed able to restore them through magic or mortal means. Either that, or the school’s administration just didn’t give a damn. That sounded just as likely.

Speaking of drunk academicians, Henriik was hardly surprised to enter the scene to find at least a hundred of them bouncing around the boathouse to the heavy, piercing music. He was handed a cup of a purple liquid immediately, some kind of elixir someone had concocted no doubt. He wasn’t sure exactly what it did, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. Unlike the majority of the people here, he felt the aching pressure of always needing to be in control. One wrong move, and his father would have him banished to the westlands beyond the mountains where darker and stronger magic would destroy him before he even had a chance to breathe the air of freedom. Nowhere was safe, really, and it had been that way for hundreds of years. The only place no one had come for yet was the academy, the key word being yet. Henriik had a hunch something stronger was at play–why else would the darker powers of this realm allow the continual training of some of the strongest individuals in the realm? He knew too much to fall into the facade of safety that the administration put up, but not nearly enough to take them down. Things were getting worse by the day, and he felt like he was the only one being suffocated by this knowledge. He’d mentioned it to his girlfriend on countless occasions, and she didn’t seem to care. She never seemed to care about anything, other than out-performing and otherwise showing up her rival, Ruairi. It consumed her day and night. And, unsurprisingly, when he entered the busy room, he found the pair of them right in the center of all the action, trying to out-drink each other at two kegs beside each other. The crowd circled around them, cheering as they stared each other down, dangerous glints in each pair of eyes.

“Time out,” Freyja said, slurring her words as if she’d been at the keg for hours. She would die before she would let the water element win anything. Again, she was consumed by the idea of being better than him. It was even annoying to Henriik at times, his endless patience and all. Still, he stayed by her side. It wasn’t even really for love, it was for her safety. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and she didn’t even know a fraction of it. Sometimes he felt like the only person in the world.

She came up and wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to his frame and kissing him sloppily. He tensed, but played along. This was every day for them. He wasn’t surprised when instead of meeting his eyes, her gaze trailed back through the crowd to Ru, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. Even her relationship with him was a way to prove something to him. He wondered if the man even cared, he seemed more than comfortable with his casual hookups and the hundreds of girls at the academy who met him with scorn for breaking their hearts in one way or another. Surely he did care, considering the fact that he cared just as much about showing Freyja up as she did him. Not long after, he’d pulled a girl with platinum blonde hair out of the crowd and started making out with her. She seemed confused, and a little more drunk than she was able to handle. Definitely one of the new kids. Probably a scholarship kid, by the looks of the way she was handling her alcohol.

“Stop,” Henriik sighed, “you’re so drunk you can’t even stand.” He said it softly, putting on a charming smile for the crowd. They wouldn’t remember any of this tomorrow anyway, but he had a reputation to keep up. He had an image he needed to preserve, and that involved being madly in love with the most popular girl at the school. They were the couple everyone wanted to be, and even if they weren’t, he didn’t have a choice. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. The pressure and the anxiety of everything that was going on in the background was choking him. He couldn’t handle any of this, not even one breath at a time. The walls were slowly caving in around him. “Where’s Arah, have you seen her?”

“Not recently,” she slurred again, sloshing liquid around in a cup he didn’t remember seeing her acquire. “Don’t be such a buzzkill, love. You’re killing the vibe.”

“I’ll be back. You’re sure you haven’t seen her?”

“No. You don’t trust me?” Her eyes got dark, and for a brief second, the tips of her fingers began to flame. They danced in her eyes, which were a million miles away from here. She seemed to snap out of it quickly, and coldly brushed past him back to the party. He heard her demanding that Ruairi stop making out with the new girl, and get back to their drinking competition. He never felt more lonely than he did seeing the two of them together, and the worst part was that neither one of them seemed to realize it.

Making his way around the party, he asked a few people if they’d seen Arah. At the end of last semester, she’d been involved in something with the administration that he feared would cost her greatly. They never addressed it, which made him believe more sinister actions would be taken in the following weeks. Like Freyja, he felt the need to protect her. Combined with Ru, the four of them were the only ones who’d been at the school for more than a few years. They were the only ones who hadn’t been cast off by the administration for one menial reason or another. It seemed like every year the tension between the administration and the four of them grew stronger, or maybe he was the only one who noticed.

“Edward, have you seen Arah?” The loner was outside on the dock, smoking a cigarette. His hair was ruffled in the breeze, and his eyes reflected the color of the moon and the tide. He barely looked up to see what Henriik was doing as he replied, taking a long drag as he did.

“Yeah, she went off with some girl about an hour ago. She was fine.” Then, with a knowing look upwards, he said, “I would be careful if I were you.” He didn’t need to explain himself. They both knew, and Henriik didn’t realize that Edward had any clue what was going on. However, he was the fifth and final individual who’d been allowed to stay. It had to count for something, and he was certainly not too proud to blackmail someone. Henriik didn’t trust Edward in the slightest, but he had to rely on him from time to time. Everything Edward did–every favor, every word he spoke, every piece of information he distributed–it all came with a price.

“So,” Edward continued, “you seen the new kids? The kid is killing my vibe here.” His Scottish accent was dripping with something. Maybe sarcasm, maybe cynicism, maybe something more. “There can’t be two of me in this hell hole.”

“I haven’t met him yet,” Henriik admitted, “but the girl is inside with Ruairi.”

“Making your girlfriend jealous?”

“Something like that.”

“Care to smoke?”

“Sure,” he sat down at the dock beside the man, studying his face intently to determine his motives. “What do you want from me?”

“Nothing,” he replied coolly, smirking. “Just this once.”

Freyja Eloquijm | Edward, Máxime, Ruairi, Sala

Unsurprisingly, Freyja was losing more and more control of herself as the night went on. She and Ru had definitely had the most to drink and the general consensus in the room was that the pair of them had to be drunk enough to fight or make out before they would actually interact with their words rather than their eyes and their manipulative uses of other men and women to illicit jealousy out of each other. She felt like she had been there for hours, yet she hadn’t actually said anything to him. She hadn’t seen him much over the last day or two and she would have been lying if she said she hadn’t wondered where he’d been and what he’d been up to. Normally she couldn’t stop seeing him around the school’s grounds regardless of whether she wanted to or not. Some part of her felt fear that maybe he’d become mature over the summer or he’d found someone else to compete with that wasn’t her. She’d never admit that the idea of him finding another rival made her feel threatened, though.

Finally, the end to a long truce came when the blonde crawled off his lap and stumbled across the room towards a dark, mysterious figure. They were both definitely new. Most of the students here were returning from last year and would likely be removed from the school before the year was over. That was how things worked around here.

In fact, she hoped that the annoying little blonde would go before her first year was over. She was definitely a scholarship kid, so Freyja knew the chances of that were slim. Maybe Ru would lose interest in her quickly, or she’d end up getting her precious little feelings hurt enough to leave him alone. She hated how much power he had over her. She hated the way her stomach churned when he paused their antics for a woman or the way it almost worked when he tried to make her jealous. She hated the way school always came easy to him and they got the same grades. She hated that she put her entire life into getting perfect scores on tests and he simply went in and guessed and came up with the same grades as her. Most of all, she hated him. She always had, and she would for the rest of her life. Her hatred for him consumed her. And she would have been lying if she said that his hatred for her didn’t seem to consume him too.

“Alright,” Edward’s deep, booming voice echoed across the room as he stepped towards the middle of the large crowd. He mainly kept to himself except for when he wanted to stir the pot or create a scenario for someone to owe him a favor. He had a reputation for doing both at these types of parties by putting himself in charge of the games. “Who’s next? I need two people.”

Immediately, he looked at Ruairi and beckoned for him to go out on the floor with him. “Who else?” One of the partygoers pushed Freyja out onto the floor before she could defend herself. Despite the fact that she loved attention, she despised being the life of the party at functions like this. She only did it when she was competing with Ru for something and was too stubborn to let him win. This was one of those times.

“What’s this stupid game, Edward?” Her speech was slurred and she appeared as though she was going to collapse at any moment. Ru wasn’t doing much better than her, but he always gave the illusion of being calm. He reminded her of water in a lot of ways, and not just because he wielded it so expertly. Maybe part of the reason was because, like water, she could sometimes see her reflection in him.

“Well, you see, it’s called ‘Kiss or Go Home.’ As the title may suggest-”

“I’d rather kiss you. Go to hell, Edward.”

Despite the fact that she tried to leave, the crowd blocked her in the center with the two men. Edward continued. “Either you can kiss each other and stay until the end of the party, or you can leave right now. The last two people to stay in the game win.”

Though she desperately wanted to beat him at something, Freyja was in no mood to stay at this event until the sun came up. They had an exam in the morning and she couldn’t show Ru up on no sleep. Still, she knew that the crowd wouldn’t just let her go. She didn’t mind demonstrating a bit of showmanship for the sake of keeping her image up.

“Fine,” she murmured, tracing her fingertips from his fingertips up his right palm, then all the way up his arm. She smirked arrogantly as she felt him shiver and tense up under her touch, her hand now wrapped loosely around his neck. She twisted a tuft of his curly blond hair in between her fingers, teasing him. “I didn’t know I affected you so much,” she whispered seductively, her thumb tracing the outline of his cheek. He seemed as if he’d sobered up significantly in the last few seconds, which only made her gloat more. She was surprised that this was working, if it even was. Maybe he just looked stunned because the only time they were usually this close to each other was when one of them was shoving the other up against a wall or another hard surface while describing just how much he or she hated the other. She wasn’t shy about allowing her eyes to wander up and down his tall frame, counting the miniscule freckles on his nose that she’d never noticed before or the little flecks of different blues in his irises. Finally, she landed at his lips, allowing her eyes to flicker up and down from there to his eyes and back. She’d forgotten about the crowd as she’d lost herself in the space between them.

Finally, she leaned forward gently, allowing her eyes to soften to a deep bluish-green color. She wondered if he’d ever seen them this color considering the fact that they were normally an enraged flaming orange when she stared through him. Surely this was the thing that made him trust her enough to close his eyes. She could feel his breath on her face. Gently, she whispered four words onto his lips, leaving them there. “Ru, I despise you.” Before he could react, she used the uncomfortable emotions she felt from having everyone’s eyes on her to deliver a flame to her hand, burning his neck. “Go to hell, both of you.” She turned on her heel as if to leave, pausing briefly to look her rival directly in the eye. “Welcome back, though. I must admit I forgot you existed. I was too busy with Henriik this summer doing other things.”

Ruairi Craiel | Water | Sala, Floki, Freyja, Henriik, Edward

The water element -as graceful as ever amid his passage through the halls- strolled his way through the sea of fellow academy goers with relative ease. Every so often he allowed his cerulean gaze to briefly travel over the faces he passed. Most being vaguely familiar, but none worthy of Ru studying or doing a double take on. Only taking a seconds worth of a glance down, his gaze drew up only to trigger the innate response of halting mid-step at the sight of a smaller blonde that he was sure he was on a collision course with. Ru certainly wasn’t about to say sorry; his gaze hardening ever so slightly as it raked up and down her small figure. Stupid new kids, his thoughts criticized. Rather than merely brush past her and proceed onward, he quirked a brow in response to the unexpected, peculiar, words that tumbled out of her mouth. Perhaps a hint of surprise -pride even- reflected in his cool orbs, but it vanished as a calmer wave rolled into the expression that now festered into his eyes.

“Thanks.” He replied casually, his brow failing to fall back into a state of neutrality as the smaller blonde muttered to herself before she walked off. Ru couldn’t help but partially turn his head to watch her for just a moment, but ultimately shrugged off the encounter and closed the distance to his dorm’s door. A few bodies lingered near his door, beguiled by the sound pouring out from beyond the closed threshold, but as Ru’s presence overtook their brief fixation, they were quick to scamper on.

Casually entering the room and closing the door behind him with a quick back kick of his foot, the sound of music failed to cease from the leftmost side of the room -Floki’s side. The green eyed male’s fingers expertly flew along the strings of the ukulele he held in a blurred motion, yet each note resonated with crisp and clear perfection. Ru’s gaze flickered away from the male that was too submerged in his own world of sound to acknowledge his existence, and furthered towards the desk with various papers and books splayed out. Ru recoiled from the thought of purposely disturbing Floki enough so the male would be forced to put a pause to his music and begrudgingly greet him. However, even the blond found himself enchanted by the sounds Floki produced. There was always some kind of story embedded in the notes Floki played though; something cheery and wistful most of the time. Perhaps humorous as well, as if he were playing some kind of secret joke for himself.

Ruairi allowed the music to silence his thoughts for the better half of ten minutes before, at last, the melodic story came to a gentle end. The only sound filling the room following the instruments’ silence was the sound of Ru’s pencil moving across the paper he had in front of him. “There’s a party tonight.” Ruairi’s voice pierced the air in a lazy, yet pleasantly modulated manner.

“I know.” Came the reply of the purposefully raised pitch and heavily layered Nordic accent belonging to Floki. “Tell me, do you ‘prestigious and respectable’ students of the academy know how to put on a good party, hm?” The music man lifted from his mattress in a dramatic manner from what Ru could see through his peripheral, before walking with an eccentric saunter in Ruairi’s direction. Whatever had been preached in that first year orientation about the academy and its students to Floki was something he used as material to mock. Not that Ru found it distasteful, though.

“Good parties? I’m afraid not.” The blond replied with an exasperated sigh, spinning his chair to face the still figure mere feet from where he sat. A more wild, feral, glint poured out of Floki’s demanding jade gaze, the near demented smile he wore enough to make someone at least wonder how sane he was. Ruairi found it entertaining though… trying to guess what thoughts were churning in that tricky head of his. Very few individuals genuinely captured Ru’s sense of curiosity, and this male was certainly one of those few. “We throw only great ones.” Ru added, smirking ever so slightly.

The additional statement seemed to further liven up the already zany young man, eliciting a cackle of joy, a crazed sense of joy at that. Ru huffed in amusement, spinning back around in his chair to further face the piece of paper that a haughty mathematician of a teacher passed out to a variety of students early in the day, the older gent irritatingly sure that not one of his students would solve the complex linear algebraic expressions. It was a mighty source of extra credit, and Ruairi was more than confident that the overachievers would try their hand at it. However, Ru was also aware of the mathematical prowess his peers possessed… and in this specific area of mathematics, Ru knew he was unrivaled. The water element smiled devilishly to himself at the thought of Freyja feverishly wracking her mind to produce the solutions to the three problems to win gloating rights, and the vexation that would follow upon her inability to solve them. That was the only motivator for Ru to even waste his time with this. But the blonde would turn it in anonymously, just to perplex his professor, and internally glow with the satisfaction of securing a win Freyja could not.

</////////////>

Ruairi’s elbow felt rather worked out for the night, having been mechanically throwing back drink after drink in the pursuit of claiming success over Freyja. It was easiest to tell by those who have observed the rival pair for the past few years that Ru was a slave to his fiercely competitive nature when it came to Freyja -whether he liked it that way or not. In part, Ruairi did look forward to their heated competitions, and more so besting Freyja. It made his chest swell with an unparalleled sense of satisfaction, and something a bit deeper he would never care to utter out loud in admittance, purpose.

Freyja’s slur of a time out earned a sloppy scoff of annoyance from Ruairi, with a roll of his eyes being so hard he nearly lost his bearings… not that they were all that great at the moment anyway. The blond receded in the illusion of a controlled stumble to a chair nearest the keg he had claimed earlier in the night, his gaze then retethering to a grossly and overrated sight of Freyja and Henriik. In truth Ru had no real qualms with the air element, but he didn’t particularly like him out of close, and constant, affiliation he had with Freyja -the woman who surely must believe herself to be queen bee. Even Queen’s can topple from their thrones. And how delightful the image of Freyja free falling from her peak in this school before hitting the cold, hard ground was to Ruairi. If she were to ever truly fall from her place at the top, a part of Ru hoped she would buckle and relent her ferocious advancement in besting him and rather seek his help. What better victory than watching his nemesis submit and plead for his aid?

Abruptly casting his gaze away from the couple after the few seconds he had observed them, his eyes landed on a small blonde. A familiar small blonde… the peculiar girl. It didn’t matter much to Ru who she was, just that she was the closest to pull into his snare. And making the effort to pull the blonde into his lap, even he could smell the alcohol that heavily foxed her breath, and clung to her like a perfume. However, he exchanged no words before he crashed his lips into hers. A bit rougher than necessary, but Ru lacked the care to be gentle with his current toy. Only once did his eyes swivel in Freyja’s direction, and a grunt of irritation coursed through his alcohol filled veins at the sight of her not watching him.

Ru absolutely abhorred the jealousy that flooded his conscience that would have otherwise -if he were sober- been easy enough to ignore. And in fact, Ru wasn’t even quite jealous of the ‘perfect couple’... just that Freyja thought she could show him up by clinging to her own boy toy. Reeling his head back enough to break the make out session between him and the blonde, Ru dropped his voice a few octaves and growled. “off”, loud enough for only her drunken ears to hear.

Bracing himself to rise as the female clambered off of his lap, Ru rose with a false projection of control in his movements, his feet then moving him closer to the keg to further continue the drinking competition. Although, quickly the boom of Edward’s voice resulted in Ru’s attention to turn onto the man. There were definitely times that Edward’s presence raised the hairs on the back of Ruairi’s neck, which said quite a lot considering the kind of character Ru was, but Edward was oddly enough a constant in his life, in some way or another. Consistency is a source of comfort to Ruairi, which would also mean the bottomless hatred and relentless need to compete with Freyja was a source of sickly, toxic comfort for Ru.

Heeding with a faint stumble to his walk at Edward’s notion to step forward, he came to a stop with a brief sway. Sugar… sugar water. His thoughts weren’t exactly clear enough to make sense, but he knew pairing sugar water with his ability to manipulate water would help him flush some of the alcohol out of his system through perspiration. There was a science behind it, Ruairi had worked it down to a science, but he was too wasted to contemplate it right now.

Ru’s gaze glued to the sight of Freyja being the other contender in the game, and while he looked sickened by her mere existence, Ruairi was grateful… grateful for another opportunity to beat her. As she slurred, he did glance in Edward’s direction, not masking the curiosity that danced into his eyes of what this game would be. But as soon as Edward spoke, Ru’s lips curled in disdain as he threw a look of utter disgust in Freyja’s direction. And probably the first time, Ruairi seconded Freyja’s comment in regards to rather kissing Edward.

A deep hum of irritation resonated through the water element’s body as he wrestled with the idea of forfeiting this game to avoid kissing her, or going through with it just in the name of winning. But as his internal turmoil on the matter roared on, it came to a swift cease as a singular word fell from Freyja’s lips.

“Fine.”

Ruairi wasn’t sure he had processed that correctly until he felt the sensation of her fingertips against his own, her delicate touch gliding up his palm, and continuing its upright passage along his arm. His entire body had gone rigid, his eyes begrudgingly reflecting his surprise. A shudder rippled down his spine, against his wishes, his lips only faintly frowning at her smirk with… something- what he was feeling or trying to convey exactly was something he could not distinguish. Ruairi’s eyes nearly betrayed him in mirroring her eyes traveling up and down his frame, but he trained his sight onto watching her eyes. The eyes that, for perhaps once, weren’t burning with an intense hatred.

His mouth dried, and his stomach curdled amid the influx of various thoughts and emotions that racked his brain. Above all though, he was despising that he felt his guard lower as she leaned forward, with Ru hardly, but noticeably, mirroring that action. His eyes closed, a shrill scream in his subconscious cursing him for doing so. And just as Ruairi felt the hot breath of Freyja against his lips… his brows furrowed upon the words she whispered. Opening his eyes, a burning sensation on the back of his neck sent his right hand flying to cover it, while he choked down a pained groan. Ruairi wouldn’t go so far as to say he exactly trusted Freyja in the moment just before, but a very quick flash of betrayal -hurt- crashed into his blue hues. Then those flashes of emotion left his eyes, like a wave rolling out to sea. And instead was replaced by a darker, stormier, dangerous tint.

A breath of rage shook his chest as his and Freyja’s eyes met again. And simultaneously, the water beneath the boathouse turned choppy, reflecting the water element’s anger as he was quick to throw out a response to disallow Freyja the luxury of quickly leaving. “Oh Freyja, how can I live with the thought of you being able to forget me?” Ruairi mused whilst trailing off as he channeled every sober atom of his being into predatorily stalking forward in Freyja’s direction, coming to a stop just inches from her. There was a scarily level of stillness in his eyes now, and a smile upturned on his lips that screamed ‘run’ to any individual sensible enough to heed the silent warning. And calmly, he dared another step forward, refusing to relent in his fierce eye contact. “Allow me to remedy that for you.” He spoke in a huskier, taut tone. And not wasting so much as a blink of an eye, he harshly pressed his lips to her own.

The back of his neck still burned in reminder to not remain close for long, so just as quickly as he had kissed her, he pulled away, creating a small distance he felt safe enough with. His eyes though, had yet to unfix from her. “I win,” the blonde spoke, before he used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth -as if the residue of atrociously tasting food was left behind. “And that… I won’t let you forget.” There was a cruel seriousness in his tone then, but after a brief few seconds he turned away and connected his gaze back to Edward as he passed by. “Keep the game going.” The water element encouraged, prepared to stay the entire night to reign victorious over everyone else in the boathouse now with this silly little game.

Freyja | Fire | Floki, Henriik, Ruairi

Now it was Freyja’s turn to show hurt.

She hadn’t entirely processed what had happened in the moments leading up to their lips touching, but it was enough to stun her and leave her questioning more than a few things. She didn’t think that she had imagined the way he leaned into her touch or the way his eyes glistened with betrayal and hurt as she burned him and walked away. In past years, Freyja and Ru had come to an unspoken agreement of sorts. Most of their rivalry was emotionless and was strictly for fun. There wasn’t pain or betrayal or hurt because neither Freyja nor Ru could be bothered to read into it that much. For the most part, Ru respected the fact that Freyja was in a committed relationship, and Freyja respected Ru’s choice to stay single and open to whatever possibilities arose. It was common belief around the school that he was single because he was waiting for Freyja to break up with Henriik, but she never did. Despite the seemingly superficial relationship between them, Freyja had never shown any signs of wanting anything other than to be with him. This was the first time she started to wonder if some small piece of that rumor was true.

Reeling from his touch, Freyja stood for only a second, stunned by what had just happened. As she processed it, rage started to well up in her chest. Flames danced at her fingertips, begging to create an explosion large enough to blow up the whole school. Her eyes flickered between a flaming orange and a soft green, something that rarely happened. There was a conflict of interest she couldn’t control.

Tears threatened to well up in her eyes. She was never one to cry, but this evoked that level of emotion in her. ‘It wasn’t supposed to happen like this’ was her first thought, one that left her with a million other questions. She didn’t think she felt like that towards him. Of course, she’d always wondered what it would be like if something did happen between them, but it was never supposed to go like this. That left her wondering what it was supposed to go like, which only perpetuated the mental cycle that left her stunned and speechless in Ruairi’s presence for the first time in her life.

With angry tears in her eyes, she searched for any sense of remorse or softness in his eyes or face. She couldn’t have imagined the way his eyes flashed with heavy emotion when she’d tricked him, she wouldn’t have felt the weight on her chest for no reason. For just a brief moment it felt like they connected and something in both of them shifted. She wondered why it felt like remorse, and not the kind of remorse she should have felt for kissing someone that wasn’t her boyfriend. Before she could fully comprehend what he was saying with his eyes, a blank stare took over and he wiped his mouth. She wondered if she was just drunk or if he was being unusually cruel. She wasn’t stupid enough to think that the maliciousness hadn’t come from a place of hurt that hadn’t been there before tonight. She wondered what it meant for their relationship going forward but she was too proud to ask and too ashamed to stick around. Despite her feelings, Freyja was loyal to Henriik and never engaged in things of this nature. Now she knew why.

After an unsettling journey through the dark forest alone, Freyja arrived back at her dorm. Luckily, Henriik had gone off somewhere on his own so she didn’t have to face him while her emotions were still high. The only person that knew how to handle the fire element’s fluctuating emotions was Arah, but she was nowhere to be seen. This was rather unusual for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to the fact that Arah kept a very strict schedule and also maintained her status as the embodiment of a homebody. If she wasn’t in class, Freyja’s roommate was in their room tending to her plants and whatever animals she was rehabilitating at the time.

To make matters worse, the room was extremely clean. Too clean. The girls had lived together for the last three years, and neither had a reputation for being extremely tidy. They both kept their sides of the room in an organized chaos they both understood but no one else could. Henriik had mentioned this more than once, as had the few other guests that visited from time to time. Not only was the room tidy, but it was not organized in the way Freyja and Arah would usually have it. Books were on the wrong bookshelves, plants were arranged in neat lines instead of patterns, and the floor seemed freshly mopped and swept. Something was definitely not right, and Freyja felt herself growing more and more aware of it by the second.

Because of her lack of trust in the Administration, Freyja knew it wasn’t wise to ask Henriik. He seemed to know nothing, but she still felt uneasy about his family structure. None of it made sense and the more she learned, the less she understood. The only other people that had any concept of this were the students who had been around for as long as she had: Arah, Ruairi, and Edward. Only one of those three was trustworthy, and she was beyond angry with the other two. Though Ru had his tendencies, he was far less sly and deceiving than Edward. Decidedly, she would have to suck it up and see if he was willing to hear what she had to say.

It would have to be tonight. The eerie feeling she got when she was in her room told her she was being watched. She wondered if something might have happened to her too if she’d been there and not partying. She couldn’t tell if she was blowing it all up in her head, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know if she wasn’t. Maybe she had settled for Ruairi because she knew his first instinct would be to doubt her. Or maybe it was because, deep down, she knew that he cared enough about Arah to put aside his rivalry with Freyja to make sure their mutual friend was okay. She couldn’t could the number of times Arah had resolved conflicts between Freyja and Ru, especially in their younger years. The four of them had been best friends before Ru changed. She couldn’t even imagine being his friend now, not after everything.

Rather than go back to the boathouse, Freyja stumbled across the campus as quickly as she could towards the men’s dorms. None of the people in charge of security seemed to be doing their jobs well given how easily Freyja slipped into the open building, headed towards Ru’s dorm. She knew he’d be at the party for a while, but she could at least wait up for him until he arrived home. As far as she knew, he had a strict rule about never bringing girls back to his dorm, so she wasn’t too concerned about that. She was willing to risk him going back to a girl’s dorm because she perceived him as the type to Irish exit with no hesitation as soon as he got bored with whoever he was with. He seemed like the type to prefer sleeping in his own bed over making sure he stayed in the good graces of his latest plaything. Even if she had to wait a while, she felt safer in Ru’s dorm than in her own. She didn’t even think he had a roommate, so she’d be fine entering his room on her own. She’d deal with the consequences of her decisions when she was sober.

Getting to the door, she sloppily entered a four-digit combination into the door, then a second, then a third. Though it’d been a long time since she’d known him in the way she once had, there were things she still remembered about him. Important dates, numbers, times, and names were a particular strength of Freyja’s. Her photographic memory made her unparalleled in history, psychology, and many of the sciences, not to mention all of their magic classes. Where many of the students failed to remember the words of certain spells, Freyja’s ability to refer back to her mind made it easy for her to excel on the first try. Or, in this case, the third. With only the slightest feeling of nostalgia, Freyja entered with only the slightest difficulty.

Much to her surprise, a dark-haired figure with striking green eyes was in the corner of the room. He seemed partially inebriated, but not nearly as much as she was. Very few people at the party–if any–had gotten as drunk as she and Ruairi had. As was their tradition.

“Who the hell are you?” She allowed her discomfort to fuel a small orb of fire in her right palm. Perhaps seeming less threatening than she intended to due to her lack of coordination and her generally disheveled appearance, Freyja stood her ground, acting as if it were her room she was standing in rather than anyone else’s.

Floki | Sound | Freyja, Ruairi

Too typical was the night for Floki’s taste. For an entity that held an insatiable appetite for new experiences, the party fell short to the dark-haired troublemaker by quite a large margin. Tainting a few drinks here and there -and more or less forcibly passing them to a few individuals that were easier to manipulate- was only fun for so long. Even when the sound expert began manipulating the voices around him, and putting false words into the air, it only stirred up so much animosity between the drunkards. Besides, most of the hate had seemingly been reserved for his own roommate and a girl he learned to be Freyja.

From what Floki could coax out of the other individuals that were hyper-focused and gossiping about the pair was that there was a toxically delicious tensity between them… which was intriguing. Making Ruairi a side project in terms of manifesting mayhem would be a fun pastime, and Floki was quite confident that he was learning to expertly work the strings of his roommate. There was no end goal the green eyed boy had in this, it just simply gave him something to do in the academy he loathed even being in. If what he was told was true though; then he was crossing his fingers to be expelled for some ridiculous reason sooner rather than later.

Having seen everything he wanted to, and having indulged enough in alcohol to feel higher than cloud-nine, the male slinked his way out of the party scene to retire to his -shared- dwelling space. Quite honestly though, Floki wasn’t even sure Ruairi would be coming back tonight, or if the blond would reappear in the morning heavily hungover. It didn’t really matter to Floki much- regardless of when or if his roommate returned though. Having only briefly lost his way back, cursing his lack of attention to how he had even managed to manifest at the party- the male entered the room.

The drunken boy craved a melody though, and thus embarked on a self-serving mission to tune the finest instrument to satiate his melodic hunger. Having only been toying with a lute that had been crafted from what appeared to be a millennium ago considering its taut wear, the male dramatically jumped and dropped the instrument as the door had opened- revealing a very feminine figure that appeared just as surprised as he was. Of course the male had known alcohol had impaired his senses, but surely more than he had initially thought considering he hadn’t heard the- the rival. Ruairi’s mortal enemy. Why here? She was far more wasted then he was, something Floki was hoping to be an advantageous aspect to the scenario he was in.

“Depends on who you ask,” he retorted sassily, his green gaze moving down towards the flame that flickered in her grasp. “But more specifically- Ruairi’s roommate.” Floki then added passively, not wishing to feel the wrath of a drunken woman wielding fire. Because as a very wise man once said, “fire bad.” The male slunk closer to his bed after having quickly scooped up his darling musical device into his arms, quirking a brow at the woman. Whether she was here to torch his roommate into a crisp- or worse-, was beyond the male, as he was simply far too concerned with his wood-based musical babies being anywhere near the human flamethrower.

Stepping forward enough to prevent his step from faltering in the face of the female, Floki made it to the halfway point between them before dramatically raising his index finger- proceeding to bend and drag it across the floor in a horizontal manner before rising again and pointing to the invisible line. “I don’t care why you’re here or how you managed to get in, but cross that line? And oooh girl are we going to have some serious issues, capeesh?” He stated firmly, assertively- hoping that was enough to ward off Freyja. But at the same time, Floki just had a taste for his own theatrics.

Stepping back a few steps while pointedly making the universal ‘I’m watching you’ gesture, Floki took a seat on his bed. Pushing himself back against the wall to where he felt both safe at a distance from Freyja, and still keeping the perfect vantage of watching the drunkard. It’s not like he knew exactly what to expect from the woman- but he was wishing to maintain his own safety. After a moment though, the green eyed boy began to focus more on picking the strings to his instrument- beginning to fill the room with a nerve-soothing melody from each chord he plucked.

It was a rather uncomfortably long amount of time Floki spent playing the music that hardly reflected what stirred within his chest. But that was all the more reason he had to keep playing- to give him a distraction, and to ensure he didn’t make one of his famous remarks capable of earning him a heated slap. But after what very well could have been at least an hour- Floki tuned into the sound of someone at the door. Either his roommate, or another female with a burning hate for his roommate. The music filling the room came to a halt as a familiar blond male stumbled into the room, catching himself on the stand nearest the door. “You have a visitor.” Floki spoke in a sing-song tone in the direction of Ruairi, who had just seemed to focus his drunken sights on the rather unwelcome being in the room.

Freyja | Fire | Floki, Henriik, Ruairi

The time that passed following Freyja’s entrance into the dorm went by so slowly that she had time to consider all of the ways she could potentially kill Ru’s alleged roommate with that goddamned flute. She had finally settled on her favorite one being filling the inside with some form of explosive material such as gunpowder and setting the end on fire when he stopped playing. Even when he wasn’t playing, he was tapping the floors or the walls or shaking his leg to a beat that seemed to be in his mind. He was like the energizer bunny in the worst way possible, and despite her present discomfort, Freyja felt feelings of amusement and satisfaction from the knowledge that Ru would have to endure this every day for a very long while.

Despite her satisfaction at his situation, sitting with Floki reminded Freyja that Arah was gone. She wasn’t sure what to do with that information other than allow it to eat away at her until she could get connected with Ruairi. Something about their relationship grounded her in a way that was typically quite unlivable. The way they fought sometimes made her forget about everything that was going on around her. She’d spent hours with Henriik and Arah discussing some petty thing that Ru had done or something he’d said or that she wished she had said when she should have been present in whatever she was doing. In this particular instance, sharing her concern with him seemed like a good thing. If nothing else, he could walk her back to her room, overwhelm her with a barrage of insults, then leave. Surely she was overreacting.

On the other hand, if he found some validity in what she wanted to tell him, he was still the best person to talk to out of her options. Arah spoke to just about no one, and she was friends with even less people. Besides her, Ru was really the only person she was close with. She tolerated Henriik but not the way she had when they were children. This was not to mention the fact that Henriik was the heir of the academy, and he would go straight to the administration with whatever knowledge she gave him. There were enough people in the administration that Freyja wanted to rule out any sort of involvement before she alerted her boyfriend. Still, she was aware of the fact that keeping him in the dark would look like weakness to Ru and that she’d have to put up with whatever vile things he had to say about the entire situation. Perhaps that was the cost of his help.

Before she could consider this any further, a familiar click sounded at the door. Ru entered the door and for perhaps the first time in her life she felt the slightest bit of relief at his presence. Because the time she had spent not responding to his obnoxiously musical roommate was primarily utilized for thinking up worst case scenarios, she had completely forgotten about the event that had made her leave the party in the first place. She didn’t remember anything about Edward’s stupid game until she saw the confusion in his eyes when he entered. The look he was wearing was a similarly rare expression for him to be wearing as any of the others she’d seen from him only a few hours prior. To Freyja, he only had two wearable expressions: smugness and defeat.

He blinked, but it didn’t seem to clear anything up for him. “The fuck do you want?”

Despite the way that he loathed her with every atom of his being, Freyja couldn’t help her amusement at the way his words slurred and the way his voice got deeper when he’d had a few drinks. Though, at this point, he was well past a few drinks and she needed the more sober, more annoying version of him to help with her life or death situation. Still, he continued speaking as if a bit of venom in his words would somehow intimidate her into leaving. “Y’know what? I don’t care- get the hell out.”

She stood up with more grace than she thought she was capable of at the time given that she wasn’t much better off than the man in front of her. She crossed her arms and studied him with a mix of emotions, something between the normal Freyja that rejoiced at his suffering and the Freyja who had scurried over to his room the second she felt afraid. She was trying to identify the latter and prevent herself from ever being that person again, but it was a bit too much to juggle in her already extremely jumbled brain.

“Did all that blinking help you think better? Jesus, you’re such a dumbass. Second of all, fuck you, Ru.” Taking a step towards him out of whatever emotion was at the crossroads of fear, passion, and rage, Freyja studied his eyes softly for a moment and she could have sworn she saw them sober up. Perhaps it was just that hers had, and she was seeing herself in him for the second time that night. Softly, she added, “Don’t think I’m here because I want to be. It’s Arah, I think something happened to her.”

Ruairi | Water | Freyja, Henriik, Floki

Bitter was a shade of color that didn’t clash well with Ruairi, even the less-than-sober self of him knew that, and yet he was still dripping in it. The blond would swear fiercely up and down that he wouldn’t waste such a feeling on someone like Freyja- and perhaps the reality that she did coax that feeling out of him that only made it cling fiercer to him. The mere sight of Freyja was an irritation to his core- yet he was far too impaired to berate the woman with his most vile insults. However his eyes strained to focus solely on her as she rose- that still bitter and rageful storm merging with an envy that she was able to handle herself seemingly better at the moment than he could. The sight of her grace only getting a further internal rise out of him though.

The hand that held the end table he was keeping himself upright with began to grasp the edge so tightly his knuckles turned white- though his gaze remained steadily fixed on Freyja until she stopped. His eyes narrowed- as if a last attempt to intimidate her to leave him alone, though he knew any tactic he tried right now would be sorely in vain. This one being no different. But through his tunneled gaze he was able to easier pick apart the churning emotions that festered into her stare- the usual splendor of his less than ideal stature standing the most out, yet he couldn’t tell of the hint of uncertainty -dare he say fear- was actually there as well, or if he was simply wishing to see her in a similar state of disarray. Ru derived a very potent sense of joy from leveling Freyja, though he knew she enjoyed the same. She didn’t seem to be here on a spiteful mission to do just that to him- but he wouldn’t so easily be letting himself lower the mental wall he had erected between them.

And yet her own mild barrage of insults fell from her lips- Ru’s unimpressed blink communicating that he thought she was lacking. “Whatever, fuck off Freyja.” Ru threw back, desiring to just shoulder check her out of his way so he could attempt to crash land into his own bed. However, he unintentionally swayed back a little on his feet as she stepped closer- his single grasp on the nightstand straightening him again. This time there was no guessing that he was seeing more than spite and loathing moving about in her eyes- the eyes that softened just enough for Ru’s to go blank. For just a second- Ruairi could have sworn they were tethered through that stare. Yet just as quickly, he remembered relaxing into her snare just a short time ago, and out seeped a coldness that prevented him from further investing into the brief connection he surely must have only felt from the effects of alcohol.

“Don’t think I’m here because I want to be. It’s Arah, I think something happened to her.” Her tone mirrored her eyes, and finally he understood through a sobering chill what he had been detecting; there was unease, wariness, and concern- things he didn’t think Freyja was even capable of expressing, let alone to him. But he understood, so much more than he wanted to. For the first time since they had been standing there Ru’s gaze switched to the side and lowered to the floor- a fear for Arah he didn’t want Freyja to see creeping its way down his spine. It chilled him to the core. Of course Ru had always been wary of administration -always- but it didn’t align in his nature to ever appear to be caught up worrying about something. Ruairi had always expressed he could care less what the administration was doing around him, he never talked much when a conversation revolved around it, and he certainly never expressed the deep mistrust he held for them. But it did concern Ru- it always has. Ever having been affiliated with Henriik bothered Ruairi only because of who he had ties to, but the blond didn’t trust the heir much at all.

Blue hues snapped back to Freyja, much quicker than they should have considering the ping of nausea it gave him, but he wondered if Freyja was as hesitant to trust her own boyfriend for the same reasons. And why she was here with him instead of clinging to her boyfriend. It was surreal to think that for once the two might have shared in something, but Ru also briefly entertained the thought that the image of the perfect couple wasn’t as perfect as they had framed it to appear to any outsider peering in. When it came to Arah though, Ru did care. It just wasn’t befitting to his image to appear so- not even to Freyja. “You are here because you want to be- otherwise you’d be pathetically hanging off of your boyfriend hoping he can make you feel better.” Ru responded, his tone patronizing before he finally pushed himself off the nightstand- only lighting bumping Freyja as he passed by to his bed so he wouldn’t knock himself off balance.

When he did take a seat at the edge, he leaned forward while propping his arm on his knee and lowered his head to rest in his hand. “But instead you ran here…” He trailed off, implying something vague about her relationship, but there was a glint of boastfulness that gleamed in his eyes as well at the fact that Freyja came running to him. Ru was enjoying the premise, but only to veil his worry for Arah. “You’re pathetic, Freyja. And paranoid. Arah’s fine.” Ru’s tone was at the very least firm, yet he didn’t believe at all what he said in regards to their friend. If Freyja was willing to come to him he knew it was bad, but Ru didn’t like feeling helpless or lacking control- which is exactly what this situation presented him with. Then again, it wasn't unlike Freyja to be overdramatic anyway, so Ru decided to settle his thoughts onto believing that. She’s being overdramatic, and paranoid… everything is fine. Arah’s fine. The blond was using the faint beat coming from Floki's fingers against his bedpost to beat that lie further into his psyche. Arah's fine. Arah's fine. Freyja's an overdramtic drama queen. Arah's fine... right?

Freyja | Fire | Floki, Henriik, Ruairi

“You are here because you want to be- otherwise you’d be pathetically hanging off of your boyfriend hoping he can make you feel better. But instead you ran here.”

A disbelieving smile worked its way from her eyes down to her lips as he spoke. She emphasized the crossing of her arms as she vaguely untangled them only to tighten them back around her lithe frame. Admittedly, feeling the tightness of her own arms around her body was one of the ways she was keeping herself grounded in a time when she was feeling anything but.

“Damn, you got me,” as usual, the smugness inside of Freyja overflowed and spilled out all over her delicate countenance. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, humor, and the kind of amusement she only got from toying with this particular man. “You’re actually so right, it’s unbelievable how empathic you are. Maybe you’re wasting time on this whole water powers thing.”

Encroaching on his personal space, Freyja knelt down on the ground on wobbly legs, nearly crashing into him as she did so. The discomfort of the lapse in her gracefulness caused the side of her lip to twitch as she looked at him, though she avoided his eyes for fear of discovering something she didn’t want to see. “I actually came here to sleep with you, Ru. I’m so fucking in love with you I just couldn’t contain it anymore, you know? I wanted to be your six hundred and fifty-seventh body at this goddamned institution, it felt like a good number to hold out for.”

Though her voice had started out soft and seductive, the effects of the night had taken their toll on her and were causing her to unravel into a fiery ball of fury and passion who had made it off the floor and was now standing over her enemy like something from a nightmare. “Yeah, fuck Arah, right? I thought it would be super romantic to break into your fucking dorm and wait for you to get back from kissing every single person in this corrupted hellhole so I could have you all to myself.”

After these words, Freyja realized that Floki was still in the room and seemed to be enjoying his front row seat to another night of the same antics between herself and the blond. He seemed to be the mischievous kind: a trickster or a pot-stirrer at bare minimum. “In the decade I was here waiting I even asked him to be our third, you know?”

More than tired and reduced to nothing but fear and a blossoming sense of sobriety, Freyja dragged her hand down her face and looked at Ru with just a glimpse of true emotion in her eyes. “Unbelievable,” she muttered to herself as her gaze wandered upward, meeting his obnoxiously beautiful blue irises. “Fuck you, Ru. If something happens to her, it’s your fault. Enjoy sitting in your guilt.”

Without another word to Ru, Freyja instructed the water element’s roommate to accompany her back utilizing a sense of authority many might describe as bossiness. Despite her willingness to hemorrhage energy into arguing with the water element, the young woman said very little to the young man she’d summoned to walk with her. Truth be told, she wasn’t entirely sure what he was good for. He didn’t know Arah and Freyja didn’t know him. She didn’t know his name or anything about him other than the fact that the amount of noise he made was unlivable and his eyes were so green they gave her a headache when she looked into them. It wasn’t until they got back to her room that she spoke.

Though she’d practiced lines filled with uncertainty and logical thinking in her mind, something about the room made her stop in her tracks. “Something’s not right,” she mumbled, breathing in the air. “Do you smell that?”

Approaching the wall between the girls’ beds, Freyja traced the tips of her fingers down the ugly beige paint. When she got to a certain point, a sizzling noise erupted and the young woman drew her hand back quickly. A stream of swear words flowed forth from her mouth as a cloud of steam emerged around her. As quickly as she could, Freyja stepped back to avoid the moisture and gingerly held the hand that had been burned. “You don’t know elemental magic, do you?”

The question was primarily rhetorical in nature based on a number of observations the fire element had made about the stranger across from her. For one, he was new to the academy and likely hadn’t reached a level with his own magic where he would have wanted to attempt the burden of a second concentration. Secondly, he didn’t seem to pay any mind to his roommate. He didn’t worship him enough to attempt to learn water magic from the only person at the academy who practiced it. When his response confirmed her suspicion, Freyja guided Floki back to the men’s dorms where they found Ru once again. Surprisingly, he was still awake.

“There’s something there,” she spoke with a dignified tone, as if giving a presentation or a speech. Perhaps she thought it was needed to convince him to go with her, as if the existence of her burnt hand wasn’t evidence enough. Wincing as she extended it, she gestured to the damaged flesh that had been fine when they’d left less than an hour prior. Only water had that effect on the young woman. “Some kind of archaic water spell. I remember reading about them when I wrote my essay about the easiest ways to murder water elements that have been exemplified in the history of elemental magic.”