Chapter 13 Izzy
IZZY
The lesser residence were at the far southwest corner of the campus. As for why they were called the lesser residence…
“Because anyone below the noble and royal castes are considered… lesser,” Myel explained.
“If elves are royal, who’s considered noble?” I asked.
“Dwarves, sylphim, undines, oh… and dragons.”
I choked on my next breath. Most of those words I’d never heard, but… “Dragons? There are dragon’s here?”
Myel chuckled. “You’ve already met one.”
“I have? Who? Where?”
“One of Princess Saldrea’s guards is a dragon: big guy, silver hair.”
Oh, the one who’d offered to beat some sense into me. If I’d known he was a dragon I might not have sassed him as much. No, who was I kidding. I was born to piss off the wrong people.
I wondered if all dragons were ass-hats.
Sexy, brooding ass-hats.
“He looked human,” I murmured.
“Most beings here do, most of the time. It’s easiest.”
I was clearly going to need a full rundown of all the beings and how to tell them apart. But not now. I was exhausted.
An exceptionally tall and well-built man with greenish skin came out of the dorms we were passing. Yet another wonderous being.
Myel must have seen my startled look. “Troll.”
Oh good, trolls, yeah. Dragons and trolls just strolling around. I could handle this. Then I remembered the tall woman pushing the mail cart, she’d had a similar look.
Trolls… tall with gray-green skin. Got it.
Pixies were colorful. Easy.
Dragons, big and scary. Stay away from them.
And elves were assholes.
I was getting the hang of this.
“Here we are,” Myel said indicating a long hall. The dorms we’d just passed — which Myel had said were the nobles’ residence — had looked more like large houses. The larger building before me was more like what I’d heard college residences were like: big and boxy with students crammed inside.
And I say boxy, but the large building was still stunningly beautiful in its design.
Nature didn’t seem to be as baked into these buildings as some others, but the stone walls still held faint carvings of trees and much of the stone was covered with climbing vines.
Everything was old too, which gave it an “ivy league” sort of feel.
“How long has the school been here?” I asked as we circled the complex of halls which made up the lesser residence looking for my building.
“A few thousand years, I don’t know exactly.”
Yeah, just a few thousand years. And I’d thought learning American history had been bad.
My building was at the back of the complex, to the south.
“Oh!” I gasped as I looked past my dorm to where the land fell away. The glimmering waves of an ocean lay beyond. “Beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Myel said with a soft sigh.
I turned back to him. His gaze had been on me, not the view.
Okay, that dedicated adoration was kind of nice, but… also a little too much. I laughed it off and headed into my dorm.
I stopped at the locked door. “How do I…?”
“The symbol on your palm, wave it over that glowing pad there.” Myel indicated a small box next to the door with a glowing surface facing out.
I waved my hand over it.
The door clicked and swung open for me.
Oh. Nice.
The stairs were just inside the door, and we went up three flights to the fourth floor, the top.
My room was on the south side, with another glowing pad next to the door. Another wave of my hand and the door swung open.
A smile grew on my face as I took in the room. Most notable was the floor-to-ceiling windows with a view over treetops to the ocean.
Wow.
A bed sat along the left wall closer to the window.
On the same wall, at this end of the room, was a closet, larger than the tiny one I’d had in my studio apartment.
On the right side of the room was a desk and shelves.
Down by the window was a door. That would be the shared bathroom. I’d check it out later.
Something was wrong, and I cocked my head as it came to me… no curtains. Being four floors up I wasn’t worried about privacy so much, but what about light?
Myel must have sensed my confusion and followed my gaze.
“The windows are one way, and…” He went over to them, laying a finger on the glass. “To adjust the lighting, touch the glass and think about how dark you want it to be.”
He demonstrated. There was no warning before the view vanished, going opaque, plunging the room into darkness.
Whoa.
Then slowly the window lightened by degrees, before returning to being completely transparent.
I shook my head. All this magic was going to take some getting used to.
I went over and flopped on the bed with a sigh.
Soft.
Myel stood awkwardly to one side. “I… should get back,” he said, voice stiff.
Right, he had to go. Though I had no idea where. We’d had sex and I felt perfectly normal around him, but I knew virtually nothing about this man.
“What do you do? Are you a student? A teacher?”
He shook his head. “Beastfolk aren’t worthy of an education.” Of course. God, this world infuriated me. “I’m part of the local defense forces. I work here,” he said.
He didn’t seem happy about it either. I had a feeling it was more than just a lack of education which distressed him.
“What is it?” I asked, sitting up, concerned.
He let out a shuddering breath. “If you are not of an upper caste in this world, then life is… harsh. You have to fight to gain status and only the strong survive. Every day I train with other beastfolk… but we don’t just spar.
We use real weapons. Training is brutal.
Death is always an option. No one cares if the weak die.
” Even quieter, “And I am far from the strongest in my cohort.”
Jesus fuck!
Really?
My urge to fight injustice surged to life, because casual murder during training…
yeah, that was unacceptable. But then my righteous fury faltered; it wasn’t like I could do anything right now.
Still, since I had no choice but to stay in this world, I vowed to do it on my terms. I’d focus on this education I was being given.
I’d study and learn, till I was able to help the people here.
I’d do whatever I could, use whatever power I had, to fight for equality and reason.
I rose and went to Myel, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. Even with the bond quieted for now, I had to work not to press my lips to his and pull him close.
“Take care of yourself,” I whispered.
He nodded. “I’ll come to you tonight,” he breathed, “in secret.”
“Can you get in?” I asked.
A mischievous smile tugged at his lips.
“I have my ways.” He kissed my cheek, then vanished in a puff of swirling shadows.
I blinked.
Okay now that was some real vampire shit, right there. Myel was more than just a pretty Goth.
I wanted to lay back down and not get up, but as tired as I was, I needed two things before I allowed myself to rest. The first was more clothes. The second was a shower. Oh, and some food, I hadn’t eaten all day!
I unpacked my backpack, in which I’d thankfully stowed away an emergency pair of underwear and socks, but that was it. I also had my computer and some basic toiletries, as well as some other supplies including my charging cables, thank God!
My purse wasn’t large, but it had my phone, which would be useless for calls here, but oddly most of the apps seemed to work.
It also held my wallet, but most of what was in there was useless now: earth ID, cash, credit cards…
not needed here. I had some earbuds, sanitary pads, and other odds and ends, but not much.
I made a quick trip down to the store. The north building of the lesser residence lay across the open courtyard from my building. The store was easy to find.
Time to find out what my one gold could buy… turned out, it was a lot.
Five pairs of pants, five blouses, three skirts and leggings to match, one sweater — it seemed warm here, but who knew what the weather was like — and a jacket, a week’s worth of “Veilblood Academy” branded underwear — not what I would have chosen for myself, but oh well — and socks.
The clothes all seemed well made, high-end stuff.
I’d just spent the equivalent of a few hundred dollars, but that was only about half of my weekly allotment of funds.
So, I also bought school supplies, toiletries, a couple towels, a new pair of running shoes — no dress shoes here — and some snacks to keep in my room.
And I still had a little left over on my account.
I grabbed a quick meal from the cafeteria, also in the north building, then brought everything back to my room and unloaded it, eating my dinner before staggering into the bathroom for a shower.
It was a testament to how tired I was that I didn’t notice the naked man until I was next to him. And when I did, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…
Because the naked man was Rook.